In brief: Officials catch grizzly to test DNA

Yellowstone National Park officials captured a grizzly bear Friday near the site of a fatal attack, but they were not sure whether it is the animal responsible for a Michigan hiker’s death last week, a park spokesman said.

The 25-year-old, 420-pound male grizzly was to be collared and released back into the park after officials took hair samples, spokesman Al Nash said.

If the bear’s DNA matches that of samples found at the site and additional evidence from the scene links the grizzly to 59-year-old John Wallace’s death, the bear will be tracked down and killed, Nash said.

The body of the man from Chassell, Mich., was discovered a week ago five miles up the Mary Mountain trail north of Old Faithful. Authorities said he likely was killed late last month during a solo hike along the trail.

Court upholds fetus ‘relationship’ law

Sioux Falls, S.D. – South Dakota can require doctors to tell women who seek abortions that they have an “existing relationship” with their fetus that is protected by law and that they can’t be forced to undergo the procedure, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier’s ruling two years ago in which she struck down the requirement, which is part of a larger law requiring South Dakota doctors to provide women with certain information before an abortion can be deemed voluntary.

The law mandates that the doctor must tell an abortion seeker that she “has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota.”

The court upheld Schreier’s decision to overturn another aspect of the law that would have required doctors to tell patients that people who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide.