Lawmakers: Keep sleds in parks

BILLINGS, Mont. - The congressional delegations of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on Wednesday urged the National Park Service to continue allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks.

The request was made in a joint letter from the delegations to Park Service Director Mary Bomar. It comes as park administrators are set to adopt a new winter management plan for the two parks in coming days.

The Park Service has grappled with limits on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton for the past decade. This fall, park administrators proposed allowing up to 540 of the machines daily in Yellowstone and 65 in Grand Teton. Only guided trips would be allowed.

Snowmobile opponents contend the plan ignores increases in air and sound pollution caused by snowmobiles. But members of the three state delegations - four members of the House and six from the Senate - told Bomar the need to preserve the parks needs to be balanced against public access.

The delegations did not ask for a specific number of snowmobiles. Rather, they asked Bomar to "maintain a significant level of oversnow access."

Last month, 86 lawmakers - none from the three Yellowstone states - asked Bomar to limit motorized winter travel to trips aboard guided snowcoaches.

Right to Life endorses Thompson

CHEYENNE - Right to Life of Wyoming is endorsing former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee for the Republican nomination for president.

Steven Ertelt, president of the organization which includes 11,000 Wyoming families, cited Thompson's 100 percent "pro-life" voting record when he was a member of Congress during a news conference here Wednesday morning.

Although there are other anti-abortion Republican candidates running for president, Right to Life said Thompson has a viable campaign "and is the best choice for our organization," Ertelt said.

Ertelt said it is important that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani not be the Republican nominee for president.

"If that happens there will essentially be a race between two pro-abortion candidates, leaving about 50 to 55 percent of the public that is pro-life completely out of the election," Ertelt said.

Also attending the news conference were state Rep. Amy Edmonds, R-Cheyenne, and former state GOP chairman Drake Hill, who are co-chairing Thompson's campaign in Wyoming.

Group sends jerky to troops

POWELL - Count deer jerky among the unusual items from back home that are being sent to troops in Iraq.

A group called Powell Troop Support has been sending hundreds of care packages to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The deer jerky in those packages comes from a Powell company called Roger's Meat Processing.

The owner of the business, Roger Beslanowitch, says he supports the war in Iraq, and he wants the troops to know it. The business has prepared nearly 4,500 packages of wild game jerky for troop care packages.

Meat for the jerky is donated by hunters.