Alaska

"Alaska," a Maryland Zoo polar bear that had been rescued from a Mexican circus a decade ago, was euthanized Tuesday after suffering from kidney failure, zoo officials said. The female bear had been confiscated in Puerto Rico by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents in March 2002 after the circus abandoned her there. When she arrived at the zoo soon after, animal keepers found that she was deaf, overweight and had poor muscle tone, but they nursed her to health and developed a training program using hand signals and other visual cues.

SEATTLE - Playing against the Orioles has to be viewed as just another game, Seattle Mariners infielder Robert Andino said before the teams' three-game series at Safeco Field kicked off. And then, Monday night, Andino went out and played a key role in beating his old team - hitting an RBI single to give the Mariners a lead they never lost and handling nine balls for outs while starting at second base in Seattle's 6-2 victory. Make no mistake: Andino, whom the Orioles traded to the Mariners this offseason for minor league outfielder Trayvon Robinson, wanted to remind his former organization what it gave up. But you'll never hear him say that.

Alaska, the polar bear who recently died at the Maryland Zoo, is a touching example of how animals can recover from years of deprived living conditions in circuses if given the opportunity (Polar bear euthanized at Maryland zoo," Jan. 16). People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals obtained videotape showing the Suarez Brothers Circus transporting Alaska and six other polar bears in small cages and making them perform in hot, humid regions of Mexico and the Caribbean. The overheated polar bears were panting constantly while being hit and whipped in order to force them to perform ridiculous, degrading tricks.

And then there were four. Brooke, Sheldon, Josh and Lizzie disembark from the Celebrity Cruise ship in Juneau, Alaska. They are all thrilled to be there, though Sheldon's Hawaiian faculties are not accustomed to the climate: “I better throw on a couple extra underwear just so I can keep the package nice and warm, you know?” The shivering chefs meet Padma and guest judge Sean Brock at Juneau's top culinary destination: Tracey's King Crab Shack. Their Quickfire challenge is to “take this near-perfect ingredient and make it shine in a dish.” Chef Brock, who hails from Charleston, tells them he's been on a flight for 13 hours to eat Alaskan King crab.

Big Oil, after a 10-year stalemate, has lost its fight, at least for now, for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska. Environmentalists, making ANWR their driving wedge to block energy legislation they decried as the handiwork of the petroleum, coal and nuclear power industries, resorted to a Senate filibuster to win the day. They had the support of both Maryland senators. Fifty senators, half the membership, wanted to push the measure to passage, but they lacked the 60 votes needed to cut off debate.

State authorities in Alaska, responding to angry complaints from the state's scenic coastal areas, have found that cruise ships are pumping dense amounts of smoke and obscuring views. They have given the cruise lines until the end of 1992 to reduce the smoke emissions sharply.An Alaska law prohibits ships from emitting smoke that blocks or obscures the view of more than 20 percent of background scenery.State inspectors said any ships that failed to meet the new standard by the end of next year would be fined or denied docking.

NORTH POLE, ALASKA / / Holiday banners hang overhead, giant plastic candy canes adorn the utility poles and alongside the roadway, an enormous fiberglass Santa beckons shoppers in out of the threat of snow that hangs palpably in a leaden sky. Christmas must be just around the corner, right? Well, not in North Pole. It's not the North Pole, of course, but the Alaskan interior community of about 1,700, which, at 64.45 degrees north latitude, is generally close enough for most lower 48ers.

Attention must paid -- and better late than never -- to Harold Sparck, a man who grew up in East Baltimore, moved to Alaska and made a huge difference in the lives of thousands of America's poorest people, along the coast of the Bering Sea. It was Harold Sparck's doing, his drive, his prodding, his spirit that made something good and important happen. Just last week, more than a year after Sparck's death, his spirit reached the Oval Office. Tell you how in a minute. First, some background.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Many and varied are the wonders, the splendors and the peculiarities of the Other Great State. The funniest thing said by Alaskans is, "Gonna be another scorcher" (means "could get into the 70s"). In Alaska, God is called Ted Stevens. The senior senator and chairman of the Appropriations Committee is worth an estimated $3 billion a year to the state. One of the oddest things about Alaska is the complete disconnect between its politics and its reality. Alaska is an implacably conservative state, albeit with a lovely libertarian lilt.

