Sounds of Silence - Redistricting Board Court Challenge Teleconference

[This is a strange post - A log of a silent teleconference to the Fairbanks Court where the challenge to the Alaska Redistricting Board is being heard.

Think of it as documentation, but for whom?  The techies?  The Board?  I applaud the Board for making the effort to put the court proceedings online.  When you do something new (for them) you take a risk.  So far it isn't working, but I'm hoping it will get figured out.]  

8:30am

I've called the conference number listed to listen in.  It seems there is just one other participant - Matsu Borough.  We're on pause while the judge comes into the court room.  It says there is room for 150 participants, so anyone who wants to listen in can call:

Conference Number:  866-231-8327 (Limited to the first 150 participants) 

Conference Code:  9074529311#

8:40 - someone else joined, but I couldn't understand who it was.  Otherwise we're still hearing nothing.

Instructions:  We've been muted and need to press #6 to unmute line.  I wasn't planning on talking anyway.

8:48 - that last person left the conference - Fairbanks Court?? left the conference - Aleutian Research? joined

 9:01 - There was a clicking sound.  

9:05 I've never been on a conference call before to listen to a court proceeding.  In court, the people in the gallery can listen in to whatever is happening.  I'm not sure what limits there are on people listening in via phone.  But it would be helpful if someone could tell us once in a while why we are hearing nothing but silence interrupted by someone joining or leaving the teleconference. 

I realize this is new ground for the Board (they did some teleconferencing of their hearings, but this is in the court room in Fairbanks) and I applaud their attempts to allow people from around the state to listen in.  And I'm sure this will improve as they figure it out.  But it is frustrating.

9:11am  I've called the Alaska Redistricting Board office in Anchorage and Mary Core there is going to check on what's happening.

9:13 am  - Someone else just joined - Liz I think;  Mary Core (from the Board)  Now she left.  I guess she was just checking. 

9:21am - Nick McDermot (?) has joined.

9:24am - Mary Core's back.  Mary Core left.  Fairbanks Superior Court joined.  Fairbanks Superior Court left.  

Mary called me to tell me she'd contacted them and has to call others who called in to say they couldn't hear anything.   She said the second time she called she could hear Board attorney Michael White presenting his argument.   And I hear something faint in the background.  Now the sound is gone again.

9:29am - I hung up and called back to see if that would help.  But no.  Still silent.

9:33am - Mary Core joined again.  Nick and Liz have left.

9:34am - KTVA and Liz Clemens have joined. 

9:40am - Mary Core left.  

9:51am  I'm posting this now and maybe something will start soon.  Meanwhile, check the last post to get a sense of what is supposed to be happening.  

Last thought:  I assumed when she said we'd been muted, it meant no one could hear us if we spoke.  What if she muted the court?  Can you do that?  

So I called Mary back at the Board in Anchorage and asked.  She said they were getting lots of feedback from people on the phones  - dogs barking, etc. - so they muted everyone and that seems to have messed things up and they are working on it.  A fair number of folks  - including TV stations - have called in and are upset.  It's up to the Court system to make it work is what I understood.

UPDATE 10:16am -

10:07am  - I can hear something in the background.  No, it was someone joining the conference.
Operator joined the conference.  Fairbanks Court is talking to the operator.  We want to mute the other lines.  Can we silence the announcement that people are coming on and off line.  She said hit *3.  Operator left.  Someone else left.

Is this really the first time a court has had a teleconference and they can't figure out how to do it without the courtroom hearing people getting on and off?

10:10  Fairbanks court is talking again.  It's very quiet.  But she's talking to someone clearly trying to make it work.  "Tell me what to do and I'll do it.  I don't get it."  The person she's talking to is hard to hear. 

10:15am - She's checking who is online. "Recess now until about 10:20am, and trying to make it work so the comings and goings aren't interrupting the proceedings."

I feel a little silly posting all this.  Clearly they've asked someone to do something that is out of her area of expertise.  I don't mean to call attention to it.  But this is a pretty public event and I was poised to blog it live.  And this is what was on.  I really want to get into the substantive matters of the proceedings which will determine if the Board's plan will stand or will have to be revised.

