Fourth Annual Muckrakers Ball Today at the Snow Goose - Be There!

What a great way to support Cook Inletkeeper and their efforts to keep the lifeblood of southcentral Alaska healthy.

Come to their annual ball.

You can join this important organization.

Become a member.

You can meet previous recipients of the award - Ray Metcalfe (2007), Jeanne Devon (2009) and (not sure on this) Riki Ott (2008).

And you can party to the sounds of the Whiskeyjacks.

Sounds Alaskan enough for me.

Meanwhile, incoming Muckraker of the year, Rick Steiner, was in the news today. He has been pushing for years for enhanced capabilities in the Aleutian Islands to deal with ships passing through the area, on the northern arc of the great circle route from North Pacific American ports en route to Asia, losing power and eventually grounding on the archipelago's pristine beaches:

On Friday, some Alaska activists renewed their call for state and federal officials to improve the spill-response capability in the region. Some of them said they have petitioned the Coast Guard or the state for years to station an ocean-going rescue tug along the shipping route.

"This should be yet another wake-up call," said Rick Steiner, an Anchorage ocean activist and oil-spill specialist. Steiner began asking for an Aleutians rescue tug in 1995, he said.

The shipping industry should be on the hook to pay for spill response and prevention measures in the region, said Whit Sheard, an attorney for Oceana, a marine conservation group.