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The public library would like to thank all of the individuals, businesses and organizations who donated prizes for the Summer Reading Program. We appreciate your continued support in assisting us by encouraging children to read during the summer and improve their reading skills. We would also like to thank: First Bank, for the funds to purchase Rechargeable Hug Lights for all those who completed the program; Alaska Airlines, for the funds to purchase prizes; the City and Borough of Wrangell; Jeff Angerman for his ongoing support; and the...
There is no precise count but it looks like federal pandemic aid distributed or allocated over the past 18 months to Wrangell residents, businesses, the borough, school district, tribe and nonprofits totals close to $30 million. That's about equal to all the income earned by every household in town in half a year, according to U.S. Census numbers. It's almost three times the annual budget of the borough and school board combined. Most of the money came as grants or simply as federal aid to keep...
The math is simple. Take the 2020 Census for Alaska and divide by 40, so that each state House district represents the same number of residents - 18,335. But then nothing beyond the math is easy. It's impossible to carve up the state into 40 districts of exactly the same population. A battle ensues every 10 years over where the lines should be drawn for legislative seats, taking into account areas of population growth and population shrinkage. The job of the Alaska Redistricting Board is to foll...
I used to believe that living on our island isolated us from all of the craziness of the Lower 48. I've often bragged about how in Wrangell we still lived the white-picket-fence, kids-playing-in-the-streets life of the 1950s. Unfortunately, that is no longer something I can say. Social media is pumping all sorts of Lower 48 craziness into our town. You can find the latest craziness by going to #deviouslicks on TikTok. There you will find hundreds of short videos from all over the country...
The anti-vaccination politics rolling across the country - much like a pandemic - have gotten so bad that the Alaska state Senate could not even manage to pass a bill last Friday allowing more telemedicine without lawmakers amending it into a debate over personal liberty. Much of the discussion had no connection whatsoever to patients and doctors working together online to diagnose and treat ailments often totally unrelated to COVID-19. The Senate amendments were targeted at blocking...
Former President George W. Bush on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country showed Americans the difference between a statesman and a showman. In a speech at a memorial last Saturday in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes crashed, Bush honestly and strongly confronted the growing divisiveness, hostility and political battles that have consumed America: "A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an...
B.C. mining industry meets highest standards State Rep. Dan Ortiz's letter to the editor in the Sept. 2 Sentinel about British Columbia's mining regulations is misleading and largely inaccurate. Continuous improvement is foundational to B.C.'s mining sector - in environmental management, community engagement, operational efficiency, innovation and more. The fact is B.C.'s mining industry meets some of the highest regulatory standards in the world for environmental assessment, operational...
Assembling a long-term fiscal plan for Alaska has been like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with some key pieces missing from the box. It's frustrating and you can't win, no matter how much you try pounding the pieces to fit together. In this case, the puzzle would fit together better with a governor who doesn't stretch the numbers to suit his arguments, and who thinks more about public services that can build the state's future and less about dividends that can build his reelection campaign....
At this point, anything is worth a try. If a healthy life, caring about family and neighbors, and wanting to dream about perhaps someday flying without a face mask isn’t enough of an incentive, maybe a chance at winning the Alaska vaccination lottery will be just the shot in the arm some people need. Literally. The state has decided to use $1 million in federal pandemic aid to offer a lottery — a weekly $49,000 prize for eight lucky adults (age 18 and over) of the 49th state who figure a chance at cash is worth a little ache in the arm. The...
I grew up in a small rural town in California where we played in the streets, kept our doors unlocked, built treehouses, and stayed out late until our parents called us in. That all changed over the years. Sure, I left the state here and there, but I always returned for family or just because it was familiar. With my children grown and moved away, I decided it was time to find a place that was more suited to my personality. Let’s not gloss over the fact that people in California’s Bay Area hav...
Life teaches us there is a price for making mistakes. Or least the important ones. There is no penalty for picking up the wrong flavor of ice cream at the store, other than you have to eat the entire half-gallon before you can go back and get the correct flavor. Actually, that sounds like a prize, not a penalty. I'm talking the kinds of mistakes that a lot of people notice or that lead to other problems. Just like a football team gets penalized valuable yardage for their blunders on the field,...
Discussions and medical decisions about the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 should be based on facts, not scientifically untested and unproven rumors spread on social media. And certainly not on irresponsible health care advice prescribed by an elected official who seems to think a drug that kills worms in horses and cows might also destroy the coronavirus in people. A polite person might say "horse feathers" to such medical guidance from an unlicensed politician. A not-so-nice person...
This August marked the seventh anniversary of the Mount Polley mine disaster. Mount Polley, located in British Columbia, is a large open-pit mine and its tailings dam collapsed, bringing significant negative impacts on the Quesnel Lake and Frasier River ecosystems, as well as local communities and cultures. Since that time, no significant regulatory or legal changes have been made in British Columbia to address the risks of large-scale mines. Although we do not have jurisdiction in B.C., we are...
