June 23: Greens harvest begins in Valley; scary highway; reaction to Kensington Mine court decision; Palin visits aircraft carrier; pipeline competition; Midnight Sun ball game

AMERICA'S SCARIEST DRIVES: DALTON HIGHWAY (Forbes Traveler): "There are several kinds of fear when it comes to road trips," Joe Yogerst begins his article. You can worry about cliffs, switchbacks, steep grades, potholes, horrific traffic - and then there's pure isolation. On that scale, no road beats Alaska's Dalton Highway (the "haul road") from Livengood near Fairbanks to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, which includes the longest stretch of road in the U.S. with no services.

The 414-mile Dalton throws down several gauntlets including gravel roadway, steep grades, dangerous animals and dire weather conditions. It's an awful long wait for a tow if you break down out here. Includes photo gallery

PALINS SAMPLE WAR GAMES: Elmendorf Air Force Base has posted a gallery of photos from Gov. Palin's visit last week to Elmendorf for the Northern Edge war games under way in Alaska. Palin and husband Todd boarded a C-2A Greyhound logistics aircraft that took them to the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Alaska.

WELL-KNOWN ARCHAEOLOGIST LEAVING SOUTHEAST (KRBD, Ketchikan): Prince of Wales Island is losing a well-known player in the cultural and scientific world. Tongass National Forest archaeologist Terry Fifield has decided to move to White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. Fifield has been widely admired for his sensitive handling of cultural matters. "As far as working with tribal people, we couldn't have asked for a better person," said a Southeast tribal spokeswoman.

FEWER PASSENGERS, LESS MAIL CHALLENGE INTERIOR AIRLINE (Alaska Journal of Commerce): An Interior airline operator said people are leaving Alaska villages for urban areas, adding business challenges in an already tough economy. Art Warbelow, president of Warbelow's Air Ventures Inc., is growing concerned that he won't be able to afford a planned change in his company's certifications that would allow him to increase some of his services.

BARROW'S STOTTS TO HEAD INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR COUNCIL (CBC.ca): The Inuit Circumpolar Council has appointed James Stotts as its new chairman, signaling a change in leadership in the international Inuit organization. An Inupiaq from Barrow, Stotts replaces fellow Alaskan Patricia Cochran, who resigned as council chairwoman last week. The council would only say that Cochran resigned for personal reasons.

CANADIAN TERRITORY SEEKS 'LEVEL PLAYING FIELD' WITH ALASKA IN PIPELINE RACE (Calgary Herald, Canada): Getting Canadian natural gas out of the Arctic to southern markets ahead of Alaska's North Slope supply should be a priority for the Canadian government, a territorial politician said Monday. Bob McLeod, the Northwest Territories' minister of industry, is in Washington this week to gauge how far President Barack Obama's administration will go to support the North Slope pipeline, a competitive threat to N.W.T.'s proposed Mackenzie Valley system. McLeod will meet with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Gov. Palin's representative in Washington and U. S. energy industry officials. While supporting both projects, McLeod said it was imperative the smaller Canadian line be built before the massive, $26 billion Alaska pipeline unleashes four times as much natural gas onto the market.

FIELD FRESH: SEASON'S FIRST VALLEY GREENS HEAD TO MARKET (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman): The greens at the grocery store are about to get a whole lot greener. Crews worked Monday to harvest the first crop from Gold Nugget Farms off Bodenburg Loop. This morning, those same crops arrived at local Carrs, Fred Meyers and Wal-Marts under the Alaska Nugget brand name. "Most of the stuff on (local store) shelves is harvested the day before," Gold Nugget Farms owner Paula Giauque said. "It's much fresher than anything brought in from the Lower 48." Includes photos

MINE SUPPORTERS RALLY, EXPECTING AN ECONOMIC BOOST (Juneau Empire): About 50 Coeur Alaska Inc. supporters gathered at the Capitol steps with signs and banners celebrating the Supreme Court decision in favor of the Kensington gold mine Monday, crying, "Jobs-Jobs-Jobs!" "I can't wait to see young families and babies again here in Juneau," said Cathie Roemmich, executive director of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.

