The Associated Press

An advocacy group for farmers and ranchers in Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico says landowners should receive annual payments for having power lines built across their property.

The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union also wants landowners to have a bigger say in placement of power lines.

But an official with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association says such a concept would increase costs, which will ultimately be paid by the consumer.

Native Americans say they want the ability to compete for money and jobs generated by Internet gambling if Congress legalizes it. But they don't want to lose their sovereignty to get it.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing Thursday about tribes' concerns over Internet gambling, which has been banned in the U.S. since 2006. Many people have been playing at offshore sites anyway.

Pit bulls are blamed for killing sheep in Riverton.

Farm owner Bill Jennings says he has found over 50 sheep dead in the last few months. He says he's found dogs in with the sheep twice and has put down three dogs.

Capt. Ryan Lee of the Fremont County Sheriff's Office said a lot of people seem to be allowing their dogs to run free. However, he says owners can be criminally and civilly responsible for any damage they cause to livestock.

The Farm Bureau is offering a reward of over $2,000 for information on the sheep attacks.

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a company's plans to drill up to 88 new wells in western Wyoming.

Chevron USA, Inc., is proposing to expand the Table Rock Field 40 miles east of Rock Springs with 33 shallow oil wells and 20 deep gas wells. As many as 35 water injection wells also would be drilled.

The BLM says just over 300 acres would be disturbed and the wells would have a lifespan of between 40 and 55 years.

Authorities are investigating after a 35-year-old man was killed in a car crash in Converse County during a high-speed chase that involved a state trooper.

Brian A. Bonomo of Cheyenne was pulled over for speeding on Wyoming Highway 59 on Saturday evening. Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Stephen Townsend says the trooper smelled marijuana on Bonomo
as he was handing him the ticket.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Rep. Cynthia Lummis says she's endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney because she believes he's the best person to solve the nation's economic woes.

The Wyoming Republican appears to be the first prominent GOP state leader to publicly endorse a presidential candidate.

The endorsement by Lummis is important for Romney because Lummis embraces many tea party ideals. Other GOP presidential candidates, such as Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, have been more identified
with the tea party movement.

Wyoming officials hope to save millions of dollars by creating a new department that will consolidate and streamline its information technology services.

A legislative panel has voted to sponsor a bill to create the Department of Enterprise Technology Services.

The proposed department would be responsible for the bulk of the state's information technology work.

The state's Division of Information Technology currently is part of the Department of Administration and Information. In addition, many state agencies have their own dedicated IT staff.

A former resident of a youth home in Laramie has been awarded $300,000 in his civil lawsuit stemming from a sex assault case involving the resident and a female counselor.

An Albany County jury sided with the former resident of the Cathedral Home for Children in Laramie. The lawsuit arose from a 2009 criminal case in which former counselor Katie Joseph was arrested for having a sexual
relationship with the resident. She was 31; he was 17.

Wyoming's ready-mix concrete production is at its lowest point in a decade - an indicator of the slow economy.

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association says Wyoming concrete hit a 10-year low last year. But that was better than the nation overall, which showed its lowest level since 1994.

The president of the Concrete Association of Wyoming told the paper that the state has been buoyed by activity in the energy industries.

He predicted that activity in 2012 would be about the same as this year.

Wildlife officials in western Wyoming are looking to the public for help protecting mule deer as they migrate
to their winter ranges.   Deer from Wyoming's two largest herds - the Sublette and Wyoming
Range herds - are migrating to the area around Pinedale, Big Piney and LaBarge for the winter. As the thousands of animals move, trophy mule deer can more easily be seen than in the backcountry,
making them tempting to poachers.

 A new report ranks Cheyenne as the best city with a population under 175,000 for military retirees to live.

The report by financial services firm USAA and Military.com notes Cheyenne has relatively high employment opportunities and local access to medical care for veterans.

Wyoming ranks fourth in the nation for its rate of organ and tissue donation and state health officials are urging more people to sign up.

Nearly 60 percent of Wyoming residents with driver's licenses and ID cards have agreed to donate their organs and tissues when they die.

Cherame Serrano with the Wyoming Department of Health says about 145 people in Wyoming are currently waiting for transplants.

A Laramie County deputy sheriff shot and wounded early Thursday morning has been treated and released from a local hospital.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Gerry Luce says Deputy Sheriff Chance W. Walkama was shot in the side early Thursday. Luce says the shooting happened when Walkama and another deputy went to perform a welfare check on a man at a hotel on the north side of Cheyenne.

Twenty-four-year-old Brian J. Noel of Cheyenne was arrested at the scene. Luce says Noel fired a 9-mm pistol through the door of his hotel room at the deputies.

A drive is under way to raise $600,000 to fund an economic development organization in Powell.

Organizers say the Powell Economic Partnership's mission is to unite the business community and government to create wealth, jobs and support the quality of life in the Powell Valley.

LeAnne Kindred, chairwoman of the partnership's board, says the group's first priority would be to facilitate growth and development of existing businesses, and then recruit new, complementary businesses to Powell.

 Voters in Laramie have backed changing the way city councilors there are elected.

Currently, voters pick city councilors to represent seven wards and two at-large members. On Tuesday, voters were asked whether to stick with that system or change the number of wards or change the number of at-large members.

The city clerk's office said Wednesday that unofficial results show that the option to create three wards with three council members each got the most votes.

The results won't be official until election officials review the results on Thursday. 

 Voters in Laramie have backed changing the way city councilors there are elected.

Currently, voters pick city councilors to represent seven wards and two at-large members. On Tuesday, voters were asked whether to stick with that system or change the number of wards or change the number of at-large members.

The city clerk's office said Wednesday that unofficial results show that the option to create three wards with three council members each got the most votes.

The results won't be official until election officials review the results on Thursday. 

A legislative panel has signed off on a plan that could remove federal protections from gray wolves in
Wyoming as early as next year.   Sen. Bruce Burns says the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and
Cultural Resources Interim Committee approved the plan on Tuesday.

Burns says the panel was unanimous in recommending that the Legislature approve Wyoming's wolf-management plan when it convenes in February.   Gov. Matt Mead and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar agreed this summer to classify wolves in most of Wyoming as predators that
could be shot on sight.

Residents of a central Wyoming community will be looking to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
more answers Wednesday to their questions about pollution in their water wells.
The EPA has scheduled a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. to present
its latest data on groundwater pollution in the Pavillion area in
Fremont County. The meeting will take place at Wind River
Middle/High School in Pavillion.  Some residents blame gas drilling for polluting their water
wells with hydrocarbons although any such link has yet to be

A convenience store chain has agreed to pay one-hundred-fifteen-thousand dollars to settle a federal lawsuit alleging it improperly fired an HIV-positive bakery clerk in Wyoming.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year sued Maverik, Inc., a Utah-based company that operates gas stations in Wyoming, Utah and other western states. The lawsuit charged the company fired the clerk two weeks after learning he was HIV-positive.