Anchorage Daily News

Glenn-Seward project falls short

If the intent of the Glenn-Seward highway intertie is for traffic to "bypass" Anchorage, why would it be built through downtown at all? Why not a true beltway bypass along the Chugach, or at least upgrade the Muldoon-Tudor corridor?

-- Duane Magoon

Anchorage

Vickers needs a ticket to Florida

Is Vic Vickers kidding?

He bounces into Alaska from Florida in January and in July he's qualified to take the Senate seat from Stevens?

Just how stupid do he and the DNC think we are? Vickers is a known Democrat pretending to be a Republican pretending to care about Alaska.

(What does he mean when he says he's going to "take Alaska back"? I guess he means the Democrats plan to take Alaska back. Way back.)

He is willing to spend his own money to buy his election.

He doesn't have the class to be a Republican or a senator as good for Alaska as Sen. Stevens has been.

Mr. Vickers, please take your liberal self back to Florida. Your cover is blown.

-- Charleen Abbey

Anchorage

Try using a little common sense

Would everyone please stop complaining about the bears? Settlers have lived in the Anchorage area only since 1915 when the railroad was authorized. The bears have been here for a lot longer than that. The only reasons we are seeing a larger than normal number of incidents this year is that we are moving into their habitat more each year and, apparently, we have forgotten how to act around wildlife.

I have three kids under the age of 8 and I have lived in the Lower 48 and Hawaii. I have no plans to leave. This place is great.

Use a little common sense when you go outside. Go in groups and make noise so the bears know where you are. Stay away from streams where bears look for food. All it takes is a little planning.

Why should the city kill or move these animals because we are infringing on their territory? If you are that perturbed about the Big Wild Life in Anchorage, go someplace "safer" in the Lower 48 and take the complaining with you.

-- John Lime III

Anchorage

FBI sure seems a bit overzealous

The federal government's recent indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens for failure to disclose gives me pause to think about my own experiences with the federal government. If I overlook income in my annual reporting to the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS civilly sends me a letter and requests a response. FBI agents do not come barging in with search warrants in hand and guns a-blazing.

Before the FBI got a search warrant or pursued criminal action against Sen. Stevens, did they ask him to take another look at his disclosures? I'm not a supporter of Sen. Stevens, but a man in his 80s and a longtime member of the United States Senate deserves respect. Everyone has to deal with the federal government, and none of us want to be treated like Sen. Stevens was. It's only fair that all branches of the federal government treat citizens the same.

-- Karen Bretz

Anchorage

No logical reason gas is so high

As an Anchorage cabdriver, I'm often asked by visitors from the Lower 48 why we pay such high gas prices.

I tell them it's shameful greed and corruption.

I love Alaska, and I know we get a dividend check here; but there is no logical explanation for such high prices. The cost of living is very high here, almost $2 for a tomato is outrageous.

I'm losing a lot of money compared to last summer due to high gas prices. I've cut my cable and am about to cut my Internet next. Some have criticized Gov. Sarah Palin's rebate plan, but I want to thank her for thinking of Alaskans and putting them first. She did not get herself a jet or give her old job to her daughter.

I don't need corruption and a bridge to nowhere. I need affordable gas to somewhere.

Many Alaskans are suffering, from Valley commuters to rural villages.

I'm glad our state coffers are in good shape, but it would be sad not to help our own in hard times, with many students also needing back-to-school supplies soon.

-- George Nedu

Anchorage

Got a problem with bears? Move

There are 49 states where one can live and not have to deal with bears. Move.

-- Shelley Gill

Homer

$1,200 rebate in good hands

Traffic slowed to a crawl on Elmore the other day as a truck crept along in the steady rain, watering the hundreds of spendy trees the state of Alaska has planted directly across the street from the millions of trees that God planted. That was the moment when I came off the bubble and decided that I can certainly spend $1,200 much better than the state government can. If Exxon can receive federal subsidies while earning $90,000 a minute last quarter, then we are certainly due a state subsidy.

-- W. R. Richardson

Anchorage

All Vickers does is raise questions

With the corruption that has engulfed Alaska politics the past few years, it seems to me that some are taking advantage of the situation. Vic Vickers, former deputy to the Florida comptroller, is running against the allegedly corrupt Sen. Ted Stevens. But how does a Florida comptroller deputy, author, lawyer to over 100 bankers and financial institutions, and owner of a Florida maritime company come to run for senator in Alaska? On an anti-corruption platform!

On Aug. 5, the St. Petersburg Times ran a story that included unproved allegations against Vic Vickers. He was once accused of strong-arming campaign contributions from people with business before the Florida comptroller's office. Later, said the St. Pete Times, there was an investigation that came to nothing over complaints he had used influence with the comptroller's office to get big fees from bank clients.

What is his loyalty to Alaska? He came here a few times over the years. Does that make him loyal to the needs of Alaskans? He changed his political party. Is he exploiting the fact that Alaska is primarily a Republican state? Why is he wanting to serve at the federal level? Is that so he can still help Florida? What is Vickers' motivation?

-- Jason Conley

Elmendorf AFB

Respect youths' sexual orientation

I applaud the Daily News for taking on such an important issue as youths aging out of foster care and youth homelessness, and I'd like to address a few more aspects of this issue. In addition to aging out of foster care, there is the additional problem mentioned briefly in the article of foster children running away from or being thrown out of foster families.

This can happen for many reasons, but research has found that many youths experience abuse within the foster care system as well as in their biological homes.

Additionally, many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths are thrown or driven out of their biological and foster homes by adults unwilling to accept their sexual and gender orientations. Those who are lucky have safe couches to sleep on or take shelter at Covenant House, but many end up on the street, where they are vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation from the people who offer them a place to stay.

It is essential that we help foster families to be respectful of youths' sexual orientations and cultural heritages, and support them with the sometimes difficult behaviors these kids may have picked up from their chaotic lives and histories of abuse.

It is also important that loving, nonviolent and open-minded families open their homes to foster children. This may prevent youths from leaving foster care early, and may support the adoptions of foster kids, which then reduces the amount of kids aging out without support.

-- Laura Norton-Cruz

Anchorage

$1,200 energy rebate is not fair

I would like to challenge the recently approved energy rebate as being discriminatory. It is touted to assist "all" Alaskans, but it truly does not.

I understand the reason to give out the PFD only to Alaskans who have lived here long enough to legitimize themselves as Alaskans. The PFD cannot be forked out to anyone who could move here temporarily, collect it and move on.

However, this energy rebate is offered only to those who qualify for the PFD, and that is wrong. It discriminates against those like my wife and I who moved here recently enough (eight months ago) to not qualify for the PFD. The energy rebate gives assistance to "all" Alaskans who are suffering with high energy bills. Well, my wife and I are suffering right along with you, yet we do not qualify. We pay our taxes, our heat bills for electric and for gas just like "all" Alaskans. We both hold respectable jobs in our shared community.

Do the children who qualify in the homes of adults who qualify pay these same taxes, heat and electric bills and gas? Probably not. Their parents do. But they get the rebate. They qualify while not suffering, but people like my wife and I do not qualify, yet we pay.

Frankly, I am shocked that our politicians did not spot this and explain it to new Alaskans or correct it. Fair is fair, and this rebate is not fair.

-- Bob Johnson

Anchorage

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