"Here in Alaska, TV crews have been everywhere the last few years, clutching scripts for "unscripted" shows and handing out confidentiality agreements, asking us to play along. . ."
". . . So much is exaggerated or flat made up. We see acquaintances exclaim about the indoor plumbing as they shop for houses that we know aren't really for sale. We watch them cry out in mock alarm as they fall into icy rivers with dry suits hidden under their Carhartts. Bristol Bay fishermen formally protest errors on Animal Planet's 'Battle on the Bay.' Eskimos object to their portrayal on TLC's 'Escaping Alaska'.”Tom's a gifted writer and the story rings true for me, based on conversations I've had with people who have tangled with film makers looking for characters. The piece also points out that the state has been subsidizing a lot of this:
"What's strange is that this cringe-worthy montage has been subsidized by the state of Alaska. One-third or more of a production's costs can be refunded through a film incentive program launched under Palin in 2008. The idea was to attract feature films, create local jobs and publicize the state's charms. But there was a backlash — some legislators didn't like it when actor Ted Danson showed up on a film set to lecture them on the environment, while others complained about $360,000 paid to support Bristol Palin's short-lived show about being a single mom. The state responded by making everything confidential, so we don't even know how much this is costing. The state paid out $44 million up to 2013, and probably at least that much more since then. Officials say the majority has gone to TV, with 29 unscripted programs applying for subsidies last year."As a film fan, I've tended to rationalize that of all the ways the state is subsidizing Outside businesses - starting with the oil companies and various roads proposed to remote mining sites - a little money to the film industry wasn't a big deal.
"Like a Hollywood fantasy, claims that tax subsidies for film and TV productions — which nearly every state has adopted in recent years — are cost-effective tools of job and income creation are more fiction than fact. In the harsh light of reality, film subsidies offer little bang for the buck.
State film subsidies are costly to states and generous to movie producers.
Today, 43 states offer them, compared to only a handful in 2002. Over the course of state fiscal year 2010 (FY2010), states committed about $1.5 billion to subsidizing film and TV production (see Appendix Table 1) — money that they otherwise could have spent on public services like education, health care, public safety, and infrastructure. The median state gives producers a subsidy worth 25 cents for every dollar of subsidized production expense. The most lucrative tax subsidies are Alaska’s and Michigan’s, 44 cents and 42 cents on the dollar, respectively. Moreover, special rules allow film companies to claim a very large credit even if they lose money— as many do."While I'm not a fan of Sen Stolze, he's not wrong to raise questions about the film subsidies. I'm not sure about eliminating incentives altogether. I suspect his actions are not based on my reasons for having doubts, since I've never heard about him questioning state subsidies to, for example, the oil or construction industries. and other campaign supporters. Maybe those film makers or the companies buying the tax deferrals from the film companies should start making more campaign contributions and start lobbying.
2/24: First day of legal marijuana I'm packing!Under "groups":
free
Hey prohibition in the great state of Alaska has come to an end. It seems to me everybody is all about the taxes and the money side of it and no legal stores till next year...well I think smoking weeds is about a lot more than that, including low cost pain relief in comparing prescription drugs, better recreation than alcohol and less addicting, and I've never seen a violent stoner.So if you have never tried the stuff give me a shout I'd love to stop by and pack you a nice bowl to try it for the first time.Enjoy the first day of a good future for Alaska. If you are already a fan I hope you can get your own but if not reply with a good storie and I'll see what I can do.
Join the Alaska Cannabis Club - gain access to Alaska's first Medical Marijuana DISPENSARY and take part in recreational and educational cannabis-themed events.Under "services":
Members of the Club also gain access to the Alaska Cannabis ClubHouse - the only social environment where you are free to partake in a safe, secure space with like-minded cannabis enthusiasts (medical marijuana patients, cultivators, entrepreneurs, and consumers from all walks).
Walk - ins are welcome but priority is given to those who apply online prior to the membership drive.
Apply here: http://akcc.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/initial-membership-application
marijuana grow
The property that houses my garden is being repossessed, as the owner didn't pay the mortgage. I must move my entire garden.
In exchange for the use of an appropriate structure, I will set up and operate an equal sized grow, at your expense, that is yours. I can provide your clones.
I require one larger space that I can build rooms within, or 2 seperate rooms. I harvest once a month, so would have yours on the same schedule. My yield has not been less than .76 gram per watt of light since I learned what I'm doing. It seldom drops below .9. When everything goes right, I yield 1 gram per watt of light.
If you think you might be interested, please give me a call.
"Romney and his aides have designed his rhetoric to define pretty much all spending on entitlements, including provisions for the injured, unemployed, sick, disabled or elderly as benefits to the poor who, Romney implies, are undeserving. And it doesn’t matter whether the money to pay for these programs comes from employer and employee contributions and not just tax revenue — they are all under suspicion.
Will the United States be an Entitlement Society or an Opportunity Society? In an Entitlement Society, government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to innovate, pioneer or take risk. In an Opportunity Society, free people living under a limited government choose whether or not to pursue education, engage in hard work, and pursue the passion of their ideas and dreams. If they succeed, they merit the rewards they are able to enjoy. [emphasis added]
That's it.Board of Regents Annual Retreat January 22-23, 2014 Anchorage, AlaskaSUMMARY OF ACTION
1. Approval of Bargaining Unit Agreement between the University of Alaska and United Academics AAUP-AFT/AFL-CIO (UNAC)
PASSED "The Board of Regents approves the collective bargaining agreement between the University of Alaska and United Academics AAUP-AFT/AFL-CIO (UNAC) for the term of January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016. This motion is effective January 23, 2014."
The Official Minutes tend to add a little more - like who made the motion and who seconded it and who voted yes and who voted no and the language of what was passed. It's focused mostly on technical details, and it's light on substance. There's no sense of the discussion before the vote and how the discussion went. You'd be hard pressed to understand the reasons for and against any issue. The minutes spends more words on how they went in and out of executive session, but doesn't explain the subject of the executive session, which seems to be counter to the Alaska Administrative Procedures Act requirements for Executive Session which says:
"The motion must state specifically what will be discussed and must be approved by a majority vote. The motion must contain enough detail that the public (and if necessary a court) will be informed of exactly why the executive session is appropriate, without defeating the purpose of going into executive session. Only the item(s) identified in the motion may be discussed in the executive session. " [emphasis added]
This clearly requires more than the minutes tell us.
Since on the board, our headcount declined 8.4% and credit hours up 5%. But budget has increased. Two reports by national experts on operation of university. Both told us we needed cost containment for administrative costs. Even thought headcount and credit hour count went down, our administrative costs have gone up. I don't think the studentsBut otherwise, there wasn't much opposition and no students were there to protest. A couple even said it was fine. The president said the administrative cutbacks would come with the current round of budget cuts. Here's the table that was in the agenda for the budget increases:
of Alaska and their parents shouldn't bear the costs of our inability to contain costs.
I'm only a week late on this, but the mayoral election isn't until the beginning of April, so we're ok for 
I'd also note a real contrast in the two meet and greet evenings. Halcro's was in a huge warehouse like room that was industrial cold, in the back of the TriGrill on 76th off of Old Seward. While he probably had as many people at his event as Coffey did at Don Jose's (near the very busy intersection of Lake Otis and Northern Lights), the room was ten or twelve times the size as the cozy restaurant setting at Don Jose's and it looked like there was nobody there.Steve: Andrew, you’ve got a good life, why would you want to run for mayor?
Andrew: Well, That’s exactly why I want to run for mayor. There are three reasons. One, I think the economy is going to be uncertain in the next few years with the state in a $3 billion budget deficit and You need somebody in the mayor’s office who understands how to contain the cost of government, not to mention I was in Juneau, I served in the legislature 15 years ago when they were going through the same thing. Oil was $!0 a barrel and we had a $1billion budget deficit. In fact we spent a lot of time looking at solutions. We also spent a lot of time talking about where to cut the budget. So as the next mayor, I know exactly what those conversations are and therefore I know how to plan and how to contain costs.
