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The Kalakala in its heyday. (kalakala.org)

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News for Tuesday, Nov. 6

Maggie viewing in demand. Freshly arrived at her new digs in California, Maggie the elephant is still getting accustomed to other pachyderms at the Performing Animal Welfare Society’s elephant habitat - while PAWS itself is struggling to deal with Maggie’s popularity.

PAWS says in a notice on its Web site that it’s limiting viewers of its elephant webcams to 15 to 20 minutes “to allow others the same opportunity to view the elephants.” The organization says the webcam images (which require the free Windows Media Player) can be slow and choppy and won’t always include elephants because they “don’t always hang out in front of the camera.” Maggie, who had resided at the Alaska Zoo since 1983, is one of five African elephants at the habitat, the others being Lulu, Ruby, 71 and Mara.

KTVA says in a story on the webcam load that long-distance watching of Maggie has become “practically an obsession for many Alaskans.”

Click here for links to ADN stories, videos and photographs of Maggie and a link to the PAWS webcam

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F-15s ordered to stay on the ground, for now. The Associated Press is reporting that all Boeing Co. F-15 fighter jets, including those in Alaska, have been grounded after one flown by a Missouri Air National Guard pilot crashed during a training exercise. The Air Force said in a statement that “possible structure failure of the aircraft” may have caused the crash.

The story quotes an Air Force spokeswoman as saying that the grounding - which involves 676 F-15s across the country - is not common but “it’s the safest thing to do.”

In June, an F-15C collided with another jet, an F-16C, over central Alaska. According to an Associated Press account of the collision, the F-15C pilot ejected safely while the F-16C was damaged but the pilot managed to land the aircraft.

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First major snow of the season blankets Juneau. The Juneau Empire reports that the city got its first snow dump of the season Monday with a covering of better than 4 inches, more in some spots. The snow hit, the newspaper says, just days after forecasters predicted the area would likely have a normal amount of snow this winter, which is about 95 inches.

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All for Kalakala fans. The ferry Kalakala, which began life as a passenger vessel and later became a seafood processing plant in Alaska, is undergoing a restoration in Tacoma and some of its biggest fans are perpetuating the vessel’s memory on a Web site. In addition to a detailed history of the Kalakala, which gained fame and affection for its unusual design, the site contains some terrific old pictures - and asks Web site visitors to identify the people in the photographs.

“The Kalakala is historically significant (years, 1935-1962) as a unique ... ‘concept’ vessel,” Kalakala Alliance Foundation president and chairman Steve Rodrigues writes on the Web site. “Her architecture was influenced by Boeing model architect Louis Proctor and designed by Helmuth Schmitz in 1935.  Her distinctive characteristics of the Art Deco period captured the imagination of a World War II- and Depression Era weary-public.” 

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Lawmakers take a poke at Exxon. For a brief time during the special legislative session in Juneau, a new legal tool that would put pressure on Exxon Mobil to pay punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill became part of the oil-tax rewrite legislation. But an APRN story says the House Resources Committee in a second vote backed off the provision because it might have extended the special session.

Still, according to the story, the measure prohibiting allowing tax credits for a company that has legal judgments against it could return before the special session is done.

The U.S. Supreme Court late last month agreed to review the $2.5 billion judgment against the company. Click here for the ADN story on that decision.

***

“State of dependency.” A lengthy, nicely written story in The Washington Monthly by Alaska writer Charles Homans details what U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens has meant for Alaska and what Alaska has meant for Ted Stevens. Along the way, the piece looks at Alaska history and how the state’s relationship with Washington, D.C., has evolved - a relationship that has become “dishonest,” Homans concludes.

“When Alaska's founders drafted the state's constitution, they did so in the hope that Alaskans would take responsibility for their own destiny. Instead, an oil boom led Alaska down a different road, one that Ted Stevens consistently found federal money to help pave.”

***

Accused man changes plea in soldier’s death. A KTUU story reports that a man accused of murder in the death of a Fort Richardson soldier who died after being hit in the neck by a piece of glass from a thrown beer bottle has changed his plea. Esau Fualema, 28, originally charged with second-degree murder in the 1999 death, pleaded no contest to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree assault in the death of Marc Hopfenspirger.

An ADN story in July told the story of Hopfenspirger’s girlfriend - Michelle Ring, a mother of two and also a soldier - who was killed in a mortar attack in Iraq.

***

Fishermen and cell phones. Some commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska are not at all happy that the proven cell phone technology they’ve been using on some fishing grounds will no longer be available early next year, according to a Ketchikan Daily News story. The fishermen contend the newer digital technology doesn’t have the same range as the older analog system, which they’ve been working with for years and like.

Cellular One and Alaska Communications System, the main cellular service providers in the area, plan to discontinue the analog service by February. They say the newer technologies provide more services. “Our main goal is simple: To continue to provide the people of Southeast Alaska with the best possible wireless service and the latest technological advances,” said Cellular One spokesman Craig Davis.

***

Nome housing market tighter than ever. A story in The Nome Nugget reports that the Seward Peninsula community is experiencing the worst housing crunch anyone there has seen for a while. And many expect it to get worse before it gets better.

That is all running counter to nationwide trends, in which new homes are flooding the market. “While nationwide the market is nose-diving, we’re growing in terms of equity,” local Realtor Melissa Ford told the newspaper. “Nome experiences a huge influx of single people who are here temporary, flooding the rental market.”

***

More headlines:
> ACES bill continues to advance (Alaska Journal of Commerce)
> Clock is ticking on dairy farmers (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)
> Families urge city to fund after-school programs (KTUU)
> Alaska Air has second-worst on-time performance (KIMO)
> Head lice not a huge problem (Ketchikan Daily News)