Happy International Women’s Day to all the ladies out there! The Iditarod is underway. Hilcorp’s annual Iditarod party on Friday (3/6/2026) night at 49th State was packed with politicos, including Senator Dan Sullivan (R – Alaska). The price of oil has skyrocketed since the war in Iran started, making many legislators feel some relief in an election year. The Senate Finance Committee sent the $500 million supplemental budget to the Senate floor, which is set to debate and hear amendments tomorrow. House finance subcommittees wrapped up their work to agency budgets, adding another $43 million in spending. Representative Nick Begich (R – Alaska) is scheduled to give his annual address to the Legislature on Tuesday (3/10/2026). And an interesting poll on the crowded governor’s race.
If you have not seen the newest feature on the Landmine, make sure to check out “Juneau on the Loose: Juneau’s Unofficial Events Calendar.” If you know about or have an event happening in Juneau, like a reception or fundraiser or party, please send me the info (jeff@alaskalandmine.com) and I will get it added to the calendar. Thanks to the people who have sent events so far. There are six for the upcoming week.
A friendly message and reminder to all our readers. The Landmine is made possible by myself and a team of awesome Alaskans. I have been covering the legislative session in Juneau for the last seven years and am now here for my eighth session. We will be covering all the 2026 Alaska elections in-depth. If you enjoy the content we provide, please consider making a one time or recurring monthly donation. You can click here to donate. We have a system that makes it super easy. We would really appreciate it. And thanks to everyone who has been supportive.
Senate Supplemental Bill
The following is an excerpt from a recent special edition of the Alaska Political Report. You can click here for more information about the Political Report. A subscription is $1,299/year per organization. Discounted pricing is available for non-profits and government entities. Our coverage of the budget starts with the governor’s proposed budget, and we track everything in detail through the entire process. If you have any questions or would like to subscribe, please email jeff@akpoliticalreport.com.
The Senate Finance Committee made a few changes to the supplemental budget passed to them by the House. The changes made bring the supplemental bill in line with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s (R-AK) amended request released in mid-February; adjusting projections for Medicaid, fire suppression, and disaster relief. They also restored access to the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) to fund the supplemental budget and included $30 million of headroom in case the Governor brings forward more supplemental needs before the end of session.
Based on the Dept. of Revenue’s fall revenue projections, the revised bill will draw $500 million from the CBR.
The bill is scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor on Monday. Assuming the Senate passes the three-quarter vote threshold for CBR access, the bill will return to the House for a concurrence vote. Even if the House concurs, they would still need 30 votes to access the CBR. They fell six votes short when they originally passed the bill. If they fail to concur, the bill will go to a conference committee.
Oil is on the Rise
The recent outbreak of war in Iran has resulted in oil prices skyrocketing. ANS crude hit $81.72 per barrel on Thursday – up nearly $11 in a week, or 13.3%. And with oil futures trading at more than $100 per barrel, ANS crude will go up even more when prices are updated.
But prices at this level are not enough to erase the FY2026 deficit facing the supplemental budget. To fully eliminate the projected FY2026 $500 million draw from the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR), oil would need to average over $105 per barrel for the remainder of the fiscal year. Even at higher prices, a sustained level at $105 or more until July 1 is unlikely. Meaning a three-quarter vote will still be required to pay for money that has already been spent in FY2026.
The Department of Revenue will be looking at the futures market this week to set their projections for the spring forecast, due on Friday (3/13/2026). But it’s hard to believe an adjustment much higher than the $64 per barrel number in the fall forecast will happen. If the forecast increases to $70 per barrel, for example, that would be an increase in approximately $210 million in projected revenues.
While the spring update will certainly be an increase from the fall projections, it’s unlikely to be the bail out some are hoping for. Expect the adjustment to be in the hundreds of millions, not in the billions.
The current budget barely balances with a $1,000 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). A couple hundred million dollars will provide much needed breathing room for deliberations on the FY2027 budget, but the fiscal problems plaguing the state are unlikely to be solved by high oil prices.
Other Happenings
The House finance subcommittees wrapped up their work on agency budgets. The finance subcommittees will present their reports to the full finance committee this week. The finance committee will then adopt a committee substitute for the operating budget and hear amendments. The budget will then go to the full House, where they will hear more amendments and debate the budget. Their plan is to pass it and send it to the Senate by the end of March.
This is rather interesting.
The Alaska Support Industry Alliance conducted an informal poll of its members in mid-February. The question was: If the election for governor were held today, who would you vote for? There were 652 respondents. Here are the results. #akleg pic.twitter.com/lrPLmEixcC
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) March 6, 2026
Representative Jamie Allard (R – Eagle River) is in Whitehorse, Yukon for the Arctic Winter Games.
Rep. Jamie Allard is in Whitehorse, Yukon for the Arctic Winter Games. In the guide of special guests, she’s right above the Greenland guy! #akleg pic.twitter.com/tFkbLVbJdn
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) March 8, 2026
This is not that far from the truth.
