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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308976522015-03-28T00:22:40.774-08:00What Do I Know?........This and that as things come upStevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com/oJTgpuhttps://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-11258251544008222522015-03-26T23:52:00.000-08:002015-03-26T23:52:27.432-08:00Suppose Your New Job Was To Betray Your BrothersTwo couples have tried to create the Perfect Arrangement. It's the 1950s. Bob Martindale works for the State Department. Neighbor Norma Baxter is his secretary. They live in adjoining apartments, appropriately connected by a closet.

March 19 - April 4 Thu/Fri/Sat 7pm

Out North - Primrose and Debarr (kitty corner from Costco)

So this doesn't get lost: this is a funny play, and you'll laugh, but it packs a punch.

Bob's assignment of late, has been to root Communists out of the State Department, but they're mostly gone and now his boss has assigned him the task of getting rid of the deviants. He undertakes this job knowing that he and his lover and Norma and hers are safe in their Perfect Arrangement.

Opening Night Reception After The Performance at Out North

This is a neatly done play by Topher Payne - who was here last Thursday for the West Coast premiere of his work. There's lots going on in the play. There are the two different worlds - a social facade of voice and intonation and topic for straight visitors where the ladies chatter about recipes and shopping, the men disparage the women, and then there's the more open expression of ideas in uncensored vocabulary when the two couples are alone.

But the play is not simply a play about being in the closet or homosexuals for that matter. Rather it's about marginalized people who have learned to act one way in the outside world and another at home, and who are always worried that their real being will be discovered and always tortured because it can't be. This play could be about black slaves in the south, or women in a male dominated work place, or undocumented workers. . .

And as the tension rose when Bob was required to make lists of deviants to be fired, I couldn't help think about the Jewish capos in concentration camps who got slightly better treatment for cooperating with the Nazis and keeping tabs on the others. The dialogue was explicit about the conflict between trying to save oneself and one's duty to the others. About the small benefits of blending in versus the great losses of denying one's true identity. We could see the characters' slow debilitating stress of staying hidden, the fear of being discovered and the change it will mean, and the enticing but dangerous thought of standing up and declaring one's identity. Echoes of the struggle in Selma.

This is a powerful play with strong acting - well worth seeing. Below is a video of the playwright, Topher Payne, talking at the reception after the performance. You can also see a video with directors/actors Krista Schwarting and Jay Burns here.

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/suppose-your-new-job-was-to-betray-your.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-26275294801196875052015-03-26T15:57:00.000-08:002015-03-26T15:57:54.065-08:00McHugh Creek

Here are a few pictures from Sunday's hike on the Johnson Pass trail from McHugh Creek. The cottonwoods - and everything else - are still naked. Below you can see them in different states.

Devil's club was budding.

A couple of weeks ago, we came by and only the lower parking lot (right) was open, but Sunday, the gate to the upper parking areas was open.

And the creek was still flowing mostly under the ice.

Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/mchugh-creek.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-22245678792857014602015-03-25T15:24:00.002-08:002015-03-25T15:24:41.994-08:00Missouri Senator Blunt Offers Budget Amendment To Preclude Future Carbon Fee From Sen. Blunt's website:

 Blunt image from SemoTimes

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) introduced an amendment to the FY2016 budget today to protect families in Missouri and across America from a carbon tax, which would lead to skyrocketing energy costs for families nationwide. Blunt's amendment, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator John Thune (S.D.), would create a Point of Order against any bill that contains a tax or fee on carbon emissions from sources that are direct or indirect sources of emissions. To read the text of the amendment, click here.
This amendment's intent is to preempt legislation that would create a carbon fee or tax and require 60 votes to override this amendment. The press release also falsely predicts rising energy costs and lost jobs. (Actually, it probably depends on the assumptions they made about what such a fee would look like, assumptions that are radically different from the carbon fee proposal of Citizens Climate Lobby that I'll discuss below.)

SEMO Times [Southeast Missouri], seems to just print the press release as is:

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) introduced an amendment to the FY2016 budget today to protect families in Missouri and across America from a carbon tax, which would lead to skyrocketing energy costs for families nationwide. Blunt's amendment, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator John Thune (S.D.), would create a Point of Order against any bill that contains a tax or fee on carbon emissions from sources that are direct or indirect sources of emissions. To read the text of the amendment, click here.

Actually, a carbon fee, such as the one proposed by the Citizens Climate Lobby, would distribute the money raised by the fee back to the American public - much like the Alaska Permanent Fund.

"A national carbon price, with full revenue return and border adjustments, will do four things:

internalize the social cost of carbon-based fuels,

rapidly achieve large emission reductions,

stimulate the economy &

recruit global participation.[1]"

I know about this because I'm a member of the Citizens Climate Lobby and I've been going to their monthly international phone meetings and have done the homework to see that the carbon fee proposal is the most politically feasible option to reduce carbon emissions. A carbon fee is supported by a number of conservatives because it uses market forces rather than regulation.

A REMI study showed that the 'dividend' paid back to the public would off-set any additional costs of carbon products.

"The results of the study demonstrate that there are probable benefits to taxing carbon dioxide emissions and returning the money to consumers through F&D [Fee and Dividend]. The following are highlights of the national level results of the study in 2025.

2.1 million more jobs under the F&D carbon tax than in the baseline

 33% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from baseline conditions

13,000 premature deaths saved from improvements in air quality

 These principal results are not to say the outcome is universally positive, and there are certain industries and regions in the United States that may do better or worse under a carbon pricing system. For example, the industries tied directly to households, such as healthcare, retail, and housing construction, tend to do well because F&D increases the overall level of consumer spending. There are other important results in 2025. The F&D rebates return nearly $400 billion to households—or almost $300 per month for a family of four, and the carbon tax aids in retirements of coal plants and accelerates investments in wind, solar, and nuclear power. The impact to the total cost of living is less than 3% from the baseline, and gross domestic product (GDP) increases between $80 billion and $90 billion."

The REMI study assumes a carbon fee that is refunded to the public.

"Such a carbon tax would begin at $10 per metric ton in 2016 and escalate in a linear fashion at $10 per year upward, although this study's timeline ends with the models' horizon in 2035."
REMI (Regional Economic Models Inc.) is an economic modeliing research company that specializes in projecting the economic impacts of various proposals on the economies of states and the US as a whole. It used the same basic model it uses for the many studies commissioned by US states and its assumptions about the carbon fee were those in the CCL carbon fee proposed legislation. CCL commissioned the study.

In contrast, a study by NERA, presumably the same study or a similar one used for the dire predictions of Sen. Blunt's press release used different assumptions:

"A carbon tax that begins at $20/metric ton of co2 in 2013 and increases at 4 percent per year."

The revenue is not used to pay US consumers as in the CCL proposal that REMI tested.

So, while the NERA study is probably just as accurate as the REMI study, it starts with different and questionable assumptions and numbers. I didn't find the proposed legislation they used to make those assumptions. The way to produce the kind of results your clients want is to use the right assumptions as you start your modeling.

The REMI study also showed that the fee would create jobs, not reduce them.

So, which study should you believe? One commissioned and paid for by corporate interests whose basic product is the source of climate change or one commissioned by a citizens group that is concerned with the sustainability of the planet and whose motivation stems from concern for their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren? Actually, CCL was hoping that such a study would show that the economic impacts were much less damaging than opponents (like Blunt) claimed. They were pleasantly surprised to find out the impacts would actually add jobs and stimulate the economy. There certainly can be biases in both studies, but we seen how the tobacco industry fought tooth and nail to hide the health effects of tobacco and a new movie - Merchants of Doubt - is supposed to show how a similar campaign is being waged to attack legitimate climate change science.

Sourcewatch (Center for Media and Democracy) has this entry about NERA and a study for the coal industry:

In June 2011, a coal industry front group, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) released a report stating that clean-air rules proposed by the Obama administration would cost utilities $17.8 billion annually and raise electricity rates 11.5 percent on average in 2016.[2][3]
 ACCCE paid for National Economic Research Associates Inc. to conduct the report, which a Bloomberg report described "as part of a campaign to delay compliance deadlines in the pending rules." The report estimated that regulations cutting emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides would lead to the "premature" retirements of coal-fired power plants that can generate 47.8 gigawatts of electricity, about 15 percent of coal's U.S. production capacity.
 Representative Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the energy subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said he plans to introduce a bill to give utilities more time to comply with the rules. New maximum levels for nitrogen oxides, a component of smog, and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain, are scheduled to take effect in 2012. The US Environmental Protection Agency is under a court order to produce a final mercury rule in November 2011. Utilities would have as long as four years to meet the mercury standard.[4]

Unfortunately, this doesn't analyze the data or compare it to other studies on the topic. Its key point is that the study was for a coal company front group that Bloomberg says was a campaign to delay regulations. A red flag, but not quite damning proof.

I found this portrait of Blunt on what appears to be a Boston College  Model United Nations website.

The United States Chamber of Commerce has awarded Blunt a 97% pro-business rating, he has consistently voted in favor of deregulation, and he maintains close ties with the Koch Brothers in Kansas City. [Koch's are headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, just 63 miles from Kansas City, Missouri.] With a son that was a former governor and considerable real estate holdings in Missouri, Blunt is among the most powerful Senators in terms of constituent influence. Among the largest businesses located in Missouri is Monstanto. Blunt's Farmers Assurance Provision was dubbed the "Monsanto Protection Act" by liberal lawmakers. It is more than likely that Blunt maintains close ties with Hugh Grant, Pierre Courduroux, and Brett Begemann, Chief Executives at Monsanto. Blunt is consistently accused of promoting corporations and providing slack to companies that benefit his son, Andrew, and power brokers in Missouri.
Republican Allies
Blunt allies with Senator Ted Cruz, as well as much of the Tea Party core with his radical stance on healthcare. Conversely, his conservative stances on business, social issues, and public insurance enrage Democratic leadership.

