Nation IN BRIEF : WYOMING : Judge OKs Release of Yellowstone Wolves

A federal judge denied a request to stop the federal government from releasing 17 gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park as part of a controversial program to bring the predator back to the northern Rocky Mountains. A clerk at the federal district court in Casper, Wyo., said U.S. District Judge William Downes denied a request from the Montana Stockgrowers’ Assn. and a Montana rancher to grant a preliminary injunction against the release, paving the way for freeing the 17 wolves from temporary pens at Yellowstone. Sharon Rose, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the wolves were expected to be released around the middle of April.