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APD Says Video Shows Missing Barista Being Abducted

By Ted Land — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 23:12:00 -0900

The Anchorage Police Department said on Friday afternoon the disappearance of Samantha Koenig is now being called an abduction.

APD Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz says surveillance video from the Common Grounds Espresso coffee stand at East Tudor Road and Fairbanks Street shows Koenig being taken from the scene by an armed man. In the video -- which hasn't been released because it contains details crucial to the investigation -- the two are seen leaving the scene on foot.

Police declined to release the video to the public because they say it contains material sensitive to their investigation.

Officers are still trying to locate the 18-year-old barista, who was last seen working at the coffee stand at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

On Friday afternoon shortly before 1 p.m., APD listed Koenig's disappearance as an abduction.

Koenig’s family is circulating thousand of "KIDNAPPED" posters, asking the public to help with any leads.

“Please help us get Sam back with her family!” it reads.

Koenig's father, James, said late Friday that the family is offering a $12,500 reward for any information leading to her whereabouts.

APD is asking anyone who has seen Koenig walking with a male in the area of Old Seward Highway and Tudor Road on Wednesday to call police at 786-8900.

Email Ted Land

Two Barrow Children Medevaced to Anchorage After Assault

By Chris Klint — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 14:47:00 -0900

Two Barrow children have medevaced to Anchorage after being assaulted at an apartment where a 28-year-old man was arrested in connection with the crime Thursday night.

North Slope Borough Police Department officers responded to a 911 call requesting an ambulance at an apartment building on the 200 block of Momeganna Street for a child who was not breathing. Responders found a 3-year-old child who didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing, as well as a 1-year-old in need of emergency medical attention.

The borough's police chief, Leon Boyea, could not elaborate on details of the case or how the children had been injured Friday.

The children were immediately taken to Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital in Barrow, then medevaced to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage for further care. ANMC officials would not state the children’s condition Friday afternoon, citing privacy concerns.

Borough police arrested Richard Tilden Jr. at the apartment on two counts of second-degree domestic-violence assault. He is being held at the North Slope Borough Correctional Facility without bail pending arraignment.

Editor's note: References to the nature of the alleged assault and the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital's location have been corrected.

AnchorRides Affected by Heavy Snow

By KTUU News Staff — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:52:00 -0900

AnchorRides announced that it will only perform essential and return trips on Friday afternoon.

It said due to heavy snow accumulation on roads and the current snow advisory in effect until 9:00 p.m., AnchorRIDES is operating reduced service.

Essential trips include purposes of dialysis, cancer treatment, and obtaining life sustaining medical supplies.

Riders transported on Friday morning are being contacted to arrange return trips home. Riders who have upcoming trips are being contacted to cancel and/or reschedule.

People Mover service is operating normal weekday service at this time.

Southcentral Gets Piled On by Heavy Snow Today

By: Mitch Sego — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 07:46:00 -0900

Another storm system, this one coming out of the eastern Gulf of Alaska is moving into the eastern PWS region this morning. This low, combined with cold air advection from the west, will drop generous amounts of snow today over Cook Inlet today and tonight. PWS will see mainly snow, however rain is a threat in Cordova this morning.

Snow totals from 5 to 12 inches is likely in Anchorage, with the highest totals along and in the mountains. The Mat Su will see 4-10 inches. All areas near the Inlet are in for at least 3 to 4 inches.

Heavy snow has already fallen in PWS and will continue today. Up to 3 feet are possible over the higher terrain. This will further exacerbate the avalanche danger in the Chugach mountains. 1 to 2 feet of snow is likely in Valdez.

Southeast will see rain all day and winds during the morning. The West will remain cold and dry. A different low pressure system is moving over the Aleutians and will bring strong winds along with rain and snow. Snow from 1 to 3 inches is possible over the eastern Interior.

The Southcentral low will kick out of the region quickly to the northeast tonight, taking with it the threat for snow. In it's wake, a ridge of high pressure will build in. Quiet and colder weather is in store for the weekend.

