Anchorage Daily News

ALASKANS REACT TO END OF STEVENS ERA (NPR's "All Things Considered"): After about 40 years in the Senate, what a way to leave. Alaska is getting used to the idea that the man known as "Uncle Ted" will no longer be their senator.

BEARS VS. TRASH CANS: ARMS RACE CONTINUES IN JUNEAU (Juneau Empire): Juneau's city-prowling black bears got peskier this year as some began to defeat reinforced trash cans and dumpsters. "We're still scratching our heads trying to figure out where the breakdown in the dumpster situation is," said Fish and Game biologist Ryan Scott.

MAT-SU HOMEOWNERS TURN TO COAL FOR HEAT (KTUU, with video): Rick Dilley, owner of Cozy Coal, says coal has a bad reputation. "I tell 'em it's not like what you see in the old western movies," he said. Coal burns a lot more efficiently than wood, Dilley said, and it's much cheaper than heating oil.

PALIN'S PIPELINE AT RISK AS ECONOMY SLOWS (Wall Street Journal): The troubled economy that helped sink Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's hopes of becoming U.S. vice president now is undermining prospects for building the $30 billion natural-gas pipeline she touts as her administration's signal achievement.

VALLEY TEEN ASKS BIG QUESTIONS AFTER ELECTION (Valley Frontiersman): Newsreader missed this column when it was published last week, but it has been picked up by the Huffington Post (courtesy of the Alaska Mudflats blog) and has now drawn hundreds of reader comments. The writer, a 16-year-old Valley girl, complains that a supposedly nonpartisan election-night event in Wasilla turned into what seemed to be a pro-Sarah Palin rally as a band and a phone call from the governor combined to prevent those in attendance from hearing President-elect Obama's speech. Next day, the girl wore an Obama T-shirt to school and was confronted with racist comments from fellow students. She implies that teachers did nothing to halt the hate speech and goes on to discuss wider questions of race relations in America.

FOSSILS LEND CLUES TO ALASKA'S EURASIAN ROOTS (National Geographic): Paleontologists began noting weirdly similar fossils in Alaska and Eurasia as far back as 1907, and they've been working ever since to trace their links and decipher their origins. National Geographic this week reports on 18 Paleozoic snail fossils discovered in Interior and Southeast Alaska. They're more than 400 million years old -- half of them are new to science and many resemble no other North American fossils. The report includes fossil photos and a map.

Modern Alaska is a geological puzzle, a mosaic of fragments from other parts of the world. Geologists suspect the state contains only a small triangle of original North America, located along its east-central boundary with Canada. Fossils suggest that the rest of Alaska was formed from a patchwork of small land chunks, known as terranes, that collected against North America like flotsam between 251 million and 60 million years ago.

BEGICH TOOK RESTRAINED ROUTE TO SENATE (The Associated Press): Mark Begich had every candidate's fantasy -- a seemingly unbeatable opponent who became embroiled in scandal at the height of the campaign. But he repeatedly refused to make an issue of Ted Stevens' corruption trial and didn't even call for him to resign after his conviction.

Also:

Begich: Alaskans wanted change (National Public Radio, audio report)

Begich uncle, brother of Nick, excited about result (The Associated Press)

Nick Begich plane crash mystery endures; son Mark seeks resolution (ADN, 1992)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEN, STEVENS (Reporter's Notebook, Fox News): "By 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. no one had bothered to offer Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens a happy 85th birthday. I've tussled with the tempestuous Stevens as much as anyone on Capitol Hill over the years. Few rival his explosive temper. And with Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., planning to mount an effort to strip the convicted Stevens of his top position on the Senate Appropriations Committee and kick him out of the GOP Conference, I anticipated Stevens' manners could be more like Genghis Kahn than Emily Post."

GOLDEN PARACHUTE TO NOWHERE (Wall Street Journal): "There is a silver lining for the venerable Sen. Stevens, believe it or not. The National Taxpayers Union reports that he will still be eligible for a massive $122,000 congressional pension that comes complete with a cost of living adjustment. ... Indeed, nothing in current law has prevented at least 20 convicted felons who served in Congress from keeping their pensions."

STEVENS LOSS IS NATION'S GAIN (Reason Online): "(Sen. Stevens) is a whining crybaby, a special-interest towel boy who was ... slowly mailing the entire federal budget back to his home state in a never-ending series of priority packages large and small."

ONE OF THESE SENATORS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS (Dana Milbank, Washington Post): Republicans may have been celebrating the Democrats' weakness in failing to rebuke Joe Lieberman, but they were having their own Judgment Day problems. While Democrats met in the Old Senate Chamber, Senate Republicans gathered nearby in the Mansfield Room to decide what to do about Sen. Ted Stevens.

Also: Stevens leaves door open on pardon after saying he would not seek one (The Hill)

U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICANS (INCLUDING ALASKA'S YOUNG) REMAIN VULNERABLE (National Journal): After brutal losses in the past two elections, congressional Republicans have been hoping that the worst is behind them. But, unfortunately for the GOP, yet another large group of their House members has cause for concern based on their weak performance in the recent election.

ANCHORAGE MAN SHOT IN VERMONT HUNTING ACCIDENT (Burlington Free Press): Theron Willard, 32, of Anchorage was shot in the lower extremities and is listed in stable condition.

Return to Alaska Newsreader through the day for new links.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

Turkeys that survived fireworks fright ready for holiday ax (Valley Frontiersman)

Hunger increases in Alaska (The Associated Press)

Talkeetna cabin on endangered list (KTNA audio)

Scientists recalculate height of mountains (Ned Rozell, UAF Geophysical Institute)

Denali ‘loo with a view' (Yorkshire Post, U.K.)

Women lag in Alaska Legislature (Juneau Empire)

Stevens' testimony damaged his case, jurors say (The Washington Post)

Wild wordsmith of Wasilla (Dick Cavett, N.Y. Times)

Walter Soboleff: An Alaska original (Juneau Empire)

Nordic skiing without snow (FasterSkier, YouTube)

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