Alaska

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s campaign will hit GOP-dominated states as the candidate looks toward November, starting tomorrow with North Carolina, the New York Times reports. Obama hopes he can turn those states blue with the help of get-out-the-vote operations launched during the primaries—and aims to use his financial heft to compete in states that haven't voted Democratic in decades. More »

(Newser) - The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the federal government's decision to place polar bears on the endangered species list, reports CBC News. The Department of the Interior  cited the bears' diminishing sea ice habitat as a reason for listing them as threatened, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fears offshore shore oil and gas exploration will be inhibited by safeguards for the bears. More »

(Newser) - The House today overrode President Bush's veto of the $307 billion farm bill, and the Senate is expected to follow suit tomorrow morning, the Washington Post reports. Bush issued the 10th veto of his presidency this afternoon, complaining that the wide-ranging measure gives too much money to rich farmers and is stuffed with wasteful perks. The override will be only the second of Bush's presidency and the first on major legislation. More »

(Newser) - With Hillary Clinton looking fated to remain a senator, the New York Times explores who could succeed her as a likely contender to become the first woman president. The candidate would have to be from the South or the West, a Democrat with red-state appeal or a Republican from the private sector, and a “fighter” with executive experience and grown children. One critical problem? "She may not exist,” writes Kate Zernike. More »

(Newser) - It's here. Alaska has the painful distinction of becoming the first state where gas is selling for an average of $4 a gallon, Reuters reports. The average for the rest of the US is hovering at $3.76, but Connecticut, California, New York, and Illinois could all join Alaska in the $4-a-gallon club after Memorial Day weekend. More »

(Newser) - An energy conservation effort born out of necessity has turned the residents of Juneau, Alaska, into poster children for the green movement, the New York Times reports. Electricity rates skyrocketed 400% after an avalanche knocked out several major transmission towers last month; the state capital has since lowered its electricity usage by more than 30%, a figure that makes conservationists swoon. More »

(Newser) - A bald eagle that has survived three years without most of her upper beak is to be given a unique artificial one made from a nylon composite, reports the AP . The eagle, named Beauty, was found starving to death in Alaska in 2005, much of her beak shot away by hunters. She has been fed by hand ever since. More »

(Newser) - In another of a troubling series of earthquakes to hit the US, a 6.5 magnitude shaker has struck Alaska, Reuters reports. The quake hit a sparsely inhabited section of the Aleutian island chain, and so far there have been no reports of injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake was not large enough to pose a tsunami risk. A spasm of quakes have rattled California and Nevada in recent weeks. More »

(Newser) - Once facing extinction in North America, bison are well on their way to a stunning comeback, LiveScience reports. After commercial hunting and habitat loss reduced their population to less than 1,100, the estimated bison population is approaching 500,000—thanks in large part to conservation efforts started more than a century ago by the American Bison Society and the Bronx Zoo. More »

(Newser) - The Democratic mayor of Anchorage will throw his hat in the ring today for the Alaska Senate seat Ted Stevens has held for 4 decades, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Stevens, one of the Senate's most notorious pork producers, has been reelected easily 7 times, but is now under federal investigation for corruption. Mark Begich will face three other Democrats in a primary; the 84-year-old Stevens will run against two GOP challengers. More »

(Newser) - Fossilized feces found in an Oregon cave have scientists rethinking how and when humans first came to North America. At 14,300 years old, the ancient poop was deposited at least 1,000 years before humans were thought to roam the area, National Geographic reports. Discoveries like this "help us to reconstruct the American past," one of the scientists says. More »

(Newser) - Fiscal responsibility and vegetarianism took a hit today with the release of the 2008 Oinkers, awarded by a Washington watchdog group for the "most egregious and blatant examples of pork." Sen. Robert Byrd landed the top award for earmarking $386 million for West Virginia, but Alaska was the least kosher state, with $555.54 in earmarks per citizen, reports the Chicago Tribune . More »

(Newser) - Two bombers from the Russian air force flew uncomfortably close to American territory as they patrolled neutral space off the coast of Alaska, Reuters reports. NATO forces deployed several jets to escort the Russian planes away. The incident is yet another case of the Russian military resuming the Soviet-era practice of flying patrols beyond its borders. More »

(Newser) - Their national candidate needs support, but the Republican Party's state chapters are in no position to lend John McCain a hand, Politico reports. From New York to Alaska, local organizations are rife with dissension, debt, and scandal. "We are clearly rebuilding," says the Michigan GOP chairman. More »

(Newser) - Four crew members of a Seattle-based fishing boat died today after the vessel sank amidst high seas off the Alaska coast, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Officials rescued 42 members, but a search continues for one missing staffer, according to the AP. The boat began sinking shortly before 3 a.m., when it lost control of its rudder 120 miles from Alaska’s Dutch Harbor. More »

(Newser) - Three months after the deadline for declaring whether polar bears are a threatened species, the Interior Department hasn't issued a ruling, and Barbara Boxer wants to know why. The influential senator said yesterday she wants Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to appear before the environment committee and “answer questions about the administration’s continued foot-dragging,” the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. More »

(Newser) - Lance Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race today, crossing the finish line in Nome, Alaska, after 1,100 miles over 9½ days, the AP reports—despite unseasonably warm weather and occasionally quarrelsome dogs. "I don't know exactly how to explain it," said Mackey, a 37-year-old throat-cancer survivor. "I'm just blessed with an incredible dog team."