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Vol. 49, Issue 194
In the news Authorities say man raped woman at police station FAIRBANKS — A man was arrested after a surveillance camera showed him raping a woman inside an Alaska police station, authorities said. An emergency dispatcher alerted officers after security cameras caught the assault in the station vestibule, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Tuesday. An officer pulled the man off the unconscious woman, who then woke up and was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, police say. Devan Thomas Gage, 25, was arrested Monday at the station and told officers he thought it would be “adventurous” to rape an incapacitated woman in a police station, authorities said. Gage told officers he acted “really just out of boredom” and said it was a mistake, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Fairbanks court. The video footage shows Gage and the woman entering the vestibule around 4 a.m. and appearing to fall asleep on a bench before Gage got up and forced himself on the woman while she was unconscious, authorities said. The woman fell to the floor after an officer pulled Gage off of her and slowly regained consciousness. The woman appeared confused and became emotional, telling an officer she never consented to have sex with Gage, the complaint said. Gage said he was sober, did not have any mental or medical problems and had been with the woman all night, according to police, who found an empty bottle of vodka in his pocket. Alaska law prohibits operation of a motor vehicle by anyone with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or more. A breath test showed the woman registered 0.3%. Gage registered 0%, police said. — Associated Press
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Dunleavy plans special session By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — Gov. Mike Dunleavy plans to call lawmakers into a special session, saying they did not appear to be on course to finish major unresolved issues by Wednesday’s constitutional deadline. Details on the timing and location of the special session were expected later. Dunleavy told reporters Wednesday evening that a change of venue might make a difference and said there has been interest in meeting in the MatanuskaSusitna Valley. The Republican Dunleavy is from See PLANS, page A2
Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, left, speaks to House Minority Leader Lance Pruitt before the start of the House floor session Wednesday in Juneau. Wednesday marked a constitutional deadline for the end of the regular session. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Chamber discusses Pebble Mine’s impact on bear habitats While much of the discussion over the proposed Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay has focused on its impact to the area’s fishing industry, the project’s potential impact to another
Late-stage chinooks not as safe as thought By Cristy Fry Special to the Homer News
What about the bears? By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
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species was up for debate at yesterday’s Joint Kenai/Soldotna Chamber Luncheon. During a presentation, Sam Snyder with the Wild Salmon Center and Drew Hamilton with Friends of McNeil River shifted the focus to how the mine would affect brown bears.
A professional bearviewing guide who works out of Homer, Hamilton said that many of his colleagues in the bear-viewing industry fly to the western side of Cook Inlet — specifically areas in Lake Clark National Park, the Katmai National Park and Preserve
and the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge — for the bulk of their tours. Together, these areas are home to the largest concentration of brown bears in the world, with around 2,200 in Katmai National Park alone. Hamilton said See BEARS, page A3
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences have made a discovery about mortality in late-stage chinook salmon — fish that have been in the marine environment for two years or more — that is a bit surprising. The researchers, Andy Seitz and Michael Courtney, have been using pop-up satellite tags to study chinook salmon since 2013. A satellite tag is attached to a fish, where it collects data on temperature, depth and ambient light intensity. On a pre-programmed date, the tag releases from the fish, pops up to the surface of the ocean and transmits its stored data to satellites that researchers can access from a computer. They were testing whether the tags are an effective tool for studying chinook salmon ecology and behavior. “It has been assumed that the early stage in the ocean is more dangerous,” Seitz told See SAFE, page A3
Investigators recover floatplane wreckage By Ben Hohenstatt Juneau Empire
The dead are identified, the injured are recuperating and the investigation continues into Monday’s fatal floatplane crash near Ketchikan. Wednesday marked the start of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into what preliminary information indicates was a mid-air collision of a Taquan Air floatplane and a Mountain Air floatplane at 12:21 p.m. Monday, which killed six and injured 10. “A lot of work was conducted today,” said National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy, during a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Ketchikan. “We requested a lot of in-
A Coast Guard Station Ketchikan 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boat crew searches for survivors from downed aircraft in the vicinity of George Inlet near Ketchikan, Monday. (Courtesy photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
formation. We started our interview process. We interviewed the pilot of the Taquan plane, and we’ve
interviewed a lot of the passengers.” “I have not had the opportunity to speak with any
More than 200 students enrolled in homeless assistance program By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Enrollment in a program that provides assistance to homeless students has stabilized since the beginning of the school year. As of May 10, 218 students were enrolled in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Students in Transition Program, Kelly King, program coordinator for the district,
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said. The 16-year-old program provides services to homeless students and students no longer in the custody of their parent or legal guardian. The number puts the 2018-2019 school year roughly on track to match previous years. On average, the program serves around 250 students per year. At the beginning of the school year, the program
saw a 42% increase from previous years in the number of students the program was serving, with 98 students referred by midSeptember. In comparison, 69 students were identified as homeless at the same time in 2017, prompting fears of a spike in student homelessness. At the beginning of the school year, King said she See 200, page A3
of the investigators or participants in the interviews,” she added. However, she did have
information about both efforts to recover wreckage from the two planes and an investigation that she said will yield a preliminary report in about two weeks. The two wreckage sites are about a mile apart, Homendy said, and their debris fields were drastically different. She said the Taquan plane was submerged under 75 feet of water and about 50 feet away from shore. It was recovered and placed on a barge, and it will be placed in a secure hangar. “The debris field is much larger for the Mountain Air plane,” Homendy said. “It’s estimated at 1,000 feet by 3,000 feet.” Tuesday, Homendy said the debris fields could be a sign that the plane began to come apart in the air. See PLANE, page A3
South Peninsula Hospital names CEO Staff Report Homer News
A former Central Peninsula Hospital Chief Executive Officer and South Peninsula Hospital Chief Financial Officer has been named the new CEO for South Peninsula Hospital. In a press release on Wednesday, the SPH board of directors announced it has selected Ryan Smith to be the new CEO. Smith now works as
CEO of Memorial Hospital of Converse County in Douglas, Wyoming. He started his career in health care administration as CFO in Homer from 1996-98. He was CEO of Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna for five years from 2006-11, leaving to be CEO at Memorial Hospital. Smith ran CPH at the time of a fatal shooting in November 2008 when a former employee entered the hosSee CEO, page A3
The new Northrim Bank branch in Soldotna is now open. Stop in and get 5,000 Alaska Airlines miles when you open a new checking account with a debit card and online banking.
Northrim.com | 562.0062