Ship Company, Engineer Reach Deal in Alaska Pollution Case

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A ship company based in Germany and the chief engineer on one of its vessels have agreed to plead guilty to illegally dumping oily water off Alaska.

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that AML Ship Management GMBH and Nicolas Sassin, the chief engineer on the AML-operated ship City of Tokyo, agreed to plead guilty to violating federal clean water law by knowingly dumping 4,500 gallons of oily bilge water south of the Aleutian Islands.

The company and Sassin, 45, face a separate charge of presenting false pollution oversight records to the U.S. Coast Guard when the vessel docked in Portland, Oregon, prosecutors said.

As part of the plea deal, AML agreed to pay $800,000 in fines and community service payments.

Prosecutors are recommending a six-month jail sentence for Sassin, to run concurrent with any jail time imposed from a conviction in the Oregon case. (Read more about the Alaska pollution case HERE)

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Assisted Suicide Legislation Rears its Ugly Head in Alaska‏

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Yesterday Representative Harriet Drummond introduced what’s being called “Right-to-Die” or assisted suicide legislation in the Alaska Legislature. This bill (HB99) specifically violates the mission of Alaska Right to Life to “protect and defend innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural end of life”.

Every human being is made in the image of God and is infinitely valuable. God is the one that determines our beginning and our end. We should never tolerate legislation that puts suffering and vulnerable people into the position playing God and taking their own life with the help of their doctor. God’s command “thou shalt not kill” extends to everyone, even in the case of someone contemplating ending their own life.

From a practical standpoint, patients who are given no hope of survival from their doctors are known to have survived and gone on to live profitable and happy lives. A diagnosis can be wrong and taking one’s own life to escape from a current condition shuts off any hope of recovery.

Assisted suicide, no matter how compassionate it may seem on the surface, is nothing more than a cruel lie. To the terminally ill, it tells them that there is no meaning to their life and that when they become a “burden” to others suicide is the easiest answer for everyone. It also robs them of something integral to the human spirit – hope. Real compassion takes time and commitment. It means standing by someone and bearing their burden.

Terminally ill patients in Alaska need love, care and protection from those around them. Instead of killing the pain that terminally ill patients are suffering, these “right to die” activists focus on killing the patient. Few of them seem enthusiastic about educating healthcare professionals about the amazing advances in palliative care. Alaska can definitely do better than assisted suicide.

In a state with the highest suicide rates per capita, why would we think it is a good idea to pass legislation that would, in effect, be encouraging suicide?

In an age of soaring healthcare costs and cutbacks, how much longer until the “right to die” becomes the “duty to die?” How much longer until those considered a “burden” on society are systematically denied healthcare and life-saving measures in order to cut costs?

Alaska Right to Life stands in opposition to HB99 and asks that you contact Health & Social Services Committee Chairman Paul Seaton and demand that he not schedule the bill for a hearing. You can contact Representative Seaton via email at [email protected] or by phone at 907-465-2689. It is imperative that we protect and defend all innocent human life!

(Read more from Alaska Right to Life HERE)

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Alaska Conservationists Concerned With Cruise Ship Rules

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Photo Credit: APTowering cruise ships, sometimes four at a time, sit at port in Juneau at the peak of summer, delivering tourists important to the economy of this and other southeast Alaska communities. But some conservationists worry about what the ships could be leaving in Alaska waters and are fighting proposed new rules for the discharge of treated wastewater . . .

Over the years, Alaska has rolled back provisions of a 2006 citizen initiative that called for cruise ship wastewater to meet water quality standards at the point of discharge. In 2013, for example, the Legislature struck that discharge requirement, saying instead that wastewater cannot be discharged in a way that violates applicable state or federal law.

The 2013 law allowed for mixing zones, where wastewater can be diluted into the water, if ships meet certain standards for treatment of discharge. The change followed a debated preliminary report from a science advisory panel that found none of the advanced wastewater treatment systems on ships operating in Alaska waters could consistently meet water quality standards at the point of discharge for four “constituents of concern:” ammonia, copper, nickel and zinc.

