By Rod BoyceRBOYCE

@NEWSMINER.COM

Alaska’s all-Repub-lican congressional delegation expressed g e n e r a l f av o r f o r President-elect Don-ald Trump’s nomina-tion this week of Mon-tana Rep. Ryan Zin-ke to lead the Depart-ment of the Interior.

Leadership of the department is of par-ticular interest in Alaska. The Interior secretary will over-see a depar tment that has eight major agency components: the Bureau of Indi-an Affairs, Bureau of Land Management,

Bureau o f O c e a n Energy M a n -a g e -m e n t , Bureau of Rec-lamation, National Park Service, Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice and U.S. Geologi-cal Survey.

“I look forward to meeting with him to discuss a range of criti-cal issues, including the challenges we face on federal management of lands and waters in Alaska, the urgent need

One dollar

SOURDOUGH JACK:

“I’m just glad nobody was hurt.”

The weather.

Today: Mostly cloudy.

Snow likely after-

noon. Snow accumu-

lation of 2 to 4 inches.

Highs mid-teens.

Tonight: Mostly

cloudy with scattered

snow showers.

High today .............. 16

Low tonight ..............2

WEATHER » A7

GOODMORNING

Classified » B7 | Comics » B6 | Dear Abby » B5 | Obituaries » A3 | Opinion » A6 | Sports » B1 INSIDE

• • •

• • •

• • •

• • •

North Carolina GOP strips some powers from incoming Democratic governor. » A5Inside Today

COURTING RUBIOGOP calls out heavy

hitters to persuade

Florida senator to

support nominee for

secretary of State.

NATION

Page A5

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 provid-

ed 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

ALL’S FAIRObama warns Putin

that US can launch

cyber attacks, too.

NATION/WORLD

Page A8

NANOOKS HOCKEY UAF beats Bowling

Green for the first

time on a Friday.

SPORTS

Page B1

newsminer.comSATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2016

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

Fire destroys Ice Park building

By Kevin Bairdand Sam Friedman

F i r e d e s t r o y e d the main building of the Ice Alaska Ice Park off west Phillips Field Road early Friday.

The fire was extin-guished in the afternoon, said Capt. Forrest Kui-per of the University Fire Department, but a crew of about 10 firefighters

will remain on scene through today to work on overhaul and extin-guish hot spots.

“Phillips Field (Road) is still shut down but we’re hoping to open it in the next couple hours,” Kuiper said at about 4 : 1 0 p . m . F r i d a y. “Bystanders may see smoke or steam in the area but should not be concerned. We’ ll keep

fire watch on it the next few days.”

Ku i p e r c o n f i r m e d officials from the Alas-ka State Fire Marshal’s office are on scene inves-tigating the cause of the fire, which is still unknown.

Fire Chief Douglas Schrage confirmed there were no injuries or casu-alties among civilians and firefighters.

As for the Alaska Ice Park building, “We expect it to be a complete loss,” Schrage said.

The first 911 call was received at 7:38 a.m. and the University Fire Department responded along with the Fairbanks Fire Department.

“We were concerned about other structures and vehicles. We took d e f e n s i v e p o s i t i o n s

around the fire so it didn’t spread,” Schrage said.

He said fire crews were successful in pro-tecting the other struc-tures and vehicles.

A crew of about a dozen firefighters were observed on scene this morning to fight the fire. Additional fire trucks and police vehicles were about a mile away at the intersection of Phillips Field Road and Peger

The main building at the Ice Alaska Ice Park burns Friday morning. The park is home to the upcoming annual World Ice Art Championships. SAM FRIEDMAN/NEWS-MINER PHOTOS

Officials said nobody was injured in Friday morning blaze

Court suspends lawyer’s license for one yearBy Dorothy ChomiczDCHOMICZ

@NEWSMINER.COM

A prominent local attor-

ney has been suspend-ed from practicing law for a year for violating conflict of interest rules.

