ANCHORAGE - A retired peace officer and his paramedic-firefighter wife are the sole winners of Alaska's biggest guessing game.

Kasilof's Dusty VanMeter and Anchorage's Marc McKenna are in position to win their second straight Iron Dog title. The duo was the first to reach Tanana on Friday, and will start 1 hour, 4 minutes, before the second-place team Saturday. VanMeter and McKenna will depart Tanana at 8 a.m. and have to ride 291 miles to the finish line in Fairbanks. A win would be worth $50,000. They are expected to finish between noon and 1 p.m. The live finish will be carried on KTUU.

FAIRBANKS (AP) - Musher Allen Moore was vindicated Monday when he lengthened his lead against defending champion Hugh Neff to win the 2013 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

FAIRBANKS (AP) - Rangers have been ordered to kill a pair of grizzly bears if they find the duo displaying the same type of behavior they have been exhibiting toward hikers on a popular trail in the Chena River State Recreation Area. "If they come up and challenge them, I told them to go ahead and (kill) them," Brooks Ludwig, northern region superintendent for Alaska State Parks, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://is.gd/8oq0Tp ).

FAIRBANKS (AP) - The U.S. Department of Education has approved Alaska's request for a one-year freeze on state targets under the No Child Left Behind Act. Under the Bush-era law, the number of students needed to pass standardized tests to achieve adequate yearly progress increases each year. The one-year waiver will allow Alaska to use 2010-11 proficiency targets when calculating its progress in the coming school year. The frozen targets will require that 83 percent of students be proficient in English and 75 percent of students be proficient in math.

FAIRBANKS - A 43-year-old professor says she fought off a grizzly bear that stalked her and her nieces by throwing everything she had at it - including a package of macaroni and cheese. Alyson Jones-Robinson said they encountered the aggressive grizzly while hiking Thursday at Chena River State Recreation Area, east of Fairbanks. She said it wasn't especially big - perhaps a 2- or 3-year-old that weighed between 100 and 200 pounds - but it was not afraid of them or her dog.

FAIRBANKS (AP) - There was little consternation Tuesday at a forum in Fairbanks that featured two U.S. House candidates. U.S. Rep.

Sterling resident Ms. Mary Bailey Barrickman, 82, died Friday, June 1, 2012 at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage with her family and friends by her side. Memorial services will be held 3:00 p.m. Sunday, June 24, 2012 at The Abundant Life

The host Lathrop football team defeated Seward 45-0 on Friday in nonconference action in the season opener for both teams.For a complete story from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, click on the link below.

Kenai Central's defense had no answer for North Pole quarterback Moo Rogers, who accounted for five touchdowns in a 52-29 win in Fairbanks.