 I think there are probably a lot of loose ends here, but you get the point. It probably wouldn't hurt to call your Senator - whatever state you're in - and let him or her know that you oppose this amendment and they should vote against it. Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/missouri-senator-blunt-offers-budget.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-61068379840927935992015-03-24T23:27:00.001-08:002015-03-24T23:27:51.951-08:00Lazy Blogger; Low Budget Candidates; Who We BeI've been having trouble getting posts finished. It's not for lack of subjects, it's just they weren't coming out right. So this is going to be a quicky just to get something up.

Low Budget Mayoral Candidates

First there was this sign:

I think I heard Dustin has spent less than $100 on his campaign.

And then yesterday I saw this sign:

This is a fence that's seen a number of signs posted and then get removed. This was the only one up.

There's an advantage to not having much money - it forces you to think differently about how you're going to do things. These signs have a refreshing simplicity and homemade quality that clearly distinguishes them from all the very similar professional signs.

Then I went to the Bartlett Lecture at UAA tonight. The audience size was a bit disappointing. Jeff Chang talked about his new book Who We Be and the evolution of race as an issue in the US from the 60's to today. From a time when the majority was be
hind fairness and equality, through the backlash period, to today when things are particularly polarized. Jeff has a passion for hip-hop and he talked about how it was the non-establishment multi-cultural movement. (Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth.) There was also a good audience Q&A that got into questions about young activism in Anchorage - whether it was happening or not.

 Here are a couple of the people I talked to afterward.

Troy Buckner is the Executive Director of New Life Development in Anchorage, a non-profit that works with prisoners as they come out of prison and transition back into life without bars. He also worked with Jeff years ago on documenting hip-hop. He's with one of his board members, Carey Brown.

Jeff Chen works at the Student Conservation Association (SCA) which involves students in various conservation projects. No, that's not his conscience sitting on his shoulder, it's one of the book sellers in the background.

Here's Jeff Chang after the talk listening to one of the audience members talk about Soviet multi-culturalism in the 1920s.

Jeff, if you see this, here's a link to the movie Shield and Spear I mentioned to you.

There's just so much going on in Anchorage and the weather's so good. It's nice having easy walking and biking so early in the year. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/lazy-blogger-low-budget-candidates-who.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-52581729148630038572015-03-23T10:48:00.000-08:002015-03-23T12:41:10.337-08:00Alaska Legislature Runs State Finances Like Poor People Run TheirsI want this to be a short, to-the-point post, but I have a feeling it's going to wander a bit, because life isn't as simple as we'd like to believe it is. [Not too long. Just be patient.]

What Do Poor And Rich Mean?

I'm talking economically rich or poor - not spiritually, emotionally, culturally, or one of the many other ways people can be rich or poor.

Poor, in my head, means that you are in danger of not being able to cover your necessities - food, shelter, health - because you live on the edge. While homeless folks probably come to mind first, this also includes people working at minimum wage jobs where food gets scarce toward the end of the pay period. And while we think of this being month to month, for some it's a slightly longer time frame - maybe year to year.

Rich has more levels.

Basic: A family could be self-supporting, without cash - hunting, gathering, possibly some farming, and self-sufficient enough to build their own homes and make their own clothes. Alaska Natives lived like this for thousands of years. They were poor, only in the sense that a bad year could threaten their survival.

Similarly, It could be a working family that has a sustainable source of income - a job with a steady salary and even better, a defined-benefit retirement plan. There are dangers. One could get sick and be unable to work, or the company could go out of business, or be bought out by another company that liquidates the pension fund.

Strong: A family that has not only a steady income, but a nest egg that can keep them going if the steady income is threatened.

Really Rich: A family that has so much wealth, that there is almost no conceivable way that their money will ever run out.

You'll notice here that security is a relative term. No one is totally secure. Disasters come in many expected and unexpected forms. Natural and human-made disasters can threaten the richest families. But the really rich can use their money to influence the social, economic, and political systems so that their security is protected, not just by their family, but by the governmental system.

The key is access to the political power of the society. In the past, royal families simply owned the country and the governmental structure including the army. Today, large multinational corporations are able to do this better than most others.

Why Are Rich People Rich?

They are rich, not because they have a steady income, but because they've invested enough of the excess income, so that it provides a steady stream of money to meet all their reasonable (and in extreme cases, unreasonable) future needs. They have resources, they store their excess wealth. They can sell when prices are high and buy when they are low. The society protects their interests. In capitalistic societies, they have financial investments that earn and grow.

OK, here's where this is all leading.

The state of Alaska has managed to set up some funds for the future. That's what the Permanent Fund was all about. Recognizing that today's Alaskan's shouldn't be the only beneficiaries of the unsustainable oil resource. The Permanent Fund was supposed to capture that wealth and sustain Alaskans in the future. But it's become, in too many people's minds, a quick, easy October cash infusion. And other budget reserve funds were also attempts at protecting the wealth for future generations.

But we're spending and saving like poor folks.

Alaska Headlines Sunday March 22 and Monday March 23

"State sells $4B in stocks: Cash may be needed as budget reserve is emptied to cover deficit" [Note: the online headlines are different from the paper versions]

Alaska lawmakers look to once-forbidden sources for money
Those forbidden sources are the funds that some in previous legislatures managed to stash away for rainy days. But rich people, and when Alaska discovered oil it won the lottery and became a rich state, make those funds sustainable. They don't drain them, because that means they will stop being rich.

Groups of people will always have a hard time managing finances. Collective management is tough. Different folks have different ideas of what to spend their money on and how to manage it. Even families have those kinds of problems. And there are always the sharks and vultures that sense wealth and coming running to find a way to get their share.

But let's not let the Republicans in this state pull the wool over people's eyes. It was legislatures with Democratic majorities and/or with Republicans whom today's Republicans would call Democrats and socialists, who created the Permanent Fund, and many other rainy day funds.

But it's been a totally Republican controlled state government that has had the highest state budgets, ever, and by a large margin. And it's Republicans who are running the state like poor folks. People who won the lottery but didn't stop thinking like poor folks and quit their jobs (abolished the income tax) and then spent all the money. Some was spent on important stuff - like schools and health care, but a lot was spent on boondoggles and luxuries. Rural Alaska still has honey buckets after all these years, but we've got the Dena'ina Center and the newly refurbished Legislative Office in Anchorage. And there were Democrats who took part in some of the frivolous spending as well (the train station at the airport), but Republicans have held sway for much longer.

And now, instead of seriously looking for a job (in state terms that means finding revenue sources like taxes) to pay for things, our legislature is raiding the piggy banks. I say piggy banks because that's where the poor, if they save at all, save their money. And that's how our legislature is responding to the crisis. They're going to stop paying basic bills and raid the piggy banks they can find. OK, some of the stashed away money is left over money on projects that we probably shouldn't spend on, but some are endowments to help sustain important programs.

I hope readers realize that I do not mean to disparage the poor - at least those who are poor because of structural societal systems that keep them from having a good education and good health care and jobs that pay a decent wage. Poor people have fewer choices - even if they manage to secure a decent wage, their education hasn't prepared them for all the sharks waiting to take their money - bar owners, gambling establishments, sellers of fancy consumer products at "Amazing deals" and promises of painless credit, "Worried about your credit? DON'T BE! Let our credit experts help you now." [From ADN Saturday, p C-8]

A number of our legislators have moved up from being poor. They still think like the poor. And they're still dazzled by their corporate sponsors and do as they're told, while thinking they have power and independence.

And the people of Alaska are watching our wealth drained by their ignorance and greed.

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/alaska-legislature-runs-state-finances.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-19798814027128774402015-03-22T19:06:00.000-08:002015-03-23T10:49:01.898-08:00It Always Looks Different: Turnagain ArmThirty eight years later, Turnagain Arm still is awesome (in the original sense of the word.)

Driving south from Anchorage is never just a drive. It's a beautiful adventure.

So, let's start with the typical post card picture of Turnagain Arm and then will look at some variations that I took today. None of these were altered except for some cropping.

Now, let's look just at the wet stuff. Every time you look, it's different.

And back to another typical post card view.

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/it-always-looks-different-turnagain-arm.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-37671754407057997742015-03-21T12:51:00.002-08:002015-03-21T12:51:28.426-08:00Delta Buying Alaska? Really Bad NewsRumors.

It's not just because Alaska Airlines has the name of my state on it (even if it is headquartered in Seattle.)

It's not just because Alaska has been relatively good as US airlines go. (even if it has taken advantage of its monopoly in the rest of the state.)

It's not just because we travel a lot to visit my mom and have learned how to best use Alaska to travel.

It's not just because Delta screwed us over in the very worst way once - canceling our trip to Thailand at the very last minute without telling us. Our travel agent (yeah it was that long ago) checked and found it out and after lots of trouble was able to rebook us on Korean (the flight we were originally booked on with Delta tickets). And then on the way back, they again changed our tickets, flying my wife out of Thailand two days after her connecting flight out of Seoul (yes that makes it hard to make a connection) and wouldn't let us fly the Seoul - Anchorage Korean flight, but forced us to go Seoul - San Francisco - Salt Lake City - Anchorage adding over 24 hours to our trip home.

