Anchorage Daily News

Plea deals planned in football game gunfire. Three men charged in the gunfire that erupted at a pickup football game three years ago are ready to accept prison terms in exchange for guilty pleas, according to a KTUU Channel 2 story. “The reason this agreement was reached was because we think it was the right thing to do,” prosecutor John Novak told the station.

The three — Clayton Nai, Norman Fagafaga and Kalani Maalona — were charged with dozens of felonies, including attempted murder, after gunfire broke out at Anchorage Football Stadium. In making their pleas, they are expected to admit the shooting was “gang-related,” according to the story.

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Rep. Don Young claims colleague called him a liar. Sparks flew Wednesday after Rep. Don Young’s defensive explanation before the House of Representatives of his involvement with the Coconut Road earmark. At issue is how $10 million to study the widening of I-75 in Florida morphed into money earmarked for the Coconut Road interchange, after the bill had already been approved by the House and Senate. Read ADN reporter Erika Bolstad’s account of Young’s speech and listen to an excerpt here.

But after giving his speech and before leaving the House floor, Young had an altercation with the area’s representative, Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., who says he does not support the Coconut Grove funding. In stories reported by APRN and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Young described the exchange with Mack.

“He just said that I was a liar,” Young said, “and I don’t understand because I’ve got the letters pulled up on the Web site. He’s running away from an issue because he’s got political heat, and without being upfront with anybody, it upsets me, because he didn’t deny this, didn’t say anything against this, and yet he wrote letters in support of it, and those letters are there.”

Yesterday, Young called Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell a “little man that’s lying” over a dispute the two Republican candidates have over an old conversation. Parnell is challenging Young for Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives.

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Anonymous no more. Another story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner today quotes a former campaign manager for Democratic U.S. House candidate Jake Metcalfe as saying she overheard a Metcalfe aide declare he was setting up Web sites to attack Ethan Berkowitz, another Democratic candidate. Dana Krawchuk told the newspaper that Bill Scannell “told Metcalfe in September or early October that he was purchasing Internet domains based on Ethan Berkowitz’s name in order to redirect voters to sites critical of the former state House minority leader.”

The Web sites stirred a flurry of media reports recently (read some of the background here in an item posted on ADN’s political blog). Scannell had said earlier he was not involved in the Web site attacks, according to the News-Miner story, and he couldn’t be reached for comment on the latest development.

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The pains of paint selection: Pink or white? That’s the question the federal government is asking the residents of Ketchikan as it prepares to put a new coat of paint on the Federal Building downtown, according to a Ketchikan Daily News story. The consensus from the few people who turned out for a meeting this week: Keep it pink.

“(T)he process of paint selection is not one that’s normally brought to the public,” an architect with the federal General Services Administration said at the meeting. But officials decided to get the public involved partly because of the building’s standing as one of 2,300 federally owned buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The government expects to choose pink or cream by next month, according to the story.

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Kodiak to get a new convention center. The local Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for a privately owned 240-seat convention center in downtown Kodiak over the objections of city planners, who say 13 available parking places are 47 fewer than the 60 they recommend for the facility. The new building will replace an 8,000-square-foot former car dealership at Marine Way and Rezanof Drive, according to the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

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When the cat’s away ...: The temporary, paid suspension of Seldovia police chief Andy Anderson over his alleged mishandling of a personnel matter has caused growing concern in that coastal town, especially since the death last week of Laramie Morrison, 28, who succumbed to injuries after his Chevy Impala hit a tree in the aftermath of a party.

In a report by Naomi Klouda in the Homer Tribune, residents say Anderson has the “magic touch" when it comes to calming energetic youths. On the beat in Seldovia for 28 years, Anderson is described as “towering 6-feet-4 and round as a grizzly.” Meanwhile, the city won’t comment on the allegations or the investigation until it is complete.

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Old age in Alaska is expensive. A report at U.S. News & World Report details the rising cost of housing for the old. Citing an interactive map prepared by Genworth Financial , staff reporter and blogger Emily Brandon says a day in an Alaska nursing home averages $515, while in Louisiana those services can be had for $125. Be nice to your kids, Brandon advises.

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Watching for bird flu. The bird flu threat isn’t getting the ink it used to, but 10 Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages will be participating in a surveillance effort that monitors birds on the leading edge of the spring migration, according to a story in The Tundra Drums. The effort aims to collect birds for testing from subsistence hunters.

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. hopes to collect 3,000 swab samples from villages participating in the collection effort, according to the story. Scientist have noted in the past that bird flu, should it migrate to North America, could come via birds making their way through Alaska.

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Juneau awaits disaster declaration. The Juneau Empire reports that the capital city could get an answer today whether the governor will issue a disaster declaration in response to the city’s power crisis. Gov. Sarah Palin’s Disaster Policy Cabinet has a meeting scheduled this morning to look at the pains that have visited the city ever since an avalanche cut the power transmission line between Juneau and the Snettisham hydroelectric project in mid-April, forcing the city to switch to expensive backup diesel generators.

A disaster declaration would make it easier for the city to get financial help. Power rates are expected to rise dramatically as a consequence of the fill-in power source.

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KUDO report. The Anchorage Press has a story about liberal talk show host Aaron Selbig, who was fired from his job at KUDO 1080 AM radio last weekend. Progressive Alaska, which has been commenting on the issue on a daily basis this week, also has a new posting today, noting that “progressive radio in the USA is up against an almost insurmountable obstacle” -- the struggle for advertising.

In the Press story, Selbig ranges over a number of issues having to do with his dismissal and with operations at the station. “He blames the low ratings on the lack of promotion and advertising for the station, pointing out that many in the Anchorage Bowl don’t even realize that KUDO — the municipality’s only liberal radio outlet with local talk show hosts — even exists,” according to the story.

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Statue mystery solved, partly. A statue of Mary outside St. Bernard Church in Talkeetna, whose origins had persisted as a mystery, turns out to have a more interesting history than anybody figured, according to a story posted on Catholic Online. The statue apparently was one of many cast by a World War II veteran after his son survived a bout of typhoid.

Gaps still remain in the story of the statue, which is known for its missing hand. Nobody knows, for example, how it actually got to Alaska. “We hope to add to the story and find out,” said parishioner Suzy Kellard.

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Hayes’ wife asks for sympathy for husband. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story today reports that Chris Hayes — who along with her husband, Jim, faces sentencing tomorrow for stealing money from social services grants — is asking that the judge hold her responsible and show compassion for her husband.

According to the story, Chris Hayes wrote in a 12-page letter: “I would like to take a stand for my husband, Jim Hayes. We never talked about the grants for LOVE Social Services, other than me originally asking him for help in getting funds for (the center).” Prosecutors have asked that Jim Hayes, a former mayor of Fairbanks, get up to eight years in jail and Chris Hayes get between five and six.

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