Bag ban: will Assembly use same criteria to suspend it as last time?
Setting up what surely will be his next fracas with the Anchorage Assembly, Mayor Dave Bronson will ask that august body to extend its ban on enforcement of an ordinance... Read more.
Equity, justice, or government waste
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It is interesting that the city’s new $115,000-per-year equity officer, heading up the wholly unnecessary Office of Equity and Justice... Read more.
Will Interior Secretary Haaland see more than ducks and eel grass at King Cove?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is slated to visit with residents of King Cove during a visit to Alaska in September. During her confirmation... Read more.
Judicial poppycock
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Here is some bad news for elected office-holders in Alaska who thought they could be recalled only for serious infractions. It turns out,... Read more.
Winter is coming
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Well, so much for all that nonsense about getting along. It did not take long for the Anchorage Assembly to show newly elected Mayor Dave... Read more.
The best firearms salesman: Joe Biden
Thanks largely, we suspect, to the Biden administration’s wrong-headed persistence in pursuing its anti-Second Amendment policies, buyers scooped up more than... Read more.
Biden not improving with time
You go into the woods for a few days and when you come back you learn the Biden administration is no brighter than when you left. Now, these guys want to “repeal... Read more.
We stand against anti-Semitism and hate
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET There is something particularly loathsome about cowards who slink around in the night defacing property with racist or anti-Semitic scrawls... Read more.
What is wrong with these people?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The Anchorage Assembly’s 8-2 vote this week to change local law to force women’s shelters to accept men who say they are women makes us... Read more.
Bronson
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET While we are loathe to tell you how to vote as the mayoral runoff election wraps up Tuesday, we are not bashful at all about sharing who... Read more.
Can legislators hold two state positions?
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Excuse us for asking, but how is it that two Alaska legislators appear to each be holding two state positions at the same time – something... Read more.
Dunbar’s dark money: What could go wrong?
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET When you take a look at the staggering list of Forrest Dunbar’s union support for his mayoral bid, and realize an attack ad aimed at... Read more.
Hats off to Mr. Simmons
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It is not often we can add a hero to our pantheon of heroes who, with humor and grace, have tweaked the noses of bureaucrats busily plying... Read more.
Who is David Chipman?
By THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is David Chipman, a longtime BATF special... Read more.
Be very afraid
Here’s a Reuters headline that should scare the bejeebers out of Americans – “Analysis: Biden White House Tries to Craft Gun Executive Orders That Can’t... Read more.
The Muni perks — four hours leave to get a vaccination? It ain’t chicken feed
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The Assembly at this evening’s meeting is slated to consider a resolution, AR 2021-87, agreeing to a deal with city employee unions to... Read more.
What does Dunbar mean when he says he wants the city ‘back on track’?
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET We noted with more than a little interest a headline over a story about Anchorage Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Forrest Dunbar that... Read more.
Murkowski votes yes to gun-grabbing Merrick Garland as attorney general
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It always is disappointing when Republicans, who supposedly belong to a party that believes in defending constitutional rights, confirm... Read more.
Should Merrick pay a price?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Yet again, a Republican state lawmaker has jumped ship and joined a Democratic coalition in the House – and, yet again, is being rewarded... Read more.
Biden starts ‘common sense’ campaign for gun control
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Heaven help us all. The Biden administration is beginning its drive for the “common sense” gun control he threatened during the election.... Read more.
Maybe it’s time
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is pushing for construction of a $6 billion gas line between Point Thomson and Fairbanks to bring natural gas to Alaska’s road system. Many... Read more.
Tough sledding on election reform
Sen. Mike Shower introduced an election reform measure aimed, he says, at beefing up election security in Alaska in a nonpartisan fashion, but already it is seen... Read more.
Only colder and darker?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET A dream decades in the making fizzled Tuesday as President Joe Biden, in one of his first acts as president, temporarily blocked oil and gas... Read more.
