Informative if not calming highway communique from Rep. Les Gara… ~ldw

Dear Neighbors,

Lots of you are justifiably scared that state, city and private traffic planners have, well, gone loopy on us. It’s time for some straight talk about threats you’ve heard that traffic experts would actually build a new highway through Anchorage’s densest neighborhoods, and maybe even through your kitchen.

Here’s the skinny. These folks aren’t necessarily nuts. They’re just messing with you. The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) probably requires them to pretend they are considering completely insane highway route alternatives through Anchorage that, from the mail I’m receiving, have scared the bejesus out of many of you. What they haven’t told you is that most of their proposed route alternatives have almost no chance of moving forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Excellent review of social, economic, and health problems and proposed solutions in rural Alaska. The report is lavishly illustrated. It was authored by the Yukon-Kuskowim Health Corporation, and became available August 2009.

forgotten_america.pdf

How American Labor Law Denies a Quarter of the Workforce Collective Bargaining Rights

The right to organize and bargain collectively under the protection of law is the bedrock upon which workers are able to form or join a labor union. American labor law has not kept pace with the changing nature and face of the modern workplace and increasingly excludes more and more workers from this legal protection. Increasing numbers of employees have a supervisory aspect or capacity of their work. More and more immigrants join the workforce, especially in the agricultural sector, and more people have been classified as independent contractors, whether by choice or by an employer’s decision. As these changes take place, American labor law denies these workers their legally-protected right to form unions and collectively bargain by either defining workers as not employees or by expressly excluding them. Read the rest of this entry »

In celebration of the ecologist’s life and work Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) invites you to this event, in commemoration of the birthday and life of Rachel Carson, scientist and author of Silent Spring.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 7-9pm

WHERE: Wilda Marston Theater, Z.J. Loussac Public Library, 3600
Denali Street, Anchorage Read the rest of this entry »

ANCHORAGE CITIZENS COALITION, ALASKA CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY, AND THE BICYCLE COMMUTERS OF ANCHORAGE SUPPORT BLUEPRINT FOR TRANSPORTATION REFORM

Road map for transformational change will enhance Alaska’s economic future

Anchorage – Today, as Congress prepares to rewrite the federal transportation law, Alaskan organizations join Transportation for America to release a detailed plan to recreate the nation’s transportation program in order to build a smart, safe and clean transportation system that provides real choices to all Americans. Read the rest of this entry »