HELP WANTED ... Word is Sen. Lisa is looking to beef up her staff in Alaska following her "misreading" of Alaska voters last summer. Earwigs report press secretary Matt Felling is interviewing people for a media type to be stationed here. (Matt is in D.C.)

Lisa has been changing out her top staff since her historic write-in win in November -- getting rid of the right-wingers who maybe don't reflect her return to her original Alaska moderate role. Or so it seems to grateful Ear.

Meanwhile, the rumor mill is churning overtime about Lisa's former chief of staff Karen Knutson and her new job with one of the Koch brothers' companies. There are at least three of those boys and, politically speaking, they are to the right of the edge of the Earth. After Lisa lost the primary to whatzhizname -- uh, Joe Miller -- the blame-gamers pointed fingers at Karen, who is from Ketchikan and an old friend of Lisa's. She resigned in May, and talk died down.

When Karen took a job late last month as a lobbyist for Oxbow Carbon, founded by Bill Koch, the harping changed from alleged incompetence to "threw the race" -- which is almost certainly nonsense. Critics point out that the Koch brothers fund the Tea Party Express, which dumped beaucoup bucks into the Miller effort.

Anyhow, that brings us to a real question: Where is former candidate Miller these days? He sure sank like a stone, didn't he? Turns out he's still running that Nevada-based tea party "Western Representation PAC," as reported in March. These days, the PAC's sole stated purpose is to keep Mitt Romney from getting the Republican nomination for president.

Talk about having a finely defined mission in life. (Huffington Post claims it's just a PR trick to raise money.)

QUESTIONS ... Has Lite Gov. Mead Treadwell's Anchorage staff really been barred from using the same executive lunchroom in the Atwood Building as Gov. Parnell's staff? (Who knew there was an executive lunchroom?)

And here's another question: Is anything too petty to generate gossip? Of course, Ear is assuming it's not true, but ...

VERBATIM ... Speaking of Lisa's former staff, this arrived Friday from a scaly earmite: "The sealed addendum in the Fuglvog case has tongues wagging in the fish world about who Arne is ratting out to ease his penalty. Most common rumor is that it is either the processing company that bought the illegal fish, or other skippers who did the same thing. Given his history and past positions, it could ostensibly be aimed at just about any big shot in fishing world. Stay tuned ..."

MOVING ON ... Jessica Graham, vice president for legal stuff at Afognak Native Corp., is leaving after eight years for a hotshot job at GCI as deputy general counsel and something that sounds like legislative lobbyist but maybe isn't exactly that.

Stepping into Jessica's job at Afognak is her assistant, Amy Shimek. And yes, Amy is a daughter of Suzanne Shimek (Metro Home Furnishings) and Joe Shimek (owner of the Metro Mall on Benson). Amy is also part owner with sister Abby of Metro Cooks, which thankfully survived the closing of the furniture store last year.

ON THE MOVE ... Reporter/editor Patti Epler, who recently returned to Alaska from another life in Arizona, is off again, this time to what seems like a dream job with an online investigative news site in Hawaii, run by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Epler worked for the defunct Anchorage Times and covered oil and gas issues for the Anchorage Daily News before moving in 1990 to a job (and lots of awards) in Phoenix. She was lured back last year by an offer from Alaska Dispatch, an online news outfit here.

More than the weather, the Hawaii lure was a chance to work with award-winning journalist John Temple, formerly of Denver, says Epler. She'll be gone by the end of the month. Her new title is deputy editor, whatever that is. Let's hope it includes reporting and writing.

The site is www.civilbeat. com.

AN APOLOGY ... Ear was wrong to label our current governor "Gov. Yawn" in last week's column. It was an unworthy attempt to capture Sean's astounding lack of personal presence, sometimes known as charisma, especially for a successful politician. However, after reading his Day of Prayer proclamation, urging everyone to seek out the "face of God" -- assuming God has a face -- Ear is not only sorry but worried about burning in hell -- assuming there is a hell. So from now on, let's call Sean what he apparently thinks he is: "Gov. God."

Compiled by Sheila Toomey. Message Sheila at ear@adn.com or 257-4341. Find Ear online at www.adn.com/ear.