Home To Roost

This week, we discuss new medicaid rules, new proposed mail-in ballot rules, and new threats to Alaska’s tourism industry. We also host two special guests for this week’s rendition of "Who Said It?'

Home To Roost is a weekly political podcast hosted by Rachel Levitt and John Robertson that analyzes how national policies, federal legislation, and Washington politics directly impact Alaska.

This week, we look at Trump's growing power over Republican primaries and how Alaska's open system limits such power; we review how changes at FEMA are affecting Western Alaska; and we read what the Declaration of Independence says about immigration. We also play "Who Said It?", our unusual news quiz game.

This week, we cover Trump’s proposed billion-dollar settlement with himself and how his tariffs function as a tax on Alaskans’ utility bills. We also review what Thomas Jefferson and George Washington thought about the Murder Act and how their concerns about government power are still relevant today.

This week, we review lessons from recent Army cold climate training in Interior Alaska and discuss how Alaska’s location along the Pacific Basin currently affects our energy economy for better and for worse. We also ponder America’s 250-year-old grievance against taxation without representation and play "Who Said It?"

This week, John celebrates Home to Roost’s first anniversary by going 4-for-4 in "Who Said It?" Rachel contrasts hyper-partisanship in Washington with the currently less partisan nature of Alaska. We also look at how the war with Iran is greatly affecting rural Alaska, and we review the Constitution’s Origination Clause. 

In this episode, we review how new federal policies are increasing electricity rates in Fairbanks, how new federal enthusiasm for a gas line is not translating into new federal action, and how Trump might run afoul of the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause. We also play Who Said It?, our weekly review of Washington’s wackiest words.

For our fiftieth episode, we review Trump’s pressure on Alaskans to repeal ranked choice voting and how his war with Iran might reduce the likelihood of an Alaskan gas line. We also discuss quotes of the week and the Constitution’s Pardons Clause.

On this week’s show, we discuss how huge new visa fees threaten to worsen Alaska’s teacher shortage, how federal actions have opened new opportunities for graft, and how the Constitution’s 25th Amendment is not the panacea some hope it might be.

For this episode, we review Trump’s recent executive order on mail-in ballots in light of the Constitution’s Postal Clause. We also discuss significant changes in how the US Forest Service will be organized in Alaska.

This week, we discuss how a looming US Supreme Court decision might stymie state legislative efforts to improve voting in Alaska, and we ponder recent statements by current and former Trump officials on sending ICE to the polls. We also ponder the meaning of the Constitution’s rarely reviewed Two-Year Clause, and play “Who Said It?”.

This week we discuss new federal oil lease sales in Alaska, new hate speech by federal officials outside Alaska, and how the SAVE Act would be a possible unconstitutional return of poll taxes to Alaska. Rachel also presents John with an especially difficult version of “Who Said It”, our weekly quiz game.

This week, we review one way the Constitution might stymie Trump's attempt to save the SAVE Act. The negative side of high oil prices for Alaska, the appearance of clown shoes in the White House, and more.

This week we consider some possible economic effects on Alaska due to  the U.S.-Iran conflict. We also look at how the Constitution structured similar conflicts early in U.S. history, and we review more strange statements made by the Trump administration. 

Join us this week as we review how the SAVE Act would affect Alaska especially hard and how the 19th Amendment  will likely be no protection for women’s voting rights. We also play another round of 'Who said It?”.

For this show we review the gains and losses in federal funding for rural healthcare, recent ICE arrests in Soldotna, and how the US Constitution’s Progress Clause means for Alaska. We also review some of the stranger things said by some of the nation’s leaders.

In this episode we discuss likely consequences of the DHS shutdown and of the Trump administration’s decision to pretend that global warming is not real. We also discuss the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause and laugh about some of the weirder public statements of the past week.

In addition to how the Trump administration is affecting Alaska’s ferry system and Scouting America, we look at how ICE enforcement is affecting immigrant and refugees in Alaska and how ICE might play a role in the conduct of the mid-term elections in light of the Constitution’s elections clause.

