Three Challenges To Redistricting Plan Arrived By Deadline - Cases Attached

[The court filings for all three challenges are at the bottom of this post.]

Yesterday - June [July] 13 - was the deadline for challenges to the Alaska Redistricting Board's Plan.  We've known about the Fairbanks North Star Borough's impending challenge since the Borough Assembly voted to challenge the board's plan last month.

click to enlarge considerably

Along with that challenge comes one from George Riley, 'a qualified voter who resides in Ester"  and Ron Dearborn, 'a qualified voter who resides in Goldstream.'   These are the two, generally considered more liberal, communities just outside the Fairbanks city limits which have been put into the huge new District 38 which stretches out to Hooper Bay.  (See the blue district on the map.)

I've only had time to glance at these two challenges.  The focus seems to be
1.  The board valued minimizing deviation (from the ideal district size of 17,755) too high, short changing other values such as "socially and economically integrated."
2.  Thus they put what is essentially suburban Fairbanks neighborhoods into a district with predominantly Native villages with no running water or sewage systems whose socio-economic interests are vastly different.

There's a lot more listed, but on first glance, that seems to be the crux.  I need to go back and review more.  (So many posts like that unfortunately.)  You can read the complete challenges below.

The third challenge comes from the City of Petersburg, and three Petersburg voters - Mark L. Jensen Nancy C. Strand, and Brenda L. Norheim.  Their complaint seems to center on the fact that Petersburg is socio-economically integrated with Sitka and other smaller SE villages and has been linked with them in their previous district.  Linking them with "with part of the City and Borough of Juneau (in District 32), a municipality with which Petersburg does not share such common socio-economic interests."

The complete Petersburg challenge is below.

My understanding is that all three challenges will be lumped together.  While I watched the redistricting board at work and listened to some of the public testimony, it was clear that 'socio-economic integration' means different things to different people.  If there's a district that links interior, road-system, basically non-Native towns to roadless, Native villages on the Coast, then complaints by Muldoon folks that they aren't 'socio-economically integrated' with Eagle River are unconvincing (though the board managed to unlink them.)

Petersburg's challenge, it would seem, doesn't have a chance if Fairbanks' challenge to District 38 doesn't prevail.

The Fairbanks News Miner  reported on the Borough's challenge. [And they have a link to the Borough's court documents.] So did the Anchorage Daily News.  They reported the Democrats and Alaskans for Fair Redistricting are NOT filing challenges because they thought they could better spend the money it would take on elections. 

The Board itself will meet Monday, July 18, at 10 am in their headquarters. According to board Executive Director Taylor Bickford, there will be some public meeting to announce the challenges to the board's plan and the status of the preclearance* report to be sent to the Justice Department.   Then the board will go into executive session to discuss litigation  and preclearance strategies.

*Because Alaska has had Voting Rights Act violations in the past, it is one of 16 states that need Department of Justice 'preclearance' before implementing their plan.

The Court Documents

[Scribd has been having problems.  The documents are below, but if they don't show up, be patient and try again soon.]

Fairbanks North Star Borough 's Complaint Re Redistricting Board


George Riley v. Alaska Redistricting Board


City of Petersburg Challenge to Redistricting Plan

Don't Like the ACLU? Compare Your Image to the Real Thing - National Head Speaks at UAA Tonight

Do you trust the media?  You don't????   Well, here's a chance to compare what you hear in the media against the real thing.

The Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union is talking tonight at

UAA at 7pm.  

Wendy Williamson Auditorium

Free Parking

And the talk is free too.

The ACLU has been controversial, on many occasions because of the people they have defended - from the right of American Nazis to march in a Jewish neighborhood, Rush Limbaugh's right to keep his medical records private, to the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church,  as well as the rights of American Muslims.

They would argue that their ideology is the US Constitution and their belief that all Americans are equal before the law, no matter how unpopular their views.  

One of the problems I see is that some people tend to think in more concrete terms and others in more abstract terms.  Concrete thinkers see what they think is a despicable defendant, and can't quite comprehend that even that person is protected by the Constitution and the bill of rights.

