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Vol. 50, Issue 4
In the news
Peninsula drought downgraded The area’s ongoing drought saw significant improvement this week. The drought was downgraded, according to Thursday’s updated U.S. Drought Monitor map. A majority of the Kenai Peninsula is now in the zero category drought, known as abnormally dry, while the north west portion of the peninsula is in a category one drought, known as a moderate drought. Over the summer, areas near the Swan Lake Fire experienced record breaking dryness and heat, which contributed to a level three extreme drought in the area. The U.S. Drought Monitor — produced in partnership with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — measures droughts using five levels, level zero being abnormally dry conditions with no drought, and the fourth level being an exceptional drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor Map is updated every Thursday. — Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
Human remains found along Seward Highway ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police are investigating human remains found along the Seward Highway south of Beluga Point. The Anchorage Daily News reports investigators don’t know the identity of the person or how long the remains have been there. Police received a call Wednesday morning. The remains were found at Mile 108 near the start of the Rainbow trail. The cause of death is unknown.
Homer Tribune closes its doors HOMER — The weekly Homer Tribune announced on its front page and online that Thursday’s edition would the last for the newspaper that has been in business for 20 years. Alaska Media sold the paper earlier this year to Anchorage Daily News LLC. Ryan Binkley, the president of the Anchorage group, See news, Page A3
Index Local . . . . . . . . . . A3 Opinion . . . . . . . . A4 Nation & World . . . . A5 Religion . . . . . . . . A6 Sports . . . . . . . . . A7 Classifieds . . . . . . A10 Comics . . . . . . . . A13 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Running
A judge’s gesture is not embraced by all
Area athletes ready for state competition
Nation & World / A5
Sports / A7
CLARION
Windy and rainy 54/36 More weather, Page A2
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Friday, October 4, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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Soldotna to see council, mayoral changes By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
Soldotna residents should expect changes to their city council in the coming months. Tyson Cox, a current member on the Soldotna City Council, offered his resignation to the council, effective Oct. 14. Cox is the unofficial winner of the district
four assembly seat. When he is declared the official winning candidate, Cox will pivot from the council to the assembly. Cox’s move to the assembly leaves an opening on the council, which the council plans to address and declare at their Oct. 10 meeting. Within 30 days after declaring the council spot vacant, remaining members
will appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the next regularly scheduled election, which will take place Oct. 6, 2020. At that election, the spot will be placed on the ballot, with a term ending October 2023. The new council member could be appointed as soon as Nov. 13. During this week’s elections, Lisa Parker won
her reelection as a council member. The unofficial winner of the other vacant seat on this year’s ballot is Dave Carey, who has served on the city’s council and as the city’s mayor in the past. The city is also gearing up for a special election Dec. 17 to find a new mayor. After the Sept. 10 death of Mayor John Nels Anderson, the city council declared the
mayor’s seat vacant. At their Sept. 26 they called a special election to elect a new mayor in December. Anderson’s term as mayor would have ended after the 2020 October election. Since the vacancy in office occurred more than six months before a regular election, a special election See soldotna, Page A3
Alcohol board ousts director But Erika McConnell also sits on the state’s marijuana regulatory board, complicating the issue. By Becky Bohrer Associated Press Maggie Mooney-Seus / NOAA Fisheries
Northern fur seal pups stand on a beach on Bogoslof Island in August. theseals are thriving on the island that’s the tip of an active undersea volcano.
An unlikely haven for baby seals Bogoslof Island is the tip of an active undersea volcano By Dan Joling Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s northern fur seal population for three decades has been classified as depleted, but the marine mammals are showing up in growing numbers at an unlikely location: a tiny island that forms the tip of an active undersea volcano. Vents on Bogoslof Island continue to spew mud, steam and sulfurous gases two years after an eruption sent ash clouds into the path of jetliners passing over the Bering Sea. Still, northern fur seal moms find the remote island’s rocky beaches perfect for giving birth and mothering pups.
