LAS VEGAS—My nametag revealed I was a journalist from Alaska, so I said I was researching an article on firearms for bear protection in the Last Frontier backcountry. Century International Arms salesman Steve Sanko reached into a glass display case and came up with a bulky, tricked-out handgun.

News shouldn’t resemble a horror flick

LAS VEGAS—My nametag revealed I was a journalist from Alaska, so I said I was researching an article on firearms for bear protection in the Last Frontier backcountry. Century International Arms salesman Steve Sanko reached into a glass display case and came up with a bulky, tricked-out handgun.

The owners of the Alaska Aces, led by businessman Terry Parks and former assemblyman Dan Coffey, are well-known for buying the minor league hockey team out of bankruptcy and turning it into one of the hottest tickets in Anchorage, even winning an ECHL championship just a few seasons after taking over. Now Parks and Coffey want to put another team together, one that would run the city-owned George Sullivan Sports Arena, the 6,000 seat hockey barn where the Aces play home games.

I arrived in Alaska on February 24, 1988. As we flew in on our approach, it was dark, and I remember being struck by the ice in the inlet below. I'd been on Bondi Beach just 36 hours earlier, and was wondering to myself whether I'd completely lost my mind.

Anchorage voters will be asked in April if they want a universal ID check rule at every liquor store in town, after the Anchorage Assembly’s conservative bloc lined up in favor of putting the question on the upcoming city ballot. The vote would be advisory; it would be up to elected officials to pass an ID check law.

It was French novelist Victor Hugo who once quipped, “He who opens a school, closes a prison.” Words to ponder as the Alaska State Legislature considers the pleas from Alaska’s school districts for more money.

Last week Bill Popp, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), presented the 2011 Economic Forecast and Business Confidence Index in Anchorage. During his report he mentioned various retailers, and, as a side note, he mentioned that Olive Garden would be coming to Anchorage. Despite a much more positive report than expected and a very optimistic outlook for the current year, the one part of the report that made the most noise in the news was that Olive Garden may be coming to Anchorage.

News shouldn’t resemble a horror flick