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Protests
Football
Less rhetoric, more dialogue needed
Final day of NFL games sets playoffs
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CLARION
Breezy with rain 41/35 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 76
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Gov. orders funds held
Question How should municipal governments address regulation of commercial marijuana facilities? n Government bodies should enact ordinances. n Proposed regulations should be put to a vote of the people. n Local governments should wait for the state to set regulations. 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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In the news Oil-drilling camp on North Slope hit by fire; no one hurt ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An overnight fire broke out at the campsite of an Italian oil company’s drilling project in the North Slope, but no one was injured. Eni Petroleum spokesman Grande Whitney says everyone involved was safe after the fire at the company’s Nikaitchuq Operations Camp north of the Kuparuk River unit operated by ConocoPhillips. Whitney says the fire took place about midnight. Petroleum News reported in August that Eni has been shifting the Nikaitchuq site since 2007 from conventional onshore drilling to lateral drilling targeting offshore oil deposits, reaching 25,000 barrels per day of production in June. Whitney says everyone displaced by the fire was housed at a nearby camp. Eni Petroleum expects drilling work to continue without interruption.
Correction A Dec. 12, 2014 articled titled “Empowering Women” incorrectly labeled an assault rifle used by a group of girls in the Teens on Target program. It is an AR-15. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-6 Sports.....................A-7 Classifieds........... A-10 Comics................. A-13 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
By Kelly Sullivan
Home H for the s oli ay d
Family spends first holiday in Habitat for Humanity home
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hristmas Day in the nineteenth Habitat for Humanity Home built on the Central Kenai Peninsula was the first holiday to be celebrated by the family living in the new dwelling. Thursday morning, Crystal Stonecipher said she was mentally preparing for the crowd of in-laws, parents and siblings joining the family that afternoon in their Second Avenue home in Kenai. She shares the new home with husband Nathon Stonecipher and three children, Rebecca Trickel, Charles Trickel and Destin Trickel. “It will be a little, what’s the word, cozy,” the busy mom said, with a laugh. “It will be cozy.” One year ago, the day long gathering would not have been possible. Previously, the tradition was to hop in the car and visit different family members through out the day, she said. on There has not been a centralized home where family members could gather and relax for years, Crystal Stonecipher said. Now, the Stoneciphers have a four-bedroom house sitting on a 1-acre plot of land, she said. Everyone brought a dish on for a big holiday dinner that was followed by opening presents, she said. The family had been in their new home for little more than one week by Christmas Day. They were still unpacking when the holiday began, but had al-
ready begun to make it their own. “We have been filling the house with our own furniture, and putting our own decorations on the walls,” Crystal Stonecipher said. “That was an important part for me.” The move-in date was later than the family had originally hoped for, Crystal Stonecipher said. Her best advice to the next family approved to receive a Habitat for Humanity house is that they should be patient, she said. “Things can go wrong,” she said. On the other hand, unpredictable events can occasionally work out in favor of the project. Since it was such a mild winter, and the snow held out until late in the season, construction was able to continue later in the year than usual. Installing the roof was the important part, and once that was on the interior could be worked on no matter what the weather, she said. Nathon Stonecipher accomplished the majority of the labor on the home, along with a few close family friends, she said. Finding enough volunteers to help speed the process was a challenge, she said. Nathon Stonecipher said any family looking to receive a house through Habitat for Humanity should be as organized as possible throughout the entire process.
Looking back
2014
See HOME, page A-9
Court rules bison can roam on Kodiak ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The buffalo can roam freely again on Kodiak Island. The state Board of Game had previously decided that free-ranging bison were considered “feral” when the animals strayed from state or federal lands. Then in 2007 the board authorized a hunt of escaped bison on Kodiak. But the late rancher Charles Dorman, who raised bison that were prone to roam on Kodiak Island, sued to stop the hunt. Dorman originally lost, but the state Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling against him Friday.
The court said the board was wrong when it deemed the bison feral. Bison ranching on Kodiak is a relatively recent development in the centuries-long history of livestock rearing on the island. Russians brought the first cattle to Kodiak in the late 1700s, but ranchers lost dozens each year to the island’s hungry, gargantuan bears. Then in the 1990s, the ranchers turned to bison as an alternative, according to Larry Van Daele, a regional supervisor for the state Department of Fish and Game. There was one problem: “Bison are not just bear-resistant,
they’re fence-resistant,” Van Daele said. Dorman’s state grazing leases included tidal flats, which couldn’t be fenced. Sometimes as many as 150 of the bison would roam off the lease — allegedly destroying wetlands, and stoking fears that they could wander onto a nearby wildlife refuge or infect deer with communicable diseases. Then the proposal came along to allow the public to hunt the “feral, free ranging bison.” After “lengthy deliberations,” according to the Supreme Court decision, the board changed a state rule so that any bison wandering off
a state or federal grazing lease was deemed feral. It gave the two Kodiak bison ranchers a two-year grace period to retrieve their animals. When the Department of Fish and Game prepared to authorize the hunt in early 2010, Dorman filed suit. But the lower court hadn’t properly considered that it was clear the bison to be hunted belonged to ranchers, the Supreme Court said. The rancher Charles Dorman died five months ago at age 78. “It’s sort of bittersweet,” said Tom Meacham, Dorman’s attorney. “He is not around to savor the victory.”
WSU studies green winter road technology NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — Researchers at Washington State University are working on environmentally friendly ways that use less salt to reduce snow and ice on roads. Their work comes amid growing concerns about the impact of salt and chemical deicers on the environment, said Xianming Shi, WSU associate professor in civil and environmental engineering. “We are kind of salt addicted ... as it’s been so cheap and convenient for the last 50 years,” said Shi, who is assistant director of the new Center for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation in Cold Climates. It studies cold climate road ecology, a field of study which
AP Photo/The Herald, Kevin Nortz
In this March 9, 2009 file photo, freeway traffic slows to a crawl along I-5 northbound near Everett, Wash. Many of the chemicals spread on highways to help winter drivers can damage the environment.
includes green snow and ice between WSU, the University control. Funded by the U.S. De- of Alaska-Fairbanks and Monpartment of Transportation, the tana State University. center is a collaborative effort Roadways made slippery by C
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snow and ice are a big problem in the northern United States. According to The Salt Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, about 17 million tons of deicing salt is applied to roadways in the U.S. each year. Every winter, more than 116,000 Americans are injured and some 1,300 are killed as a result of pavement that is covered in snow, slush or ice, according to the institute. Road salt reduces crashes by 88 to 93 percent, the institute said. Morton Satin of The Salt Institute said salt will continue to be spread on roads for a long time. The institute has worked for years on developing methods to reduce the amount of road salt that gets into the environment, Satin said. See SALT, page A-9
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — With oil prices dropping, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has halted new spending on six high-profile projects, pending further review. Walker issued an order Friday putting the new spending on hold. He cited the state’s $3.5 billion budget deficit, which has increased as oil prices have dropped sharply. With oil prices now around a five-year low, officials in Alaska and about a half-dozen other states already have begun paring back projections for a continued gusher of revenues. Spending cuts have started in some places, and more could be necessary if oil prices stay at lower levels. How well the oil-rich states survive the downturn may hinge on how much they saved during the good times, and how much they depend on oil revenues. Some states, such as Texas, have diversified their economies since oil prices crashed in the mid-1980s. Others, such as Alaska, remain heavily dependent on oil and will have to tap into sizeable savings to get by. The projects Walker halted spending on include a small-diameter gas pipeline from the North Slope. The other projects are the Kodiak rocket launch complex, the Knik Arm bridge, the Susitna-Watana hydroelectric dam, Juneau access road and the Ambler road. “The state’s fiscal situation demands a critical look and people should be prepared for several of these projects to be delayed and/ or stopped,” Walker’s budget director Pat Pitney said in an email. According to Walker’s order, the hold on spending is pending further review. The administration intends to decide on project priorities near the start of Alaska’s legislative session Jan. 20, and no later than a Feb. 18 legal budgeting deadline, Pitney said. State lawmakers have final authority to decide whether the projects should continue to be funded, Pitney said. Contractually required spending and employee salaries will continue. Walker’s order asks each agency working on the projects to stop hiring new employees, signing new contracts and committing any new funding from other sources, including the federal government. The action follows a letter sent Tuesday by the state Legislature’s Republican leadership, who urged the governor to immediately cut spending levels in light of the budget crunch. The state’s savings is protected at about $9.6 billion by the end of the 2015 fiscal year next June. See FUNDS, page A-9