FCC Report: Local News Decline, Blogs Democratize, But Don't Yet Fill Gap

An FCC Report, THE INFORMATION NEEDS OF COMMUNITIES:The changing media landscape in a broadband age, published a couple of days ago reports a serious decline in local news brought about by the changing news technology world.

Below I've excerpted some of their comments on blogging and bloggers.  I'll try to do more later.

But first, their key findings are outlined in their executive summary:


On close inspection, some aspects of the modern media landscape may seem surprising:

• An abundance o media outlets does not translate into an abundance of reporting
• In many communities, there are now more outlets, but less local accountability reporting.
• While digital technology has empowered people in many ways, the concurrent decline in local reporting has, in other cases, shifted power away from citizens to government and other powerful institutions, which can more often set the news agenda.
• Far from being nearly-extinct dinosaurs, the traditional media players—TV stations and newspapers—have emerged as the largest providers of local news online.
• The nonprofit media sector has become far more varied, and important, than ever beore.It now includes state public affairs networks, wikis, local news websites, organizations producing investigative reporting, and journalism schools as well as low-power FM stations,traditional public radio and TV, educational shows on satellite TV, and public access channels. Most of the players neither receive, nor seek, government funds.
• Rather than seeing themselves only as competitors, commercial and nonprofit media are now finding it increasingly useful to collaborate [emphasis added]

Recommendations:

• Our specific recommendations ollow six broad principles:
• Information required by FCC policy to be disclosed to the public should, over time, be made available online.
• Greater government transparency will enable both citizens and reporters to more effectively monitor powerful institutions and benefit from public services.
• Existing government advertising spending should be targeted more toward local media.;
• Nonprofit media need to develop more sustainable business models, especially through private donations.
• Universal broadband and an open Internet are essential prerequisites or ensuring that the new media landscape serves communities well.
• Policymakers should take historically underserved communities into account when crafting strategies and rules.

Now, here are some things they say in the first 127 pages about blogging and bloggers:

Journalism as volunteerism - a thousand points of news

Perhaps no area has been more dramatically transformed than “hyperlocal”—coverage on the neighborhood or block by block level. Even in the fattest-and-happiest days of traditional media, they could not regularly provide news on such a granular level. Professional media have been joined by a wide range of local blogs, email lists, web-sites and the proliferation of local groups on national websites like Facebook or Yahoo!

For the most part, hyperlocally-oriented websites and blogs do not operate as profitable businesses, but they do not need to. This is journalism as volunteerism - a thousand points of news. The number and variety of websites, s, and tweets contributing to the news and information landscape is truly stunning. Yet this abundance can obscure a parallel trend: the shortage of full-time reporting.

One study in Baltimore:  95% of stories based on reporting done by traditional media

For instance, the Pew case study of Baltimore revealed a profusion of media outlets. Between new media(blogs and websites) and traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers), researchers counted 53 different outlets—considerably more than existed 10 years ago. But when Pew’s researchers analyzed the content they were providing,particularly regarding the city budget and other public affairs issues, they discovered that 95 percent of the stories—including those in the new media—were based on reporting done by traditional media (mostly the Baltimore Sun).  And those sources were doing less than they had done in the past. Several other studies have had similar findings.

Decline in gathering news, increase in distribution

This is not a criticism of citizen media or web-based news aggregators and commentators. Even when they are working primarily with the reporting of others, they often add tremendous value--distributing the news through alternate channels or offering new interpretations of its meaning. But we are seeing a decline in the media with a particular strength—gathering the information—and seeing it replaced by a media that often exhibits a different set of strengths (for instance, distributing and interpreting it).

. . . some of the changes hitting newsrooms may have improved coverage.

On the other hand, some of the changes hitting newsrooms may have improved coverage. Although the  Washington Post  has fewer education reporters, long-time journalist Jay Matthews says that by blogging he has gottencloser to real-world classroom issues: “I think that on balance—and this is a very contrarian view—our educationcoverage is better in the new era than in the old, because we have more contact with readers. Blogs allow us to be incontact with readers—it creates a debate and a back and forth.” He mentions a local story he covered about teacherswho no longer return graded exams to students. Parents were upset because they could not help their children learnfrom their mistakes. Matthews said the blog version of his story received about 50 comments from readers all overthe country. “Clearly this is something teachers are doing everywhere,” he says.

As in other areas, the cutbacks in education reporting have spurred the establishment of a number of non-profits that hire seasoned journalists to cover stories that newspapers miss. Dale Mezzacappa reported on educationfor the
Philadelphia Inquirer for 20 years before going to work for the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, where she is a contributing editor. Launched as a quarterly in 1994 to cover “underserved” communities in Philadelphia, the
Notebook is now available on the web. It cannot begin to replace large daily newspapers, Mezzacappa says, but it canll in some of the gaps.

