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Top policymakers, industry leaders headline AOGA 2025 conference in Anchorage

Suzanne Downing
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Top policymakers, industry leaders headline AOGA 2025 conference in Anchorage

The Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA) opens its 2025 annual conference on Wednesday, bringing national decision-makers, state leaders and top executives together for two days of high-level discussions on the future of energy development.

The agenda features congressional leaders, senior federal officials, Alaska’s governor, and executives from major oil and gas companies.

AOGA announces 2025 industry award winners

The event kicks off Wednesday with an opening keynote lunch from House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, joined by Alaska’s Nick Begich and other committee members. Later that afternoon, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is scheduled to deliver remarks via video, followed by a session with Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam on collaborative approaches to conservation.

Federal permitting — a perennial issue for Alaska projects — will take center stage with a fireside chat featuring Emily Domench, executive director of the Federal Permitting Council, and Kati Capozzi of the Alaska Chamber. The day closes with a roundtable update on new development on the North Slope, featuring executives from ConocoPhillips, Santos, and Hilcorp.

Day two opens Thursday with a video address from US Sen. Dan Sullivan, followed by an economic update from McKinley Research Group President Katie Berry. Technical innovation is a major theme, with a panel on advanced drilling technologies led by engineers from ConocoPhillips, Santos, and Hilcorp.

Environmental and wildlife research also takes a spotlight, including a session on monitoring polar bear dens in Alaska. Industry milestones will be recognized with awards and Hall of Fame inductions, followed by an update on the Alaska LNG project from ExxonMobil and Glenfarne executives.

The Thursday keynote luncheon features Kate McGregor, Deputy Secretary of the US. Department of the Interior, in conversation with Santos’ Joe Balash.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy is scheduled to speak in the afternoon, followed by a panel of state attorneys general from across the country, led by Alaska’s retiring AG Treg Taylor, on defending state authority against federal overreach. The conference concludes with the Marilyn Crockett Lifetime Achievement Award, presented this year to Mark Ireland of Santos.

AOGA’s conference remains the state’s premier energy policy gathering, drawing a lineup that underscores the national importance of Alaska’s resource development debates.

The entire agenda is at this link.

From crisis to croissants: Juneau School Board swings from doomsday protests over cuts to free meals for all

Suzanne Downing
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From crisis to croissants: Juneau School Board swings from doomsday protests over cuts to free meals for all

Just a few months ago, Juneau’s education establishment was in full meltdown. The governor vetoed a modest reduction in the Base Student Allocation increase—about $200 per student—and the community responded as if public education itself were on the brink of collapse. Protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion, encouraging children to write chalk messages on the sidewalk in front of the house on Calhoun Ave., and warning that Dunleavy’s action would devastate schools, drive away teachers, and cripple Alaska’s future workforce.

The Legislature quickly caved, overriding the veto. But the hysteria, it turns out, was less about survival than about priorities. Now, the Juneau School Board is preparing to amend its budget — not to shore up classrooms or reduce class sizes, but to guarantee free breakfasts for every student in the district, including the children of highly paid government workers, nonprofit executives, and Native health corporation employees. The school board will be approving this budget amendment during a special meeting on Aug. 27.

The contrast is glaring. In June, the rhetoric was all about constitutional obligations and a “crumbling system” that couldn’t endure one more dime of instability.

Today, officials are turning their focus to universal meals, a benefit well beyond the basic educational mission.

The message from Juneau’s education leadership seems clear: The sky is always falling when the governor trims a line item, but when it comes to handing out new entitlements — even to families who don’t need them — suddenly there’s room in the budget.

Dunleavy vetoes a portion of education increased funding, but leaves most intact

Listicle: No more ‘cisgender’ and ‘othering,’ as Democrats are told to try to sound ‘normal’

Suzanne Downing
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Listicle: No more ‘cisgender’ and ‘othering,’ as Democrats are told to try to sound ‘normal’

Democrats have spent years creating a political thesaurus so convoluted that even the Oxford English Dictionary is begging for mercy. But now, the left-of-center outfit Third Way has delivered a startling revelation to fellow progressives: Maybe stop talking like you just walked out of a graduate seminar on postmodernism.

In a new memo, Third Way gently scolds the left for using words no normal person ever says — terms like “othering,” “centering,” “food insecurity,” and “dialoguing.” Instead of making Democrats sound empathetic, the group admits, this therapy-speak only makes them sound like they’re running a support group for doctoral candidates.