It's because when there's no anti-trust enforcement, all the good smaller companies get bought up by the less good bigger ones and then there's just a few big companies, there's no competition. Even if they don't collude, they just copy each other and adjust prices up, add all kinds of extra fees, and generally screw over their customers. There's nothing good that could come out of this for consumers.

No, no, no. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/delta-buying-alaska-really-bad-news.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-75727346908155465812015-03-19T09:57:00.000-08:002015-03-20T10:58:27.576-08:00Ideology Is A Bitch It allows you to answer all questions with slogans. It allows you to ignore facts. It lets you get away without serious analysis and it lets you do horrendous harm to civilization without guilt.

In ideological capitalism, government is bad. Taxes are bad. Deficits are bad. Corporations are good.

Those are part of the mantra of the far wrong.

With these phrases guiding Republicans in Washington and Juneau, programs that took years to nurture and grow, and which provide benefits not only to the immediate recipients, but to society (and ironically that budget deficit) are being whacked.

The wrecking crews cannot distinguish between the flowers and weeds. The projects that tend survive are the projects favored by corporate interests.

There is a commonality between the Republican use of ideology to destroy everything they can that smacks of 'government' and other evils in their interpretation of capitalism, and the ISIS use of ideology to destroy everything that smacks of idolatry or other evils in their interpretation of the Qur'an.

So, in the far wrong budget, the military and war and destruction (Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and many others) get increased funding. Programs that grow, nurture, and protect the most vulnerable humans (Headstart, foodstamps, health programs) get dismantled or destroyed. (see NY Times for example.)

Just like ISIS terrorists who demolish ancient statues that took skill and time to build and, because of their survival for millennia, give us clues to understanding our human cultural origins, the Republicans are attempting to destroy social programs that have taken sweat and ingenuity and dedication to build. Destruction is easy. If you've spent time with a two-year old, you know they can knock things down far more easily than they can build things up. They also repeat the word 'no' over and over again.

In Alaska, today's ADN has a front page article about Rep. Lynn Gattis' amendment to scrap WWAMI* - the program Alaska uses, in lieu of a medical school, to grow Alaskan doctors. The program is a cooperative program with other northwestern states to share medical school investments. The article says that 14% of Alaska doctors are products of the WWAMI program. Considering how small the program is, that's quite a bit. If we consider the costs of just recruiting doctors to rural Alaska, WWAMI is a major investment in lower future costs. Unlike the ISIS ideologists who condemn the statues they destroy, Gattis at least acknowledges WWAMI and other programs being cut as "great programs. . . We just can't afford them." A variation of the mantra.

The Institute for Social And Economic Research (ISER) has been predicting the decline in oil revenue for 30 years. Technology changes and the increase in oil prices have delayed the inevitable to some extent. And the legislature has at times heeded that warning, and set up rainy day funds. The Alaska state budget has tripled since 2000, most significantly in latter years when the Republicans have had their greatest power in Juneau. They funded all sorts of capital projects for the benefit of their contractor supporters - the Knik Arm Bridge, renewed studies for a Susitna dam, a road from Juneau to a mine that Sen. MacKinnon's husband has significant (in terms of money if not percentage) interests in, a loopy program to save orphaned moose. In my own neighborhood a road has been given $20 million in last minute maneuvering in Juneau - a road that all the community councils in the area have strongly opposed.

While some legislators are raising the politically sensitive issues of increasing revenues (sales taxes, income taxes, marijuana taxes, and dipping into the Permanent Fund), most are either ideologically opposed to such measures or too timid to be leaders. Instead they will destroy programs like WWAMI. Dr. Tom Nighswander is quoted in the ADN article,

" . . . it took years to build the program's capacity to keep students in Alaska for the first two years. He said he fears that if the program disappears, it would not be able to bring back all of the clinical faculty it currently prizes.
"If you dismantle the program, you can't restart it again," he said. "
Ideology is a bitch. It allows you to answer all questions with slogans. It allows you to ignore facts. It lets you get away without serious analysis and it lets you do horrendous harm to civilization without guilt

NOTE: This is more of an opinion piece than I normally do, but sometimes stuff gets so thick, you have to stand up and call it out. I realize that the ISIS metaphor will attract criticism, but I'm focused on one aspect of ISIS - their ability to use ideology to justify everything they do. You can kill directly, immediately, using violence and personally drawing blood and you can kill in the long term by destroying institutions that nurture humans, maintain health, and save lives.

*Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and IdahoStevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/ideology-is-bitch.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-69466968996317151032015-03-17T22:10:00.002-08:002015-03-17T22:10:56.905-08:00Tanaina Update: No Return To Old Sports Center Spot, But University Vows To HelpThere was a Tanaina task force meeting Monday afternoon, though the time and place was different from what was decided at Friday afternoon's meeting.

The basic topic was: How did the chancellor's cabinet respond to the options the task force presented earlier that day?

The key points I heard were:

1. The space Tanaina has been in since it opened in the late 1970s is not an option for interim use. This had been a key question since the task force had gotten conflicting messages from task force members who are also university administrators.

2. The chancellor's cabinet strongly endorsed the idea of Tanaina and offered unspecified support - possibly physical space, possibly financial, definitely moral.

Other things were discussed, but those were the two key issues.

The task force is looking at three time frames:

Short term - For when they have to move out of the sports center on campus because there is contracted construction scheduled. That should take the summer and possibly to October or so. For the summer, Tanaina has an agreement with St. Mary's.

Mid term - Once the short term is done, the question will be where to house Tanaina until a long-term solution can be realized. There are some options here, but the one that the task force seemed to prefer - getting back to their old space - was shut down by the chancellor's cabinet which said they are committed to part of student services moving in there. Staying longer at St. Mary's is a possibility, but there are things that would need to be worked out. The board of Tanaina has to look at the impacts of moving on enrollment, costs, and income, to determine the overall feasibility. But there was a possibility that the university might find ways to assist if necessary. My notes say: "UAA is vested in your success for the short term, mid term, or long term."

Long term - This period has the most uncertainties at this point. Dennis McMillian, the head of Foraker is a part of this task force because of his experience with non-profit development and fund raising. He voiced cautious optimism about the long term and the task force had a number of serious options that they discussed, but at this point they're vague and there were concerns expressed about the sensitivity of publicly mentioning specifics at this point.

The sense I got from the meeting was one of mixed disappointment and optimism. Disappointment because the old location has been shut off as a medium term possibility. Optimism because, as reported by the task force reps who presented the options to the whole task force, the chancellor's cabinet expressed strong support for Tanaina and a continuing relationship with the university and that they were adamant about not closing Tanaina. What wasn't clear was the nature of that relationship and support. The possibilities of a physical space on campus or financial support or faculty expertise were brought up at the meeting, but nothing concrete was specified. It was suggested that during this time of fiscal stress, the administration would have to deal with the immediate problems of the budget cuts on campus before they could commit to anything in the longer term with Tanaina. But, the implication I heard, was that it would be there.

It was mentioned that the Tanaina situation has made the issue of child care/development centers a statewide university topic. Other issues were raised about improving the infrastructure for child care in Anchorage in general, because fewer people seemed to be willing to take on the responsibility of small, home-based child care, so the demand for more institutionalized child care was growing. There was talk of changing the structure of the Tanaina board, which tends to have high turnover as board members' kids leave Tanaina in two or three years, which hurts institutional memory. Plus the parent board members, already have very busy lives because of their young children. And for parents new to Anchorage, with no family nearby, it's even more hectic.

It was a meeting with mixed messages. Cutting the ties with the old space seems certain, and facing uncertain change is difficult. Especially with things that so hugely affect family life as child care. But Tanaina is ripe for a larger space. It's just that the path there didn't have to be so disruptive and unplanned.

No new meeting of the task force was scheduled. They're waiting until after a Friday meeting with the Tanaina board. Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/tanaina-update-no-return-to-old-sports.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-59973644802118486802015-03-17T09:13:00.001-08:002015-03-17T09:13:13.218-08:00"Facing Human Vulnerability in a Dangerous World"I'd love to do an in depth post on this, probably starting with something about how human behavior and moral dilemmas and the debates about what is the right ethical path has been hotly and insightfully debated for over 2000 years. Professor Aaron Stalnaker is going to be here tomorrow (Wednesday March 18) to talk about what ancient Chinese philosophers said about the same kinds of issues we face today. I'd like to write about how easy it is for us to think that people living today are so much smarter than those who lived in the distant past. But that there were people living then who whose abilities to think through complex human issues were as powerful as anyone alive today.

But I've got lots of other things to do and this talk is tomorrow evening, so I'll just send this on for people who might wish to gain some perspective on our current ethical debates.

Here's the official announcement:

Confucius Institute invites you and your family to join our next academic Lecture, to be held in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, Lewis E. Haines Meeting Room, Room 307, on Wednesday,  March 18, from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.

"Facing Human Vulnerability in a Dangerous World:

Two Chinese Responses."

This lecture will address Mengzi's (and perhaps Xunzi's) defense of ritual as an appropriate response to human desires and aspirations, given our nature and the nature of the world as a whole; and then turn to Zhuangzi's criticism of received ritual forms, in favor of a more radical acceptance of unstoppable change.

