Chill Sets In At Alaska-Based Federal Agency After One Boss Asks DC to Shut It Down

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Photo Credit: Eileen Ogintz

Photo Credit: Eileen Ogintz

A tiny, federally-funded agency based in Anchorage is fighting for survival, and its biggest enemy may be within.

The Denali Commission, an economic development authority set up with earmarks obtained by the late Sen. Ted Stevens, came onto the radar of budget hawks in Washington when its own inspector general wrote lawmakers to tell them they were wasting taxpayers’ money.

“At this point, I recommend that Congress no longer send Denali an annual “base” appropriation,” Denali Inspector General Mike Marsh wrote in a a June 23 letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “This will give Denali an incentive to leave the federal nest and chart its own course as a federal entity.

“This will also give the State of Alaska an incentive to find and fund its own solutions for the residents of “bush” Alaska — as it should,” the letter went on to state.

But that stance came as a surprise to the men and women who work with Marsh at Denali, which seeks to promote rural development, power generation and other infrastructure needs in Alaska.Commission Co-Chair Joel Neimeyer told FoxNews.com his agency does important work, worthy of federal funding. The apparently did not know about Marsh’s lobbying efforts until contacted by the Washington Post this week.

Read more from this story HERE.

Creepy Trolls at Alaska Dispatch Cyber-Stalk Joe Miller’s Pregnant Daughter

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biased_media_lies_Ak Dispatch

[UPDATE: After receiving numerous untoward comments on her own web page from Alaska Dispatch readers, Kelsey Miller wrote her own response to this unwelcome intrusion on her and her husband’s privacy. You can read it HERE.]

Just when you think the media can’t go any lower, along comes online news blog Alaska Dispatch to put the ‘ass’ in class. These folks are proving to be the kind of ‘journalists’ that have to look up to the supermarket tabloids.

On Wednesday an anonymous editor reported a post on Joe Miller’s personal Facebook page (not his political Facebook page) to raise funds for his daughter and son-in-law who are serving as Christian missionaries in Mexico.

Along with a description, replete with false juxtaposition of Joe Miller’s political views on limited government and personal responsibility, Alaska Dispatch also provided a link to the couple’s personal blog, and a picture. They are expecting their first child and, due to their status as full-time missionaries, solicited funds from their network of friends and donors to cover the cost of her maternity, as well as funds for a reliable vehicle.

Alaska Dispatch was obviously trying to score cheap political points, but anyone familiar with the evangelical missionary movement knows that fund-raising of this type is standard operating procedure. In fact, some mission organizations require deputation to raise a support team of regular donors and prayer partners.

Dispatch_Kelsey_Page_1

Not only is this type of trolling by putative news organizations inappropriate, it could come with significant liability should it expose anyone to harm.

Children of politicians have always been considered off-limits, at least until Sarah Palin came on the scene. Now it appears the Alaska media is gearing up to give Joe Miller ‘the Sarah Palin treatment.’

Apparently the Alaska Dispatch’s hatred for Joe Miller cannot be satiated by lies and gratuitous smears. Now they stoop to attack his children. Have they no shame?

It’s a rhetorical question. There is no sewer these people won’t plumb in an attempt to get someone else dirty. They are cellar-dwellers.

The Alaska Dispatch appears to be a mere political mouthpiece that owner/publisher Alice Rogoff-Rubenstein is funding to protect her husband’s multi-billion-dollar empire, a massive recipient of corporate welfare. The Carlyle Group largely subsists off of federal contracting and ANC tax offsets.

FEC reports indicate that Ms. Rogoff-Rubenstein has given political donations to both Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich. Enough said.

Alaska Dispatch should remove said post, and offer a public apology. If you agree, you can contact Alaska Dispatch at (907) 743-0744.

Also, as the currency of an online publication is the traffic to its blog, I encourage you to NOT go to their website or click on ANY of their stories.

To ensure that Alice Rogoff-Rubenstein ends her political meddling in Alaska, she needs to understand that most Alaskans see through her media-charade and recognize it as nothing more than a tool to perpetuate crony capitalism.

(As of tonight, Sept. 26, 2013, Joe Miller is discontinuing his personal Facebook page. If you would like to connect with Joe on Facebook, please like his political page.)