UPDATE 10:21am - It's working. Sen. Paskvan is the current witness.

4 Districts Unconstitutional as Alaska Redistricting Plan Goes To Court

The court challenges to the Alaska Redistricting Board's Proclamation have dwindled from three to one.  This begins to be heard in open court on Monday (today) January 9.  The Board's website gives this information:

What:  In re: 2011 Redistricting Cases v. Alaska Redistricting Board 

When:  Monday, January 9, 2012

Where:  Rabinowitz Courthouse, Courtroom 403, 101 Lacey Street, Fairbanks  

Conference Number:  866-231-8327 (Limited to the first 150 participants) 

Conference Code:  9074529311#

The Court's schedule shows this begins at 8:30am

The board also put up a list last week of 92 litigation documents that had been filed prior to the court date.  Since then they've added another 79 documents AND they've added descriptive titles to the files which makes it MUCH easier to find things.  (Previously there was an index file of the first 92 at the bottom of the list which I didn't find until after poking around and randomly opening numbered files.)

I confess that I have not read all the files.  I focused on files that began with the word "Order" because these turned out to be decisions the judge had made.  They tend to explain the issue and summarize the plaintiff's (Riley and Dearborn) and the defendant's (The Alaska Redistricting Board) arguments and the judge's reasoning why he found for one side or the other. 


I don't know whether I found the most critical points but they seem important:

Fairbanks House Districts - particularly 1, 2, and 38

1.  Four House Districts were found to not meet the requirements of the Alaska constitution - House Districts 1, 2, 37, and 38.

2.  The Board argued they could not meet the federal Voting Rights Act requirements without stretching the Alaska Constitutional requirements.

3.  The federal law trumps the Alaska Constitution, therefore

4.  In court, it will be up to the defendants (the Board) to prove that the only way to meet the Voting Rights Act requirements was by creating  districts which did not meet the constitutional standards.

I will try to get more on this up soon.  Meanwhile you can look at the orders themselves.

Order on Compactness Districts 1, 2, and 37.

Order on  Contiguity of District 37.

Lack of socioeconomic integration of District 38 not disputed  

House District 37 (green)

House District 38 - click to enlarge

Note:  The letters (i.e. the S after 38) is the Senate district the House District is in.

Free Snow

Since the city hasn't collected the snow since it started falling every few days at the end of October, I decided to see if anyone else wanted it.  One guy driving by asked it there was free delivery too.  Streets like mine are really getting narrow and there is a lot of creative parking. 




The Anchorage Daily News had a front page story about that sad situation of the side streets and main street sidewalks.  I haven't been able to find confirmation of my belief that we've never had so many days over a long period of time where there was measurable snow.  But the ADN did say there were only six days in December without measurable snow.

Here's our back deck.  I've been clearing this, a little less regularly than the driveway, but it keeps building back up.  This is maybe three days accumulation.

I'm starting to think I need to clear the roof.  I have this wonderful gadget invented by the father of one of my students long ago.  I have to find it in the garage.  I'll try to get a video tape of how it works.  It's ingenious and gets the snow off the roof without having to lift any shovels. 

Photo from Facebook

While we've had a lot of snow, Valdez has had a lot more.  This photo was posted on Facebook as the highway going into Valdez.  But I noticed the cars were on the wrong side of the road.  First I thought maybe there was a road block and they just had cars going in one lane.  But one comment said it was Norway and another comment said it was Japan.

Japan makes more sense because they drive on the left side of the road.  Anyway, we still have a way to go before we're in this condition. [UPDATE 1/9/12 - Commenter Kenrick provides link to other pictures of this road in Japanese mountains.]

NOAA (I think the link takes you to the site, not specifically Jan. 8, 2012) suggests that the US snow cover is pretty low this year.

Automated Model Discussion:
January 8, 2012

Area Covered By Snow:	14.6%
Area Covered Last Month:	37.3%
Snow Depth
Average:	1.4 in
Minimum:	0.0 in
Maximum:	1000.2 in
Std. Dev.:	6.2 in
Snow Water Equivalent
Average:	0.3 in
Minimum:	0.0 in
Maximum:	521.6 in
Std. Dev.:	1.7 in

So any of you in one of those snowless areas who needs some white stuff, it's free, but you have to pick it up yourself.