But the ACLU would tell you that when there are 'despicable' people, well, that's why the Bill of Rights was written.   They aren't saying these people shouldn't be convicted if they've committed a crime, but that they should get fair treatment from the authorities and get a fair trial.  They shouldn't be judged because of their ideas, but because they violated a Constitutional law.

It's much easier to get support to violate the rights of 'despicable' defendants, but that sets a precedent for the next, less despicable, person, and slowly the breach in our rights gets bigger and bigger.

Just as TSA rules were justified to protect us from terrorists and have unraveled to the point that recently a 95 year-old woman in a wheel chair - was forced to take off her diaper before she could get through security. (TSA denied they required diaper removal.)

Whether you are a supporter of the ACLU or a critic, the opportunity to hear - and talk to (he'll be available to talk to at a reception afterward) - is a chance to match the media coverage against the real thing. 

Here's what the ACLU website says about the director:

About Anthony D. Romero
Mr. Romero took the helm of the ACLU just four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks and led the national Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis, achieving court victories on the Patriot Act, uncovering thousands of pages of documents detailing the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and filing the first successful legal challenge to the Bush administration's illegal NSA spying program.

Recently, he has led the fight to restore civil liberties, including pushing for accountability for torture committed under the Bush administration, fighting the practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial and challenging the excessive use of the state secrets privilege to block lawsuits over national security abuses.

The sixth executive director of the ACLU, and the first Latino and openly gay person to serve in that capacity, Romero has been named one of Time Magazine's 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America, and is a frequent media commentator, including guesting on the Colbert Report. In 2007, Romero and co-author and NPR correspondent Dina Temple-Raston published In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror,  a book that takes a critical look at civil liberties in this country at a time when constitutional freedoms are in peril.

The presentation's main sponsors are the Alaska branch of the ACLU and the UAA  Justice Center.  The Journalism and Public Communication Department and KYES - Channel 5 - are videotaping the talk.  A 60 minute version will be aired on

KYES -Channel 5 - Saturday July 23 at 4pm   AND Sunday, July 24 at 9am


For people outside of Anchorage, check the Journalism website - they are putting up a live online stream of the talk.

Republican Attack Dogs Turning On Their Masters

The Republicans have encouraged and benefited from the rise of take-no-prisoners attack politics.  A constant dose of acid news via Fox, Limbaugh, and all the others, has infected a significant minority of the population with nasty anger and a belief in simplistic right or wrong,  good or evil,  ideological narratives about economics, religion, foreign affairs, marriage, and every other topic.  (A Gawker piece on Roger Ailes details how he carried out his plans for shaping the news to suit conservative needs.)

As long as the mob was aimed at Democrats, all was ok.  But in the 2010 primaries, Tea Party candidates began knocking off established Republican politicians.

And now Senate Republican leader McConnell and Republican House Chair Boehner can't call off their attack dogs.

The no-compromise wing of the Republican party is now demanding the debt be cut by cutting-programs-and-no-new-taxes even if their stance causes the United States to default.   Facts, particularly about complex topics, can't compete with ideology and strong emotions.

Mentioning that "the last five Democratic Presidents (Clinton, Carter, LBJ, JFK, and Truman) all reduced public debt as a share of GDP, while the last four Republican Presidents (GW Bush, GHW Bush, Reagan, and Ford) all oversaw an increase in the country’s indebtedness" is brushed aside.  Even if you add that "David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, as op-ed contributor to the New York Times, blamed the "ideological tax-cutters" of the Reagan administration for the increase of national debt during the 1980s."
 


But McConnell and Boehner understand that defaulting will have huge negative impacts on the world economy as well as the US economy.

McConnell says, after blaming everything on the Democrats' desire for bigger government for 2,300 words,

“So Republicans will choose a path that actually reflects the will of the people — which is to do the responsible thing and ensure the government doesn’t default on its obligations.  [emphasis added]

Boehner says,

I agree with the president that the national debt limit must be raised, and I’m glad that he made the case for it today.  But the American people will not accept – and the House cannot pass – a bill that raises taxes on job creators."[emphasis added.]

