Wyoming News Briefs

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Casper is welcoming home a soldier wounded in Afghanistan. Schoolchildren, veterans and members of the Patriot Guard Riders Motorcycle Club greeted Spc. Colton Sasser after he arrived at Natrona County International Airport yesterday afternoon. Sasser was severely injured in April while helping to escort a truck convoy through a mountain valley. He's returning to Casper after being treated at Walter Reed Hospital and a rehabilitation hospital in San Antonio, Texas.

PINEDALE, Wyo. (AP) — Crews in western Wyoming have failed to find any sign of a small plane that's been missing since Saturday with only the pilot aboard. The Cessna 182 left Stevensville, Mont., Saturday and had been due in Pinedale that afternoon but didn't arrive. Sublette County Public Information Officer Steve Smith says radar lost track of the plane over upper Hoback Canyon, between Jackson and Boundurant.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead is pushing forward with development of an energy policy for the state. Mead's staff has been meeting with Wyoming energy producers as well as conservation groups and others since early summer. The planning process has identified four major themes for the state energy policy: economic competiveness, efficient regulation, natural resource conservation and development of new technologies.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The northwestern Colorado town of Hayden won't let a Wyoming energy company use existing roads to reach well sites in rural areas. Steamboat Today reports that the town council denied a request from Casper-based True Oil to bring heavy trucks and oil rig equipment through town last week. Mayor Jim Haskins says the town shouldn't let the company use the roads unless it is willing to pay for improvements or repairs.