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Auto registration tax, other issues on Fairbanks council agenda tonight
FAIRBANKS - The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly is scheduled to meet tonight and will hold a hearing on an unpopular motor vehicle registration tax that authors Nadine Winters and Matt Want s...
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Yukon Quest trail offers hunters access to Fortymile herd
FAIRBANKS — The Yukon Quest trail isn’t just for mushers. Hunters looking to bag a Fortymile caribou before the winter hunt closes on Feb. 28 might want to check it out, too. While mushers didn’t ...
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People listen to comments as coffee shop owners, baristas, and concerned community members gather next to the Sunrise Bagel & Espresso drive-thru on Illinois Street for a candlelight vigil and safety meeting Wednesday evening, February 8, 2012, in the wake of the abduction of of Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig. Dozens turned out for the event, organized by former barista Jaime Ames. Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Brian Wassmann was on hand giving safety tips and advice. Eric Engman/News-Miner
Disappearance of Anchorage barista prompts coffee hut employees to host Fairbanks vigil
FAIRBANKS — Her smiling face is recognizable across the state as the girl who was abducted from her coffee stand in Anchorage. On Wednesday night in Fairbanks, a poster with Samantha Koenig’s face ...
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Vitaly Lednev of Russia carves a whale slide with a chisel out an eight-foot tall block of ice for the children’s section for Ice Alaska’s children’s section Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. JR Ancheta/News-Miner intern
New Fairbanks home of BP World Ice Art Championships comes to life
FAIRBANKS — After months of preparation, the George Horner Ice Park — the new home of the BP World Ice Art Championships — is coming to life. Dozens of volunteers were busy at the organization’s 2...
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A participant in a mass-casualty exercise cries out in mock pain as he waits for emergency responders to free his leg from a piece of debris. The exercise was part of Alaska Shield 2012 Continuity of Operations, a series of disaster prepardness drills which will be held in Alaska communities over the course of a week. Wednesday, February 8, 2012. Dorothy Chomicz/News-Miner
Mock disaster drill tests Fairbanks responders
FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks-area emergency responders participated in a mock disaster Wednesday as part of a statewide exercise that tests various components of a community’s emergency operations plan. ...
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Fairbanks man pleads guilty in scissors assault
FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks man pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to attacking his roommate with a pair of scissors last fall in a crime attorneys on both sides of the case said was not as serious as ...
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Rep. Bob Miller introduces bill to help parents meet teachers
FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks Rep. Bob Miller on Wednesday introduced a measure that would allow working parents to take off time to attend parent-teacher conferences. The measure, House Bill 315, would g...
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Militia member gets prison sentence in Wash.
FAIRBANKS — A Washington State tax preparer and member of the Sovereign Citizen movement was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for filing fraudulent tax returns that deprived the IRS of an estimat...
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Looking back in Fairbanks — Feb. 9
10 YEARS AGO Feb. 9, 2002 — High heels or bunny boots? Two decades ago, it appears that most women opted for the former. But if the roster for the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog race is any ...
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Sports
Warriors sweep Grizzlies
FAIRBANKS—The Birchwood Christian School Warriors came to Anderson Wednesday and picked up the sweep. The Anderson boys lost a 52-22 decision to the Warriors, while the Grizzlies girls lost 46-29. ...
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Delta invitational, Anderson tournament tip off today, run through Saturday
FAIRBANKS—The 2012 Dean Cummings Sr. Memorial Basketball Tournament tips off today in Delta Junction, with 16 total teams competing in the boys and girls brackets. The Haines and Noorvik girls are...
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Fairbanks products Ginley, Kulmanovsky earning recognition throughout NAHL
FAIRBANKS—When hometown players in the North American Hockey League come to mind, it’s easy to think of the five for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs — defenseman Justin Woods and forwards Logan Wendling, Co...
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Junior center leads Nanooks with tenacious offense
FAIRBANKS—If a “Caution” sign was placed in front of a hockey crease, Jarret Granberg would probably ignore it and drive on. The 5-foot-7, 153-pound junior center from Foremost, Alberta, gives up ...
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Nanooks recognize three seniors in final home games
FAIRBANKS—The Alaska Nanooks women’s basketball team (6-17 overall, 2-11 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) plays their final home games of the season today and Saturday, hosting Simon Fraser and...
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Arctic Bears wrap up season in exciting fashion
FAIRBANKS—Fairbanks’ girls high school hockey team had an exciting end to its season last weekend against the Mat-Su Ravens. Trailing 3-1 going into the third period, the Arctic Bears scored four ...
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Wolfpack sweep Ravens
FAIRBANKS—No one player, according to head coach Steve Caciari, stood out for the West Valley girls basketball team in Tuesday night’s 55-15 nonconference win over the Eielson Ravens at West Valley...
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Malemutes, Rams split nonconference games
FAIRBANKS—The Lathrop Malemutes hosted the Monroe Catholic Rams in a pair of nonconference games Tuesday and finished the night with a split. Both games finished with the same score, just different...
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NAHL honors Ice Dogs' Levin
FAIRBANKS—Gabe Levin leads the North American Hockey League in scoring, and on Monday, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs forward was honored by the junior league, receiving the Second Star among the NAHL/Comb...