Our speaker Dr. Aaron Stalnaker is a distinguished scholar and philosopher. He is an associate professor of Religious Studies, Philosophy, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. He is a core faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies, serves as the Dean of Graduate Studies, and has made tremendous contribution to the Department of Religious Studies in building its strong academics. He earned his bachelor's degree from Stanford, and obtained his PhD from Brown. He is an expert in ethics and philosophy of religion, giving serious attention to both Chinese and Western theories and practices.

He is the author of Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine (Georgetown University Press, 2006), a comparative study of different models of moral and religious personal formation. He recently co-edited Religious Ethics in a Time of Globalism: Shaping a Third Wave of Comparative Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He has lectured at many leading universities, including Harvard Divinity School, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, etc.

And for those who want to do a little homework first, here's an excerpt from a review of Stalnaker's book Overcoming Our Evil:

Having made these points about Stalnaker's interpretation and analysis of Xunzi's theory of self-transformation, let me turn to a lingering concern about the overarching goal of comparative analyses. Stalnaker makes a very strong case for needing forms of spiritual exercises to accomplish self-transformation toward better, moral forms of life. Furthermore, he, like I, wants to be able to retrieve some of these practices for contemporary purposes, to be used to transform lives today. Yet our desire to retrieve these spiritual exercises must confront the problem of whether or not they can be divorced from their conceptual and cultural context and still remain effective practices for self-transformation. Stalnaker believes it may be possible to retrieve some practices once we untangle the complex web of relations between the context and the practices themselves, the kind of work he undertakes in this book.
 I picked this paragraph because it raises questions about the extent to which the ancient Chinese practices are applicable, as I suggested above.

Events like this are just one of the many benefits of having a good university in our city. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/facing-human-vulnerability-in-dangerous.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-91668161965189996082015-03-16T13:40:00.000-08:002015-03-16T13:40:24.253-08:00Bohemian Waxwings Visit Our Mt. Ash Tree
We hadn't seen the waxwings all winter and our tree and beneath it were full of berries. They came Sunday. They're such beautiful birds.

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/bohemian-waxwings-visit-our-mt-ash-tree.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-59022201962277617722015-03-15T16:23:00.000-08:002015-03-15T16:23:42.197-08:00Tanaina Catch Up - Monday May Tell A LotAs you may recall from previous posts, or other media coverage, the day care/development center at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) was notified that it would have to move, soon.

The center has been at the university since about 1979. It serves children of students, faculty, staff, and community members and there's a waiting list. The university decided they needed the space to relocate staff from Student Services (about a mile from the main campus) onto campus. Tanaina was the space they decided to use. They used various explanations - Tanaina is not a university entity and they've been subsidizing the rent all these years. (Tanaina's current proposals include paying rent for the space, by the way.) It's a dangerous location with the Zamboni and chlorine for the pool stored nearby. Space is at a premium on campus.

The reaction to the decision to evict Tanaina was swift and strong - letters to the ADN, a protest march, people addressing the board of regents meeting. And four regents expressed their concern about closing a day care center. I suspect this reaction is what motivated the chancellor to set up the task force that is looking into options for Tanaina.

I've got a personal interest in Tanaina as I've posted earlier in a post on the historical context of Tanaina which also raised issues about what closing the day care center does to the campus climate for women. I won't repeat that here.

At the February 20 board of regents meeting I learned that the Tanaina task force was meeting that afternoon. It was an interesting meeting, but I was headed out of town that weekend and didn't get to post about that meeting. This past Friday (March 13) I went to another meeting. (I missed one in between.) So let me try to catch up here.

February 20 Meeting - I left somewhat hopeful after this meeting. The task force includes Tanaina parents (faculty, students, and staff), the university's associate vice chancellor for Facilities and Campus Services, Chris Turletes, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, Megan Olson, and a few others. Like Foraker head, Dennis McMillian and Debi Baldwin,Director, Division of Child Development, Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RURAL CAP).

My sense at the beginning of that meeting was that the task force was resigned that it had to find some other spot for Tanaina and the eviction was a done deal. They talked about the short term option, the medium term option, and the long term option. There were some possible locations off campus for this summer when contracted construction would begin at Tanaina. But it didn't look like that could be permanent, so there was a need for a mid-term option until Tanaina could possible come up with funding to build a longer term option. But then one of the task force members asked Turlettes whether Tanaina could come back after the construction and what other options might there be on campus. His answer surprised me, positively. Moving back into Tanaina's Sports Center space was possible, though not permanently, and there was some university land where a new center could possibly be built.

I also learned that the current campus location restricted growth and the Tanaina board would like to grow. Besides being able to serve more families, economies of scale increased because the child/staff ratio could get a little bigger.

There was talk of working with the Anchorage School District, with Rural Cap, and other organizations in the community. Things were pretty positive after this meeting. The task force was going to flesh out the costs and feasibility of the different options. The short term summer options were off campus, but not too far. Then, with Turletes words in mind, they might be able to come back to their old space a few years until a bigger, permanent space was built.

March 13 Meeting

Since it was spring break, the meeting was held off campus and several of the members called in. The task force had secured space at St. Mary's for the summer. It wasn't ideal - St. Mary's already has its own day care which, if I remember properly, doesn't meet in the summer. It was economically feasible and pretty close to campus.

But then, after summer, it gets dicier. They had a table that broke out the costs of each of three different options. One was to continue at St. Mary's, but that still had a lot of unknowns, including the possible need for a portable building because St. Mary's day care would be opening again. It wasn't clear they could make the finances break even, but the gap was small.
The second option was to return to the UAA campus sports center space they've been in for all these years.
There was another building that they were looking at that was further off campus and would require a lot of modifications, and the cost was significantly higher than the other two options.

The task force was preparing to report to the chancellor's cabinet Monday (March 16) and felt that they really weren't quite prepared. They'd done all this work, including other leads that weren't on the option sheet, but timing was tight.

About that point, the vice provost said that her sense of the chancellor's cabinet had already decided to continue with moving student services into Tanaina's space as originally planned, so the second option wasn't likely. My rough notes say:

 Megan: Going back to Wells Fargo [the sports center] is not a possibility.
 After that, discussion moved to adding 'closing down' as an option on the list. During that discussion someone asked Turletes whether there was a possibility of going back to the sports center location and he seemed to think that possibility was still open, but they shouldn't ask for more than three years, before they moved to a permanent location.

There was a lot of consternation among the committee members as they left to finish their documentation for the Monday meeting with the chancellor's cabinet.

I left with lots of questions. I'm still perplexed at how out of touch the administration was when they thought they could just close down the day care center that had been so important to people's lives over the years without any sort of pushback. They know that sports programs mean a lot to people, but had no sense of the importance of day care in people's lives. While, apparently, there had been general comments over the years about Tanaina needing to move eventually, the people I talked to on the task force were taken totally by surprise. They pointed out that the Board of Regents had recently approved money to renovate Tanaina to bring it up to code.

On the one hand, the university claims there's a space crunch, and I know in certain departments finding rooms for adjunct faculty to meet with students is getting hard. On the other hand in the last couple of years a large science building and a health sciences building have opened, an engineering building is nearing completion and another parking garage is going up. It seems to me that with all that building, finding space for a new child development center could have been found in one of those construction projects if people understood the importance of having such a center on campus. But while the university itself takes years to get a new building on line, they don't seem to have considered how difficult it would be for a child care center, with an all volunteer board, to find new space and raise funds to build a new center. They were simply given an eviction notice with a pretty short time line. It wasn't until they started hearing from the community and the board of regents, that they seem to have started listening.

I'm aware here that I don't have all the facts. But I do have the perceptions. I understand that the university reps think that they gave lots of advance warning over the years. But Tanaina board members said such comments were vague and they hadn't felt any immediate pressure. Remodeling, as I mentioned, had just been approved. They were thinking about the future, but not immediately. And it's difficult for a volunteer parent board that regularly turns over as their kids move from day care to kindergarten to have the kind of institutional memory needed. Or the time and energy to do the kind of long term lobbying and support building necessary to keep the administration aware of how important Tanaina is. It's work the Tanaina parents needed to do. But as a faculty member, I have to admit my surprise at seeing representatives of different programs speaking to the board of regents last month simply to say, "Here who we are, here's what we do, and why we're important." I hadn't gone to a board meeting and wasn't aware that this kind of program lobbying was going on.

In any case, the chancellor's cabinet will have to clarify whether going back on campus to their old space while they develop plans for a bigger, permanent space is still an option. If it's not, closing Tanaina will become a more likely option. That said, there are lots of things in play, and no one should throw in the towel until all possibilities are explored. After all, Out North is rising from its death bed this week.

Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/tanaina-catch-up-monday-may-tell-lot.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-37901015958954585642015-03-15T11:16:00.000-08:002015-03-15T11:16:46.255-08:00Nature's Reminder That Our Winter Isn't Over YetOur mild temperatures and all the bare pavement we've been enjoying have lulled a lot of folks into thinking spring was almost here. I've even been thinking about planting some sweetpeas in the flower box on the deck at the beginning of April.

But this week the temps have dropped, and this morning it was 2˚F (-16˚C) on our indoor/outdoor thermometer. And after almost two weeks of sunshine, it's grey, and there was the thinnest possible dusting of snow on the deck.

Blue skies still reigned last night. Here's the O'Malley trailhead about 6pm with an anemic snow covering.

And a view of Flat Top from the trail.

But it is The Ides of March, so while today we take a hit, my computer weather forecast suggests this is just a blip on the way to spring and summer. (In Anchorage spring tends to happen pretty quick though there are subtle signs to indicate different stages of summer.)

