Associated Press

JUNEAU — Authorities say a 50-year-old man has been found dead in a campus housing building at the University of Alaska Southeast.

The Juneau Empire reports that the man was found dead Sunday night. University officials say he had recently enrolled at the school for the spring semester.

The man’s name was not in a university news release.

University Public Information Officer Keni Campbell says foul play is not suspected and there’s no risk to the campus community.

The man’s family has been notified.
Campbell says the incident is the first death on campus in quite a while.

Counseling services are being made available for staff and students.

JUNEAU — An Alaska lawmaker proposed regulations for internet service providers in the state, requiring them to practice net neutrality, despite the recent repeal of such regulations at the federal level.

KTUU-TV reports Democratic State Rep. Scott Kawasaki says the bill is necessary to help businesses in Alaska compete in a fair environment.

Kawasaki says eliminating net neutrality will “make it more difficult for small businesses to compete against large established businesses who can afford to pay for higher speeds and increased access to information.”

Without net neutrality, Kawasaki says internet providers will be able to speed up, slow down, or even block websites, requiring users to pay a premium to access their favorite sites.

Kawasaki says he intends to formally introduce the bill on Tuesday.

Updated | 5:08 p.m. Monday

PALMER — Sarah Palin’s oldest son pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony charge in the case accusing him of assaulting his father at the family’s Alaska home last month.

Track Palin’s lawyer entered the plea to a burglary charge on his behalf at his arraignment. The 28-year-old did not attend the hearing in person, but participated by phone. His parents also did not attend.

During the brief proceeding, Palin said only, “Yes, ma’am,” when the judge asked if he was on the telephone line.

The judge set Palin’s trial for the week of Feb. 26.

Palin was arrested in December after Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a former Alaska governor, told authorities her son was on some kind of medication and “freaking out.”

A police affidavit said father Todd Palin was bleeding from cuts on his head. He told police the dispute began when his son called to pick up his truck from the Palins’ home in Wasilla.

Track Palin last month also pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief. He is out on bail with electronic monitoring.

According to the affidavit, Todd Palin said he told Track Palin not to come to the house but that his son said he would come anyway to beat him up. Todd Palin told police he got his pistol “to protect his family.”

Track Palin told police he broke a window, disarmed his father and put him on the ground.

Wasilla police Officer Adam LaPointe wrote in the affidavit that Todd and Sarah Palin had left the home when police arrived and that she was visibly upset.

Track Palin yelled at officers, calling them peasants, and “moved around in a strange manner” before being arrested without incident, the affidavit says.

He told police he “consumed a few beers earlier,” the document says.

The Palins obtained a court order barring their son from having contact with them and their children who live at home. Todd Palin told the court by phone in December that the family is prepared to re-establish contact.

In 2016, he was suspected of punching his girlfriend, who then became concerned that he was going to shoot himself with a rifle, court documents said.

He faced several charges but pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while intoxicated, and the other charges were dismissed.

His then-girlfriend later filed for custody of their child and requested a protective order against Track Palin, who served in Iraq for a year in 2008.

Sarah Palin indicated that post-traumatic stress disorder might have been a factor in that case.

Original story | 9:37 a.m. Monday

ANCHORAGE — Sarah Palin’s oldest son is scheduled to appear in court Monday on charges he assaulted his father at the family’s Alaska home.

Track Palin was arrested in December after Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a former Alaska governor, told authorities her son was “freaking out” and on some kind of medication.

A police affidavit says father Todd Palin was bleeding from cuts on his head. He told police the dispute began when his son called to pick up his truck from the Palins’ home in Wasilla.

Track Palin, 28, is charged with assault, criminal mischief and burglary and is out on bail with electronic monitoring. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to the affidavit, Todd Palin said he told Track Palin not to come to the house but that his son said he would come anyway to beat him up. Todd Palin told police he got his pistol “to protect his family.”

Track Palin told police he broke a window, disarmed his father and put him on the ground.

Wasilla police Officer Adam LaPointe wrote in the affidavit that Todd and Sarah Palin had left the home when police arrived and that she was visibly upset.

Track Palin yelled at officers, calling them peasants, and “moved around in a strange manner” before being arrested without incident, the affidavit says.

He told police he “consumed a few beers earlier,” the document says.

The Palins obtained a court order barring their son from having contact with them and their children who live at home.

Todd Palin told the court by phone in December that the family is prepared to re-establish contact.

This is the second time in two years that Track Palin has been arrested in a domestic violence case.

In 2016, he was suspected of punching his girlfriend, who then became concerned that he was going to shoot himself with a rifle, court documents said.

He faced several charges but pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while intoxicated, and the other charges were dismissed.

His then-girlfriend later filed for custody of their child and requested a protective order against Track Palin, who served in Iraq for a year in 2008.

Sarah Palin indicated that post-traumatic stress disorder might have been a factor in that case.

KETCHIKAN — An Alaska lawmaker is seeking to change the state law that allows a person as young as 14 to marry.

The Ketchikan Daily News reports state Sen. Berta Gardner is planning to introduce legislation to up the legal age of marriage to 18 in Alaska.

The Democratic senator’s legislation would also allow emancipated minors above the age of 16 to marry.

Under current state law, a person between the age of 14 and 18 can marry with permission from a superior court judge. According to the state law, the judge may grant permission if the “marriage is in the best interest of the minor.”

According to an Alaska Vital Statistics report, four marriage licenses were issued to 14-year-old children between 2006 and 2015.

ANCHORAGE — An Alaska lawmaker is calling for state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux to resign her post as chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, claiming she failed to investigate a sexual harassment complaint from a legislative aide.

KTUU-TV reports that state Rep. Tammie Wilson says LeDoux should have known about a letter sent to House leaders in March and protected the staffer who claimed that former state Rep. Dean Westlake had improperly touched her and made inappropriate comments about her.

Westlake resigned last month after sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women came forward. Westlake apologized “for the pain I have caused.”

In a prepared statement, LeDoux says she will not resign, and the mandatory training on harassment will go forward.

LeDoux says Wilson is politicizing an issue that should not be politicized.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — All four men who were imprisoned in the beating death of a 15-year-old boy have filed federal civil rights lawsuits against the city of Fairbanks and four police officers.

George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent jointly filed the wrongful imprisonment suit last week after Marvin Roberts filed a similar suit earlier this month, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

The four men, also known as the Fairbanks 4, were convicted on murder charges in 1999 for the death of John Hartman in 1997. The men spent nearly two decades in prison until new evidence in the case surfaced.

While awaiting a judge’s ruling in a post-conviction relief case on evidence that other people were responsible for Hartman’s death, the men signed a settlement agreement with the state in December 2015.

In exchange for agreeing not to sue the state, city or people involved in the case, the men were released from prison and their convictions were erased. Roberts was out on parole at the time.

The new suit requests that a judge declare the release-dismissal agreement as unenforceable, claiming the men were coerced into signing it. The suit also claims wrongdoing by police officers who investigated the case.

In response to Roberts’ lawsuit, Fairbanks City Attorney Paul Ewers previously said that the city had a duty to defend employees’ official actions, and he expected to deny most of the allegations.

The new suit was filed by the three men without an attorney, but they said their next step will be to seek representation.

“People that did wrong will be held accountable, and hopefully, to the Hartman family, that they finally get the closure they deserve,” Vent said. “We did 18 years for something we didn’t do. Us being out is not the conclusion to the story that it should be.”