Wyoming News Briefs

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming residents can start dreaming about hitting the big one. Gov. Matt Mead has signed into law a bill allowing the state to create a lottery or join a multi-state lottery, such as Powerball. Mead says he's personally lukewarm about a lottery. But he was persuaded by the prospect of Wyoming benefiting from money residents currently spend out-of-state on the tickets.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld a sentence of life without parole for a Rock Springs man convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. Kenneth James Huckfeldt had argued the judge in his case shouldn't have allowed testimony from the victim in an earlier child sex assault case in which Huckfeldt was convicted.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Grand Teton National Park will close off to hunting an area where a grizzly bear mauled an elk hunter in 2011 and where a group of elk hunters killed a grizzly that charged them last fall. Park officials yesterday also said they will limit the amount of ammunition hunters may carry in the park's annual fall elk hunt.

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — Fremont County authorities say two men who had been missing for two days after their truck got stuck in a snowdrift have been found unhurt. The Riverton Ranger reports crews searched Friday night through Sunday morning before the men called from a rest area between Lander and Jeffrey City. They said they walked 5 miles before catching a ride with an oilfield truck driver.