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FAIRBANKS - The state game board has begun a two-week meeting in which it will consider nearly 300 proposals, many of them aimed at killing bears to boost moose and caribou herds.

The meeting, which began Thursday, comes at a time when Alaska already is embroiled in a national controversy over its aerial wolf control programs operating in the McGrath and Nelchina basin areas. Some of the bear proposals the game board will consider include legalizing the baiting of grizzly bears, trapping black bears, selling bear parts and allowing hunters to shoot cubs with sows in some places.

Game board member Pete Buist said the bear proposals are merely a sign of the times.

"I think people are coming to grips with the fact some of the predation problems we're having are because of bears, not wolves," said Buist.

High school principal found dead in his car

ANCHORAGE - The high school principal who died in an apparent suicide left a note for his family, police said Thursday.

Service High School Principal Pat Podvin, 40, was found dead Wednesday at his home.

Anchorage police released a few details Thursday about the death, including that Podvin's body was found in his car, which was parked in the garage.

Police found Podvin after his relatives asked that police check on him because they hadn't heard from him for more than 24 hours. Officers arrived at Podvin's Eagle River home at about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Police said Thursday they know from e-mails that he sent that Podvin's death occurred some time after 11:56 a.m. Tuesday. Police said the note and other personal property were returned to Podvin's family.

Podvin made headlines a year ago when he came forward to say he had been molested by a former Anchorage priest, Monsignor Francis Murphy, in 1982. Podvin had been on medical leave from the Anchorage School District but was due to return to his job in March.

The Archdiocese of Anchorage had contended early last year in a newspaper article about church sexual abuse that there had been one isolated, unsubstantiated complaint by a teenager from St. Patrick's Church.

Podvin told KTUU-TV in February 2003 that he wanted to set the record straight that Murphy had sexually abused more than one victim, and that Podvin's own reporting of the molestation to the church was ignored.

Legislators eye limits on malpractice damages

JUNEAU - Lawmakers are considering lowering the amount of money that can be awarded to patients who sue their doctors for medical malpractice.

Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, who is sponsoring the bill, said two of four insurance companies that offered medical malpractice coverage in Alaska pulled out in the past year.

"Alaska's medical malpractice liability system is on the verge of a breakdown," Anderson said in a written statement.

Opponents of the bill question whether changing the law would make malpractice insurance more available or affordable and whether it would be fair to patients who have been injured.

Anderson's bill would limit the amount of non-economic, or so-called "pain and suffering," damages to $250,000. It would not change the law on economic damages, such as lost wages and medical expenses.

For most injuries the current limit on non-economic damages is set at either $400,000 or $8,000 multiplied by the patient's years of life expectancy, whichever is greater. For severe physical impairment or disfigurement, the cap is $1 million or $25,000 multiplied by years of life expectancy, whichever is greater.

Bill asks for appeal of Tustumena decision

KENAI - The Senate Resources Committee is considering a bill that asks two federal agencies to appeal a court decision that bans salmon stocking in Tustumena Lake.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals banned the long-standing practice because it found that the activity amounted to a commercial activity.

Commercial activities are not permitted in wilderness areas under the federal Wilderness Act of 1964. Tustumena Lake is within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai, also asks the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice to seek a temporary emergency stay of the court decision. That would allow some 6 million salmon fry growing at the Trail Lakes Hatchery to be released into the lake.

Without the stay, there is a chance those fry would have to be destroyed, though hatchery operators are looking for an alternative site for stocking the fish.

The program was the target of a 1998 lawsuit filed by The Wilderness Society and the Alaska Center for the Environment. The lawsuit argued that the stocking program, begun in 1993 by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, violated provisions of the Wilderness Act.

Toddler found dead next to unconscious father

KETCHIKAN - A toddler was found dead and her father unconscious a few days after the child's mother got a protective order because her husband allegedly had child pornography on his computer.

Sarah Paul, 22 months, was found dead Tuesday. Her father, 44-year-old James Michael Paul, was unconscious in his downtown Ketchikan apartment.

An autopsy was to be done to determine why the toddler died, said Ketchikan Public Safety Director Rich Leipfert. The father was taken by ambulance to Ketchikan General Hospital where he was recovering, Leipfert said.

Ketchikan police received a call at 4:21 p.m. Tuesday because the child had not been returned to her mother, Paul's wife, Nannapat Paul.

The child was to be returned under terms of a protective order issued today that specified how the father would be allowed to visit the child. Officers found the girl and her father when they went to check on the girl.