Next week brings the promise of an unseasonably warm air mass for Alaska. Highs for some parts of the northern Interior will be some 80 to 90 degrees warmer next week than where they were earlier this week.

Please drive careful and use extreme caution is planning the recreate in the backcountry. Danger levels are very high for human triggered avalanches.

Roof Collapses at Midtown Warehouse; No Injuries

By Chris Klint — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:52:00 -0900

A roof collapse at a Midtown warehouse Friday morning caused no injuries to any of the five people in the building, according to the Anchorage Fire Department.

AFD spokesperson Al Tamagni Jr. says 13 units responded to the Southcentral Foundation warehouse at 4973 Eagle St. just before 10:30 a.m.

One of the people inside the warehouse heard the roof shake and warned people to clear the rear of the building, where the collapse occurred moments later. The force of the collapse blew out window at the front of the building.

One person was in the vicinity of the collapse when it happened, but everyone got out safely and has been accounted for.

Natural gas, power and water to the building were shut off, and fire inspectors examined the scene before the building was handed over to the owners Friday afternoon. Tamagni says no cause for the collapse has formally been determined.

While Southcentral Alaska was under heavy snowfall Friday, earlier this month city officials said there was no immediate concern about snow-induced roof collapses in the Anchorage Bowl due to requirements in building codes.

Komen reverses decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding

By Eryn Brown and Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times / for the Booster Shots blog — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 08:16:00 -0900

In a reversal of policy after a nationwide uproar over its decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, Susan G. Komen for the Curesaid Friday that it will amend its new funding rules and allow continued funding of breast health programs operated by the clinic.

Nancy G. Brinker, Komen's founder and chief executive, said that the breast cancer foundation's decision to halt funding to providers who were under investigation was not done for political reasons and was not meant to penalize Planned Parenthood specifically.

"We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair," the statement said.

Planned Parenthood is under congressional investigation by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who is looking into whether it used federal funding for abortion services, which is not permitted.

The group's statement is online here.

[Updated Feb. 3, 10:00 a.m.: Planned Parenthood responded by thanking the public for its "outpouring of support for women in need of lifesaving breast cancer screening."

Here's more from the statement by Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

“During the last week, millions spontaneously joined a national conversation about lifesaving breast cancer prevention care and reinforced shared values about access to health care for all. This compassionate outcry in support of those most in need rose above political, ideological, and cultural divides, and will surely be recognized as one of our nation's better moments during a contentious political time. Planned Parenthood thanks each and every person who has contributed to elevating the importance of breast cancer prevention for so many women in need."

Richards described Planned Parenthood's partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure as a "treasured relationship" and said the two organizations will keep working together on their "shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women."

"We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grant-making criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers," the statement said. "Planned Parenthood has been a trusted partner with the Komen Foundation in early cancer detection and prevention services. In particular, Planned Parenthood helps the Komen Foundation reach vulnerable populations — low-income women, African-American women, and Latinas — especially in rural areas and underserved communities where Planned Parenthood health centers are their only source of health care."

Komen funding has allowed Planned Parenthood clinics to perform about 170,000 breast exams and make referrals for more than 6,400 mammograms.

Richards' full statement is online here.]

Return to the Booster Shots blog.

No end in sight to the warm winter

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times — Thu, 2 Feb 2012 16:35:00 -0900

Birds were singing. Insects were buzzing. And a large skunk suddenly appeared in the road in front of meteorologist Paul Pastelok as he drove to work in rural Pennsylvania.

Pastelok missed the skunk, but the close encounter this week was a reminder of how freakishly warm the winter has been from the Plains to the East Coast, and how the higher temperatures have upended everything from wildlife to resorts whose life cycles are dictated by snow.

In New York City, where "unseasonably mild" and "balmy" have been the forecasts of late, temperatures this week have been at least 10 to 20 degrees warmer than the usual average high of 39, a pattern seen across much of the eastern half of the country.

