Anchorage Daily News

Mackey’s tough, but Tiger’s tougher. Or at least that’s the judgment of a Sports Illustrated listing of The 25 Toughest Athletes. The listing puts Mackey as No. 2, noting this as the stuff that makes him tough: “Caginess and steadfast refusal to quit in the face of throat cancer (2001), hostile terrain and 40-below temperatures.”

As for Mackey’s “defining moment,” the listing says this: “Held off four-time winner Jeff King in the 2008 Iditarod by eschewing sleep and sneaking out of their lodging while his pursuer dozed to grab an insurmountable 54-minute lead in the final grueling climb on the coast of the Bering Sea.”

In the end, though, the list makers liked Tiger Woods’ “otherworldly talent, determination and focus” and ranked the golfer No. 1.

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Death penalty measure surfaces. An attempt to bring back capital punishment in Alaska made a brief appearance Monday, according to an Associated Press story and a late posting from Juneau on ADN’s political blog. House Finance co-chairman Mike Chenault brought up the issue during discussion of another bill and put an amendment on the table that would authorize capital punishment for certain crimes against children.

Both the AP and the blog say Chenault, even though he withdrew the amendment, will likely bring back a capital punishment measure sometime in the future. Alaska abolished the death penalty in 1957, and the last two people put to death were hung in the late 1940s after being convicted in the murder of a Juneau shopkeeper, according to the AP story.

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Chalmers and his mom. ESPN columnist Pat Forde, in an online piece today, took note of a particular moment after Kansas won its national championship Monday night: It was the moment that one-time Bartlett High School star Mario Chalmers and his mother, Almarie, met at courtside after the game. “The unflappable Kansas Jayhawk wrapped both arms around her, laid his head on her shoulder and bawled like a baby,” Forde writes.

Chalmers, who sent the game into overtime with a spectacular three-point shot in the final seconds, had been to a Final Four as a spectator four years ago with his dad, according to Forde, and told his father then, “One day, I’m going to be out there winning the national championship.”

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Murder victim’s family hunts for answers. Joseph Tarricone had a contract to supply meat to camps and lodges on the Richardson Highway in the 1970s when he vanished. And now, according to a Valdez Star story, his remains have been found at a Washington construction site, a brother and a sister have been charged in his slaying, and his family is calling for anybody in Alaska who knew Tarricone to come forward so they can try to piece together his life.

The Star story details the efforts of Tarricone’s daughter, Gypsy, to put together the tale of her father’s disappearance. She said she and other family members worked on the case as best they could because it was largely ignored by law enforcement authorities in Washington. It was “only by the grace of God” that her father’s remains were found at the construction site, she said.

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Remembering Judge Stewart. Progressive Alaska blog has a tribute to Judge Thomas Stewart, who died late last year and who has been called the “framer of Alaska’s Constitution.” (A celebration of his life, which touched many of the events of Alaska history, was held over the weekend in Juneau, and a Juneau Empire story looked back at some of his accomplishments.)

Progressive Alaska quotes at length from a piece by Dennis Harris: “It was Tom Stewart who organized all the mechanics of our Constitutional Convention, who rounded up the finest constitutional experts in the country to advise the delegates, who served as the convention’s secretary, and who helped Bill Egan make sure that the convention ran smoothly. Because of his hard work and attention to detail, Alaska has one of the best state constitutions in the country.”

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“Hopefully, he’ll be able to breed for a while.” That’s what a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story quotes musher Lance Mackey as saying of his dog Zorro, injured late last month during the All-Alaska Sweepstakes near Nome. Zorro, with four broken ribs and a bruised spinal cord, was a casualty of a snowmachine that ran into Mackey’s sled.

“Obviously, his racing career is over; he’ll never walk the same again,” Mackey told the newspaper. Zorro was sent to Seattle for treatment but was back in Fairbanks this week. Mackey said vet bills have reached $8,700, and the dog needs help walking and takes medication several times a day.

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More troubles for church. Controversy in the Russian Orthodox Church has provoked the resignation of a rural priest, and a KTUU Channel 2 story says the Rev. Michael Trefon of Naknek stepped down because of the furor involving Bishop Nikolai Soraich. The bishop, who heads the church in Alaska, has been the target of complaints from clergy and laity that he is insensitive and abusive.

The story quotes the Rev. Daniel Andrejuk of Anchorage as saying that other church members encouraged Trefon to stay, to no avail. And the story says national church leaders are meeting next week to again address the situation in Alaska.

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Polar bear shots. Seattle photographer Steven Kazlowski lived in a station wagon in Alaska for weeks, worked in 25-below-zero cold, and got slapped on the back by a polar bear cub wanting to play tag, according to a Seattle Times story. And now he’s come out with what the story calls a “stunning photo book” of polar bears.

The book comes at that moment when climate changes are threatening the animals’ habitat. And the story notes that while putting together the photos, Kazlowski grew to love the animals: “For me photography isn’t about going to the spots everybody else is going to because they’re getting good pictures,” he says. “I’ve always tried to go to these out-of-the-way places where I could find something different. I could be alone with the bears. I could be at peace with the bears.”

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Pacific fishing ban possible. Even fishermen are calling for a shutdown of salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon in the wake of the collapse of one of the West Coast’s biggest wild salmon runs, according to an Associated Press story posted on the San Jose Mercury News web site. “I have no problem sitting out to rebuild this resource if that's what's necessary,” is how one fisherman put it.

The story says that the Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting this week in Seattle and will be looking at “the most severe restrictions ever on West Coast salmon fishing to protect California’s dwindling chinook stocks.”

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“Brace for the Arctic oil rush.” An opinion column in The Japanese Times offers the perspective of a former U.K. cabinet member on what the rush to get at oil reserves in the Arctic might look like. While a lot of guesswork is still at play, the economics of the whole thing are making it attractive to a host of countries, in the opinion of David Howell, now a member of the House of Lords.

“In short, while past estimates may have been inflated, and while the very highest environmental standards will need to be met at every stage to safeguard Arctic wildlife, the economics are beginning to give a wavering green light.”

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And then there are these from the endlessly intriguing police log at The Unalaska Advertiser:

> Assault – Two women began arguing after the first woman told her children not to play with the second woman’s children. After the argument escalated, two other women stepped in and tried to separate the two. The second woman told police she had been kicked by the first woman. There was insufficient evidence to support this, and no charges were filed.

> Drunk Disturbance – Officers assisted Grand Aleutian personnel with a hotel guest who was intoxicated and screaming about another guest. The first guest was warned that his behavior could result in his arrest. He eventually quieted and returned to his room.

> Forgery – Bank employee reported a prospective customer had attempted to open an account with a fraudulent Social Security card. The suspect fled before officers arrived, but had already provided the bank with other identification and contact information. Under investigation.

> Suspicious Person/Activity – Caller reported teenagers removing things from vehicles and burning them on the beach. An officer discovered the teens were burning old Christmas trees and pallets. The officer advised the teens to monitor the fire and not burn more than one pallet at a time.

> Suspicious Person/Activity – Caller, after watching movies about cold case files, reported being in Unalaska approximately 20 years ago, and hearing about a woman who died of a drug overdose and whose body was thrown in bay. Under investigation.

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