Atomic
Big run
Netanyahu accuses Iran of secret cache
Kenai girls ready to roll at state
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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 48, Issue 310
Friday, September 28, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
In the news
Soldotna doesn’t take stand on Ballot Measure 1
Apartments owner fined for not warning tenants of arsenic ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Anchorage apartment complex owner who didn’t warn tenants that their water had high levels of arsenic has been fined nearly $600,000. The Anchorage Daily News reports Trudy Tush was fined $588,684 in federal court for violations of the Clean Water Act while the complex used well water. Tush could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation in 2009 and 2011 issued violation notices for insufficient monitoring of well water. State officials in 2014 asked the EPA to step in. The EPA filed a federal court complaint in April. Officials in May confirmed the apartment complex in midtown Anchorage had been connected to an Anchorage water utility. Long-term exposure to arsenic at high levels has been linked to bladder cancer and other diseases.
By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
ABOVE: Firefighters prepare for a training session off Arc Loop Road on Thursday as part of the Alaska Fire Conference. BELOW: Firefighters respond to a controlled fire in a group of conexes off of Arc Loop Road in Soldotna. The area was set up to resemble a home and a fire was set in different sections of the building to test the firefighters. The training on Thursday was part of the Alaska Fire Conference which is being held in Kenai this week. (Photo by Kat Sorensen/Peninsula Clarion)
Firefighters come to Kenai
Florence death toll increases; 1,500 still in NC shelters RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The death toll from Hurricane Florence has increased again, nearly two weeks after the eye of the storm reached the Carolinas. North Carolina Emergency Operations Center spokeswoman Sonja BennettBellamy said Thursday that an 85-year-old man from New Hanover County died Tuesday. The man contracted an infection in a wound he received while cleaning up storm debris on his property. The death toll now stands at 48 deaths in three states, 37 of them in North Carolina.
By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
According to Jason Buist, a lieutenant with the Fort Wainwright Fire Department in Fairbanks, the best way to learn how to run into a burning building and put out fires is to run into a burning building and put out fires. So, that’s what firefighters from across the state did Thursday during a live burn training at the CES Arc Loop Road Training Facility in Soldotna. The training was one of many offerings at this year’s Alaska Fire Conference, which is being held in Kenai. The conference, which started on Sept. 24 and ends on Sept.
Inside ‘I just wanted to let you know, I’m very sorry. That’s not right,’ ... See page A8
You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?.’ ... See page A6
Index Opinion................... A4 Nation..................... A5 World...................... A6 Sports......................B1 Classifieds.............. B5 Comics.................... B6
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28, brings together firefighters from throughout Alaska to participate in different trainings, from live burns like the one led by Buist to lessons in leadership. This year’s conference brought 225 firefighters, 47 different vendors and instructors to Kenai. “There are probably 350 people or so in the area,” said Chief Jeff Tucker of the Kenai Fire Department, who spearheaded this year’s events. “The conference moves around each year to different host communitues. It’s Alaska’s biggest conference for the fire service.” The conference ends tonight with a closing banquet.
A resolution that would formally oppose Alaska Ballot Measure 1, failed at Wednesday’s Soldotna City Council meeting. The resolution, which was presented by council member Lisa Parker in an effort to protect potential impacts the initiative would have on the city, received a 3-2 vote, however, four votes are required to pass a resolution. Parker said she brought the resolution forward because she was concerned about how the initiative would affect Soldotna’s wastewater treatment plant. She said the city has been trying to get answers about potential impacts from the state, the Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as reaching out to representatives for Stand for Salmon. “This petition has the potential to make significant financial impacts on the residents of the city of Soldotna,” Parker said. “That’s why I brought this forward. We don’t want to be operating in the dark as we’re dealing with policy issues in Alaska. We need to look at it in terms of not only how it affects Alaska, but how does it affect our community here.” Mayor Nels Anderson said he would estimate financial impacts on the wastewater treatment plant if the initiative were to pass would cost the city $40 million. Parker said the city was unable to get clarifications as to what the impacts would be if Alaska Ballot Measure 1 were to pass. The resolution was controversial, bringing in public testimony of all kinds forward. See STAND, page AX
Senate hears Kavanaugh, Ford Ice Alaska sues former leaders over mismanagement By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press
FAIRBANKS (AP) — The organization that plans the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks is suing its former leaders, claiming mismanagement of state funds. Ice Alaska filed the suit this week against former board leaders Hank Bartos, Dick Brickley and Hoa Brickley, seeking at least $2 million in damages, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the three “knowingly and unlawfully engaged in a series of fraudulent transactions to acquire Ice Alaska’s personal assets, the Phillips Field property and other properties, with the use of state grant money.” The organization received a $2 million state grant in 2006. The lawsuit claims they put the organization into debt to take possession of an ice
park and other properties. Bartos said the allegations are false. “What I see is defamation. I’m going to be countersuing,” Bartos said. Dick Brickley and Hoa Brickley did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. Three years ago, Ice Alaska gave ownership of the George Horner Ice Park to D&H Enterprises, which is owned by Dick Brickley and Hoa Brickley. The organization in 2011 had purchased the property where it has held the annual ice event. The lawsuit accuses Bartos and the Brickleys of coercing the organizations’ board to give up the ice park by threatening that board members could be held personally liable for the debt to D&H Enterprises if they didn’t agree to give up the property. The lawsuit seeks
WASHINGTON — Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh riveted Washington and the nation with hours of fiery, emotional testimony from the judge and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were high schoolers. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. Here are some takeaways from the extraordinary hearing: HOW DID SHE DO? Ford gave a soft-spoken and steady account about what she said happened three decades ago in a bedroom at a small gathering of friends. She said she came forward not for political reasons, but because it was her “civic duty.” She described in detail how an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and testiSee JUDGE, page A8
Christine Blasey Ford, top, and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday in Washington. (Pool Images via AP)