In Wichita, Kan., where the average high temperature last month was 37, about 6 degrees above normal, it hit 62 on Thursday — warmer than Las Vegas. Washington topped out at 56 on Thursday. In Chicago, where the average January day is 29.5 degrees, it was 59 on the last day of the month.

"A measly 19%" of the country was covered in snow, according to Weather.com. New York City, which last year was staggering beneath 36 inches of snow by Feb. 1, has seen just 4 inches fall so far this winter, and the remnants of the last storm melted away long ago.

"Let me put it this way," said one doleful employee of an empty fur-seller in Manhattan, sitting beside doors opened to a sunny, 62-degree day. "Thank God we have a lot of Saudis in town, because to them this is like 30 degrees below zero."

"It's mild," said Pastelok, a meteorologist from AccuWeather, in one of the bigger understatements of the season.

"The departures have been way above normal this season, maybe in a top five or top 10 category," he said when asked to rank how unusual the winter from the Plains eastward had been in terms of temperatures and lack of snow.

The situation has stymied forecasters, who study previous years' patterns to predict the future. This year has been unique because even when there have been cold snaps, they have been extremely brief and followed by long, mild stretches.

Even with February ushering in cooler temperatures — but still above the norm — Pastelok said there were no clear signs of change on the way. "If you don't like cold, it'll be a pattern you like," he said.

Grumpy furriers aside, most New Yorkers have been reveling in the novelty of ice-skating in T-shirts and lunch hours spent basking in the sun or dining at outdoor cafes. But one person's luxury is another's loss, and for businesses that rely upon snow and city officials who plan staffing around the seasons, the weird winter is not welcome and could lead to such changes as higher food prices and more roadkill.

The northern Plains' wheat crops rely on snow cover to protect them from cold air during their dormant winter months, say forecasters, who warn of possible higher prices because of the odd weather. Fruit trees tricked into blossoming early and then hit by a frost could be damaged. Rodents who normally hunker down for the winter are out and about, making for unusual encounters like the one Pastelok had with the skunk outside State College, Pa.

For people who depend upon well water, the lack of snowmelt is a problem. And, Pastelok said, "we could be looking at an abnormally buggy spring" because the icy temperatures that normally drive away insects haven't materialized.

Few have suffered the warmish winter as badly as small ski areas such as Whaleback Mountain in New Hampshire, where Frank Sparrow, one of the owners, made no attempt to conceal his disappointment over the season.

"It's the worst I can remember in 30 years," he said in a telephone interview. "Even if we had snow for the rest of the season, we could never recover."

Sparrow estimated that Whaleback "might have had a foot" of natural snowfall so far this season, and that rain and temperatures in the 40s had affected its ability to top that with quality man-made snow.

In New York, the city canceled its annual Winter Jam festival scheduled for Saturday in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, which gives city dwellers the chance to try cross-country skiing, sledding and snowshoeing. It was the first time in Winter Jam's 10-year history that lack of winter had forced its cancellation.

"It wasn't even a close call," said parks commissioner Adrian Benepe.

From his office adjacent to the Central Park Zoo, buds were sprouting on trees. Crowds lingered around the nearby sea lion pool, whose barking residents lounged in the sun on warm rocks. Daffodils had begun sprouting in some areas.

They were welcome sights for residents who a year ago were in the grip of an icy storm, but the big park crowds have a downside. The city varies park staff according to the seasons, and cleanup crews are at an ebb in the dead of winter.

"So the good news is people are coming out into the parks and playgrounds when they normally would be empty," Benepe said. "The bad news is, we have to clean up after them."

tina.susman@latimes.com

TV prices plunge ahead of Super Bowl

By Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 19:23:00 -0900

Whether the New England Patriots or the New York Giants win the Super Bowl this weekend, television buyers will be the ones scoring big.