Sometimes a pause in the hustle is necessary. Our transboundary watersheds, the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers that flow from Northwest British Columbia into Southeast Alaska, face an onslaught of too many industrial mining projects proposed for locations too close together to each other in far too sensitive areas. Those projects, and the way they are being approved without the consent or input of many of those who could be impacted, including tribes and Southeast Alaskans, give many reasons for a pause in business as usual. After the infamous...
Forget politics, rumors, social media, accusations from all sides and everything else that has turned the vaccination debate into a circus — but without the fun, excitement and cotton candy. Too many Alaskans are getting sick (about 5,800 cases the past two weeks), too many are ending up in the hospital (121 in beds as of Tuesday), and too many are dying (419 since the start of the pandemic count, as of Tuesday). Though about two-thirds of the deaths have been recorded in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Southeast Alaska c...
It should be pretty easy to look at residential utility hookups, Permanent Fund dividend application statistics, housing occupancy and other data points to refute the U.S. Census Bureau count that shows Wrangell lost 242 residents between the federal government’s official tallies in 2010 and 2020. Anyone who has tried to find housing to buy or rent would certainly dispute the notion that all those people left town, putting empty homes or apartments on the market. But this mathematical dispute is much more than frustration over tight housing a...
Did I format my entire letter saying goodbye to Wrangell so I could put a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" reference in the title? Yes, yes I did. Looking back on the past three years of my life, I noticed how many of my fondest memories revolve around seafood in some way. Discovering the miracle that is smoked salmon, going fishing with my friends, watching the bears at Anan fatten up on salmon, friends and neighbors offering to share their catches of crab with me, getting to cover an autopsy...
Just over 20 years ago, half of the Alaska House of Representatives banded together - Democrats and Republicans, urban and rural - in a concerted push to balance the budget, raise new revenues and put the state on a path to a long-term, fiscally responsible future. They called themselves the Fiscal Policy Caucus, and even wore lapel pins of an open umbrella to signify that the rainy day had arrived and Alaskans needed to protect themselves from falling oil revenues. They studied the math,...
For years, critics of state finances have said government should run more like a business. OK, let's see how that works. When companies are short of revenue, they first look at how to boost sales. Makes good financial sense to go out and attract more business, draw in new customers, maybe even raise prices while staying competitive. And companies look at their expenses. Are there better ways to run the operation that would save money. The absolutely last thing a well-run company would do is pay...
Maybe you're curious how we decide which stories go into the Sentinel each week. Maybe not, but please read this anyway. Since you are turning the pages of the Sentinel at the moment, or reading it online, it would be good for you to know why some stories are in the paper you bought (or borrowed), and it would be good for us to know what you think is missing from the newspaper. There is nothing magical in selecting which news reports make it into the Sentinel. It's a combination of space to fit...
Yes, the amount of this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend will be at stake when legislators convene in another special session on Monday. And while the PFD is important, legislators — and Alaskans — should not let the political fights over the dividend overwhelm the importance of resolving other financial disputes that jeopardize the lives of tens of thousands of Alaskans. In particular, there are the Power Cost Equalization (PCE) payments that benefit about 82,000 Alaskans in almost 200 rural communities across the state. The Legis...
As if national campaigns haven't turned nasty enough in recent years, the billions of dollars at stake in political fundraising is making it worse. Yes, billions. Estimates are that spending nationwide on last year's presidential and congressional races totaled $14 billion - about double from four years earlier. That same $14 billion could have bought close to 100 school lunches for every student in America last year, kindergarten through high school senior. And that would have been a whole lot...
The filing period opened this week for nine seats on the borough assembly, school board and port commission. Which means it's time for people to think about what they want for the community's future and how they could help make it happen. The best candidates are those who are for something, not against. Those who have ideas, not grudges and gripes. There is probably no shortage of people against COVID-19 health rules, taxes, zoning restrictions, cell phone towers, school policies, dog control la...
Summer camp focused on learning about virtues The six-day Virtues Summer Camp held at the Community Center has come to a close, with 14 children participating locally. New ideas were explored in one-hour Zoom meetings as the group in Wrangell interacted with children in Palmer, Willow, Nenana, Valdez, Anchorage and Juneau. The dedicated efforts of more than 20 adults statewide helped make this a success. The afternoon in-person sessions included an outdoor break, light lunch, music, games and ar...
The list of escalating Alaska political divides is growing faster than skunk cabbage in a rainforest. And it smells just as bad. The line-up for the political fight scorecard seems endless: Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, rural versus urban, sportfishing versus commercial versus charter fishing, full-dividend advocates versus fiscal restraint, tax advocates versus budget cutters. There are those who believe religion belongs in government and others who believe God...