Last week, I emailed the Assembly a straightforward question: if the city sells City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) at a discount, how much future tax revenue will taxpayers forgo, and what will they get in return? No Assembly member answered.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about political power in Alaska. Specifically, the inevitable entitlement that old war horses think they deserve because they have slogged through years of "paying their dues" to ascend to the role of governor.

Sen. Dan Sullivan isn’t a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But if he were a true leader in combatting sexual assault and abuse, he would have immediately expressed his objections to Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general. Other Republican senators would have joined him. And the judiciary committee would not have advanced the nomination for a vote by the full Senate.

I don’t know where to start. Astonishment. I am astonished that the Alaska Division of Elections has removed 3,048 people from Alaskan active voter rolls.

If you want a pair of smartglasses that will record every burp, blemish and blush of whoever is sitting across from you — while it also remembers their names — Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his techies at Meta see the world the same as you. They see privacy to be dismissed and eating habits to be recorded.

What to do with the old City Hall is not merely a financial issue. Its location makes that property central to downtown Juneau, and it would be appalling if it turned into yet another tanzanite or T-shirt shop that is closed in the winter.

As someone who lives in the flood zone, I want to thank the City and Borough of Juneau for the work that has gone into preparing our community for this year’s glacial outburst flood.

Ballot Measure No. 1 appearing on the Aug. 18 ballot will restore a system of limits on the amount that individuals and groups can contribute to individual campaigns for state and local office.

Though I have voted for Democrats in every election since 1976, in this year’s primary I am voting for Click Bishop, a lifelong Republican.

In the Aug. 18 primary election the League of Women Voters of Alaska supports Ballot Measure 1 which places limits on campaign contributions in state and local elections.

For decades, the Tulsequah Chief Mine has concerned Alaskans who depend on the Taku River waters flowing into Southeast Alaska. The historic mine sits along the Tulsequah River in British Columbia, upstream of its confluence with the Taku. Although the mine has been closed for many years, it continues to generate acid rock drainage from its underground workings.

Just as mosquitos, outdoor barbecues and sometimes even sunshine and warm skies return every summer in Alaska, and just as king salmon used to return in abundance and many Lower 48 relatives visit in too much abundance, Alaska experiences a special summer event in election years: The return of the dividend-promising political candidate.