SOURDOUGH JACK:

“I would’ve had that gold, but it didn’t pan out.”

The weather.

Clear. Highs 3 below

to 5 above. Light

winds. Tonight: Most-

ly clear. Lows 16 to 18

below, except around

5 above on the hills.

Light winds.

High today ...............-3

Low tonight ........... -18

WEATHER » A7

GOODMORNING

Classified » B7 | Comics » B6 | Dear Abby » Latitude 65 | Markets » A7 | Obituaries » A3 | Opinion » A6INSIDE

• • •

• • •

President Donald Trump asks Pentagon to draft military parade. » A3Inside Today

Aurora forecast.

Auroral activity will be

low. Weather permit-

ting, low-level displays

will be visible overhead

from Utqiagvik to Fair-

banks and visible low

on the northern horizon

from as far south as

Anchorage and Juneau.

This information is provided

by aurora forecasters at

the Geophysical Institute

at the University of Alaska

Fairbanks. For more infor-

mation about the aurora,

visit http://www.gi.alaska.

edu/AuroraForecast

SIGNING DAYWest Valley girls

soccer players sign

college letters.

SPORTS

Page B1

One dollar newsminer.comTHURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018

T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A

Stowers gives State of the Judiciary

By Erin GrangerEGRANGER@NEWSMINER.COM

Alaska Chief Justice Craig Stowers presented his third annual State of the Judicia-ry address to members of the House and Senate on Wednes-day morning, centering atten-tion on the state’s fiscal crisis and subsequent staffing issues within the court system and the lingering issue of workplace sex-ual assault and harassment.

“The Alaska Court system is a

team of extraor-dinary people who, at all lev-els, are doing remarkable work to deliver a high quality of justice services to Alas-kans,” Stowers said. “The work that these pub-lic servants are accomplishing is all the more remarkable because they are, year by year, doing more with less.”

Stowers said that while the

court system has had to reduce staff due to the state’s econom-ic crisis, reliance on the court systems has not slowed, adding pressure to dwindling staff.

“Public demands on the court system don’t decrease just because our resources have been diminished,” Stowers said.

As part of budget cuts, the state will be restructuring ser-vices in rural courts. All rural courts will remain operational but hours of operation and staff-ing may decrease if budget cuts

continue, Stowers said. Stowers emphasized that there

are consequences to downsizing government, many of which can be seen in the court system.

“The court system has under-gone challenges of historic pro-portion in the past several years,” Stowers said.

Stowers became chief justice in 2015. Since then, there has been an 11 percent drop in court staff due to budget cuts.

During his speech, Stowers also acknowledged the issue of

workplace harassment, some-thing the state Legislature has been addressing more of recent-ly. He referred to sexual harass-ment as a “scourge affecting all parts of our national and state life.”

Stowers said that while the state court system has had an antisexual harassment policy for years, the state court system will be reviewing this policy to ensure its adequacy.

Chief Justice focuses on fiscal, staffing struggles

Propane heater fire kills dog, displaces fourBy Sam FriedmanSFRIEDMAN

@NEWSMINER.COM

A fire sparked by a pro-pane heater destroyed a modular home in the Chena Pump Road area during the weekend, displacing four people and killing a dog.

Firefighters responded at 4:36 a.m. Saturday to a burning ATCO unit at Alaska Gravel & Founda-tion on Chena Point Ave-nue, said Deputy fire Chief Chris Hunger with Chena Goldstream Fire and Res-cue. Firefighters trans-ported one person to Fair-banks Memorial Hospital as a precaution, he said. Firefighters were on scene cleaning up until about 7 p.m. at temperatures of 35 below, he said.

Ron Bluel Jr. was across town picking out a flan-nel shirt at Walmart when he got a phone call that his home was on fire. Bluel owns the gravel busi-ness and lives in the Atco unit with three roommates.