On closer look, it says our range for today should be 19˚F to 23˚F, yet it still says we're at 1˚F. So keep those coats handy just in case.
Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/natures-reminder-that-our-winter-isnt.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-2504497498855335492015-03-13T23:07:00.001-08:002015-03-13T23:07:34.113-08:00"Hold on, Millie Martindale (Raven Bonniwell)! You got some 'splainin' to do."
"You've just tried to break a date with your husband's boss' awful wife Kitty Sunderson (Karen Lange) by pretending you had an appointment with a butcher on U Street – and now Kitty wants to go to the butcher with you! How are you going to get out of that?!!
And not so fast, Bob Martindale (Andrew Keller)! You got some 'splainin' to do too. You're in charge of the State Department program to root out communists on the payroll, and your boss Ted Sunderson (Zach Brewster-Geisz) has just put you in charge of a new program to get rid of all the sexual deviants in the State Department – and you're one of them yourself!
Although you have a sham marriage to Millie, you actually live in unholy bliss with your neighbor Jim Baxter (Kiernan McGowan), who is legally married to your secretary Norma (Natalie Cutcher) – who is in reality Millie's lover! How are you going to get out of that?!!"
So begins a 2013 review of Topher Payne's play Perfect Arrangement in the DC Theater Scene.

I knew nothing about the review, but I did know the play was coming to Anchorage, when I stopped by Out North to see about tickets for next Thursday's (March 19) opening of the play. The box office wasn't open, but two of the producers (and actors) were inside, the set was ready, and Krista Schwarting and Jay Burns told me about the play.

In the video they briefly discuss the play - a West Coast premiere. Maybe you can hear some hints of playwright Topher Payne's Mississippi childhood in this post's title. The story takes place in the 1950s as homosexuals, following the purge of communists, were being rooted out of the State Department. We're getting the play here in Anchorage because Krista knows a friend of the Topher Payne. And Topher Payne will be here for the opening.

This was happened in the early 1950's - about the same time that Alan Turing (see Imitation Game) was arrested in England for being a homosexual. A commenter on the review that opens this post wrote:

"The man sitting next to me said "Young people have no idea … Everyone should see this play." I totally agree, and only wish these people could also be there: the woman I know who was an Army nurse in Korea and had to stand by, with her lover, and watch her friends being routed out and dishonorably discharged, and the woman who was the best record promoter in Chicago in the 60s who got caught trying to escape from a police raid of a second floor lesbian bar and lost her career. This is a fabulous comedy that touches on their tragedies."
People growing up today have trouble grasping what 'in the closet' meant back then. And perhaps they can better understand the negative reactions many in the older generations against gays because of what they were taught when they were young. This trailer for a movie about the time gives a little sense. (I was way too young at the time to be aware of any of this.)

The Reemergence of Out North

I'm delighted this enchanted piece of real estate at Primrose and Debarr is coming back to life. The building started as some sort of electrical station. When we got to Anchorage in 1977 it was Grandview Garden library, a wonderful funky old library. When Loussac library opened in 1984, Grandview was scheduled to close. The community kept it open a bit longer, but eventually it was shut. But the building was reincarnated as Out North by Jay Brause and Gene Dugan. And Jay and Gene (and their successors) always brought thought provoking performances - whether from Outside or from Anchorage or around Alaska - to their stage. Stuff that made you rethink things you thought you knew. You can read some more of the history here in the description of the Out North now housed at the University's Archives and Special Collections. Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/hold-on-millie-martindale-raven.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-88345121130531545112015-03-13T04:31:00.001-08:002015-03-13T04:41:45.715-08:00Demboski Would Support Tribes, Veto Gay Rights, Darden Wired To GodA fairly new community group - We Are Anchorage - organized, as I understand it, by Ma'o Tosi, held a mayoral forum at UAA's Wendy Williamson Auditorium Thursday night. It was one of the more interesting political forums I've gone to. Except for some technical glitches at the beginning with the sound, it went very smoothly.

[We Are Anchorage said they'd have the transcripts up Friday (today) on their website. As someone who has done transcripts for this blog, I think that Friday is probably optimistic. But when they're up, I'll check to make sure I'm accurate in what I say below.]

The focus was on violence in Anchorage and how the candidates would address it.

The basic answer from everyone was: More Police. Dan Coffey always mentioned that, of course, it's dependent on funding. Lance Ahern said there was lots of money that could be found in the Muni budget. Someone else (I think it was Halcro) said that since there was no snow plowing this year, there's plenty of money in that budget. Demboski bet everyone a piece of pizza that the Muni will have a surplus this year. (If I thought I would lose a bet, I might bet the whole audience a piece of pizza, but I don't know what I'd do with all that pizza if I won.)

There was a set of questions that had been given to all the candidates in advance - Dan Coffey had typed up answers that he left for people in the lobby. But he only made 40 copies and I guestimate there were about 140 in the audience. The questions were fairly detailed about strategies to fight violence in general, about violence against Alaska Native women, about the green dot program, the link between staffing levels and crime, etc. Questions were drawn randomly. Most of the questions were drawn and asked of three or four different candidates. A few questions were gathered from the audience as they entered the auditorium. At the end, audience members asked questions. Some of the candidates were well prepared with specifics and others spoke more in generalities. Given they had the questions in advance, the latter group just didn't do their homework.

There was a lot of basic agreement on things like the need for more police. Much of the difference was in style and emphasis. So I'd like to focus on what stood out for me.

Notable remarks

Amy Demboski. Of the candidates that the media seems to peg as the contenders, Demboski was the one who stood out as the most different from the pack. (It would have been nice to have seen more women on the stage.)

Tribes. The talk about tribes, especially coming from the candidate who bills herself as "the conservative choice" (March 9 video) was a surprise. Conservatives have been vigorously fighting the concept of tribes in Alaska. In answer to a question about domestic violence, Alaska Native women, and involving Alaska Natives in solutions, Demboski said she loved this questions, that she was already talking to Tribal Elders, that we should engage tribes because they have access to federal funding and medical care. We can't talk just about individuals, why not talk about tribes? It wasn't clear. Is she recognizing the importance of tribes to Alaskan Natives? Or is it a way to tap into federal funds? I'm not sure. It was unexpected.

Liz Medicine Crow, Moderator

Personal Responsibility. While she talked about dealing with tribes over individuals, she also seemed divided between "people have to take responsibility for themselves" when discussing homeless people and also acknowledging we have a responsibility to help. I suspect 'individual responsibility' is one of her core values. It's one that psychologist Jonathan Haidt says is important to conservatives. (It's in the link - go down to where it says, "In the Social Science Space interview.") They don't want to coddle leeches and mooches. I suspect that Demboski is trying to make a distinction between those who are just being irresponsible and those who are truly needy through no fault of their own. What she doesn't seem to see is how the system works for some people and doesn't work for others. There's a combination of genetic predispositions and family and social nurturing that prepare people to cope or to fail. While I would agree that some people seem to repeatedly make stupid decisions, I tend to believe that if we were omniscient, we would understand that these were not so much irresponsible decisions (which they are on one level) but also decisions programmed by social, political, and economic systems. It would be interesting to hear Demboski's explanation of how to determine who are just irresponsible and who are deserving of help.

Diversity. The question was about how to make the Anchorage Police Department look like the diverse population of Anchorage. Other candidates talked about recruiting candidates from the different ethnic groups of Anchorage. Demboski said, that diversity, to her, doesn't mean race or religion or economic status. The police department is already diverse, they're her neighbors (she lives in Chugiak.) That sounds like someone who says I don't see race, I'm colorblind. The mixed audience wasn't buying it. (I'd note, of course, that we're really talking about skin color. Race used to refer to Italians, Irish, Jews, etc.)

Discrimination Against Gays. When asked by an audience member about reports that she would veto a gay rights ordinance if mayor, Demboski first pointed out that her campaign didn't put out that ad. But she did, then, say she would veto such an ordinance. She wasn't discriminating against gays, she suggested, but rather preventing religious discrimination. People only had a minute (and later only 30 seconds to answer.) My interpretation of that is that she's identifying with people whose religions say that homosexuality is sinful and who would not want, as a merchant, to have to do things that advanced the idea that homosexuality was okay. I understand a person who embraces the bible literally including those sections fundamentalists point to as proof that homosexuality is a sin, feeling conflicted when they are asked to photograph or cater a gay wedding. I understand their claims that they feel it would endorse something they disagree with. And I certainly wouldn't want someone who thought I was an abomination to take the pictures or make the food for my wedding. But if you live in a small community where there is only one photography store or one good caterer or bakery, being denied service because of how you were born (and I know others will say it's a choice) is against the basic principles of equal rights that we celebrate with "All men are created equal." (And, of course, there is irony in that time has made the word 'men' there anachronistic.) And when it comes to landlords or employers having the right to discriminate against gays - even when their presence is not about advancing homosexuality - is even worse.
Dustin Darden added the concern about pastors having their freedom of speech abridged if they spoke out against gays. I don't know of any gay rights ordinance that says people in non-public settings can't offer the opinion that homosexuality is wrong.
I can understand that reasoning, but I can't agree with it. Religion has been used to justify drowning so called witches, and slavery as well. I had a number of issues with Demboski as a potential mayor, and this issue is reason enough for me to consider Demboski unacceptable as a mayor.
What wasn't addressed in this discussion was the relationship between religious condemnation of gays and the disproportionate amount of violence gays are subjected to and how violence against

Don Megga and Timer

gays would be dealt with.

