Heat aid numbers rise

CHEYENNE -- More Wyoming families now qualify for home heating help this winter.

Congress recently required states to change their income qualifications for a program that provides financial aid to help low-income people pay winter heating bills.

Under the previous guidelines, people qualified if they earned 60 percent of the state's median income. The new guidelines qualify people who earn 75 percent of the state's median income.

A single person now can earn $2,326 a month and qualify for the program. For a two-person household, the income guideline is $3,041 and for a family of four the guideline is now $4,472 a month.

The Wyoming Department of Family Services is reprocessing the 2,000 applications for heating aid it already received this year.

Wyo G&F relocates grizzly

JACKSON -- The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has captured and relocated a male grizzly bear that raided a hunting camp.

State officials say the 7-year-old, 330-pound bear was captured Friday after it repeatedly raided an outfitter camp in the Pacific Creek area looking for food.

Mike Boyce is a bear management specialist with the game department. He said the bear had been hanging around the camp since it succeeded in getting into a horse trailer earlier this month, where it ate about 50 pounds of horse pellets. Boyce said he planned to release the bear in a remote location in the Cody area.

Probe centers on training center

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- State health officials have traced at least three cases of a drug-resistant staph infection to a Fort Collins firefighter training center.

Three recruits who were training at the Poudre Valley Fire Authority center have been diagnosed with the infection, known as MRSA.

MRSA mostly causes skin infections, such as boils and abscesses. But it can sometimes cause life-threatening blood infections.

Poudre Valley Fire Authority spokesman Patrick Love said the center has been cleaned and that managers are taking other steps recommended by health officials.

The Fort Collins facility is part of a regional training system serving departments from Boulder, Colo., to southern Wyoming.

Departments from Laramie and Greeley, Colo., pulled their recruits out of the academy after the MRSA diagnosis, and Monday classes were canceled.

Green River seeks money

GREEN RIVER -- Green River officials say they will ask the State Land Investment Board again for a grant to build a new water plant.

Green River says it needs a new water plant because current water storage is not adequate to provide proper fire protection to part of the town.

Last week, the state board turned down the city's request for a $3 million grant to fund half of the $6 million project.

The Green River city administrator said officials may scale the project down and reapply for about $900,000 in state grant money.