Currently the Alaska legislature has been debating whether Medicaid expansion is good for Alaska. Medicaid expansion will drive up the cost of health care. It will also order the Alaska Native Medical Center to open its facility to everybody. It also requires Alaska to pay more at the end. Doctors are performing many services in states that have taken medicaid expansion this includes the states that have Republican governors. Idaho and Ohio citizens health care cost have increased ever since their governors have allowed Medicaid expansion. Please tell your legislator, Mayor Elect Berkowitz and governor Walker that Medicaid expansion is a bad deal.
Willow want to increase your response times and stop accept orders from Palmer to be told what to do with your community. You need to get a petition to incorporate become your own city. By becoming your own community. You can tax your citizens form your own police force and you can increase your fire response time by forming your fire department even if it is a volunteer fire department. This will give you complete local control. Matanuska Susitna Borough contracts with the Alaska State Troopers to provide police protection this puts a strain on the state budget. Willow citizens want to control your own destiny then you need to become your own city.
Tom Brady needs to be make an example of for telling his equipment people that he wants his balls a certain way. I am not just saying this as a Seahawks fan. This is for the integrity of the game. I actually like the Patriots as a team. They beat us in a very close game in the last super bowl. By having him suspended for the whole season shows quarterbacks you try to affect the outcome of the game you do not play for the following season. The Patriots have another options there is a backup quarterback that can get them championship that was just signed with the Ravens his name is Matt Schaub. If Robert Kraft offered Matt Schaub a one year contract to be the quarterback for the Patriots this will allow the Patriots to keep their championship team. He lead the Texans to the playoffs in 2011 and 2012 seasons. This would also allow him to no longer be a bench warmer for another quarterback.
Just heard from South Anchorage assembly member Bill Evans that the Uber ordinance 2014-135 will be pulled until we reform how the taxi operation is done in Anchorage, Alaska. Dispatch companies and the permit owners have too much control must completely reform Title 11. This requires elimination to subscription to a dispatch. We need to require all permits become a status of a vehicle for hire. All taxi permits must go down to $2500 be considered non transferable. Remember the municipality is not responsible for any devaluation of any taxi permits. We need to have a more competitive environment allow more transportation options for Anchorage
Organizations like the United Way who can afford bus wraps on a People Mover bus do not need government subsidy. These organizations are support to rely on donations. Some of these can only afford expenses when government helps with donations like public broadcasting. If government funding stops these organizations from performing their duties will still exist. They can perform their mission statement without government intervention. We need to stop giving non profit organization taxpayer money unless it actually goes to problem they are addressing. Places like the United Way get their money through other means like the Rasmusson Foundation where donors can do pick click give with the Permanent Fund. This is government choosing winners and losers. People should decide who to give to.
My father Fred after a lengthy career of volunteering in two fire department is retiring on May 2015 at the age of 65. He started his volunteer fire department career at the North Bend fire department in 1971 where he also served as an Emergency Medical Technician. He was promoted up to the rank of Lieutenant. Then in 1989 he moved to Cle Elum where he continue to the tradition of serving his community by serving his local fire department as Kittitas County Fire District 7 at the Station 73 at the Nelson Siding Road station. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant and Public Information Officer. During my growing up days he sometimes would tell stories of some of his calls at the dinner table even though my mother sometimes would object to it. As children Jim and I learned very early on all the first aid techniques. We sometimes would pray around the scanner to until our father came home from a call. This was typical of any first hero family. He taught me how you talk to first hero family. When Jim and I were younger we would pretend to be fireman. My younger brother Jim almost was a firefighter but father in law John Black made sure that did not happen. He did not want his daughter marrying a firefighter. This training also helped me when I was dispatching taxi cabs in Anchorage I know how to talk to first heroes get the cab drivers the help they needed. I wish my father well in his retirement as a first hero. He will always remember for the countless lives he helped saves and always will wonder about the ones he could not.
Higher unemployment will soon come to Anchorage. When Ethan Berkowitz proposes this ordinance to the assembly. I will be there to make sure this assembly does not adopt it. We also need to repeal it and while we are at repeal the assembly members that voted for it. This will kill small business and this will also create more unemployment. When this issue comes up in the assembly I will be there in a NFL jersey or an Anchorage 12th man jersey speaking against this.