Alan Gottlieb, a former reporter for the Denver Post, launched Education News Colorado inJanuary 2008.

The website, financed by local foundations, started by focusing on school-related legislation in thestate capitol, “because nobody does that anymore,” Gottlieb says.

In just a few years, the cost of publishing went from being relatively expensive to almost free

Meanwhile, the advent of free, simple-to-use blogging software was making it possible for every American to be a publisher, reporter, and pundit. By May 2011, one of the most popular blogging platforms, WordPress, was hosting 20 million blogs.

Though only a few bloggers have audiences large enough to place them among the top 100 websites, their contribution to news and commentary online has been revolutionary. The“long tail” came into view: instead of information being provided primarily by a few large players, the ecosystem now could sup-port millions of smaller players each serving a small but targeted audience.

The democratization of content creation caught on quickly. Wikipedia and other “wikis” enabled readers to collaborate in the creation of content; YouTube allowed a full range of users—from creative geniuses to proud parents to freaks—to “broadcast” their own videos; and Facebook gained national dominance as an all-purpose platform for self-expression and communication. Millions of people became not only consumers of information but creators, curators, and distributors. Remarkably, WordPress, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook offered these publishing tools to users for free.  It is hard to overstate the significance of these changes.  In just a few years, the cost of publishing went from being relatively expensive to almost free—at least in terms of the publishing technology.

. . .a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”   Hardly.

The digital world continues to change by the minute.Smartphone applications, tablet apps, e-Readers, and other new services now make it easy to access news and information on-the-go, using the Internet as a pipeline but bypassing the need for a web browser to display it. As consumers increasingly gravitate to applications and services that make use of the Internet through more closed systems, such as smartphones, some even question the viability of business plans built on the current search-based,website-centric Internet.

The crop of news and information players who gained prominence on the web 2.0 landscape—bloggers,citizen journalists, and Internet entrepreneurs—was initially mocked by traditional media leaders as being inferior, worthless, and even dangerous. Famously, Jonathan Klein, then-president of CNN, declared, “Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It’s] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”

Hardly. It is important to appreciate the extraordinary positive effects the new media—including those contributing while in pajamas—has had, not only in the spread of freedom around the world, but specifically in the provision of news, reporting, and civically important information.

More Diversity in Commentary and Analysis
The commentary business is far more open to new players. In the past, there were a handful of well-worn paths topundit-hood, usually requiring work as a big-time newspaper reporter or a top level government ofcial. The Inter-net allows for more newcomers. Markos Moulitsas, a former army sergeant, was a web developer when he createdthe Daily Kos, which has become the leading liberal blog. Glenn Reynolds, one of the top libertarian bloggers, is ab 2010, one of the top libertarian bloggers, is a professor at University of Tennessee. Matt Drudge was a telemarketer before he created the pioneering conservative aggregation site, the Drudge Report, and Andrew Breitbart, a leading conservative media entrepreneur, got his start in the online news world while working for Drudge.

The best web analysts have used the technology to improve the quality of their offerings. Andrew Sullivan was among the first to use the interactivity of the Internet to hone his argument in public, putting out an initial view-point and then adapting it, as new ideas or information challenged him. The best bloggers write with the knowledge that shoddy reporting or thinking will be caught in a matter of minutes.Some of these commentators perform the same function as the best news magazine and newspaper reporters: connecting dots (recognizing the links between seemingly isolated events) and ending inconsistencies in publicly available information. A handful of conservative bloggers, for instance, figured out that a key document in Dan Rather’s controversial 60 Minutes report on George W. Bush’s military service must have been fake, in part by noticing that the typeface on an ostensibly 30-year-old letter was suspiciously similar to a modern Microsoft Word font.

Cognitive Surplus

Web scholar Clay Shirky estimates that the citizens of the world have one trillion hours of free time annual-ly—what he refers to as a “cognitive surplus”—that could be devoted to shared projects and problem solving.

Technology has enabled some of this time to be spent on frivolous enterprises (“lolcats,” perhaps?), but some has been applied to civically important communal digital projects, as well. Shirky cites this example: Ory Okolloh, a blogger in Kenya, was tracking violence in the aftermath of her country’s December 2007 elections when the government imposed a news blackout. She appealed to her readers for updates on what was happening in their neighborhoods butwas quickly overwhelmed by the ood of information she received. Within 72 hours, two volunteer software engineershad designed a platform called “Ushahidi” to help her sort and map the information coming in from mobile phones and the web, so readers could see where violence was occurring and where there were peace efforts. This software has since been used “in Mexico to track electoral fraud, it’s been deployed in Washington, D.C., to track snow cleanup and most famously in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake,” Shirky says.

In other words, the technological revolution has not merely provided a flood of cool new gizmos. It has also democratized access to the world’s vast storehouse of knowledge and news.

