Dennis Zaki Blog - AlaskaReport

I was fortunate to go along with the Coast Guard on Thursday for one of their semi-monthly flights to patrol the coast of Alaska and train in the Arctic.

We flew on an 8 1/2 hour mission from Anchorage to Barrow in a HC-130. A whopper of a plane.

The missions are called Arctic Domain Awareness Flights. The Coast Guard conducts Arctic training, ice and coastal erosion observation and vessel documentation.

The crew were total professionals and very accommodating to the media as we crawled all over the plane and them.

For more on the mission, check out the Coast Guard’s website here.

Operating the HC-130.

Cockpit of the HC-130

Petty Officers David Sexton and John Ferrari.

Petty Officer John Ferrari operating a video camera mounted on the bottom of the HC-130.

Near Barrow.

The crew lowered the cargo door and allowed a pool camera to shoot some video.

Coast Guard Admiral Gene Brooks and North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta. Itta said it is “a special pleasure and honor” to work with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Dried salmon and caribou in Barrow. Nearly every house had some kind of meat drying outside.

Beach erosion is a major problem in the arctic, sandbags are everywhere.

We passed by Denali on the way home. It was incredible to be that close to the mountain by air.

Summit of Denali. This is shot with a fisheye lens. We were a lot closer.

The crew returns to base.

VIDEO
(August 2008) — Members of Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak conduct rescue swimmer operations offshore of Barrow in support of the Arctic effort. USCG video by PA1 Kurt Fredrickson

The early run of the Kenai river reds is deader than a doornail. At least the scenery was good.

Rachelle Waterman is the infamous blogger in Craig, Alaska who prosecutors say had two former lovers carry out the killing of Waterman’s mother.

Jason Arrant and Brian Radel pleaded guilty to murder and testified against Waterman. Arrant claimed that Waterman asked him to kill her mother. He had Radel kidnap Lauri Waterman from her home one night when she was alone. The two men suffocated her in a botched attempt to make her death look like a drunken-driving accident.

The charred body of her mother, Lauri Waterman, was found in the family’s minivan off a remote logging road in November 2004.

Waterman, 16 at the time, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, murder in the first and second degree, kidnapping, burglary, vehicle theft and tampering with evidence.

Waterman kept a blog, called “My Crappy Life” that detailed her conflicts with her mother and growing up in the small town of 1,100 which she referred to as “Hell, Alaska.”

Back in the spring of 2006 when I used to live in Juneau, I covered the case for AlaskaReport.

I emailed Waterman’s defense attorney Steven M. Wells a few days ago because I was curious to know what the status of the case was. This is what he sent back:

The case is still under appeal. The State argues that Judge Collins was wrong to have suppressed the statement and dismissed the indictment. They appealed, arguing that they have a right to appeal.

Ms. Waterman argues, though, that they do not have the right to an interlocutory appeal as a matter of right. An interlocutory appeal is an appeal that occurs before a final judgment. She has moved to prevent the State from appealing at this point.

The State is somewhat stuck because their public position is that there is enough evidence to try Ms. Waterman without her statement. I believe otherwise. If the Court of Appeals grants the motion, it would force the State to proceed without her statement. At that point, the State may seek to try Ms. Waterman again or it may decide against doing so. In that event, the State would have to obtain a new indictment.

If the Court of Appeals denies the motion, it means that the appeal would be accepted and the Court of Appeals would review the matter to determine if Judge Collins was correct in suppressing Ms. Waterman’s statement. If they determine that Judge Collins was correct, the State would again have to choose whether to seek another trial without Ms. Waterman’s statements. If the court determines that Judge Collins erred in suppressed the statement, the indictment would be re-instated and the State could proceed to trial on the indictment already returned.

I double dog dare you to take the Russian River ferry this weekend. A wildlife officer told me he expects 3 times as many people on Saturday as there was today. You read that right, THREE times as many people as pictured.

Fishing the Alaska wilderness ain’t what it used to be.

P.S. Don’t forget your helmet!

A Potter wasp on an inch wide dandelion in my backyard.

The reward for my all-nighter to the Kenai river yesterday. It’s been a long wait for fresh Alaska salmon.

Here’s a very simple recipe for BBQ salmon on the grill:

Ingredients

APRN reporter David Shurtleff and I pulled an all-nighter at the Kenai River Thursday. We went to investigate reports that large numbers of salmon were being caught - i.e. business trip/tax deduction.

It was a ghost town compared to what it usually is like on the Kenai at the opening of the season. I guess the rise in gas prices really did scare people off. Thanks Chimpy! Mosquitos are there in force and so are the fish.

The reds are in on the Russian River. Need I say more?

I haven’t had time off in over a year. I’m taking a few days to catch up on family type stuff. Back next week.