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Vol. 49, Issue 211
Drought could kill 2 million in Somalia
Raptors attack Warriors in Finals
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CLARION Thursday, June 6, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
ANCHORAGE — The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska has settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Cherokee Indian inmate at a state prison who claimed he was not allowed to practice his Native faith with certain clothing. The ACLU says the lawsuit by Goose Creek Correctional Center prisoner Brian Hall against the state Department of Corrections was settled Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed in August 2016 after Hall was denied requests to wear as part of his faith a bear claw pendant and a bandanna in violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. ACLU officials say in a news release that under the settlement agreement, Hall and others will be able to practice their faith without “constitutional constraints.” DOC officials did not immediately respond with comment.
Police in Alaska detain 12-yearold boy in fatal shooting ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police say the suspect detained in a fatal weekend shooting is 12 years old. Police announced Wednesday that the boy is suspected of shooting 18-year-old Thomas Williams early Sunday night in woods off Chester Creek Trail. The youth is also suspected of shooting a juvenile boy. Both Williams and the injured boy suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The name of the 12-year-old was not released. He’s in custody at McLaughlin Youth Center. Police have forwarded charges to juvenile justice authorities. Police say an altercation among a group of young people preceded the shooting. Witnesses at around 6:30 p.m. called police to report shots fired north of Sullivan Arena. Minutes later, a caller told a dispatcher he had been shot and that he was in woods running from the shooter. — Associated Press
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HAVE-ing it all
Nonprofit offers veterans an Alaska adventure By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
A nonprofit based in Alaska is helping veterans from across the country experience the natural beauty of the 49th state. The organization is called Helping American Veterans Experience Alaska, or HAVEAlaska, and this year HAVE-Alaska is taking a group of eight veterans on a weeklong fishing trip around the Kenai peninsula from June 2 to June 7. Joe Halstead is the president and founder of HAVEAlaska, and he started the group about two years ago out of a desire to give back to the veterans who impacted his life, including his father. Halstead always See HAVE, page A3
Members of the peninsula hospitality industry spoke out against a proposed bed tax at Tuesday night’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting. Before taking public comment, the assembly
Dunleavy to hold proPFD rally in Wasilla Juneau Empire
Sgt. 1st Class Gert Bindrich and Capt. Lee Halstead smile for the camera during HAVE-Alaska’s 2019 fishing trip in Soldotna on Wednesday. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/ Peninsula Clarion)
Assembly gets pushback on bed tax By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
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P E N I N S U L A
In the news ACLU of Alaska settles religious rights lawsuit
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postponed the vote for two weeks, to gather more input from municipalities within the borough. The 12% bed tax, introduced at the May 7 assembly meeting, would affect temporary lodging, including motels, hotels and bed and breakfast businesses, across the borough. The tax
would generate more than $1 million in additional revenues in FY 2020, and over $4 million in the next two fiscal years, according to estimates included in the ordinance. The ordinance would exempt temporary lodging rentals from the general sales tax rate and instead would levy a maxi-
mum bed tax of 12%. The bed tax, similar to ones defeated by the borough assembly in 2017 and 2018, is being proposed to close budget shortfalls facing the borough. “Due largely to the state’s current economic crisis and proposed reducSee TAX, page A3
As lawmakers are split on what to do with the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, the governor is keeping the pressure on to give Alaskans a full dividend. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration announced Wednesday that there will be a rally at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Everett’s Mat-Su Valley Resort in Wasilla to encourage legislators to decide on a $3,000 PFD. The event, called “Rally to Restore the PFD,” is free and open to the public. “I invite Alaskans to join me at a rally in support of a full PFD under the formula we’ve followed for more than 30 years,” Dunleavy said in a statement. One of Dunleavy’s key campaign promises was to provide a full PFD after the Legislature voted to cut the amount of the PFD the past three years to help balance the budget. He’s pledged to veto anything but a full, $3,000 dividend. The rally comes just two days after the Alaska Senate was unable to decide on a PFD amount during a floor session. The Senate was just one vote short of passing a $3,000 PFD.
