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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Fairbanksan Among 3 Americans Killed in Gruesome Attack in Afghanistan

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Photo Credit: ABC News[Editor’s Note: Alaskan Jason Landphair was one of the three Americans killed in the below-described attack. Joe and Kathleen Miller attended Jason’s and his beautiful wife Natasha’s wedding several years ago in Fairbanks. On her Facebook page earlier today, Natasha said, “God is Forever Good. I believed he was Good yesterday. I believe He is Good today.” Please pray for Jason’s wife and daughters in this incredibly difficult time.]

By Jason Howerton. Three American contractors were killed in a suspected insider attack at the international airport in Kabul on Thursday, according to several news reports. Officials said the shooter was dressed in an Afghan soldier’s uniform.

“We can confirm that there was a shooting incident at North Kabul International Airport complex 29 January at approximately 6:40 p.m. [local time]. Three coalition contractors were killed as was an Afghan local national,” the U.S. military said Thursday, according to ABC News.

An Afghan air force official also told Reuters that the motive of the shooting had yet to be determine and an “investigation has been opened.” (Read more about the attack in Afghanistan HERE)

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Taliban Claim Responsibility for Attack

By Masoud Popalzai. The Afghan Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 3 American contractors at a military base attached to the Kabul airport.

The attacker in the Thursday incident was a Taliban agent who “had penetrated into the security forces and was waiting for such a target for a long time,” a spokesman for the group, Zabiullah Mujahid, said Friday. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Former Alaskan Soldier Sentenced to 62 Years in Prison

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Photo Credit: alana sise/flickrA former Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson soldier was sentenced to 62 years in prison for the murder of his wife in their Anchorage home. . .

A jury last year found him guilty of murder for the 2012 shooting death of his wife, Sara Lopez.

Prosecutors say David Lopez was angry that the Office of Children’s Services took away the couple’s daughter after Sara Lopez brought the toddler to a hospital because of concerns about bruises on the girl. (Read more about the Alaskan soldier HERE)

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Obama Declares War on Alaska: Designating 12+ Million ANWR Acres Off-Limits “Wilderness”

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The Obama administration will propose setting aside more than 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, the White House announced Sunday, halting any chance of oil exploration for now in the refuge’s much-fought-over coastal plain and sparking a fierce battle with Republicans, including the new chair of the Senate Energy Committee.

“Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge is an incredible place — pristine, undisturbed. 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,” President Obama said in a White House video on the move.

The announcement, according to individuals briefed on the plan, is just the first in a series of decisions the Interior Department will make in the coming week that will affect the state’s oil and gas production. The department will also put part of the Arctic Ocean off limits to drilling as part of a five-year leasing plan it will issue this week and is considering whether to impose additional limits on oil and gas production in parts of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. (Read more from this story about Obama’s wilderness designation of 12+ million ANWR acres HERE)

Here’s Obama’s Touchy-Feely Message Supporting the ANWR Shutdown:

Exclusive: Canadian Stupidity Over Alaska’s Prince Rupert Ferry Terminal Stoking Tensions

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It was reported in The Canadian Press and The Prince George Citizen that Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada has ostensibly directed his administration to take a precedent setting position in regards to the Alaskan operated ferry terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The Canadian administration’s opening salvo began with threatening to use a little known “Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act,” in order to force the State of Alaska to acquiesce to demands that they use Canadian steel and other products during the construction of a 15 million dollar small ferry terminal.

If done in the manner demanded by the Harper Administration, the procurement of Canadian products will be in violation of the “Buy American Act” provisions embedded in U.S. Federal contracting law. A provision that Alaska Governor Bill Walker has made abundantly clear will not be waived.


