Sorted by date Results 129 - 153 of 1054
This column has little to do with actual footwear — dress shoes if you have an office job, work boots if you’re a contractor, comfortable shoes if you’re on your feet all day or rubber boots if you work on a fishing boat. It’s about walking in their shoes or, more specifically, walking and working in the shoes of people in other jobs. It’s about elected officials and office bosses who make decisions about the jobs and lives of other people. What better way to make good decisions than to know what your employees deal with on the job, the probl...
For those of us who choose to walk the Volunteer Park (ballpark) Nature Trail on an almost daily basis, I would like to express our gratitude for the work that our city crew and volunteers have done to keep this accessible to us. The plowing of the trail by Todd White in the past and the city crew this year has been noticed. Walking on unplowed snowpack causes knee and ankle twisting and pain for some of us. We’ve also noticed there is enough snow for skiers to still use the trail as well. Meeting up with friends to walk and catch up or even u...
One of my daughters sent me an article about World Religion Day that appeared on her company intranet on Jan. 12. It occurred to me that this was a topic worth exploring, and I decided to investigate it further online. The event was first celebrated in 1947 in Portland, Maine, under the title, World Peace Through World Religion. Gradually, more communities began setting aside the third Sunday in January to observe it as World Religion Day. The purpose is to foster harmony between people of all faiths, including Indigenous values and cultures...
It’s becoming an increasingly common tactic for election losers to blame anyone but themselves. In Alaska, that means several of the recent losers and their supporters blame their defeat on ranked-choice voting, which took effect for the 2022 elections after the public voted in favor of the change in 2020. But rather than learn from their losses and put up candidates who appeal to a broader range of voters, which is the smart way to win elections, the losers want to deny all Alaskans the ability to select from the best of everyone on the b...
Children are taught not to make fun of others, tease them or be mean. Parents, teachers, counselors, church leaders and community mentors such as Girl Scout and Little League volunteers work hard to explain why it’s hurtful to make fun of someone who is different. Most seem to get the message. But not all. Bullying and shaming continues to be a problem, made worse by social media which treats so many things as a joke or an amusing video, regardless of how it may hurt someone. And rather than set a good example, Donald Trump makes it worse — and...
The 2024 Alaska legislative session started Tuesday, Jan. 16. My main committee assignment will be to serve for the eighth year on the House Finance Committee, which is responsible for moving the operating and capital budgets to the full House for approval. The challenge we always face is allocating limited revenue to meet the nearly limitless funding requests, including the annual Permanent Fund dividend. We will begin our work this session with the spending plan submitted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which includes a deficit of $987 million and...
Artificial intelligence doesn’t seem natural to me. How can it be intelligent if it’s artificial? Back when I went to school in the 1950s, our intelligence was spurred on by a teacher standing in front of a classroom. We attended each day from 8 in the morning until noon and then back at 1 until 4:30 p.m. As each day passed, our intelligence increased. The goal, of course, was for us to go through our elementary, middle and high school with some real intelligence in our brains at the end of it. Reading, writing and arithmetic were our bas...
It’s certainly welcome news that analysts at the state Department of Labor forecast strong job growth in Alaska this year. They expect to see about 5,400 new jobs, a solid increase of almost 2% over last year. If the numbers come true, it would fully restore the state to its pre-pandemic employment numbers of 2019. Federally funded infrastructure projects, North Slope oil field development and construction will be the big drivers of job growth. But no one really knows where all those new workers will come from. Just like many other states, A...
There is at least one big similarity between artificial intelligence and teenagers. They both think they know everything. And now, an AI applications provider is promoting in its marketing material that it is just like a teenager. But first, a bit of the history that underlies my commentary. And, no, AI did not assist in writing this column or augment my memory or provide data scraped from the internet. Though I do enjoy the crispy pieces scraped from a good mac-and-cheese casserole. Several years ago, actually three decades ago, I was dating...
I often wonder about the ever-moving changes that are taking place in our society. The increase in homelessness is evident on the sidewalks of our major regions as well as here in our own state. The extent to which cultural issues divide us. The dialogue coming from many of our leading universities that the constitutional right to freedom of speech justifies the growing attitude that anything goes. The reappearance of isolationism which negates America’s leadership role in projecting democracy and protecting peace. Our own border problem — on o...
Only one utility in Wrangell is metered, electricity, the rest generally are not. This leads to the attitude that we pay a bill and can use as much as we want. This is especially true of borough assembly members. They approved an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units on single-family lots, but the ordinance does not make clear whether the new rental units would be charged for water and sewer services or if the landlords would get the services at no additional cost to their existing hookups on the same lot. The burden of paying for...
As we wrapped up the Senate session in late December, I was anxious to leave Washington, D.C., to return home to Anchorage, with a stop in Wrangell, a place I still call home. I wanted to share my condolences, see for myself the damage from the Nov. 20 landslide, and determine what resources I could assist with. I also wanted to thank the community members and assure them that they are not forgotten once the destruction is cleaned up and the road repaired. Seeing the open scar on the mountain scraped raw by the slide, massive trees littered...