[I would point out his use of 'job creators' to describe the businesses that are flush with cash, but not spending it on creating jobs.  And earlier in this press release he says the trade off is

"the  administration gets its debt limit increase, and the American people get their spending cuts and their reforms."

As though only the President needed the debt limit increase - which Boehner says must happen - not all of us, and in exchange the Republicans get their cuts.]


To prevent default, Sen. McConnell has proposed a twisted piece of legislation that would move the power to increase the debt ceiling from Congress to the President. As Fred Barnes describes it at Fox News:

To counter Obama, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell unveiled legislation requiring the president to submit a series of three requests - now, in the fall, and next summer - to increase the debt ceiling.

Each request would have to include spending cuts in excess of the amount of the increase in the limit on borrowing. If Congress rejected the cuts as insufficient by passing a "resolution of disapproval," the president could send a new package of cuts or veto the resolution. Should his veto be sustained - at least 34 senators would be needed - the debt limit would rise with no cuts attached.

The idea behind the complicated plan is twofold. One, it would avert a tax increase. Two, it would, as a Senate aide said, "put all the onus [of raising the debt limit] on the president." Assuming a bipartisan agreement is impossible - and the Republicans assume it is - "this is the only plan that would prevent a default."

Fox has a bunch of Conservative analyses on this - those supporting McConnell and those opposing him.


The whole point seems to be this.  The Republican leadership knows we need to increase the debt ceiling.  But it also knows it can't get its party members to vote for it.  And it fears Republican primary voters will punish those who do.  So, they are kicking the can into the White House, hoping to blame Obama and the Congressional Democrats.  Even though they know that we need to raise the debt limit.

It seems to me there comes a time when leadership is called for.  When people need to stand up for what is right, even if it means taking risks, like losing the next election.  We ain't seeing any of that happening though. 

Economists seem pretty much in agreement that defaulting on the debt would cause a series of negative consequences that would hurt our national economy, the global economy, and our standing in the world.  From the Wall Street Journal, for example:

The U.S. occupies a special place in global finance. The symbiotic relationship between the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and the U.S. Treasury market’s monopolistic position as the safest, most liquid bond market in the world has served this country well. This unique position has allowed the U.S. to exercise significant authority in the global economy and enhanced its standing as a world power. Even a temporary default would eliminate the safe and liquid nature of the U.S. Treasury market, harming this country’s ability to exercise its power, to the detriment of the U.S. and the global economy.

But in the black and white world of the Tea Party, the Journal is part of the problem and this is all self serving scare tactics.  Sort of like Global Climate change.  They aren't buying this disaster scenario and they are willing to risk that this is just a bluff.  And McConnell hid his support deep down under anti-Democratic rhetoric. 

I give the media credit for quickly ferreting out the gist of his proposal.  Nice try Mitch. 

Don't get me wrong.  The country is facing serious problems and there are Democrats to blame as well as Republicans.  And I also feel the Tea Party folks' need for extreme measures.  And I feel their frustration about the difficulty of breaking the power of  lobbyists and other structural problems that make it seem like normal people can't have a serious impact. But I can't help noting that it's been Republicans who have fought campaign finance reform and the Republican 'back-to-basics, no-activism' Supreme Court has turned on the money spigot even more.  I understand the temptation to believe that destruction and rebuilding, not remodeling, is the only way out.  But, we're human beings.  We can think.  We can communicate.  We can create solutions that don't require millions, really billions, of people to be severely harmed.


So, now that the Republicans have been breeding attack dogs for the last 20 years, they're finding out that they have lost control over them and they themselves are in danger.  I would say a little Schadenfreude would be justified here, except we're all endangered by their recklessness. 

The Smell of Rain

 

The rich aroma of earth and rain.  

Thanks to Amedeo Modigliani for the nose of The Man with the wine glass (L'uomo con il bicchiere di vino), 1919.   It just happens to be Modigliani's 127th birthday.  Unfortunately, he was only alive for 35 of them.

