Sen. Dunleavy Plays Politics With Bill To Protect Kids From Sexual Predators

I'd put down a public hearing on Erin's Law today on my calendar.  5:30pm at the newly refitted Legislative Information Building.   But then I saw tweets during the day that the Senate education committee was tinkering with the bill.

At the evening hearing it sounded more like they gutted the bill.  This bill, simply, requires that schools give age appropriate instruction about inappropriate touching, what to say when someone tries to touch, and how to get help.  Most importantly, that it's not your fault and you need to tell someone so the person stops and so other kids also don't get abused.

In the Senate hearing, Sen. Dunleavy's committee made a few significant changes to Erin's Law.

• Changed student attendance in these classes from parents opt out, to parents opt in.  That is, the original bill allowed parents to pull their kids from the classes.  The Senate changes require the parents' approval before the kids can take the classes.  
• Changed the mandate for schools to use the program from 'shall' to 'may'. 

But I think the language that some used to describe the changes - hijacked the bill - is more accurate.  In Alaska, the title of the bill has to accurately describe what's in the bill.  That means names like "Save the Children Act" cannot be used for a bill that actually leaves kids unprotected.  That's a good thing (that the name must reflect what's in the bill.)  So, to give you a sense of the changes that took place in Tuesday's Senate education committee meeting, I offer you the title of, first, HB 44 as it was yesterday:

HB 44 Title (the original bill that has already passed the House)

"CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 44(FIN)                                                                    "An Act relating to sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention efforts in  public schools; and relating to dating violence and abuse awareness and prevention efforts in public schools."

[Update 12:24am: I originally put up the earliest version of the title.  This one changed to add the section on dating violence because of the efforts of the Moore's (see below.)  You can see the whole bills HB 44  and CSHB 44.]



And, second, the education committee's substitute bill title:

SCS CSHB 44(   ) Title (I don't remember any more what the SCS means for sure.  The CSHB means, committee substitute for House Bill 44)

"An Act relating to a parent's right to direct the education of a child; relating to course mastery requirements; relating to the duties of the Department of Education and Early Development; prohibiting a school district from contracting with an abortion services provider; relating to questionnaires administered in a public school; relating to the duties of school districts; relating to training for school employees and mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect; relating to physical examinations for students; relating to physical examinations for teachers; relating to sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention efforts in public schools; relating to dating violence and abuse awareness and prevention efforts in public schools; prohibiting a school district from allowing an abortion services provider to furnish course materials or provide instruction concerning sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases; relating to national criminal history record check requirements for employees of child care facilities and residential child care facilities; and repealing the requirement for secondary students to take college and career readiness assessments."

From what I understand, they added two bills [UPDATE 5/21/15: turns out it was three] into this one.  Bills that hadn't made it through the legislature.  The governor specifically asked that Erin's Law be passed, and so they took the opportunity to add their own two [three] laws into this bill.   If you read the second title, you'll notice stuff prohibiting school districts from contracting with abortion service providers, duties of school districts, physical exams of students and teachers, and on and on. 

I can't even begin to write out the testimony I heard this evening at the Minority Caucus' public hearing, nor to explain what happened at the earlier Senate education committee hearing.  Fortunately, John Arono at Alaska Commons took good notes and you can check his explanation if you like.

Like everyone who testified - mostly people who had personally been abused, had had family members abused, or worked with abused people - I can't help but feel that Sen. Dunleavy has totally trashed Erin's Law.  If he really thinks he's made minor changes, he's just ignorant.  If he realizes what he's done, he's venal.  [UPDATE May 22:  Venal is definitely the wrong word here as I explain in a more recent post.  I retract it and apologize to Sen. Dunleavy.]  Because Erin's Law would, as people testified it had in other states,  help kids recognize when inappropriate behavior is taking place, learn how to respond to such behavior, and know how to report it.  They would learn the threats of abusers - "No one will believe you."  "If you tell, I'll come back and kill you and your family." "If you tell, you will only ruin the whole family." - and know these are what abusers always say.  Learn that these are signs that you need to tell [a parent or other authority figure about.]

