West Coast Chopper visits Gillette

GILLETTE - Custom bike and car builder Jesse James will be among those with a booth at the Campbell County Fair next month.

Fair Manager Betty Gough says James will be in Gillette on Aug. 2 to display a vintage truck and items from his clothing line.

James owns the world famous West Coast Choppers custom bike shop in South Beach, Calif.

He's married to actress Sandra Bullock and hosted the Discovery Channel show "Monster Garage."

James produces around a dozen hand-built bikes each year. Each bike sells for between $60,000 and $150,000.

Park is named for police officer

CHEYENNE - The city of Cheyenne has named a small park for a police officer who was killed in a car crash.

Dennis Shuck died two days after he crashed while pursuing a speeder last August. He was 54 and a 12-year veteran of the Police Department.

On Friday, the city and its police officers dedicated Dennis Shuck Memorial Park in a triangle-shaped traffic island.

Stabbing case goes to trial

GILLETTE - A man charged with stabbing his roommate in a fight over a television remote control heads to trial in Gillette next week.

Forty-four-year-old Leo Gene Bloomfield is charged with attempted second-degree murder. He faces at least 20 years in prison if convicted.

The fight happened Christmas Day at the Circle L Motel. Police say Bloomfield stabbed Gary Coca six times in the neck and chest. The stabbings punctured both of Coca's lungs.

Bloomfield goes on trial this morning before District Judge John Perry.

Confab's topic will be '88 fires

BILLINGS, Mont. - The International Association of Wildland Fire will host a conference on past and present wildfire procedures with a highlight on the 1988 Yellowstone Park fires.

The conference titled "The '88 Fires: Yellowstone and Beyond" will be held Sept. 22-27 in Jackson Hole.

Association President Chuck Bushey says the meeting will be educational as well as a reunion for retirees who worked during the 1988 fire season.

Bushey ran the fire behavior service center in Missoula in 1988. He kept track of the fuels, fire behavior and weather for northern Idaho, the western Dakotas and Yellowstone.

Air service will resume in cities

HELENA, Mont. - A Wyoming-based airline plans to resume Essential Air Service to Lewistown and Sidney in early September.

Great Lakes Aviation said reports last week that it was renewing service to Miles City on Sept. 3 were incorrect. Its schedule for Lewistown includes two flights to and from Denver each weekday, with one each on Saturday and Sunday, beginning on Sept. 3. Sidney will have two flights to and from Denver each day.

The company will be adding Sidney-to-Billings service as well as Miles City-to-Denver service at a later date, Taylor said.

The flights between Sidney and Denver will have a stop in Worland while the flights from Lewistown to Denver will stop in either Chadron, Neb., or Gillette.

DOT said it expects service to resume soon in Havre, Glasgow, Wolf Point and Glendive, with the hub to remain in Billings. Taylor says she does not know when commercial air service will resume in those cities.

Great Lakes, of Cheyenne is taking over the $8.2 million EAS contract held by Big Sky Airlines before it ended operations on March 8.