Other Juneau residents are debating the decision here. ALSO:

> Editorial: Rational rules -- Supreme Court leaves room for future mining (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): Those who worry that the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday exempted the owners of the Kensington Mine near Juneau from this basic rule of good behavior can rest assured - the court has done no such thing.

> Decision likely affects more than Alaska gold (Mineweb)

FRESH STARTS: ANCHORAGE TOPS LIST OF BEST CITIES FOR JOB SEEKERS (Business Week): Alaska's unemployment rate, which fell to 8% in April, might not suggest that the state has a great job market. But the state's urban employers are hungry for educated, skilled workers. Alaska's tourism industry has been hit, but its military bases, hospitals and oil industry have stayed strong. Anchorage - where 28% of employers said they planned to do some hiring in the third quarter - topped the list, which also included such metropolitan areas as Provo-Orem, Utah; Omaha; Washington; and Amarillo, Texas.

SUPREME COURT SKIRTS PERMAFROST DEBATE (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): The U.S. Supreme Court has passed on a request to hear an argument about how permafrost-laden land should be classified under federal wetland rules. The dispute centered on, and grew from, a 2006 Corps of Engineers decision that a two-acre site should be classified as wetlands. The Fairbanks North Star Borough wanted to turn the site into a park and, working with a legal group, tried to challenge the decision in court, but a district judge decided the case was not yet ripe. An appeal attempt came to a halt Monday when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

MIDNIGHT SUN GAME A MEMORY-MAKER FOR FAIRBANKS FANS (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): Spending a summer's eve at the baseball park is a long-running American tradition. But here in Fairbanks, you can forget the stadium lights. Never once has artificial lighting been used for the Midnight Sun Game at Growden Memorial Field, nor has the game ever been postponed because of darkness. The country's farthest-north organized baseball team has honored the tradition of playing a game through the midnight hour under natural light since 1906. One hundred and three years later, fans are still filling the stands for midnight excitement.

The News-Miner also has a detailed account of this year's game and photos.

SITKA SCHOOL BOARD DELAYS RELIGION DECISION (KCAW): Sitka School Board will wait until this fall to take final action on a policy change that would allow some religious promotion in schools. Board members characterized it as a first amendment issue. The current rule allows distribution of promotional materials with educational value except for those of a commercial or religious nature. The proposed change stirred up some community controversy.

2010 GOVERNOR'S RACE: ALASKA WAITS ON PALIN (Politico): Politico's Andy Barr cites mostly unnamed sources in claiming there's a growing consensus that Gov. Palin won't run for re-election in 2010 so she can focus on a run for the presidency. The uncertainty has drawn a large field of potential contenders for the office from both parties.

No candidate, including Palin, has yet filed papers with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Palin's office declined an opportunity to explain her thinking on the 2010 race, and the Republican Governors Association said it would not comment on discussions it has had with the governor.

But a number of Democrats and Republicans in Alaska and Washington who spoke to Politico believe her silence is a sign she will not pursue a second term as governor so that she can play a larger role on the national political stage. At least three Democrats and six Republicans are mulling over runs as they wait on the governor to make her decision.

One of them, Politico says, is former Republican legislator and ex-Palin opponent Andrew Halcro.

"There is nothing that she has done that leads me to believe she will seek reelection," said Halcro. "If you're Palin, once you've flown first class, you don't go back to coach. She's been to the show and certainly seemed to like it there. I have no doubt in my mind that, barring some unforeseen collapse on the national stage, she won't seek re-election."

Return to Alaska Newsreader later in the day for new links.

---------------------

HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

Hero dog done in by tumor (Mat-Su Frontiersman)

Inlet fisherman report jump in whale sightings (Redoubt Reporter)

Atlantic seal virus suspected in deaths of Alaska otters (Homer News)

Fashion lessons for Levi: Shopping in L.A. with Tank (The Daily Beast)

Photo: Moose with four calves warms Talkeetna hearts (KTNA)

Creating a digital Sitka for the movie "The Proposal" (Boston Globe)

Video: Plane crash on Lake Spenard (Dustin Koehler, YouTube)

UAF student survives Outback train ordeal (Sunday Mail, South Australia)