Heather Bryant

The Alaska Supreme Court has denied a motion to delay implementation of the state’s new redistricting plan.

The Riley plaintiffs to the lawsuit, from Fairbanks, filed a motion last week to block the court’s order until the U.S. Justice Department clears the plan under the Voting Rights Act. In its order the Supreme Court said it would consider a new motion if DOJ fails to approve the plan before the August 28 primary election.

The Supreme Court also has denied Petersburg’s motion calling for a rehearing on the house district’s plan. Petersburg argued that the court overlooked a “Native influence” House district in Southeast Alaska. Petersburg objects to being in a House and Senate district with downtown Juneau and maintains that it belongs in a district with smaller Southeast communities.

Meanwhile, the candidate filing deadline for the legislature remains 5 p.m. Friday (June 1). The court on Wednesday also rejected the Alaska Democratic Party’s petition to delay filing for at least two weeks.

In its May 29 petition, ADP director Kay Brown said multiple redistricting plans have created plenty of uncertainty over new district lines.

The Alaska Supreme Court last week threw out the Redistricting Board’s latest plan and adopted the April 5 version.  The ruling came just ten days before the June 1 candidate filing deadline. Brown said that was not enough time for candidates to evaluate the election district and get their paperwork to the division.

Democrats wanted the deadline extended until the U.S. Justice Department clears the plan, or at least until June 8.

State Elections director Gail Fenumiai has said no deadlines needed changing because the division mapped each scenario as it was released by the redistricting board. She said precinct boundaries for the April 5 plan have already been drawn.

[timeline width=’530′ height=’530′ font=’Merriweather-NewsCycle’ maptype=’SATELLITE’ lang=’en’ src=’https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Atig135JbzQ1dDJ4MlkzeE5ydk9ZRkRvdC1ZT1JLZlE&output=html’]

Gov. Sean Parnell has signed legislation creating an Alaska Native Language and Advisory Council.

It will be charged with evaluating the state’s indigenous languages and making recommendations for preservation, restoration and revitalization.

Parnell signed the legislation on Monday, May 28, at a statewide conference in Dillingham on Native sobriety.

Senate bill 130 was sponsored by rural Senator Donny Olson, but quickly drew co-sponsors from urban and other urban legislators from both the Senate and House.

Parnell said the state now joins with Alaskans to make sure Native languages are preserved.

“We know that without language preservation, a culture dies.  That is intolerable. That is not acceptable.  And as Alaskans we honor and celebrate our traditional cultures. And we do this by ensuring that the state is now all in making sure that these languages live on,” Parnell said.

The legislation was supported by Alaska Native organizations, including Alaska Federation of Natives and Southeast’s regional corporation, Sealaska.

 

Efforts to curb speculative trading in the oil futures market have run into partisan opposition, or are hung up in the courts.

U-S Senate Democrats have sponsored several bills to put limits on how much oil can be held by any trader for the purposes of buying and selling to profit from price fluctuations.  Senator Mark Begich is a co-sponsor and enthusiastic supporter of the legislation. He says speculators are running up the price of crude oil, far beyond what would result from simple supply and demand:

“They estimate for every gallon of gas that you and I and your listeners put into their car, 56 cents is speculators.  So we have a piece of legislation that gets speculators out, unless you use it for end purpose, freight companies and so forth,” Begich said.

With no bi-partisan support, the bills are going nowhere. Instead, they’ve become politically entangled with other oil and gas issues, particularly the Obama administration’s push to end federal tax subsidies for oil companies, adamantly opposed by Republicans.

Two years ago, the Dodd-Frank Act directed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to enact what they call “position limits” on the number of oil contracts traders can hold.  But implementing the regulation was immediately challenged by the industry in court.

That case is still pending.

Begich says everywhere he goes in the state, people urge him to take action to curb high fuel prices.

Begich is among a group of Democratic Senators involved in the legal case over the CFTC’s “position limit” regulation, filing an amicus brief spelling out their intention to get speculators out of the business of trading in oil futures:

“We’ve joined and I say we, I and other senators have joined a group during over this issue, because these speculators have no business in this market.”

The speculation issue has not always been as partisan.  In 2008, when the price of crude oil approached $140 a barrel, Republican Senator Ted Stevens introduced a bi-partisan bill to limit positions held by certain types of investors.  He said in five years the amount of crude oil futures held by market index funds had skyrocketed.  The bill did not pass.

Those efforts  are just one aspect of Begich’s campaign to stabilize costs.