The second thing is, I really want to make the community healthier and safer, my last couple of years as president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, we’ve really had an issue with downtown public safety, certainly the crime rate, the chronic inebriate problem, the homeless problem
We have to take the long view of these problems. From the management standpoint we like to nibble around the edges or we like to adopt what we think are going to be these silver bullet programs. We have to realize we’ve got to have a comprehensive approach. With public safety you have to put more officers on the street,
We’re 50 officers short ….. They’ve decimated the gang task force, they’ve decimated the sexual assault task force because they want more officers in patrol cars. And that has really hurt our ability to go out and be proactive. Addressing the gang issue and some of these criminal issues that are now percolating to the top
The communities does need to get healthier the chronic inebriate problem, the homeless problem needs to finally be addressed. We need to look at expanding things like the housing first model that works, it really works. Not only does it get people off the street, it makes them safer, but it also reduces public safety calls to that area. Police will tell you that it’s been a success.
And the third thing is really to just continue to grow the economy and manage the cost of government. Growing the economy in the sense where we get where we get in and doing that should have been done a long time ago. I think some of the greatest areas of our town are the most underdeveloped and undervalued.
I’d like to see huge redevelopment downtown and East Anchorage. I’d like to see us go into Fairview and clean up the area. And provide a just really cool part of town for people to live in. The demographics are changing. We have 82,000 millennials that live and work in this city and they have different needs than I do or you do. It’s a different generation. They want to live downtown, near to bars and restaurants. They want easy access to downtown. In order to attract that kind of investment, you have to address the public safety concerns and you have to address the chronic inebriation and homelessness problems. Because those Developers aren’t going down there to redevelop unless those areas are ripe for development.
So really those things are why I’m running.
My last two years at the Anchorage chamber, we’ve done some groundbreaking work, Our education initiatives to strengthen public schools. I’m chair of the 90% by 2020. I have been for two years which seeks to strengthen public school outcomes by promoting 90% graduation and 90% attendance by 2020
I’ve also been very active in the community with diversity, One Anchorage One Economy has brought in all types of diverse groups. Sitting down and talking about how the business community how we can integrate them into the business community. Talking about how work all one Anchorage, we all live in the same economy and go to the same schools and have all aligned concerns and the same goals. We all want a successful and happy and healthy city. And that’s really why I want to be mayor.
I think, I've lived here for 50 years in the community. Its been stagnant in some places I think we need to move forward on. There are some intractable problems that we haven’t addressed that we really need to address. But by and large, this city has been amazing to me and amazing to the people I love, and I just want to make it stronger for future generations.
Steve: You talked about Fairview, and when I talked to Dan Coffey, he also talked about redevelopment of Fairview. My concern is whether development the people who live there now and get their neighborhood cleaned up and they get to stay there making their lives better, or are we talking about gentrification, and we get rid of the poorer people so the wealthier an move in?
Andrew: No, in my view, redeveloping Fairview is keeping people in their homes who want to stay there. Be more aggressive on the chronic inebriation and homeless problems. Here’s an example, years ago they went into Fairview and they created these neat little parks and put up all kinds of accessaries, then within a year or two they had to take them out because they became gathering places for crime and inebriates and the homeless. I want to see a time when people who live in Fairview today and tomorrow have little pocket parks, I want to see when it’s safe to walk to the store at 11 at night. I want to finally look at 13th and Gamble and say how do we clean this up. This has been a problem since I was 16 years old. It’s not about gentrification, it’s about cleaning up the neighborhood. I want people to stay there. I don’t want anybody to move out of their neighborhoods. I want to use the city’s leverage with tax incentives to tax deferral credits to get in and make the area safer, make it more of a great little community. I mean, they really have a good community council, the Fairview community council the Fairview business association. They’ve done an amazing job and what they need is a little more help from City Hall They have overlays, they have development plans, and they need leadership from city hall, because when I look at this city, there are three areas - there’s east downtown, there’s Fairview and Mountain view. They have the greatest promise, because they are three of the oldest areas of town that are really ripe for people who want to live in cool little neighborhoods.
