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Pets wait out fire at fairgroundsPage B1

Redistricting board submits new election mapBy MATT BUXTON

mbuxton@newsminer.com

The Alaska Redistricting Board adopted what could be its final plan — one that could resolve lingering legal challenges, land the board back in court or do both.

On its surface, the plan that was adopted on Sunday resolves the big problems out-lined in a lawsuit brought against the board by Fairbanks-area residents. Those plaintiffs say it’s too early to know if new problems were created in the latest redrawing of Alaska’s election district map.

Michael Walleri, the lead attorney for George Riley and Ron Dearborn, said he’s happy to see Ester and Goldstream, which were drawn into a rural district reaching the Bering Sea, reunited with the borough.

The city of Fairbanks also has its own Senate district under the plan. The city had been split under an early map but had been united in the map used for the 2012 elections.

“Those are the two biggest issues that we raised, and it looks like those have been addressed,” Walleri said, “but the devil is in the details and we want to do a full analysis of the plan before we decide what to do.”

The conceptual plan, which is available online at akredistricting.org, is undergoing a

review by the board’s staff this week and will be up for final adoption this weekend, said board attorney Michael White.

The plan will then be submitted to the court for final approval and adoption. The plaintiffs and third parties could file further complaints over the latest plan, but White says he believes the plan meets constitu-tional muster.

“Absent any extraordinary event, the plan you’re looking at will be the final plan,” he said “There was still some balancing that had to be done, but the board believes it did it appropriately. It’s the best plan for Alaska voters.”

White was referring to the tricky prob-lem of the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s excess population.

Please see REDISTRICTING, Page A6

Furry evacuees

ON THE WEBView the new map at akredistricting.org

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Inside

Sourdough Jack sez:

“Wooo boy! Give us some more of that

rain.”

By SAM FRIEDMANsfriedman@newsminer.com

A Fairbanks man has agreed to plead guilty and accept a 15-year prison term in the killing of a man more than two years ago in a downtown Fairbanks apartment.

As part of a agreement reached Friday morning, Cornelius Ever-ett Jr., 21, pleaded guilty to man-slaughter in the June 2011 killing of 55-year-old Johnson Griffin, according to Assistant District Attorney Joe Dallaire. Everett had been scheduled to go to trial Friday morning.

Griffin was found dead in his

apartment in the Northward Building on June 27, 2011. The case wasn’t initially classified as a homicide, but a medical examiner conclud-ed Griffin died from blunt force trauma to the chest.

Police investigators later con-cluded Everett, an acquaintance of Griffin who knew him through a friend’s aunt, was socializing at Griffin’s apartment when they got into an argument that led Everett to assault Griffin. Police said at the time the argument was about something that might

have been seen as trivial, had it not led to a man’s death.

Everett was originally charged with second-degree murder. Pros-ecutors agreed to accept Everett’s guilty plea today to eliminate the risk of a jury acquittal, accord-ing to Dallaire with the district attorney’s office.

“Had the state gone to trial, he could have been found guilty of murder II, manslaughter, crimi-nally negligent homicide or noth-ing at all,” he said in an email.

“Murder in the second degree requires the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defen-dant intended to cause serious

physical injury but ended up causing death,” he said. “Man-slaughter simply requires the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant reck-lessly caused a death.”

As part of the plea agreement, Everett acknowledged that Grif-fin was a “vulnerable victim,” which under sentencing guide-lines extends the sentencing range for manslaughter beyond the usual seven to 11 years.

Everett is scheduled to be sen-tenced in October.

Conctact staff writer Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMcrime.

Plea agreement reached in 2011 killingFollow me on

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Eyes stay on harsh wildfire

By SAM FRIEDMANsfriedman@newsminer.com

On Sunday afternoon, the Pleasant Valley Store and Trail-side Mail parking lot was so dark with smoke that owner Becky Alexander turned on the outdoor lights at 4 p.m.

Monday afternoon, 24 hours later, light rain fell in the park-ing lot and the air felt mostly clean. An evacuation order had been lifted about an hour earlier, and some evacuees were begin-ning to return home.

As of Monday evening, an evacuation watch, advising people to prepare for further evacuations, remained in effect between 14 Mile and 34 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road. Two

school buses were parked outside the store and a West Virginia-based fire crew was lined up at the cash register. In the last few days, Alexander said, the store has sold lots of beef jerky, Red Bulls, 5-Hour Energy and, unexpectedly, fresh fruit.

Fire information officers in yellow uniforms have been sta-tioned outside the store since Tuesday, when hot weather and strong winds sent the Stuart

Staff Report

A gauge at Stuart Creek recorded three-quarters of an inch of rainfall in three hours Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

“We probably had a big shower go through,” said Bob Fischer, lead forecaster for the service in Fairbanks.

The automated gauge at Stuart Creek, just east of Eiel-son Air Force Base, registered

the rainfall sometime in the three hours preceding 8:15 p.m. Monday, Fischer said.

The rain was good news for residents in Two Rivers,

Evacuation status: As of 3 p.m. Monday, the evacuation order was lifted for the Two Rivers and Pleasant Valley area. An evacuation watch, an advi-sory to prepare for another evacuation, remains in place between 14 Mile and 34 Mile.

A little rain good news for Stuart Creek area

Please see WEATHER, Page A6Please see FIRE, Page A6

Sam Harrel/News-Miner

The Stuart Creek 2 Fire burns the hillside on the south side of the Chena River near the Grange Hall Road, right, Monday evening. Despite making a run to the river Sunday, the fire remains on the south side of the river.

Sam Harrel/News-Miner

Bill Allen points to where the fire spotted across the Chena River near his home on Steve Savage Way at 25.9 Chena Hot Springs Road on Monday after-noon. Allen, along with firefighters, manned pumps and hoses as the Stuart Creek 2 Fire sent burning embers across the river Sunday night.

ON THE WEBGet wildfire updates at www.

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By MARTHA MENDOZA and JOAN LOWYAssociated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Investigators trying to understand why Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash-landed focused Monday on the actions of an experienced pilot learning his way around a new aircraft, fellow pilots who were supposed to be monitoring him and why no one noticed that the plane was coming in too slow.

Authorities also reviewed the initial rescue efforts after fire officials acknowledged that one of their trucks may have run over one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the crash at San Francisco International Airport. The students were the accident’s only fatalities.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deb-orah Hersman said investi-gators watched airport sur-veillance video to determine whether an emergency vehi-cle hit one of the students. But they have not reached any firm conclusions. A coro-ner said he would need at least two weeks to rule in the matter.

The students had been in the rear of the aircraft, where many of the most seriously injured passen-gers were seated, Hersman said.

The NTSB also said part of the jet’s tail section was found in San Francisco Bay, and debris from the seawall was carried several hundred feet down the runway, indi-cating the plane hit the sea-wall on its approach.

Investigators have said Flight 214 was flying “sig-nificantly below” its target

speed during approach when the crew tried to abort the landing just before the plane smashed onto the runway. Authorities do not know yet whether the pilot’s inexperi-ence with the Boeing 777 and landing it at San Francisco’s airport played a role.

The airline acknowledged Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had flown that type of plane for only a short time and had never before landed one at that airport.

Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said pilot Lee Gang-guk had logged nearly 10,000 hours operating other planes but had only 43 hours in the 777, a plane she said he was still getting used to.

It’s not unusual for vet-eran pilots to learn about new aircraft by flying with more experienced colleagues. Another pilot on the flight, Lee Jeong-min, had 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours on the 777, according to the Minis-try of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea.

Lee Jeong-min was the deputy pilot helping Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, according to Asiana Airlines.

It was unclear whether the other two pilots were in the cockpit, which in the Boeing 777 typically seats four. But that would be stan-dard procedure at most air-lines at the end of a long international flight.

NTSB lead investiga-tor Bill English said pilot interviews were going slow-ly because of the need for translation. The interviews began only after agents from the Korean Aviation and

Rail Accident Investigation Board arrived from South Korea.

New details of the inves-tigation have also raised questions about whether the pilots may have been so reliant on automated cockpit systems that they failed to notice the plane’s airspeed had dropped dan-gerously low, aviation safety experts and other airline pilots said.

Information gleaned from the Boeing 777’s flight-data recorders revealed a jet that appeared to be descending normally until the last half-minute before impact.

The autopilot was switched off at about 1,600 feet as the plane began its final descent, according to an account of the last 82 seconds of flight provided by Hersman.

During the next 42 sec-onds, the plane appeared to descend normally, reaching about 500 feet and slowing to 134 knots, a 777 pilot for a major airline familiar with Hersman’s description told The Associated Press. The pilot spoke on the condition of anonymity because his company had not authorized him to speak publicly.

But something went wrong during the following 18 seconds. The plane con-tinued slowing to 118 knots, well below its target speed of 137 knots that is typical for crossing the runway thresh-old. By that time, it had descended to just 200 feet.

Eight seconds later, with the speed still falling, Hers-man said, the throttles were moved forward, an appar-ent attempt by the pilot to increase speed. But it was too little, too late.

San Francisco crash investigators turning toward cockpit decisions

By ALLEN G. BREEDAP National Writer

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — In his book, “Young Men and Fire,” Norman Maclean attempted to convey what a crew experiences in the cha-os of a mountain firestorm.

