Anchorage Daily News

Take that, you dirty rats. Once rat-free, Dutch Harbor now has rodents running amok and everybody’s got a rat-sighting tale, according to a story in The Dutch Harbor Fisherman. But if new anti-rat regulations ordered by the Alaska Board of Game work — the measures forbid vessel operators from harboring rats and require ports to come up with rodent control plans — the community could have its rats on the run.

Officials fear Dutch Harbor rats in particular because vessels stop there on the way to other islands. “We’re concerned that the boats are going to bring the rats to the other islands, such as the Pribilofs, that are rat-free. That's not to say (the rats) are all from Dutch, but Dutch Harbor is the greatest risk because so many of the boats stop there,” Poppy Benson, public programs supervisor with Alaska Maritime National Wilderness Refuge, told the newspaper.

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Repeat rapist on way to prison for 75 years. A man with a previous record of sexual assaults and convicted most recently of raping a physically disabled woman in Anchorage has been given 75 years in prison, according to a KTUU Channel 2 story. Benjamin Davis picked up the woman at an Anchorage homeless shelter, then drove to Thunderbird Falls, where he assaulted her repeatedly, according to the story.

“You know, this is someone who repeatedly has raped vulnerable Native women in our community and he's been convicted of that,” prosecutor Trina Sears said at the sentencing hearing. Davis was on probation at the time of the sentencing for raping a woman at the Hotel Captain Cook parking garage.

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Energy shortage in oil-rich Alaska? A Christian Science Monitor story today says the demise of Agrium’s fertilizer plant in Kenai for lack of natural gas is representative of an energy dilemma in Alaska: “Raw resources are in the ground, but lack of infrastructure and poor economies of scale hinder access to them, putting Alaska in an energy crunch.”

America’s largest natural gas supply, on the North Slope, is unavailable because there’s no pipeline to get it out and energy costs in rural Alaska are going through the roof, the story notes. Meanwhile, the state looks for answers and could find at least some of them in small-scale projects. “Geothermal, wind, hydro and tidal power may hold the most promise in a state dotted with volcanoes, scoured by stiff breezes and surrounded by water,” according to the story.

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A year of beer. An Associated Press story reports on a California couple who embarked on a yearlong quest traveling the world in search of “great beer adventures.” Their first stop: The Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage last weekend.

Chris Nelson and wife Merideth Canham-Nelson are chronicling their travels on their web site, Ramblings of Beer Travelers, where the first posting of their expedition ranged through the characteristics of the brews they found in Anchorage. In all, they wrote, they anticipate a “great and wonderful journey” if the “Year in Beer” goes as it did in Anchorage.

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Hayes trial in high gear. Prosecutors began presenting their case against former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Hayes as the trial picked up speed in its first full day of testimony on Tuesday, a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story says. Hayes faces more than two dozen charges, most of them involving alleged misuse of federal grant money; his wife has already pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors presented evidence that they claim shows Hayes illegally steered funds to the church where he was pastor, Lily of the Valley Church of God in Christ. Contractors testified they were owed thousands of dollars before Hayes came through with payments.

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Rolling in dough. The state Department of Revenue’s latest revenue forecast predicts the state will collect $3 billion more than expected this year because of record-high oil prices, according to an APRN story. Lawmakers have said they want to put at least some of it away in savings.

“The goal is to save as much money as we can,” said Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski and House Finance Committee co-chairman. “And hopefully that will help in future years when production falls … and the price of oil drops.”

An ADN story today reports that some legislators are considering dipping into the surplus to send every Alaskan a check of between $500 and $1,000 in coming months.

And rolling in dough Part II. Conoco Phillips, which on Tuesday announced it would join with TransCanada in an oil pipeline project (the Associated Press story on that deal is here), reported today that it had net income from October to December of almost $4.4 billion. That’s better than $1 billion more than the same quarter in 2006.

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“Pitching inspiration.” Chad Bentz, who grew up in Juneau and who now lives in Vermont, is taking his tale of inspiration to school kids. A story in the Rutland Herald reports on his appearance before middle-schoolers, telling the youngsters, “Never, ever let anyone else tell you what you can and cannot do. If I listened to what people told me, I wouldn't be here.”

Rutland was born with one fully functioning hand, went on to pitch in the major leagues and has spent time with the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and, most recently, the Colorado Rockies organizations. He’s now a free agent and is waiting to see if any potential deals surface, he told the kids.

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Crabbers wrap up Tanner crab season. One of two sections of the Kodiak tanner crab season closed with far fewer boats involved this year, and those fishing quickly reaching the maximum harvest allowed, according to a Kodiak Daily Mirror story. “There just isn’t much crab,” said Dave Woodruff, owner of Alaska Fresh processing. “These guys are scratching for everything they get.”

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to only one incident, according to the story — a vessel that began taking on water but was ultimately able to get the flooding under control.

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Bird mysteries. Alaskans understand how deadly airplane-vs.-bird encounters can be: One of the state’s worst air disasters, the 1995 crash of an AWACS aircraft taking off from Elmendorf Air Force Base that killed 24 people onboard, was attributed to a flock of geese. And now, according to an Associated Press story, researchers are making a systematic study of bird carcasses with the aim of preventing collisions.

They’ve compiled 650,000 bird bodies at the Feather Identification Lab in Washington, D.C. Studying them to learn which birds collided with which planes “can give wildlife biologists at air fields crucial information that they can use to prevent it from happening again,” according to the story.

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Wolf video raises fur. A 10-minute video clip posted at the Current TV web site aims to rally opposition to Alaska’s wolf hunting program and is drawing a substantial list of comments on both sides of the issue.

There’s this side: “We will not visit Alaska and will encourage others to do the same until the barbaric aerial hunting of wolves ceases.”

And then there’s this side: “If you are going to question our management then please don’t visit Alaska. Unless you are a resident, unless you live here, work here and survive here, its not your business.”

On a related front, an ADN story today reports on the advertising campaign that has taken to Washington, D.C., subways to try to stir opposition to aerial hunting of wolves.

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Who for president? The Ketchikan Daily News is asking its readers to come online and reveal who they’d pick for president if voting today. Republicans and Democrats are all thrown together in one list. On top so far, by a percentage point: Barack Obama. John McCain is running second.

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