Standing up for rural schools
Thank you to state Sens. Stevens and Hoffman and Reps. Edgmon and Herron for truly representing Alaskans (ADN, Nov. 3) by standing up for rural schools in small towns and isolated villages, and for recognizing the special significance they have to the economic health of all Alaska.
It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the proposal to raise the minimum number of students from 10 to 25 in rural communities was put forward by Railbelt legislators whose districts would not be affected by the changes.
— Kay Thomas
Cooper Landing
Let's take the fiscal reins
Efforts to balance the state of Alaska budget deficit before our savings accounts are totally drained should be lauded. It should not be done to please national credit agencies, but because it makes fiscal sense and would ensure that our economy does not take a disastrous plunge. It only makes sense to do it through a balance of new taxes and a partial use of earnings of the Permanent Fund. These actions should be easily reversible if oil prices recover in the future, and the Permanent Fund should always have the means to grow when financial times are better.
Continued belt-tightening needs to be done, but we cannot cut the budget enough to fill the fiscal gap. Not if we want schools and the snow plowed. We also need to continue to work to expand Alaska's business and financial future and open our arms to new opportunities.
We are all in this together. We all must contribute to the solution. It is to none of our advantage to see Alaska's economy crater. It does not have to happen, but we need to act soon and not be timid. Let's keep Alaska on an even financial keel for everyone's benefit.
— Brian Whittle
Anchorage
What exactly is the AMA's definition of coexisting?
Deantha Crockett's recent article (ADN, Nov. 2) stresses that the Alaska Miners Association's goal is for fish and mines to coexist. The Chuitna Citizens Coalition's in-stream flow water reservation shouldn't be a barrier to a mining project that intends to coexist with a salmon stream. To coexist, both things have to first exist. If PacRim Coal follows though with their development plan, the mine will stand, and the salmon stream will not.
So what exactly is the AMA's definition of coexisting?
— Kyla Kosednar
Anchorage
Added shipping expenses left out of gas line discussions
A recent "Talk of Alaska" on APRN featured an informative panel of Sens. Berta Gardner and Cathy Giessel along with Gov. Bill Walker discussing the progress and importance of the gas pipeline. A big segment of the show dealt with how to get cheap energy to the Bush communities with offtake points along the main line.
What the panel never mentioned was that the proposed route for the line runs 70 miles from Fairbanks as it goes from Livengood to Nikiski on the completely unsurveyed or permitted route that is also 100 miles longer than the old route to tidewater at Valdez. The new route not only misses the second-largest city in the state but also the major military bases at Wainwright/Eielson, Greely, Delta Junction, and the Copper River Valley towns of Glennallen, Gakona, Copper Center and Valdez.
Now it's wonderful that legislators are considering getting cheaper power to the Bush. But good Lord, this proposed new route doesn't even get gas to the larger communities along the highway system. Gardner mentioned that Southcentral's gas supply is secure for the next decade. But no one talked about the added expense of getting the gas from the main line into Fairbanks, let alone the major bases and towns that the route to Nikiski will detour from.
What happened to the original plan to follow the TAPS right of way to Valdez so that all those towns could have access to cheaper power? Has anyone seen cost/benefit analyses of the new route versus the original decades-old route to Valdez? Shouldn't the cost include the amount it will cost to get gas down the Richardson Highway now that the main line will go elsewhere?
— Robert Atkinson
Seward
Commuter complaints suspect
As I read Lisa Hart's letter (ADN, Nov. 3) about her long commute in yesterday's snow I had to wonder: Is she complaining about the fact that she lives in the Valley or that our municipal road maintenance, which she avoids paying for precisely because she lives in the Valley, is not up to her standards?
Also, I hope her husband enjoyed the free facilities offered to him in Eagle River.
— Bruce Scotland
Eagle River
Get in there and dig for pork before the big crash
To our senators:
As I understand the budget "compromise," there is no limit to federal spending for the next two years; the sky is now the limit for federal spending.
