WyoFile editors scour hundreds of sources every day for important and interesting news about Wyoming. Here is their latest selection.

• Officials: Weak Niobrara wells slow development in Wyoming – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 31, 2011
  While many well results in the formation are largely still not public, Wyoming Oil and Gas Supervisor Tom Doll said the wells drilled so far are only producing a fraction of the totals from a Colorado well that inspired exploration into the Niobrara in Wyoming. "The reason we're not seeing a lot of drilling activity in the Niobrara is those wells are not coming in as strongly as people thought," he told the state Legislature's Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee at its meeting in Cheyenne on Friday.
• Profile: Malcolm Wallop was tied to the British Crown and crafted Cold War strategies – The Telegraph
  Published: October 31, 2011
  His connections to Britain were reinforced when, in 1956, his sister Jean married Lord Porchester, later 7th Earl of Carnarvon and the Queen’s racing manager. None of this was any hindrance to Wallop’s career in classless Wyoming – one of the largest, but the least populated, of states. Campaigning there remains highly personal, and when he ran for the US Senate in 1976 Wallop successfully rode populist resentment towards growing Federal intervention in the allocation of water and land resources, known as “the Sagebrush Rebellion”.
• Mead adviser warns taxes could hurt wind projects – Associated Press
  Published: October 31, 2011
  An adviser to Mead warned Friday that the state could lose wind energy projects if the sales tax exemption on wind energy equipment expires in January as scheduled. But most state lawmakers apparently believe that the state's wind resource is so good that future construction of wind projects hinges more on the availability of transmission lines than the details of the state's tax code.
• State seeks to attract mineral-to-liquid plants – Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online
  Published: October 31, 2011
  A $10 million fund could be used to help Wyoming entice companies to build mineral-to-liquid fuel plants in the state. The state Legislature's Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee voted Friday to sponsor a bill to use the money as matching funds to help pay for feasibility studies for potential projects.
• Norton Point fire in Wyoming proves cheaper than prescribed fire operations – Billings Gazette
  Published: October 31, 2011
  Allowing the Norton Point fire to run its natural course over the summer saved the Shoshone National Forest millions of dollars and removed several thousand acres of dead and dying trees from the Washakie Wilderness. Wind River District Ranger Rick Metzger placed the fire’s total costs at about $2 million, a relative bargain by today’s firefighting standards.
• NCAR supercomputer could maximize Wyoming wind energy producers' efforts – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 31, 2011
  The wind models developed using the supercomputer could help companies fine-tune their proprietary modeling and make better choices about where to place turbines to promote Wyoming wind power as a partner to wind energy produced elsewhere.
• Wyoming works to cut down on improper jobless payments that have nearly quadrupled since 2008 – Associated Press
  Published: October 31, 2011
  Improper claims for unemployment insurance in Wyoming have nearly quadrupled since 2008 because of the poor economy and people failing to notify the state when they find work, according to the state Workforce Services Department.
• Wyoming CO2 storage project may get put on hold – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 28, 2011
  Work on a much-touted experimental underground carbon dioxide storage facility could come to a halt, partly because the CO2 needed to test the project is in such high demand by Wyoming oil producers that it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The University of Wyoming project aims to show the feasibility of storing CO2 emissions deep underground at a 25 square-mile test site east of Rock Springs.
• Harkin-Enzi No Child Left Behind Bill Faces Uncertain Future – Huffington Post
  Published: October 28, 2011
  Though getting a sweeping federal education bill out of a Senate committee feels momentous given Congress's heightened partisan atmosphere, Senators Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) and Mike Enzi's (R-Wyo.) measure faces a rocky road.
• Cindy Hill Says Fed Funding Comes with Strings [AUDIO] – K2 Radio
  Published: October 28, 2011
  Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction said that the state needs to be careful about accepting federal funding because with funding there are strings attached. In a press conference in Gov. Matt Mead’s Office Wednesday, State Superintendent Cindy Hill encouraged people to stay apprised of what’s happening with education because there’s a lot going on at the federal level, the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind, for example.
• Park County discusses pay, influence of consultants for new BLM plan – Cody Enterprise
  Published: October 28, 2011
  Ecosystems Research Group, a Missoula, Mont., consulting firm, played heavily into the Park County Commission's attempts to guide the course of the forthcoming BLM Resource Management Plan. Some agreed with views reflected by the majority of commissioners - that ERG brings to the table expertise and clout that county officials alone never could. But other people balked at what they saw as taxpayer money being used to skew discussion and commentary heavily in favor of energy development.
• How should Wyo. fund its roads? -- Wyoming Tribune eagle
  Published: October 27, 2011
  A set of bills that could pump millions of dollars into Wyoming's cash-strapped highway repair efforts were advanced by a legislative panel on Tuesday. The Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Interim Committee agreed to sponsor five measures that combined could provide the Wyoming Department of Transportation an estimated $48 million more than its typical annual budget.
• Casper hospital accused of fraud by whistleblower -- Associated Press
  Published: October 27, 2011
  Wyoming Medical Center defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by altering hospital records to collect higher fees from the government, a whistle-blower alleges in a federal lawsuit unsealed this week. The document, filed by a hospital worker in 2007, accuses records clerks of changing the admission statuses of patients without a doctor’s order. The change allowed the hospital to seek higher reimbursements from federal insurance programs.
• *Wyoming's* new state seal on the Capitol steps proves to be slippery when wet -- Associated Press
  Published: October 27, 2011
  The season's first snowfall had Wyoming officials scrambling to keep people from slipping on the highly polished masonry of the official state seal that was inlaid into the sidewalk in front of the state Capitol this summer.
• BLM begins removal of 1,200 wild horses from southwestern Wyoming's Divide Basin, release 200 – Associated Press
  Published: October 26, 2011
  A U.S. Bureau of Land Management contractor will round up about 1,400 of the estimated 1,640 wild horses northeast of Rock Springs. Some 200 horses will be released back on the range, including mares treated with a birth control drug that stays effective for almost two years.
• Wyoming legislative committee finds money for highways – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 26, 2011
  Motor vehicle owners would pay $7.50 more to register their cars and trucks beginning July 1 under a bill approved by a legislative committee Tuesday. The proposal was adopted by the Joint Interim Committee on Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs in its effort to enhance the state highway fund. The bill represents the first increase in motor vehicle registration fees since 1975, according to testimony at the committee meeting.
• A lesson on forgiveness by Senator Malcolm Wallop – Deseret News
  Published: October 26, 2011
  I could barely breathe the first time I met him. He had grey, wavy hair on the sides and back of his head, an "I don’t care that it’s receding" hairline and confident eyes bigger than the western skies.
• Wyoming health coverage project off to slow start – Associated Press
  Published: October 26, 2011
  Only 49 people have signed up for a pilot state program that was authorized to offer health insurance to as many as 500 working people who otherwise couldn't afford it. Supporters of the Healthy Frontiers project started in 2010 hoped it could provide an inexpensive alternative for people who have no health insurance and save the state money in the long run by its emphasis on preventative treatment.
• Despite taking in extra revenue over last year, governor and others warn of lean years ahead – Associated Press
  Published: October 25, 2011
  So far, Wyoming has escaped the financial woes that the sputtering national economy has brought on other states. But that may be ending soon, according to a state budget forecast released Monday. A panel that forecasts Wyoming's future revenues is predicting the state will see its revenues flatten or possibly decrease a little in the coming years.
• Wyoming seeks to extend stimulus money – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 25, 2011
  Nearly $3.2 million remains from the federal stimulus boost Wyoming public schools received in early 2010, and state officials want more time to spend it. The Wyoming Department of Education plans to request a waiver to expend stimulus money past the Sept. 30 deadline, according to a letter signed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill to the U.S. Department of Education.
• Barrasso Says Supercommittee Must Cut Spending – Washington Post Video
  Published: October 25, 2011
  Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, talks about U.S. financial regulation and prospects for the 12-member supercommittee tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit over the next ten years. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." [Click to watch video.]
• Healthy debate: Low-income health coverage project off to slow start – Casper Star Tribune
  Published: October 25, 2011
  The new state-run Healthy Frontiers health insurance pilot project seems to have more critics than clients.One woman, however, says it may have saved her life.
• BLM announces Wyoming coal lease sale Dec. 14 – Wyoming Business Report
  Published: October 25, 2011
  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced a competitive coal lease sale by sealed bid at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14. The South Hilight Field Coal Tract, a 1,976.69-acre area containing an estimated 222.7 million tons of mineable coal, will be offered for lease, according to the BLM website.
• Virus reappears in Bighorn Basin wildlife – Billings Gazette
  Published: October 25, 2011
  A virus transmitted by gnats to whitetail deer and pronghorn returned this year to the Bighorn Basin, though wildlife officials don’t believe the outbreak was as bad as it was in 2007. Wyoming Game and Fish biologists confirmed this month that epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, killed a number of whitetailed deer and some pronghorn in the Bighorn Basin, as well as areas near Sheridan and Casper.
• Federal appeals court upholds roadless rule protecting nearly 50 million acres of forest – Associated Press
  Published: October 24, 2011
  A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law prohibiting roads on nearly 50 million acres of land in national forests across the United States, a ruling hailed by environmentalists as one of the most significant in decades. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule after lawyers for the state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association contended it was a violation of the law.