Anchorage Daily News

SENATORS: SEE ALASKA SHRINK ON YOUR SUMMER BREAK (CQ Politics): Summer tourists are lured to Alaska by the midnight sun, abundant wildlife and world-class sport fishing. But the state's junior senator is organizing a tour this summer designed to show a handful of colleagues another side of Alaska: receding glaciers and thawing permafrost widely attributed to global warming. "Everyone's been going to Greenland to see melting glaciers," said Democrat Mark Begich . "They should see the effects of global warming here in their own country." ALSO:

> Satire: Advancing glacier accused of global warming denies allegation (GlossyNews.com)

SMOKEJUMPERS REUNION MARKS 50 YEARS AT FAIRBANKS BASE (Alaska Post, U.S. Army): The Alaska Fire Service smokejumpers have fought forest fires in Alaska for 50 years. AFS celebrated the milestone June 5 and 6 with a smokejumper reunion. Current smokejumpers rubbed elbows with AFS veterans while the organization opened its doors for visitors to witness a practice jump at Birch Hill's Big Spot East drop zone, enjoy a barbecue at Chena Lakes and take tours of AFS facilities.

KODIAK HOPEFUL SHRIMP WILL RETURN SOMEDAY (KMXT): Shrimp were once so important in Kodiak that the city's official seal includes one. Starting in the 1950s, there was a thriving shrimp fishery in Kodiak. "In 30 minutes we could put 40,000 pounds on deck," one fisherman recalls of the 1970s peak. But the shrimp disappeared altogether in the mid-1980s. Some blame warming of the local waters and an ensuing green algae bloom that plugged nets. Though there is potential for the re-emergence of the fishery, exists, predicting it is challenging.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: DON'T LET NEIGHBORS GET NUKES (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): A Fairbanks resident reacts with tongue in cheek to news that a resident of nearby Ester is looking to bring nuclear energy technology to the Parks Highway community. "Do we honestly want the tiny, breakaway Republic of Ester achieving nuclear capability? Yes, it's true that most Esterites are simple, kindly folk who dwell in primitive structures, obtain much of their sustenance from the land and rely on hemp cultivation to supplement their meager incomes. But the murky, quasi-leftist collective that governs them can't be trusted. And although Ester officials claim their proposed reactor is intended strictly for peaceful purposes, this move could spark a new arms race."

ATLANTIC SEAL VIRUS SUSPECTED IN DEATHS OF KACHEMAK BAY OTTERS (Homer News): A virus previously seen only in Atlantic Ocean seals has been identified in Alaska sea otters, including three dead otters found in Kachemak Bay from 2005 to 2007. A paper published this month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control documents the discovery of phocine distemper virus in dead and live otters. Ocean warming and a decline in Arctic sea ice may have led to the spread of the virus across the Arctic, the report says. Phocine distemper virus, or PDV, is suspected to be the cause of an unusual number of sea otter deaths in Alaska, including Kachemak Bay, said Verena Gill, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service marine mammal biologist and one of the authors of the report.

INLET FISHERMEN REPORT SEEING UNPRECEDENTED WHALE NUMBERS (The Redoubt Reporter): Anglers taking halibut and king salmon charter trips out of Deep Creek this spring got extra bang out of their buck as fishing trips turned into inadvertent whale watching trips. The word on the saltwater among sport fishermen off the lower Peninsula has been whales, whales and more whales - grays, humpbacks and other species. Charter boat fishermen who have fished in the area 20-plus years say they have never seen anything like it. ALSO:

> Arizona angler catches 575-pound shark in Inlet (Homer News - includes photo): It took a harpoon, three gunshots and six people to finally get the 8-foot, 6-inch monster on board.

SUPREME COURT RULING IN ANCHORAGE CASE MAY BE BROADER THAN EXPECTED (SCOTUS Blog): The Supreme Court's ruling today that convicts do not have a constitutional right to gain access to DNA evidence testing -- in a case brought by William Osborne, convicted in the 1993 beating of a prostitute -- may have significantly broader implications. Two of the justices in the majority said in a separate opinion that they would have gone further in rejecting the DNA access claim in the case.

AFTER STEVENS CASE, JUSTICE DEPT. CORRUPTION UNIT IN DISARRAY (Washington Post): Two months after prosecutors abandoned the criminal conviction of former senator Ted Stevens, the Justice Department unit that polices public corruption remains in chaos, coping with newly discovered evidence that threatens to undermine other cases while department leaders struggle to reshuffle the ranks. ...Lawyers representing other targets of the five-year-long Alaska corruption probe known as "Operation Polar Pen" report receiving hundreds of pages of materials from newly installed prosecutors in recent days. ALSO:

> Kott, Kohring remain free pending evidence review (Anchorage Daily News)

NEW JUNEAU SAILING CLUB PLANS ‘CROWN JEWEL' OF A RACE (Juneau Empire): A new nonprofit sailing club in Juneau will help celebrate Alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood with an inaugural race designed to challenge even the most seasoned sailors. The longest inland water race on the West Coast, Spirit of Admiralty, will be an intense weeklong race around Admiralty Island. The group also revived the event to commemorate an epic race in Juneau 25 years ago, when a group of sailors circumnavigated Admiralty Island to honor Alaska's 25th year of statehood. Includes photos

PALIN LOSES HOCKEY BET WITH S.C. GOVERNOR, GETS CONSOLATION PRIZE (AP): South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford thanked his Alaska counterpart for fulfilling her part of a bet the two Republicans had on the recently concluded ECHL finals between the Aces and the Sting Rays. He got an Alaska king salmon, and he sent Palin what he called a consolation prize-sized portion of shrimp, grits and She-Crab soup from a Charleston restaurant.

FLOOD-DAMAGED EAGLE BRACES FOR ROUGH TOURISM SEASON (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): The ice is gone, and along with it, so is much of Eagle's income. Severe Yukon River flooding decimated Eagle in early May, wiping out the town's cafe, hotel and numerous homes. Tour operators are about a month behind bringing visitors to the river city, which also serves as a launching point for canoers and kayakers traveling the Yukon. For many in the town of about 125, the tourist trade is their economic vitality. "We lost our lodging, and we lost our cafe," said Linda Nelson at the town's store, the Eagle Trading Post. "There's not going to be any extra income."

FOREST FIRE STARTED IN NAME OF RESEARCH (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner): Fire managers, forestry scientists and firefighter crews teamed Wednesday for the first leg of a project aimed at deciphering more about how fire behaves in Alaska's boreal forests. The work was aimed at observing fire's behavior at four 5-acre blocks of land that had been thinned or clear-cut with methods wildland firefighters use to slow or stall advancing fires. Includes photos

JUNEAU POLICE SEEK ‘KITTY LITTER BANDIT' (Juneau Empire): A 20-year-old man believed involved in two burglaries is on the loose. Brendan Doyle was previously convicted of burglary when he ran through kitty litter dumped outside by the victimized homeowner and police discovered cat feces and litter on Doyle's clothing.

OLIVE GARDEN PULLS LETTERMAN ADS (Politico): -- UPDATE: Olive Garden is denying the Politico story -- Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Gov. Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about her daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant chain says it is canceling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman's "Late Show" for the rest of the year.

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