Mark Wilson / Getty Images

The last of the emails that the state of Alaska could recover from Sarah Palin's brief term as governor were released on Thursday.

Editor's note: Here's a link to msnbc.com's previous coverage of a release of Sarah Palin's public records, and our database where you can read those public documents. The Associated Press was apparently the only news organization to be notified by the state that new records were available. Here is the AP's report. Others that had requested them said they had not been informed of the release. They include Mother Jones magazine (which blogged about the odd release), CNN, The Washington Post, ABC News, and the Republican political activist Andrée McLeod, who said Thursday, "The culture of corruption continues unabated."

By Becky Bohrer
The Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska—In the final months before she resigned as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin displayed growing frustration over deteriorating relationships with state lawmakers and their perceived efforts to "lame duck" her administration, along with outrage over ethics complaints that she felt frivolously targeted her and prompted her to write: "I can't take it anymore."

The details are included in more than 17,000 records released Thursday by state officials -- nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, first requested Palin's emails.

By the spring of 2009, the emails show, Palin was regularly butting heads with lawmakers of both parties over her absences from the Capitol and over her picks for vacancies in the state Senate and her own cabinet. The emails she sent to staff illustrate Palin's growing suspicion that those legislators were seeking to undermine her administration by harping on how often she was away from Juneau, the state capitol.

She asked her aides to tally how many days she was out of Alaska in 2008. The staff came up with 94 days, but 10 less if you count travel days when she was in the state part of the day, The absences included all of October and most of September while she was on the campaign trail as the GOP vice presidential candidate.

"It's unacceptable, and there must be push back on their attempts to lame duck this administration," Palin wrote to her top aides on April 9. "That's only going to get worse as they try to pull more bs and capitalize on me being out of the capitol building for 36 hours," she wrote aides.

Palin also asked her aides to see if they could hold certain legislators' "feet to the fire" and hold votes on her nominees. She wrote words of encouragement to Wayne Anthony Ross, her nominee for attorney general, telling him to "stay strong."

"Those who want to turn this into a kangaroo court will soon see you confirmed as Alaska's AG," Palin wrote.

Ross was not confirmed, the first ever cabinet level candidate rejected by the Alaska Legislature. Palin traveled to an anti-abortion rally in Indiana the day he was defeated.

Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah Palin's political action committee, encouraged everyone to read the emails. "They show a governor hard at work for her state," he said.

The emails are the last of her emails from her time as governor, according to Alaska state officials. Citizens and news organizations, including the AP, first requested Palin's emails in September 2008, as part of her vetting as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The state released a batch of the emails last June, a lag of nearly three years that was attributed to the sheer volume of the records and the flood of requests stemming from Palin's tenure.

The 24,199 pages of emails that were released last year left off in September 2008. When it became clear that the June release would not include all the emails from Palin's tenure last June, requests were then made for the remaining emails. Thursday's release includes 17,736 records, or 34,820 pages, generally spanning from October 2008 until Palin's resignation, in July 2009. Of those, 13,791 records were released without redactions, according to the governor's office. Another 965 documents were withheld.

Several media organizations, including msnbc.com, said they were not informed of Thursday's release.

Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the current governor, Sean Parnell, said she was looking into why msnbc.com was not on the list.

Palin's frustration over a series of ethics complaints filed against her, one of the issues she cited when stepping down, emerges in a series of e-mails on March 24, 2009.

"These are the things that waste my time and money, and the state's time and money," she wrote to then-Lt. Gov. Parnell.

In an April 2009 email, she commiserated over a story indicating another ethics complaint was to be filed: "Unflippinbelievable... I'm sending this because you can relate to the bullcrap continuation of the hell these people put the family through," she wrote to Ivy Frye, an aide during the first part of her term, and to Frank Bailey.

Later that day, in an email to her husband and two top aides, on the issue, she said: "I can't take it anymore."

The first batch of emails released last June, before she announced she would not run for president, showed that Palin was angling for the vice presidential slot months before John McCain picked her to be his running mate. Those records produced no bombshells, while painting a picture of an image-conscious, driven leader, struggling with the gossip about her family and marriage, involved in the day-to-day duties of running the state and keeping tabs on the signature issues of her administration.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A former top aide to Sarah Palin when she was Alaska governor has paid $11,900 to settle an ethics complaint with the state of Alaska.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

One of Palin's former aides penned a tell-all book about the abbreviated administration of the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate.

The complaint by Republican activist Andrée McLeod alleged that Frank Bailey used confidential emails, which were being withheld from the public, to write "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin," his tell-all book about the abbreviated administration of the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate.

The settlement was reached last week and disclosed Tuesday when the attorney general's office informed McLeod.

Documents in the case, in PDF files:

• The ethics complaint by filed McLeod in September 2010
• The settlement agreement released Tuesday

The fines are described in the settlement as $3,600 for using confidential information in drafting his book, $7,200 for disclosing confidential information to his co-authors, and $1,100 for publishing information after the state Department of Law told him it was confidential. The settlement said Bailey withheld more information on the advise of the state lawyers.

More: Reporter Richard Mauer at The Anchorage Daily News has more on the ethics case.

McLeod issued a statement on Tuesday saying more disclosure is needed:

“Justice has yet to be served.  I have called on the Attorney General to reveal all the public’s documents and emails that Bailey confiscated and shared with others when he left state employment.”

McLeod and members of the media have requested all of Palin’s email communications for the time she was Alaska’s governor.  Although some have been revealed, many couldn’t be located because of Palin’s rampant use of private email accounts for official business, and thousands more remain undisclosed as Alaska’s governor’s office cites executive privileges and other delay tactics.

“Every one of those confidential and still undisclosed public documents that were in Bailey’s possession must be made public, immediately, as Bailey broke the chain of custody when he illegally shared them with his co-authors Jeanne Devon and Ken Morris,” McLeod said. 

“This is the second time that Sarah’s go-to guy has been found to have crossed the line.  The first was back in November of 2008 when I filed another complaint against Sarah and her staff, including Bailey,” McLeod said.

McLeod continues, “This agreement proves, yet again, that Sarah Palin’s account of her role in reforming Alaska’s government while governor is truly the only real ‘false narrative’ being bandied about.”

Previous coverage: See our coverage from last summer on the release of many of the Palin administration's emails, including our database where you can read those documents.

Bill Dedman/msnbc.com

A civic education: Cindy Spanyers of Juneau and her 14-year-old son, Tim Flanagan, read Sarah Palin's public emails at Centennial Hall in Juneau on Saturday, with other citizens and journalists from msnbc.com. Now the full archive of documents is online.

By Sylvia Wood and Bill Dedman, msnbc.com

JUNEAU, Alaska — The 24,000 pages of emails from Sarah Palin's term as governor of Alaska were released at 9 a.m. local time Friday, or 1 p.m. ET. Reporters from msnbc.com, the news website, are live-blogging the event here.

Thank you to citizens from Juneau who helped us read documents at Centennial Hall. There were 31 patient Alaskans reading their public records. Of course, now the online archive is available to everyone.

We're shutting down the live blog now, and will add to Open Channel other items that readers find in the online archive from msnbc.com. If you see an interesting document, drop us an e-mail.

• Main story
• List of withheld documents (PDF file)
• Online archive of emails hosted by msnbc.com

SATURDAY

2:41 p.m. AT (6:41 p.m. ET): Our Juneau residents are nearly through the 24,000 pages in the reading room at Centennial Hall in Juneau. We'll ship home one set, but the other remains. Anyone have directions to a recycling center?

1:53 p.m. AT (5:53 p.m. ET): Gov. Palin's comment when she was chosen as Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential candidate: "Can you flippinbelieveit?!"

1:10 p.m. AT (5:10 p.m. ET): Public figures come under personal attacks, and even worse, attacks on their family. On some days, Gov. Palin said, "I hate this part of the job."

During July 2008, Palin sent to her staff a note about comments posted on the Anchorage Daily News website by a political blogger and Palin critic. "Ok dokay- enough is enough," she wrote from her Blackberry. "I am calling ADN, as Todd just called from Dlg and said Sherry Whitstine (aka crazy hater) blogged yesterday that 'Sarah had an affair with Todd's best friend while he was on the slope.' No, I haven't read it- others have - it's flippin unbelievable that the ADN allows lies like this to be posted. I'm calling."

Her staff then sent around an email of complaint to be copy and pasted for sending to the newspaper. "Her comments are downright libelous," Palin aide Ivy Frye wrote.

Palin replied to her staff on Jully 9: "Guys, I may be pertty wimpy about this family stuff, but I feel like I'm at the breaking point with the hurtful gossip about my family that Sherry and otehrs get away with." (Sherry is not identified by last name.)

"Bear with me. I hate this part of the job and many days I feel like it's not worth it when they have to put up with the hate that spews from people like Sherry, and there are others."

In a different email, she said, "Arrrrrgh! It's when they hit anything towards my kids that this mama bear comes unglued. Sheeeesh."

Aide Rosanne Hughes tried to comfort her: "Governor, do you know how loved you are? These four or five bitter people are so NOT representative. You are so, so loved. The enemy is trying to discourage you. Hang I there! You are doing such an awesome job. You are an amazing lady and the Lord is your defender. He knows the truth and He is going to vindicate you. It hurts my heart to hear these horrible people are bringing you down. We forgive them, Lord. Help theses people come to know You."

