Wyoming News Briefs

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge will hear arguments today in a lawsuit against the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University, which are seeking to sell a ranch donated to the schools in 1997. The schools say they could better use the Y Cross Ranch to fund scholarships. Amy Davis donated the ranch to be used as a site for hands-on teaching. The 5,000 acre ranch is between Cheyenne and Laramie.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Several media outlets are challenging the University of Wyoming's decision not to release the names of candidates being considered for the school's new president. The Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming Tribune Eagle and The Associated Press filed the lawsuit yesterday in state District Court in Laramie. A UW spokesman says candidates might not apply if their names were not kept confidential.

POWELL, Wyo. (AP) — Growers say year's sugar beet crop in the Lovell area in north-central Wyoming is the second-best on record. The Associated Press reports growers in the district delivered just under half a million tons of beets. That will be processed into some 1.2 million bags of sugar weighing 100 pounds each.

DENVER (AP) — Two Colorado companies have won contracts to thin national forests in Wyoming and Colorado, with some of the wood likely going toward heating homes. The U.S. Forest Service says the 10-year contracts will help reduce help threats of catastrophic wildfires. The trees will be thinned in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and the White River National Forest.