“It is really not possible to see the center of a blow-up because the smoke only occasionally lifts,” the late Montana author wrote, “and when it does all that can be seen are pieces, pieces of death flying around looking for you — burning cones, branches circling on wings, a log in flight without a pro-peller.”

In American culture, the firefighter is almost a mythic being. Immortalized in movies such as “Hellfight-ers,” “Backdraft” and “Lad-der 49,” they do things that most people could never con-ceive of doing. They are, as we see time and again, the first ones into a disaster and the last ones out.

It is no different in the wildland firefighting com-munity, where men and women armed with little more than axes, shovels and chain saws face moun-tainsides engulfed in flames and, somehow, hope to bring that force of nature to heel.

“You ask yourself: Why are these people willing to put their lives on the line? For people they don’t even

know?” retired teacher Sha-ron Owsley asked last week as she stood on the court-house square in this town north of Phoenix. “Why do they even do this kind of work that’s so highly dan-gerous? Every day it might not be. But then there’s that one day that you may not come home.”

For 19 members of Prescott’s Granite Moun-tain Hotshots, that day came June 30, when they were overrun while battling a blaze on a ridge in nearby

Yarnell. Today, firefighters from across the nation will join with the men’s families, Vice President Joe Biden and other dignitaries to honor the men.

The elite Hotshot com-munity is a small one — there are some 110 crews of 20 nationwide, the vast majority of them west of the Mississippi River. So veteran wildland firefighter Patrick Moore was not sur-prised to see the names of several friends on the list of the dead.

For 19 firefighters, people ask why

The Associated Press

In this aerial photo, the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 lies on the ground after it crashed Saturday at the San Francisco International Airport, in San Francisco. The pilot at the controls of airliner had just 43 hours of flight time in the Boeing 777 and was landing one for the first time at San Francisco International.

The Associated Press/Photo courtesy Juliann Ashcraft

In this photo shot by firefighter Andrew Ashcraft, mem-bers of the Granite Mountain Hotshots watch a growing wildfire that later swept over and killed the crew of 19 firefighters near Yarnell, Ariz., on Sunday. Ashcraft texted the photo to his wife, Juliann, but died later that day battling the out-of-control blaze. The 29-year-old father of four added the message, “This is my lunch spot...too bad lunch was an MRE.”

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who were threatened by the 79,000-acre Stuart Creek 2 Fire. More than 600 fire-fighters are battling the blaze.

The heaviest rain fell in the high hills east of the fire. Rain gauges had registered local amounts of up to 2 inches by 8 p.m., Fischer said.

“Most of this rain has occurred in the last six to eight hours,” Fischer said.

Just after 8 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for small streams flowing out of the Tanana-Yukon Uplands into the Upper Salcha, Che-na and Chatanika rivers, as well as creeks feeding riv-ers that drain the northern slopes of the White Moun-tains. The advisory was in effect through 10:30 a.m. today.

Another half-inch to one inch of rain was expected overnight in these areas,

Fischer said.No flooding was expected

on the larger rivers because they were running so low, Fischer said.

“There has been very lit-tle rain in the area for a long time,” he said, “so the larger rivers — the mainstem riv-ers such as the Chena, the Chatanika and the Salcha — we’re not expecting any flooding on those.”

On Sunday, forecasters called for one-half an inch to one inch of rain through Tuesday in the Fairbanks area. On Monday, forecast-ers scaled back their rainfall prediction to one-tenth to one-half of an inch of rain near the city, with heavier rain north and east of Fair-banks.

A small, upper-level low pressure system moved over the eastern Interior on Monday but stalled before it reached Fairbanks, meteo-rologist John Lingaas said at mid-day Monday. It was expected to continue drifting

northwest on Monday night, Tuesday and into Wednesday.

“It does look pretty moist but where it goes exactly is hard to predict,” Lingaas said.

More rain was expected across the Fairbanks area this morning, followed by numerous showers through Wednesday night.

Regardless of how much rain falls, temperatures should be cooler and the rel-ative humidity higher dur-ing the next couple of days, Lingaas said. In addition, winds were expected to come from the west instead of the southwest, which should help firefighters battling to keep the blaze from spread-ing.

High temperatures today and Wednesday were expect-ed in the mid 60s with lows around 50, Lingaas said.

“After Wednesday, it does look like we could go back to a drier trend,” he said.

Contact the newsroom at 459-7572.

