Opinion

A Chinook salmon is seen in an undated photo. (Photo by Ryan Hagerty/USFWS)

My Turn: Efforts to protect salmon, environment are to benefit a wide spectrum of interests

Tom Conner’s recent My Turn criticizing SalmonState was a messy mashup of insults and misinformation that read suspiciously like talking points whipped up by a… Continue reading

 

The headwaters of the Ambler River in the Noatak National Preserve of Alaska, near where a proposed access road would end, are seen in an undated photo. (Ken Hill/National Park Service)

My Turn: Alaska’s responsible resource development is under threat

By Tom Conner Oil, mining, and fisheries have long been the bedrock of our state’s economy, bringing not only thousands of in-state jobs and billions… Continue reading

 

(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

My Turn: Alaska fisheries management is on an historical threshold

Alaska has a governor who habitually makes appointments to governing boards of individuals who have what should be disqualifying conflicts of interest. For fisheries, this… Continue reading

 

Rep.-elect Nick Begich III of Alaska is scheduled to be sworn in Monday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: Lip service to the Constitution

On Monday, Nick Begich III will be sworn in as Alaska’s congressman at large. But the oath he takes won’t mean much unless he’s willing… Continue reading

Rep.-elect Nick Begich III of Alaska is scheduled to be sworn in Monday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Solomon Dunlap cleans and makes up beds in the day surgery department as part of his internship at Bartlett Regional Hospital on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: Scores of Alaskans face another eye-watering spike in their health care costs next year

Late last year, when I went to sign up for my 2024 health insurance on the federal Obamacare marketplace, the options all seemed expensive —… Continue reading

Solomon Dunlap cleans and makes up beds in the day surgery department as part of his internship at Bartlett Regional Hospital on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Win Gruening. (Courtesy photo)

Opinion: Ten years and counting with the Juneau Empire…

In 2014, two years after I retired from a 32-year banking career, I was offered the opportunity to write a biweekly opinion column for the… Continue reading

Win Gruening. (Courtesy photo)
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, addresses a crowd with President-elect Donald Trump present. (Photo from U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office)

Opinion: Sen. Sullivan’s Orwellian style of transparency

When I read that President-elect Donald Trump had filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register on Monday, my first thoughts were he promised voters… Continue reading

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, addresses a crowd with President-elect Donald Trump present. (Photo from U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office)
Sunrise over Prince of Wales Island in the Craig Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. (Forest Service photo by Brian Barr)

Southeast Alaska’s ecosystem is speaking. Here’s how to listen.

Have you ever stepped into an old-growth forest alive with ancient trees or traveled a shoreline with migrating salmon, and thought: what treasures! Many who… Continue reading

Sunrise over Prince of Wales Island in the Craig Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. (Forest Service photo by Brian Barr)
As a protester waves a sign in the background, Daniel Penny, center, accused of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, arrives at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. A New York jury acquitted Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely and as Republican politicians hailed the verdict, some New Yorkers found it deeply disturbing.(Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)

Opinion: Stress testing the justice system

On Monday, a New York City jury found Daniel Penny not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely. The case gained… Continue reading

As a protester waves a sign in the background, Daniel Penny, center, accused of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, arrives at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. A New York jury acquitted Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely and as Republican politicians hailed the verdict, some New Yorkers found it deeply disturbing.(Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
Members of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé hockey team help Mendenhall Valley residents affected by the record Aug. 6 flood fill more than 3,000 sandbags in October. (JHDS Hockey photo)

Opinion: What does it mean to be part of a community?

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” Coretta Scott King The glacier outburst flood events of… Continue reading

Members of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé hockey team help Mendenhall Valley residents affected by the record Aug. 6 flood fill more than 3,000 sandbags in October. (JHDS Hockey photo)
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start and Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

Opinion: Sullivan plays make believe with America’s future

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dan Sullivan said Pete Hegseth was a “strong” nominee for Secretary of Defense. “I’ve been focused on the policies that I’m… Continue reading

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start and Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Angela Rodell is a legislative staff member and former CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. who ran for mayor in Juneau’s 2024 municipal election. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

My Turn: Juneau residents need to tell leaders what services they want and how to pay for them

This is the season of wish lists and holiday dreams, as we eagerly anticipate what Santa — or Amazon — might bring. But soon enough,… Continue reading

Angela Rodell is a legislative staff member and former CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. who ran for mayor in Juneau’s 2024 municipal election. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by jökulhlaup floods during the last two years, I’d be skeptical about the Hesco… Continue reading

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)

My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution of the Taku. It has been nine years since this commitment was made… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
(Juneau Empire file photo)

Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When the fate of ranked choice voting (RCV) will be decided by only a… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)

Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) officials said it will likely take a decade or more to research and… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)

My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services, wrote a Nov. 18 opinion piece praising the staff at the state-run Alaska… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)

My Turn: Small wins make big impacts at Alaska Psychiatric Institute

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), an 80-bed psychiatric hospital located in Anchorage is operated by the Department of Family and Community Services, and stands as… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)

My Turn: Making the Arctic great again

It was just over five years ago, in the summer of 2019, that the strategic prescience and unorthodox diplomatic brilliance of America’s re-elected Commander-in-Chief, Donald… Continue reading

The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)

My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination: “will this new era of wokeness really change things?” (Oxford Language)… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)

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