Steve: Let me ask another question. There’s $20 million sitting out there to build a road through the university campus. All the community councils around there have protested and don’t want the road. Where do you stand on this?
Andrew: I haven’t really studied this project. But I will tell you the area is growing and we need to have better access in and out. Whether that means adopting that road plan I can’t say. I do know is you have a growing University you’ve got a hospital that’s growing fast, if there are ways we can improve access without cutting the road through the CC areas, we should do that. But there’s no question that area needs better transportation access. The road system in the UMed district really hasn’t changed since I was a kid. I access from Northern Lights to 36th to Providence Dr. None of the roads in that area have matured. Maybe instead of doing the road through the university, maybe we should look at approach roads that get people into the university district. As a former community council president, I’m very sensitive to the wishes of community councils, they work hard, they get their people out every month, they have the best interests of their community at heart. We went through the same things at Sand Lake when they wanted to build homes in a gravel pit. So I understand the frustration. It does require some collaboration. You can’t just show up and say we’re going to build a road in that area. But you also can’t just say we’re not going to have progress, because that area is going to continue to grow and it’s continue to be served by underdeveloped roads.
Steve: Any other critical issues you want to talk about?
Andrew: No, thanks.
In early 1828 Nicolo began a six and half year tour that started in Vienna and ended in Paris in September 1834. During the two and half year period from August 1828 to February, 1831 he visited some 40 cities in Germany, Bohemia, and Poland. Performances in Vienna, Paris, and London were hailed widely, and his tour in 1832 through England and Scotland made him wealthy.
His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist.
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| Rachel Barton Pine |
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| Jeff the Diseased Lung and John Oliver |
We are misled in a second way, by a well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature. Peter Bergen, who produced the first interview with bin Laden in 1997, titled his first book Holy War, Inc. in part to acknowledge bin Laden as a creature of the modern secular world. Bin Laden corporatized terror and franchised it out. He requested specific political concessions, such as the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia. His foot soldiers navigated the modern world confidently. On Mohamd Atta’s last full day of life, he shopped at Walmart and ate dinner at Pizza Hut.
There is a temptation to rehearse this observation—that jihadists are modern secular people, with modern political concerns, wearing medieval religious disguise—and make it fit the Islamic State. In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.
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| Bailey and Zilberkant |
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| Barton and Zilberkant |
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s life is a seemingly unending list of extraordinary achievements, from her soloist debut at age 10 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to her recent live performances of Paganini’s ‘24 Caprices For Solo Violin’--a series of virtuosic pieces so technically challenging that very few violinists perform them in sequence. She has published a book of her own arrangements and cadenzas, recorded 24 albums, and travelled with the world’s most prestigious ensembles.
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| The Standing Ovation |
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| Caprice # 12 - from Violin Sheet Music |
"And then when I was sixteen, a remarkable thing happened. I was in a humanities course in East High School in Anchorage and the teacher was lecturing on something to do with denial on a societal level, and she mentioned, almost as an aside, how high the rate of sexual abuse of children was in Alaska. She looked out at the class and she said there’s about 25, 30 of you here, statistics say two to three of you have already been sexually assaulted and you haven’t told a soul."The teacher used statistics. Gardner's aide said that nationally
1 in 4 girls andare sexually abused before the age of 18. And only 1 in 10 will say anything about it.
1 in 6 boys
And I was riveted in my seat and I felt a great sense of relief, because it had been acknowledged in public, in a school, by a teacher what had happened to me. And it gave me tremendous comfort, even though I didn’t say anything.So using statistics and looking at the Alaska legislature, if one in six boys and one in four girls are sexually abused before they are 18, there must be a fair number of abusers out there in our population. How many are there? I'll get to that shortly.
