Alaska’s Supply of Flu Shots Safe in Shutdown

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Photo Credit: paulswansenAlaska’s supply of flu vaccinations was not affected during the federal government’s partial shutdown, but efforts to monitor influenza were crippled before furloughed federal workers were able to return to work.

The 16-day shutdown came to a close after the House and Senate voted late Wednesday to end it.

During the shutdown, no one at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced the agency’s weekly surveillance report. The CDC typically analyzes data and tracks flu cases in all 50 states.

During the shutdown, thousands of CDC workers were on furlough.

In Alaska, there should be an adequate supply of flu shots for all providers, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Has Zero Obamacare Enrollees

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Though Alaska’s Sen. Mark Begich (D) promised an “aggressive strategy” to assure the success of ObamaCare in his state, not one Alaskan has been able to sign up for his state’s exchange.

In June, Senate Democrats who voted to approve ObamaCare vowed to double down in their support of the law that has proven to be a disastrous nightmare in its rollout.

“I don’t run from my votes,” Begich told the Associated Press. “Politicians who sit around and say, ‘That’s controversial so I better run from it,’ just ask for trouble. Voters may not always agree with you, but they respect people who think about these issues and talk about them.”

Begich reminded voters that, as a 2008 candidate, he called for an end to insurers denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, an end to lifetime coverage limits, and an easy transition for workers to leave their jobs and still have insurance under the new exchanges.

“There’s a lot of good that people will realize as this all comes online,” Begich said of ObamaCare’s exchanges.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Welcomes Dan Sullivan Into the U.S. Senate Race

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Fairbanks, Alaska. October 15, 2013 — Today U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller welcomed Dan Sullivan into the U.S. Senate race in Alaska.

Campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto stated, “Competition is good for the Republican Party. We look forward to a healthy debate about how to best restore what has been our nation’s true birthright: to live in a land where our constitutional freedoms are secure and where the American dream is alive and well. We trust during the course of this campaign the primary voters will learn the clear distinctions between the candidates and their views of the role of government in our daily lives.”

Sullivan joins Miller and Mead Treadwell, who officially announced his candidacy last month. John Jaramillo and Kathleen Tonn have also indicated they will seek the Republican nomination.

Senate GOP Blocks Dems from Extending Debt Limit Beyond 2014 Midterm Elections

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Photo Credit: Cliff Owen Senate Republicans on Saturday blocked a bid by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to extend the nation’s debt limit until after the 2014 midterm elections.

In an 53-45 vote, the Senate failed to win the 60 votes necessary to advance the debt-limit measure to a floor debate. The bill would increase the federal debt by an estimated $1.1 trillion.

Every Democrat supported the measure, though Reid switched his vote at the end to preserve the right to bring the motion up for another vote later.

Republicans criticized the legislation as politically transparent. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) and two other centrist GOP senators have instead proposed raising the debt-limit only until Jan. 31, 2014.

During the vote, a large number of Democratic senators huddled around Collins (R-Maine). Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), the other two GOP centrists backing the Collins plan, joined her.

Read more from this story HERE.

Special Counsel to Investigate Armed EPA Mining Raid in Alaska

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Photo Credit: jkbrooks85Alaska’s governor, Sean Parnell, announced Thursday that a special counsel has been named to investigate raids by conducted by federal and state authorities near the town of Chicken.

“Alaskans deserve to know all the facts in this case,” Parnell said in a Thursday press release. “While these facts are being gathered, I will continue to be vigilant in defense of Alaskans’ liberty and personal property.

Anchorage attorney Brent Cole will be asked to determine, among other things, whether any laws were violated and if different actions could have been taken. The report is due within 90 days.

A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at the time, did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a “raid.” The task force included members from 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Slams Feds for Keeping Hunters off Land

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Photo Credit: Alex SlitzAlaska lawmakers accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of violating federal law by shutting down hunting on its lands during the government shutdown, saying a 1980 law guarantees state residents must have access to the land.

“It seems that agencies are working harder to keep people off federal lands than they have ever worked before to get them to visit federal lands,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, who questioned the Obama administration’s decisions during the week-old shutdown.

