The Associated Press

Preservationists hope to win state historic
recognition for the officers club at a former prisoner-of-war camp
in Douglas to help maintain 16 Western murals painted on its walls
by Italian POWs during World War II.
     The building is owned by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
isn't open to the public on a regular basis.
     The Douglas Historic Preservation Commission has worked with the
Odd Fellows since the 1990s to protect and maintain the building.
It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says proposed increases in health insurance premiums for customers in in Wyoming and four other states have been deemed "unreasonable" by the agency.

Federal officials said in a statement Thursday they've determined that Trustmark Life Insurance Co. proposed unreasonable rate increases in Alabama, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming.

Fremont County and Lander Regional Hospital have reached a settlement in a yearlong lawsuit over unpaid bills for mental health examinations for residents who may need to be hospitalized.

The county will pay $457,000 for evaluations from 2009 to Dec. 15. Lander parent company LifePoint Hospitals had sought more than $800,000 in unpaid bills from the county. Both sides disputed how much the county owed for evaluations of patients who faced involuntary hospitalization for mental illness.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is pushing to allow baiting of big game animals to allow hunters to lure deer herds away from towns.

The Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee is sponsoring a bill that would allow the state Game Commission authority to bait deer into places where they could be killed safely.

Sen. Bruce Burns of Sheridan is co-chairman of the legislative committee. He says towns in the region would take advantage of the new law to allow hunters to thin out the herds of whitetail deer.

The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming. The data released today reveals that power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010. Wyoming is among a handful of states that are home to high-polluting power plants, according to the data.

Governor Matt Mead is wrapping up a trip to Texas where he's been meeting with officials of some of the nation's largest energy companies to try to drum up support for the University of Wyoming's School of Energy Resources.

Renny MacKay is spokesman for Mead in Cheyenne. MacKay says Mead and UW officials have been in Houston and Dallas since Tuesday.

MacKay says they've been meeting with representatives from such energy firms as Exxon, Mobil and Marathon Oil Corp. He says Mead is due back in Wyoming on Wednesday afternoon.

A mountain lion spotted in a Gillette neighborhood has been killed.

Wyoming Game and Fish officials say the 2-year-old female cat was shot Tuesday to protect the public.

Some people reported seeing the cat on Monday but officers weren't able to find where it was living until the following day.

Game warden Irah Leonetti said the cat was living under a trailer in an area just east of an industrial park and had been feeding on some deer.

The last time he can remember a mountain lion being shot in the city was in 2008.

Early predictions by federal hydrologists foresee below average mountain runoff in Wyoming this year because of a dearth of snow so far this winter.

Based on current snowfall in the mountains, hydrologists estimate that Wyoming's runoff this year will be about 81 percent of average.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Casper released its first spring runoff estimate on Tuesday. The agency will issue additional estimates into June.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it plans to shutter four offices in Montana and Wyoming as part of a $150 million cost cutting measure that includes 259 closures nationwide.

The Food Nutrition Service office in Cheyenne, and the USDA Rural Development office in Park County will close, though FSN employees will continue to work from home.

The Food Nutrition Service office was the only one in the state. Food Nutrition Service is the source of the federal SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps.

A Denver woman who donated her family's
vast ranch to promote hands-on agriculture education at the
University of Wyoming and Colorado State University says she's
disappointed the schools haven't made better use of her gift as a
teaching tool.
     Now the universities are preparing to sell the Y Cross Ranch.
Amy Davis says if she could do it all over again, she wouldn't have
donated the property between Cheyenne and Laramie in southeast
Wyoming.
     Both schools acknowledge they haven't put the Y Cross Ranch to

One of five scientists retained by the federal government says he sees shortcomings in Wyoming's proposed wolf management plan.

While four of the scientists generally approved of the plan, wolf researcher John A. Vucetich of Michigan says it's vague on how to reconcile conflicts between wolves and elk and may overestimate the mortality wolf populations can sustain.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service retained the five scientists to evaluate Wyoming's wolf plan.

Yellowstone National Park officials say an agreement with neighboring Montana that limits wolf hunting along the park's northern border is protecting the park's wolves from excessive hunting.

Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith said Wednesday that Montana's 2011-12 wolf season so far has had less impact than the inaugural hunt in 2009. That year hunters killed four wolves from Yellowstone's Cottonwood pack, which had been studied for years by scientists and was popular among wolf watchers from across the country.

One of the government's top scientists says much more research is needed to determine the possible impacts of shale gas drilling on human health and the environment.

Dr. Christopher Portier of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says studies should include all the ways people can be exposed, such as through air, water, soil, plants and animals.

Portier says there isn't currently enough information to say with certainty whether shale gas drilling poses a threat to public health.

An epidemiologist who spent a year studying the high rate of workplace deaths in Wyoming says his research points to lack of a "culture of safety" in Wyoming.

Dr. Timothy Ryan says in a report to Gov. Matt Mead that more than 85 percent of reports on deadly workplace accidents in Wyoming show safety procedures not being followed.

Wyoming consistently has one of the nation's highest rates of workplace fatalities, more than 12 per 100,000 workers in 2010. That's more than three-and-a-half times the national average.

Many deaths occur in the oil and gas industry.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A series of small earthquakes being studied for their potential links to disposal of gas drilling wastewater in Ohio is shaking up environmentalists and politicians.

It's long been known that disposal of so-called "frackwater" can cause earthquakes if injected near a fault. The jury is still out on whether Ohio's are caused by a wastewater well near Youngstown.

 In the battle of public perception, though, earthquakes grab attention. That's especially true in Ohio, where the geology and politics are positioned to accept wastewater from elsewhere.

