Russia
Trouble
Trump seems to change story
NASCAR chairman takes leave after arrest
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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Tuesday, August 7, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 48, Issue 266
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
In the news
Outside group is courting Alaskans
Austria man dies in packrafting accident
Campaign asks residents to reach out to Murkowski about Supreme Court vote
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Austria man has died in a pack-rafting accident in Alaska. National Park Service officials say 22-year-old Aidan Don of Salzburg, Austria, died Thursday in WrangellSt. Elias National Park and Preserve. His body was recovered Friday from the Nizina River. Don and a friend were dropped off by plane Thursday around a lake at the base of the Nizina Glacier for a daylong trip on the river. Officials say the novice pack-rafters became separated a few miles downriver. The surviving rafter made an emergency call for help after seeing Don’s capsized raft but no sign of him. According to officials, aerial searchers located Don’s body and also picked up the survivor. Because of the difficulty reaching the body, a helicopter was required to recover the body the next day.
By ALEX MCCARTHY Juneau Empire
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is in the spotlight in the ongoing national health care debate, and one nationwide organization is putting a concerted effort into motivating Alaskans to share their personal stories with Murkowski about how health care affects their lives. Protect Our Care, a national campaign that works to preserve and improve the Affordable Care Act, is particularly intent on opposing President
Donald Trump’s selection of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Those at the campaign believe Kavanaugh will use his position to repeal ACA and possibly Roe v. Wade. A date has not yet been set in stone for a vote confirming Kavanaugh’s appointment to the court, but many believe Murkowski, as well as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, could be a vital swing vote. Among those is Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS). Every vote is vital, Slavitt said. Republicans hold a 5149 majority in the Senate, but Arizona Sen. John McCain is at home fighting cancer. “You can expect that this is a very, very close vote decided by one vote, potentially, given that there are 50 Republicans if you don’t count John McCain that will vote on this,” Slavitt said in a phone interview. “If one of them chooses not to vote to support Judge Kavanaugh, I think that could be very important.”
Proponents of Kavanaugh have said he’s a highly qualified candidate, having spent 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and spending time as a staff secretary for President George W. Bush. Justin Walker, an assistant professor of law at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, clerked for Kavanaugh from 2010-2011 and said Kavanaugh’s previous decisions and writings suggest Kavanaugh will not be a rubber-stamp justice for the president.
4 charged in illegal commercial fishing in bay near Homer By ELIZABETH EARL Peninsula Clarion
Work in progress A fresh coat of concrete and new classrooms are going up at the Trinity Christian Center on the hill outside Soldotna. The church, recognizable for its distinctive dome sanctuary, is in the midst of a renovation and construction project, with volunteer crews adding a new layer of concrete to the surface of the signature dome building that currently houses the church and preparing to build a new wing that will house several new classrooms, with plans to finish the construction by the end of this season. Future plans also include a new sanctuary, though that won’t be finished this year. The church has been on the hill outside Soldotna for about 30 years. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)
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The state has filed charges against four commercial fishermen accused of illegal harvesting salmon in a bay south of Homer. Alaska Wildlife Troopers wrote in a dispatch Monday that Eric Winslow, 61, Paul Roth, 35, and Mark Roth, 64, all of Homer, and Robert Roth, 39, of Anchor Point, are charged with working together to illegally drive salmon out of a closed area near the mouth of a creek in Dog Fish Bay into an open fishing area, where they harvested them. Altogether, 33,328 pounds of salmon were illegally harvested, according t the dispatch. A wildlife trooper spotted five commercial fishing vessels — the Little Star, the See FISH, page A7
TipsyGypsy Coffee takes artisan New restaurant to food, drinks on the move come to Kenai Airport By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Index
See VOTE, page A7
Boat patrol
Troopers release name of man killed in village shooting ANCHORAGE (AP) — Alaska State Troopers have released the name of an officer who fatally shot a suspect last week. Troopers say Sgt. Brent Hatch, a 10-year veteran, fired and killed 28-year-old Carl Tyson of Saint Mary’s. Troopers say Tyson was armed with a knife when he died. A Saint Mary’s village police officer on Thursday night responded to a domestic violence report and called for assistance. Hatch arrived, and with the village police officer, pursued as Tyson ran from the scene. Troopers say Tyson turned, advanced with a knife in his hand and ignored commands to drop the knife. Hatch fired and Tyson died at the scene. The trooper was placed on 72-hours mandatory administrative leave. Saint Mary’s is a village of 566 about 450 miles (725 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage.
“They demonstrate that he faithfully applies the text of the statues and the Constitution and he goes wherever the law leads,” Wilson said in a phone interview. Wilson was recently in Alaska to speak about Kavanaugh and said he heard a good deal of positive feedback on Kavanaugh from the Alaskans with whom he spoke. Specifically in regard to the ACA, Wilson said Kavanaugh “will go without any passion or prejudice” for either party or either side of the
After selling Veronica’s Cafe about three years ago, Diane Hooper still found she had a passion for food and people, prompting her to open TipsyGypsy Coffee Shop about six weeks ago. Hooper said when she was a child she dreamed of being a gypsy. So she named her cart the TipsyGypsy and decorated the cart to resemble a caravan wagon. The wagon currently sits right off of the Sterling Highway in Soldotna adjacent to Artzy Junkin. Q: What do you sell? A: My menu changes every day. I offer two different paninis. It’s a pretty simple menu, but it’s good. Yogurt parfaits have been extremely popular. I fill them with fresh fruit that I pick up on the way to work. I also put a drizzle of wild fireweed syrup and Alaska birch syrup on them. They’ve been going out of here like hotcakes, and not just in the early morn-
By BEN BOETTGER Peninsula Clarion
Diane Hooper opened TipsyGypsy Coffee Shop earlier this summer to pursue her passion for food and people on Friday in Soldotna. (Phot by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
Shop Talk ings but in the afternoons and evenings as well. Then I have coffee and a lot of cool drinks, like smoothies and other drinks people enjoy. Q: Why start a food cart? A: After I sold Veronica’s, I really did miss it. I missed the people. I missed making people’s tummies happy. I was
down in Homer last fall visiting my daughter and grandchildren, and I saw this little cart out in a field and it had a for sale sign on it. I thought, ‘You know what, I think I can turn that into something special.’ So I did. I brought it home, dressed it up and I’ve had more fun doing this. Q: What’s been the biggest differences and similarities See SHOP, page A7
The new business Brothers’ Cafe is moving into the Kenai Municipal Airport terminal’s restaurant space. Jim Hamilton, who co-owns the new business with his brother, chef Lyndell Hamilton, said Brothers’ Cafe will have its soft opening in late August and a grand opening in early September. The restaurant will serve “comfort food, coffee, and deserts,” Jim Hamilton said. Jim Hamilton already works on the Kenai Airport as executive director of the Kenai Airport-based missionary aviation nonprofit Arctic Barnabas. A pastor and marketing consultant, Hamilton said his family’s company, Situlla LLC, already operates small businesses in Texas and Michigan, and had been looking to open a restaurant and coffee shop for about a year before the terminal became open. Lyndell Hamilton later decided to move to Kenai from Texas to to run the restaurant, while Jim Hamilton said his work “will be more on the people side.” The Hamiltons’ niece and nephew had also been planning a move to Alaska to open a coffee shop — their nephew will run the coffee shop side of the business as a barista, Jim Hamilton said. Part of the proceeds for the grand opening in September, Jim Hamilton said, will go to the Christian nonprofit Love INC, which helps families in need of food and housing. He hopes that Brothers’ Cafe will work with other nonprofits See KENAI, page A7