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Mouse
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Pattern makes for insane fishing
Community choir ready to sing
Tight Lines/A-12
Arts & Entertainment/B-1
CLARION
Some rain 43/38 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 44
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Five indicted after escape
Question Have you had or do you plan to get a flu shot? n Yes; or n No. 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.
Felony charges require juveniles to be moved to adult facility By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
of public officials on fisheries management issues. The vast majority of those complaints, including the ones against Hepler, were rejected. In October, Homer residents Garland Blanchard, Eric Ball and Emily Chalup appealed the rejection, citing extensive documentation from Fish and Game’s personnel directory and the directory of state officials, that referred to Hepler as an “Assistant Commissioner.” According to their complaints, Blanchard, Chalup and Ball assert that Hepler should
The five inmates that escaped the Kenai Peninsula Youth Facility on Nov. 7 have been indicted on 15 felony counts including assault, robbery, riot and escape charges. Cody Rosenthal, 18, and four 16-year-olds, Joshua Crouse, Randall Gary, Jackson Dominick and Zachary Nehren, were arraigned in Kenai Superior Court Monday. The five boys face seven counts of assault in the first-degree — a class A felony — two counts of second-degree and third-degree assault, robbery in the first-degree, conspiracy to commit robbery in the firstdegree and riot. Class A felonies are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Rosenthal, Crouse and Gary were also indicted with escape in the second degree, a class B felony, while Dominick and Nehren were indicted on attempted escape in the second degree, also a class B felony. Rosenthal was first charged with escape, theft and riot charges and transported to Wildwood Pretrial Facility. Rosenthal was found hiding in a Dumpster in the Kenai Multipurpose Facility parking lot with Dominick and Nehren an hour after the escape. Troopers
See FILING, page A-8
See INDICT, page A-8
In the news Outage affects 16,000 meters
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Homer Electric Association members experienced a system-wide power outage Wednesday afternoon. A ccording to a press release from the cooperative, the outage started at 1:33 p.m. when there was a frequency problem on the transmission system which resulted in a loss of power to approximately 16,000 HEA meters from the south Kachemak Bay area north to Nikiski. HEA says that the issue was complicated by the fact that the Homer Electric system was isolated from the rest of the Railbelt area due to work Chugach Electric was performing on a facility in Cooper Landing. Homer Electric was able to work closely with Chugach Electric to put the transmission system back in normal operation and then begin restoring power. The restoration effort took about one hour to complete and by 2:30 Wednesday afternoon all HEA members had power restored. The exact cause of the frequency variation that created the outage was unclear.
BP: Deal with Hilcorp completed JUNEAU (AP) — BP has closed the sale of its interests in four North Slope oil fields to Hilcorp. BP president for Alaska operations Janet Weiss made the announcement Wednesday. The company announced in April that it was selling all its interests in the Endicott and Northstar fields and half its interests in the Liberty and Milne Point fields.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Alaska.................... A-5 Nation/World.......... A-6 Sports.....................A-8 Tight Lines........... A-12 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Bookworms
Kyle Hilleary and Amber Smith took time in their off day to peruse the shelves at River City Books Wednesday in Soldotna. Smith said they were looking for some rest and relaxation.
What’s in a name? APOC to decide Commission hears defense against financial disclosure filing By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
It’s all semantics when it comes to one state employee’s defense against being required to file certain financial disclosure forms required of public officials with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, or APOC. Kelly Hepler, whose title with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is either “assistant commissioner” or “special projects coordinator,” was the subject of a Wednesday APOC hearing on several complaints
that claim he should have filed a Public Official Financial Disclosure form annually from 2009-2013 and, on those forms, he should have disclosed that he had received gifts from the politically influential Soldotnabased Kenai River Sportfishing Association. His title as “assistant commissioner” is a deviation from one that he has previously held and that would be required by state law to file a financial disclosure form, that of “special assistant” to the commissioner. At issue were appeals of seven complaints filed by four Ke-
nai Peninsula residents against Hepler. The complaints, originally filed in late August, were rejected by APOC staff on the basis that Hepler’s actual title with Fish and Game is “Special Projects Coordinator” and his current job title is not subject to the state’s Public Official Financial Disclosure reporting requirements. The original complaints Hepler were part of about 200 complaints that were filed with APOC regarding the Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s Kenai River Classic and other outreach and lobbying
Immersed in engineering Students enjoy science-intensive experience By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Students from across the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District ditched their regular classes for two weeks and traveled to Anchorage for a rigorous, science-intensive learning experience. A group of 47 Native Alaskan and Native American middle-school students are attending the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program Middle School Academy from Nov. 12-22, at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Being accepted into the program was a huge deal for the students that made it, said KPBSD spokesperson Pegge Erkeneff. She said she visited the Tebughna School in Tyonek last month when Jobena Bartels-Salas and Kristianna Standifer were waiting to hear if they would get to attend the academy. “They were so excited about it,” Erkeneff said. “It is a huge motivator for them to leave their small village and meet with other students at the University of Anchorage.” On Nov. 12, Bartels-Salas
and Standifer were flown out of Tyonek and touched down on the Merrill Field Airport runway where they were picked up and whisked away to UAA, said Assessment and Federal Programs Director Tim Vlasak. Other students from Kenai Middle School, Nanwalek, Port Graham Elementary-High School, Susan B. English, Homer Middle School, Seward Middle School, Chapman Elementary and Ninilchik School were transported on buses, he said. To qualify for the academy See LEARN, page A-8
Photo courtesy Tim Vlasak Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
This photo taken by a chaperone of the 47 Native Alaskan and Native American KPBSD middle school students attending the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program Middle School Academy from Nov. 12-22, at the University of Alaska Anchorage in Anchorage, Alaska, said Assessment and Federal Programs Director Tim Vlasak.
Pot backer who quit TV job on air fights subpoena By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — An Alaska television reporter who quit her job with a four-letter tirade during a live newscast after revealing she supported pot legalization is fighting a subpoena from the state panel that enforces election laws. The Alaska Public Offices Commission wants to know whether Charlo Greene used crowdsourcing funds to advocate for a ballot initiative to
legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Alaska and Oregon this month joined Washington and Colorado as states approving legal pot. The commission is trying to determine whether money that was spent would trigger reporting requirements, said Thomas Lucas, its campaign disclosure coordinator for groups. Alaska’s ballot measure was mentioned on the crowdfunding website, according to a printout included in exhibits with the
case file. Lucas told commissioners in a memo this month that the investigation so far had found that Greene or the medical marijuana business she runs apparently engaged in campaign activities aimed at influencing the election’s outcome. Greene is the professional name used by Charlene Egbe, who considers the commission action to be harassment. In an email responding to a subpoena of records last month, Greene said that if the panel continued C
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to bother her, she would “most certainly” sue. Greene made headlines in September when, while reporting on a story, she revealed herself to be the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, quit her TV job and vowed to work to legalize pot. Representatives for Greene argued before the commission Wednesday that Greene was simply trying to promote her business and was waging a personal campaign favoring changes to marijuana laws.
They said she was misled into believing she had to register her business as a political entity. One of Greene’s representatives, Ronda Marcy, said Greene had a right, as an individual, to express her views. She said Greene was working on a “freedom and fairness campaign,” and when Greene and Lucas had a conversation, they both were discussing campaigns but referring to different things. See FIGHT, page A-8