> Wonkette scored twice: 1. “People will really do just about anything to avoid being John McCain’s lady vice presidential candidate who will lose with him in November.” 2. “How did nobody in the Alaskan press corps notice that she’s seven months pregnant? If we were paid to look at Sarah Palin all the time. …”
> Alaskan Abroad: “Will (Andrew Halcro) continue to pick daily fights with Alaska’s most popular pregnant politician?”
> Progressive Alaska: “Odds are that if it is a boy, he will not be named Frank, Randy or Tony; if a girl, she will not be named Lyda.”
> Kodiak Konfidential suggests a name for the newest addition in keeping with the Palin family’s tendency to name their kids after things Alaskan: Cessna, Skidoo, de Havilland, Yukon, Nike, Chenega, Susitna, Wasilla, Cicely or Agia.
> Palin for VP: “(T)he littlest Palin will like be two months old by the time Sen. McCain makes a VP choice (traditionally these things are done in around July, especially considering the Democrats' drawn-out primary). Obviously we will be watching this situation very closely, but as of now there are no plans to change our operations in any way.”
> Radical Catholic Mom: “Way to go, woman!”
> Star Captain’s Daughter: “If a woman can command the largest state in the United States of America and be a loving mommy in Real Life, why can't she command a starship in a fictional universe and be a mommy? Hmm?”
Meanwhile, at the ADN’s political blog, the comments section in the post announcing the pregnancy is getting more swollen by the hour.
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Almost halfway. A slew of mushers were bearing down this morning on Cripple, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race’s halfway point and where $3,000 waits for the first musher in. At least eight teams left Ophir within a few hours of each other, with Paul Gephardt the first one out. (See ADN’s package of stories, photographs and video here, and check the up-to-the-minute standings here.) Meanwhile, here’s what others have had to say about the race this week:
> KIMO Channel 13 has a short piece on the boost that the Iditarod ceremonial start means for the downtown Anchorage economy. The story quotes one store owner, Lorena Finlay: “This year I did see more local people coming down here (downtown) and so I think next year they did a few different things with the Fur Rondy and the Iditarod this whole week. And I think more people will be coming down as the news travels of all the new events that’s been going on.”
> The Novato Advance in California had a correspondent on hand in Alaska for the start of the race, Mary Stompe, who filed a report describing events. Among other things, she was impressed with the food logistics: “Yesterday I asked … how many pounds of team dog food must be flown to checkpoints? The answer is 180,000 pounds.”
> APRN’s “AK” radio show takes a look at the race in a story that includes an interview with veteran musher and Iditarod reporter Jon Little. The story singles out William Kleedehn of the Yukon as the rookie to watch. As of this morning, Kleedehn was in 53rd out of McGrath.
> Meet Monty, musher Anne Capistrant’s leader. An entry from Little on the Iditarod web site says the dog is running his fourth Iditarod. Capistrant and Monty were in 82nd place out of Nikolai this morning.
> A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story notes that 16 of this year’s mushers live in Interior Alaska, not the least of whom is Lance Mackey of Fox, who won the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest last year and is trying to do the same this year. The story evaluates the chances of some of the other teams and names Ken Anderson of Fox and Aaron Burmeister of Nenana as two with something of a shot.
> An Associated Press story from Takotna says one of the toughest things mushers are facing in spots is 40-degree weather, well beyond what the dogs prefer. “The warm weather just saps them,” 2007 winner Lance Mackey said. “I'm pretty good about reading my dogs and they were telling me to stop.”
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Another era, another race. A Miami Herald story takes note of the 1907 Thomas Flyer automobile on display in a museum in the city and proceeds to tell the story of how the car won a 1908 New York to Paris race, which included an attempt to drive through Alaska and across the Bering Strait. Though the trans-Alaska part was a failure, the race has become legend in auto racing.
“The first and only competitor to arrive in Alaska by boat from San Francisco, (team leader George) Schuster learned that it would be impossible to get the Thomas Flyer through the snow to the ice pack, which wasn’t solidly frozen anyway,” the story notes. “They considered disassembling the Flyer into segments of roughly 600 pounds each so they could get the car on a dog sled and get it to the edge of the Bering Strait — but that idea was nixed and the car was taken back to California.” The Flyer ultimately went on to be declared the winner in Paris.
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Begich mines Seattle. A lengthy Seattle Post-Intelligencer political blog posting features Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich’s fund-raising visit to that city and roams over many of the corruption and ethics woes facing Alaska. Begich, who has taken initial steps toward running for U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens’ job, is quoted as saying of Jim Clark’s admission to a federal conspiracy charge: “It sets Alaska back. It taints the whole state.”
Labeling Begich “a reform-minded Democrat,” the blog item strings a few other Begich remarks among its listing of Alaska foibles. Of the “bridges to nowhere” projects backed by Stevens and Rep. Don Young, Begich proclaims: “It has given the state a bad reputation.”
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Predator control on back burner. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story reports that the state Board of Game, which is meeting in Fairbanks, has so far put off a decision on the controversial issue of predator control in Alaska. At least part of the reason is because of a ballot initiative going before voters in August that will ask whether the state aerial wolf control programs should be abandoned except for emergencies.
“There’s no sense in creating new predator control areas if those areas will be eliminated in six months, board members said,” according to the story.
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4-year-old hero. KTUU Channel 2 has a story on a 4-year-old North Pole boy who received a national award after being credited with saving his mother’s life when she fell unconscious. Tony Sharpe received a Citizens in Action award from Sen. Ted Stevens during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., for calling 911 and summoning help for his mother.
A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner editorial today on the youngster’s actions said: “This 4-year-old, with the help of a book that costs less than $10 called ‘It’s Time to Call 911: What To Do in an Emergency,’ used the public 911 system to help save his mother’s life.
It speaks not only to the importance of an effective 911 system but proves to parents that a child can save a life as soon as they are old enough to speak in sentences and recognize numbers. That’s a simple but powerful message.”
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Ethics rules go down hard. Some local officials in Juneau are objecting to new personal disclosure laws for public officials that they say are demanding more detail and straying into areas that violate their privacy, according to a Juneau Empire story. And some of the disclosures could be bad for business, they argue, largely because they are being asked to violate the privacy expectations of clients or associates.
Juneau School Board member Mark Choate, for one, is a personal injury lawyer and says he doesn’t think he can comply with the new rules without violating his clients’ privacy. He plans to ask the Alaska Public Offices Commission for an exception. The Alaska Municipal League passed a resolution last year urging that the state Legislature make the laws more friendly to city officials.
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Baked Alaska could get hotter. Climate changes will change the vegetation cover in northern lands, and that will likely result in more fires, according to a study published this week in PloS ONE, a journal of scientific research. The study concludes that the tundra was once dominated by resin birch and warming temperatures mean we are “likely to see its widespread return to areas currently occupied by somewhat less flammable herbs.”
“The mass of tangled, resin-laden twigs could turn the area into a tinderbox, with the double whammy that such fires encourage vigorous birch regrowth, making it prone to further blazes,” according to a summary of the study.
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