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Lampreys enter the Yukon River in huge numbers. See story below. (Kwik'pak Fisheries)

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News for Tuesday, Dec. 4

Wolves make snacks of Fairbanks-area pets. Wolves roaming the outskirts of Fairbanks are making pet owners nervous, according to a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story. What the story calls a "pack of bold, hungry" animals made lunch of two dogs recently - one in North Pole and one about 20 miles out Chena Hot Springs Road.

A number of callers to the Department of Fish and Game have reported spotting the pack. "It's not a common situation," said Cathie Harms, a spokesperson with the state Department of Fish and Game. "Everybody is used to seeing moose on the road, but not everybody is used to seeing wolves in their yard."

Harms says the animals are probably not a threat to humans, but people should be careful. "I'm not going to tell them to panic but I would certainly be careful."

***

"It's really going to be hard." Before heading off to jail in Oregon this week for five years, former state Rep. Tom Anderson roamed a snowy playground with wife Sen. Lesil McGuire, 21-month-old son Grayson and a KTUU Channel 2 crew and talked about how his conviction and his sentence are sitting with him and his family.

As a whole, Anderson says in the story, it's been "a learning experience" and he looks down the road and believes he'll come out of it a better person. The couple says bloggers and radio personalities have been particularly nasty to them, but they note they've received support too. Anderson says: "I will always give back. I will always remember that my actions not only harmed my family but harmed Alaskans' belief in their government," Anderson said. "I don't want that to be my legacy. I want to have a life where I can help people and continue to serve my state and my community."

***

What's the best ride in winter? A Business Week listing puts the Subaru Impreza at the top of the list. The magazine likes the vehicle's all-wheel drive and notes that while Subaru has just 1 percent of the market share nationwide, that rate climbs in wintry places including New England. (Alaska gets no mention.)

Others in the story's top five: Volvo C30, Honda Accord, Buick Lucerne and Mercedes-Benz C300 4Matic Sport Sedan. And then after listing the best vehicles, the story says experts give this as the best advice on driving on snow and ice: "Don't, if you can possibly avoid it."

***

D.C.'s best at the earmark game. A CBS Evening News story set out to find the top earmarkers in the current Congress and it didn't take long for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to come into the picture. Stevens ran second to Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi on the Senate list.

Alaska Rep. Don Young did not make the top 10 list in the House, though the story notes that Young, Stevens and others in trouble legally still managed to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in projects their way. The numbers in the story were compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, which bills itself as a non-partisan budget watchdog.

A story in The Hill looks at the same numbers and brought Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders into the story. Saunders said the projects Stevens steers to Alaska are vital. "Alaska has very unique needs. … I don't think there are many parts of country that say they don't have access to running water or sewage facilities."

***

A lamprey revival? An APRN story reports that a western Alaska fish buyer is looking to build a market for lampreys. The long, boneless fish, which look like eels, enter the Yukon River and other major rivers by the millions at this time of year to spawn.

Lampreys, among the most ancient creatures on earth, have high oil content, and a whole bunch can be caught at one time, according to the story. This makes them a popular choice for feeding dog teams in some villages. Experts say that because they've been around so long, they can be popular in biological labs for research purposes.

***

Moving day for 24 families. Years of planning and construction bore fruit when 24 selected families moved into low-income housing on a Ketchikan hillside, according to a Ketchikan Daily News story. The Shaa Tlein subdivision is a cooperative project organized by Ketchikan Indian Community and Juneau-based Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority. The project is funded in part through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, built on land donated to KIC by Del Shull.

"You're moving into quality homes, and a lot of people in town are envying you," construction manager Craig Moore said at a gathering of the new occupants. "I think you're all going to love your homes."

***

Moose on the move. An Associated Press story out of Idaho reports that moose are thriving in new areas that they've been steered to by habitat changes, with most of the changes the result of human influences. "Forty years ago a moose was like an exotic, it was like a giraffe - nobody had any moose," Ed Mitchell, information supervisor with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, says in the story. "They've really spread since then."

According to figures in the story, Idaho had 1,000 moose in 1939. Today, the state has an estimated population of 15,000 to 25,000 Shiras moose, more than any other state. The Shiras is also known as the Wyoming or Yellowstone moose and is the smallest North American subspecies.

***

Was it something in the water? Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight was forced to leave a game over the weekend because of a flu-like symptoms that first landed on him while he was in Alaska for the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout, according to an ESPN story. The coach's son said Knight had been sick since the team came to Alaska in late November.

Nobody could say whether he just couldn't stomach Texas Tech's loss in the Shootout championship game to Butler.

***

365 days on the job. Gov. Sarah Palin, who has been on the job for a year, gets a favorable review overall in a story today in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. The newspaper looks back on that first year and finds highlights such as "noticeable steps to limit budget growth and reshape the state's approach to oil and gas development and production. She abandoned the gas pipeline deal Gov. Frank Murkowski negotiated with the state's three major producers and pushed through a plan she said would ensure Alaska's interests were met. Then she worked with state lawmakers to boost the state's oil tax."

The story notes that she has brought a different style to the job than Murkowski. "Murkowski's style was browbeating," said Rep. David Guttenberg, a Democrat from Fairbanks. "With Palin, it's, ‘I'm just one of the guys.'"

***

Health care creeps up agenda. Stepping up to one of the toughest issues of the times, a team of Palin-appointed experts has come up with a health care plan to turn over to state lawmakers, according to a Juneau Empire story today. The plans lists a number of recommendations, such as increased emphasis on preventive measures, better water and sewer systems in rural communities and boosting the number of home-grown health professionals.

The experts urged more discussion of the health care problems in Alaska.

***

A welcome home. A Homer News story details the return home of a young man who has been gone since April, when he left to receive a double lung transplant through the University of Washington Medical Center's transplant program. Max Haggerty, 22, has had cystic fibrosis his entire life.

Haggerty walked a half marathon in Seattle last month, the only lung transplant member of the University of Washington's Team Transplant runners or walkers who have had organ transplants. "Now I have a really bad immune system, but my health and body is much better than it ever has been," he said. "It's pretty much the only cure you can have for the lung disease I had. As of right now, it's way better. I don't mind popping pills to stay this way."

***

Bugs on the prowl. Here's the plot line of a new thriller - "Darkness Falls," by Kyle Mills - as described in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer capsule review:

"Terrorists have produced a bacteria that eats crude oil. When they manage to infect the largest fields in Saudi Arabia and Alaska, the world is thrown into chaos. As government agents work with top scientists to halt the catastrophe, gas prices soar and life in the civilized world is changed forever."