I'll try to get more done, but I've got other things to do today.  Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Vic Kohring's Attorney Defending "Barefoot Bandit"

I saw an AP story in the paper this morning on the ferry over to Seattle that John Henry Browne, Vic Kohring's slick Seattle attorney, is also Colton Harris-Moore's attorney.  Colton's the 20 year old who is alleged to have stolen cars, boats, and airplanes as he ran from the FBI for two years.  It seems they're working out a plea deal but they're hung up on the details of possible book and movie deals.

We've been busy having a good time here with both our kids, so I'm just sending that little bit.  I found a link to the whole AP story here if you want to see more.

Mt. Fairweather Serendipity

 I finally got this month's book club book yesterday at the library and was determined to read as much as I could on the plane.  So I had just taken the picture below when I got to page 38.

Lynn Schooler, Walking Home: A Traveler in the Alaskan Wilderness, a Journey into the Human Heart, page 38:

Through binoculars I could see the tops of trees rising from beyond the surf.  The scene was identical to one Captain James Cook had noted while exploring this coast 230 years earlier, on a clear, fine day in May of 1778, as HMS Resolution and its sister ship Discovery crawled north in light winds over a rolling, glassy sea.  Cook, writing in the staid clear language preferred by the British Admiralty, recorded that the snow, from the highest summits down to the sea coast, some few places excepted where we could perceive trees, as it were, rising their heads out of the sea."

It was such a fine, almost balmy day that Cook was inspired to name the towering mountain behind the next headland he came to Mount Fair Weather.  In choosing to commemorate the weather that allowd him to see the 15,000 foot peak from miles away, Cook was unknowingly acknowledging something the Tlingit Indians had known for centures:  When Na goot Ku, a friendly birdlike spirit that lives on Fearweather's summit, lifts the clouds enough for "the paddlers mountain" to be visible, the weather will be calm enough to travel at sea by dougout canoe.

Now, I'm not 100% that's Mt. Fairweather.  Perhaps I was seeing what I wanted to see - a very human way of knowing things,  and obviously the weather wasn't that fair at sealevel. But we'd already passed what I took to be Mt. Sanford, so there is a good chance. We were a little more than an hour out of Anchorage.

I think this is Mt. Sanford

A Better Map of Anchorage

As we flew out of Anchorage today to go to an important graduation in Seattle, the plane took off to the south rather than the usual northern loop. And I saw a much better view of Anchorage than what I've been seeing lately. Here's today's view.

Here's the view of Anchorage I've gotten more familiar with in the last 3 months:

Turnagain Arm was pretty spectacular.

Following the Seward Highway south.

Bird Point

Here's a link to the State's webcam shot there a little after this picture was taken.

Note:  In case it wasn't obvious, there was a bit of photoshop tampering with the top picture to merge three different pictures together and to acknowledge a bit that they were from somewhat different angles.

Powerline Pass

My daughter drove our van back up to Alaska after it enjoyed a winter further south.  So after the obligatory dinner at Thai Kitchen, she wanted to go to Powerline Pass at Glen Alps.  There was a brisk, chilly wind.

Normally I try to get a picture without the powerline, but I have a friend who is far more attuned to powerlines than to mountains, so this picture is for him.

Spring is a couple weeks behind what it is down in the city, but there were a few flowers that stand out against the brown grass.

I'm not sure what these little flowers are.  Alaskapi. . .are you there to assist?
[UPDATE June 9:  Alaskapi comes through - see her  thoughts on what these are in the comments.  Thanks!]

I think these are globe flowers, except the Audubon Guide says their range is:

British Columbia to Washington; in the Rocky Mountains south to Colorado.

 The lupine are just starting to flower.

10 = 1: Board Gives New Numbers To The New Districts

I listened to the meeting online today.  The highlights are
1.  New numbering scheme for the House and Senate Districts.
2.  Postponed a scheme for randomizing truncation (I'll do a post on that soon) until they have the report on changes in the Senate districts.  They'll meet next on Monday June 13 to do this task. 

Map with Draft Plan Numbers - Click to enlarge

The map above has the numbers they used in their draft plan.  The lists below in my meeting notes have these draft plan numbers and the newly assigned numbers.  So far, I don't think there is a new map with the new numbers. 

[Below are my running notes of the meeting. As always, be warned.  These are rough notes.  I've cleaned them up a little, but remember:  They give you the gist, but not necessarily everything and not verbatim. ]

June 7 Alaska Redistricting Board Meeting


10:05 call to order.  [Listening online.]
All members are there.  [Holm by audio, it sounds like]

Motion from yesterday that they postponed.  Taylor has a numbering system.  He wanted 1 to be, putting words inot your mouth.
Brody:  I know later the Senate seats will be letters, but for now,
Torgerson:  Look at Taylor’s map - it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.  We had one board member request to keep the rural Native districts the same - 37, 38, 40 - and the Senate numbers the same. 

