Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

9f 1 Mm r. fnC A Rf 31 1XL11L 1) Friday, May 26, 2006 WYOMING'S STATEWIDE NEWSPAPER 'MUM Fri hi iVZ 7 LJ- Feds: Drag ring targeted reservation News Tracker 1 Last we knew: Federal officials said they arrested 37 people as part of a major drug bust in Wyoming and elsewhere. The latest Officials have arrested and charged 43 people, and are pursuing 10 other suspects. I What" next The cases will proceed in federal court. For more find a list of all those charged in the drug bust online at startribune.net articles200605 25'newswyo ming1c8b2832 1fe63b19872571 79007ed8b2.txt.

on drug charges related to methamphetamine distribution in Wyoming. Officials confirmed on Thursday that the busts are part of the same sting operation, which netted more suspects than any other drug bust in state history. However, previous cases might have produced more drugs, officials noted. The suspects, many with ties to Riverton and the Please see RING, A12 a stern warning to gangs that might see a to replace the broken organization. you choose to target citizens of the reservation and the citizens of Wyoming to distribute Wyoming law enforcement will target you," said.

Thursday's announcement followed two major Wyoming drug busts in the week. On May 19, undercover agents seized 16 pounds of metham-phetamine and arrested five people in Riverton and near Wheatland. On Wednesday, federal officials said they had arrested more than 20 people in Wyoming, California and Washington state Road work Sinks in 43 arrests; other suspects The undercover sting netted 43 suspects, 20 firearms, $100,000 and 20 pounds of metham-phetamine in a nearly pure form called "ice." Wyoming U.S. Attorney Matthew Mead and other federal officials released details at a Cheyenne news conference, where they is- sued drug chance "If the meth, Mead last -Jt- I lj I 1 ROAD-' -fc Bust results in officials pursue 10 By JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Federal authorities Thursday said they have toppled another major international drug ring that targeted residents of the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. Enron ripple expected By Newsday The guilty verdict against Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling is critically important, even though Enron's collapse already has changed how business is done in America, experts said Thursday.

For more What was decided C10 Before the jury returned to the courtroom in Houston, a number of executives at other companies had been sentenced to jail in connection with a wave of corporate scandals that followed Enron's demise. And a new law, the Sar-banes-Oxley Act, was passed to toughen companies' auditing and make their managers more accountable to shareholders. Nonetheless, if the U.S. government had lost the case against Lay and Skilling, "it would have been a disaster," said Alan R. Bromberg, a securities law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Senators vote against reform bill CHEYENNE (AP) Both Sens. Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi voted against the immigration reform bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Thursday. For more Big fight looms over issue A5 In a joint statement, the two Republicans said they opposed provisions in the bill that would help illegal immigrants qualify for Social Security and other benefits and that would give them an advantage over others applying for citizenship. The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 62-36.

It must be reconciled with a House version of the bill. Thomas said he favored stronger employment verification and tougher accountability provisions. Weather Index Mike McQure, Star-Tribune ccxrespondent A haul truck returns for a new load of crushed rock as part of the project to widen and pave a section of the Louis Lake Road near Lander. Paving the Loop Work begins on long-debated road project Gov defends wolf stance By BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent RIVERTON In full-throated defense of Wyoming's wolf management plan, Gov. Dave Freudenthal declared Thursday that wolf plans adopted by Idaho and Montana "aren't worth a bucket of warm spit." The Democratic governor spoke here before Wyoming Farm Bureau members, a handful of state legislators and county commissioners at the start of a two-day wolf seminar: "Wolves, Wyoming's Reality." The seminar features panel discussions by landowners, outfitters, academics, state and federal biologists, lawyers and legislators.

