ADN editors find the news from all over Alaska every morning so you don't have to. Updated weekdays by 9 a.m. AST. (Some links may require registration)
Skagway mourns the killing of a white or glacier bear believed to be protected.
Garrett McNmara and Kealii Mamala rode into surfing history when they towed into a monster tsunami created by Child's Glacier in Southcentral Alaska.
Get the web-eye view of Fourth and E, the port and Sleeping Lady, Tudor and Lake Otis -- even McGrath's airport ramp.
Two polar bears contemplate the causes of global warming and exactly what it is that's messing with their lives. (youtube.com)
Modern-day moose are widening their turf. Experts say they're now thriving in a new landscape. Habitat changes - spurred by increasing human influences - have allowed them to break out of isolated strongholds in recent decades. (The Associated Press)
Jonathan Harris of New York City, traveled to Barrow and put together this imaginative arrangement of photographs of a whale hunt. Thousands of pictures are involved. (thewhalehunt.org)
William Henry Seward, credited with negotiating the purchase of Alaska, owes the Tongass Tribe a debt - and a shame pole in Saxman aims to keep the memory alive. (ketchikandailynews.com - requires registration)
As seen from the International Space Station, the northern lights take on a whole new look. (spaceweather.com)
Today's news for the Last Frontier
Published: May 13th, 2008 10:18 AM
Last Modified: May 13th, 2008 10:19 AM
Alaskan shares stage with Conan O'Brien. Nods to Josh Niva of Play magazine and Los Anchorage blogger Casey Grove for this item. Alaskan Erik Braund, who mastered Play's local music CD Hot Sheet a few years back, is reportedly living and studying in New York. He recently had tickets to the O'Brien show, had the guts to dress just like him and got noticed.
Click to enlarge
Conan O'Brien and Alaskan Erik Braund.
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Conan called Braund onstage from his seat in the audience. The two were positively twin-like, down to the suit and tie and bouffant hair wave. Banter included trading sun-block tips for the fair-skinned and reading off the show's list of guests together.
An easy link provided by Grove takes you right to the show. Guaranteed to make you smile.
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Searching for Native teachers in the Arctic. A recent news story in the Arctic Sounder tells of a homegrown effort to entice young Alaska Natives to become teachers in their own villages. The initiative springs from Ilisagvik College's Teachers for the Arctic program, which started last August to encourage North Slope residents to consider teaching.
According to the news report, fewer than 3 percent of the borough school district's 163 certified teachers are Inupiaq, compared with a student body that is 81 percent Native.
Homegrown teachers can relieve some of the work required when teachers are imported, commented David Beaulieu, editor of the Journal of American Indian Education.
"It is not necessary to focus on sensitivity training and other forms of orientation typically related to professional development for non-Native teachers," he said. "A Native teacher, particularly from the students' own community, shares with those students a culturally competent way of interacting and communicating."
The program has established Teachers for the Arctic clubs in a number of borough village schools.
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Meanwhile, APD recruits in the Midwest. According to the Rochester Post-Bulletin, recruiters with the Anchorage Police Department will be in town Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to entice Midwesterners to come north for work as cops.
"When we compare our pay and benefits to what is in the Midwest, even when we do a cost of living comparison, we're very competitive," APD's Sgt. Michael Courturier told the newspaper.
Besides Minnesota, the APD's recruiting Web site says, they'll be stopping in Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The trip started Friday and continues to May 20.
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Sen. Ted Stevens challenged in GOP energy plan to ease oil and gas drilling restrictions. The Herald-Tribune in Florida tells of a plan that would allow Pacific and Atlantic coast states to drill on the outer continental shelf, an area that has been closed by the federal government for two decades.
Complicating the matter further are claims that the 17 senators supporting the plan, including Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, received $3 million total in campaign contributions from political action committees and individuals tied to the oil and gas industry since Jan. 1, 2007.
"There are few better examples of direct blatant support than the fossil fuel industry's support for this kind of legislation by way of contributions to these members of Congress," said Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
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New treatment hope for rural residents dependent on alcohol. Yale University School of Medicine just completed a study that involved 100 alcohol-dependent rural Alaskans, among others, and found that using a therapy drug called naltrexone, plus counseling, significantly reduced alcohol dependency in the subjects.
