ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – An Alaska mom convicted of child abuse after she was seen on the “Dr. Phil” show pouring hot sauce into her adopted Russian-born son’s mouth was given a suspended sentence of 180 days on Monday.

Jessica Beagley, convicted last week of a single count of misdemeanor child abuse, was also placed on three years probation by an Anchorage District Court judge, who ordered her to continue counseling.

Beagley, a 36-year-old mother of six who is married to an Anchorage policeman, was fined $2,500, The fine was also suspended so long as she completes her probation to the satisfaction of the court.

She had faced a maximum sentence of a year in prison and $10,000 in fines.

“As a mother, I feel that it’s my most important job to love, care for, nurture and teach my children. I’ve tried to do that every single day that I’ve been a mom,” a tearful Beagley said before the sentence was imposed.

Municipal prosecutors filed the charge against Beagley after homemade video of her discipline methods aired last November on the “Dr. Phil” show, a pop psychology program, sparking a furor in both the United States and Russia.

Outraged viewers alerted authorities to the footage, which showed Beagley pouring hot sauce into the seven-year-old boy’s mouth and making him stand in a cold shower.

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – An Alaska mom convicted of child abuse after she was seen on the “Dr. Phil” show pouring hot sauce into her adopted Russian-born son’s mouth was given a suspended sentence of 180 days on Monday.

Jessica Beagley, convicted last week of a single count of misdemeanor child abuse, was also placed on three years of probation by an Anchorage District Court judge, who ordered her to continue counseling.

Beagley, a 36-year-old mother of six who is married to an Anchorage policeman, was fined $2,500, The fine was also suspended so long as she completes her probation to the satisfaction of the court.

She had faced a maximum sentence of a year in prison and $10,000 in fines.

“As a mother, I feel that it’s my most important job to love, care for, nurture and teach my children. I’ve tried to do that every single day that I’ve been a mom,” a tearful Beagley said before the sentence was imposed.

Municipal prosecutors filed the charge against Beagley after homemade video of her discipline methods aired last November on the “Dr. Phil” show, sparking a furor in both the United States and Russia.

Outraged viewers alerted authorities to the footage, which showed Beagley pouring hot sauce into the 7-year-old boy’s mouth and making him stand in a cold shower.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug 26 (Reuters) – The state of Alaska filed notice on Friday that it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling upholding the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.

The state, which maintains that U.S. Endangered Species Act protections are not warranted for polar bears, sued in 2008 to overturn the Bush administration’s decision to list the animal as threatened.

That listing was based on what the U.S. Department of Interior said was the rapid warming of the Arctic climate and the melting of summer and fall sea ice that it considered crucial to polar bears’ habitat.

Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan upheld the endangered listing in a June ruling.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, a Republican, said on Friday that the listing was flawed because polar bears have thrived through past climate changes.

The world population of polar bears has grown from a low of between 8,000 and 10,000 in the late 1960s to the current count of about 20,000 to 25,000, Parnell said.

“The Endangered Species Act was not intended for species that are healthy with populations that have more than doubled in the last 40 years,” Parnell said in a statement.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The state of Alaska filed notice on Friday that it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling upholding the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.

The state, which maintains that U.S. Endangered Species Act protections are not warranted for polar bears, sued the federal government in 2008 to overturn the Bush administration’s decision to list the animal as threatened.

That decision was based on what the U.S. Department of Interior said was the rapid warming of the Arctic climate and the melting of summer and fall sea ice that it considered crucial to polar bears’ habitat.

Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan upheld the endangered listing in a June ruling.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, a Republican, said on Friday that the listing was flawed because polar bears have thrived through past climate changes.

The world population of polar bears has grown from a low of between 8,000 and 10,000 in the late 1960s to the current count of about 20,000 to 25,000, Parnell said.

“The Endangered Species Act was not intended for species that are healthy with populations that have more than doubled in the last 40 years,” Parnell said in a statement.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – An Alaska mom who touched off a furor when she was seen on the “Dr. Phil” show pouring hot sauce into her adopted Russian-born son’s mouth was found guilty of child abuse on Tuesday.

Jessica Beagley, a 36-year-old mother of six, showed little reaction as a six-member Anchorage jury returned the guilty verdict on a single count of misdemeanor child abuse. She faces a maximum of two years in prison when she is sentenced.

Prosecutors filed charges against Beagley after homemade video of her discipline methods aired on the popular “Dr. Phil” show, sparking a furor in the United States and Russia.

Outraged viewers alerted authorities to the footage, which showed Beagley pouring hot sauce into the 7-year-old boy’s mouth and making him stand in a cold shower while she yelled at him.

The hot sauce and cold shower were said to be imposed as punishment for the boy’s misbehavior at school.

The case has attracted attention in Russia, where there is growing concern about adopted children from that country facing abuse in the United States. Russian news reporters have covering the Anchorage trial, which started last week.

Defense attorney William Ingaldson said Beagley’s harsh punishment methods, which he said she has since abandoned, and her willingness to subject herself to public ridicule in order to obtain advice from Dr. Phil, grew out of desperation.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Jurors began deliberations on Monday in the child-abuse trial of an Alaska mother seen forcing her adopted Russian-born son to swallow hot sauce during an “Angry Moms” episode of the “Dr. Phil” show.

Jessica Beagley was charged with misdemeanor child abuse, punishable by up to two years in jail, after homemade video of her discipline methods aired on the popular daytime television series, sparking a furor in the United States and Russia.

Outraged viewers alerted authorities to the footage, which also showed Beagley, 36, forcing the sobbing 7-year-old boy to stand in a cold shower while she yelled at him.

The hot sauce and cold shower were said to be imposed as punishment for the boy’s misbehavior at school.

Municipal prosecutor Cynthia Franklin, in closing arguments, said Beagley staged an extreme punishment that she knew would be ineffective to win a spot on the nationally syndicated show hosted by psychologist Phil McGraw.

Beagley may not be a bad mother or a habitual child abuser, Franklin said, but the particular incidents shown in the videotape amounted to criminal abuse.

“Jessica Beagley wanted to be on TV, and she made a videotape that the show required in order for her to get on TV,” Franklin said. “There is no reason in this world why someone would have to hurt a child to get on a reality show.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A mysterious orange goo that collected on shorelines in an Alaska village is made up of fungal spores, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday.

The new analysis corrected an announcement made last week by Alaska-based NOAA scientists who had initially concluded the material was a conglomeration of microscopic eggs or embryos deposited by some form of crustacean.

Scientists from NOAA’s Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research, based in Charleston, South Carolina, did a follow-up examination on a sample sent from Alaska and determined the material was fungal, not the product of crustaceans, the agency said.

The material is consistent with spores from fungi that cause “rust,” a disease that infects plants by causing a rust-like color on them, NOAA said.

“The spores are unlike others we and our network of specialists have examined; however, many rust fungi of the Arctic tundra have yet to be identified,” Steve Morton, a scientist with the NOAA Charleston lab, said in a statement.

The gooey material first appeared early this month in the water and on coastlines of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village of 400 on the Chukchi Sea coast.

Residents initially feared the material might be pollution from the nearby Red Dog Mine, the world’s largest zinc producer. But early tests showed it was a biological material, not mining waste or a petroleum product.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug 18 (Reuters) – A ballot initiative to derail development of the controversial Pebble gold-copper mine in Alaska can go before voters, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled.

Late Wednesday, the state’s highest court ruled the “Save our Salmon” initiative can appear on a municipal election ballot in October. The initiative would amend local law to ban resource extraction projects that would have an adverse effect on salmon habitat.

Pebble’s developers, Anglo American PLC (AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), had gone to court to keep the initiative off the ballot.

In June, a state Superior Court judge ruled that the initiative should stay on the ballot. Both courts said that allowing the local vote to proceed in October does not preclude post-election challenges to the initiative.

An attorney for an Alaska native group that intervened on behalf of the local municipality said the high court’s ruling was good news.

“We’re gratified that the election will go forward,” said attorney Nancy Wainwright, representing Nunamta Aulukestai, a coalition of native organizations in the Bristol Bay region, about 515 kilometres (320 miles) southwest of Anchorage. “I just think it’s great that the people are going to be allowed to vote, and that’s what democracy’s all about.”

If the initiative passes, it is expected that the Pebble Partnership will continue to challenge it on constitutional grounds, Wainwright said.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The trial of an Anchorage mother accused of abusing her adopted Russian-born son got underway on Wednesday as jurors watched a videotape of her pouring hot sauce into the boy’s mouth.

The footage, shot last October for an episode of “Dr. Phil” that touched off a furor in the United States and Russia, also shows Jessica Beagley forcing the sobbing 7-year-old boy to stand in a cold shower while she yells at him.

Beagley, 36, faces a single misdemeanor count of child abuse, which was filed after viewers of the “Dr. Phil” show contacted authorities. She faces a maximum of two years in prison if convicted in a trial expected to last about a week.

During opening statements in the sensational case, which was being attended by members of the Russian media, municipal prosecutor Cynthia Franklin said the cold water treatment was particularly abusive in Alaska.

She said the prosecution will present testimony from the local water utility about how cold that water would have been.

Beagley’s attorney, William Ingaldson, conceded that the video could be disturbing to watch.

The Alaska case, which got widespread attention because it was broadcast on national television, is among those that have caused concerns in Russia about the fates of Russian children adopted by American parents.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – This year’s blueberry season in Alaska’s most populous region is a bust, thanks to a plethora of leaf-eating caterpillars, Alaska pest management officials said.

A multi-year infestation of geometrid moths appears to be peaking in the south-central region of Alaska, which includes Anchorage, according to a mid-summer advisory issued by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

The moths, in caterpillar form, have munched blueberry bushes to the point where they cannot bear fruit this year, the extension service said.

The moth infestation, and resulting poor berry growth, is reported in the state’s southeast panhandle as well, the extension service said.

Berry pickers have reported their disappointing findings, said Corlene Rose, integrated pest management program director at the extension service.

It is not just the blueberry crop that is suffering. The caterpillars have defoliated bushes that would normally be bearing ripe salmonberries, a raspberry-type fruit, and denuded willows, alders and birch trees, the extension service said.

Even though the plants munched by the caterpillars lack many of their leaves and berries, they are most likely not dead and are expected to recover once the infestation is over, the extension service added.