The Weekend Off – News You Missed

Alaska

Fairbanks Newsminer – Alaska governor issues order to halt 6 megaprojects

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has ordered a halt to all non-obligated state spending on six major projects: Ambler Road, Juneau Access Road, Susitna-Watana Dam, Kodiak Launch Complex, Knik Arm Crossing and Alaska Stand-Alone Pipeline Project.

ADN – Video: Anchorage chef strives to be an example for the disenfranchised

Aaron Dollison, 49, grew up in Anchorage and learned to cook from his mother. He went on to cook at Susitna Foods & Spirits and Denny’s, but he learned how to cook in bulk in prison.

Juneau Empire – Hunters find giant spruce burl; burls’ cause a mystery

While hunting in the Douglas woods last week, Bryce Iverson and Matt Kern found a spruce tree growing the largest tree burl they — or anyone they talked to — had ever seen. While fungi can be the cause for burls on some tree species, no one knows what causes burls on Sitka spruce trees, said Forest Service research forest pathologist Paul Hennon.

National

Al Jazeera America- Mexican drug cartels are worse than ISIL (from October – but a MUST read)

The horrific rampage of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has captured the world’s attention. Many Western commentators have characterized ISIL’s crimes as unique, no longer practiced anywhere else in the civilized world. They argue that the group’s barbarism is intrinsically Islamic, a product of the aggressive and archaic worldview that dominates the Muslim world. The ignorance of these claims is stunning.

News.Vice.com – Hundreds of Cops Turn Their Backs on New York Mayor During Slain Officer’s Funeral

An emotional funeral service for one of the two New York police officers gunned down in an attack last week took a divisive turn when several hundred cops turned their backs on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio while he spoke during the event.

LATimes.com – Federal judge puts gray wolf back on endangered species list 

A judge restored federal protections to gray wolves in the the western Great Lakes region on Friday, reversing an earlier decision by the federal government to remove the animals from the endangered species list.

International

LATimes.com – Tsunami’s aftereffects take toll on Indonesian children

There was something about the schoolgirl’s face — her broad forehead, a familiar bump on the bridge of her nose.  Zainuddin went back home and pulled out an old photo of his niece. His heart racing, the 50-year-old called his sister. “I found your daughter,” he told her.

 The Guardian – Ukraine army swaps hundreds of captives with rebel forces

Ukrainian authorities and separatists exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Friday, a spokesman for President Petro Poroshenko said, part of a 12-point plan aimed at ending the pro-Russian uprising in the east of the country.

BBC.com – Picture power: Abandoned on the border

The uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began three years ago. Since then more than 3.2 million people are thought to have fled the country, with another 7.6 million internally displaced. The figures are staggering, as are the pictures of the front-line fighting and the lines of refugees making their way across the border.

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