Merit Selection of Judges in Alaska: The Judicial Council, The Independence of the Judiciary, and the Popular Will

The judicial selection and retention provisions of the Alaska Constitution, found in Article IV, achieve a delicate and remarkably successful balance between competing interests. The purposes of this article are to describe this constitutional plan (called “merit selection” because it begins with nomination based on merit alone), explain why the founders adopted it, examine historical challenges to it, and assess its performance on the 60th anniversary of Alaska statehood

A Search for Hydroxylamine (NH_2OH) toward Select Astronomical Sources

Observations of 14 rotational transitions of hydroxylamine (NH_2OH) using the NRAO 12 m telescope on Kitt Peak are reported toward IRC+10216, Orion KL, Orion S, Sgr B2(N), Sgr B2(OH), W3IRS5, and W51M. Although recent models suggest the presence of NH_2OH in high abundance, these observations resulted in non-detection. Upper limits are calculated to be as much as six orders of magnitude lower than those predicted by models. Possible explanations for the lower-than-expected abundance are explored