Free Republic

Several years ago, we were warned that bears were starving due to global warming and would be irretrievably lost. I recall the first interview I did with Alaska's then-governor, Sarah Palin, about the polar bear situation in 2008, before she got famous. I asked her if the news reports were right that polar bears were starving. I only have a reference to the link, unfortunately, but I vividly recall her most memorable quote: "Our bears are healthy bears!" She added that maybe that could be the situation in Canada, but it certainly wasn't in Alaska. Now ABC News and NBC...

POINT HOPE, ALASKA, is tiny and ill-provisioned, an Arctic backwater so inaccessible that basic groceries have to be flown in and gasoline can only be brought in by barge during the summer. The town is remote not only geographically, but also digitally: Its internet connection is so slow that teachers must spend hours downloading course material that most of us could pull off the internet in minutes. But Point Hope's luck is changing. High-speed internet is coming, and with it the benefits of ties to the world: Improved education and health care, more options for consumers, new customers for local...

The Bureau of Land Management is auctioning off 10 million acres worth of leases Wednesday for oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), 150 miles west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).Republicans in Congress are fighting to open ANWR to oil and gas exploration through the GOP tax bill. The Trump administration is moving ahead with oil drilling in Alaska through the NPR-A, 23 million acres free from the federal restrictions that cover ANWR.The 10-million-acre lease offering will be the largest single lease sale in the history of the area. The previous record was set...

The Trump administration is offering oil companies all 10.3 million acres of available land on the reserve, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) said in a press release on Tuesday. The reserve is the single-largest parcel of public land in the United States. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Trump administration has opened up a huge amount of land in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve for oil-sale leases, the CBD said. “Oil companies submitted lease bids on Monday for the largest oil-lease sale ever offered in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve,” the release said. “Bids will be open on Wednesday.” Trump just opened off...

U.S. Rep. Don Young has become the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives with the resignation Tuesday of Rep. John Conyers of Michigan amid harassment claims. Young was first elected in an Alaska special election in 1973 — the year Secretariat won horse racing's Triple Crown and the movie "The Exorcist" was released.

12:20 a.m. The Senate has adopted an amendment that would allow parents to use 529 college funds to pay private school tuition for students in kindergarten through high school. Parents could also use the tax-exempt funds on home-schooling expenses. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offered the amendment to Senate Republicans' sweeping tax package. The vote was a 50-50 tie with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaker. All Senate Democrats opposed the measure. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans who voted against it.

The GOP tax plan was passed through the Senate Friday night in a 51-49 vote. There are a number of things included in the last-minute text, including a provision by Sen. Gardner of Colorado that exempts Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, from alcoholic taxes and regulations. Why it matters: These are small examples of what got slipped in the bill last-minute as the Senate vote neared, and reveals some of the senators' pet projects back in their home states. Odd amendments included in the tax plan: Sen. Orrin Hatch Prohibit things like cash and gift cards to be given as...

Republicans took a major step forward early Saturday in their decades-long fight to open a piece of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Included as part of the sweeping tax reform bill passed by the Senate in a 51-to-49 vote is a highly controversial provision to allow energy exploration in a 1.5 million-acre swath of ANWR known as the “1002 area,” which lies along the coast. In total, ANWR spans more than 19 million acres. The drilling provision was seen as key to getting Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, on board with the tax bill.

Former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin says the illegal alien acquitted of fatally shooting 32-year-old Kate Steinle in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, California, in 2015, was given “more rights, grace and favor” than his victim and her family. ....In an interview with a local news station in 2015, Lopez-Sanchez confessed that he sought out San Francisco because it was a sanctuary city that would not deport him from the U.S. “Sanchez said he knew San Francisco was a sanctuary city where he would not be pursued by immigration officials,” the local report added. Members...

Sen. Murkowski wrote a piece for an Alaska newspaper Tuesday announcing she would support repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate which is currently part of the GOP tax bill. I have always supported the freedom to choose. I believe that the federal government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid being taxed. That is the fundamental reason why I opposed the Affordable Care Act from its inception and also why I cosponsored a bill to repeal the individual mandate tax penalty starting as early as 2013. And that is why...

Washington (AFP) – Sarah Palin, a former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate, appealed on Tuesday the dismissal of her defamation suit against The New York Times, according to a court filing. Her suit against America’s newspaper of record was thrown out in late August by a New York judge who ruled that, in the context of “free” and “robust” American political journalism, “mistakes will be made.”....Palin accused the newspaper of having published the editorial with the full knowledge that the connection it mentioned was unfounded, and has pursued a defamation suit against it.

That steadfastness is shocking to many outside Alabama. The answer is both complicated and deeply rooted in the DNA of a state that prides itself on bucking norms. The state's motto — "We dare defend our rights" — is an upfront acknowledgement of a fighting spirit that has put Alabamians at odds with the rest of the nation for generations. Introducing Moore during a "God Save America" rally at a south Alabama church this week, pastor Mike Allison said his support wasn't wavering because Moore never has. "He has staunchly defended the Constitution of the United States, he has stood...

Alaska urged to prepare for North Korean nuclear attack as residents told to have emergency stash of food and water The country will NOT attempt evacuations if North Korea fires a nuclear missile, emergency planners have warned - as families are urged to stock up with emergency rations Alaska is being urged to prepare for a North Korean nuclear attack - amid fears that a warhead 'could reach residents in 20 minutes'. The country will NOT attempt evacuations if maniac despot Kim Jong-un fires a nuclear missile, emergency planners have warned. Jeremy Zidek, from the state’s disaster planning team, urged...

Following spirited discussion on both sides of the issue, a vote was called at the Energy and Natural Resources committee hearing, regarding new legislation proposed by Sen. Murkowski. By a vote of 13 in favor and 10 opposed, the legislation passed out of the committee just after 8 a.m.

NISKU, Alberta - Canadian Mounties found five people naked after a bizarre car wreck on a rural road. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Laurel Scott says officers responded to the report Monday morning of a car colliding with a truck in Nisku. When they arrived, they found that five people in the car were naked - four women and one man. Scott said Tuesday the five were arrested. She said she’s not sure of the charges, though police consider it a “purposeful collision.” Police said earlier they believe drugs or alcohol may have been a factor. The collision occurred on...

WASHINGTON – The Senate rejected an amendment Thursday that sought to block a key panel from raising revenue through drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move that could make it easier for future oil and gas drilling to take place there. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Wash., the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, offered an budget amendment that would have removed instructions to the panel to raise an additional $1 billion through federal leasing. It failed 48 to 52 on a largely party-line vote, with only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, W.Va., breaking ranks....

Senate Democrats are planning an amendment to stop the GOP from using the budget process to more easily allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and a handful of others told reporters Tuesday that they’re working on how exactly to fight the ANWR provision in the budget, and to bring on Republicans to oppose it as well. “We’re going to work together with our colleagues to determine just the right moment in this budgetary process to make this amendment,” Markey said outside the Capitol. “But we are going to do so, and we...

The Senate Budget Committee unveiled a 2018 budget blueprint on Friday that would open the door for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, even as an independent analysis concluded that the plan as offered would far exceed that price tag and overwhelmingly benefit corporations and the rich. The budget resolution could also pave the way to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, a hot-button Republican proposal that has languished for decades.

When winter sets in, "polar vortex" becomes one of the most dreaded phrases in the Northern Hemisphere. It's enough to send shivers even before the first blast of bitter cold arrives. New research shows that some northern regions have been getting hit with these extreme cold spells more frequently over the past four decades, even as the planet as a whole has warmed. While it may seem counterintuitive, the scientists believe these bitter cold snaps are connected to the warming of the Arctic and the effects that that warming is having on the winds of the stratospheric polar vortex, high...

WASHINGTON — An updated version of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill circulating among lobbyists and on Capitol Hill on Sunday night has changed to provide more benefits to Alaska, a move to appeal to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been highly skeptical of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The new version would grandfather Native Alaskans into Medicaid so they wouldn't lose coverage after the expanded Medicaid program is rolled back in 2020, according to a section-by-section summary of the new legislation obtained by an industry lobbyist