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P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, October 19-20, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 17
In the news Ex juvenile official charged with possessing child porn ANCHORAGE — A former high-ranking official in Alaska juvenile justice has been charged with possession of child pornography. Federal prosecutors Wednesday announced the charge against 54-year-old Dennis Weston. Anchorage television station KTVA reports Weston is the former superintendent of Anchorage’s McLaughlin Youth Center, a state detention facility for juvenile offenders. He’s also the former head of the Johnson Youth Center in Juneau, which provides juveniles short-term detention and long-term treatment. The indictment alleges that Weston possessed digital depictions of minors engaged in explicit sexual conduct. Weston was hired as a juvenile justice officer in 1992. He rose to be division operations manager. He was placed on administrative leave June 26 and he resigned July 24. Weston’s phone number was not immediately available and his attorney is not listed in online court documents.
Anchorage murder, kidnapping suspect arrested in Michigan ANCHORAGE — A woman wanted for a fatal Alaska shooting has been arrested in Michigan. Anchorage police announced Thursday that 49-year-old Linda Richards was found hiding in a home in Eastpointe, Michigan. She is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery in the Jan. 28 death of 52-yearold Carl Bowie Jr. Witnesses that night reported shots fired near 36th Avenue and Arctic Boulevard and on Spenard Road. Police found Bowie dead inside a home in Penguin Trailer Court at Spenard Road near 36th Avenue. A second suspect, 19-yearold Austin Cottrell, faces the same charges and is jailed in Anchorage. Richards was arrested Thursday morning and transported to Macomb County Jail in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Alaska authorities are working to extradite her. — Associated Press
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A different kind of drive-thru
Davidson opens AFN Narcan kits available at Soldotna Sports Complex on Saturday conference By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
On Saturday, community members have the opportunity to participate in an emergency preparedness drill while getting the tools and education to potentially save lives. Attendees don’t even have to leave their cars. A community coalition that includes the Department of Health and Social Service Kenai Public Health Nursing, Change 4 the Kenai, Points on Prevention Coalition, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Management, the Alaska National Guard, the Reentry Coalition of the Kenai Peninsula and the Kenaitze Tribe will host a drive-thru Narcan kit distribution event at the Solodtna Sports Complex. Change 4 the Kenai Director Shari Connor said the drivethru event would take about 10 minutes as drivers make their way through several stations where they receive a Narcan kit, helpful information on how to identify someone who may be in crisis and an emergency preparedness bag to take home.
By JAMES BROOKS Juneau Empire
Sherra Pritchard, a public health nurse at the Kenai Public Health Center, puts together an emergency preparedness kit, which will be similar to the ones given out at Saturday’s Point of Dispensing exercise, on Thursday in Kenai. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
The point of dispensing exercise will serve the community in two different ways. Leslie Felts, nurse manager from Kenai Peninsula Public
Health, said the event gives the organization an opportunity to practice mass distribution. “As public health nurses for the state of Alaska, one of our
priorities is emergency preparedness for everyone in the community,” Felts said. “One of the things that we focus on
See DRIVE, page A3
A discussion with Mark Begich By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula’s economy has long been dependent on oil and gas. What will you do to boost the economy on the Kenai Peninsula beyond oil and gas? The economy of the Kenai Peninsula can be much broader. Tourism continues to grow in the region, which I think is a fantastic growth opportunity. I think fisheries, even though we’ve had challenges around our sports fishing community with closures, fisheries continue to be an opportunity for us in the peninsula. I also think to continue to invest in the campus there, because I think there’s a lot of people who continue to need educational opportunities from the university’s campus there, and AVTEC in Seward. The last, which I think is continuing to grow, and why I mention the educational piece is because you have to connect to the next area of growth, and that’s in the health care area. There continues to be a demand for health care services on the peninsula and I have toured multiple facilities. It shows me there’s a lot of potentials for folks to be trained in the region and work in the health care area. A lot of people on the peninsula are counting on the success of the LNG project — but there is a long way to go
