Anchorage Daily News

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The USS Grunion, shown here in 1942, is believed to have been discovered at the bottom of the ocean near Kiska. See item below. (Naval Historical Center)

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News for Friday, Oct. 19

Two museums go at it, hammer and tongs. The owner of the little Hammer Museum in Haines is dueling with the big Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in a trademark battle, according to a Chilkat Valley News story. The issue - which was also reported in a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) - is who has the right to the name that both possess.

Dave Pahl, who created the Haines museum with his personal collection of hammers, says he used the name before the Los Angeles museum did - it was created from the personal art collection of businessman Armand Hammer and previously was called the Armand Hammer Museum of Art. “If I can’t use the name, I’m washed up,” Pahl told the Valley News.

Pahl filed his applications to the trademark office himself after reading online how to do it, The Wall Street Journal story says. The Los Angeles museum lists 26 lawyers on its application.

***

Gangs persist, but so do police. Gangs in Anchorage remain a threat and are likely to persevere, according to a KTUU story. But police say they are making arrests and seizing guns and think they are making progress.

Here’s how APD Chief Rob Huen puts it in the story: “The gang situation at this point is constant; however, we believe with our presence we've been able to keep it to a certain level of control.”

And here’s how Anchorage Assemblyman Matt Claman, who represents West Anchorage, characterized the threat: “I have folks say they're worried about driving the streets at night. There's a lot of gangs out there. … I think its going to continue to be an issue for a long time, but we're making progress.”

A KTUU poll on the issue, which asked if more police officers would cut gang activity, showed more than half of those responding thought so. The stations notes the poll is not scientific.

***

Abused cat finds new life. In a story that aims directly at the heart, the Peninsula Clarion reports on the recovery of a cat found in woods two years ago showing evidence of profound abuse. The cat - which would be nicknamed Forrest and later become known as Sid - was skin and bones with a severely damaged, maggot-riddled tail.

“I read that (original newspaper) story and told my son, we’re getting that cat,” Daughn Carpenter of Soldotna told the newspaper.

Of Sid’s life since then, she says: “He went through a period where he was standoffish, but now he's affectionate and doing good. He won't leave my son alone. He loves to knead on him, purring loudly.”

***

Fairbanks gets first significant snowfall. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story takes note of the dusting the city got on Thursday and that is supposed to turn to something more today. Up to 4 inches are expected by the end of the day.

***

“How to lose, Don Young’s way.” A National Review Online story looks at some of the problems facing the Republican Party nationally going into 2008 - and finds Alaska Rep. Don Young to be one of its major woes.

“Republicans need an ethical Housecleaning if they are ever to return to the majority again,” the story says, and how the party’s leaders deal with Young (and other Republicans in trouble) will have a lot to say about its success.

***

Drug link broken. A Mexican man suspected of distributing hundreds of pounds of cocaine to Alaska and other states faces drug charges in Los Angeles, an Associated Press story says. Francisco “Pancho” Aviles-Perez was extradited from Mexico, where he had been held for a year, and turned over to the FBI to face charges he coordinated shipments of cocaine to the U.S. from Mexico.

***

Unearthing answers to sub’s loss. A Washington Post story revisits the tale of the USS Grunion, a submarine that vanished off Alaska’s coast during World War II. A search effort led by the sons of the skipper, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Abele, believes it has found the vessel at the bottom of the sea near Kiska.

The Post story says the news of the discovery has had a powerful effect on families of the 70-man Grunion crew that went down with the sub. “I was so excited,” says Mary Anne Marino, a niece of one of the crewmen who was 2 when her uncle died. “My husband told me, ‘You never knew this man. Calm down, you're going to have a heart attack.’ I told him, ‘You can't understand what it means to find out what happened.’ ”

***

Mystic or idiot? “Your opinion of 'Into the Wild' might say more about yourself than its subject,” declares the headline on an OC Weekly review of the Sean Penn movie that has received a ton of press nationwide and which opened in Anchorage this week. The review of the story of Chris McCandless, who trekked into the Alaska wilderness and died, is somewhat different in that it takes on McCandless critics, many of whom have disparaged him as a fool rather than the heroic figure the movie portrays.

“Praised or scorned, souls like his, those who break - psychotically, perhaps - from social norms to follow the insistent cadence of their particular rhythms force the rest of us to reflect on our own choices and compromises,” writes Joel Beers.

***

First the temperature, now the wind. Study results in a story on a NASA web site blame the wind for contributing to the stunning reduction in Arctic sea ice. The story discusses the findings of a NASA researcher who concluded: “Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream and then sped its flow out of the Arctic.”

The story says: “The scientists observed less perennial ice cover in March 2007 than ever before, with the thick ice confined to the Arctic Ocean north of Canada. Consequently, the Arctic Ocean was dominated by thinner seasonal ice that melts faster. This ice is more easily compressed and responds more quickly to being pushed out of the Arctic by winds. Those thinner seasonal ice conditions facilitated the ice loss, leading to this year's record low amount of total Arctic sea ice.”

***

The Arctic show, in color. An APRN Web site item features a dramatic video from the Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington that shows the polar sea ice changes from June to September of this year.

The retreat, and its potential consequences, has gained a ton of media attention this fall. (Click here for an ADN story on the threat to polar bears and here for an Associated Press story on what is happening to Alaska’s walrus.) But the video’s representation provides a scale that is different.

***

New Barrow mayor plans makeover. Real people will replace telephone answering systems in one of the first acts of Barrow’s top government official, according to a story in The Arctic Sounder. Michael D. Stotts, who took office this month, told the newspaper in an interview that the plans to make people available to talk to people, to provide recreational facilities and to provide leadership for the community’s young people are among his top early priorities.

Stotts, 43 and a native of Barrow, said he will be conducting an administrative review of the staff in his new office, which has created uncertainty there about who will still have a job, according to the story.

***

“Alaska: By Land or By Sea.” ABC News looks at some of the figures and trends involving tourism in Alaska and finds, among other things, this: Of the 1.7 million visitors who came to Alaska this summer, a record 1 million were on cruises.

The story looks at a new move to get more of the tourists off the boats and onto the land.

***

And then there are these items from The Skagway News police blotter:

• A bear was seen wandering in the downtown area. An officer was able to chase him back into the woods by use of his horn.
• A complaint of noise was received. An officer responded and found the individuals who stated their friend was upset and had flipped over a picnic table. They were advised to keep the noise down and they set the table upright again.
• The water depth gauge on the Patrick Moore footbridge was found vandalized again.
• A flower box was reported stolen from a downtown business. There were two. The other was pushed into the street.
• A report of an overdue hiker was received. She was not overdue. She failed to check in upon return.