What Do I Know?

Thursday, April 12, 2012

It's Already Spring In Juneau

There's no reason I should be surprised. It's 90 minutes south via jet from Anchorage to Juneau. Downtown Juneau is snow free and here and there flowers are blooming, while in Anchorage there's still a lot of snow - though it is evaporating in the sunshine. So here are a few glimpses of Juneau spring.

These are chionodoxa growing in Morgan's yard. Paul and I were just getting back from a hike up Perseverance Trail and he knows most of the people we ran into, including Morgan.

She also had these eerie light blue iris blooming. Here's a picture of these same iris two years ago.

And here's Morgan, interrupted from her gardening.

And up on Perseverance trail, where we walked through snow, we saw some purple mountain saxifrage blooming in a crack in the rocks.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hickel Day of the Arctic, Girl Scout 100th Birthday, and Random Shots

I got into the House Gallery during a break. Different legislators were walking about or off the chamber floor altogether.

Here's Speaker of the House talking to someone sitting in the gallery near me.

Haines Rep. Bill Thomas was reading.

And so was Anchorage Rep. Chris Tuck

Matsu Rep. Mark Neuman also found a reason to talk to another gallery viewer.

Rep. Carl Gatto's desk had flowers and lots of the representatives had black armbands in memory of their colleague who died yesterday. From the House Majority page:

Gatto, 74, died this afternoon ]Monday] from complications related to his prostate cancer. He was surrounded by his wife and grown children at a Seattle-area hospital. Gatto represented Palmer's House District 13 since winning election in 2002.

The first bill they passed was the Walter J. Hickel Day of the Arctic bill.

Double click to enlarge

The Charisse Millett introduced the bill honoring the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary. This bill got a lot of attention last week when Rep. Keller surprised bill sponsor Sen. Bettye Davis and her staffer by asking about links he found on the internet connecting the Girl Scouts with Planned Parenthood. But today everyone was all for the bill. Different legislators

talked about how they themselves, or at least their mothers and daughters had been girl scouts. Rep. Stoltz even remarked that his aunts and nieces and nephews had been girl scouts. I checked with someone sitting next to me to see if boys were now allowed in the girl scouts. Even Keller voted yes. And Millett directed everyone to send any cookie salespersons to Keller's office.

It looks like Millett forgot to push the button herself. But under house rules she can get that changed.

After the House adjourned until tomorrow, I had lunch where I heard that Sharon Cissna had announced plans to run for Congress against Don Young. So I went to her office to confirm that. It was true and her concerns with TSA will be a big part of that.

Rep. Lindsey Holmes at Judiciary Committee

I stopped by the House Judiciary committee where they were talking about SB 210. From the Sponsor's Statement:

SB 210 works with the recommendations from CJA to create tougher penalties on crimes committed against a child. The bill will create increased criminal liability for assaults to children by modifying the current definition of “serious physical injury” and increases penalties when a parent intentionally withholds adequate food or liquids.

Rep. Bob Lynn (right) seemed to be listening intently as Rep. Max Gruenberg asked a number of questions about changing sentencing requirements that were part of another bill that had been rolled in SB 210.

Here are a couple of pictures from the other day. I talked briefly with Rep. Pete Petersen, to my knowledge, the only returned Peace Corps Volunteer in the Alaska legislature.

A lot of the legislators have these Read posters in their offices. They're all a little different. This one is in Rep. Gruenberg's office.

And I chatted the other day with Rep. Scott Kawasaki who was mentioned during the Redistricting Board because there were allegations that his seat had been gerrymandered to put him into a less favorable district. But the trial court ruled House Districts 1 and 2 unconstitutional and he's in a better position than he was. In any case he's been a Democrat in a Republican leaning district anyway. He sounded ready to go campaign when the districts finally get approved by the Department of Justice and the state courts.

Legislature Passes Less Than 10% of Bills Introduced - 10 This Session So Far

I'm only here in Juneau for a couple of days, so I really don't know details of all the bills and what's been going on. And looking at today's legislative schedule, nothing pops out of serious interest. It's there, I'm sure, but not obvious. I will go over and check things out - something of interest always appears. But in the meantime, I've been checking out the 27th legislature. (Each "legislature" meets for 2 years and has two sessions - this is the second session of the 27th legislature. After the November election, the 28th session will begin next January with the new Representatives and in this case all new Senators (except Sen. Egan) because redistricting substantially changed all the Senate districts - except Egan's.)