The New York Times credits Begich for helping gain President Obama’s support on oil drilling in Arctic waters off the coast of Alaska.

It’s recognition the senator gladly takes.

The article outlines Shell’s Arctic quest, a seven year, $4 billion effort to win over two presidential administrations and gain federal permits. the company was pursuing permits during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Times’ reporters says Begich’s fervor for Arctic oil exploration helped win over the president to Arctic drilling.

In an interview Tuesday on APRN’s Talk of Alaska, Begich was happy to take some credit.

“When I got elected, here’s what people said. They not only said it behind my back, they said it to me. And they said ‘with Obama in the presidency and a Democrat from Alaska, we’ll never get anything done in regard to oil and gas.’ Oddly enough, the place we’re having development and aggressive development, is going to be in the federal waters,” Begich said.

“You think about oil production in the Chukchi and Beaufort, it could be close to 900,000 additional barrels per day.”

The company plans to begin drilling this summer in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Shell awaits final permits from the U.S. Interior Department. Its ships are in Seattle, ready to be deployed to the Arctic this summer. Begich toured one last week.

Juneau residents remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country during multiple Memorial Day observances on Monday, May 28.

The Auke Bay American Legion Post 25 hosted the Mendenhall Valley Memorial Day observance at Alaska Memorial Park Cemetery.

Coast Guard Commander David Godfrey said 425 American service men and women have died since Memorial Day 2011.

“So it is right that we are hear to remember those 425 who died since last year, those 6,400 who have died since 911, and those thousands who have died in previous years and previous wars. And memorialize those 425 and hopefully there will be fewer each year,” Godfrey told the crowd of veterans, family and friends gathered at the cemetery.

At the same time, services were also underway at Evergreen Cemetery downtown, organized by Veterans of Foreign Wars Taku Post 5559.

Coast Guard Commander Dennis Evans remembered the burial of Petty Officer Nathan Bruckenthal at Arlington National Cemetery in May of 2004. Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guard combat casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the branch’s first since Vietnam.

“Today we all reflect on the men and women we have known like Nate Bruckenthal,” Coast Guard Commander Dennis Evans told the crowd.

“It’s become popular saying Memorial day is not about a day off from work or beaches or car races or picnics or blockbuster movies or how we start our summers. I’m not sure I entirely agree with that sentiment. Memorial Day is, at least in part, about all of those things. But it’s about those things because of the sacrifices of our heroes. They fought and died so we could continue to enjoy all that. The freedoms we so often take for granted are not free and that is what we must remember,” Evans said.

The downtown observance also included visiting members of the Sperl family at the grave of Army Corporal Donald Walter Sperl, who was killed in Vietnam in May 1968. The joint University of Alaska Southeast Recreation and Alaska Army National Guard Readiness Center is named for Sperl and Charles Gamble Jr., also killed in Vietnam.

Observances also were held at the Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Memorial Park, adjacent to the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall.

Vietnam veteran Bill Thomas, now a state representative from Haines, attended the ceremony.

“Every time that I see someone that I know that was in Vietnam, I remember Vietnam. I remember things I don’t like to remember, my body remembers. I want to forget, but it doesn’t happen that way,” Thomas said. “It’s a fear of dreaming about being back in Vietnam, being under combat, being under fire.”

Thomas said it’s only been eight years since he had one of those dreams.

Wreaths were placed by various veterans groups at all three observances yesterday.

The U.S. Senate has rejected an amendment today (Thursday) by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski to require a comprehensive study before genetically engineered salmon can be sold to consumers.

Murkowski says she’s disappointed with the 50-to-46 vote, but notes it’s closer than previous votes on the subject.

Her amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Bill would have required the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration do the same scientific and economic analysis for genetically modified salmon as it does for other federal fisheries.

Murkowski told her Senate colleagues that people have a right to know what their fish is made of and where it comes from.

Despite the vote, Senator Mark Begich, who co-sponsored the legislation, says there is progress in the fight against “Frankenfish.”

“Today’s vote shows more and more Americans are realizing that genetically engineered seafood is risky and unnecessary,” Begich says.

Begich has sponsored three bills that attempted to ban, label or prohibit the interstate commerce of the genetically modified fish.

Aqua Bounty has developed an Atlantic salmon that would grow year-round and make it to market-size quicker. The company claims it would rear only sterile female salmon in a land-locked area to prevent escape into the wild.  Alaskans see it as a direct threat to one of the state’s largest industries.

If Aqua Bounty’s fish is certified, it would be the first genetically engineered meat product approved for human consumption.