When he got the call, Bluel sa id he raced across town and found the home destroyed. He later learned from the other occupants that the fire erupted while his roommate was refilling a 1-pound propane canis-ter from a larger canister. Bluel usually transfers the fuel in the kitchen away from a small propane heater. But on Saturday, his roommate transferred the fuel in the living room where the heater was run-ning. She also didn’t close a valve on the canister, sending propane into the room, where it ignited, launching the propane canister into the air.

“It took off like a rock-et, bruising the hell out of her hand,” Bluel said.

The fire caught the cur-tains and it spread too quickly to be contained, he said.

FIRE » A3

STATE » A3

Group picks Alaska to challenge

unlimited campaign donations

JUNEAU — A national group is focusing on Alaska in a bid to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a 2010 decision that upended how campaigns are run in this country.

The court decision, Citizen United v. FEC, paved the way for corporations and unions to make unlimited independent expenditures, and in Alaska,

was viewed by state officials as likely rendering several pro-visions of law prohibiting or limiting certain contributions unconstitutional.

Washington, D.C.-based Equal Citizens wants to put that inter-pretation to the test but it could face an uphill battle.

Equal Citizens is support-ing complaints that have been filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission over con-tributions made in the 2016

election to independent groups that backed candidates to the Alaska Legislature. One group supported a Republican and the other leaned toward Dem-ocrats during the general elec-tion.

The complaints contend that state law would cap con-tributions individuals or oth-er groups could contribute to $500 and $1,000 a year,

By Becky Bohrer ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAMPAIGN » A3

Allen Moore is first to

Quest’s halfway markBy Brad JoyalBJOYAL

@NEWSMINER.COM

DAWSON CITY,

YUKON — The gold belongs to

Allen Moore, for now anyway.

Moore and his team of 14 dogs from SP Ken-nel in Two Rivers were the first to arrive at the Dawson City, Yukon, checkpoint at 7:27 p.m. Alaska Standard Time on Wednesday. Alaska

time is one hour behind Yukon time.

After arriving at the checkpoint, Moore showed his passport to the border agent and drank a protein drink.

An energetic crowd of people was outside the Dawson City Visitor Information Centre to welcome him, despite 34 below temperatures.

“They look awe-

some,” Moore said of his dogs. “They’re perky, so I couldn’t ask for any better as far as the team.”

QUEST » A8

Go to newsminer.com for regular updates. Follow reporter Brad Joyal on Twitter: @FDNMquest. For in-depth

Quest coverage, see pages A5, A8

Allen Moore arrives Wednesday in Dawson. With a mandatory 36-hour layover in Dawson, Moore and his dog team will get plenty of rest and food before attempting to mush another 500 miles to the finish at Whitehorse, Yukon. Dawson City is the only checkpoint where handlers are allowed to help mushers with their duties. ROBIN WOOD/NEWS-MINER

Stowers

A3Thursday, February 8, 2018 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

respectively, but that the law was flouted. Individual contributions topped $2,000 in some cases, with special interest and union organiza-tions contributing about $50,000 or more, the complaints allege.

Since the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, states and localities have so far had no success using the courts in attempts to impose limits on spend-ing by corporations or labor unions, said election law expert Richard Hasen, a law professor at the Univer-sity of California at Irvine.

The legal effort in Alaska “is the next

step, the question of contributions by individuals, corporations, labor unions through independent expen-diture committees, these so-called super PACs,” he said.

He described the attempt as a long shot because if it eventually reach-es the U.S. Supreme Court, justices under the current court makeup “would be very likely to hold that independent expenditure committees may take unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations and labor unions.”

Staff for the Alaska Public Offic-es Commission has concluded the complaints should be rejected. If the commission agrees, the matter can be appealed to state court.

“In light of the grim evidence of pervasive sexual harassment and assault that we have seen in the last year, includ-ing that widely reported occurring in the feder-

al courts, I am not so naive to think can’t hap-pen here,” Stowers said. “The court system must do more proactively to ensure that no court employee will be subject-ed to sexual harassment of any kind.”

U l t i m a t e l y, w h i l e Stowers said the state

and the court system are facing difficult times, he remains confident in their ability to prevail.