Stephanie O'Malley, a professor of psychiatry at Yale's medical school, authored the study. She noted that 35 percent of those receiving the treatment remained abstinent for the entire 16-week treatment session. She says these findings can be helpful for rural residents living far from treatment facilities.
"More than one-fifth of the U.S. population lives in rural or remote areas, and many of these areas have high rates of alcohol dependency," O'Malley said. "Our study suggests that naltrexone, in combination with a primary-care model of counseling, could be used to treat alcoholism in these settings. This approach could increase access to care and reduce the consequences of alcoholism in these communities."
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Rep. Don Young received illegal contribution from a Florida engineering consulting firm. The Miami Herald reported Friday that court filings in the sentencing of PBS&J chairman Richard Wickett for his role in a long-running scheme to subvert campaign-finance laws point the finger at Alaska's sole congressman. Prosecutors in the case say that "fraudulent activity occurred in federal campaigns across the nation" and "affected campaigns for numerous state offices inside and outside of ...Florida."
Court documents indicate Young received $500 in 2003 from a PBS&J manager who was later illegally reimbursed by the company.
Young is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department for his involvement with an Alaska oil field services company whose employees contributed more than $150,000 to his campaigns since 1996.
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New species of sponge found in Bering Sea canyon. In the Dutch Harbor Fisherman, Greenpeace announces that it has discovered a new, inch-long, off-white sponge while exploring the Pribilof and Zhemchung sea canyons in 2007. The organization hopes the news will influence the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to consider restricting fishing in the canyon areas.
In the summer of 2007, the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza worked eight weeks in the Bering Sea with submarines and a remote-operated vehicle to explore the canyons. According to John Hocevar, an oceans specialist with Greenpeace, they found seven coral species and 14 sponges that had never been seen before. An independent sponge taxonomist in Germany spent two months studying specimens and confirmed the sponge was indeed a new species.
The NPFMC is scheduled to meet in June but has no plans to discuss the canyons.
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Weatherization program brings money and work to the Y-K Delta. The Tundra Drums reports that RuralCap and the Association of Village Council Presidents plan to upgrade and finish a host of weatherization projects in villages around the Delta, bringing an estimated $30 million into the region over the next five years.
The project goal is the "to weatherize and make more efficient all homes in all villages, according to Ron Hoffman, president and CEO of the AVCP Regional Housing Authority.
The work will be done by Force Account, a method of construction using local labor and the apprenticeship program called Alaska Works Partnership. Hoffman said the projects will "provide lifetime training for the young people looking for a career and a way to make a decent living."
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Parnell and Young are neck and neck, poll shows. The Fairbanks News-Miner has a story this morning citing the latest poll by the Hays Research Group showing Don Young with a slight lead over Sean Parnell in the Republican primary for the U.S. House of Representatives.
But there are caveats. The survey included only 128 registered Republicans, leaving it with a margin of error near 9 percent. No unaffiliated voters were included, according to the report.
Ivan Moore, who does polling work for the Democrat Ethan Berkowitz, said Young can expect to do better among registered Republicans and that Parnell would poll better with unaffiliated voters.
A different question posed to 403 likely voters statewide shows that 59 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Young, though 37 percent said they have a favorable or somewhat favorable view of him.
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Utility aid in capital city is dubbed "Juneau Unplugged." Two Juneau charities, United Way of Southeast Alaska and Catholic Social Services, will coordinate a city-funded relief effort to help low-income residents cope with a 447 percent leap in the cost of electricity there, according to the Juneau Empire.
Program coordinator Kevin Ritchie says he hopes the effort will cover 70 percent of the increased portion on a household bill and that families can reduce their use to balance out the remainder of the increase.
Applicants need to fill out a one-page form and attach their May 16 electric bill to it. Ritchie said as many as 3,000 low-income residents may be helped by the program.
Meanwhile, at APRN, you can hear protesters from Juneau People's Power Project shouting on the steps of the state Capitol, demanding that the utility company, AEL&P, pay for its own mistakes.
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