"A home rule municipality adopts a charter subject to voter approval and has all powers not prohibited by law or charter."

Details, details, details.

The quote in the title turns out to be an important point (maybe) in a post I've had chained to my leg since June.   This post is going to be an example of finding stuff and then having to sort through the details and wait until I can talk to real people who know how this actually works.  I've already done a lot of that, but I've looked at the statutes again, I see more and I have more questions.

I've been following lots of leads, gathering bits and pieces of information, eliminating false assumptions, and trying to make sense out it all.  I'm mostly there.  It makes sense to me. Mostly. Now I'm trying to rewrite it so it will make sense to others.

I did two posts already on the mayor's veto of an amendment before the ordinance it amended was passed.   See?  Just trying to describe the topic will lose most readers.  The first post on this last June gives a more conversational overview of what happened.  The second has the back-up document (memos from various municipal attorneys to various mayors since 1975) and is more complicated.  I'm hoping to post something that puts all the pieces together before too long.  I've promised various folks I would in hopes that avoiding shame would get me to finish.

This post you're reading gives a little back-up information that is necessary to understand why I'm going to conclude (in the upcoming post) that the mayor does NOT have the right to veto amendments.  (Well, depending on what more I find out, I may not conclude that.) The back-up document cites  State Statute 29  (Municipal Government) on the powers of borough and city governments.  Two municipal attorneys have cited this statute as the basis for the mayor's power to veto an amendment during the debate before the ordinance as a whole is passed.

But Anchorage is a home-rule borough.   I'll let you read what the Alaska Department of Commerce Website says about the types of governments in Alaska below the state level.

How is municipal government structured in Alaska?

Article X of the state's constitution provides that the legislature classify the two forms of local government, cities and boroughs, and prescribe their powers and functions. The legislature has classified local government in the following manner and prescribed varying powers and duties for the different classes of cities and boroughs:

Classes of Local Government in Alaska
Boroughs:	Cities:
Unified Home Rule Municipality	Home Rule City
Home Rule Borough (not-unified)	First Class City
First Class Borough	Second Class City
Second Class Borough

What is the difference between a city and borough?
A city generally exercises its powers within an established boundary that normally encompasses a single community, while a borough (intermediate-sized governments - much larger than cities) provides services and exercises power on a regional basis. Under the state's constitution, a city is also part of the borough in which it is located.

An organized borough may provide services on three levels. These are: areawide (throughout the borough), non-areawide (that part of the borough outside of cities), and service areas (size and make-up vary). A borough also has the flexibility and capacity to provide services at the community level, typically through the creation of service areas. (State Constitution, Article X, Section 5)

What is the difference between a general law and home rule municipality?
A home rule municipality adopts a charter subject to voter approval and has all powers not prohibited by law or charter. (State Constitution, Article X, Section 9, 10, 11 and AS 29.04.010.) A general law municipality is unchartered and its powers are granted by law. (State Constitution, Article X, Section 4 and 7 and AS 29.04.020.)

Anchorage is a home-rule borough.   Actually, in 1975 the city and the borough merged to become the Municipality of Anchorage, so technically it's a unified home-rule municipality.  This will be important because a home-rule borough/municipality makes its own rules through its charter and ordinances within the guidelines of the state statute.  What has me caught now is figuring out what 'within the guidelines of the state statute' means. 

Does the wording in a home rule borough charter or ordinances rule that governmental unit OR the words in the state Statute 29?  Let me repeat a line from the statute above:

[it] adopts a charter subject to voter approval and has all the powers not prohibited by law or charter.

So what exactly does this mean?  Presumably that they can write their own rules as long as they don't do things that are prohibited.  They can give the mayor less power, if the voters approve, than the state statute allows.  Which is the case with the mayor's veto.

