News for Friday, Nov. 30
Getting Christmas to the troops. The Army Times offers a reminder of when-and-how deadlines for getting holiday mail to U.S. troops. Packages going to war zones should be in the mail tomorrow, Dec. 1, to be sure of arrival by Christmas.
Other deadlines:
PARCELS (Parcel Airlift Mail)
- Non-combat APO/FPO addresses, Dec. 4
LETTERS AND CARDS (Priority or 1st class)
- War zones, Dec.4
- Non-combat APO/FPO addresses, Dec. 11
EXPRESS MAIL can be sent to non-combat APO/FPO until Dec. 18.
Several news stories this week highlight the Charity Navigator Web site -- on the right side of the home page is a list of "charities supporting soldiers and their families that have demonstrated exceptional financial health," says the site. "Donors can be confident that contributions made to these charities will be spent efficiently." Top-of-the-listers, with four stars, include the American Red Cross, Army Emergency Relief, Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and Fisher House Foundation (the favorite charity of Doonesbury.com).
Low on the list: the Paralyzed Veterans of America, a frequent presence in American mailboxes, which spends more than 30 cents of every dollar received on fundraising, according to the site.
The ratings are based on efficiency and capacity, and reflect how much of the revenue goes to programs vs. administration and fundraising. Not all charities that support the military are rated.
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Taken for a ride in Bethel. A lively if faintly condescending L.A. Times report captures the joy of getting around in the Kuskokwim village that is "the unlikely taxicab capital of the United States." With one driver for every 62 residents, the cabbies "drive circles around other towns," says the Times. "Well, it’s just one circle: Only 10 miles of road are paved."
Sound familiar? The Associated Press gave the story a good ride - Taxis on the tundra - back in July. But the Times piece is a fun read, nicely colored with personalities and a fine sense of place: Bethel cabbies "overhear arguments and lovestruck whispers, they listen to confessions and tall tales and regrets. They pick up children from school. They shuttle travelers to and from the airport. They deliver everything - moose meat, groceries, heavy-machine parts. They chauffeur all-night revelries, wedding parties and sometimes the dead.
"The taxis come in all makes and models, all colors and conditions, from brand new to barely legal. By the end of the day, they all end up looking uniformly Alaskan - that is, covered in a film of silt, slightly beat up but more or less functional."
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Maybe Borat can negotiate this one. As Alaska chews on a proposal from Conoco Phillips to build a natural gas pipeline – today is the deadline for all proposals to the state - lawmakers in Alberta cast an envious eye at our state’s approach to getting more oil revenue. And then there’s Kazakhstan, where a development deal for a Caspian Sea oil field is bogging down over a multibillion-dollar fine Kazakhstan wants to sock to the Western consortium that would develop the project. The Wall Street Journal reports that getting oil out of the Kashagan field, the biggest oil find in 30 years when it was discovered in 2000, has been harder and costlier than expected, and the Kazakh government wants $7 billion in compensation for delays on the project. The consortium dickering on the Kazakh deal are lead by Italy’s Eni and also include Royal Dutch Shell, Total SA, Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips.
Meanwhile, "ConocoPhillips's decision appears to signal a thawing on the part of oil producers, who hadn't shown any willingness to work with the new [state] administration amid concerns over taxes and other terms," the Journal says.
As Kazakhstan, Russia and Venezuela tighten the screws on foreign investors, Gov. Sarah Palin may yet be the Friendly Face of the Year for oil companies.
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Juneau embraces solid-waste business, The Juneau Empire reports that city’s Assembly will seek a three-way contract with Waste Management and Arrow Refuse. Mandatory curbside recycling is one part of the plan designed to extend the life of the local landfill. Two dissenting Assembly members, Sara Chambers and Randy Wanamaker, mostly agree with the plan but wanted more discussion before creating a new government office, the paper says.
