Wyoming News

LOST ON HIGHWAY

Boy, 9, found on I-80 in Wyoming reunited with parents

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — A 9-year-old boy found walking alone alongside Interstate 80 in southwestern Wyoming is reunited with his parents. The Wyoming Highway Patrol got word about the boy Saturday afternoon. Troopers were headed to find the boy when a driver picked him up and took him to the Green River Police Department. Patrol officials say troopers worked with police to find the boy’s family in Rock Springs. The parents said they were driving two separate vehicles when one had a flat tire. They repaired the tire and drove off without realizing the boy wasn’t in either vehicle. Troopers concluded that the incident wasn’t suspicious.

NEW COAL MINE-APPEAL

Wyoming landowners appeal permit for new coal mine business

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A landowners organization in Wyoming has filed an appeal last week challenging a decision by environmental regulators to grant a mining permit to a coal technology firm. The Casper Star-Tribune reported that the Powder River Basin Resource Council submitted the appeal to the state’s Environmental Quality Council, petitioning for a hearing after Ramaco Carbon was given approval to dig for coal at a former mine near Sheridan. The group claims the submitted mining permit application fails to comply with requirements under state law. The department is reviewing the appeal. Department spokesman Keith Guille declined to comment further. 

WYOMING-RESERVOIR SEARCH

Boy, 7, missing after dad found dead in Wyoming reservoir

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — Searchers continue to look for a 7-year-old boy two days after finding his father dead in a submerged all-terrain vehicle in southwestern Wyoming. A witness told investigators the pair rode the vehicle away from a campsite near Flaming Gorge Reservoir around 11:30 p.m. Thursday and didn’t return. Sweetwater County sheriff’s officials got a call about the missing father and son Friday evening. Divers found the vehicle containing the body of the 34-year-old Rock Springs man in the reservoir Saturday morning. The vehicle was beneath a 200-foot cliff in the Firehole Canyon area. The identities of the two haven’t been released.

AP-WY-WYOMING WILDFIRE

Central Wyoming wildfire prompts evacuations

RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — A central Wyoming wildfire has spread across several square miles and prompted evacuations of area residents. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said the fire about 50 miles north of Rawlins has burned almost three square miles (about six square kilometers). It started Friday on Bradley Peak was only about 10 percent contained by Sunday. Residents along Long Creek were ordered to evacuate. Bureau spokesman Brad Purdy says the area is sparsely populated. Purdy says the fire is burning in a remote area with limited access for ground crews, so firefighters are using aircraft to attack it from above.

FATAL SHOOTING-CASPER

1 injured and 1 dead in shooting in Casper

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A shooting in Casper, Wyoming, has left one dead and one person injured. The Oil City News reports Casper Police Department spokesperson Rebekah Ladd said at about 7:00 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a reported kidnapping. Reports said a person was being held against their will at gunpoint by multiple people. Officers arrived and then forced their way inside.  Ladd says there was an exchange of gunfire and officers gained entry into the bedroom. Multiple people were found inside the bedroom. One person was injured and one was dead.

EXCHANGE-APP-LOST TOURISTS

Rural neighborhood drew app-dependent Yellowstone tourists

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Residents of a rural area south of Yellowstone say the Apple Maps app misdirected tourists trying to get to the national park. On Monday they reported that Apple had fixed the problem but not before dozens of lost tourists ended up in their neighborhood. Suzanne Arden tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide mornings were typically high time for the misdirected masses. Her neighbors guess that about 20 vehicles a day end up diverted to the area along the Wyoming-Idaho border. More sympathetic than annoyed, residents tried to make the best of it. One, Carol Gregory, painted some rocks yellow.