Capitol Live: Dunleavy heading to oil conference to promote Alaska

2:02 p.m.

Dunleavy said he’s going to Texas soon for an oil conference called CERAweek.

“This is where Alaska should be. At this table,” he says.

He said they’re hoping to get more industries interested in Alaska.

— Alex McCarthy

2:01 p.m.

We’re about to hear an update from Gov. Dunleavy. He’s apparently going out of state soon, and will be explaining where he’s going.

— Alex McCarthy

12:22 p.m.

Doug Wooliver, deputy administrative director of the Alaska Court System, is presenting to the House Judiciary Committee about the court system’s financial situation.

He says there have been $10.9 million in cuts since the 2016 fiscal year.

— Alex McCarthy

9:31 a.m.

Here’s a little more information on the rally that will take place this afternoon, via the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific.

— Alex McCarthy

9:25 a.m.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, asks Meade if they’ve considered just swapping out all District Court judges with Superior Court judges if Superior Court judges can do so much more.

Meade responds, saying the Supreme Court is always thinking about this and that it would be “massively more expensive” to make all judgeships Superior Court positions.

— Alex McCarthy

9:20 a.m.

Nancy Meade, general counsel for the Alaska Court System, is presenting to Senate Finance about Senate Bill 41, which would switch two District Court judges to Superior Court judges. These would be in Homer and Valdez.

Meade explains (as others have before) that Superior Court judges have more jurisdiction than District Court judges and they can handle more cases. This is especially important in rural communities, where they have to basically ship cases out of the community if they’re too much for a District Court judge to handle.

More on SB 41:

— Alex McCarthy

9:05 a.m.

Today might be more eventful than your average Friday at the Capitol. Meetings began at 7:45 a.m. and will run through the evening.

We also just received word that the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific is putting on a rally at the Douglas Bridge at 4 p.m. to bring further attention to proposed cuts to the ferry system. We’ll be there. Read more on what we’ve written about them here.

We wrote a bit just yesterday about upcoming changes to the Alaska Marine Highway System and the “aggressive” timeline for one of the proposals. Read that here.

We also wrote yesterday about competing economists’ views of the potential effects of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget. Read that here.

— Alex McCarthy