[10:08  Pictures coming up on the GoToMeeting]


Taylor Bickford (Board Executive Director):  I got the shape files from Eric this morning. You have maps.  It’s also available on line.

Marie requested the rural boards stay the same for continuity.  PeggyAnn said she didn’t care about SE as long as it works for the state.

Torgerson (Board Chair):  I started with 40, 39, 38 . .  [For the most part, the ‘old’ numbers are the numbers they had on their draft plan maps.  They ARE NOT necessarily the old district numbers which, for the most part are substantially changed. These are the numbers from the new district maps they approved, so you need them if you want to see where the new districts are until they put up the final maps with the final numbers.]

I started with Fairbanks. 
So, District 10 (Fairbanks/Wainright) = the new District 1 + 11(North Pole/Eilson) = New District  2  = Senate A

Map has 'old' numbers - Click to enlarge

Holm:  1 is North Pole Eilson - you reversed them.
Taylor Bickford:  I’ll leave it
7 (Farmers Loop/Two Rivers)= D3 +  9 (City of Fairbanks) =D4= Senate B
8 (Chena Ridge) = 5  + 12 (Richardson Highway) = 6    = Senate C
Worked my way down.
 





Matsu
17 (Rural Matsu)  = new 7  paired with 14 (Palmer) = 8   =  Senate D
13 (Greater Wasilla) = new 9   16 (Big Lake)  = 10  = Senate E
15 (Chugiak) = 11  plus 19 (ER/FT Rich) = 12  = Senate F   [Connects Matsu and Anchorage]
















Anchorage
20 (Elmendorf) =13  plus  23 = 14 (College Gate) =  Senate G
26 (University) = 15 plus   27 (Spenard)=16   = Senate H
24 (Mt View) =17  plus  25 (Downtown)  18 = Senate I
28 (Turnagain)  = 19   plus   29 (Sand Lake)  = 20 = Senate J
31 (Oceanview) = 21  plus  30 (Taku Campbell)  =22  =  Senate K
For listeners, the Senate pairings were adopted yesterday, were just numbering them.
32 (Huffman) = 23     plus  22 (Abbot) = 24  = Senate L
21 (Muldoon/Basher) =25  plus 18 (Eagle River Valley) = 26  = Senate M

Click to enlarge

That completes Anchorage except South Anchorage
33 (South Anchorage to Girdwood/Portage) -27    34(North Kenai/Seward)=28   = Senate N
5 (Kenai-Soldotna) - 29  plus 6 (Homer/South Kenai) =30  = Senate O

Kenai done.  to get rural to work 36 to 40, we jumped from Kenai to SE

Southeast



Juneau so we could wrap around
4 (Mendenhall) = 31  plus
3 (downtown Juneau, Skagway/Petersburg) =32  = Senate P
1 (Ketchikan) =33 plus  2 (Sitka) =34 =   Senate Q

(See state map on top for these)
Native rural districts keep their same numbers [though some have changed significantly]:
35(Kodiak/Cordova) =35  36(Bristol Bay/Aleutians) =36  = Senate R

37(Bethel/Seldovia) =37  38(Wade Hampton/Denali) =38 = Senate S

39(Bering Straits/Interior Villages)=39  40(Arctic) =40 = Senate T

Torgerson:  Bob suggests the first pairings  We have truncation to do, but we don’t have the population numbers yet.  In my mind we’ve changed everything around quite a bit.  But I don’t know.  I think we should amend the motion to take truncation out.
Brody:  Divide the motion
Torgerson:  I’m ready to vote on truncation, but I was advised by counsel to wait for the report.  In my mind, except for Juneau . . . truncation we can do on Monday 13th.  Anything on metes and bounds issues Taylor Bickford or Eric bring up. 