And then, from Palin's Blackberry, came a reply typed by her daughter: "This is Bristol my moms driving, we say thank you so much and mom and I were just praying about the hurt and anger that comes with her job. Thank you for your faith in God. We share it and we love you! Bristol"

Palin then suggested more than prayer. "I think our security guys should check into her because the times she's blogged about Todd's schedule and what we drive have really infringed on our privacy rights and potential safety when psychos know when Todd's out of town."

12:28 p.m. AT (4:28 p.m. ET): The analysts from Crivella West, which scanned and placed these 24,000 pieces of paper online for msnbc.com's searchable archive, say they've noticed something interesting in the way the state of Alaska withheld information from the Palin emails.

In all their big legal cases, the analysts said, they see discrepancies in the redactions, which is a fancy way of saying the hiding of information. Part of the text may be blanked out in one copy of an email, but the text will be revealed in another copy.

But in this Palin email release, after all the long delays and the insanity/hilarity of releasing emails in 250-pound bundles of bankers boxes, the redactions were entirely clean. If the state lawyers and the governors office hid something in one copy of an email, they hid it in every copy.

The analysts, who work on the biggest tort cases in the country, said they had never seen this level of care taken in blanking out information.

12:16 p.m. AT (4:16 p.m. ET):  While Palin was tackling Alaska state business as governor, one email in particular shows that she also had to juggle the usual demands of being a mother. Many parents, especially those of teens, should be able to relate to this Feb. 6, 2008, email from Bristol:

"Hello Mother,

Um, I'm sitting in libary and I really thing you need to get Piper a cell phone!! Wouldn't that be so adorable! She could text me while she was in class!! It's a done deal right?! Perfect! Ok, I will talk to you later and I need some cash flow! Love ya!"

12:06 p.m. AT (4:06 p.m. ET): Newt Gingrich reached out to Sarah Palin in 2008, asking about the way the state of Alaska distributes some of its oil and gas revenue directly to citizens.

"Someone recommended to me," he wrote, "that we study the alaskan model of revenue distribution back to the citizens and get bills introduced in the state legislature in california florida and elsewhere that if they do go offshore drilling they should split the revenue stream with a specified amount (maybe half) going to the citizens as a direct benefit." He asked for a full explanation of how it works.

11:49 a.m. AT (3:49 p.m. ET): When Sarah Palin "slipped up" by sending an email about public business through her government email account, her staff was quick to nudge her back to using private email accounts, presumably out of the reach of the prying eyes of citizens, the press and investigators.

On Sept. 22, 2007, aide Frank Bailey warned her in an email:

"Governor, all of your emails are coming from your State account (govpalin@alaska.gov) right now, not your yahoo. I'm going to check with Barb on that, and its probably a setting that got accidentally changed on Friday."

11:43 a.m. AT (3:43 p.m. ET):  Palin has often spoken publicly about the importance of her Christian faith, and her emails underscore that element of her life as she tackled state business during her term as governor, including in 2008 as she pondered the state budget in an email exchange with Tom Irwin of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

“Thank you Tom- I've been praying for wisdom also on this- I am so glad to know you join me in this- God will have to show me what to do on the people's budget because I don't yet know the right path... He will show me though. Thank you and God bless your day today!”

In an earlier exchange with Irwin on the AGIA or the Alaska Gasoline Inducement Act, she prays that others will find God’s wisdom:

“…I wish and pray that those who act like ignorant sheep listening to baa's and blah's from uninformed, selfish critics of AGIA would wake up to the amazing efforts and success of your team. You are patient and gracious and wise ... and so tenacious . I speak for true Alaskans who care to see fairness , justice and a successful resource development plan : you are loved and appreciated beyond words! And we have great faith that you're on the right path, AGIA is key, and there will be victory for Alaska thanks to you all.”

11:28 a.m. AT (3:28 p.m. ET): There was a great deal of back-and-forth among Palin and her aides and state lawyers in 2007 and 2008 on these questions:

Could all the emails on their Blackberrys and personal e-mail accounts be subpoenaed?

Are emails from personal accounts routed through the state's computers if they're sent to Blackberrys that the state pays for?

The governor and her staffers seemed to be weighing two concerns: They wanted the state government to pay for their smartphones, but they wanted to make sure that they could protect the privacy of their communications from public records requests or subpoena.

You can see these emails with a search in msnbc.com's online archive for the word "subpoena."

10:43 a.m. AT (2:43 p.m. ET): BP, the oil company with deep interests in Alaska, called the governor's office on March 26, 2007, looking for someone to serve on its Benevolent Giving Board, which decides which charitable organizations should receive BP contributions. The governor's aide, Ivy Frye, suggested a couple of names. Gov. Palin fired back from her Yahoo email account: "My sister. If not her, then a missionary friend of mine - I"ll get her name."

