A 38-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman were arrested today on felony drug charges after a package bound for them was intercepted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service containing 499 methadone pills, the Juneau Police Department reported.

Arlene K. Moe pleaded guilty today to one felony theft charge for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from Gastineau Channel Little League from August 2007 to September 2008.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday it shows courage for readers to carry her book in public, as she returned as a best-selling author to the southwest Ohio region where she made her debut as a national candidate.

The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks says it’s near a financial settlement with a committee representing almost 300 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

The Blood Bank of Alaska is closing its donation centers in Wasilla and Soldotna because of a lack of demand.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Recently the Juneau Empire praised Gov. Sean Parnell for skipping President Obama’s first Alaska visit so he could attend the Associated General Contractors (AGC) meeting in Anchorage. The Empire stated that the governor kept his commitment to AGC and Alaskans should all be proud of this.

Twenty-eight of the top Alaska high school cross country running athletes and their teams competed in the Nike Cross Nationals Northwest Regional Running Championships this past weekend in Boise, Idaho. They qualified for this race at the Oct. 3 State High School Championships in Palmer and trained for the last six weeks under coach Doug Herron. The best high school runners from the Northwest region also competed. The Northwest region includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Hawaii.

Obviously, I am not more knowledgeable about breast cancer than a government-led panel of experts. Yet I know enough to look askance at advice that only women 50 and older get mammograms every two years and those in their 40s skip the test altogether.

On Afghanistan’s independence day in August, my friends in Kandahar were puzzled. Why was the government bothering to celebrate the holiday? With 100,000 or so foreign troops occupying our country, how could we consider ourselves independent?