By AP

LAramie, Wyo. – The University of Wyoming is asking the legislature for 58-million dollars in additional state funding.

The U-W board approved the supplemental budget request in Sheridan yesterday. The bulk of the request is for endowment funds to match private donations.

The request also includes money to buy and improve remote parking lots and shuttle buses.

It also adds 600-thousand dollars to support an internship program with Wyoming businesses.

By AP

Billings, Mont. – A federal judge in Montana has ordered
the restoration of endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction Friday that derails planned public hunts for the predators.

Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all planned hunts in the fall - the first since wolves were wiped out in the region early last century.

Laramie, Wyo. – Former U-S Senator Malcolm Wallop announced he will support Buffalo Rancher Mark Gordon in his bid for Congress.

Wallop is a Republican who served in Washington from 1976 to 1994.

In a press release from the Gordon campaign, he says Gordon has chosen the most practical path on issues from global warming to drilling and oil shale.

By AP

Gillette, Wyo. – A former Gillette police officer who pleaded guilty last week to a felony drug charge in Campbell County now faces a new drug charge in Uinta County.

Thomas Brent Clark pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver marijuana in Campbell County last week. He has not been sentenced on that charge.

On Wednesday, Clark was charged with a new felony count of marijuana possession in Uinta County, the Gillete News- Record
reports.

By Peter O'Dowd

Laramie, Wyo. – Standard and Poor's has raised Wyoming's credit rating to one of the strongest in the nation.

State Treasurer Joe Meyer says Wyoming's investment portfolio has grown to about 11-billion dollars and has nearly doubled in the past five years.

Meyers says investment income from the permanent minerals trust fund has been staggering.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – An expert on wind energy at the University of Wyoming says the country will need an intense investment in technology to meet Al Gore's renewable energy challenge.

Gore said Thursday that the U-S should get one hundred percent of its electricity from sources like wind and solar in ten years.

Jonathan Naughton directs the Wind Energy Research Center at the University of Wyoming.

By AP

Cody, Wyo. – Gallatin National Forest officials have evacuated and temporarily closed two campgrounds near Cooke City, after a bear entered a tent and bit a camper.

The Soda Butte and Chief Joseph campgrounds were closed Thursday.

Forest officials say a bear entered a tent at the Soda Butte campground early in the day and bit a camper on his hand and arm.

The camper received emergency medical care and was taken to a Cody, Wyo., hospital, which refused to release information about his condition.

By AP

Washington, D.C. – A bill designed to combat AIDS globally is
expected to include $2 billion for American Indians.

That's according to Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

Thune and other senators pushing for the Indian money as part of the $50 billion AIDS bill made a deal with Democratic leaders. The agreement will include $1 billion for water projects on Indian
reservations, $750 million for tribal law enforcement and $250 million for Indian health care services.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, Wyo. – A Wyoming political scientist says congressional candidate Cynthia Lummis may have some advantages in the final stretch of the Republican primary campaign.

The latest campaign finance reports show that Lummis has three and a half times more cash on hand as her Republican rival Mark Gordon. Gordon has raised more than twice as much money as Lummis overall, but he's already spent most of that.

Meantime, Lummis still has about a quarter million dollars to spend. The University of Wyoming's Jim King:

By AP

Cheyenne, Wyo. – The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld the sentence of life without parole for Christopher Hicks, a Gillette man convicted of murder and other charges in the deaths of two teenagers in 2005.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Hicks' argument that the trial judge should have suppressed statements that he gave to law enforcement investigators. The Supreme Court also rejected Hicks' claim that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.