Alaska

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September 2008
- Why Alaska Isn't Like Any Other State
  
  New York Times | Sep 4, 08 11:55 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alaska, with its short history as a state and its independent spirit, continues to earn its nickname as America’s “last frontier.” But it’s the state’s oil revenues, corruption, and very local politics that enabled Sarah Palin to thrive, the New York Times reports. And as governor it's left her with unique challenges. For instance, high energy prices fueled a $5 billion budget surplus while the rest of the country faced shortfalls. More »
- Palin Emails Complain In-Law Wasn't Canned
  
  Washington Post | Sep 4, 08 11:04 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sarah Palin railed against the "joke" investigation of her former brother-in-law, a state trooper embroiled in a nasty custody battle with her sister, in emails sent to the ex-public safety commissioner she fired in July. “This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's been promoted," she wrote in an email Walter Monegan showed the Washington Post . More »
- Palin Perfect on Energy: 'Drill, Drill, Drill'
  
  National Review | Sep 3, 08 12:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sarah Palin’s Alaska experience gives her just the right expertise for a year when the price of gasoline is going to be the hot-button issue, writes Larry Kudlow in National Review . Her energy policy? “I call it drill, drill, drill,” says Kudlow approvingly. "Our abundant country can produce more energy at lower cost if government gets out of the way." More »
- Palin Projects Hit Mac's Pork List
  
  Los Angeles Times | Sep 3, 08 7:57 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Requests from Sarah Palin made it onto John McCain's "pork list" of objectionable spending three times while Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the Los Angeles Times reports. McCain's lists came as part of his long campaign against the earmarking system in which members of Congress can chuck cash at pet projects with little or no scrutiny. More »
- Hotshot Lawyer to Rep Palin in Ethics Tussle
  
  Anchorage Daily News | Sep 2, 08 11:15 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A private-sector lawyer is making the unusual move of defending Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her office in a state investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the Anchorage Daily News reports. But the lawyer's request for witness statements and other materials was immediately shot down —"It would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation," said the former prosecutor heading the probe. More »
- Palin's Alaskan Secessionist Sympathies Come to Light
  
  ABC | Sep 2, 08 10:16 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The latest surprise from Sarah Palin's past is her membership in the fringe Alaskan Independence Party, ABC News reports. A party leader says the governor and her husband were members in the 1990s. Though not strictly secessionist, the AIP is a "states' right party" that wants a vote on leaving the US. Its motto is "Alaska First, Alaska Always"—a far cry from the McCain slogan "Country First." More »
August 2008
- Palin All for Drilling— and Has Been Tough on Big Oil
  
  Salon | Aug 29, 08 4:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Gov. Sarah Palin wants the US to drill for oil, offshore or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in her home state. Not only does recent drilling convert John McCain get backup, Andrew Leonard writes in Salon, but Dems will have a hard time branding Palin a pawn of Big Oil: She’s had a history of taxing oil companies and badmouthing lobbyists. More »
- Palin Facing Alaska Ethics Investigation
  
  TPM Muckraker | Aug 29, 08 12:30 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - John McCain’s running mate comes to the national campaign embroiled in a scandal back home, Talking Points Memo reports. Alaska’s legislative council has appointed a special commission to investigate Gov. Sarah Palin, who’s accused of pressuring the state’s department of public safety to fire her former brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten—who is battling Palin’s sister in a messy custody suit. More »
- Alaska Turning Purple as Election Nears
  
  Los Angeles Times | Aug 14, 08 12:36 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The cold, snowy tundras of Alaska may transform into a battleground this November as Barack Obama and John McCain vie for the Land of the Midnight Sun's three electoral votes. Alaska hasn't gone blue since 1964, when LBJ won in a landslide, but an Anchorage-based poll currently has Obama leading McCain by 5 percentage points. More »
July 2008
- Stevens Pleads Not Guilty
  
  Anchorage Daily News | Jul 31, 08 12:57 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens pleaded not guilty today in federal court in Washington to seven counts of corruption, the Anchorage Daily News reports. At his lawyers' request, the judge set a tentative trial date of Sept. 24, more than 5 weeks before the Nov. 4 general election. He'll rule on the defense team's request to move the trial to Alaska on Aug. 19. More »
- Nat'l Review: Stevens, Get Out
  
