Comments (10)

Nelly Bly wrote on August 22, 2007 10:35 AM:

This $51 million marine research facility is in addition to the other $50 million plus one in Anchorage, Alaska SeaLife Center, right? Alaska's population is the size of a mid-size city and it needs two federally funded marine research centers?

What are the chances that the U. of Alaska's new $26 million research and teaching facility in Juneau mentioned in the AP story is federally funded?

Juneau only has 30k people. I'd like to know how many of them are professionaly qualified to conduct research and teach.

Just Asking wrote on August 22, 2007 10:50 AM:

The Alaska Report reported that on 8/19/07, Stevens and his best friend, Senator Inouye, were heckled by commercial fishermen when they attended a luncheon sponsored by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce in Kodiak AK. Link below.

I wonder if Inouye is in Alaska helping Stevens with damage control.

I wish someone would ask Inouye, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, what Barbara Smyers Flanders, financial clerk, does to earn her $152k salary? She makes as much as the committee's legislative counsel.

Why did Inouye recently give her a $38k raise?

Flanders, of course, testified in the investigation of Stevens. She did personal bookkeeping for Stevens and had records about the Girdwood renovation. Stevens did not pay Flanders for her bookkeeping services out of his pocket.

Is Flanders, 54, romantically linked with Stevens or Inouye?

Grumpy wrote on August 22, 2007 10:58 AM:

"...plus one in Anchorage, Alaska SeaLife Center, right?"

The Alaska Sealife Center is in Seward, south of Anchorage. It's no Monterey Bay Aquarium, but it gets the job done.

http://www.alaskasealife.org/

Anonymous wrote on August 22, 2007 11:06 AM:

Last evening I received a call from a woman who ID herself as a "Ditman" pollster. After a couple weasel worded questions she asked: Do you think: 1. Sen Stevens has beeen too aggressive in pursuing earmarks for Alaska? or: 2. Do you think Sen Stevens is doing what Alaskan's elected him to do?

I suggested SEn Stevens has been drunk with power and many of his earmarks have enriched foreign or out of state corporations at the expence of Alaskans.

When told I could only chose from their answers I chose to not participate in what I see as a push poll.

I expect Sen Stevens to be spuoting the results soon.

Michael Lafferty wrote on August 22, 2007 11:36 AM:

It's no surprise at all that Senator Inouye is in Alaska, doing whatever he can to help his longtime friend and crony.

Hawai'i's senior Senator, a veteran of World War II and member of the all Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team which distinguished itself in the European theater—and, who lost an arm in combat—is not so affectionately known in the islands as "the one-armed bandit." A figure of mythic proportions in the Democratic party in Hawai'i, he was a contemporary and very close associate of Jack Burns, Hawai'i's first governor following statehood.

During World War II, Jack Burns was a police officer, working 'downtown' Honolulu with a partner named Larry Mehau. Burns went on to become governor, Mehau went on to become the individual believed to be the head of organized crime in the islands.

Hmm. Connect the dots…

If you think that Alaska qualifies as the most crooked state in the nation, you would likely be wrong by any reasonable measure.

cracker wrote on August 22, 2007 12:01 PM:

FBI will prove Alaska is the most crooked state no problem

Steven Young Murkowski and VECO are all fronts for Exxon BP Conoco ARCO Shell because they lost out in 1973-1974 when oil countries kicked their asses out. They got service contracts but no longer owned the oil in the ground. In Alaska and it is one of the few oil producing places on the planet that Big Oil owns what is in the ground in long-term leases.

