Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA ESCAPES RECESSION – FOR NOW: ABC News, citing economic indicators from Moody’s Economy.com, reports that Alaska is the only state “immune” from falling into a recession. (The District of Columbia also still has an expanding economy, according to Moody's.)

"There's no way around the map. It says the nation is in recession. The recession is coast to coast," Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, told ABC News. "One of the unique features of this downturn is how broad-based it is, regionally."

POTENTIAL WHITE HOUSE FRIEND FOR SPECIAL-NEEDS FAMILIES: The New York Times today talks to people at Gov. Sarah Palin's campaign rallies who are drawn by her message of hope for families of special-needs children. Palin’s newborn son, Trig, has Down syndrome.

Palin has made Trig, and children like him, the emotional center of her campaign. And families have turned out at every stop, carrying signs, wearing T-shirts and pressing to the front of the rope lines for a hug or a photo with a candidate many of them see as a potential first friend in the White House, someone poised to bring better schooling, more Medicaid financing and greater attention to their cause. …

But beyond policy, the families say they see in Palin someone who understands their struggles — who “gets it,” as Palin might say — and connects with them in a personal way.

HOW DJs PUNK'D PALIN: Montreal’s Masked Avengers, the two DJs who convinced Gov. Palin she was talking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, describe how they pull off such scams in today’s Toronto Globe and Mail.

"When we started to work on the idea last Tuesday," said Marc-Antoine Audette, one of the DJs, "we thought it would be mission impossible. But after about a dozen calls, we started to realize it might work, because her staff didn't know the name of the French president. They asked us to spell it."

Audette said there are two important tricks in making these kinds of pranks succeed. "First, you have to be extremely convincing in the preliminary calls to aides, and second, you never leave a callback number. You always arrange to place the call at a designated time."

They worked their way up over the week from relatively low-level staff in the Alaska governor's office to more senior campaign organizers.

MORE ‘FOREIGN RELATIONS’ FOR KIKKAN: Anchorage cross-country skiing great Kikkan Randall, preparing for another World Cup season, traveled to Canmore, Alberta, last month to train and hang out with Canadian Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford, reports FasterSkier.com. Randall, herself a World Cup champ, said she’s been training with Crawford because Randall is sometimes the only U.S. woman traveling to World Cup events, and she and Crawford are well-matched. Both are dreaming of winning gold medals next winter in the Vancouver Olympics. See Randall’s blog posts and photos here. Randall was recently married to Canadian Jeff Ellis, who’s skiing with the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center this season.

FORMER ALASKA CHAMP A WASHINGTON STANDOUT: Michael Miller, the former Anchorage Christian Schools student who was 1-2-3A Alaska cross-country champion in 2006 and 2007, is continuing his winning ways in suburban Seattle, reports the Seattle Times. On Saturday, Miller easily won the Class 3A cross-country district title for Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines. This Saturday, he’ll race in the 3A state championships in Pasco, Wash. Miller told the Times that he and his mother left Alaska in search of stiffer competition for him.

GOING ROGUE ON ‘SNL’: Tina Fey, again portraying Gov. Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” appeared with the real Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, in a skit about raising cash by selling campaign curios on the QVC shopping network. At one point, Fey goes “rogue” by hawking “Palin in 2012” T-shirts on the side.

PARTY TIME IN WASILLA: Lynn Gattis of Wasilla, co-organizer of an election-night civic festival in Gov. Palin’s hometown that’s being billed as a “victory celebration,” tells The New York Times that this vote is “a big hoo-hah” for Wasilla and deserves a bigger-than-usual bash. There’ll be food, beer, wine and even gun-safety lessons at the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex, and the new local band Sarah and the Pitbulls will perform.

WHITEKEYS GOOFS ON PALIN: Sleazy Anchorage entertainer Mr. Whitekeys, the “evil genius” who created “Whale Fat Follies,” and Anchorage filmmaker Todd Hardesty have posted on YouTube “Girls Just Wanna Have Guns,” a clip from the upcoming Whitekeys DVD “Alaska: The First 10,000 Years.” Read about “10,000 Years” here. The DVD’s premiere event Nov. 14 will be a fundraiser for the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

AFN honors volunteer casket maker (The Tundra Drums)

The view from ‘Nowhere’ (Newsweek)

Native corporations face loss of Stevens (N.Y. Times)

Democrats join defense of Palin, natural gas pipeline (Juneau Empire)

Win or lose, Palin seen by many as future of GOP (N.Y. Times)

Find previous Newsreader columns here.

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