There was no representation from conservation groups that support wolves. Freudenthal noted that the state is headed into the election season, featuring a lot of dancing around controversial issues. "Part of my argument is with the Casper Star-Tribune," he said, adding that the editorial board of the state's largest newspaper has said that Wyoming should drop its predator status for wolves a similar stance to that recently taken by Ray Hunkins, Republican candidate for governor. Hunkins is scheduled to speak before the same group at lp.m. today.

Wyoming is in a standoff over wolves with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which rejected the state's management plan, largely because it would allow wolves to be shot on sight as "predators" outside Yellowstone National Park and adjacent lands. The federal agency has refused to downgrade Wyoming wolves from Endangered Species Act protection until Wyoming submits a plan that is acceptable to the Department of the Interior, which has already approved wolf management plans from Idaho and Montana. The governor said Wyoming has already lost the Please see STANCE, A1 2 -T il We should just plant some drugs on all those wolves. Shoshone National Forest loop still closed Rivertony Ethete JA V.

Hudson -VLander I doesn't mind a rough road, but he emphasized that with more recreation in the Wind River Mountains, a better road is needed. Scott Woodruff, owner of Lander Llama was a leader of the opposition 10 years ago a group called the Loop Road Citizens Committee. He said most people in Fremont County wanted some maintenance work done on the Loop Road, but only 20 percent wanted it widened and paved. "I think most people opposed it because it just wasn't warranted," Woodruff said. There wasn't much traffic, and the road is always closed in the winter.

Until recently, there haven't been any fatal accident there, because the rocky, narrow road discouraged speed, Woodruff said. That will change dramatically when the road is widened and paved people will speed up and people will die, he said. In the past, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has raised concerns that widening and paving the road could Please see LOOP, A12 By BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune correspondent LANDER Despite a decade-long battle against the project by local opponents, work has begun to pave a section of a scenic mountain highway 10 miles south of here in the Shoshone National Forest. The $13 million contract for the work on the Louis Lake Road, also known as the Loop Road, was awarded to High Country Construction of Lander, according to Federal Highway Administration's Bert Mc-Cauley. The project is to widen the road to two lanes and pave 7.2 miles of the popular U.S.

Forest Service road. The Loop Road was originally built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, winding 28 miles through the southern end of the Wind River Mountains. The road project has supporters and opponents. Lew Diehl, a member of the Fremont County Recreation Board and booster of ATV and snowmobile recreation, said the road is too busy to be left as is. "We've got so much traffic The Loop Road through the southern Shoshone National Forest remains dosed to travel while snowdrifts along the side roads and in the campgrounds continue to melt.

Shoshone National Forest officials expect that the soils there should be dry enough for vehicle traffic June 1 Only the South Pass entrance of the Loop Road will open on June t.The northern entrance to the road will remain closed for three additional weeks because of construction on the portion of the road from Bruce's Bridge in Sinks Canyon to Worthen Meadows Road. 5 that it is unsafe," said Diehl, who lives in Riverton. Busloads of children run up and down the narrow, rocky road, as do outfitters hauling six-horse SD Area A telephone hotline providing current road construction and road closure information for the Loop Road is available 24 hours a day at (307)335ASS or 335-7277. fAtlantic JCity South Pass City trailers. "Not only is there lots of summer traffic, it is big traffic," Diehl said.

He said he personally Sinks yVn. Canyon! of I Vconstruction Casper A3 Classified E1 Comics C7-8 Markets C9 Movies B4 Obituaries B3 Opinion A8 Puzzles E3 Weather B6 Wyoming B1 WeekfncVer D1 Ht90 Low: 48 I Presidential Drought source? Good deeds No new route Idaho nuclear Order Earth's tropical zone An anonymous tipster Expect delays on the Waste President Bush ordered may be growing, first told police where Togwotee Pass highway, Feds must remove all that documents the FBI forcing jet streams to find the goods. Now as construction contin- high-level nuclear waste seized from a congress- northward and causing the tipster has given the ues, but no new road from tnc Idaho Nuclear mm's office be sealed droughts. reward away. will be built.

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