Phil Stoddard. Phil's solution to everything was the mantra: "Education is the key and jobs are the answer." He promised to dramatically increase manufacturing in Anchorage by making this lowest priced electrical grid in the US. Every time he had a question, he got his mantra into the answer.

Dustin Darden paused before each answer, eyes looking up as though he were waiting to channel God, and he did say several times that God was the answer. His most passionate moment was when he vowed to shut down Planned Parenthood. He didn't actually name them, but he did talk about ending abortion and identified their corner on Lake Otis Parkway.

At the end of the randomly selected question, each candidate was asked what their most important tool for ending violence was.

Darden: Pray

Stoddard: Jobs

Berkowitz: Fundamentals and basics - prevention, policing, prosecution - alone won't eliminate violence. We all have to do it together - We Are Anchorage.

Huit: Spiritual solutions - "though not to where Dusting [Darden] is" - we have leadership problems

Ahern: Use new technologies - smart phones - 911 doesn't take advantage of people's ability to text and send photos of the person bothering them.

Coffey: Agrees with Ethan on fundamentals, but then need someone who can do it effectively and then he suggested he could.

Bauer: Incorporate what everyone else said plus the inability of people to deal with others in a civil manner - thus education

Halcro: Become Anchorage again, come together as a community

Demboski: Wish I had a simple answer. Communication - start with people talking to each other.

I walked away thinking there were four candidates who spoke knowledgeably about the issues and with recognition that there were other valid points of view besides their own - Dan Coffey, Ethan Berkowitz, Andrew Halcro, and Lance Ahern. Ahern is the least well known of the four and his knowledge of Anchorage comes from a shorter span of experience. He's head of IT at the Municipality now and has law enforcement experience. In his area he seems well informed and is well spoken. (I'm sure there are people at the Muni who dispute this and I don't know for sure. He seemed genuinely open and I'm inclined to believe him, but always "trust, but verify."

One unexpected issue raised by the audience was the future of Uber in Anchorage. Halcro was quick to say that he would be pushing for innovative firms like Uber much more than the man - Dan Coffey - who had been the attorney for the taxi industry. Coffey responded that he was open to Uber, but was concerned with guaranteeing public safety. Halcro also countered Demboski's promise to veto a gay rights ordinance by touting his own bringing the head of the national gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the first 'regular' chamber to invite the head of the gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to them. Berkowitz gave several spirited responses - in one case, after Paul Bauer talked about reawakening a moribund task force to study homelessness, Berkowitz held up a study on policing in Anchorage and said, there have been enough studies, it's time to implement them. If I were to go by audience applause, Berkowitz probably was the winner, though Halcro got his share of applause too. (There actually wasn't that much applause, though Darden's brother applauded loudly each time Dustin spoke.)

There was a positive vibe in the room. Candidates treated each other, for the most part, with respect and the audience listened carefully. The whole event was well organized and I got a good sense of the candidates. The APOC lists several other mayoral candidates who weren't there:

Samuel Joseph Speziale III

Yeilyadi Olson

Jacob Kern

Christopher Steven Jamison

Jonathan Harrison (is listed for both mayor and school board)

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/demboski-would-support-tribes-veto-gay.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-50540547691603852852015-03-11T02:00:00.000-08:002015-03-11T12:17:12.776-08:00The Imitation Game Versus American SniperWe just saw The Imitation Game. And I haven't seen American Sniper, so I'm taking a bit of a leap, but play along a bit.

The Movie

The Imitation Game is about a mathematical genius, Alan Turing, whose mind brilliantly unravels codes, but misses human non-verbal, even verbal, cues. He's also sexually attracted to men.

The movie, while telling the story of the secret British team led by Turing that cracked the German Enigma machine, also shows us, in the background, bits of Turing's life. Being bullied as a school kid, because of his differences from the other students, his total lack of empathy for the other decoders working with him during the war, and to how the British courts treated him (prison or take hormonal treatments to stop his homosexuality.)

Thought One: Abstract Ideas vs. Concrete Action

The movie portrays Turing's superiors as constantly trying to shut down his program. He had lots of qualities that made him unpleasant to others. Mostly a total lack of any empathy for other people - he didn't listen to them, he didn't hear them, he had no regard for their feelings. My sense was he just was physiologically deaf to all that.

Was he just some crank who was spending lots of money and time on some impossible dream or was he a genius who had to be nurtured and tolerated for what he could do? It's easy to see in hindsight, but I'm sure at the time it was not.

The point I'm coming to is this: His weapon, if you will, to win the war, was an idea, a concept. Something that could not be proven until it was completed, and even then it was difficult to explain, though eventually, the results - the ability to decode the German messages - would be very tangible. But even then, the fact that they could decode the messages, had to be kept secret so the Germans wouldn't simply find a new way to encode their messages.

Turing's contribution, as depicted in the movie, was to end the war two years faster and to save million lives. But he had an even more profound contribution to our lives: the computer.

Jack Copeland, the author Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age in a videotaped lecture at Stanford , tells us:

In 1936, in his very early twenties, he completely unexpectedly invented the fundamental principle of the modern computer. Turing was working on an abstract problem in the foundation of mathematics - the Hilbert decision problem. No one could have guessed such abstruse arcane work could have led to anything of of any practical value whatsoever, let alone to a machine that would change all our lives, but it did. [link added.]
Which leads to

Thought Two: The Importance and Productivity of Pure Science

We don't know how knowledge will accumulate and result in great contributions to human kind. Politicians like to cite titles of obscure research projects funded by government money, to ridicule scientists and government spending. Much research by scientists will not lead directly to world altering discoveries. Yet the published articles of scientists are available to all, and we never really understand all the ways that one idea sets off another idea. But I'm convinced that the many so called unproductive ideas are more than repaid for by the fewer highly productive ideas. And many of the unproductive ideas actually close off dead ends so that the others need not wander down them.

Of course this film is also an example of how people work to fulfill their own internal inspiration. No one could get an idea out of a person like Turing simply by paying him lots of money or threatening to punish. Rather, you have to find the right people and just give them an environment where they can just do their thing.

Thought Three: Our Cultural Divide Encapsulated In Two Films

I haven't seen American Sniper, but it's clear that it's about someone who shoots individual enemy targets. Something really tangible and easy to understand. We hear all this rhetoric about the sniper being a great hero. (And my understanding is that the film does raise issues that make him a more complex human being.)

I think these two films represent much of the cultural conflict in the US today - the intellectual, possibly a peculiar and awkward person who works with ideas that have powerful effects versus the simplistic good guy/bad guy hero who uses violence to win.

Thought Four: How Humans Attack Those Who Are Different

The film also raises the issue of how human groups treat people who are different, in odd ways, from others. We tend not to be very accepting of them. Turing was persecuted for his oddness as a kid by his peers, disliked and disdained as an employee by his colleagues and bosses, and persecuted agains, as a citizen, by his government. I would add that it isn't a trait of all human beings, but enough to make it a serious human problem.

Thought Five: Our Strange Combinations of Gifts And Gaps

Finally, it raises the issue, not unrelated to Thought Four above, of how humans who have great gifts in one area may also be lacking in talents that average people have. And how they get judged on what they don't have rather than on their amazing gift.

NOW, ON THE POSITIVE SIDE

Of the eight academy award nominated films for best picture, TWO were about intellectual geniuses - people whose ideas are way beyond what most people are capable of. The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. A third nominated film - Selma - was about yet another genius whose power was built on an abstract idea - overcoming oppression through non-violence.

This illustrates, in my mind, progress of a sort. Yet even the movies that focus on intellectual heroes use emotion and distort the facts to tell the story. And this too may be an important lesson about how humans learn lessons through good stories.

Here's a review of the movie by a self-proclaimed Turing expert on what's accurate (not much apparently) and what's inaccurate in the movie. His conclusion is that while the facts might not be accurate, it is, nevertheless, a good movie. And while many of the specific incidents in the movie may have been fabricated to make the film more dramatic, the lessons are no less valid. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-imitation-game-versus-american_11.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-45491112652305774042015-03-10T04:00:00.000-08:002015-03-10T04:00:12.254-08:00Seattle's Politicians, Unlike Alaska's, Don't Fawn Over Shell And Arctic DrillingThe Stranger has an article that says Seattle Mayor (and the city council is also on board):

". . . directed the Seattle Department of Planning and Development to investigate the Port of Seattle's decision to make Seattle the homeport for Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.

 "Any project of this apparent significance to our industrial lands must go through the appropriate review," Murray said in a statement. 'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease—both economic and environmental—and that these impacts are sufficiently disclosed and evaluated. This is why I'm directing DPD to conduct a thorough review of the Terminal 5 proposal and determine if the anticipated activities at the terminal involving the Shell drilling fleet require new permits before it can proceed.'"
Did you get that? 'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease." Our former governor was doing everything he could, along with his then Attorney General/Commissioner of Natural Resources, now Senator Sullivan, to prevent local communities from knowing and having a say about anything.

Some politicians, it seems, think beyond the short term possible job bump, to the bigger issues.

Are we now going to start hearing about Seattle overreach from some of our Alaskan politicians?

Thanks S, for the link.
Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/seattles-politicians-unlike-alaskas.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-62156887221695254502015-03-09T21:26:00.001-08:002015-03-09T21:26:11.124-08:00Interview With Ethan Berkowitz, Mayoral CandidateI'd been to a meet and greets for, and did videos of, mayoral candidates Dan Coffey and Andrew Halcro, so I thought I should track down Ethan Berkowitz too. So I went to the opening of his campaign headquarters last week.

