To the Point

Alaskan Climate Change and Political Reality

Alaska's melting permafrost and shrinking glaciers are concrete evidence that global warming is real. That's the conclusion of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who are visiting Alaska this week with fellow Senators. Alaska's own Senators and its lone Congressman, who are not accompanying the delegation, say the human cause of global warming is still in doubt, and they're opposed to new regulations being proposed by their colleagues. What does it mean for the rest of the 49 states? We hear from journalists, geophysicists, biologists and environmental policy analysts about what rising temperatures are doing to Alaska's ecology and to civilization, both ancient and modern. Making News: Governors Address Border Troubles Two Democratic Governors, Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Janet Napolitano of Arizona, have declared states of emergency along their borders with Mexico. That has embarrassed the Bush Department of Homeland Security, but California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he might do the same thing. Claudine Lomonaco, who reports for the Tucson Citizen, has more on the situation. Reporter's Notebook: Healthcare Disparities Still Exist for Black Americans In the 1980's it was first reported that black Americans get fewer operations, tests, medications and other life-saving treatments than whites do. Decades later, with little progress in closing that gap, the latest New England Journal of Medicine says it's time to stop talking and figure out what can be done. Yale cardiologist Harlan Krumholtz is lead author of "Sex and Racial Differences in the Treatment and Outcome of Acute Myocardial Infarction."