Insufferable human tragedy, continuous shake-ups in the governor's administration, the ongoing natural gas pipeline negotiations, the loss of a beloved former governor and Alaska's role on the national stage shaped the state's top news in 2005.

One of Alaska's leading stories from last year happened nearly 4,000 miles away, in the Virginia wilderness, where four Alaska Scout leaders were killed in an accident at the national Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia.

The Scout leaders were electrocuted July 25 in front of several Scouts after they lost control of a metal pole at the center of a large dining tent, sending it toppling into nearby power lines.

Killed were Anchorage's Michael J. Shibe, 49, a foreman at Alaska Communications Systems; Mike LaCroix, 42, the general manager of VendAlaska; and Ronald H. Bitzer, 58, a retired lawyer and administrative judge. Also killed was Scott Edward Powell, 57, a professional Scout leader who left Alaska for Ohio in 2004.

Former Attorney General Gregg Renkes and Edgar Blatchford, the former commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, resigned under pressure from ethical allegations. Former Health Commissioner Joel Gilbertson left for a job in the private sector, as did former Administration Commissioner Ray Matiashowski.

Renkes, appointed in 2002, resigned in February after four months of battling allegations of ethics violations for his role in a trade agreement between Alaska and Taiwan.

Renkes helped shape the agreement to export Beluga coal to Taiwan. The deal mentioned the use of coal-drying technology patented by Denver-based KFx Inc., a company in which Renkes owned stock valued at more than $126,000 at its peak.

An outside investigator concluded the amount of stock Renkes owned was not enough to be considered legally significant. Renkes said he resigned to distance his family from continued personal attacks over the deal.

The latest Cabinet member to leave was former Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin, who was dismissed this fall after questioning the state's negotiations with oil producers on the natural gas pipeline. Six of his top deputies resigned in protest.

Irwin wrote the now famous memo concerning Murkowski's secret negotiations with Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil and BP for a $20 billion pipeline that would transport natural gas from the North Slope, through Canada to Midwestern markets.

Irwin said Alaska has a responsibility to provide a full disclosure and comparison of alternatives that allows the public to adequately evaluate any proposal.

So far, just one company, Conoco Phillips, has agreed to the state's base terms for a pipeline. Negotiations will continue this month. Even if all agree to the terms, the deal still needs legislative approval.

Backers of a trans-Alaska pipeline proposal filed an antitrust lawsuit against the two companies -- BP PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. -- that operate the largest gas fields on the North Slope.

The federal lawsuit by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority claims Exxon Mobil and BP are conspiring to crush competition and restrict the nation's supply of natural gas.

The state purchased a $2.7 million jet to shuttle Murkowski when it's not being used by the Department of Public Safety. Critics scorned the purchase, calling it an unneeded luxury item for Murkowski. The governor's office has said a jet is safer because it flies higher and faster.

Murkowski enters 2006 without saying whether he will seek a second term in November. And in a December poll by the national firm SurveyUSA, Murkowski has the second-lowest approval ratings among the country's 50 governors, ahead only of Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio.

Jay Hammond, a rugged bush pilot and hunting guide who served two terms as Alaska's governor, died of natural causes Aug. 2 at his Lake Clark home at 83.

Hammond, a Republican and a conservationist in a pro-development state, oversaw the first flow of oil through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline in 1977 and was a major advocate of creating the Alaska Permanent Fund as a savings account for the state's oil wealth.

For several years after leaving office, he was host of a popular television program, "Jay Hammond's Alaska." He stayed in touch with developments around the state and rarely hesitated to weigh in on issues in the news.

Norman Vaughan, a dog handler and driver in Adm. Richard Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole, died Dec. 23, a few days after turning 100 years old.

For instance, everything was going along fine for two Alaska bridges. Until Hurricane Katrina. Then they became controversial across the nation.

After the destruction in Louisiana and Mississippi, the two bridges -- the $223 million Gravina Island access project, dubbed by some as "the Bridge to Nowhere," and the $229 million Knik Arm crossing in Anchorage -- became symbols of congressional pork. Critics said that money should instead be sent to help rebuild the hurricane-ravaged gulf.

Congress backstepped -- a bit. Congress will still send the money to Alaska, but removed the stipulations that it be used for the bridges, leaving local lawmakers to make the decision whether they get built.

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, 82, the Senate's most senior member, again fought unsuccessfully to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The Alaska Republican had hoped to garner enough votes to overcome a threatened filibuster by attaching the measure to the defense bill that included tens of billions of dollars for troops in Iraq and for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but lost the battle.

"My reaction when I hear that is that I feel the opposite is really true," Kettler told The Associated Press. Those who work or volunteer in the diocese "come with a commitment wanting to serve the peoples of Alaska. They were not forced to come here."

More than 90 claims of child sexual abuse have been made against priests serving in remote Alaska villages or volunteers of the Fairbanks diocese in the past three years.

In a full-page advertisement in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in November, Kettler offered to bring healing to those harmed by child sexual abuse and to update the diocese efforts to prevent abuse from happening again.

Alaska -- one of the first states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage -- also had a landmark state Supreme Court decision that supporters say could lead to sweeping changes across the country because of its equal protection rationale.

The state high court ruled in October that it was unconstitutional to deny benefits to same-sex partners of public employees. The court ruled gay couples were not the same class as unmarried heterosexual couples who also don't get benefits. The court said that unlike heterosexual couples, who can legally marry, gay couples do not have that same option.

A tiny village at the edge of the Bering Sea turned out to supply the missing link in a groundbreaking study of the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions around the world. Scientists visited the isolated Inupiat Eskimo village of Brevig Mission in December to thank residents for allowing a mass grave of flu victims to be excavated. The 1918 pandemic claimed 72 of the 80 villagers in a span of five days.

Among the visitors were retired pathologist Johan Hultin, who exhumed village flu victims in 1951 and 1997, and Jeffery Taubenberger, a pathologist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Taubenberger was one of the researchers who helped reconstruct the 1918 flu virus earlier last year. Scientists say the tissue samples collected by Hultin from the Brevig Mission grave in 1997 provided gene segments not found in an earlier study by Taubenberger on remains of World War I soldiers who died in the pandemic.

Norway's Robert Sorlie won his second Iditarod in one of the closest races in years. Sorlie completed the 1,100-mile race across Alaska in nine days, 18 hours, 39 minutes and 31 seconds. He was still in the winner's circle when Ed Iten of Kotzebue crossed the line 34 minutes later.

While that's not great news, it's better than what the Defense Department initially proposed: gutting Eielson and turning it into a training facility.

Four Base Realignment and Closure Commission commissioners in June toured Eielson, then conducted the nation's first regional hearing on the proposals, where they heard from about 3,000 residents who wanted to keep the base open.

In addition, the Air Force facility at Galena, a village on the Yukon River 270 miles west of Fairbanks, will be closed. The Air Force has no personnel there.

And at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, 42 of the 60 F-15 fighters will move out of state but up to 48 new FA-22 fighters and eight C-17 transport jets will be sent to the base.

The Base Realignment and Closure committee also voted to relocate Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage across town to Elmendorf, but only if the move receives enough federal funding.

Former Nome police officer Matthew Owens was convicted in his second trial for first-degree murder in the 2003 death of 19-year-old Sonja Ivanoff.

Authorities alleged Owens, 30, used his position of power as an officer to lure the young woman into his cruiser and then shoot her in the head on the outskirts of town.

The most contentious bill in last year's legislative session switched the state's pension retirement systems to privatized 401(k)-type accounts for teachers and state employees hired after July 1, 2006. The bill does not affect the retirement or benefits of existing employees.

Murkowski said the overhaul of the public employee and teacher retirement systems was to help stop the growth of a $5.7 billion to $6.2 billion shortfall in the $16.4 billion system.

The shortfall is largely due to fluctuations in the stock market, rising health care costs, more people retiring earlier and living longer, and missed estimates on investment returns.

Opponents argued that the move to the defined contribution plan does not address the shortfall and will make it harder to attract and retain public employees and teachers. They say the new plan puts too much risk on the workers.

Also creating debate was the new workers' compensation bill. Several legislators and union lobbyists fought hard against the changes, protesting provisions to create a governor-appointed appeals commission and to pay only claims in which a work-related accident was the "substantial cause" of an injury.

BILL ROTH / Daily News archive 2005 Robert Sorlie waved a Norwegian flag given to him on Front Street in Nome as he came up the finish chute to capture his second Iditarod. DAVID J. SHEAKLEY / Associated Press archive 2005 Attorney General Gregg Renkes, center, and Edgar Blatchford, left, commissioner of the Department of Community and Economic Development, resigned under pressure from ethics allegations in 2005. Gov. Frank Murkowski, right, answered questions at a news conference in January. Associated Press archive 2005 Former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond, seen here talking with former President Jimmy Carter in July in Anchorage, died Aug. 2. DEANNA COOPER / Kodiak Daily Mirror via Associated Press archive 2002 The crab boat Big Valley sank in January about 70 miles west of St. Paul Island about 275 miles northwest of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands. Five men on board the 92-foot boat died.

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