Posted: Saturday, February 5, 2005 12:00 am
Woman accused in credit-card scheme
CHEYENNE - A woman is accused of selling at least 250 people a misleading chance to have a major credit card, allegedly netting $400,000.
Valerie Schuler, of Milwaukee, Wis., pleaded not guilty Thursday to 29 federal counts of mail fraud and 10 counts of money laundering.
A trial has been scheduled for March.
Prosecutors allege that Schuler posted ads in national magazines promising guaranteed credit lines of $10,000, $12,000 or $15,000 and up. Between March 2002 and October 2003, people interested in getting a major credit card wrote checks for $32.95, and sometimes more, to Summit Financial Group Inc.
To collect the money, Schuler allegedly opened mailboxes at Mailboxes Etc. in Jackson and later at the UPS Store in Cheyenne.
Schuler allegedly never delivered major credit cards as promised. Instead, they got a list of banks and toll-free numbers or a credit card application, according to the indictment.
160 killed on Wyoming roads last year
ROCK SPRINGS - One hundred, sixty people were killed on Wyoming's roads and highways last year, down five from the year before, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Of last year's deaths, 87 involved single-vehicle rollovers - often cases of drivers getting tired and overcorrecting upon waking up, Lt. Dan Baldi said.
Multi-vehicle crashes accounted for 52 deaths.
Twenty-eight deaths involved commercial trucks. Of those, 22 were not in a truck.
Seat belts were not used in nearly 83 percent of rollover deaths. Of all highway deaths, seat belts were not used more than 57 percent of the time.
"The cheapest insurance you've got is putting on your seat belt," Baldi said.
Ranch wants airport runway expansion
RAWLINS - A hunting and fishing ranch wants the runway at the remote Dixon Airport expanded to handle charter jets carrying as many as 36 people.
The airport is between Baggs and Savery and next to the Three Forks Ranch, which straddles the Colorado-Wyoming line.
The runway is currently 5,500 feet long. A $1.1 million project to strengthen the runway so it could handle planes up to 24,000 pounds is already planned.
But the runway still wouldn't be long enough for large planes to take off or land. That's why a second project to lengthen the runway by about 40 percent is being proposed, according to Airport Board Chairman Robert Golden.
Golden said small jets carrying up to 10 people can now land at Dixon. With the improvements, jets carrying 24-36 people, depending on cargo and fuel, would be able to land there.
The County Commission has asked the Federal Aviation Administration and the Wyoming Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division to modify a grant application for the first runway project to include the proposal to lengthen the runway.
The improvements' total cost would be around $4 million.
The Three Forks Ranch has agreed to donate about 80 acres worth about $4,000 to accommodate the runway extension.
Ranch Manager Jay Linderman said the ranch currently flies small twin-engine planes and jets into Dixon, but most guests arriving from Denver International Airport must be flown to a larger commercial airport at Hayden, Colo., then driven about 75 minutes to the ranch.
Dixon is a 25-minute drive to the ranch headquarters, which is just inside Colorado.
Correction
Lori Storm, who testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the new prison, is from Torrington.
Storm's hometown was misidentified in a story in Friday's newspaper.