Ninth circle of Dante’s hell
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Lawmakers are expected to gavel in the 32nd Alaska Legislature in Juneau on Tuesday. You have to wonder who would want to? The state is... Read more.
We are better than that
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Let’s get beyond the craziness of the this week and understand this: Despite all manner of wacky claims from the usual suspects, the Antifa... Read more.
A really bad idea
We note with more than a little interest that the Legislature, in its vast wisdom, has decided to bar the news media from the state House and Senate chambers during... Read more.
Mayor-select to Allard: Butt out
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET We have to ask the question: Why would Anchorage’s placeholder mayor bar an Eagle River assemblywoman from a meeting she is having with... Read more.
Can’t buy love
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET If you need proof money cannot buy you love, take a gander at how much Al “Bear Killer” Gross spent on his failed bid for the U.S. Senate... Read more.
Pearl Harbor: Heroism that lives on in history
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Today we pause to remember the “Day of Infamy” that plunged this nation into war. Japan, early on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, without warning... Read more.
Justice delayed…
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It is more than a little unsettling to read criminal and civil trials, along with grand juries, are suspended again in Alaska until next year.... Read more.
Get it right on tax relief
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The Anchorage Assembly will get another chance to get it right when it reconsiders granting personal property tax relief to small business... Read more.
Poppycock
Anchorage mayoral hopeful Forrest Dunbar is telling potential campaign contributors he and his pals on the Assembly are following the city charter in deciding to... Read more.
Firearm sales skyrocket
With nearly two months left before the end of the year, firearms sales in the U.S. already have blown past the record set in 2016. The National Shooting Sports Foundation... Read more.
We salute them all
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Over the years, they have marched in peace and in war – shoulder to shoulder, their uniforms reflecting different branches of the armed... Read more.
Let the inquisition begin
We find ourselves waiting with bated breath for the news media’s outright indignation, its thunderstruck fury at Democratic Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s confession... Read more.
Media doesn’t care to ask the tough questions of Gross
Now that the news media, or at least what passes for news media in Alaska, thoroughly have dissected Senate candidate Al Gross’s bear tale, perhaps they now could... Read more.
You have to wonder
In the world of politics, you have to wonder sometimes. When the late Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott abruptly resigned and vanished amid rumors he made “inappropriate,”... Read more.
Rivera plays partisan politics
If you are among those deluded souls who persist in believing Anchorage city politics are nonpartisan, you may want to think again. Assembly Chairman Felix Rivera... Read more.
Hotels to be forced to rehire workers? Assembly to vote
At Tuesday’s Assembly meeting Chairman Felix Rivera and member Forrest Dunbar plan to push a measure dictating to “large” hotels they must offer to rehire... Read more.
A new standard for recall
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Have you ever felt like perhaps the fix was in? After a legal opinion by Anchorage’s municipal attorney, the city clerk – who, by the... Read more.
‘Conversion,’ or how to misspell the word ‘privacy’
In a 9-2 vote, the Anchorage Assembly late last night adopted an ordinance banning so-called conversion therapy for minors, and rejected determined, laudable efforts... Read more.
Fungibility: The way the city can use CARES money for homeless hotel project
It is getting so that we are afraid to leave town for a few days because of what we might find has happened while we were gone. This time around, the U.S. Treasury... Read more.
What relief?
While the battle over whether Anchorage restaurants can remain open under Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s Emergency Order 15 heats up, Berkowitz has submitted to the Assembly... Read more.
Firearms sales explode
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The stampede for firearms and ammunition continues as Americans face coronavirus concerns, Democratic promises of draconian gun control,... Read more.
Round 4 for Berkowitz plan
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET After again hearing hours of mostly negative testimony on the city’s plan to use $22.5 million in CARES Act funding to purchase two hotels,... Read more.
Who is signing the checks over at Recall Dunleavy?
By THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The news was not unexpected and the headline in the ADN no surprise: “One year in, the recall campaign against Gov. Mike Dunleavy... Read more.
