Anchorage Daily News

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This is a 1957 shot of a Grumman Goose flying over Rainy Pass. The first new Goose in 63 years is under construction in North Carolina, but PenAir officials say the $2.95 million price tag puts it off limits for them. The Goose is still used to land in Akutan on the Aleutian Chain. See story below. (AP Photo\ Jack Jefford\Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum)

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Dipnetters organize in Southcentral. The Peninsula Clarion reports that the South Central Alaska Dipnetters Association, composed of folks who flock to the shores of the Kenai and Kasilof rivers, need to organize so they can be better represented before the Board of Fisheries.

"Dipnetters are always under attack at the Board of Fisheries," said Ken Federico, president of the South Central Alaska Dipnetters Association, which formed about a year and a half ago and recently reached nonprofit status. "No one's ever been representing the dipnetters. Dipnetters never had their own voice at the Board of Fisheries."

Organizers also believe the economic benefits created by dipnetters frequenting local businesses need to be recognized.

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New book tells the history of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. KRBD reports that a new book seven years in the making chronicles the history of one of the sisterhood's larger chapters, based in downtown Juneau. It's called "In Sisterhood: The History of Camp 2 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood."

Stories in the book explain how Alaska's Tlingit women worked for equal rights, economic opportunity and health care for Alaska Natives. They were women who lived in towns and villages along Alaska's Southeast coast, fishing with their grandmothers, gathering seaweed, picking berries and smoking fish.

The book has a Web site and describes a difficult life marked by discrimination:

If caught speaking Tlingit in school, their mouths would be taped shut, their hair tied in white rags, and their hands beaten with wooden rulers. They suffered ongoing discrimination, as schools and hospitals in the Territory of Alaska remained segregated, and signs prohibiting Natives from entering could be found hanging from businesses well into the 1940s.

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Begich for Senate ads get noticed. They will air in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks over the next couple of weeks. If waiting for them to pop up on TV sounds boring, thanks to the Internet you can grab a look at Alaska Politics blog and Own The Sidewalk. Politico took notice, as did Politicker.com, which sees the ads as an early clue to the "downballot battle."

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Rasmuson Foundation delivers almost $12 million to nonprofits. Capitol City Weekly points out Southeast organizations that benefited, including the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council, Sitka Trail Works, and others. Even the Alaska Department of Health and Social Service (Juneau) received $519,150 for a grantee partnership project to help DHSS serve Alaska residents more effectively and efficiently.

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Alaska sends more firefighters to California. KTVA reports that three crews from the Division of Forestry have already headed to California to help fight Northern California fires. One crew is due back Friday in Fairbanks, but another crew will quickly replace it.

Meanwhile, Redding.com reports that California fire officials are worried about the safety of crews as temperatures climb into three digits and firefighters suffer from heat-related illnesses. Special attention is paid to fire crews coming from cooler areas like Alaska, said Carol Jolley of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

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Need a passport? Better book a trip to Juneau. That was the word in the Chilkat Valley News after a news story explained that Haines Magistrate John Hutchins was getting out of the business of processing passports.

The regional court system in March announced it would follow the lead of courts around the state getting out of the passport business because processing passports overburdened staff and kept employees from working on court business. Hutchins had processed more than 320 applications over the past two years.

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First new Grumman Goose produced in 63 years. The Grumman Goose has a long and rich history in Alaska aviation and especially in the Aleutians, reports the Dutch Harbor Fisherman. A new version will be manufactured starting this month at Antilles Seaplanes in North Carolina.

Grumman stopped making the planes in 1945, though many continue to fly today. PenAir is the only Alaska airline to still employ the Goose, using them to fly in and out of Akutan, which doesn't have a runway.

The new souped-up Goose will retain its "iconic, barrel-chested profile" that allows it to land in the water and remain stable in 3-foot swells. However, it will have new modern features, and a new price tag - $2.95 million. That, says Scott Bloomquist, PenAir's vice president for sales and service, puts it out of reach for PenAir.

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Genetic research looks for link between North Slope residents and ancients. The Arctic Sounder reports that scientists are collecting bones from an old and crumbling site outside Barrow. This fall, North Slope residents will supply DNA samples through saliva to determine their link to the people from Nuvuk, according to Dennis O'Rourke, an anthropology professor from the University of Utah.

The study is paid for by the National Science Foundation and could influence the repatriation of skeletal remains and artifacts. It could also reveal more about the Thule, a culture that originated in Alaska and mastered bowhead hunting, allowing people to migrate to Canada and Greenland.

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Spring Creek expansion gets mixed reviews in Seward. The work has already begun to add 144 beds to the correctional facility at a cost of $22.8 million for completion in 2009. The prison was built in 1988 to house 412, and has 500 inmates.

The Seward Phoenix Log interviewed residents on their reaction to the expansion. While some lamented the "negative energy" that a prison facility brings to a community, others applauded the 15 new jobs it will also bring.

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On energy issues - Alaskans feel the chill of winter coming. Certainly it's a national issue, as The New York Times points out this morning in a story about the pressure Congress feels after having just returned from a Fourth of July visit with constituents. But for Alaskans who know and respect winter, the drumbeat for action is growing more intense.

KUAC in Fairbanks reports on the growing demand for wood and pellet stoves in the Interior, and even a barley-burning boiler. An editorial in today's Fairbanks Daily News Miner points out that "these are tough times, and the cold will only make them tougher."

In fact, fear over a lack of Cook Inlet gas to fill a bullet line proposed this week by the Palin administration is coloring reaction to that proposal. Enstar said the gas could run out by 2014, reports the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. This morning, the U.S. Minerals Management Service put out a notice for two "special interest" lease sales for natural gas in Cook Inlet, notes Energy Current and Oil Online.

Energy issues continue on the plate for the Alaska Legislature as it convenes in Juneau to hear details from the oil producers on their alternative pipeline, Denali, reports the Juneau Empire.

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Headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Obama has 40 paid employees in Alaska, opens Juneau office (Juneau Empire)

> FAA orders MD-80 safety checks (Associated Press)

> Remembering the giant wave at Lituya Bay on July 9, 1958 (SitNews)

> Seward plans a new diner in an old rail car (Seward Phoenix Log)

> Sleeper sharks wash up in Kotzebue, Teller and Savoonga (The Arctic Sounder)

> Kodiak considers increasing alcohol tax to pay for new jail (KMXT)

> More rain and increasing precipitation for Alaska in next century (APRN)

> John Hartman murder, seven-part series (Fairbanks Daily News Miner)

> Geo Beach interview about "Tougher in Alaska" (Opednews.com)

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