Legislators watching the price of oil skyrocket in an election year. #akleg pic.twitter.com/STgNLqRVph
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) March 9, 2026
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) tho…
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) March 6, 2026
This Week’s Loose Unit
This week’s designee is a slam dunk. This week’s Loose Unit is the Alaska Native Justice Center and Cook Inlet Tribal Council.
First, some background.
In 2016, Ian Millard brutally murdered his mother and brother. He was 12 years old. He was locked up at McLaughlin Youth Center until he was 19. He was released in 2022.
After he was released, the Alaska Native Justice Center helped him get on his feet. They posted a write-up on their website titled “A Stepping Stone to Success.” They wrote about how they helped him find a housing, get his driver’s license, and helped pay for school. They even helped him buy a cutting board.
Cook Inlet Tribal Council also shared his story on their website. They both left out one small detail: that he brutally murdered his mother and brother.
But their help did not have the desired effect.
A year after being released, Millard killed again. He was arrested two days ago for the murder of an 18-year-old girl in 2023.
That alone is super loose. But it gets even looser. Earlier this evening I posted this story on the Alaska Landmine X and Facebook accounts.
File this one in the unbelievable category. In 2016, Ian Millard brutally murdered his mother and brother. He was 12 years old. He was locked up at McLaughlin Youth Center until he was 19.
When he was released, the Alaska Native Justice Center helped him get on his feet. They… pic.twitter.com/GJfPjZaeSE
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) March 9, 2026
Not long after, the story was taken down from both websites! But don’t worry, the internet is forever. You can read them both here:
Alaska Native Justice Center post
Cook Inlet Tribal Council post
If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.
I certainly got what I paid for in this week’s Minefield.
If I were being sued for defamation (by Dorene Lorenz or anyone else), I’d be kinda careful about slinging accusations around, convicting based on allegations. But Jeff’s not so careful, and is definitely not a bona fide journalist who would write that Millard was accused of murder, alleged to have murdered again. No, fire-from-the-hip Jeff assumes anyone accused is guilty. That’s the difference between a blogger and a journalist.
Are you seriously defending this guy? What on earth (if it’s even earth) is your problem for making such a foolish statement??
As most people realize, Millard MAY be innocent.
And if he is, he can sue people who falsely claimed he committed the murder.
And maybe win a huge money judgment.
Maybe.
If anything, Copy Editor is trying to protect Landfield from his own irresponsibility.
So it’s Copy Editor’s responsibility to correct all of what Landfield writes?? Btw, where were you with this kind of stance just a few weeks ago when the deplorable legislative staffers’s federal indictment went down??
“………So it’s Copy Editor’s responsibility to correct all of what Landfield writes??……..”
That’s what editors do; demand weasel words, squash stories after special phone calls, etc. Once an editor, always an editor.
It’s unclear whether you’re asking where Dan was or where I was when Landfield published text about the legislative staffer, Valdez, being indicted. I was here, on this website. I read Landfield’s paragraphs about that. Jeff did what journalists are supposed–required by their editors, if they have editors–to do, which was to write that Valdez was accused. Valdez gets due process, after which, if convicted, he may rightly be called a pedophile. But not before he’s proven guilty.
No, anyone’s free to call Valdez a pedophile, rightly or otherwise.
But, if he’s not a pedophile and can prove it, Valdez may have good grounds to sue them for defamation and maybe win a LOT of money.
“………But, if he’s not a pedophile and can prove it, Valdez may have good grounds to sue them for defamation and maybe win a LOT of money………”
True, and President Trump is proving that fact on a regular basis. Unfortunately, he won’t be bothering to sue the piss ants commenting so regularly on this website because they don’t have the assets or propaganda outreach to warrant the effort.
“………As most people realize, Millard MAY be innocent. And if he is, he can sue people who falsely claimed he committed the murder………” Yup. And even if he IS guilty (see the “if”, editors?) and is acquitted by some courtroom magic, he can STILL sue whoever “falsely” claimed that he committed the murder, and since HE HAS ALREADY BEEN CONVICTED OF KILLING HIS OWN MOTHER AND BROTHER (done deal, no shit, no problem proclaiming it), and can thusly and legitimately be considered a shitbag, if he is acquitted, we can expect him to sue, because he and his lawyer need… Read more »
In the USA, we are innocent until proven guilty. So, I’m not defending Millard, no. I’m saying Landfield should have written that Millard has been accused of murdering again. I reckon you missed my point, sir.
“……… Jeff’s not so careful, and is definitely not a bona fide journalist who would write that Millard was accused of murder, alleged to have murdered again……….”
Yup. Gotta’ have those weasel words in there to be a qualified “journalist”…………..or weasel………..
“Alleged” and “allegedly” are not weasel words. They simply describe how law works in the USA: You’re innocent until proven guilty. Sounds to me like Millard probably murdered the 18-year-old woman, but until he is proven guilty, he’s only accused of that murder. Journalists are trained to write “allegedly” and “alleged” not to weasel, but to be accurate.