Update - 2004 IG Report Cleared USAF Academy Officials Including UA President Gamble

When General Gamble was an applicant for the UA President's position, I'd found that he'd been head of the US Air Force Academy in between two national reports on sexual assault and harassment at the US military academies.  The second report said that things had gotten worse.  I raised a question, given his stated management style - whether his style at the Academy hadn't worked in regard to this issue or whether it hadn't bee one of his priorities.

When I talked to him after he spoke to the UAA Faculty Senate about how he'd appointed General Case to be UAA's Chancellor, he told me that he'd been cleared or any wrongdoing by an investigatory board.  He said he'd send me the information.  I never heard from him.

Until recently.  I don't use my UAA office often.  I share it with another emeritus faculty member who makes good use of it.  But when I stopped in recently, there was a big manila envelope on my desk.  In it was a note, dated Feb 21, 2011, from President Gamble and a copy of the Cover of a Department of Defense Inspector General's report entitled, "Evaluation of Sexual Assault, Reprisal, and Related Leadership Challenges at the United States Air Force Academy."

There was a second page which said:

Our evaluation found that the below officials were not responsible for, and did not contribute to or abide, sexual assault problems at USAFA.  When informed of problems, they took appropriate action.  For current (2003-2004) leadership, they took aggressive action from the time of the January 2003 notification of the problems.  Recent evidence, that some senior officials may have been notified of sexual assault issues as early as July 2002, is still being assessed and could affect the conclusions regarding one or more of the individuals below.  Of course, those ongoing investigative activities could also turn up new evidence concerning any other officer, whether in the civil service or uniformed service, associated with the Air Force's response to sexual assault problems at the United States Air Force Academy.  However, we do not anticipate the ongoing activity will affect the systemic findings or recommendations in the report. 

This is followed by a list of 21 names including:

MajGen Patrick K. Gamble (Commandant of Cadets, Jun. 1993-Nov. 1994)

Given that the caveat suggests any changes might come from an ongoing study, and this report is dated Dec. 2004, and Gamble headed the USAFA from 1993-94, I'm confident that  his name remained on the cleared list.

I think the questions I raised were legitimate ones to be raised by a selection committee about someone being considered for an important position.  And I'm glad that the Inspector General found nothing to be concerned about in President Gamble's case.

I am sorry that it took so long for me to get this correction up.  While I was expecting an email response since I was traveling a lot at the time, it's perfectly understandable that he sent the response to my University office.

Why Powerline Pass is Named Powerline Pass

This shot,  from 'the other side' looking back toward the trail toward the south along the pass, doesn't answer the question.

 

Nor does this one, also from the other side, this time looking west toward Flattop and the Glen Alps parking lot.  

And here's the reason for the name.  I tried to find some history online, but found nothing that really said too much.  Mostly it was hiking and biking sites.  There was a little bit about fiber optic cable that had been laid along the trail around 2005, but nothing too specific, and, of course, that was well after the powerline poles were put in.  

I also learned this was 'world-famous' as a place to see moose.  I knew that moose were out there, particularly in the evening, but I didn't know it was a favorite with photographers from around the world. From ADN piece  Powerline Pass famous for viewing moose:

High above Alaska's largest city, fall has sparked an annual mating congregation of majestic bull moose. Thousand-pound animals sporting antlers as wide as a man is tall, they gather along Campbell Creek to joust for mates. The area, once something of a secret among wildlife viewers but now increasingly well-known, offers some of the best moose viewing Alaska has to offer within an easy, half-hour drive from downtown Anchorage.

Photographer Stefan Meyers came all the way from Germany to witness and photograph these animals. . .

A professional photographer in Germany, Meyers said that among photographers in that country there is widespread knowledge of Powerline moose.

Do you think photographers go to Moose Pass to shoot the powerlines?

After lot had emptied a bit, about 11pm

What I do know is that parking has gotten bad.  I've seen it a couple times on summer weekends where cars were parked down the road.   Wednesday night, last week, when we visited,  cars lined the road next to the "Fire Lane - No Parking" signs.  Maybe 60 or 70 cars.  (We luckily found someone just pulling out of a space in the parking lot.)  There was publicity about all those cars getting tickets one night last August.   I guess there's been a truce.

