What Does Vitamin D do for Your Heart? Are You Getting Enough? To have a healthy heart, you know it's important to do things like exercise regularly, eat healthfully and not smoke. But what about take a vitamin? In recent years, research has found a possible link between certain cardiovascular problems and a lack of vitamin D. And guess who's at high risk for vitamin D? Winter-dwelling Alaskans. How does vitamin D affect your heart? Fairbanks Daily News-Miner  

 

Senate Tries Again to Move Anti-Violence Bill. The Senate took up the Violence Against Women Act Monday, seeking to remedy Congress' failure last year to extend and expand a law protecting women from domestic abuse while broadening its coverage to include Native Americans, gays and lesbians. Both the Democratic-led Senate and the GOP House attempted last year to pass the new version of the 1994 law which expired in 2011. But leaders of the two chambers were unable to span the partisan divide and reach a compromise. With Republican losses among women voters in the November election still a fresh memory, Senate advocates are hoping that it will be easier to find common ground with House Republicans. KWWL

 

Fran Ulmer, Chair, United States Arctic Research Commission [Interview]. Extensive research is being conducted in the Arctic, but there is still a lack of public understanding about its ecosystems and their rapidly changing conditions. Fran Ulmer sheds light on the Commission's key priorities for the development of more comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the Arctic's environment, human population, biodiversity and industries. Research Media LTD

 

Stanford Arctic Thawing Detection Tool. A Stanford geophysicist and his colleagues have developed a new system that should aid scientists trying to map the Arctic's thawing permafrost, where greenhouse gases are escaping into the atmosphere from deep beneath the frozen soil. Those gases speed the pace of global warming, and climate scientists working in the Arctic's icy ground need to understand their sources and how those sources are spreading as the world's climate changes. San Francisco Chronicle

 

As the Earth Warms, The Lure of The Arctic's Natural Resources Grows. For all the concern among scientists, environmentalists and others about how melting ice in the Arctic could wreak havoc on local ecosystems, the loudest message about climate change among politicians and energy industry officials who spoke at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso recently could be summed up as "Bring it on!" This optimistic, even celebratory, outlook on the expected impacts of global warming on the High North--which is warming faster than any place on Earth--runs counter to what most scientists and environmentalists say is unfolding there. But then again, under the thawing ice lies bounty that could fill mouths, and pockets, around the globe. Popular Science 

 

Chu is Stepping Down as Energy Secretary. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, the architect of the Obama administration drive to promote clean-energy technologies, said Friday that he will step down as Energy secretary. In a memo to Energy Department employees, Chu said he is returning to California and the academic life of teaching and research. He called the department secretary job the "greatest privilege of my life." Congressional Quarterly 

 

Energy is Focus in Legislature. Energy will get plenty of attention in Juneau as the Legislature begin its fourth week of the 28th session. Meetings on the Interior natural gas trucking plan and the Alaska Standalone Gas Pipeline will be held today in House Resources and Energy Committees as the state of the week of work on energy relief. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  

No-show Today: A White House Budget Request. Attention wonks: If something seems to be lacking from the start of your week, perhaps it's the fact that President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request is supposed to go to Capitol Hill today. Except, of course, that it's not and a delivery date could still be some time off. The annual request is due on Capitol Hill the first Monday in February. But because of the uncertainties that preceded passage of last month's "fiscal cliff" deal, the administration was "forced to delay some of its FY 2014 budget preparations, which in turn will delay the budget's submission to Congress," acting Office of Management and Budget chief Jeff Zients wrote in a Jan. 11 letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. While the White House is working to submit the request "as soon as possible," Zients said, he did not give a date. Federal Times

 

Appropriators Say Sequester Creates Hurdles in Writing New Spending Bills. Lawmakers hoping to write a bill to take the government beyond the current continuing resolution that expires March 27 say they can't even begin their work until Congress chooses how to act, or whether to act all, to avert the automatic spending cuts. That's because, they say, any deal on the sequester would almost certainly change the calculations for spending at a broad range of agencies, leaving budget experts no clear way to gauge how much money will be available across departments and programs. Congressional Quarterly

 

GOP Senator Unveils Energy Policy Blueprint. The top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unveiled a policy blueprint Monday intended to spur debate - and piecemeal legislation - to "reimagine" domestic energy laws and policies by 2020. The 115-page conversation starter by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska outlines ideas for moving the United States toward "energy independence" under seven categories: producing more, consuming less, clean-energy technology, grid and transmission improvements, regulatory changes, environmental stewardship and funding of energy technology advances. Congressional Quarterly 

Alaska Native Language Archive, February 22, 2013, Fairbanks. Please join ANLA and the Rasmuson Library for a Grand Opening Celebration to dedicate the new ANLA public service point on the second floor of the Rasmuson Library. The event will begin with an open house featuring collections in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, the Oral History Collection, and of course ANLA. This will be followed by a special panel session entitled Honoring Alaska's Native Languages: Past, Present, Future, reflecting on 50 years of Native language archiving at UAF.

  

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