Comment

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ALAN BORAAS

Juneau's Big Men should be scrutinized

Like Viking raiders returning from Lindisfarne, Alaska legislators are plying the fjords north from Juneau, bringing to their constituencies the spoils of the battle for infrastructure also known as the Alaska state capital budget.

STEVE HAYCOX

Who has economic opportunity, and who doesn't?

There can be no doubt that many successful people inclined to a conservative political and economic philosophy are demonstrably, deeply compassionate in regard to their fellow citizens. But what of the others?

ELISE PATKOTAK

Aging takes guts in this political climate

We can argue for a long time whether Obamacare or Romneycare or some other care is the answer to what ails America. What can't be argued is that there are two classes of people in this country right now, those who can afford to be healthy and those whose health care plan consists of hoping to god nothing happens to them.

PAUL JENKINS

Oil tax logic continues to elude Democrats

Imagine my surprise as I read the letter-to-the-editor headline: "Democrats are looking out for Alaskans while Republicans continue to fail them." Who would have guessed, especially after the Legislature's last special session?

SHANNYN MOORE

Memories of our moms sharpen over time

My mom liked her schedule. Every day had regular chores, but a few had special tasks. Wednesdays we made bread.

JOHN HAVELOCK

Fight over oil taxes is far from over

The special session this year ended on an odd note. In an unprecedented move, Gov. Sean Parnell withdrew the oil tax reduction bill, his only reason for calling the special session.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Children deserve a safe 'forever home'

You know what one of the hardest things to do is when working with troubled children? It's holding your tongue and your temper as the child explains to you just how wonderful their parents are.

Hijackers of Alaska GOP did Begich a huge favor

Today must be sweet indeed for Sen. Mark Begich, a guy whose 2014 re-election chances until recently were as bleak as winter in Shaktoolik. He is, after all, a very blue guy in a very red state.

SHANNYN MOORE

We need much more than Parnell slogan

Gov. Sean Parnell is starring in an ad campaign in which he thanks Alaskans for "choosing respect." Hooray! A bumper sticker! Parades! At long last we're raising awareness on an issue too many Alaskans know far too well.

STEVE HAYCOX

Inequality's roots deep in US history

Income inequality is abroad in America today as at no time since the 1920s.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Alaska veterinarians do disservice to dogs, villages

Back in the 1970s, when I was the North Slope Borough health director, a man walked into my office one day and announced he was the vet from the Naval Arctic Research Lab (NARL) down the road from town.

SHANNYN MOORE

City grading itself in integrity of election

Remember standardized testing when you were a kid? You'd fill in those ovals with that Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 until your eyes bugged out. Schools provided "smart snacks" of carrots and apples on testing days.

PAUL JENKINS

Parnell was unprepared to sell oil-tax reform bill

Well, it's over. A special legislative session called by Gov. Sean Parnell in part to reform Alaska's oil tax abomination is el croako -- done in by recalcitrant senators' greed and the governor's ineptitude.