Alaska Supreme Court Denies Permanent Fund Dividend To Soldier Deployed To Iraq (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The 172nd Infantry Brigade, the Arctic Wolves, had an extra long deployment in support of Operation Iraqui Freedom. They were supposed to go for a year, but the year turned into 16 months, with some of the brigade’s soldiers unexpectedly going back to Iraq after arriving home in Alaska. The deployment went from August 2005 to November 2006. The brigade received the Valorous Unit Award for its time in Iraq. There were soldiers killed and wounded and the separation, unexpectedly extended, was surely hard on families.

Perhaps the extra penalty suffered by Richard Heller is not that large a matter. Still it bugged him and it bugs me.

If Richard Heller had spent those 16 months at Fort Wainwright, then the home of the 178th Infantry Brigade, the Alaska Department of Revenue would have sent him a check for $1,106.96. That would be the Permanent Fund Dividend paid in 2007 to eligible Alaska residents. (As far as I know Alaska is the only state with a division of its Revenue Department dedicated to sending money to all its residents). Richard Heller arrived in Alaska on June 17, 2005, assigned to the Headquarters Company of the 172nd Stryker Brigade. He promptly registered to vote, obtained an Alaska driver’s license and changed his military records to indicate Alaska residency.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Cop Sexted 12-Year-Old Girl While Drunk on Duty

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

A small town Alaska cop sexted a 12-year-old girl repeatedly during a drunken, on-duty bender, authorities say.

Leon Outwater, 21, sent 20 messages from his work cell phone before the girl’s mother caught on and called Alaska state police, troopers said.

“He was sending the text messages to her, and then deleting them,” state police spokeswoman Beth Ipsen told the Daily News.

The calls took place over a 24-hour period in November in the tiny village of Kobuk in northwestern Alaska, authorities said.

“I was drunk,” Outwater, 21, told troopers, according to court documents obtained by the Anchorage Daily News.

Read more from this story HERE.

Palin: Read My Lipstick- No New Taxes

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

No one can argue with the fact that Paul Ryan’s compromise budget bill raises taxes and increases spending. Show me one Republican who got elected on that platform. Spare America the Orwellian word games. If the government is taking money out of your pocket to fund its growing Big Brother operations, it’s a tax. Whether money is taken from you via your phone bill, your airline ticket, or your income, it’s a tax. If politicians can’t be honest about this, it’s time to go home.

The TEA Party’s very acronym stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” We sent these politicians to Congress in an historic landslide election in 2010 with a mandate to stop the runaway spending train bankrupting our nation, not to wave to it from the station or – heaven forbid – increase its speed. And yet, here we are still pretending that there are no real world consequences to running up near trillion dollar deficits year after year with no end in sight.

So, where does this leave us? We can sit back and accept the increased spending “Compromised Plan” with increases in taxes and spending, or we can charge ahead to at least preserve the very modest Sequester cuts American workers already fought for. If we go with the first option, we simply kick the can down the road yet again and wait for the inevitable real world consequences of bankruptcy (see Detroit for an example of what’s in store). Or we can go with the second option and probably get clobbered by the media (so what’s new?!).

Read more from this story HERE.

Will Airships Revolutionize Development of Alaska?

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Commercial development of the Arctic’s natural resources has so far been near to impossible, but transportation throughout the inhospitable region may soon be revolutionized.

U.S.-based airship company Aeros and Icelandic airline Icelandair Cargo, say they have signed an agreement with hopes of establishing a partnership to develop new air freight service across the Arctic region.

Together they are hoping to deliver standard cargo containers via Iceland to regions with little infrastructure, such as Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and northern Canada.

“It’s a project representing the future of solving the problems of today,” Aeros’ CEO Igor Pasternak told CNN. “The distribution in the Arctic Circle as it is right now is inefficient and not logical.”

Managing Director with Icelandair Cargo, Gunnar Sigurfinnsson, said in a press release that he believes Aeros will help transform Arctic transportation forever.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sarah Palin Reacts to Bashir Resignation (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Screen shot 2013-12-06 at 1.24.32 AMSarah Palin on Thursday dismissed the attacks of former MSNBC host Martin Bashir, saying in her first comments since his resignation that she’s “used to it.”

“At this point, I’m used to it. That’s kind of a sad state of affairs to have to admit that I am used to it,” Palin said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

Bashir quit on Wednesday for comments he made on his Nov. 15 broadcast during which he called Sarah Palin “a world class idiot” and referenced a diary of a former plantation manager who forced a slave to defecate in another slave’s mouth, adding Palin would be an “outstanding candidate” for such treatment.

However, Palin praised the media for criticizing Bashir’s remarks.
“It was refreshing to see though, that many in the media did come out and say, ‘Look our standards have got to be higher than this,’”

Palin said. “Those with that platform, with a microphone, a camera in their face, they have to have some more responsibility taken.”

