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SEWARD — Alaska State Troopers say three missing children have been found safe with their mother, who was arrested along with the children’s father. Troopers say 40-yearold Melissa Salgado and 46-year-old Jeffrey Erickson were arrested on charges of custodial interference Friday. Troopers say 4-year-old Slate Erickson, 7-year-old Jedidiah “Fox” Erickson and 9-year-old Pepper Erickson were wrongfully removed from a Seward foster home Monday night, and their mother also was missing. Troopers say the children were found safe Friday with Salgado in Cordova. Troopers said the foster couple released the children to a woman who claimed to be sent by the Office of Children Services and gave a name of someone they anticipated, but turned out not to be that person. Troopers say the children were returned to state custody. Trooper spokesman Ken Marsh says he doesn’t know why the children were in a foster home. It’s unclear if the parents have attorneys.
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Sunday, August 11, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 258
In the news
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Wounded Warriors hit the Kenai River The 13th annual fishing trip is provided free of charge to active-duty soldiers By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
For members of the military, especially those deployed overseas, vacations can be few and far between. That’s where organizations like the Kenai River Foundation have stepped in, to give men and women in uniform a chance to relax and bond while reeling in a few fish. The Kenai River Foundation hosted its 13th annual Wounded Warriors fishing
trip on Friday and Saturday and brought 68 active duty soldiers stationed in Alaska down to the peninsula to fish for salmon on the Kenai River. The trip is free for the soldiers and is made possible thanks to donations from sponsors including the Central Peninsula Hospital, Alaska Communications, Fairweather, LLC, Price Gregory International and Siemens Building Technologies.
Professional fishing guides volunteered their services for the two days and riders from several chapters of the American Legion provided a military escort for the buses that brought the soldiers primarily stationed at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to and from Anchorage. When asked why the American Legion started providing the escorts five years ago, one of the riders, Craig “Blue” Breshears simply pointed at the soldiers coming off the fishing boats. See warriors, Page A3
Brian Mazurek / Peninsula Clarion
From left, Spc. Gabriel Rodriguez, Staff Sgt. David Wardlow, Spc. Tyler Vretenick and Spc. Ethan Holman show off the day’s haul during the Wounded Warrior’s Fishing Trip in Centennial Park in Soldotna on Friday.
Stocking up for school Kids learn about health, safety ... and collect back-to-school swag
See news, Page A3
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Native American children adoption law upheld By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press
to waste management in the U.S. The bill would also create a public-private partnership fund that focuses on research for waste management and environmental technologies for plastics. He explained that some researchers would like to create a new kind of plastic that would biodegrade in salt water. Sullivan called this yet-to-bediscovered technology the “Holy Grail,” and said there would be an incentive prize from the fund for technologies of this kind. Save Our Seas 2.0 is still in the works, he said, but it is moving quickly and has a lot of bipartisan as well as private support, according to the senator. “The way you get things done in D.C. is you get all the key stakeholders aligned, and it looks like they’re all aligned,” Sullivan said.
