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Open Enrollment is an education priority of Gov. Dunleavy that would allow any Alaska student to enroll in any Alaska school. To better understand the consequences of this proposal, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, the rules chair in the Alaska State Senate, and Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, the co-chair of the House Education committee appear in this brief bonus episode.

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Nathaniel Herz is a freelance reporter who’s spent over a decade working in Alaska, including stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. A few years ago he started his own newsletter "Northern Journal," where he is supported by individual subscribers and grant funding to do his own projects in collaboration with various media organizations like ProPublica, the ADN, and Alaska Public Media. He also has a podcast called "Northern Journal."

Nat is on the show today because he wanted to provide a counter perspective to the doom and gloom attitude present in some of my recent episodes discussing the future of media in Alaska.

Articles featured in today's show:

"This oil platform stopped pumping 30 years ago. Alaska still won’t make the owner tear it down."

"The last skipper in Ouzinkie: How Gulf of Alaska villages lost their Native fishing fleets."

"How a risky state investment in seafood cost Alaskans millions and left a fishing town in crisis."

Podcast episodes mentioned:

"Lisa Murkowski: 'The problem with standing on principle is when your constituents get hurt'"

"What happens when the trans-Alaska pipeline shuts down? And who pays to remove it?"

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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.