Three Days

Three days ago, it was -6° F. at this hour. Today it's 38 above. That's 44 degrees warmer than on Tuesday.

The three inches of snow that fell overnight is wet, and slides off the cars with only a little urging.

The frozen roadways, mostly bare during the week of sub-zero temps, are now doing their best impression of a skating rink. The melty snow and sprinkles of rain are turning to icy patches on contact.

The drive to work this morning was sketchy, at best. Later, when the traffic is sufficiently heavy, it could get ugly. Makes me very glad I work such an early shift.


* * * * *

Here's an update on the "Alaskan Bush People" story from yesterday:

A Juneau Superior Court judge has rejected a plea deal that would have allowed stars of the "Alaskan Bush People" series to avoid jail time for Permanent Fund dividend fraud.

[snip] “I don’t think the Browns should be treated more harshly because they have a TV show. … but they certainly shouldn’t be treated more leniently because of that either,” the judge said.

 * * * * *

Today's local newspaper/fishwrapper feature an editorial about Republican lawmakers who are sounding the alarm about letting Syrian refugees into the country. The tone of the op-ed is predictable:

There must be seven or eight Republican politicians in Alaska who haven't shared panic-stricken statements about the Syrian refugee crisis, pretending to know what's really going on.

What's wrong with these slackers? They aren't doing their part to create hysteria or display the depth of their understanding of world events.

 But wait! There's a flag on the play:

Alaska Reality TV

Remember that I told you about how the Discovery conglomerate reality programs based up here are pretty much bogus?

How the Kilcher family, desperately attempting to survive winter near Homer, is actually only a few miles from town, and literally next door to a butcher shop and meat packaging operation?

How the "Alaskan Bush People" weren't really from Alaska, and were only renting the cabin and land where the show is recorded? How they were staying in a nearby hotel, and taking a bus to the shooting location?

The plot thickens:

Two stars of the wildly popular reality show "Alaskan Bush People" pleaded guilty in Juneau court Wednesday to lying about their Alaska residency on applications for the Permanent Fund dividend.

Billy Brown, the 62-year-old patriarch of the family, and his second-oldest son, 31-year-old Joshua "Bam Bam" Brown, each pleaded guilty to a single count of second-degree unsworn falsification in the case that has called into question how long the Brown family actually lived in Alaska between 2009 and 2012.


... On Wednesday, the Browns didn't show up in Juneau. Instead, they called into the hearing from Seattle, Billy Brown told the judge. The family previously resided in Texas and Colorado, according to Fish and Game citations.

As part of a proposed plea deal, the two Browns would serve two years on probation, pay back thousands of dollars in dividends and each complete 40 hours of community service, which the judge said cannot be filmed.

There are plenty of real-life pioneers, prospectors, trappers, and miners scratching out a living up here. Some of them do pretty darned well, as a matter of fact.

But there's a term Alaskans use to describe those here to take advantage of the State's people, opportunities and reputation, and you Southerners will know exactly what I mean.

Carpetbaggers.

All y'all can watch that dreck if you want to. We have better people, better stories, and better things to do.

Isn't That Interesting?

Isn't That Interesting? Dept:  Gas prices dropped to $2.99 overnight. Fascinating, isn't it? That's down nearly thirty cents in five days. Strange how they couldn't do that before the State was asked to investigate.

Whiter Than White Dept: There was a LOT of snow in the mountains yesterday. I'll try to remember to grab a picture or two, if the rainclouds lift today. Meanwhile, leaves are dropping rapidly. Our temps this week will be nearly 10 degrees cooler* than last week, too. Seems like autumn's in a hurry, this year.

9/14/15, from www.adn.com

9/14/15, from www.adn.com

You Can't Always Get What You Want Dept:  the Alaska Dispatch News has this story today.

Hunting show stars charged with poaching in Alaska preserve

Two hosts of the Sportsman Channel hunting show “The Syndicate” and eight others have been charged following a poaching investigation in Northwest Alaska's Noatak National Preserve.

I'm getting really tired of the various Discovery channels and subsidiaries trying to milk a few more dollars out of Alaska, no matter how contrived the stories/situations are.

Funny thing is, there's plenty of frontier up here, if you want it. We have 587,000 square miles, 90 percent of which is unpopulated, undeveloped, and completely devoid of roads.

Beware of Falling Rocks Dept:

A rock slide that temporarily closed the Seward Highway Monday came as a surprise to officials with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, which had recently taken steps to prevent such slides in the Mile 113 area of the highway after a similar incident earlier this year.

