Anchorage Daily News

News for Thursday, June 14.

‘Small’ businessman asked to move. The News-Miner writes that police were called recently to ask an 8-year-old salesman to peddle his hot chocolate somewhere else. Apparently, street vendors in Fairbanks must stay away from the Golden Heart Plaza downtown.

The paper reports: The strong reaction to his stand …  highlights a rift between some downtown business owners over sidewalk vendors. Some suggested this week that the city should review its restrictions on the number of vendors allowed to sell from downtown sidewalks.

That question – where do you put your vendors – should be familiar to any Alaska tourist town.

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On their own in Iraq. Stars and Stripes was on the ground in Iraq with a frustrated group of U.S. troops, including Alaska soldiers, who are hoping for more cooperation – or effort – from their Iraqi counterparts:

Instead of coaching the Iraqis on interviewing suspects and collecting illegal weapons, the U.S. team watched Iraqi police let residents walk unimpeded through a cordon, Iraqi soldiers quit their house searches after about two blocks and an Iraqi company commander take a midmorning tea break in the shade.

Click here for photos of the soldiers.

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‘How lucky can a guy get?’ The Peninsula Clarion interviews a Cooper Landing man who owns the largest four-leaf-clover collection on the planet. (At least according to the record books.)

It took volunteers a year to help Ed Martin Sr. count his more than 100,000 clovers, the paper reports. Martin said he averages about one four-leaf clover per minute when he’s on the hunt, which translates to well over 1,600 hours of searching.

That makes Martin the Yoda of four-leaf-clover finding, and here’s his tip:

Don’t hit the clover patch thinking about numbers of leaves. Just scan back and forth for clovers that look different from the others. “They’re a mutation; you’ll always find more than one.”

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From the Unalaska Advertiser police blotter:

06/09/07. Sat. Trespass – Unisea security reported three belligerent, inebriated men, who had recently joined the ranks of the unemployed, were trespassing on Unisea property ….

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Naples reporter on Young story. NPR talks to a reporter for the Naples Daily News, the Florida paper that first explored the relationship between Don Young’s fund-raising in Florida and a $10 million Florida road proposal.

“We have never gotten Don Young to speak to us about this,” says reporter Julio Ochoa.

The story gained national attention when The New York Times wrote its own version and put it on the front page.

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Juneau lighthouse to appear on stamp. The Juneau Empire reports that the Postal Service chose the Five Fingers Lighthouse, south of Juneau, as one of five Pacific lighthouses for a series of stamps being launched next week.

Find more on the lighthouse here and here.

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From the Unalaska Advertiser police blotter:

06/05/07. Tue. Animal – Feral cat.  

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Spy on your kid. Pointing to recent examples of youth violence in Anchorage, KTUU reports that parents should start snooping on their kids’ MySpace accounts or using software to track what their children are doing online, looking for signs of trouble.

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‘A lobby that treats legislators like houseboys.’ A guest New York Times columnist summarizes Alaska’s big political stories of the last year.

Pretty familiar stuff: Making fun of Stevens for saying “series of tubes.” Praising Palin as a fresh face. Quoting Young saying that he stuffed a spending bill “like a turkey.”

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The culprit behind pipeline corrosion, recalled spinach and dental plaque. The L.A. Times writes that scientists are studying so-called “biofilms,” the slick layers of bacteria that grow on countless surfaces and cause countless problems.

Biofilms, the paper reports, can set up residence inside pipes and cause devastating corrosion. They were behind the breach found in the Alaska pipeline last summer. Sixteen miles of pipe had to be replaced.

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Hospital says it’s bug free. Remember those flies under the floor at the Fairbanks hospital, reported by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner? They’re gone now, according to the paper.

That means the hospital can start performing elective surgery again, said a hospital spokeswoman. “We’re good to go.”

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Young love. Also in the News-Miner: A 12-year-old Tok boy threatened a 10-year-old boy with a small pocketknife. They were fighting over an 11-year-old girl.

The 12-year-old faces a felony assault charge, the paper writes.