“……..“Alleged” and “allegedly” are not weasel words. They simply describe how law works in the USA: You’re innocent until proven guilty……..” Yup. Then, if pronounced guilty (irregardless of the truth), you’re incarcerated until the system needs your prison bunk for the next shitbag. Then you’re released to do as you please with your next victim, which is almost never a monster as evil or more so than you. Now back to how social information “works”. It’s a’changing, Editor #2. Maybe if “journalism” had been better responisve to social needs it wouldn’t have been dying with the advent of new technology.… Read more »
I wish Dorene Lorenz would sue me…
Hope they lock this Millard character up and throw away the key, sounds like a proper piece of shite.
Doesn’t mean that reentry work isn’t important, but I do wish those nonprofits were a little more honest with the public – dirty deleting those stories because a case study you’d previously hyped up/bragged about ended with a poor outcome isn’t how you build trust.
So it’s Copy Editor’s responsibility to correct all of what Landfield writes?? Btw, where were you with this kind of stance just a few weeks ago when the deplorable legislative staffers’s federal indictment went down?? -Quentin John This made my day. To share my joy with others, here’s my post, from last week. Note my fifth word: “accused”! ***** Just what does newly-accused child trafficker/exploiter/pornographer Craig Valdez have to do to win a Loose Unit award around here? He’s from ANCHORAGE, which Landfield loves to hate!!! He’s a PROMINENT GOP STAFFER!!! He’s SUPER-DUPER MAGA!!! He cosplays in a YUGE! TRUMP COSTUME!!! He’s chair of… Read more »
I’m curious what Jeff proposes we should do with regards to someone like Millard? Try 12-year-olds as an adult? Provide less transitional support? I think we can all agree that it is dangerous to release extremely violent juvenile offenders directly back into the community when they turn 19. But, that is what we do. It strikes me that the only entity even trying to mitigate this hazard was CITC. Now, they are catching strays for offering a tiny fraction of the hazard mitigation that probably is needed. It is us, who just close our eyes and ignore the fucked up… Read more »
“I think we can all agree that it is dangerous to release extremely violent juvenile offenders directly back into the community when they turn 19. But, that is what we do.”
-Dan
I claim no personal knowledge of Millard’s release.
But I’m certain the state concluded, at the time of his release, that he no longer WAS violent and inclined to re-offend.
You must know something I don’t, but if they did determine he was likely to re-offend, they still would not be allowed to detain him unless he can be committed. He was never convicted, and at 19 he ceased to be delinquent.
Reggie Taylor is still Kevin McCabe.
LOL! Actually, I switch back and forth between Kevin McCabe and DJT. Are you occasionally Mike Alexander, or is that man too offensive to be even on rare occasion?
And he’s still a uniparty tool stealing our PFDs. We deserve better.
Well, I’m not McCabe, and I don’t want to steal “your” PFD. That would be me taking it for myself. I want to end it the whole program for me and everybody else. But McCabe has repeatedly written that he supports a full PFD, so you McCabe Deranged Victims must hate him for something else.
Just admit it’s you, we all know already. If you aren’t McCabe, this isn’t for you, but since you are, listen closely… you are the worst legislator in Juneau. You pretend to be an expert on topics you know nothing about, you are a bully, and nobody in Juneau respects you.
Hi, Kevin. It IS “me”……….Reggie. But I’m most entertained by you and your peers assigning me as Kevin McCabe and entertaining me with your mental virus, so please continue with your stupidity. I’m quite literally having the time of my life with you silly morons. I am not an “expert” on most topics, but I certainly have opinions on them, and I don’t give a damn what you think about them, because I need exactly zero votes from anybody. I’ll quite cheerfully sit here and watch the entire shittery go down to Hell in flames due to everybody fighting everybody… Read more »
Shut up McCabe. You’re an embarrassment.
Thanks for your PFD, “people”. I think I’ll buy a boat with it.
“……….If you aren’t McCabe, this isn’t for you…………”
LOL! True, this bullshit is for the morons who suck it up like candy. “This” is masked man fallacy. It even goes beyond Hitlerization of all discussion. It’s intended to degrade the discussion of an individual who you disagree with, degrade a politician who you hate, sway the opinion of morons like yourself, and uplift your own propaganda. You are the reason why reasoned discussion doesn’t work. You are an illustration of how Satan destroyed the entire universe, not with fire, but with The Lie.
McCabe is completely coming unhinged now that he’s been outed. Maybe he should catch a clue and try reading the room for once? The jig is up.
The Wednesday Wasteland — March 11, 2026: What a week it’s been. The Iditarod is on, oil is through the roof, and our congressman and senator apparently needed to compare notes on how best to be useless. Let’s get into it. International Women’s Day, Brought to You by the Trump Administration: Nothing says “we celebrate women” quite like using International Women’s Day as cover to quietly accelerate the dismantling of Title X. For those unfamiliar, Title X is the federal family planning program (the one that funds birth control, cervical and breast cancer screenings, and STI testing for millions of… Read more »
Why deem ANJC and CITC the loose unit and not the criminal justice system that supposedly rehabilitated this man enough to deem him ready for release and released him? The two entities provided transitional services. They did not make the decision to release him to the public.