The Goldstream Courant

  Officials from the Fairbanks Northstar Borough Assessor's Office have conceded that they are copying numbers straight off the popular real estate website Zillow for local home valuations. "We really don't have a clue," assistant Borough Assessor Jimmy Nixon said. "It's impossible to get to the homes for an inspection with the roads being so bad. Covered in snow they all look the same anyway, but we have to make a determination somehow." Home valuations have become a hot topic as local residents have noted large increases in assessed property value despite having made no improvements while living in their homes, ever. Many residents are forced into what would be considered substandard housing anywhere else, with many having no running water or indoor toilets. Zillow has recently come under national scrutiny for its practice of inflating home valuations as part of a scheme to pump up its home-selling side business. Zillow did not respond to requests for

  A local skijorer found himself in a predicament along the Dunbar Trail on Saturday as he and his dogs came face to face with an entire herd of fat bikers. Connor Dudley, 31, of Aurora Borealis Lane was about three miles into an otherwise unremarkable skijor adventure with his two part-husky mutts Ralph and Cleo when he encountered the mass of cyclists, snorting with anger at recent snowfall and poor trail conditions. Dudley was able to cut himself loose from the pull lines before he, too, was trampled, but it was a touch late for Ralph and Cleo, who at 45 pounds each were no match for the fat bikers.  "I just sat there helplessly in the snow bank as those terrifying beasts stormed past," a visibly shaken Dudley recalled.  "I had my sidearm in a chest holster, but it was under my puffy coat and I couldn't get it out in time. Probably wouldn't have done any good anyway - there were just so many of them." With over 40% of Alaskan adults now overweight or obes

 Local residents looking for hard-to-find auto parts will have a new option this spring. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has announced it will be holding a rummage sale on Saturday, May 21 at the Ken Kunkel Community Center.  Originally planned as a clean-up day to remove random pieces of automobiles from Sheep Creek and Goldstream Roads left behind from a winter of pothole jumping, DOTPF officials changed course when they saw the income potential.  "We've got more car and truck parts than Napa," said DOTPF spokesperson Fred Jones on Thursday. "There are water tanks that bounced out of truck beds; we've got tie rod ends, wheel bearings, wiper blades, alternators, lug nuts. We've even got an entire back hatch from a 2007 Subaru Outback." The timing couldn't be better for residents. Supply chain issues have forced would-be repairmen to seek out lower quality replacement parts on the black market, but the parts offered by D