Students in the Palmer Junior Middle School leadership class are raising funds to travel this spring to Washington D.C. and New York City, where they plan to visit museums, tour the nation’s capital, learn how government works and take in a Broadway play.
According to Katie Halley, a student in the leadership class, 31 Palmer Junior Middle School eigth-graders with grade point averages of 3.5 or above who are members of National Junior Honor Society will be on the trip.
The group is taking part in Close Up, a national student education program run by a nonprofit organization. According to Halley, the school is the first middle school in the Valley to take part.

Former state Rep. Ralph Samuels, a Republican candidate for governor, will talk about why he’s running and his views on key policy issues Thursday.
Samuels is speaking at the Lincoln Luncheon, a noon event at Evangelo’s Restaurant on the Parks Highway in Wasilla. The event is sponsored by the Mat-Su Republican Women’s Club.
The luncheon is open to the public and free of charge. Attendees may order lunch from the menu.

Andrea Carney, a Wasilla teen who died in 2000, is being honored for her decision to become a tissue donor with her picture on a Donate Life America float in the 121st Tournament of Roses Parade Friday.

Alaskans who want to see the float will have to get up early; the parade is broadcast at 7 a.m. here. See it on KTUU, KIMO or on cable channels HGTV, The Travel Channel, the Hallmark Channel, Univision and Rural Free Delivery TV. The Donate Life America float, a giant flower-covered phoenix, is fourth in the parade lineup.

Michael French, state team leader of Life Alaska Donor Services, which coordinates organ and tissue donation in Alaska, said Carney is the second Alaskan to be honored on a Donate Life float. Palmer teen Sharday Badillo, who died in 2003 when she lost control of her truck and crashed, was honored on the float last year.

Lazy Mountain author Barbara Hunt is at Pandemonium Bookstore in Wasilla today and Fireside Books in Palmer Saturday to sign copies of her mystery, Alaska's HeavyLight.

Hunt used to pen the Mat-Su Mouth, an Ear-like column that ran in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Local politics and Valley characters are center stage when an outbreak happens that sheds new light on life in the Valley. Hunt says "Every word is fiction, kind of."

The signing at Pandemonium runs tonight until 8 p.m. Hunt will be at Fireside Books in Palmer from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

A story from Seattle-based KOMO News credits a Wasilla man with making a quick decision that may have saved the life of his son.

According to the story, 17-year-old Jimmy Rea of Wasilla had a terrible headache just before Thanksgiving. His dad, Ed Rea, rushed him to the hospital and told a nurse there that aneurysms run in his family. The Raes were flown first to Anchorage, then to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center for treatment. There, the story states, doctors removed an aneurysm the size of a lemon. According to online medical dictionaries, an aneurysm is a saclike widening of an artery typically due to a weak artery wall.

As part of our year-end roundup, reporters at the Daily News Mat-Su office want to know what stories our readers are curious about and what you think the biggest Valley stories of 2009 were.

Did a story appear this year that left you wondering what happened next? Perhaps a person was profiled who had plans to do great things and you want to know if their plans came to fruition?

Drop us a line at rwhite@adn.com or zhollander@adn.com describing the story or issue you want to know more about, or which stories stood out this year for you.

The Mat-Su Borough is dispensing H1N1 flu shots to the public at Menard Sports Center in Wasilla until 4 p.m. Thursday.

The shots are free. Anyone six months and older can receive the vaccine.

If Hatcher Pass is in your weekend plans, expect a little extra traffic and maybe a few blocked trails.

The Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, several search and rescue organizations and the Alaska State Troopers are taking part in a large training exercise Saturday and Sunday in Hatcher Pass. The training will be staged from the Independence Mine State Park parking area and will include avalanche skill stations in and around the parking lot on Saturday, and mock avalance scenarios in the surrounding mountains Sunday.

People using the area should be aware that snowmachines and two helicopters will be operating in the area on both days. The upper portion of Independence Mine parking lot will be closed to the public. Alaska Mountain Rescue Group has asked that people avoid flagged areas and slopes above where rescue personnel are training. Alaska State Troopers, in a press release, said motorists should travel slowly and with caution because traffic in the area may be congested.

It may be the only Mat-Su holiday event that pairs chainsaw demonstrations with free ice skating.
On Saturday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., the City of Wasilla and nonprofit North America Outdoor Institute will hold the first Wasilla Safe and Sound Christmas Fair at the Menard Sports Center.
The fair includes information on fire safety, snowmachine safety and avalanche awareness training through seminars, demonstrations, or hands-on training sessions. Participants can also sign up for future training programs or qualify to purchase a new Snell/DOT helmet for $25 to $45. Training programs will be presented by the Outdoor Institute and partner agencies, including Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services, MATSAR, FireWise, Salvation Army, American Red Cross, and H2O Guides.

Talkeetna Winterfest, a month-long celebration in the snow, kicks off this weekend.

Tomorrow will be the annual Wilderness Woman Contest, where women 21 and older dress in bunny boots and winter gear to carry water buckets in a 100-yard dash that includes a mock stream crossing. The women also provide a sandwich to a TV-watching guy (no extra points for neatness of the sandwich or a dainty delivery), gather firewood, catch a simulated salmon, shoot a fake ptarmigan and climb a tree to avoid a moose - which is then also shot. No real animals are injured, although the men in the moose costume give Oscar-worthy performances while pretending to die.