“The state of the judi-ciary is strong and resil-ient,” Stowers said. Contact staff writer Erin

Granger at 459-7544. Follow

her on Twitter:

@FDNMPolitics.

2018 Yukon Quest

Learn about solutions to Alaska's fiscal

challenges with Gunnar Knapp, Ph.D. of the

Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Hurry . . . Limited to 25 Teams!

Gather your spellers together and come compete!

Spelling Teams Needed!

For the 26th Annual Biz Bee Fundraiserbenefiting the Literacy Council of Alaska

Thursday, February 15, 20187:00p.m.•WestmarkFairbanksHotel

To register online, visit www.literacycouncilofalaska.org

newsminer.com

Contact Paulette Rahm for moreinformation at 456-6212

paulette@literacycouncilofalaska.org

Raffle Tickets

available at

Literacy Council &

Daily News-Miner

Bigger is not always better in the backyard ice rink contest for

Fairbanks Hockey Week.“We’ve had big fancy rinks

and small simple rinks,” said Randy Zarnke, who spear-heads the special week, Feb. 16-25.

“The most important factor is seeing people, usually kids, actually using the rink. The biggest, fanciest rink doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t being used by some kids to have fun playing hockey.”

What this means is that it is time to enter the backyard rink contest by contacting Zarnke at itrap2@gci.net by Feb. 18. The winner will be announced Feb. 23.

This is an informal and fun contest but the winner does get a spectacular prize — a special stainless steel plaque with the hockey week logo embossed upon it, created by Holaday-Parks. Past winners proudly display their own spe-cial plaque at their rinks.

There are no special criteria for entering this unique con-test, which brings rink owners plenty of local recognition.

“People always ask me what criteria we use for judging the rinks,” Zarnke said. “I tell them that we don’t have any criteria. We’ll know the winner when we see it.”

The determining factor for a winning rink is usually discov-ering how much it is used.

“The best part of the contest is when we visit rinks where there are small kids,” he said. “The kids are so excited that somebody is coming to see their rink. Then, when we talk to the parents for more than a couple of minutes, the kids drift away and do what they should do, they play on the rink. They don’t have time for talking. They want to have fun.”

To see winning backyard rinks from past years, see the Our Town page Saturday.

Valentine caramelsOneTree Alaska has

announced a Valentine’s Day special for people who wish to donate to the forest education outreach and research pro-gram.

OneTree, currently located in the back of the Lola Tilly Commons at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is working with the University of Alaska Foundation to raise money for its program, which provides

forest education to K-12 stu-dents and researches birch sap processing methods. The program had hoped to support its work by selling products made from 6,000 gallons of birch sap that staff and volun-teers with a birch sap cooper-ative collected last spring. But a freezer failure in October resulted in the loss of most of the sap concentrate.

With the remaining sap, Dawe has been making birch caramels and it has turned into a delicious solution. She uses the sap collection buckets to make icy luminarias.

In an effort to raise $100,000 by June to pay for the program’s seasonal birch sap crew, support the educa-tion program and buy a freezer alarm, OneTree is offering some Valentine’s Day specials.

Anyone who donates $100 will receive a red Valentine’ s box with a dozen birch cara-mels, one ice luminaria and the opportunity to become a “sap sergeant.”

A variety of other funding levels have also been estab-lished. These include Friends of OneTree, $25; Adopt a Seedling, $50; Sap Sergeants,

$100; Sapling Steward, $365; Deep Roots Donor, $500; and Community Science Champi-on, $1,000 or more. Depend-ing on the level of contribu-tion, donors receive caramels, luminaria, a limited-edition print by Kes Woodward, or recognition as an underwriter of saplings.

If you want to donate to this program, call OneTree Alaska at 474-5517 or see the website at bit.ly/2BPwto6. The car-amels and luminaria may be picked up at OneTree studio at Lola Tilly Commons from 4-6 p.m. Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, from 2-4 p.m. Sunday and from 10 a.m. to noon on Valentine’s Day.

