Alaska

During an election year in which Democrats and Republicans are in a bare-knuckled fight to gain seats in Congress, Hawaii Democrat Daniel K. Inouye is traveling far and wide to work for a fellow senator's reelection. But the colleague Inouye is trying to help is a Republican, Ted Stevens of Alaska. Stevens, who has been indicted on corruption charges, has become a top Democratic target in a race that could be crucial to the party's hopes of securing a filibuster-proof majority.

The telephone conversation between the two businessmen concerned an old friend, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, and the subject was money -- or at least Stevens' feelings about it. "Ted gets hysterical when he has to spend his own money," said one of the callers. "I know," replied the other. In a corruption case where the core issue is whether Stevens knowingly accepted gifts in violation of federal law, the conversation, secretly recorded by federal investigators, could be crucial evidence.

Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

There is no shortage of reminders in Ted Stevens' hometown that the 84-year-old dean of Senate Republicans is running for reelection. Along the road in Girdwood, an oversize campaign sign stands in front of a shop selling candles carved from crude oil into the shapes of bears and otters. Posters are staked into lawns of cabins that dot the yellow birch-filled hillsides.

The woman behind the infamous e-mail that aired criticisms of Sarah Palin to millions across the cyber-globe sat at a computer screen scrolling through unread messages, as dozens more popped into her inbox. "Let's see, what is the next one?" Anne Kilkenny said with a smile, killing time before her family attended a Saturday evening church service. She clicked and skimmed the words: "Hateful liar." She opened the next one: "I think you are nothing more than disgruntled and jealous in some way!!

Bill J. Allen, the oil company executive at the core of the corruption case against Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, said Tuesday that he realized he was getting less than full value in a car deal with Stevens in 1999, but that he agreed to the transaction anyway -- "because I liked Ted."

Seven aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have reversed course and agreed to testify in an investigation into whether the Republican vice presidential nominee abused her power by firing a commissioner who refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law. There is no indication, however, that Palin or her husband will testify in the legislative inquiry, which has dogged her for several months and could hurt John McCain in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Two years ago, when Sen. Ted Stevens had some plumbing work done on his house in Alaska, he got a little help from his friends. They paid the bill and then tried to make it disappear. "We don't need this thing floating around," Robert Persons, a restaurant owner in Alaska and longtime Stevens acquaintance said in a phone conversation recorded by the FBI in February 2006. "You tell that guy . . . if he has this bill in a file that he needs to get rid of it. OK?"

Big business was granted wide access to Sarah Palin's office during her first 20 months as Alaska governor, but she rarely met with labor, environmental or other groups pressing alternative views, her official calendar shows. On at least three dozen occasions, Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, spoke with executives and lobbyists working for an array of energy, mining and tourism firms with major investments in Alaska.

More than 99% of Alaska's large glaciers are in retreat or thinning, a new book by the U.S. Geological Survey says. Glaciers in nearly every mountain range and island group are experiencing "significant retreat, thinning or stagnation," particularly those at lower elevations, according to "The Glaciers of Alaska," the agency said Monday. About 5% of Alaska is covered by more than 100,000 glaciers. Those at elevations below 4,900 feet are retreating the most. Some glaciers at higher attitudes, where temperatures are lower, have expanded.