Murkowski blocks important bill

I try to be civil when I write to the newspaper, but this time I can't help myself. When I read that she blocked the bill raising the liability on oil companies, I thought "Sen. Murkowski, Have you lost your mind?" Do you really want small drilling companies drilling in our offshore waters when they can't pay for a cleanup and pay for the damage they may cause? Does the word Exxon ring a bell? They are a huge company that cheated our own fishermen out of a fair settlement. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen if a small drilling company started dumping millions of gallons of oil in our waters again.

It's about time the Alaskan people wake up and replace Sen. Murkowski and Rep. Don Young. Please people, think next time you enter a voting booth.

-- Wayne Braisher

Anchorage

Shell game looking for a sucker

I called Shell Oil in Houston two weeks ago and asked what the dollar limit of their liability insurance was in Alaska. They said they would get back to me shortly. No answer yet. Today I called the Shell Alaska number and asked the same question. The automated response said that my question or comment was important to them and that they would try to respond in five business days. The lack of response on my first inquiry to Shell Headquarters in Houston makes me wonder how they are going to respond from Houston to the eventual oil spill in the Arctic Ocean. Perhaps the Shell Alaska people will do better on answering my liability question, as well as their response to the oil spill when it happens.

Or maybe this is just a big Shell Game that is being played on the people of Alaska. And with all shell games, there has got to be a sucker. Alaska needs to be on guard when dealing with oil companies.

-- Dave Metheny

Anchorage

Thanks for Colony Days

To Matanuska Valley Colony Days Organizers:

Congratulations on the 75th anniversary of Colony Days. I was thrilled and honored as mayor of Wasilla to be the guest speaker at Palmer's reunion banquet. I wish you all the success over the next 75 years and that you keep your heritage alive.

-- Mayor Verne E. Rupright

Wasilla

Parnell wrong on Denali KidCare

Sean Parnell was not elected to his position, and I doubt if he ever could be. His ignorance over Denali KidCare's abortion policy and the number of them done yearly is inexcusable. How he can justify cutting health care for children over the abortion issue, especially when abortion is legal in this country, is beyond me. I am not saying abortion is right, I am saying it is legal, and punishing children for what adults do is just wrong.

Additionally, if his administration is making up state jobs that pay big bucks my husband is out of work. How do you get one of them? He can start tomorrow. Come to that, for 6 figures, so can I.

-- Susan Ashley

Anchorage

Feds right to study Unimak herd

Alaskans enjoy painting the "feds" wrong. Unfortunately The Associated Press in Alaska supported that attitude in reporting Unimak Island's decline in caribou numbers, the state's proposal to kill the island's wolves, and the "feds" blocking the plan. The AP story was picked up in Alaska and nationwide.

Yet the proposal to kill island wolves lacked basis. Wolf numbers are guessed at 30. Caribou and bears number around 400 each. One could assume the state targeted wolves, because it is saving bear predators for lucrative trophy hunting. Over-hunting is one reason the caribou herd declined. Prime bulls culled by hunting resulted in numbers insufficient to serve the cows. Volcanic effects on grazing and other issues impact the herd. Federal biologists are right in completing a mandated study to learn reasons for the herd's decline. Allowing reactive wolf killing from planes on a U.S. Wildlife preserve would be a disservice to Americans and terrible precedent.

Alaska newspapers and TV used one-sided information provided by Alaska DF&G. Read online for an opposing and science based view: adn.com/adn/node/151909

-- Patricia OBrien

Juneau

Wishbone Hill coal an ugly reality

Usibelli's Wishbone Hill coal mining lease is an ugly reality.

But anything the Mat-Su Borough does to support it or prolong it is worse because it is our collective, governmental entity and the only entity we have to protect us from Ugly. Can't the Assembly members and we public see this as the classic struggle of Ugly vs. Beauty or Bad vs. Good?

Our reality does not have to be a choice between a healthy economy and protection of all the good things we have going for us. It is time for the Mat-Su Borough to seek out economic development that protects the beauty that we all live here for: livable communities, pretty landscapes, clean air, and drinkable water.

-- Nancy Campbell Michaelson