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Bob Persons

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News for Wednesday, Aug. 22

Stevens friend pays price. Bob Persons — Double Musky Inn restaurant owner and neighbor and friend of Sen. Ted Stevens — has been drawn into the Stevens investigation because he had a role in the remodeling of the senator’s Girdwood home. That’s been known. What hasn’t been known, and what is revealed in the Turnagain Times, is that  Persons is also the community’s “Secret Santa,” who has for years donated money and gifts to kids.

“Persons is a private man, and the attention he’s garnered from the investigation has thrust him into the national spotlight, which he feels has painted a negative image of him and his family,” the story says. “Persons felt compelled to come forward about his role in the community and his work as ‘Secret Santa’ to present another side to the story.”

Among the story’s details: Persons says he has accumulated more than $35,000 in legal bills as a consequence of the investigation. “It’s like being hit by chip,” he told the newspaper. “They chip away at the big guys, and then they chip away at the little guy like me.”

***

Interior’s tourism boom. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story says statistics are showing a surge in tourism this year. “Numbers are up all over the place,” the story says.

“More passengers are landing at Fairbanks International Airport, more drivers are crossing the border into the state on the Alaska and Taylor highways, and the University of Alaska Museum of the North is showing large visitor increases over last year as well.”

The story attributes some of the boost to the cooperation among downtown organizations. “This is really about Fairbanks tying together and working collaboratively,” said Emma Wilson, executive director of the Downtown Association of Fairbanks. “We’re starting to see the fruits of our labors.”

***

Should airlines crack down on lone teens? The story of a Juneau teenager (the Associated Press account that ran in ADN is here, and an ADN editorial on the subject is here) who managed to get on a plane without her parents’ permission and fly to Seattle triggered an ABC News national story that posed this question: Should airlines crack down on teens traveling alone?

The story airs a number of views: The Transportation Security Administration says the passenger was appropriately screened and wasn’t a security threat, according to the story; a law enforcement official said a 15-year-old traveling alone should have been screened; and the parents say they are “shocked” it happened and have pressed charges against their daughter, claiming she stole money from them.

***

Kulis, Tastee Freez affair breaking up. A story on a Department of Defense web site airs logistical details and some cost figures regarding the 176th Wing’s move from Kulis Air National Guard Base to Elemendorf Air Force Base. The present site off Raspberry Road not far from Jewel Lake Road leaves no room to grow, officials have said, and the new location will provide room to expand the unit’s mission.

But the move is bound to damage the unit’s attachment to the ice cream shop at Jewel Lake and Raspberry. “The nearby Tastee Freez is so closely tied to Kulis that it formed the ‘Ice Cream Support Squadron’ in 2005 and provides ice cream sundaes for unit Christmas parties and deployments. Photos of the unit and its history there adorn the diner’s walls,” the story says.

***

Mystery death. The death of a Homer teenager at a party in late July continues to puzzle authorities, according to a story in the Homer News. In the latest development, the state medical examiner says a toxicology report shows no evidence of alcohol or illegal drug use.

The 18-year-old died after falling unconscious at the party.

***

By sea or by foot? A story in The Daily News of Halifax, Nova Scotia, reports on new research that could support the notion that Asian seafarers beat Siberian hunters to the New World. A Canadian project is probing an underwater site off the Queen Charlotte Islands south of Ketchikan for traces of a possible prehistoric camp on the shores of an ancient lake long since submerged by the Pacific Ocean.

The research is seeking evidence for a new theory that “holds that ancient Asian seafarers, drawn by food-rich kelp beds ringing the Pacific coasts of present-day Russia, Alaska and British Columbia, began populating this hemisphere thousands of years before the migration of Siberian big-game hunters — who traveled across the dried-up Bering Strait and down an ice-free corridor east of the Rockies as the last glaciers began retreating about 13,000 years ago,” the story says,.

***

This ad, submitted from South Anchorage, is running on craigslist:

A Real Chicken — Mounted — $75. Mounted by a professional taxidermist for $200. Now asking $75. It adds a lot to a country décor and makes an interesting conversation piece.

There’s a picture with the ad.

***

How would you rate Anchorage? On the same day that Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich gave the city high marks (ADN’s story on his speech to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce is here), KTUU asked its viewers how they’d rate the city: 11 percent said excellent, 36 percent good, 33 percent fair and 20 percent poor.

The station notes its polls are unscientific.

***

No new borough. Delta voters have overwhelmingly rejected plans for a new borough, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says. The newspaper reports that 90 percent voted against the notion of a new Deltana Borough, and 91 percent said no to a financial plan that called for Pogo gold mine and a pair of utility taxes to pay for the local government.

The proposed borough would have been geographically larger than Connecticut, incorporating 5,900 square miles and absorbing the smaller government of the city of Delta Junction.

***

Ax this subsidy. A Los Angeles Times editorial contends that federal money intended for roads and other services in the Tongass National Forest is “a boondoggle, pure and simple,” and should be sliced from the federal budget. The money, about $40 million a year, is gone from the budget at the moment, and the Senate should resist any effort by Sen. Ted Stevens to put it back in, the editorial says.

***

No more buckets. Nunapitchuk held a “No More Bucket” celebration recently, marking the completion of a program that put running water and flush toilets in every house and public building in the village, The Delta Discovery reports.

“Festivities led by Nunapitchuk Mayor James Berlin included stories about village sanitation past and present by Robert Nick and Suzie Sumi, a Fill the Bucket Relay Race, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Yup’ik dancing and plenty of food,” the story notes.

***

Too hot to soldier. KUAC in Fairbanks has a story on how Alaska Army National Guard troops in Kuwait are coping with the heat tormenting them during the hottest month of the year. It sometimes tops 130 degrees, according to the story.

“It’s kind of like being in a convection oven,” one soldier is quoted as saying.

***

Stuck in trouble. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story says two Fort Wainwright soldiers were charged with vehicle theft after they borrowed an excavator to free a car that got stuck in a muddy slough. Great Northwest Inc. said the soldiers did not have permission to use the excavator to get the car out.

The pair abandoned the excavator after it also got stuck. The company says it cost more than $12,000 to get it out.

More headlines:

> Sullivan pushes for election changes (KIMO)
> Todd Palin back to work with BP (KTUU)
> Back-to-school days in Mat-Su (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)
> Forest Service and employee sparring over whistle blowing and possible retaliations (APRN)
> Details all that remain for Mount Baldy land swap (Alaska Star)