The Week Ahead: Obama Releases Budget. President Obama will release his 2013 budget proposal on Monday, setting the stage for the next round of spending battles. Several members of the administration will travel to Capitol Hill to testify about the proposal - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither alone is testifying before four different committees this week. The Hill 

The president's FY 2013 budget can be found here. 

The Week at a Glance: Feb. 13-17, 2012. President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget proposals, to be released Monday morning, dominate this week's Hill schedule. The competing surface transportation authorization measures are also on the congressional agenda, with both the House and the Senate set to take up their respective bills this week. Congressional Quarterly

Legislators Head to DC on Trip to Promote ANWR Drilling: DRILLING: Senate panel faces oil tax; cellphone use at issue. A major focus of the Legislature this week will be energy as five state House members travel to Washington, D.C., to urge drilling expansions, while state senators back home discuss oil taxes. A bill co-sponsored by Congressman Don Young, R-Alaska, that would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, touted as a way to spur domestic energy production and create jobs, is pending in the U.S. House. Republican Reps. Anna Fairclough, Dan Saddler, Lance Pruitt and Mike Chenault and Democratic Rep. Reggie Joule, who caucuses with the House's Republican majority, are adding their voices to those of Alaska's congressional delegation and governor in seeking action. Anchorage Daily News 

Alaska Glaciers Losing 46 Billion Tons of Ice Each Year. Alaska glaciers have been shedding about 46 billion tons of ice each year, making America's Arctic state the world's single biggest contributor to glacier-fed sea level rise outside of Greenland or Antarctica, say new estimates. Still, Alaska remains a wee player in the global ice frappe, producing only about 8.5 percent of the world's annual glacier shrinkage of 526 billion tons, according to the study, led by a team at the University of Colorado Boulder. Alaska Dispatch  

Begich Keeps Tabs on Arctic Development. Two high-ranking federal officials briefed Senator Mark Begich yesterday on their agency plans and process for Shell's exploration drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas this summer. Rear Admiral Thomas P. Ostebo, Commander of the US Coast Guard's 17th District (AK), presented the Coast Guard's action plan for response to any emergencies created by this summer's drilling operations or the ever-increasing amount of international shipping traffic through the Bering Strait and off Alaska's North Slope. James Watson, Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, part of the former Minerals Management Service, discussed the final steps for approval of Shell's oil spill prevention and response plans and equipment. Senator Mark Begich  

In Canada's Arctic, Nunavut Communities Shrinking. Though Nunavut, a territory in Canada's eastern Arctic, is growing faster than most other parts of the country, at a rate of 8 percent between 2006 and 2011 according to census numbers released Wednesday, not all of its communities are growing. Resolute, Chesterfield Inlet, Igloolik, Rankin Inlet, Grise Fiord and Hall Beach all have fewer residents now than five years ago. The population of Hall Beach is decreasing faster than anywhere else in Nunavut. More than 100 people left that community in the past five years, for a decrease of 16 per cent since 2006. Alaska Dispatch

US Uses Russian Icebreaker to Get Fuel Supplies to Antarctica. The U.S. is relying on a Russian icebreaker to deliver supplies to its main base in Antarctica thanks to continued problems with its own shrinking fleet of the cold-water vessels. Late last month, the Russian icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk cut a channel through Antarctic sea ice so that a Military Sealift Command tanker - the Maersk Peary - could deliver millions of gallons of fuel to McMurdo Station. A second MSC ship, the Green Wave, also is bound for McMurdo and will need the Russian icebreaker's help to deliver supplies and equipment that will sustain the station through the harsh Antarctic winter. Stars and Stripes 

As Arctic Opens Up, Coast Guard Academy Ready to Respond. With large-scale drilling in the Arctic planned for this summer, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy wants to give Coast Guard leaders the information they need to supervise the drilling and plan for more activity in the region in the coming years. The academy and the University of California's Berkeley School of Law are sponsoring a two-day conference in April on "Leadership for the Arctic." It will bring maritime safety, marine science and international law experts from around the world together at the academy to talk about the issues facing global leaders as oil companies and tourists head to the Arctic. The Day 

[Canada] Who Would be the First Arctic Responders? Southern Canadians too often assume the military are the only ones doing search and rescue in the Arctic, says Jack Kruger, an RCMP Search and Rescue coordinator based in Hay River, on the south side of the Great Slave Lake in NWT. He just came out of the bush Friday after spending three weeks training young RCMP constables to be prepared in the north. The do 80 to 100 searches every year for hunters and other lost on land or in the ocean, and that rarely get recognized, he said Saturday, trying to clear up my misconceptions about the north. Edmonton Journal

Canada Not Taking Russia Seriously. Canada and Russia this year will mark 70 years of their bilateral relationship. It has been an eventful history, forged in the days of wartime co-operation with the former Soviet Union and witness to the often tumultuous political evolution of contemporary Russia. There have been ups and downs, from past episodic spying incidents to iconic hockey moments to fruitful scientific co-operation. Recent media reports linking the arrest of a Canadian naval officer to alleged Russian espionage activities reflect the latest bump on the road. This is what happens when the realities of the intelligence world ooze out of fissures in the usual secrecy. Appropriate action, of course, must always be taken in such circumstances, but, at the same time, strategic decisions about the value and course of the relationship between Canada and Russia must not be taken on the basis of such short-term irritants. Winnipeg Free Press