Page 1724 – Must Read Alaska

Walkerville’s shadow government at AGDC

Politics

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July 11, 2016

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GASLINE AGENCY IS NOW THE SAME AS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

*Governor Walker made an announcement in March that things were not going that well on the gasline. The partners stood by stoically. Dave Cruz, chairman of AGDC, is at left.*

Governor Bill Walker has established a shadow government: the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.

AGDC, created to carry the State of Alaska’s interest in a full-scale gasline from the North Slope to tidewater and markets beyond, is no longer the trusted agency it was set up to be.

The website description for AGDC describes it as, “an independent, public corporation of the State of Alaska, with a legal existence separate and distinct from the state.”

In charge of the largest capital project in North American history, AGDC is now murky in its goals and mysterious in its operations. One thing we know: The governor is running the show.

The melding of the two entities happened in stages, starting nearly as soon as Walker was sworn in back in 2014.

First, Walker fired almost everyone on the board, including Chairman John Burns, and replaced them with cronies associated with Walker’s old Alaska Gasline Port Authority, the failed Valdez project.

He said AGDC would be a “lay” board of Alaskans, but they’re Alaskans with a specific portfolio that links back to Walker and his top hot-dog lawyer, Craig Richards.

Walker then got rid of AGDC president Dan Fauske, an Alaskan with a long history of successes in the state, who was trusted by the public through his work at the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, another public corporation. The governor brought in a brash Texan, Keith Meyer, who made the mistake of insulting a few legislators right out of the gate. It was a rocky start for Meyer last month.

The governor drove off one commissioner after another at the Department of Natural Resources, and put a malleable Andy Mack in that slot. Mack will do as he is told, since he is clearly out of his league as commissioner.

With Mack in place, Walker then took the first step to default the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, as he tries to force confidential marketing information out of the gasline partners, Exxon, BP and ConocoPhillips.

When the governor’s attorney general, Craig Richards, left state employment suddenly in June, he was replaced by a person with no experience in oil and gas.

Richards will evidently contract with the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. to do some kind of work for some kind of price. No one knows and no one is telling at this point. The governor’s communication director, Grace Jang, says the deal isn’t final. The good money says he’ll be suing over the leases in Prudhoe in what will be the litigation of a lifetime.

BRIGHT LINE ERASED

There was always a separation between AGDC and the Governor’s Office and other state agencies. AGDC has a separate board and the ability to bond. The structure wasn’t created to be run by a Walker or a Begich; it was built when Sean Parnell was governor, and Parnell was a stickler for rules.

The key mistake may have been that the board “serves as the will” of the governor. That worked out when the governor respected the bright-line role of board members and kept it at arm’s length, as Parnell did.

But now, there is no distinguishing between the Governor’s Office — with Jim Whittaker, chief of staff, and Marcia Davis, deputy chief of staff — and AGDC.

It’s one and the same, except that AGDC is not subject to public records requests.

There’s the rub. The public has no idea what’s going on over at the agency that spends millions of dollars of public money, and has no apparent accountability.

AGDC’s board will have its next meeting on July 14. In addition to an expected executive session, they may discuss that they are opening an office in Houston, Texas, and they’ve hired a marketing coordinator to market “their” gas to Asia.

And all this full-speed-ahead activity can proceed until the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2017.

By then, the only recourse for the people of Alaska is for the Alaska Legislature to pull the funding plug. This is being suggested by observers who say that until the Governor proves he has a viable option, every dime except bare maintenance needs to be locked down.

That solution is only possible if Republicans who are true fiscal conservatives hold their majorities in both the House and Senate. Walker is planning to change the calculus on that as well, so that along with malleable commissioners in charge of Alaska’s economy and law, he has a cooperative Legislature.

All eyes are on November.

SUMMER FILM SERIES

The Walkerville Plan is outlined in videos that have surfaced from 2012.

Here, his law partner Craig Richards says what he thinks is best for Alaska — state control of the gas line:

“The one [option] I am suggesting might be in Alaska’s best interests and that we should start seriously talking about is state control, that is we take control away from the producers, and [for the] state to step into that development role.”

The video sets the stage for how and why the Walker Administration took the first step last month to default the Prudhoe Bay fields: Take control. Is he baiting the producers into filing a lawsuit against the state for unfair treatment? Quite possibly, so he can counter-sue them for failure to market their gas.

During the same 2012 conference, Walker described his “my-goodness-owner-state-control.”

“As a comparison with Qatar, which owns all the infrastructure…You need gas and you need a market. The infrastructure in between is what you put together when you have those two pieces…It will never make sense to the leaseholders…It’s time for Alaska to step up and take control of this process.

The governor’s million-dollar consultant, Radoslav Shipkoff, also is on YouTube, arguing Alaska needed to start “right now” to take advantage of the window of opportunity.

We’ll update this report as news develops.

Juneau Band Camp

Suzanne Downing

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July 11, 2016

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First Territorial Legislature, 1913. Alaska legislators were paid $15 a day while in session plus 15 cents per mile traveled.

VETO OVERRIDES?

The Alaska Legislature gavels in for special session No. 5 today. The Senate convenes at 11 am, and the House at 1 pm.

House Finance Committee is set to take up the governor’s tax legislation on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 9 am. Governor Bill Walker insists he’ll get his revenues, says Lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott, who told the Kenai Chamber of Commerce, “This governor is dedicated to the proposition that he will keep dealing with the Legislature until that is done.”

Today is about caucusing. The Senate is staying in Anchorage for now.

LAST WEEK’S MESS: We didn’t have the heart to dig into the steaming pile last week, but here goes: Governor Walker dumped CACFA, the Citizens’ Advisory Commission on Federal Areas in Alaska. He simply defunded it.

The commission’s job? To be Alaska’s watchdog for ANILCA and other laws pertaining to Alaska lands. The commission was due to sunset in 2021 if for some reason the federal government went back in its constitutional cage.

It was a double whammy for the State. Also last week, a federal court ruled in favor of tribes placing their lands into federal trust, a leap forward for Indian Country, a leap backward for the actual law — the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act sought to prevent Balkanization.

The Citizen’s Advisory Commission on Federal Areas opposes Indian Country because it will likely lead to reservations in Alaska. And we all know how well those worked out.

Here’s your Xanax. Breathe into this brown paper bag for a moment. Now read the story on the federal ruling as brought to you by the Fairbanks NewsMiner.

CACFA is established by statute (AS 41.37.160) and its official function is to “consider, research and hold hearings on the consistency with federal law and congressional intent on management, operation, planning, development, and additions to federal management areas in the state. The commission shall report annually to the governor and the legislature within the first 10 days of a regular legislative session.”

SPECIAL SESSION, HO!

Senate and House will need to reconsider elements of the criminal reform legislation, SB 91, which Governor Bill Walker signed today. There’s evidently a loophole for pimps that needs to be patched.

PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT REVEAL?

Senate Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to meet next Tuesday at 1 pm at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office to discuss the governor’s cancellation of the Plan of Development for the Prudhoe Bay Unit. It will be teleconferenced, audio only. And testimony is by invitation.

Hillary silent on gun control, for once

Other

Suzanne Downing

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July 9, 2016

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TOO AWFUL TO POLITICIZE – YET

The tragic slaughter of five Dallas police officers on Thursday evening was a departure from the usual.

It was a gunman with possible accomplices, picking off police officers who were protecting protestors. Ten cops shot, five dead.

That’s unusual. That’s warfare. That’s downtown Baghdad on a Friday night.

The gunman was African-American and a veteran. That’s unusual. Most black gunmen in the past have been involved in shootings of a more pedestrian nature, not actual target practice on police.

And a third unusual item: The left-wing intelligencia has been stone-cold silent on its usual go-to cry for more gun control. At least for now.

Hillary Clinton has always used these incidents to push for universal gun registries and tighter gun laws.

Last month she said: “It’s time to act. As President, I’ll take on the gun lobby and fight for commonsense reforms to keep guns away from terrorists, domestic abusers, and other violent criminals—including comprehensive background checks and closing loopholes that allow guns to fall into the wrong hands.”

After the Orlando shooting, she said: “If you are too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.”

After the Charleston shooting, she said: “I do support comprehensive background checks, and to close the gun show loophole, and the online loophole, and what’s called the Charleston loophole, and to prevent people on the no-fly list from getting guns.”

Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, President Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi — they always have something to say about gun control. Liberal pundits always use this type of incident to push for trimming the Second Amendment. But this time, not so much.

This time it’s deep in an an election cycle. Hillary must be more careful than ever as the Republican and Democrat conventions approach. She can make no false moves on the issue of guns.

Hillary, her team, and the entire liberal establishment have a problem. They don’t know enough about the gunman to know exactly how to spin this one as a push for gun control. But they’re working the white boards to find the right message.

Her biggest anti-gun messaging problem is that shootings like this make other Americans want to go out and arm themselves, because they realize the world just got scarier, and the government can’t keep them safe. Gun sales will soar, just as they also do after every big push for gun control. Hillary doesn’t look like the kind of person who could keep anyone safe.

SHOOTER WAS A RACIST? DOES THAT MAKE IT A HATE CRIME?

The Dallas shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson, age 25, was honorably discharged from the Army National Guard in 2015, did a tour in Afghanistan.

Pass all the gun restrictions you like — no reasonable law would have prevented Mr. Johnson from obtaining firearms, and he was trained by the best riflemen in the world — the U.S. Army, which is also the most ethnically and racially integrated organization in the world.

“He was upset at white people. He wanted to kill white people, especially police officers,” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown.

There’s no fix for that.

While Hillary Clinton talks these days about Donald Trump fanning the flames of racial hatred, it’s really the president, Al Sharpton, and even Beyonce and rappers who have stoked that fire the most. Obama joined in with his premature involvement in the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Fla.

Since then, the president has routinely passed judgment on local law enforcement, making prejudicial observations from his bully pulpit.

OBAMA TALKS ABOUT COP KILLINGS, RACIAL DISPARITIES

Obama signaled today that there was to be no mention of gun control for now, but that it would come later, as he gathered information. This was a time to grieve.

In his grief, Obama would curiously balance the horrific cop killings with the sin of racial injustice, as though they were on a list of equals:

“I will have more to say about this as the facts become more clear. For now, let me just say that even as yesterday I spoke about our need to be concerned, as all Americans, about racial disparities in our criminal justice system, I also said yesterday that our police have an extraordinarily difficult job and the vast majority of them do their job in outstanding fashion.

“I also indicated the degree to which we need to be supportive of those officers who do their job each and every day, protecting us and protecting our communities…”

He went on like that, as he does. Stone cold.

He was far more emotive, genuine, expansive and lecturing explaining “why emotions are so raw around these issues…” the day before when he spoke about the shootings of two African-American men by police officers during the last week.

Craig Richards, governor’s newest contractor

Suzanne Downing

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July 8, 2016

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ATTORNEY GENERAL SLIDES BACK INTO THE DRIVER’S SEAT

Craig Richards was Alaska’s attorney general one minute, and gone the next.

Citing personal reasons, on June 23 Richards simply threw the proverbial keys on the desk and walked out on the Department of Law. For an attorney general, it was the mic drop of the year.

Here’s the man who was Gov. Bill Walker’s point person on oil tax reform. He was the man in charge of shepherding Walker’s signature legislation, the New Sustainable Alaska Plan (New-SAP), which had a combination of taxes, taxes, Permanent Fund restructuring and, did we mention, taxes. He was, according to insider Bruce Botelho, the governor’s closest adviser, outside of Gov. Walker’s wife, Donna.

“There is no daylight between Gov. Walker and Craig Richards,” we were told by someone close to the Administration — too close to go on the record. “They are very, very close.”

Richards walked out on the State, but evidently didn’t walk out on the governor.

