Many regular visitors to my website over the last week have noted no new posts had appeared since November 10. I apologize, but last week I had a full schedule of business travel.  

Complex issues are emerging as a result of the current versions of both the House and Senate CS versions of Governor Palin's proposed ACES plan to raise oil taxes.

There are a host of contentious issues tucked into the versions of Gov. Sarah Palin’s oil tax bill now in the House and Senate finance committees.

Three weeks into the special session on oil taxes and Governor Palin's proposal to raise oil taxes has finally landed in the respective finance committees, the last stop before a floor vote.

From here on out I'll be writing more on the technical aspects of the legislation now that they've gone through the first two committees of referral and the finance commitees are historically where the heavy lifting gets done.

From the Anchorage Daily News - Matanuska Maid Dairy Falls Deeper into the Red, 11/06/07

"Among the most vocal critics of the current board is Andrew Halcro, a former legislator and 2006 gubernatorial candidate, who described the decision to keep the dairy open as a costly mistake made to keep friends in business."

There is a new term emerging in Juneau to describe comments from lawmakers that raise eyebrows; Gatto-isms.

Named after Rep. Carl Gatto, who once referred to himself as the most uninformed legislator in Juneau, so far Gatto appears to have a monopoly on comments bearing his name.

It has been said that timing is everything in life and politics. We are witnessing that theory play out here in Alaska with the timing of current events that are impacting both lives and politics.

From the recent guilty verdict of yet another Alaskan lawmaker convicted of corruption, to the release of third quarter oil company profit figures during a debate over oil taxes to the Supreme Court’s recent decision to review Exxon’s appeal of punitive damages, everyday there is yet another reason to worry about our ability to hold factual discussions versus emotional ones.

Last Friday I became a grandfather as my daughter Lauren gave birth to a healthy 7.2 pd handsome baby boy. (I can't wait to take him to the office) On Saturday my daughter Alyssa, a Senior at West High School, was named to the Cook Inlet Region first team all-star volleyball squad.