Ferry operations by the Alaska Marine Highway System presents challenges at the Port of Prince Rupert. A number of problems with this port, along with additional regulations, add an exorbitant amount of cost to operations. Back on July 23, 1997 a large contingent of fishermen formed a blockade that held hostage the M/V Malaspina for two to three days while the fishermen burned American flags and yelled obscenities at the crew on the Alaskan ferry in protests related to allocation of Pacific salmon harvests. The blockade placed the crew of the vessel and three hundred passengers in fear of additional retaliation due to the belligerent behavior of the fishermen who acted in surprise and impunity of the local authorities . This action was instantly an international incident, which found the United States Senate voting 81-19 in favor of sending in the U.S. Navy to enforce the internationally-recognized Right of Innocent Passage.”

Ultimately cooler heads prevailed and former President Bill Clinton negotiated the “Pacific Salmon Treaty,” which initially was welcomed by both sides of the border, yet was ultimately abandoned in following years. During those hostilities, the blockade lasted until the fishing fleet, based in Prince Rupert, received assurances from their government to renew talks between the United States in regards to fisheries management .

At the time, then Alaskan Governor Tony Knowles engaged in meetings attended by a Canadian delegation including the Canadian Fisheries Minister, and the Washington State Governor as they arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to negotiate the fishing legislation addressing their respective jurisdictions and nations. There was a brief period of time where the State of Alaska suspended all operations in the Port of Prince Rupert, which lasted from the end of July to December 1997.

Ultimately, the parties agreed to the passage of the “Safe Passage” principle that focused on salmon fishing along the Alaskan coast and elsewhere. Eventually, apology letters with assurances from the Mayor of Prince Rupert and Canadian Fisheries Minister that the Canadians will prevent future blockades and give funding to rebuild the image of the Alaskan Ferry System in Canada. The Alaskan Ferry System relented on the suspension of ferry traffic to Prince Rupert, and operations resumed to the present day. (Read page 2 of this story about the Prince Rupert Ferry terminal issue HERE)

Sarah Palin on 2016: Time to Ditch the “No Girls Allowed” Sign on the Oval Office Door

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Just before she heads to Iowa for the first major conservative showcase of the 2016 election cycle, Sarah Palin said “of course” she’s interested in the 2016 presidential election.

“Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service, anybody would be interested,” Palin told ABC News’ Neal Karlinsky while serving wild boar chili to the homeless in Las Vegas Thursday.

When asked again if she could be “possibly” interested in a presidential campaign, she answered, “We definitely had enough of seeing that — America has had enough of seeing that — sign on the Oval Office door saying, ‘No Girls Allowed.’ I know that.”

While serving up bowls to those gathered in line, the former Alaska governor clarified, “It doesn’t necessarily have to be me, though, but no, America is definitely ready for real change.

“It doesn’t have to be myself, but yes … happy to drive that competition, because competition will make everyone better and produce more and be more candid regarding their solutions they will offer this country. I am very interested in that competitive process and, again, not necessarily me.” (Read more about Sarah Palin on 2016 HERE)

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Palin: GOP Establishment has a Case of Deflated Balls

By Samuel Smith. While appearing at a hunting and outdoors trade show in Las Vegas on Thursday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin declined to comment on current hot-button political issues but sent the clear message to Republican leadership in Congress that they need to go on the “offensive” with the new majority they have in both houses.

After promoting her outdoor-themed reality show “Amazing America” at the SHOT Show (Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show), the 50-year-old former vice presidential candidate told The Blaze that Republicans in Congress need to start acting like they actually have the majority and urged GOP Congress members to stop playing “defense.”

“I’m not going to talk politics except to say the GOP had better go on offense,” Palin asserted. “Man, they are not going to win a game on defense. Being in the majority there in D.C. — we’re blowing it if we just bend our back.”

In issuing her comments, Palin used a metaphor comparing the Republican leadership to the scandal-ridden New England Patriots to drive home the point.

“That GOP leadership, that establishment, they’ve got to get their stuff together. I love what they believe in, I believe in it too. But they’ve got to get tough man,” Palin explained. “You know what? It’s not just the New England Patriots who are dealing with deflated balls right now.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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