Heart to HeartSupport the Fairbanks

Senior Center’s Meals on Wheels program by attending the Heart to Heart Valen-tine’s Dinner fundraiser on Saturday at Raven Landing. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. and dinner is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100.

Enjoy live entertainment, a silent auction, delicious din-ner and dancing while sup-porting a worthy cause.Reach columnist/community editor

Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.

com. Call her at the office 459-7546. Follow her on Twitter @FDNMKris.

Kris Capps

COMMUNITY EDITOR

kcapps@newsminer.com

Winner of the backyard ice rink contest wins this stainless steel plaque. PHOTO COURTESY RANDY ZARNKE

Backyard ice rink contest opens

Bluel said the others told him his dog Anna ran to her bed during the fire and couldn’t be pulled out of the building and died in the blaze. The large

propane bottle caught fire and exploded the whole house.

The woman who was holding the propane bot-tle sustained first- and second-degree burns, Bluel said.

Now that he’s lost his home, Bluel said he’s

planning to move to Ore-gon to work for the rest of the winter. He plans to return to operate his gravel pit business in the summer. Contact Outdoors Editor Sam

Friedman at 459-7545. Follow

him on Twitter:

@FDNMoutdoors

FIREContinued from A1

STATEContinued from A1

CAMPAIGNContinued from A1

Trump flirts with flashy military

parade long eschewed by US

WA S H I N G TO N — For generations, as Ameri-ca’s authoritarian rivals strutted their tanks, troops and jets through main thoroughfares in dramatic displays of strength, the United States watched from afar, but did not emu-late.

Widely accepted as the world’s mightiest, the U.S. military has no tradition of putting itself on parade like in Russia, North Korea or China. But President Donald Trump does not often stand on tradi-tion. So Trump’s direc-tive to the Pentagon to draft options for a mas-sive march reverberat-ed across Washington on Wednesday like the thud of a discharged cannon, as lawmakers and military leaders mused about the cost, the risk and the pur-pose.

“People wil l won-der, ‘Well, what are they afraid of now? What are they trying to prove?’” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Con-gress, said in an inter-view. “We don’t have to show off to make a point.”

I t was a cr i t ique voiced by both Dem-ocrats and Repub-licans the day after The Washington Post revealed Trump wants an elaborate parade this year to rival the Bastille Day celebra-tion in Paris that made a distinct impression on him in July. Demo-cratic Sen. Dick Durbin called it a “fantastic waste of money,” while Republican Sen. Lind-sey Graham told CNN that the parade risked being “kind of cheesy and a sign of weakness” if it’s just about show-ing off military muscle.

The president did

not seem deterred, a l though his a ides rushed to downplay the notion that it was anything beyond an idea Trump had float-ed “in a brainstorming session” to help Amer-icans express grati-tude and pride for the military. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there had been no final decision. And Trump’s legislative director said it was too early to even guess about poten-tial costs, though it’s assumed it would cost millions.

“We’ve been putting together some options. We’ll send them up to the White House for a decision,” said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as reporters peppered him with questions at the White House. “The president’s respect, his fondness for the mili-tary I think is reflected in him asking for these options.”

By Josh LedermanASSOCIATED PRESS

INTERIOR/NATION

Thursday, February 8, 2018 Fairbanks Daily News-MinerA8

It takes 1,000 people to go 1,000 miles

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2018 Yukon Quest standings, 8:30 p.m. AST Feb. 7. All times AKST.

