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P E N I N S U L A
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 102
In the news Wasilla teen charged in shooting death of 18-year-old man PALMER — A Wasilla teenager has been charged with manslaughter in the death of another youth. Alaska State Troopers say 18-year-old Jordan Flowers fired a shot that killed another 18-yearold man. Flowers also is charged with two counts of felony assault. Alaska State Troopers at 2:30 a.m. Sunday took a call of a shooting at a Wasilla home. Investigators determined Flowers had pointed a loaded pistol at the second 18-year-old man and pulled the trigger. The second teen was struck in the neck. His name was not immediately released.
Snowplow strikes, kills pedestrian on Anchorage street ANCHORAGE — A snowplow operating on an Anchorage street near Merrill Field struck and killed a pedestrian. Anchorage police just after 11 p.m. Sunday responded to the accident on Fifth Avenue, the main inbound street to the city from the north. A state snowplow operator told officers he saw something dark in the roadway and swerved to avoid it. He turned the plow around to see what it was and discovered a man in a traffic lane. Emergency responders declared the man dead at the scene. A witness told police the man had been seen in the roadway seconds before the plow hit him.
Man dies in rollover crash on Anchorage’s Minnesota Drive ANCHORAGE — A man died Monday morning in a rollover crash on a main thoroughfare on Anchorage’s south side. Anchorage police say a pickup rolled multiple times on Minnesota Drive. The crashed closed one lane in both directions on the six-lane road between Raspberry and International Airport roads. The driver was declared dead at the scene. Police say morning snowfall covered ice and created hazardous driving conditions throughout Anchorage. — Associated Press
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Gov proposes slashing education by $20M By KEVIN BAIRD Juneau Empire
Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed two supplemental budget bills Monday, one of which includes a $20 million cut to education. Senate Bill 39 provides an increase for other areas of state government including Department of Corrections, the Alaska State Troopers and the Office of Information Technology. Both bills were referred to the Senate Finance Committee on Monday morning. The second bill, Senate Bill 38, would appropriate $37.7 million toward disaster relief and mitigation. Supplemental budget bills amend the current budget, which ends June 30, by moving unused funds from
Gov. Mike Dunleavy give his State of the State speech to a Joint Session of the Alaska Legislature as Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, left, and House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, listen at the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 22. (Michael Penn/Juneau Empire)
one department to another department. In May 2018, legislators passed a $20 million appropriation to be distributed among Alaska’s school
districts during the current fiscal year. Dunleavy’s proposal essentially nixes the $20 million appropriation approved by legislators when the budget passed.
The $20 million was the first budget increase in years. It was divided among Alaska’s 53 school districts and Mt. Edgecumbe school in Sitka. According to a document from the Office of Budget and Management, the reason for the proposed education cut is, “The additional funding created a situation in which education was funded beyond the statutorily required amount while other programs were underfunded. This reduction is required to meet other obligations of the state.” Rep. Andi Story, a freshman from Juneau who spent 15 years on the Board of Education, said she has never seen a move like this. “That would be unprecedented to make a cut midyear when school boards
have already planned and made budgets, and worked with parents, and made contracts on those allocations,” Story said. “I want teachers, and parents and staff to focus on outcomes. Not the budget. They should be focused on kids right now and I don’t want them to have to worry about budget. It’s not the appropriate time to do it.” Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said this proposed cut from the Dunleavy Administration was “not unexpected” but also “disappointing.” The Council of School Administrators represents superintendents, principals and other administrators but not teachers. “The school districts
See $20M, page A2
Returning from govt shutdown, Peninsula officials ask federal workers pick up pieces fisheries board to rescind By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended Friday when President Donald Trump signed a bill to reopen the government for three weeks. Nearly 700 emails and 60 voicemails awaited Amy Milburn when
she returned to work after being furloughed for 35 days. Milburn is the area director for the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development office in Kenai. The office is home to only two employees, including Milburn. She said the impact of the partial federal government
shutdown went beyond herself and her coworker. “It was hard knowing how many people were affected,” Milburn said. Without a regular paycheck, and with the uncertainty of when back pay will come, Milburn said she had to cut costs for her fam-
See GOVT, page A2
decision, reschedule vote By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
Citing concern over a lack of public notice, peninsula officials have asked the Alaska Board of Fisheries to rescind its decision to move the location of the
2020 Upper Cook Inlet Finfish meeting from the Kenai-Soldotna area back to Anchorage, and to revisit it at a later date. Soldotna City Manager Stephanie Queen, Kenai City Manager Paul OsSee FISH, page A3
‘Polar vortex’ freezes US Sudden Arctic warming sends frigid temperatures south By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — It might seem counterintuitive, but the dreaded polar vortex is bringing its icy grip to parts of the U.S. thanks to a sudden blast of warm air in the Arctic. Get used to it. The polar vortex has been wandering more often in recent years. It all started with misplaced Moroccan heat. Last month, the normally super chilly air temperatures 20 miles above the North Pole rapidly rose by about 125 degrees, thanks to air flowing in from the south. It’s called “sudden stratospheric warming.” That warmth split the polar vortex, leaving the pieces to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a com-
parts of Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service. The unusual cold could stick around another eight weeks, Cohen said. “The impacts from this split, we have a ways to go. It’s not the end of the movie yet,” Cohen said. “I think at a minimum, we’re looking at mid-February, possibly through mid-March.” Americans were introduced to the polar vortex five years ago. It was in early January 2014 when temperatures dropped to minus 16 degrees in Chicago and meteorologists, who used the term for decades, started talking about it on social Morning commuters face a tough slog on Wacker Drive in Chicago on Monday. (Rich media. Hein/Chicago Sun-Times via AP) This outbreak may snap some daily records for cold mercial firm outside Boston. By Wednesday morning, forecast calls for a low of and is likely to be even more “Where the polar vortex one of those pieces will be minus 21 degrees in Chi- brutal than five years ago, goes, so goes the cold air,” over the Lower 48 states for cago and wind chills flirting especially with added wind See ARCTIC, page A2 Cohen said. the first time in years. The with minus 65 degrees in
Sarah Palin’s son gains release from halfway house By RACHEL D’ORO Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Track Palin, the elder son of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, has won an early release from custody after his conviction for assaulting his father. Palin reported to an Anchorage halfway house in December to serve a year for the 2017 attack on his father. But he was released after a judge granted a motion Thursday for credit for time spent on electronic monitoring. Palin, 29, was released
Soldotna couple accused of stealing, selling car to dealership By BRIAN MAZUREK Peninsula Clarion
In this Oct. 3, 2018, file photo, Track Palin, left, talks with his lawyer Patrick Bergt before a hearing in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Rachel D’Oro, File)
Thursday evening, according to Trey Watson of the correctional management firm the Geo Group,
which operates the halfway house. TMZ.com first reported See TRACK, page A3
Two people from Soldotna are charged with trading in a stolen vehicle at a dealership and committing thousands of dollars in fraudulent credit card purchases, according to an affidavit filed at the Kenai court. Arlyn Query, 29, and Shawn Schmalzried, 35, allegedly stole a vehicle and several credit cards. According to the Jan. 25 affidavit, the alleged victim called Soldotna-based Alaska State Troopers
on Jan. 11 to report fraud and theft. The man told troopers that Query and Schmalzried had been living with him but had recently moved out. When the man received a statement for his credit card for the month of December, he noticed more than $6,000 in unauthorized transactions. The alleged victim told troopers that the couple had broken into his safe where he kept his credit cards while he was on vacation in December. He also told troopers that he See CAR, page A3