The response from the far-left blog The Blue Alaskan was immediate and foul:

But before you think this means Democrats are changing their tune, think again. The message isn’t “stop being woke,” it’s simply to stop sounding woke. The agenda stays the same: Just swap out the thesaurus. “Birthing person” might quietly shuffle offstage, but the anti-woman policies that created that term it will stick around.

The memo divides bad language into categories like “Therapy-Speak” and “Seminar Room Language.” (Which is funny, because entire Democratic campaigns could be filed under “Seminar Room Language.”) Apparently words like “microaggression,” “intersectionality,” and “existential threat” are alienating. Who knew? Maybe voters don’t want a lecture every time they buy groceries.

Here are the terms that leftists are advised to avoid:

Therapy-Speak

  • Privilege
  • Violence (as in “environmental violence”)
  • Dialoguing
  • Othering
  • Triggering
  • Microaggression / assault / invalidation
  • Progressive stack
  • Centering
  • Safe space
  • Holding space
  • Body shaming

Seminar Room Language

  • Subverting norms
  • Systems of oppression
  • Critical theory
  • Cultural appropriation
  • Postmodernism
  • Overton Window
  • Heuristic
  • Existential threat to [climate, the planet, democracy, the economy]

Organizer Jargon

  • Radical transparency
  • Small “d” democracy
  • Barriers to participation
  • Stakeholders
  • The unhoused
  • Food insecurity
  • Housing insecurity
  • Person who immigrated

Gender/Orientation Correctness

  • Birthing person / inseminated person
  • Pregnant people
  • Chest feeding
  • Cisgender
  • Deadnaming
  • Heteronormative
  • Patriarchy
  • LGBTQIA+

The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs

  • Latinx
  • BIPOC
  • Allyship
  • Intersectionality
  • Minoritized communities

Explaining Away Crime

  • Justice-involved
  • Carceration
  • Incarcerated people
  • Involuntary confinement

Still, Third Way assures the comrades that they’re not policing language or banning phrases, but rather suggesting that, for public consumption, Democrats speak like actual humans. In private, of course, they can still whisper about cisheteronormativity to their heart’s content.

The irony is delicious: the party that gave America “Latinx” is now warning its own people that no one actually uses the word Latinx. Third Way even admits that the tortured jargon “invites distrust” among ordinary folks. Translation: If you sound like a sociology syllabus, people start to wonder what you’re hiding.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that Democrats are still Democrats. Whether they say “the unhoused” or “homeless,” the policy is the same. Whether they say “justice-involved individual” or “felon,” the end goal doesn’t budge. The rebranding is purely cosmetic, like putting a friendly smiley face on a tax increase.

So don’t expect a grand awakening here. This is not a pivot; it’s a vocabulary lesson. Third Way isn’t asking Democrats to be different, only to sound different. As if voters can’t tell the difference between a fresh coat of paint and a crumbling foundation.

In short: same wine, new wineskins. Or to put it in Third Way-approved language, they’re just “holding space” for a more “authentic dialogue” with voters.

Drugs, guns, ammo: Federal authorities reveal shocking details in Chelsea Inn takedown

Suzanne Downing
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27
Drugs, guns, ammo: Federal authorities reveal shocking details in Chelsea Inn takedown

Federal authorities have given more details about the raid and seizure of the notorious Chelsea Inn Hotel in Anchorage, described as long plagued by prostitution, violent crime, and drug activity. It was seized by the US Marshals Service on Friday after its owner and an associate were indicted in connection with a years-long conspiracy.

An Anchorage grand jury returned an indictment charging Kyoung Seo, 62, owner of the Chelsea Inn Hotel, and Chantel Fields, 36, with conspiring to maintain the Midtown property as a drug-involved premises. Both were arrested Friday.

The announcement was made at a press conference at the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building by U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman, FBI Anchorage Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case, and Chief Deputy US Marshal John Olson.

Court filings allege that between October 2020 and August 2025, Seo and Fields conspired to operate the Chelsea Inn as a hub for illegal drug distribution and use. Investigators say Fields stored and distributed narcotics from the hotel, directed buyers to on-site dealers, and controlled access to the property by enforcing a $20 “door fee.”

The FBI and Anchorage Police Department began investigating the CIH in 2020 following reports of drug trafficking and violence linked to the property. Over the past five years, APD responded to more than 1,000 emergency calls at the hotel, including homicides, overdoses, and other violent crimes.

