She’s out
Pinned
Sen. Kamala Harris ends her White House bid
Kenai, SoHi rumble on the mat
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CLARION
19/4 More weather, Page A2
W of 1 inner Awa0* 201 Exc rds fo 8 e r Rep llence i o n rt * Ala ska P i n g ! res
P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 50, Issue 52
In the news Man convicted of kidnapping, murder dies JUNEAU — A man convicted of kidnapping and killing a Fairbanks high school student in 1987 has died. The state Department of Corrections says 69-year-old Michael Alexander died at a C o l o ra d o h o s p i t a l Sunday. The department, in a release, says Alexander had been transferred to the Colorado Department of Corrections last year to receive special medical care. Details about his health were not released. The department says Alexander was serving consecutive 99-year sentences for murder and kidnapping. He was charged in the death of high school student Kathy Stockholm. Court documents say the student left her home the evening of March 23, 1987, to get a book from her locker at school and never returned. Her body was later found on the outskirts of Fairbanks.
Victims found in burning SUV ID’d ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police have identified two people found dead in a burning sport utility vehicle as the wife and stepdaughter of the man charged in the case. Tylan Fely, 34, is charged with first-degree murder, arson and other counts in the deaths of Cecilia Tuuaga and her 13-year-old daughter, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Fely is represented by the Alaska Public Defender Agency, which did not respond to an email request for comment Tuesday. He remains jailed with bail set at $1 million. Police late Saturday night responded to See news, Page A3
correction T h e We d n e s d ay , Nov. 27 article “Virginia Morgan appointed to vacant school board seat” incorrectly stated that Morgan was the president of the Cooper Landing Community Library Board. Morgan is the vice president of the board and Katie Thomas is the president. The Clarion regrets the error.
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Wednesday, December 4, 2019 • Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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Teen hospitalized for vaping related injury By Michael Lockett Juneau Empire
A teenager from Southeast Alaska was hospitalized on Thanksgiving Day for e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI), the first case of its kind in Alaska. The teenager is improving, said Clinton Bennett, Alaska Department
of Health and Social Services communications director, in a press release. The DHSS has had nine suspected EVALI cases so far, but this is the first to meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition for the ailment. They’ve been hospitalized out of state. “The school district wants to support families and communities to keep our students healthy and safe
The bear statue outside the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center has a winter coat.
from any and all harmful substances,” Juneau School District Chief of Staff Kristen Bartlett said. “Unfortunately, there are students who get access to all kinds of things we would rather they not have.” The teenager is the first to be diagnosed in Alaska, but that’s not the case in the rest of the country, Bennett said in the press release. More than 2,290 cases have been
reported to the CDC in the other states and territories, with a total of 47 deaths so far. “The patient had a cough starting in November,” said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the DHSS’s Chief of Section of Epidemiology, in a phone interview. “The patient is improving clinically and will hopefully be discharged See vaping, Page A3
Frontage Road in Kenai is covered in compact snow.
dressed in white Story by Victoria Petersen u Photos by Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Two days of constant snowfall brought a deep blanket of snow to the peninsula. In Kasilof, total snowfall was measured at 18 inches, Michael Kutz with the National Weather Service in Anchorage said. He said another measurement from Soldotna came out to 16 and a half inches of snow. In Sterling, there was about 12 inches of snow. Alaska Department of Transportation has new snowplow safety information and resources on their website to help residents navigate wintry roads. The department urges drivers to reduce their speeds according to road and weather conditions. When driving behind snow removal equipment, stay back and don’t pass on the right, the department says in their winter driving guide.
Erik Hansen Scout Park can be seen here in Kenai on Tuesday.
Make sure to leave plenty of room for stopping and drive with headlights on. If roads seem fine, take care to drive slow on bridges and overpasses, which tend to ice up first in colder conditions. Residents can also go online to dot.alaska.gov/stwdmno/wintermap to see a winter road maintenance priority map.
A whodunit with a lesson in criminal justice By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
In an attempt to bring some variety to his lesson plan, one Nikiski educator has given his students the opportunity to see firsthand how the U.S. justice system operates. On Tuesday, Nikiski Middle/High School Seniors in Joe Rizzo’s government class participated in a mock trial at the Kenai Courthouse where they were tasked with finding one of their classmates guilty or not guilty of murder. Students played the roles of the defendant, prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses and the jury, while Kenai lawyer Peter Ehrhardt presided as the judge for the case.
Rizzo has set up these mock trials for his students for the past four years, although this one could be the last since Rizzo is retiring at the end of the year. Kenai Superior Court Judge Jennifer Wells was in the audience during the mock trial and said she was happy to see the younger generation learning how important — and complicated — the courts can be. “I think it’s great, and I would love if we could do this more,” Wells said during the recess. “I think it’s such a great way to learn just how the court system works, how important it is to be a jury, and how our constitution See mock, Page A3
Brian Mazurek / Peninsula Clarion
Nikiski Middle/High School seniors are sworn in as the jury during a mock trial at the Kenai Courthouse on Tuesday.
House report: Trump misused power, obstructed By Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump seriously misused the power of his office for personal political gain by seeking foreign intervention in the American election process and obstructed Congress by stonewalling efforts to investigate, a House report released Tuesday concluded in findings that form the basis for possible impeachment. The 300-page report from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee does not render a judgment on whether
Trump’s actions stemming from a July 25 phone call with Ukraine rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” warranting impeachment. That is for Congress to decide. But it details “significant misconduct” by the president that the House Judiciary Committee will begin to assess Wednesday. “The evidence that we have found is really quite overwhelming that the president used the power of his office to secure political favors and abuse the trust American people put in him and jeopardize our security,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told The Associated Press.
“It was a difficult decision to go down this road, because it’s so consequential for the country,” he said. But “the president was the author of his own impeachment inquiry by repeatedly seeking foreign help in his election campaigns.” Schiff added: “Americans need to understand that this president is putting his personal political interests above theirs. And that it’s endangering the country.” In a statement, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump.” She said the report “reads like the
ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.” The president, at a NATO meeting in London, called the impeachment effort by rival Democrats “unpatriotic,” and said he wouldn’t be watching Wednesday’s hearing. The “Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report” provides a detailed, stunning, account of a shadow diplomacy run by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, resulting in layers of allegations that can be distilled into specific acts, like bribery See report, Page A14