Insiders last month speculated that Richards would pop up over at Robin Brena’s law firm (Brena bought out Walker and Richards in November, 2014), and go back to his bread and butter of oil and gas litigation.

But others predicted he’d be working on contract for Gov. Walker sooner rather than later. After all, the governor indicated we’d see more of Richards. In announcing Richards’ departure, Walker said, “Given Craig’s knowledge of gasline issues, I’m certain the state will continue to benefit from his oil and gas expertise as we push toward completion of a project.”

Must Read Alaska learned that Richards hit the ground running as a consultant. He has been seen at the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, making the rounds as the new representative for Walker.

The last big-dollar lawyer-consultant in that role was Rigdon Boykin, of South Carolina, an old colleague of Walker’s during the failed Alaska Gasline Port Authority days. Boykin pulled down $120,000 a month from the Governor’s Office and AGDC coffers, in a combined contractual arrangement that few could understand. Public pressure made it too uncomfortable for the governor to continue arguing that Alaska was in a fiscal crisis. He had to cut Boykin loose.

What will Richards do for Walker? He’ll likely work in the same portfolio he worked in while Attorney General: Advise, counsel, direct, and defend. How much will he earn? That will take a records request, and we’ll get right on it.

There’s every possibility Richards will help manage the defaulting of Prudhoe Bay leases as a consultant, rather than as the state’s top lawman; his replacement at the Department of Law has no experience in oil and gas, and the new commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources is also green.

A letter of default was issued to BP on June 30 by Corri Feige, the director of the Division of Oil and Gas. The letter was part of a series of events that led to the resignation of former DNR Commissioner Marty Rutherford, who also left the Walker Administration at the end of June.

Alaska oil production up, thanks to SB 21

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

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July 7, 2016

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THAT’S GREAT; NOW LET’S DO IT AGAIN

In the way-back machine, we check back to 1978:

U.S. Senate voted to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control.
Congress voted to allow beer to be home-brewed in the United States.
Production on Alaska’s North Slope increased by 3,233 percent.

The North Slope oil flowed by the millions of barrels for a decade. Oil production topped in 1988, and then started its gradual decline, which continued every year except 2002. That year was when Alpine came into production.

Now in 2016: Even though oil prices are lackluster at best, production on the North Slope is up 3 percent.

The question is why. The answer is Senate Bill 21.

Production going up for the first time in 14 years was a direct result of the More Alaska Production Act, which restructured oil taxes to take less from producers when prices were high as they were back in 2013, and more from them when prices were low, as they are in 2016.

A bigger question is: Why didn’t Alaska see the investment in North Slope production when prices were between $100 and $120 a barrel?

The answer is, it’s about the policy. Companies lost interest in Alaska when taxed to the max under ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share), the old tax structure that SB 21 fixed.

It was a fight to be sure, and Democrats even petitioned to take it to the people to overturn in a referendum. The people of Alaska said “No on 1” — albeit narrowly — and SB 21 became the spark that reignited exploration and production in the big oil patch of the north.

For some, it was good enough if Alaska could stem the decline, while for others, the million-barrel hope is still alive. Today, we herald a 3 percent increase, and Alaskans will take their celebrations while they can. After all, the tax policies in Alaska just keep changing.

“Production did not just flatten out, but rose by more than three percent,” said Kara Moriarty, president of Alaska Oil and Gas Association. “What really stands out about the production increase is that it happened during a period of low oil prices. This didn’t happen by accident: a lot of investment dollars were spent in Alaska after SB 21 passed but prior to the drop in oil prices, and we are seeing those results now.”

The oil from the North Slope flows through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System and generates royalty payments that feed into the Alaska Permanent Fund, and it funds State government.

A 3 percent increase may seem like a fraction of what Alaska needs, considering the State’s spending habits and the long trajectory downward for production. But in this environment, while not quite ready for a champagne toast, 3 percent is significant.

