Alaska: ALASKA MOVES UP IN MINING INDUSTRY SURVEY - Alaska’s ranking improved in the Fraser Institute’s 2012/2103 survey of the overall attractiveness of mining investment in 96 jurisdictions around the world.

The institute’s annual survey of mining and exploration companies looks at how a jurisdiction’s mineral endowment and public policy affects exploration investment. The Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies was sent to approximately 4,100 exploration, development, and other mining-related companies world-wide. The survey represents responses from 742 of those companies, which has provided sufficient data to evaluate 96 jurisdictions.

In the 2012/2013 survey released last week, Alaska ranked 19th out of the 96 jurisdictions in terms of policy attractiveness. In the 2011/2012 survey, Alaska ranked 25th out of 93 jurisdictions. - More...
Tuesday - March 12, 2013

Alaska: 4 Things to Invest in as the Arctic Ocean Opens – Global investors are looking north. “As an ‘emerging market’, the Arctic is hot right now,” Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell told a meeting of Arctic nation legislators meeting in Washington today.

Treadwell spoke on Capitol Hill about new investment opportunities in the Arctic in four major economic drivers: polar transport by air, sea and space; energy and mineral development; fishing; and tourism.

The meeting of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region was hosted by Senator Lisa Murkowski, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee. Participants included representatives from the eight Arctic nations plus European Parliament, the Sami Parliamentary Council, the Nordic Council, the West-Nordic Council, and the University of the Arctic. - More...
Tuesday - March 12, 2013

Alaska: Alaska Joins $7 Million Multistate Settlement Over Google Street View - Alaska Attorney General Michael C. Geraghty today joined 38 states and the District of Columbia in a $7 million settlement with Internet giant Google over its collection of data from unsecured wireless networks. Google collected the data while taking photographs for Street View, Google’s service that provides panoramic images from positions on streets or other locations in many parts of the world.

In addition to taking photographs from its Street View cars, Google used antennae and software to collect wireless network identification information, for use in future “geolocation” services. But Google also collected data transmitted from unsecured wireless networks as the Street View cars drove by. The data included email communications and other potentially personal information. - More...
Tuesday - March 12, 2013

Alaska: Alaska Bookkeeper Sentenced For Preparing False Tax Returns For Drug Dealers - U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that a woman from Houston, Alaska, was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage for preparing false tax returns for drug dealers.

Rebecca Renee Powell, 38, was sentenced on March 6th by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy M. Burgess, to ten months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie Courter and Thomas Bradley, who prosecuted the case, Powell, the owner of Alaska Contractors Bookkeeping Service, a bookkeeping, payroll, and tax service business in Wasilla, Alaska, admitted that she prepared false U.S. individual income tax returns for multiple individuals whose income was primarily derived from the sale of illegal narcotics. She prepared several of these returns knowing that they omitted substantial gross receipts derived from marijuana sales. Because Powell omitted the illegal drug sales, the individuals filing these returns falsely claimed and received the Earned Income Credit for tax years 2003 through 2007. - More...
Tuesday - March 12, 2013

Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
Basic Rules &
Freedom of Speech

Ketchikan's Own Sequestration! By Gene Peterson - We have all been subjected to the media's, and bureaucrat's lamentations on the chaos that a cut in the increase in federal spending is causing. The administration threatens cuts in Airport security, in Air Traffic control, and refusal to send a warship to the middle east. (Notice no threat concerning cutting the useless spending such as our bloated local Forest Service behemoth.) How can the country survive unless the federal government gets more money? So what if we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar spent. - More...
Wednesday - March 13, 2013

Current Education Request Not About The Cap By Dave Timmerman - Mrs. Moran, I will reply as a citizen to your letter as this is how I feel about our elected assembly and dealing with the district, instead of stepping sideways and talking about the cap, let's talk about what the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Board of Education has asked for. They have not asked for the cap in the last several years. In fact, they have asked for 1 to 1.5 million less than the cap (depending on the year). - More...
Wednesday - March 13, 2013

Join our voices in opposition to the latest Sealaska Lands Bill By Andrea Hernandez - I have attached a transcript of a radio commentary made by Point Baker and Port Protection residents.  This commentary was aired on KFSK Petersburg on March 12th and is archived on their website.  The commentary includes this link to the audio version, which we encourage your readers to listen to.  Please publish this in the Sitnews if possible.  - More...
Wednesday - March 13, 2013

North Korea Threatens US By Donald A. Moskowitz - General Kang Pyo Yong of North Korea recently said "When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, will be engulfed in a sea of fire."  The North Korean National Defense Commission stated "In the new phase of our century-long struggle against the United States, we do not hide the fact that various satellites, long-range missiles that we will continue to launch and high-level nuclear tests we will conduct will target our sworn enemy, the United States." - More...
Wednesday - March 13, 2013

RE: Abortion By Robert Holston - Regarding Linda Beaupre's letter, I am fully aware of the length of a full term pregnancy. Are you aware that most abortions occur after week 10? That is why I calculated 30 weeks of inconvenience. Most parents would jump into a freezing river to save their drowning child or run into a burning house to carry their child from an inferno death. When a pregnancy causes severe morning sickness or some other complication for the mother the easy out is to choose abortion. It is with 100% accuracy that I declare, choosing abortion kills the child. Choosing life saves the child. - More...
Wednesday - March 13, 2013