  National Review | Jul 30, 08 1:16 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Newly indicted Ted Stevens should resign as soon as possible, write the editors of the National Review . The Alaskan senator, who is accused of seven counts of making false statements, legally “deserves the benefit of the doubt—but not from an ethical standpoint,” they note. “The facts that have emerged over the course of the federal investigation into his personal finances are damning enough on their own.” More »
- Payback Time for Meanest Man in Congress
  
  Washington Post | Jul 30, 08 7:29 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Few tears were shed on Capital Hill when Ted Stevens was indicted yesterday. Alaska’s celebrated senator spent 4 decades bullying Congress, writes Michael Crowley in the Washington Post, rising ever higher in the ranks by making politics personal. “I'm a mean, miserable SOB,” he’d boast, sporting his trademark Incredible Hulk tie. The message was clear: You wouldn’t like Stevens when he's angry. More »
- In Alaska, GOP Algebra Is Now Calculus
  
  Washington Post | Jul 29, 08 4:29 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Ted Stevens’ indictment radically changes the landscape in Alaska’s US Senate race, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post . The octogenarian is one of six candidates in the Aug. 26 GOP primary, and it's too late to remove him from the running. The party's best-case scenario would be for Stevens to win and then step aside. More »
- Ted Stevens Indicted on 7 Felony Counts
  
  Anchorage Daily News | Jul 29, 08 2:12 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A federal grand jury in Washington has indicted Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens on 7 felony counts of making false statements in connection with a 4-year-long corruption probe, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The 84-year-old Republican is charged with failing to report on Senate financial disclosure forms gifts of more than $250,000 from Veco Corp., an Alaska oil services company, and its CEO. Stevens will be allowed to turn himself in, a Justice official said at a press conference this afternoon. More »
- Flap Over Cop's Job Ensnares Alaska Gov.
  
  Anchorage Daily News | Jul 22, 08 2:24 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alaska's governor, a longshot possibility as John McCain's running mate, is under scrutiny in the wake of allegations she had the state's public-safety commissioner fired as part of a personal vendetta, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Walt Monegan says Sarah Palin pressured him to fire her sister’s state trooper ex-husband, and thinks his refusal led to his own dismissal. More »
- Oil-Rich Alaska Pays Most for Gas
  
  Reuters | Jul 18, 08 12:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Think you’re paying a lot for gas? Try telling that to the people in Lime Village, Alaska, an isolated outpost where prices have hit $8.55 a gallon. Alaska is a major crude supplier, but its residents, paradoxically, face the highest average gas prices in the nation, Reuters reports, because the economies of scale don’t work in the sparsely populated state. More »
- Tasty Morsels on Fried Chicken
  
  Daily Green | Jul 13, 08 11:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - You might be well acquainted with the Colonel and his famous fried chicken, but beneath the crunchy skin lie some lesser-known facts. The Daily Green sides its poultry with a six-pack of trivia. It's a place: After toying around with the name "Ptarmigan," one town's handful of residents settled on Chicken, Alaska. Where to get it: If you follow Bon Appetit's advice, you'll take your chicken craving to Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, Price's Chicken Coup in North Carolina, or Willa Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans. More »
June 2008
- More Young Men Go Into the Wild in Alaska
  
  Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 7:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Just as residents of Healy, Alaska feared, more men have come looking for the bus—the old jalopy where Christopher McCandless died on his famous quest, the AP reports. Portrayed in the book and film, Into the Wild , his trip to Alaska has inspired dozens to trek through dicey weather and mosquito clouds to the bus. "I don't want people to go out there and die," a former official said. "It's that simple." More »
- Bear Mauls Girl in Alaska Bike Race
  
  Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 4:19 AM CDT
  
  (AP) - A 14-year-old girl riding in a mountain bike race in Alaska was severely injured when she was attacked last night by a bear. She was able to make a brief emergency cell phone call and whisper the word "bear" that triggered an emergency search. The girl suffered head, neck, torso and leg wounds and was protected from even more serious wounds by her bike helmet. She underwent surgery and was in critical condition, police said. More »
- Barr's Run Has Many in GOP Worried
  
  New York Times | Jun 28, 08 12:02 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Bob Barr’s former GOP colleagues have been beseeching the Libertarian Party presidential nominee not to run against John McCain. “Please don’t do it,” Barr happily recounts being told. They fear he could do to McCain what Nader did to Gore in states such as Georgia, Alaska, and Colorado, the New York Times reports. But those prospects are anything but certain. More »