Hickel Day of the Arctic, Girl Scout 100th Birthday, and Random Shots

I got into the House Gallery during a break.  Different legislators were walking about or off the chamber floor altogether.

Here's Speaker of the House talking to someone sitting in the gallery near me.











Haines Rep. Bill Thomas  was reading.


















And so was Anchorage Rep. Chris Tuck

 




Matsu Rep. Mark Neuman also found a reason to talk to another gallery viewer.

Rep. Carl Gatto's desk had flowers and lots of the representatives had black armbands in memory of their colleague who died yesterday.  From the House Majority page:

Gatto, 74, died this afternoon ]Monday] from complications related to his prostate cancer. He was surrounded by his wife and grown children at a Seattle-area hospital. Gatto represented Palmer's House District 13 since winning election in 2002.

 The first bill they passed was the Walter J. Hickel Day of the Arctic bill.

Double click to enlarge

The Charisse Millett introduced the bill honoring the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary.  This bill got a lot of attention last week when Rep. Keller surprised bill sponsor Sen. Bettye Davis and her staffer by asking about links he found on the internet connecting the Girl Scouts with Planned Parenthood.  But today everyone was all for the bill.  Different legislators


talked about how they themselves, or at least their mothers and daughters had been girl scouts.  Rep. Stoltz even remarked that his aunts and nieces and nephews had been girl scouts.  I checked with someone sitting next to me to see if boys were now allowed in the girl scouts.  Even Keller voted yes.  And Millett directed everyone to send any cookie salespersons to Keller's office.

It looks like Millett forgot to push the button herself.  But under house rules she can get that changed. 

After the House adjourned until tomorrow, I had lunch where I heard that Sharon Cissna had announced plans to run for Congress against Don Young.  So I went to her office to confirm that.   It was true and her concerns with TSA will be a big part of that.

Rep. Lindsey Holmes at Judiciary Committee

I stopped by the House Judiciary committee where they were talking about SB 210.  From the Sponsor's Statement:

SB 210 works with the recommendations from CJA to create tougher penalties on crimes committed against a child. The bill will create increased criminal liability for assaults to children by modifying the current definition of “serious physical injury” and increases penalties when a parent intentionally withholds adequate food or liquids.

Rep. Bob Lynn (right) seemed to be listening intently as Rep. Max Gruenberg asked a number of questions about changing sentencing requirements that were part of another bill that had been rolled in  SB 210. 










Here are a couple of pictures from the other day.  I talked briefly with Rep. Pete Petersen, to my knowledge, the only returned Peace Corps Volunteer in the Alaska legislature. 

A lot of the legislators have these Read posters in their offices.  They're all a little different.  This one is in Rep. Gruenberg's office.

And I chatted the other day with Rep. Scott Kawasaki who was mentioned during the Redistricting Board  because there were allegations that his seat had been gerrymandered to put him into a less favorable district.  But the trial court ruled House Districts 1 and 2 unconstitutional and he's in a better position than he was.  In any case he's been a Democrat in a Republican leaning district anyway.  He sounded ready to go campaign when the districts finally get approved by the Department of Justice and the state courts.