Talk:Ben Stevens

Senator "B"

While it will almost certainly prove out to be Ben Stevens in the case, for the credibility of wikipedia can it wait until it is more than "...believed to be Ben Stevens." I dont believe it will be that long.

209.112.216.150 22:54, 27 June 2007 (UTC)situk209.112.216.150 22:54, 27 June 2007 (UTC) [originally posted to my user talk page - JB]

There is no logical reason to list information about "Senator B" in the Ben Stevens article if there is no sentence tying "Senator B" to Stevens. So the options are (a) leave the info about "Senator B" in the article, and explain the link (that strong evidence points to Stevens being "B", according to newspaper reports), or (b) delete the information altogether from the article, which leaves the reader uninformed about a very important development which is likely to put Stevens in jail. Obviously I think (a) is the correct choice. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:45, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Again, I state these reason for wikipedias credibility to remain the best it can be.

Its the word "likely" that leads me to want to edit it off the page all together. I was under the assumption that wikipedia was above listing things that are "likely" unless its on a page about the corruption investigation itself. There I would think it would be appriote. This is a biography and maybe should be linked to the page about the corruption scandel but not featured as part of the biography until the indictment is officially made.

Your explaination above would certainly seem to me to be acceptable. "(that strong evidence points to Stevens being "B", according to newspaper reports) but that was never added before. It was simply stated as fact, which it is not. (yet)

I reference Senator Ted Stevens page where it links to a "Criticism of Ted Stevens" as a seperate article. Couldnt there be a reference to the investigations until he is officially named? Again, I dont think it will be long.

209.112.197.86 06:55, 28 June 2007 (UTC)situk209.112.197.86 06:55, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Here is a fact: That the Labor Day raids came one year after a Ninth Circuit complaint about Labor and ethics violations in the state of Alaska listed Ben and Ted as part of an "ethics Crisis." Veco and ADAK fisheries are listed as examples in this opening brief.

Here is a Prediction: Maybe they will not get to "Senator B" yet or even disclose who it is. The Fishery aspects are complex an intertwined.

Friday the 13th of July I predict more arrests or indictments will be handed down to cronys of Ben and Ted's.

So much for your predictions. Its a month past Friday the 13th. Now how 'bout redoing the speculative and leading verbiage?

• User:dgianotti Following the August 30 announcement that former Senator Stevens was in fact "Senator A," all speculative mentions of him as Senator B have been removed. I also deleted three paragraphs worth of un-cited statements as the wikipedia requirements for living persons dictate. I also put in some quite poorly-phrased sentances in an effort to delete as little information as I could while still removing any seemingly biased/unreferenced material. I am not the leading expert on Ben Stevens, however, so feel free to improve. —Preceding comment was added at 22:14, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Article stubbed - BLP concerns - rebuild

OK - as of 22:04, I've re-added the first two paragraphs - the next line has a source that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Suggestions? --Fredrick day (talk) 22:04, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I've rebuilt the majority of the controversial section. Stevens appears to be very unhappy with the result, but I believe that all BLP requirements are satisfied. Any constructive feedback is welcome. Jfire (talk) 06:20, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

One thing I have not restored is the material relating to the Vesco executives' bribery testimony. If someone wants to review the sources on that, please do. Jfire (talk) 06:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

The article has serious problems with undue weight at the moment. WilyD 15:41, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Can you be more specific? Stevens involvement in the FBI investigations appear to be the most prominent aspect of his political career by far. We can and should say more about his legislative career, such as his committee memberships listed here, but looking at other available sources (online at least), they deal almost exclusively with the corruption probe. Jfire (talk) 16:20, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

It became clear by 2010 that Ben Stevens wasn't going to be charged by the feds or the state with any crime for his involvement in the Polar Pen or other investigations. The statute of limitations, including for RICO or IRS violations, has long since expired, so he cannot be held accountable for his roles. I don't believe that "Alaska Report," while loaded with useful financial and relationship data, can be considered a RSS. The title of the report on him that had been listed under resources, is, "Ben Stevens took Bribes." That's moving from allegations to virtual convictions in the absence of due process. It's so inflammatory that I thought it would be better moved to the current section rather than standing almost alone, and possibly violating BLP policy. “Extraordinary conclusions require extraordinary proof” - - Carl Sagan. Activist (talk) 21:48, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 5 external links on Ben Stevens. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060524113217/http://alaskalegislature.com/hitchhiker/2002/stories/stevensprofile.shtml to http://www.alaskalegislature.com/hitchhiker/2002/stories/stevensprofile.shtml
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080915033738/http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/09/04/palin%E2%80%99s-wasilla-a-small-town-with-attitude/ to http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/09/04/palin%E2%80%99s-wasilla-a-small-town-with-attitude/
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080421224732/http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/veco/story/8236307p-8132041c.html to http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/veco/story/8236307p-8132041c.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070808012805/http://www.adn.com/front/story/6984518p-6885437c.html to http://www.adn.com/front/story/6984518p-6885437c.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080421224650/http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/story/9341204p-9254638c.html to http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/story/9341204p-9254638c.html

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Persistent vandalism

I found well sourced edits made to this article, removed, two days ago. There were also new additions to the article of non-notable and obscure material sourced entirely to dead links. I restored well sourced material, only to see the entire page rapidly blanked. An administrator helpfully blocked the vandal for three months. A review of the history of the article, however, showed that it had been regularly and boldly vandalized, including page blanking, since it had been created, over a dozen years ago. I suspected an SPA editor with a COI had been doing the current changes and found, i.e., that the alleged subject of the article had admitted making recurrent and substantial deletions a decade ago and threatened other editors with litigation if material was restored to the article. Here's an example of those:

15:24, 27 February 2008‎ Bostonb5 (talk | contribs)‎ m . . (1,027 bytes) -7,462‎ . . (I am Ben Stevens, all this information is based on allegations. If you continue to post these allegations as reported in news papers, you will be hearing from me in a more formal method.)

I provided citations requested by other editors and added info about the dismissal of criminal charges against Ben's father, and Eric Holder's declining to refile the charges. I should also note that some years ago I deleted edits that negatively reflected on the article's subject because it was speculative and in violation of WP:BLP. I suggest that this article would be best served by implementation of blocking protections from edits made by new and IP editors to discourage future sockpuppetry by any COI editor. Activist (talk) 14:58, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Senator Ben Stevens.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:36, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Death

Political news blogs are reporting his death (https://mustreadalaska.com/passing-ben-stevens-former-state-senator and https://twitter.com/alaskalandmine/status/1580956987327938560). As with previous instances, it calls into question the reliability of "reliable sources" when we live in a world of 24/7 instant news and yet they're being scooped like this time and time again. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 17:28, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Corruption probe

There seems to be too much weight on the corruption probe relative to the text for the rest of his career, especially when he was never indicted.[1] Details of the probe are already in a separate article.—Bagumba (talk) 14:25, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Ben Stevens (R-AK).jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:08, 10 March 2023 (UTC)