GAY-RIGHTS HEARING: LESSONS FROM THE LIBRARY (Jim Minnery, AK Voices/ADN): There can be no doubt, regardless of where you might fall on this issue, that (the gay rights hearings have) been tremendous theater for the little town I was born and raised in. Tragedy, drama, intensity and, yes, even comedy were prominent at times during the debates taking place inside and outside the Loussac Library. I think it's safe to say much was learned and, from my perspective, gained.
VILLAGE OF 46 PEOPLE TO GET $21 MILLION AIRPORT (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): The state has received a federal grant to built a better airport for Takotna, and it ultimately will cost about a half-million dollars per person. The village doesn't have reliable water access to nearby McGrath, which has an airport.
State officials aren't thrilled about having to spend $21 million on an airport for a village of 46 people, but it's not really an option, said Roger Maggard, DOT's airport development manager. "The fact of it is, in order to meet all the dimensional requirements that the FAA requires for funding an airport, they do become quite expensive," Maggard said. "It doesn't matter in terms of airport costs whether it's 50 people or 250 people or 500 people. It still requires the same airport facility."
FISHERMEN FIND UNUSUAL NUMBER OF SHARKS OFF LOWER PENINSULA (Redoubt Reporter): Lower Cook Inlet fisherman have long had occasional encounters with salmon sharks. But this summer, they say, encounters have been surprisingly common. And the sharks are trying to steal charter-caught fish.
Fisherman Gary Deiman says that, in a usual year, he would expect to hear of a couple salmon shark landings over an entire summer. But this year he estimates there have already been three salmon sharks landed and another eight to 10 instances in which people have hooked salmon sharks.
Eric Skjold of Nordic Alaska Saltwater Charters tells of playing a "game" with a salmon shark that wanted a piece of a cod caught by a client.
"We could just start to make out the fish, probably 20 feet down, and as we were reeling it in we saw a dark salmon shark come up and hit the tail end," he said. The shark shook its head, trying to tear the cod free while Skjold's client reeled the cod and the shark closer and closer to the boat. The shark spooked and let go just before reaching the boat. Skjold's client plunked the remaining cod back down and continued to play the same game with the shark until he finally hooked the shark and brought it to the boat.
Fish and Game officials say they don't know of any reason for an increase in Inlet salmon shark populations. And it's not just salmon sharks. Commercial fisherman Teague Vanek of Ninilchik says he has caught more than a dozen sleeper sharks this season.
Although sleeper sharks may be relatively abundant in Cook Inlet, less is known about them than about salmon sharks and many other species of shark. Sleeper sharks tend stay close to the ocean floor, whereas salmon sharks swim within the entire water column. Sleeper sharks can grow up to 20 feet long, whereas salmon sharks usually grow to no more than 9 feet. But salmon sharks put up a bigger fight than the lethargic sleeper sharks. ALSO:
> 575-pound salmon shark caught on Ninilchik charter (Homer News)
> Lure of catching salmon sharks dwindles (Anchorage Daily News, 9/10/08): A decade ago, salmon shark was Southcentral's hot new big game fishery, with boats from Seward, Valdez, Cordova and other ports chasing the huge fish that can exceed 800 pounds. That fervor has waned. While more than a dozen boats still chase salmon sharks out of those ports, as well as Whittier, some charter boat captains have stopped or cut back shark fishing out of concern for the population and most are preaching catch-and-release to their clients.
> Fishermen report more Inlet whales than usual (Redoubt Reporter)
PHOTO: SANTAS TAKE IN SKAGWAY BROTHEL MUSEUM (Skagway News): That Santa cruise and Alaska tour that brought a bunch of Lower 48 Santas to North Pole also made a stop in Skagway. The jolly tourists posed in full Santa regalia with the women of the Red Onion Brothel Museum.
WAR GAMES OFFER THRILLING ON-THE-JOB TRAINING (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): On-the-job training is usually not the most riveting stuff. For most people, lengthy, instructive, PowerPoint-heavy meetings are the norm. Overly enthusiastic speakers and free coffee can be the highlight.
