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Alaska Tops Standard of Living Index

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Photo Credit: Jessica Lynn Culver / Getty ImagesResidents of Alaska are the more satisfied with and optimistic about their standard of living than Americans in any other state, while people in West Virginia are the least satisfied, according to a new poll.

The Gallup survey released Thursday put Alaska in first on a broad measure of satisfaction. Throughout 2013, the pollster asked almost 180,000 adults in all 50 states two questions: how satisfied they are with their standard of living and whether they feel that standard is getting better or worse. Out of a maximum score of 100—achieved only if 100 percent of respondents say they’re happy with their standard and it’s getting better—Alaska came in first at 53, followed closely by the oil-rich land of North Dakota and the sunny state of Hawaii. Residents of West Virginia scored a last-place 22, followed by glum Maine at 31 and gloomy Rhode Island at 32.

Read more from this story HERE.

Analysis – Alaska Crude Likely First to Flow Around U.S. Export Ban

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Photo Credit: APOil traders looking for cracks in a contentious decades-old U.S. ban on crude exports should be looking west, not east.

The first big cargoes to be shipped far overseas are likely to come from one of the country’s oldest oil patches, Alaska, rather than booming new shale fields like the Eagle Ford of Texas, or North Dakota’s Bakken.

Oil companies and analysts are already examining the widening arbitrage window for selling Alaska’s North Slope (ANS) crude to Asia, looking to resume shipments that halted a decade ago as rising domestic output of light, sweet crude threatens to crowd long-time baseload ANS out of West Coast refineries.

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Alaska: Your Legislators Need to Hear From You!

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Photo Credit: dmcdevitDear Friend —

The Alaska Legislature is now in full swing, and all the big government lobbyists are working the hallways. I was there last week in Juneau trying to make sure us taxpayers have a voice. Your legislators need to hear from you right now… The Senate will soon vote on SJR 9, a much-needed bill to give you the right to vote for School Choice. SJR 9 would let voters decide to rid Alaska’s Constitution of its flawed Blaine Amendment, a provision that denies Alaska parents School Choice.

The Blaine Amendment prevents Alaska from implementing any form of parental choice over their child’s education. Many studies show that Parental Choice improves public schools as well as private schools…. and that it saves taxpayers millions of dollars as well. You can read my recent op/ed commentary on School Choice that recently appeared in the Anchorage Daily News…. Just go HERE to read it on our new Americans For Prosperity – Alaska website.

Americans For Prosperity – Alaska has set up an Activist Alert email system to make it easy for you to contact your legislators. All you have to do is click here to send an email to Alaska Senators, urging them to support SJR 9. So, please go HERE now to make your voice heard on behalf of parental educational freedom, increased accountability to improve public schools, and saving taxpayers millions of dollars through increased school efficiency and competition.

This is just the beginning of our work at the Alaska Legislature. We will be monitoring bills there closely and providing you easy access to email key legislators when bills come up for vote in committee or on the House or Senate floor.

We need to multiply our efforts as well. That’s why we’re asking you to forward this email to your like-minded friends, family, and neighbors. They can find out about AFP-Alaska and sign up to be on our Activist Alert email list by visiting our webpage HERE.

Thank you for your devotion to the fight for freedom and limited government.

Sincerely,

Joe Balyeat
State Director for School Choice Projects
AFP-Alaska

P.S. Don’t forget to go HERE to send your email to all Alaska Senators urging their support for SJR 9 – to give all Alaskans their right to vote for parental choice and educational freedom.

Alaska Could Legalize Marijuana By This Summer

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Photo Credit: matthew kenwrickEnough petition signatures have been verified to place an initiative seeking to legalize marijuana on the ballot this summer in Alaska, election officials said Tuesday.

The petition has met all the thresholds necessary to appear on the Aug. 19 primary ballot, the Alaska Division of Elections said.

The lieutenant governor’s office said it had verified the signatures from registered voters as of Monday evening. The total of 31,500 was a thousand more than needed, with about 6,000 signatures remaining to be checked.

The office has not yet certified the question for the ballot, but it’s expected to do so in the coming weeks.

“It’s good news,” said Bill Parker, an Anchorage man who was one of and initial sponsor of the initiative.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Soldiers Train With Unmanned Aircraft

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Photo Credit: Dan Joling, Associated PressThe Army is flying a new bird over south central Alaska — and the pilots sit in the back of a Humvee.

Paratroopers with the 425 Brigade Special Troops Battalion on Thursday trained with a RQ7 Shadow unmanned aircraft system. The remotely operated aircraft are designed to provide reconnaissance for troops without putting observers in danger.

The unmanned aircraft provide near real-time video and information from infrared sensors. Operators can’t distinguish individual faces, said Sgt. Brandon Byers, but they can detect heat signatures and vehicle tracks.

“They’re able to distinguish the features and different marks on the ground,” he said.