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Amend motion to deal with truncation on Monday 13.
Greene:  Don’t we have an amendment on the floor - was there a second?
Torgerson:  motion is to wait on truncation til May 13.
White:  point of order, is this motion dealing with 2 and 4 year rotation.  I don’t think you can do that because you have to fit them into their rotation.  You’re saying odd gets 2 and even gets 4 years.
You can adopt the numbers and Senate pairings, but you need the report first.  If you aren’t truncating someone, the person may fall into the wrong category.
Taylor Bickford:  If you adopt it now and a person doesn’t fall into the category, then you can . . .
Torgerson:  When can you do it? 
Taylor Bickford: Eric sent the raw data can’t do it today.
Torgerson: I think any reasonable person can look at the districts and see it.
Taylor Bickford: I could do that today.
Torgerson:  If we inadvertantly assign someone. . .we can’t give anyone a six year seat.
Taylor Bickford:  Can we adopt the numbers and the odd even numbers and then if the report requires we can amend if there are exceptions.  Once we have the data, and we say, these two people need to be truncated, except for these two people. 
Torgerson:  We could also truncate everybody.  You don’t think everything hasn’t changed substantially?
Taylor Bickford:  I don’t know.
Torgerson:  Truncation is not a legal issue, a board issue.  Really no criteria.  It’s up to us to do that. 
White:  Only standard you have is the district has substantially changed. 
Taylor Bickford: If you’re going to use the data, you can’t do that today. If you’re going to use something else, whatever that is,  . .  but data is too raw.
Brody:  Every district has changed by 5000 people.  If some districts had 3000 less, means more than 2500 people.  The top ten years ago was   and now we’re at 17,755, so at a mininum every Senate district changed by 5000 people. 
Torgerson:  I see what you’re saying.  Every district changed by more than 25%.
Last board used 90% change.  Wide gap.  Going by historical standards, then it means 10% change.
Holm:  Every house district in Fairbanks changed by 3000, Senate changed by 6000.  I can wait until Monday. 
Torgerson:  Michael’s point is well taken.  The report might affect any truncation.  But I can almost tell you which districts.  We know 40 didn’t change.  39 is substantially different.  I don’t know of any in Anchorage that didn’t change.  Ketchikan, Haines.  Only downtown Juneau, but it has Skagway and Petersburg.  I don’t think I need a change.
White:  You could preliminarily truncate and then make changes when report comes out.  You could adopt due to potential information. 
Torgerson:  What didn’t change?
Taylor Bickford:  Juneau and I think some districts in the Valley.  Juneau for sure jumps out to me. 
Torgerson:  Michael, you think we could adopt this and start over on Monday?
White:
Taylor Bickford:  Independent of truncation, we’re getting a numbering system. 
White:  We know 10 people will run in 2012.
Taylor Bickford:  You could set ten Senators for 2012 and ten for 2014. 
Greene:  Couldn’t we just wait until Monday 13th?  It would be clearer.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  I’m of the same mind.  Talk about numbering, two years and four years  . . .
Torgerson:  I apologize.  Now that Marie says this, I think it’s appropriate.  We have a motion to bring truncation until Monday.  If maker of the amendment to the amendment will withdraw your motion.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  withdrawy
Torgerson:  Main motion 1,3, 5, = two years 2, 4, 6  be four year, we postpone that to June 13.  When numbering is done it’s a lot clearer.  Table to June 13.
5-0 yes  Five-Zero motion postponed to next meeting on June 13.
PAM: I’ll make a motion for numbering districts and A through whatever.
Torgerson: moved to adopt Taylor’s numbering system.
5-0  yes  Board has adopted the numbering.

We’ve rolled through my agenda.  Anything else?
Taylor Bickford:  No, the numbering was big, it let’s us do the maps.
White:  Board plan has been adopted and put onthe website and allowed - make sure there’s a disclaimer that the staff is cleaning it up.
Torgerson:  We’ve been putting everything on the web, so I don’t see why we should stop now. 
White:  Just some disclaimer about cleaning up and final adopted on June 14. 
Torgerson:  Discussion with legal before, I anticipate having the proclamation signed by all the members.  Last time only the chair, a board member asked that we all sign, and I think that’s a good idea.  No legal precedence that we all sign, but I think it’s appropriate.

We stand adjourned at 10:43am.

Board Approves Senate Pairings

Continued from the previous post on the Monday afternoon session.  NOTE: All the district numbers they used are subject to change as they try to make the numbers go in some sort of sequential order around the state.

2.  They made their Senate pairings (that is they decided which house districts were to be paired as Senate districts.

Southeast Senate Districts:

Double click to enlarge

Districts 3 and 4.  They decided it made sense that the two districts that have Juneau in them should be one Senate district.   So districts 3 and 4 (I think 3 is downtown Juneau and south of Juneau and 4 is the Mendenhall Glacier area and north.) {Egan}

Districts 1 and 2.  With Juneau paired, you have only one other pairing left.  They mentioned that this pairs incumbent  Senators Kookesh (D) and Stedman (R), but this is unavoidable because they had already put them in the same House district.







Fairbanks Senate Districts

Fairbanks
Board member Holm:

It's a little better if you click on it

7&9 {Pairs Democrats Paskvan and Thomas}
8&12  {empty?}
10&11 {Coghill}

From my written notes:
Holm: Overwhelming reason for two pairings: 10&11 both have military contingent
7 goes out to Bush area, a little different from 9, but fits together well - people in Farmers’ Loop area.
8 really doesn’t have any connection with anyone down the valley, so it makes sense to put it with 12 - (the Valdez district)
Adding 2500 people to Fairbanks changes things. Used to be split.
Still have five districts - 8 connected to 12
Doubles up Thomas, I think, is in seven. Not sure where 8 goes. I think Paskvan is in 9
Coghill is in 11, nobody in 10.
No one in house district 8. Whose the Sen from Delta?
Torgerson: Coghill - 12 and 8 will be a new Senator.
Essentially, two truncated. How did that work.
Torgerson: I’ll point out, 12 is the Valdez district. A little outside of Fairbanks.
Holm: They’ve been paired for a long time.
Brody: We voted not to consider Senators in our discussion. What are the plus and minuses of having a vacant district or each one having a district. [No one picked up this discussion.]
5-0 yes adopted.

