Anchorage Daily News

Tough people do the work on reality TV. Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara has a thoughtful essay on how reality TV shows like "The Deadliest Catch," ranked No. 3 among all prime-time television on Tuesday nights, are giving a truer portrait of class in America than most other shows.

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Take a quiz and see polar bear photos below. What other animals are endangered in Alaska, story below. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Mary Sage, Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage)

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"The real narrative is about what many people do to earn money -- fishing, trucking, lumber, waste management. ... The point is that some people actually work real jobs, hard and every darn day, for their paychecks."

Americans still love to think that everyone is essentially middle or upper-middle class, she writes, and most of their favorite TV shows are peppered with lawyers and doctors and single women who love to shop.

"It's a sad state of affairs when reality television provides the most realistic portrayal of anything," she writes, "but it certainly acknowledges class in a way no other genre does these days."

***

U.S. Coast Guard rescue calls climb dramatically in Alaska. With the arrival of the recreational boating season, some startling statistics are reported in the Alaska Journal of Commerce on emergency calls and saved lives this year compared to last. The U.S. Coast Guard as of May 9 has already responded to 253 emergency calls and saved 110 lives. By comparison, in 2007 the Coast Guard responded to 158 incidents, saving 35 lives.

And here's an interesting statistic on the costs of rescue: In the April Alaska Ranger rescue, in which five crewmembers died and 42 were saved, costs were $8,059 an hour for the Coast Guard cutter, $6,277 an hour for a Dolphin helicopter and $8,905 per hour for a Jayhawk helicopter. The Coast Guard's budget for all operations in Alaska is $28 million, said Lt. Eric Eggen at headquarters in Juneau.

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Flying was safest in Alaska last year. Speaking to the Alaska Airmen's Association at a recent tradeshow in Anchorage, Mike Cirillo, FAA regional administrator for Alaska, said, "Fiscal '07 was Alaska's safest year ever with just 92 accidents. That's about half the number of a decade ago. In fact, the improvements in your safety record have been nothing short of dramatic."

It's a different story this year, reported the Alaska Journal of Commerce. According to Cirillo, the goal this year is to have fewer than 105 accidents; already the state has had seven small-craft accidents, three with fatalities.

***

Plastic bags flying across the tundra like "thousands of white geese." Concerned citizens of Bethel met earlier this month to address the problem of countless plastic bags and debris from the Bethel dump "creeping over the tundra," according to the Delta Discovery.

A May date was set for a massive cleanup, complete with free garbage bags and gloves, as well as hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza for those who helped. The group discussed asking for a ban on plastic bags and requiring local stores to offer reusable shopping bags instead.

***

Exhausted DOT budget puts Ketchikan roadwork on hold until July. All Ketchikan City Manager Karl Amylon wanted was some sidewalk and tunnel repair, pothole-riddled streets resurfaced, some adjustments for sinking manhole covers and storm drains, and new paint for faded crosswalks, according to the Associated Press.

Not so fast, said the DOT Regional director Malcolm Menzies, suggesting the city could foot the bill if it wanted the work done more quickly. "It seems like it's very painful for lots of areas, including the city (of Ketchikan), to budget adequate maintenance," he said.

Mayor Bob Weinstein didn't take it well. "We're not the ones with an annual $8 billion surplus," he said. "We're not prepared to take over the state's responsibilities."

***

Palin name keeps popping up on the national political landscape. There it was again, in The New York Times Sunday, suggesting Gov. Sarah Palin might be the woman who becomes president when Hillary Clinton does not.

"Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, is on many lists - she's known as a reformer as well as for riding a motorcycle and referring to her husband as the ‘first dude.'"

She's already made it into the final round on Congressional Quarterly's VP Madness poll. It's Palin vs. former White House budget director Rob Portman, and Mike Huckabee vs. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. See how she does by the end of today; if she makes it to the final round, voting ends Thursday. The ADN Alaska Politics blog is already taking comments on both snapshots.

***

Salmon season is off to a rough start. KCHU in Valdez and The Cordova Times report a less than spectacular launch to the Copper River fishery that opened last week.

The preliminary harvest from May 15, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, was 2,400 sockeye and 800 Chinook salmon with 187 deliveries reported. The anticipated harvest had been 17,105 sockeye and 5,673 Chinook.

"This is the crappiest Copper River opener I have ever experienced," fisherman Peter Kuttel said. "Catch was very low and fuel costs very high."

Fishermen hope today's opening will be more promising; they have Memorial Day weekend orders to fill.

***

How far away can a polar bear smell a seal? If all the endangered species back and forth hasn't given you whiplash yet, here's a polar bear photo gallery, plus a quiz you can take to test your knowledge of the big white bear, thanks to the Chicago Tribune.

The reach of polar bear sympathy is broad and wide. The Washington Post this morning profiles 18-year-old Melissa Rice, who stood in a polar bear suit in 80-degree weather in front of the State Department in September, holding a sign that read. "Bush: My home is melting."

And finally, blogger Kodiak Konfidential did a smart thing. All this talk of endangered and threatened got him or her to pondering: what other species are protected in Alaska. With help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the list is posted on the blog. Thirteen animals are threatened or endangered (the Eskimo curlew and the leatherback sea turtle, for example); and one fern, the Aleutian shield, is also listed.

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