BREAKING NEWS:
Lance Mackey Repeats!!

After spending 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 48 seconds on the trail, Lance Mackey has just won back-to-back Iditarod titles early this morning in Nome. And his rewards are the same as last year: A check for $69,000 and the keys to his second straight Dodge truck.

Now that many of you are starting to wake up to this news, Jeff King right now is coming his way to Nome next, this time in second. Ramey Smyth, Ken Anderson, and Martin Buser all follow him next, and they will be approaching Front Street in the next several hours. Till then, so long and stay strong.

Update on imminent Iditarod finish

Lance Mackey and Jeff King are right now in the middle of their mandatory eight-hour layover in White Mountain as both of them are about to make the final sprint to Nome, and I've learned that the big finish is expected to happen between 2:00-6:00 am Alaska Time (6:00-10:00 am Eastern, 3:00-7:00 am in the West) meaning that yes, I'll be pulling in an all-nighter for it.

And of course, I'll update this blog the second we have a winner, so so long, stay strong, and yes...try to stay up!

Hello, everybody. As the 2008 Iditarod reaches the homestretch, things are really scorching as far as Lance Mackey and Jeff King are concerned. More on that later, but first up...

ANOTHER POLITICAL SCANDAL!!!!! And this time, it involves the man who's holding New York's top job...at least for now. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was linked to a Brooklyn-based prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, which arranged sex between wealthy men and more than 50 prostitutes in some U.S. and European cities, with clients paying $1,000-$5,500 an hour. Four people involved with running the ring were arrested and charged last week, putting Spitzer's political future in question.

A federal wiretap caught Spitzer identifying himself as "Client 9", aka "George Fox"; according to online reports, he may have wanted unprotected sex with a prostitute named "Kristen." The transcript also said that "Client 9" wanted to know the stats of "Kristen" and that she should go to a Washington hotel room to make an offer for sex. The offer: $4,300 in cash.

When he found out about the scandal thanks to an article posted on the "New York Times" website, the 48-year-old married father of three and one-time "Sheriff of Wall Street" as New York's Attorney General faced the cameras and apologized to his family and his state.

Resignation is imminent, and we have learned that Lieutenant Governor David Paterson is expected to take the reins as also the state's first black governor.

This latest political scandal reminds me of one we had here in Alaska involving State Senator George Jacko of Pedro Bay. And if I can rack my brain about all this, since this was in 1993...his involved sexual harassment with a legislative aide, and Jacko was stripped of his committee chairmanships. The damage would be done the following year when he was voted out. And by the day...isn't it ironic that his last name is "Jacko", though we would be nicknaming Michael Jackson that much later when his sex scandal broke?

Back to the latest mess and Spitzer: If I was him, I would resign immediately.

Now...the very latest on the Iditarod, and for Lance Mackey and Jeff King, we could be seeing a re-creation of 1978 just like we saw Lindsay Lohan re-creating Marilyn Monroe weeks ago. The two exited Koyuk at 5:41 and 5:57 pm Alaska Time respectively on Monday, and the remaining 150 miles to go as they head to the coast proves to be nail-biting with every checkpoint. By the way -- after only a few days in the ranking, Rick Swenson fell out of the top ten.

But in the words of horse racing announcer Dave Johnson, DOWN the stretch they really come as Mackey and King may be nearing a photo finish. And if my instincts tell me, we may see one of both teams approach the Burled Arch in Nome around Tuesday night or even early Wednesday morning. If it's the latter, the East Coast may be waking up to either Mackey repeating as Iditarod champion or King joining the Five-Timers Club. We'll find out then, so so long and stay strong.

Hillary back on the move...so is Lance Mackey

Hello, everybody. As always, there is plenty of scoop to dig up this blog, so here we go!

First up...as expected, Hillary Clinton did manage to make quite a comeback on Tuesday winning Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island to stay ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination; Barack Obama's only victory was in Vermont. But on the Republican side...John McCain went past the 1,191 delegate mark at 1,207 which is enough to give him the presidential nod with Mike Huckabee having no choice but to throw in the towel.

But right now, it's all about Clinton vs. Obama again as one of them has yet to reach the all-important number of 2,025. Barack still has the lead with 1,520 with Hillary not far behind at 1,424. There's 106 delegates separating those two, and anything could still happen between now and Denver and the "super delegates."

A day or so after Hillary's much-needed victories in Texas and Ohio came the shocking news that actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer...the same kind of cancer that took Michael Landon's life in 1991.

The 55-year-old best known for "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost" is responding very well to his treatment according to his publicist, despite tabloid reports that he only has a few weeks to live. However, despite his cancer, he will continue with his usual life; he recently shot a pilot for A&E's "The Beast" and if gets picked up he'll be in it. Lets hope it won't be his last work, and our prayers are with him as we hope Patrick will be cancer-free.

And last but not least...the Iditarod, and with unexpected warmth all over Alaska this week Lance Mackey didn't mind that one bit. He became the first musher to reach the Yukon River today arriving in Ruby at 7:32 am Friday morning. His prize for that? A seven course meal compliments of the Millennium Alaska Hotel, with Chicken and Wild Mushroom Terrine and Yukon Potato Bisque with Shrimp Ravioli to start with, followed by Halibut Flowers on a bed of Peach Chutney and Fillet of Beef stuffed with Alaskan King Crab along with Brie en Cruet as the main course; and for dessert, raspberry crepes served with bittersweet chocolate sauce. Now that's what I call the ultimate gourmet breakfast!

