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P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 45, Issue 5
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Attorneys say right to marry is fundamental
Question Would you like to see a greater law enforcement presence in the borough’s unincorporated communities? n Yes n No
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
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 Maintenance to end on 2 Alaska highways for season
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ANCHORAGE — Alaska transportation officials say maintenance will soon end for the season on the Taylor and Denali highways. Officials say the maintenance will end Oct. 15. Those highways are not maintained during the winter by the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Officials say the Taylor Highway won’t be maintained again until early April of next year. The 135-mile Denali Highway connects Cantwell on the Parks Highway to Paxson on the Richardson Highway. Officials say crews will begin opening that highway next April. — The Associated Press
Inside ‘If the government uses force to clear away protesters, there will be no room for dialogue.’ ... See page A-7
‘Somebody has to know something. Somebody has to have seen something.’ ... See page A-6
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-7 Sports.....................A-8 Schools...................B-1 Classifieds............. B-4 Comics................... B-8 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
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Photo by Kaylee Osowski/Peninsula Clarion
Tire turbo power Caleb Mills, 5, plays on the tire swing at Kenai Municipal Park on Sunday.
JUNEAU — Attorneys for the gay couples challenging Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage say the right to marry is fundamental and due to all individuals. They take issue with the state saying the U.S. Supreme Court has never held that there is a fundamental constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The plaintiffs’ attorneys, in a court filing Friday, said the high court has upheld a broad definition of marriage. They said it is unnecessary to parse out certain classes of individuals for whom marriage should apply. In this case, “the issue is not whether there is a constitutional ‘right to same-sex marriage,’ but whether excluding people from a fundamental right that belongs to all individuals violates due process,” attorneys Allison Mendel, Heather Gardner and Caitlin Shortell say in the filing. The state’s approach has been tried and rejected by courts in other parts of the country, they said. The lawsuit was brought by five same-sex couples — four married outside of the state and one unmarried couple — seeking to have Alaska’s ban on gay marriage overturned as uncon-
stitutional. Voters in 1998 approved an amendment to the state’s constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on Friday. The state, in a filing last month, said the question of whether to define marriage to include gay couples should be decided by citizens, not the courts. The state also argued that Alaska laws prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages from other states or countries do not violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. “It is well established that a state is not required under the federal Constitution ‘to apply another state’s law in violation of its own legitimate public policy,’” attorneys for the state wrote. The plaintiffs’ attorneys countered that the U.S. Supreme Court “has never held that a law’s democratic enactment constitutes even a rational basis for its existence.” They also said the state’s interest in the democratic process is not advanced by excluding gay couples from marriage or by refusing to recognize samesex marriages legally performed elsewhere. “Discrimination must be justified by more than a desire to discriminate,” they said.
Soldotna man convicted of tax evasion By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A Soldotna man was convicted of seven federal tax crimes in U.S. District Court in Anchorage last week. James Back, 60, a North Slope worker employed by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., was found guilty of filing false income tax returns from 2006 to 2008 and for failure to file his returns from 2009 to 2012, according to an Oct. 2 release from U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler.
Back, who represented himself at trial, worked as a pipeline technician at Pump Station 1 in Prudhoe Bay. After three days of trial, evidence showed Back earned more than $125,000 in wages during each of the prosecution year, but falsely claimed his wages were zero from 2006 to 2008. From 2009 to 2012, Back failed to file, according to the release. Back contributed more than $140,000 to a retirement plan, had investment accounts worth hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars, owned property in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and purchased more than $400,000 in gold and silver bullion during the prosecution years, according to the release. Back argued “taxation was immoral and unfair, and he refused to submit to it anymore,” according to the release. Despite applying for the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend each year, he argued the check was not taxable. Back ignored prior warnings from his employer, supervisor, the Inter-
nal Revenue Service and a U.S. Tax Court judge, according to the release. Witness testimony linked Back’s scheme as similar to one used by Peter Hendrickson of Michigan who wrote a book, “Cracking the Code” which promotes the “zero wages” tax evasion scheme. In 1992, Hendrickson was convicted of failure to file tax returns and firebombing a Michigan U.S. Post Office in 1990 and served 21 months in prison, according to federal court records.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline described Back as “unrepentant” and his crimes as “flagrant.” “Using schemes and tactics intended to willfully conceal income from the IRS isn’t tax planning, it’s criminal activity,” said Special Agent Teri Alexander with the IRS Criminal Investigation. “There is no secret formula that can eliminate a person’s tax obligations. The verdict reinforces our commitment to every American taxpayer that See TAX, page A-12
Soldotna mayor, council members run uncontested By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Soldotna will likely be seeing some familiar faces filling the city council chambers. The five incumbents running for re-election in the Oct. 7 election seek to wrap up projects from their previous terms such as the Binkley Street Improvements and will likely be overseeing the transformation of the city from general law into home rule. Soldotna Mayor Nels Anderson is rerunning alongside council members Paul Whitney, Meggean Bos, Linda Murphy and Pete Sprague. Moving to home rule Murphy said the city is ready to move to home rule. Once the election is over, the council will begin addressing what will likely a be a yearlong process of forming a charter commission to evaluate whether the switch is necessary and then creating a new charter that the city will operate under, if the voters approved the change in the 2015 municipal election, she said.
Nels Anderson
Meggean Bos
“We will be able to control our own destiny,” Murphy said. “We will have a lot more control over the day to day. Right now if we wanted to implement a bed tax, for instance, we would have to get permission from the (Kenai Peninsula) Borough.” The move to home rule was immediately proposed once the Alaska Supreme Court decision in Price v. Kenai Peninsula Borough et al. reversed a summary judgment by the Kenai Superior Court, which could potentially result in Soldotna losing the ability to collect taxes year-round on non-prepared food items, Anderson said. If the annual revenue from the
Linda Murphy
food tax is lost, it may potentially force the city to raise property taxes by as much as 2 mills, Anderson said. In fact most Alaskan cities are home rule, he said. “I am in favor of keeping taxes as low as possible,” Anderson said. “But you have to have enough money to pay for basic services.” Wrapping up Bos said she still sees some loose ends left concerning the Binkley Street Improvements. She said she felt the city could have done a better job educating the public on how to use the new method of traffic regulation. Anderson said he is unhappy with how long the project has C
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Pete Sprague
Paul Whitney
taken to complete, but believes city engineer Kyle Kornelis’s reports that there were unexpected road blocks the construction crew had to handle. However, he said the project wasn’t always the first priority of the construction team, when it should have been. Once people slow down and drive through the intersections correctly, traffic flow will improve and intersection accidents will decrease, Anderson said. The intersections are also supposed to be safer for bikers and pedestrians, he said. Murphy said she understands any setbacks the improvements teams encountered. Construction always takes longer than origi-
nally planned, she said. An uncontested election Sprague said he has mixed feelings about this year’s elections having only uncontested races. “I think it is healthy for a system to have contested races,” Sprague said. Anderson said he hopes that the lack of opposition represents that the public believes the council and mayor are doing a good job rather than total apathy toward the system. Bos said she wished every single seat had been contested in this year’s election. She said she wants more people involved in local government and voters should have choices. Bos said she had no hesitations about seeking re-election to her seat. She said in some ways she considered her last term as an introduction where she learned about government program establishment, the local funding process and city policy modification. The council is a diverse group See VOTE, page A-12