Marking 75 years since D-Day By JOHN LEICESTER and RAF CASERT Associated Press
OMAHA BEACH, France — The five beaches are silent at dawn but forever haunted. When the sun rises Thursday over the Normandy coastline where thousands of men bled and died 75 years ago, the diminishing number of World War II veterans who know firsthand of the sacrifices that were made to dismantle tyranny will remember DDay and hope the world never forgets. After Britain’s spirited anniversary tribute to the derring-do of the Allied forces that set off from England to defend democracy, the commemoration will be comparatively solemn in France, the country where so many young lives ended in sand and sea on June 6, 1944. Leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France — and then-foe and
People walk on Omaha beach, Normandy, where an American flag is planted, Wednesday. Extensive commemorations are being held in the U.K. and France to honor the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the United States, Canada and other nations who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 in history’s biggest amphibious invasion. (AP Photo/David Vincent)
now ally Germany — will Normandy beaches to help since at peace. once again laud the troops turn the tide of the war and A ceremony at daybreak who stormed the fortified give birth to a new Europe, will mark the time when the
first troops landed. Remembrances are taking place throughout the day at the military cemeteries where countries buried their fallen citizens. French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump will look out over Omaha Beach, the scene of the bloodiest fighting, from the cemetery with grave markers for over 9,000 Americans, servicemen who established a blood bond between the United States and its trans-Atlantic allies. “I have all kinds of friends buried,” said William Tymchuk, 98, who served with the 4th Canadian Armored Division during some of the deadliest fighting of the brutal campaign after the Normandy landings. “They were young. They got killed. They couldn’t come home,” Tymchuk, who was back in Normandy, continued. See D-DAY, page A2
Legislators could change law to collect extra pay By Alex McCarthy Juneau Empire
Less than a year after a law was signed to cut off legislators’ per diem in the event of a late budget, there’s talk in the Capitol of changing part of the law back.
House Bill 44 deals with a variety of ways to hold lawmakers accountable, including a conflict of interest provision and a portion stating that legislators wouldn’t receive a per diem — a daily payment meant to cover living and eating expenses — if
they didn’t pass a budget on time. Under the law, legislators would not get paid back for the per diem they missed, but there’s a way for lawmakers to change that. This session, the Legislature did not pass a budget during its 121-day regular
Teen charged in fatal shooting near Anchorage waterfalls By DAN JOLING Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of a woman along a popular Anchorage hiking trail.
Kayden McIntosh is also charged with evidence tampering in the death of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. Hoffman’s body was discovered bound with duct tape in the Eklutna River near Thunderbird Falls. She had been shot in the back of the head.
Police say McIntosh and an unnamed woman who was a friend of Hoffman used Hoffman’s cellphone after the shooting to text Hoffman’s family and mislead them about where she was last seen. McIntosh remains See TEEN, page A3
session and has still not done so as the 30-day special session approaches its end. Legislators have not gotten a per diem — which is $302 per day for non-Juneau-based legislators, according to the Legislative Affairs Agency — since the end of regular
session. Per diem comes out of the Legislature’s operating budget, according to LAA. Sen. Gary Stevens, RKodiak, said lawmakers are watching their bank accounts dwindle as session wears on. “Nobody should be exSee PAY, page A3
Advancing landslide threatens Denali park road ANCHORAGE (AP) — Dirt slowly sliding down a mountain threatens a section of road in Denali National Park and Preserve, officials said. The road is in the path of a creeping landslide that has pushed a 100-yard stretch of the gravel road 6 feet since September, Alaska’s Energy
Desk reported Monday. Maintenance staff used rock and gravel to fill a gap in a section of the 92-mile road at Polychrome Pass, officials said. Most tourists access the park using the road and the landslide poses an “existential threat,” according to a See PARK, page A3