Mike Stepovich act-ed “not negligently but knowingly” when he drafted a friend’s will that named him as a contin-gent beneficiary, accord-ing to a ruling released Friday by the Alaska Supreme Court.

Stepovich drafted the will in 2009, about six months after he was rein-stated from a two-year suspension stemming from an earlier trust fund violation. Stepovich did not inherit any money after his client died, but the client’s mother con-tested the will and Ste-povich was removed as a personal representative of the estate, according to the court ruling.

INTERIOR » A3

FIRE » A3

Alaska delegation praises Interior pick‘I look forward to

meeting with him to

discuss a range of

critical issues.’Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK

‘I look forward 

to speaking with him

about Alaska’s unique

land issues.’Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-AK

‘He’s big on ... trying

to make the govern-

ment more responsive

to local people.’Rep. Don Young, R-AK

Zinke

Share Trump’s racist rants, lose your job? MaybeBy Tracy JanTHE WASHINGTON POST

There was the Den-ver doctor who called Michel le Obama a “monkey face” and accused the first lady of using “poor ebonic English.” Weeks earli-er, the head of a West Virginia nonprofit com-pared her to “an ape in heels.”

The racist rants, made on Facebook after a his-

torically divisive elec-tion, sparked instant public outrage and demands that the wom-en be fired. The doctor agreed to resign. But the nonprofit director threatened to sue; after a month-long suspen-sion, she will return to work just before Christ-mas.

The cases illustrate the minefield employers are navigating amid a politi-cal climate in which rac-ist language and views have been unleashed. Although such sen-timents always have existed, many Ameri-cans fear the hatred has been normalized, even legitimized, by Donald Trump’s campaign.

As a candidate, Trump advocated for the pro-filing of Muslims, said

many undocumented Mexican immigrants are rapists, insinuated that blacks were guilty of voter fraud, and, despite having condemned the views of white suprem-acists, nevertheless re-tweeted them several times.

After his election, the Ku Klux Klan held a celebration rally in North Carolina.

LAWYER » A3RANTS » A7

A3Saturday, December 17, 2016 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

to increase energy production in my home state, and our trust responsibilities to Alaska Natives and Native Americans,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement released Thursday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of which she is the chairwoman.

“I am also eager to learn more about Rep. Zinke’s views on the differing roles of state and federal regulators on public lands, how he would restore balance to the mul-tiple use of federal lands, and how he would approach federal lands transactions,” she said.

Murkowski said the Energy and Natural Resources Committee would consider Zinke’s nomina-tion in early January. The Senate has the constitutional role of con-firming Cabinet nominees.

Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a Thursday interview with the News-Miner that he has met the 55-year-old Zinke a few times while serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Zinke is a retired Navy SEAL who has been awarded two Bronze Stars for com-bat missions in Iraq.

“I was pleased to see the president- elect choose someone from a West-ern state who clearly has been a strong advocate of energy indepen-dence, access to resources — oil, gas coal, mining — and also access to resources for our hunters on fed-eral land,” Sullivan said.

“I look forward to speaking with

him about Alaska’s unique land issues,” he said. “A lot of people in the Congress don’t even know what ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act) is and how government overreach in Alaska has stymied much-needed economic growth, how big we are in terms of what already exists in terms of federal land here.”

But Sullivan added that he wants to learn more about Zinke’s previ-ously stated position opposing the relinquishment of federal pub-lic lands. The issue surfaced this year during Zinke’s campaign for a second term, which he won with 56 percent of the vote for Mon-tana’s only House seat.

Zinke recently told Montana Public Radio that he would consid-er reforms in how the federal gov-ernment manages lands but stated that “I have always been a strong supporter of public lands and have voted against the transfer or sale of public lands. My position is known and well-established.”

That established position, which is at odds with the GOP platform but reportedly in line with Trump’s view, is what Sullivan wants to learn more about.

