Second Wyoming soda ash producer announces layoffs

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. — Another Wyoming soda ash producer is laying off employees because of the economic downturn.

Wyoming looks to join other western states in growing sunflowers, other oilseeds for biofuels

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming’s agriculture industry is looking at the oilseed crops camelina, canola and sunflowers as part of an effort to diversify farming and produce the seed stock for biofuel.

Slice of middle America safe from recession is shrinking as crop and energy prices fall

TORRINGTON, Wyo. — Carl Rupp and his neighbors follow the old rancher’s creed: “Keep your money in your pocket.”

Who let the dog out? Wyoming police say woman busted window in effort to free dog from shelter

CASPER, Wyo. — Police in Wyoming say they arrested a woman who they believe tried to bust her pit bull out of the doggie slammer.

Wyoming police say woman allegedly tried to bust her pit bull out of the doggie slammer

CASPER, Wyo. — Police in Wyoming said they arrested a woman for trying to bust her pit bull out of the doggie slammer. Police allege the woman smashed a window at the Metro Animal Control shelter last weekend, triggering an alarm. Officers said they found the dog running outside the building and arrested a 26-year-old woman after a foot chase.

National Park Service awards nearly $1M to preserve, interpret WWII internment sites

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The National Park Service has awarded nearly $1 million in grants to increase public awareness about and help preserve sites related to the detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Cheyenne police suspect homicide-suicide in deaths of Wyoming couple, toddler son

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Police investigating the deaths of a couple and their toddler found a “goodbye type of note” believed to be written by the mother indicating she likely carried out the killings, a police spokesman said Monday.

Wyoming couple, toddler son found dead; police suspect homicide-suicide

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Police say a Cheyenne couple and their 2-year-old son are dead in an apparent homicide-suicide.

US producers of hidden but pervasive soda ash fight recession, Chinese rivals

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. — Beneath the arid sagebrush flats of southwest Wyoming, miners work around the clock to grind out millions of tons of trona rock that’s hoisted to the surface and processed into a key ingredient for everything from baking soda and detergent, to glass and paper.

Wyoming police arrest suspected car thief they found sleeping in 2001 Oldsmobile

CASPER, Wyo. — Police arrested a suspected car thief they found asleep in the 2001 Oldsmobile he’s accused of stealing. Officers said a 26-year-old man and a woman were found asleep in the car Thursday about six miles from where it was stolen.

Most rodeos holding on, some falling during economic recession

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — As they ride out the economic recession, some American rodeos are bucking the hard times while others are sitting on the fence.

Mining company questions whether Wyo. panel can label federal forest land ‘rare and uncommon’

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A request that a Wyoming panel designate a piece of the Black Hills National Forest as “very rare and uncommon” has raised questions about the state’s authority to influence what happens on federal land.

Man says he fends off lion with chainsaw in Wyo.

CODY, Wyo. — A man says he used his chainsaw to fight off a starving mountain lion that attacked him while he was camping in the Shoshone National Forest. Ex-Marine Dustin Britton of Windsor, Colo., says he raised the chainsaw he had been using to cut brush and inflicted a six- to eight-inch gash on the 100-pound lion’s shoulder.

Tornado destroys 2 northeastern Wyoming houses, no injuries reported

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A tornado cut a miles-long path through rural northeastern Wyoming, destroying two homes and several barns and spawning damaging hail, officials said Tuesday. There were no reports of injuries.

Man suspected of kidnapping woman from Wyoming home leaves his ATM card at scene

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Deputies say a man suspected of kidnapping a woman used an ATM card with his name on it to pop open a lock at her Wyoming home, and then left the card behind.

Visits last month to Yellowstone National Park set record, jump 8.5 percent from June 2008

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park in June, propelling the park to its busiest January-June period on record, according to numbers released Tuesday.

Officials to recognize selection of Cheyenne as site of GE coal research plant

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Construction of a $100 million research plant to refine and improve technology on turning coal into clean-burning natural gas will start next year with the goal of having the plant up and running by late 2012, officials said.

Senior spelling title goes to Virginia man who competed in Scripps bee as a youngster

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — It took Michael Petrina Jr. 51 years to finally win a national spelling bee.

Utah man presumed dead after leaping into river in Yellowstone Park, going over falls

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Officials in Yellowstone National Park are searching for a man they believe committed suicide by jumping into a river and going over a 300-foot waterfall.

Fort Laramie, historic Wyoming outpost for trappers, travelers and soldiers, turns 175

FORT LARAMIE, Wyo. — The frontiersmen who built this outpost in 1834 picked a spot they hoped would enable them to dominate the regional buffalo-hide trade: a valley where two rivers run together and the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains.

Globe-trotting dinosaurs? Similar tracks in Wyoming, Scotland spur study using 3-D technology

LARAMIE, Wyo. — It’s a Jurassic curiosity: As far as anyone can tell, the fossilized, three-toed dinosaur tracks in north-central Wyoming and on Scotland’s coast are indistinguishable.

Acclaimed poet Craig Arnold missing on Japanese island while writing about volcanoes

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — An acclaimed poet who had been working on a book about volcanoes disappeared five days ago during a scouting expedition on a tropical island in southern Japan.

Heavy losses as sheep, cattle ranchers slog through blizzards, mud, chilly weather

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Snowy, soggy, chilly weather has taken a severe toll on sheep and cattle across the northern Great Plains this spring.

Wyo. police arrest woman after finding her in hotel room with barrel of cinnamon bear candies

CASPER, Wyo. — Police arrested a 28-year-old woman after finding a barrel of cinnamon bear candies in her hotel room that police believe had been stolen from a local restaurant. Officers responded to a 911 call at a hotel room where the woman was staying on Saturday evening. Officers determined that the call had been placed by accident.