Coming back from Sunshine Point to Homer about 3 p.m. last Friday, something told Jack Porter to keep an eye on a 17-foot boat working through 4- to 6-foot seas behind him. That hunch proved unfortunately true, but it saved three men when their boat rolled and Porter turned back to check on them. Keith Hediger, 60, Adam Hediger, 26, and Mike Cuffe, 64, survived thanks to Porter's watchful eye -- and that they all wore personal floatation devices.

Here's a Zen koan.

If a writer has traveled the world from dense human cities to remote Arctic wilderness, and written about the people, animals and places he's encountered, is he a nature writer?

Use the phrase "nature writer" in a conversation with Barry Lopez, and the answer will be met with a discussion of the role of nature in American literature, why science matters and the very essence of knowing. Like the answer to a Buddhist parable crafted to inspire enlightenment, a simple question inspires a complicated answer.

Alaska State Troopers this week charged a driver with second-degree murder for his involvement in a fatal 2010 Memorial Day weekend crash on the Sterling Highway between Homer and Anchor Point. Alfred C. Jones, 48, of Kenai, drove a GMC pickup truck that hit a Subaru Forester, killing a passenger, Kathleen Benz, 25, of Washington, D.C. 

In charging documents, a Bureau of Highway Patrol trooper, Casey Hershberger, alleged that a blood draw of Jones tested positive for methamphetamines, oxycodone, cocaine and marijuana. 

Alaska State Troopers this week charged a driver with second-degree murder for his involvement in a fatal 2010 Memorial Day weekend crash on the Sterling Highway between Homer and Anchor Point. Alfred C. Jones, 48, of Kenai, drove a GMC pickup truck that hit a Subaru Forester, killing a passenger, Kathleen Benz, 25, of Washington, D.C. 

In charging documents, a Bureau of Highway Patrol trooper, Casey Hershberger, alleged that a blood draw of Jones tested positive for methamphetamines, oxycodone, cocaine and marijuana.