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A suitcase packed with adventure. Today’s Empire also includes a delight for Alaska history buffs: A story that highlights "The King Island Journal," a new book about a married couple who were teachers on the Bering Sea island for about a year before the federal government shut down the remote school and sparked an exodus from the now-uninhabited island.
The book project came to life in 2005, when Juan Munoz Jr. found an old suitcase soon after his father’s death full of old slides documenting his parents’ experience on the island. His mother, Juneau artist Rie Munoz, then told him about letters the couple had written to their parents, which weren’t actually mailed until the schoolteachers left the island and returned to Nome. There was no way to mail them from King Island.
"The insightful letters and high-quality photographs detail a community on the brink of change," the Empire says of the new book.
The treasure-trove suitcase brought a flood of experiences back for Rie Munoz, including the many dogs that roamed free on the island: "Once in a while a group of them would get into a fight, maybe 50 or 20 dogs - just this hill of dogs fighting," she told the newspaper. "And they broke them up by an Eskimo man (who) would run and jump right in the middle of them and flail his hands in the air screaming and they'd break up. Imagine just jumping in with a bunch of fighting dogs. I've never seen anything like it."
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Fashion for the Subzero Biker. Juneau’s Jill Homer gives NPR another update on her training for the upcoming bicycle version of the Iditarod. This week’s segment includes the art and science of dressing comfortably "in temperatures that could freeze boiling water before it hits the ground."
Much of this is obvious to locals, but the tips are comprehesive and readable – and since cold kills many Alaskans every year, some reminders deserve a warm welcome.
"Hands stay the warmest when wrapped in liner gloves, which are then wrapped in mittens, which are then wrapped inside a handlebar mitt that cyclists call a ‘pogie,’ " Homer says. " The problem with hands is they become rather useless in all this gear, like awkward stumps with vaguely functional appendages. Once winter cyclists learn to feed themselves with mittens, they know they're set."
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"The Alaska snow is so much better than it is Outside." Two Eagle River dudes are also eager to challenge a really, really cold day, reports the Alaska Star. "We’ve crashed a couple of sleds, broke some skis and even a couple of cameras, says Chase Landmesser, who partners with Erik Gabrielson for extreme-sports filmmaking in the area. Their third film, "Cubed," was released last weekend with a showing at UAA.
The two men graduated from Chugiak High and went to college in Colorado and Utah respectively, in pursuit of education and ideal snow conditions for skiing and snowboarding. They found the education, but came home for the snow. "We take for granted how good we have it in Alaska," Gabrielson told the Star. "We tend to think the grass is greener, and it is. But the snow in Alaska is by far the best around."
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600 pounds of icing, 100 pounds of chocolate, and ... Joel Hickel, pastry chef at the hotel, takes KTUU on a sweet video tour of this year’s edition of the annual gingerbread Christmas village, a display at the hotel that Hickel expects to have finished today. It’s a 29-year-tradition for Hickel, who has spent recent weeks baking pieces of what have become 33 gingerbread houses and assorted other confectionary structures.
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MORE ALASKA HEADLINES:
- Ex-mayor’s wife, Chris Hayes, pursues plea deal (Fairbanks News-Miner)
- Underage sex probe nabs Fairbanks fighter (Valdez Star)
- Cold case murder trial postponed (Peninsula Clarion)
- Big commercial projects drive near-record construction year (Fairbanks News-Miner)
- Palmer pares mayor’s office (Mat-Su Frontiersman)
- Ministry struggling with financial crisis (Fairbanks News-Miner)
- Shocking rate increase zaps CVEA customers (Valdez Star)
- Wannabes: The best of Anchorage’s football crop take a shot a going pro (Anchorage Press)
- Petition seeks to bar ‘absentee’ lawmaker from re-appointment (Kodiak Daily Mirror)
ADN editors find the news from all over Alaska every morning so you don't have to. Updated weekdays by 9 a.m. AST. (Some links may require registration)
