Send us a text

Sen. Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) is chair of the rules committee in the Alaska State Senate. He discusses the upcoming legislative special session called by Governor Mike Dunleavy to begin at 10 am, on Saturday, August 2. Sen Wielechowski explains the way special sessions generally work, why this one is different, and discusses frankly the political gamesmanship given that overrides of the Governor's vetoes must be taken up within the first 5 days of the legislature reconvening. We discuss the budget line item veto of education funding but also Senate Bill 183 which helps the legislature's auditor better assess the oil and gas tax revenue for our state. This bill was widely seen as a transparency bill and Governor Dunleavy's veto of SB 183 raises red flags.

Here is a link to the Alaska Beacon's article by reporter James Brooks about the veto of SB 183.

Send us a text

Gabe Rottman is the Vice President of Policy for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. A practicing attorney with a focus on the novel issues at the intersection of press freedom, newsgathering, and technology, Gabe is the perfect person to discuss the media environment in America today and what resources are available to journalists who, through the course of just doing their jobs, could find themselves in the crosshairs of the government.

From 2012 to 2015, Rottman served as the lead federal legislative and regulatory counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union on open government, press freedom and the First Amendment. While at the ACLU, Rottman directed federal advocacy on the Espionage Act and its implications for journalist source protection. After the ACLU, he opened PEN America's Washington, D.C., office and served as its first Washington director.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was started by journalists and lawyers in 1970 to provide legal representation to reporters. RCFP remains the leading provider of free legal services to journalists and newsrooms across the US. To contact the organization, visit RCFP.org.

Send us a text

Former editor of the Anchorage Daily News Pat Dougherty worked at that paper for 34 years. Born in 1950 as the eldest son of an Air Force pilot father, Pat never found a long term home till he landed in Anchorage in 1975 to take a job as a sports reporter at the Anchorage Times. Once transferring over to the ADN in 1980, he worked his way up the ranks and was the editor of the series that won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. The ADN has won the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service three times. Only three papers in the history of the awards have won more.- But, Dougherty fears that the ADN's best days are behind it -- as is true for most legacy newspapers in our country. We discuss the current media environment in Alaska including the influence of blogs like Must Read Alaska & its founder Suzanne Downing, and The Alaska Landmine and its founder Jeff Landfield, as well as other more traditional news outlets like Alaska Public Media and the Alaska Beacon.