“I need to have a better under-standing of why and to what degree he has voiced opposition to transferring federal land to state and private hands,” Sullivan said. “So that vetting will continue, from my perspective.”

The Associated Press reported during Zinke’s re-election cam-paign that Zinke repeatedly iden-tified national security, more thor-ough vetting of refugees to screen

out terrorists, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and improv-ing the U.S. economy as his prior-ities. Only after listing those did he list a desire to increase coal mining and oil and gas exploration, pro-tect public lands and provide more resources for American Indian tribes, the news service reported.

Rep. Don Young, who has no vote in the matter because the House is not involved in confirma-tions, praised Trump’s selection of a Western states resident and said he spoke with Zinke after the nom-ination.

“Although we may share differ-ences on certain issues, we spoke extensively on the issues of land management — the idea that we shouldn’t be locking away lands but truly managing them,” Young said. “And that’s what excites me. He’s big on streamlining develop-ment, overturning needless regula-tions and trying to make the gov-ernment more responsive to local people — all of which are import-ant for Alaska.

“Sadly, the Department of the Interior has become a bureaucrat-ic nightmare, dead set on restrict-ing access to all federal lands — often in violation of ANILCA,” Young said. “I’m confident under a new administration we can begin making the changes necessary to improve DOI — including the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management — to meet the needs of the Alaskan and American people.”Contact Managing Editor Rod Boyce at

459-7585. Follow him on Twitter:

@FDNMeditor.

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NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING

A special meeting has been calledby Kathryn Dodge, Presiding Oficer,

agenda is as follows:

FAIRBANKS NORTH STAR BOROUGH

Special Assembly MeetingDecember 22, 2016

Mona Lisa Drexler Assembly Chambers907 Terminal Street, Fairbanks

6:00 PM

1. ROLL CALL

2. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS – Comments limited to itemson the agenda only. Each person’s comments limitedto 3 (three) minutes.

3. COMMUNICATIONS TO THE ASSEMBLY

a. Memorandum from Jill S. Dolan, Borough Attorney,regarding consent for judicial review of the full andtrue value determination and possible executivesession.

4. ADJOURNMENT Nanci Ashford-Bingham, MMCBorough Clerk, 907-459-1401

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Obituaries are provided as written by the family of the deceased

or by a funeral home. Obituary submission guidelines and

pricing information are available online at www.newsminer.

com/site/forms. Or call the News-Miner at 459-7572 for

assistance

OBITUARY

Donald LeistikowA celebration of life will be held for Donald Leisti-

kow at 5 p.m. Dec. 23, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4448 Pike’s Landing Road. Guests are encouraged to bring a covered dish for the potluck portion of the celebration. Donald was born Nov. 4, 1948, and died Dec. 13, 2016.

A full obituary will follow at a later date. Legacy Funeral Homes-Chapel of Chimes is in charge of the arrangements

Community Snapshots is dedicated to photographs from groups

or organizations wishing to recognize outstanding individuals

or special events. To submit Community Snapshots, email

people@newsminer.com or contact the newsroom at 459-7572.

COMMUNITY SNAPSHOT

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At the recent opening night performance of Fairbanks Drama Association and Children’s Theatre “A Christmas Story,” the show’s co-sponsors were saluted for their generous donations in support of the production. From left, show co-sponsor Terri-Lynn Coleman, Peggy Ferguson, managing director for FD; Steve Mitchell, director of “A Christmas Story;” and Cindy Wright, FDA board president. Not pictured but heartily saluted is Paul Brown, CEO of Santa Claus House, the second co-sponsor of the production.

The Public Safety Report

is compiled from criminal

complaints iled in state and federal courts, as well as some

police blotter information,

trooper dispatches, ire department reports and

interviews with public safety

oficials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged

with crimes in this report

are presumed innocent until

proved guilty in a court of law.

Assault• Daryl Hopson, 25,

of Nuiqsut, was charged with four th-degree assault Dec. 6 after Alaska State Troopers responded to a distur-bance at Seven Gables Inn.

Hopson’s girlfriend told troopers she decided to leave after she found out Hopson had been cheat-ing on her. The wom-an said Hopson pinned her down on the bed by her arms and would not let her up. She said she broke free and ran into the living room but Hop-son again grabbed her and took her down to the ground. The wom-an freed herself again and ran to the bathroom to call 911, according to charging documents.

Hopson told troopers he may have grabbed the woman because she was trying to “stop” him. Hopson was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana and could not articulate what happened during the incident, according to the charges.

• David George Crock-ett Jr., 36, of Fairbanks, w a s c h a r g e d w i t h

fourth-degree assault Dec. 8 after his wife told Fairbanks police he strangled her and pulled her hair. The woman had red marks on both sides of her neck consistent with being strangled, according to charging documents.

The woman told police Crockett been sleep-ing in a truck and she opened the driver side door and reached in to grab the keys from the ignition. She said Crock-ett grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the vehicle, then put his right hand around her neck and pushed her toward the truck and to the ground. She said she told Crockett to stop and he eventually let her go.

Crockett told police his wife came to the truck while he was sleeping in it and began to yell at him to turn it off and come

inside. He denied grab-bing her by the neck but then admitted she told him to stop grabbing her by the neck.

TheftTamerian Lytoi White,

35, of Fairbanks, was charged with felony sec-ond-degree theft Nov. 30 after she reported-ly absconded from her electronic monitoring program and fai led to return her $1,400 a lcohol monitor ing ankle bracelet. White was fitted with the bracelet Aug. 5 of this year and placed under house arrest after being released from Fairbanks Correctional Center. White was serving out the rest of her sentence for a March 2016 felony assault case, according to charging documents. Dorothy Chomic

PUBLIC SAFETY REPORT

Road where a hose line had been set up to the closest hydrant.

Schrage said the fire required more water than the fire hydrant could provide so ten-ders, or water tankers, brought more water in throughout the morn-ing.

Schrage said the uni-versity Fire Depart-ment was the primary agency to respond, with assistance from the Chena Goldstream Fire Depar tment , Steese Volunteer, North Star Fire Department and Fort Wainwright, most-ly with water tenders.

Fa i r b a n k s p o l i c e closed the road at about 9 a .m. and advised drivers to avoid the area and its intersec-tion with Phillips Field Road. The blaze could be seen from across the city.

He a t h e r Ta g g a r d , on Alaska Ice Park’s Facebook, said a smell tipped someone off to

the fire.“Shinichi Sawamu-

ra smelled an electri-cal smell and went to investigate,” Taggards’ Facebook post said. “Smoke was coming from the boiler room. Authorities were called. Fire went up, no one hurt. I don’t want to say more.”

Tag gard a l so sa id “firefighters are amaz-ing” and Howard Earles pulled vehicles away from the building using a zoom boom.

Keith Fye, executive director of Christmas in Ice, in North Pole, offered condolences.

“We want to express our condolences for their bui lding,” Fye said. “We hope they recover from the fire.”

T h e s t r u c t u r e was used as a snack b a r a n d w a r m i n g building during the BP World Ice Art Champi-onships each February and March. Ice Alaska moved into its current location in 2012.Contact staff writer Kevin

Baird at 459-7575. Follow

him on Twitter:

@FDNMcity.

FIREContinued from A1

INTERIORContinued from A1

The Alaska Bar Associ-ation petitioned for a for-mal hearing in Decem-ber 2013, stipulating Stepovich’s actions were negligent and punish-able by public censure. A disciplinary board found that sanction too lenient “in light of the attor-ney’s prior disciplinary record.”

Stepovich has been dis-

ciplined for three sepa-rate incidents of miscon-duct during his 32 years of practice, according to the ruling.

