Maggie fans can help another

The PAWS Web site contains a glowing report on Maggie, the former Alaska Zoo African elephant, from her sanctuary in Northern California. PAWS reports that Maggie "continues to captivate her keepers and entrance her fellow elephants."

For those who worried about her "difficult" personality, PAWS says she "cajoles, manipulates and cons her elephant friends who allow her to break all the rules and have her way about everything. They treat her like a young calf and indulge her shamelessly as she bats her eyes and prances in and out of the group stealing all the best treats and the best spots at the mud holes."

Maggie can be followed on the PAWS webcam, and she looks incredible -- she has gained weight, her sores are healed, and she climbs the habitat hills easily.

Maybe all those who helped retire Maggie to paradise can work for Lucy, the solitary Asian elephant at the Edmonton Zoo. She is in an unnatural northern climate, and the zoo claims she is too unhealthy to travel and too "solitary" to make friends.

-- Lee Holen

Anchorage

Palin did too show support

I just finished reading the article on the combat fishing tournament held for our people in uniform who returned after having served in the Iraq and Afghan conflicts ("Military turns out for Seward hook-and-line combat," May 23). Thank you so much for the great coverage.

The only misleading part of Craig Medred's coverage was the paragraph about our governor, Sarah Palin. Medred's editorial comment that "Governor Palin was nowhere to be seen" meant, I thought, that he was not present at the dinner and festivities to honor these brave women and men. If he had been there then his article should have said, "Gov. Palin took the time to do a photo session with these courageous people of our military, gave a heartfelt speech thanking them and then stayed for dinner. She also participated in drawing names for several prizes."

Saying that Gov. Palin "reportedly showed up" is disingenuous at best.

This is why people look with disdain at reporters who write editorials instead of reporting.

Otherwise, it was a great article about the people who give us the privilege to enjoy such occasions.

-- John Christensen

Seward

Fish and Game goes overboard

I just spent a nice evening at a friends' barbecue, when their teenagers showed up each with a $100-150 ticket for fishing with treble hooks and live bait. I mean come on, folks, is this what we, the taxpayers are paying our Fish and Game people for?

They are great kids who play sports, stay out of trouble, work and go to school. They were just having an honest-to-goodness good time in our beautiful outdoors and probably didn't read the regs before going to fish. Why don't our Fish and Game folks just give them a warning and send them on their way? I didn't think our economy up here was that bad that they are now squeezing the money out of our young folks like that.

-- Sundi Hondl

Wasilla

Children should start music education before sixth grade

I believe that the Anchorage School District should begin its music program before sixth grade. When children who have never had any real experience with music begin this late in grade school, they often have a hard time. They only have one year to try to get a handle on all of the basics and fundamentals of playing an instrument, and they struggle with intonation, theory and many other items that need to be addressed thoroughly before these children enter middle school. By this point, children who have only been playing for one year are often discouraged because they are in a large class and are still working on basic concepts.

By starting in fourth or fifth grade, this problem would not be as severe. The children who take up their chosen instrument in public school would have a deeper understanding of music and would therefore do better in the future.

-- Nick Oliver

Anchorage

Native corporations should share wealth

The reason more people are moving to Anchorage is because they cannot afford basic necessities, which are cheaper in the city. I think the Native corporations should step in and intervene a little with all the money they have stored in investments. I think they should sell a lot of assets and distribute the money to the struggling shareholders. Maybe that would keep the exodus to the cities at bay. I hear all the time about how profitable the regional Native corporations are with their record profits, but as a Bristol Bay Corporation shareholder I have not seen any increases in our quarterly dividends.

-- John Delkittie

Anchorage Jail East