Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Ranger rescue gets a slow-mo take in alternative weekly. Seattle Weekly lets fishermen from the vessel that sank last Easter Sunday morning retell the harrowing experience of leaping off the ship into the frigid Bering Sea.

According to George Knowles, representing eight of the sailors in a lawsuit against Fishing Co. of Alaska, investigations will focus on "whether pushing the ship too quickly through the icy waters damaged the rudder, and whether drinking, or negligence, by the senior officers hampered their ability to get everyone safely off the boat."

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Borough mayor complains about the cheap gas Anchorage gets. North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker said Anchorage is unfairly receiving natural gas below market rates because of actions by state regulators, according to Legal Newswire. He put his complaint in a letter to state Attorney General Talis Colberg last week. Anchorage's perceived regulatory favoritism could lead to a court battle between the state and the North Star Borough, he said. KTUU also reported on this story.

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Alaska Airlines partners with regional airline Frontier. Starting this fall, Frontier Alaska passengers will be able to book through Alaska Airlines and earn frequent-flier miles, reports the Associated Press. Frontier Alaska serves 92 destinations, from commuter and Postal Service operations for Fairbanks and Anchorage to the state's Bush communities. It was formed by the recent combination of Hageland Aviation Services and Frontier Flying Service.

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Monster salmon caught in Norway. It weighed 82.5 pounds and was caught in a commercial net in the Alta Fjord, northern Norway, reports FishandFly.com.

The Altaposten Newspaper reported the net catch by Egil Olai Bårdsen, 79, and Dagfinn Nicolaysen, 75, from county of Finnmark. Nicolaysen said the fish flesh was coarse and tasted bad. Even a local fishmonger didn't want it because, he said, he knew it would make poor eating. So the fish has been sent to the smoker.

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Mario Chalmers gets a profile in Miami. As the second-round draft pick for the Miami Heat, the former Bartlett High point guard who led that school to two state championships gets a look-over from Miami Herald sports writer Michael Wallace. ADN original coverage is here, and the Associated Press also has a story.

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Girdwood resident wins scholarship for pike studies. UAA student Stormy Haught, 27, of Girdwood is one of four students to be awarded this year's prestigious Senator Ted Stevens Scholarship by the Kenai River Sports Fishing Association, reports the Turnagain Times.

As a graduate student, Haught is pursuing a master's degree in biology and is currently studying the ecological impacts of the northern pike invasion on the Kenai Peninsula and in Mat-Su. The ADN today has story on the effect northern pike are having at Alexander Lake.

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Underfunded parks struggle in Alaska's Interior. The Fairbanks Daily News Miner points out how "passive management" has led to abandoned parks or public parks under private management. In some cases, the strategies have worked; in others they've been a dismal failure.

"I had several people that took up residence at Olnes Pond. One built a house and the other one moved into the outhouse and was putting a wood stove in," said Brooks Ludwig, superintendent of the Northern Region Division of Parks.

The trouble began with big cuts to state parks in 2002, resulting in a number of parks going unstaffed. This year, the Division of Parks received $5.5 million, the most money it has received in 23 years. The money will help with a $53 million backlog in deferred maintenance, Ludwig said. Ludwig said the budget request for next year would be $25 million.

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Young humpback whale entangled in crab lines. The Associated Press reports this morning that whale watchers are keeping a vigil in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in northwest Washington state for a young whale entangled in crab lines.

The whale was last spotted Sunday. John Calambokidis, director of Cascadia Research, says the whale, apparently a calf, was tangled in lines through its mouth and around its left pectoral fin.

Observers Saturday had managed to attach a radio transmitter and marker buoys. But fisherman who assumed they were impeding the whale later cut off the buoy and transmitter.

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Some in Kodiak feel the pinch of closed salmon runs. The recent ban on some recreational salmon fishing in the Karluk, Ayakulik and Buskin rivers has forced one lodge to close, reports the Kodiak Daily Mirror. "I've never seen the river this quiet. I've been here 30 years," said Martha Sikes, who has closed the Karluk Lodge.

The Kodiak Visitors and Convention Bureau reports that its member businesses don't all agree there's a downturn. "I've been querying our members and they've had few cancellations due to the fish or even fuel prices," executive director Janet Buckingham said. She said tourists are flexible and find alternate activities.

"They're going after different fish, like Dolly Vardens or pinks. People are coming anyway. There's no pain. Everyone is feeling good."

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Sven Haakanson named to Alaska State Council on the Arts. Haakanson, of Kodiak, is director of the Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository and an anthropologist with special interest in circumpolar Native art and culture, reports the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

The 11 council members are charged with helping enrich the cultural life of the state through the practice and enjoyment of art.

Also named from Kodiak were Peggy Ferguson, Nancy M. Harbour and Patricia "Jinx" Whitaker.

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Could black spruce be used for making heating pellets? A state forestry official says he's taken questions from companies interested in producing wood pellets to be used for heat, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and the Associated Press report.

Doug Hanson, a Division of Forestry resource manager, says a forest inventory could help turn that idea into reality. The Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation helped secure funding for the inventory.

Project manager Cassie Pinkel sees potential in black spruce, which could be culled from commercial harvest areas and clear-cuts.

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A Russian airline plans regular flights to Anchorage. The ITAR-TASS news agency reports that the Vladivostok Avia air company is launching regular flights from Vladivostok to Anchorage via Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The first plane is due to leave Kamchatka today, and the flights will be twice a week.

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Alaskans are sharing plant photos via NPR program. Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants has a Flckr group designed just for Alaskans to talk about their plants. Over the weekend, sunny6426 posted a shot of dogwood, which, she says, "grows all over my woods in Interior Alaska."

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New polar bear photography book published, images on display. Seattle photographer Steven Kazlowski has completed "The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World," a four-year effort that began when an editor from Braided River, the conservation imprint of The Mountaineers Books, asked him to launch the project.

Some of that work is on display at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington's Seattle campus, according to the Tacoma News-Tribune. The 40-photograph exhibit runs through the end of the year.

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