INSURANCE NEWS.  Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, Congressman Young, for the record, I am  Mead Treadwell (NGP Photo) , the lieutenant governor of the State of Alaska. Thank you for inviting me to offer some views from Alaska about the future of Arctic shipping and maritime activities, and the need to ensure we are prepared to embrace those challenges and opportunities safely.  We’ve said it before – in my appearance before this Subcommittee in 2006 and in Governor  Sean Parnell’s  Senate testimony in 2009, and we’ll say it again, because not much has changed: it is time for the nation to act – and act now – to add new polar class icebreakers to the United States Coast Guard’s fleet. With so much happening in the North today, the need is more urgent and apparent than ever.