Congratulations to the Cook Inlet Academy girls high school basketball team, which on Wednesday defeated Nikolaevsk to claim the Class 1A state title.

Indeed, it takes plenty of hard work and determination just to make it to a state tournament — and it takes true grit to battle through triple overtime in a title game.

“It’s that heart and refusal to quit that made this a special team this year,” CIA coach Rustin Hitchcock told the Clarion after the game.

One of the sponsors of legislation that would have Alaskans to vote to amend the state constitution to allow public funds to go directly to private or religious schools insists that funding should not be part of the current debate.

With personal-use dipnet fishery and the M/V Susitna ferry in the news this week, we’d like to pitch an idea that could, perhaps, alleviate some of the challenges associated with both issues.

The city of Kenai has been debating what to do about the dipnet fishery, which takes place at the mouth of the Kenai River every July. Thousands of Alaskans take advantage of the opportunity to fill their freezers with sockeye salmon, but the city has been tasked with managing the hordes — and cleaning up after them.

In general, Alaskans tend to be more attuned to what’s going on in Washington, D.C., than people from other parts of the country. Perhaps it’s because Alaska receives some of the highest per-capita federal funding in the nation, or maybe it’s just because following politics is a popular pastime during the long, cold winter.

Either way, we’ll want to pay extra-close attention to what’s happening inside the beltway over the next couple of months — and read the fine print on the bills that Congress has passed over the last few days.