Anchorage Daily News

Retreating ice is bad news for Alaska's walrus. Last week, polar bears got all the glory, getting labeled as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. But two stories in today's New York Times pay tribute to the walrus and point out that retreating ice is very bad news for this pinniped.

I know, I know, walrus are not as sexy as whales and dolphins and polar bears. As the writer put it, "Walruses remain perversely, lumpishly obscure, known mostly for their sing-song linkage with a carpenter, an eggman and goo goo goo joob."

But scientists will tell you that walrus are flat-out amazing. For example, they sing.

"In full breeding tilt, the bulls sound like a circus, a construction site, a Road Runner cartoon. They whistle, beep, rasp, strum, bark and knock. They make bell tones, jackhammer drills, train-track clatters and the rubber-band boing! of Wile E. Coyote getting bonked on the head. ... They sing nonstop for days at a time, and their songs can be heard up to 10 miles away."

In one of the stories, you'll meet Sivuqaq, a 2,200-pound adult male, rolling along "like a gelatinous, mustachioed boulder," biding his time at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif., where scientists like Ronald J. Schusterman of UC Santa Cruz can study him.

Imagine being the reporter about to get up-close-and-personal with Sivuqaq when Schusterman tells you to "blow in his face" because walrus like that. And then you do.

"I stroked his splendid vibrissae, the stiff, sensitive whiskers ... that feel like slender tubes of bamboo. Then I blew in his face, and he half-closed his eyes ... and he leaned into my breath, all the while bleating and grunting and snorting for more."

But don't take it from me. Check out these two stories -- one is a walrus portrait and one brings you up to date on how retreating ice is affecting them -- and you'll never feel the same about a walrus again.

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Jeff King goes home, again. Home is the wine country of Napa Valley, Calif., and tiny St. Helena, where he graduated from high school in 1974. Visiting there recently, the Iditarod musher gave a talk to about 100 people at the Glen Ellen Firehouse in Sonoma, writes the Napa Valley Register.

Listeners learned that his love of dogs came from living just a block away from the California campus of the Guide Dogs for the Blind, where he became fascinated by dog behavior, disposition and intelligence.

Later his family moved into Sonoma near Jack London State Park.

"I read all of Jack London's stories, " King told the crowd, "and I wanted to go somewhere where I could have sled dogs and be in snow and take care of myself. That brought me to Alaska."

Of his 2008 races, King called this Iditarod "one of the best races I've been in. ... I let it slip out of my fingers, but I was beat fair and square."

The 52-year-old former high school football and track star said the thrill of his team's performance makes him want to run the Iditarod again.

"My body's holding up, so I absolutely intend to do it some more."

Lately he's been tangled up with national park officials, accused of illegally shooting a moose inside Denali National Park, according to the Anchorage Daily News. King has pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial.

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Online poll puts Palin in final round for VP. Keeping you up to date here as the final round of Congressional Quarterly's reader-participation VP Madness enters its last four days of speculation.

Palin now faces just one competitor, Mike Huckabee.

In round three, Huckabee beat out Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, 58 to 41 percent. Palin pushed out Tim Pawlenty, 55-44 percent.

You can vote until Thursday noon here.

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Libertarian candidate Mike Gravel debates today. The Washington Post reports that former Democratic presidential contender and former senator from Alaska Mike Gravel will meet Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, in a debate today at Reason magazine in Washington, D.C. That's a lot of formers.

"This is the wildest Libertarian (race) in a long time," says Reason associate editor David Weigel, who organized and will moderate the debate. "They've never had two (former) elected officials leave their parties and run Libertarian."

If you like following Gravel's meanderings, check out "My Strange Day With Quixotic Mike Gravel" in the American Chronicle, in which writer Jamie Weinstein recounts a January day following Gravel on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, where the reporter's own GPS was the only way Gravel got to his next speech.

And if you've missed it, there's video. Gravel meets Obama Girl, here.

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Get your airline updates by text message. Yes, it's true. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has a new service, according to Today in the Sky Blog at USA Today. Just text :FlySEA"(359732), then your airline and fight number (such as: Alaska 1234), and you'll get flight number, arrival time, gate number and status.

The airport says responses will be "within seconds." Find out how to sign up here, and yes, you phone carrier's text message fees will apply.

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Time to warm up to statehood festivities. Astronauts orbiting the Earth in January 2009 will look down at the globe and see ... eight stars of gold on a field of blue. That's one idea anyway, according to the Peninsula Clarion.

Kenai Borough Mayor John Williams told a well-attended public meeting that "eight giant bonfires purposefully set at widely spaced but strategic locations will take the shape of the Big Dipper and the North Star, just like Alaska's flag."

The borough is trying to coordinate with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to have a picture taken from a satellite permanently above Alaska in a geosynchronous orbit.

USA Today reported that among the special statehood benies would be the Alaska Railroad's promise to offer anyone who turns 50 in 2009 a free ride for a day.

Other headlines you may want to check out:

> The continuing $4-gallon gas saga, reported by the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

> Get ready for grizzly bears this summer, reported in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

> Matanuska Maid gear goes up for auction, reported by KTUU

> APU's Nordic Ski Center honored, reported by Fast Tracks.

> 10 places to go before global warming really heats up, reported by the Seattle Times.

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