- JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) - An Alaska-based soldier from California will serve six months in a military prison and then be dismissed from the Army after being convicted of abusive sexual contact and other charges at a court-martial. The Army says in a release that 33-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Guillermo Castillo was convicted Thursday of the contact charge, twice disobeying the order of superiors and driving under the influence. He also will have to forfeit his monthly pay of $3,000 for a year.  Castillo joined the Army in January 2000. He was an enlisted soldier until graduation from Warrant Officer Candidate School in November 2009. He was assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, at the Anchorage base in 2010. He has served one tour in Afghanistan. 

- HONOLULU (AP) - Prosecutors will be able to pursue Hawaii's harshest penalty against a former Alaska man charged with murdering a woman.  A Kauai grand jury on Thursday returned an indictment against 26-year-old Steven Wilson for second-degree murder in last month's stabbing death of 21-year-old Kendra Lewis.   Police say Wilson and Lewis relocated to Kauai from Alaska at the beginning of the year and were living together at the time of her death. He is being held on $1 million bond. The Kauai prosecuting attorney's office says grand jurors also found the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity." That will allow the state to seek an enhanced sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Lewis was found dead in her room at a condominium. 

 

- KENAI, Alaska (AP) - State health officials say five people have become ill after drinking raw milk from a Kenai Peninsula farm. The Peninsula Clarion reports it's a similar bacterial infection that sickened more than 30 people in February. In both instances, state health department spokeswoman Laura Carpenter says it started at Peninsula Dairy in Kasilof. Owner Kevin Byers declined comment. The farm is a raw milk-cow share operation that delivers to shareholders on the peninsula, Anchorage and Sitka. Health officials say Byers said he has informed shareholders of the outbreak, caused by fecal contamination of a cow's raw milk. The state cannot shut the operation down because he only distributes the milk. The Clarion says the shareholders collectively own the cows.

- KENAI, Alaska (AP) - A Sterling man's mangled vehicle has prompted a reminder that bears are up and about. The Peninsula Clarion says Norm Israelson discovered the damage Monday. A brown bear tore off a side-view mirror on his Subaru, smashed a tail light and rear window, ripped off the back windshield wiper and shoved the car eight inches in the gravel driveway. Muddy claw marks were on the car windows. Israelson says the attack could have occurred as he watched TV Sunday night with the volume turned up or it could have happened as he slept. State area wildlife biologist Jeff Selinger collected samples at the scene. Selinger says it's that time of year when bears are leaving their dens and people should begin bear-proofing their homes and thinking about wilderness safety.

- ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is looking toward the future. Channel-2 News reports that the airport held an open house Thursday to provide the public with the opportunity to become more informed about five proposals for development of Anchorage's main airport. Airport Manager John Parrott says the five proposals range from doing nothing to adding a new runway. He says if that option was selected, it would require fill be put in the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. Opponents say it also would destroy Point Woronzof Park and cut into the popular coastal trail. The airport expects to have a master plan finalized by the end of the year.

- FORT YUKON, Alaska (AP) - The community of Fort Yukon is able to relax after days of worry because it appears the danger from flooding is mostly over. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that late Wednesday night dozens of residents watched as slabs of river ice suspected to be from a once-menacing ice jam 12 miles up the Yukon River passed safely below the town's levee. The ice jam had accumulated a lake of water estimated to be 7 miles wide and 30 miles long, which could have created a serious flash flood if it broke all of a sudden. Early Wednesday, the ice jam developed a large hole that likely grew, sending more ice downriver. City flood coordinator Velma Carroll says she was told Wednesday night that the worst appears to be over.