HB 247 came along this year at the governor’s request and restructured oil and gas tax policy once again, because without legalized gambling, changing oil taxes is Alaska’s favorite game of chance.

For the North Slope, the Walker law defined when fields are “new” and when they are “old,” as different tax and credit rules apply. HB 247 was more of a hit to Cook Inlet than the North Slope, but the Slope didn’t get by unscathed either: Smaller producers will feel the hit.

When the Legislature convenes next week, it will be asked by the governor to take up more oil tax changes: Net Operating Losses.

Thus, the State’s legalized gambling habit of “oil tax roulette” continues into the dog days of summer.

Vice President Sullivan?

Suzanne Downing

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July 7, 2016

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SULLIVAN IS BUSY WORKING FOR ALASKA

US Sen. Dan Sullivan talks with veteran during an Honor Flight tour of DC in April.

While People Magazine is speculating on U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan as a possible vice presidential candidate, Alaska’s senator has been focused on working for Alaskans, and probably wants to keep it that way. This past week, Alaska fishermen and Kodiak missile launch capabilities were his focus.

For fishermen, two bills worth plenty to coastal communities are moving through committees.

One is sponsored by Sens. Sullivan and Maria Cantwell, giving fishing boat owners extra time to comply with Coast Guard regulations, whenever those regulations are finalized.

The bill gives fishermen as much as three years’ lead time if they own boats that are older than 25 years, longer than 50 feet, and operate outside the three-mile limit.

A second effort is aimed at getting more American seafood into school lunches, and to get rid of Chinese-manufactured mystery fish sticks, which have given seafood a bad name among school children for generations.

Sullivan was also the lead in getting the Missile Defense Agency to award a contract to the Alaska Aerospace Corporation for two flight tests of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Systems from the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island.

The contract, valued as much as $80.4 million, includes site preparation for two missile launchers, range communication, and instrument capabilities, as well as a life support area.

WHAT SULLIVAN SAID AND DIDN’T SAY

“As I’ve been saying both in D.C. and back home, Alaska is the cornerstone of our nation’s missile defense. [The] announcement by the Missile Defense Agency further reinforces that statement by adding missile defense testing to our already robust strategic capabilities at Fort Greely and Clear Air Force Station.

“This year and last year, I was able to include language in the Defense Authorization to specifically highlight the unique importance of the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska found on Kodiak Island. I am pleased that the Missile Defense Agency was listening, and I am confident that they will appreciate all that Kodiak has to offer for THAAD testing, including a community that strongly supports the military.”

He said nothing at all about the vice presidency. Nothing at all.

Nonetheless, Trump rumor missiles are everywhere in the news these days, and the Republican presumed presidential nominee will meet with all Republican senators on Thursday in D.C.

A half-dozen of them have had their names bantered about for the vice president’s slot, but Sullivan is one of the few who is often discussed as actual presidential material in years ahead.

And everyone knows you cannot become president after being vice president.

Recall Walker? Careful what you wish for

Suzanne Downing

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July 6, 2016

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JOE MILLER AIMS, COULD GET A HOLE IN ONE

Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott

At least three different efforts have been launched in the Facebook universe to recall Gov. Bill Walker.

Only one has the star power to actually accomplish it.

Joe Miller has more than 42,000 followers on Facebook and has a web site that he populates with conservative content. He has a following.

Gov. Bill Walker has 14,400 followers on Facebook, and many of them are just there to keep an eye on him.

This week, Miller launched his recall effort: #SavethePFD at his website.

And who would not be tempted to sign the petition? After all, Miller is a lawyer who could probably manage the details of such a campaign, which would no doubt mean doing battle with the attorney general over the legality of the petition. He’s a West Point graduate who has been through some gnarly political battles and who would relish running into this particular firefight. And he has been successful at moving the needle in the public arena.

But for Republicans, fiscal conservatives, and nonpartisans, we have a word of caution. Before you sign that petition, consider that every blue-blooded Democrat in Alaska will also sign the petition, because recalling Walker would bring Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott to the fore.

Mallott is as partisan as they come.

