Peninsula Clarion, March 03, 2019

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Assault US forces push to free IS-controlled Syria World/A6

Sunday

Champs CIA girls, Nikolaevsk boys rule league Sports/B1

CLARION P E N I N S U L A

Sunday, March 3, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Vol. 49, Issue 130

$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday

Soldotnans to vote on field house Tuesday

In the news Scammers steal $20K from Alaska city through fake invoice KETCHIKAN (AP) — A city in southeast Alaska lost nearly $20,000 after scammers sent an invoice through a spoofed email account. The infrastructure firm Moffat & Nichol emailed a real invoice to the Ketchikan Port and Harbors Department in mid-November, but later the same day the city received a fraudulent email, The Ketchikan Daily News reported. According to city documents, scammers copied the firm’s email address, only changing a single character. The fake email contained an invoice with the same information and numbers. The city electronically paid the fake bill. It was alerted to the scam when the firm resent the real invoice the next month. “We’re putting some interim measures in place to try to tighten that up. And we’re also going to be bringing in specialized training for the departments and the people involved in this,” City Manager Karl Amylon told the City Council. The city’s insurance carrier covered all but $2,500 of the loss. The city’s information technology director, Curtis Thomas, said the city’s IT infrastructure wasn’t compromised. He said the spam email wasn’t caught because it was part of an existing email thread. Other than saying their system wasn’t compromised, Moffat & Nichol declined comment. Ketchikan police are investigating. No arrests have been made. Andy Berntson, the Police Department’s lieutenant of investigations, noted the rise and increased sophistication of cybercrimes. “It’s weekly that we’re getting calls on some kind of internet related fraud or crime,” he said. “And often it’s after a loss of some significant money.”

By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion

Defending champion Joar Lefseth Ulsom runs his team down Fourth Avenue during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Saturday in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Michael Dinneen)

Onward mushers

Big crowds cheer kick off of famed Iditarod By RACHEL D’ORO Associated Press

ANCHORAGE — Big crowds converged on Alaska’s largest city Saturday as hundreds of dogs and their humans kicked

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the 52 musher-dog teams gearing up for the famed 1,000-mile race. Mushers are generally more relaxed here than they will be for the real thing. But the dogs barked furiously before setting off, jump-

For love of food

Community supper club shares meals, culture By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion

A new Soldotna-based club is focused on serving something new. Residents could find themselves at the table of a Salvadorian feast with stuffed corn tortillas called pupusas, homemade tamales and tres leches or a fresh Mediterranean spread complete with warm pita bread, hummus and creamy tzatziki. Bringing the community together over a love of food is the main goal of the Three Peaks Supper Club.

See FOOD, page A2

ing and straining against their sled lines in apparent excitement to get going on the 11-mile dash. Halana Hiatt of Denver was among the scores of fans who packed downSee MUSH, page A2

Anchorage group wants to move Legislature By KEVIN BAIRD Juneau Empire

Three Peaks Supper Club will host dinner parties in community homes on the central peninsula. (Photo provided by Joe Spady/Three Peaks Supper Club)

See FIELD, page A3

An Anchorage group is striving to let voters decide whether the Alaska Legislature should meet in Anchorage rather than Juneau. The Equal Access Alaskabacked voter initiative — which would require “meetings of the Alaska Legislature to be held in Anchorage” — was filed with the Alaska Division of Elections on Feb. 4. The petition application is under review, according to the division’s website. “All regular and special meetings of the Alaska Legislature shall be held in the

Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska,” the initiatives states. The initiative would repeal from statute and regulations “any and all language” that says the Legislature should be held in the capital or a location other than Anchorage. Dave Bronson of Anchorage is chairing Equal Access Alaska. A voicemail was left with him on Friday afternoon. According to Equal Access Alaska’s website, the group promoting this initiative, their goal is to collect signatures in 2019, and have the initiative placed on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot. Division of Elections See VOTE, page A3

Top lawmakers skeptical on Dunleavy tax shifts By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press

Index

off the 47th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race with a ceremonial sprint along snow-heaped streets. The fan-friendly event in Anchorage brought spectators up close to

Soldotna residents can place their vote Tuesday on whether or not the city should borrow $10 million in bonds for a new field house. Polls open at 7 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m. March 5, at Soldotna City Hall. Soldotna residents will vote either “Yes” or “No” on a single proposition that asks if the city should borrow $10 million in bonds to construct a field house at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. The total cost of the project is estimated at $11.8 million dollars. If the bond is approved, $10 million will be financed through debt of a general obligation bond, with the remaining covered by private funders, donations, grants or, if needed, funds previously authorized by the city council. The city would take on a 10-year bond with an interest rate between 3 and 3.5 percent. It would be paid off in 10 years with 10 annual payments. The half-percent year-

JUNEAU — Alaska legislative leaders signaled concern on Friday with two provisions of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget that critics see as shifting financial burdens onto lo-

cal governments. Senate President Cathy Giessel told reporters she doesn’t see support among her members for a change in petroleum property tax collections that would benefit the state but pose a financial hit to some communities.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said he doesn’t see support in his chamber for that or for no longer sharing certain fisheriesrelated tax revenue with qualified communities. Dunleavy’s budget proposal relies on revenue from those two pieces to

help fill a roughly $450 million chunk of the state’s projected $1.6 billion deficit, according to the Legislative Finance Division. His budget proposal also taps some reserve accounts and includes sweeping cuts or changes to areas including

education, health and social service programs and the state ferry system, a transportation link important to southeast coastal communities. Dunleavy is not proposing any new statewide taxes. Lawmakers are trying See TAX, page A2

Fairbanks mayor vetoes LGBTQ Seward flooding on anti-discrimination protections Assembly agenda

FAIRBANKS (AP) — The mayor of Alaska’s second-largest city vetoed a new local law Friday that gave sweeping equal rights protections to the LGBTQ community — just days after the City Council approved it. Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly said he hopes to put the issue on the ballot in October and let voting residents decide, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

reported Friday. Matherly made the announcement in a column sent to the newspaper Friday morning. The decision was made “after much soul searching, research, and examination of all facets of the issues,” according to Matherly. “I do not take this action lightly,” he wrote. “As with most concepts, the details become challenging when they affect

so many people with different priorities and opinions. It is those details that I think require further examination.” The Fairbanks City Council approved the equal rights ordinance on Monday by a 4-2 vote. The hotly debated measure extended anti-discrimination protections for employment, housing and public accommodaSee VETO, page A3

By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly will introduce a resolution authorizing the borough to seek assistance from the state to fund flood damage repairs in Seward. After a series of storm systems and seemingly nonstop heavy rainfall this past October, Seward roads and infrastructure were inundat-

ed with water causing damage to roads, bridges and public facilities. On Oct. 12, Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce signed a Local Emergency Disaster Declaration seeking assistance for emergency protection services and repairs. Gov. Bill Walker followed suit on Oct. 16, declaring a State Disaster for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, making See FLOOD, page A3


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