Of course, things will really start to get busy over the weekend, so will Lance hold on to his lead or will Jeff King take it from him? And believe it or not, five-time champion Rick Swenson is back in the top 10 for the first time in eons, and we may see a repeat of 1978 when he and Lance's father Dick were paw-to-paw to the finish. Anything could happen when the 2008 Iditarod reaches its climax in the next few days, so stay tuned, so long, and stay strong!

Hello, everybody. Lots of ground to cover as always on this Leap Day, so on with the show!

First up...the cover has been blown wide open. Britain's Prince Harry after ten weeks of deployment on the front lines in Afghanistan is coming back home, and it's partly thanks to the same website that broke the news of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky to the world ten years ago.

The prince, third in line to the throne, was deployed to the Afghan region in secrecy in December; it was subject to a news blackout deal struck between the British Ministry of Defense (equivalent to the U.S. Department of Defense) and the British and foreign media. But it wouldn't be until January when the Australian women's magazine "New Idea", German magazine "Bild", and the Drudge Report website here in the United States -- in which the "Allen Report" was based on -- all formed an alliance to break the embargo. And just a couple days prior to his withdrawal, some media crews were granted access to Harry for interviews.

By the way, it was the Drudge Report that out-scooped the traditional media in 1998 with the news of President Bill Clinton's sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky...which happened while our news anchors were covering Pope John Paul II's first and only trip to Cuba! But when the scandal broke, it was a red-eye flight to Washington for the first few days of the year's biggest story/real-life soap opera.

Why would they do such a thing about not keeping Prince Harry in Afghanistan under wraps? If I was "New Idea", "Bild", or Matt Drudge, I would keep my mouth shut about all this, because we could be fearing for the worst, i.e. getting killed without warning.

But even for a royal, I felt Harry served his country very well during those ten weeks. It's just that the foreign media put an end to it before things started to get a bit serious over there.

Well...basking in the glow of the headline-making "New York" magazine spread from two weeks ago, our favorite Marilyn Monroe wannabe Lindsay Lohan was back in the States this week after spending part of last week in Milan, Italy once again for its Fashion Week.

And even though the buzz already died down in time for the Oscars, some after-effects are still being felt. According to "Forbes" magazine, "New York" made over $500,000 in the first two days over the pics being on their website. I already reported on Monday about how its web traffic was up 2000% from last year, but what did Lindsay get for doing those poses although photographer Bert Stern was paid a fee for taking those shots? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

That's the bad news. The good news: For the week ending February 23, web searches for Lohan as a result of those photos shot up 700 percent, topping the Lycos 50 followed by "Juno" at #2 with 475%. And now, Mr. "Playboy" Hugh Hefner wants Lindsay again as Marilyn in his magazine, this time re-creating the nude swim from the unfinished film "Something's Got to Give." I say one re-creation is good enough for us, unless of course Lindsay wears a flesh-colored thong to appear as if she's really naked.

Which reminds me...one time on the old "WWE (WWF for you old schoolers) Superstars of Wrestling" show, there was a feud between "Ravishing" Rick Rude and Jake "The Snake" Roberts with Jake's real-wife wife Cheryl participating in the storyline. One time after quickly defeating an opponent in the ring, Rude took off his red tights to reveal another that had an illustration of Cheryl on his crotch. A pissed-off Roberts surged to the ring and stripped Rude clean off his body. Even though they censored it for television with a big black dot and the word "CENSORED" underlined in red on the upper left of the screen to appear as if he was stripped naked, those in the arena actually saw him stripped to a thong. This was pretty much the WWE's answer to Yolanda Bowersley's wardrobe malfunction on "The Price Is Right" eleven years earlier, when "she came on down and they came on out", censoring her breasts with a big blue bar.

Anyway, last but not least...last week, we had the Super Bowl of entertainment; this weekend, it's the Super Bowl of dog mushing, the 36th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. This year, a total of 96 of that sport's finest from around the world including defending champion Lance Mackey take on the always challenge 1,150 mile venture to Nome where anything along the trail could happen, from gale-force winds to bone-chilling temperatures up to -50 degrees to even unexpected twists and turns.

And this year, 15 of those 96 mushers will using GPS tracking devices for the first time in Iditarod history. If it becomes successful, then all mushers will have them next year. Of course, a fat check for $69,000 and the keys to a new $45,000 Dodge truck will be awaiting who crosses under the burled arch on Nome's Front Street first; so will Mackey shoot for back-to-back just like he did with the Yukon Quest this year? Or will Jeff King or Martin Buser tie with Rick Swenson for five...and speaking of Swenson, does he still have what it takes to make it six (since he almost repeated 30 years ago but Lance's father Dick stopped him by a hair)? Or will someone from out of the blue manage to pull of the upset of the century? Find out as "The Last Great Race" gets underway this weekend, so long long and stay strong!