Julia O'Malley writes a general interest column about life and politics in Anchorage and around Alaska. She grew up in Anchorage and has worked at the ADN on and off as a columnist and reporter since 1996. She came back full time as a reporter in 2005.
As a reporter, she covered the court system and wrote extensively about life in Anchorage, including big changes in the city's ethnic and minority communities.
In 2008, she won the Scripps-Howard Foundation's Ernie Pyle award for the best human-interest writing in America. She has also written for the Oregonian, the Juneau Empire and the Anchorage Press.
E-mail her at jomalley@adn.com.
Pigeon love means war in Spenard - 11/4/2009 9:12 pm
What the heck is this? - 11/3/2009 1:31 pm
Chasing the mystery beagle of Sand Lake - 10/30/2009 10:24 pm
A fire chief should know engines don't do errands - 10/24/2009 2:42 pm
Senior citizen feeding pigeons in Spenard = $310 fine - 10/23/2009 11:28 am
Mailbag: responses to Purple Heart column - 10/23/2009 11:13 am
Alaska Native youth: future talk and street fashion - 10/20/2009 7:09 pm
Behind Purple Heart, medical hassle and heartache - 10/19/2009 8:48 pm
Homeless plan should include Housing First - 10/10/2009 7:44 pm
Money worries on the day money comes free - 10/8/2009 9:54 pm
FB Fav: dance-off at the Northway Mall - 10/6/2009 11:05 am
After sneeze-fest, it's time to confront flu-shot fears - 10/3/2009 1:16 am
Local response to disasters in Samoa and the Phillipines - 9/30/2009 4:42 pm
On this day, a cell phone ring in church is welcome - 9/29/2009 8:54 pm
Hey Truck Dude, some things are best left in the garage - 9/27/2009 7:00 pm
Masek excuses sound hollow, sentence disappoints - 9/24/2009 11:54 pm
Losing a day or two on Kodiak Island - 9/22/2009 7:56 pm
Reaction to John Mayo's story - 9/21/2009 3:00 pm
Damaged and discharged, a soldier on edge - 9/17/2009 12:17 am
Do you have a library card? - 9/16/2009 11:14 am
A president's speech, a lesson on civility - 9/8/2009 9:53 pm
When you see a fire truck, wave - 9/5/2009 8:41 pm
NOVEMBER 4, 2009 - 9:12 PM
The lineup: Pigeons line the roof of Marie Wolfe's photography business in Midtown in late October. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)
There could be 100 pigeons in the Spenard flock, maybe more. Most days, they perch on the necks of street lights over Benson Boulevard. The birds, like many things in the neighborhood, have been around. They've fought gulls for parking-lot french fries and been attacked by hawks and laid eggs in February. They have missing eyes and tatty feathers and gimpy feet.
Marie Wolfe, an older woman who owns Anchorage Photos, fell in love with the flock a long time ago. For a number of years, she fed the birds daily in the driveway of her shop on Photo Avenue. And over that time, they multiplied. And her roof became a significant pigeon haunt.
NOVEMBER 3, 2009 - 1:31 PM
(Photo by Erik Hill)
UPDATE: It's not a sewage plug or an airplane part. It is, we think, a "snubber." This confirmation from a savvy FB friend:
"I crawled under Brownie (our pickup). It's got snubbers like that on the front end, above the front axle. Is the inside of the hole tapped, like so it would screw onto a bolt? The numbers stamped on the side would be the parts number, so the guy at the dealership can look up the part to sell you a new one, when your old one ended up on someone's lawn."
OCTOBER 30, 2009 - 10:24 PM
MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News: Barbara Carlson says she frequently hears a baying beagle in the middle of the night from her home along the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge.
For the past year or so, late on certain nights on the southernmost edge of the Sand Lake neighborhood, where Dimond Boulevard thins and the houses perch on the bluff above the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, residents have been waking in the dark to a horrible sound.
It comes from the mud flats, through the wind-twisted trees. Not quite a howl. Or a bark. Or a shriek. But a pained combination of all three. An undulating yowl that carries for miles.
OCTOBER 24, 2009 - 2:42 PM
An Anchorage Fire Department engine, staffed with three or four on-duty firefighters, rolled up to Dimond High School on Monday afternoon. But it wasn’t there for a fire.
It was there at the request of Fire Chief Mark Hall to pick up his 15-year-old daughter and take her home from school.
The firefighters drove her about two miles and dropped her off. And the chief was not inconvenienced. And some time later the chief’s wife, in a fire department thank-you tradition, showed up at Station 7 in Jewel Lake with sundae fixings.
