Wyoming News Briefs

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — This year's Miss Wyoming is balancing life as a college student with a busy travel schedule. Lexie Madden was the third-runner up in the 86th Miss America pageant in Las Vegas last month. It was the best finish for Wyoming since 1948. The 21-year-old Torrington native is a senior kinesiology major at the University of Wyoming. She also played volleyball at Sheridan College.

Yellowstone National Park reached a key date this past weekend. Yesterday, marked 141 years since President Ulysses S. Grant signed an 1872 act creating Yellowstone National Park.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — In a first for Wyoming, a court has ordered a post-conviction test of DNA in a 23-year-old sexual assault case. The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reported yesterday that District Judge Thomas Campbell issued the order in the case of Andrew Johnson. Johnson was convicted of sexual assault and aggravated burglary in Laramie County in 1989 and was sentenced to life in prison.

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes are subsidizing trash disposal fees for tribal members to try to reduce illegal dumping of waste on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The tribes signed a six-month contract with the Fremont County Solid Waste Disposal District in December. Under the deal, the tribes pay for salaries of workers at trash transfer stations and the district takes the waste to the county's landfills at the county's expense.