The Bureau of Land Management will auction off wild horses at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton Saturday morning. Wild horses have no natural predators in Wyoming, so the BLM captures the horses and hosts adoptions to control the population and prevent forage scarcity. BLM Wild Horse Specialist Steve Fluer says buyers adopt wild horses for pleasure, novelty, ranch work, and a variety of other reasons. "They’re very agile. They’re very sure footed. They come in a variety of colors. Kinda the mystique to the American public… they’re sort of a legend in the sense. You know, some people just wanna have a wild horse."  Honor Farm inmates have gentled the horses, which means teaching them to be caught, enter a trailer and accept a saddle.

German Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has died — he was 86. Fischer-Dieskau began performing in the 1940s and had a career spanning five decades. He was perhaps best known for his interpretation of Franz Schubert's "Winterreise."

Wyoming strives to curb ozone levels to meet federal mandate

Yes, hepatitis C is big among baby boomers. And the feds are moving toward a recommendation that all of them get tested at least once for the infection.

But new hepatitis C cases are cropping up in young people, too, and some of them live in out-of-the-way places that haven't been hotbeds for the illness.

Back in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, there were no guarantees. There were no guarantees that they'd make it there and there were no guarantees that they could make it back home.

President Richard Nixon and his speech writer William Safire knew that. So, imagining a situation in which the American astronauts were doomed in an alien land, Safire drew up a plan to mark their inevitable demise in a dignified way.

In a speech, the president would thank them and say that while there was "no hope for their recovery," there is "hope for mankind in their sacrifice."

Sublette County is home to two of Wyoming’s major oil and gas fields … and emissions from the energy production have caused smog to form – a type of smog called ozone. Ground-level ozone can cause and exacerbate respiratory problems. It’s also a problem for legal reasons: ozone levels in Sublette County have exceeded federal limits several times in the past few years. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is stepping in. It’s designating Sublette County a “nonattainment area,” which means Wyoming is obligated to fix the problem. But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports, there’s no ready solution

The Wyoming Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has studied those who are in jail or in prison in Wyoming for a number of years.  Wyoming is a state that likes to put people behind bars.  The U.S. Justice Department notes that in 2010 Wyoming’s crime rate was 17-percent lower than the national average… but Wyoming’s incarceration rate is only four percent lower.  Meaning that if you commit a crime, you will probably get some time.  Director Linda Burt of Wyoming’s ACLU tells Bob Beck about how those inmates are being treated.

The Cheyenne Regional Medical center and the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper are considering a partnership that they believe may be necessary to remain financially strong in the future.  They are looking at ways to share things from medical providers to joining together to enhance health care across the state.   Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports that neither hospital CEO is positive the partnership will work, but they both believe they need to give it a shot in order to remain financially viable.

(Sound of hospital)    

The Wyoming Community Development Authority is encouraging people to buy houses – especially if they’ve never owned a home before. They’re launching a campaign called “Buy Now” – putting up flyers in real estate offices, and offering classes to help first-time buyers navigate the process of purchasing a home. The group’s executive director, David Haney, talks with Willow Belden about the initiative. He says conditions are excellent for buyers at the moment.

It was almost one year ago that the space shuttle Atlantis rose into the sky on a pillar of flame for the last time. The shuttle program ended forever with that mission. American astronauts were left to hitch rides on Russian space capsules, and American kids were left with no tangible direction forward for their dreams of a high-tech, space-happy future.

Tomorrow morning, the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral so that supplies can reach the space station.