By AP

Jackson, Wyo. – An avalanche killed a skier at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

The avalanche around 1:25 p.m. Saturday carried 31-year-old David Nodine, of Wilson, about 200 yards downhill and buried him under 8 feet of snow.

Resort spokeswoman Anna Olson says ski patrollers found Nodine within 6 minutes by honing in on signals from a transceiver he was wearing. Authorities say Nodine was uncovered within 10 minutes.

Nodine couldn't be revived, however, and was pronounced dead at a clinic at the resort base.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – The Frontier Mall in Cheyenne had a profitable Christmas.

The general manager, Kenneth Burke, says holiday sales matched last year's. Many retailers in Cheyenne followed a national trend that offered sharp discounts to get shoppers spending. Burke says the discount that drew the most shoppers was buy-one-get-half-off-the-second one. He says the sales should continue.

By AP

Cheyenne, Wyo. – The Wyoming Legislature plans to continue work to regulate the underground storage of carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants and other sources.

The Legislature early this year passed some of the nation's first bills regulating carbon capture and sequestration. Officials say commercial storage projects are likely still years away.

The Joint Judiciary Interim Committee has sponsored three new carbon bills for the legislative session that begins next month.

By AP

Cheyenne, Wyo. – Scientists are closely monitoring more than 250 small earthquakes that have occurred in Yellowstone National Park since Friday.

Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone. But Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, says it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days.

The largest tremor happened Saturday and measured magnitude 3.8. Tremors continued Sunday and Monday, including a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon on Monday.

By Peter O'Dowd

Laramie, Wyo. – Two avalanches have hammered Wyoming's largest ski resort. On Saturday, a skier was killed at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Another slide crashed into a mountain-top restaurant early Monday morning.

The 31-year-old skier was on expert terrain within resort boundaries when the avalanche swept him 200 yards down the mountain. A resort spokeswoman says ski patrollers recovered his body beneath eight feet of snow just 10 minutes after the accident.

By AP

Jackson, Wyo. – Biologists say elk in Jackson Hole are changing their migration habits in part because of a new hunt on the southern end of the National Elk Refuge.

In past winters, elk showed up at the refuge by the thousands in November. But elk have migrated onto the southern end of the refuge in such large numbers only in recent weeks this winter.

By AP

Jackson, Wyo. – Management of the Jackson Hole Airport plans to try to create a separate law enforcement agency to police the airport despite opposition from some Wyoming sheriffs.

The Jackson Hole Airport board voted last week to try to push through a new state law that would allow the creation of a new law enforcement agency. The board voted to spend $25,000 to hire a lawyer to lobby for the effort.

By AP

Casper, Wyo. – A federal lawsuit that three neurosurgeons have filed against the Wyoming Medical Center is on track for a trial in June.

Drs. Robert A Narotsky, Thomas A. Kopitnik, and Debra Steele contend that the medical center and its overseers forced them and their group Central Wyoming Neurosurgery LLC to resign hospital privileges by creating a hostile work environment.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – During the last snowstorm, the Tetons received 35 inches of snow in 30 hours. That's making for extreme avalanche danger in the mountains.

Bob Comey of the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center says he's only listed the danger level at extreme a few times in his 15 years at the job. Yesterday was one of those times.

Today, Comey reduced the level of avalanche danger from extreme to high. He says backcountry skiers should check the avalanche centers website before heading out. It's at jhavalanche.org.

By AP

Casper, Wyo. – Hunters in the Casper area will have some new areas where they can pursue elk and other big game starting next fall.

The state's Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Board has purchased a conservation easement on 2,840 acres of the Flying A Ranch. The land is about 50 miles northwest of Casper, on the southern end of the Big Horn Mountains in Natrona County. The easement cost $960,000.