The board recommend-ed Stepovich be suspend-ed for six months, noting that he was under a year of stayed suspension — essentially probation — for the trust fund viola-tion when he drafted the will.

Stepovich appealed, arguing the proper sanc-tion was public repri-

mand. The case was referred to the state Supreme Court. The court concluded Ste-povich was aware his actions created a conflict of interest and injured his client by not giving him the “detached advice to which he was entitled,” according to the ruling.

The court imposed a 12-month suspension on Stepovich but did not impose the stayed year because it found “the violation is not the same

as or similar to the mis-conduct for which the attorney was suspended before,” according to the ruling.

Stepovich’s suspension will take effect 30 days from the date of the opin-ion. He is required to take and pass a multistate professional responsibil-ity exam before reinstate-ment.

Neither Stepovich nor his attorney, John Franich, was available for comment Friday.

LAWYERContinued from A1

A5Saturday, December 17, 2016 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

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NATION

Carolina GOP grabs powers from Dem governor

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Caro-lina Republicans stripped the incoming Democratic gover-nor of some of his authority on Friday and they were on the cusp of an even greater power grab, an extraordinary move that crit-ics said flies in the face of vot-ers.

J u s t l a s t w e e k , i t a p p e a r e d Republicans were ready to finally accept Democrats’ narrow win in a contentious governor’s race. As it turns out, they weren’t done fighting. In a surprise special session in the dying days of the old administra-tion, some say the Republi-can-dominated legislature has thrown the government into total disarray, approving two bills aimed at emasculating incoming Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. One of them was signed into law by the current governor.

Cooper, the current attor-ney general, has threatened to sue. And many in the state are accusing Republicans of letting sour grapes over losing the governor’s mansion turn into a legislative coup.

“This was a pure pow-er grab,” said retired school librarian Carolyn White, 62, a long-time demonstrator once arrested as part of the “Mor-al Monday” protests against GOP-led legislative policies. “I got arrested two years ago. Did it make any difference? No. But just like the civil rights movement, it’s forward together. You just have to keep going forward.”

The protesters were so loud that Senate and House cleared the galleries — a high-ly unusual move. More than 50 people were arrested this week, and as demonstrators were led away from the Leg-islative Building, some chant-ed “all political power comes from the people.” Those that remained behind could only watch the debate through glass windows or listen to it online.

Hundreds stomped their feet and yelled outside the gal-lery, causing several Republi-can lawmakers to note they were having trouble hearing during the debate. Democrats repeatedly stated their objec-tions.

“The kindergartners are getting rowdy,” said Republi-can Rep. Dana Bumgardner.

He said Democrats were “creating out of thin air a talking point for the next elec-tion.”

Republ ican G ov. Pat McCrory, who lost to Coo-per by about 10,000 votes, quickly signed into law a bill that merges the State Board of Elections and State Ethics Commission into one board comprised equally of Demo-crats and Republicans.

Cooper

By Gary D. Robertson and Meg KinnardASSOCIATED PRESS

GOP lobbies Rubio on State nominee By Sean SullivanTHE WASHINGTON POST

At the start of the week, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, seemed bent on opposing the nomi-nation of Rex Tillerson for secretary of State.

By the end of it, Rubio had heard directly from former vice pres-ident Richard Cheney, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation, as well as other key supporters of the ExxonMobil chief executive.

With that, one more controversial proposal by Trump at risk of run-ning aground had found new hope for smooth-er waters. In this case, the intervention of a high-powered gaggle of establishment Repub-lican leaders — none of them long-standing allies of Trump’s — appears to be leading the effort to save Tillerson’s nomination.

Tillerson is opposed by many Republicans and Democrats who are suspicious of his per-ceived close ties to Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin, who has worked with ExxonMobil on energy deals.