As people testified - and I listened to earlier testimony on this bill - they emphasized that child abuse has long lasting debilitating impacts on kids.  Without an Erin's law, kids will wait until many years later before confessing (yes, many are made to feel it's their own fault) to anyone what happened, allowing the perpetrator to molest other kids, and they usually do.  That these things devastate families and even communities.

One of the objections some legislators have made is that this is "an unfunded mandate."  That, of course, is one of the Republican buzzwords to tar legislation they don't like.  But I'd argue that not passing this bill is a huge unfunded mandate - to provide all sorts of services to the victims, to deal with the victims' loss of interest in school and life, and victims' inability to get and hold jobs later on.  And, in some cases, to victimize others themselves.

When I spent a fair amount of time at Covenant House, it soon became clear, that many, if not most of the kids there had left home because of various kinds of abuse.  The various young men that I mentored there all had histories of sexual abuse as kids.  It really screws you up.

Erin's Law is the simplest and most effective way the legislature can stop the enormous toll on Alaska kids.  Stats presented at the meeting included:  1700 kids have been abused this past school year.  April had 302 allegations of sexual abuse that, from what I can tell from the handout, reached the Office of Children's Services.  852 reports were screened by Protective Services in April.

Not providing kids with the information they need to recognize and respond to sexual predators is unconscionable.   John Arono writes:

“People were concentrating on the big issues that affected the state versus other issues that didn’t quite get to the top of the pot,” House Speaker Mike Chenault (R-Nikiski) told KTOO’s Lisa Phu at the time.

If preventing hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse of children a month is on [not] one of the 'big issues' then these legislators have their priorities totally wrong.  Not only are we preventing suffering, but prevention efforts save all sorts of money in the future when we deal with the dysfunction of adults who have been abused as kids.  (And I don't mean to imply that all abused kids don't find ways to function as reasonably responsible adults, but a high proportion of people who end up in prison, were abused as kids.)

As a reporter, I took lots of notes at the public testimony.  But what was most compelling was people telling their own stories.  But, even though this was a public hearing, I felt whipping out my camera and video taping people's testimony was much too invasive.

But I did find this video of Cindy Moore whose daughter was shot by her boyfriend last June.  Cindy and her husband Butch both testified.  This will give you a sense of how important this is.  [UPDATE April 24, 2018 - Sorry, I see this video is no longer accessible.]




[UPDATE 12:24 am:  There will be another hearing on this bill Wednesday, May 20, 2015 in the Legislative Information Office on 4th Avenue at 11:00am. You can go in person or listen online.  Scroll down to Senate Education Committee. ]

Do You Know Any Of These People? They Gave $500 Or More To Mike Chenault

And maybe they could talk to him about Medicaid expansion.  

I put together this chart using information from the APOC Campaign Disclosure pages.  The site doesn't seem to allow me to link to the main search results I got.   The link takes you here and then you have to fill in the time period (I did 12/31/2013 to 05/18/2015) and then Chenault.  That will give six pages of contributions.  I've listed the ones that are $500 or more.  I've put them basically in alphabetical order by donor name, though I tried to group donations from the same organization.  There are some links in the chart - it's hard to tell, but they're underlined.  And while I'm trying to present this neutrally, the legislative majority's fuck you attitude to anyone who doesn't agree with them makes it pretty hard.  But at least I hope I've got the details reasonably accurate.

Chenault Contributors $500 2014

(There was a lot of data and I did keep checking, but you might double check before you use these numbers elsewhere.  I also left out contributions of less than $500 that might have added to the amounts given by organizations mentioned above.)

(If you look closely, there's lots of oil related money.  Some of the larger contributors include  GCI (Citizens for Competition and the GCI Pres and VP) has $2000 in there, construction interests, dentists, and the Penney and Wells families.)


Why am I doing this?

