Saturday Progressive Blog Roundup - May 3, 2008

The image at left is of Miles Lake and the Copper River, at the Million Dollar Bridge. The photo was taken yesterday by Glenn Hollowell, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game gillnet fishery biologist in Cordova. As you can see, there are no jumpers yet.

Eight new blogs have been added to Progressive Alaska's roster of progressive blogs in Alaska:

Bent Alaska --- Alaska GLBT News and Events. Why did I not know about this site until this week? It is great!

Dennis Zaki Blog - Alaska Report --- Dennis Zaki is the dynamo behind Alaska Report, the most widely read web-based news journal in our state. Dennis is excited about blogging. I'm hoping he'll let his hair out a bit more at the blog than he's able to at the Report. Dennis's photos are precious, too - to say the least.

Last Frontier Locavores --- joins the ADN's AK Root Cellar in PA's roster. With food and fuel prices going up, up, up, growing one's own food is less a hobby, more a necessity - every day. Locavorism is the new approach to the WWII Victory Garden. Commentors at this blog share ideas about spreading the word on growing or getting locally produced organic foods.

Leave No Monkey Behind --- This site claims to feature "Cartoons from the Ester Republic (In Techno-Color!) and the Corrupt State of Alaska." It also features essays and comments that are getting snarkier every day.

mt view forum --- Clark Yerrington's blog is largely about the arts renaissance going on in Mountain View, one of the most unfairly maligned communities in Alaska. But Yarrington points to efforts there, and city-wide in Anchorage to build Anchorage's future along more progressive lines. PA will be obliged in the coming year or so to pay more attention to the arts. More on that in a week or so.

Precinct 1080 --- This blog doubled its membership over the past week, in the wake of the shakeup at KUDO radio. It has been around for a while. It wasn't listed here before because I found many of the comments there insipid and juvenile. But, it grew up quite a bit last week.

The Fairbanks Pedestrian --- Paul Adasiak's blog has been on my weekly reading list for a while. I've decided that the issues addressed at Fairbanks Pedestrian, like those at mt view forum, are important for people to consider around Alaska. Community sustainability and energy-wise infrastructure are what will help all our Alaska communities survive the enormous damages being done to our citizenry by the criminals we've let run the country for the last 28 years.

USA vs Victor H. Kohring --- was created by my friend Fred James and me to cover former Alaska Rep. Vic Kohring's trial last fall. Hopefully, Fred, another guest writer and I will all be contributing to that blog in the coming weeks.

Roundup:

The AK Root Cellar writes:

The Anchorage Farmers Market (not to be confused with other markets around town) is opening this Saturday!

The location is 15th and Cordova in the Central Lutheran Church parking lot. Market open at 9:00am and runs till 2:00pm.

Sarah and River Bean of Arctic Organics will be offering arugula, leaf lettuce, basil, Alaska hearty vegetable and flower seedlings, a variety of hanging baskets, apple trees, and tomato plants.

An Alaskan Abroad's Robert Dillon had a busy week, with the attention drawn to his, David Shurtleff's and Brendan Joel Kelley's coverage of the fake web sites. Dillon's up in Baltimore today for a rugby tournament, called The Rites of Spring. I hope they've warned young women to stay away.

Linda, at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis, has been concentrating a lot this past week on Veterans' issues.

Independent Alaskan is the best Alaska blog on issues of race, heritage and migration. He got some 8th grade-level mentality feedback this week from the sleazy radio personality, JJ Michaels. I've also invited Independent Alaskan to come to PA and write a guest post here in praise of Ethan Berkowitz's legislative accomplishments.

Radical Catholic Mom praises God regularly. But this week, she also joins me in praising the wonders of Steve Aufrecht's photography from his Southeast Asia travels, at his site, What Do I Know? Steve is back in Anchorage, and I'll probably be seeing him this coming week at Vic Kohring's sentencing.

And erin and hig updated Journey on the Wild Coast yesterday. The chilly spring is keeping most of the Grizzlies asleep, but there's other scary stuff:

Most of the traces of long-ago prospectors have already vanished into the land. But as mineral prices skyrocket, the gold, copper, oil, gas, and coal sitting under Alaska’s wilderness isn’t being ignored any longer. A modern resource boom is ramping up.

And modern means big. Mountain-sized operations replace the gold-panning mountain man, creating mountain-sized piles of potentially dangerous waste. And modern means global. Fossil fuels we dig or drill here come back in the form of a changing climate, acidified oceans…


Mt Demian oil camp

We’re lucky up here. We have the chance to look back at the decisions made in other parts of the world. A chance to do things better. Alaska still has an abundance of healthy ecosystems and renewable resources, and a relatively small population. Doing things better doesn’t mean an end to development, and it also doesn’t mean developing every resource that might make someone money. We need to think about how we can live sustainably.