His key issues were "fundamentals" like a safe community, housing, keeping the fiscal house in order, infrastructure for the 21st century, and education. Housing and fiscal issues were also important to the other two candidates. But Berkowitz said 21st century a couple of times and as he talked it did seem to me he was looking forward, perhaps, more than Coffey and Halcro - he talked about better broadband, and LED street lighting, and he was not keen on building a road through the university.

[Disclosure: of these three candidates, I know Berkowitz better and feel most comfortable with him. And I made a contribution to his campaign. But you can view the videos and judge for yourself.]

I also need to mention that while I usually have the camera in close, this is a little extreme. But he didn't pull back and you won't get any closer to him.

[Note: it will say in the video March 6, but it was really March 5]

Here's a reasonably close transcript of the video.

Steve: Why do you want to be mayor?
Berkowitz: Because it's a great time to be mayor. Washington DC is totally dysfunctional, Juneau is acting like it's broke, so if anything is going to happen in this community, it's going to happen at the mayoral level. So I think there are terrific opportunities in front of us and I just didn't see anyone coming to the fore who had that vision of where Anchorage should go. So, now is the time.

Steve: What are your top priorities?

Berkowitz: We have to deal with the fundamentals, make sure Anchorage is a safe community, a secure community, a strong community, and that is public safety, making sure our fiscal house is in order, and houses are available for people to move into, and when you talk about a strong community you need the right kind infrastructure for the 21st century, and you also have to make sure our education system is, sorry, I've got kids running by, speaking of the educational system, robust enough so they're able to compete and succeed in the 21st century

OK, that's a lot of general kinds of things, what are the specifics, like, what about housing?

So, with housing, I don't need to lead or reinvent the wheel. There are studies which talk about how to provide affordable housing for folks who want to move into it. There are all kinds of studies about how we address the homeless issue. It's time to implement these plans instead of studying. Anyone who's hung out down in Fairview and seen the tent city that's sprung up there, knows we've got a major problem that's gotten worse in the last six years. You've got to actually lead if you want things to change. So that's what's going to happen. You have to do more Housing First models, you have to make sure you have denser housing in the core areas where people want to live. So that's just a question of making those things happen.

When it comes time to provide safer streets, lets just hire more cops. This insane notion that you can do more with less, is just that - insane. If you want more cops, we gotta find a way of bringing them on and there's ways we can do that.

We can pay for them by taxing marijuana, which is now a legal substance. We can do it by finding savings in our municipal budget, One saving, for example, is we have 20,000 lightbulbs in Anchorage, we put LED lights on 5000 of them. That saved $2 million a year. Let's go save another $6 million and put LEDs on the other 15,000.

I can go up and down the city budget, there are opportunities to find efficiencies, to find savings, but we've gotta to know where we want to go.

Steve: All right. One of the questions I've asked the other candidates I've talked is: there's $20 million sitting there to build a road through the university. All the community councils in the area have voted overwhelming against the road. Where do you stand on this? Can you use that $20 million for something else?

Berkowitz: I've got to see if there's a tail on that $20 million, if it has to be there, but I'm not in favor of that road. And my feeling about any of these infrastructure projects is before you get to the merits of whether you like the road or don't like the road, whether you like the Knik bridge or you don't like the Knik bridge, how are you going to pay for it? You wouldn't go to the bank and say, "Hey, I've got enough for the foundation of the house I want to build, I don't know how I'm going to get the rest constructed or how I'm going to pay for it once I move into it, but give me a load for the rest. That goes no where for an individual. The Municipality has to be held to the same standard. Don't start a project unless you know how it's going to be finished. Don't start a project if you don't know where the operations and maintenance money are coming from.

Steve: All right, any other issues?

Berkowitz: There's a LOT of other issues.

Steve:  Well, give me two.

Berkowitz: If we want to compete in the 21st century, we need more robust broadband, so I think that's a major factor Right now we have 6 mb per second coming down the pike. We ought to have 100 like they have in Korea . . . That's one example. We need to have the ambition to be much more energy efficient. We ought to produce more energy locally, geothermal, the wind, tidal, we need to be on the cutting edge of that. We need to integrate our school with our university system more than we have. We have to make sure the cultural vibrancy of Anchorage is as robust as it can be - the food scene, the culture scene. There's a lot going on here. We just have to do more of it and make it more accessible to more people.

Steve: How are you going to be different from the other major candidates.

Berkowitz: I bring a different vision, and I don't know where they are on these things. The vision I have is of an active mayor I also believe on relying on smart people, intelligent people, informed people, who live here and see what they want, following the plans they crafted We just need to do things. I'm so sick and tired of studies. It's time we just start doing things and we'll be fine when we do that. Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/interview-with-ethan-berkowitz-mayoral.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-59807626249464628632015-03-08T20:56:00.002-08:002015-03-08T20:56:20.053-08:00Potter Marsh And Beyond - Gettin' OutFor one reason or another, we haven't gotten out much this winter. Partly because we've been traveling so much and other poor excuses. Yesterday I took advantage of the ice free pavement and sidewalks to take a bike ride. Today we drove down to McHugh Creek and back via Potter Marsh.

Clouds covered the sun as we meandered south of town.

 Above we're looking south from Potter Marsh.

The base of the Alaska range.

Bubbles in the ice.

 The McHugh Creek lower parking lot was full, with cars waiting for people to leave. The upper level was gated off. You'd think we'd be smart enough to figure out a way to keep the area open when people want to use it.

Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/potter-marsh-and-beyond-gettin-out.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-48471622397803167712015-03-07T18:43:00.000-09:002015-03-07T18:43:41.243-09:00Steve Heimel UnleashedI don't remember when I became aware of Steve Heimel. He's been broadcasting the news at KSKA for a long, long time. And I don't know when Steve became aware of me, but we knew each other before I started blogging the political trials in 2007, but the memories are vague. Probably I knew his wife, Johanna Eurich, first. We both had lived in Thailand. At the Federal Court House, Steve encouraged my forays into covering the trials on my blog. When the media were allowed to bring computers into the court room - for the Kott and Kohring trials - and I asked the other news folks how to get a press card, I'm pretty sure it was Steve who said,
"Do what we did."
"What's that?"
"Get on your computer and make one."
And that's how I got my press card that allowed me to take my computer into the court room.
Steve was the other reporter who regularly got to the court by bike.

Steve is a journalist who lives his own unique life and reports on what he thinks is important - and he's got a good sense of what is important. (That just means it coincides with my sense of that.) All things are on his radar and he's brought that wide interest to KSKA for years and years. I was glad that his goodbye party was when we were in town.

My sense has been that Steve was chafing at the growing bureaucratization of Alaska's public media conglomerate and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to do without the leash. I'm hoping he'll find a niche where we can all continue to benefit from his experience and insight and ready laugh.

Here's a bit of video from his goodbye party.

 Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/steve-heimel-unleashed_7.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-53884183243007485282015-03-06T17:57:00.000-09:002015-03-06T17:57:09.226-09:00How Are You Celebrating "National Weights and Measures Week"?I got a press release from the  The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) announcing that

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) joins the National Conference on Weights and Measures to observe National Weights and Measures Week, March 1-7, 2015. Accurate and reliable weights and measures protect buyers and sellers in virtually all sales of goods in the United States, including Alaska.
I know this sounds a little strange, but weights and measures is one of those invisible government functions that nobody ever things about until they fill up their half empty gas tank with a lot more gas than it should have taken and they start wondering - could I really have needed 35 gallons of gas? My tank only holds 15.

You probably never think about these things - I tend not to - but it's part of what makes a market economy work. The trust that things are accurately measured allows us to buy and sell without spending extra time and resources to confirm the measures. Few of us seriously question the scales at the supermarket or a whole slew of things that get measured by standard measures, supervised by government employees.

Much of government works that way. We don't realize it's there until it doesn't work. It runs smoothly in the background.

And when 'cut gov' advocates start slashing away, they're not all that different in their thinking than when terrorists destroy ancient artifacts. In both cases, they aren't aware of the greater value of what they are destroying in their blind faith in an ideology. Fortunately, this week in Washington, cooler heads prevailed and Homeland Security wasn't left unfunded.

The press release goes on to say:

The theme of National Weights and Measures Week 2015, "On the Path to Tomorrow," recognizes that weights and measures inspectors must continually strive to keep pace with advancing technologies. A rapidly developing science for MS/CVE regulatory officials is the evaluation process of new measuring devices that supply alternate energy resources such as natural gas, hydrogen and electricity for rechargeable motor vehicles.
Today's inspectors receive continuous training to insure that accuracy testing is performed to national standards, whether they are inspecting a 21st century scale used in the salmon industry, a high-tech fuel delivery meter on an oil delivery truck or the precision scales used to buy precious metals.
According to the blog post by Carol Hockert on the US Department of Commerce website

"It's held annually during the first week of March to commemorate President John Adams's signing of the first U.S. weights and measures law on March 2, 1799. . ."
Who's Hockert? She was appointed as the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2006 after serving in a similar post in Minnesota. The blog post goes on to say they are now working on standards for electric car batteries.

So get out there and weigh and measure. Saturday's the last day. The official dessert for this week is pound cake. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-are-you-celebrating-national.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-90811048306615114082015-03-05T09:42:00.003-09:002015-03-05T13:36:57.035-09:00Snowfree Lawn, Street Showing Pavement - Good Reason To Go To CCL Saturday

This is what our street looked like March 20, 2011 from the corner. The snow and ice were starting to melt, but there was plenty of snow still in the street.