Mike Chenault, the Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, is part of the Alaska legislative leadership that passed a budget that is underfunded by about $3 billion.  (These are Republicans mind you.)  Although for most things the Republican majority in Juneau can do whatever they want without  cooperation from the Democrats, they can't take money from the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) without help from Democrats. And they need $3 billion from the CBR to balance the budget.    Democrats are willing to cooperate, but they'd like to see some changes made first.

They'd like to see Medicaid expanded using federal dollars which would add  40,000 or so more Alaskans will have health care coverage and save the state money.  The Republicans refuse.
They'd like to see Erin's Law passed, so kids recognize sex abuse and know how to avoid it and report it.  The Republicans refuse. 
They'd like to see some of the large capital expenditures - like the Knik Arm bridge and the extension of Bragaw - cut out of the budget.  The Republicans refuse.
They'd like to see education cuts restored.  The Republicans refuse.

The governor says he can't sign a budget that isn't fully funded and called the legislature into a special session in Juneau. 

But, there is not even the slightest show of respect or cooperation on Chenault's part.  He's spitting on the governor's order for a special session in Juneau,  meeting there just long enough to adjourn.  He's calling for the special session to be held in Anchorage, which may not even be legal.  And House Majority Leader Rep. Charisse Millett said the governor may have to sue them to get them back to Juneau.  These are supposed to be civilized people working in a democracy.  (Note to Rep. Reinbold, there is hope for your resurrection.  Millett was persona non grata like you just a couple of years ago and now she's Majority Leader.)

Now that I've given that background, let's get back to Medicaid Expansion.which has the support of 65% of Alaskans.  Here's a small portion of the organizations in support as listed on the state Health and Social Services website:

Alaska AFL-CIO
Alaska Brain Injury Network 
Alaska Chamber of Commerce
Alaska Federation of Natives
Alaska Heart Association/Alaska Stroke Association
Alaska Injury Prevention Center
Alaska Municipal League
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Alaska Nurses Association
Alaska Pharmacy Association
Alaska Physical Therapy Association
Alaska Physicians & Surgeons
Alaska Primary Care Association
Alaska State Hospital & Nursing Home Association (Gave $250 to Chenault)
Alaska State Medical Association
Anchorage Chamber of Commerce
Anchorage Municipal Assembly
Bartlett Regional Hospital
Catholic Social Services
Doyon Limited
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly
NANA Regional Corporation (INUU a PAC of one of NANA's companies gave $500 to Chenault)
National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter
United Way of Anchorage

This list includes Native organizations, many professional organizations involved in health care, municipal organizations, and even the Anchorage and Alaska chambers of commerce.  I've noted a couple of organizations here that have also given money to Chenault.


Presumably, the people on the list of contributors up top should have some clout with Chenault.   The money he raised was far, far more than what he needed to win. His opponent, Rocky Knudsen, raised $10,190 including, $3500 of which he apparently borrowed and paid back at the end. 

So Chenault's fund raising wasn't about winning the election, he raised a lot more money than he needed.  It was about showing loyalty to and buying access to the House Speaker. 

In fact, Chenault's reports show his campaign used less than half the money he raised. 

Chenault raised about $46,000 for his 2014 campaign.  At the end, he had nearly $25,000 left over.  Well, technically, it's all been spent, but about $9500 was donated at the end to organizations like the Girls and Boys Clubs and to PTAs of schools in Chenault's district.  $10,000 (the limit allowed) went into his POET account.  From the APOC FAQ page:

"Public Office Expense Term account.  The money in the account may be used only to pay expenses associated with the candidate’s serving as a legislator or municipal official and all expenditures must be disclosed in a year end P.O.E.T account report. "

And he was able to put another $5000 into his future campaigns account.

It's clear to me that his campaign contributors were buying access more than they were helping him win his election, because he didn't need the money.   These are people who should be able to talk to him.  Most, I'm sure, were more interested in protecting their business interests than things like Medicaid expansion.  Some, of course, were just old friends with deep pockets.  Others may share Chenault's stand on this Medicaid expansion.  Though I'm guessing Chenault's refusal to budge on Medicaid is less ideology and more about enticements and threats coming from national organizations like Americans for Prosperity on this issue.


What Can You Do?