Read more from this post HERE.

Alaska US Senate Candidate’s Office Let Child Molester Go Free Who Then Murdered Elderly Couple, Sexually Assaulted Infant

/3 Comments/in , /by

A candidate for U.S. Senate, Daniel S. Sullivan, ran the legal office that let a criminal out of jail who sexually assaulted a toddler and murdered an elderly couple—just twelve hours after he was released from state prison for a previous rape felony.

Prosecutors say Jerry Andrew Active killed 73-year old Touch Chea and his wife, 71-year old Sorn Sreap, and sexually assaulted their 2-year old great grand-daughter and her 92-year old great, great grandmother in late May.

Active, 24, had previously sexually assaulted an eleven year old girl in Togiak in January of 2009, but was allowed to plead guilty to lesser crimes – and get out of prison sooner – after signing a plea agreement with the Alaska Attorney General’s Office, which was then-run by Daniel Sullivan. He is currently running for U.S. Senate.

A review of Active’s 2009 sexual assault case docket indicates that the Attorney General’s Office agreed to Active’s plea deal during Sullivan’s tenure. Sullivan was AG from June 2009 to December 2010.

“The plea agreement required Active to plead guilty to attempted sexual abuse of a minor, assault in the fourth degree, and criminal trespass in the first degree,” according to a report from Alaska’s Department of Law which was commissioned after international outcry about Active’s release and after Sullivan left office.

Read more about this unfortunate case where Sullivan’s office let child molester go free HERE.

Alaska North Slope Crude Production Rises to Highest Since March, But Down From Last Year

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber/flickrOil production in Alaska’s North Slope gained to an eight-month high as producers boosted rates in the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields following seasonal maintenance.

Output climbed 4.1 percent in November from a month earlier to 556,471 barrels a day, the most since March, data posted on Alaska’s Department of Revenue website show. The yield is down 4.5 percent from year-earlier levels, the agency said.

“BP’s North Slope production has returned to normal after a successful turnaround season,” Dawn Patience, a spokeswoman for London-based BP, Alaska’s largest oil producer, said by telephone from Anchorage.

The North Slope, once the largest crude source for the western U.S., has been producing less oil every year since 2002 as output from wells naturally declines and isn’t replaced. The region’s refiners have increasingly depended on oil imports from overseas and shipments from Canada and other U.S. states to counter the shrinking supply, boosting California’s receipts of oil by rail to a seasonal record.

BP has increased output in Alaska after finishing seasonal maintenance in late September, Patience said. The state’s energy producers typically take advantage of warmer weather, lower yield and pipeline shutdowns during the summer to perform routine maintenance in fields.

Read more from this story HERE.

Plane with at Least 10 Onboard Crashes in Western Alaska

/0 Comments/in , /by

Authorities say there are survivors from a plane carrying at least 10 people that crashed Friday night near the western Alaska village of Saint Marys.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters says “there are survivors and we are working our best to get them help.” She said she had no confirmation of any fatalities.

Peters said she believed the plane carried 10 people but did not have an official count.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Urges Australians to Venture to Arctic Circle for ‘Wintry Version of the Outback’

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APA total of 36,000 Australian tourists visited Alaska in the summer of 2011 – the year Australia overtook the UK to become the state’s biggest market – and numbers are increasing every year.

Visit Anchorage vice-president for tourism development and sales, David Kasser, said Australians visiting America’s largest and most remote state tended to stay longer than their international counterparts – an average two to three weeks. They also tend to be older and wealthier, making them good spenders.

However, he said Australian tourism was dominated by cruises along the Inside Passage in the state’s southeast, with 96 per cent of visitors travelling there.

In contrast, the second most popular region – south central – attracted just 29 per cent of Australian tourists.

“I like to call the seven-day Inside Passage Cruise the Alaska Starter Cruise,” said Kasser, who was in Australia this week to promote his state.

Read more from this story HERE.

Daily Caller: Why Joe Miller Thinks He Can Win the Race for Alaska’s Senate Seat in 2014

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller Joe Miller spent Thursday on Capitol Hill trying to woo prominent national conservatives to his side as he prepares to launch a new campaign for the U.S. Senate in Alaska.

The Republican lawyer and tea party favorite made a pilgrimage to D.C. to meet with a number of top conservative legislators in the House and Senate about the Alaska contest, which is expected to be one of the hottest races in 2014.

“Obviously, we’re looking for their support in our race,” Miller said in a Thursday afternoon interview with The Daily Caller.

He declined to reveal publicly which Republicans he met with on Thursday, though allowed: “They’re all solid conservatives.”

The West Point and Yale Law School graduate pulled off an upset in the 2010 Republican primary, defeating incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. But he ended up losing the general election to Murkowski, who mounted a write-in campaign after her surprising primary loss.

Read more from this story HERE.