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Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted the mainstream press for only holding President Barack Obama accountable when they are impacted by Obama's overreach and abuses, while not being watchdogs in nearly every other case. "Lamestream calls for empathy, even outrage, for a First Amendment violation that's on par with all the abuse we've brought to your attention as Obama stomps on our Constitution," Palin wrote on her Facebook page after the Obama administration's FCC aborted plans to monitor the country's newsrooms. "You've IGNORED us, you've marginalized us, you've left us for 'destroyed.' But when Obama's boot is on YOUR neck you finally...

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a message for Donald Trump about BuzzFeed blogger McKay Coppins, and it's one that other Republican officials might heed when liberal journalists come looking to "humanize" them. "This nervous geek isn't fit to tie the Donald's wingtips," Palin told Breitbart News after Trump ripped Coppins for lampooning him with what he alleged were out-of-context quotes and boorish behavior at Trump's Florida resort. "Don't ever give him attention again."Coppins tricked Trump's advisers into thinking he would profile Trump as a potential "major" GOP 2016 presidential hopeful. As Breitbart News reported, the Jan. 5 email...

America's energy boom is about to take another huge leap forward as the State of Alaska is on the verge of approving the $50 billion All-Alaskan Gas Pipeline (AAGP). The massive project will transport "stranded" North Slope natural gas south down the Kenai Peninsula to a new port built to export Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Asian markets. The project expects to gain the State Legislature's approval in 60 days, finish planning and begin six years of construction in 2018. Despite drilling on U.S. federal land shrinking every year since 2008, individual states are aggressively partnering with the private sector...

A Pennsylvania woman has admitted to killing a man she met through a Craigslist advertisement and claimed to have killed more than 20 other people across the country. Miranda Barbour, 19, claims in an interview with the Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa., to have killed at least 22 other people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California in the last six years. Barbour reportedly claimed it was part of her involvement in a satanic cult, though she offered few details of the murders she claimed to have participated in. “I can pinpoint on a map where you can find them,”...

For want of an "L," a reputation was lost, a former judge claims. Richard W. Postma Jr., a former state judge in Alaska, has filed a federal lawsuit against attorneys for the Alaska Bar Association over "hazing" he says he endured after former Gov. Sarah Palin's appointment letter thanked him for his "pubic service." Postma, who was appointed to the bench in 2007, claimed the typographical error that turned "public" into "pubic" led to suggestions that he got the appointment by performing oral sex on the former governor. He filed the suit Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court in Anchorage,...

The cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can cause blindness in people, has been identified in Beluga in the western Arctic. The discovery by University of British Columbia scientists has prompted a health advisory to Inuit people in the region who eat the whale's meat. Researchers say it is an example of how the warming of the Arctic is allowing the freer movement of pathogens. Icier conditions in the past acted as an obstruction to infectious agents. Quite how the parasite got into the whales is a puzzle that scientists are now trying to solve. They suspect the influx of cats...

An Alaska senator said the State Department called his office today to say that they would be creating a post for a U.S. ambassador to the Arctic. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) introduced the United States Ambassador at Large for Arctic Affairs Act a year ago, pressing Secretary of State John Kerry to make the appointment on economic and national security grounds. Six of the eight Arctic nations currently have ambassador-level diplomats representing their interests before the Arctic Council. The United States will assume the chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2015. “It’s not always easy explaining to Washington bureaucrats how...

Alaska is poised to become the third state to legalize retail marijuana after pro-pot advocates this week cleared the signature hurdle to place an initiative on the August ballot. The Committee to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska hit 31,593 valid signatures Tuesday, well above the 30,169 signatures required to place the measure before voters. The initiative is expected to appear on the Aug. 19 primary ballot once a final count is certified by the state. -snip- A newly released survey shows the idea already has significant public support. A Public Policy Polling survey posted Wednesday found 55 percent of...

...began my professional career in atmospheric science on the icy shores of the Chukchi Sea — 160 miles above the Arctic Circle. I was hired by the RCA Service Co. to be a civilian weather observer at a lonely Air Force base in Cape Lisburne, Alaska. ...I long to see this truly wild and wonderful state continue to prosper as not just a terrific employment or tourist destination, but as an even bigger energy lifeline to the lower 48, as well. Alaska’s frozen frontier of spectacular natural beauty is also home to copious energy reserves. Americans should enjoy the grand...

