newsminer.com

The Kodiak borough is not going to collect your taxes.

A mistake by an Anchorage printer resulted in about 250 Fairbanks taxpayers getting the wrong return envelopes this week with their tax bills.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough tax office asks that if you received one of these, don’t use the Kodiak borough return envelope. And don’t cross off the address and substitute the right one, because the envelope has a bar code that will direct it down south anyway.

Use a separate envelope and mail the check to: Fairbanks North Star Borough, Box 71320, Fairbanks, AK 99707.

The deadline for paying the first half of 2008 taxes is Sept. 2.

To those who might be tempted to use the Kodiak missives as a deadline dodge, the letters will be forwarded back to Fairbanks.

The postmark will determine if a payment is deemed timely.

•••

SCRAPING BY: The remnants of the latest Fox Icescraper have made it to July, but are melting fast.

A few snowballs worth of John Reeves’ latest ice tower remained Thursday off the Steese Highway.

I thought June was on the cool side, but the National Weather Service said the mean temperature for the month was 60.2 degrees at the airport, about a half-degree above normal.

It was the wettest June since 1994, with 2.08 inches of rain at the airport.

The isolated showers that are typical in Fairbanks meant that some areas received a good deal more rain. The rain totaled 2.96 inches at College Hills, off Ballaine Road, and 3.57 inches on Keystone Ridge off Murphy Dome Road.

•••

GLUTEN FREE: After reading the item here about a class in gluten-free cooking, Joni Ellsworth called to say that almost everything on the menu at Ivory Jack’s is available in a gluten-free version. About 50 customers who have to stay away from gluten for medical reasons are among those who frequent the restaurant.

•••

WORLD OF ART: The Well Street Art Co. is hosting “An Art Smackdown” with a First Friday opening this evening. The exhibition includes recent works by Denis Keogh, David Rosenthal and Todd Sherman.

As to the smackdown, I expect it will be a respectful exchange. Keogh and Rosenthal, painters from Cordova, are friends with Sherman, who is showing some of his animal paintings.

The opening is today from 5-8 p.m. at 1304 Well St.

•••

OFFICE SPACE: The state, local and national Democratic campaigns, including staff for Sen. Barack Obama, are setting up in a new Coordinated Campaign Headquarters at 3400 College Road.

Jake Hamburg, former president of the student body at UAF, has been hired to coordinate the office.

Obama is said to be considering a visit to Alaska late in the summer, and his campaign has taken the unusual step of running TV ads in Alaska.

The major presidential candidates usually pay no attention to Alaska, given the strong Republican showing in recent decades, but this year may be different.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, former presidential adviser Karl Rove said Obama “may be overreaching” by already running ads in eight states where the GOP has won big in the past. Alaska is one of the eight.

He added, however, that “big shifts do occur,” though not frequently. Democrats are hoping that the continuing corruption investigation and the problems the GOP is facing in Alaska and nationally are going to lead to a big shift in Alaska.

•••

BLAME GAME: Writing in Newsweek, columnist Robert Samuelson says the political impulse to blame speculators for high oil prices is misguided. He says the problem is supply, not the futures market.

“Government subsidies and preferences for corn-based ethanol have increased food prices by diverting more grain into biofuels. A third of the U.S. corn crop could go to ethanol this year. Restrictions on offshore oil exploration and in Alaska have reduced global oil production and put upward pressures on prices. If politicians wish to point fingers of blame for today’s situation, they should start with themselves,” he said.

•••

LIGHTEN UP: The head of HolidayLEDs, a Michigan light company, says the four cases of lights offered to the city total 3,360 lights, each of which consumes .06 watts.

•••

LOST AND FOUND: B.J. Lehmann called to say that if anyone finds a lost dog or cat with an ear tattoo during the holiday weekend, call her at 456-2988 and she will look up the number on her copy of the borough registry.