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CLARION
Sunshine 46/27 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 166
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Question
Photos by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Should a state-wide ban on smoking in public places be enacted? n Yes; or n No.
Left: Cristiana Moyer, 11, takes a moment to warm her hands, one of many 4-H students who struggled with the cold at the Alaska State Horse Contest, Friday, at the Solid Rock Bible Camp in Soldotna. Below: Contestants took time between classes to step into the sun and warm up. The horse contest had about 40 participants from all over the state competing Friday and Saturday.
To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Results and selected comments will be posted each Tuesday in the Clarion, and a new question will be asked. Suggested questions may be submitted online or e-mailed to news@peninsulaclarion.com.
In the news House passes minimum wage bill
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A divided Alaska House on Sunday voted to raise the state minimum wage, amid suspicions of lawmakers’ motives. Supporters of HB384 sought to allay fears, saying they had no intent to revisit the issue for at least two years, should a bill pass. The bill, as introduced earlier this month, tracked closely with a ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage of $7.75 an hour by $2 an hour over two years and adjust it annually for inflation after that. The bill was changed on the floor through amendments offered by Republican majority members to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour through 2015 and to $10 an hour starting in 2016, adjusting it for inflation after that. The bill would take effect July 1. An initiative can be preempted if the Legislature passes substantially similar legislation. That happened in 2002, and a year later, lawmakers gutted the law.
Inside ‘The deal was if he joined the horse bowl team, I would go to prom with him. It was fun. I got my cowboy boots in one hand, my dress in the other. Yeah, I’m ready for the day.’
Horsing around By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
With a prom dress in one hand and cowboy boots in another, Chena Litzen, 17, was ready to take on her hectic Saturday. During the day, the team captain for North Wind Riders competed in the 2014 Alaska State 4-H/FFA Horse Contest, an an-
nual competition that took place on the Friday and Saturday at the Kenai Peninsula College and Solid Rock Bible Camp horse arena. The horse competition had about 40 participants in junior and senior division teams from around the state. They competed in four categories, public speaking, horse bowl, hippology and
By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
A mish-mash of vendors selling jacuzzis, wooden sheds and off-road vehicles sat near a Central Emergency Services fire truck on display in the parking lot of the Soldotna Sports Complex Sunday, where hundreds spent the weekend visiting booths focused on all aspects of home life. The 35th annual Home Show sold out of vendor spots, more than 111 according to organizers, and had a waiting list before the weekend’s events kicked off Saturday.
“We’ve expanded as much as we can and put folks in the parking lot,” said Cindy Rombach, executive officer of the Kenai Peninsula Builder’s Association, the show’s sponsor. “If we had a bigger facility we could certainly fit it.” Proceeds from the show go toward paying for the facility and logistics of arranging it. In addition, the money funds the builder’s association, a nonprofit building industry professional organization, Rombach said. As a steady stream of people carried food, children and building samples up
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Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Leroy Tomrdle, 4, watches several baby chicks at the Kenai Peninsula 4-H booth during the 35th annual Home Show Sunday in Soldotna. More than 111 vendor booths were set up to greet visitors.
See HOME, page A-10
Company seeks to export Yukon crude from Skagway By JAMES BROOKS Capital City Weekly
Index
Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com
See 4-H, page A-10
Home Show brings community to Soldotna
... See page A-10
Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-7 Sports.....................A-8 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6
judging. Teams from Tanana, Delta and the Homer and Ninilchick region descended on the central Kenai Peninsula, which took its turn hosting the contest. Litzen, a home school student from Nikiski, placed first in an oral reasons presentation in the morning, and then led her team in the horse quiz in the after-
AP Photo/Toronto Star, Michelle Shephard
In this Aug. 23, 2013 file photo, one of Guantanamo Bay’s two courthouses is seen through a broken window at Camp Justice at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba.
Secret Gitmo jail seen By BEN FOX Associated Press
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Attorney James Connell has visited his client inside the secret Guantanamo prison complex known
as Camp 7 only once, taken in a van with covered windows on a circuitous trek to disguise the route on the scrub brush-andcactus covered military base. Connell is allowed to say virtually nothing about what he saw. See JAIL, page A-7
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaskans know Valdez as the state’s oil port of choice, but an independent Yukon oil producer is planning to make Skagway No. 2 on the list of Alaska oil ports. Last week, Skagway Mayor Mark Schaefer announced that officials from Northern Cross Yukon are interested in using the port of Skagway to export crude oil to a refinery in Washington state. Northern Cross, an independent oil producer with backing from Chinese state oil company CNOOC, has been investigating the Eagle Plains area along the Dempster Highway north of Dawson City for almost a decade. C
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Northern Cross director and CEO David Thompson said his company is still in the “resource assessment” phase at Eagle Plains but wants to be prepared to export whatever comes out of the ground during preliminary drilling. “This would be a way to establish production and give us more insight into what
is there,” he said. “Our feeling is there are conventional oil resources there.” According to a 2005 study by Natural Resources Canada, the Eagle Plains Basin is estimated to contain 426 million barrels of crude oil. In comparison, the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field has an See CRUDE, page A-10
Government seeks methane proposals posals that could advance what’s known about methane hydrates. They are considerANCHORAGE — The ing it a potential new source U.S. Department of Energy of fossil fuel. is looking for research proSee GAS, page A-10 By DAN JOLING Associated Press