Every Alaska Native would also sign the petition, because, well, Mallott.

Every red-blooded Republican would also sign the petition out of frustration with our hyper-fake-independent governor.

Craig Fleener, arctic advisor to the governor.

If Alaskans recall Walker and get Gov. Mallott, they also get Craig Fleener as lieutenant governor. You’ll recall that Fleener ran as Walker’s running mate before Big Labor Bossman Vince Beltrami put together the Walker-Mallott ticket.

Miller argues that Alaska statutes (AS 15.45.510) allow voters to recall a governor who is (1) no longer fit for office, (2) incompetent, (3) have neglected their duties, or (4) are corrupt.

“Walker’s idiocy with the PFD, his lies about what he’d do as governor, and slavish devotion to big government on the People’s dime, fall squarely within the recall parameters,” Miller says.

That, no doubt, would be challenged by the governor’s new attorney general.

ON THE OTHER HAND, SIGN IT ALREADY

All that said, let’s move on to why Alaskans may want to sign the recall petition.

First, it would galvanize the conservative electorate and get it ready for 2018, when it needs momentum to regain the Governor’s Office.

Second, it’s a disruptive force that might slow Gov. Walker in his reckless attempt to go it alone on a gas line.

Third, at least Alaska would have a governor who is what he says he is — a partisan Democrat. Alaskans tell us they’ve no longer buy the nonpartisan line. They simply prefer the old-fashioned value of honesty.

Could it be a set up for a 2018 run by Mark Begich for governor? But of course; that’s already in the works. Mallott would retire gracefully. But that fight is in front of us anyway.

Alaskans, go ahead and sign the petition, and let’s give Joe Miller the opportunity to go big, because we’ve never seen buyer’s remorse like we see it now among people Walker fooled into voting for him in 2014.

Best political float: Lynn Gattis for Senate

Suzanne Downing

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July 5, 2016

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HAY BALES, MINIONS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF LAUGHS

*Lynn Gattis float at the Wasilla Independence Day Parade.*

If there was a better politically themed float in a Fourth of July parade this year in Alaska, we’d like to see it.

Until then, we give Lynn Gattis for State Senate the blue ribbon. Her float came with fresh hay bales that she mowed and baled herself at her Point MacKenzie farm, where she and her husband Rick have 600 acres under cultivation.

Decorations included old lawnmower tires for eyes on the minion-themed bales, and a spray-painted tin tub for a pig’s nose. There was duct tape involved, too, she said, because she doesn’t spray paint the bales. The National Rifle Association endorsement signs were gilding the lily.

*Close-up of the Lynn Gattis for Senate float at the Wasilla Fourth of July Parade.*

Gattis is the only farmer-legislator in Alaska, and the only one since Harley Olberg, a “seed grower” from Delta Junction, Jay Kerttula, and Pat Carney, businessman-farmers from Mat-Su, all served in the mid-90s.

Gattis often posts to Facebook the videos she takes as she mows and rakes the hay, which gets harvested just once a year. The video gives viewers an operator’s eye view of crop farming in Alaska.

“It’s not like regular mowing,” she said. “We have a mower and conditioner, which flattens each blade, so it dries faster, then it flings it up in the air. We leave it in the field for five days to dry, and then we rake it, bale it, spear it into trucks and drive it to our barns.” All of that happens on schedule if there’s no rain during the harvest.

Each bale is about 1,000 pounds, and the Gattis farm might get 1,000 bales per harvest for 1 million pounds of hay, more weight than a fully loaded Boeing 747.

The Gattis’ have had hay under cultivation since 1984 — 22 years. If Lynn is not available to work on the farm during growing season, she and Rick hire helpers.

Rep. Gattis is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Charlie Huggins of Wasilla.

In the drink; no injuries in Rogoff plane crash

Suzanne Downing

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July 4, 2016

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UPDATED: ROGOFF SAYS SHE IS PHYSICALLY OK

The Homer News reports that Alice Rogoff, publisher of the Alaska Dispatch who crashed her plane into saltwater at Halibut Cove, on the Kenai Peninsula, is physically OK.

