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News for Tuesday, Aug. 14

40 years later, flood memories pour in. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner stories this week are relating recollections of the events of August 1967, when a Chena River swollen by relentless rain submerged Fairbanks. The flood, which has been called a turning point in the city’s history, killed four people.

A story today relates the tales of some of those looking back, including Mayor Steve Thompson, who said he joined with others driving boats through city streets and picking up some of the stranded. A Dermot Cole column relates the story of a man who floated to the airport in a borrowed canoe and got out of the city, never to return until this week. A Cole column on Sunday told other stories.

The city is planning a gathering at Pioneers Park today so residents can share stories and experiences.

***

Then there’s the Pineapple Express of ’07. Another story in today’s News-Miner takes note of the warm, moist air that blew into the Tanana Valley overnight Sunday. Called the Pineapple Express, the tropical air from the south pushed temperatures well above normal and is expected to persist for much of the week.

“If the charts I was looking at yesterday were right, we could have some 80-degree weather on Friday and Saturday,” a meteorologist told the paper.

***

Young in the cross-hairs. The Juneau Empire today looks at some of the Democratic Party activity swirling as several members of the party eye Republican Rep. Don Young’s job. Diane Benson, who lost to Young in November, is going to try again. Jake Metcalfe says he’s running, and Ethan Berkowitz might.

“There's always a pack of wolves circling a wounded moose, but that first wolf had to wound it, didn't it?” the story quotes Benson as saying.

***

Child tumbles from second-story window. A KTVA story reports that a 6-year-old girl who fell out a second-story window of the Extended Stay Deluxe hotel in downtown Anchorage was the daughter of a hotel housekeeper, who had left the youngster in a room while she went to clean another one.

The mother had opened the window to freshen the air, police told the TV station. The girl received minor injuries in the fall.

***

Russian bombers on the prowl. A Reuters story quotes U.S. and Canadian officials as saying that Russian bombers are flying more missions than normal near U.S. territory, including Alaska. One Russian plane carrying cruise missiles ran an aviation exercise near Alaska two weeks ago.

“Some analysts and defense officials say the flights likely reflect Moscow's desire to display its military muscle to remind Washington of Russia's capabilities and express dismay over U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe,” the story says.

***

Norton Sound cleanup has a way to go. More than 60 years after World War II and the Russian-American Lend-Lease program that put the area on the map for military operations, a legacy of contamination persists, according to a story in The Nome Nugget. Health problems related to PCB and petrochemical pollution as well as cleanup costs devouring millions of dollars are what is left of the Formerly Used Defense Sites program, or FUDS.

And an Anchorage-based group, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, says the cleanup efforts are neither funded sufficiently nor investigated to the extent they should be, according to the story. “The (Army Corps of Engineers) does not do proper site characterizations and both the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Corps provide no proper oversight. The budget is just not enough,” says Viola Waghiyi of ACAT.

***

Bering witness in a minisub. Greenpeace has posted information text, maps and photos on its Web site of a current trip to the Bering Sea for research work. The organization’s vessel Esperanza is equipped with two new small submarines that will prowl the depths to take pictures.

The trip’s mission, according to the Web site, is to expose “the impacts of overfishing and documenting some of these previously unexplored canyon habitats.”

Pictures and video are here.

A blog kept by the crew is here.

There are also links at the site for following the Esperanza’s progress. GoogleEarth required.

***

Rare find in Kachemak Bay. A story in the Homer News reports that volunteers with the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network rescued a rare northern fur seal in Kachemak Bay. The rescue, late last month, is the first such seal seen in Cook Inlet in the history of the Alaska SeaLife Center, and the first northern fur seal to be rehabilitated there, said Tim Lebling, stranding coordinator for the Seward center.

The critter, which has been named Mica, is a male about a year old. An official at the SeaLife Center said the seal was weak but not emaciated and wasn't eating when it arrived, but it's doing well, although it has a high level of parasites.

***

A soldier’s life. The last time he talked to his mother from Iraq, Army Sgt. Shawn Adams told her he was anxious for action, according to a story detailing Adams’ life and military career in the Los Angeles Times. The Fort Richardson paratrooper from Vacaville, Calif., was killed by an improvised explosive device on July 22, his first wedding anniversary and a short time after the call to his mother.

The story notes that Adams was deeply affected by events of 9/11, looked forward to the thrills of being a paratrooper, and came from a military family. Once in Iraq, he “complained to his family about missing home and his wife. It was too hot. Too sandy. The open sewers stank. But he also saw his assignment as a chance to fight terrorism,” according to the story.

***

Everybody has an opinion. Many of Alaska’s newspapers have weighed in with editorials on where a special legislative session aimed at revisiting the oil production tax should be held. (Gov. Sarah Palin has not yet named a place.) Here’s a sampling:

> The governor should recognize the legitimate fears of many people in and out of Juneau that she wants state government to have an even greater presence in Anchorage and maybe the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which contains her home community of Wasilla. She should also recognize that the ample electronic means exist for the public to participate in the legislative process. The October special session should be held in Juneau. (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

> Juneau can breathe a sigh of relief that the fall special session on the oil profits tax will likely be held in Juneau. … City leaders need to look at some of the basics, such as child care, parking and laundry services, and make sure they're acceptable and convenient for those who work at the Capitol. We need to invest in our community to make it a comfortable home away from home for our lawmakers. (Juneau Empire)

> We'd like to see an Anchorage session -- or Fairbanks or Kenai, for that matter -- but location is less important than the redemption of a new oil tax that few Alaskans trust. If a longer special session works better in Juneau, so be it. Meet where it's easiest to do good work. (ADN)

***

Driven to poetry by fluoridation. The water fluoridation debate in Juneau inspired one letter-to-the-editor writer in the Juneau Empire to commit his position, or lack of one, to verse:

Fluoride! Fluoride! I must confide,
Yes, or no, I can't decide.
I can't decide, you might deride,
Because, because,
I've too much pride.
If I decide to vote against,
Then many friends will be incensed.
But alternatively, if I'm for it, too,
Many others will me eschew.
And so, it seems, I'm damned if I don't,
But on the other hand, damned if I do.
So please don't force me to someday choose,
I've too few friends to any lose.
And let us hope this issue drops,
Before our collective pressure pops.
                                   -- Steve Wolf, Juneau