Anchorage Daily News

Ketchikan war hero's remains identified after 67 years (Stories in the News, Ketchikan): A Ketchikan man who may have been Alaska's first casualty in World War II is a little closer to home after being reburied last month in a veterans' cemetery in California. Irvin Andrew Rubin Thompson was an ensign on the USS Oklahoma when it was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. See also:

Remains of sailor missing since Pearl Harbor strike ID'd (Star-Ledger of New Jersey)

Supreme Court to review Valdez 'tanker tax' (Valdez Star): The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Valdez "tanker tax" and the Alaska Supreme Court's decision that the tax is constitutional. The city justified the tax because oil tanker crews utilize city services while in port - including police and fire protection, an airport, a hospital, harbor facilities and joint work by the city and the Coast Guard in regulating tanker lanes.

Interview with Willie Hensley: 50 years and 50 miles (Anchorage Press): In 1966, Willie Iggiagruk Hensley was a 25-year-old Inupiat who, after graduating from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., had just returned to Northwest Alaska to find his family's land seized and auctioned off by the state. The shack that he'd called home had been bulldozed. "In retrospect, I can see that I was an angry young man," the Alaska Native leader writes in his new memoir, "Fifty Miles From Tomorrow."

Kenai River study will focus on angler peace of mind (Peninsula Clarion): A state-funded $200,000 study will examine how heavy use of the Kenai River affects the recreational experiences of three user groups: bank anglers, power boaters and non-motorized boaters.

Palin proposes new effort for rural Alaska (Juneau Empire): Gov. Sarah Palin appointed members of her cabinet on Thursday to a new group charged with finding ways to make Alaska's rural areas better places to live. The new Rural Subcabinet has been told to look at two big issues, energy costs and out-migration from rural Alaska, and make proposals aimed at creating well-paying jobs, stronger schools, safer communities and better public works facilities. See also:

Statistics refute existence of rural exodus (Anchorage Daily News)

Nixon ignored Kodiak police chief's advice on FBI appointment (Kodiak Konfidential blog): In 1972, Kodiak police chief and FBI academy graduate Jack Rhines recommended in a letter to President Nixon that he should consider appointing W. Mark Felt as head of the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover's death. Felt, the man who became Deep Throat in the Watergate affair -- perhaps because he was angry Nixon snubbed him -- died Thursday of congestive heart failure. Rhines, also a former Fairbanks police chief, died in 2004 in Oregon at the age of 80. See also:

Alaska Ear on Rhines and Felt (Daily News, 12/2/07)

Painter of nude Palin strips Blagojevich too (Chicago Tribune): A nude portrait of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich by Chicago artist Bruce Elliott is nearly complete and will hang on the wall of Elliott's wife's bar, next to his infamous depiction of a naked Sarah Palin. It is the next installment in what Elliott loosely calls his "nude governor series." With video. See most of the Palin painting here.

Army, police dispose of old grenades (Juneau Empire): This week, the Army retrieved explosives from a downtown Juneau neighborhood. The incident had nothing to do with the Governor's Mansion two doors down; it was the legacy of Judge Tom Stewart, a colorful and well-liked resident who died a year ago. It seems he was also a packrat.

Isolated communities lose daily newspaper delivery (KCAW, Sitka): Communities like Sitka that have depended on air shipments of the Anchorage Daily News will have to rely on direct-mail or online subscriptions. For one Sitka mom, it means the end of a small business.

Juneau debates avalanche blasting in town (Juneau Empire): Sixty-two homes, a hotel, two sections of Egan Drive and most of the Aurora Basin boat harbor sit in the nation's most dangerous avalanche zone. Preemptive avalanche blasting could be in Mount Juneau's future, the city's newly hired avalanche forecaster told avalanche area residents.

Kodiak shines in Vaseline 'softer skin' spotlight (Kodiak Mirror): Petal Ruch doesn't watch much television. But the one time she did and saw herself on it during a commercial break, the moment was nothing less than surreal. Ruch, 41, was one of several Kodiakans featured in the nationwide "Prescribe the Nation" Vaseline advertising campaign shot in Kodiak this summer. See also:

"Prescribe the Nation" Kodiak video (Unilever)

Storm exposes unknown glacier on Alaska coast (UAF Geophysical Institute): Last August, a group of scientists flew to Kaktovik, hoping to catch a flight from the village to study permafrost features off the Jago River. But foggy weather pinned them, and their change in plans led them to a glacier that no one knew about.

Top 10 Christmas towns (HGTV): Travel to 10 different communities - from North Pole, Alaska, to Kennebunkport, Maine - each rich in its own culture and traditions, as they prepare for the holiday season. With video and photos.

Return to Alaska Newsreader through the day for new links.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

State fund managers avoided Madoff (Juneau Empire)

Old Alaska license plate is America's most valuable (Forbes)

Palin among runners-up to Obama for Time's "Person of the Year" (Time magazine)

Feds nearly quash Japan tourist flights to Fairbanks (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

German windsurfer claims world first in Alaska waters (Telegraph, U.K.)

Tips from the potlatch, where gift-giving knows no slump (The New York Times)

At 85, Fred Beckey has more peaks to conquer and adventures to seek (The New York Times)

Goose eggs may help polar bears weather climate change (Science Daily)

Tlingit quarterback: William Paul's big game 100 years ago (The Whitworthian)

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