All the dead voters will have to wait for justice until after the primary
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It is tough being a dead person in Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux’s House District 15. They are left to wonder: Are we supposed to vote? Are... Read more.
‘Into the Wild’ bus removal was long overdue
Finally, the bus made famous in the 1996 book “Into the Wild” has been unceremoniously yanked from the backcountry along the Stampede Trail where it has sat... Read more.
Berkowitz tries to skirt public process, gets caught
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and two Assembly members are pushing a proposed ordinance that would allow the city to put homeless shelters pretty much wherever... Read more.
629 days since the dead voted
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET While Republicrat Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux awaits her June 25 hearing on voter misconduct charges, it should be noted that it has been 629... Read more.
Why so little curiosity by the media?
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Just curious: With a shadowy effort underway to unseat Alaska’s duly elected governor for sins mostly imagined, why has the question... Read more.
The right call by Lt. Gov. Meyer on elections
By THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer says the August primary election, despite complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic, will be close to business-as-usual... Read more.
Who are they?
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Now that the Alaska Supreme Court has cleared the way for signature-gathering to set a special election to unseat Gov. Mike Dunleavy for... Read more.
Out of business?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET We wonder, as surely you have, why the Legislature is sitting on its thumbs in getting out to cash-strapped cities and businesses and nonprofits... Read more.
A growing problem
The ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The city’s growing problem with the “homeless” at Third Avenue and Ingra Street is ugly – and getting uglier. One can only wonder... Read more.
National Guard is not a pooper scooper brigade
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET City officials are asking the Alaska National Guard be pressed into service to help clean up the city’s homeless camps, along with their... Read more.
Adieu, LeDoux
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Dead Republican voters in House District 15 must be rejoicing today with state voter misconduct and election interference charges being... Read more.
Republicans will conduct convention electronically
The Alaska Republican Party convention will be conducted electronically on April 2-3, instead on in person in Juneau, said Party Chairman Glenn Clary today. : “In... Read more.
Pew Research says climate change is low voter concern
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Something to think about as politicians on the Left line up to push their fixes for climate change: A Pew Research survey concludes... Read more.
Going to be a rough year
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET It is noteworthy that a Republican lawmaker from Fairbanks wants to double Alaska’s gasoline tax – currently the lowest in the nation... Read more.
Outside dough spilled to screw up Alaska’s elections
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Who knew there could be so much dough in trying to persuade Alaskans to screw up a fairly straight-forward election system? Alaskans for... Read more.
A full-court press for taxes
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET With the city putting on a full-court press to rake in more money from a proposed 5 percent retail alcohol tax and two general sales taxes,... Read more.
Here come more taxes
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and the Anchorage Assembly are planning a series of town hall meetings to talk about “new revenue options” to... Read more.
Remember Amelia, Ohio
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET A note to the Anchorage Assembly: Residents of a 119-year-old Ohio town who had grown weary of government taxation have voted to dissolve... Read more.
Secrets of the recall campaign; there ought to be a law
By ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Here we are, into December, and months since the Recall Dunleavy charade began collecting signatures to undo last year’s election, and... Read more.
Uniquely vulnerable to corruption?
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET In an unsigned opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court has told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its opinion upholding Alaska’s... Read more.
How much to solve homelessness?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel wants to spend about $2.4 million for a new round-the-clock homeless shelter for about 150 in Midtown.... Read more.
What else is in that ML&P, Chugach sales agreement?
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The Anchorage Assembly, with little fanfare the other day, moved the city closer to selling the Municipal Light and Power utility to the Chugach... Read more.
Cops say man, under house arrest, rapes ninth victim
ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. If you think there is nothing wrong with Alaska’s judicial system, consider this: A man accused of sexually... Read more.
Pass the popcorn
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET The state Senate donnybrook over the Permanent Fund dividend rages on. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed Republican Rep. Josh Revak to... Read more.