What do basketball, ice fishing and dog-sledding have in common?Members of Western's girls basketball team will be doing all three during their stay in Anchorage, Alaska for The Great One Tournament, Jan. 2-5. The team departs for Alaska on Dec. 31."We have a slew of activities planned," Western coach Breezy Bishop said. "There will be plenty of time for basketball, but there will also be time to learn about their culture."The second-ranked Doves were one of four teams in the country invited to join four Alaskan teams for the tournament.

Call it another pitiful ending for Sarah Palin. In what looks like a Friday afternoon leak-dump, RealClearPolitics first reported that Fox News had not renewed Palin's contract to be an analyst. That report was based on an unnamed source. Brian Stelter, of the New York Times, later confirmed it on Twitter. And so ends most of what's left of Palin's fling with fame since 2008, when she was named the GOP vice presidential candidate in a craven act John McCain should never be able to fully live down.

Alaska, the polar bear who recently died at the Maryland Zoo, is a touching example of how animals can recover from years of deprived living conditions in circuses if given the opportunity (Polar bear euthanized at Maryland zoo," Jan. 16). People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals obtained videotape showing the Suarez Brothers Circus transporting Alaska and six other polar bears in small cages and making them perform in hot, humid regions of Mexico and the Caribbean. The overheated polar bears were panting constantly while being hit and whipped in order to force them to perform ridiculous, degrading tricks.

"Alaska," a Maryland Zoo polar bear that had been rescued from a Mexican circus a decade ago, was euthanized Tuesday after suffering from kidney failure, zoo officials said. The female bear had been confiscated in Puerto Rico by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents in March 2002 after the circus abandoned her there. When she arrived at the zoo soon after, animal keepers found that she was deaf, overweight and had poor muscle tone, but they nursed her to health and developed a training program using hand signals and other visual cues.

I'd like to thank The Sun for the wonderful satire on Sarah Palin's presidential prospects ("For president in 2016: Guess who?" Nov. 26). Some readers may have mistakenly assumed that op-ed contributor Charlotte Allen was seriously suggesting that the stunningly unqualified Ms. Palin would make a plausible presidential candidate in 2016. But the author's sly tongue-in-cheek and wink of the eye were everywhere evident to discerning readers. For example, the list of Ms. Palin's "qualifications" for the presidency included: (a)

Two college savings plans managed by T. Rowe Price rank among the best in the country - the eighth time that the Baltimore-based investment firm has been included in Morningstar's annual survey of top plans. Only once - the year after the 2008 market crash - has a Price-managed plan not made the list since Morningstar began ranking so-called 529 plans in 2004. "They have been an industry leader for a long time," said Laura Pavlenko Lutton, head of Morningstar's 529 plan research.

A recent column on the wreck of the steamer Clara Nevada, which went to the bottom in 1898 while returning from the Alaska gold fields with the loss of all hands and a cargo of gold dust worth $13.6 million today, brought interesting reader feedback. The story of the Clara Nevada was brought to life by Steven C. Levi, an Anchorage-based freelance and technical writer, in his recent book, "The Clara Nevada: Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska's Inside Passage. " The lust for riches set off gold fever, as thousands packed suitcases and whatever they could carry on their backs and headed West for Seattle and Portland, gateway to the Klondike.

GLACIER BAY, Alaska -- I am aboard a cruise ship gliding slowly between snow-capped mountains that remind me of the art my parents hung on our living room wall back in Minnesota in the '50s. It was a large, translucent picture of snow-capped mountains, lit by an electric bulb behind it, and when guests came we made sure to turn it on. We were all quite proud of it, and I guess it was considered inspirational, in the sense of, "How can you look at this and say there is no God?" It occupied a place of prominence over the couch.

Zoey Whittington, a multiple-season, All-Metro sprinter at Catonsville, won her third straight state title in the 400-meter dash Saturday. Her best time is believed to be the fifth-fastest by a high school girl in the United States this spring. She also anchored the Comets' gold medal-winning 1,600 relay team. As a guard in basketball, the senior averaged 16 points, five steals and four assists, and earned Most Valuable Player honors for her side at the Baltimore City-County Senior All-Star Game.

With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatening to stain Maryland beaches with tar balls, talk of offshore drilling is seeping into state politics. Gov. Martin O'Malley, who had offered only mild opposition initially to President Barack Obama's plans earlier this year to open the waters off Virginia to exploration, held a public briefing last week on the state's oil cleanup capacity, and then pressed the administration to take a harder line against drilling here. Republicans, meanwhile, blasted the governor for raiding an oil cleanup fund to balance the state budget.