Anchorage Daily News

Click to enlarge

Here's what cow parsnip looks like. Find a link at the bottom of this page to a story explaining how this plant, ubiquitous in Alaska, irritates your skin. ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

Biologist recounts killer whale attack in Chukchi Sea. Scientists aboard a Japanese research vessel that spent five weeks gathering data stopped off at the Museum of the Aleutians to describe their work, reports the Dutch Harbor Fisherman.

One of the most riveting tales came from a cetacean biologist, Keiko Sekiguchi from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, who showed pictures of killer whales attacking a gray whale by repeatedly bashing into it, possibly with their heads. One picture showed the gray whale's head coming out of the water with a noticeable stream of blood mixed with water coming out of its mouth.

"There were no wounds on the outside; the killer whales hit their prey," Sekiguchi told the audience. "The whale was bleeding internally."

Finding the whales took some looking, Sekiguchi said, because the gray whales are moving farther north.

***

Why do Alaskans pay so much for gas? Over and over in Newsreader we've mentioned that Alaskans often pay the highest price in the nation for their gas. That's puzzling given the fact that the rest of the U.S. wants our fossil fuel. Shouldn't our gas be cheap? This question was pitched to the Associated Press, and one of its Alaska reporters answers:

Q: Given the large amount of oil drilled in Alaska, why is the price of gas at the pump in Anchorage so much higher than the national average?

-- Steve Nelson, Anchorage

A: According to Matthew Berman, an economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage's higher-than-average gas prices ($4.39 for regular unleaded at most stations in July) can be traced to a variety of factors including the small size of the two refineries that supply nearly all of Alaska's gas stations and the high cost of shipping goods to the state.

Flint Hills outside Fairbanks and Tesoro in Nikiski refine crude oil -- most of it from Alaska's North Slope and Cook Inlet -- into gasoline and other products. Both are relatively small, meaning operating costs are higher in relation to output than at larger refineries in the Lower 48.

Berman says the lack of competition allows the two refineries to charge gas stations at the rate it might cost to import gasoline. So prices in Anchorage are above average because they correspond with the generally high cost of shipping goods to Alaska, even though the gas for the most part is not actually being brought in from outside.

-- Jeannette J. Lee, AP business writer, Anchorage

***

Monday could bring a Supreme Court decision on interest in Exxon Valdez. The final judgment in the case that limited punitive damages to plaintiffs in the 1989 oil spill case could include a decision on interest payments by Monday.

Hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Patrick Leahy this week explored whether the Supreme Court has made decisions that reveal a drift toward a pro-business bias. These stories lay out background and viewpoints on that question.

> A yes on the interest will be a shallow victory (Cordova Times)

> No need to penalize Exxon for delays caused by plaintiffs (Petroleum Marketing)

> Leahy: "Like destroying a town and getting a $5 parking ticket" (RTT News)

> Courts shutting out the little guy, plaintiff says (McClatchy DC)

> Business community lost half its cases before Supremes (Washington Briefs)

***

Alaska Airlines offers new online trip search tool. Times are scary in the airline industry, but apparently the state's namesake airline is still managing to do consumer innovation. The AirWatchDog blog is pretty excited about Alaska Airlines' 30-day flexible date search.

Most airlines gives you a one-to-three day search window. With the new search tool, you can view an entire month of fares for your destination and see the lowest fair available each day that month. You can view lowest fares for outbound and return flights. Find out how it works here.

***

Troopers intercept marijuana bound for Togiak. The arrests occurred July 11, but the Bristol Bay Times gives a behind-the-scenes account of the troopers' months-long investigation into marijuana distribution from Anchorage to Dillingham, which in turn was sent to Togiak for sale.

Arrested were Dillingham resident Jose Sanchez, 46, and Girdwood resident Andrew Straley III, 40. The investigation was triggered by the discovery of 2.5 ounces of marijuana tucked in a tool case with addresses for Sanchez and Straley on it.

The package came to light when a worker at Everts Air Cargo in Anchorage was inspecting a package for hazardous materials. The men have been charged with possession of 1 ounce or more of marijuana with the intent to deliver, a class C felony.

***

Copper River salmon centerpieces special chef dinner. This deep into the summer, we may be tired of hearing about salmon, but the Cordova Times rendered a mouth-watering rendition of a special meal that brought top chefs to cook in the fishing town.

A top attention-getter was salmon prepared charcuterie-style, which means salmon sausage served with fennel sauerkraut, warm potato salad and grain mustard vinaigrette.

The length and detail in the story reveal the importance of this marketing event to the town. One guest food writer had this to say about the experience of visiting Cordova:

"I was surprised at how many 20-somethings were doing commercial fishing," said Carolyn Jung. "I had expected the fishermen, for the most part, to be all older with their children not wanting to follow in their footsteps. I truly think what I will most remember is the way of life there in this small, close-knit fishing town."

***

Nations stake out their Arctic turf for resource development. The saber-rattling and flag-planting have been going on for some time, and there aren't particularly new developments. But this story by The Independent did a good job of summarizing the players and what and where their Arctic resources are.

United States: The last country to formally stake its claim will be the first to start large-scale drilling. Thanks to its vast Alaska territory, the U.S. will be confident of a huge oil bonanza. The White House resisted giving endangered status to the polar bear as long as it could to keep freedom to drill.

Russia: Dramatically upped the stakes in the race for the Arctic last year by planting its flag on the seabed at the pole with the help of an experimental submarine. The country least likely to balk at the environmental cost of drilling in the wilderness.

Greenland (Denmark): The island is financially dependent on its mother country, Denmark. Oil could change all that. Its tiny population of 50,000 fears being overrun by outsiders in a future oil rush. Denmark was the first to stake its claim to the North Pole.

Canada: Was affronted by Danish claims to the North Pole and has conducted military exercises over its vast northern territories to strengthen its claim to the Arctic. Ottawa has sent naval vessels and specialist troops to the far north.

Norway: Does not want to be left out of an Arctic carve-up. But it backs a UN treaty to demilitarize the region and protect its pristine environment.

***

Alaska writer ponders whether his state could really go blue. Charles Wohlforth has a lengthy, thoughtful essay for The New Republic about just this possibility. He quotes Vic Fischer, interviewed by radio reporters the night of the voter-choked Democratic caucus at Begich Middle School, as calling that massive turnout nothing short of "a miracle." For his part, Wohlforth says his own hopes "are not so audacious."

***

24-year-old Bethel city councilwoman couldn't wait to get home from college. While lots of 20-somethings can only picture their hometown in the rearview mirror, Tiffany Zulkosky says she couldn't wait to get back the the Y-K Delta town, reports the Tundra Drums.

"I left Bethel and returned with a deeper understanding of what it is, its unique traits and characteristics. I had the same feeling any young person does when they graduate. They want to go out and accomplish big things."

Zulkosky wants that. She just wants it in Bethel. She's been on the council six months and said she ran because 2000 census data revealed that 50 percent of the population in the city and region was 24 years old or younger. It made sense for her to try and serve that group.

***

AFN's annual competition for rural innovations opens. In the Marketplace competition, winners get seed money to launch a project that will make life in rural Alaska better, according to a story in the Dutch Harbor Fisherman. The challenge is open to Native and non-Native entrepreneurs, but its sponsorship by AFN encouraged a winner last year to chase his dream of a "Sledcoach."

Walter Russell got the idea for an enclosed sled pulled by a snowmachine from an experience he had as a high school student traveling from Kotzebue to Noorvik, when he said he "almost froze my legs, and I saw a lot of other people freezing their feet." He won $35,000 to buy the tools to invent the sled.

Sept. 1 is the application deadline, and you can read more about the competition on the Marketplace Web site.

***

New 100-page handbook will counter stereotyping of Native people. The Tundra Drums reports on a new project spearheaded by academicians from UAA and Alaska Pacific University with help from Native leaders. A catalyst for the handbook is a sense that students and professors at the university are misinformed about Alaska's indigenous people, leading to stereotyping.

"I think there's a perception that Alaska Natives are white people under different skin," said John Dede, a special assistant of the vice provost.

Only 10 percent of the state university's Native students get bachelor's degrees within six years, in part because they feel out of place, a recent study showed.

"That quiet dropout is hard to assess," said Phyllis Fast, a Koyukon Athabaskan and UAA associate professor. "What's more important is that we reduce the number of people who feel alienated and uncomfortable in a class situation." Fast answered a question about reservations in Alaska in the new handbook.

The handbooks will be widely distributed around campus, including being offered free at the UAA bookstore.

***

Manokotak stares into an empty fuel drum and worries. The Bristol Bay Times reports on this small village and its collective furrowed brow as winter cold approaches. The village has been growing and adding a health clinic and an apartment complex. Energy demands are going up, but storage capacity is small.

This year Manokotak's gas supply ran out in mid-May. The barge was due June 6 but didn't arrive until June 25. Residents were paying $9.85 a gallon for the last drops of gas flown in before the barge finally arrived.

The village is considering wind energy and asking its residents to take individual responsibility for energy conservation.

***

Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> How cow parsnip burns skin (Dutch Harbor Fisherman)

> Japanese researchers witness killer whales attacking gray whale (Dutch Harbor Fisherman)

> Transcript in Palin/Monegan dispute about when the governor learned of reprimand (KTVA)

> Contractor named for new Susitna Valley High School (KTUU)

> A service dog got this girl to college (Seward Phoenix Log)

> Chugach Electric is getting out of power generation and into distribution (Frontiersman)

> Iraq medic Carletta Davis remembered in Fairbanks

ADVERTISEMENT