So, here are the stats from the legislative website on bills passed so far for both sessions (2011 and 2012) 0f the 27th Legislature.

So, just 50 bills have passed so far. (HB and SB indicate House and Senate Bills, the others are resolutions There are also various resolutions.) Here are the bills that have passed in this session (the second session of the 27th Legislature that began January this year):

HB 19	SPECIAL REQUEST LICENSE PLATES	LYNN, GATTO	CHAPTER 2 SLA 12	03/07/12
HB 65	SENIOR CITIZEN HOUSING DEV. FUND GRANTS	** EDGMON, HERRON	TRANSM TO GOVERNOR	04/09/12
HB 144	REPORT ON FISHING STREAM ACCESS	GARA	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	02/27/12
HB 291	PUBLIC NOTICES POSTED AT POST OFFICES	RLS BY REQUEST OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL	CHAPTER 4 SLA 12	03/21/12
HB 307	SUPPLEMENTAL/CAPITAL/OTHER APPROPRIATIONS	RLS BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR	CHAPTER 5 SLA 12	03/23/12
HB 311	REPORTS TO APOC	RLS	CHAPTER 1 SLA 12	02/20/12
HCR 18	COMMERCIAL FISHERIES PROGRAMS	FISHERIES	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	04/07/12
HJR 29	BLM LEGACY OIL WELL CLEAN UP/AWARENESS	MILLETT	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	03/28/12
HJR 34	COAST GUARD ICEBREAKERS & ARCTIC BASE	HERRON	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	03/30/12
SB 30	RETURN OF SEIZED PROPERTY	DYSON	CHAPTER 3 SLA 12	03/21/12
SB 86	PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE ADULTS/MINORS	RLS BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	03/26/12
SB 127	FETAL ALCOHOL DISORDERS AWARENESS DAY	MEYER	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	04/06/12
SB 173	2012 REVISOR'S BILL	RLS BY REQUEST OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL	CHAPTER 6 SLA 12	03/23/12
SCR 16	CELIAC DISEASE AWARENESS MONTH	GIESSEL	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	04/03/12
SCR 18	RAOUL WALLENBERG REMEMBRANCE DAY	DYSON	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	04/02/12
SCR 20	DECORATION OF HONOR	WIELECHOWSKI	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	04/05/12
SCR 25	SUSPEND UNIFORM RULES FOR HJR 29	RESOURCES	AWAIT TRANSMIT GOV	03/28/12
SJR 17	ARCTIC COUNCIL TASK FORCE	MCGUIRE	LEGIS RESOLVE 29	03/19/12

If you go through this list - just 6 house bills and 4 senate bills and a few resolutions - a lot of these bills are symbolic. I won't say they're all fluff, but they aren't focused on solving substantive issues that Alaska faces - balancing resource development and environmental concerns, dealing with serious educational and social issues, etc.

A quick look shows these that might have some bit of substance:

HB 65   "Making regional Native housing authorities eligible to receive grants through the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation from the senior citizens housing development fund."
HB 144 "An Act requiring the Department of Natural Resources annually to deliver to the legislature and the governor a report on fishing stream access."
HB 307    "An Act making supplemental appropriations, capital appropriations, and other 2    appropriations; amending appropriations; repealing appropriations; making 3    appropriations to capitalize funds; and providing for an effective date." [Click here for specifics]
SB 30 "An Act providing for the release of certain property in the custody of a law enforcement agency to a crime victim under certain conditions and relating to requests for that release by the office of victims' rights." [Note on changes the law makes]

From Fisheries
HCR 18 "Relating to an examination of fisheries-related programs to facilitate the entry of young Alaskans into commercial fisheries careers and to collaboration with the University of Alaska fisheries, seafood, and maritime initiative."

From the Governor's Office:
SB 86 "An Act relating to the protection of property of persons under disability and minors; relating to the crime of violating a protective order concerning certain vulnerable persons; relating to aggravating factors at sentencing for offenses concerning a victim 65 years or older; relating to the protection of vulnerable adults; making conforming amendments; amending Rules 12(h) and 45(a), Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 77, Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 17, Alaska Rules of Probate Procedure, and Rule 9, Alaska Rules of Administration; and providing for an effective date."