9:44 a.m. AT (1:45 p.m. ET): A governor laments about her closing circle of people she can trust. Nearly a year into her term as governor, Sarah Palin had a falling out with a former speechwriter, Glen Biegel. It accelerated after he made negative comments on a local radio show.

Palin replied with one of her longest emails we've seen so far, an eight-paragraph expression of sadness and disappointment.

An excerpt from the email on Sept. 12, 2007:

"Glen - I don't even know what to say after catching your visit on Fagan's show yesterday. I wanted to call in and ask 'why? ...

"After yesterday it's been confirmed: The circle of confidants is so small in the world of politics, much less the circle of friends. Your comments and follow-on agreements with Fagan about his 'more broken promises' claims, claims of pandering to media and not being conservative, etc, etc, etc... it was all heartbreaking... but eye-opening for me as the circle grew smaller right before my ears."

And later in the email: "Sorry to be so long in this email - I just am baffled and saddened that the circle closes ever smaller."

9:10 a.m. AT (1:10 p.m. ET): It’s well known that there was tension between the Palin and McCain teams during the 2008 campaign. An email, dated Sept. 3, 2008, shows early rifts.

The email, forwarded to Palin by her then-communications director William McAllister, was written by a person identified only as "Phil," and complains about  the "McCain hacks" who helped write a speech Palin gave as not doing "the ticket much good."

"My two cents? The governor has better political instincts than McCain," Phil writes. "She can charm the socks off America if McCain and "his people" will simply let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin.”

Unfortunately, neither a full name nor email address is given for Phil, and his role in the campaign or in Palin's administration is unclear. What’s interesting to note is that the message was forwarded to Palin by one of her top aides, suggesting some support among those closest to her about the opinions expressed.

8:34 a.m. AT (12:34 p.m. ET): Nowhere was Palin’s fraught relationship with the media more evident than during the now infamous September 2008 interview with CBS Evening News' Katie Couric, when Palin declined to name any newspapers or magazines she regularly reads – a response that drew criticism from some.

But emails show Palin’s frustration with the media began early in her term as governor. She frequently requested her staff contact reporters about errors she found in their articles.

"It may drive me crazy trying to catch all the corrections we'll be reading and seeing in the media," Palin began a note to deputy communications director Sharon Leighow in early August of 2008. "But please help me catch them and ask for the corrections." One of the errors she saw: Her daughter Piper's age had been misreported as 8, not 7.

In an earlier email dated May 28, 2008, Bruce Anders of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources apologizes for a “Tough day at the office,” when Palin was apparently “left unprepared.” He promises it won’t happen again, especially with an upcoming interview with Forbes.

"First, as to your Forbes interview on Thursday, Meg and I will ensure your have notes in hand tomorrow, as well as an assistant to be with you during the interview. Is there Somebody specific you request?"

8:17 a.m. AT (12:17 p.m. ET): Residents of Juneau are back in Centennial Hall this morning, reading the public records. Come on down if you're in the neighborhood. We'll be reading and blogging until 3 p.m. local time, or 7 p.m. back East. Of course, the full archive is now online through msnbc.com, and searchable, but there's a power in turning the pages.

FRIDAY

9:18 p.m. AT (1:18 a.m. ET) The #palinemail online archive is complete: 12,045 docs and 24,361 pages scanned and made searchable after just 12 hours. (Not counting the nearly 1,000 days it took for the state to respond to msnbc.com's request under the public records law.) Thanks to the great people at Crivella West for their work today. The archive is hosted by msnbc.com and co-sponsored by Mother Jones magazine and Pro Publica. It's all here.

6:25 p.m. AT (10:25 ET): When the Alaska Legislature appointed investigator Stephen Branchflower to look into possible ethics violations by Gov. Palin's role in the "Troopergate" case, the Palin administration's response was to spread rumors about his wife to attack his credibility. In a series of emails on Aug. 1, 2008, the governor and her aides discussed how to respond to the inquiry. The conversation is heavily censored. The current governor's office withheld most of the e-mail thread.  But the progression is clear. It starts with the subject line, "Fw: Branchflower," with questions posed by the Anchorage Daily News, which asked whether the Palin administration's planned to cooperate with the investigation. The content is mostly marked "Privileged or Personal Material Redacted." Then Palin changed the subject line to "Re: Fairness?: Branchflower." We can't see what the governor wrote. Then the governor changed the subject line again, to "Re: MRS.: Fairness?: Branchflower," with this message from her Blackberry and her Yahoo account gov.sarah@yahoo.com: "Just got another call about Mrs. Blanchflower [sic] having retired after working FOR Walt at APD and the conflict involved there." Walt is apparently Monegan, whom she dismissed in a dispute that began with Palin family difficulties with a state trooper who was Palin's former brother-in-law. Press aide Sharon Leighow replies, "I dropped all sorts of questions about linda," referring to Branchflower's wife, "... license lasping [sic] ... Walt association etc." Palin replied again from her Blackberry, "Thank u." That email thread is in this PDF file.

5:54 p.m. AT (9:54 ET):Guess who was in favor of using the public records laws to read emails of state officials and employees? During August 2008, when she was upset about administrationand budgets in the state's Department of Public Safety, Palin sent this email to Randall Ruaro, her deputy chief of staff: "Very, very concerning the 'untruths' coming from them. I am dumbfounded at this, as I have never worked in an organization where these unethical practices seem to go ignored and unanswered. The lack of accountability is appalling in all of this. It is so concerning, the damage that is being done and the public trust that is eroding, that we need to gather as much information as possible,  including FOIA-ing emails, tapes, communications in all forms, regarding the untruthful information being spread to the public." The rest of this email, like so many others, was withheld by the governor's office.

5:45 p.m. AT (9:45 ET): When the McCain campaign announced in Sept. 2008 that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol was five months pregnant, many wondered whether the bombshell news would sink the ticket.

Emails show that as early as April, Palin was trying to quash what she described as rumors about her daughter’s condition. “I wish I could shame people into ceasing such gossip about a teen, but can't figure out how to do that,” she wrote on April 22, 2008. Apparently, the gossip was widespread, and even Palin’s pediatrician had heard about it, which she addressed in another email:

“Hate to pick at this one again, but have heard three different times today the rumor again the Bristol is pregnant or had this baby. Even at Trig's doc appt this morning his doc said that's out there (hopefully NOT in their medical community-world, but it's out there). Bristol called again this afternoon asking if there's anything we can do to stop this, as she received two girlfriend-type calls today asking if it were true.”

Bristol went on to have a healthy boy in late December but plans to marry the child’s father, Levi Johnston, fell apart in the following months. She later was appointed as a teen ambassador for The Candie’s Foundation to raise awareness about teen pregnancy prevention. Tax documents from 2009 show she earned $262,000 for her work.   

5:28 p.m. AT (9:28 ET):Do you suppose that most governors try to get their friends and aides to vote in online polls on political issues? From a broadcast e-mail by Palin in November 2007, "On ktuu.com vote on their on-line poll re: disagreeing with today's Ak Supreme Court parental consent opinion" on abortion rights. And "aksuperstation.com also has a poll."

5:16 p.m. AT (9:16 ET):In case you were wondering, Gov. Palin's favorite expletive when she's pleased is "Holy flipping A." When she's not happy, it's "unflippinbelievable."

4:27 p.m. AT (8:27 ET): As the mother of two teens during her time in office, Palin sought some help from her staff in keeping the alcohol in the governor’s mansion away from young people. She wanted it boxed up and “removed from the People’s House,” according to one email dated May 6, 2007.

 “Here's my thinking: with so many kids and teens coming and going in that house, esp during this season of celebrationstt for young people - proms, graduations, etc, I want to send the msg that we can be - and "the People' s House" needs to be - alcohol-free. There's a lot of booze there - its too accessible and may be too tempting to any number of all those teens coming and going.”

3:57 p.m. AT (7:57 ET): Gov. Palin's staff ghost-wrote a newspaper op-ed piece for her ally Kristan Cole in 2007, during the controversy over a dairy called Matanuska Creamery. (This is a well-known controversy in Alaska, where the it's known as the Mat Maid dairy. You can read a summary here.) In September 2007, Kristan Cole, Palin's good friend and chairwoman of the creamery's board, submitted an op-ed piece. Deputy press secretary Sharon Leighow sent around an e-mail: "Folks - This is our final draft of the Mat Maid Op/Ed to be submitted on behalf of Kristan Cole. Thoughts?" Palin responded to the group, "i'm tweaking it." The conversation continued the rest of the day, with another aid, Bruce Anders, writing, "I edited substantially from the original, and including some major rewrites and deletions." The public cannot see what was written, or rewritten, because the office of Gov. Parnell, Palin's former lieutenant governor, deleted that content with the note, "Privileged or Personal Material Redacted." What could be privileged or personal about a rewritten ghostwritten op-ed column?

3:31 p.m. AT (7:24 ET): We have 10,494 pages online now, making a final push to get the archive complete today.

3:24 p.m. AT (7:24 ET): Gov. Palin had more than the Yahoo accounts. Not only did she use gov.palin@yahoo.com and gov.sarah@yahoo.com to conduct state business, but she also used sp@hslak.com, an address set up for her by an aide. Very little of her official business went through her official email accounts. Remember, under the state's policy so far, citizens of Alaska are still not able to see emails sent between her private accounts and the private accounts of her staff and department heads. There's more about those holes in the document release, in our main story on msnbc.com.

3:17 p.m. AT (7:17 ET): Early in 2008, Palin wrote an email about a conversation she had with Mike Huckabee, who at the time was locked in a battle with Ariz. Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination for president. As her Jan. 30 email indicates, Palin was still deciding whom to endorse, but liked what she heard from Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor.

“He called. Very cool. Unless McCain calls, Huck's a good pick for me, just fyi. He says he's all for gasline and anwr- very cool.”

Of course, McCain did call, many months after he had already cinched the nomination and both Huckabee and Mitt Romney had dropped out of the race. Republicans didn’t officially nominate McCain until September 2008 at the GOP's national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, when his decision to pick Palin as his running mate launched her onto the national stage.

3:07 p.m. AT (7:07 ET):Does anyone know about a vandalism case? On May 12, 2008, the state attorney general, Travis Colberg, her old friend from Wasilla, e-mailed the governor with the subject line, "Vandalism case." The entire email is withheld under "confidential/attorney client privilege." We see only her reply from her Blackberry, "Got it. Thank you."

2:45 p.m. AT (6:45 ET): After she was named as Sen. John McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin started getting e-mails from citizens asking whether her attentions were still focused on the state. One citizen asked whether taxpayers still had to pay her salary, now that she was working for the McCain campaign. The governor replied by asking her staff make sure that she appeared to be involved in state issues every day.  After an announcement on the state Permanent Fund dividend went out under the name of Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, Palin wrote to deputy Michael Nizich on Sept.  6, 2008, "As often as possible we'll need to have the announcements come under my name in these next few weeks. Pls let Comm (Communications) know that we need to do that. Thanks. Also - is there anything else to announce soon? Remember we talked about having almost daily annoucements coming from our office w my name on it so alaskans know that still my #1 priority is serving them as Gov."

2:34 p.m. AT (6:34 ET):  In one email, dated Jan. 2, 2007 (PDF file opens in a new window), Sarah Palin reminds an aide that even though she’s a hunter, she’s opposed to bear hunting in the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, 200 square miles of protected wildlife habitat located approximately 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. Her argument invokes fond memories of growing up in Alaska. She writes:

“I am a hunter. I grew up hunting - some of my best memories growing up are of hunting with my dad to help feel our freezer... I want Alaskans to have access to wildlife... BUT - he's asking if I support hunting the bears in the sanctuary? No, I don't... I don't know any Alaskans who do support hunting the McNeil bears that frequent the viewing area. Many Alaskan and Outside visitors view these animals on the McNeil river, within the sanctuary, and, as my parents have reported back after their viewing trip, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see such beauty on that river.”

1:59 p.m. AT (5:59 ET): What one gets from reading emails is often not a spectular fact, but a chance to hear an unvarnished tone. The so-called Troopergate investigation runs through the first years of the emails, with Palin returning again and again to the misbehavior of  Mike Wooten, an Alaska State trooper, who is also Palin's ex-brother-in-law and at the time was embroiled with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann,  in a contentious child custody dispute. One example, on July 17, 2007, at 6:16 a.m., the governor commented on a legislator's proposal to limit gun purchases by dangerous people. "The first thought that hit me when reading Gara 's quote about people able to buy guns when they're threatening to kill someone went to my ex brother-in-law, who threatened to kill my dad yet was not even reprimanded by his bosses and still to this day has a gun, of course. We can't have double standards. Remember when that death threat was reported, and follow-on threats from Mike that he was going to 'bring Sarah and her family down' - instead of any reprimand WE were told by trooper union personnel that we 'd be sued if we talked about those threats. Amazing. And he's still a trooper, and he still carries a gun , and he still tells anyone who will listen that he will 'never work for that b*itch' (me) because he has such anger and distain towards family. So consistency is needed here. No one's above the law. If the law needs to be changed to not allow access to guns for people threatening to kill someone, it must apply to everyone. Hopefully we'll all meet on this soon , as Gara will be expecting a response soon." 

1:31 p.m. AT (5:31 ET):In an email on Aug. 6, 2008, Gov. Palin spots trouble for travel expense records that she describes as "obviously inconsistent and blundered." The Anchorage Daily News had requested copies of records, and the governor (not her staff) noticed that some forms were not signed, others had no explanation of the ttravel purpose, and others were missing entirely from the records being released. "But I'm not going to worry about those either I guess," Palin told her staff. "We need to be prepared to take heat for findings in these Gov's Office travels as some of the TAs (travel authorizations) are obviously inconsistent and blundered."

12:49 p.m. AT (4:49 ET): We now have 4,681 pages online. (Link opens in a new window.)

12:19 p.m. AT (4:19 ET): Just a note for those who enjoy tweaking President Barack Obama for using a teleprompter. (Doesn't every president or governor use a teleprompter for speeches?) On March 20, 2007, Gov. Palin's staff was setting up an interview on natural gas issues with Energy TV from Canada. Here's how the interview was set up: Her aide, Sharon Leighow, asked the questions, and the answers were posted on a teleprompter for Palin to read. Then the fake interview was uploaded by satellite to Energy TV. "You're awesome," the governor told her staff. "You're all awesome. What a day..." Here's a copy of that email. (PDF file opens in a new window.)

12:11 p.m. AT (4:11 AT): In an e-mail on March 18, 2007, Gov. Palin complains that an article in the Juneau Empire newspaper described information being held back fro the public (relating to the transition committee reports on the Alaska Permanent Fund). The Gov. says to her staff, "If there's something you can do to help un-do the records withholding issue that at least three reporters are sort of up-in-arms about, please do so. I campaigned on open and transparent government. I don't know why the issue covered in the article today was ever NOT made public." She says the "gist of the article is so disappointing because it's 180-degrees from where I want to be with information deserving to be seen by the public." The email released today includes a staff statement that no information was withheld. But part of the email today is redacted as a "privileged or personal" matter, so it's not even clear what's being discussed.

11:54 a.m. AT (3:54 PM): The second bite of Palin emails have been uploaded to our online archvive. (Link opens in a new window.) That's a total of 1,732 pages out of 24,199. Bigger batches will come online faster now.

11:28 a.m. AT (3:28 PM): In many cases it appears that Gov. Parnell's office has withheld the attachments from emails. It's common to see emails pointing to an interesting document attached, but that document was not made available today to the public.

11:25 a.m. AT (3:25 PM):An email from February 19, 2007, shows a meeting planned between Palin and Pete Rouse, described as "chief of staff for a guy named Barack Obama." At that point Obama may not have heard of Palin either.

11:14 a.m. AT (3:14 ET):A typical email, on March 8, 2007, from Palin aide Ivy Frye to Gov. Palin: Here's how it looks: "Re: (Privileged) on AK Workforce Investment Board. When you have a minute I need to fill you in on (Privileged or Personal Mater Redacted.) I can better explain via telephone."

10:17 a.m. AT (2:17 ET): The first bite of 533 pages of Palin emails have been uploaded to the online archive. (Link opens in a new window.) That's 533 out of 24,199. Will be coming online quickly now.

10:05 a.m. AT (2:05 ET): Ken LeBlanc of Lenexa, Kan., wants you all to know that he doesn't think we should be posting these public records online for everyone to see. "Sarah Palins Email? Do you really consider this news? Really? They pay you actual money?"

9:49 a.m. AT (1:49 ET):"The thousands upon thousands of emails released today show a very engaged Gov. Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said a statement from the treasurer of SarahPAC, Tim Crawford. "The emails detail a governor hard at work. Everyone should read them."

9:44 a.m. AT (1:44 ET): Some of the documents withheld:

The list of withheld documents itself is 189 pages, showing the 2,275 withheld pages, and is online now at msnbc.com. Here's the link to see the large PDF file. Among those emails withheld from the public were those detailing potential state appointees, judicial candidates and others having to do with legal advice, settlements and staffing issues. Others appeared  to have nothing to do with state business, such as one message about "children, dinner, and prayer."

Others removed from public view include several having to do with newspapers and editorials, including two citing a “response to Juneau Empire article.” Another two related to a “child custody matter,”  and a meeting with “W. Monegan,” who had served as the Alaska public safety commissioner until being dismissed  in July 2008 in connection with the scandal known as "Troopergate."

At the time, Palin had reassigned commissioner Monegan because of performance-related issues. Monegan said his forced resignation may have been tied to his reluctance to fire Mike Wooten, an Alaska State trooper, who is also Palin's ex-brother-in-law and at the time was embroiled with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann,  in a contentious child custody dispute.

9:25 a.m. AT (1:25 ET):The log of documents withheld by the governor's office is online now at msnbc.com. Here's the PDF file (it's a large file with the list running to 189 pages. The number of pages of e-mails withheld is 2,275.)

9:05 a.m. AT Friday (1:05 ET): The documents were released, and if you were in Juneau you'd see reporters spilling boxes as they try to push handtrucks downhill. Not much handtruck experience among the press corps, apparently. The scanning and reading have begun.

Background

Volunteers from the League of Women Voters and the Retired Public Employees of Alaska have joined us at the city's Centennial Hall convention center to help look at the records.

And a free, public, searchable archive will go online, later Friday, at http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com, in partnership with Mother Jones and Pro Publica. David Corn at Mother Jones tells the entire saga of the wait for the emails.

If you find interesting documents in either place, post details here, giving enough information to help us find that email so we can provide the full document, in context.

Our staffers from msnbc.com and NBC News are in Juneau, and this blog is where you'll  find the latest information from both efforts, the old-fashioned and the new.

Also watch the Twitter feed @OpenChannelBlog, and the Twitter hashtag #palinemail.

Our roundup on Friday's events and the background of the Palin emails is here.

Feel free to post comments here, but let's keep it on topic and civil, please.

The long-delayed release of public records in Alaska, 24,199 pages of emails sent between former Gov. Sarah Palin (and her husband) and state officials, will happen in Juneau at 9 a.m. Friday, the Alaska governor's office announced Monday.

News organizations and citizens requested the emails under the state public records law back in 2008, when the relatively unknown Palin burst onto the national scene, and when it became known that she and her staff were using personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business outside the usual reach of public records requests.

The records to be released include emails that went between the Yahoo accounts of Palin or her husband, Todd Palin, and about 50 top state officials. When one side of those email discussions passed through the state mail computers, it became a public record. (A legal challenge now in the state Supreme Court addresses the broader question of whether all the governor's emails about state business, even if conducted between Yahoo accounts without passing through state computers, should also be considered a public record.)

Free public archive
Soon after the emails are released, msnbc.com plans to scan them and put them online in a public archive, restoring the electronic records to electronic form. This archive will be co-sponsored by Mother Jones magazine, which also requested the documents back in 2008, and with Pro Publica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom. A similar archive was created by msnbc.com for a smaller batch of Todd Palin emails last year. Those emails showed the vigorous role the "First Dude" played in the operation of state government. Here is that archive. In both cases the legal services company Crivella West volunteered its services.

The state at first quoted prices as high as $15 million for the records, but the price is now down to 3 cents a page, or $725.97 for a set of the records. The state plans to release the documents at the door to the governor's office, and to provide handtrucks to help the reporters and citizens get the documents to the car. Other copies are being shipped to requesters in Anchorage and elsewhere.

As we've described, the wait for the public records has now lasted longer than the Palin administration. Sarah Palin was governor for 966 days, before ending her term abruptly. As of Friday, the anticipated day of release, msnbc.com's request for public records under state law will have been pending for 997 days.

Records still withheld
Not all the e-mails are being released. The state had said that it it is withholding thousands of pages because of privacy concerns or the executive or deliberative exemptions in the state public records law, as it withheld documents in the previous release of Todd Palin emails to msnbc.com.

Linda Perez, administrative director in the office of Gov. Sean Parnell (Palin's former lieutenant governor), said Monday that the state is withholding 2,275 pages, and there were an additional "140 pages of emails that were determined to be non-records." Some of the pages that will be released will have information blanked out, or redacted. We expect to receive a log of the withheld items, as required by state law.

Background
Here are links to our previous coverage, with details on the requests, the state's explanation of the delays, and the shifting estimates of the costs.

• Alaska must release Palin emails by May 31, state AG declares
• Quest for Palin emails may exceed her time in office
• Want Palin's emails? That'll be $15 million
• Yes, we're still waiting to read Palin's emails
• Search the archive of Todd Palin emails
• Palin emails reveal a powerful 'first dude'
• Palin lawyer responds to msnbc.com story

With the state's deadline of May 31 fast approaching for the long-delayed release of 25,000 emails sent between former Gov. Sarah Palin (and her husband) and state officials, the Alaska governor's office on Tuesday sought another delay.

This delay will be brief, and the records should be ready by June 10, the governor's office said in asking for permission from the state attorney general for a new delay.

As we have reported, the delays so far have amounted to a couple of weeks longer than the time than Sarah Palin spent as governor of Alaska.

News organizations requested the emails under the state public records law back in 2008, when the relatively unknown Palin burst onto the national scene, and when it became known that she and her staff were using personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business outside the usual reach of public records requests. The records to be released include emails that went between Palin or her husband and about 50 top state officials. The state at first quoted prices as high as $15 million for the records, but the price is now down to 3 cents a page.

The office of the current governor is still going over the emails, deciding which ones should be withheld under exemptions to the public records law.

When the emails are released, msnbc.com plans to put them online in a public archive, in cooperation with other news organizations, as it did with a batch of Todd Palin emails last year. Those emails showed the vigorous role the "First Dude" played in the operation of state government. Here is that archive.

The Anchorage Daily News has the details here.

And here is our previous coverage, with details on the requests, the state's explanation of the delays, and the shifting estimates of the costs.

The full background on our request, and the delays, is in our previous articles, below:

• Alaska must release Palin emails by May 31, state AG declares
• Quest for Palin emails may exceed her time in office
• Want Palin's emails? That'll be $15 million
• Yes, we're still waiting to read Palin's emails
• Search the archive of Todd Palin emails
• Palin emails reveal a powerful 'first dude'
• Palin lawyer responds to msnbc.com story