And I've never seen so many people roaming around - and this was a weeknight!

This year legislation was passed to enlarge the parking lot and the governor didn't veto it.  It originally sounded like the parking lot was going to be put in where the trail goes to Powerline Pass - a long time favorite trail passed miniature trees that my kids loved to play in when they were little.  As I read the plans, they could well take out this field of lupine that was at it's perfect moment Wednesday night.

I don't think there is a perfect answer.  And I'm still not sure why the Governor signed this bill and vetoed the bill to purchase the Waldron land south of Tudor.  That's beauftiful green land that is accessible to far more people right in the middle of town.   It's certainly not the same kind of land.  And you can see that I too, fell into comparing one park land bill to another instead of comparing it to a road project or other expenditures in the operating budget that once spent are gone.  Whereas the money for Waldron will save that precious spot for future generations. 

Waldron Lake from prior post

Why some people hate cottonwood

[UPDATE June 8, 2020: There was a picture of seeds flying but it's no longer working, so I took it down.  I'll see if I can get another in July this year when this is happening again.]






They make summer snow.














Eventualy, the whole seed pod drops down to litter.

But I don't hate cottonwoods.  They're the biggest trees we have in the Anchorage area, they provide lots of green, noise muffling, air cleaning leaves.  Everything good comes with a cost.  Cars get us places fast, but endanger us - quickly through collisions and gradually  through pollution.  Chocolate makes our pants tighter.  The companionship of pets, requires care in exchange.

And I believe there is great potential in cottonwood cotton, the right person just hasn't focused on how to make it profitable.  Here's an earlier post exploring what people have already  done with cottonwood cotton and catkins. 

It all depends if you see a problem or a potential.

The First Space Shuttle Launch April 12, 1981

I had a one year fellowship in Washington DC and we'd planned a trip down the east coast to Disneyworld for the kids for spring break.  My son and I had taken a parent-child workshop for about seven weeks at the Air and Space Museum which had us building a space station.  It was a great class.  Even though J1 was just under their cutoff age, since he wouldn't get another chance the next year, they let us in.

I still remember that first day.  Maybe 15-20 pairs - mostly dads and sons, but a few daughters.  We were in a small museum classroom before opening hours.  The instructor was asking the kids what you would need if you were going into space.  As the kids answered, he made a list on the board.   Then we went downstairs into the museum itself and looked at the display cabinet to see the actual items taken in the first trips to space.  Pretty heady stuff.

By the last session we'd all created model space stations - fortunately I had my son to help me with that since even at that age he understood those things better than I did. 

The very first shuttle launch was originally scheduled for spring 1981.  I don't remember the exact date, but it was early enough that I never considered scheduling our trip to catch it.   But I did joke that if it got delayed enough, we might. 

And then I realized that if we boogied down south a day early, we might just make it.  We drove all night and got to Titusville about 5 am.  It was a carnival atmosphere.  People were all over the place.  We need a word in English to describe the sort of event where lots of people - strangers - are out, together, communally enjoying some great event.  Sort of like going to a college football game, or watching fire works on New Years Eve community celebration.  That's what it was like. 

There was the launch pad, out across the water, as we mingled with the crowd. 

It's that vague box to the right of the reflected rising sun. 


And then came the disappointing announcement echoed over thousands of car and portable radios.  The launch was scrubbed.

Should we stick around or go off to our reservations at Disneyworld?  With two young kids, we drove the short distance to Orlando to visit Mickey and his friends.  But, the next morning (I think, hey, it was 30 years ago - and the NASA site doesn't mention the delays) we were up at dawn, on the balcony, and watched the white streak in the distance as the Columbia made its first successful launch. 

J1 and M on the right

A few days later we were back at Cape Canaveral as it was then known, to tour the Space Center.  This time we were able to get closer to the launch pad. 


So, when the last space shuttle launch took place yesterday, I couldn't help but think of those days in Florida 30 years ago. 