The National Park Service has faced scorching criticism for closing not just parks, but even parking lots and drives that don’t require continual monitoring or upkeep. Other federal land management agencies also are facing criticism.

A tour guide who had a group at Yellowstone National Park accused the Park Service of “Gestapo tactics” in trying to prevent visitors from viewing any of the sites, saying that while they were allowed to remain at the lodge in the park, they were not allowed to do much else — including walk on the boardwalk paths outside the lodge or visit the park’s geysers.

And when he took the tour bus with his group along the road and stopped to photograph bison, he said, a ranger drove up behind them and told them they could be charged with trespassing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senators Murkowski, McCain and Kirk Signal Willingness to Work with Dems to Raise the Debt Ceiling Without Conditions

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The United States government is expected to hit the debt ceiling in less than two weeks, and Senate Democrats have said they’re ready to raise it with a “clean” bill to avoid default on the national debt. Reports that Senate Republicans would consider supporting such a bill began to roll in on Monday.

Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have all floated the idea of voting for a clean debt limit increase, according to reports by Politico, ABC News and Public Radio International.

Though these Republicans seem willing to meet Democrats in the middle, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made clear that the House won’t budge.

Earlier this year, Senator Murkowski stated that she did not believe the debt ceiling should be used as political leverage in seeking to obtain spending cuts from the Obama Administration and Senate Democrats.

Read more from this HERE.

Coded Message from the Alaska National Weather Service? ‘PLEASE PAY US’

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Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Someone at the Anchorage, Alaska, branch of the National Weather Service seems to have a very important message regarding the federal government shutdown: “PLEASE PAY US.”

The acrostic message appears to have been included in the first paragraph of a weather alert issued from the office on Friday. In an acrostic message or poem, the first letters of each sentence in a paragraph combine to spell out a word that is separate from the larger text.

Read more from this story HERE.

Open for Business: Gov’t to Erect $98,670 Outhouse in Alaska

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Photo Credit: Romtec

Photo Credit: Romtec

The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently paid $98,670 for the purchase and installation of an outhouse at the Swede Park Trail Head in Alaska.

The purchase includes a single-vault Romtec 1011 “Aspen Single” prefabricated waterless toilet and its installation at the parking area for the trail head.

KJ Mushovic of the BLM tells CNSNews.com, “Almost half of it (contract expense) is for the cost of the toilet.”

The Oregon based company Romtec lists the “Aspen Single” model on its website for “as low as $9,999”, but the BLM says the price they paid likely includes shipping to Alaska.

“And the cost of all the materials that will have to be taken to the site, Mushovic said. “There will be earthwork that’ll have to be done.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Top 5 Reasons ANWR and Area 51 Are Alike

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area_51Joe Miller gave the keynote address at the Nevada Republican Party’s Unity Dinner last night in Las Vegas.

Despite the significant geographic differences between Alaska and Nevada, the two have one important trait in common: the majority of each state’s land is owned by the federal government. In Alaska, Uncle Sam holds the title deed to over 69 percent of the Great Land, outranked only by Nevada, where the feds control a whopping 84 percent. Ten states have more than a third of their land owned by Washington, DC. Miller, if elected, wants to work with other western states to bring those percentages down significantly.

Of course some of the best known federally controlled land in Alaska is ANWR and in Nevada, Area 51. What you may not know is that there are actually many similarities between them. Here are the top five:

5. Both are set aside as a federally controlled refuge: ANWR for animal wildlife, and Area 51…it’s classified.      

4. Both have limited accessibility: ANWR is accessible only by sea and air, Area 51 is only accessible by those wearing black suits and sunglasses who go by Agent G or Q…  

3. Both are said to contain vast treasures hidden underground: ANWR, oil and natural gas, and Area 51, state of the art flying machines and some say even the Ark of the Covenant.

2. Trespassing on either will lead to a heavily armed federal agents descending upon you from above. If only the federal government could find the same sense of urgency in enforcing our borders. 

1. Finally, spending any length of time on the ground in either location could lead to close encounters with species unfamiliar to most people.