Artist Rie Muñoz Visits House

One

One of Alaska's best known artists, Rie Muñoz, talks to Rep. Bob Lynn while her daughter-in-law Rep. Cathy Muñoz watches on. 

Here she talks with Rep. Berta Gardner with her granddaughter sitting next to her. 

We have a great print of hers at home and when I described it to her she told me the story of when she painted it.  I'll put that up when we get back to Anchorage and I can show you the picture as well. 

It's Not Easy To Find Out How Legislators Voted

This probably looks a bit intimidating, but Alaskan readers should take a bit of time here.  This walks you through step by step.  I'm really trying to seduce as many of you as possible into playing with BASIS and finding out what your legislature is up to.  [Update:  Also be sure to check out Alaska Education Update's comment below on getting to the Journal page from bill search.]

BASIS (the legislative website) has a lot of information. One thing I've looked for and failed to find is how legislators voted. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pull up a bill and see how they voted? Or to pull up a specific legislator and see how he or she voted on a list of different bills? But I couldn't find that sort of information.

So I asked a BASIS technician and he confirmed what I'm looking for just isn't there.  You need to go to the House and Senate Journals which are the minutes of each day's floor session. That, he said, is the only place on BASIS where you can find the voting records.  You have to look, day by day, bill by bill.

You can find these a couple of ways.  Here's the easiest for me.


BASIS - HOUSE JOURNAL

This is the "Bills & Laws" tab on BASIS (see the white tab on top.)

If you click on the picture, it will link you to that page (the url is in red text.)    Go ahead, click on the image. This is your government.  You believe in democracy, so participate!  Use right click (Mac users use the control key) and open a new tab or new window.  Then go to Journal Text Display (circled on the right.)  That gets you to this page:

Leave House Journal marked.  Then slide down to the bottom of that list to
"Journal Date Range from"   and put in the dates that you want.  I've got it set for
040510.  I know, it's a little clunky, but at least this one is easy to figure out.    That will get you to the House Journal for April 5, 2010 which looks like this:

If you scroll down to page 2021 you'll find the Bills with Third Readings.  (They can't vote until the bill has been read for the third time - it's in the State Constitution.)  Here's the vote on CSHB (Committee Substitute for House Bill) 348.

And that tells you who voted yes and who voted no. 

Now, I've put up yesterday's House Journal because today's isn't up yet.


CRAZY BLOGGERS

There is another way to find out how people voted - find a blogger who posts the votes.  But this service - posting pictures of the votes - is probably a one day event. Here's today's House Votes.

HB 355	CRIMINAL FINES FOR ORGANIZATIONS	PASSD(H) RECON NTCE	04/06/10

This passed, but some members said they hadn't read it, so they voted for it, then voted for reconsideration.  That means they can bring it up again tomorrow if, after reading it, they have a problem.

This one has to go to the Senate from here.  It's day 78, so there are 12 days left for it to pass or die. Since this is the second session of the 26th Legislature (two a year beginning 52 years ago), whatever doesn't get passed, dies, and has to begin again from scratch in the 27th Legislature. 

HB 357AK RAILROAD CORP. LAND SALES 3RD RDG,4/7 CAL(H) 04/06/10

Sorry, I didn't figure out I should take all these pictures until the next one, so I don't have this vote.

SB 307

SHELTERS FOR RUNAWAY MINORS

PASSED (H)

04/06/10

This, as I understood it, closes a loophole in State law that will allow Covenant House to qualify for federal funding.

Open means the vote is not yet finished.  When it is closed, it says that in red as you'll see in one of the other pictures below.  Here I think Doogan was out of the room so he doesn't show as having voted.  I don't recall if he managed to vote before it closed.  But obviously his vote wasn't terribly important here. 



SJR 27FED. FUNDING: DOMESTIC SEAFOOD MARKETING PASSED (H) 04/06/10

SCR 12FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDERS DAY PASSED (H) 04/06/10

The day will be 9/9/10 - to remind women not to drink during the nine months they are pregnant. 

SCR 13SUPPORTING SENIOR CAREGIVERS PASSED (H) 04/06/10

You can see the first two are legislation that originated in the House because they begin with H.  The rest are items that have made it through the Senate already and the begin with S.


ONE MORE WAY TO SEE THE VOTES

There is one more place you could get this information if you really needed it right away:  from Gavel to Gavel.

You can watch the broadcast originating from KTOO in Juneau.  They usually play it close to live (sometimes it's a little delayed if another meeting goes over.)  They usually play the House floor a second time. (It's scheduled for 6pm today.)  But you'd have to look quick if you wanted to know how each person voted. Here's the Broadcast Schedule page below.

The very bottom line shows it was scheduled at 10:30 today.  On the actual page you could scroll down and see it's scheduled again for 6:05pm (but remember the schedule changes as things happen.)  To find out where you can watch it - it the Where to Tune link (see the red mark on the left of the page above.)  It shows where people can see this on cable around the state.

You could also listen to the audio of the Floor Session, but unless they did a roll call vote, that wouldn't tell you how each representative voted.

Snow - Outside and In My Brain

They've been saying here that it's been a really mild winter. I'm finally getting it. Basically, the weather hasn't significantly changed since January. Temps range from high 20's to mid 40s. Rain, clouds, sun, snow, wind. And it's still the same in early April.

It snowed for a couple of hours this morning.
And in my head it is snowing too as I struggle with what to write. I know a little about a lot, but is that enough for a post? Bear with me. I'll get something together.

Here's the State Affairs Committee reflected in the window as I watched the snow and tried to listen. I had trouble comprehending SB 261 - to change the makeup of the Alcohol Beverage Control Board. It reduces the number of industry folks from three to two and mandates at least one rural member. They couldn't specifically name Bethel, but they could put in conditions that would only apply to Bethel. I'm headed to hear the floor session.

You can hear the State Affairs discussion on the ABC Board below.

Thinking About Ways to Categorize and Evaluate Bills

In checking up on the large number of bills submitted in the Alaska Legislature compared to the small number passed (about 11 to 1 last week), I've been trying to identify different types of bills and different reasons legislators introduce them.  There are a number of different ways we could organize this.  One way is to develop scales of different factors, and bills probably fall all across the spectrum:

1.   High impact  .............................................................Low impact
Some bills, like many that deal with oil and gas taxes and pipelines can have an enormous impact on the future of the state.  Others, like declaring February 2 Marmot Day probably have relatively minor impact.

2.  High Controversy...........................................................Low  Controversy
 Bills that touch ideological conflicts - development v environmental protection,  labor v business, regulation v. free enterprise - are on one end and issues where there is bi-partisan support (in concept if not in approach) - support for veterans, opposition to alcohol and sexual abuse - on the other end.

3.  Substantive ....................................................................................Symbolic
Substantive legislation makes real changes in how the state does things - the campaign expenditure bills which would require disclosure of independent expenditures by corporations and unions or the bill that limits mandatory overtime for nurses.  Symbolic legislation makes a statement but has relatively little actual impact.  Declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness month, adopting an official second verse of the state song, and divesting state investments in companies doing business in Iran are more on the symbolic side.  Symbolism can be important or unimportant - but that is measured by Factor 1.

4.  Political...........................................................................................Non-political
I differentiate this from Factor 2.  This is more about how voting on a bill affects the next election.  It appears, for example, that in this legislative session, Republicans are giving the governor's legislation a difficult time because many are supporting an opponent of the governor in the primary and do not want to give the governor 'wins' going into the election.  I could, of course, be reading that entirely wrong. 

5.  Private Interest bills ...................................................................Public Interest bills
Private interest bills are written to benefit a very specific private entity.  These are harder to call because the sponsors almost always minimize (if they can't hide) the private benefit of the laws and promote them by identifying public benefits of the law.  The bill that would have required everyone to have winter tires (not all weather tires), HB 322,  would have clearly benefited the constituent who got a legislator to sponsor it - Johnson Tires.  The head of the company even said it would increase the number of people he employs from about 125 to 800.  But the bill was touted as a bill that would save lives and lower insurance bills.  And both claims could be true.  The bill to cut the cruise line head tax will surely benefit the cruise lines and less clearly benefit the general Alaskan.

6.   Procedural bills ........................................................................Substantive bills
Procedural here, in contrast to Symbolic in Factor 3, refers to bills that make the rules or processes clearer or more efficient.  They don't necessarily change the goal of a program, but rather the intent is to make it work better.

7.  Long term bills.........................................................................Short term bills
Long term bills anticipate the future and try to plan for it in an orderly way.  SB 220 sets up some structure for developing energy policy and stimulating alternative energy projects.  Bills putting money into budget reserve funds look to the future. 

8.  Proactive bills ...............................................................................Reactive bills
Proactive bills, like long term bills, anticipate some problem or opportunity and develop ways to avoid the problem or take advantage of the opportunity.  Reactive bills respond to some problem that already exists.  There is much talk about having more prevention in the Governor's sexual assault initiative and less reaction.   My belief is that the more people anticipate and prevent problems the less they have to react.  But there will always be situations that can't be anticipated. 

9.  Do Good ............................................................................................. Do Harm
I add this one, not because I can determine this, but to remind everyone that while some of the labels on the scales sound like 'good' things - say big impact or long term - they may have big negative impact and long term harm.  Even a bill aimed at benefiting a single company or individual may be seen as a good bill if it is to make whole a company that was unfairly harmed by some state action. 


These thoughts have emerged after spending almost three months watching the legislature. I'm sure others who have been around longer could come up with more critical factors.

It might be interesting to apply these scales in different ways.  A couple of examples: 

• Compare the legislation that passes to the legislation that doesn't.  (I'd guess there is a fair amount of symbolic, non-controversial, low impact legislation that has passed.)
• Look at the legislation introduced by each legislator.  Are there patterns?  Do individual legislators sponsor similar types of legislation each time?  Are there significant differences among legislators? 

Of course, there are a lot of other categories of bills to be considered such as bills that allocate money and bills that mollify specific constituents or interest groups.  And there are other 'measures' such as resolutions which are used to introduce Constitutional Amendments or  declare the opinion of the legislature.

Life's Little Surprises

We walked back home from First Friday and as we got into the gate, suddenly J went down.  It's on a hill and she must have stepped on the edge of the concrete step and twisted/slid off.  It hurt to put weight onto her foot, but fortunately we were steps away from the door.  Ice packs and aspirin.  Mid Saturday it was still hurting, but not nearly as bad and it wasn't too swollen or discolored.  Sunday she didn't want to go to breakfast with me at our friends' place down the street - even if I borrowed their car to pick her up.

But at breakfast when I learned one of our friends wanted to go to the urgent care place for her own ailment, I asked if J could come along.  When I saw her foot at the clinic, it was blue enough to suggest she was turning Na'vi.  And the x-ray showed a small crack.

[double click to enlarge]

[Image from Laboratorium.dist,unige.it - link on page to foot, bones lateral]

So, now she has a cool new shoe - and she can walk on the foot without pain, though it doesn't feel right.  She's to rest it as much as possible for the week we have left in Juneau and when we start traveling again in a week and a half, she should be able to walk on it with the new shoe.  We hope.

Weenie Google

Too small to use.  I've gotten a few hits from something called Weenie Google.  I'm not sure what it means, but I'm just noting it.

I don't know if this is supposed to be some sort of spoof on Google, an attempt to use Google's name, or what.  I don't see any serious anti-google propaganda here like Scroogle-Scraper has. 

Google has done amazing things - including making blogs like this one possible to get an audience.  Their current decision to shut down their China operation rather than censor their searches is a good sign.  However, while the current controllers of the giant information machine that Google has become appear to have good intentions, any organization that has a significant source of power inevitably attracts people who want a piece of that power. 

What will happen in the future when the founders eventually depart?  Will they set up a plan to break up key components of Google so future leaders can't use this growing monopoly on information for evil purposes?

UPDATE:  Also check out Epic Google,  Mr. Doob's Google Gravity, and the Revolving Internet.

Semla and Other Easter Treats

We were invited for Easter breakfast and again later for dinner. PM is a great cook, particularly a great baker. Here's what the table looked like for breakfast.

PM baked the semlor (plural I was told for semla).  Here's a snippet of what graphicgarden tells us about semlor.

The name "semla" originates from the Latin word "simila", which means fine wheat flour. They are big buns, divided into two and filled with whipped cream and almond paste. Many people like to eat them in a bowl of hot milk, which is the traditional way, while others (including me) prefer to eat them as they are.

 They also have a recipe on the site.

On the table above is a round cake called babka.  Robert Klose in the Christian Science Monitor writes:

Babka! The aromatic centerpiece of the Polish-American table for generations, ours not excepted. In the New Jersey town where I grew up, Tatarowicz's Polish Deli was the source of the manna. I recall Christmases and Easters when the line of eager, restless babka-eaters stretched out the door and down the street. Once inside, the smell was intoxicating, as was the sight of the lightly browned, round pillows of delight, heaped on the counter, warm out of the oven.

Here's a close up photo:

Here's the babka up close.

Juneau Springing

Dance Team is Big at Juneau Douglas High School

We went to see the Dance Team Performances at the JDHS Gym on Thursday night.  The dance team's history includes first place wins at National Competitions and an International Competition in Japan. 

They moved pretty fast, so my pictures aren't sharp as I'd like.

The light dancing in the dark is always impressive.

They went up.

And down.

And there were some performances by a Filipino dance group.

And even the Dad's had gotten pulled in and trained to do a dance routine.

And there was a Bollywood influence as well.

We're constantly amazed at what all goes on in Juneau. 

Juneau First Friday April

This was our third first Friday.  This is a activity we don't take part in at home in Anchorage because we can't just walk out the door and have four or five stops within easy walking distance.

I have to say the variety that we saw Friday was quite amazing for just three show.  Juneau really smart and talented folks.  It was Sue Kraft's "Familiar Places" at the State Museum. All the paintings were local spots.  And some very familiar to us.  Like Observatory Books.

And though we didn't know it as "Metcalfe Manor," this house is so close to where we live, the house we live in is in this picture as well. 

The State Museum even provided jazz for the evening.

 Brian Wallace had a great exhibit of musician photos, including a number which featured the same artist photographed years apart, and I believe most pictures were related to the Juneau folk festival which begins next week.

Then we walked over to the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council where they had a show of UAS students competition pieces.

 Then off to the Canvas. 

I couldn't help playing with the top set of knots once I got it on the computer.

Here's the artist MK MacNaughton.  She'll probably hate this post because I focused on the strings and paper knots instead of her pencil drawings.  Sorry.