Double click to enlarge

Matsu Senate Districts
Matsu
3:57
Torgerson:  Testimony was to put Wasilla and Palmer separate.
15 goes with Anchorage 19 - split district with Anchorage
14&17 - Palmer to rural Matsu
13&16 - Wasilla/Big Lake/Pt. McKenzie
If they want to be separate - overwhelmingly. 
Brody:  Bothers me with the odd numbers above and below Anchorage.  Rational way to hook odd number of Kenai to Matsu?
Torgerson: If rational no.  If a way?  yes.

I'm not sure how this affects incumbent Senators. [Update June 7:  Phil Munger in a comment below says Menard is in 17 and Huggins is in 14.]



Kenai Senate Districts
I'm not completely sure about the Kenai districts.  The maps aren't too helpful.
5 and 6  are paired.  I believe this is Kenai and Soldotna going on down to Homer. {Wagoner}
34 (North Kenai Peninsula and the road all the way to Seward) & 33 (South Anchorage) {Giesel}
I don't know how this affects incumbents.

Anchorage Senate Districts

My understanding is that Chair Torgerson worked on these with the staff.  Using AFFR's map with Anchorage incumbent locations, I'm guessing at the incumbents in each district.  Don't bet on the incumbents, that's speculation.

• 21/18 Majority of Muldoon with Eagle River (dark green) {Davis - ER possibly Dyson?UPDATE: No, I'm told there is no pairing here, just Davis.}

  

  Click to enlarge - names are community councils

• 20/23 - Russian Jack/ Elmendorf  (yellow) {Wielechoski?}
• 22/32 (Abbot Loop Mid Hillside, Huffman/O’Malley (puke green) {Meyer?}
• 24/25 - downtown (blue){Ellis}
• 26/27 Midtown/UMed/Campbell Park (Brown){empty?}
• 28/29 SandLake/Lake Turnagain (pinkish - north and south of the airport){ French?}
• 31/30Taku and Bayshore/Klatt (burnt orangish){McGuire?}
• 33/34 (Hillside-South Anchorage/Kenai Peninsula to Seward) {Giesel}

Native Senate Districts 

39/40 Nome/North Slope {Olson}
37/38  Aleutians West-Bethel/Wade Hampton-Matsu-Denali-Fairbanks {Hoffman}
35/36  Kodiak/Bethel-Dillingham {Stevens}



Here's some speculation on the Senate incumbents who I think are paired:

Southeast:  This one appears unavoidable, at least given the House districts they created. Stedman and Kookesh live in the same district - though people say that Stedman has two houses each in a different district.  With the loss of a House district, this is hard.  Since Kookesh is Native, it may raise issues with the Department of Justice.





Fairbanks:  They've paired two Democratic Senators while there is a vacant Senate seat nearby.  Seems they could have figured a way to work this out if they had wanted to.

Anchorage:  Bettye Davis, a Democrat and the only African-American in the Legislature has been paired with the Eagle River district.  [UPDATE June 7:  I've promoted Stoltz from the House to the Senate - sorry, it was late last night when I finished this - and I was told today that Dyson lives the current 19, so there was no pairing of Sen. Bettye Davis with another incumbent] in I don't know where the Eagle River/Chugiak Senators live, but since Tom Stoltz is from Chugiak, I'm guessing he's in the district paired with Matsu and that Davis is paired with Fred Dyson (R.)  Eagle River has been a pretty safe Republican area.  There is an open Senate district not far from Davis' Anchorage district, though the lines would have had to have been drawn differently to make them contiguous.  I'm assuming the two Eagle River districts were not paired because each has a Republican Senator. 

A lot of Republicans would like to see an end to the even split in the Senate that has led to a coalition majority there.  (For that matter Democrats would too, but the other way.)  These Senate pairings would seem to make it a little harder for Democrats to maintain their ten seats.

Board Approves New Kodiak and Dillingham Districts

I'll try to summarize the outcomes of the afternoon session of the Alaska Redistricting Board.  Part 1 - this post is on the new Kodiak and Dillingham Districts.

NOTE:  All the district numbers will be changed so there is a more sequential numbering system throughout the state.  So numbers given here are related to the maps they were using today. 

1.  They approved a new map of South West Alaska Districts which they believe will meet Department of Justice standards of no retrogression.  The map below is close, but turned out not to be the actual map they created.  They got enough Native population into the Kodiak district so that it could be paired with the Dillingham.

