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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 49, Issue 171
In the news Lawmakers reject nominee with ghost-hunting past JUNEAU — An Alaska man with a ghost-hunting history has scared off lawmakers, who rejected his nomination to a compensation board for crime victims. The Legislature late Wednesday voted 9-48 to reject Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s nomination of John Francis to the Violent Crimes Compensation Board. Opponents of his nomination brought up his ghost-hunting activities and questioned whether he accurately portrayed what he does and whether he’s cut out to serve on a board that sometimes deals with vulnerable individuals. Rep. Matt Claman and Sen. Jesse Kiehl also suggested Francis was not as forthcoming as he should have been about his criminal history.
Dunleavy fills second Palmer court seat after delay JUNEAU — Gov. Mike Dunleavy has filled a second Palmer Superior Court judgeship, weeks after the deadline to make such a pick. He announced Wednesday his selection of private practice attorney Kristen Stohler. Last month, Dunleavy made one appointment to the court but refused to make a second. He cited questions with the nomination process. He relented after meeting with Alaska Supreme Court Justice Joel Bolger. Bolger previously said framers of Alaska’s Constitution intended for a governor to appoint for judgeships candidates nominated by the Alaska Judicial Council. — Associated Press
Friday-Saturday, April 19-20, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Mueller report released Redacted document describes Trump’s attempts to curtail Russia probe By NANCY BENAC, CHAD DAY, ERIC TUCKER and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Public at last, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report revealed to a waiting nation Thursday that President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller’s removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Trump was largely thwarted by those around him who refused to go along. Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsel’s appointment in May 2017. Those efforts “were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” Mueller wrote. After nearly two years, the two-volume, 448-page redacted report made for riveting reading. In one particularly dramatic moment, Mueller reported that Trump was so agitated at
The article “Biking in the spotlight” published in the Thursday edition of the Clarion contained inaccuracies. The biking advocacy group Biking in Kenai and Soldotna is abbreviated as “BIK&S” and not “BiKS.” The City of Kenai pursued this project independently. The cities of Soldotna and Kenai receieved their bronze designation from the League of American Bicyclists in December 2018, not September 2018. The Clarion regrets these errors.
Index Local................A3 Opinion........... A4 Nation..............A5 Religion............A6 Sports..............A7 Classifieds...... A9 Comics.......... A13 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
President Donald Trump gives a ‘thumbs-up’ as he prepares to board Air Force One, Thursday, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
the special counsel’s appointment on May 17, 2017, that he slumped back in his chair and declared: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f—-ed.” With that, Trump set out to save himself. In June of that year, Mueller wrote, Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to call Deputy At-
torney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, and say that Mueller must be ousted because he had conflicts of interest. McGahn refused — deciding he would sooner resign than trigger a potential crisis akin to the Saturday Night Massacre of firings during the Watergate era. Two days later, the president made another attempt to
alter the course of the investigation, meeting with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictating a message for him to relay to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The message: Sessions would publicly call the investigation “very unfair” to the president, declare Trump did nothing wrong and say Mueller should limit his probe to “investigating
election meddling for future elections.” The message was never delivered. The report’s bottom line largely tracked the findings revealed in Attorney General William Barr’s four-page memo released a month ago — no collusion with Russia but no clear verdict on obstruction — but it added new layers of detail about Trump’s efforts to thwart the investigation. Looking ahead, both sides were already using the findings to amplify wellrehearsed arguments about Trump’s conduct, Republicans casting him as a victim of harassment and Democrats depicting the president as stepping far over the line to derail the investigation. The Justice Department released its redacted version of the report about 90 minutes after Barr offered his own final assessment of the findings at a testy news conference. The nation, Congress and Trump’s White House consumed it voraciously — online, via a compact disc delivered to legislators and in loose-leaf binders distributed to reporters. The release represented a moment of closure nearly See REPORT, page A2
Kenaitze Tribe plans new education campus Union sues
to block API privatization
By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Representatives from the Kenaitze Indian Tribe made some big announcements regarding the future of the Tribe during a Kenai Chamber of Commerce Breakfast on Thursday. On April 27, groundbreaking and construction will begin on a recently acquired lot for a new Kenaitze Education Campus. Thanks to a combination of federal grants and Tribal earnings, the Tribe plans to construct two buildings totaling 30,000 square feet on a 5-acre lot located on South Forest Drive, See NEW, page A3
Correction
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
This artist’s rendering shows a conceptual design for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s new Education Campus. The facility will be built at the southwest corner of the Kenai Spur Highway and South Forest Drive in Kenai. (Rendering courtesy Kenaitze Indian Tribe)
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A labor union is suing the governor’s administration to halt the privatization of the state’s main psychiatric hospital, officials said. The Alaska State Employees Association has filed court paperwork seeking a restraining order in state superior court to block the administration of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy from turning over management of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute to Wellpath, a Tennessee company, Alaska Public MeSee API, page A3
As climate warms, state braces for invading parasites By DAN JOLING Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Health and wildlife officials are taking steps to prepare for potentially dangerous parasites that could gain a foothold because of
Alaska’s warming climate. Non-native ticks represent a threat to wildlife and people because they can carry and transmit pathogens, said Micah Hahn, an assistant professor of environmental health with the Institute for Circumpolar
Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “Things are changing really rapidly in Alaska,” she said. “It’s really important for us to establish a baseline. We need to know what ticks are already here, what
Carpenter talks House budget, state priorities By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Alaska House of Representatives passed their version of the state’s budget for the fiscal year 2020 last week. The House budget includes a reduction in spending of about $200 million, which is significantly less than the spending cuts of $1.6 billion proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The Clarion spoke with Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, after the vote to discuss how the House budget differs from the governor’s, as well as the priority of the House now that the budget
Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski. (File photo) has moved to the Senate for stopped now that the House has passed their budget. He discussion. Carpenter said his con- says his priority has always tinuous battle for a fiscally been for a long-term fiscal See TALKS, page A3 sustainable budget hasn’t
ticks are established and reproducing, and where they are, so that we can monitor these changes as the environment changes in the future.” A $125,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will help sample
ticks and prepare a model to forecast where ticks could thrive, she said Tuesday in a presentation to the Local Environmental Observer network, whose members report unusual animal, environment and See BRACE, page A3
Man set to be extradited in decades-old cold case LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a warrant allowing the extradition of a man who is wanted in Alaska to face charges he sexually assaulted and killed a woman more than two decades ago. But Steven Downs, 44, will likely challenge the governor’s warrant as he seeks additional time to get his personal and legal affairs in order for his eventual extradition to Alaska for trial, defense attorney James Howaniec said Thursday. Downs is charged with the assault and murder of 20-yearold Sophie Sergie at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1993, when Downs was a student and Sergie was a former student.
Sergie was sexually assaulted, shot in the head and stabbed multiple times. Her body was found on the morning of April 26, 1993, in a dormitory bathtub. The case went unsolved for years before DNA evidence led to Downs’ arrest in February. Since then, he’s been held without bail on a fugitive from justice charge. Downs has denied any involvement in the crime and contends he was with his girlfriend when Sergie was killed, Howaniec said. “He’s completely flabbergasted by these charges. He adamantly denies any involvement in this crime. We want to step back and assess the situation,” he said.