Compiled from Quest standings chart and leader board

Musher (Bib #) Checkpoint in/out No. of dogs1. Allen Moore (23) In Dawson City, 6:30 p.m. 2/7 142. Paige Drobny (10) Out of Eagle, 9:15 p.m. 2/6 133. Matt Hall (7) Out of Eagle, 11:52 p.m. 2/6 144. Laura Neese (13) Out of Eagle, 3:16 a.m. 2/7 105. Vebjorn Reitan (21) Out of Eagle, 3:22 a.m. 2/7 136. Jason Campeau (6) Out of Eagle, 3:45 a.m. 2/7 127. Ed Hopkins (19) Out of Eagle, 3:46 a.m. 2/7 138. Torsten Kohnert (2) Out of Eagle, 7:30 a.m. 2/7 139. Hugh Neff (9) Out of Eagle, 9:09 a.m. 2/7 1110. Tim Pappas (1) Out of Eagle, 12:30 p.m. 2/7 1311. Luc Tweddell (26) Out of Eagle, 12:48 p.m. 2/7 1212. Severin Cathry (20) Out of Eagle, 1:55 p.m. 2/7 1213. Bernhard Schuchert (14) Out of Eagle, 2 p.m. 2/7 1314. Nathaniel Hamlyn (12) Out of Eagle, 2:11 p.m. 2/7 815. Claudia Wickert (3) Out of Eagle, 4:35 p.m. 2/7 1216. Alex Buetow (24) Out of Eagle, 4:43 p.m. 2/7 1217. Rob Cooke (5) Out of Eagle, 5:06 p.m. 2/7 1318. Riley Dyche (15) Out of Eagle, 6:35 p.m. 2/7 1019. Dave Dalton (17) In Eagle, 1:41 p.m. 2/7 1220. Jennifer Campeau (16) Out of Circle, 1:35 a.m. 2/6 14

Scratched:Mike Ellis (18) Mile 101, 9:30 a.m. Feb. 4Katherine Keith (11) Circle, 6:19 a.m. Feb. 5Mark Stamm (25) Central, 11 a.m. Feb. 5Ryne Olson (8) Circle, 8:28 a.m. Feb. 5Christine Roalofs (4) Circle, 10:57 p.m. Feb. 6

Withdrawn:Ike Underwood (22) Circle, 3 p.m. Feb. 5

Moore will receive the annual “poke of gold” that is awarded to the first team into Dawson City, the halfway point of the 35th running of the Yukon Quest 1,000 Mile International Sled Dog Race. A musher winning the poke, which contains 2 ounces of gold, worth about $2,686 at today’s price, only gets to keep it if he or she finishes the race, regardless of their position.

Moore left Eagle, the final checkpoint on the Alaska side, at 4:40 p.m. Alaska time Tuesday to begin the 150-mile trek to Dawson City.

Many consider Daw-son City to be where the race really begins for the front of the pack. When asked if he feels he’s the favorite to win this year’s race, Moore remembered another time he was first to the checkpoint and went home without a championship.

“I’ve been here first before and got beat by 26 seconds,” he said,

referencing his 2012 loss to Hugh Neff. “You shouldn’t rely on that. If things keep going the way they are, I’ll have a good chance. But there are 500 more miles and anything can happen.”

All of the mushers are required to spend 36 hours of rest in Dawson City. It is the only time their handlers can help aid the dogs, giving the mushers an extended break from the action.

Moore said his time will be devoted to sleep and food, two things he’s lacked during his 504.5-mile journey from the Fairbanks start line.

“I’ll be sleeping and eat-ing as much as possible,” he said. “Try to get good and rested for the next half. It may even get cold.”

The longtime veteran said he has 13 leaders on this year’s team. He’s been rotating dogs into the front of the lineup period-ically, but it was a pair of 4-year-olds, Commando and Dutch, who led him to the halfway point.

Moore said still having a full team has made navigating the trail much easier. He hopes they’ll

remain healthy as he con-tinues on to Whitehorse.

“It’s a huge motivation factor that I didn’t hurt any dogs yet,” he said. “But that can change quickly. It can go the oth-er way. Hopefully I can keep all of these dogs for a long time. That definite-ly helps, especially when you go over all of the mountains and summits.”

Unlike previous years when the mushers could leave their dogs with handlers at the checkpoint and head off to grab something to eat, Moore and his team had to continue on to the dog yard, which is 2 miles past the check-point.

