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Vol. 49, Issue 290
In the news
ACLU: Police failed to protect Native women NOME — The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday accused police in this small Alaska city of “a systemic and disastrous failure” to keep Native women safe from sexual assault. ACLU’s Alaska branch made that charge in a letter demanding the city pay $500,000 to a former 911 dispatcher who says her colleagues at the police department failed to investigate her report that a man raped her in her home. The letter said Clarice Hardy, who is of Inupiaq heritage, was unable to continue working there, and suffered nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks. The ACLU’s action comes 12 days after an AP investigation into complaints by Alaska Native women from Nome and surrounding villages that their reports of sexual assault were not investigated aggressively by the city’s police. Nome police data show that from 2008 through 2017, 8% of calls about sexual assaults against adults resulted in arrests with charges filed. In a written statement, Nome’s interim city manager, John Handeland, declined to respond to questions about the ACLU’s letter. “The city’s efforts to improve community policing, and sexual assault investigations in particular, have been well publicized,” he wrote. After a group of Alaska Native women began publicly raising complaints about Nome’s police last year, the city of fewer than 4,000 residents hired a new police chief, launched an audit of hundreds of old sexual assault cases and created a civilian police oversight committee. While the ACLU said it was writing the letter on behalf of Hardy, it said it is “prepared to seek justice” for other women who had similar experiences with the police department. “Dozens of other Alaska Native women have complained of sexual assaults to the Nome police, only to have their concerns dismissed or allowed to languish without investigation,” the ACLU’s letter charges. “It has become evident in recent months that a systemic, decades-long indifference to the safety See news, Page A15
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Baseball
‘Grannie’ Annie on what to do with moose
MLB playoff races wind down
Food / A7
Sports / A9
Sunny 52/33 More weather, Page A2
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Complaint issued against Alaska Yes By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
A complaint against Alaska Yes Inc was filed Monday by the Alaska Public Offices Commission staff, and alleges the nonprofit violated several campaign laws. In a Sept. 23 memo from
Campaign Disclosure Coordinator Thomas Lucas to Alaska Public Office Commissioners, he wrote that Alaska Yes Inc had violated several campaign laws, including failing to register as a group in a timely matter, failing to file campaign disclosure reports, failing to report non-monetary contributions to the John Quick
campaign, using Alaska Yes expenditures to support Quick and failing to identify the true source of funds used in expenditures. Quick is running for the Nikiski seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. In their memo, Alaska Public Offices Commission defines Alaska Yes inc as a “group,” which is defined
as “any combination of two or more individuals acting jointly who organize for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of one or more elections and who take action the major purpose of which is to influence the outcome of an See yes, Page A3
‘No one is above the law’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi orders impeachment probe of President Donald Trump. By Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Michael Balsamo Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, yielding to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an electionyear clash between Congress and the commander in chief. The probe focuses partly on whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government to undermine Democratic foe Joe Biden and help his own reelection. Pelosi said such actions would mark a “betrayal of his
Mary Altaffer / Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives Tuesday to address the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters.
