By TOM KIZZIA, Anchorage Daily News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Can Sarah Palin go home again?In the 68 days since Alaska's governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?

HOMER, Alaska -- Like many Alaska Natives of her generation, Lena Andree, Todd Palin's 87-year-old Yup'ik grandmother, grew up living between two worlds. Her father was a Dutchman, Glass Eye Billy Bartman, a sled dog freighter in the Bristol Bay region and caretaker of the Alaska Packers saltry on the Igushik River.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska state Personnel Board investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan has broadened to include other ethics complaints against the governor and examination of actions by other state employees, according to the independent counsel handling the case.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- When Sen. John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center."I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's proposed Gravina Island Bridge.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sarah Palin was a hockey mom, small-town mayor and rising young Republican star in Alaska in 2003 when she ran afoul of her party's establishment over ethics reform and was cast into the political wilderness.

In the Alaska village of Shaktoolik, berms of driftwood above the beach used to provide protection from the sea. But these days the storm waves travel farther, pounding into the village itself, and the "Yukon logs" are tossed around like battering rams.

New data this winter on Arctic winds and currents indicate that next summer's ice loss at the North Pole may be even greater than 2007's record-setting shrinkage.

If U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dale Hall really thinks he can do nothing about greenhouse gases to save the polar bear, he'll be hearing soon from Kassie Siegel.

Alaska pumps as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as far more populous states such as Oregon and Connecticut, making it one of the top gas-emitting states per capita in the nation.