“The population growth of northern fur seals on Bogoslof has been extraordinary,” said Tom Gelatt, who leads a NOAA Fisheries group that studies northern fur seals. Federal scientists visited the island in August. Geographically speaking, the island is not a particularly unusual place for the seals known for their thick coats to hang out. Most of the world’s roughly 1.1 million northern fur seals breed in the eastern Bering Sea. The animals live in the ocean from November to June and head for land in summer to breed and nurse pups. But why the seals chose volatile Bogoslof over the dozens of other
uninhabited Aleutian Islands is unclear. “The surface is covered with these big, ballistic blocks, some as big as 10 meters (33 feet) in length that were exploded out of the vent,” said Chris Waythomas, a U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. “They litter the surface. It’s pretty wild.” The eastern Bering Sea population of northern fur seals numbers about 635,000, with their main breeding ground on St. Paul Island, 240 miles northwest of Bogoslof. The animals were first spotted on Bogoslof in 1980, and NOAA researchers have since conducted
periodic checks on the population. In 2015, biologists estimated an annual growth rate of just over 10% to approximately 28,000 pups on the island. The 2019 estimate likely will be more than 36,000 pups, Gelatt said. A California stock of northern fur seals in the San Miguel, Channel and Farallon Islands is estimated at about 14,000 animals, while an unknown number live in Russian waters. The seals stay on beaches, but on Bogoslof — which is about a third the size of New York City’s Central Park — they See seals, Page A2
Trump wants China probe of Biden By Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin Associated Press
WA S H I N G T O N — Ensnared in an impeachment inquiry over his once-secret appeal for Ukraine to investigate an American political rival, President Donald Trump openly underscored that request Thursday and flung it wider, urging global rival China to probe Democrat Joe Biden and his son. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence said Americans have a right to know about the wrongdoing the president alleges. But Biden’s campaign chairman said Trump’s assertions merely show he’s scared of facing
Biden in next year’s election. House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, who has a leading role in Congress’ impeachment inquiry, said Trump’s comments show “he feels he can do anything with impunity.” Trump declared at the White House, “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.” He said he hadn’t previously asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate the former vice president and his son Hunter, but it’s “certainly something we could start thinking about.” By publicly egging on China to investigate a Democratic political rival, Trump was amplifying the
message he’d delivered in private to the president of Ukraine. That message, revealed by a government whistleblower, has spawned the impeachment investigation by the House into whether he abused his office for personal political gain. Trump, who has defended his contact with Ukraine as “perfect,” went further in expanding his request to China, a communist nation world power that has much at stake in its relationship with the United States in an ongoing trade war. Trump’s comments evoked his public call in 2016 for Russia to track down his then-rival Hillary Clinton’s emails _ a move that was seen as an unprecedented
appeal for foreign election interference. It is a violation of federal campaign finance law to solicit anything of value from a foreign government to help a campaign. The boldness of Trump’s call on Thursday also suggests he will continue to act as though requests for other countries to investigate potential opponents in the 2020 election are normal, even in the face of broad condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans. It’s a tactic Trump has used successfully before, pushing questionable secret conversations into the open, helping to inoculate him against charges that he is engaged in nefarious action, cover-ups or obstruction of justice.
JUNEAU — The board that regulates alcohol in Alaska voted Thursday to oust its director, though the law also gives the state’s marijuana regulatory board a say. The boards share Erika McConnell as director. This summer, the Marijuana Control Board held a vote of confidence in McConnell, according to meeting minutes and chairman Mark Springer. Springer said he stands by that motion. Before Thursday’s vote to boot McConnell by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, chairman Bob Klein praised McConnell’s work ethic and administrative skills. But he said he sees a disconnect between the board’s wishes and how McConnell approaches her position. During the meeting, See board, Page A3
‘Evening of Classics’ dedicated to late mentor By Joey Klecka Peninsula Clarion
The annual ‘Evening of Classics’ concert that graces the halls of Soldotna’s Christ Lutheran Church every year in October will be without one of the central peninsula’s finest musical leaders this year. The Redoubt Chamber Orchestra will perform the ‘Evening of Classics,’ an annual favorite in the musical community, Friday at 7 p.m., and the evening is dedicated to the memory of local artist Jean Brockel, who died July 26 at the age of 85. Brockel was an inspiration and mentor to many of the Kenai Peninsula’s See evening, Page A2