By AP

Jackson, WY – The National Elk Refuge at Jackson will release additional elk permits for both the north and south units through the end of the refuge elk hunting season on Dec. 5.

Refuge manager Steve Kallin made the decision to issue the extra alternate permits because many elk have avoided the refuge so far this hunting season resulting in decreased harvest.

Officials say elk have access to more forage on surrounding summer ranges this year than years past.

By AP

Cheyenne, WY – A recent Pew Foundation study ranks Wyoming's elections Web site in the top 10 nationally.
The site is maintained by the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office.
The Pew Foundation examined election Web sites in all 50 states. It looked at whether citizens could find the official information they needed to register to vote, check their registration status and locate their polling places.

By Peter O'Dowd

Casper, WY – Breast cancer patients have a new option for radiation therapy that was previously unavailable in Wyoming.

By Peter O'Dowd

Laramie, Wyo. – An environmental group is railing against the government's new set of rules for oil shale development in the Rocky Mountain West.

The Bureau of Land Management published the document Monday. It describes the path that private investors must follow to extract up to 800 billion barrels of oil in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The Natural Resource Defense Council's Amy Mall says it's too early to move forward with the project.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – The value of farmland in Wyoming and across the Mountain West has risen between eight and 15 percent in the third quarter of 2008.

Jason Henderson of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City says the gains were unexpected because of recent declines in crop prices.

"It was quite a surprise," Henderson said. "I thought that there would be plateauing of farmland values and that our gains would moderate this quarter and going forward," he added.

By AP

Billings, MONT – Yellowstone National Park officials say they are dropping plans to sharply reduce the number of snowmobiles allowed into the park this winter.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – Wyoming's men's and women's basketball teams had season-opening victories last night. The Wyoming men defeated Cal State Bakersfield in Laramie, 84 to 58. The women had a 61 to 54 victory against the Denver Pioneers in Denver.

At the Arena Auditorium in Laramie, the Wyoming Athletics Department honored former Cowboy basketball player and All-American Kenny Sailors by putting up a banner in the arena. Sailors is widely credited with inventing the jump-shot.

By AP

Cheyenne, WY – The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is set to discuss rules for sage grouse farming.

This year the legislature directed the commission to adopt rules for sage grouse farming. But in September, the commission asked the Attorney General's Office if it could refrain from doing so. The commission said it believed raising the birds in captivity wouldn't enhance their population. Game and Fish Department biologists also say the space and mating requirements of sage grouse have not been conducive to captive rearing.

By AP

Cheyenne, WY – The state veterinarian says all cattle in a Bondurant-area herd have tested negative for brucellosis. Those cattle had been linked to a cow that tested positive for the disease in Nebraska.

Ninety-four animals from the Sublette County ranch tested negative back in September, but the remainder couldn't be tested until last week because they were on summer range.

State veterinarian Walter Cook says the rest of the herd tested negative. He says another two-thousand cattle on the same summer range also tested negative.

By Addie Goss

Laramie, Wyo. – A wind development model that originated in Wyoming is spreading to other states.

For several years, a division of the Department of Agriculture in Southeast Wyoming has been helping form "wind associations." People who own property in windy area pool their land together, then market it to wind developers.

Brad Haight is a lawyer in Denver who works on wind issues. He says Wyoming's model gave more power to the landowners.