From the NASA website today:

Shuttle Crew Completes Inspection, Prepares for Docking

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:49:54 PM PST

Space shuttle Atlantis’ crew is wrapping up a busy day filled with preparations for Sunday’s docking to the International Space Station and a detailed survey of the shuttle’s heat shield. Video from the survey, which used the Orbiter Boom Sensor System attached to the shuttle robotic arm, has been down linked to Mission Control in Houston, where imagery experts will review it to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damage during Friday’s ascent. Atlantis’ crew goes to sleep at 7:29 p.m. EDT.

Flight Day 3 begins with crew wake up at 3:29 a.m. Sunday.

Still Don't Know After 5 Years - Blog Retrospective Part 1

My first post was on July 9, 2006.  It was short.  But as I look back, there was some hint of what was to come.  It was about spittle bugs.  And I'd googled enough to figure out what they were and gave some short background. I didn't have a digital camera so there were no pictures.  I didn't know how to make links so there were no links.  There were two posts that month.

This blog has covered a lot of ground in five years - in terms of geography, media, and content.  I've met a lot of people through blogging.  People I blogged about.  People I met while blogging (at the political corruption trials, the Anchorage International Film Festival, for example).  I met people who commented on my blog, and other bloggers.

While blogging has been around a lot longer than five years, when I started few people had a clear idea of what a blog was.  Since then, lots of people have started blogs.  Other Alaska bloggers have supported each other as our world exploded in August 2008 and we tried to figure out what we should be doing.  Thanks for you kindnesses to me.

Anniversaries are good times to take stock, to rethink, to make changes.  But one of the consequences of blogging is that a lot of things I should do, don't get done.  ('Should' there is, of course, relative.)  So, the serious analysis of blogging is on a pile of other unfinished things to do.

Therefore, I'm treating this like a birthday of sorts.  I shouldn't have to work, I can just sit back and chit chat with friends.  And maybe I can use these ramblings later for something more profound.  But I have to do some heavier thinking this week, because fellow blogger Peter Dunlap-Shohl has invited me to a Hometown Alaska show he's hosting about Social Media, as he put it in a reminder email, "2:00 on July 13 also known as 'Next Wednesday.'"  That's on KSKA, and those of you outside of Alaska can probably find it online eventually.

Well, I've tried to create an appropriate post here but there's just too much to say.  I had to trash most of it.  So I'll do a series of retrospective posts looking at different topics - including the struggle to discover what blogging is.  (Of course, once we 'nail' it, then we stop learning, while blogging will continue on its merry way escaping our labels.)

So for now, I'm going to settle for identifying a few favorite and, I hope, representative posts from the first year.

My 'manage posts' page says I have 3025 published posts.  Even remembering them all is hard.  I get reminded of older posts as I watch where sitemeter takes people.   And what makes something a favorite post?

Sometimes because it reminds me of a really good day, like when we visited Swe's Karen village outside of Chiangmai. 

Sometimes because I thought the topic was interesting, profound, or off-the-wall. The key ingredient was always that it rearranged my brain cells a bit so I saw the world a little differently. 

Here are a few from the first year of What Do I Know?:

India Road Motto: Blow Horn and companion post Awazdo - The creative signs on Indian trucks and the culture of blowing horns.

Blind Colors - What Food is Like Blue?  - this is one I want to repost now that there are more readers and I might get more comments. 

How Did Carnival Cruise Lines Get US Taxpayers to Buy them a $28 million Railway Depot?  - This was one of my earlier crossovers from blogging to something like journalism.  (I don't claim to do journalism here, but that's another long topic.)  There are links to two follow up posts.

The Sierra Leone Refugee All Star Band Rolls Anchorage - This was coverage of a concert as I struggled to interpret the changing rules for video and copyrights in the age of Youtube, and how to use my tiny digital camera to take document events.  I ended up editing what I had into short vignettes of different songs.  But their music triumphs even my poor equipment and editing. This video has gotten almost 15,000 hits on YouTube, which for me is a lot. And because Anchorage is not too big, we got to meet the band members after the show.