This week we review reductions in federal childcare support, a possible reduction in defense contracts for Native corporations, and a presidential threat to decertify Canadian-made aircraft. We also play “Who said it?” and read the Constitution’s Indian Commerce Clause.

This week Rachel and John look at the implications of President Trump's threats to Alaska's fellow Arctic state: Greenland

This week we review Native Corporation shareholders pushing back on ICE contracts, soldiers at Ft. Greely going without dinner for three months due to DOGE cuts, and how DHS is buying private location data. We also discuss the weirdest statements of the week. 

In this episode, Rachel and John review changes to post-office policies, the ownership of submerged lands in Alaska, and recent statements by federal officials. We also discuss the Constitution in light of the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

Rachel and John review how new federal support for rural hospitals contrasts with medicaid cuts and why the Interior Department is considering changes to membership on subsistence councils. They also play public policy pursuit and discuss aboriginal title.

Rachel and John  discuss the prospect of a new Canadian consulate, federal pressure to stop states from keeping medical debt off credit reports, and federal threats to deport Alaskans due to errors by Alaska’s DMV. We also see who Mike Johnson works for and how Trump’s threats to Greenland are especially relevant to Alaska.

Rachel and John discuss disappearing federal health insurance subsidies, disappearing federal atmospheric research, and disappearing manufacturing jobs. We also discuss the how the Constitution’s ban on religious tests was intended to protect religion, not just the government, from hypocrisy.

John and Rachel review some surprising facts about Alaska’s history of Hepatitis B and discuss celebrations of autocratic birthdays. They also play Public Policy Pursuit and review the Constitution’s Nobility Clauses.

This week, we look at new TSA fees, drug education, and possible oil and gas leases. We also play public policy pursuit and discuss the Pardons Clause. 

Rachel and John  discuss the  new Coast Guard icebreakers and changes in federal homeless policies, play Public Policy Pursuit, and review the Constitution’s Oath Clause.

John and Rachel discuss what a less capable federal workforce might mean for Alaska, the craziest statements to recently come from the White House, and the meaning of the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause.

What’s been landing in Alaska? SNAP chaos, shortened public comment periods, and ICE enforcement. We also discuss the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and play public policy pursuit.

John and Rachel review how the shutdown is affecting food stamps and heating subsidies, why the Constitution staggers the terms for Senators, and what bizarre statements federal officials now consider appropriate. 

This week, we review weakening vaccine requirements, the legal arguments surrounding national guard deployments, RFK Jr.’s continued fascination with chemtrails, presidential term limits, and much more.

On this week’s show, John and Rachel discuss the implications of a free speech case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and the global strategic importance of Alaska. They also revisit the 10th Amendment in light of recent National Guard deployments.

On Home to Roost, Rachel Levitt and John Robertson review ICE enforcement and contracts in Alaska, uncertainties regarding rural air subsidies, and the significance of having a separate judicial branch. John also tries to win at Rachel’s Public Policy Pursuit. 

This week, we review federal cuts to technical education, the implications for an Alaska LNG line, and growing South Korean doubts about investing in the US, as well as the concerns that the Founding Fathers had about irresponsible monetary policies. John also tries to answer another of Rachel’s news quizzes.

John and Rachel discuss vanishing appropriations, the significance of H1B visas for Alaska’s school districts, the big military meeting, and the Oath Clause of Article VI.

This week, we review federal cuts to technical education, the implications for an Alaska LNG line of growing South Korean doubts about investing in the US, and the concerns that the Founding Fathers had about irresponsible monetary policies. John also tries to answer another of Rachel’s news quizzes.

Rachel Levitt and John Robertson review federal grant cuts to University of Alaska, how a heavy-handed ICE raid in Georgia undermines federal encouragement of South Korean support for an Alaska LNG line, and what the US Constitution says about scientific progress. Rachel also tries to stump John in Public Policy Pursuit. 

Rachel and John review changes at the CDC, an increase in the number of Coast Guard icebreakers, and how reaction to enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 might parallel reaction to current immigration enforcement.

John and Rachel discuss the Railbelt's looming energy crisis, play public policy pursuit, and contemplate the grand jury clause of the 5th Amendment.