Anchorage Daily News

VETERINARY TEAM MAKES QUICK WORK OF GRIZZLY NEUTER (KCAW, Sitka): Veterinarians converged on Sitka recently for the castration of an orphaned grizzly that's living in the Fortress of the Bear exhibit. Dr. Jack Thornton said lack of adequate anesthesia was the biggest danger in the operation - "in which case the bear will be eating Dr. Thornton." Includes photo

COURT ORDERS EXXON TO PAY $500 MILLION IN INTEREST (SCOTUS Blog): "In a ruling that the Ninth Circuit Court said it hoped would bring to an end the years-long legal battle over harms done by the massive oil spill from the supertanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska waters in 1989, a three-judge Circuit panel today found that the ship's owner must pay about $500 million in interest to fishermen, other small businesses, and groups that had sued for damages. That represents more than 12 years of interest; Exxon Mobil Corp. had fought to limit the interest to less than a year's worth."

IS DEMAND FOR ARCTIC GAS DRYING UP? (Financial Post, Canada): "Abundant cheap supplies of natural gas from new shale deposits, plus growing imports of liquefied natural gas flowing into the United States, push back by 15 years the need for Arctic gas, says a pipeline executive. The North American natural gas industry is ‘overbuilt,' pointing to weak prices for a long time, said Steve Letwin, Houston-based executive vice-president for Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge Inc."

LAST FRONTIER THEATER CONFERENCE UNDER WAY: Anchorage blogger Maia Nolan, also a contributor to the Daily News arts blog, is posting conference updates and articles from Valdez at her Anchorage Theater Examiner site.

SITKA TOO REMOTE TO PLAY ITSELF IN ‘THE PROPOSAL' (Boston Globe): Sitka didn't pass its audition when it came to playing itself in "The Proposal," the new Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy. Instead, special effects were required to change Rockport, Mass., where much of the film was shot, into a virtual Sitka (Bullock's character's in-laws live there). "I was always wondering why wouldn't [filmmakers] just go to Sitka if there's this much [work] to do," said one of the FX experts. "When I went there [to photograph sites], I realized that it takes about 24 hours to get there. A lot of times the weather won't even allow you to fly in at all. There are no A-list hotels for the stars -- and not even hotels for the crew." Another FXer explains how Sitka was re-created: "We take the original photography. We make these gray areas a little bluer. Put in a nice big mountain. A lot of this tree work. Adding in information here, just filling things out a bit." Click here for a behind-the-scenes video that shows a bit of the movie's "Sitka," and here for some photos of Rockport as it was altered for filming. KCAW in Sitka reports that early cuts of the film included a lobster sign next to a Sitka sign. Oops, mistaken crustacean identity. The film opens nationwide on Friday.

LETTERMAN VS. PALIN: SOMETHING ROTTEN IN AMERICA (Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post): "David Letterman was way off base and should apologize sincerely. But, please, may we stop there? Calls for censorship or worse are far more dangerous to the land of the free than any inappropriate one-liner. ... No, the Palins don't deserve protection from late-night hosts. No one does. But children deserve protection from adults who have lost sight of their responsibility to be wardens of the innocent. And parents are the best guardians of their children. Keeping them out of the limelight seems a good starting point. And, no, I'm not suggesting that anyone 'asked for it.' " ALSO:

> Letterman issues formal apology (N.Y. Times)

> ‘Fire Letterman' rally called for Tuesday in Manhattan (N.Y. Daily News): "David Letterman admitted pangs of regret over jokes he made last week about Sarah Palin's daughter. He may be regretting them a little more now. A Web site called FireDavidLetterman.com is organizing a rally outside Letterman's show at the Ed Sullivan theater on Tuesday."

> "Palin has encouraged conservatives to unwittingly defend women’s rights and liberals to deny them" (Amanda Hess, Washington City Paper):

> What Hillary Clinton can teach Sarah Palin (Tina Brown, Daily Beast): "Here's one thing Sarah could learn from Hillary: Cheerfulness is more impressive than resentment. Is the secretary of State lugging around a Palin-size grudge about having to play a subservient role to the man who humbled her at the polls? ... Here's something Palin could learn from Letterman: Leave the jokes to the comedians."

> Top 10 reasons Palin's outrage is misplaced and a little late (Shannyn Moore, Just a Girl From Homer)

> Should Letterman be fired for a joke? (George Schlatter, Huffington Post)

> Could Palin be Letterman's "Hugh Grant moment" in ratings war? (The Associated Press)

> Trip Outside shows Palin's star still blazes (Anchorage Daily News)

UNESCO BEGINS TLINGIT LANGUAGE SURVEY (Juneau Empire): "For Tlingits and other Native people, language and culture go hand and hand - one cannot survive without the other. ‘Our language defines us as a people,' Jacqueline Geboe said recently. Geboe, who is Chippewa and Arapaho, is in Sitka this summer, working with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to determine the status of the Tlingit language here. UNESCO estimated in 2000 that, after thousands of years of Tlingit culture in Southeast Alaska, there were only 300 fluent speakers left."

A LAKE BY ANY OTHER NAME IS HARD TO FIND (Christine Cunningham, The Redoubt Reporter): "Directions to secret fishing holes given by a local as compared with those found in the regulation or guidebooks can make for a comedy of the go-a-mile-past-the-Johnson-farm-and-turn-right-at-where-the-old-tractor-used-to-be variety. ... Spirit Lake, for example, is called Elephant Lake by many people and is still labeled Elephant Lake on most maps, where it looks as much like an elephant as the constellations look like whatever they are named for looking like."

CARIBOU/REINDEER POPULATIONS PLUNGE WORLDWIDE (Live Science): "Reindeer and caribou numbers worldwide have plunged nearly 60 percent in the last three decades due to climate change and habitat disturbance caused by humans, a new study finds. Global warming and industrial development are driving the dramatic decline, said a University of Alberta student involved in the study."

MASSIVE LOGS HOIST KENAI GUN SHOP TO REALITY (The Redoubt Reporter): "There's nothing quite like the Brown Bear Gun Shop and Museum, but it might have turned out even more unusual if the daughter of owner David Thornton hadn't told him about her alarming dream. Thornton's own dream for his sturdy gun shop included a sod roof, which he had seen and admired on several old buildings in Alaska." But his daughter was worried.

Return to Alaska Newsreader later in the day for new links.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

Video: Plane crash on Lake Spenard (Dustin Koehler, YouTube)

Towing dead whale gives captain stories to tell (Valdez Star)

Bill McAllister's long, strange year as Palin spokesman (Anchorage Press)

Sardines, salmon or something else? The seafood eater's conundrum (The New York Times)

Voles take toll on Fairbanks gardens, lawns (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

UAF students survives Outback train ordeal (Sunday Mail, South Australia)

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