Anchorage Daily News

BETH BRAGG

Wolf whistles for Palin pulling Alaska politics out of the cold

Sarah Palin appears to be accomplishing in a couple of weeks -- for free -- a project her predecessor poured $100,000 into before abandoning. She's polishing Alaska's image.

Yup'ik ties give Palins unique Alaska connection

Like many Alaska Natives of her generation, Lena Andree, Todd Palin's 87-year-old Yup'ik grandmother, grew up living between two worlds.

Investigator set to interview Palins

Palin's family ties include links to FDR, Princess Diana

Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are not the only political odd couple who share a family tree. Sarah Palin is linked in her lineage to Franklin D. Roosevelt. She also has a connection with Princess Diana.

Estimates show Palin assets top $1 million

Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaska income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle.

Palin got zoning aid, gifts

Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Palin on cover of state tourism brochure

Governor's jet to be sold on eBay (12/13/2006)

With an eBay account and about $2.5 million, you too can fly in the state jet that cost former Gov. Frank Murkowski so much political pain in his failed re-election.

State of Alaska's planes on eBay

Sarah Barracuda tidbits

Sports infuse Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's life.

Valdez man says he'll buy state's unwanted jet airplane (8/21/2007)

A Valdez businessman says he plans to buy the infamous state jet for $2.1 million, and he hopes to close the deal as early as Wednesday.

Tour the inside of the jet

Wasilla delegation to lobby for funds in Washington, D.C.(2/1/2006)

Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller, two City Council members and public works director Archie Giddings plan an $11,000 March trip to Washington, D.C., that they estimate will net hundreds of thousands in federal dollars for city projects.

Wasilla fought losing battle over land ownership(10/7/2007)

No politician was more closely associated with the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex than Mayor Sarah Palin, who was first elected in 1996. For some, it remains a crowning achievement of her mayoral years.

Palin denies Mat-Su bias in state budgeting(10/7/2007)

When the smoke cleared after Gov. Sarah Palin's big cuts to the capital budget in June, one survivor that stood out was a $630,000 appropriation to the Wasilla Sports Complex.

Palin's oil agenda includes credits as well as tax(9/3/2007)

Gov. Sarah Palin has called a special session of the Legislature to reconsider the state's new Petroleum Profits Tax, or PPT, passed in the waning days of the administration of her predecessor, Frank Murkowski.

PART I of a series

Palin foresees positive changes in politics(9/2/2007)

On Aug. 22, 2006, Sarah Palin shocked the Republican Party establishment with a crushing primary victory over incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski and former state Sen. John Binkley. She went on to win the governor's race in November by a comfortable margin and, according to polls, has grown even more popular with Alaskans during her first year in office.

Download the entire interview with Gov. Palin to your computer

Appeal came from being an outsider and a fresh face(11/9/2006)

Voters looking to clean house in Juneau turned to small-town Alaska this week when they chose Sarah Palin as their next governor.

Returns by precinct

State paid for trip when Palin told students to pray for pipeline

Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska "to make sure God's will be done here."

CAMPAIGN (10/17/06)

Experience a question in election

Is Sarah Palin ready to be governor? The former Wasilla mayor says yes. But with three weeks until the Nov. 7 election, her opponents are increasingly questioning how well she knows her stuff and how prepared she is for the job.

MAYOR OF WASILLA (11-30-2005)

Wasilla Sports Complex

Nearing the end of its first full year of operation, the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex is boasting 20 to 50 percent increases in off-ice uses offered at the 102,000 square-foot facility.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Palin's military command limited

When presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate Friday, the Arizona senator emphasized her role as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Palin blessed with political luck, instincts

A charmed political career launched Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from small-town mayor to the Republican National Convention, where she accepted the nomination for vice president Wednesday night.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Iraq war, gas line God's will, Palin said

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Stevens says Palin has mettle to be commander

From mayor of Wasilla to leader of the free world? Answering the question that the country is asking, Sen. Ted Stevens said Wednesday that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be ready to step in as commander-in-chief of the military if necessary.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Palin pressured Wasilla librarian

Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

Some of Palin's remarks stretch the truth

Gov. Sarah Palin's remarks to the Republican National Convention about her record in state government stretched the truth.