Here's t our street looking to that same corner yesterday, March 4, 2015. The middle of the street had large swaths clear to the pavement with hard ice on the sides. (There was a slick surface in the morning as the overnight temperatures dipped below freezing and met the street surface, damp from melting ice.) At the corner (you see in the picture above) the pavement was clear and dry.

Below is our front lawn. Usually at this time of year it's still well covered with snow. A few patches might be bare under the tree. Toward the middle or end of the month the sidewalk and front might start to clear and we get a little excited. Then comes another several inches of snow to cover everything back up.

No, this one year doesn't prove global warming is here and real. However, this year, plus all the weird weather around the world for the last 20 years, plus the studies of many, many climate scientists, does.

Denying climate change and human's role in climate change is like saying, "The speedometer is wrong" when you're going 90 miles an hour toward the cliff. You're either drunk, delusional, or you have some vested interest in not believing. Could the speedometer be wrong? It does happen, but we can also see the landscape going by our windows really fast. And maybe they've put a giant water balloon at the edge of the cliff so we will stop safely. But slowing down seems like a much more prudent approach. Even if you'll be late for your appointment.

Still have doubts about climate change? Or want to do something to slow it down? The Citizens Climate Lobby meets Saturday at UAA's Rasmuson Hall at 8:30 am in room 220. [I just learned that this month the meeting has been changed to Wed. evening.] We'll hook into the national telephone link with the other nearly 300 chapters around the US, Canada, and beyond. So, if you aren't in Anchorage, you can find a local chapter. These folks are amazingly well informed, well connected, and run interesting and efficient meetings.

You can find your local chapter here. Really, they will be pleased to see you. Times are different in different time zones. The phone call is at 10am Pacific Time. You want to be there for that.

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/snowfree-lawn-street-showing-pavement.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-28193913146392561362015-03-04T09:53:00.000-09:002015-03-04T09:53:02.575-09:00Eliminating Alaska Daylight Savings Time Deja VuOr we could also title this, "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same."

Here's the beginning of a front page article in the Alaska Dispatch News today:

"Daylight saving time bill springs forward in Alaska Legislature

Molly Dischner | Associated Press

March 3, 2015

JUNEAU — A Senate committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would eliminate daylight saving time in Alaska and allow for consideration of another time zone in the state.
The bill would exempt Alaskans from advancing their clocks each spring. It would also direct the governor to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to consider moving part or all of Alaska to Pacific time.
Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, originally proposed the bill to end daylight saving time in Alaska, then introduced the amendment to consider another time zone."

I've highlighted "originally proposed the bill"  because, this year isn't the first year that she's been pushing this bill.

Below is a repost of what I wrote March 18, 2010 when I was blogging the Alaska legislature.

There are some differences. Representative Anna Fairclough is now Senator Anna MacKinnon (same person.)

HB 19 to End Daylight Savings Time

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The other two meetings going on right now are dealing with issues of far greater impact on Alaska I presume. But this is one most Alaskans can understand easily and are impacted by most directly and tangibly.

Here is the table with copies of emails and letters for and against the bill.

[Update: I looked through these and they are all [mostly] dated March 18 and some 17. Actually this stack is misleading. I didn't realize I have one big stack twice. The vote was 62 for HB 19, 18 against, and four had other options, like get the US to change, but not just Alaska.]

Sen. Olson and Sen. Menard listen to phone testimony on the ending daylight savings time in Alaska.

Rep. Anna Fairclough, the bill sponsor, responded to the comments received through the mail, email, and by phone today. She said there were two reasons that have real justification for not changing:

1. People in Southeast Alaska have a real issue because they are basically in Pacific time, so they get less light in the evening while the sun comes up 3am at solstice.
2. The difficulty in coordinating with people outside of Alaska. (I think this was the second one)

Other than these two points, most people prefer getting rid of daylight savings time. A lot of this is about having to change and the disruption that causes with relatively little daylight impact for most Alaskans (further north and west than Southeast.)

Other issue: Why don't we just spring forward and stay on daylight savings time the whole year. There area a couple of issues:
1. Feds, not states, can change time zones.
2. Western Alaska would be even further off of sun time (opposite problem of Southeast.)

Meeting was adjourned just about 5pm with the decision postponed.

The bill did not pass that year. I was curious whether the bill has been defeated every year since so I called Sen. MacKinnon's office and staff member Erin gave me a brief history of previous bills to end daylight savings time in Alaska.

1999 - 21st Session - HB 4 introduced by Rep. Kohring
2002 - 22nd Session - HB 409 introduced by Rep. Lancaster
2005 - 24th Session - SB 120 and HB 176 introduced Sen. Olson and House State Affairs committee
2009 - 26th Session - HB 19 introduced by Rep. Fairclough

[Note: Each legislative session is two years starting with the newly elected legislature in January of the odd year following the election in the even year. So, HB 19 introduced in 2009 was still in play in the second year of the 26th session (2010) when I reported on it. HB = House Bill, SB = Senate Bill.]

Here is my commentary on daylight savings time in Alaska from a post on the failed legislation in November 2010 on the weekend we were about to fall back.

My personal feelings are that in Alaska it probably doesn't matter one way or the other except in Southeast, which is the result of having the state in one time zone. In the winter it's going to be dark and in the summer it's going to be light. And I don't mind getting an extra hour this weekend in the fall. But I hate losing an hour of weekend in the spring.

My tweak to daylight savings would be, in the spring, to make the change (skip ahead one hour) at 4pm on Friday afternoon. Then people at work would get to go home one hour early. Yes, I know there are all sorts of potential economic impacts, but not much work gets done in the last hour of Friday afternoon anyway and people would feel happy to get a free hour and would spend more on entertainment that weekend to offset the loss. (Gross generalization based on gut feeling but absolutely no evidence.)

Stevehttp://email@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/eliminating-alaska-daylight-savings.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-42976026685714273482015-03-02T12:27:00.000-09:002015-03-02T14:28:26.692-09:00How People Comprehend and Evaluate Argument - 5pm UAA Bookstore TodayThis one is just too on-target with this blog's basic theme - how do we know what we know? - for me to not post.  Free parking, free admission, And they usually have snacks at the bookstore talks as well.

UAA Prof Yasuhiro Ozuru will be talking about a subject that everyone seems to be an expert on and yet so few can get through to the people with whom they disagree.

So what does this UAA Pscyhologist have to say? Find out at 5pm today. (If you can't make it, there's a link below for UAA podcasts. I'm not sure when it will be up though. But if you go, you'll be able to ask follow up questions too.

From the email I got:

Yasuhiro Ozuru presents

'Argumentation: How People Comprehend and Evaluate Argument'

When: Mon, March 2, 5pm – 7pm
Where:  UAA Campus Bookstore, 2905 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, map (The map's not great - it's the big mirrored glass box next to the old sports center)

Description: Yasuhiro Ozuru analyzes the relation between comprehension (understanding), validation and evaluation of argument content. People's confusion between argument based on factual evidence and an explanation about why things occur will be examined.

Yasuhiro Ozuru is an associate professor of psychology at UAA. He received his Ph.D. from New School University in 2003.

All UAA Campus Bookstore events are informal, free and open to the public.

There is free parking for bookstore events in the West Campus Central Lot (behind Rasmuson Hall), the Sports Lot and the Sports NW Lot.

For more information call Rachel Epstein at (907) 786-4782, email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit the bookstore website.

Note: UAA Campus Bookstore podcasts are posted in iTunes or iTunes U–just search UAA or UAA Campus Bookstore.

[I'm reposting this in hopes the feedburner kicks in this time. Sorry to those who did get here already - not too many of you.] Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-people-comprehend-and-evaluate_2.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-7377758143448254482015-03-01T16:01:00.001-09:002015-03-01T18:52:23.055-09:00"Much of the budget work happens behind the scenes, said Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, House Majority Leader"This quote in Nathaniel Herz's ADN article today struck me. She was defending the legislature from the charge that they were focused on frivolous things instead of working on the budget.

We have an open meetings act in Alaska. The point is that government decisions should be made in public. There are some exceptions - like to avoid revealing an ongoing investigation, to protect the state's interests in various negotiations, etc. - but they are limited.

It's dismaying to know that the House Majority Leader really doesn't care about letting the public know how the budget is being developed. I was further dismayed to find out, that the legislature has legally been above the rules.

Attorney Gordon J. Tans has a lengthy treatise on the Alaska Open Meetings Law (updated in 2002):

As applied to the Alaska Legislature, the OMA, like the legislature's Uniform Rule 22, is viewed by the court merely as a rule of procedure concerning how the legislature has determined to do business. While by its literal terms the OMA is applicable to the legislature, a violation of the OMA by the legislature will not be considered by the courts, absent infringement of the rights of a third person or violation of constitutional restraints or a person's fundamental rights. 25

In 1994 the legislature enacted a law requiring itself to adopt guidelines applying open meetings act principles to the legislature.26
This was to have been done during the 1995 legislative session, but it has still not happened as of this writing .
 This is what happens when people give up on democracy and stop voting and stop keeping their elected officials accountable. Most of the important work of the state budget is done behind closed doors.

I don't know whether this loophole has been corrected, but I suspect not. So now we need some citizens who can make a persuasive case that their fundamental rights are being infringed by the legislature making key decisions out of public sight.

Perhaps our reporter should have asked Millett a followup question about government transparency and why the legislature is not following the open meetings law. Stevehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2015/03/much-of-budget-work-happens-behind.html