In any case, if you know any of the folks on the list, you might check with them where they stand on Medicaid expansion.  Surely $500 buys them the right to have their phone calls answered by Chenault and they could check on why he's favoring outside interests who want to stick it to Obama rather than get health coverage for 40,000 Alaskans and save the state money.   Or even if you don't them, you can contact them and let them know you're disappointed in Chenault's boorish behavior and their support of it. 

I know, it's a longshot, but refusing to expand Medicaid is crazy.  Even the Chamber of Commerce sees the value of it.  I figure reason isn't going to make a difference, but if ten or twenty folks ($5000 - $10,000)  on the list were to talk to Chenault, maybe that could make a difference.  

But maybe not.  As I was researching this post I came across this interesting tidbit.  Alaska's highest paid lobbyist had, as one of her assignments, getting Medicaid expansion passed.

"1. Wendy Chamberlain — $1,111,000 in annual contracts

Biggest Contract — $100,000. Hired by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to work on all issues relating to Alaska Native healthcare, including Medicaid expansion. . ."  

Denali's Big, But Don't Forget The Tiny

Denali National Park is known for its huge vistas, where a moose becomes a tiny spot.  But I like to focus on those tiny spots.

Here's a whole world on a tree stump.

And here, bigger than life-sized, is the leg and foot of a yellow rumped warbler.





Rocks and mosses.

There weren't too many flowers open yet, but there were some mountain aven.
















And this frigid coltsfoot.

When you get this close to a white crowned sparrow, you can start to see individual features that would allow you to distinguish one bird from another.

Spectacular orange lichen on the rocks.  I'm going with Xanthoria Elegans on this one.  You can check out a lot of different lichens here.  From Wikipedia:

This species grows on rock, both calcareous and siliceous, occasionally overgrowing moss or litter or rock. It is often found on exposed to somewhat sheltered sites, often near bird or small-mammal droppings.^[4] It has also adapted successfully to growth on man-made and natural growing surfaces from the sea-water spray zone to the boreal forest and in the grasslands of the continental interior.^[10][11][12] It can thrive in areas having less than 6 centimetres (2.4 in) annual precipitation and can survive submerged in streams for much of the growing season.^[5]
Xanthoria elegans has an extremely broad circumpolar and alpine distribution, and is found on all continents except Australia.^[13] It is widespread in Antarctic regions.^[14]
The lichen is used as a model system to study the potential to resist extreme environments of outer space. Out of various lichens tested, it showed the ability to recover from space-simulating situations, including exposure to 16 hours of vacuum at 10⁻³ Pa and UV radiation at wavelengths less than 160 nm or greater than 400 nm.^[15] X. elegans has survived an 18 month exposure to solar UV radiation, cosmic rays, vacuum and varying temperatures in an experiment performed by the ESA outside of the ISS.^[16]

Campground Wifi? Changing Icons

I saw this sign at the Riley Creek campground at Denali National Park last week.

Wow, I thought, the campgrounds have wifi now.  Amazing.  But why would it be over in one spot?

When I asked a ranger about the sign and whether there really was wifi, she paused to think what I might be referring to.  Then she smiled and said, "That's the sign to the amphitheater."

And when I looked on my computer, of course, the wifi symbol has the longer waves on the top. 


Actually, we enjoyed three days without any news media intrusion and just a few minutes a day of wifi (sitting outside the not yet open visitors center) to post pictures of animals we saw at the Park. 

Shell In Seattle, Power, Americans For Prosperity Leading Opposition to Medicaid Expansion [Reposted*]

A What Do I Know? reader in Seattle sent this picture he took Thursday from the ferry of Shell's oil rig. (But I was in Denali Thursday so I just got the picture.)

Think about people used to power, used to getting their way.  People in positions of authority in large organizations that have the money to convince the weak to agree and to destroy those who would stand up against them.

The large oil companies are used to getting their way, whether it's in places like Africa or Asia where they can buy government leaders or US states where they can do the same.  In Alaska, Conoco-Phillips put one of their lawyer/lobbyists into the governorship and two more of their employees into the legislature.  They are so used to getting their way, they  pay no attention to those who disagree with them - including the Democratic minority.

Think about the people who are currently keeping the Alaska Republican leaders from agreeing to expand Medicaid, despite the overwhelming support for its expansion.  NPR had a piece on five states
that have been dealing with Medicaid expansion - Florida, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Alaska.  In all these places the Koch Brothers' supported Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has spent a lot of money in opposition to Medicaid expansion. 

Montana's a slightly different case from the others.  Legislators got angry at AFP for going behind their backs and connecting directly with constituents. 

In Alaska, it seems they've gone directly to Chenault and Meyers, the heads of the state house and senate respectively.  Because they're saying no to everyone else and refusing to make any concessions.  As I said, if you get used to power, you think you can do whatever you want. 

Salon has an article on how Americans for Prosperity "blew up" the Tennessee Medicaid expansion bill.



Context:

Forbes puts David Koch's wealth at $42.7 billion.  They also put Charles Koch at the same amount.  I wasn't sure if that amount was combined or individual.  Bloomberg, though, puts them jointly at $100 billion. 

To get a sense of things, suppose your net worth was $100,000.  If you spent the same percentage of your wealth as the Koch brothers it would be something like:

Koch brothers spend $1 million.
You spend $1.

You spend $200 on a candidate.
The Koch brothers would spend $200 million.

This is why people like Tom Hayden were talking about economic democracy back in the 1970s.  Because without a reasonably level playing field, we lose democracy.

As we see in the Medicaid fight.  And the way Shell can tell Seattle to go to hell, we'll put our oil rigs wherever we damn well please.  

* I'm reposting because Feedburner didn't catch this one to blogrolls. Apologies to those who came here earlier.  I'm trying to figure out a good way to signal you, so you don't come back to a post you've already seen. 

No Lions Or Tigers, But Bears. And Moose. And . . .

I'm pretty sure these are the same bears we saw on Wednesday.  But this time they were out of the brush, clearly visible, and on a mission.  They walked with purpose.  I'm just not sure what it was.  Along the Savage River just before it goes under the bridge at the end of the paved road in Denali National Park.  Then up onto the road, through the parking lot and up the mountain.  They didn't run, but they sure got up the mountain fast. 

Having hiked up a couple of miles earlier that day (this was Thursday), we were well aware of how much faster they got up the hill than we had.  We found out later that the trail we took - from near the Savage River campground - the Savage Alpine Trail actually ends four miles away at this spot where the bears ended up.  

Fortunately, we didn't see any bears while we were hiking - though they had something in mind and it didn't seem to be people.  But we did see Dall sheep on the hill above us.

Actually, on Thursday we saw the bears, the dall sheep, caribou (there were lots of caribou), and moose.  Despite seeing moose fairly regularly in Anchorage, it's still neat to seem them out in the wilderness as well. 

Then on Friday, we went back to the Savage River trail and on the way back, J shouted from behind "Stop!'  She pointed ahead of me and there was a caribou coming across the trail about 25 feet ahead of me. 

There were four more after that.  One at a time, each carefully checked us out and then crossed the trail.










And then there were a few ground squirrels who were not at all shy.  Suggesting they'd learned that people were a source of food. 

Denali Birds - Warbler, Robin, Sparrow, Ptarmigan, Pintail, Eagle, And Bufflehead

Some of the feathered critters we encountered this week at Denali. 

This yellow rumped warbler visited us at our campsite every morning and evening.  I chose this picture because it displays its namesake best.  I'm lucky to live in Alaska and see this bird at its best.  From Allaboutbirds:

"Though the color palette is subdued all winter, you owe it to yourself to seek these birds out on their spring migration or on their breeding grounds. Spring molt brings a transformation, leaving them a dazzling mix of bright yellow, charcoal gray and black, and bold white."

 

Another campground visitor, the robin seems almost out of place in this huge, wild, northern national park.  It should be on a lawn somewhere pulling out worms. 

This northern pintail couple on a pond near Teklanika campground. 