Sarah Palin the Alaska Governor just took back Exxon's leases for natural gas. She is about 35 years late. Why so long you might ask? Corruption. VECO got no bid contracts from Big Oil. They spread that around the legislature like butter. Made sure corrupt morons aka Hammond Cowper Sheffield and Knowles got elected and couldn't do the math on the revenue or didn't want to and passed ridiculous oil tax laws

Big Oil would never make the margin per barrel they do in Alaska in any other region. Steven Young Murkowski Knowles and Bill Allen made sure Alaska fought "Outsiders" aka accountants who ran the numbers. Palin hired them all back after they had a coup against Gov. Frank Murkowski last year. Instead you got Weyrach, Kott, and trailer living idiot from Wasilla selling Alaska out for $1000s while giving away $100,000,000s

Alaskans 35 years too late to real revenue is the biggest heist ever! Sorry Hawaii

Yesterday's headline in ADN: New Oil Tax comes up $800,000,000 short for Alaska residents

Damn they are still doing it 35 years later

aklocal wrote on August 22, 2007 1:44 PM:

Nelly,

Alaska has far more coastline than the rest of the US combined. Yes, we do need marine research. Our fisheries feed many millions of people every year. Without adequate science-based understanding of the marine ecology and impacts of fisheries and development, serious negative consequences will occur.

Alaska is also facing tremendous challenges and changes to its marine environment with global warming as the ice retreats in the arctic. Good science and locally based research is needed. Both NOAA and U of A already had marine research facilities in Juneau. These facilities were 30-40 years old and the new facilities are probably in keeping with the present and future need for good science about the vast coastal waters and resources in and off Alaska.

As far as your knock on the professional qualifications of research and teaching staff in Juneau, I have to suggest that you are spitting in the eye of some very dedicated and qualified people.

I'm not a big defender of Ted Stevens. In fact, I've been critical of him for years. That doesn't mean, however, that I think that everything he has ever touched is faulty. If you offhandedly slam everything you hear about that he's worked on, you come off small minded. Like other politicians, Ted's a mixed bag. At every opportunity I've voted for other people because I've always thought that, summed up, the Stevens mix was bad for Alaska, the United States, and the rest of the world. But that doesn't prevent me from seeing the parts that aren't bad.

anon wrote on August 22, 2007 3:59 PM:

You guys have read Joe LaRocca's Alaska Agonistes, right? It's not the most beautiful book but, for my money, LaRocca was the go to guy for twenty years if you were interested in Alaskan oil corruption. His columns in the All-Alaska Weekly as well as his reporting on oil in the News Miner (back when it was a real paper) and his investigative pieces for the Anchorage Times and the NYT are still the best single source for the dark world of Alaskan oil politics. LaRocca, in addition to his infamous undercover work as a North Slope worker, actually bothered to read every scrap of enviromental report, oil contract, and oil law. He's still alive and still kinda working on projects related to AK oil. (Hey, it's even likely that Laura McGann has heard his name over and over by now. He's not famous but why not invite him to blog for a week or so on Muckraker or Cafe?)

Anyway, LaRocca makes a very good case that the corruption is in the details of the law and the contracts. It's all very carefully spun so that the oil companies get max profit and minimal accountablity and the public gets screwed. And, yes, the oil companies use a complicated set of laundries to make sure that they can buy politicians as necessary. For the most part, the oil corruption detailed by LaRocca is far less overt than Murkowski's land deal, Steven's renovation, or Young's FL earmarks but it's also much larger in scale.

Joe LaRocca wrote on September 24, 2007 9:53 PM:

Joe here. I'm curious to know who wrote the anon August 22 2007 comment about me. Sounds like someone I knew and who knew me well in Alaska. I've been back in my home state of Pennsylvania since 1987, after spending 20 years in Alaska.
My snailing address is:
23 Clinton St.,
North East, PA 16428
(814) 725-8926

P.S. My home town of North East, PA is actually in the northWESTernmost corner of the state, on Lake Erie, about 100 miles east of Cleveland, 80 miles west of Buffalo and 120 miles north of Pittsburgh, on I 90/ and U.S. Rtes 5 and 20.

Joe LaRocca wrote on September 25, 2007 8:51 PM:

A federal jury in Anchorage, AK this afternoon found Former Alaska state legislator and house speaker Pete Kott guilty on three corruption charges of bribery, extortion and conspiracy. He was found innocent of wire fraud.He's scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 7 and will be free on $25,000 bond until then. Kott had served 14 years in the House of Representives.Two more former state representatives are awaiting trial on related charges.I can be reached at jlar5553@verizon.net