You Know It's Been Cold

when 4 above feels warm. At this point, it's 10 degrees warmer than the same time yesterday. The weather guess is that we'll be back to normal (highs in the mid-20s) by the weekend, with snow. That'll be nice, too.

But we have to get there, first. AccuHunch says we'll hit 10 below, tonight.

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Buddy-Can-You-Spare-a-Dime Dept: The Anchorage Assembly is debating next year's budget, and the ongoing spat is over which parts of the budget to cut. Isn't that refreshing? An elected body trying to live within its means.

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All's-Well-That-Ends-Well Dept: Charges against a Wasilla man for shooting a sow and three 200 lb. cubs have been dismissed. An excerpt from the Daily News article:

Here's the short version: Tanner shot a sow and her three male cubs in the space of a few minutes around 4 a.m. July 6. He said the cubs -- actually more like teenaged bears weighing around 200 pounds a piece -- were about to bust into his cabin. He feared for his safety.

As far as Tanner was concerned, he shot the young bears legally, in "defense of life and property," as provided by Alaska law.

His knees were literally shaking, he said. He had nightmares afterward, dreams about the cabin and "a bloody mess, and I don't know who wins."

Several other Su Valley residents reported encounters with an unusually aggressive sow and three cubs that weekend. Two of the young bears had buckshot in them, as if somebody else needed to scare them off. All told, biologists tallied 13 bears killed in defense of life and property that weekend in the Mat-Su.

I told you last year was bad regarding bears. There were three maulings in Anchorage city parks, too.

Click on the link to read the rest.

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And finally, here's a new moose photo, from today's Daily News. This was taken in mid-town, yesterday.