This bufflehead was in the same pond.  From Audubon:  

"The name "Bufflehead" is derived from "buffalo-head," for the male's odd puffy head shape."

A white crowned sparrow.

The willow ptarmigan is the Alaska state bird.  It's shedding its white winter plumage for its summer browns. 

A golden eagle hunts along a mountain ridge.  Their wingspans go up to seven feet. 

Caribou and Bear

A quick pic post, since the visitor center wifi works, even though they don't open until tomorrow.  There were a lot of caribou yesterday. 

These I saw when I was on the bike.  At first, he was looking at me head on and mostly I saw the antlers and my first thought was - why is there a windmill up there.

This, despite how remote it might look, is looking under the bridge at Savage River.

We never would have seen this bear if there hadn't been a bus and several carsfull of people with their binoculars aimed out into nowhere.  Since there were lots of caribou to be seen, we figured maybe it's a bear for all the people to be looking at something so far away.   For the most part, the bear was in the brush and occasionally you could see a glimpse of blond fur in the binoculars.  I'm guessing the bus driver knew there was a bear in the area (there was a cub too) and was looking out for it.

We stayed after everyone left and I was able to catch this quick shot as the bear got out of the brush for a moment.  It's a long ways off.  I could make up a number, but really, with the long vistas in Denali, it's really hard for me to guess how far things are.

OK, that's enough for now.  There are more animals to see.  I'll put up birds and other pics later.  The mosquitoes are already out despite the wind and they're checking me out. 

To Denali

We left Anchorage about 8pm.  I just wanted to get going and since it doesn't really get totally dark, we left. 

About 11pm past the McKinley view points - we could just see the top of the mountain, not well - I took this one.

About an hour later - on the flat lands before getting to Cantwell.  The light was incredible.  I didn't capture it unfortunately.

And then this morning, driving into the park. 

By this afternoon it was clouded over.  Lots of caribou today, a bear and cub in the distance, and some good birds.  More tomorrow.  The park officially opens Friday.  Until the buses start on May 20, you can drive in to Teklanika, which we did.  It was beautiful and clear, but it got very windy.  Got some biking in on the road to Teklanika. 

Blogger Overload - Things I Haven't Posted From Erin's Law To Shell Arctic Drilling

There is a bunch of posts still listed as drafts in my blog index of posts.  Some will never see the light of day because there are more important things, they've been partly incorporated in other posts, or they are old and the topic's been covered enough elsewhere.

The battle between living and blogging is sometimes easy and sometimes hard.  Ideally, the blog captures bits and pieces of life as I live it.  But my kids have said the grandchildren are off limits for the blog, so reflections on their growing language skills ("The rocket's at my house") and other motor skills (crawling up and down the wheel chair ramp at my mom's house) don't get chronicled here, though I think they are significant, not just for me, but for the world.  This point was made today by someone who spent about ten minutes on an older post about infants learning sign language. 

Some posts are partly or largely written.  Others are just notes.  Here are some examples.

Obergefell
What signs from the Supreme Court hearing on Obergefell are worth attending to get a sense of what their decision might be and the implications for the future?

Shell Arctic Drilling
I did a fair amount of reporting on Shell's previous Arctic drilling plans  (for example) and the later fiasco with Kulluk.  You might look at the link on the plans.  Those were last time.  I've looked quickly at parts of the new ones.  My issue then was that they were more PR than actual operational plans of what to do.  This time it seems there is more detail, but still a lot missing.  For example, there's this sort of reassuring language, that reminds me a lot of the reassuring (but incorrect) language they had in 2013.

"Operational Monitoring:
Operational monitoring is conducted to minimize the potential of penetrating an overpressure
zone resulting in a loss of hydrostatic overbalance.

1. 1)  Flow checks are conducted with the pumps off to confirm the static mud weight over balances pore pressure.
   
2. 2)  Frequent pit drills and mock well control drills are planned and conducted.
   
3. 3)  Drilling Contractor / Shell Staff have relevant and current Well Control Certificates.
   
4. 4)  Shell requires its operational staff to attend and pass its internal Advanced Well Control Training.
   
