Welcome to another episode of Alaska Man Monday, in which you’ll see that in the Great Land, it’s May showers that bring June flowers. Yes, it's spring, but spring here is a little different than spring in lots of other places. We still have feet of snow in the yard, it will still be here until June, and then it will start snowing again in late September. That's fine - if I wanted warm weather all year around, I'd live in Miami Beach. 

First – some funny business. On April Fool’s Day – Monday – the Alaska B4UDie comedy festival begins, which will include events in Anchorage, Wasilla, Girdwood, and Talkeetna. I’m not sure if we will attend, but if we do, it’s the local comics I’ll want to pay particular attention to.

The festival will feature some out-of-state headliners but will also offer plenty of local talent. On this episode of Hometown, Alaska we meet the founder and some comedians behind B4UDie, talk about the art of stand-up comedy and explore how it’s cementing its place in Alaska.

This sounds like fun. Living in Alaska is sure to give our local comics plenty to work with, as well.

Alaska Man score: 4.5 of 5 moose nuggets. Not a perfect score because they're missing a lot of the bush communities that could use a laugh.

Bad gas travels fast in a small town.

I grew up in a small rural community and live in a small rural community now. One of the primary rules is: “Don’t talk crap about your neighbors,” because sooner or later, it will come back to bite you. That’s true anywhere, but it’s particularly true in small communities where everyone knows everyone, and while it is one of Alsaka's major population centers, it nevertheless appears that Fairbanks isn’t a big enough town to break that rule.

Brandy Harty, the president of the Fairbanks North Star School District who shared a rumor during a public meeting earlier this month in which she accused lawmakers of taking bribes, has issued a formal apology to Interior lawmakers.

The apology came after Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the school board asking for an apology from Harty and suggesting that Harty step down as school board president after on March 19 she had said on the record that she heard a rumor that Republican state lawmakers had exchanged their votes for campaign contributions of $70,000.

We have our own local “information sources,” of course; every neighborhood has a Gladys Kravitz, and Alaska communities are certainly no exception. There’s always someone who knows everything that’s going on in the area, and their scuttlebutt is often more reliable than the official news. But spreading unfounded rumors of illegal acts? Not cool.

Alaska Man score: 0 of 5 moose nuggets. Brandy Harty, shame on you.

 And finally, you’ve gotta love Alaska politics.

Not only does our state legislature have a “Bush Caucus,” but we also have an “ice bloc.”

For more than five decades, a group of rural Alaska lawmakers known as the Bush Caucus have at times played a king-making role in the Alaska Legislature.

Rural lawmakers have frequently put regional interests above those of party loyalty, and their willingness to cross the partisan aisle has frequently given them outsized power in the Capitol. Last year, the group’s willingness to join Republicans swung control of the entire House.

But this year, the group once known as the “ice bloc” appears to have cracked, with Republican Rep. Thomas Baker of Kotzebue often on the opposite side of votes cast by Reps. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham; Neal Foster, D-Nome; and CJ McCormick, D-Bethel.

I will forgo the obvious jokes here. But I’d point out that, given the vastness of the Great Land, and all of the disparate (I will not use the overworked word diverse here) interests involved, it’s rather amazing things go along as well as they do.

Alaska Man score: 4 of 5 moose nuggets. Points for getting along; demerit for being, well, politicians.

Alaskan troops come home. Because this is just good news.

More than a hundred members of the 11th Airborne Division’s 98th Support Maintenance Company returned to Alaska late Thursday evening, ending a 9-month deployment to Eastern Europe.

According to a press release from the 11th Airborne, the company was there to provide maintenance and vehicle recovery from sites in Powidz, Poland, Pabrade, Lithuania, and Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania. They departed Alaska on July 9 of 2023.

Lt. Col. Gavin R. Laskowski, 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion commander, said the deployment was key to the Specialized Maintenance Company maintaining readiness.

“This deployment validates the 11th Airborne Division’s capability to deliver combat-ready formations and conduct global power projection from Alaska,” he said.

Alaska Man score: For our heroes, 5 of 5 moose nuggets. No demerits here - Airborne!

To close, have a brief informational piece on spring in Alaska: