17 January 2017

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Two people were injured Monday night in the crash of a small plane flying between two Alaska Peninsula villages, Alaska State Troopers said. 
Word that the plane had crashed somewhere between Pilot Point and Port Heiden reached troopers at about 3:30 p.m. Monday, according to an online dispatch. 
"Preliminary investigation revealed the flight originated from Dillingham with two persons on board and was en route to Port Heiden," troopers wrote. "The aircraft had landed in Pilot Point due to inclement weather before departing Pilot Point bound again for Port Heiden, when it crashed."

In a meeting on Friday, UAA Faculty Senate voted “no confidence” in both current University of Alaska President, James Johnsen, as well as UA’s Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO), Karl Kowalski. 
The faculty cite multiple reasons behind this decision in a release from the faculty senate, most notably high faculty turnover, low staff morale, and what it calls “critical errors in basic business decision-making and program management.”  
This comes on the heels of the university improvement plan of Strategic Pathways (SP) failing to right the ship. In the statement released by the faculty, they say that though SP was advertised as a “collaborative process” with faculty’s input to be considered and encouraged, the major issues and concerns raised by faculty in has had “no apparent influence.” 
Faculty alleges that turnover has more than doubled during President Johnsen’s time in office since 2015 ...
 
Alaskans can expect some of the lowest winter temperatures in years this week as a deep chill moves into Southcentral and the Interior, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said Sunday. 
The lowest temperatures are expected starting midweek. 
In the Anchorage area, temperatures are forecast to dip down to minus 12 to minus 25 across the city on Thursday morning before warming up at the start of the weekend. Some parts of East Anchorage could hit minus 30, according to meteorologist Jason Ahsenmacher with the Anchorage forecast office of the weather service.

9 comments:

Rob said...

While you enjoy your cold, We will bask in temps of the middle 30's this week. I may have sit outside and tan my face...LOL

Rev. Paul said...

Tan, windburn, what's the difference? :)

Sandy Livesay said...

Rev. Paul,

Temperatures are actually hitting the high 50's today. Stay warm. Can you believe the Pres just commuted Bradley Manning....aka: Chelsea Manning. Unbelievable!!!

Rev. Paul said...

Sandy, that swing in temps in the Midwest is a big part of "what we don't miss" about the Midwest. If it works for you, that's great. Re: MISTER Manning, I have nothing against HIM personally, but HIS actions beg for legal recourse. HE will get what's coming to HIM, I'm quite sure. Just because Obama commuted HIS sentence, it doesn't mean anything; HE hasn't expressed any remorse for HIS actions. Regarding HIS cosmetic surgery, it didn't change HIS D.N.A.

Fiona said...

We are getting mixed weather, nice today but very wet. Later this week cold again. Confusing!
And Obama with his pardons...Horrible. However I find his cavalier presentation of a Medal Of Freedom to Joe Biden equally reprehensible. Being a professional politician is not heroic in any way. This denigrates the meaning of the medal...Obama's Medal Of Distinguished Public Service was sickening. Ralph and I have an entirely different view of heroics.
Audie Murphy, Sergent York, Neil Armstrong, Chuck Yeager To name a few.
Stay safe in your winter wonderland and God Bless you.

Rev. Paul said...

Fiona, you've expressed perfectly what the rest of us are feeling, and I can't (and wouldn't) add a thing. Thank you.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Just a thought, really: I would be interested to see what the reasons for "faculty turnover were". I wonder if part of it has to do with people loving the idea of living in exotic Alaska only to find out it is quite different from what they expected. Pretty much like anywhere, really: go expecting one thing, living there to find something else.

Rev. Paul said...

TB, I doubt that's the issue, unless someone is greatly misled before arrival. Anchorage isn't terribly "Alaskan", and is definitely not "exotic". It's a fair-to-middlin' sized city of 310,000, with much of the flavor of, say, Portland. I suspect the factors behind the turnover have more to do with poor management.

LindaG said...

Got all that global warming messing things up. I am hoping we get another little freeze, though it would probably take a big one to kill off some of the bugs, so never mind, haha.

Stay warm, be safe and God bless!