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After saying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a pariah for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia to engage with the Arab world. I believe his priorities are out of touch with most Americans. Today, we continue to see escalating oil and gasoline prices and runaway inflation. Yet our president suggests his mission to Saudi Arabia was to contribute “intense diplomacy.” He further pledges to stay aggressive against Russia and out-compete China — yet not one word on the U.S. energy short...
Probably no one enjoys paying property taxes. It’s a big check, rather than a few dimes or dollars in sales taxes each time at the register. But it’s an essential part of the municipal budget, second only to sales taxes in bringing in revenue to pay for schools, roads, police, fire and other services. The tax is based on the value of property — whether commercial or residential, the tax rate is all the same. Cities and boroughs across Alaska send out assessment notices each year, telling property owners what their home, fourplex, wareh...
Some argue that the federal government paid out far too much money to too many people under the headline of “pandemic relief aid.” The list includes up to $3,200 per person in cash, expanded and extended unemployment and food stamp benefits, child tax credits, mortgage assistance payments, rent relief payments, help with utilities, larger subsidies for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, business grants and low-interest loans, federal aid to cities and states with few strings attached. But those programs, which started more...
Alaskans in less than five weeks will elect the state’s first new member of the U.S. House in almost 50 years. Literally, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to choose who will represent the state as its lone member in the chamber. Voters on Aug. 16 will choose from three candidates to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young. On that same day, Alaskans will cast ballots in a primary election to decide which of 22 candidates will advance to the November general election for a chance to win the seat for a full two-year t...
“Bouncy” sounds less dramatic than “volatile,” and certainly less depressing than “money-losing.” And it’s not nearly as scary as “billion-dollar bust.” But bouncy is an appropriate word for forecasting state earnings this year. It’s not unexpected, as pretty much all of Alaska’s money is based on oil prices and investment returns, and both are about as stable these days as a small boat on rough seas, with an underpowered outboard. And though Alaska needs leaders who know what to do to safely ride it out, it’s an election year and Alask...
Be careful what you wish for. I hope the large cruise ship operations never “discover” Wrangell. Downtown Juneau is like New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. Crowded and noisy, indiscriminate COVID spreaders. My downtown neighborhood is overrun by tourist vehicles — one day in June saw 499 trips through our narrow streets. Wrangell and the Stikine River are world-class destinations. Major cruise lines will make a Disneyland out of your paradise. Kim Metcalfe, Juneau...
No surprise, but the borough received no bids for the former hospital property. No one was willing to pay the $830,000 minimum price for the building, much of which is 55 years old. It’s not like there’s a lot of value to the building, unless a new owner wanted to run a medical center or long-term care facility, which isn’t needed in Wrangell after SEARHC spent $30 million building its new medical center just a few blocks away. Besides, the old building’s health records show a patient in ill health. “Many of the mechanical and electrica...
Riverboats have operated on the Stikine since the gold rush days of the 1860s and 1870s. The commerce was a big part of Wrangell’s economy in those days, with a long history of family-owned businesses moving people and freight up and down the river to and from Canada for 100 years. And long before that, the river, which provided a natural passageway through the Coast Mountains, was used as a trade route by Indigenous peoples. The Tlingit and Tahltan knew the value of the river. Wrangell was a hub, with the Stikine serving as the equivalent o...
The Alaska Department of Transportation last month reinstated state ferry service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The relationship between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan is an important one, as they are sister cities. The ferry route brings strong economic benefits to Prince Rupert and the communities of southern Southeast Alaska. It is the fastest way to connect southern Southeast with the road system, and therefore is helpful in shipping goods. According to the McKinley Research Group, seafood companies rely on this port connection to ship...
The colonies — later to become states — figured out that the new nation would be stronger as one, uniting behind a common cause and set of laws. Sure, there were intense debates around the meeting rooms, differing factions and multiple disagreements. Thankfully, there was no social media to amplify the arguments, and politics had yet to descend into expensive circus acts of deceitful promises, unrealistic pledges and ugly campaigns. The delegates who wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the delegates who wrote the U.S. Con...
Election-year politics have a way of bringing bad ideas to the top — when they belong at the bottom of the settling pond. Yes, fuel prices are high, painfully so in many communities and particularly so for people and businesses that have no choice but to fill up the tank and drive to work or deliver for a living. But suspending the federal tax on gasoline and diesel would not accomplish much good. Same for getting rid of the state tax. The Alaska Legislature this past session, with the support of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, considered suspending the s...
By Nolan Klouda Executive director University of Alaska Center for Economic Development Anchorage Your favorite restaurant has an hour wait, even though you see empty tables. Operating hours for small businesses are reduced despite long lines. “Help wanted” signs seem to adorn every doorway. You don’t have to spend a lot of time looking at data to know that there’s a labor shortage. Workers of every stripe are just hard to find. Some employers, understandably grouchy about being short-staffed, blame widespread laziness. “Nobody wants to work f...
Legislators, the governor, members of the public — and most certainly candidates in this year’s state elections — should be paying attention to stocks, bonds, real estate and other investments. Energy prices are fueling high inflation; stock markets are tumbling steeply downhill; Russia’s war on Ukraine is disrupting most everything in the world of finance and commerce; and a growing number of economists are talking “recession.” But rather than focusing on their own savings, elected officials and candidates need to pay close attention to the fa...
