Wasilla besieged by researchers

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

The city government of Wasilla, Alaska, inundated by journalists and researchers seeking information about former mayor Sarah Palin, last Friday set up a page on the municipal website, titled "Questions & Answers Concerning Mayor Palin," to accommodate requests and minimize the amount of time local employees have to spend answering questions.

The site has a link to request an interview with the current mayor, Dianne Keller, whom an aide said today will be busy doing interviews "the next two or three days." There's also a link to a form to make a formal public records request and to "document central," with additional links to local election results, city budgets, tax rates, and financial reports, and a history of "banned or censured books response."

Bogus Internet postings and e-mails have sought to portray Palin, now the governor of Alaska and running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, as a book burner because she once caused a furor by raising questions about the city's policy on removing objectionable books from the library.

According to the website, only five books at the Wasilla Public Library have been challenged in the past 22 years, and none was removed. Only one complaint was raised during Palin's six years as mayor, in 1997, but the book "Heather Has Two Mommies" by Leslea Newman, remained on the shelf, the report states.

More recently, a library patron objected to "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction" by Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." The objection, however, was submitted in 2005, long before Stewart began lampooning Palin on the nightly show. The book "remained on the shelf," according to the report.