[UPDATE: After receiving numerous untoward comments on her own web page from Alaska Dispatch readers, Kelsey Miller wrote her own response to this unwelcome intrusion on her and her husband’s privacy. You can read it HERE.]

Gullible Green Sailors Trapped in the Arctic

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Photo Credit: netrightdaily

Photo Credit: netrightdaily

The naïve advice of ardent activists can kill. Last spring, Paul Beckwith of Sierra Club Canada predicted that the Arctic seas would be ice-free ice this summer. (So did Britain’s BBC network.) This exciting adventure opportunity attracted a variety of yachts, sailboats, rowboats, and kayaks owners to try sailing the fabled Northwest Passage.

As a former sailboat owner I can understand their excitement, but my heart aches for the agonies they now face. The Arctic sea ice suddenly expanded 60 percent this fall, after the coldest summer in the modern Alaska temperature record. The passage is now impassable. More than a dozen of the boats are trapped, apparently even including a group of tiny American jet-ski “personal watercraft” that were attempting to cross from the east coast of Russia to the North Atlantic. Arctic observers are now warning that even Canadian icebreakers might not be able to rescue them.

The Northwest Passage blog reminds us that fall super storms are a potentially deadly fact in Alaska. “It is only a matter time. . . . Give Mother Nature her due time and she will move billions of tons of sea ice and push it up against the Alaska Arctic coast—effectively closing the door to exit the Arctic ice from western Canada. . . . No icebreakers are going to be able to offer any assistance. Mother Nature is mightier than all the icebreakers put together.” Note that the Atlantic exit is already problematic.

Helicopter rescues on Arctic ice are incredibly expensive, involving hundreds of miles of flying by copters and crews expensively maintained in that icy and sparsely populated region. Additionally, all the lovely boats become write-offs.

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Vet Hopes to Bury Father Lost for Decades in Alaska

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picture - Vet AlaskaA 77-year-old Southeast Texas man hopes to one day be able to bury the remains of his father after the discovery last year in an Alaskan glacier of a military plane that crashed in 1952, killing all aboard.

Retired Col. Jerry Hoblit, a Vietnam veteran, was 16 when he learned that his father, Col. Noel Hoblit, was among the 52 people killed when the Air Force C-124A Globemaster crashed on Nov. 22, 1952, on Mount Gannett.

“I was asleep and I heard the commotion downstairs. My mother was crying,” Jerry Hoblit, who lives in Willis, about 50 miles north of Houston, told The Courier of Montgomery County (https://bit.ly/14uNnAd ). “Being an Air Force brat, I knew exactly what was going on.”

The debris was discovered in June 2012 while Alaska National Guardsmen were flying a Blackhawk helicopter during a training mission near the glacier about 40 miles east of Anchorage. The excavation process has slowly moved forward since then.

After the crash, military teams tried to go to the site, but constant bad weather got in the way until it got buried in the snow and became part of the glacier.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Alaska U.S. Senate Race, Another Attack on Free Speech

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Photo Credit: aflcio

Photo Credit: aflcio

For the second U.S. Senate election in a row, the incumbent campaign is threatening Alaska television stations over political ads it doesn’t like.

In 2010 while fighting for her political life after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller, Sen. Lisa Murkowski had her legal counsel send letters to Alaska television stations warning them that they were putting their Federal Communications Commission licenses at risk by running ads against her that were paid for by the Tea Party Express.

Murkowski’s counsel claimed the ads constituted “false advertising” and the stations could lose their FCC license by continuing to run them. Of course, Murkowski’s lawyers knew (or should know) full well that as a public figure, her chance of proving slander or libel were virtually nil and the stations were in no danger of losing their broadcast licenses.

But that didn’t stop them from trying to put the arm on Alaska media stations — “nice FCC license you have there, be a shame if something happened to it” — and thankfully no one pulled the ads based on the Murkowski campaign threats…

So here we are again almost three years to the day later, and Sen. Mark Begich had his lawyers at Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C., fire off a letter to Alaska TV stations Sept. 5 demanding they “immediately” stop running ads sponsored by the American Energy Alliance accusing Begich of wanting you to believe “a carbon tax is a good idea.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Mark Begich Laughs Off Notion of Voting to Defund Obamacare

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Mark BegichWhile pushing an effort to defund Obamacare or risk a government shutdown, congressional Republicans have insisted they might have some unlikely allies on their side: Senate Democrats up for reelection in red states.

But at least two of those Democrats, Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), laughed off the suggestion Thursday that they would vote for a continuing resolution that permanently strips the Affordable Care Act of its funding.

“We’re not going through another [vote to repeal Obamacare], 43rd or 44th — no,” Begich told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Do I have issues with Obamacare? Yes. We’ve proposed multiple amendments and ideas to fix it, to make it better and take out things that aren’t working … but we’re not going through this process.”

When The Huffington Post asked Begich to respond to the idea that Democrats facing tough reelection battles in conservative states might favor House Republicans’ strategy, which ties Obamacare funding to a continuing resolution to keep the government running past Sept. 30, Begich laughed and shook his head.

“No — I think those guys over there should focus on what the American people want, and that is a budget done,” he said. “Quit playing with the continuing resolution, putting the debt at risk, and causing this great economy that’s moved in the right direction to falter again.”

Polling consistently shows a majority of Americans disapprove of Obamacare. A new poll finds that 54 percent want to return to the healthcare system in place in 2009, while 35 percent want to keep Obamacare.

Read more from this story HERE.

At a recent town hall in Anchorage, Senator Begich vowed Obamacare will never be repealed.

Alaska Police Seek Author of Mysterious Note That Saved Life of Beaten Teen

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Police responding to a typed, anonymous note slipped under their door helped save the life of a severely beaten teenager found in an abandoned Anchorage house scheduled for demolition two days later, authorities said Thursday.

Police hoped the author of the note would come forward with more information about the situation.

Police have identified the teen as 18-year-old James Clinton and said he remained unconscious and in critical condition.

The investigation began Monday night with the note to police at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Chief Rick Shell said two officers were on duty at their desks in a squad room about 8:30 p.m. when one of them spotted it on the floor.

“He picked it up, read it, let the other officer read it,” Shell said. “The other officer saw content that led him to believe that the Anchorage Police Department should be involved.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Armed EPA Raid in Alaska Sheds Light on 70 Fed Agencies with Armed Divisions

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

The recent uproar over armed EPA agents descending on a tiny Alaska mining town is shedding light on the fact that 40 federal agencies – including nearly a dozen typically not associated with law enforcement — have armed divisions.

The agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June 2012 Justice Department report.

Though most Americans know agents within the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Prisons carry guns, agencies such as the Library of Congress and Federal Reserve Board employing armed officers might come as a surprise.

The incident that sparked the renewed interest and concern occurred in late August when a team of armed federal and state officials descended on the tiny Alaska gold mining town of Chicken, Alaska.

The Environmental Protection Agency, whose armed agents in full body armor participated, acknowledged taking part in the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force investigation, which it said was conducted to look for possible violations of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA defended its use of armed officers, after the Alaska incident.

“Environmental law enforcement, like other forms of law enforcement, always involves the potential for physical, even armed, confrontation,” the agency said.

But Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has already ordered an investigation, saying “This level of intrusion and intimidation of Alaskans is absolutely unacceptable.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013

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Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video

An unusually cold Arctic summer has resulted in almost a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice compared to the same time last year, bucking predictions that global warming would result in the disappearance of the ice cap by 2013.

According to the MailOnline, Arctic sea ice averaged 2.35 million square miles in August 2013 compared to the low point of 1.32 million square miles recorded in September 2012.

“We are already in a cooling trend, which I think will continue for the next 15 years at least. There is no doubt the warming of the 1980s and 1990s has stopped,” Anastasios Tsonis of the University of Wisconsin told the Mail.

Read more from this story HERE.

Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake Jolts Alaska’s Largest City; No Damage Reported

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Photo Credits: Wonderlane

Photo Credits: Wonderlane

A light earthquake in Alaska has jolted the state’s largest city.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center reports that the quake has a preliminary magnitude of 4.1.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says the temblor was felt widely in the greater Anchorage area, but there are no immediate reports of damage.

Read more from this story HERE.