At its annual meeting last week, Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau distributed several awards and selected new board members.

Here are the awards:
Gold Star award, for a business that makes a significant contribution to the tourism industry: Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats
Tourism Angel award: Trisha Costello of Talkeetna Roadhouse for her work in the Susitna Valley
Northern Lights award, honoring a community or organization for tourism development: Alaska State Parks' Mat-Su office for its work on park improvments
Cheechako award, honoring a new business that has thrived: Alaska Ultra Sport

The Matanuska Glacier, Hatcher Pass and a few longtime Palmer residents are key figures in a New York Times article that for a while today had top billing at the Times' Web site and was high on the newspaper's "Most E-mailed" story list.
The story is part of the Times' American Journeys series, which has featured several small(ish) towns around the nation, such as Marietta, Ohio, where several political dignitaries have been born, and the Hanford nuclear reactor site in Washington.
The author, Diana Bletter, describes a moulin on Matanuska Glacier, recaps Palmer's Depression-era history, sips coffee at Fireside Books and spots dall sheep from Gold Cord Lake in Hatcher Pass.
Neither Wasilla nor its currently most-famous resident are mentioned.
Check the story out here.

Alaska Communications Systems has opened a new retail store in Wasilla --a more than 4,000-square-foot new building in front of Fred Meyer at 1733 E. Palmer-Wasilla Hwy. The company's old store, located at 1590 E. Financial Dr., closed last Friday. The new store opened Saturday, with more space and plenty of wireless handsets and other special offerings to check out, store director Janet Klatt said. ACS will hold a grand opening celebration Dec. 4.

Looking for an H1N1 shot for someone in a "high priority" group? There will be a vaccine clinic Thursday at Mat-Su College from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. The clinic is for priority groups: pregnant women; youth ages 6 months to 24 years; health care/medical workers; caregivers for children under six months; and people aged 25-64 with higher risk of complications from the flu, according to the Mat-Su Borough. The entrance to the college is located off Mile 2 Trunk Road. The clinic is a joint effort of the borough, the state Department of Health and Social Services and the college.

The Mat-Su Borough School District will hold a separate clinic for students Saturday from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Colony High School. The clinic last week provided a reported 1,200 vaccines, the borough said.

Annie Bill, principal at Larson Elementary School, called Friday to share the news that her school had won a pretty prestigious national award. Bill, who had just returned from Washington D.C. to pick up the honor in person, said Larson was recognized as a “No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.”

That’s a mouthful, but what it means is that Larson, because of high scores on national tests, was nominated as a “Blue Ribbon” school four years ago. But then the real work began, Bill said.

“We had to maintain and continue to do good in the three years since,” Bill said.

The Mat-Su Ski and Snowboard program, run through Wasilla Middle School, is lining up passengers for its 2010 season.

The bus carries children age 12 and older to and from Alyeska Resort for eight skiing days between January and April. Four 50-passenger buses will depart Wasilla and Palmer Carrs parking lots at 8 a.m. on two Saturdays each month. After a full day of skiing, the children return to the Valley at 6:45 p.m.

A place on the bus costs $375, which includes transportation, lift tickets for a full day’s skiing and two skiing or snowboarding lessons. Add $100 more for rental equipment. The price covers the cost of tickets, rentals and transportation.

Some kids in the Mat-Su will get free glow sticks at school on Friday, courtesy of Operation Glow, a partnership of law enforcement and other agencies to keep little ones safe as they make the rounds for candy in the dark. Operation Glow, Phase One, happens tonight: community volunteers will meet at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center to assemble lanyards and glow sticks. Phase Two: Wasilla's police department, along with departments in Palmer and Houston and the Alaska State Troopers, deliver the lanyards to area schools Wednesday and Thursday. Phase Three: students from kindergarten through fifth grade get the goods on Friday.

Today is the first day H1N1 vaccines are available at the Mat-Su Public Health Center on Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Center staff describe the flow of people as steady but say they're not swamped. The doses are in nasal spray, and specifically for healthy 2- through 18-year-olds. They are free today through Thursday, from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m., and Friday from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m., depending on how long vaccines remain available.
Parents should bring their children’s immunization record because children who got some shots recently may have to delay the H1N1 vaccine, including nasal seasonal influenza or other live vaccines. The number of doses is limited, but more will be arriving, health officials say. Children under 10 will need two doses, at least a month apart. The second dose can be either a shot or spray.

Mat-Su College is hosting two candidate forums this week. They're the last we know of scheduled prior to the Oct. 6 election.

The college is splitting the forums over two nights: Mat-Su Assembly candidates will be at the college from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in room 205 of the Fred and Sarah Machetanz building; Mat-Su School Board candidates will be there from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday in room 202.

The candidates will field questions compiled by Mat-Su College students, faculty, staff and campus visitors.

The Mat-Su Democrats are hosting a candidate forum for Mat-Su Mayor, Assembly and School Board races Friday. It starts at 6 p.m. at the Grand View Inn & Suites in Wasilla.

The races are nonpartisan, but partisan political groups aren't barred from hosting forums. Organizers said they forum is open to all candidates and anyone can attend. The buffet dinner costs $20.

Shannyn Moore, who writes the "Just a girl from Homer" blog and has a radio show on KBYR, is scheduled to speak at the forum before the candidate forum gets rolling.