THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 newsminer€¦ · a suspicious “casual encounters” Craigslist post...
1
SOURDOUGH JACK: “Looks like another tax bill is skating through.” The weather. Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of light freezing rain. Chance of snow. Tonight: Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. High today .............. 21 Low tonight ............ 16 WEATHER » A7 GOOD MORNING Classified » B7-8 | Comics » B5 | Dear Abby » Latitude 65 | Markets » B6 | Obituaries » A3 | Opinion » A6 INSIDE • • • FCC’s expected vote today to kill net neutrality won’t be the last word, foes vow. » A7 Inside Today CURLING TRIALS Fairbanks’ Persinger wins in Olympic mixed doubles. SPORTS Page B1 • • • Aurora forecast. Auroral activity will be low. Weather permit- ting, displays will be visible overhead from to Fairbanks. One dollar newsminer.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 THE VOICE OF INTERIOR ALASKA Maker of pot edibles faces more charges By Robin Wood [email protected] Alaska’s Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office has expanded alle- gations of major violations in con- nection with marijuana edibles from a Fairbanks manufacturer. Frozen Budz’s product manu- facturing license was suspended Dec. 1 after allegations of excessive THC levels in their edibles, and a Tuesday press release detailed five new charges. The business also has a retail license and continues to sell mar- ijuana flowers. Until the suspen- sion, Frozen Budz’s edibles had been available throughout the state, particularly in Southcentral and the Interior. The new allegations say Frozen Budz has sold edibles contaminated with mold, used untracked mari- juana, made products not approved by the marijuana control board, allowed onsite consumption and sold more than 114,000 untested edible marijuana products. The original investigation stemmed from a tip about a specific prod- uct, CannaBanana Bread. Industry regulations state samples must be selected from each production lot for testing. Charges are based on indepen- dent edibles tests, records kept by the state tracking system and Metrc, as well as photos and testi- mony from a former employee. Frozen Budz co-owner Nick Neade maintains his company never purposely did anything wrong. He said glitches, clunky software and problems regu- lating the new industry are to TAXES » A8 The state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Board has brought new charges against the owners of Frozen Budz on South Peger Road. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER Auroral activity will be active. Weather per- mitting, active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Utqiag- vik to Anchorage and Juneau, and visible low on the horizon from King Salmon and Prince Rupert. NET RESULT Tommy Bergman, 18, of Fairbanks, shoots a puck Wednesday afternoon on the outdoor ice rink at the Big Dipper Ice Arena. “It’s a great day for outdoor hockey,” said Bergman, who played team hockey for eight years. “I’m enjoying the warmth while it’s here.” ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER Man guilty of child porn By Sam Friedman SFRIEDMAN @NEWSMINER.COM A complaint about a suspicious “casual encounters” Craigslist post led to a Fort Wain- wright man’s conviction this week on child por- nography charges. The Alaska U.S. Attor- ney’s office announced Wednesday that a Fair- banks jury convicted 27-year-old Kaleb L. Basey on two child por- nography charges Tues- day. In January 2014, Alaska State Troopers received the complaint about the Craigslist post, according to the case against Basey. “Any dads or moms want to share a daughter with me for the night? just (sic) gauging inter- est, must have a daugh- ter, respond with torchat id if you got one,” the post stated in part. TorChat is an anony- mous chat program. In less than 24 hours, troopers responded and identified Basey as the person who posted the message, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. Basey was an active- duty soldier at Fort Wainwright at the time. Troopers received a war- rant to search his bar- racks room. Law enforce- ment agencies includ- ing the FBI found other similar Craigslist posts from Basey and his email correspondence with people who responded to his posts. In one email, Basey sent a picture of child pornography and said he enjoyed watching sexually explicit movies that showed “young girls 5-15 yo.” Basey’s trial took place Monday and Tuesday at the Fairbanks feder- al building. After a few hours, the jury convicted Alaska jails want flexibility on furloughs By Sam Friedman [email protected] The Alaska Department of Corrections wants more flex- ibility in deciding whether a prisoner can be released on furlough. A regulation change up for public comment through Fri- day seeks to change a rule that forbids jails from furloughing inmates who are being investi- gated for disciplinary action or who have been found guilty of “major” or “high-moderate” jail infractions in the previous four months. A furlough is a release of prisoner into a halfway house to help the inmate reintegrate into society. Furloughs are available only to prisoners who are within three years of their release dates. They are granted at the discretion of a Department of Corrections