Anchorage Daily News

EDITORIAL

Our View: Benzene

A UAA study confirms that benzene runs too high in many Anchorage homes. No need to panic, but this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

COMPASS

Ultimately, history will embrace and judge Stevens well

When I started working on Ted Stevens reelection campaigns in 1983, I was overwhelmed by Ted's accomplishments. They were so complex that it was hard to explain them to new Alaskans.

COMPASS

Survivors struggle to cope with suicide of a loved one

At the age of 26, my younger brother, Stephen, suddenly developed bipolar disorder, and despite our best efforts to get him the right treatment, he took his own life. This shining star who graduated with honors from Yale and then went on to Harvard Law School, wrote his high school valedictorian speech, an award-winning graduate thesis, a wedding toast to his bride -- and a suicide note -- all in less than a decade.

JOHN HAVELOCK

Prevailing culture of war can change

An Alaska columnist on holiday in Spain draws on the literary past to reflect upon the landscape passing by the train window and the news of the hour. Barack Obama has just won the presidency. Spaniards, like almost all Europeans, are ecstatic. The columnist frets over a newspaper review in his lap praising "The Culture of War" by Martin van Crevold, in which Mr. van Crevold argues for the inevitability of war, for the most part because we have always had them. For President Obama, will war always be an "option on the table?"

EDITORIAL

Our view: Dropouts

Experts know how to keep kids in school. But Alaska schools aren't doing even an average job of making it happen.

COMMENT

Pets deserve pats for household health

While many industries are feeling the pain of the current economic crisis, the pet industry is booming.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Welcome Sen. Begich

Godspeed.

COMPASS

Thanks, Alaska jurors, we can't ensure justice without you

For 31 years I've been a trial court judge in Alaska -- first in Anchorage and now in the Mat-Su area. Over the years I've been asked: "Why do we still have jurors? Why do we still have jury duty when everything else in this world seems to be figured out online or over the phone, or worse, by 10-second sound bites?"

EDITORIAL

Our view: Gulf War illness

Gulf War illness is real, and few vets who suffer the disease are getting better. It's past time for serious work on a cure.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Academics, not athletics, should be high school priority

Our schools' report cards don't look very good. As we run around trying to figure out why Johnny can't read and Susie can't do math, I think we should peek into a corner that is traditionally left untouched because of its sensitive nature.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Foster care

Chronic staff turnover is putting kids at risk in Alaska's foster care system.

COMPASS

Credit card vultures don't deserve help

Congress gave Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion -- more than the United States has spent on the war in Iraq to date -- to address the crisis in our economy. Then they gave him the unilateral power to decide how that huge amount of money should be spent.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Alaska needs a plan to make public schools better

Alaska needs to take a hard look at steps that will improve public education, like state-funded pre- kindergarten.

COMPASS

Native students need schools that acknowledge culture

If you look back through the history of Alaska Natives in the state's education system, you will find that culture and language were systematically removed from children in the classrooms, in well-intentioned attempts to prepare them for life in Western society.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Giving vets their due

We expect a lot of our veterans; they've earned a lot in return.

MICHAEL CAREY

Here's why many voters stuck with Ted

"What is it with you people up there?" a former professor of mine called to ask.

DAN FAGAN

She's not your average American girl

I had the privilege of having Stephanie Steele on my television and radio show this week. I just recently met Steele, and to be honest, she didn't make much of a first impression. Once I got to know her, I realized how special she is.

ANDREW HALCRO

GOP needs to appeal beyond the base with real solutions

Shortly after Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to garner more than 50 percent of the vote since the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter, conservative activists were already diagnosing the Republican Party's problem.

EDITORIAL

Our view: Close it

Guantanamo's prison camp is a powerful symbol of where this country has gone wrong in fighting terrorism.

COMPASS

All King Cove wants is a short gravel road for safe access

As I write this, I'm in King Cove, Alaska. Soon I'll board a plane from Cold Bay to Washington, D.C., to support passage of our wilderness/road study/land exchange bill included in the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, pending before Congress.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Auto bailout would be first of many

Finally, the outlines of a coherent debate on the federal bailout. This comes as welcome relief from a campaign season that gave us the House Republicans' know-nothing rejectionism, John McCain's mindless railing against "greed and corruption" and Barack Obama's detached enunciation of vacuous bailout "principles" that allowed him to be all things to all people.