One person, who should know, told me that as a home-rule Municipality, Anchorage is not bound by the state statute, but by the Municipal charter and ordinances. But parts of the state statute have the following words:

This section applies to home rule and general law municipalities.

The arguments for the mayor's ability to veto amendments on not yet passed ordinances are based on the powers given in the section of Statute 29 on the mayor's veto powers, which are broader than the Municipal charter. [[UPDATE 10:30pm - AK Pi in the second comment notes that the veto language only applies to subsection (e) - not the whole section - of the veto powers, so it would not make the other parts of the veto section mandatory.]  The question I'm trying to get answered is whether this section is applicable or whether the Municipal charter is applicable here.  If the state statute trumps the charter, why would they write more restrictive language in the charter in the first place?  As I said, a person who should know, says the Municipal charter rules because Anchorage is a home-rule Municipality.  So I have to get back to that person to clarify my current confusion.

The statute doesn't say the mayor can veto amendments before the ordinance they amend is passed.  It does say the mayor can veto "an ordinance, resolution, motion, or other action."  So even if the state statute applies, there are still some problems with how to interpret 'other actions.'


But I'm going to post this, open-ended as it is, so readers can see

• why this is taking me so long*
• the kinds of little traps I run into trying to get answers to these questions
• that  I really am working on this and hope to get something more complete out soon
• some of this complicated stuff in a smaller chunk you might actually absorb so you can get  up-to-speed a bit and when the full post comes out it will be easier to understand (wishful thinking on my part)

*  I've been rewriting constantly as I discover things - both answers and new questions - since June.  I've also put it aside for periods of time as it got tedious and other things demanded my attention.   But if someone knows about Municipal law please leave a comment or, better yet, email me so I can ask follow up questions.

Flocking Bohemian Waxwings, Signs of Moose

I went out yet one more day to shovel snow off the driveway.  It feels like I'm doing this every day.  The sun was nice and the air so crisp and clean.

Here's a spot in the snow in front where a moose must have crashed for a while.  The footprints are all around the mountain ash tree.  (Where the Bohemian Waxwings end up on the video.)




And while I was clearing snow, a flock of Bohemian Waxwings flew in.  I love to watch how they swarm.  If you make the video full screen and watch closely, you can see them most of the way from the beginning in the lower right then as they fly out around the tree and then back on the left to roost in the tree.  It was so quiet that I figured I needed some music, so I borrowed some from Waldemaar "The Bohemian" Music Video.  His has much different and much better video, unless, of course, you're a bird freak.  I hope he doesn't mind my borrowing.

"as a scientist, I should not be undertaking research on something if I didn't understand the ramifications of what the results could do."

Alexandra Morton is a biologist who moved to a small British Columbia community to study orcas,  who writes a blog about salmon.  From her blog bio:

In 1987, the first salmon farm appeared and I thought it was a good idea. I hoped it would help bring more people to the area and keep the little town alive. But from the beginning there were problems. First, the government put the farms where they promised us they would not. Then the farmers used underwater sounds that drove the whales I was studying away (Morton and Symmonds 2002). Then there were bacterial epidemics (furunculosis), toxic algae blooms (Heterosigma), escaped Atlantic salmon (Morton and Volpe 2002) and then the sea lice epidemics began (see references below).

From the beginning, I expected government to recognize the problems and explain how they would remedy them, but I was naive. Today, Echo Bay has no school and very few residents. There are 27 Norwegian fish farms operating and the companies are loosing money. They do not hire local people and use drugs to try and deal with their pathogen problems with no notification to the local people who fish for food in the area.

Today she has a post that begins:

I just finished reading the approximately 450 pages of transcript of the last three days of the Cohen Inquiry. I highly recommend them, they can be found at www.cohencommission.ca Go to Calendar and Transcripts and see dates December 15, 16, 19.

The basic message I got from reading the post was:   the hearings have shown that the Canadian government has been overseeing the fish farms with the aim of making sure information that could jeopardize the business was unavailable.  