Federal and local law enforcement executed multiple enforcement actions at the Chelsea Inn during the investigation. In February 2025, officers seized nine firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and over 1.2 kilograms of suspected controlled substances during a search. On Friday, Aug. 22, coordinated raids were carried out at the Chelsea Inn and two Anchorage residences.

Agents discovered 11 firearms, two of which were hidden behind the hotel’s front desk, thousands of rounds of ammunition, significant quantities of drugs, and roughly $45,000 in cash.

That same day, the FBI executed a seizure warrant for the property. The US Marshals Service has now taken custody of the building, effectively shutting down what authorities say was a major drug trafficking operation.

Seo and Fields face one count of conspiracy to maintain a drug-involved premises, a charge carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Sentencing, if they are convicted, will be determined by a federal district court judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cody Tirpak and Seth Beausang.

The investigation is part of Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative targeting violent crime, drug trafficking, cartels, and transnational criminal organizations. The FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force is leading the case with assistance from multiple federal, state, and local partners, including the DEA, ATF, IRS Criminal Investigation, Alaska State Troopers, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Chelsea Inn Motel seized by federal government after FBI-led raid

Fourth anniversary of Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul

Suzanne Downing
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Fourth anniversary of Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul

Tuesday, Aug. 26, marks four years since the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, where 13 American service members lost their lives in the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan in a decade, a tragedy that still reverberates across the nation and among the families who continue to grieve.

On Aug. 26, 2021, a suicide bomber affiliated with ISIS-K detonated an explosive device at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the US evacuation from Afghanistan, which had been ordered by President Joe Biden. The blast killed 11 Marines, a Navy corpsman, and an Army soldier, wounded 45 others, and left more than 160 Afghan civilians dead or injured.

Biden’s watch: Suicide bombing takes at least 12 Americans at Kabul airport gate

The fallen service members were:

  • Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, USMC
  • Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, USMC
  • Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, USMC
  • Cpl. Hunter Lopez, USMC
  • Cpl. Daegan W. Page, USMC
  • Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, USMC
  • LCpl. David L. Espinoza, USMC
  • LCpl. Jared M. Schmitz, USMC
  • LCpl. Rylee J. McCollum, USMC
  • LCpl. Dylan R. Merola, USMC
  • LCpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, USMC
  • Petty Officer 3rd Class Maxton W. Soviak, USN
  • Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, USA

They returned to US soil in flag-draped coffins.

The attack followed the Biden administration’s decision to abandon Bagram Airfield in July 2021 without notifying Afghan security forces. In the weeks that followed, the Taliban rapidly regained control of the country, overrunning major cities and Kabul itself. U.S. forces and allied personnel were left to evacuate tens of thousands through a single airfield, a situation many military experts later described as indefensible.

The Abbey Gate bombing was emblematic of broader failures in planning and execution during Biden’s first year in office. Billions of dollars in American military equipment were left behind, and thousands of Afghan allies and US citizens were stranded behind Taliban lines.

Five years later, Americans continue to honor the memory of the 13 who gave their lives at Abbey Gate. Their sacrifice remains a powerful reminder of the costs of war, the consequences of leadership decisions, and the enduring obligation to support those who served.

President Donald Trump proclaimed August 26, 2025, as a day in commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate: “I encourage all Americans to remember the heroism of the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and the Gold Star Families who carry on their proud legacy.”

AOGA announces 2025 industry award winners

Suzanne Downing
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0
AOGA announces 2025 industry award winners

The Alaska Oil and Gas Association announced the recipients of its 2025 Industry Awards, recognizing individuals and companies whose work has strengthened Alaska’s oil and gas sector through leadership in safety, innovation, environmental stewardship, and service. The awards will be presented during AOGA’s annual conference, set for Aug. 27–28 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.

Contractor of the Year: Denali Universal Services
Denali Universal Services earned the award for Safety Performance, highlighting its decades-long track record of embedding safety across every level of its operations. The company, a longtime contractor for ConocoPhillips Alaska, has achieved more than 20 years of incident-free work and has been recognized with multiple industry safety honors. DUS’s culture emphasizes safety as a personal value, fostering practices that extend beyond the workplace and serve as a model across the industry.

Rising Star Award: Sydney Long, ConocoPhillips Alaska
Sydney Long, a senior analytics engineer, was honored for her early career impact on Alaska’s oil and gas sector. Long’s contributions include work on the 35,526-foot Fiord West well, the longest in North America, as well as the development of technical standards that have shaped company operations. In addition to her professional achievements, she mentors colleagues and volunteers with Alaska Resource Education to inspire future generations of Alaskans to pursue energy careers.