Wrangell could get off to a good start for 2024 if one of the three interested parties makes a reasonable offer to buy the borough-owned former hospital building, which has sat vacant for almost three years. Most any offer would be reasonable, considering that keeping the building dry and insured is costing the borough tens of thousands of dollars a year. And any offer would be improvement over the no offers that have come in since SEARHC vacated the property for its new medical center in 2021. “The value is getting rid of the property,” Int...
Partisan politics itself is not evil. Disruptive, yes. Phony, certainly. Shortsighted, no doubt about it. On its own, partisanship is a childish game played by adults who care more about headlines, fundraising and winning elections than anything else. But in recent years, partisanship has devolved into something much worse than a political shouting match. Stoked by social media, half-truths and everything but the truth, partisanship has grown into a divisive force that threatens the country by threatening our elections. Far too many Americans...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is starting his sixth year as the state’s top elected leader. Sadly, he’s not providing much fiscal leadership, other than beating the drums for his perpetual political bandwagon that trumpets the Permanent Fund dividend at the front of the parade, with public schools playing second fiddle. It’s off-key and off-base. The governor unveiled his proposed state budget last week, setting out a spending plan for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and which legislators will start working through when they reconvene in Junea...
Even though Trident Seafoods reopened its Wrangell plant this summer after a three-year closure, many in town were nervous about the long-term prospects. Salmon prices were miserably low due to an oversupplied market from last year and foreign competition. Worrying is part of human nature. But the half-century-old, family-owned seafood processor had some good news for Wrangell last week: Trident’s plan to operate the plant is “solid” for next year. And even though the company is looking to sell its facilities in Ketchikan and Petersburg as it...
I attended the Dec. 12 borough assembly meeting where members approved an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units on lots that already have a house. The stated purpose is to increase housing and rental units. I asked several questions about utilities for the rental units. The assembly members did not answer my questions. This is why I am asking these questions in this letter: Will the landlords receive a utility bill? Will the utility bill contain all of the utilities that are on my bill? This is not stated in the ordinance, but I believe...
By the time this paper hits the stores, I’ll be on a plane to my family home in Salt Lake City for the holidays. But unlike last year, I won’t be coming back to Wrangell in January. Instead, I’ll be making a leap from the oldest continuously published newspaper in Alaska to the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States — Harper’s Magazine, in New York City. According to Marilynne Robinson, one of my favorite authors, “a character or a place is inexhaustible and will always reward further attention.” For the past year and...
The director of the state agency that manages the food stamp program for tens of thousands of Alaskans says the staff is again overwhelmed with work, delaying benefits for thousands of households by months. That’s months without the food assistance they need and that most are entitled to receive — all because the state has failed at its job for more than a year. That’s months relying on friends, family, food banks, or just going without adequate nutrition. It’s not because they did anything wrong. It’s that the state failed to maintain...
Elon Musk brought Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink to the world, which has mostly been good. He certainly is creative and extremely wealthy — gotta give him credit for that. Musk is brash and boastful, which has been obnoxious but mostly harmless. He also is rude and insensitive, which can be hurtful. But he doesn’t understand his responsibilities to society, and that’s dangerous. Really dangerous. The guy who renamed Twitter as X needs to relearn his ABCs of civic responsibility. Especially after earning a big fat F for Fail after he restored the X...
Wrangell has proven its boundless resilience, compassion and generosity the past two weeks. Individuals have donated, volunteered, hauled, organized and pitched in seemingly 24 hours a day since the deadly landslide tested the community’s faith and took over everyone’s emotions. And it wasn’t only individuals helping out. Just about every business on the island donated services, goods or money. Whether food for first responders and volunteers, groceries for families, temporary housing for people displaced by the slide, taxi rides, airpl...
All this talk about artificial intelligence is a bit unsettling. Sure, in time, it will bring a lot of good to the world, particularly in medicines, finding and treating cancers, improving weather forecasting, eliminating boring and repetitive work, answering questions and researching data faster than humanly possible. It also will make it easier to cheat on school homework and copy (and steal) someone else’s creative ideas, while adding to the loss of privacy, eliminating jobs and making people overly dependent on computers to manage their l...
The holidays are upon us once again. Streets, shops and homes are festooned with garlands, wreaths and twinkling multi-colored lights as festive music is playing. Hallmark and other TV channels are programming Yuletide-themed movies all day and night. As a kid, I witnessed that kind of spectacle many times, often to the melodies of songs like Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” or Nat King Cole singing “The Christmas Song.” Back then, I could just about believe it possible that a plump, jolly old elf could drive flying reindeer to pull a...
Friendship and community support can comfort. Volunteers can collect food and money, provide housing, transportation and fuel. Relief and counseling organizations like churches, SEARHC, the Red Cross and state and federal agencies can help people cope with immediate and long-term emotional and financial needs. But nothing stops the hurt, the deep loss and the fear that it could happen again. The deadly landslide that roared down the mountainside at 11-Mile on Nov. 20 has forever changed not just the geology of the area but the collective...
Southeast Alaska is known for rain, windstorms, mountainsides that loom above residential areas — and landslides that occur with increasing frequency. Sitka knows the risk, and the pain, losing three people in a 2015 landslide. Haines lost two people in a 2020 slide. And now Wrangell is added to the list. That list doesn’t include the multiple landslides over the years that caused damage and fear, but thankfully no deaths. After the 2015 slide, the Sitka Sound Science Center took the lead and worked with the community — and federal money — to...
