Wyoming News Briefs

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming's top regulator of oil and gas development is stepping down after he said that greed motivates those who claim hydraulic fracturing has contaminated their groundwater. Tom Doll apologized for his comments last week about Pavillion area residents, calling them "inappropriate and inconsiderate."

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Part of Guernsey State Park will reopen this morning after a wildfire kept it closed for nearly a week. Officials are asking people to stay out of burned areas and be mindful of burnt or weakened trees that might fall. The wildfire chased campers from the park last Saturday and scorched about 2,700 acres before crews got control of it.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Authorities say a man has died from injuries he suffered when he fell into a fan while conducting tests of a ventilation system at a state warehouse in Cheyenne. A spokesman for Gov. Matt Mead says Steven John Mullen was owner of a heating company in Laramie that was working on the State of Wyoming Liquor Warehouse. The circumstances of Mullen's Wednesday death are under investigation.

NEWCASTLE, Wyo. (AP) — Authorities say an inmate who escaped from the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle earlier this week has been recaptured in South Dakota. The Wyoming Department of Corrections says 24-year-old James Friesen was apprehended Wednesday night by a Weston County sheriff's deputy in Pennington County, S.D.