The ALASKA GOVERNMENT is controlled by Unions and special interests in the Legislature, in the Executive and in the Courts. We are still a colony of the United States of America, controlled by the Seattle suburb of Juneau, where our capitol is maintained despite The People voting to move it in the 1970s. Many people come here for their Alaska Adventure and leave nothing of value.
Edgar Blatchford, a born-again Democrat, spoke to EaglExit recently about how local government can be formed or changed and opportunities to consider.(Photo by Waneta Borden) It’s a mean world. Big fish eat little fish and bullies often get their way. Russian traders came to Alaska to enslave the Natives and decimate bountiful fur seals and …
The Important Role of Local Government: Opportunities to Exploit Read More »
Fighting for Alaska Election Integrity Spring Denali climbers are arriving in Talkeetna now, to be flown to the basecamp, where they will begin their torturous assent to the highest mountain in North America. Holly Sheldon-Lee is again busy managing a business that goes back to her father, pioneer Wager with the Wind pilot Don …
Flawed Election Memories Anybody who has ever been scammed online should be concerned about our last state election, but it appears our public officials in Juneau are not likely to do much about it before the first half of this Legislative session is over in a month or two. Juneau swamp reporter for the Anchorage …
Do more farms mean more production for Alaskans? In his self-satisfied memoir—written after serving two terms as Alaska’s fifth governor–Jay Hammond, in his book Tales of Alaska’s Bushrat Governor, reflects on …major disappointments in my second term. One, deemed by many the biggest blunder of my administration, was an attempt to promote Alaska agriculture. …
Steps to Food Security for Alaska: Are Alaska Agriculture Efforts Working? Read More »
MEA Serves Eagle River Well (2021©donnliston.co) When Chugach/Eagle River wanted electrical power, at a time when the community was sleepy but growing, Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) didn’t want the bother of hooking us up from Anchorage. A Chugiak area activist, Justine Parks took the steps to involve Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) in delivering …
The Anchorage School District is too big, with a top-down Command-and-Control system accountable to a school board governed by members elected at-large, but ultimately accountable to no one to assure Local Control, according to former ASD teacher and principal, Sean Murphy. This is the dimension of the Anchorage School District: 46,115 students, of which more …
Our ASD Public Education Challenge: Parents in Eagle River/Chugiak Deserve Local Control Read More »
Looking Back, And A Vision for the Future (2021©donnliston.co) Anyone who has lived here any length of time knows the region of the state that includes Eagle River/Chugiak/Peters Creek is a unique part of Alaska. Dan Kendall once represented this area on the Anchorage Municipal Assembly and has experienced the effort to preserve the qualities …
Ship of Fools Fights Covid-19 at Anchorage (2021©donnliston.co) This iconic Grateful Dead album cover portrays a heartless andsoulless frigate group entering a landmine field. We now know moreabout what happened. Some might think our recent Covid-19 Pandemic was mitigated by destroying the private sector economy of Anchorage. Looking over the events of the last year, and comparing …
Addressing Alaska’s Hierarchy of Needs This is an update of a story that first appeared February 10, 2021. Alaskans are generally stuck at the bottom of the 5-level pyramid of human needs defined in Abraham Maslow’s 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation. His 1954 book “Motivation and Personality” expanded on this theory and remains a …
Elections Have Consequences Reflections In December of 2021 on what we hoped might be possible after the election. The Alaska Legislature in recent years has become a spectacle. We have voted for people who we thought understood what Alaskans want: Safety and Security, Limited and efficient State Govern-ment, Protection of the Permanent Fund with use …