regional director. The Department of Cor- rections has custody of about 4,300 inmates in 13 institu- tions across the state. Department spokeswom- an Megan Edge described the furlough policy change this week as part of a larger effort to replace “out-of-date” regula- tions and policies. Eliminating the restriction on inmates who have committed infractions while in jail gives staff more flexibility to use their discre- tion. “Let’s say, for exam- ple, someone is written up because they stayed on the phone too long or maybe they were verbally disrespectful to a staff member,” Edge said in an email. “They’d be written up, and if found guilty of that infrac- tion … wouldn’t be eligible to be placed on furlough for some time.” “Now, although we don’t condone that behavior, may- be being placed on furlough is still a better option for that person.” Edge added that someone who is written up for a violent infraction is unlikely to receive a furlough. “We do not want to risk community safety, which is our number one priority,” she said. The department describes a wide range of offenses as “major” or “high-moderate.” The list includes all felony crimes and jail-specific offens- es, such as wearing masks or disguises, encouraging oth- ers to go on hunger strikes or intentionally interfering with prisoner counts. The Department of Correc- tions is accepting public com- ment on the proposed rules change through 5 p.m. Friday. Comments can be sent to doc.admin.comments@alaska .gov, by fax to 465-3315 or at bit.ly/2CeeNPZ. Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors Basey sought underage girl on Fairbanks Craigslist POT » A8 PORN » A3 GOP: We have deal on taxes WASHINGTON — Con- fident congressional Republicans forged an agreement Wednes- day on a major over- haul of the nation’s tax laws that would pro- vide generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Ameri- cans — Donald Trump among them — and deliver the first major legislative accomplish- ment to the GOP pres- ident. Middle- and low- income families would get smaller tax cuts, though Trump and GOP leaders have billed the package as a huge benefit for the middle class. The measure would scrap a major tax requirement of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, a step toward the ultimate GOP goal of unraveling the law. “The cynical voic- es that opposed tax cuts grow smaller and weaker, and the American people grow stronger,” Trump By Stephen Ohlemacher, Andrew Taylor and Marcy Gordon ASSOCIATED PRESS
Transcript of THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 newsminer€¦ · a suspicious “casual encounters” Craigslist post...
SOURDOUGH JACK:
“Looks like another tax bill is skating through.”
The weather.
Mostly cloudy with a
slight chance of light
freezing rain. Chance
of snow. Tonight:
Mostly cloudy with a
chance of snow.
High today .............. 21
Low tonight ............ 16
WEATHER » A7
GOODMORNING
Classified » B7-8 | Comics » B5 | Dear Abby » Latitude 65 | Markets » B6 | Obituaries » A3 | Opinion » A6 INSIDE
• • •
FCC’s expected vote today to kill net neutrality won’t be the last word, foes vow. » A7Inside Today
CURLING TRIALSFairbanks’ Persinger
wins in Olympic
mixed doubles.
SPORTS
Page B1
• • •
Aurora forecast.
Auroral activity will be
low. Weather permit-
ting, displays will be
visible overhead from to
Fairbanks.
One dollar newsminer.comTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017
T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A
Maker of pot edibles faces more chargesBy Robin [email protected]
Alaska’s Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office has expanded alle-gations of major violations in con-nection with marijuana edibles from a Fairbanks manufacturer.
Frozen Budz’s product manu-facturing license was suspended Dec. 1 after allegations of excessive THC levels in their edibles, and a Tuesday press release detailed five new charges.
The business also has a retail license and continues to sell mar-ijuana flowers. Until the suspen-sion, Frozen Budz’s edibles had been available throughout the state, particularly in Southcentral and the Interior.
The new allegations say Frozen Budz has sold edibles contaminated with mold, used untracked mari-
juana, made products not approved by the marijuana control board, allowed onsite consumption and sold more than 114,000 untested edible marijuana products. The original investigation stemmed from a tip about a specific prod-uct, CannaBanana Bread. Industry regulations state samples must be selected from each production lot for testing.
Charges are based on indepen-dent edibles tests, records kept by the state tracking system and Metrc, as well as photos and testi-mony from a former employee.
Frozen Budz co-owner Nick Neade maintains his company never purposely did anything wrong. He said glitches, clunky software and problems regu-lating the new industry are to
TAXES » A8
The state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Board has brought new charges against the owners of Frozen Budz on South Peger Road.ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER
Auroral activity will be
active. Weather per-
mitting, active auroral
displays will be visible
overhead from Utqiag-
vik to Anchorage and
Juneau, and visible low
on the horizon from
King Salmon and Prince
Rupert.
