Recent news the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas has approved the lease of land on Augustine Island for geothermal energy exploration is good news, anyway you want to look at it.

Some consider a gas line off the North Slope the long-term solution to energy needs in Alaska. And we’ve all certainly heard the clamoring about the possibility of immediate gas shortages coming from Cook Inlet.

If we can accomplish both — turn around Cook Inlet production and get a line off the North Slope — they will be solutions for the immediate and near term.

Right now our nation and state face similar dilemmas — spending needs to be drastically tightened and those budgets need to be sharply scrutinized.

America’s debt is out of control as we keep raising the debt ceiling without significant cuts to spending. Have we reached $20 trillion in debt yet? It’ll be here sooner than you know.

In a recent article, law enforcement officials and addiction counselors told the Clarion that heroin has become the area’s largest problem drug. Heroin addiction has spread rapidly and crime because of, or as a result of the drug is up in the area.

That’s discouraging to read, especially considering heroin was not on our radar last year when synthetic designer drugs — those with names like “bath salts” and “plant food” that act like methamphetamine and cocaine — and prescription drug abuse were making headlines.

It is a common habit to think of those who work in uniform, particularly local police and Alaska State Troopers, as faceless, ruthless authority figures who usually interact with the public only on one’s worst days.

We regularly only remember them when we see their flashing lights in our rearview mirror or when we are frantically dialing the phone to reach them. It is for that reason we can easily develop a fear of, or lose trust in those figure’s presence.