The latest rock slide was reported around 8 a.m. Monday and stopped traffic between the Potter Marsh weigh station and McHugh Creek. DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said this slide came down at the "exact same" location another rock slide that closed the highway on Feb. 19.

Workers remove one of the large boulders that fell onto the Seward Highway about a mile south of the Potter weigh station on Monday morning, Sept. 14, 2015. Bill Roth / ADN

* Highs this week around 50, with lows falling into the mid-30s by week's end.

Another "Alaskan" Reality Show?

Yawn.

Though a new television cop show in the works is set in Alaska's largest city -- and even features the working title "Anchorage" -- film industry insiders in the state say it's nearly certain the series won't be shot in its namesake locale.

Calling the city of Anchorage "one of the most dangerous cities in America," studio IM Global Television has brought on executive producers with experience in Alaska to develop the show, which is based on the work of a longtime sergeant with the Anchorage Police Department's Vice unit.

"Most violent cities"? I think not, but then TV producers never let facts get in the way of a mediocre story. There's money to be made, and a gullible crop of low-information viewers to mislead, don'tcha know.

But the gist of the article is that the show won't be filmed here because the State of Alaska won't give them tax incentives.

Boo, as in hoo...

The shows already on the air are at least partially faked, or in some cases, totally. The Kircher family ("We're gonna starve if we don't kill another moose!") lives about three or four miles out of Homer. They could walk to the grocery stores (plural!) as quickly as they purport to hike to find game.

The "Alaska Bush" show appears to us to be completely fake, as the family in question is reported to stay in a motel in the nearby town, and is reportedly bused to the so-called remote homestead which the producers rent for filming.

Need I go on?

It ain't worth your time, folks. Ya wanta see Alaska? Go here, here, or here ... or come up and see us in person.

Found at https://www.travelalaska.com/

AK Man Who Appeared on "Ultimate Survivor" Shot to Death

FAIRBANKS - Alaska State Troopers are investigating the death of a 69-year-old man who was shot at his home in Fox on Sunday afternoon.

Jimmy Gojdics, who sometimes spelled his last name the way it’s pronounced (Gaydos), was a retired ironworker, outdoorsman and reality television character in the National Geographic show “Ultimate Survival.”

Alaska State Troopers received word of the shooting at 3:06 p.m. at Gojdics’ home on the Old Elliott Highway behind the Silver Gulch Brewery. Gojdics was “suffering from apparent gunshot wounds” when troopers arrived. He was pronounced dead after being transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, according to a troopers news release. 

The case is under investigation as a homicide, said trooper spokesman Tim Despain.

I've never watched the show, but our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

What REALLY Kills Alaskans?

In an effort to hype its phony reality TV show "Ultimate Survival Alaska,'' the National Geographic Channel has come up with a nifty list of nine of the 10 accidents least likely to kill people in the 49th state.
 
Only it isn't packaging these minimal risk dangers in that way. Oh no. The channel's website is hyping "10 Ways to Die in Alaska,'' noting the state's tragically high accidental death rate.
"Alaska's rate of 49 accidental deaths per 100,000 inhabitants is 20 percent higher than the national average,'' says its website. "That's not too surprising, considering that the northernmost state has so many natural hazards — steep mountain gorges, icy rivers and streams, sometimes treacherous roads, hungry bears and massive moose, and remote areas where it's hard to get help if you’re injured or run out of food and water. And if those risks aren't intimidating enough, there’s the danger of an avalanche, or the remote chance of a volcanic eruption or a massive earthquake."

The first sentence is true. The second is a crazy mixture of facts and make-believe.

Follow this link to read the whole story.

'Wild West Alaska' star pleads guilty to 4 hunting violations

From a copyrighted story in the Alaska Dispatch News:

"Alaska State Troopers" meets "Wild West Guns" could've been the Alaska reality TV courtroom drama of the year. But an eleventh-hour plea bargain averted the trial. Loren Holmes photo

Jim West, Alaska weapons connoisseur and star of Animal Planet’s “Wild West Alaska,” pleaded guilty Tuesday to four misdemeanor hunting violations, bagging thousands of dollars in fines and two workweeks of community service.

What was set to be the courtroom drama of the year for Alaska reality TV -- "Alaska State Troopers" meets "Wild West Guns" -- has been called off.

After a 10-month paper war that left briefs and memos stacked almost 3 inches deep in the office of the clerk of court in rural Glennallen, state prosecutors and TV star West, or "Jimmy," as most court documents call him, have settled on a plea agreement.

... He’ll be required to pay the state $8,000. District Court Judge Daniel Schally imposed a total of $40,000 in fines but most was suspended. The reality star is required to serve 80 hours of community work service, and probation will stalk West for three years.