But this wasn’t your average fire department ice cream situation.
OCTOBER 23, 2009 - 11:28 AM
This from yesterday's Alaska State Trooper log:
"Location: Anchorage
Case number: 09-93942
Type: Feeding Game
Text: On 10/17/09, Alaska Wildlife Troopers contacted Marie L. Wolfe, 71
yoa Anchorage, on Photo Avenue in Anchorage. Wolfe was observed feeding
Pigeons in a driveway after being informed by ADF&G that it was illegal.
Wolfe was issued a USC with a bail amount of $310.00 for Feeding Game.
Arraignment was set for Anchorage District Court."
OCTOBER 23, 2009 - 11:13 AM
“ I read with interest your column where the military health care including Tricare was blasted something terrible. I think you owe it to your readers to present a balanced view and at least let those of us who have had nothing but outstanding experiences with this system. I have been dealing with extreme health care issues for the last couple of years and I have received nothing but the absolute best in doctors, facilities, prescriptions, etc.. I am sure that when some of the local doctors read your column they are ready to throw in the towel and deny Tricare which would be a major disaster.”
OCTOBER 20, 2009 - 7:09 PM
Photographer Marc Lester and I spent the day at the First Alaskans Youth & Elders Conference talking with teenagers. Click here to view what we made.
OCTOBER 19, 2009 - 8:48 PM
Family talk: Sgt. 1st Class Michael Waszak and his wife, Karen, discuss what life has been like since he was injured in combat in Iraq in 2004. Waszak has undergone numerous surgeries and deals with complicated pain management and the effects of post-traumatic stress. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)
UPDATE 10/23: To read some responses to this column, click here.
The Purple Heart ceremony on Fort Richardson a week ago began with the usual formality. Lines of uniformed soldiers took seats in the mess hall before a podium and a row of official flags. We stood to welcome the VIPs -- including Maj. Gen. William Troy, head of the U.S. Army in Alaska, and U.S. Sen. Mark Begich -- and then we sat again when we were told.
OCTOBER 10, 2009 - 7:44 PM
Street sleeper: John Martin prepares for another night out on the corner of Lake Otis Parkway and Abbott Road Oct. 4. Martin had been camped out on the street corner since the morning of Sept. 30 in an effort to bring attention to the homeless situation in Anchorage. (BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)
Audio slide show: Martin's protest on the streets
John Martin has his own problems, a large one being that he's a registered sex offender, but for four days before anyone reported that fact, he put on a one-man public demonstration about homelessness at the corner of Lake Otis Parkway and Abbott Road.
OCTOBER 8, 2009 - 9:54 PM
I don’t know what it looked like at Best Buy or Costco or Target, but the line at the PFD office on 7th Avenue Thursday morning wasn’t too long. Most of the dozen or so people waiting in the drizzle for the doors to open had been to the bank already and discovered their PFD checks — $1,305 each — hadn’t been deposited. Faces were grim under hoods. They pulled on their sleeves to cover cold hands.
It was my second year in the line. This year I was writing about it. Last year, my Social Security number was wrong on my application. I had waited with a guy who had a long, emotional story about how his ex-wife might have purposely not mailed his application, so he shouldn’t be held responsible for the fact it didn’t get there by the deadline. Behind us, there had been a guy who lost his check because he owed money, which he didn’t think he owed. And behind him, there was a family of 10 from Vietnam who were expecting to collect enough for a down payment on a house, if only all of the checks would make it to their accounts.
OCTOBER 6, 2009 - 11:05 AM
My favorite thing on Facebook this morning were clips from Mao Tosi of AK Pride kids signing and dancing, including this breakdance-off at the Northway Mall. Don't miss the last guy with the yoga moves.
OCTOBER 3, 2009 - 1:16 AM
For most of my life, I have been one of those people who doesn't get a flu shot. The phobia started years ago when I was working on a story about a retiring mail carrier. We spent a morning walking his route through a neighborhood in North Portland and he told me about his life. His mother had problems from Guillain-Barre syndrome, which crippled her. He told me he suspected it had something to do with her getting a flu shot months before coming down with symptoms in the 1970s. He'd spent several decades caring for her and never married.
Somewhere I'd also heard that shot could make you sick, which seemed highly inconvenient. And, even though my dad is a doctor who gets a flu shot every year, I had a hazy distrust about anything that came from pharmaceutical companies and was distributed from the government. Plus, who likes getting a shot? So I went through my 20s shot-free.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 - 4:42 PM
Here are a few events related to the recent disasters:
Immediate Care has started a relief fund to send relief teams to both Samoa and the Phillipines and to benefit the Red Cross. Donations can be made to an account at First National Bank titled “Samoan and Manila Relief Fund.” Donations of personal care items (ie. new toothbrushes, small shampoo bottles, etc…) can be left at their office at 6311 DeBarr Rd, Ste L2. Contact: (907) 336-3365 or Brian Richardson, brichardson@immediatecareak.com, (907) 336-3365, ext 104.