Democratic nominee for Alaska governor Mark Begich, center, speaks to a man following a candidate forum Oct. 2 in Juneau. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
before it will start bringing in money. What would you do to make sure this project happens? You got to keep the regulatory piece of it moving forward and the relationship with the federal government. You have to make sure you have good investors to ensure you can finance the project. That’s a big piece of it. We have to have some market conditions that al-
low the pricing work, so when we get ready to sell it there’s a market to sell to. I think the governor has to push back on the president regarding the tariffs on China because that’s where some of our steel will come from. Those tariffs would add additional cost. We got to do what we can there to get some tariff relief. What do you think the future of the PFD is considering
Alaska’s deficit and economy? Putting in the constitution, which I believe it should be, the dividend itself. I was the only candidate that proposed a real sustainable way to get the dividend in the constitution. I think it could be there for generations. If you leave it in the hands of politicians, which it is now under both my opponents’ See BEGICH page A2
Alaska’s first female Alaska Native lieutenant governor was greeted by a standing ovation Thursday in Anchorage as she delivered her inaugural remarks to a public audience. Two days after the abrupt resignation of Byron Mallott, Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson delivered the keynote address at the opening of the annual Alaska Federation of Natives conference. “You should know that I am brand new to this; I have never been a lieutenant governor before. That’s OK,” she said to applause and laughter. Davidson, formerly commissioner of the Department of Health and Social Services, had been scheduled to deliver the keynote before she was tapped to become lieutenant governor. She acknowledged the abrupt change without revealing the incident that led to Mallott’s resignation. “Just two days ago, our world shifted, and I want you to know Alaskans deserve the highest standard of conduct by their elected officials,” she said. “These last few days have been tough for all of us, but today is a new day. Today we move forward.” Officials in the governor’s office have said only that Mallott offered his resignation after inappropriate remarks toward a woman. It is not known what the remarks were, or who they were addressed to. In her speech, Davidson explained her history as a “village girl” in Southwest Alaska and discussed the need to triumph despite adversity. “I want our children to know that just because bad things happen to us in our childhood, they don’t have to define our future or who we are as people,” she said. Davidson also discussed her recent work with the health department, saying that expansion of the federal Medicaid program has been wildly successful in Alaska. “For Medicaid expansion, those dollars came to every single community in Alaska where health care is provided,” she said. Alaska’s Medicaid program was unilaterally expanded by Gov. Bill Walker in 2015. The act survived a court challenge but could be reversed by a new governor. Walker himself took the stage after Davidson concluded her remarks with an exuberant seal call. The incumbent independent acknowledged Mallott’s resignation without explaining it. “Byron Mallott is my brothSee AFN, page A3
Walker’s campaign moving ahead ‘a day at a time’ By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday his re-election campaign is moving ahead but is taking it “a day at a time” after being rocked this week by the abrupt resignation of Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. Mallott resigned Tuesday over what Walker has described
as an inappropriate overture to a woman. Mallott apologized though few details have been released. Walker said he is honoring the wishes of the woman involved. Walker campaign manager John-Henry Heckendorn has said the campaign was in talks with Democratic rival Mark Begich about a “path forward for Alaska,” but declined to
elaborate when asked about it Thursday. Begich’s campaign manager has not returned messages. Walker is a Republicanturned-independent who was elected with Democratic support in 2014. He is locked in a tough three-way re-election fight. Some Democrats and independents have worried that he and Begich will split the
vote, giving the race to Republican Mike Dunleavy, the presumed front runner. During a debate Thursday, Dunleavy asked Begich if he was in negotiations with Walker for one of them to drop out before the Nov. 6 election. “I’d like you to drop out,” Begich said to laughter. Pressed further by Dunleavy, Begich said: “There’s no deals.”
Walker said the Republican Party contacted him to be their candidate after Dunleavy had filed. “There’s all sorts of conversations going on out there,” he said. Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the state GOP, said he assumed Walker was joking. He said Walker’s chief of staff, Scott Kendall, had asked See GOV, page A3