Caravan
Baseball
Migrants journey to US border
Red Sox, Dodgers battle in Game 1
World/A6
Sports/A9
CLARION
Mostly cloudy 48/36 More weather on Page A2
P E N I N S U L A
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 21
In the news Night closures planned for Seward Highway culvert work ANCHORAGE — The highway connecting Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula will close at night periodically over two weeks. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities says culvert work will close the Seward Highway south of Girdwood in six-hour increments for parts of six nights. The first closures at Miles 84.6 to 86.1 will be Wednesday and Thursday. Closures also are planned for four days next week, Oct. 29 through Nov. 1. Department spokeswoman Meadow Bailey says the closures are planned between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. Spokeswoman Jill Reese says the crews could work longer than six hours if they run into unexpected issues. Emergency vehicles will be allowed through. The work depends on the weather. Wind gusts to 50 mph hit Tuesday, forcing work to stop.
No charges filed after suicidal Fairbanks standoff FAIRBANKS — Police say no charges will be filed against an armed, suicidal man who was parked in a vehicle with a woman for hours outside a hospital before he was detained. Fairbanks police said Tuesday the man threatened suicide if anyone came near the SUV, but he never threatened anyone else. No one was injured in the Monday incident in the parking lot of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Police say the woman was not a hostage and refused to leave. Police spokeswoman Yumi McCulloch says the woman is the man’s girlfriend. Negotiators spoke with the man for several hours before both people got out of the vehicle. The man was taken into protective custody and turned over to hospital staff for a psychiatric evaluation. He had a shotgun and a second firearm was found in the SUV.
Index Opinion .................. A4 Nation .................... A5 World ..................... A6 Food ...................... A7 Sports .....................A9 Classifieds ........... A10 Comics................. A14 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
Poll: Dunleavy still leads By JAMES BROOKS Juneau Empire
With Gov. Bill Walker out of the picture, the gubernatorial race is closer than ever. Mike Dunleavy still leads the race to become Alaska’s next governor, according to the latest poll released Tuesday, but Walker’s former supporters appear to be giving Mark Begich a boost in the race’s final two weeks. The first poll of likely voters taken since Walker withdrew from the race on Friday shows Dunleavy leading Begich by four percentage points, 48 to 44. That’s less than half of the lead Dunleavy had when independent incumbent Walker and Democratic candidate Begich Republican Mike Dunleavy, left, and Democrat Mark Begich, right, are the two leading candiwere competing for the at- dates in the race to replace incumbent independent Gov. Bill Walker. (Composite image) See POLL, page A3
Schools receive annual report card By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
New student progress reports were released from the state Department of Education and Early Development Tuesday. Superintendent Sean Dusek said in a press release Tuesday that the majority of the district’s schools were doing very well. “While every school is working hard to improve, we have some schools that will develop plans to address specific areas identified through their designation,” Dusek said. “I appreciate the efforts of our staff in ensuring high student academic achievement and the attitude of continuous improvement. We look forward to next year’s results as we expect even more student learning growth.” The rating system is new and replaces the Alaska State Performance Index, which used a star system of rating. The new ranking, called System for School Success Reports, is a federal requirement of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Each school in the state is ranked on a 100-point scale based on student growth and proficiency in state assessments, chronic absenteeism, high school graduation and student growth in learning English for students who are enrolled as English Cars traverse a washed out road near Mile 5 of the Seward Highway, near Seward, last week. Language Learners. Every year Two tropical low-pressure systems brought more than 7 inches of rain to the Seward area, caus- each school will receive an ining flooding and damage to roadways. (Photo courtesy of Kenai Peninsula Borough Incident See GRADE, page A2 Management Team)
Borough begins Seward road repairs By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Borough crews have begun repairing Seward roads inundated by two storm systems that dumped inches of rain over the peninsula last week. Crews did an assessment of flood damage on Monday and began work on borough-maintained roads outside of Seward City limits early Tuesday, Dan Nelson, emergency manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, said. “We’re moving on to the repair and recovery phase,” Nelson said in a video update Tuesday morning. “It started yesterday afternoon and will be continuing through the rest of the week,” he said. “We’re working to repair roads and getting them See FLOOD, page A2
Judge dismisses Fairbanks Four lawsuit By JAMES BROOKS Juneau Empire
A federal judge ruled against the Fairbanks Four in an opinion issued Monday, dismissing their efforts to seek compensation from the city of Fairbanks and law enforcement. In his opinion, judge Hezekiah Russel Holland found Marvin Roberts, George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent did not have a case strong enough to overcome a settlement agreement they signed with the city of Fairbanks and State of Alaska as a condition of their release from prison. “Obviously we’re disappointed and we’re going to appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Michael Kramer, the attorney for the four men. Matthew Singer, representing the city of Fairbanks, said
he believes the court correctly applied U.S. Supreme Court precedent and that the Ninth Circuit will see the case the same way that Holland does. Monday’s decision was the latest legal battle for Roberts, Frese, Pease and Vent, who in 1997 were convicted of murdering John Hartman in Fairbanks. Hartman was white, the four men were not. After their conviction, there were widespread protests and suggestions that the Fairbanks Police Department had targeted the four men despite evidence indicating another suspect. Those suggestions led to a campaign that asked the state to reopen the case against the four men. In 2015, a five-week hearing showed significant evidence that someone else had killed Hartman. Soon afterward, the city of Fairbanks and State of Alaska offered a settlement
Kodiak rancher: Bears have claimed 30 of my cows KODIAK (AP) — A rancher on Kodiak Island said bears have killed more than 30 of his cows this year. Kodiak residents said the level of bear activity on the road system in recent weeks seems higher than usual, resulting in broken fences and scattered garbage, the Kodiak
Daily Mirror reported Monday. Rancher Chris Flickinger said the number of his animals killed by bears is way above average and has hit him hard financially. Over the last two weeks bears have killed a cow, a bull and two calves at his property near Pasagshak, he See COW, page A2
The Fairbanks Four — Marvin Roberts, left to right, Kevin Pease, Eugene Vent, and George Frese — hold up four fingers, symbolizing the Fairbanks Four, in the David Salmon Tribal Hall after they were freed in December 2015 in Fairbanks. (Photo by Rachel D’Oro / The Associated Press file)
agreement to the four men: dropped as long as they agreed they could go free with charges to not seek claims against the
city or state. The four men signed the agreement, and they were freed from prison eight days before Christmas in 2015. Two years later, Kramer (initially representing just Roberts and later all four men) filed suit in federal court, alleging that the city violated their civil rights and that the agreement was the result of coercion, therefore invalid. Holland, citing prior case law, disagreed with that argument. Instead, he found that the men are unable to bring claims against the city because their original conviction was not declared “invalid,” such as when a case is overturned on appeal. “In fact, the parties’ stipulation expressly provided ‘that the original jury verdicts and judgements of conviction were properly and validly entered See FOUR, page A13
Alaska sees unusually warm fall ANCHORAGE (AP) — Alaska’s early fall has been unusually warm as a massive high-pressure system camped out around the state. The warmer weather has allowed lawns to stay green in Anchorage and for farmers to continue harvesting crops in Palmer during a month when the state typically begins to freeze, the
Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday. The lack of typical snow and subfreezing temperatures is unsettling to some. The village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island had no ice, weeks into October. “It’s not freezing up,” said Delbert Pungowiyi, Savoonga tribal president. “Normally,
we’d be able to cross the rivers and lakes.” Climatologist Rick Thoman said most of the state is “running way above normal” this month. Sea-surface temperatures in Chukchi and Bering seas are also “exceptionally warm,” he said. Utqiagvik was 9 degrees See FALL, page A13