A child molester is any older child or adult who touches a child for his or her own sexual gratification.It appears that some statistics vary because researchers use different definitions. Just take that into account. I'll be using these, fairly broad, definitions.
Child molestation is the act of sexually touching a child.
A child is a girl or boy who is 13 years of age or younger.
What's the age difference between a molester and a child? It is five years, so a 14-year-old "older child" sexually touching a nine-year-old is an example. This is the accepted medical definition.
In fact, approximately one out of 20 men, and approximately one out of 3,300 women are sexual abusers of children.There are 60 legislators - 20 senators and 40 representatives. There are 43 men and 17 women. Just as Holthouse's teacher used statistics to estimate the number of students in her class who had been molested, we can do the same for the legislature. We know that there was at least one child who'd been molested in that class. One out of 20 men statistically would suggest there are two child molesters in the Alaska legislature. The odds of a woman molester in the legislature is statistically low.
| Admitted Child Molesters | American Men | |
| Married and formerly Married | 77% | 73% |
| Some College | 45% | 49% |
| High School only | 30% | 32% |
| Working | 69% | 64% |
| Religious | 93% | 93% |
Holthouse: Here’s what I remember about being taught to keep myself safe in grade school growing up in Anchorage. I remember what to do in an earthquake, I R what to do if I caught on fire - stop, drop, and roll - and IR to watch out for strangers bearing candy or toys. But what I didn’t learn was that a vastly greater danger to me than catching fire or being crushed by falling light fixtures in an earthquake, or even being lured into a car, far greater than one of those dangers was that someone I knew and trusted would hurt me and terrify me in ways that I did not understand and did not have the words for. And that happened in 1978 when I was seven years old. I was raped by a family friend at a dinner party in an upper middle class household in Eagle River.
When it was over the rapist told me three things. He told me , one, that I’d done a bad thing and that my dad would spank me if I told anybody. And he said if I told, that he’d say I was lying and no one would believe me. And he said furthermore if I told anybody, he would come into my house in the middle of the night and gut me like a salmon and do the same to my parents. I know now that this is typical predator behavior. So for 25 years I didn’t tell I kept it a secret and I did so at signifiant cost to my own well being.
Here’s how Erin’s Law would have made a difference for me. First,
there’s a chance it would have protected me from being raped in the first place. These types of predators depend our collective shame, denial, and silence about this issue. Even though we all know what the rates are in Alaska. They depend on it. They thrive on it. I think it’s quite possible that having know I was being taught at school about people like him, and how to tell on people like him, and what language to use to tell on people like him, he would not have committed the crime in the first place. There’s no way to know that for sure.
I also think that had I been taught about safe touch, unsafe touch, none of this language needs to be graphic for 2nd graders. All I needed to know was a word like “a bad secret” or just the very concept that someone who was a family friend might do something wrong to me and then tell me “You must keep this a secret” and if that happened, it was ok to tell a cop or my parents, or teachers, and that someone would step in and protect me. If I had been armed with that information, I think I would have told. There’s no way to know that for sure either.
What I am certain of, is that had the public school system acknowledged the prevalence of this issue in our culture, and had I been taught that in school, I would have felt not so alone. The loneliness was the worst part of it, feeling I had been affected by a freak occurrence and that made me some kind of freak.
And then when I was sixteen, a remarkable thing happened. I was in a humanities course in East High School in Anchorage and the teacher was lecturing on something to do with denial on a societal level, and she mentioned, almost as an aside, how high the rate of sexual abuse of children were in Alaska. She looked out at the class and she said there’s about 25, 30 of you here, statistics say two to three of you have already been sexually assaulted and you haven’t told a soul.
And I was riveted in my seat and I felt a great sense of relief, because it had been acknowledged in public, in a school, by a teacher what had happened to me. And it gave me tremendous comfort, even though I didn’t say anything.
So, I think that it is important that it be mandated. It sends a message to predators that it’s time for them to be afraid and it sends a message to kids that is of top priority to protect them. And so, thank you for hearing me out.
Chair: Thank you. Questions? Thank you very much.