Yet he is also backed by a small army of hawk-ish GOP luminaries and deep-pocketed donors. Robert Gates, a former CIA director and former defense secretary, per-sonally recommended Tillerson in a meeting with Trump. Condoleez-za Rice, the former sec-retary of state, made the same recommendation to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Blunt the hostilitySeveral of these Tiller-

son boosters enjoy direct lines of communica-tion to Rubio and other Tillerson skeptics such as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. They are seeking to use those channels to blunt hostil-ity in the Senate, where

Tillerson must win confirma-tion.

What is not clear is wheth-er these Republi-cans are working with Trump’s blessing or cooperation — or wheth-er, instead, they are free-lancing their own agen-da to promote an official they favor for Trump’s administration. Rice and Gates run a consulting firm that counts Exxon-Mobil as a client.

Some emissaries say they are acting on their own while others say they have been nudged to reach out by those shepherding Tillerson’s nomination. A Trump transition spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Rubio, meanwhile, is fresh off a career-saving reelection to his Sen-ate seat and, according to associates, eager to establish himself as a leading voice on foreign policy in the next Con-gress. He sits on the Sen-ate Committee on For-eign Relations, the first hurdle Tillerson must clear on Capitol Hill.

The Floridian’s naviga-tion of the Tillerson con-firmation early next year will offer one of the first concrete signs of how he plans to position himself on world affairs during the Trump presidency. It will also serve as a test of how effective the kind of behind-the-scenes nudging underway from Republican power bro-kers will be in the era of Trump.

Republicans hold a 10-to-nine advantage on the foreign relations panel. If just one Repub-lican and all Democrats band together against him, they could sink Tillerson’s nomination before it even reaches the Senate floor.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the commit-tee’s chairman, wrote on

Twitter on Fri-day that he had a “very g o o d conver-s a t i o n”

with Tiller-son on Thursday. Corker said he also received a call from former pres-ident George W. Bush, who vouched for Til-lerson. The alignment of Bush and Trump on Tillerson comes after Trump, as a candidate, repeatedly criticized Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

Tillerson has the sup-port of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell, R-Ky. Many of his boosters are confident that over time he will sway enough Repub-lican senators to back him. But his support-ers are leaving little to chance.

Russia connectionGates has said that

Tillerson’s experience doing business with Russia is an asset. He is a “tough-minded realist” who understands Putin, he said. And Cheney has been an outspoken supporter of Tillerson, calling him an “inspired choice” in a statement. Like Tillerson, the for-mer vice president has deep roots in the energy industry, having served as chief executive of Hal-liburton.

Earlier this week, Cheney spoke to Rubio, said the person with k n o w l e d g e o f t h e exchange, who spoke on the condition of ano-nymity to describe the private chat. He is mak-ing calls to multiple sen-ators, said a second per-son close to GOP leaders who spoke on the con-dition of anonymity to describe private conver-sations.

The former vice pres-ident could not be reached for comment. Rubio declined to be interviewed. A Rubio

spokesman did not immediately comment on the conversation.

Coaxing RubioRobert McNair, a Tex-

as-based GOP donor who gave $500,000 to a super PAC supporting Rubio for president, said he plans to call the sena-tor from Florida to coax him to back Tillerson. He said he also intends to talk to McCain and Graham.

McCain has been one of the leading skeptics of Tillerson’s nomination, questioning his relation-ship with Putin and say-ing on CNN: “I don’t see how anybody could be a friend of this old-time KGB agent.”

During his presiden-tial run, Rubio labeled Putin a “thug” and a “gangster” — rhetoric that clashed sharply with Trump’s much warmer statements about want-ing to improve relations with Russia.

No friend of Vlad’sOn Sunday, Rubio

attracted widespread attention with a tweet declaring, “Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOf-State.”

Leaving no uncertain-ty about whether a staff-er might have written it, he signed the tweet “MR.” The message has been retweeted nearly 9,500 times.

