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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 42
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Begich throws in towel
Question Have you had or do you plan to get a flu shot? n Yes n No
Senator concedes election to challenger Sullivan
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.
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
control in about 45 minutes and remained on scene for two hours to make sure the fire was fully extinguished. Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters said troopers responded to the fire but the investigation would be handled by CES unless the cause of the fire was a criminal act. Nelson said he was corralling chickens when troopers arrived and recognized the house from the Halloween drug bust. The back and side of the house was scorched with only a couple burned studs remaining to hold the metal roof up. Nelson brought one of the occupants of the home to the scene Monday so she could show what the condition of the house was prior to the fire. The chickens and other pets on the property would be taken care of by their owner, he said. The structure was considered
JUNEAU — Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich conceded the Alaska Senate race to Republican Dan Sullivan on Monday, nearly two weeks after the hard-fought election. Begich said he congratulated Sullivan, a former state attorney general and natural resources commissioner, and urged him “to adopt a bipartisan resolve in the Senate.” “Alaska is ill-served by the partisan fights that don’t reflect our state’s unique needs and priorities,” Begich said in a statement. During the campaign, Begich, who rose in the ranks of the Democratic leadership since winning election in 2008, cast himself as an independent voice, unafraid to stand up to President Barack Obama and willing to work across party lines. Republicans, meanwhile, sought to tie Begich to Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, a strategy they used against Democrats in other states in their successful bid to win back control of the Senate. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on election night Nov. 4 and maintained an edge that stood at about 6,200 as of mid-afternoon Monday. In 2008, Begich won the seat by fewer than 4,000 votes after first trailing then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens on election night. In the days following this election, Begich’s campaign said
See FIRE, page A-10
See SENATE, page A-10
In the news Plane makes emergency landing on K-beach Road
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A small plane made an emergency landing on Kalifornsky Beach Road Sunday and took off Monday without anyone in the plane or on the ground injured. Eyewitnesses said traffic was stopped both ways on Kbeach Road before the plane took off in the afternoon. Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said a singleengine plane known as a “T-craft” landed on the road between 4 and 5 p.m. Sunday due to engine failure. Peters said because nobody was arrested or injured troopers didn’t investigate where the plane was coming from or landing. “Essentially it had an emergency landing and then was able to get out of the road and into a parking lot,” she said. The plane was parked outside Cook Inlet Academy overnight and watched by Alaska State Troopers and Soldotna Police. — Dan Balmer
Inside ‘But rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good — in himself and in others.’ ... See page A-6
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Business................ A-5 Nation/World.......... A-6 Sports.....................A-8 Classifieds........... A-11 Comics................. A-14 Pet Tails............... A-15
Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News
Packing up
The 765-foot Zhen Hua 15 loads the jack-up rig Endeavour-Spirit of Independence in Kachemak Bay off the Homer Spit on Monday. The Zhen Hua 15 is a float-on, float-off heavy-lift vessel that sinks part way to allow equipment like the Endeavour to be loaded on.
Fire scorches Gas Well area home Residence was site of Halloween drug bust By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A home destroyed in a fire Saturday in the Gas Well Road area was the site of a heroin bust on Halloween, but fire officials believe there is no connection between the two events. Central Emergency Services continued their investigation into the cause of the fire to a trailer at the end of Rustic Avenue Monday. CES Health and Safety Officer Brad Nelson said all the evidence points to a heating lamp that was knocked down on a pile of straw in a chicken coop attached to the back of the trailer. “Right now we’re not seeing any indication of arson or malicious fire,” Nelson said. “Everything is pointing toward accidental.” When CES responded to the fire at 11 p.m. Saturday the trailer was fully engulfed in flames.
Photo by Dan Balmer/Peninsula Clarion
A fire destroyed a trailer home on Rustic Avenue in Soldotna Saturday. The fire is believed to have started in a chicken coop attached to the back of the home. A heating lamp was knocked on a pile of straw and the home was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.
All three occupants in the home that lived on the property were escaped uninjured. No chick- lost in the fire, Nelson said. ens, dogs, cats, goats or rabbits Crews had the fire under
Newspaper subscription Halliburton to buy Baker Hughes scam reaches Alaska By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A new scam that sends out bogus newspaper subscription renewal notices has made its way to Alaska from the Lower 48. The Federal Trade Commission has warned customers to watch out for the renewal bills in the mail that operate under the name Publishers Billing Center. Scammers in California and Ohio have sent out fake subscription mailings to collect subscription payments. On Oct. 31, the California Attorney General Kamala Harris issued a consumer alert to Californians regarding a scam involving fake newspaper subscription mailings. If the deceptive notices contain selfaddressed postage with a Post Office Box or other mailing address that is located from a different state that the publisher should be ignored, according to the release. At least one Alaska Dispatch
News reader received a fake bill that totaled nearly $400, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Customers may receive a “notice of renewal/new order” bill in the mail that claim the recipient could receive a favorable price, when the price is actually higher than the annual subscription. Peninsula Clarion Circulation Manager Randi Keaton said no customers on the Kenai Peninsula have been affected but the scam has reached people in Anchorage. “It’s not just hitting customers but random people,” she said. “People should be skeptical of these notices if they have a different mailing address.” Keaton said Clarion mail subscriptions are sent to P.O. Box 3009, Kenai, Alaska. The bill should not come from another company or another name. The Clarion is owned by Morris Publishing Group, a media company based in Augusta, See SCAM, page A-10
If approved, deal to be completed by 2015 By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
After nearly a month of negotiations, Houston-based Baker Hughes on Monday announced its sale to Halliburton Company in a deal worth about $34.6 billion. Halliburton made an unsolicited proposal to Baker Hughes on Oct. 13 to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Baker Hughes. The discussions over a possible merger took several weeks to complete, according to a Baker Hughes Nov. 14 media release. The negotiations were far from friendly. Baker Hughes made a counter-offer on its own value, Halliburton refused to increase its first offer and sent notice to Baker Hughes that it would be nominating candidates to replace the entire Baker Hughes board of directors during the C
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company’s annual April meeting. “Baker Hughes considers the notice to be an attempt by Halliburton to pressure the Baker Hughes board into accepting a transaction with Halliburton on Halliburton’s term,” according to the Nov. 14 release. Members of Baker Hughes’ board were concerned with several portions of Halliburton’s original proposal to buy the company — including that the offer was not high enough and therefore not in the best interests of stockholders at Baker Hughes and that the merger could have potential anti-trust implications that had not been adequately addressed. “We continue to believe in the strong future of Baker Hughes and, at the appropriate value level, would share your excitement about the possibility of combining Bak-
er Hughes and Halliburton for the benefit of our stockholders,” wrote company Baker Hughes Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Martin Craighead in a Nov. 12 email to Halliburton Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer David Lesar. The agreement has since been unanimously approved by both companies’ Boards of Directors, according to a media release. The combined company will have more than 136,000 employees and operations in about 80 countries worldwide, according to the release. Under the terms of the agreement, stockholders of Baker Hughes will receive an exchange ration of 1.12 shares in Halliburton plus $19 cash. Halliburton will finance the transaction with cash on hand and debt-financing, according to the media release. See SALE, page A-10