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P E N I N S U L A
Tuesday, August 28, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 48, Issue 283
In the news Police identify pedestrian killed in weekend crash ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police have released the name of a pedestrian killed in a weekend traffic accident. Police say 58-year-old Gerald Turner Jr. died as he tried to cross the Seward Highway in midtown Anchorage near Fireweed Lane. Anchorage police responded to the crash at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Turner was not in a crosswalk when he was struck. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. The female SUV driver was not injured.
Police arrest 2 suspects in 2017 kidnapping, beating ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police have arrested two suspects in an August 2017 beating that left a man with brain, skull and hand injuries. Police on Sunday arrested 28-year-old Faamanu Vaifanua (fah-ah-MAH-noo vif-fan-OO-ah), who goes by “Junior,” and 29-year-old Macauther Vaifanua. A third suspect, 25-yearold Rex Faumui (fah-ooMOO-ee), remains at large and was described as armed and dangerous. The three were indicted on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault in the beating of 34-year-old Abshir Mohamed, who was stomped, beaten with a baseball bat and metal broom handle and delivered to a hospital in an animal cage. Police found Junior Vaifanua at a home near Lake Otis Parkway and 88th Avenue. He was arrested as he tried to flee. Macauther Vaifanua turned himself in a few hours later at the Anchorage jail.
Police identify man killed in weekend shooting ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police have released the name of a man who died in a weekend shooting. Police say 37-year-old Kevin Napier was shot in the upper body at an apartment in the 3500 block of west 88th Avenue in southwest Anchorage. No arrests have been made. Investigators say the shooting was a homicide and are asking witnesses to contact them. — Associated Press
Index Opinion .................. A4 Nation .................... A5 Crime ..................... A6 Sports .....................A7 Classifieds ............. A8 Comics................. A12 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
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Dead Alaska voters try to cast ballots By JAMES BROOKS Juneau Empire
The Alaska Division of Elections is investigating why seven dead people requested absentee ballots for the closefought primary election in Anchorage’s House District 15. The issue was among several irregularities that have arisen in a race featuring incumbent House Rules Chairwoman Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, and former KTUU-TV cameraman Aaron Weaver. Both are seeking the Republican nomination for the district, but little-known Weaver leads LeDoux by three votes despite raising little money and doing little campaigning. In an email Monday, the division said that in addition to the dead-voter presence, it found an unusually large number of absentee ballot forms were returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service, and the division received two
Elections workers hand count ballots after the 2016 statewide primary election. (Michael Penn /Juneau Empire)
completed ballots from people within the district who said they didn’t vote in the election. “Now it’s being handed over
to the criminal division (of the Alaska Department of Law) to see how they want to proceed,” said Division of Elections
spokeswoman Samantha Miller. Anyone attempting to vote illegally could be prosecuted under the state’s voter mis-
Everything Bagels: Bringing a big city favorite to small-town Alaska By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
What started as a way to pass time has flourished into Pamela and Matt Parker’s full-time gig. When the two moved to the peninsula over three years ago their house didn’t have internet, so in their spare time, instead of streaming or internet surfing, they were testing recipes for bagels. “One day we were going on a hike and we were thinking about what to pack for the day,” Pamela Parker said. “We thought a bagel sounded good because we ate them a lot where we are from on the East Coast. We looked up bagel places near us and the closest place was the bagel shop in Homer. We were headed the other direction so that wasn’t going to work. So we kind of joked around about starting a bagel shop here in town. Since we didn’t have internet we were going to sit and talk about this and it came into fruition from there.” In their own kitchen, they
Shop Talk started to make the dough at night, and bake in the morning — testing out recipes they found from Google searches. As things started to pick up, they began to deliver bagels to homes and offices. Next, they sold their bagels at the Kenai Saturday Market. By mid-summer of 2016, they opened their doors to Everything Bagels’ first brick and mortar location inside the Blazy Mall in Soldotna. After about six months inside the mall, the couple decided to open a second location in Kenai. As the business grew they decided to close their Kenai and Blazy Mall locations. They moved to their current location in Soldotna, near Beemun’s Variety and True Value, in October of 2017. Q: Did you know how to make bagels before coming up with Everything Bagels? A: Pamela Parker: We knew what they tasted like. We wanted to make sure we
Everything bagels offer an assortment of bagels and sandwiches, including a special bagel and cream cheese flavor every week on Wednesday in Soldotna. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
were doing it right. We didn’t want those smooshy, bread-like ones you get at the store. We’re millennials, so we googled, watched a couple Youtube video, found a couple recipes that we tweaked for what we could
find in the area and went from there. The first batch we took on a hike with the Kenai Peninsula Outdoor Club. That was the first time we went on one of those hikes and we gave a bagel to See BAGEL, page A2
conduct statute. A violation is considered a class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 or 30 days in jail. (Punishment would be longer if the criminal has prior convictions.) The problem ballots represent less than 12 percent of the total absentee ballots cast in the district. According to figures released Wednesday morning by the division, 243 absentee ballots have been completed and received by the division. Of those, 15 were rejected and 14 were partially accepted. They nevertheless are critical because the race is so close and because LeDoux is one of three Republicans who joined the Democrat-led coalition House Majority last session. The Alaska Republican Party strenuously campaigned against those three Republicans. Alaska’s absentee balSee DEAD, page A2
NOAA to work on Arctic marine navigation JUNEAU (AP) — A federal panel that helps shape marine navigation in the U.S. Arctic and other Alaska locations is meeting this week in Juneau. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel will convene Tuesday morning for three days, the Juneau Empire reported . The panel meets twice each year. Experts on navigation and marine transportation develop priorities for NOAA navigation services, including the creation of charts, tide tables, and coast surveys that mariners use. With the melting of sea ice in Arctic waters, ship traffic has increased north of the Bering Strait. However, the United States lacks maritime infrastructure in the region.