The proposed general permit, under which ships can apply to be covered, are based on that law. (Read more about the concerns from the Alaska conservationists HERE)

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Corruption: Seven Congressmen (Including Mark Begich) Who Joined Lobbying Firms Less Than a Month After Leaving Office

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Less than a month after leaving office, at least five former House members and one U.S. senator are already on the payroll at firms that make millions lobbying their congressional colleagues. The findings, provided to Vocativ by the Center for Responsive Politics, a government watchdog group, also show that a second senator who left office at the beginning of January, Alaska’s Mark Begich, took the extra step of starting his own public affairs consulting firm, which has already secured clients in health care and aviation.

While Washington’s contentious revolving door spins in perpetuum—allowing a stream of money, influence and access to flow seamlessly between the private and public sectors—the speed with which these public servants have offered themselves up to big business may raise a few eyebrows . . .

By law, ex-House members are required to wait one year before they can officially lobby lawmakers on the Hill, while former senators must wait twice as long. Many, however, are able to work around those requirements at firms by signing on as consultants, counsel and strategic advisors, as a recent analysis by CRP and the Sunlight Foundation shows. That study’s conclusion: “The many loopholes limiting who can lobby whom in Washington and whether that lobbying must be disclosed to the public make a hunk of Swiss cheese look like the Berlin Wall.” (Read more about the congressmen who joined lobbying firms HERE)

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FBI Director: ISIS Probes in Every State Except Alaska

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Photo Credit: clarionledgerAs Americans stood horrified at the news of a Jordanian pilot burned alive by the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, one of the top law enforcement officers in the country talked about how Mississippians can fight those kind of extremist ideals within our own borders.

FBI Director James Comey, who was in the state for the second visit of his 10-year term, said there are open cases looking into individuals who may be related to ISIS/ISIL in every state in the Union except Alaska.

“Mississippi is a great state, but like all 50 states it has troubled souls that might look to find meaning in this sick, misguided way. The challenge that we face in law enforcement is that they may be getting exposed to that poison and that training in their basement,” Comey said. “They’re sitting there consuming and may emerge from the basement to kill people of any sort, which is the call of ISIL, just kill somebody.”

So he stressed that the threat is very real, not just for military or law enforcement or the media, all of whom have been warned by the FBI that ISIS could be gunning for them, but for ordinary citizens as well. (Read more about where ISIS probes are HERE)

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Former Adjutant General Retiring From Alaska National Guard

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Brig. Gen. Leon “Mike” Bridges, who served as acting adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard after the ouster of a former leader, plans to retire on May 1 after he was not chosen to permanently take over the job. . .

Bridges said in an interview Wednesday that he applied for the position and considered himself to be a useful soldier and public servant. But he said Walker is commander in chief of the state’s military forces and has selected his new leadership team . . .

Bridges oversaw a transitional period for the Guard. In September, a report on allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct within the Guard by the National Guard Bureau’s Office of Complex Investigations found victims lacked confidence in the command . . .

Since taking office, Walker’s administration has named retired state court judge Patricia Collins as a special investigator to look into allegations of sexual abuse or harassment by National Guard members. Collins also has been asked assess whether allegations were adequately investigated by law enforcement; whether any cases were handled appropriately by prosecutors; and other matters. (Read more about the general leaving the Alaska National Guard HERE)

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After a Mid-Air Crash in Alaska, the Pilots Miraculously Survive

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Associated Press. The Alaska Department of Public Safety says officials have found two separate wreckage sites in the Mat-Su Valley after responding to reports that a single-engine plane collided with another aircraft.

A statement issued Saturday afternoon says pilots of both planes were found alive. One had serious injuries while the other pilot was moderately injured.

One airplane has been determined to be an Alaska Wildlife Trooper fixed-wing aircraft. (Read read more about the crash in Alaska HERE)

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String of Earthquakes Hit Alaska Islands

By Lauren Rosenthal. The Pribilof Islands aren’t usually prone to shaking. But more than a dozen earthquakes have been recorded in between St. Paul and St. George since Friday afternoon.

Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, describes the activity as a “swarm.”

“That is, a cluster of earthquakes that are responding to some stress in the earth that appears to be releasing itself kind of incrementally,” West says.