The worldview Rubio underscored during his presidential run, which was a continuation of a posture he had taken in the Senate, was by and large in line with traditional Republi-can hawks, including McCain and Graham, who have tended to be wary of Russia’s inten-tions.

What remains unclear is whether Tillerson’s solid support among many credent ia led Republican establish-ment figures will sway these hawks.

After Trump official-ly tapped Tillerson on Tuesday, Rubio released a statement saying that he has “serious con-cerns” about his nom-ination but will work to “ensure he receives a full and fair but also thorough hearing before the Senate Foreign Rela-tions Committee.”

Tillerson is facing criticism coming from people who don’t “have any business experience and don’t know how the world works,” said McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans foot-ball team. He started an energy company in the 1980s and said he did “a lot of business” with ExxonMobil back then.

Roy Bailey, a Tex-as-based insurance executive who also gave to Rubio’s presidential campaign, said he backs Tillerson. The resistance to Tillerson, he said, “sounds like old politics to me as opposed to a new way of thinking.”

Tillerson won Rus-sia’s Order of Friend-ship award in 2013, and ExxonMobil has an active presence in Russia. Anything Rus-sia-related is under extra scrutiny in the political process these days, after a CIA assess-ment that Russia med-dled in the election to try to help Trump win.

One Republican wild card is Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky), who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. His libertar-ian-leaning views have often collided with party leaders. In an interview with CNN earlier this week, Paul said he has “an open mind” on Til-lerson.

For now, Rubio isn’t showing his hand when it comes to Tillerson. Associates say they are convinced he is keeping his options open.

“I don’t think he’s made up his mind,” Seay said. “I think he’s just skeptical and con-cerned.”

TillersonRubio

You may loathe frigid weather — but some retailers love itBy Sarah Halzack THE

WASHINGTON POST

When you walked out your front door into the frigid sting of a polar vortex, you probably thought to yourself, “this is the worst.”

But more than a few retail industry executives probably felt that same icy chill and thought, “this is terrific.”

That’s because our holiday shopping pat-terns can be strongly shaped by weather. And this latest cold snap, coupled with a preceding stretch of wintry temperatures, is likely to help many retailers ring up big-ger sales than they

might have other-wise. In fact, weather analytics firm Plana-lytics estimates that, thanks to chillier conditions, apparel stores will get a $350 million jolt in sales between Dec. 4 and Dec. 24 compared to the same period last year.

So how exactly does weather influence spending?

“It affects what we buy, when we buy and how we buy,” said Paul Walsh, meteo-rologist and director of weather strategy at IBM Global Business Services.

I n p a r t i c u l a r, experts say that when its nippy outside, we’re primed to buy coats, boots, scarves

and other cold-weather apparel. When tempera-tures are mild, and we’re not wearing these items as often, we tend to put off replacing last year’s gear.

A number of clothing retailers learned this the hard way in 2015, when it remained unseasonably warm in the run-up to Christmas and beyond. In Washington, for instance, temperatures soared to 71 degrees on Christmas Eve, part of the warmest December on record in this region. Macy’s was among the retailers that said the weather created major drag on sales; the department store chalked up 80 percent of its decline in sales at stores open more than a year during

the holiday season to weak interest in cold-weather garments.

So, apparel sellers, in particular, look poised to benefit from 2016’s frosty conditions. In fact, Walsh says “they’ve got to be doing a conga dance right now” based on how the weather has shaped up so far in December.

Outside of encourag-ing us to spend money on bundling up, experts say a wave of cold weather can also help retailers by put-ting shoppers in a holiday state of mind.

“There really is a Christ-mas spirit that comes about when it looks and feels like Christmas,” Walsh said. “It’s not really quantifiable. . .but when it

is cold, there is that emo-tional feeling that is a tail-wind for retailers.”

Amazon gobbled up 40 percent of all online sales last November and December, so if weather pushes shoppers online, it might be funneling them straight to the biggest ene-my of many mall stalwarts.