The borough is making progress on its long and expensive to-do list. The decisions are not easy and several are costly. Many have been around a long time. That’s not because anyone did anything wrong. Rather, it takes time to confront hard decisions to resolve long-standing problems. And, in many cases, it takes time to find money to pay for the solutions. But the decisions are necessary and deserve the community’s support. After wrangling over multiple options, the Wrangell assembly has put up for sale the former hospital building. The borough...
Did you know that when a child goes to the emergency room at our hospital or their family suffers a house fire or a boating accident, that they can be given a beautiful, comforting teddy bear to snuggle with? These bears are provided by the Beta Sigma Phi sorority and we hope that any family who has a situation where the children could use a comforting friend, that they will ask for one of the teddy bears. The only fundraising event that Beta Sigma Phi holds to raise money for these bears is the Fourth of July pie sale. And it’s a hit every y...
The Friends of the Library recently received a $950 donation from the Juneau Community Foundation toward our ongoing effort to digitize every page of the Wrangell Sentinel, 1902 to present. The plan is to put the easily viewed images online for researchers, family members, students and all the curious people who want to look through the community’s history. The project started several years ago and received a big boost in 2019 when the Wrangell Cooperative Association contributed to the effort as it secured an $8,250 grant for the work from t...
The Alaska Department of Transportation works hard to serve the public that uses the state’s airports and roads, but it is running at half-speed with public information about the ferry system. Management needs to steer itself toward a more open channel of communication. Almost a year ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System reported the Columbia could return to work this summer after being held out of service since 2019 for repairs and to save money. “Could return” as in “would return” if the state could hire enough crew to restaff the vessel. The...
The weekend headline in Anchorage said an Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline project “could be closer than ever, Alaska politicians say.” The first clue was “Alaska politicians say.” No offense, but pinning your hopes on what politicians say in an election year is like believing your kid really cleaned up his room like you asked. The kid will tell you what you want to hear to avoid punishment, just like a candidate will tell tall tales and exaggerate to avoid losing an election. The only difference being the politician should know better....
It costs far too much to run a political campaign in this country and, sadly, Alaska is no exception. Donors contributed more than twice as much money to candidates in the race for U.S. Senate in Alaska in 2020 than bidders were willing to pay just a few months later for the long-sought oil and gas leases on a million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That’s a commentary both on the failure of the ANWR oil-drilling dream to punch holes in the tundra and that political donors are willing to pour so much money down a campaign hole. C...
Most of the bylines you read in the Sentinel each week are names you probably recognize. Marc Lutz and Sarah Aslam work out of the newspaper office on Front Street and attend meetings and events around town. Amber Armstrong manages the community calendar and obituaries. I live mostly in Anchorage and Juneau and write about state politics, fiscal and other issues for the Sentinel, along with opinion columns and occasional reporting on Wrangell news when Marc and Sarah are booked up. But there are a lot of other writers whose work appears in the...
Despite repeated claims and allegations conjured up from the thin air of political dishonesty, there has never been any proof, no charges and convictions, no indictments for voter fraud that cost Donald Trump his reelection dream in the 2020 voting. And yet, the former president and his followers continue to spew out and stir up claims that thieves will do it again in 2022. It’s called “preemptive excuses.” If they lose in this fall’s elections, it must have been stolen. Can’t be that voters picked someone else. Best to start now with the...
Former President Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other elected so-called leaders say the answer to protecting innocent students and teachers from attack is to turn schools into fortresses. High perimeter fencing, every entrance door locked but one, metal detectors, cameras, hardened doors to classrooms, armed security guards. Sounds like a prison, not a school for young children to learn, play and enjoy. And after speakers at last week’s National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston condemned the evil of the Uvalde school s...
Kudos to former U.S. senator and governor Frank Murkowski for his opinion piece about the nation’s energy crisis in the May 18 Sentinel. It is refreshing to see somebody qualified to state clearly where the problems are and how they can be fixed. Meanwhile, the U.S. stock market has been losing ground or stagnating and inflation is soaring. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s advice to anybody who does not like the high price of fuel is to buy an electric vehicle. To think of it, we are all kind of driving electric vehicles alr...
One of the abiding understandings of our Lutheran church is “unity, not uniformity.” It is a practice that allows each congregation flexibility within a particular framework. We celebrate a pattern of church seasons; we mark those seasons with particular colors for banners and altar cloths; we have a recommended three-year cycle of scripture readings for Sundays and a collection of hymns and an order for worship. On June 5, we celebrate Pentecost, the day God gave the whole Church the Holy Spirit. While the banners and altar cloths will all...
There were multiple positive outcomes for our ferry system this past legislative session, including a bill protecting Alaska Marine Highway System funds, the restart of the Prince Rupert route, and more ferries sailing. House Bill 322, which I had the honor of carrying on the House floor and I am particularly pleased passed, protects multiple important funds: the Higher Education Investment Fund (HEIF), and the AMHS Fund and Vessel Replacement Fund. The HIEF pays for our student state scholarships. The AMHS Fund is where revenue generated from...