Late last week, the news came out that there had been a large personal information breach for approximately 77,000 people who were members of the State’s public employees and teachers’ retirement programs between 2003 and 2004. The information included names, dates of birth and social security numbers. Although PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) lost the information in early December, the State was only notified last week.

The Division of Retirement and Benefits set up a toll-free line at 800-821-2251 and put out a factsheet to help answer questions for people who are concerned about their personal information. Letters will be sent to everyone who was affected within the next few weeks. If you get one of these letters, you’re definitely not alone – Governor Parnell’s information was leaked and mine probably was, along with half of my staff.

The Attorney General pushed for a settlement with PwC instead of suing, seeing it as a quicker resolution for current and former employees. I’m not sure whether the settlement that was reached brought us anything that we weren’t accorded by law. Several members of my caucus were also concerned, so we sent a letter to ask important questions. As of yet, we haven’t received an answer, but I will keep you up to date on any new developments.

Just before Christmas, Haines resident Gershon Cohen was appointed to the Science Advisory Panel created to advise the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on matters relating to cruise ship wastewater treatment. In his appointment letter, DEC noted that the panel would benefit from his experience with cruise ship wastewater regulation and legislation. Unfortunately, his invitation to participate in the panel was revoked in January because he was too much of an advocate.

Dr. Cohen has consistently been an advocate for clean water in Alaska and has been part of the process since the Legislature began discussing cruise ship wastewater issues. He was also part of the group that led the way on the cruise ship head tax initiative.

In America, advocacy should never be a reason for discrimination. The panel was designed to have at least one member affiliated with a non-governmental organization with an interest in water quality matters and at least one member from the cruise ship industry – for balance.

Why would DEC use Dr. Cohen’s advocacy (which they had recognized earlier) as a reason to remove him from the panel? The answer is unfortunately pressure from the cruise industry. It is completely inappropriate for an agency to allow the industry it is supposed to regulate to influence a decision like this.

More than a week after sending a letter to the governor with several fellow Democrats from both the House and the Senate, we received a letter from the commissioner of DEC that didn’t really explain anything. I’m particularly concerned that DEC’s response doesn’t deal with industry control.

I believe Alaskans deserve a truly independent department that is focused on regulating, not pleasing, the cruise ship industry and will continue to speak out on this issue.