By Elsa Heidorn

Laramie, WY – Nationwide, July 4th often sees more highway deaths than New Year's Eve.

The University of Minnesota's Center for Excellence in Rural Safety tracks those numbers.

Researcher Tom Horan says perhaps that's because people are more aware of the risks on New Year's Eve than on Independence Day. "It's summer, holidays, visiting people, so there are plenty of good reasons to travel. We just want to make people aware that statistically, it's kind of a dangerous time," he said.

By AP

By AP

By Kristin Espeland

Laramie, WY – Wyoming's first case of West Nile virus this year has turned up in a man from Fremont county. Last year, the mosquito-borne virus infected more people in that county than in any other, sickening some and killing others.

State epidemiologist Doctor Tracy Murphy says the landscape may be the key -- the counties with more water have more mosquitoes.

Laramie, WY – A woman who caused a drunken-driving crash that killed a young girl in Gillette has been sentenced to between eight and 16 years in prison.

LaDonna Carothers was driving a car that crashed into the side of a van last October 17th. Ten-year-old Madison Scalzo died two days later.

According to court documents, emergency workers said they could smell alcohol on Carothers' breath when they spoke with her shortly after the crash.

Laramie, WY – A man who allegedly abducted his girlfriend and their two children in Sublette County has been arrested.

Sublette County Sheriff's officials issued an Amber Alert early this morning. The alert was lifted late in the morning with the arrest of 28-year-old Thomas Stanhope.

Stanhope was accused of abducting Lisa Adams, 18-month-old Galen Stanhope, and six-month old Dustin Stanhope, at a relative's home in the Big Piney area overnight.

Standhope had been considered armed and dangerous.

Authorities say that Adams and the two children were not hurt.

Laramie, WY – The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to make it easier to kill wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains to protect other wildlife and domesticated animals.

The federal agency since 2005 has required states or tribes to show that wolves were the primary cause of problems with wildlife herds. That standard has proven hard too meet.

The new rule would require states or tribes to show only that wolves were one of the major causes for wildlife herds not meeting goals.

By AP

Laramie, WY – Unusually warm, dry weather has prompted Yellowstone National Park and western Wyoming's national forests to enact fire restrictions.

Campers in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests are being told to build fires only in designated fire rings in developed camping areas. Backcountry fires are prohibited.

Last year, such restrictions weren't implemented until August 31st.

Similar restrictions are now in place in Yellowstone, although fires still are allowed at certain designated backcountry campsites.

Wyoming – This week the Governor brought major stakeholders together in Casper to keep the sage grouse off the Endangered Species List. Elsa Heidorn reports.

Wyoming – Host Kristin Espeland interviews film producer Frank Abe about Wyoming's World War II internment camp.