Her blog post is a summary of the transcript with some quotes such as:

McDADE (Lawyer examining aquaculture): … as of the 24th, senior people in DFO were aware that the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo was finding ISA?
DR. MILLER: By the 24th, they were aware of my work, yes.
MCDADE: And so when statements were coming out from DFO after November 24th, and in particular, the statement from the Minister on December 2nd, saying they were not aware of any ISA, that would have been a surprise to you, wasn't it?
DR. MILLER: Yes, it was, but nobody was speaking to me at that point.

ROSENBLOOM: Did he say anything in terms of how positive findings might be consequential in terms of our relations with the Americans?
DR. MILLER: I think he just intimated that I, as a scientist, would not understand the complexities of these issues and that, as a scientist, I should not be undertaking research on something if I didn't understand the ramifications of what the results could do.

I'm not a fish expert.  I haven't read the whole report, and so I'm not really sure what all this means.  But,  if you're interested in fish policy, fish farming, or even the openness of the Canadian government, this is well worth your reading.   The sense conveyed in Miller's blog is that the government is suppressing data that would jeopardize commercial fish farming. 

Thanks to David Ottness' FB post for this.  Again, Andrea Morton's post is here.

Alaska Governor Should Borrow Bradley Manning to Help Release Palin Emails

The ADN reported Wednesday that Governor Sean Parnell's office was given more time  to release the rest of the Sarah Palin emails that have been sought in various freedom of information requests. 

An extension, until at least Feb. 20, was requested by Randy Ruaro, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Sean Parnell, in October. Ruaro maintained that without an extension, responding to requests for the emails would "substantially impair" the other functions of the governor's office, as well as the ability to properly and thoroughly review the messages.

It's taking quite a while.  Palin left office in July 2009 and it's already 2012 now.  Meanwhile Bradly Manning is sitting in prison for releasing a large number of government documents to Wikileaks.  He knows how to do this and I'm sure he's got some spare time. 

Perhaps the Governor's office could show some initiative and a little uncharacteristic cooperation with the Feds by working out a deal to let Manning help his office get the Palin emails out.  
  

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/01/04/2245579/state-gets-more-time-to-release.html#storylink=cpy

Websites As Art And 3 Other Specialized Artish Blogs

 Can you sell a website as a piece of art?  See Newrafael below.  How about interactive websites?  Newrafael again and myoats allow you to participate in what's on the screen.  The other two are specialized blogs one focusing on tentatcles, the other on beauty and decay. 

From Tentacle Spectacle Dec. 29,2011

Tentacle Spectacle There's a new picture posted each day.  The subtitle is:

"If it involves tentacles in art or nature, it's here."

And each picture, sometimes three a day, has tentacles.














Myoats.com - this is a site where you can make your own geometric designs. Some of the 'favorites' are very representational and I'm not sure how they did them. A couple, you can see are mirror imaged. The one above I did after trying out a few times and watching the tutorial videos.  Go in and try some yourself.

These are screenshots of 5 dynamic, interactive pieces at newrafael

RR(newrafael)   This site sells digital art pieces and the medium is whole websites if I understand it right.  The pieces are in motion.  Here's a sampler of a few of about 40 pieces, and of course, the sampler has no motion or sound (I'm listening to lapping waves of one piece as I write this.) There's a discussion of digital art on the internet vs. more traditional media.  There's even a contract for purchasing an art object website - here is part of it:

Obligations Collector: The Collector shall:

• renew the domain, being part of the Artwork, always in time in order to have the Artwork accessible;
• as long as it is technically feasible, keep the website, being part of the Artwork, on-line and accessible to the public;
• always show the Artwork on the latest and most appropriate technologies;
• ask Artist through written consent if the Artwork is to be exhibited in commercial spaces, being any space other than public and art spaces;
• ask Artist through written consent if the Artwork is to be reproduced for purposes other than catalogues and art magazines, such as reproductions for advertisements, movies, photo’s, merchandising etc.; and
• not use the Artwork for the promotion of any services or products of any kind.

If you go to the artwork sites (this is really a collection of websites) be sure to look at all the links along the top of the page.  And play with your mouse.  Some are definitely interactive, others I wasn't sure about.