5. 5)  Real Time monitoring of the well and operational parameters is conducted by the Real Time Operations Center that is staffed by a team of experts. Any anomalous signals or indications are immediately relayed to the rig.
   

This extra set of monitoring provides a secondary team of individuals to monitor the wells status and minimize the potential for loss of situation awareness by the drilling team" [from page 2/6 Well Control Plan which is in a zip file linked at Appendices and Attachments on this page at this Bureau of Oceans and Environment Management (BOEM) page. ]

"loss of situational awareness' was a big red flag for me.  Here's a post I did on that phrase back in 2010:  Euphemism Alert!! What the hell is "Lack of Situational Awareness"?

I understand that there's an art to giving an overview, and I have yet to probe deep enough in all the documents to find out if there are more operational details than this. 

For instance,
1)   how often the flow checks are conducted and where the results of those tests go and how quickly and how quickly do government regulators see them? 
2)  What does 'frequent'?  I'd like to see some numbers - once a week, once a month (I don't know what's reasonable) - and records kept and reported that they happened and what was learned from each drill and what improvements were made based on the drill. 
3/4) should be expanded somewhere to list the job titles of the "Shell staff" and "operational staff" and the names of the people in those positions with a list of the specific certificates they have, when they got them,  plus links to what the training includes and what the certificate guarantees the staff know and can perform. 
5) how about a list of the 'team of experts' including their name and expertise and how their expertise is determined.

It's in Shell's interest that all this rhetoric is backed up, but I know these things are written to get approval.  I'd like to know that BOEM is getting more detail than this.  BUT, it may be in there somewhere, I just haven't had the time to read it all and then find the people I can ask my questions of.  So, these posts are still unwritten. 

Then there's this somewhat disturbing prospect:

The estimated total duration from the initial mooring to well kill pumping through a relief well would be approximately 28 days for a Burger blowout (Table 1). In the event of a blowout, the secondary rig if located at the Burger Prospect, will cease drilling, suspend the well so that it cannot flow, recover its BOP stack and moorings, and transit to the relief well drill site. In this case, the estimated duration of flow prior to drilling a relief well to intersection with the original wellbore and killing the flow is approximately 34 days (six days to mobilize and moor and 28 days to kill the well). If the secondary rig is located in Dutch Harbor, the rig will transit from Dutch Harbor to the relief well drill site. The rig will initiate relief well drilling operations upon arrival and mooring and will remain at the site through plugging operations on both the relief well and the blowout well. The max additional time required will be to unmoor in Dutch Harbor, transit to relief well site, and moor is an estimated 10 days (10 days to mobilize and moor and 28 days to kill the well).  [emphasis added] [Page 2-5 from
Revised Outer Continental Shelf Lease Exploration PlanChukchi Sea, AlaskaBurger Prospect:Posey Area Blocks 6714, 67626764, 6812, 6912, 6915Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193]

I don't know what sort of damage can happen in 28 days, and I need to check.  But I suspect it won't be pretty. 

But I also know that Shell has huge incentives for everything to go right.  Not only are accidents costly to them in lost time and equipment, they are disastrous in terms of public opinion and the future obstacles that result.  So Shell surely wants things to go well, wants to get oil as quickly as they can with no mishaps.  I don't question their intentions to have no serious problems.  The question is their ability to carry it out.

They have a lot of smart people, but many of them are smart in a narrow area of knowledge.  But I have lots of reading to do, and questions to ask before I tackle this for real.  And I may or may not get there.  

Erin's Law
This bill still hasn't been passed.  I've emailed the representatives who voted against it (only Rep. Tammy Wilson has responded) and I've got what the ADN says their reasons for opposing it are.  But I need to get a bit more information.

Others

Tanaina preschool followup, mayoral election reflections, left over press club conference thoughts, the university searches for a president and Fairbanks chancellor, and it goes on. 
And then there are a dozen posts in my head that haven't gotten into writing even.

And it's essentially summer in Alaska and Denali calls for a visit before the buses are taking the tourists in.