Wyoming News Briefs

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Federal data show Wyoming had the second-highest rate of deadly workplace accidents in 2010, behind only West Virginia, which suffered a coal mine accident that killed 29 workers that year. Workplace accidents in Wyoming killed 33 people in 2010, up from 19 in 2009.

POWELL, Wyo. (AP) — Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. has reached a settlement with a couple that sued the company over an explosion at their former home in Powell in 2006. Jared and Lynne Collins alleged in a 2010 lawsuit that a service man who came to restore natural gas service to their home had negligently failed to detect a leaking gas line the couple had left open. No one was hurt when the house later exploded. Terms of the settlement haven't been disclosed.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Cody lawyers for a neurosurgeon have withdrawn from his case after telling a federal judge they believe their client engaged in criminal or fraudulent conduct. An attorney for Dr. John H. Schneider, Jr., says he has evidence that his client offered to pay a woman off to keep quiet in a defamation lawsuit that alleges he sent an anonymous flier disparaging another doctor's medical practice.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The state of Wyoming has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review its challenge to a 2001 federal rule barring development on roadless areas in national forests. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decision by a Cheyenne judge that the Forest Service exceeded its authority in enacting the rule.