Marilyn Crockett Lifetime Achievement Award: Mark Ireland, Santos
Mark Ireland was recognized for more than 40 years of leadership and innovation in Alaska’s oilfields. Ireland played key roles in projects across the North Slope, including development of the Pikka Unit, and also served in international technical leadership positions. Known as a mentor and advocate for principled leadership, Ireland will retire this November, leaving a legacy that continues to guide young professionals in the industry.

Project of the Year: ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Colville River HDD Project
ConocoPhillips Alaska was honored for its use of horizontal directional drilling to install dual pipelines beneath the Colville River during a single winter season. The project, completed with no reportable injuries and no environmental impact, used real-time water monitoring to safeguard the river, a vital subsistence resource for the community of Nuiqsut. The effort demonstrated how advanced engineering can reduce environmental disturbance while maintaining efficiency and safety.

Paulette Simpson: Rising waters, rising costs, and a Juneau Assembly obsessed with ranked-choice voting

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Paulette Simpson: Rising waters, rising costs, and a Juneau Assembly obsessed with ranked-choice voting

By PAULETTE SIMPSON

In the hierarchy of things that matter, Juneau’s current Assembly seems really confused.

What most people want from local government is a safe, orderly, clean, and affordable community – and good schools. 

It should follow that Assembly goals, priorities and new ordinances would align with the genuine needs of residents. The dollars and hours add up and time is short. Wasting resources does a disservice to everyone.

If Juneau residents were asked to rank community problems most in need of solving, I suspect the following issues would make the list: 

Mendenhall River flooding, homelessness, lack of affordable housing and childcare, outmigration, tourism, taxation, a middle class that’s shrinking and a landfill that’s expanding, and every aspect of what it takes to make Juneau more affordable.

As a regular observer of Juneau Assembly meetings, I’ve heard residents complain about vote-by-mail, especially the way it was foisted on us, but until the introduction of this ordinance, I was not aware of anyone ever begging the Assembly to adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for our municipal elections.  

Yet in February, our Assembly directed City staff and the attorney’s office to spend their time and our tax dollars researching and writing an ordinance to enact RCV for use in our municipal elections.  

Perhaps preparing for the expected August flood had become tedious and they were weary of fielding public concerns about the ongoing issues generated by a small criminal element of our homeless population.  Who knows?

The Assembly cheerleader for RCV is a legislative aide to Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl. She explains her sponsorship saying, “Juneau likes ranked choice voting.”  So what? Whom are we supposed to rank?  The sponsor herself is running unopposed for re-election to her Assembly seat in October.

RCV was cooked up and first used in Maine in 2018 to supposedly narrow the ideological divide between Republicans and Democrats, primarily at the state and national levels.  Supporters said the system would make campaigns more “civil.” 

RCV was designed specifically for a partisan system. Juneau’s municipal elections are non-partisan. Why not keep them that way?  Or is there evidence to suggest that Juneau suffers from uncivil Assembly campaigns? 

I think most Alaskans want their Assemblies and City administrations to engage in meaningful work to fix what we all know is broken. 

In Juneau, that means focusing on finding a long-term solution to Mendenhall River flooding.  Figure out a legal and compassionate way to help our unhoused population.  Protect Valley and downtown businesses trying to survive in an increasingly unsafe environment. Make Juneau more affordable.

This ordinance has nothing to do with good governance, yet most Assembly members are eager to enact this reform.  I think I know why.

Craving praise and weary of criticism, RCV is a convenient distraction for an Assembly that has somehow managed to anger just about everyone in town. 

The list is long: Those opposing the reckless $9 million demolition of Telephone Hill; downtown and airport area business owners at their wits end about the vandalism, vagrancy and drug use near their homes and businesses; Valley residents in the vicinity of the Mendenhall River, still reeling from the expense and stress caused by the third summer of flooding, callously being told to prepare to pay for the second phase of HESCO barriers.  

RCV is the shiny object Juneau’s Assembly needs to dangle to distract their worn-out and cranky constituents. By switching the conversation and controversy to a politically trendy fad, they can feel good about themselves. 

We can’t brag about Juneau being the most affordable community in Alaska, but by golly, we have RCV!  

