To: Santa D. Claus

Subject: Check that list

Dear Santa,

We know you're really busy this time of year, but the time has come again for us The Concerned to send a few gift requests for Alaska. We're not sure if you can put an entire state on your list, but there still seem to be several things that Alaskans could use, and some of them only seem possible with your help.

We're not sure whether you think Alaska has been naughty or nice this year, but if you're getting ready to give the state a big lump of coal, keep in mind that its rate of gonorrhea has dropped a significant amount recently. We hope you'll agree that fact alone qualifies Alaska for presents.

Help our poor fish

As always, several of Alaska's fisheries could use a gift or two. King salmon runs all around the state apparently still need a hand. The extremely popular and lucrative king salmon runs in Southcentral have been dwindling, but were poor enough this year to cause fears that even the mighty Kenai kings are done for. The escapement goals for the Yukon River salmon treaty with Canada were met this year, but subsistence fishing is still in jeopardy up and down the river. Can you do us a favor and help the returns bounce back somehow? As much as we like reds, chums, pinks and silvers, they're not really a substitute for kings.

Alaska halibut fisheries could also use a hand. Larger, more plentiful halibut would be great. The average size of adult halibut is shrinking, and game managers say they don't know exactly why. They think it's due to "unspecified mortality," which could be due to any number of factors, including excessive or accidental harvest, even illegal fishing. No matter what's causing it, we're tired of hearing people win boat bragging rights with 90-pounders, we're tired of seeing the price of halibut skyrocket, and we're afraid what new, probably necessary restrictions are coming down the pipe for halibut stakeholders in all sectors. At the very least, could you count all the halibut in the Pacific and note their weight and relative ages? It seems they're really hard to keep track of.

If none of that's possible, could you at least help biologists and lawmakers figure out where all the missing fish are going and what, if anything, can be done about it? Just don't give Alaska a statewide, 10-year moratorium on all fishing activity that impacts kings and halibut. If that's the only solution your elves come up with, tell them not to bother.

Leadership faith

Also, over the last year, someone who occupied various positions of fishery power, including advising a senator and helping set catch quotas, was found to have been breaking commercial fishing law for years. Recently, one of his associates was also busted for illegal activities. So we'd really appreciate it if you could restore some of the faith Alaska has in the bodies that set fish policy.

We'd also appreciate it if you could give Alaska a bit of its faith in the federal justice system back. A couple of state lawmakers who were recorded taking bribes had their corruption convictions tossed on appeal. And recently, a special investigator found repeated and egregious prosecutorial misconduct in the corruption trial of the late Sen. Ted Stevens. It's good the abuses finally came to light, but will members of the Justice Department face any consequences? One result is that Alaska has lost even more of what little trust it had for the Federales. And it appears that aside from bad press, there's very little deterrent for future lawmakers interested in personal enrichment or the bagmen who will always find them.

Luckily, though, there are still reasons for hope in the Alaska Legislature. Senate President Gary Stevens ended the last session with a strong speech about why delaying a decision on Gov. Sean Parnell's oil-tax reduction bill was best for Alaska. We were surprised because the speech was more polished than most given in Juneau. And Stevens sounded like he cared more about solid information and the state of Alaska than how to get "it" done for sugar daddies who have narrow interests and say things like, "I own you, buddy. You’re mine."