Anchorage Daily News

Life support removal denied in Alaska. CBN.com, a Christian news network, reports that the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a man wishing to keep his wife on life support.

According to the story, doctors at Providence Alaska Medical Center told him his wife's treatment was ineffective and that keeping her alive violated their ethical standards.

Peter Chamberlain and his attorney filed an initial suit May 16. A lower-court judge ruled against Chamberlain and ordered his wife Mari's life support removed May 30. The higher-court decision means the woman can continue receiving medical treatment until her family decides otherwise. Doctors say she would die in "minutes or days" if the life support is removed.

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Reproductive health clinic to open in Juneau. The Juneau Empire reports that Planned Parenthood announced a clinic will open in the capital city by the end of summer.

It will be the first time abortions have been available in Juneau. Besides first-trimester abortions, the clinic will offer breast and pelvic exams, cancer-screening Pap smears and testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Washington state Department of Health estimates that more than 200 women fly to the Seattle area each year from Southeast Alaska for abortion services, according to Planned Parenthood of Alaska CEO Clover Simon. Others travel to Anchorage.

"It is very expensive and prohibitive in many cases for people to do that," said LaRae Jones, secretary of the Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition.

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Lyda vs. Linda: Is it really Sarah vs. Lyda? KTUU summarized the race for senate Seat G, noting that Linda Menard (supported by Gov. Sarah Palin) and Lyda Green will face off in the Aug. 26 Republican primary to see who makes the November ballot.

Menard said Valley residents have picked up on tension between Green and Palin.

"Some call it a catfight. Others call it a political debate," reports KTUU.

Green: "There is no fight. I think if you will review your records you will never find that I have ever said anything negative about Sarah Palin, and I don't intend to."

Menard: "I know people are tired of mean-spiritedness."

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The Palin-for-VP drumbeat just won't quit. See her answering questions for Glenn Beck on this video. Cast your vote for her on the newest bracket-style Veepstakes 2008 by MSNBC, in which pundit Chuck Todd claims she hates Ted Stevens, "McCain's nemesis."

But it doesn't stop there. The Brits are getting into it too. Times Online of London calls her a former beauty queen and accomplished hunter. Even the Bonner County Daily Bee, near where Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, says it will vote for her.

"Sarah Barracuda. Miss Congeniality. Fire and nice," writes Real Clear Politics blog. And here's Alaska blogger Celtic Diva, getting excited. Did we leave anybody out?

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See Alaska from 95,000 feet. Science enthusiasts launched a high-altitude balloon from Poker Flat Research Center earlier this month that took photos of Alaska from 95,327 feet up. See some of their images on a short video here - you can see the curve of the Earth's surface.

This was the first launch of a Balloon Experiment and Research (BEAR) program by Arctic Amateur Radio Club and Alaska Space Grant. Participant Neal Brown, retired in Fairbanks after 45 years with the Air Force, says the BEAR program hopes to interest high school students and undergraduates in building and flying payloads in these balloons. They'll launch again in September.

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Exxon is ready to develop Point Thomson. Really. Exxon's Alaska production manager told the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce Tuesday that his company can hardly wait to develop Point Thomson, according to the Fairbanks News-Miner

The area holds a quarter of the North Slope's known gas reserves. Exxon and its partners await a decision from state Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin on whether to accept a revised plan of development. The decision follows about two years of litigation between Exxon and the state,

"Litigation is not what we want to do," Craig Haymes said. "We have a plan for development, and we want to settle."

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This TV reviewer not happy to see "Men in Trees" go away. Los Angeles Times TV critic Robert Lloyd isn't sure he can stand losing the show a week from today. It began as the story of Marin Frist (Anne Heche), a "relationship coach" and author who comes to Alaska on a book tour and stays to know herself better.

Often described as "Sex and the City" meets "Northern Exposure," Lloyd says the show offers a genre Americans need. "Romantic comedy is to be cherished and tended and encouraged to grow, for the psychic health of the nation." His survival strategy: Buy the "Complete Series" DVD.

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Life gets even tough for Pacific Northwest salmon. Even as we wait for our own runs to build, the news on salmon in Washington and Oregon is sad and bad. A report on Yuba.net tells of 75,000 juvenile salmon dying when a truck transporting them 300 miles from a hatchery to acclimation pens failed to provide enough oxygen in its tanks. It was described as just one more bad blow for the Sacramento River Chinook salmon population, "now in a state of unprecedented collapse."

The Register-Guard calls the decline of the Willamette Falls run "stunning in its suddenness." And this scientifically dense report about Central Valley salmon is trying to figure out how cold-water salmon will do as global warming raises river temperatures.

Makes you appreciate what we have up here in Alaska.

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The critter report continues, with news of Alaska bears in Outside zoos. The Minnesota Zoo is opening this weekend, and the star attractions are three young grizzlies from Alaska. According to the MinnPost.com, Sadie came from a landfill near Kotzebue, Haines was wandering neighborhoods and porches in his namesake town, and Kenai was orphaned near Seward. Now, they will be zoo attractions.

Artists making the zoo's enclosures look like real nature gets a write-up here. And the St. Louis Zoo wants a polar bear and a grizzly, too.

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U.S. Coast Guard not ready for Arctic rescues. Speaking at last wee''s Canadian Arctic Summit in Edmonton, CBC.news reports that Capt. Michael Inman, the coast guard's chief of response in Juneau, said his agency doesn't have the resources to respond quickly to a massive rescue operation in the northern Bering Sea and the Arctic waters off Alaska.

"Some things we're looking at is: how much icebreaker time we need up there? Do we put other vessels up there? How much (is) the aircraft response time?"

Inman said seven cruise ships carrying over 3,000 passengers will be heading to the northern Bering Sea and waters off Alaska this year. Some 70 cruise ships will travel to Greenland with more than 150,000 passengers.

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Aviation tries to go green. Forbes.com says a last-gasp effort by airlines to go lighter to save on budget-crushing fuel is epitomized by an Alaska Airlines plan to ditch in-flight magazines.

"Over the course of a year, by removing five magazines across all its flights, the Alaska Airlines estimates it could save $10,000 a year in fuel. Alaska followed up by reducing the weight of its drink carts."

No leg room, no food, not even any snacks. Now, less reading material, too.

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Alaska's senators stay cool to cap-and-trade. The Fairbanks News-Miner and APRN both report that Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Ted Stevens aren't jumping aboard the climate-change bandwagon in Congress any time soon.

Murkowski: "I'm not prepared to sign on to something I cannot give my constituents some degree of comfort that at the end of the day this is going to be good for them and good for our country."

Stevens: "If these credits ... become available to speculators it's going to increase the cost of our gas pipeline. It's going to harm developing areas."

Other headlines of interest:

< Ted Stevens has a bill to let civil servants to work from home.(AP)

< Anchorage's recycling center gets an award. (Secure Destruction Business)

< Salcha family loses second son. (KTUU)

< Permanent Fund board considers alternative assets. (FINalternatives)

< Polar bear spotted in Iceland hayfields. (Icelandic Review Online)

< Parks Highway fire reparations move ahead. (Fairbanks News-Miner)

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