For well over a year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been mulling over a petition from the State of Wyoming that seeks to remove the region’s grizzly bears from the list of threatened species and turn the bears’ management over to the state. Gov. Mark Gordon is now asking a federal judge to expedite the process and order the agency to make a decision.

Patrick M. Gogerty will enter a plea during a preliminary hearing in Park County Circuit Court on May 19 on misdemeanor charges of taking a trophy animal without a license outside the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

The body of an adult grizzly bear was discovered Monday among clusters of sage on a hillside flanking the Northfork Highway, 14 miles from the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.