Retailers have been slashing prices on big-screen HDTVs ahead of the big game, and are throwing in extras such as free delivery and installation, offers to pay the sales tax and complimentary Blu-ray players and 3-D glasses to attract customers.

"Consumers right now can definitely benefit," said Lisa Hatamiya, a research associate at market research firm IHS iSuppli, which tracks television sales data and trends.

About 10% of TV industry sales typically occur in the two weeks before the Super Bowl, and sales this year are expected to be even better: At least 5.1 million people, or about 5.1% of those planning to tune in on Sunday, will buy a new television specifically for the Super Bowl, compared with 4.5 million last year and 3.6 million in 2010, according to the National Retail Federation.

The swift rise in larger-screen, higher-quality sets has driven TV prices down for years, giving consumers more for their money, television experts say. The TV market is also fiercely competitive, forcing manufacturers to accept razor-thin margins and rapidly churn out newer models.

"We didn't even have a 70-inch TV at this time last year," said Chirag Vithlani, a sales manager at Best Buy's Burbank store. Now "we have an 80-inch by Sharp for less than $5,000. We have access to larger, cheaper TVs than we've ever had."

Prices for TVs 50 inches and larger are at the lowest first-quarter levels ever, according to IHS iSuppli. But low prices are just one reason for the Super Bowl surge.

Sunday's game is a rematch of the 2008 championship game, pitting two football teams from huge metropolitan markets against each other. It also doesn't hurt that the teams feature Tom Brady and Eli Manning, two of the National Football League's elite quarterbacks.

Warmer-than-usual winter weather is also expected to boost in-store TV shopping. And with television makers reaching the end of their current product cycles, many are working with retailers to offer special incentives to clear inventory before 2012 models hit the sales floor next month.

Super Bowl shoppers are also looking for the latest top-of-the-line features to enhance their game day experience, such as Internet-connected smart TVs that can link to Twitter and Facebook. Want to gloat about that amazing touchdown catch or critique that soon-to-go-viral halftime commercial? Now you can do that on your television.

"The social aspect of it is just made more simple by using one screen," said Joe Stinziano, senior vice president of home entertainment for Samsung Electronics America.

The prices alone were enough to make John Hertz do a double take recently at Santa Monica's Video & Audio Center, where he was shopping for a big-screen television for a Super Bowl party he was hosting. About a dozen people were expected to attend, and he wanted to find a television that would "knock their socks off."

Just five years ago, the back specialist from Malibu dropped $14,000 each on two 50-inch Fujitsu plasma TVs. Now he was eyeing a 65-inch Samsung 1080p 3-D TV. The $7,000 television was already marked down to $5,567.97, but the price was dropped further for the Super Bowl to $4,287.97

"I never thought the prices would drop this quickly," said Hertz, 62. "I'm not even sure this is big enough; I might go bigger."

A successful Super Bowl selling season would provide some momentum for the television industry, which suffered a sluggish year in 2011 but outperformed expectations during the holidays thanks to blowout deals and huge sales of large-screen TVs. During the five weeks before Christmas, unit sales of TVs with screen sizes of 50 inches and bigger rose 32% year over year, according to market research firm NPD Group. The industry's most maligned segment, 3-D TVs, saw unit volume soar more than 100%.

For many television sellers, Super Bowl TV shopping is a relief from the madness that accompanies the holiday shopping period, when discount-driven consumers are often focused on value brands and smaller sets that they can give as presents.

"Sometimes with Black Friday, you'll see brands you've never heard of before and the prices are ridiculously low," said Tom Campbell, an advisor to TV manufacturers who sits on the board of Video & Audio Center, a Southern California chain of electronics stores. "The difference with the Super Bowl coming up is people don't want to watch the game on a 20-inch set."

The prevailing notion this time of year is that bigger is better — and with TV screens getting larger every year, "bigger" nowadays typically means at least 46 inches.

