Members of the 49th State Street Rodders gathered in the Northway Mall parking lot for a car show on Saturday afternoon, April 28, 2012. The gathering was a fundraiser to help the family of Alfredo Esteban, who was injured in a shooting at R&R Garage in Midtown on April 18. Freddy, as he was known, was a member of the Anchorage car enthusiast community. More information can be found on the Street Rodder's website.

Watson the computer visits Anchorage from anchoragedailynews on Vimeo.

UAA's Brett Frazer opens the debate.An overflow audience fills the auditorium at UAA's Fine Arts building.UAA’s debate team competed against Stanford in an exhibition match at the UAA Fine Arts Building on Thursday evening, March 29. Members of the standing-room-only audience in the recital hall pounded their tables and shouted “hear, hear” to support speeches on an emotional topic. UAA’s Drew Cason and Brett Frazer proposed a motion to abolish the imposition of additional penalties for crimes deemed to be “hate crimes.” Stanford’s Michael Baer and Faris Mohiuddin spoke in defense of hate crime legislation.

Scott Heverling, left, plays a fox named Bob. Daniel Alvarez-Lamp is Xavier, a troll.Fran Lautenberger is writer and director for "Bring Back the Sunshine."Actors and crew from UAA’s theater department performed "Bring Back the Sunshine" Wednesday evening for a preview audience. The play, directed by professor Fran Lautenberger and co-written by Lautenberger and Jon Minton, combines live actors and puppets. “Bring Back the Sunshine” tells the story of Elena, a woman who befriends and confronts various animals on her journey to rescue her husband from evil. The play, which opens Saturday, March 29 at the Harper Studio Theater in UAA’s Fine Arts Building, is for audiences of all ages.

Lautenberger says many of the animal characters were originally based on people in her life, her “women professor friends,” as she calls them. I caught up with her Thursday to learn more and to hear about the challenges of incorporating puppets into a play. Below are some excerpts from our conversation.

Adrian Patterson II, demonstrates krumping. He hears from Keeland Rowland at left.The UAA Hip-Hop Club held a free workshop for students in the Student Center on Thursday night, March 22, 2012. About 25 people showed up to learn some new moves. Andrew Kerosky showed them so basic slides and spins. Afterward, Josh Washington showed taught some of the foundation movements of krumping, a high-engery dance style that includes jabs, stomps and arm swings.

This year has been a banner year for spotting owls in the Anchorage area. Five different species have been spotted, sometimes in a single day. Bob Hallinen photographed one owl hunting several times from different perches around Lake Hood. Click on the photo for a gallery of images.
A watchful owl. (Bob Hallinen photo)

Four-person teams raced mattresses down the slope at Hilltop Ski Area for the Great Alaska Bed Races, one of the many events of the Fur Rendezvous winter festival.

At the Forget-Me-Not Cottage on the Old Glenn Highway in Chugiak, it's easy to feel like you're being watched. There's a face in every direction. The glances aren't suspicious though. They're the curious looks of statues, dolls and figurines that are part of a collection that spans generations.

Shawn Sanders and Sebastian Landry work on a beam three stories up.Sebastian Landry cuts decking.Ironworkers from Swanson Steel climbed, cut and welded on the three-story office building under construction on the east side of A Street near East 34th Avenue on Wednesday morning, February 15, 2012.

Some days all you have to do is look out the window to remember why Alaska is a remarkable place to live! This trio spent a couple days feeding on shrubbery in the neighborhood and around the Daily News building before bedding down for the afternoon, distracting and delighting reporters and editors working 10 feet away.

Palakiiya Rogers holds Max.Conway Seavey draws a big number.Mattie Cobb leaves the start line.Before the racing of the Willow Junior 100 got underway on Friday afternoon, Doug Ruzicka had a couple rule changes to announce to the mushers. This year, no cell phones are allowed, he warned.

Clear and cold winter weather made for great ice skating conditions and beautiful views on Westchester Lagoon today. In this video I tried to capture some of the sights and sounds that make it such a special outdoor destination in the heart of the city.

Bonnie Blair, a five-time gold medal Olympic speed skater, spoke and signed autographs in Anchorage on Friday, January 20, 2012. BP brought Blair to town as part of the company’s USA Olympic sponsorship. Blair, who won six medals overall in her career, opened her talk by describing her first gold medal moment in 1988. She was visibly choked up at describing the scene in Calgary when saw members of her family in the audience before taking her place on the podium. It’s a story she must have told countless times. I was struck by how the emotion still resonated some 24 years later, and I had a chance to ask her about that moment about the role family plays in elite-level athletics. –Marc Lester

Brandon "Bonez" Highsmith.Mickey "AK Lightning" Wharton"Shlomo the Clown," Matthew Eidem, makes his entrance.Brandon Highsmith slapped hands with other wrestlers backstage as he caught his breath Friday night just after his Alaska Pro Wrestling victory. The long-haired Highsmith, who wore shiny silver tights and sported a bloody lip by match's end, defeated “Shlomo the Clown” in one of the night’s early matches in the over-the-top-rope entertainment event.

Jeanne McQueary adjusts her display.Jeanne and Fred McQueary’s home is the brightest house on Ascot Street in Sand Lake this time of year. Lighted decorations follow the roofline, fill the front yard and reach to the top of a mature spruce tree outside the home. What a passer-by can’t see, though, is the most remarkable holiday display at the residence.

"We've come from so far" by Indra Arriaga and Christina Barber.Arriaga, left, and Barber with some of the foam they used to create the concrete mold.Three red, humanlike forms stand in a cluster on Mountain View Drive just north of the Glenn Highway. Each figure, 1,500 pounds of concrete, is anchored to the ground with a steel pipe and, in the minds of its creators, with a sense of community in Mountain View’s diverse population.

Adam Baldwin makes a bad Santa.Bad Santa wants to know if you’ve been naughty or nice. Bad Santa isn’t passing judgment, though. Bad Santa has made his own mistakes, he says, like that thing he did on spring break to get him put on the 86 list at Senor Frog’s. Bad Santa – more leering than cheering – swapped stories and clinked glasses at the Tourism Holiday Party at the Alaska Aviation Museum on Wednesday evening.

Icebergs from Vatnajokull Glacier, in Skaftafell National Park, Iceland.From Anne Raup:
Paul Souders used to work for the Anchorage Daily News as a staff photographer. Alaska got too small, so he left to explore the world. Since I replaced him as a staff photographer, I never worked with Paul, but have gotten to know his Daily News work well, and have followed his career with great interest. Among Paul's passions is photographing icebergs. Some of his ice work was recently featured in the Daily Mail. This collection is just a fraction of what you can see at his website.Trapped air bubbles in iceberg in Fjords Terror Wilderness, Alaska.