Creek 2 Fire north from a military training area toward the Chena River and the communities of Pleasant Valley and Two Rivers. Fire movement slowed down dur-ing the week but accelerat-ed again this weekend. The fire measured 32,014 acres when the community gath-ered Saturday for a meet-ing about the approaching fire. It had reached almost 80,000 acres as of the most recent fire map available Monday. It was initially ignited June 25 during an Army artillery drill.

Like another fire map at the Weller Elementary School evacuation shelter, the map printed at Pleas-ant Valley Store had been updated by hand Thurs-day. Two fingers of fire approached the river near 26 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road, but the fire did not cross the river except for

one 400-square-foot patch, according to the interagen-cy group fighting the fire.

Some 684 firefighters were working the fire as of Monday morning. Army and National Guard helicopters were among the equipment employed.

Donald Jaques, a fire

information officer at Pleasant Valley Store, was optimistic about Monday’s weather. Difficult terrain and the fire’s dangerous front initially kept them from building a fire line to its northern edge. Now they’re working on a line to cut off the northwest side

flank, he said.The 750 structures

threatened by the fire are identified on the map by small black rectangles. Three rectangles to the south of the Chena River are enclosed within the fire’s perimeter. As of Mon-day evening, the interagen-cy team had not confirmed any structures were lost to the fire.

On the north side of the river, the closest rectangle to the river behind the Pleasant Valley Store is the home of Jayme Rogers.

Rogers, a resident of Pleasant Valley for the past 23 years, had packed up to leave Sunday but was resolved to stay until the flames reached her home. During the afternoon, the landscape lost its color, she said.

“Everything was sepia, and then it got even more sepia,” she said.

About 9 p.m., she heard

a dull roar that sounded like a fan. After walking a few yards from her porch, she could see fire burning across the river.

“We stood there say-ing ‘Oh my God, those are flames, that’s fire,’” she said. She stayed up until about 4 a.m., keeping an eye on the fire.

By Monday afternoon, Rogers was feeling better about the situation and told

the fire information officer so.

“They set up a meeting the other night and they said we’re going to hold the line at the river. And I said ‘Holy crap, the river is in my backyard,” she said. “(Now) I’m being cautious-ly optimistic. I have faith in you guys.”

Contact staff writer Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMcrime.

According to the 2010 census, the borough only has enough residents to grant it five and a half House dis-tricts. Some Fairbanks vot-ers must therefore be paired with voters outside the bor-ough, he said.

In the 2012 plan the board argued that the fed-eral Voting Rights Act, por-tions of which were recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, necessitated the excess population from Ester and Goldstream Val-ley be paired with the rural district.

That excess population is now being drawn from Eiel-son, Salcha and Chena Hot

Springs Road into a rural district that horseshoes around the northern end of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

House District 6 covers Chena Hot Springs, Eielson, Salcha, Tok, many of the rural Yukon River communi-ties and wraps around the northern boundary of the borough to pick up Denali, Nenana and Cantwell. Rural villages and towns includ-ed in the district are Fort Yukon, Tanana, Venetie and Arctic Village.

The pairing was made in response to public opposi-tion to population from west Fairbanks being sliced off.

“Parties started coming

together to support tak-ing population out of the east side rather the west side,” White said. “They (the board) said that’s fine, and that’s what they want.”

As to the constitutional question of whether or not the district constitutes a socioeconomically integrated area, White said he believes it does.

“I believe the board could have taken it anywhere out of Fairbanks because it (the borough) is integrated with the rural area and it’s a rural hub,” he said. “No one could never deny that Fair-banks is a rural hub.”

Contact staff writer Matt Bux-ton at 459-7544 and follow him on Twitter: @FDNMpolitics.

REDISTRICTING: New map under reviewContinued from Page A1

WEATHER: Area has been dry for a whileContinued from Page A1

Photos by Sam Harrel/News-Miner

Firefighter Jon Stave, of Newark, Del., pulls the rain fly over his tent as crews from Monan-gahela National Forest, W. Va., set up camp Monday evening at the Pleasant Valley ball fields.

Below right: Debra Buk-soontorn, middle, deliv-ers donated food to Red Cross shelter manager Shallan Sickels, right, and volunteer James Sickels outside Weller Elementary School on Monday afternoon. In addition to the food from her husband’s eatery, Spicy Thai, the Buksoontorns have been soliciting food from oth-er restaurants. In this trip she had vegetables from the greenhouse at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, and dinners from Thai House and Pad Thai. Stanley Nissan donated cash used to buy sal-ads, dressings, cookies, paper plates and bowls.

FIRE: Stuart Creek 2 Fire grows, but weather improvesContinued from Page A1

Sam Harrel/News-Miner

Firefighters from the Monangahela National Forest, West Virginia, fill Pleasant Valley Store as they arrive at the fire Monday afternoon.

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