Alaska Airlines charges for the second bag, starting today. The airline announced the fee months ago and has already increased other services such as minors traveling alone, pets and overweight bags, according to the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.

Fuel prices are the cause.

"We are very concerned about the cost of fuel," Alaska Airlines spokesman Paul McElroy said. "It's at a record level."

The company's first-quarter fuel bill was 50 percent higher than a year ago, he said. With 2007 annual revenue at $2.8 billion, Alaska Airlines expects to pay $1.2 billion for 2008's fuel - almost 43 percent of 2007 revenue.

Travel agents have advice: plan for the worst. Expect canceled flights and delays as airlines restructure and adjust.

Not everyone is taking it sitting down. Dave Kiffer at SitNews.com in Ketchikan suggests we pay by weight, personal weight, that is.

Anyone who has ever flown a floatplane in Alaska knows that passengers are quizzed on their weight when they check in. Ostensibly, it's for loading purposes to make sure the Cessna is properly balanced, but heck I think it's primarily done for the amusement of the desk person who then gets to add a "correction factor" to whatever the passenger says.

"I weigh 135," the passenger states.

"Not since the eighth grade," the desk clerk thinks as she writes "180" on the manifest."

Perhaps to blunt the bad ticket price news, airlines were touting their ventures into onboard Internet services at MSNBC.com. Alaska expects to start testing in August and says no pricing structure is set. At American, the service costs $12.95 for a flight of three hours or more but only works over the contiguous U.S.

Last note on the airline front: What happens when you combine frequent flyer mileage programs and an Internet-based swap meet like eBay? Read about new options The New York Times. Transactions can cost you, but as one trader put it: Is something better than nothing? Yes.

***

Army pulls out of backcountry rescues in Alaska Interior. The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reports today that the Fort Wainwright unit is bound for Afghanistan and no longer available.

In recent years, a Black Hawk helicopter and its crew rescued about one person per week under the agreement, Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic, or MAST. It gave real-life training for military ambulance crews and assistance to injured civilians.

The Alaska Air National Guard unit in Anchorage will pick up the slack.

***

Meet an A-team lobbyist from the Intern Survival Guide. Surely the hubbub of that intern tip sheet from Rep. Don Young's office is fresh enough that you'll recall this name: former Rep. Jay Dickey, Republican congressman from Arkansas.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette offered some local insight into Dickey's doings in a June 20 story. (This late after publication, you'll need to purchase it off the Web site for $1.95). Since leaving office, the story explains, Dickey has lobbied for many causes, including road construction in Arkansas.

To that end, Young is a good person to know.

In 1998, when Dickey was still in office, Congress appropriated $100 million for the Interstate 69 Connector, which is to link Pine Bluff with the planned I-69, south of the city.

Six years later, with Dickey representing road-building interests in the state, an additional $40 million was set aside. In 2006, Congress added another $72 million to the project.

***

Exxon Valdez plaintiffs meeting goes behind closed doors. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that a meeting with claimants to discuss how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez case to $507.5 million will unfold.

Kodiak attorney Matt Jamin met with claimants and after a few brief opening remarks went behind closed doors. "There are just certain things I don't want in the press right now," he said.

Jamin raised questions about whether the decision will place punitive damage limits in maritime cases, which hasn't existed before. He also noted that some critics believe the judges legislated from the bench.

Jamin said there'd be no request for reconsideration. "U.S. Supreme Court hasn't granted (a reconsideration request) in 40 years, so we're not going to try," Jamin said.

KMXT has the Kodiak story, and the ADN covered the Anchorage meeting. A session in Seattle is scheduled for today.

***

Ciao, John Tracy. The longtime anchor and leader at KTUU stepped down Tuesday. If you missed his goodbye, you can catch it here.

***

Alaska tops the nation in gas prices again today. We've been there before and this probably isn't the last time. Our gas averages $4.64 a gallon, Oregonlive.com reports.

Missouri and South Carolina had the cheapest, at $3.87 a gallon.

