News for Monday, April 16
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Haines residents rescue captured bear, Fish and Game steps in. The Chilkat Valley News reports troopers are considering charges against a local trio that found an orphaned black bear cub on a local shore and nursed it to health, feeding it milk and dog food. Fish and Game stepped in last week and took the 25-pound cub from a local wild animal park - and encountered a half-dozen protesters at the airport. The bear’s being released into the wild.
The Haines story, and the broader issue of how far people should go in feeding and habituating bears, takes on some extra meaning after you've read the unbelievable story in Sunday's ADN about a retired Anchorage teacher who’s turned his Susitna Valley homestead into something of a bear farm. The story and photos, really are something else. Click on the online pictures not included with the print package, here, here and here. Far North Science writer Doug O'Harra offers his take on the outrageous scenes pictured: “You might be able to walk the centerline of a freeway with high-speed traffic hurtling past only inches from your body, but sooner or later, a car might veer.”
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“Once, he said, a crew threatened to throw all his cameras overboard...” We’ve read a lot lately about “Deadliest Catch,” the Discovery Channel’s hit documentary-style show about the Alaska crab fishery, now in its third season. But we haven’t seen much about how they actually produce the program. The Los Angeles Times looks at that today, and reports – surprise – that the work attracts a certain kind of live-on-the-edge type. “Many have already been directors of photography on their own shows,” the story says. “Most climb mountains, lead river-rafting excursions or ride motorcycles in their spare time.” Story says hanging out in the Dutch Harbor bars is crucial in finding good stories.
> “Deadliest Catch” home page
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“I could see by his eyes he was a survivor.” That’s former governor Wally Hickel looking back – waaaay back – to when he appointed Ted Stevens to the U.S. Senate in 1968 after the death of Bob Bartlett. Hickel turned up in a Juneau Empire story about Stevens over the weekend, one of several in the past week or so marking Stevens’ milestone – or “milepost,” as he prefers – of becoming the longest-serving Republican senator ever. Story quotes Stevens, then a federal prosecutor in Fairbanks, as saying he never had a dream of being a senator, but Hickel did. “I sort of had a vision,” Hickel tells the Empire. “He understood. That is our land. That is our oil.”
Stevens has already started his 2008 re-election campaign, and the story has some unusually strong comments from Alaska Democratic Party chairman Jake Metcalf. “"I think that most people think now that it is our best opportunity to defeat him. He is out of touch with most issues that are important to Alaskans," he said, citing his links to Bush on Iraq war. Empire also has a cool photo timeline of Stevens’ years in D.C.
> Also: News-Miner story/interview with Stevens.
ADN, meanwhile, reports (as Stevens has repeatedly warned the past couple years) that the good times may be over for Alaska in securing earmark projects in congressional spending bills. All three members of the congressional delegation, the story says, have suggested Alaska might have to start using part of the Permanent Fund to pay for future infrastructure and development. “The interest from the fund should meet some of the needs that we’ve addressed through past earmarks,” Stevens says in the story.
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Commuting to work by bike in Anchorage in winter. Clark Yerrington has been doing it the past six weeks or so and writes about it in the Insurgent 49 online magazine. “I was scared of being out there on a bike. What if I got smacked by a car? Or slipped on ice and fell on my face? Flipped into a light pole by some unexpected bump?”
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Did Bush administration downplay human climate impacts in polar-bear report? Story in the Washington Post raises that question, reporting that the Interior Department report proposing that polar bears be listed as a threatened species due to shrinking sea ice was edited to remove reference to reducing greenhouse gases.
> Also: Russia tries to save polar bears with legal hunt (AP)
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"We've got to do it right in Alaska, or we screw this state up..." That’s Gov. Palin’s Natural Resources commissioner, Tom Irwin, talking about the natural gas pipeline. The Associated Press has a lengthy profile of Irwin, fired by former Gov. Frank Murkowski for writing a memo critical of the administration’s gas line plan and brought back by Palin to help lead her pipeline push. Story describes a gregarious and devoutly religious man who refuses to publicly second-guess Murkowski.
The Juneau Empire reports the counter-push in the Legislature by the major oil producers, who say they like the process of Palin’s plans but are “pointing out what they consider to be flaws in the bill and lobbying for amendments to fit their needs.”
The Alaska Journal of Commerce, meanwhile, has a strong where-things-stand story about the gas line, focusing on the popular Palin’s increasingly aggressive defense against criticism of her proposal as the Legislature hits its final month. Among the loudest critics, the story notes, is former candidate Andrew Halcro, who’s now blogging about the gasline on adn.com. The story reports how Palin fired back sharply when AGIA came under attack recently from the Voice of the Times. The governor, the story says, “called in KTUU Channel 2 TV reporter Bill McAllister the next day to get her response out on the evening news... ‘If Veco’s still attacking me, then I know I’m doing something right for Alaskans,’ Palin said in the interview.” But the story notes that Halcro and the VOT aren’t the only critics. Northrim Bank CEO Marc Langland, the story says, “said he and several other business leaders in Anchorage are deeply worried about the legislation. ‘Despite what the administration is putting forth...it’s our opinion that AGIA is not what it is portrayed to be.’”
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Watching climate change from Fairbanks. News-Miner writes about Fairbanks scientists who were among the co-authors of that big international global warming study that’s getting so much attention lately.
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Ramras “the new front-man and political impresario for the cruise ship industry...” One of the more hard-hitting – and entertaining -- political columnists out there now is Myrl Thompson, an unsuccessful candidate for legislature in the Mat-Su who’s writing for the Frontiersman and Juneau Empire. His target this week: Rep. Jay Ramras’ efforts to roll back the cruise ship ballot initiative.
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Survey says: Alaskans like Palin, don’t like Pebble, really don’t like Gravina Island bridge. The Newsreader may have missed it but hasn’t seen this reported anywhere. A nonpartisan statewide public opinion survey by Hays Research Group this month shows Palin is still very popular and gives snapshots of where Alaskans are on other issues as well. Results are on the company’s Web page. The poll, of 408 people in active-voter households statewide on April 4-5, has a margin of error of 4.9 percent. Among the findings:
- 83 percent felt very positive or somewhat positive about Palin.
- 51 percent felt very positive or somewhat positive about Rep. Don Young.
- 55 percent felt very positive or somewhat positive about Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
- Most oppose legislation calling for withdrawl of U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring – but the gap is nearly within the margin of error.
- Most think developing the Pebble Mine is a bad idea.
- Most support Palin’s $500 million pipeline incentive.
- 71 percent oppose the Gravina Island bridge.
Poll methodology here.
MORE ALASKA HEADLINES:
> TB outbreak spreads among Anchorage homeless (ADN)
> Firefighter’s home burns (KTUU)
> School official charged in gambling bust (ADN)
> Juneau radio personality about to set off for around-the-world sail (Juneau Empire)
> Traveler lost and found near Mud Volcanoes (Delta Discovery)
> Alone on mountain, Japanese climber indulges his love (AP)
> End in sight for massive trans-Alaska pipeline upgrade (Petroleum News)
> Bill would allow governor to remove regent (News-Miner)
> Operating budget ready for Senate vote (AP)
OPINION:
> Moment of truth coming in Senate on BP spill bill (Frontiersman)
> Greenhouse gases cause trouble for oceans (ADN)
> Was ADN story on new bear hunts misleading? (News-Miner)
> Ketchikan should drop bridge (Juneau Empire op-ed)
> Kensington mine developer has done it right (Juneau Empire op-ed)
ADN editors find the news from all over Alaska every morning so you don't have to. Updated weekdays by 9 a.m. AST. (Some links may require registration)
