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By Scott Christiansen
A septuagenarian face-off
Somebody sang In late February, a suspicious package arrived in Anchorage via the post office’s Express Mail service and some cops, led by federal agents, got busy and set up a drug sting. The package contained a box labeled “The Singing Machine,” a brand of karaoke machine. The Singing Machine box contained heroin. As street drugs go, heroin is extremely addictive. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that customers were anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Singing Machine. It also turns out that one man involved in the conspiracy was ready to sing the very night he got caught up in The Singing Machine sting. (Federal agents, it seems, can be persuasive.) The case has just begun in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, but details can be found in affidavits filed by a special agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA agent was first tipped off by a U.S. Postal Inspector, who decided the package had, in the DEA agent’s words, “characteristics used by traffickers of narcotics.” The agents discovered it contained 2 pounds, 12 ounces (about one and one-quarter kilograms) of brown tar heroin wrapped in vacuum-sealed bags and taped together in a bundle. It was being sent to an address on Boniface Parkway from an address in Mecca, California. The agents replaced the real smack with fake stuff and a GPS tracking device. Before re-wrapping The Singing Machine box in the Express Mail package, the agents sprayed their decoy drugs with Clue Spray, a product cops use to mark the fingers of unwitting bad guys. Clue Spray ink becomes visible under ultraviolet light. (The manufacturers say it is “almost invisible” on a black or white surface and it costs $28.50 a can online—plus shipping and a “hazmat surcharge.”) The cops worked quickly. The affidavit says that on February 21, the same day the real dope was intercepted, the postal inspector was knocking on a door in Boniface Parkway. The team had a search warrant allowing them to follow their decoy drugs. The package was delivered at about 6:26 p.m., and at about 7:40 p.m., the GPS-tracker made an alarm tone. About seven minutes later the cops were inside and one man was scurrying for the bathroom. The decoy drugs were on the floor in a bedroom, according to the affidavit, which was written by DEA special Agent Nathaniel Clementson. Special Agent Clementson filed two affidavits in two separate court cases, but both describe The Singing Machine from Mecca. The agent did not reveal how many people were at the Boniface address for the bust. The affidavit doesn’t say how many cops were there, or how many suspects were present when cops arrived. Clementson did write that one suspect quickly flipped. A confidential source—known only as “CS” in the affidavit that describes the source—made some phone calls to would-be heroin buyers. CS was able to arrange a drug deal (or possibly deals) that very night. The confidential source was offering brown tar heroin in 25-gram pieces, but agent Clementson did not reveal the price. One man allegedly asked CS for 10 pieces and a delivery was arranged. An undercover agent accompanied CS to the drug deal and the pair met the man at a gas station first. The man asked them to meet up at a residence on East 15th Avenue. The cops busted two buyers there. One man allegedly pulled a bag containing $25,000 from a microwave. (That seems like an odd place to store cash unless an apartment has been rented solely for the purpose of cash transactions during which bags of money need to be hidden and trust is an ephemeral, but necessary, part of the deal.) The other man allegedly admitted to bringing $1,800 along with him, hoping to purchase heroin. Three men have been charged so far in the Singing Machine drug sting. Federal prosecutors charged Douglas Cole Black for attempted possession of one kilo of heroin with intent to distribute. Also charged were Steven Michael Hinshaw and Jimmie Kelly Richardson, both for “conspiracy to attempt to distribute” at least 100 grams of heroin. Saturday, March 16—It took troopers just sixand-half hours to find the Caterpillar 966C front-end loader that was reported stolen from a property on the Sterling Highway. A tipster noticed the loader had been left on Kettle View Avenue, about seven miles away in Homer. The investigation continues… Sunday, March 17—You might expect to count on cheerfulness, merriment or straight-up gaiety in a place named “Happy Valley,” but you can’t judge a neighborhood by its name. Troopers went to the valley at the request of a 30-year-old man who had barricaded himself in a bathroom and called for help. Near as troopers can figure out, the man was using the loo as a panic room to put an end to threats—and an alleged assault—made by his 44-year-old roommate. The older man was arrested for domestic violence assault and jailed in Homer. —Scott Christiansen
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Two former legislators vie for School Board Seat E By Scott Christiansen