So the deals for the Super Bowl aren't on those smaller bedroom sets. Best Buy is heavily promoting discounts on big-screen Samsung smart TVs; Paul's TV is cutting prices on 73-inch and 82-inch 3-D Mitsubishi HDTVs; and Sears is offering $1,400 off a Sony 55-inch 3-D LED smart TV.

But for some consumers, the tough decision isn't which model to buy but whether to buy at all right now. The promise of even more advanced TVs in the pipeline featuring OLED (organic light-emitting diodes), voice and gesture recognition and improved Google TV technology has some thinking they should forgo the current Super Bowl TV deals and play a waiting game.

"It's my great torture that I live with," said Paul Dennler, a photographer from Brentwood who was at Video & Audio Center checking out a 40-inch Sony on sale for $1,000. "Whatever you get, it's current for like a very short amount of time and then technology moves on."

That wasn't a concern for Hertz, the Malibu back specialist. After deciding to purchase the 65-inch Samsung, he also picked up a 55-inch version as an impulse buy for his secretary. The $4,000 TV set was on sale for $2,387.97.

"This is like buying candy," he said.

andrea.chang@latimes.com

Air Force to Transfer Fighter Jets from Fairbanks

By the Associated Press — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:58:00 -0900

F-16 fighter jets based at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks will be relocated to Anchorage.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/xBJ5MW) the transfer to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage was detailed in a report the newspaper received Friday from the military.

The report says the transfer will allow the Air Force "to achieve savings in base support at Eielson" beginning in fiscal year 2015.

The Air Force document is titled "USAF Force Structure Changes: Sustaining Readiness and Modernizing the Total Force."

"Big Miracle" Love Story Inspired by Real-Life Romance

by Abby Hancock — Thu, 2 Feb 2012 03:44:00 -0900

Excitement over the release of"Big Miracle"is high for many Alaskans who snagged a role in the film.

Especially for Bonnie Carroll because for her, it's personal. The movie portrays her own love story- one that was sparked in an unlikely way- when three gray whales became trapped under the ice of the Beaufort Sea in 1988.

"To have this amazing incredible love story that was so much a part of my personal life, now portrayed in a film has been an amazing gift," says Carroll.

During the rescue efforts, interest in the whales' plight went all the way to the White House.

Bonnie was working in the West Wing at the time when President Ronald Reagan asked her to find out how he could help the whales.

She reached out to Alaska National Guard Col. Tom Carroll in Prudhoe Bay. She says in that very first phone conversation, thousands of miles apart, they both felt a connection, and it soon turned into romance.

The love story is part of the movie and each is portrayed by Hollywood actors Dermot Mulroney and Vinessa Shaw, though the characters names were changed.

A historic phone call between Col. Carroll and President Reagan is in the film, but Bonnie says one phone call that was not included was a conversation she had with Col. Carroll, when he asked the president urge the Russians to use Soviet ice breakers to free the whales.

"I told him, you know the soviet embassy actually monitors the calls that we have that are not encrypted, so they've heard this call and if they can help, I'm sure we'll hear. He thought I was just crazy, and sure enough, two hours later, we got a cable into the White House situation room," says Bonnie.

The ice breakers were soon on their way.

The rescue effort was an on-going drama, that had a happy ending, when the whales were freed. But for Bonnie and Tom, the rescue efforts meant much more- it's what brought the couple together. They married a year later.

Their love story was first told in the book "Freeing the Whales," which ended with the rescue.

The new edition of the book, which shares the same title as the movie, ends a few years later in 1992, when Tom was killed in a Juneau plane crash, then-Brig. Gen. Of the Alaska National Guard.

Bonnie says it was out of that tragedy, that she founded TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a national organization for all military surviving families.

She partnered with Universal Pictures to make the movie premier a benefit for TAPS in Washington, D.C.

"I like to think that my husband is looking down and smiling on this," says Bonnie.

Bonnie was cast as an extra in the movie. She plays a wedding guest at the end of the film, in the re-creation of her own wedding.