... As part of the plea deal, troopers will return West’s Cessna 185 single-engine airplane, worth upward of $100,000. West used the plane for hunting and filming his TV show. That is, before authorities seized it in August 2013.  

How Alaskans View Alaskan Reality TV

From today's Anchorage Daily News:

... It was strange to go home to the Midwest for the holidays and have family members ask detailed questions about the crabbing season or if I'd ever been to Wasilla (not because of the Palins, but because of a "crazy episode of 'Alaska State Troopers'"). No other place, except for maybe New York City and Southern California, has the TV star power that Alaska has.

"Deadliest Catch" and "Alaska State Troopers" have become the flagship shows, but new programs chronicling the ordinary and extraordinary lives of Alaskans keep appearing. By my best count, there are currently 13 shows airing that take place in Alaska. This is the Golden Age of Alaska Reality TV.


... A lot of Alaskans I've talked with have a hard time getting into Alaska Reality TV because it seems fake. The most commonly given example is "Alaska: The Last Frontier," a show about the Kilcher family, who live just outside Homer. These people live extraordinary lives, and not just because they are Jewel's relatives. They harvest much of their own food and are all-around entertaining human beings. But the way the show is edited makes it seem as though the Kilchers will surely die if they don't shoot a moose or catch a halibut. We know that they can just go to the Safeway in Homer, but my Midwestern family doesn't know that.

It's like an astronaut going to see the film "Gravity" or a doctor watching "Grey's Anatomy." Instead of sitting back and enjoying the ride, they are probably looking at all the inaccuracies of space travel or daily hospital life. The trick is to put aside the skepticism and enjoy these shows for what they are: entertaining television. Because even when they're overly produced and heavily edited, these shows still tell interesting stories about the place we call home and the larger-than-life people who live here ...

Read the whole article here.

State Troopers Hit "Wild West Alaska" Star with Slew of Hunting Violations

 

The Anchorage Daily News reports Jim West, the 60-year-old mustachioed weapons aficionado at the center of the rough-edged reality TV show, "Wild West Alaska," faces a slew of criminal hunting charges.
 
Alaska State Troopers allege that West personally killed a bear during a guided hunt, helped a client kill a moose inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve without permission and guided numerous black bear hunts on Native corporation lands, also without permission.

Troopers seized West's Cessna 185 floatplane as part of their investigation.

"Wild West Alaska," on the Animal Planet network, focuses on the Anchorage store West founded in 1992, Wild West Guns, which is billed as Alaska's largest custom rifle and handgun shop. West, who owns the Klutina Lodge in Copper Center near Wrangell-St. Elias, is also a state-registered big game guide.

The show spotlights the gun store and a colorful cast of clients and employees, gunsmithing and wilderness hunting and fishing.

The troopers are the subject of a reality show, too. "Alaska State Troopers" airs on the National Geographic Channel.

It's tempting to turn the showdown between West and the state into a reality TV smackdown, but the case started before West's show hit the small screen this year.

The state's investigation began in 2011, when West got sideways with Ahtna Inc., the Glennallen-based Native regional corporation that owns 600,000 acres in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the rugged territory that surrounds West's lodge.

Brent Cole, an Anchorage attorney representing West, said this week he couldn't comment specifically on the charges against West until he finishes his own investigation. But Cole said the troopers were especially heavy-handed in filing criminal charges against his client.

"They could have written a letter. They could have filed a civil suit," he said. "They could have handled this through administrative processes, any number of things."

A spokesman for Animal Planet provided only a brief comment on behalf of the network this week: "Animal Planet is surprised about the charges against Jim West and the network currently is looking into the matter."

The Animal Planet website still says the show's second season will premiere on Sunday, Jan. 13.

"Gold Rush: Alaska" Mines Shut Down

According to the Chilkat Valley News:

In what seems sure to become another dramatic episode of "Gold Rush: Alaska," two Porcupine gold mines being filmed for a reality TV show were shut down recently after failing to meet federal training requirements. They also were cited for violations of worker-safety regulations.

 Inspections by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration Aug. 4-8 resulted in a total of 13 citations and two compliance orders against John Schnabel’s Big Nugget Mine and the Jim Nail Placer Mine operated by "Dakota" Fred Hurt, according to a website maintained by the agency.

~ snip ~

Parker Schnabel said he doesn’t doubt that last winter’s TV exposure drew the attention of regulators. According to the Alaska Miners’ Association, there are about 200 small, seasonal placer mines in the state, which federal inspectors are required to inspect once a year. "We’ve been operating 25 years and never had a (federal) inspection," Schnabel said.

 (emphasis added)