I’m writing this as I’m about to fly home to Alaska for the holidays. It’s always exciting to be going home to spend time with family, friends, and as many of you as I can. This trip has me particularly excited because Christmas is right around the corner, and I’m ready to be in the […]
For the last 40 years, I’ve roamed the polar regions of our world. I started as a child, growing up in an Inuit community on Baffin Island, Canada, where I learned from the Inuit people not just to survive in our environment — but to thrive in and love the Arctic for all it had […]
My name is Stephen Wright, and I was born in Anchorage, AK on Elmendorf AFB in 1969. I was only five years old when Don Young became Alaska’s 4th Congressman after campaigning twice. I would love to be the 5th Alaska Congressman to represent this great state. As the 5th congressman to represent Alaska in state history, […]
On Monday, the Department of Law released retired Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins’ independent investigation of the Alaska National Guard to the public. Like many Alaskans, I greet its release with a sense of anger and frustration that over several years some members of the Guard mistreated people and misused public funds. Also like many […]
Last week this legislative session should have been over. Instead it continued past its 90-day deadline, and the Governor rightly called a 30-day extension. Then the Republican-led majority voted for a break from work. That’s why legislators aren’t still in Juneau doing the public’s business. I and other Democrats voted to keep working, and to […]
Dear Neighbors: First, I get to gripe. Since when do you open a fortune cookie and get a medical warning?!?!?! Isn’t that a “Warning cookie”? Here’s what I got last night – I guess punishment for not cooking at home. Let me just say, I will not eat another fortune cookie at this restaurant. Now, […]
Almost 40 years ago, without regard for the conservation of our fisheries or the needs of the Alaskan people, foreign fishing fleets dominated the waters off Alaska’s shores and took anything and everything in their reach. Ask anyone familiar with the times, deck lights of foreign vessels – dozens if not more – could be […]
Dear Neighbors: Giving away money to those who can afford to carry the burden, and burdening five year-olds taken from their parents, who suffer abuse and neglect isn’t the right way to address our budget problem. It’s unworkable. It’s not humane. In the defense of legislators and the Governor, we’ve never had a $3.5 billion budget deficit […]
On February 19, 1945, 20-year-old Bill Young of Mooresville, North Carolina, disembarked an LST on a miserable hunk of black rock called Iwo Jima. He was part of a 75-mile-long convoy of ships preparing to dislodge the Japanese from this volcanic remnant of an island. The territory was formally part of Japan, meaning it was […]