Byers oversees the maintenance section. Besides the usual repairs, the unit launches the unmanned aircraft from pneumatic catapult launchers mounted on trailers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Paratrooper Collapses, Dies after Jump

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Photo Credit: DVIDSHUBAn Alaska-based paratrooper has died after collapsing following a jump.

U.S. Army Alaska officials say in a release that the soldier died Thursday night at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

The statement says there’s no indication the soldier had a hard landing or that there was equipment failure during the parachute jump he completed prior to collapsing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Confirms 100 Percent Engagement in eRecording

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Photo Credit: Arthur ChapmanAlaska has become the third multi-jurisdictional state in which 100 percent of its recording jurisdictions are eRecording enabled.

Colorado was the first multi-jurisdictional state to earn the 100 percent designation, with Arizona reaching that landmark in 2012. Hawaii also claims 100 percent with its state-based recording system.

According to State Recorder, Vicky Backus, “Alaska is divided into 34 recording districts which are under the jurisdiction of the State of Alaska so recording is handled at the state level not in the borough or municipality. We initially looked into building our own internal eRecording system but we also shopped around to see what was available. Alaska began eRecording in 2012 at our Anchorage office and expanded out from there. Effective January 2014, Alaska can boast having all 34 recording districts set up for eRecording.

With the number of counties that are eRecording across the nation surpassing the 1,060 mark, more states are expected to join Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii with 100 percent involvement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oil Drilling on US Arctic Coast Put On Ice

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Photo Credit: Alastair Grant / AP

Photo Credit: Alastair Grant / AP

By Toby Sterling.

Oil companies’ rush to find reserves off Alaska’s Arctic shores suffered a setback on Thursday after Shell said it would suspend its operations in the region — and possibly withdraw for good.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is the main company to have purchased leases for oilfields off Alaska’s Arctic shores, but its attempts to drill have been halting due to technical and legal hurdles.

While other companies are still seeking to exploit deep-water Arctic fields nearby in Canada, Shell’s troubles may indicate that the difficulties outweigh the potential economic benefits.

“We will not drill in Alaska in 2014, and we are reviewing our options there,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told reporters in London.

Shell received a negative Federal court decision last week. Environmentalists are still challenging whether the government’s 2008 decision to open the area to exploration was correctly granted in the first place: it is covered by sea ice for much of the year.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Newscast

Photo Credit: Newscast

Shell halts Alaska exploration to focus on performance

By Alistair Osborne.

Royal Dutch Shell will stop its exploration programme in Alaska this year as part of a refocusing of strategic priorities under new chief executive Ben van Beurden.

The oil giant, which stunned the market a fortnight ago with its first profits warning in 10 years, said its new boss was setting “an agenda for sharper performance and rigorous capital discipline”.

One immediate decision is that Mr van Beurden, who took over at the start of the year from predecessor Peter Voser, has called a halt to Shell’s controversial exploration in Alaska – a move that will be seen as a victory for environmental campaigners.

Mr van Beurden said he was responding to a US federal court ruling last week that the full range of environmental risks had not been assessed by the American government.

Shell said the ruling “raises substantial obstacles to Shell’s plans for drilling in offshore Alaska”.

Read more from this story HERE.

Planned Parenthood Suing Over Alaska Abortion Reg

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Photo Credit: Wonderlane/flickr

Photo Credit: Wonderlane/flickr

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest sued the state health commissioner Wednesday over regulations that would further define what constitutes a “medically necessary” abortion for purposes of receiving Medicaid funding.

The lawsuit, filed in Anchorage Superior Court, seeks to have the regulations struck down as unconstitutional and to block the state from enforcing them. The lawsuit alleges the regulations violate the rights to equal protection, privacy and health and are also a violation of the administrative procedure act. The lawsuit says the department violated the act by not holding a public hearing on the proposal.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, Kristen Glundberg-Prossor, said the regulations circumvent a 2001 Alaska Supreme Court decision, which held that the state must fund medically necessary abortions if it funds medically necessary services for others with financial needs. The lawsuit lists as defendants Bill Streur, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services who proposed the regulations, and the department.

A health department spokeswoman said Streur had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment until he has reviewed it with the Department of Law.

Read more from this story HERE.

And the State with the Greatest Number of Tea Partiers Per Capita Is…

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Photo Credit: Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights

Photo Credit: Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights

Maybe it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Alaska, a state known for its independent streak, is a hotbed for tea partiers. It’s home to the most members per capita, according to data from a new report.

The states with the largest populations were, of course, home to the most in absolute terms, with the South leading the nation by region. The data was part of a larger report on the status of the movement produced by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, a liberal group based in Kansas City, Mo. (Sources for the report’s data included political contributions and the Web sites of several tea party organizations.)

The movement lays claim to a small slice of the nation, with its more than 450,000 members accounting for a 0.14 percent share of the population…

Read more from this story HERE.