She reported that she downed her plane at about 5:50 pm on Sunday. The newspaper reports that the National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation. Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to the scene, but she had left.

The story is at the Homer News, where Rogoff is quoted saying through her lawyer: “Fortunately she was not hurt and wants to thank all the people in Halibut Cove for their generosity and good spirits. Clem Tillion’s 91st birthday party went on as planned and Ms. Rogoff was delighted to attend.”

On Monday evening, 24 hours after the crash, the Alaska Dispatch posted this terse report.

LAST WEEK A DOCK, THIS WEEK AN EAGLE TREE

Rogoff, infamous for her Alaska political involvement and other adventures as the wife of one of the richest men in the world, was piloting the plane when she reportedly clipped a tree in a landing attempt. She narrowly missed crashing into a house along the bay, then veered wildly before essentially crash landing in the water.

Experienced pilots we spoke to said the NTSB will surely be interviewing people at the events she was attending, as well as taking accounts from bystanders. There were tourists in the area and some posted accounts on Facebook.

As the plane sank quickly in the water, someone on a dock nearby got into a skiff and zipped out to rescue her. Craig Medred writes about more fully about it here.

According to experts, it looks like at least one wing was snapped and landing gear was forced upward, with one pontoon missing. With saltwater inside the engine at this point, the plane is likely a total loss.

*Alice Rogoff safe after wrecking plane.*

Halibut Cove was the site of three festive events this weekend — the wedding of Mead Treadwell and Virginia McClure; former Sen. Clem Tillion’s 91st birthday party; and Independence Day.

Treadwell is a business partner of Rogoff at PT Capital, and Clem Tillion is a friend of the publisher/adventuress.

Weather in the area was high overcast and no wind.

The plane was towed to the beach, and later was lifted off by helicopter, as seen in the photo below, from the Anchorage Press Facebook page.

As for the tree, it contained an eagle’s nest, and we’ve no word on the condition of the national bird in residence there.

*Photo from Anchorage Press Facebook page.*

Last week, Rogoff was reported to have hit a dock in Halibut Cove with the same plane, damaging the plane but not enough to cause it to be grounded. This time, not only will the plane be grounded, but Rogoff may see her flying privileges suspended as well during the investigation, although it may be too late for drug or alcohol testing.

Rogoff is married to billioniare David Rubenstein, who through his Carlyle Group manages a portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund. The two are not living together. She is being sued by her former Alaska Dispatch editor and founder of the web news site, Tony Hopfinger, who claims she owes him $900,000 and change.

Walkerville’s shadow government at AGDC

GASLINE AGENCY IS NOW THE SAME AS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

BRIGHT LINE ERASED

SUMMER FILM SERIES

Juneau Band Camp

VETO OVERRIDES?

SPECIAL SESSION, HO!

PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT REVEAL?

Hillary silent on gun control, for once

TOO AWFUL TO POLITICIZE – YET

SHOOTER WAS A RACIST? DOES THAT MAKE IT A HATE CRIME?

OBAMA TALKS ABOUT COP KILLINGS, RACIAL DISPARITIES

Craig Richards, governor’s newest contractor

ATTORNEY GENERAL SLIDES BACK INTO THE DRIVER’S SEAT

Alaska oil production up, thanks to SB 21

THAT’S GREAT; NOW LET’S DO IT AGAIN

Vice President Sullivan?

SULLIVAN IS BUSY WORKING FOR ALASKA

Recall Walker? Careful what you wish for

JOE MILLER AIMS, COULD GET A HOLE IN ONE

ON THE OTHER HAND, SIGN IT ALREADY

Best political float: Lynn Gattis for Senate

HAY BALES, MINIONS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF LAUGHS

In the drink; no injuries in Rogoff plane crash

UPDATED: ROGOFF SAYS SHE IS PHYSICALLY OK

LAST WEEK A DOCK, THIS WEEK AN EAGLE TREE

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