Alaska is a grand place. From its wildlife to its landscape, the length of its days to the reach of its tides, there is something special about Alaska. It's rewarding enough to explore with boots on the ground, but Alaska from above takes things to another level.

Denali National Park is an especially wonderful place to see from the air. In the summer it's only a short flight from Anchorage or Talkeetna, a quick jump over lush green forests before you reach the foothills of the Alaska Range. Pushing further into the massif reveals a landscape far bigger than it appears from afar.

North America's liquefied natural gas industry is gearing up to shift into reverse.

Normally a business in reverse connotes retreat and possibly doom. But LNG ports hope just the opposite will be true, that they will find their future and salvation.

A decade ago the industry was certain North America would be importing billions of cubic feet of gas a day to slake consumers' growing thirst for the fuel in an era of declining domestic production.

Right now as I write this I'm looking out the window. It's nighttime and pitch dark. A winter storm out of the Gulf of Alaska is battering my house; the wind making the eaves shake and groan. I can't see outside, but I can hear the spruce and hemlock trees out there getting thrashed, branches being warped and pointing the direction of the blow. The whooshing sound of the woods getting blasted is loud, making me alert to the conditions. I'm glad to be inside hunkering down.

The “lamestream media,” as Sarah Palin calls it, may have written her off now that the former vice presidential candidate and tea party favorite has lost her principal media voice as a well-paid commentator on Fox News.

But there’s no indication that Ms. Palin will go back to life in Alaska as the former mayor of a small town and then governor for two years, fishing and hunting with her family before Sen. John McCain picked her out of relative political obscurity to be his running mate in 2008.

Kivalina may have gotten an unconventional Christmas present this year, but a welcome one nonetheless.

In the midst of the holidays, six 275-gallon water tanks arrived in the northwestern village via air carrier. They were donated by Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 367 of Anchorage, and transported at half-cost by Ryan Air and Northern Air Cargo.

Once more, the weather gods have driven Minnesota adventurer Lonnie Dupre back from the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley. Dupre had hoped to this year become the first climber to solo the mountain in January, the cold heart of the Alaska winter. It was his third try; twice before the wind and cold had turned him back. He was optimistic this year as the weather cooperated on the long, uphill slog from the Kahiltna Glacier landing strip near 7,200 feet to where the 14,200-foot camp sits during the normal May to July climbing season.

As plans for offshore drilling in Russia’s Arctic materialize, the nation is revisiting Cold War-era nuclear test sites to survey potential radiation hazards around areas of oil and gas exploration, the BBC reports.