Military training diverges from that a notch.
That point was on display Friday at the Northern Edge joint training exercise at Eielson Air Force Base. The operation was midair fighter jet refueling. From the fuselage of the refueling aircraft, a KC-135 Stratotanker, the sight was one to behold - even to the military personnel onboard.
"You know it absolutely kills me," said 1st Lt. John Callahan, as he gestured out a window toward an F-22 Raptor flanking the Stratotanker's right wing. "Just look up at him right now - that guy gets paid to do that. That's his job."
UP ALL NIGHT: SUMMER IN ANCHORAGE (David Landsel, New York Post): A New Yorker visits Anchorage for solstice weekend and is nearly overwhelmed by all the goings-on:
A visitor to Alaska in June is like a frog thrown into a pot of boiling water. Chances are, we haven't spent eight months in cold and darkness; these days, who hibernates? Alaskans do. ... The arrival of summer here is, in essence, the beginning of the year. In June, everyone comes out. Everything starts happening. A visitor from darker climes right now feels a bit like the kid who was sent to bed before sunset all summer long. It isn't fun to go to bed when people are still up and doing stuff.
Landsel follows up his tour of Anchorage with a top-10 list of things to do in an Anchorage summer, including golfing at midnight and sampling the city's increasingly varied international restaurant fare. Landsel's visit was part of the Post's "50 States, 50 Stories" series. ALSO:
> Great Alaska Beer Adventure (Examiner.com): Anchorage is an interesting place to visit, with all sorts of history, culture, wildlife and spectacular scenery. It's also an amazing beer destination.
ART ON THE LAKE (Alaskology blog, ADN): The artists at the Girdwood Center for Visual Arts have put together a special event that brings together some of the best things about Alaska -- art and the outdoors. The GCVA is hosting its inaugural "Art on the Lake" cruise tonight aboard the MV Ptarmigan at Portage Lake. Daily the Ptarmigan takes visitors and locals on a one-hour tour of Portage Lake and close to Portage Glacier. Tonight's trip is special because it will be two hours long (instead of the usual hour) and will feature art on the boat from GCVA members, food, wine and music. Several artists will be busy creating while the tour progresses.
ONSCREEN: LIFE AS A TEENAGER IN A "FORGOTTEN TOWN" IN ALASKA (Marvin Miranda, Examiner.com): Rookie feature-film director Suzi Yoonessi is promoting her Alaska-set film "Dear Lemon Lima" at the Los Angeles Film Festival, with Savanah Wiltfong of Eagle River in the lead role. In a Q&A, the non-Alaskan director talks about weaving bits of her own youthful experiences into a movie about Alaska Native adolescence.
I started writing Dear Lemon Lima in earnest one summer while traveling in Alaska, a landscape which is unique, awe-inspiring, and desolate. My imagination roamed, and I started wondering what life would be like as a teenager in one of Alaska's forgotten towns.
A short version of the film was screened at the Anchorage International Film Festival in 2007.
NEW POLL RESULTS ON GOP LEADERS (The Swamp, Chicago Tribune): A new Pew Research Center study on the favorability ratings for leading Republicans shows Gov. Palin remains extremely popular among party faithful but is still divisive within the full electorate.
Gov. Palin still suffers from a sharply divided opinion of her among the American public, following that same presidential campaign, in which she represented the GOP as the nominee for vice president - though the Alaska governor remains a rock star within her party, more popular among Republicans than the image-reviving former Massachusetts governor. ...
"Impressions of Sarah Palin have not changed much since the presidential campaign,'' Pew reports. She "continues to be divisive figure among the general public, with about as many saying they have an unfavorable impression (44 percent) as a favorable view (45 percent) of the Alaska governor. That's a little better than Palin looked to the general public in October, when her image and her ticket were taking a beating.
But among Republicans: Palin has a 73 percent favorable rating, with just 17 percent viewing her dimly.
Return to Alaska Newsreader later in the day for new links.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:
Hero dog done in by tumor (Mat-Su Frontiersman)
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)
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