The Novel Coronavirus has caused changes in how we interact. With people, with time itself, and with things. Wearing or not wearing a mask in public has become a political act to some. Distillers of fine gin are now distilling sanitizing hand gel. Single-use plastic bags are temporarily rescued from their glide path to oblivion by frontline retail workers deeming …
Leg With Louie: Building the new economy starts now
Yours may be cowboys, Willie, but my heroes have always been journalists. Even today, in the middle of the daily whirlwind of sheep-dip and gibberish from our highest officer in the land, with uncertainty on all horizons and a pandemic at our door, journalists are out there asking questions, arranging facts, allowing citizens a foothold of logic in the world …
Alaska Wants to Fight Warming While Still Drilling for Oil
Alaska’s appetite for oil is as ubiquitous as the state’s proliferating examples of a changing climate. The Arctic is melting faster than anywhere else in the world. Permafrost is thawing and releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Warmer air and ocean water have diminished sea ice. Native villages along the coast are moving inland to flee rising seas. But climate change …
Leg with Louie: Power-Play During a Pandemic
The Governor’s budget vetoes came through this week. The cuts were not as dramatic as some may have feared, but they were made in bad faith. The Legislature put together their budgets working tirelessly under the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting their health and safety at risk in doing so, while maintaining good communication with the Administration throughout the …
Leg With Louie: No time for big cuts
The Legislature passed the FY 21 operating budget and FY 20 supplemental, and the FY 21 Mental Health Budget up to the Governor before going into recess. By the constitution, the Governor has 15 days, Sundays excluded, to take action on a bill while the Legislature is in session – and the Legislature is still technically in session. The Governor’s …
Leg with Louie: Before the Session Ends
The Legislature is coming to a close, with pandemic and economic headwinds and more than a little uncertainty ahead. For the safety of our representatives, we need them to pass a budget and go home now. The session will likely adjourn or recess after a budget deal is struck sometime next week. In the meantime, why are legislators, like Sarah …
Leg with Louie: Staying Engaged in Uncertain Times
It is to their credit that our legislators have an eye on the pandemic, and an eye toward closing shop early, and are discussing processes to vote on the budget and governor’s appointments by phone. Taking it week by week is the way to go, or probably more like day to day if yesterday’s spate of event, class, gathering, and …
Leg with louie: Governor Dunleavy heads to the Kenai Peninsula
Dear Friends, The Governor’s operating budget for Alaska was improved by House Finance and sent from the full House this week with increases to the Alaska Marine Highway System, Pioneer Homes, Public Broadcasting, and reduced less than the Governor requested in many other areas. The bill – still a grim and diminished vision for Alaska – headed to the Senate for …
Leg With Louie: Obituary for House Resolution 12
The short, happy life of HR 12 ended this week. HR 12 was born last spring and died this winter, and we won’t spend long mourning it, but we will mark its passing with a few brief words: HR 12 was a house resolution that sought to establish a House Special Committee on Climate Change. At the time of its …
Leg With Louie: hope for the future in the dim light of a dawning decade
Under a newly proposed Trump Administration rule, Environmental Impact Statements on major federal actions, say permitting a Pebble Mine or a transnational oil pipeline, would be limited to a maximum of two years of agency and public review and among other limitations, the analysis of cumulative impacts is not allowed. Trump’s new EIS rule change would institutionalize the same shoddy, …