This is procedural stuff but probably is more than symbolic:

HB 311 - "An Act relating to the filing of information with, and to information filed with, the Alaska Public Offices Commission; and providing for an effective date." Looks like changes to make it easier for candidates, you can see the sponsor's analysis here.

The rest are what I'd call fluff. They're nice. They honor some person or organization. But it seems to me that such bills should not be the main reason the legislature is in session.

They still have some time left to pass some legislation, and in all fairness, the most contentious take the longest to be passed. Let's see how many more bills they can pass before the end of the session.

OK, now that I have that out of the way, I'll go over to the capitol building and see what I can find.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Do You Know a 14-18 Year Old Alaskan Who Would Like to Make a Difference?

I've been in a steering committee meeting all day and there's way too much to write about, so I'll just put this up for now. There's a lot of neat things going on around the state to promote healthy relationships and prevent domestic and intimate partner violence in Alaska. It's a way for 14-18 year old's to get involved health policy and get a small stipend and a trip to Anchorage to meet with the other youth.

Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska (YAHA)

Accepting Applications for the 2012-2013 School Year! Applications due May 25th, 2012 at 5pm!

Download the YAHA Application

Our mission
The mission of the Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska is to advise the Adolescent Health program and other Division of Public Health programs and to create interventions designed at improving the lives of adolescents in Alaska.

Who are we?
We are a group of diverse, energetic teens ages 14-18 from across Alaska. We are interested in health and are enthusiastic about shaping how our state responds to youth issues that we all experience.

What do we do?
We are a group of diverse, energetic teens ages 14-18 from across Alaska. We are interested in health and are enthusiastic about shaping how our state responds to youth issues that we all experience.

We provide feedback insight and advice to youth serving agencies. We review materials created for teens by youth serving organizations.

We create interventions designed to improve the lives of adolescents in Alaska.

In the 2009-2010 school year

Played a role in the creation of Stand up Speak up

Advised the statewide tobacco program and underage drinking initiative

Created and judged a “Make Art, Not Babies“ art contest

Reviewed grant applications

In the 2010-2011school year

Provided design and programmatic feedback for to following agencies: Careline Alaska

The State of Alaska’s Choose Respect Campaign

UAA Department of Health Sciences, Nursing Program: (hand washing modules)

Alaska network on Domestic Violence on Sexual Assault: Stand up Speak up Campaign.

This school year 2011-2012

Suggestions on youth engagement in the Farm to School Program

Feedback on the community conversations element of Anchorage United for Youth

Reviewed Stand up Speak up grant applications

Embarked on our first community action project: Art of Passage

Contact Jennifer Baker for more information - jennifer.baker@alaska.gov

Anchorage to Juneau

When the weather is so spectatular, I have no choice but to post a couple of pictures. A little out of Anchorage, Girdwood Valley and Turnagain Arm in the upper middle.

And then we flew into Juneau from the south, looping down and around and over downtown on the way to the airport. Below is the northern, upper part of downtown and a view up Basin Road to the Perseverance Trail. On the ground there was no snow and temps in the 50s.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Redistricting Board Posts District Maps

The Alaska Redistricting Board has posted maps for all the districts. I've put their links below. But let's get clear about the terminology:

Amended Proclamation means the plan that was recently revised after the Alaska Supreme Court required changes in the original Proclamation Plan approved last June.

There is also an Interim plan that is a backup plan in case the Amended Proclamation plan doesn't get the approvals it needs in time (about May 15 to be ready for the June 1 candidate filing deadline.)

I don't see the Interim Plan maps and documentation on the Board's website. It's very close to the original Proclamation Plan, but the Fairbanks area districts have been modified to make them constitutional. Here's a link to a statewide Interim plan map, but I don't see the individual districts. Most will be the same as in the Proclamation Plan.

Old Alaskana Art At Airport

I'm waiting for my flight to Juneau for a meeting of the Pathway group (formally known as DELTA, the worst ever acronym) that works to prevent intimate partner violence in Alaska. So I took advantage of being here early to walk down terminal B and saw some artwork I hadn't seen before. Looks a little like piles of luggage scattered around, but it's all old Alaskana. I couldn't find anything that identified the artist or the name of the piece(s).