Veterans Paige Drob-ny and Matt Hall were the nearest teams to Dawson City. They were both a little less than 50 miles from the check-point late Wednesday, while veteran Laura Neese and rookie Veb-jorn Aishana Reitan were 56 miles away at press time.Contact News-Miner sports

writer Brad Joyal at 459-7530.

Follow him on Twitter:

@FDNMQuest

QUESTContinued from A1

YUKON QUEST

Quest vet team on alert in extreme coldBy Brad JoyalBJOYAL@NEWSMINER.COM

DAWSON CITY, YUKON — The Yukon Quest mushers aren’t the only ones who feel the frig-id low temperatures along the trail. The teams’ dogs are also at risk as they make the 1,000-mile run from Fairbanks to Whitehorse.

Like humans, dogs can expe-rience frostbite. With tempera-tures hovering near 35 below in Dawson City — the first checkpoint on the Canada side — the veterinary staff is on the lookout for dogs affected by the cold.

“We do look for (frostbite),” head veterinarian Dr. Cristina “Nina” Hansen said. “At these temperatures, I would expect to see some of it. Especially with the male dogs, they get it on the front of their penis.”

While Hansen said she and her staff will thoroughly look for frostbitten dogs during the mushers’ mandatory 36-hour stay in Dawson City, she also noted that the mushers are keen to the potential harm and take precautions to help their teams run in the extreme cold.

“The mushers are aware of it and most of them will run with something called a foxtail,” she said. “It’s kind of like a ruff and it goes right around their waist and blocks the wind and pre-vents that from happening.”

Although many male dogs will be wearing foxtails when they pull into Dawson City, where the temperature was 34 below when Two Rivers’ Allen Moore’s team was the first to arrive Wednesday night, there still are steps to alleviate frost-bite on dogs.

“Usually it’s handled,” Han-sen said when asked if frostbite

could be a reason for a musher to pull a particular dog from the race. “We have some oint-ments that help with it and if they put one of those foxtails on, that usually stops it from getting worse.”

Running while frostbitten isn’t the only problem the dogs face in extreme weather. Han-sen said the low temperatures also can have an impact on how the dogs keep their weight on, which could hinder their ability to perform.

“Sometimes they’ll have a lit-tle bit of a harder time keeping their weight on with the tem-peratures because they have

to burn more calories to stay warm,” she said. “The mushers run them with coats on and a lot of them have blankets, and we have blankets, too.”

Hansen and a few members of the veterinary team made themselves at home Wednes-day at the “Vet Shack,” which is next to the dog yard 2 miles past the checkpoint on Front Street in downtown Dawson City.

Not only does the team have a different location this year, its amenities have changed, too.

“It used to be in a different campground across the river,” Hansen said. “It used to be in

a park pavilion and it had a concrete floor, half walls and a roof. They used to put Vis-queen in the woodstove, but this is brighter and there’s car-pet on the ground. It’s really nice.”

Because the dog teams are on a slower pace than last year, Hansen hasn’t had much time with the dogs the past few days. Although her veterinary team stuck around Eagle — the checkpoint before Dawson City — she had to get on the move before Moore’s team was the first to arrive.

“I actually didn’t see any dogs in Eagle myself, which

was unusual,” Hansen said. “The last time I saw dogs was Circle and then I spent about a day in Eagle. Our flights are scheduled and we’ve got to take them, especially our inter-national flight from Eagle to Dawson City.”

She said she plans to stay in Dawson City for a while before continuing on to Pelly Cross-ing. Even if she isn’t the first to arrive at the next checkpoint, some of her staff will be there when the first team pulls into Pelly Crossing.Contact News-Miner sports writer

Brad Joyal at 459-7530. Follow him on

Twitter: @FDNMQuest

Head Yukon Quest veterinarian Dr. Cristina Hansen of Fairbanks smiles in the vet tent Wednesday at Dawson City. Yukon Quest vets inspect every dog in the race at least four times between the start and finish. Hansen started volunteering for the Yukon Quest in 2010, and is serving as head vet for her fourth year. ROBIN WOOD/NEWS-MINER