DONN LISTON

I am an Independent Journalist and retired teacher. I have resided over 60 consecutive winters socially, academically and politically as an active Alaska participant. I write on the wondrous people, scoundrals and events I have witnessed since statehood in 1959. The theme is: How did we get here and where we are going as a state? I invite your respectful participation in the discussion.

PAST Legislative Hopes

Elections Have Consequences Reflections In December of 2021 on what we hoped might be possible after the election. The Alaska Legislature in recent years has become a spectacle. We have voted for people who we thought understood what Alaskans want: Safety and Security, Limited and efficient State Govern-ment, Protection of the Permanent Fund with use

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Who is Making a Difference?

 Realities of Alaska Food Security (2020©donnliston.co)   Familywith food on the table have many problems. Familywith no food on the table have one problem.                                                                                                                        

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Pandemic Business Survivor

  The Wonder of Small Engines   John Trescott cleans up his workbench at Eagle River Small Engine Repair. (2020©donnliston.co) Small engines can do big jobs, but when they don’t work they are infuriating. Because they power many kinds of tools and toys, when we want them to work we want them to work. For

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Alaska’s Economic Sweet Spot

  The Mat-Su Valley   State Economist, Neil Fried recently explained the impact of theChina Virus Pandemic to a Mat-Su audience. (2020©donnliston.co)   The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced on October 16 that September jobs in our state are down 11.0 percent from last September; a loss of some 37,600 jobs. A

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Who Dares to Farm in Alaska?

  The Future of Alaska Food Security Rayna Reynolds, 9, is a farm girl in the Matanuska Valley. (2020©donnliston.co) When 200 farm families were selected from three mid-western states to be moved to Alaska’s Matanuska Valley for a farming experiment in 1935, nobody was certain what would happen. During the early 1930s Alaska agriculture was in

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We Don’t have to be Victims:

The Long View of Crime in Alaska (2020©donnliston.co)     During the 1970s construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline we saw our state transformed by crime; as also happened in previous fur and gold rushes. It happened simultaneous to the influx of people flooding here to build that engineering marvel, while some others arrived for diabolical

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