I encourage you to get in there and dig for pork with both hands and a shovel.
Another brigade at JBER and home porting a couple of Navy ships at Homer would be a good start.
Another fighter wing in Fairbanks would be a nice gesture.
Transfer of a couple Navy destroyer escorts to the Coast Guard at Kodiak would also be a plus.
A couple of years of federal funding of the Alaska State Troopers and Anchorage police salaries would go a long way to helping the state budget.
Another 50 or 60 new federal employees spread around the state would be a big help.
With no limits on spending and a lot of horse trading for pork, you should get us the "bridge to nowhere."
While I'm thinking about it, federalizing the state ferry system might be a good move for state budgets.
There must be 40 or 50 really good ideas from UA that could get federal research funding.
You need to get some money to the villages, free air service and shipping from Anchorage.
Yes, you can do it!
Senators, let's go for it all.
Bail the state out before the crash: Party time!
— David Cox
Palmer
Restorative justice is a win-win
I have been reading with great interest the recent articles in the ADN regarding prison reform, the most recent in the Nov. 2 paper, "Corrections officials say reforms will prevent having to reopen prison farm." I'm excited to see Alaska seriously considering reform. I recently attended a conference of the Peace Alliance in Washington, D.C., where I heard Colorado state Rep. Pete Lee speak about the pioneering restorative justice legislation which is now being employed in Colorado. I was able to speak with him after his speech and he said he would be happy to speak with our legislators about how they were able to pass legislation and implement programs that reduce recidivism and save money.
His last comment to me was that if Alaska is interested in saving money using restorative justice, I assure you, they will save money. While I think the benefit of restoring people while still holding them accountable should be the ultimate goal, that saving money thing is pretty neat too.
— Lori Draper
Alaska Peace Alliance
Seward
Arguments in support of Planned Parenthood disingenuous
Dr. Bonnie Swanson is certainly entitled to her defense of Planned Parenthood ("Stand with Planned Parenthood against ideological attacks," Oct. 31). The organization does much good work and at a cost of $528 million in taxpayer funding she should certainly be able to come up with more than a few examples. But, as Sen. Dan Moynihan so famously said, you're entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Dr. Swanson's attempt at making a direct causal linkage between using fetal tissue for research and the polio vaccine is scientifically and historically inaccurate. Before 1948, polio research was greatly hampered by the lack of a cheap and readily available supply of the polio virus. In that year, John Enders, Thomas Weller and Frederick Robbins overcame that problem. They discovered and perfected a method of growing polio viruses that involved using various mixtures of embryonic muscle, skin, gut and organ tissues as a growth medium. They eventually developed 13 different mixes; they and others also demonstrated that their techniques would work with nonembryonic tissues. For their discoveries, the trio received the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine.
No embryonic tissue or fetal research was involved in the actual experimentation and testing that eventually led to the Salk vaccine in 1955 and the Sabin vaccine in 1962. It simply wasn't relevant. The 1948 discoveries certainly allowed the large scale commercial production of those vaccines once they proved effective. The process was retained; new advances meant that the growth medium was no longer embryonic tissue. Both vaccines were produced using the kidneys of Rhesus monkeys. To suggest that fetal research directly equals polio vaccine is disingenuous, at best.
Dr. Swanson's other assertions are too numerous to challenge in this short letter. One further comment, however, does need to be made. PP isn't foregoing its reimbursements because of some noble "commitment to science." Yes, it is legal for PP to accept payment for its "shipping and handling" costs when supplying fetal tissue for research. But, whatever else the tapes purport to show, I don't think anyone can honestly believe that PP is simply haggling over the price of nextday delivery. PP had ample opportunity to decline those fees before this scandal broke. To do so now is simply an obvious attempt at diverting attention away from their larger problems. To suggest otherwise is rank hypocrisy.
— Paul Scheideberg
Palmer
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