See NOAA, page A6
State budget cuts hit magistrates 3 Soldotna women By JAMES BROOKS Juneau Empire
State budget cuts are again hitting the Alaska Court System. In a Friday meeting with the Juneau Bar Association, court system administrator Neil Nesheim said the state will leave several Southeast Alaska magistrate positions vacant and staff some rural offices with clerks alone. “We’ve been in a fiscal crisis for the last few years,” he said during the bar association’s weekly luncheon. Magistrates are the lowestlevel judicial positions in the Alaska Court System. They handle routine work that can be time-sensitive, such as issuing a search warrant or protective order. They also preside over small-claims court, minor offenses and some misdemeanors. Two years ago, the state had nine magistrates in Southeast Alaska outside Juneau. After the latest changes, it will have five.
Those who remain will find themselves supervising cases in multiple, widespread communities. Magistrate Mary Kay Germain, for example, is in charge of cases in Hoonah, Skagway and Haines, all from Yakutat, which she also oversees. “That worries me,” said Haines Police Chief Heath Scott. Scott said there’s a huge deterrent effect when a criminal goes in front of a judge. “When you go into a courtroom that is properly staffed with a judge, and that judge has control of their environment, that is not a place you want to return to,” he said. With so many cases conducted telephonically, that isn’t happening, he said. Often, the only two people in the courtroom are the arresting officer and the defendant. Everyone else — the judge, public defender and district attorney — is participating by phone. “That makes for a very un-
productive courtroom, in my sense,” he said. Speaking to the bar association, Nesheim said the cuts “obviously (have) an impact in how we do business.” Last year, Chief Justice Craig Stowers, then head of the Alaska Court System used the annual State of the Judiciary address to suggest limited cuts to the state’s judicial system, one of three independent branches of government in Alaska. The Legislature duly followed suit, cutting the courts’ budget from $107.1 million to $105.4 million. This year, Stowers did not request any additional budget cuts and instead addressed the consequences of prior budget cuts. The judicial branch’s staff has been cut 11 percent since 2015, from 750 employees (and 70 judges) to 690 employees and 70 judges. By phone on Monday, Nesheim said the cutbacks have had another side effect See CUTS, page A6
indicted for forgery, theft By ERIN THOMPSON Peninsula Clarion
Three Soldotna women are facing 153 criminal counts for allegedly stealing credit cards, forging and stealing checks and illegally opening mail earlier this year. Bridget Lee Marie Samson, 28, and Savanna Marie Enix, 33, were indicted Wednesday on 50 counts each: six counts of second-degree forgery, a class C felony; 13 counts of second-degree theft, a class C felony; 29 counts of opening sealed letters without permission, a Class A misdemeanor; and two counts of fourth-degree theft, a class B misdemeanor. Joanna Lee Samson-Sills, 44, was indicted on six counts of second-degree forgery, 13 counts of seconddegree theft and 29 counts of opening sealed letters without permission and one count of fourth-degree theft. SamsonSills was indicted in February
in the same case for one count of second-degree forgery, two counts of second-degree theft, and one count of attempted third-degree theft. The women are accused of altering or possessing a number of stolen checks totaling nearly $2,000, stealing at least four credit cards and opening and reading other people’s mail — which contained checks, credit cards, financial information, personal and business paperwork, according to an Aug. 22 indictment filed in Kenai Superior Court. The three women were charged in a separate case — along with five others — for allegedly using stolen credit cards to charge more than $8,000 on purchases at a number of local businesses, including Walgreens, Walmart, Fred Meyer and Tesoro beginning in late 2017. Reach Erin Thompson at ethompson@peninsulaclarion. com.