What is DNR’s mission?
When the Department of Natural Resources announced its new mission statement, I first raised the issue in the Resources Committee. I questioned the unilateral replacement by the executive branch of the mission of the Department of Natural Resources. This has percolated and is becoming contentious. The mission statement for DNR as adopted by the Legislature reads: “The mission of the Department of Natural Resources is to develop, conserve, and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans.”
The executive branch ‘new’ mission is set as “To responsibly develop Alaska’s resources by making them available for maximum use and benefit consistent with the public interest.”
Before you send letters for gas line
I have been watching this big push for the gas line to Homer with interest and concern. First, let me say I understand the desire to cut costs and the pressures to make a profit as a business. I have been a small business owner and an executive in larger businesses and, as most of you, I am a consumer paying high rates for personal use. From my experiences I have seen the desire for a return on investment drive some very bad decisions. Based upon the facts and history of the energy industry, I have some very big reservations. I hope I am wrong. So, I will present these thoughts and facts so that you have at least one alternative to the current hype.
Ask for gas line’s full-funding
Extending the gas line from Anchor Point to Homer is projected to cost $10.8 million. The savings for heating costs of government buildings alone is projected at $1 million per year. It is hard to project the savings for the 7,000 area residents and private businesses. This depends on how many actually hook up and when, but it should exceed the $1 million a year savings for government entities by far. This is a shovel-ready project that truly uses Alaska’s natural resource to benefit Alaskans. It has one of the best returns on investment of any project in the state. The last two years, funding for this project was passed by the House and the Senate. It was vetoed by Gov. Parnell.
Don’t misjudge your pain
By Jan O’Meara This is a letter to all those folks out there – men and women – who tend to be stoic about their aches and pains. My message to them is simple: Don’t underestimate your pain. Many of us live with some pain every day, day in and day out, and we tend [...]
If not Grant Lake — then what?
Homer Electric Association members like renewable energy. That’s one reason they raised a ruckus over the Healy coal plant deal in 2009. They wanted clean energy from renewable technology instead. Most folks I hear from still do. The Grant Lake/Grant Creek small hydro project is HEA’s first serious effort to provide it.
So why do some HEA members think that’s a terrible idea?
Homer generosity blesses food pantry
With the holidays, the generosity of our community only becomes more apparent and real to us at the Homer Community Food Pantry. We want to thank everyone for their generous and faithful support this past holiday season. Teaming with Kachemak Lions and Share the Spirit again this year was a blessing. Working together is a beautiful thing. Just a reminder: We are on the Pick, Click and Give list this year.
The USCG Hickory Halloween food drive started off a number of other food drives too numerous to report. To mention a few: Redden Marine, Glacierview Youth Group, Homer Elementary School, Kim Faust’s students at KPC, Stay Tan and Snowmads.
What would it take to make a change?
By Judith James By now most of us are vaguely aware that things are not right with the good ol’ American body. Leaving aside the “body politic” for a much later discussion, we’re talkin’ your body here. Despite collectively spending gazillions on what some may call the world’s greatest medical system, we are sicker than [...]
Who’s looking out for your health care needs?
Officials recently released 244 pages’ worth of regulations governing the health-insurance exchanges established by the federal health reform law.
The rules envision a big role for “navigators” — entities or people expected to help consumers evaluate their health insurance options in the exchanges. Some groups intend for navigators to replace the folks who currently help consumers with their insurance needs — licensed, professional health insurance agents.
That would be a disaster. Although it will take many different voices to let people who are uninsured today know about the health insurance options available in 2014, expanding the role of navigators from promoting program availability to enrolling and advising people about specific plans is a consumer hazard. These navigators will lack not only the expertise, training, and licensing that agents possess but also sufficiently strong incentives to serve in an advisory capacity.
‘I want to ride my bicycle …’
There’s a good chance you’ve seen me riding around town on my bike, even more so during the past year.
The first week of 2011 was relatively snow-free and mild. On Jan. 7, I realized I had ridden my bike three out of the first five work days of the year. My Facebook status from that day reads, “Here’s my bike-to-work-year goal: to average three out of five days, 60 percent of my commutes.”
I thought that goal would be a tough challenge, but reachable if I persevered. I imagined days when it would be hard to motivate, days when it would be too wet, days when I had too many parental taxi obligations and days when starting the car would just be more appealing.
Corporations keep dragging chains of greed
In 1843 Charles Dickens, 67 years after Adam Smith published the definitive work on pre-corporate capitalism, “The Wealth of Nations,” wrote a brilliant critique of its social evils in “A Christmas Carol.” Smith defined capitalism as efficiently providing goods and services, not as making money for its own sake. Not everyone listened.
By Dickens’ time the British rich were getting richer and the poor were being horribly exploited, working long hours, (10-12-hour days were not uncommon and that was child labor) paid low wages, and living in abysmally unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, men of privilege were making fortunes and many became consumed by greed, the second of the seven deadly sins. Dickens personified the human dimension of greed in Ebenezer Scrooge:
