Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

I nC A rTfl OT tar 1 ribime i WYOMING'S STATEWIDE NEWSPAPER FOUNDED IN 1891 Low jobless rate hides economic decline Gallagher: Worker withdrawal clear, effects aren't known yet Marcus Harris set the NCAA Division I career receiving record and UNLV notched Its first win of the season, taking a 44-42 win over San Diego State. UWs victory and the Aztecs' loss lifted the Cowboys Into the Western Athletic Conference championship game Dec. 7 In Las Vegas against the Mountain Division winner Covered Dl Game stats D7 By TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER A low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in Wyoming masks a withdrawal of thousands of workers from the workforce, according to a report published last week by the Department of Employment. The decline in the workforce, coupled with declining productivity over the past two years, bodes ill for the economy, said Tom Gallagher, manager of the department's Research and Planning section. Also, ramifications accompanying an economy's decline from impacts on social services, the quality of life and personal relationships are known in part, but haven't been closely looked at yet, Gallagher said Friday.

"This is a slower, insidious version of the bust," Gallagher said of data published in the November issue of Labor Force Trends. The energy bust of the 1980s was marked by large layoffs and business failures. But the current slow bust is seen in the shrinkage of the workforce despite cheery news of a low Jobless rate, he said. The November issue of Labor Force Trends reported that Wyoming's unemployment rate in September was 3.9 percent, which is among the lowest in the country. But Gallagher said that the jobless rate marks only one measure of an economy's health.

Other economic indicators have shown a very slowly growing Wyoming workforce over the past few years, but that data from the U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics often relies on projections based on urban not rural economies, he said. Since 1992, the Research and Planning Please see UNEMPLOYMENT, A8 '911 What's your Grieve new Wyo Senate president Republicans choose Hinchey House speaker By TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer fi 0 (1 3JV Htf 5 CASPER Wyoming Republican House members Saturday in secret ballot caucuses elected Rep. Bruce Hinchey of Casper as the new speaker of the House. And Republican Senators elected Robert Grieve of Savery as the new president of the Senate, succeeding outgoing Sen.

Boyd Eddins of Smoot, Hinchey Aid after the caucuses. Hinchey, majority floor leader In the last legislative session, replaces outgoing Rep. John Mar-ton of Buffalo. Hinchey was appointed in 1989 to serve the rest of the term of Sen. Craig Thomas.

In other leadership positions, House members elected Rep. Eli Bebout of Riverton as the new majority floor leader, Hinchey said. Rep. Peg Shreve of Cody was re-elected as House speaker pro tem, and Rep. Budd Betts of Dubois won the House majority whip post.

Betts replaces Rep. Glenda Stark of Casper, who lost the Nov. 5 election to Democrat Ann Robinson. 1 On the Senate side, Jim Twiford of Douglas was elected as majority floor leader to re-plaice Grieve. Senators chose Please tee LEADERSHIP, A8 TltWUMaMimrStar-Trtkww Lou Younger, a communication technician, takes 911 calls on a recent evening.

Younger Is first In line for the calls. In the background are communication technician Jayne Engler and shift supervisor Paula Gadd. Hotline heroines on call to ensure safety for all By DEIRDRE STOELZLE Star-Tribune staff writer FIRST PERSON Even on a bad day, dispatchers must be polite Tho grouch the gunshot. Amber shouted the daughter's name over and over until she got back on the phone. Another dispatcher, Sheli Flo-res, disconnected from 911 and radioed the officers.

The woman had left her daughter's house, driving past one of the officers. We are told the other patrolman was now stopping her car. Her mother was now safe, Amber assured the young woman, who was home alone with her two babies, a 2-year-old and 7-month-old. But the young woman is, in dispatch-speak, "f-ing out," meaning freaking meaning terrified, hysterical. "Your father called us," Amber tells Please see 911, A8 CASPER It was 8:30 p.m.

Saturday. The woman was heading to her daughter's house to kill herself. The woman's husband called 911 and said the woman and her daughter had been fighting for three days. The mother figured she'd end it once and for all. Within minutes, two police officers were en route.

The 911 line rang. It was the daughter, screaming. "She's there and she's got the gun to her head," the 911 dispatcher, Amber Burgess, told us. We all plugged in to the call and heard in the background the screaming of the daughter, who had dropped the phone. For a moment we sucked in our breaths, waiting for knew the Pokes could do it all along.

make a living. Experts say tension among stressed-out dispatchers and law enforcement officers is common, but officials who've experienced it firsthand are taught the importance of trying to put aggression to rest before it gets out of hand. Regardless of personal feelings, the important task is to protect the safety of the public and the officers. Dispatch in Casper answers an average of 200 calls an hour, and in any 24-hour period may have nearly 2,000 contacts by radio with police, deputies, fire and ambulance person-Please see DISPATCH, A8 By DEIRDRE STOELZLE Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER Defusing the terror of mothers whose newborns have stopped breathing and the terror of women being beaten by their lovers is the name of the game for public safety dispatchers. So is dealing with multiple agencies whose officers are just as urgent in their demands.

With a starting salary of $9.54 an hour, and with hiring requirements so grueling they make training for the Ironman Triathlon enticing by comparison, dispatching is no easy way to Indox BORDER TO BORDER B2 CALENDAR A2 CASPER AREA CI CLASSIFIED Fl-16 CROSSWORD. ANSWERS F12. 15 KIDS' PAGE C2 LANDERS. BROMPTON C3 LETTERS E24 MARKETS B4-7 MOVIES C6 OBITUARIES B3 OPINION El SPORTS Dl-8 WEATHER A2 WYOMING Bl-3 Success of Yellowstone wolf program has New Yorkers thinking 40,000 signatures gathered favoring a study for Adirondack reintroduction By WILLIAM K. STEVENS New York Times ALBANY, N.Y.

A few years back, when Hank Fischer of the Defenders of Wildlife was trying to convince hostile Western ranchers to accept the reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park, he was soon. But a nascent effort to return them to New York State -specifically, the Adirondacks -is gaining traction with the surprising and widely publicized success of the Yellowstone reintroduction program, now nearly two years old. Nine packs totaling 40 free-ranging wolves have become es wolves of America, which ended Saturday, was conducted by the Defenders of Wildlife here specifically to showcase its drive to return wolves to the Adirondacks and parts of Maine and New Hampshire, from which they have been absent for a century. The Defenders, a private Please see WOLVES, A8 sometimes met with a counter-challenge: Since Easterners are so interested in wolves, "why don't you introduce them to New York City or Washington, DC?" Washington may be a little too dangerous for wolves, Fischer Jokes, and they are not likely to be in Central Park any time tablished in and around Yellowstone and are breeding so successfully that Mike Phillips, a National Park Service biologist who directs the program, says the endangered gray wolf is beginning "to flirt with recovery," well ahead of schedule, in his part of the country. A three-day conference on the 1W 70841 For complete sports coverage from the Casper Star-Tribune, subscribe today: 1-600442-6916 or 266-0550..