Beautiful/Decay  - This one is hard to pin down, but I'd say that beauty and decay can be found in most of the posts.  It's connected to a publication described on the website:

 Publication

From Beatiful/Decay

Beautiful/Decay began as a humble, black and white, DIY photocopied ‘zine while founder Amir H. Fallah was just 16. Over time, the publication grew into a full color, internationally distributed magazine. Today, Beautiful/Decay takes the form of a limited edition, hand numbered, advertising free art book series. Though Beautiful/Decay has grown into an internationally recognized design-driven lifestyle brand, the publication still carries that same youthful sense of rebellion and experimentation that influenced the very first issues.

The post that caught my attention was on the best of street art.   Perhaps street art, including graffiti, is one of the original 'occupy' movements. 

Thinking, Boxes, Smart Phones, and Grandmothers (Really)

The phrase "Thinking outside the box" is so overused, that as soon as someone says it, I know they're NOT doing it.

The only way a truly active brain can use a phrase like this today is to play off of it, showing that you know it's now a hackneyed cliche. [Taco Bell] Burger King's "Think outside the bun" does it with a b[p]un.

And Vitamindesign's "Outside the Box" project does it by adding new meaning to the term by using it literally in their clever combination of packaging and instruction manual to help older folks better adapt to smart phones.

Watch this video! It will remind you that there is always a better way to do things.



Out of the box - book from Vitamins on Vimeo.

I think this shows great ingenuity.  It shows people thinking about who their potential customers  are.  But did they actually sell phones in these boxes?  From the website it wasn't clear so I emailed them.  Here's what Adrian emailed back:

As for the project, it was a research project, to learn and discover insights and opportunities. This means that the outcome was a prototype, not a fully manufactured product, however Samsung, or any other manufacturer could potentially make this if they saw fit. It was a small part of a much bigger research project in to how we could provide existing smartphone services to ageing adults. 

So what can you do better today - for clients at work, for your spouse or kids, for yourself?

Quadrantids Meteor Shower Tonight

I've been getting hits from people googling 'meteor shower tonight.'   They get to an old meteor shower post, so I thought I should check out what's happening.


From ABC News:

If you're up early Wednesday morning and the weather is promising, bundle up and go outside. The Quadrantid meteor shower, the first of 2012, should be at its best between 3 a.m. and dawn, Eastern time. If you get lucky, you may get a silently satisfying sky show.

Screenshot from Space.com

FOR ALASKANS that means 11 pm.  One site says it ends at about 7 because of dawn.  So it might last longer here.  The sky is clear out now (7:30pm).  But it's nippy (-4˚F). 



 Space.com has more, including this:

While the plus side of this annual shower is its ability to produce fireballs, and its high hourly rates, the downside is its short peak. Quadrantids has an extremely narrow peak, occurring over just a few short hours. The Quadrantids are also well known for producing fireballs, meteors that are exceptionally bright. These meteors can also, at times, generate persistent trails (also identified as trains).
Those living in the northern hemisphere have an opportunity to experience a much better view of the Quadrantids, as the constellation Boötes never makes it above the horizon in the southern hemisphere. This is great for those living in North America, much of Europe, and the majority of Asia.

The Christian Science Monitor has a long article.  Here are some excerpts:

The Quadrantids (pronounced KWA-dran-tids) provides one of the most intense annual meteor showers, with a brief, sharp maximum lasting but a few hours. Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory discovered the shower in the 1830s, and shortly afterward it was noted by several other astronomers in Europe and America.

The meteors are named after the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis the Mural or Wall Quadrant (an astronomical instrument), depicted in some 19th-century star atlases roughly midway between the end of the Handle of the Big Dipper and the quadrilateral of stars marking the head of the constellation Draco. The International Astronomical Union phased out Quadrans Muralis in 1922.  .  .

. . . Observers located in the western portions of North American will have lower rates but will also have the opportunity to see Quadrantid 'earthgrazers,'" Lunsford added. "Earthgrazers are meteors that skim the upper portion of the atmosphere therefore lasting much longer than normal and producing long trails in the sky. These meteors can only be seen when the radiant lies close to the horizon. As the radiant rises, the meteor paths will become shorter with shorter durations."