oath of office” and declared, “No one is above the law.” The impeachment inquiry, after months of investigations by House Democrats of the Trump administration, sets up the party’s most direct
and consequential confrontation with the president, injects deep uncertainty into the 2020 election campaign and tests anew the nation’s constitutional system of checks and balances. Trump, who thrives on combat,
Election 2019 | Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education Profiles by Clarion reporters Victoria Petersen and Brian Mazurek
Dan Castimore Dan Castimore is running for the Kalifornsky Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education seat he currently holds. Castimore is the IT manager for the city of Kenai and has served on the school board for Dan Castimore six consecutive years. When you served on school board, what do you think
Martha Fleming Martha Fleming is running for the East Peninsula seat on the Kenai Peninsula School District Board of Education. According to her candidate file, Fleming is a retired counselor and teacher. Fleming has spent the last 26 years
John “Zen” Kelly
Patti Truesdell is running for the Kalifornsky seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education. According to her candidate file, she’s a retired teacher. Her file says she’s taught for 17 years in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Before that, Truesdell worked at Central Peninsula Hospital for 22 years. Why are you running? I didn’t actually get in the classroom until I was 50. I
Patti Truesdell
By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
See truesdell, Page A16
See fire, Page A2
teaching. I’m still teaching kindergarten and first grade at my church. I teach a Bible study. I love education and I really care about the children. I have grandchildren going to high school and college and I’m very interested in what they’re learning. I just want to be there for the kids and the parents in case they have some problems that can’t be solved. I would like See lockwood, Page A16
Patti Truesdell
New crew takes over Swan Lake Fire
was retiring in May and I kept telling the kids I would stay involved. The reason I’m running is I promised the students I would stay involved. I worked for 10 years at Hope School. Most of my career was spent in small schools. I worked in Tyonek for two years and in Ninilchik. I have been concerned about the way this community talks about public schools. I told the kids
time on the school board so far? I think my main accomplishment is the continued advocacy for funding for our educational system, and just kind of continuing to beat the drum for adequate funding from the state level and the borough level so that we can do what we need to do to fulfill our mission of educating children See kelly, Page A15
Susan Lockwood
See impeach, Page A16
A new management team has taken control of the Swan Lake Fire as firefighting efforts gradually transition to local resources. As of Monday night, the Alaska Type 3 Organization had assumed command from the Northern Rockies Type 2 Team. Public Information Officer Emery Johnson said that the goal of the Type 3 team is to begin drawing down firefighting efforts so that the local Kenai-Kodiak Area of the Division of Forestry can eventually be in charge of monitoring and containment. “We’re making sure we’re on a good glide path for the winter,” Johnson said. “We’re tying up loose ends and making sure the local resources are equipped and ready to take over.” Johnson said that the Type 3 team is likely to be in command of the fire for the next week to 10 days. The fire is currently 167,164 acres in size and is 81% contained, according to the latest update from the Type 3 team. Johnson said that containment will be at 100% when the entire perimeter has containment lines that have been established and mopped up to at least 100 feet. Although the goal is 100% containment, Johnson said that fuel types and topography in some areas north of Cooper Landing and along the southeast perimeter of the fire have made full containment difficult. Fire management may
See fleming, Page A15
Susan Lockwood Susan Lockwood, a retired elementary school teacher, is running for the Kalifornsky seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education. According to her candidate file, Lockwood taught elementary education in Koyukuk, Anaktuvuk Pass, Anderson Village, Fairbanks, Port Graham and Nikolaevsk. Why are you running? I love to teach. I love children. I never stopped
See castimore, Page A15
as a counselor and teacher at Seward High School and is currently a commissioner for the City of Seward Planning and Zoning Commission, according to her file. She is running unopposed. Why are you running? I have just retired from the Kenai Peninsula School
John Kelly John “Zen” Kelly is running for the South Peninsula Kenai Peninsula School District Board of Education Seat he currently holds. According to his candidate file, Kelly is an IT and accounting business consultant in Homer and has served on the School Board since 2016. He is running unopposed. What have you been able to accomplish during your
you were able to accomplish in your role? I don’t know if there’s anything singular or particular, but I would say we’ve done everything we can to keep our class sizes low, which is not something that’s easy to show off. This is not a shiny project, but the fact we’ve been able to keep our PTR — which is the number of kids in each classroom — low,
has all but dared Democrats to take this step, confident that the specter of impeachment led by the opposition party will bolster rather than diminish his political support. Meeting with world leaders at the United Nations, he previewed his defense in an all-caps tweet: “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” Pelosi’s brief statement, delivered without dramatic flourish but in the framework of a constitutional crisis, capped a frenetic weeklong stretch on Capitol Hill as details of a classified whistleblower complaint about Trump burst into the open and momentum shifted toward an impeachment probe. For months, the Democratic leader has tried calming the push for impeachment, saying the House must investigate the facts and let the public decide. The new drive was led by a group of moderate Democratic lawmakers from political swing