Alaska Beat

AK Beat: Palin launches online news site

Palin launches online channel: Exhorting viewers to "live life vibrantly, purposefully and boldly" former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Sunday announced on Facebook the launch of her own online media site. Palin is not the first national conservative personality to parlay her personal brand into a media one, as Slate's David Weigel notes: Former such ventures have ranged from Rush Limbaugh's Rush 24/7 to Glenn Beck's GBTV to Herman Cain's CainTV. The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf took a first look and found the site's initial offerings unimpressive: "The production value is poor, the Palin syntax in some of the monologues suggests that lots of content isn't even scripted, and the same cultural perspective can be found on Fox or GBTV or talk radio. All of which is to say that the site offers just one thing you can't get (in comparable quantity) elsewhere: Sarah Palin herself. If the channel succeeds it will be on the strength of her ability to sustain a fan base." Subscriptions -- the site is paywall protected -- cost $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year.

APD ticketing hikers parked along road to Rabbit Lakes trailhead: Hikers might want to rethink driving to the Rabbit Lakes trailhead. The Anchorage Police Department ticketed five illegally parked cars in the vicinity of the Upper Canyon Road trailhead on the Hillside Sunday, APD spokeswoman Dani Myren said. The APD posted a Twitter photo of a sign saying the trailhead is "closed for construction" with no parking available. Cars stacked up along the shoulder of Upper Canyon Road in areas marked "no parking," dangerously narrow the road for emergency vehicles, Myren said. Officers ticketed "the most flagrant offenders" Sunday, she said.

Archives between trip from Anchorage to Juneau: On Friday, 3,000 cubic feet of records from the former National Archives in Anchorage were transferred to the care of the Alaska State Archives, reports Juneau public radio KTOO. The National Archives and Records Administration closed its Anchorage facility in June, and while much of the records formerly housed in Anchorage are headed to Seattle, some -- including court records from territorial days (some dating as far back as 1884) and Alaska railroad records -- will remain within the state, going to the state archives instead. The records are set to Arrive in Juneau August 4 and will be housed at the State Libraries Archives and Museum there.

ADVERTISEMENT