Anchorage Daily News

Four Alaskans fall victim to Olympic ticket scam. The KXAN story is out of Texas because TicketCity Inc., the company charged this week by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott with deceiving Olympics ticket buyers, is in Austin. The company initially sold opening ceremony tickets for $1,200 and promised to double the refund if it failed to deliver pre-purchased tickets. Then it failed to deliver but continued to sell tickets at a higher price, $7.000.

The Alaskans were not named; no Texans were victimized.

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The new cold war over the Arctic. Six countries surround the Arctic Ocean, which some forecast will hold an energy jackpot equal to the Middle East's. Russia triggered outrage last year when it planted a flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

Now the BBC offers what is likely the first map of the area showing the likely political hot spots, created by a university team that plotted where bordering countries' claims overlap. A video accompanies the report and stakes out some of the coming drama.

The tension over Russia gave rise to a McClatchy story that tallies Russia's icebreakers against the U.S., showing that the U.S. is coming up short. They've got seven, we've got three. The new Coast Guard commander reminded Congress that increased traffic will mean a need for more icebreakers.

That commandant, Tad Allen, made a stop in Homer this week, reports the Homer News. He talked about modernizing the Coast Guard, including delivery this year of two of eight national security cutters that will replace those in service since the 1960s. He's headed to Nome, Prudhoe Bay, Red Dog Mine and the North Slope.

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Rep. Don Young campaigns in Homer. The Homer News reports that Alaska's congressman met constituents at the Homer Library Wednesday morning and told them:

"Homer is pretty well organized as far as getting what you want, and that's good.

Just keep it up, and we'll continue to get more federal dollars for you."

At another meeting in Anchor Point, Young hit energy issues hard.

"Nancy Pelosi wants to save the planet, and she's a firm believer that, because we're burning fossil fuels, we're creating global warming. I question that very seriously," Young said.

His views got a warm reception.

"High energy prices are really hammering a lot of people here. We have a lot of low-income families in the area, and they're going to have a hard time paying for fuel this coming winter," said Doug Ruzicka, Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce president.

Ruzicka said Anchor Point is a conservative community and likes Don Young. "We like his spirit. We like his spunk. That's kind of the way we are around here," Ruzicka said.

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Alaskans have the country's highest credit card debt. The Associated Press says a new study by Americans for Fairness in Lending taps Alaskans with the highest median credit card debt. The figure, $3,384, isn't so scary, but the report says this is for individuals, not households.

Their report used data from a 2006 year-end summary by TransUnion, one of the nation's credit bureaus.

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Binky and the red tennis shoe return. The year was 1994, and the Australian tourist who got too close to Binky's enclosure with her camera was Kathryn Warburton. She survived, but we all felt a little differently about Binky after that.

Why is this resurfacing now? Because Animal Planet's "Untamed and Uncut" has just posted the video of its Binky show on YouTube. Don't miss the animated re-enactment.

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Cut the cost of heating fuel to $2.50 a gallon. That's what the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner editorial writers suggest. As the House and Senate haggle over the "resource rebate" and whether to subsidize utilities as a way of helping consumers, these opinion writers say skip the personal checks to Alaskans and just lower heating costs for them by making up the market difference directly to the providers.

You can get a multimedia summary of rural Alaska energy woes based on an Associated Press account of costs in the villages, KTUU's interview with AFN president Julie Kitka, and APRN's summary of the AFN Energy Roundtable.

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In other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

>Totem honoring Michio Hoshino goes up Friday near Sitka (KCAW)

> Why John Glass won't take the public safety job (APRN)

> NBC program will feature Alaska's community of Russian Old Believers (Homer News)

> Dermot Cole has a beef over gas prices in Fairbanks (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

> Meet some folks who are grateful to work for Pebble (Homer Tribune)

> What public litigant cost the city of Homer $257,334? (Homer Tribune)

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