Alaska Digest
Father pleads no contest in tot's death
KETCHIKAN - A father has pleaded no contest to killing his 22-month-old daughter.
James Paul, 45, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of daughter Sarah Paul in February 2004. His trial was to begin Tuesday in Ketchikan Superior Court, but he pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of second-degree murder on Thursday.
He faces 35 to 70 years in prison. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 29.
Police found the girl in a bathtub full of water in Paul's apartment. Paul was found unconscious on the floor of the apartment.
He was arrested the next day on child pornography charges after being released from Ketchikan General Hospital. He was indicted for first-degree murder in September.
Prosecutor James Scott said the child had been fed enough over-the-counter sleeping aids to be fatal to an adult. It remains unclear whether she died of the drugs or drowning, he said.
The child pornography charges stem from a Ketchikan police investigation into allegations Paul's wife made when she sought a domestic violence restraining order.
Nannapat Paul said her husband constantly yelled at her and the child and that he sometimes hit the girl. She added that she had found child pornography on the computer.
A magistrate ordered Paul to stay away from his wife and daughter.
The girl's death came four days after the restraining order was loosened to allow unsupervised visits between the father and daughter.
Refuge begins reservation system
KENAI - The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has a new reservation system for public-use cabins on the 2 million-acre refuge.
Ten cabins on the refuge on the northern Kenai Peninsula are available for public use, with plans to build three more this summer. Eight cabins are part of the reservation system and two cabins will remain first-come, first-serve, with onsite self-registration.
Refuge staff have developed a reservation system accessible on the Internet at http://kenai.fws.gov/, by phone at (907) 262-7021, and in person at the refuge headquarters in Soldotna.
Refuge manager Robin West said he expects the reservation system to be administered eventually through a nationwide contractor, similar to the way National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service cabins are administered.
Fees for the reservation cabins will range from $35 to $45 per night, a portion of which will go toward cabin maintenance. No fee will be charged at the first-come, first-serve cabins.
Bears rummage in Anchorage trash
ANCHORAGE - One day after Anchorage police announced they would soon start fining city residents $75 for leaving trash out overnight, state biologists spent the day chasing a black bear that was rooting through garbage outside homes near the edge of undeveloped forest off Abbott Loop Road.
"The bear was in a Dumpster and a big bin of cat food at one residence, and in the garbage of another residence," said assistant biologist Jessy Coltrane, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "Pretty much one of every four or five houses (in the neighborhood) didn't have garbage out. Everybody else did."
The biologists plan to issue at least two $100 citations to people for "negligent feeding" of wildlife. In a week or so, Coltrane said she would also ask police to start ticketing any residents who leave trash outside.
On Monday, a brown bear broke a bear-resistant Dumpster at the Campbell Creek Science Center.
When the container tipped over, a bar that secured the lid against black bears popped open, allowing leftover lunches from visiting schoolchildren to spill out.
The center will now rent a bigger, heavier Dumpster, double the number of trash pickups and string the trash-yard fence with an electrified livestock wire that can administer a painful shock to any furry scavenger.
The biologists also left a culvert trap there to capture the grizzly if it returns. A black bear usually runs off when startled at close quarters, but a brown bear might attack.