NET RESULT
Tommy Bergman, 18, of Fairbanks, shoots a puck Wednesday afternoon on the outdoor ice rink at the Big Dipper Ice Arena. “It’s a great day for outdoor hockey,” said Bergman, who played team hockey for eight years. “I’m enjoying the warmth while it’s here.” ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER
Man guilty of child porn
By Sam FriedmanSFRIEDMAN
@NEWSMINER.COM
A complaint about a suspicious “casual encounters” Craigslist post led to a Fort Wain-wright man’s conviction this week on child por-nography charges.
The Alaska U.S. Attor-ney’s office announced Wednesday that a Fair-banks jury convicted 27-year-old Kaleb L. Basey on two child por-nography charges Tues-day.
I n Ja n u a r y 2 0 1 4 , Alaska State Troopers received the complaint about the Craigslist post, according to the case against Basey.
“Any dads or moms want to share a daughter with me for the night? just (sic) gauging inter-est, must have a daugh-ter, respond with torchat id if you got one,” the post stated in part.
TorChat is an anony-mous chat program.
In less than 24 hours, troopers responded and identified Basey as the person who posted the message, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. Basey was an active- duty soldier at Fort Wainwright at the time. Troopers received a war-rant to search his bar-racks room. Law enforce-ment agencies includ-ing the FBI found other similar Craigslist posts from Basey and his email correspondence with people who responded to his posts. In one email, Basey sent a picture of child pornography and said he enjoyed watching sexually explicit movies that showed “young girls 5-15 yo.”
Basey’s trial took place Monday and Tuesday at the Fairbanks feder-al building. After a few hours, the jury convicted
Alaska jails want flexibility on furloughsBy Sam [email protected]
The Alaska Department of
Corrections wants more flex-ibility in deciding whether a prisoner can be released on furlough.
A regulation change up for public comment through Fri-day seeks to change a rule that forbids jails from furloughing inmates who are being investi-gated for disciplinary action or who have been found guilty of “major” or “high-moderate” jail infractions in the previous four months.
A furlough is a release of prisoner into a halfway house to help the inmate reintegrate into society.
Furloughs are available only to prisoners who are within three years of their release dates.
They are granted at the discretion of a Department of Corrections regional director.
The Department of Cor-rections has custody of about 4,300 inmates in 13 institu-tions across the state.
Department spokeswom-an Megan Edge described the furlough policy change this
week as part of a larger effort to replace “out-of-date” regula-tions and policies. Eliminating the restriction on inmates who have committed infractions while in jail gives staff more flexibility to use their discre-tion.
“ L e t ’s s a y, f o r e x a m -ple, someone is written up because they stayed on the phone too long or maybe they were verbally disrespectful to a staff member,” Edge said in an email.
“They’d be written up, and if found guilty of that infrac-tion … wouldn’t be eligible
to be placed on furlough for some time.”
“Now, although we don’t condone that behavior, may-be being placed on furlough is still a better option for that person.”
Edge added that someone who is written up for a violent infraction is unlikely to receive a furlough.
“We do not want to risk community safety, which is our number one priority,” she said.
The department describes a wide range of offenses as “major” or “high-moderate.”
The list includes all felony crimes and jail-specific offens-es, such as wearing masks or disguises, encouraging oth-ers to go on hunger strikes or intentionally interfering with prisoner counts.
The Department of Correc-tions is accepting public com-ment on the proposed rules change through 5 p.m. Friday.
Comments can be sent to doc.admin.comments@alaska .gov, by fax to 465-3315 or at bit.ly/2CeeNPZ.
Contact Outdoors Editor Sam
Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on
Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors
Basey sought underage girl on Fairbanks Craigslist
POT » A8 PORN » A3
GOP: We
have deal
on taxes
WASHINGTON — Con-fident congressional Republicans forged an agreement Wednes-day on a major over-haul of the nation’s tax laws that would pro-vide generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Ameri-cans — Donald Trump among them — and deliver the first major legislative accomplish-ment to the GOP pres-ident.
Middle- and low- income families would get smaller tax cuts, though Trump and GOP leaders have billed the package as a huge benefit for the middle class. The measure would scrap a major tax requirement of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, a step toward the ultimate GOP goal of unraveling the law.
“The cynical voic-es that opposed tax cuts grow smaller and weaker, and the American people grow stronger,” Trump
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Andrew Taylor and Marcy Gordon ASSOCIATED PRESS