Beyond the Headlines - Covering the Tom Anderson trial was my first intense immersion into one topic.  Mostly I had to report what I saw going on, because I really didn't know enough to intelligently comment.  But this post was a chance to reflect, just before the verdict was announced, on how it all might be impacting the various players involved. [Wow.  I just reread this and it cries for an update now that we know what has happened for many of these players.  While I didn't have a clue where things would go, at least I left things open ended enough to allow for what has since happened.  Anderson has a few weeks more of home detention at his parents' place and then he's free and has work lined up with a family related business.  I think he's going to be ok.  The prosecutors had their days of glory in the three Alaska trials only to have it all come crashing down after the Stevens trial.  Marsh committed suicide and Bottini and FBI agent Keppler are still subject to an ongoing investigation.]

Cow Parsnip - Heracleum - The blog gives me a chance to combine pictures and some research to show and tell about things I come across.  This post continues to get hits and led to me to the Southeast Alaska Science Fair, where David Mendivil did a science project on Cow Parsnip and used (after asking for permission) some photos from this post.

Why I Live Here - Birding at Elmendorf Air Force Base -   Out with an expert birder friend on an evening so beautiful you couldn't take a bad picture.

Blogging is Like Fishing - After a year of blogging, I had some reflections.  How little I understood things then.  And still today.

I want to do more retrospective posts.  Linking to old favorites is the easy part, but I also want to explore what all this blogging means, how it affects my life, and how I can clean up the clutter that has accumulated as I've tried out widgets to make things accessible.  Some worked better than others and some definitely need to go. 

And thanks for dropping by now and then.  Without you, this would simply be my private journal - which isn't a bad thing.  But without you, I surely wouldn't be so faithful to the blog.

"If the mayor and complete council were wiped out..."

I was in the UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives the other day looking something up and got to reading the Anchorage Charter Commission minutes of March 2, 1959. They had a consultant from Lansing, Michigan - George R. Sidwell - and over several evenings of four hour meetings they discussed everything from collecting taxes to magistrates to the powers of the city council.

On page 13 of the March 2 meeting, they had a discussion on succession in case something happened to the mayor.

Shannon:  Mr. Sidwell, I would like to bring up a new concept that has been brought out by the office of the Defense Mobilization, which now has a civil defense responsibility, and because of the type of warfare we are now looking forward to, they are very anxious to get a liberal or broad succession of government.

Sidwell:  We have it very much in our state.  .  .  This is the only answer I have figured out.  If something happens to the mayor, members of the council, according to seniority would take over.  Now, if mayor and complete council were wiped out, you would have another situation like Galveston.

You can read more of the context below.   Click it to make it clearer.

From Frank Reed Sr. Collection at UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives

The 1950s was the height of the Cold War and the fear of nuclear attack by both the Soviet Union and the United States.  People who could afford it built bomb shelters in their back yards.

But reading this now, after 9/11 and all the security based limits on people's freedom, one can't help but think that in every age, there is a part of the population, that exploits security threats for their own purposes.  I don't even doubt that some of the people believe the threat is as great is they profess.  But the rest of us have to stand up for reasonable assessment of risks and reactions.  Making 95 year old wheel chair bound passengers take off their incontinence pads before they can get through airport security is a reminder of how extreme some security proponents become.

In this case, no one seemed too concerned, but the mention reminds us that this is nothing new.  And I don't recall any city councils getting wiped out by nuclear attack. 






What happened in Galveston?  I'm not sure.  There was a hurricane in 1900 that killed between 6,000 and 12,000, but that was 60 years earlier.  "The deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history" occurred in the nearby port at Texas City in 1947 and killed close to 600 people, but I find no mention in either case of the death of a mayor. 

By the way, the Archives are on the third floor of the Consortium library.  The staff was extremely helpful.  They have lots of rules, such as:

• On site use only
• No pens allowed (only pencils) and for some items, gloves
• Not food or drink
• Photography only with permission 
• Be careful of copyright, literary, and cultural rights 
• [The stuff I was looking at was all public documents, so no problem]
• Be sure to cite the archives when you publish something