Bob Poe

OPINION: Lawmakers want to punt, but what Alaskans need is a strategy for the state's future, and a fiscal plan that serves the strategy.

Supporting a gas pipeline route to Valdez now may be both good business and good politics.

Representative Sharon Cissna's decision to take a three-day ferry ride to Juneau rather than travel by air means airport security is due for a change.

Americans are stunned today in the wake of the Arizona shootings by an apparently unbalanced man, but when you scream fire in a crowded theater, or place political opponents in rifle scope crosshairs, you are responsible.

Alaskans are sitting back right now and saying, "Holy smokes! What just happened in our Senatorial race?" What just happened is most Alaskans didn't show up to vote and less than 10 percent of us decided the future of Alaska on Aug. 24.

No single issue will have more impact on Alaska's economic future, on in-state employment, on our kids' future, than energy security. Very soon Alaskans will be facing a real energy crisis. Southcentral Alaska is literally running out of gas. Interior and rural Alaskans are paying crushingly high prices for energy. And electric power generation up and down the Railbelt is at significant risk if new gas supplies don't become available as early as 2015.

Alaska's economy is in trouble. What can we do?

I support equal rights for all people. And I support banning discrimination in Anchorage due solely to someone's sexual orientation. I support a comprehensive equal rights ordinance because it's the right thing to do, period.

Our state's disproportionately large baby-boomer population contributes much to Alaska, but Medicare rules are making retirement here for many of them impossible.

With just 25 days left in this year's legislative session and $288.1 million in federal stimulus funds at stake for education, energy and unemployment, Gov. Palin chose Thursday to be unavailable for a scheduled meeting with our elected legislators.

Rejecting federal money is nothing more than a cynical effort on Palin's part to appeal to her ultra-conservative national base in her campaign for president.

Alaskans should never allow other Alaskans to be forced to choose between feeding their families and keeping them warm. But this winter, that's the choice that many in rural Alaska have been forced to make. The combination of low king salmon runs and record-breaking fuel prices foretold the food and cash shortages confronting Yukon River villages this winter, but many seemed not to pay attention. Certainly neither Gov. Sarah Palin nor her administration has shown a particular acumen for anticipating challenges in rural Alaska, helping reduce their impact, or for expressing a sincere regard about the plight of people living there.

Eagle River Senator Fred Dyson's recent commentary in the Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska Natives thrived before the coming of the white man," was a surprisingly positive essay from a conservative who often opposes legislation and funding to help rural, generally Native, Alaskans.

When considering the plight of communities like Emmonak or debating the cost to support rural infrastructure, we must keep in mind a broader and richer picture of Alaska Native people, not just a really interesting museum exhibit about life prior to 1741.

When this governor tells us, in her unique vernacular, her goals for Alaska, we better listen to her words very, very carefully.