The waders in the upper left are part of the collection of pieces
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Sunday, April 08, 2012

The Record Setting Inches

April snows have no teeth. There are already snow patches. The air doesn't stay too cold. The daylight says summer is near. The new snow's lifespan is short. But yesterday's flakes were enough to push this winter to Anchorage's snowiest on record - 134.5".

This wasn't a winter of big snows. Just regular snowfalls every few days November and December and beyond. Yesterday's snowfall was spectacularly unspectacular. The short hit past second that drives in the winning run.

The Anchorage Daily News has lots of graphic details of when the snow fell, other snowy years, the other nine US cities rounding out the top ten snowiest this year and much more.

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Why I Live Here: Moose in the Backyard

Usually we know that there have been moose in our yard by footprints or deeper tracks in the snow. Or a pile of nuggets.

Actually seeing them there is less frequent. It always surprises me how animals this big can so easily blend into the background.

The one out in the open snow is pretty easy to see, and it's what I saw when I looked out the kitchen window this morning, but the second one* in the trees took a bit longer to spot.

These two moose were stripping the bark from our willow trees and trimming our high bush cranberries. You can see in the video the bare trunk under the freshly stripped bark.

There's a reason moose choose willow. This is from a report
Willows of Interior Alaska by Dominique M. Collet, who is the author of the Alaska Insect book.

Salicin, the chemical that preceded acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), was first isolated from willow. The bark of some willow species is rich in tannin used for the processing of leather. The primary use of willows today, however, is for reclamation of disturbed sites and stabilization of riverbanks.

In Great Britain and Scandinavia, where fossil fuels are expensive, there is a developing interest in willows as a source of renewable energy; the fast growing shoots are coppiced (harvested) every few years, and the dried chips are sent to electric power plants. This fuel burns clean, leaves little ash, and emits carbon less than or equal to that absorbed from the atmosphere by the willow during growth.

Herbivores
The foliage of most willow contain salicilin, a chemical (phenolic glycoside) that deters browsing by most generalist herbivorous insects and mammals. Only a small fraction of the diet of these herbivores, such as the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) can consist of willows because the salicin distresses the digestive tract just as aspirin (methyl salicylate) does when taken on an empty stomach. A few generalist herbivores, like the moth Orgia antiqua, are able to complete their development on willow alone.

Specialized herbivores, like moose (Alces alces) and to a lesser degree caribou (Rangifer tarandus), cope well with these chemicals in their browse and are able to tap this otherwise little used resource. For a few specialist herbivorous insects such as sawflies (Tenthredinidae) and leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), the volatile phenolic glycoside even serves as feeding and oviposition cues.

Herbivores that do not feed on willow may still depend on the plants for shelter or for the microhabitat they create. This results in a compartmentalization of the fauna in willow-rich habitats: a majority of herbivorous species avoids feeding on willows while a small fraction is totally dependent on them.

*It's to the left of the greenhouse and and the two trees there.

Labor Sacrifices, Not Executives - Nothing New

"I cannot escape the feeling that the tendency so far has been to say that labor must make sacrifices of wages and hours because of necessities of national defense. I have yet to see anywhere a statement that manufacturers and business concerns . . . shall make this same type of sacrifice by cutting profits and reducing the salaries of executives."

Sound familiar?

This is from Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time, which I'm reading again for my next book club meeting. (Previous posts based on the book about the creation of lend lease and Hitler's first (and last) visit to Paris.) I took a break to finish Dirt Music, which deserves at least a post, beyond the one I did about Australian camels and Saudi Arabia.

The quote comes from Eleanor Roosevelt's newspaper column, "My Day", December 9, 1940.

The book is hefty - 633 pages - but riveting. I've got 400+ pages to go by April 30.

What Do I Know?

Pages

Thursday, April 12, 2012

It's Already Spring In Juneau

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hickel Day of the Arctic, Girl Scout 100th Birthday, and Random Shots

Legislature Passes Less Than 10% of Bills Introduced - 10 This Session So Far

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Do You Know a 14-18 Year Old Alaskan Who Would Like to Make a Difference?

Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska (YAHA)

Accepting Applications for the 2012-2013 School Year! Applications due May 25th, 2012 at 5pm!

Our mission

Who are we?

What do we do?