Opinion

Listening to elected officials

A most interesting “Talk of Alaska” was recently broadcast on KTOO Public Radio. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, was invited to hear from Alaskans, take… Continue reading

  • May 25, 2017
  • By Carolyn Brown

Pebble Mine should be stopped in its tracks

Alaska Seafood is a brand. The people of Alaska own the brand and the state government protects the brand through strict regulation and oversight. Millions… Continue reading

  • May 24, 2017
  • By BARBARA BELKNAP
The AJ Mine in 1958. (Caroline Jensen| Alaska State Library Historical Collections, ASL-PCA-417)

AJ Mine proposal premature, needlessly divisive

The recent proposal by a small group of mining advocates to largely eliminate Juneau’s existing mine review ordinance is premature and needlessly divisive. The City… Continue reading

  • May 23, 2017
The AJ Mine in 1958. (Caroline Jensen| Alaska State Library Historical Collections, ASL-PCA-417)

Truth, fiction and the certainty in between

“These are clothes that absolutely refuse to flatter you,” David Sedaris wrote in the New Yorker last year. He referred to that article when he… Continue reading

  • May 21, 2017
  • By Rich Moniak

Raiding energy industry to solve budget crisis will create more problems

Alaska is in a budget crisis. The “gravest fiscal crisis in state history,” according to Gov. Bill Walker. But the crisis wasn’t caused by a… Continue reading

  • May 23, 2017
  • By DAVID WILLIAMS

Tolerance is becoming intolerable

The state Legislature proved that, despite the ridiculous and unjustified censure of David Eastman, they had not quite lost their minds, nor bought into every… Continue reading

  • May 22, 2017
  • By BOB BIRD

A state income tax would not help

There is no nonviolent way more certain to destroy Alaska society and culture than an income tax concurrent with the Permanent Fund Dividend. Taxing Alaskans… Continue reading

  • May 22, 2017
  • By TOMAS BOUTIN

It’s time for solutions, not politics

For the last four months, the new Majority Coalition in the Alaska House of Representatives have worked on a responsible solution to Alaska’s fiscal crisis.… Continue reading

  • May 21, 2017
  • By REP. DAVID GUTTENBERG

A right and a wrong way to reform tax policy

No matter who you are or what you do, tax laws affect your life every day. And no matter where elected officials are discussing those… Continue reading

  • May 20, 2017
  • By PETER SEPP

If at first you don’t succeed …

This is the first in a series of monthly columns about STEM in Juneau: what it is, why it’s important, and what it looks like… Continue reading

  • May 20, 2017
  • By Brenda Taylor

The Alaska Senate’s ‘Big Lie’

Alaska’s oil companies display the situational ethics of a band of rich, randy frat boys with pockets full of roofies. Though nothing compares with the… Continue reading

  • May 18, 2017
  • By Eric Treider

Time to choose between taxes and giveaways

I’m writing to support and second the comments on Wedneday’s editorial page by Rich Seifert, a longtime friend of mine from Fairbanks. For several months… Continue reading

  • May 18, 2017
  • By JERRY SMETZER

No representation without taxation

As of Mother’s Day, we now know that our Senate in Alaska has voted down an income tax option as one of the means to… Continue reading

  • May 17, 2017
  • By Richard Seifert

A new approach to oil taxation

This is Part 1 of 2. See Part 2 in Wednesday’s newspaper. Our oil severance tax system is broken. It is failing us because it… Continue reading

  • May 16, 2017
  • By CHANCY CROFT

Fight injustice in the United States

People of all walks of life go through all possible measurements and even risk their lives to come to United States of America; the cradle… Continue reading

  • May 16, 2017
  • By MANSOUR SADEGHI

Healthy forests grow opportunity for Alaska

Water. The roar of a river has many of us thinking of fishing, rafting and adventure; icebergs calving from a glacier to plunge into the… Continue reading

  • May 15, 2017
  • By BETH PENDLETON

Support CBJ mining ordinance revisions

Mines in Alaska undergo extensive federal and state permitting processes with federal and state regulators, after which is the inevitable litigation in which mine opponents… Continue reading

  • May 14, 2017
  • By Dan Fabrello
In this Oct. 16, 2015, file photo, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, speaks to reporters at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.

The pseudo-effectiveness of Alaska’s Congressman at large

In a press release on Tuesday U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, bragged that he had been named the “Most Effective Lawmaker in U.S. House of… Continue reading

  • May 14, 2017
  • By Rich Moniak
In this Oct. 16, 2015, file photo, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, speaks to reporters at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.

The tailings of two cities

For those who regularly read this column, you may be familiar with my use of Charles Dickens references. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’… Continue reading

  • May 12, 2017
  • By WIN GRUENING

Income tax would hurt Alaska’s economy

The budget debate in Juneau this year focuses on questions of how big government should be, how much it should cost and who should pay… Continue reading

  • May 11, 2017
  • By SEN. CATHY GIESSEL