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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
DECEMBER 7, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 58
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Ostrander nabs national championship By JEFF HELMINIAK Peninsula Clarion
At the end of the first week of her basketball season, and on a day when most of her running mates were competing in their first cross-country ski meet of the season, Kenai Central senior Allie Ostrander is a national cross-country champion. Using her baby-moose long legs, superb hip extension, voluminous aerobic capacity, picture-perfect posture and flowing, rhythmic, narrow stride, the wiry 5-foot-1 dynamo strung out and broke a field of the nation’s elite distance runners Saturday under clearing, 52-degree skies on the muddy track at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon.
Ostrander is the first Alaskan to win Nike Cross Nationals, now in its 11th year. According to the webcast of the event, 52 girls and boys state champions toed the event’s starting line. The difference was Ostrander was racing a little over two months after Alaska’s state meet was held in Anchorage, meaning she had to pull off the trick of working back into peak race shape without regular racing in increasingly cold, dark and snowy Alaska. No other Alaskan has won Contributed photo by Nike a national prep cross-country Allie Ostrander, of Kenai, wins the girl’s championship tichampionship. tle at the 2014 Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon. Nike Cross Nationals is one of two elite, national cross- Championships, to be held Sat- the other, but Nike Cross Nacountry races. The other is the urday. tionals had six of the top 10 Foot Locker Cross Country Athletes typically do one or girls in the dyestat.com rank-
ings, and five of the top 10 in the Saucony Flo 50. Dyestat.com’s top runner and Saucony’s top two runners will run at the Foot Locker race, where Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar was a runner-up in 2008. Alaska running fans are used to seeing Ostrander wear red and black and burst to the front of the pack, but Saturday she did neither. Wearing a green “Northwest” top, Ostrander stayed just behind the front of the main pack until the two-kilometer mark. “The first K was a breeze,” Ostrander told dyestat.com. “It was a pretty conservative start to the race and it just accelerated from there. Building on that speed, it felt great.”
On the podium after the race, Ostrander characterized the race as an acceleration run, and midway through the race she accelerated from the pack along with junior Paige Hofstad of Texas and junior Fiona O’Keefe of California. O’Keefe, ranked second to Ostrander’s third on dyestat. com and third to Ostrander’s fifth by Saucony, was the top returning finisher at the meet. “You hit that 3K and it feels really hard but today I was just like, ‘You just gotta hang. You gotta stay there and you just gotta push it and give it everything you have. This is the last cross-country race of your career,’” Ostrander told milesplit. com. See TITLE, page A-2
Jailed Kenai woman indicted on new charges By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
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Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Santa Claus found himself swarmed by children after a mentioned that he had a few minutes for hugs immediately following a tree-lighting ceremony at Soldotna Creek Park on Saturday in Soldotna.
A Kenai woman already in prison for theft has been subpoenaed to appear for arraignment on 85 new fraud and forgery charges of a Kenai business in 2012. On Monday a Kenai Grand Jury indicted Kathi Malston, 40, for scheming to defraud, first-degree theft, 14 counts of forgery in the second-degree, 15 counts of falsifying business records and 42 felony counts of unauthorized use of an access device. Malston was also charged with six misdemeanor counts of unauthorized use of an access device. Scheme to defraud and firstdegree theft are both class B felonies and carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison
and up to $100,000 fine for each charge. Forgery in the second-degree, falsifying business records and fraudulent use of access device are class C felonies that hold a maximum five years in prison and up to $50,000 fine. The charges stem from Malston’s time as an accountant for Fire Control Systems, a Kenaibased fire protection equipment supplier. An employee of the business reported to Alaska State Troopers on Nov. 30, 2012 that Malston had embezzled a large sum of money, according to a troopers dispatch. An investigation from the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Financial Crimes Unit lead to the seizure of evidence and troopers allege Malston stole more than $28,000 from the business. See FRAUD, page A-2
Soldotna welcomes Christmas USPS begins By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
For several hundred children at Soldotna Creek Park on Saturday, the night began with a Charlie Brown Christmas and ended with a hug from Santa Claus beneath a newly lit Christmas Tree. At least 400 people attended a live showing of the iconic Christmas story, put on by the Triumvirate Theatre. By the middle of the middle of the
show, volunteers with the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce had run out of coffee and hot chocolate — though several A Charlie Brown Christmas will play at the platters of cookies remained Triumvirate North, 42715 Kenai Spur Highas did a container of decaffeinated coffee. way in Kenai on Fridays at 7 p.m. and SaturAs dozens of children perdays at 3 p.m. Dec. 12, 13, 26 and 27. formed on stage, dozens more ran around in the snow — surprising each other, and their Santa Claus stood behind self to the kids, though many parents, with snowball fights a brick wall at the back of the found their way to him before and spontaneous snow angels. state — waiting for the right he was officially introduced by At times, the shouts of laughmoment to introduce himter drowned out the show. See X-MAS, page A-2
If you go:
Today’s Clarion Cloudy 40/34 More weather on page A-12
Opinion......................... A-4 Alaska........................... A-5 Nation........................... A-6 World............................ A-8 Cops/courts................ A-10 Sports........................... B-1 Community................... C-1 Weddings...................... C-1 Dear Abby..................... C-2 Crossword..................... C-2 Horoscope.................... C-2 Classifieds................... C-3 Mini Page...................... C-8 TV...................... Clarion TV
Question Inside ‘Let’s face it, young Brown apparently deserved to be arrested. But he didn’t deserve to die.’
Did you go shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? n Yes, we hit the Black Friday sales; n Yes, we shopped at some local small businesses; n Yes, we visited craft fairs/bazaars; n All or a combination of the above;
Sunday package delivery in Alaska ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — If you’re looking for a package, you might want to open your door when someone knocks Sunday. Dawn Peppinger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Alaska, says in an email to The Associated Press that they will begin limited parcel delivery on Sunday in 11 Alaska communities. She says deliveries will continue on Sundays until Christmas in Anchorage, Eagle River, Fairbanks, Homer, Juneau, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Palmer, Soldotna and Wasilla.
Anchorage radio jock jailed on child pornography charges
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A radio personality in Anchorage was arrested on child pornography charges after the social networking website Instagram turned him in to ... See page A-4 authorities. The radio host known as Check us out online at Jimmy O’Brien was arrested www.peninsulaclarion.com Thursday. His real name is To subscribe, call 283-3584. James LaPlante, and his show airs on KASH 107.5. The case began when Instagram realized a customer in To place your vote visit Anchorage had uploaded 13 images depicting child sexuwww.peninsulaclarion.com. C
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al exploitation, according to charging documents. Instagram contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which alerted the Anchorage Police Department. Police determined that the images were uploaded from LaPlante’s home address, according to the charging documents. Internet giant Google separately found that LePlante shared illegal images online from a computer owned by his employer, Clear Channel Com-
munications, according to the charging documents. The Anchorage Police Department executed search warrants on LePlante’s home, the radio station’s offices and his Instagram and Google accounts, uncovering additional evidence from his iPhone. “That examination revealed an extensive chat history between LaPlante and numerous minors he solicited for images,” investigators wrote. The children depicted in imSee JOCK, page A-5