**SNIP** Most notably, the president “stressed how important keeping the Senate is this year,” this person said. The discussion comes amid rising anxiety among some Democrats about how the president’s declining popularity might affect the party’s ability to maintain control of the Senate. Republicans are increasingly hopeful of picking up six or more seats to narrowly retake control of the chamber. Aides to two of the most at-risk Democrats – Mark Begich (Alaska) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) – confirmed that their bosses attending the meeting.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Enough petition signatures have been verified to place an initiative seeking to legalize marijuana on the ballot this summer in Alaska, election officials said Tuesday.

PPP's newest Alaska poll finds that Mark Begich continues to lead his potential Republican opponents for reelection by small margins, and that third party candidates could play a spoiler role in helping him win this fall. Voters are closely divided in their feelings about Begich with 43% approving of the job he's doing to 44% who disapprove. None of his potential Republican opponents have great numbers either though. Mead Treadwell has a 33/31 favorability rating, Dan Sullivan's is 31/35, and Joe Miller is incredibly unpopular with a 16/62 spread. Begich leads Sullivan 41/37, Treadwell 43/37, and Miller 45/25 in prospective...

Could a $15 billion railroad project reduce the cost of living in Alaska overnight? Matt Vickers, a lead member in the startup group G7G Railway Corp., thinks it can. Vickers’ Vancouver-based group is proposing a 1,600-mile railroad from Fort McMurray, Alberta, into Alaska. About 240 miles of the rail would be laid in the state. The railroad would primarily transport bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to Delta Junction, where the project’s creators hope to tap into TAPS, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. That version of the project would depend on the Alaska Railroad Corporation extending its rail line 80 miles from...

Washington (CNN) - When it comes to the 2014 midterm elections, Harry Reid and Mark Begich don't appear to be on the same page. Reid, the Senate majority leader and Democrat from Nevada, says "Barack Obama is personally a very popular guy." Asked by CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash if he would encourage some of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election this November to invite the President to appear with them, Reid said "Yes. And they will." But Begich, the Democrat from red-state Alaska who faces a challenging bid for second term in the Senate, feels differently....

Three would-be burglars were stopped by a Fairbanks resident with a gun Sunday morning, according to an Alaska State Troopers news release. Fairbanks-area troopers got a call at 8:02 a.m. from a man who said he caught three suspects taking items out of his vehicle. He told troopers he was holding the suspects at gunpoint. The suspects were arrested for misdemeanor theft and criminal trespass. Troopers identified them as Shannon Kiehl, 26, of Fairbanks, Felecia Martinez, 31, of Fairbanks, and Vitaliy Gayvoronsky, 33, unknown town of residence. Gayvoronsky pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, according...

If you live in Barrow, Alaska there was cause to celebrate last week - because the sun came up. That event seems commonplace to most of us, but because Barrow is so far north, the sun sets in late November and doesn’t rise again until late January – around two months of total darkness.But the longest stretch of darkness is at the South and North Poles. Because of the Earth’s tilt on its axis, each pole experiences approximately six straight months of darkness – from September to March at the North Pole, and March to September at the South Pole.You...

Preface: Leading Scientist On Fukushima Radiation Hitting West Coast of North America: “No One Is Measuring So Therefore We Should Be Alarmed” American sailors on the USS Reagan got really sick after having snowball fights with radioactive snow blowing off of the coasts of Fukushima. University of Alaska professors Doug Dasher, John Kelley, Gay Sheffield, and Raphaela Stimmelmayr theorize that radioactive snow might have also caused Alaska’s seals to become sick (page 222): On March 11, 2011 off Japan’s west coast, an earthquake-generated tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant resulting in a major nuclear accident that included a...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, might not want her Democratic colleague, Mark Begich, to win re-election in 2014, but her habit of breaking with the GOP on several key votes could give him some political cover ahead of 2014. “As an Alaska delegation, we’ve got to be working on those issues that are important to our constituents,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News this week. “Sen. Begich has been keying in on the issues that I think Alaskans are worried about and doing what he was tasked to do.” “I’m going to be working to get Republicans elected,” she later added....

Inquiring minds are digging into a George Washington University paper on State Fiscal Conditions, a ranking of 50 states, by Sarah Arnett. PolicyMic Produced this Chart of State Fiscal Conditions based on the working paper. Highlights and Lowlights Let's return to the original working paper for some highlights and lowlights. At the bottom of the rankings are New Jersey and Illinois. New Jersey faces long-run solvency problems due in part to nearly 15 years of underfunding its state and local pensions. It has an estimated unfunded pension liability of around $25.6 billion as well as $59.3 billion in unfunded liabilities...