Education Funding Cap By Agnes Moran - I currently serve on the Borough Assembly, but the views expressed here are my personal views and do not represent any official position of the Borough Assembly. - More....
Saturday PM - March 09, 2013

Defend Alaskans’ Right to Vote By Mike Wenstrup - Today, voting rights are under assault by political partisans whose agenda is threatened by a healthy democracy.  Thirty-eight years after passage of the Voting Rights Act and 143 years after passage of the 15th Amendment, Mead Treadwell and Bob Lynn have joined Republican state legislators and gubernatorial administrations from around the country in an assault on voting rights.  They are motivated by a belief that widespread participation in our democracy results in Democrats winning elections.  This Republican-led national assault on our democracy would be particularly devastating in Alaska. - More...
Saturday PM - March 09, 2013

Open Letter: Revised Sealaska Lands Bill By Jeffrey Sbonek - I have lived in Port Protection Alaska, a rural, isolated community on the north end of Prince of Wales Island for the past 37 years. Seeing Sen. Murkowski s and Sealaska s recent press announcement of the new Sealaska proposed legislation I see that it is a reiteration of the same lies of their past legislative attempts. Lies in a perverted attempt to sway congressional and public support. - More...
Saturday PM - March 09, 2013

RE: Regarding Abortion By Paul Jarvi - Mr. Nance, the Constitution does not mention the right to privacy, however you forgot about the Bill of Rights that James Madison and others added to the Constitution and grants citizens of the USA the right to privacy. - More...
Saturday PM - March 09, 2013

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR UNLICENSED TAX PREPARER SCREWS YOU By David G. Hanger, EA, MBA - It is pretty hard to miss these ads on TV, so I am sure most of you by now have seen the ongoing advertising wars between Turbotax and H&R Block being played out for your viewing pleasure since the first of the year.  H&R Block started with a group of rather bizarre dunderheads representing their so-called “tax professionals,” a pleasant enough, but odd looking gent in a yellow bow tie, a heavy set black guy with a somewhat stupefied and shocked look on his face, a little old lady who cackles as she brags about the 25,000 tax returns she has prepared (a near mathematical impossibility, I might add; my whole firm, for example, in more than 35 years has not prepared 25,000 income tax returns), and a glib, heavy set younger woman who smiles at us and declares that she has read all 900 pages (or is it 9000??) of something to do with Obamacare.  (To which my response would be, “and do you have a life??”  It is way too early to waste one-tenth that time reading regulatory language on that subject.) - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

SEPA's Swan Lake swan song? By A.M. Johnson - Thank you for recently posting a link to this article. "AP&T analysis suggests SEAPA buyout option" Wrangell Sentinel 2-21-13. Rest assured, during the recent posting by myself on the subject of the potential of connecting the SEAPA grid to the B.C.Hydro transmission line some 50 miles from the Tyee powerhouse, there was never an effort or desire to bring into the discussion the demise of SEAPA. However, given the presentation by Mr. Grimm of AP&T allowing for the expansion of generation services in a greater area of service, one has to opine that a renewed viewing of the potential value of including the option of the B.C connection for the purpose of importing low cost and consistent power sourcing as the development of the grid system Mr. Grimm visualizes come to fruition where excess power has a avenue for exporting to the lower 48 states. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

Bristol Bay fishermen raise bar on salmon quality By Izetta Chambers - Having grown up in a fishing family in Bristol Bay, I have watched and taken part in the slow and sometimes painful journey to improve salmon quality. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

Thank You By Donita O'Dell - Southeast Organization for Animals would like to extend a warm and hearty THANK YOU to the many people and organizations who helped make our February 23 low-cost vaccination clinic in Metlakatla a success, with 46 dogs and cats vaccinated. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013 

Regarding Abortion... By Lenard Nance - Freedom to choose what? In the arena of discussion regarding abortion I have heard and read a phrase that, like a hub in a wheel, seems to anchor all arguments that revolve around it ... "freedom of choice". What I rarely hear or read is a definitive answer to my question, "freedom to choose what?". - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

Replace the Income Tax By Glen E. Terrell - The FairTax is an idea whose time has come.  The congress, both House and Senate, republicans and democrats, has demonstrated time after time, the inability to restrain itself with the public purse.  The congress simply can’t govern effectively as long as the income tax is in place.  Even the “fiscal crises” legislation passed by the current congress added $74 billion MORE to the deficit; all to favor special interest groups.  In order to save America, congress must be denied the instrument of its folly; the income tax.  A solution has been filed away in a drawer somewhere by the congress for over 10 years.  It’s called The FairTax. It’s neither a republican nor democrat idea but truly an American idea! - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

PAGE 341 By David G. Hanger - Along the way in my travels now and again I come across something interesting, and on this particular return journey I re-visited what is probably the most important book written about the American Civil War in the last 50 years.  By Charles Royster The Destructive War, 1991, is highly regarded by both historians and by academia.  It is an exceptional work. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

H.R.25: The Fair Tax Act By Roy T Newsom - The US House Ways and Means Committee has had H.R.25 The Fair Tax Act shelved for several years.  Your Representative needs to hear from the voters that passing this bill is the only real solution to the problems of our economy.  Every worker will receive their full paycheck with no payroll deductions for medicare, social security or income tax.  Businesses will not have to pay income taxes and can use that money to create more jobs. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

Consumption tax By Patrick R. Burkett - The Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds will become insolvent within the next few years due to high payouts and low income. The Fair Tax, HR25, pending in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, would resolve this problem. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 06, 2013

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