Nothing can really take the sting out of that, but one Internet site tried. Spoof.com wrote a fictional account of a man driving from Tampa to Anchorage in support of high fuel prices. Of more merit is the assessment by Kiplinger.com on why fossil fuels are so high now. Learn how much oil is locked in hard-to-get-to tar sands and oil shales and ANWR.

***

Exxon says governments should open access to oil reserves. Speaking today in Madrid, Spain, Exxon chief executive Rex Tillerson said the tight oil market could ease up if governments loosened restrictions, Reuters reported.

Tillerson added that he understood Alaskans were disappointed when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $2.5 billion punitive award related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill but hoped the decision would not mar the company's relationship with the state.

***

Wasilla mayor unloads at council meeting. The session was called to discuss the findings in a legal report that accuses the mayor and city officers of acting inappropriately in their dealings with Meritage Development.

The Frontiersman reports that Mayor Dianne Keller declared she could have taken revenge on critic and Windbreak Café owner Annette Andres by directing the Wasilla Police Department to perform Breathalyzer tests on every patron leaving the café. The council called for a break after that.

Two resolutions were on Monday's special meeting agenda, one calling for the council to ask for Keller's resignation and another calling for a vote of no confidence in the mayor.

***

Offer makes it Christmas in July in Fairbanks. After the president of an online business selling LED holiday lights read about Fairbanks' energy struggles, he wrote the mayor to promote his lights.

Later he read that the city was thinking of curtailing streetlights and eliminating holiday lights. Can't be, said Philip Curtis of HolidayLEDs.com. He took heart and offered to donate the lights to the city.

***

Is "Drill now" the Republican MoveOn?. Politico posed that question as it looked at John McCain's push to drill offshore while maintaining that ANWR remain closed.

Republican bloggers say they think McCain's mind can be changed on ANWR. Democratic bloggers aren't so sure.

"When you look at who voters are blaming for high oil prices, they're looking at oil company executives," said Jeff Navin, a Democratic political consultant and managing director of American Environics Strategies, which does polling and consulting on energy and environmental issues. "Voters have a sense that Republicans and oil executives are pretty tight."

***

Taking a look at McCain's VP Conundrum. Real Clear Politics listed likely candidates, and Gov. Sarah Palin made the list without a ringing endorsement.

Palin is also solidly pro-life, and is acquiring a tough anti-corruption record in Alaska, fitting well into McCain's larger campaign theme. The problem of course is that Palin is relatively inexperienced and unvetted. While Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has gone through the ringer in the circle of hell known as Louisiana politics, Palin is mostly a question mark. Palin also has no national security experience and relatively little economic experience.

***

Save the sharks. Will that ever have the ring of baby seals and polar bears? The Washington Post reported Monday that worldwide sharks are declining. In the Mediterranean Sea, their numbers have plummeted by 97percent.

The significance of noting this is that researchers say when sharks decline, other species behave differently. One study published this spring notes that sleeper sharks in Prince William Sound keep harbor seals from eating too many walleye pollock.

"We now understand that both on land and in the sea, large predators play important roles in regulating both the total number and the behavior of their prey," Dalhousie University marine biology professor Boris Worm wrote. "Unchecked by their predators, some of these prey species can wreak havoc on ecosystems. This is one important reason to keep predators around in sufficient numbers."

His study was published this spring in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

***

Northern lights lovers, take a look at southern lights. If you stand outside in winter gaping upward and the green ribbons waving across the sky, catch this Aurora Australis time lapse filmed during the Antarctic winter in the general vicinity of McMurdo Station and Scott Base, where the sun disappears for four months of the year. Photos are by Anthony Powell.

Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Nanosponge could soak up oil spills (Discover, 80 beats blog)

> Ferry union rejects tentative agreement (Juneau Empire)

> Alaskan orchestra plays musical bars behind bars (APRN)

> Kite surfers ride the wind (Homer Tribune)

> Melting sea ice causes heat waves in Alaska (Discover, 80 beats blog)

> I honestly feel sorry for Vic Kohring (Kodiak Konfidential)

> Sometimes Alaskans be more loathsome than other times (Progressive Alaska)

> Foes find common ground in stream restoration plan (Juneau Empire)