GOVERNOR (09/04/08)

The Joan of Arc of Alaska politics

Sarah Palin was a hockey mom, small-town mayor and rising young Republican star in Alaska in 2003 when she ran afoul of her party's establishment over ethics reform and was cast into the political wilderness.

TIMELINE

From Wasilla's basketball court to the national stage

Born Sarah Louise Heath on Feb. 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Ida., to parents Chuck and Sally Heath; family moves first to Skagway, then to Wasilla, where father teaches science and coaches track.

GOVERNOR (08/22/07)

Alaska's 'First Dude' takes leave from BP job

Todd Palin, Alaska's new first spouse, has taken a leave of absence from his blue-collar job working on the North Slope for BP. Palin, husband of newly elected Gov. Sarah Palin of Wasilla, will instead work part-time for his union, the United Steelworkers Local 4959, according to officials with the union and BP.

GOVERNOR (12/14/07)

Gov. Palin strikes a few poses for fashion magazine

In a state where residents are not shy about voicing political opinions, Internet blogs also don't ignore another aspect of the current occupant of the governor's office: One proclaims Alaska and Palin "Coldest State, Hottest Governor.

GOVERNOR (9/13/2007)

Governor's son enlists on Sept. 11

Alaska's first son will soon trade his hockey uniform for khaki. Track Palin, son of Gov. Sarah Palin, enlisted Tuesday to become an infantryman in the U.S. Army, the governor's office said Wednesday.

GOVERNOR (4/22/2007)

Palin tries new tactic to unload hated jet

The state has tried selling its unwanted jet online four times and failed. So last week, the Palin administration signed a contract with an Anchorage aircraft broker who thinks he can succeed where eBay couldn"t.

GOVERNOR (11/18/2007)

Natural first parents

WASILLA -- Think Gov. Sarah Palin is an interesting person? You haven't met Chuck and Sally Heath, the Wasilla couple responsible for bringing Alaska's first female governor into this world.

CAMPAIGN (11/09/06)

Euphoria turns to work for Palin

Hours after winning Tuesday's election, Gov.-elect Sarah Palin described what's on her to-do list and how her new administration will take shape.

More election coverage

2006 election

Two-part Palin profile

CAMPAIGN (10/27/06)

'Creation science' enters the race

The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.

National Center for Science Education

On teaching evolution in Alaska

Creationism in Schools

In defense of teaching "Intelligent Design"

On understanding evolution

CAMPAIGN (10/24/2006)

Part 2: Rebel status has fueled front-runner's success

The crisis that came to define Sarah Palin's political life came soon after she vaulted from local politics to the statewide scene.

Sarah Palin Web Site

'Fresh face' launched Palin

CAMPAIGN (6/8/2005)

Palin is ready for return to the public arena and service

Sarah Palin arrives at a coffee shop for an interview looking like any other soccer mom running late for her next rendezvous with an offspring. She's dressed down in a pantsuit, her youngest, daughter Piper Indy, tugging at a pants leg. Her son Track will arrive later with a friend, and mother will dutifully hand over a few dollars. She needs a job, and soon, she quipped, just to keep her brood in gas money.

OIL AND GAS COMMISSION (1/17/2004)

Frustrated, Palin to quit oil panel job

Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairwoman Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning amid frustration that she is being forced to keep silent about ethics allegations against Republican Party of Alaska chairman Randy Ruedrich.

Stevens won't apologize (7/16/2004)

The Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau has been working hard to combat the stereotype of the Valley as an unmannerly or less sophisticated place. And so, when a leader of the state Senate dismissed one of his critics as "just more Valley trash," it stung, said Bonnie Quill, executive director of the 300-member bureau.

Ruedrich, Palin win state jobs (2/19/2003)

Gov. Frank Murkowski on Tuesday appointed Alaska Republican Party chairman Randy Ruedrich and Republican lieutenant governor runner-up Sarah Palin to state jobs overseeing the oil and gas industry.