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News-Miner Editorial
Emergency need: Don’t wait for Legislature to hire Eielson consultant
Editorial The proposed transfer of F-16 jets from Eielson Air Force Base to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is a matter of grave concern to Interior Alaska. The state should have acted already ...
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Letters to the Editor
Local food
Letter to the editor Feb. 4, 2012 To the editor: An historic, disturbing trend is accelerating in poor nations worldwide, where multinational corporations from wealthy nations are buying up ag...
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65 below humor
Letter to the editor Feb. 4, 2012 To the editor: Here are excerpts from the winter of 1968. I have lived in Alaska since then. This was my first and coldest Fairbanks winter.   Hilariously f...
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Economic pain
Letter to the editor Feb. 3, 2012 To the editor: I am interested in the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement and want to express support for the folks in Fairbanks joining with them. I ...
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Perpetuating crime
Letter to the editor Feb. 2, 2012 To the editor: I read Matt Buxton’s article (Jan. 26), “Lawmakers seek to cut crime, costs,” with interest. More interest than most, because I am a high schoo...
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Features
Park service eyes plan to plow part of Denali Park Road in winter
FAIRBANKS - Wintertime visitors to Denali National Park and Preserve may be able to drive 12 miles into the park starting next winter. The National Park Service announced Tuesday it is evaluating ...
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Eric Engman/News-Miner Iris Sutton with her daughter Hazel and one of her sled dogs Twiggy at her Goldstream Valley home.
'Send off': Yukon Quest artist brings a lifetime of experience to her work
FAIRBANKS - Toddler Hazel Sutton trundles around the living room, a small space somewhere between cozy and cramped, wearing one large green flip-flop and chewing lustily on another. A mess of parka...
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“Let Insecurities Lie,” courtesy of Lindsay Saunders
Fighting phobias: Two Rivers sisters put their unusual fears on canvas for First Friday
FAIRBANKS - Two sisters have put their phobias down in paint for their First Friday show, “Rodentia Lagomorpha,” at Keller Architecture and Allied Arts. The dark, somewhat sinister paintings showca...
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Self portrait by John Gimbel
January brought extreme cold to Alaska's Interior ... your thoughts in Six Words
FAIRBANKS - A week ago today, we spontaneously put out a Six Words call about the extreme cold blanketing the Interior. We knew it wouldn’t take long for people — residents, former residents and...
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© 1988 Charles Mason photos During the final days of the 1988 rescue effort these Barrow residents got a chance to actually touch one of the two gray whales. In the background, more holes are being cut in the ice to make a path to the pressure ridge, where the Soviet icebreaker will eventually cut a path through to the holes.
Real life ‘Big Miracle’: World followed Barrow’s 1988 attempt to save stranded gray whales
FAIRBANKS - The media poured into Barrow, Alaska, in the fall of 1988, as people tried to save three whales trapped in sea ice with no way to get to the distant open water. As sympathy spread acros...
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No politicians or topic is off limits when it comes to the Capitol Steps, a comedy troupe founded in 1981 by former congressional staffers. Part of the Fairbanks Concert Associations 2011-12 season, the show starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. Photo courtesy of Fairbanks Concert Association
No politician off limits for the irreverent Capitol Steps
FAIRBANKS - Do you want to hear Obama sing a show tune? Hear Biden rock out to the Eagles? Watch Newt Gingrich tip-toe through a ballet? Thanks to the Capitol Steps, you can. All of the major pri...
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Chris Dauel, bike shop manager at Beaver Sports, demonstrates winter trail riding on his fat bike Wednesday, January 25, 2012. Eric Engman/News-Miner
Fat bikes: Super-sized tires may look strange, but they go in snow
FAIRBANKS — A few years ago, whenever John Shook saw fat tire tracks on the Goldstream Valley trails, he pretty much knew who made them. It either had to be Jeff Oatley or his wife, Heather Best, o...
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"Alaska’s Fountainhead Collection: Vintage Treads and Threads" By Nancy DeWitt Fairbanks Antique Auto Museum • 2011 $19.95
Classic collection: Book provides detail, context to Fairbanks’ automobile museum
FAIRBANKS - Inside the Golden Heart City is a pearl of great price -- many pearls and beyond price. I’m talking, of course, about the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum at the Wedgewood Resort. This...
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A scene from the Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre s production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, at the Alaska Center for the Arts Theater. Sam Harrel/News-Miner
Relive the ’60s in FLOT’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’
FAIRBANKS - Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre is preparing to dazzle its musical crowd. Bright, psychedelic 1960s colors will swarm Pioneer Park’s Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts Theater tonight ...
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Eric Engman / News-Miner Tanner Benson of Eagle River pulls out of a “high mark” during the 2007 Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classic in the HooDoo Mountains outside of Summit Lake. / Eric Engman / News-Miner
Arctic Man movie slated for a Fairbanks premiere
FAIRBANKS — If you’re a fan of the Arctic Man, you won’t want to miss this. The premiere showing of “Arctic Man The Movie,” a 43-minute long movie about the Tesoro Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classi...
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Local Columns
Old books can be put to use
Community Perspective FAIRBANKS — It’s been said that a good book is like a good friend. If that’s true, then I have a lot more friends than the number that shows up on my Facebook page. Our ba...
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We should share our opinions with state legislators
Community Perspective A recent survey of Alaskans’ opinions on K-12 education produced some interesting results. For instance, three of every four people who participated say they pay “a lot of...
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Corrections