New channel offers classical music

LARAMIE - Wyoming Public Radio has launched digital classical music channel on KUWR-FM in Laramie and Cheyenne.

The second channel from WPR was made possible by converting the KUWR transmitter, which serves Laramie and Cheyenne, to the new digital HD radio format, according to a WPR press release.

As authorized by the Federal Communications Commission, digital broadcasting features upgraded audio quality along with the ability to broadcast multiple channels and wireless data services. In order to receive Classical Channel HD and the improved HD signal in Laramie and Cheyenne, listeners must have HD radios.

Classical Channel HD from Wyoming Public Radio features music from Public Radio International, a portion of which will continue to be heard on KUWR's primary service weekday evenings between 9 p.m. and midnight.

A complete program schedule for Classical Channel HD is available online at www.wyomingpublicradio.net or by calling WPR at (307) 766-4240 or 1-800-729-5897.

City considers mass transportation

GILLETTE - Supporters of a local bus system say it could help alleviate the area's worker shortage by providing transportation to people unable to get to work on their own.

Such people include Andrew Prielipp, 34, who uses a wheelchair and hasn't been able to get a job.

"The only option that I currently have is the senior center bus, and that runs from 9 to 4," he said. "Some places in town require that you be to work before that or after that."

Officials with Powder River Transportation, a private bus company, said many others are in the same situation.

"It's something other communities around Wyoming have done, and we've watched that," said General Manager Greg Worthen. "We don't see why Gillette can't. There's a need for it."

While Worthen said a bus system could lessen Gillette's worker shortage, the bus company's marketing manager, Mary Kelley, said it could also alleviate traffic.

Chain faces another lawsuit

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Wyoming-based fast food chain Taco John's has been hit with another lawsuit, this one by a customer who claims she contracted E. coli after eating at a Waterloo franchise.

Taco John's has acknowledged that customers at three restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota were sickened in late November and early December, but the lawsuit claims that Karen Hibben-Levi became ill after eating at a fourth location in Waterloo.

Filed Tuesday in Cedar Rapids, the lawsuit is the second to be filed in federal court since as many as 76 people were sickened. Health officials have blamed lettuce tainted with a strain of the E. coli bacteria.

In the complaint, Hibben-Levi of Waterloo said she ate at Taco John's on Nov. 30 and within days began suffering from fatigue, gastrointestinal complications, body aches and nausea.

When her conditioned worsened, Hibben-Levi checked into a local hospital and remained in its care for six days, according to court records.