ROCK SPRINGS - A man who refused to completely fill out a jury questionnaire was faced with a contempt-of-court charge.

William Miles, 45, of Bairoil, enclosed a note with the incomplete questionnaire he returned saying he did not answer most of the questions because he felt they were too personal.

Miles appeared before 3rd Circuit Judge Samuel Soule on Thursday.

Soule said the court has been sending out the same questionnaire for 22 years. He told Miles it is normal for the court to send out the documents before jury selection takes place.

Miles said he would complete the questionnaire and began filling it out in the courtroom. Soule told him he could finish it in the hallway.

Inventor hopes to market emissions flare

ROCK SPRINGS - A businessman with a patent on an emissions flare for large oil and gas tanks says an improved version of the device will go further to reduce air pollution.

Dave Moneyhun's mechanism burns the vapors produced by the tanks.

The first units were designed in 2000 to meet state Department of Environmental Quality standards. They were tested in two laboratories and found to be 99.9 percent efficient.

"I was really surprised," said Moneyhun, president of Moneyhun Welding. "It exceeded our expectations."

About 100 units were installed nationwide.

Each unit measures 8 feet by 12 feet and is positioned about 20 feet in the air. The units do not need to be tied to the ground like conventional flares, which Moneyhun said makes moving them easier.

Refuge forage at record low

JACKSON - Four thousand elk and 450 bison have migrated to the National Elk Refuge but forage there is at a record low, wildlife officials said.

The refuge usually grows 17,380 tons of forage on 25,000 acres each summer. Biologists measure annual growth in the fall, said Eric Cole, habitat biologist.

This fall Cole and an assistant estimated 7,140 tons, most of it grass, grew last summer. Four consecutive drought years combined with a grasshopper infestation was responsible for the decline.

Refuge workers estimated that grasshoppers ate 17 percent of the grass that grew last summer.

"We probably lost about 1,000 tons to the grasshopper," Cole said.

However, recent snowfall has not covered the grass up to the point of being inaccessible to elk.

"Right now I think we're OK," Cole said. "The elk are still able to paw through it. They're still finding forage. They're just having to roam farther and wider than typical."

Bridge repair bill to approach $30K

LANDER - Several rotten timbers were revealed in a bridge across the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River not long before five cabins belonging to Central Wyoming College were to be hauled across it.

"With the dry rot, a couple of timbers would have failed with the next big load that would have gone across the bridge," Dean of Administrative Services Jay Nielson said Monday.

It will cost an estimated $30,000 to fix the 12-foot-wide bridge across the river to the college's Lander Field Station. The repairs will include new decking and adding 18 inches to either side of the span.

The field station is being renovated for the possible relocation of the Wilderness Medicine Institute from Colorado to Lander. The Lander-based National Outdoor Leadership School bought the institute last year.

High school trade programs built the cabins last school year. A sixth cabin is currently being built at Shoshoni High School.