As you already know, over the weekend it took one story to knock off TomKitten and Brooke Shields' new baby off the headlines, and it's a far more serious one.

Interior Alaska was once again in the national spotlight, as six North Pole Middle School students were arrested on suspicion of a murder plot. The premise was to disable the school's power and telephone systems so they would kill classmates and faculty and bolt out of the area which is 15 miles southeast of us in Fairbanks.

Now school violence in Alaska isn't new. In 1997, Evan Ramsey murdered a student and principal at Bethel High School. The tragedy came weeks after Evan's father, Donald, was released from prison for assualting a newspaper publisher in the 1980's. Ironically enough, this was two years before Columbine changed everything.

Why would an attemped murder plot at a middle school would transpire here? By the way, this comes 13 years after Sophie Sergie was raped and murdered at a University of Alaska Fairbanks dormitory. But after those 13 years, there has yet to be closure as to who was the person behind it. That same year, Alaskan Independence Party founder Joe Vogler turned up missing, only to be murdered the following year. Of those two mysteries that had the Alaska State Troopers working overtime throughout 1993, only Vogler was featured on A&E's "City Confidential" in a 1999 episode. The Sergie murder never made either "Unsolved Mysteries" or of all shows, "America's Most Wanted." The killer is still out there somewhere in Alaska, North America, or the world, and the time will come when he or she steps forward and admits to committing that crime.

Anyway, on to lighter fare...Near the end of last year, you crowned "Gilmore Girls'" Lauren Graham as the Sexiest Woman of 2005 in a very controversial manner -- and I was not happy with the final outcome because of the excessive voting for her and runner-up Jennifer Garner.

That's because this year, I've decided to pull out all the stops to make sure that very same mistake won't be repeated ever again. Next week (that's right, NEXT WEEK; forget waiting till October), polling will begin for the Sexiest Woman of 2006, and here's how:

The Round 1 preliminaries will be split into two parts -- Part 1 with Groups A-D, and Part 2 with Groups E-H. The Part 1 polls will last to the end of May, and Part 2 will begin in October. Of course, the top 40 ladies after those two prelims (20 from Part 1, 20 from Part 2) will move on to Round 2 with the poll goes into full strength in late October.

Now yes, with 80 beauties vying for the title, the field always consists of new faces to go along with old favorites. I'll reveal the field for Part 1 next week, because I've been working hard to fill in those blanks.

Oh yeah...despite this announcement, I'll still have the Sexiest Man of 2006 poll in November. So long!

ANCHOR AWAY!
KATIE COURIC ABOUT TO MAKE TELEVISION HISTORY WITH BIG MOVE

"I wanted to tell all of you out there who have watched the show for the past 15 years that, after listening to my heart and my gut, two things that have served me well in the past, I've decided I'll be leaving "Today" at the end of May."

And with those words, the waiting game was finally over this morning as Katie Couric made her ultimate decision, and that was to make the jump from NBC and the "Today" show to CBS to carry the legacy left over by Dan Rather (and for the last year temporarily, Bob Schieffer) as anchorwoman -- that's right, anchorwoman -- of the "CBS Evening News" this fall.

Her new job offer earns her a place in television history, as Couric will become the first ever solo female anchor of a network evening newscast. Of course Barbara Walters with Harry Reasoner on ABC in the '70s and Connie Chung with Dan Rather on CBS in the '90s tried, but to no avail. The CBS Evening News has been mired in third place for years and years, and now with Couric about to take the anchor desk it could mean a big boost for the struggling program.

But...have we knew all along? Couric might have had a series of secret talks with CBS executives in the last few weeks, and the deal may have been done without a single press release or a press conference. So it was up to Katie on her own show to make it official herself.

Not only she'll be anchor and managing editor of the Evening News, she'll also moonlight as a contributor for "60 Minutes." That means we'll probably hear her saying "I'm Katie Couric; those stories and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 Minutes." Another reason why Katie is demographics. With countless ways we get our news other than TV, radio, and the papers, Couric wants to appeal to younger viewers considering that she's pushing 50 herself and that many people think watching network evening newscasts is like living in the past...though viewerships are still higher than the cable news channels.

So, what do I think of Katie's big decision? After 1 1/2 decades of spending two hours waking us up every morning, she does look better off giving us the news every evening in a fast-paced world. I doubt CBS will ever fail now that they're going to have Couric. It happened with Walters, it happened with Chung, let's hope and pray it won't happen with Katie Couric come September when the announcer intones those words for the first time: "This is the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric." And with that, good night.

"THIS IS THE 'CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC'": IS IT OFFICIAL?

Good evening. I'll have that possible news on Katie Couric and CBS later, but first...

The aftereffects of John Leguizamo's visit to Fairbanks (which I can't stop talking about) a few weeks ago has indeed paid off big! "Ice Age: The Meltdown" -- which starred Leguizamo, Ray Romano, and Queen Latifah -- literally thawed the box office, opening at #1 with $70.5 million.

However, it was not a good weekend for Sharon Stone. The sequel to the 1992 film that made her a household name, "Basic Instinct 2", earned a very disappointing $3.2 million, tying with Larry the Cable Guy's movie at #10.

I guess the main reason why it flopped was because of all the cuts they made to prevent the movie from getting the NC-17 rating. But that $3.2 million it earned was just the beginning; it will make millions more when it hits DVD...this time with all the good stuff thrown back in.

Now...with one month left on her NBC contract, the chances of Katie Couric leaving the network for CBS has become pretty good. But this week, an announcement could be made regarding her future.

Since Bob Schieffer temporarily took over at the "CBS Evening News" last year, viewership has slowly increased. And although it has languished in third place for years and years, Couric taking the anchor chair permanently could be its savior. However, the road has been a rocky one since John Roberts, tired of playing the waiting game, went to CNN a few months ago.

If Couric does happen to switch networks (and shifts), let's hope she won't fail unlike Barbara Walters almost 30 years ago, when she headed to ABC after spending 13 years at "Today." The reason: ABC offered her a $1 million contract and the job as co-anchor with Harry Reasoner on their evening news, which hardly anyone watched because everyone's TVs were tuned to Walter Cronkite or John Chancellor. After Roone Arledge gave ABC News a complete overhaul in 1978, Reasoner returned to "60 Minutes" (which was about to become the #1 show on all of television by 1979) and Walters? Well, she decided to feel right at home at ABC.

And then there was a time in the mid-'80s when CBS needed a serious morning show after light-hearted "The Morning Program" didn't wake viewers up. One person they lured to be co-host was Canadian Broadcasting Corporation newscaster Peter Mansbridge. CBS offered him a huge salary and, if he stayed around longer, the possibility of Dan Rather's successor. But just as Mansbridge was about to head south of the border, executives at the CBC stepped in and heavily pressured Knowlton Nash to give up his anchor job at "The National" and award it to Peter. In the end, Mansbridge gave CBS the black eye while Harry Smith took the morning job.

So...will Couric be like Walters and take the money and run, or will she be like Mansbridge and stay put where she is? Find out this week when she makes her big decision. Good night.