Alaska News

The Obama trip that wasn't: Rumors, myths and misconceptions

Prior to and throughout this week's presidential visit to Alaska, the state's rumor mill went into overdrive. Where would Obama go? What would he do? Who else might come to Alaska?

Here at Alaska Dispatch News, we heard quite a few -- some we followed up on, and a few were clearly the product of gossip and/or misinterpretation.

Below are some of our favorites. Did you hear an out-there rumor of your own? Leave it in the comments.

1. Russian President Vladimir Putin is coming.
2. Michelle Obama is already here -- she came last night. (Monday, Anchorage)
3. Michelle Obama is here -- she’s just not getting out of the car. (Tuesday, Seward)
4. Obama is going to the Sealife Center. (Seward)
5. Obama is going to walk around Anchorage's Mountain View -- the most diverse neighborhood in America.
6. Obama is going to eat dinner at Chinooks, and there’s already a waitress picked out to serve him. (Seward)
7. The president will (somehow) cancel Shell’s drilling permits.
8. Obama rented out the entire Captain Cook Hotel. (Anchorage)
9. The police are tossing all the homeless people in jail to clean up downtown. (Anchorage)
10. The president will declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a national monument.
11. Obama will visit Anchorage East High School -- the most diverse high school in the nation.
12. Obama will announce a $40 million grant for a Kivalina Road (one of the early rumors was that Obama would visit the Arctic community, but he ended up only doing a flyover on his way to Kotzebue).
13. The president will lock up the entire state's land mass and/or marine areas.
14. The president will announce sharing of federal revenues from oil and gas development on the outer continental shelf with the state and local communities.

Erica Martinson

Erica Martinson is Alaska Dispatch News' Washington, DC reporter, and she covers the legislation, regulation and litigation that impact the Last Frontier.  Erica came to ADN after years as a reporter covering energy at POLITICO. Before that, she covered environmental policy at a DC trade publication and worked at several New York dailies.

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