The aide, Frank Bailey, quoted the ex-governor’s emails liberally in his 2011 book, “Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin,” which chronicled how he grew disenchanted with a rising political star he once admired.

Bailey ran afoul of Alaska’s administrative ethics law by using emails that concerned the appointment of a state attorney general, according to the settlement signed last week and released by the Department of Law on Tuesday.

Those emails were confidential and should not have been used in the book or shared with Bailey’s co-authors, the agreement states.

An attorney for Bailey could not immediately be reached for comment.

The accord grew out of a complaint filed by an Anchorage Republican activist credited with discovering Palin’s habit of using a private email account for state business.

The activist, Andree McLeod, has long sought public release of emails exchanged between Palin’s private accounts and any official state accounts. News organizations have also tried to obtain them.

McLeod, who accused Bailey of illegally profiting from his access to state information, said she was not satisfied with the fine assessed against the former Palin aide.

“This fine is a drop in the bucket. I think he needs to turn over all the profits he made from the book, and his co-authors, too,” she said on Wednesday.

Bailey’s co-authors are Jeanne Devon, who operates an Alaska political website called The Mudflats, and writer Ken Morris.

McLeod said she believes that all the emails acquired by Bailey and used as material for his book should now be publicly released.

The administration of Gov. Sean Parnell, Palin’s successor, in June released over 24,000 pages of emails, covering the period from when Palin took office in December of 2006 through the end of September 2008. The Parnell administration has not yet released emails from Palin’s last 10 months in office.

The remaining emails were to have been released on Monday, according to a directive issued in January by Alaska’s then-attorney general, John Burns.

Officials from the Parnell administration were not immediately available to comment on the remaining emails.

Bailey was a top aide in Palin’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign and served as Palin’s director of boards and commissions while she was governor.

The book details charges that Palin and her husband sought to punish a state trooper who was once married to her sister. It also looks at charges that she knowingly broke Alaska state campaign-finance law during her 2006 gubernatorial bid.

Palin has denied attempting to use her office to punish the trooper or breaking the campaign-finance laws.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Paul Thomasch)

Preliminary tests of tissue samples from animals that fell victim to the lesion-causing disease found that radiation levels were normal and within “the typical background range for Alaska,” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.

More than 60 dead and 75 sickened seals, most of them ringed seals, were found on the northern and western coasts of Alaska last summer and fall. Some walruses were also afflicted by the disease, with a smaller number found dead.

The affected animals have bleeding lesions on their flippers and other body parts, patchy loss of hair, labored breathing and lethargy, according to NOAA, which in December declared the problem an “unusual mortality event.”

The findings that appear to clear the Fukushima plant of blame are only preliminary, Juneau-based NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said, and more analysis will be conducted. Tests on healthy animals also found normal levels of radiation.

“Part of the reason it doesn’t rule it out is we need to do more in-depth tests for Cesium 137 and Cesium 134,” Speegle said.

An international team of scientists continues to investigate the outbreak, she said. Among possible causes being investigated are viruses, bacteria, biotoxins, or chemicals, she said.

There may be “something in the environment that’s messing up the animals’ immune systems,” she said.

No sickened seals have been reported recently to NOAA, Speegle said. “We’ve had reports from hunters of healthy animals,” she said. “We’re hoping spring doesn’t bring a new outbreak.”

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Johnston)

German Iditarod racer Silvia Furtwangler was reunited with her dog, Whistler on Monday, an Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race spokeswoman said.

“She (Furtwangler) was just so ecstatic,” said Erin McLarnon, communications director for the race organization.

Whistler, named after the Canadian ski resort, disappeared a week ago, apparently jumping out of a truck headed north out of Anchorage, McLarnon said.

The truck had sled-dog carriers with enclosures for the dogs built into campers and screened windows on the enclosures, she said.

The musher and her 16 Iditarod dogs had just made the long plane journey from Norway, where they live and train, when the mishap occurred, McLarnon said.

Furtwangler did not realize that Whistler was missing until the truck was about 40 miles north of Anchorage, she said.

“The dog had somehow removed that screen and escaped in Anchorage,” McLarnon said. “When they pulled into Wasilla to buy groceries, she noticed that the screen was gone and the dog was gone.”

Hundreds of Anchorage residents helped search for Whistler, whose disappearance was featured on local TV newscasts, focusing on a snowy greenbelt in the center of the city. The search also inspired a Facebook page, “Help Find Whistler The Dog.”

Ultimately, several individuals who work near the greenbelt lured Whistler in with offerings of roast beef, chicken enchiladas and a brownie, according to an account in the Anchorage Daily Mews.

Furtwangler could have run the Iditarod, the world’s most prestigious dog sled race which begins on March 3 in Anchorage, without Whistler, McLarnon said, but the German musher apparently did not want to do so, she said.

“The first thing in her mind was to get her dog back,” she said.

The lead dog of a sled plays an important role in guiding the team in the race.

Furtwangler, 50, is racing in her first Iditarod this year. She has experience in other long-distance races, and in 2003 was the first German woman to finish the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International, according to her website.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

Authorities said it was unknown how long the Seward Highway would remain closed, essentially cutting off travel between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula cities of Seward and Homer.

There were no reports of injuries following the 100-foot-wide avalanche, which swept down one day after a separate snow slide briefly closed the highway in the southern outskirts of Anchorage.

Rapidly warming temperatures, high winds and new snow and rain have created dangerous avalanche conditions throughout the region’s Chugach Mountains, which are already loaded with near-record amounts of snow.

“We consider the risk level at `considerable’ at this point in time,” said Rick Feller, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

That designation means small to moderate avalanches are likely, Feller said.

The department has advised motorists to avoid travel along the route, the mountain-lined Seward Highway, if possible.

“If you don’t have to drive the Seward Highway corridor at this point in time, if you can postpone the trip, it would be advisable to do so,” Feller said.

Backcountry travelers were also warned by managers of the Chugach National Forest that there are high to considerable risks of avalanches in the mountains south of Anchorage.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb)

The ambling animals are then being killed in increasing numbers in high-speed rail and road collisions, state and local officials said.

In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage, 315 moose have been killed in vehicle collisions so far this winter, said Tim Peltier, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The average is roughly 270 for the winter, he said.

The state-owned Alaska Railroad faces similar problems, with 131 moose killed so far this winter by trains, railroad spokesman Tim Sullivan said. That number is already higher than a yearly average of about 100 for the past three years.

“The moose like the clear areas on the tracks. We do everything we can to keep them off the tracks, but sometimes it’s impossible,” he said.

The large number of collisions this winter prompted the Alaska Moose Federation, a non-profit group associated with sport hunters, to ask Governor Sean Parnell to declare an official emergency.

Such a declaration would it easier for the group to get permits to cut trees and otherwise clear paths for the moose to escape roadway dangers, said Gary Olson, executive director of the organization.

“We still have 10 weeks of winter,” Olson said. “The emergency request is to get all the agencies to the table to make sure the next 10 weeks are not as bad as it could be.”

The Alaska Railroad was already employing some precautions to avoid moose collisions, Sullivan said. In some areas, workers can use a special plow to clear an extra 25 feet on each side of the tracks, giving the animals room to escape oncoming trains.

The railroad has also plowed about 50 miles of trail for moose to use to lead them away from the tracks, he said. Hitting a moose is traumatic for railroad employees as well as deadly for the animals, Sullivan said.

“Nobody likes it. Nobody gets used to hitting a moose on the tracks,” he said.

In Anchorage, total moose fatalities from vehicle collisions were not yet available, said Jessy Coltrane, a regional Fish and Game biologist. But she believed the tally for Alaska’s largest city will be significantly higher than the annual average of 155, she said.

“There are a lot of moose in town,” she said. “Most of the moose have come in from the mountains because the snow is so deep.”

Anchorage has received 91.8 inches of snowfall so far this winter, said John Stepetin, a specialist at the National Weather Service, far more than the average of 74.5 inches recorded for entire winters in the past.

Moose killed by trains are generally processed at a minimum-security prison, where inmates are getting food-industry and farm-related job training, with the meat given to a food bank. In other cases, charities and churches send representatives to haul away corpses and salvage the meat.

(Editing by Mary Slosson and Cynthia Johnston)

Shawn Christy, 20, and his father Craig Christy, 48, each pleaded guilty during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Anchorage on Monday to a single count of making harassing interstate telephone calls, according to the court documents.

The Christys’ guilty pleas came after an agreement with prosecutors that would have called for each to serve five years’ probation rather than prison time was rejected U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess in December.

In rejecting that plea deal, Burgess said, he was concerned that the Christys seemed “undeterred” in their behavior.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Retta-Rae Randall said on Tuesday she would seek the same sentence as that proposed in the plea deal. But she said the judge will have the opportunity to impose his own sentence.

The maximum penalty for the felony of making harassing interstate telephone calls is two years in prison, Randall said.

According to court documents, prosecutors said the two made near-continuous and threatening calls to Palin attorney John Tiemessen, his law-firm colleagues and their family members

At the time they made their hundreds of phone calls to Tiemessen and his associates in August, the Christys were subjects of restraining orders that prohibited them from contacting Palin or her family members.

Tiemessen had represented Palin in those proceedings. Those protective orders were renewed in October.

Burgess has set a February 22 sentencing date. But in a motion filed Tuesday, the defendants asked for sentencing to be imposed during the week before then.

Shawn and Craig Christy have been held in jail since August, when they were arrested in Pennsylvania and then transferred to Anchorage.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

Kip Lynch, 22, was found guilty last summer of first degree murder in the April 2010 shooting death of his 19-year-old wife Racquell and second-degree murder of their 8-month old baby, Kyirsta.

Lynch shot his wife numerous times in the back, head and neck while she was holding their infant daughter, according to police reports.

The bullets passed through her body, killing both mother and child, according to police reports. Lynch then turned the gun on himself in an apparent suicide attempt, but survived.

The bodies of his wife and baby remained in the family’s Anchorage apartment for a weekend before they were discovered.

Lynch was found in critical condition but recovered.

At the two-day sentencing hearing at a state superior court, Lynch’s public defender said the former soldier had served valiantly in combat but struggled with post traumatic stress upon returning home.

Lynch was stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage at the time of the incident, which occurred just two months after he returned from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan.

Judge Michael Spaan, who imposed the sentence, concluded that Lynch’s combat experience affected the former military policeman’s actions.

“I believe that Mr. Lynch’s service in Afghanistan was a factor,” Spaan said.

But Spaan said it was unclear whether the shooting was a direct result of war-related mental problems.

“I don’t even know if you had post traumatic stress, if you’re still suffering from it, and what impact this might have in 20 years. The science is not exact enough to answer these questions,” the judge told Lynch at sentencing.

The mother of Racquell Lynch testified by telephone at the hearing, asking for a harsh sentence.

“I accept full responsibility for what happened to my wife and daughter,” Lynch said in court, reading from a statement of apology. “They will forever be in my heart.”

The maximum penalty that could have been imposed on Lynch was 198 years, 99 years for each murder, under Alaska law.

(Editing by Mary Slosson and Peter Bohan)

Alaskans contracted the Renda, a 370-foot ice-class tanker owned by the Russian company RIMSCO, after a missed autumn fuel delivery left Nome short on fuel in the dead of winter, when the port freezes over.

The Russian vessel and its U.S. Coast Guard escort, the icebreaking cutter Healy, were expected to depart Nome on Friday, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

“They are done offloading,” Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said. “The anticipated departure is scheduled for tomorrow.”

It will be up to the ships’ captains to determine when to disembark, a task that involves breaking the Renda out of ice that has enclosed the tanker during the fuel transfer at Nome’s harbor, Mosley said.

Once free of the frozen port, the Healy will lead the Renda through some 360 miles of sea ice to the open waters of the Bering Sea, the Coast Guard said.

The Nome area, home to less than 10,000 people, is about 200 miles from the nearest point in Russia.

The shipment, which took about a month to reach Nome, marked the first winter marine delivery of fuel to northwestern Alaska, according to the Coast Guard and state officials.

Nome, like most communities in rural Alaska, has no outside road access. The region normally gets fuel and other cargo shipped by barge during the open-water seasons of summer and fall.

The Russian vessel was chartered to deliver 1.3 million gallons of diesel and gasoline to the Bering Sea city to make up for a missed autumn fuel delivery.

Cancellation of that fall barge shipment, blamed on bad weather, put the city in danger of running out of fuel in late winter or paying extremely high prices for fuel that would otherwise have to be flown in, state officials said.

Governor Sean Parnell deemed the mission a success.

“The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy performed capably and with great skill under extreme conditions,” Parnell said in a statement.

“Thanks to the Coast Guard, residents in Nome will avoid facing a fuel shortage that would have resulted in financial hardship for many families and businesses,” he said.

Critics questioned whether the overall cost of the Renda mission, including the use of Coast Guard resources, outweighed the savings of avoiding airborne shipments used to reach other remote Alaska villages.

Some Alaska officials said the Renda fuel delivery and the Healy’s escort role highlighted the need for the Coast Guard to improve its Arctic icebreaking capacity and participation in increased shipping in the region.

The Renda began its mission from Vladivostok, Russia, and stopped in South Korea to pick up diesel fuel, then joined the Healy at the Aleutian Island port of Dutch Harbor, where it was loaded with gasoline cargo for the final leg of the voyage to Nome.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Daniel Trotta)

The Renda, a 370-foot ice-class tanker sent to Nome from its home port in Vladivostok, has already pumped its gasoline cargo to shore and is now finishing the delivery of diesel, said Jason Evans, board chairman of the Sitnasuak Native Corp., the company that arranged for the unusual icebreaking mission.

The Renda, escorted by a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, is making the first-ever winter marine delivery of fuel to northwestern Alaska.

