Briefs was too busy watching the election returns for New York’s 23rd congressional district come in Tuesday night to catch the Anchorage Assembly meeting on channel 10. But although it was a pleasure to see the Palin-endorsed Conservative Party candidate go down to Democrat Bill Owens in what’s been a Republican stronghold, there were some fireworks at the assembly that would have been fun to see. East Anchorage Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez usually provides a running commentary of the meetings on his Facebook page, and didn’t let us down that night.

From 5:48 p.m. Tuesday night: “Bill Starr calls Sheila [Selkregg] a communist. Sheila calls him a McCarthyist. Claman tells the Mayor he isn’t a monarch.”

“And you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny,” Gutierrez laughed the next morning. An archive of the meeting—the bits that generated the name-calling are too complicated and arcane to quickly summarize here—can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/mxfmuh.

From the we’re-not-sure-which-media-outlet-to-feel-sorriest-for department: At the AFN convention two weeks ago, AlaskaReport.com videographer Dennis Zaki caught a green reporter from KTUU Channel 2 asking our senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, how to spell her name and what her title was. Zaki giggled, and as the video shows, Murkowski was a little taken aback herself. Zaki’s video hit YouTube (you can see it at http://tinyurl.com/ykxk29x), and subsequently Facebook, where some folks poked fun, and others defended the rookie doing her job by the book.

Then, in last Sunday’s Alaska Ear column, Sheila Toomey blamed the wrong TV station for asking the senator to spell her name (it's since been corrected in the online version). Toomey wrote it was KTVA Channel 11. Briefs happened to be watching football with KTVA’s assistant news director when he got the call alerting him to the column. Zaki’s video clearly names KTUU as the news outlet, and even names the reporter, Christine Kim. In Kim’s defense, sources at KTUU say she’d only been on the job for two weeks. Briefs blames it on Kim’s bosses, who ought to have filled her in on exactly what her assignment was.

The gremlins at the Anchorage Fire Department behind the AFDStatus Facebook and Twitter accounts and blog—the ones who let you know which stations and apparatus are affected by rolling closures every day—have expanded their portfolio. Now they’re also running AFDStatus.org, which has explanations of exactly which apparatus do what, as well as a station area map, and color coded buttons showing which stations are affected by closures. There are also biographies of different stations showing up, and operational details like who runs AFD’s 911 dispatch center and what training those folks are required to do.

“This site is neither endorsed or condoned by the Anchorage Fire Department,” an entry reads in part. “It’s simply a public voice from your firefighters keeping you informed on closures along with allowing us to tell you about the jobs we are so very proud of. These blogs are written by the men and women you see every day on emergency calls telling their story.”

After participating in Fire Ops 101 with Anchorage’s finest two weeks ago, Briefs is surprised these firefighters have the energy to independently keep the public up to speed on what’s happening with the department. It’s definitely above and beyond the call of duty.

bjk@anchoragepress.com