Double Click to Enlarge

To do this they had to find Native areas to pull into the Kodiak district (35) (like Nanwalek and Port Graham) and they had to shed non-Native locations like Dutch Harbor from the Dillingham District (36.)  Actually, they created a district that goes from Yakutat in SE across Prince William Sound to Kodiak.

Double click to enlarge

To get a high enough Native voting age population in the second district for this Senate pair, they had to shed some non-Native population.  Since Dutch Harbor is mostly non-Native, the ended up splitting the Aleutians at Akutan.   And the connected back to the Lower Kuskokwim Delta.  I think St. Paul and St. George are part of this District 37, but I'm not completely sure - the color on the map I have is wrong, but I think someone mentioned that. 

You can see from the video why I didn't totally catch it all.  The maps they handed out weren't labeled right.  The map they were looking at on the computer turns out to be the wrong map. 

Here's board member PeggyAnn McConnochie presenting these new districts to the board before they approved them.





1B - they had to reapprove Kenai Borough because some of it had been taken out (Nanwalek and Port Graham seemed to be the key ones) and put into the Kodiak district that now goes from Yakutat to Kodiak.


They had an hour long executive session before lunch to talk about litigation issues before this plan was presented.  Presumably there might be some questions about House districts not being exactly contiguous.  This comes from the state constitution and means:   "All parts of a district being connected at some point with the rest of the district."  Since the Aleutian Chain is islands, they have to be connected by water, but what about that section on the mainland that includes Bethel, Chefornak and Mekoryuk?  It's not clear, as I said already, if St. Paul and St. George are in D36 or D37.  I think they said the color was wrong on the map.  They could be the contiguous link between D37's Eastern Aleutian section and the mainland section. 

Removing Warts - Board Conceptually Approves Anchorage, Matsu, Valdez, Fairbanks, and Southeast

Sunday, the staff said they spent removing 'warts' from the various plans and today they went through them to explain strange bumps and shapes that for various reasons like following a creek, or a housing development or a census block that had few people but took up lots of land, they left the warts in.  As they went through each area, the conceptually approved them.  Then, before approving the rural Native districts, they went into executive session to discuss potential litigation, which I assume they think could result from their Native districts.  They scheduled to reconvene at two.  I scheduled another meeting I had to do for whenever the break was, so I haven't been able to load any photos to show some of the 'warts' they left in.  It's going on 2pm, so I'm just posting this for the three people who care. 





Below are my running notes during the meeting.  I haven't had a chance to edit at all.  So be warned - this is like an abstract painting of the meeting.  You get the idea, but don't assume anything is verbatim or that everything is there.  I did a little video taping, so there's a gap for that too. 

June 6, 2011

Taylor Bickford:  Spent weekend going over plans, cleaning up little things.  Go over the changes with the board so they know what it is before they approve it

Start with Anchorage:  Chair circled some warts and asked me to see if they could be fixed.  How?  If not, why not?

District 33 - affected 33 and 21 - added tail on hilside.  Without the tail, it follows the Basher Community Council exactly.  Didn’t affect any population.

Chunk of 22 into 23 - couldn’t be changed without fundamentally changing the plan.   REally dense population in neighborhood - 120, 135.  Don’t cleanly break.  No matter how you change it, if you put it back into 23, there’s no clean place to do.  You’re following the Chester Creek boundary

19/20  along base boundary.  No one lives there, but right next to it is a dense block.  Added one empty block in.

27nw corner - nothing severe, something to clean up if you could.    Fix one part, clean boundary along the airport to fish creek.  How would it affect Meets and bounds - good to have easily describable boundaries.  Also makes voters job easier to understand where their district is. 

PeggyAnn McConnochie  asked about another bump -A:  follows the creek. 

30, 31, 32, 33 - boundary RR and Seward Highway.  chunk of 32 past the Seward Highway.  Just looked awkward.  I tried to move things around.  Couldn’t figure out how to get the population back across the highway, wihtout shifting the district.  Huge amount of population.  Also awkward blocks going north - blocks go way up when you click them.  Deviations still good between 31, 32, 33.

10:21

this one followed campbell creek, Lake

32/22 - no way to make this straight - block shape problem, no way to fix, or natural boundary involved. 

10:22 - that concludes our work for Anchorage.  Making sure taken care of in logical way. 

27 yellow 26 25  - following Chester Creek, low population.  I didn’t want to change the district.  We’ve all done this hundreds of times, you know you shift 100 people and then hours later you have changed all the districts. 

Now on MOA Website - they have shape files online.  Pulling them up

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Can you download current districts over this map?  A:  I can do that.

Almost identical to what we looked at the other day.  Want to point out htat West Anchorage - this whole area is airport and Kincaid park.  You could add it to 29 or 28 and it doesn’t make a difference.  Population is in Spenard, Forest Park, Turnagain, Westchester Lagoon. 

21 - You had Muldoon split 4 ways before and now all one district.

Downtown mostly the same.  Reunites Govt. Hill area, what we heard from testimony, respects the military boundary which other plans did not.    Everyone good on that?  I’ll check if the shape files are good. 

Back to MOA files online.  I think

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Now that we know this, we won’t use it any more (software) [I think that’s what she was saying]

How many times community councils split.  A lot all in one district.  Some are split.  Some misleading because majority will still be together.  in this area - 22 and 33 -  a lot is unpopulated.

Really big - near airport - only divided 2x.  twice, twice, and a lot that are whole.  We don’t see some of the issues of other plans with seven or eight splits or three

Anything on Anchorage or move on to next region.

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Move to adopt.
Marie Greene:  second
Torgerson:  Motion should reflect this is final draft plan.  Discussion?
I supposed we should do roll call
5 yes 0 nay  - Anchorage plan adopted as final draft plan. 

Next - Matsu, Kenai, Valdez, Fairbanks

Brody:  In Anchorage plan we didn’t look at ER.
Torgerson:  Good point.  Technically ER is part of Anchorage
Taylor Bickford:  We really didn’t change.  on the west there’s the Bases boundary.  Both ER districts - 18, 19 and a handful were the same in the various plans.  but 18 and 19 were identical.  I didn’t change anything.  I don’t know this area enough.
Torgerson.  We were only looking at anomalies.
TB: Moving into Matsu.  There were some changes.
Starting with 16.  [I took a short phone break.]    I don’t know Matsu that well.  Making little changes that sound like what I got on video
10:43:  That sums up Matsu.  A couple shifts on 12 boundary and 14 boundary.  Trying to respect city boundaries a little more.  You have to pick how far you’re going to bring 12 in.  Good to get Eric’s feedback.  If picking unpopulated districts, then affect compactness.  How far should you go.  Northern end follows drainage, Chase Place boundary until it intersects with another drainage. Trying to make Eric’s life easier [I think because he has to write the written descriptions of the boundaries of each district.]
Deviation from 12 increased, but not because of what happened on Matsu side.  I’d like to jump in on that now if that’s ok.
Torgerson: I think we should adopt Matsu first.  Anymore questions for Taylor? 
PeggyAnn McConnochie: I like that. 
Motion - PeggyAnn McConnochie?  Second:  Holm?
5-0 vote adopted

Go to district 12 next?

Cleaned up lines at Kenny Lake - mostly people got missed.  Helped 38 Native population.  Also Copper Center, mostly Native, a couple blocks had been added to 12 and I added everything back to 39.  Then if you work your way up, none of these other areas are split.

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  39’s VAP went up, right? 
Taylor Bickford: Got it from 66 to 67.  Good because grabbed some racially polarized areas of the state.  Probably some zero lots here - meets and bounds issue, not population. 
They gave us a sheet of criteria and this meets all those criteria.
Torgerson:  I don’t think they included the Matsu.
Taylor Bickford: They have the whole Delta.  That was one of Valdez’ points.  “If you take in Matsu, ok as long as not Pt. McKenzie.”
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  You did great.
Torgerson: Will of the floor on Valdez?
Holm:  We haven’t looked at upper portion.  Did you change anything in Fairbanks?
Taylor Bickford:  No changes.
Holm:  I say we should move to adopt that in our plan.
PeggyAnn McConnochie: second
Torgerson: Discussion?  Vote:
5-0 adopte D12 into final plan.
What’s next?  Kenai, SE, Fairbanks
Taylor Bickford:  No changes to SE.  PeggyAnn McConnochie did that with fine tooth come and they traveled the area, so no changes.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Eric said he did some water blocks. 
Torgerson:  Motion to adopt SE into our final draft plan.  Discussion?
5-0  yes

That leaves Kenai and Fairbanks - which next?

Taylor Bickford:  Kenai, no, let’s go to Fairbanks.
No changes.  Jim’s from Fairbanks and knows it well.
Holm:  No.  Looked at moving Eilson a bit, but no changes.  Population is pretty close. 

Torgerson: Motion to adopt Fairbanks into final draft plan.
5-0  yes - adopted

Next is Kenai:

Kenai depends on Native districts and how we do Fairbanks.

Going to Executive Session to discuss lititagion. 

Chester Creek Moose

Besides the exercise, the cheap fuel, the green of the trees. the murmur of the creek, and the free parking spot right at the Redistricting Board's door, biking gives me avian symphonies every day, and once in a while I get to mingle with a moose in its natural habitat. 

 

My ride from the University area to downtown is about 3.5 miles and maybe half of it is on the Chester Creek bike trail.  It is, without a doubt, the best part.  And a moose picture let's me put up a really short post.