Opinion

COMPASS: DONNA FLEURY

Don't lose true meaning of Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day. To the families of Americans lost in our nation's wars, every day is Memorial Day. To the family of Marine Cpl. Gregory M. W. Fleury, every day is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day 2012: Roll call

While Americans honor all nation's fallen soldiers of all wars today, here we present a roll call of Alaskans or Alaska-based troops lost in the two most recent wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2003.

Who's up / Who's down

Winners and losers in last week's news

COMPASS: JOHN CLOE

Remember Alaska's WWII contributions

June 3 and 4 will mark the 70th anniversary of the Japanese aircraft carrier-based bombing of Dutch Harbor in the eastern Aleutians during which 76 Americans died and three were taken prisoner. The Alaska Veterans Memorial Museum in the Post Office Mall on Fourth Avenue is planning a special exhibit to commemorate Dutch Harbor and the ensuing Aleutian Campaign, the only World War II campaign fought on North American soil.

EPA answering mayday to protect fish

This time of year I tend to get nostalgic about commercial fishing. I miss the nocturnal calm of wheel watch and still feel lucky to be alive when recalling some of the more harrowing moments.

COMPASS: MICHAEL KOCHER

Alienating Alaskans could fracture GOP

I'm sure the news that Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell hosted Republican Party Chairman-elect Russ Millette at his home recently was a shock to Democrats statewide. Why? Because Mead Treadwell understands what the Republican Party needs to continue its success in this state, to continue to add voters to its rolls and to keep the public from perceiving the party as fractured.

PAUL JENKINS

EPA jumped gun with its Pebble mining project report

It is bothersome when a supposedly neutral federal agency jumps the gun to help anti-development forces trying to derail a project even before it can be defined.

MICHAEL CAREY

On the home front

The North Carolina writer Reynolds Price said "The only thing more destructive than a tornado is a family." Price's words returned me Thursday as Schaeffer Cox's mother-in-law testified during the militia trial at the federal courthouse in Anchorage.

JOHN HAVELOCK

Pebble answers remain elusive

Are we going to decide whether the Pebble mine is developed based on competing advertisements? Should the project be stopped because a report says it poses serious risks to the environment? Or maybe we will decide it's a "go" since it will surely provide many Alaska jobs.

COMPASS: CHRIS PALLISTER, JOHN KENNISH and CAREY BAGDASSARIAN

Toxic tsunami debris will flood Alaska shores

The scope of the environmental disaster about to befoul Alaska's coast is shocking.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Give blood

To give blood is to give life. More information and a schedule of blood drives is available at www.bloodbankofalaska.org. For more information and to make an appointment, you can call 222-5630.

COMPASS: KARIN WANAMAKER

Comeau fund helps neediest students

As the school year comes to an end many of us reflect upon the swift passage of time in our children's lives and hope that we are doing the very best to ensure a positive, enriching, learning environment for our children.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Bristol Bay treasure

EPA report serves its purpose, to lay out the stakes in Bristol Bay mining decisions.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Volunteers make world a little nicer

Given the news we read on a daily basis, one could come to the reasonable conclusion that, as my mother would have so succinctly put it, we are going to "H E Double hockey sticks" in a hand basket and there is little to do but await the wrath of whatever deity in which you believe.

COMPASS: HAYDEN NEVILL

Transgender Alaskans' privacy imperiled

A recent court order may not have attracted much media attention, but it is tremendously important to a few of us Alaskans. The order deals with the Department of Motor Vehicles' restrictions on changing the gender markers on driver's licenses for transgender Alaskans.

Michael Carey: Militia prosecution portrays an exalted ego of the fringe right

Former Daily News editorial page editor Michael Carey has been attending the trial of the Alaska Militiamen, and describes the courtroom scene and the prosecution witnesses' accounts of Schaeffer Cox, which tell of a man long on ego and short on perspective.

COMPASS: TERRY GARDINER

Health care refunds can bolster business

If you're a hardworking small-business owner in Alaska who provides health benefits to your employees, there's a chance your insurance carrier owes you money. And if it does, you can start checking the mailbox for a refund somewhere in the neighborhood of $517.

Who's up / Who's down

Winners and losers in last week's news

COMPASS: KATIE TEPAS

Alaska making a difference in ending cycle of violence

As columnist Shannyn Moore noted (ADN, May 6), ending the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault will take more than a march. I could not agree more.

SHANNYN MOORE

Direct outrage to cleaning up water, air

For a year I've been covering "War on Women" stories. Between Kansas letting pharmacists decide if they want to fill prescriptions, a Mississippi lawmaker saying coat-hanger abortions were part of a value system and Arizona blocking funding for contraceptives for poor women, I wondered what the end goal was.

PAUL JENKINS

Why is North Dakota No. 1? Fair oil taxes

It is hard to know whether to laugh at or cry for Alaska, where calculated, myopic oil tax policies and crass political greed are combining to reduce the state to the nation's third-largest oil producer, behind Texas and North Dakota. Third-largest. Behind North Dakota, for crying out loud -- and dropping.