WATCHERS: Two wolves keep an eye on dog walkers on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in October 2010. Alaska Fish and Game intends to kill or thin two packs that roam the area. (Photo by Julia Smith / reader submission)

Since August, biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the military have been looking to kill off or drastically thin two packs of wolves -- maybe 12 animals in all -- that roam Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and around the edges of Eagle River. They say the animals have become increasingly aggressive with humans and dogs.

The traffic stop that ended with rape began one morning in April 2009, a 21-year-old woman told a jury Thursday. Anthony Rollins, the former Anchorage police officer charged with sexually assualting her and five others, sat at the defendant's table.

Developers and real estate people have been trying for years to fill all the storefronts in the Glenn Square Mall. On Monday night, the people of Mountain View tried something else: They prayed.

James Roland listens to the invited speakers at New Hope Baptist Church on Monday, January 24, 2011. Mountain View community members gathered at New Hope Baptist Church on Price Street to discuss the future of the underutilised Glenn Square Mall. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)

In the small downtown courtroom where domestic-violence restraining orders are granted, extended and denied, the tumult of the human heart spills out before a judicial officer seven days a week. Fear, pettiness, indecision, obsession, forgiveness, betrayal get sorted through, put in black and white and funneled into the orderly processes of the court.

What does it feel like to wait to cross the street on the icy corner of A Street and Fireweed Lane in a wheelchair? A few words came to mind on Thursday morning as the cars whizzed by me, too close for comfort. One was "invisible." Another was "terrifying."

Access Alaska, an organization that assists people with disabilities, set me up with the wheelchair. The idea was to ride to the bus stop and take a bus, to get an idea what Anchorage in winter is like for people with disabilities.

Kristin Alexander: Kristin Alexander is now an advanced phase of treatment at Akeela House, a residential addiction program in Midtown. link=none

For those of you who followed the Hooked
series last year, an update:

YARD WORK: Wha Dawn McKay hired Kenneth Bowne, a homeless man, to do yard work and other projects for her in recent years. Bowne was found dead outside an East Anchorage apartment building in 2010. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)

Dr. Vernon Cates and his wife, Gracie, were married 62 years. (Photo courtesy of Cates family)

Dr. Vernon Cates' stethoscope sits curled on an old roll-top desk in his office at Alaska Regional Hospital. Thick, worn book spines -- "The Physician and His Practice," "Human Anatomy," "Pathology of Internal Disease" -- line the bookshelves. On the back of the door, a clean, starched white coat hangs ready. But Dr. Cates won't be coming to the office today.

RESCUER: Gail Pueyo credits Jacob Herring with saving her life after he pushed her out the way of a hit-and-run driver.(BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News)

Every column has an ending, but some also have a postscript, a what-happened-next that I don't always have a chance to share with readers. As the year comes to a close, here are a few post-scripts I've collected:

In 2007, a Malaysian woman made a YouTube video to ask for help solving a personal mystery.

In the video, the woman wears Islamic dress, her head covered in a pink scarf that wraps under her chin. She introduces herself as Halimah Hajar. She is 39 years old and looking for her mother, who she has not seen in 32 years. She holds her passport in front of the camera. It's American. She was born in Chicago, she says. When she was small, she lived in New York City. Then she was sent to Malaysia to live with her father's family. She never saw her mother again.

TWEET MUSIC: Singer and songwriter Marian Call gets back to work Monday at Middle Way Cafe on Facebook and Twitter hours after returning from Hawaii at the conclusion of a seven-month tour. Call uses social media to set up her performance schedule, often just days in advance while traveling the country. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)

Last week, I wrote about the "Dancing Guy" of Fairview who decided not to dance any more after almost five years of rain-or-shine Friday performances. Photographer Marc Lester went to his street corner last Friday and made this video of his final dance.

Still need to cross a few names off your Christmas shopping list? We might be able to help. We asked readers for their gift-giving advice over the weekend, and here are 15 tips for gift-givers. (Have more? Post them in the comment section)

1. Never give a woman an appliance.

2. Always undo the metal twist-ties on the toys in their packages so the children can get them out easily.

3. Never give a gift that is meant to change someone’s behavior. (A treadmill for someone who doesn’t exercise would be a bad idea)

4. It is always a dicey proposition to buy clothing for teenagers.

Halimah Hajar put a message on YouTube from her home Malaysia in 2007, asking for someone to help find her mother, Kate Saganna. Saganna's last known address, from a letter sent in the 1990s, was in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Halimah, who is half Eskimo, was born in the U.S. But when she was very young, her father took her and her brother to Malaysia. Halimah never saw her mother again. She has been to Alaska only once, as a little girl.

Here is her video:

In 2008 Andrew Kerosky talks about what brought him to the corner to dance. (Video by Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

- See more video of Kerosky dance (YouTube)

It's a good Friday if I get out of work in time to catch Andrew Kerosky standing near the corner of Ingra and 15th Avenue doing robotic dance moves to whatever is playing on his iPod.

Cabin Tavern bartender DeAnna Shaefer visits with customers Craig Enlow and Scoot Bearss/ BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily NewsFor years around Christmas at the Cabin Tavern, a few people would come in, looking to have a conversation with a very large man by the name of Tiny DeSapio.

Update, Thursday 10 p.m.: She won.

Original item: Thursday night Brandy Kuentzel, one of two remaining contestants on The Apprentice, will find out (along with an estimated 5 million NBC viewers) whether she wins a job with Donald Trump. Kuentzel, 30, is Anchorage-raised. She graduated from Service High School in 1998.

- Audio slide show: Making sausage at Mr. Prime Beef

The first thing you need to do if you plan to be in the vicinity of the massive vat of sausage at Mr. Prime Beef is suit up in a white coat and a hard hat. The coat protects against blood spatters and cross-contamination. The hat protects the brain in case of any unfortunate run-in with a giant freezer door or a shelf full of lamb legs.

No. 17: O'Malley Peak provides the backdrop as skaters enjoy the groomed ice at Westchester Lagoon. (JIM LAVRAKAS / Daily News archive)

Winter is getting serious. Daylight's down to six hours, the parking lots are glazed, your car needs to warm up and your hair is full of static from the dry, sub-arctic air. But Alaskans know winter living -- not just how to get by but to thrive. We asked readers for wintertime tips, both practical and fun. Here are 100 ideas to make this your best winter ever (Have a tip you don't see on the list? Put it in the comments section or send it in the box to the right):

1. Walk the dog even when it's really cold.

OVERFLOW: The dormitories at the Brother Francis Shelter have been operating at full capacity. Sleeping mats are being used in other rooms at the facility and at neighboring Bean's Cafe to accommodate the overflow crowd. (MARC LESTER / Anchorage Daily News)

Here's something you may not know: Tonight a record number of people, or close to it, will be sleeping on the concrete floors at Brother Francis Shelter and Bean's Cafe.

It's been like this for weeks now.