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ncumbent school board member Don Smith, a Republican since his college days in the 1960s, couldn’t have attracted a challenger further from his political views if he had tried. One of the few things Smith and former state Senator Bettye Davis have in common is their age. They are both 74. They are also well-known politicians. Smith served in the State House from 1967 to 1968. He has also served on the Anchorage Assembly and touts himself as being the “father” of Anchorage’s tax cap, which is meant to slow the growth of local government. Davis, who lost her state Senate seat last November, is also a former Anchorage School board member, with nine years experience on the board. She is not shy about telling voters she was gerrymandered out of the Senate job during a Republican-controlled redistricting of legislative boundaries. She lost the election to Anna Fairclough, an Eagle River Republican who was previously a State House representative. Many of Davis’ traditional voters in Mountain View and East Anchorage were removed from the new district, which extends into Eagle River, where Republicans consistently win elections. Davis was the only African American in the state legislature. She has said her run for school board is not about Smith—“There were two seats open and this is the one I happened to pick,” Davis said at an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce forum. She told the audience at the same forum she is concerned about a lack of diversity on the school board. Davis said an “all-Caucasian” school board should be a matter of concern in a city as diverse as Anchorage. “I think I bring a variety of perspectives to the board and I bring more perspectives than my opponent,” she said. She is a retired nurse and social worker. She has worked for the state in the foster care system and as a psychiatric nurse. Davis has been emphasizing pre-kindergarten education in her campaign. She also believes passing Alaska’s high school exit exam should not be required for a student to earn a diploma. At the chamber forum, the candidates were asked what stage in a child’s life was “most crucial” for the child’s success. The short version of Davis’ answer was “the first three years” but she talked longer. In a somewhat rambling speech she drew an arc that linked pre-kindergarten years to the challenges faced by young adults. Part of the speech warned of what happens when society doesn’t invest in the care for very young children. “We know what happens on the other end. If we have all of these kids that are going to be dropping out of school, we know what is going to happen to them. They are not going to be able to get jobs. They are going to end up on the wrong side of the tracks, in prison or in someplace where they should not be,” Davis said. “But if we start off early enough with our children, with prevention, pre-school—we don’t have pre-K education and there’s no reason we should not.”
Davis said her run for school board is not about Smith— “There were two seats open and this is the one I happened to pick.”
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mith answered the same question with a roundabout tangent of his own. He recognized early-childhood education then pivoted to a talk about budget restraints. “I also agree that the earlier you educate our children, the better off they are going to be, but you also have to take into account the fiscal limitations,” Smith said. The school board, Smith said, “had to cut $25 million out its budget” this year. He predicted another $25 million cut next year and another $25 million cut the following year. “We are going backwards and that only can relate to larger class sizes and problems,” Smith said. As if recognizing his own negativity, Smith pivoted again. He switched to emphasizing the board’s accomplishments on the vocational education front, saying middle school and high school years are important, because that’s when students prepare for work. Vocational education is something Smith emphasized during his initial run for school board three years ago. “We were able to shift some money in the school district. We moved the career and technical education program from an $11 million program to about $19 million and we were able to place on the ballot some bonding which has allowed us to improve the facilities at all the senior and middle schools,” Smith said. In 2012, voters approved $59 million in school bonds, with $23.8
School Board candidate Bettye Davis
School Board candidate Don Smith
million of the total for career and technical education projects. Smith said he pushed hard for the expand career programs in school board meetings. The debate over a constitutional amendment to allow public funding of private schools and religious schools has become a common question for the candidates. It comes up frequently, despite being little more than a litmus test. Smith supports giving public money for private education and Davis is against it. School boards won’t have much say in the matter, but if the Legislature puts a constitutional question before voters the debate is expected to become more controversial—and more pervasive in media. During the Anchorage Chamber forum the candidates were given a chance to ask each other questions. Smith was given the opportunity first. “I have no questions,” he said, which briefly silenced the room. The moderator than gave Davis a chance to question Smith, she asked Smith to explain his support for the constitutional amendment. “You can’t get there if you don’t change constitutional amendment,” Smith said. “Would you speak to why it needs to be done?” Davis asked. “I think every family and every child in the Anchorage School District, and for that matter in the state of Alaska, should have choice,” Smith said. “I don’t have a problem with that, as long as there are restrictions.” Smith said the state can fund private schools by adopting rules to prevent the state’s money from being used for religious indoctrination. “I think competition will make the Anchorage School District rise. I am not afraid of it at all,” Smith said. The moderator didn’t give Davis an opportunity to reply. (No forum’s perfect.) This week Davis told the Press she doesn’t believe private schools, even if given state money, will accept poor students or special needs students. “I hope the public will not fall into that,” Davis said. “Private schools are not going to want to take our underachieving students.” March 28 - April 3, 2013