Most of the earthquakes have been around magnitude 4.0, although five of them exceeded 5.0M.

Residents in St. Paul and St. George have been feeling the effects. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obama’s Drilling Ban in Alaska Definitely Not About Saving Polar Bears

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Obama’s latest anti-fossil-fuels directive is to move off-limits to exploration and drilling some 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This is one of the most oil-rich regions in the world. The area to be removed from drilling is larger than the combined land area of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Alaska’s economy is already softening because of low oil prices; now he tosses the state’s drowning economy an anchor.

Obama says his motivation is to keep this land environmentally undisturbed and to protect wildlife — as if he were a modern-day Theodore Roosevelt–style preservationist. “Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge is an incredible place — pristine, undisturbed,” Obama says. “It supports caribou and polar bears, all manner of marine life, countless species of birds and fish, and for centuries it supported many Alaska Native communities. But it’s very fragile.”

Well, no, not really. Think of a football field, and then think of placing a postcard on that field. This is roughly the size of the development footprint required to drill in these wilderness lands, compared with the entire Alaskan landmass. Thanks to horizontal drilling, the footprint from oil and gas production is getting smaller all the time. Drilling will hardly alter the majesty of the mountains or the forest lands.

[T]he impact on Alaska’s wildlife and natural beauty has been almost nonexistent. A study delivered in 2002 to the American Society of Civil Engineers found that “the ecosystems affected by the operation of TAPS and associated activity for almost 25 years are healthy.” Today the size of the caribou herd in Alaska is estimated at about 325,000 — four times the number before the pipeline was built. . .

So what’s really going on here? This latest White House move isn’t about saving polar bears. It’s about a radical climate-change agenda to stop all domestic oil and gas drilling and coal mining, wherever and whenever possible. The middle-class Americans who will lose jobs or pay more for gas at the pump are collateral damage. (Read more about the drilling ban in Alaska HERE)

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Exquisite Photo From Rocket Launching in Alaska

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Photo Credit: NASA When you think of NASA launches, you probably think of Florida and shuttle missions and massive rockets blasting into the sky. But NASA is busy launching all sorts of smaller projects that don’t attract as much of the space glory. On January 26, the space agency sent four suborbital sounding rockets up into the sky from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska.

A time-lapse composite image shows all four rocket launches as bright trails leading up into misty green aurora-filled skies. The otherworldy image shows stars streaking in a circular pattern, a green Lidar streak and frost-covered ground and foliage. (Read more about the photo from the rocket launching in Alaska HERE)

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Obama Advisor John Podesta Paid by Shadowy Foreign Billionaire to Shut Down ANWR?

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Photo Credit: The Daily Caller By Richard Pollock. In 2013, John Podesta was paid $87,000 by a shadowy foreign billionaire whose passion is preventing energy exploration on American land.

Just two years later, Podesta is a member of President Obama’s inner circle, and the driving force inside the White House to block 12 million acres of land in Alaska’s Artic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.

The circumstances suggest Podesta may have run afoul of Obama’s highly-touted ethics pledge, which requires political appointees to disqualify themselves in matters relating to the interests of a former employer or client.

Podesta — who is preparing to leave the White House to take a top position with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — has largely avoided public scrutiny during his time as a White House Counselor.

But his work came into fuller view earlier this week when he emerged as one of the architects of the new White House policy that seeks to end any future drilling for oil on Alaska’s coastal plain. (Read more from “Podesta Paid to Shutdown ANWR?” HERE)

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Obama Treats Journalists as ‘Enemies of the State’

By Sam Rolley. Former CBS reporter Sheryl Attkisson told senators on Thursday that a journalist’s job of “getting at the truth has never been more difficult” than it is under the Obama administration.

Testifying before the Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, Atkins said that the Obama Justice Department has potentially done “long-term damage to a supposedly free press” and urged Lynch to enact policy changes to end the DOJ’s abuse of journalists.

“Facets of federal government have isolated themselves from the public they serve. They covet and withhold public information that we as citizens own. They bully and threaten access of journalists who do their jobs, news organizations that publish stories they don’t like and whistleblowers who dare to tell the truth,” Attkisson said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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