Alaskans wishing to help tsunami victims in the Samoan Islands may do so at Alaska Community Foundation. Funds donated to the Alaska-Samoa Tsunami Fund, a fund of ACF, will be used to assist organizations helping the families of the victims of the tsunamis. Rebuilding, recovery and bereavement are the areas of concern that will remain needs over several months. Cash is the most valuable donation, as goods cannot be easily transported to the islands. Here's the Web site: http://www.alaskacf.org/
SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 - 8:54 PM
Praying for relatives: Sophie and Mel Fanene, in back, and Faamanu Salevi were among those who gathered at the Samoan Seventh-day Adventist Church in Anchorage to pray for those who might have been affected by a tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)
SEPTEMBER 27, 2009 - 7:00 PM
Dear Truck Dude,
You were the one on 15th Avenue about two weeks ago on a Friday. I pulled up behind you around Karluk Street. I had a headache. You had plastic man parts hanging from your tow hitch.
It might not have bothered me, as I have seen this kind of thing before, but it wasn't just you, it was also the dude next to you. And so I was trapped, staring into a vortex of swinging truck junk until the light changed.
My aching brain filled with one alarming thought: Is this going to be a trend now?
I mentioned your bumper ornament to a coworker a few days later. He said, "Oh, you mean TruckNutz." And so I Googled. It was a trend. The Nutz, which are widely available online, became a big thing last year during the presidential election after someone suggested Barack Obama get some so he could better relate to rural America. And a few states moved to ban them from the roads. They were kind of 2008, but like every other thing that becomes a thing Outside, it appeared they were catching on here 2000-late.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 - 11:54 PM
Beverly Masek's sentencing Thursday morning was a chance for her to take responsibility for pocketing $4,000 from an oil services company executive in exchange for her vote. And she told the judge she did. But what I heard in the courtroom was a long list of reasons why it wasn't really her fault.
The five-time elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives took a bribe in 2003 from Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen because she was depressed and going through a divorce, her attorney, Rich Curtner, explained to the judge. She was cash-strapped and desperate and drinking too much. The defense sentencing document -- built on letters from public figures and a psychiatric evaluation -- painted a picture of her that seemed fragile, like a besotted Victorian heroine wandering the halls of the capitol.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 - 7:56 PM
Calm before the fog: Morgan and Wetherleigh Griffin on top of Pillar Mountain in Kodiak on Saturday before the fog rolled in. (ADN.com / Julia O'Malley)When I checked in for my flight, Kodiak's airport was crowded with salty ball caps and duffle bags, rubber boots, gun cases, high-school hoodies and fishing pole tubes wrapped in plastic.
I had been in town for a day, a guest in a university class taught by my friend Jared. After class, he piled his family in the car and we drove out Pasagshak Road, through the moss-draped spruce, past the horse pastures and the nubby grazing buffalo, to a black sand beach. We climbed along the rocks, his daughters running out ahead. The wind had been warm. The scene was tropical, almost dreamlike. Then a surprise wave flooded the beach and swamped all of our boots.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 - 3:00 PM
A number of readers have contacted me to see what happened to John Mayo, the Fort Rich soldier I wrote about last week who was discharged after a shoplifting episode. (Read the story here)
When I talked to him last, on Friday, he said a couple soldiers he knew had contacted him. A number of readers offered help -- baby clothes, money, help with jobs, and housing. I passed those offers along. He said he was going to meet with some of the soldiers who had made contact this week. Then his cell phone went dead and I haven’t been able to contact him since.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 - 12:17 AM
Iraq veteran John Mayo is working to get his life back on track. (Erik Hill/Anchorage Daily News) - See more photos -
John Mayo had mayhem etched in his skin. I noticed it when I first saw him in the lobby of the Daily News. Sleeve tattoos. Black skulls, explosions and flames. Demon drill sergeants. A rifle made to look like a deadly cartoon.
SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 - 11:14 AM
I have a confession to make: I don't have a library card. In fact, I have not been to a city library, unless you count going to Assembly meetings, since I moved back to Anchorage in 2005.
Are you a library user? Why do you visit the library? Are you checking out books? Music? DVDs? Are you using the computers? Are you taking your children to a story hour?
Or are you like me? If so, why do you think that is?
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