May 2017

Podcasts May 28, 2017

The Midnight Sun Podcast for May 28, 2017

On our May 28 episode of Alaska’s most listened-to political podcast, Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar discuss Trump’s new budget and more White House scandals, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s town hall, and the legislature’s voting down Drew Phoenix’s nomination to the Human Rights Commission because he’s transgender. Casey and Forrest also talk with Rep. Jason Grenn about his first legislative session and Matt Buxton about taking over the helm of The Midnight Sun.

Podcasts May 14, 2017

The Midnight Sun Podcast for May 14, 2017

On our May 14 episode of Alaska’s most listened-to political podcast, Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar discuss the hot political issues of the day– James Comey’s dismissal, the state budget, the legislative session as it careens towards overtime, the Real ID bill, and the censure of Rep. David Eastman. Casey and Forrest are also joined by a surprise guest this week. Former legislative staffer and UAA student Genevieve Mina tells us about her experience as a young person in Juneau during the legislative session. We greatly appreciate Genevieve being available on short notice, after an extended House floor session on Saturday prevented our previously-scheduled guest from making it on the program.

State Politics, Uncategorized May 13, 2017

Ophthalmologists Warn of Opioid Danger

JUNEAU, AK – Amid Alaska’s spiraling opioid epidemic, the Alaska Senate passed legislation today that puts patient safety at risk by allowing as many as 125 of optometrists—who are not medical doctors or trained surgeons—to prescribe highly addictive narcotics and perform surgery on the eyes of Alaska patients.

State Politics May 10, 2017

Alaskans Deserve Real Choice On Real ID

This idea of providing Alaskans a real choice on their relationship between their personal data and the government was at the heart of HB 74 as it made its way through the state house. Unfortunately, that choice was effectively stripped out of bill when the House Finance Committee overhauled the legislation on Tuesday by adding provisions mandating the DMV scan and store applicants’ pictures, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other personal documents, and share our personal information including up to 5 digits of our social security numbers with a private multi-state database as mandated by Real ID. This would be true for both Alaskans that opt into Real ID and those who don’t.

The Feds, Uncategorized May 8, 2017

Don Young Gets Smacked

The folks that think the Republican Affordable Care Act repeal effort in the House of Representatives was a bad idea aren’t ready to move on to the US Senate quite yet. They have bought 1000 points of broadcast TV reminding Alaskans that Don Young voted the wrong way. A thousand points of TV means the targetted demo graphic will see this ad 10 times this week. In politics–that’s a lot.

Podcasts May 7, 2017

The Midnight Sun Podcast May 7

It’s a big show this week. On our May 7 episode of Alaska’s most listened to political podcast, Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar are joined by Rep. Chuck Kopp to discuss some issues he is working on involving Alaska Railroad right of ways and restitution funds for crime victims. It is a pretty great conversation, and any other week it would be our headliner interview. This week, however, we are also joined by Gov. Bill Walker, his Chief of Staff Scott Kendall, and Revenue Commissioner Randy “Wild Bill” Hoffbeck to discuss the latest developments in what Forrest has termed “The budget standoff presented by Pete Kelly.”