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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 288
Question Who is your preferred candidate for governor? n Sean Parnell (Republican) n Byron Mallott (Democrat) n Bill Walker (Non-affiliated) n J.R. Myers (Alaska Constitution) n Carolyn F. Clift (Libertarian) 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.
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Walker, Mallott merge campaigns Candidates to run on unified ticket By RACHEL D’ORO Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — The independent and Democratic candidates for Alaska governor said Tuesday that they are merging their campaigns to give them a better shot at unseating Republican incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell. Independent Bill Walker said Tuesday that he has dropped his membership in the Alaska Republican Party and reregistered as undeclared. It was a move stipulated by the Alaska Democratic Party’s central committee when it voted 89-2 Monday to endorse Walker as governor
and Democrat Byron Mallott as lieutenant governor. Walker, 63, has been running as an independent, but he didn’t change his official party affiliation until Tuesday. Mallott, 71, won last month’s Democratic primary election for governor. A combined ticket is expected to provide a stronger challenge to Parnell in November. “What the Democratic Party has done is unprecedented in Alaska, to my knowledge,” Walker said at a news conference in Anchorage, adding that his conservative views still stand, but partisanship issues will not play a role. “We’ll have a no-partisan administra-
tion.” Walker and Mallott joined their campaigns after discussions during the weekend. “I could not have made the decision I have made if I did not come to know and trust and believe in the integrity of Bill Walker,” Mallott said, adding their shared vision for Alaska was a problem in separate campaigns. “They overlapped so much, that there was little differentiation between us.” The current lieutenant governor candidates, independent candidate Craig Fleener and Democrat Hollis French, also dropped out. See GOV, page A-10
AP Photo/Mark Thiessen
Alaska gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker, left, talks with his former running mate, Craig Fleener, before a news conference, Tuesday in Anchorage. Walker will join with the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Byron Mallott, in a unified ticket to face Republican Gov. Sean Parnell in the general election.
Senate hopefuls pull ads that refer to deaths
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Gamble asks regents to reconsider bonus JUNEAU (AP) — The president of the University of Alaska system has asked the board of regents to reconsider the $320,000 retention bonus it approved in June. Pat Gamble said the timing isn’t right. He noted budget concerns and enrollment challenges and said the bonus has become a negative distraction when the university community needs to come together. The board voted to award Gamble the bonus if he remained on the job through 2016. The bonus equals a year of his salary. Gamble would not be the first president to receive a bonus. But the offer comes amid budgetary concerns and has even spawned an online petition opposing it. The university system, in a release, said Gamble made his comments to the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
Correction A story in Tuesday’s Clarion incorrectly identified the chair of the Kenai Kennel Club agility trials. The trial chair is Garnet Sarks. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-8 Food...................... B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-7 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Tom Netschert, Ron McAlpin and Jesse Bjorkman members of the Board of Directors for the Alaska Kenai Peninsula Chapter Safari Club International in collaboration with the Department of Transportation, installed Moose Crash Area signs along the Kenai Spur Highway and Sterling Highway, Friday on the central Kenai Peninsula. Each sign costs $1,500, the funds for which were raised by the Safari Club, Netschert said. The signs are meant to raise more public awareness for personal safety, he said. The number of moose killed since last year is over 240, he said.
Moose crossing Drivers urged to use caution on Kenai Peninsula roads By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Laurie Speakman can recall the perfect imprint of a body left on the hood of the car. It was a collision on the list of nearly a dozen Speakman responded to last month that involved a motor vehicle hitting a moose. For the past three years she has responded to moose collisions in the Alaska Moose Federation’s statewide salvage program. “It was as if it (the moose) was picked
up and slammed down right on the front of the truck,” Speakman said. “The driver said the last thing he saw was the moose’s head and the next thing he knew he was in the ditch.” Speakman said she has seen many wrecks where the car had to be hauled away with a tow truck, but generally the driver and passengers will walk away with bumps and scrapes. When she is called to a scene, it means the moose was not as fortunate. Three volunteers clear carcasses in the central Kenai Peninsula area, includ-
ing Speakman, who organizes salvaging in the region. Salvagers are called by the Alaska State Troopers dispatch at any time of day. Once procured, the body is transported to a local charity, where it is processed and the meat is donated to those in need. As the hours of daylight decrease this fall, the frequency of moose crash kills will increase, Speakman said. This time of year especially, many of those deaths involve calves. Spencie Netschert, president of the See MOOSE, page A-10
JUNEAU — Television ads in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race have been pulled by the two major party candidates after complaints from the family of two slaying victims. U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, began airing an ad last week trying to portray his Republican opponent, former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, as soft on crime. The ad featured a man identified as a former Anchorage police officer standing outside the home where an elderly couple was beaten to death and a family member sexually abused in 2013. It ended with the man saying Sullivan should not be a senator. Sullivan swiftly responded with an ad of his own, accusing Begich of trying to use the case for political gain. Begich’s ad did not name the suspect in the crimes, Jerry Active, but Sullivan’s commercial did, with Sullivan saying he “personally put criminals away for life, and that’s exactly where Jerry Active belongs.” Active is scheduled to stand trial later this month. Sullivan’s campaign manager, Ben Sparks, said the response was necessary to counter Begich’s “desperate” attack. Alaska’s Senate race has national implications, with Republicans seeing Begich as vulnerable as they strive to pick up six seats to gain control of the chamber. The ads also had See ADS, page A-10
Jury acquits Florida man of sexual assault charges By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A Florida man who was extradited to Kenai and served a year in jail while awaiting trial was acquitted Aug. 26 on six counts of sexual abuse of a minor and six counts of sexual assault of a minor. After seven days of trial in Kenai Superior Court, Christopher Doss, 28, was found not guilty on all 12 charges. Evidence in the trial showed that
the accuser, Doss’ sister, suffered from emotional problems that stemmed from abuse at a young age when she lived with her mother, said public defense attorney Andy Pevehouse. According to the criminal complaint, Alaska State Troopers alleged Doss sexually assaulted his sister, then 13, on multiple occasions at his Kasilof home on Echo Lake in 2010. The sister had been babysitting at her brother’s home while Doss’ wife was at the hospital,
according to the affidavit. Doss denied sexual contact with his sister and provided a DNA sample to be tested. Doss was never arrested and eventually moved to Florida at the end of 2010. The charges were brought to a Kenai grand jury in 2013 and Doss was extradited back to Alaska, according to court records. “Doss was quietly living his life in Florida with his wife and three children and one day a SWAT team showed up at his C
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door and arrested him at gunpoint,” Pevehouse said. “It was completely unnecessary.” Trooper Sgt. Scott Briggs interviewed Doss’ sister along with her father about the alleged abuse. During his trial testimony, Briggs admitted he was concerned with how Doss’ sister was smiling when describing the sexual assault and said the bizarre reaction lead him to believe she was lying, Pevehouse said. According to court records
of the trial, Doss’ sister said she is not an emotional person and laughs when she is scared or nervous. Briggs described her reaction as a “red flag.” In Pevehouse’s cross-examination of Briggs, Briggs said in other cases he’s had people go into too much detail but not in this instance. He said Doss’ sister “was pretty vague,” according to court records. A sexual abuse response team performed an exam and See ACQUIT, page A-10