A federal report possibly linking groundwater pollution to hydraulic fracturing in central Wyoming is not discouraging hopes for the Niobrara oil play in the southeast part of the state.

Many are questioning the scientific conclusions of the Environmental Protection Agency findings on the technique to extract oil and gas.

But both EPA and industry representatives say the specific concerns raised in the report are not applicable to southeast Wyoming. That is because the Niobrara formation is geologically much different than the Pavillion area.

Scientists say in a new study that the return of gray wolves has dramatically altered the landscape in portions of Yellowstone National Park, by curbing foraging elk herds that prevented new aspen, willow and cottonwood trees from taking root.

Study author William Ripple from Oregon State University said tree stands are expanding in areas where for decades dense elk populations prevented new growth.

Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996 after being killed off early last century. About 100 now roam the park and elk numbers have dropped sharply.

Park County authorities have identified a snowmobiler and a skier who died in separate avalanches near the Montana-Wyoming line.

Forty-four-year-old David Lee Gaillard was skiing with his wife Saturday southeast of Cooke City when an avalanche occurred around 2 p.m.

Park County Coroner Al Jenkins says Gaillard's wife tried to find her husband but was unsuccessful. She traveled to Cooke City to report the accident and emergency responders recovered the body.

A defense bill signed by President Barack Obama includes more than $21 million for military construction in Cheyenne.

F.E. Warren Air Force Base would get $12.6 million to replace an aging centralized heating plant. The Wyoming Army National Guard would get $8.9 million for a readiness center.

Warren officials estimate the heating project would pay for itself in 7 1/2 years through energy savings once the conversion is completed. The changeover is expected to take two years.

The existing system would be replaced by individual systems for each building.

Authorities say avalanches have killed a snowmobiler in Montana and a cross-country skier in Wyoming.

Doug Chabot with the Gallatin National Forest says the snowmobiler triggered the slide about noon on Saturday north of Cooke City in southwestern Montana.

He says two hours later a skier in the North Absaroka Wilderness in Wyoming traveling on flat ground was engulfed by an avalanche that swept down a nearby slope.

After a bit of a rocky start, law enforcement officials and prosecutors around the state say they're now running into few problems with Wyoming's new mandatory DUI testing law.

Since July 1, police officers have been able to get a judicial warrant requiring motorists pulled over for suspected alcohol or drug use to take a breath, blood or urine test. Prosecutors say the change has helped them win cases against drunk drivers, especially repeat offenders who know how to beat the system.

Funeral services are planned Monday in Newcastle for former state Sen. Charles "Chuck" Townsend. He died last week after a lengthy struggle with cancer. He was 68.

Townsend, of Osage, represented Senate District No. 1 in eastern Wyoming from 2004 to 2010.

Townsend served on several legislative committees including the Appropriations Committee. Citing health reasons, he did not seek office in 2010.

Gov. Matt Mead says he's continuing to push to try to change how Wyoming taxes wind energy projects despite a chilly reception to his proposals from some state legislators so far.

Wyoming's sales and use tax exemption on equipment used on wind energy projects expires in January 2012. The state will also begin imposing a $1 per megawatt hour tax on wind energy production starting then.

A Colorado company has announced a $193 million deal to buy a coal mine in western Wyoming from Chevron
Mining Inc.

Chevron has been getting out of the coal industry and the Kemmerer mine is among its last coal assets. The  mine produces 4.7 million tons of coal a year.

The buyer is Englewood, Colo.-based Westmoreland Coal Co. The deal announced Tuesday includes a purchase price of $179 million plus $14 million in working capital.

     Wyoming authorities are stepping up warnings about moose-vehicle collisions along Highway 390 in Teton
County after some game wardens had to shoot and kill a suffering mother in front of her calf.  

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department says wardens had to shoot the cow moose Dec. 16 because her right leg had been shattered by a car. Afterward, her calf moose pawed at the corpse and ran around
in circles in distress.

A Wyoming program that helps the disabled has a long waiting list, but a state bill to be introduced next
year could help. 

Jackson representative Keith Gingery is the sponsor of the bill to be introduced during the
upcoming legislative session would provide $28 million in state and federal funding for Wyoming's Home and Community Based Waiver Program.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
is moving ahead with a proposed regulatory designation that could
increase pressure on the gas industry to limit emissions that have
led to severe wintertime ozone pollution in western Wyoming.
     The EPA is doing so while it settles a nationwide lawsuit over
ozone filed by an environmental group, WildEarth Guardians.
     In 2009, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal recommended that the EPA
enact what's known as "nonattainment status" for ozone in the

A Colorado company expects to get
regulatory approval soon so it can begin to exploit bacteria to
revive hundreds of old natural gas wells in northeast Wyoming.
     The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is considering a
draft permit for Luca Technologies Inc. to put substances
underground to encourage the growth of bacteria. The bacteria are
naturally present underground and live in water-saturated coal
seams.
     The bacteria eat the coal and produce methane gas as a
byproduct.

 An Australian coal company that wants to mine Powder River Basin coal has hired a Wyoming state lawmaker as
an executive.
     The Gillette News Record (http://bit.ly/rrhxjt ) reported that
Republican Rep. David Miller of Riverton sold his Campbell County
mineral rights to Sydney-based County Coal Limited for $200,000 in
March. Miller, a geologist, now holds one million shares in the
company and will get 3 percent royalty payments on coal mined in
the basin, one of the richest coal sources in the United States.

University of Wyoming coach Dave Christensen says he has agreed in principle to a new, five-year
contract.  Christensen and athletic director Tom Burman confirmed the agreement Saturday, the day the Cowboys were beaten by Temple 37-15 in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, N.M.

 Burman said that Christensen would get a substantial raise. No other details of
the pending contract were announced. Burman says he expects the contract to be finalized this week.