Dan Fauske

Imagine if a national news story last month announced that Alaska's NBA star Carlos Boozer has not yet scored a basket in this year's NBA playoffs. An appropriate response to such a story might be: "That's silly! Of course he hasn't. The playoffs don't start until mid-April."

Record high prices for home heating fuel and utilities are putting a squeeze on family budgets. No other state's residents feel the pain more than Alaskans do. Our high oil prices along with extreme weather, isolated and remote communities, and a lack of infrastructure present a tough challenge.