NEW ORLEANS — A 1978 law giving preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving American Indian children is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, reversing a lower court judge in a case fraught with emotional arguments over adoptive families being “torn apart” and the urgency of protecting tribal families and cultures. The decision from a three-judge panel the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans upholds the Indian Child Welfare Act in a lawsuit involving non-Indian families in multiple states who adopted or sought to adopt Native American children. Opponents of the law called it an unconstitutional race-based intrusion on states’ powers to govern adoptions. But the 5th Circuit majority disagreed, saying the law’s definition of an “Indian child” is a political classification. The opinion by Judge James L. Dennis said the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that Congress has broad power to regulate Native American tribes. And it said the act’s definition of Indian child is broad. “As Defendants explain, under some tribal membership laws, eligibility extends to children without Indian blood, such as the descendants of former slaves of tribes who became members after they were freed, or the descendants of adopted white persons,” Dennis wrote. “Accordingly, a child may fall under ICWA’s membership eligibility standard because his or her biological parent became a member of a tribe, despite not being racially Indian.” The decision was a victory for the U.S. Justice Department, which defended the law, and supporters who say the law is needed to protect and preserve Native American culture and families. “We are pleased that the court followed decades of legal precedent in its ruling, preserving a law that protects Indian children and allows them to retain their identity by staying within their families and tribal communities,” leaders of the Cherokee, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Oneida Nation and the Quinault Nation said in a joint press release. Tyson Johnston, vice president of the tribal council of the Quinault Indian Nation in Tahola, Washington, was one of numerous
See sullivan, Page A3
See upheld, Page A3
Kasilof woman trying to cross glacier dies in fall ANCHORAGE — A Kasilof woman died when she fell while trying to cross a glacier. Alaska State Troopers say 57-year-old Leslie Lahndt was killed in the fall on Penny Royal Glacier in the Hatcher Pass area. Lahndt, her daughter and a friend were hiking Sunday. Troopers say Lahndt slid several hundred yards down the glacier into rocks. Lahndt’s daughter and the friend climbed down and verified that Lahndt had died. A Department of Public Safety helicopter could not immediately recover the body because of inclement weather. A helicopter crew reached the site Wednesday and transported the body to
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Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion
From left, Patty Eisler, Jennifer Thomsen, Sheila Thomsen, Dr. David Milner and Chelsea Berg smile for the camera Saturday in front of the PCHS Dental booth during KidFest at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna.
By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
The first ever KidFest, hosted by PCHS at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna on Saturday, provided hundreds of kids and parents the opportunity to stock up on school supplies while also learning valuable lessons about staying healthy and safe. Every kid that participated was given a “report card” that had a list of all the booths stationed throughout the mall. After visiting each booth, participating in a game or learning activity and getting a stamp of approval, the kids could return
completed report cards for a backpack full of school supplies. One of the booths was staffed by the PCHS Dental team, and they had a row of sugary drinks like sodas and juices with bags of sugar next to them to highlight how much sugar is in each, as well as a photo of some teeth that were in bad shape because of tooth decay. “That’s gross,” Sheila Thomsen said while looking at the teeth and the bags of sugar. “I only drink soda every once in a while.” Thomsen is going into the third grade at Aurora Elementary School. Her mom Jennifer has already been
teaching her about the importance of avoiding sugary drinks. Jennifer said that Sheila had heard about KidFest on the radio and expressed excitement about going. “She listens to the radio more than I do, and one day she said ‘Mom, don’t forget KidFest is coming up!’” Marquitta Andrus, manager of marketing and outreach for KidFest, said that the turnout for their first year was even better than they expected. Even though Sweeney’s Clothing provided 200 backpacks for the occasion, Andrus said that they were set to run out by about halfway through the day.
Sen. Sullivan visits Juneau By Peter Segall
In addition to the cleanup efforts, the new bill provides an international component as well as incenSen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, tives for research. stopped by the offices of the “It’s a very solvable environJuneau Empire this week to mental problem,” Sullivan talk about his work on bills said, because “it’s estimated related to ocean pollution that 10 rivers in five countries and domestic violence. in Asia constitute (the source Sullivan was in Juneau to of) over 70% of ocean polluattend a roundtable meettion, plastics.” ing on transboundary mining Sullivan said several counwith Sen. Lisa Murkowski, tries in the region such as Sen. Dan R-Alaska, and a number of India, Indonesia and ThaiSullivan, land have “economies [that] state and local organizaR-Alaska are growing much faster than tions as well as Canadian their waste management (capabilirepresentatives. ties are).” Sullivan said he had been workSo, the bill puts forward efforts ing on the Save Our Seas Act 2.0, to work with nations on their waste a follow-up to last year’s act of the management, which has the added same name, which was signed into benefit of providing business opporlaw in October. That bill provides tunities for American companies, a “serious and comprehensive Sullivan said. approach to dealing with the ocean According to Sullivan, “We’re the debris and plastic issue,” Sullivan best at doing this,” he said, referring said. Juneau Empire