Casey Mayville reports for Government Technology, “Elected governor in 2006, Palin became Alaska’s first female governor, as well as its youngest. She will be the first politician from Alaska to run on a national ticket in a campaign for vice president.”
“Palin has made efforts to expand the use of technology in Alaska. In 2007, Palin announced a new online training program for workforce development. The Work Ready/College Ready program helped to assess skills and offered training courses,” Mayville reports. “‘The skills needed to enter many vocations are similar to the skills needed to get into college,’ explained Palin at the time. ‘Work Ready/College Ready lets students know what level of skill they need for the occupations they’re interested in, how well they match up in those skill levels and it provides training to reach their goals.'”
Full article here.
More about Alaska’s “Work Ready/College Ready” program that was announced by Sarah Palin last August via GovTech here.
Carrie Tait reports for The Financial Post,” Ms. Palin, 44, is a lifetime NRA member who is in charge of a conservative state. She’s bullish on drilling offshore and opening up more of the contentious Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and production. ‘People are realizing, too, there’s been some deception, I think, from some on what ANWR is all about. Of the 20 million acres up there, we’re looking at 2,000 acres as a footprint,’ she said in the interview. ‘With new technology, with directional drilling, maybe that footprint [will] shrink even more.'”
MacDailyNews Note: CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo talks with Sarah Palin about ANWR drilling, which also touches on technology, in an 11:41 video interview here.
Stefanie Olsen reports for CNET, “Mead Treadwell, a technology-focused venture capitalist and chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, a federal advisory commission to President Bush and Congress on Arctic research issues, said he met Palin when she was the mayor of Wasilla, a small town in Alaska. Treadwell said that she has long been open-minded about the need for technology to solve problems.”
“‘We’re a natural energy economy and you can’t drill on- or offshore without bringing the best technology, like 3D seismic technology to find areas for drilling, directional drilling to exploit it, and satellites. She’s supportive of new tech,’ Treadwell said,” Olsen reports.
“Palin’s father-in-law was at one time staff officer at the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation, the state’s seed capital fund for technology. According to Treadwell, she was critical of her incumbent Republican rival Frank Murkowski in 2006 when he shut the foundation down. In her inaugural address as governor, she emphasized the value of research into science and technology,” Olsen reports.
“Despite Alaska’s absence of a big tech industry, the state’s chief industries, oil and gas, as well as some telecommunications, require cutting-edge technology. Treadwell said that in discussions with Palin about balancing development vs. the environment, she typically points to technology as a solution,” Olsen reports.
Full article here.
While we’re still exploring exactly which tech devices Palin uses currently, Bridget Carey reported yesterday for The Miami Herald of “the BlackBerry-wielding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had bloggers buzzing early Friday about her tech-centric lifestyle. She’s also three years younger than Obama.”
MacDailyNews Take: Send Palin an iPhone immediately, Apple!
As for Obama’s V.P. pick, Joseph Biden, 65, Carey reports, “The technology issue isn’t so much of his wired lifestyle as it is about his past stances on technology issues like Internet freedom and privacy. Biden has spoken out against peer-to-peer networks that allow the sharing of music and other copyrighted material. On the topic of Internet privacy, he is in favor of allowing communications companies to hand over a user’s personal information to the government, but with the intention to crack down on child porn and piracy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Michael R.,” “Dennis,” and “Jen” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: If anyone has links to articles and/or photos of Palin and technology (listening to her iPod, using a Mac, or even a ratty old Dell) or any of the other candidates – Biden, McCain, and/or Obama – please send them to the MacDailyNews Webmaster (link below) for inclusion in this or future articles.