Fuel is typically barged in to Nome, which lacks outside road access, during summer and fall. The last scheduled delivery was canceled after one of the worst storms to hit the region in decades swept the Bering Sea town of 3,600.

The missed barge shipment meant Nome could face sparse fuel supplies and, if fuel had to be flown into town, extremely high prices by late winter, Sitnasuak warned. Gasoline currently costs about $6 a gallon in Nome, Mayor Denise Michels said.

Michels said caution was more important that speedy fuel flow from the Renda, which arrived in town on Friday and began sending fuel to onshore storage tanks late Monday.

“We’re not pushing. We want to make sure this transfer is done safely. If it takes another 24 hours, so be it,” she said.

By the time the fuel-laden Renda reached Nome on Friday, Evans said, Sitnasuak subsidiary Bonanza Fuel had run out of diesel and was buying supplies from Nome’s only other distributor. The company was two weeks from running out of gasoline, he said.

A prolonged cold snap, with temperatures as low as minus-40 degrees, had also pressured local supplies.

Thanks to the Renda and its Coast Guard escort, the Healy, there are now likely sufficient fuel stockpiles to last until the next barges are able to arrive in June, Evans said.

The Renda mission has drawn criticism, with some suggesting it wasted Coast Guard resources. Critics say Nome had the alternative of flying in fuel, which suppliers in some remote Alaska villages are already doing in the face of harsh weather and prices nearing $10 a gallon.

Some Alaska officials say the Renda fuel delivery and the Healy’s escort role highlights the need for the United States to improve its Arctic icebreaking capacity and participation in Arctic shipping.

Michels, who has long campaigned for more Coast Guard presence in Nome, said Bering Strait-area shipping has boomed and needs better controls.

In 1990, there were only 30 marine dockings in Nome, but in the past three years that number has been about 300 annually, she said.

Vessels are traveling the region for a variety of purposes, including oil exploration, commercial fishing, scientific research and tourism, she said.

“Every year, there are increases in transit, either on the U.S. side or the Russian side,” Michels said.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Dan Burns)

The Russian tanker Renda was dispatched to Nome with a Coast Guard icebreaker escort after the town’s last scheduled barge delivery of fuel was cancelled in the fall when one of the worst storms in decades swept the northwest coastal town.

The fuel delivery is the first ever made by marine vessel to northwestern Alaska in winter, when the ocean and rivers in the region are choked with ice, Coast Guard officials said.

Emergency deliveries by air, an expensive undertaking, would have been needed if the Renda had failed to get to Nome, a town with a population of about 3,600 residents over 500 miles northwest of Anchorage.

The Renda arrived off the coast of Nome on Friday, but officials said at the time they wanted to position the ship and make all necessary arrangements to ensure a safe delivery of fuel without any spills.

Workers on the tanker and on shore began transferring the fuel late on Monday. By Tuesday morning, about 365,000 gallons of the 1.3 million gallon fuel cargo had been delivered to storage tanks on shore through hoses laid over half a mile of ice, Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow said.

The transfer process was expected to take two to three days.

“We want to make sure this transfer is done correctly,” Wadlow told Reuters by phone from Nome.

COORDINATION REQUIRED

The fuel distributor, a subsidiary of the Nome-based Sitnasuak Native Corp., arranged for the Russian tanker to deliver the fuel.

The Renda’s voyage required coordination by a variety of agencies, chiefly the Coast Guard, which sent its only functioning icebreaker to escort the Russian ship. The Renda got an exemption last month from U.S. maritime law for the journey.

The icebreaking cutter, the Healy, and the Renda had crunched through hundreds of miles of sea ice before reaching the waters off Nome. The Renda is capable of breaking through ice, but the Healy is a more powerful cutter, the Coast Guard said.

It was unclear when the Renda and the Seattle-based Healy would be able to return to their home ports, Wadlow said.

“That’s still a bit up in the air,” he said.

To escort the Renda, the Healy extended its normal tour of duty by about a month. The Coast Guard cutter had been sailing south from the Arctic, where it spent much of the year assisting in research projects, when it received the call in December to help with the fuel delivery.

For the Coast Guard, Wadlow said, the mission has helped expand understanding of sea ice and the Healy’s capabilities.

“It’s been a great learning opportunity,” he said. “We’ve made the contacts so that if something should happen in the future, we know to we need to call.”

The Nome mission demonstrates the need for the Coast Guard to acquire new polar-class icebreakers, Alaska Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell said over the weekend.

“We have more than half the nation’s coastline, and we want a Coast Guard which has all weather, all-hazards capability,” Treadwell told a Sunday news conference in Nome.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston)