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F-22 Raptor (John Rossino / AP via Lockheed Martin)

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News for Monday, Aug. 6

Too much plane for the times? An Associated Press story appearing in papers across the country today – it’s here as it ran in the Air Force Times – takes note that Elmendorf Air Force Base this week is getting the first of 40 F-22 Raptor fighter jets. The aircraft is fast, sneaky and pricey – about $135 million per plane.

But the story brings in critics who argue the plane could be an overpriced luxury in the age of terrorism. “ ‘The real issue is, who are we going to fly the F-22 against?’ asked military aviation author and lecturer James P. Stevenson. ‘I don’t think al-Qaida is going to shrink back into their caves because there are F-22s flying overhead rather than F-16s.’ ”

***

Stevenses’ woes as seen from Seattle. Two reporters for the Seattle Times in a story Sunday took a long, detailed look at the careers and troubles of Ted and Ben Stevens, the father-son duo who have figured in the recent investigations plaguing Alaska politicians.

The reporters – both of them former ADNers – at a couple points bring into the story Wev Shea, former U.S. attorney in Alaska, who in June got a handwritten letter from Ted Stevens saying he and wife, Catherine, paid $130,000 for improvements to their Girdwood home. “ ‘This is a sad portion of my life — it will take time to explain,’ Stevens wrote. ‘Someone — or more than one — keeps telling the FBI that's not so. Takes time to go look over five years to prove they are wrong.’ ”

The story also takes note of this: “Ben Stevens is back in private life and faces legal expenses. To make money, he has returned to the sea to work. As of last week, he was on a vessel.”

***

From another perspective. Other media also had one or the other of the Stevenses in the crosshairs over the weekend. In what has to be one of the most rancorous of the pieces, columnist Margaret Carlson, writing for Bloomberg News, says: “A prima don in an Incredible Hulk tie, Stevens often behaves like a teenager threatening to take his gavel and go home when he doesn't get his way.”

The column wraps up with this: “What is a bad bargain for the country is a tragedy for Stevens. One wonders what he's telling the feds and even more what he is telling himself as he finds himself -- and his son -- caught up in a criminal investigation. He had a good thing going, if only he'd known it.”

***

Bringing them all in. Then there’s the lengthy, rambling Congressional Quarterly story today, headlined “Frontier friendships entangle Alaska politics,” that, in addition to Sen. Ted Stevens, brings in the other two members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young. “Whether these three Republicans end up being implicated in separate or related scandals — or whether, ultimately, there aren’t any scandals at all — government watchdog groups throughout Washington have taken note that every member of Alaska’s congressional delegation is now under an ethical cloud,” the story says.

One source quoted in the story sees Alaska’s remoteness and attitudes as contributing to the problems: “ ‘It’s the dark side of the frontier mentality,’ said Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore and a former House counsel. ‘There was always a disdain for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. … That’s the way Stevens and Young stayed in power. Their constituents don’t want them to turn into striped-suit Easterners.’”

***

In search of a root cause. And finally from The Economist comes a story that attempts to get a grip on what, fundamentally, is behind all the ethical and legal woes facing Alaska politicians:

“Oil is at the bottom of the trouble. Since the mid-1970s Alaska has been awash in money from oil pumped from Prudhoe Bay. Companies such as VECO could make huge sums by supplying equipment and services to big oil companies. Contacts with state politicians always helped. More recently, the indicted state representatives are believed to have helped VECO and oil companies to fight efforts to raise state taxes on oil -- taxes that are now among the lowest in the world.”

***

One weird fish. A story in the Ketchikan Daily News reports on a fisherman’s catch off Gravina Island of a 49-inch fanged longnose lancetfish. The New Mexico fisherman caught the fish, which had bright blue eyes when it came out of the water (though the vividness faded) and upper and lower fangs, on a gold salmon jig while trolling for salmon.

The catch is rare, though not unheard of. “According to a table on the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Web site, five lancetfish have been analyzed in Alaska in more than 20 years, four in 1985 and one in 2004. All five were caught in the Bering Sea,” the story says.

***

No sympathy for panhandlers. Like Anchorage, Juneau has critics of the city’s panhandlers who frequent downtown, and the city may be near to doing something about it, according to a story in the Juneau Empire.  The story quotes one panhandler as saying he’s been getting a “hard time” lately. And the story goes on to say it could get worse, if the Juneau Assembly looks favorably upon a proposed, aggressive anti-panhandling ordinance.

Daniel Bennett, the panhandler, is quoted at the end of the story wondering if the new law would be effective. “ ‘God says, “Ask and it will be given,” ' Bennett said. ‘Man says, “Ask and get arrested.” Who would you listen to?’”

***

Bound for trouble. First it was reports of two young grizzlies, probably yearlings, roaming part of Chena Hot Springs Road. But now, says a story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, there could be an adult as well among them. Biologists are trying to determine if it’s all a family affair.

“But the bears have also received some negative reinforcement. The bears have been shot with bean bags by one resident, and another resident told Fish and Game officials he chased the bears out of his yard and up a tree before dousing them with bear spray.”