The biggest legal news from August is news that can't be reported. A bad actor from a Western Alaska community was sued for the second time for sexual misconduct, this time by two women who worked for him. The complaint involved crude cartoons, pictures and books in the office, but the results of the case are confidential by request of the employer and his attorney. ALO represented the two women. Such confidentiality is becoming more common, and in this case it seems rather silly. Most every adult who resides in the village knows of the case and how it ended, but they didn't hear it from ALO or its clients. ALO occasionally shares free legal advice and here is this month's freebie: most young women don't want their elderly employer to show them sexual material in the office.
It was a busy month in the criminal courts for ALO as well. A felony drug charge was dismissed in the Dillingham court as a result of a court ruling that the evidence was improperly seized from ALO's client by the police. Another drug case, this time in Bethel, was reduced to a misdemeanor and resulted in an interesting exchange at the sentencing hearing. There were two defendants, one represented by ALO. The other defendant was represented by the Public Defender. He was on the phone and was asked if he had anything to say to the judge before the very light sentence was imposed. He chimed in with "Thanks for hearing my case judge and you have a nice day now." Of course he got no jail time.
The Allen River dam project is still moving along, waiting for Legislative action this winter to decide its early fate. Meanwhile, the water downstream from the proposed dam site teems with fish and wildlife as it has for a long, long time. This year's salmon escapement is very high, and the lakes are currently full of spawning and dying red salmon. Of course that process is threatened by the dam which would store water at this time of the year to operate the turbine over winter. The reduced flow in the Allen river would affect all life below it, especially the spawning salmon. Here is a shot of the Allen River which shows how narrow and shallow it is below the dam site.
Reduce that water supply, and the downstream lakes would drop dramatically. Critters like this one rely on those salmon to make it through the winter.
It is puzzling why salmon advocates on the Bethel side of the mountains consider their salmon sacred, but have so little regard for the Bristol Bay salmon in this dam discussion. The bear, by the way, appeared in front of the Angstman cabin where he rolled on his back for a while before ambling off in search of more fish. As an experiment various sounds were tried to check his response. A normal human holler, at close range, had no response. A deeper growl or roar got an immediate swing of the head to check on the source.
Speaking of electricity, this tower is now generating some of the power for ALO,
thanks to some on site tinkering by LJ Davis and John Wallace. There are several such towers now operating in Bethel, and the 10 million dollars they are wasting on the dam project studies could be used to have such units up and running all over the Delta in short order.
August brings the start of moose season. An early opportunity for a harvest near the cabin was passed up in favor of one closer to the lake, which hasn't happened yet. Maybe like this one.
This next photo was a product of a trip to a creative writing camp by Don Rearden and son-in-law Ben.
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Inspired by the creative talents present and by the scenic beauty of the area near Homer where the camp was held, the two produced this artistic gem which answers the age old question of what's to be found at the end of the rainbow
Finally a nature photo to off-set that last shot. Trail cams are set up on the farm In Minnesota, and here is the best of the August shots.
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