Expect this Assembly to handily, gleefully and probably unanimously pass this ordinance at its Nov. 3 meeting. Members will either say nothing and just vote or repeat esoteric, sophomoric soundbites extolling RCV that have no relevance whatsoever to Juneau’s urgent needs.

Maybe the Assembly will even direct the Juneau Economic Development Council to use some of its plentiful grant funding to incorporate RCV into its “Choose Juneau” marketing program and ask the Juneau Chamber of Commerce to add it to its list of reasons to move to Juneau. 

Just how cool is that?

Paulette Simpson lives in Douglas.

Camera images: Juneau’s Suicide Basin filling rapidly, mid-August flood risk for Mendenhall River area

Win Gruening: Juneau seasonal sales tax proposal is a permanent tax increase

Juneau valley residents on alert as Suicide Basin poised to spill over (and it now has a Tlingit name)

Win Gruening: Juneau leaders lose the plot on affordability, but voters may push back in October

Supreme Court lets NIH kill $783 million in diversity-equity-inclusion grants

Suzanne Downing
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Supreme Court lets NIH kill $783 million in diversity-equity-inclusion grants

The Supreme Court on Thursday, on a 5-4 vote, allowed the National Institutes of Health stop $783 million in grants linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The cuts are part of a larger estimated $1.8 billion in NIH grant terminations, affecting over 1,700 research projects nationwide. The NIH is a major funder of biomedical research, and has projects at universities, hospitals, and research institutions, including in Alaska.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses receive NIH funding for programs like the Alaska Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, which conducts biomedical research that usually focuses on health disparities in Natives. These could be classified as DEI-related due to their focus on equity.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium also receives NIH grants for research on Alaska Native health, including studies on chronic diseases, behavioral health, and infectious diseases, with an eye toward social determinants that may lead to health disparities. That may fall under the DEI umbrella.

In an unsigned order, the justices sided with the Trump Administration’s request to pause a ruling by Massachusetts Judge Angel Kelley, a Biden appointee, who said the policy was needlessly reckless and likely would cause damage to vital medical research.Kelley had ordered the government to continue spending money on the grants. NIH, the world’s largest public funding source for biomedical research, had argued that it should not be forced to continue the programs while litigation proceeds.

In the same decision, also by a 5-4 margin, the Court left intact another part of the judge’s ruling, which had struck down internal NIH guidance documents that set out the agency’s DEI-related policy priorities.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett cast the decisive vote in both decisions. She sided with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh in allowing the grants to be terminated. On the separate issue of the guidance documents, she joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — in preserving the lower court’s ruling.

Trump signs executive order targeting desecration of American flag

Suzanne Downing
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32
Trump signs executive order targeting desecration of American flag

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing federal agencies to take aggressive steps against desecration of the American flag, reviving one of his longstanding campaign promises.

The order is here.

The order instructs the Justice Department to prioritize enforcement of federal and state laws that could be applied to flag desecration when it is tied to violence, property destruction, or civil rights violations. It also authorizes the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State to deny visas, revoke immigration benefits, or pursue deportation of foreign nationals who engage in flag desecration under certain circumstances.

While the Supreme Court has held that flag burning is protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment, Trump’s order argues that the Court has left open the door to criminal penalties when such acts incite violence, amount to “fighting words,” or otherwise violate content-neutral laws such as fire safety or disorderly conduct regulations.

Americans can expect the order to draw immediate constitutional challenges. In Texas v. Johnson (1989), the Court struck down state laws banning flag burning, declaring that government cannot prohibit expression simply because it is offensive or disagreeable. Trump’s directive appears to test the boundaries of that ruling by tying enforcement to other criminal conduct or immigration law.

The move fulfills one of Trump’s repeated commitments to “restore respect and sanctity” to the American flag, a theme he has emphasized at rallies and in his 2025 campaign platform. Supporters view the executive order as a defense of national unity and patriotism, while critics see it as a direct attack on free speech rights.

Because the order relies on existing statutes rather than creating new crimes, its practical impact may be limited to encouraging prosecutors and agencies to act more aggressively in cases where flag burning overlaps with other offenses. Still, the administration signaled its intent to pursue litigation aimed at clarifying or narrowing the scope of First Amendment protections in this area.

The executive order also includes a severability clause, meaning if portions of the order are struck down, the remaining sections would remain in effect.

With the directive, Trump has reignited one of the nation’s most potent free speech debates — one that will now likely be litigated again in federal court.

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