Plans to restore Morris statue move forward
CHEYENNE — The statue of Esther Hobart Morris that stood outside the state Capitol for years will soon be restored to its original quality after the Capitol Building Restoration Oversight Group passed a motion to fund it during its final meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Updated: 12 hours ago
Tribe, state look for ways to improve child protective services
CASPER — Northern Arapaho leaders and state officials are looking for ways to improve a child protective services program that the tribe says needs more money from the state to be more effective.
Updated: 12 hours ago
State works to prevent mussel invasion
CODY — They are barely an inch long, but the tiny aquatic invasive species could produce mountain-sized headaches.
Updated: 12 hours ago
Technical team takes over sage grouse plan
BUFFALO — In 2017, Montana wildfires spread into Wyoming. Ultimately, it torched more than 15,000 acres of sagebrush steppe, cutting a thick slice through the North Buffalo Connectivity Area, a corridor of critical Greater Sage-grouse habitat.
Updated: 12 hours ago
Wing data indicates sage grouse population slide will continue
There’s little prospect for Wyoming’s greater sage grouse population to grow next year and reverse a three-year slide, new data from Wyoming Game and Fish Department suggests.
Updated: 12 hours ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019
News in Brief from across the Cowboy State
Updated: 12 hours ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019
News In Brief from around the Cowboy State
Updated: 2 days ago
Homeowners try to lease mineral lands beneath home
PINEDALE — After two harrowing rounds of state lease auctions that invited bids for the mineral estates under their home beside the New Fork River, a local couple is applying for the 240-acre lease in the state’s “over the counter” option.
Updated: 2 days ago
Yellowstone continues war against lake trout
CODY — Yellowstone National Park is still the king of lake trout slayers in Yellowstone Lake as officials keep up the relentless pressure on the invasive species in attempts to save cutthroat trout.
Updated: 2 days ago
Agency says coal workers need more bankruptcy protection
CHEYENNE — According to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, coal workers in Wyoming need more protections when it comes to bankruptcy filings in the industry.
Updated: 2 days ago
During budget presentation, Gordon says he’s willing to look at lodging tax
CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon told lawmakers Monday that he would be “willing” to consider a statewide lodging tax if it came across his desk this winter.
Updated: 2 days ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Friday, Dec. 6, 2019
News in Brief from across the Cowboy State
Updated: 6 days ago
CoreCivic presents ICE facility plans to packed room
EVANSTON — The Portland Rose Room at the Roundhouse was filled to capacity — 260 people, plus others standing in doorways and outside the room — for a special three-hour Uinta County Commission meeting at which CoreCivic, a private prison company that hopes to build and operate an immigration detention center in Evanston, presented its plans.
Updated: 6 days ago
Wyoming officials working to improve election security
CASPER — In 2016, the Russian government successfully hacked America’s elections. It hijacked messaging, assisted certain candidates and, in some cases, even managed to breach a state’s voter registration system.
Updated: 6 days ago
Witness tells what he saw when man shot by Riverton police officer
RIVERTON — Resistance from the county’s top prosecutor and, possibly, law enforcement entities to the public inquest into the Sept. 21 shooting death of Anderson Antelope by a Riverton Police Department officer stems in part from the vulnerability of eyewitnesses, Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun said Thursday.
Updated: 6 days ago
Sixth-grader devotes herself to helping others
GILLETTE — As she explained her desire to spend her year’s allowance on giving food to the needy, sixth-grader Audrey Carlson looked at a poster about the law of cause and effect hanging in the hallway outside her classroom.
Updated: 1 week ago
Exhibit featuring UW paleontologist on display at Smithsonian
LARAMIE (WNE) — A photography exhibit and film that premiered at the University of Wyoming more than two years ago are now on display at the Smithsonian.
Updated: 1 week ago
Veteran finds answers in memoir
CASPER — Doug Chamberlain did not tell anyone about an order he was forced to carry out in Vietnam until about two years ago, while he was working on his memoir, “Bury Him.”
Updated: 1 week ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019
News in Brief from around the Cowboy State
Updated: 1 week ago
Plan to put Wi-Fi in historic park buildings criticized
JACKSON — When Yellowstone wrapped up its telecommunications plan a decade ago, the park specifically designated historic buildings like the Old Faithful Lodge and Lake Hotel cabins as places that wouldn’t be modernized with Wi-Fi technology.
Updated: 1 week ago
Judge criticizes Blackjewel bankruptcy expenses
CASPER — A federal judge has ordered bankrupt coal firm Blackjewel to provide additional details on $73,583 of expenses that company attorneys accumulated over three months while coal miners awaited back pay.
Updated: 1 week ago
Handyman shop owner disputes AG claims
CHEYENNE — Despite the defendant’s strong arguments to the contrary, the state’s attorney general said Wednesday she stands by the allegations contained in a 12-page complaint filed last month.
Updated: 1 week ago
Lawmakers seek assistance for lost beet crop
LOVELL — Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, as well as Reps. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, and Mike Greear, R-Worland, have signed a letter to Gov. Mark Gordon to request assistance for local farmers after a suspended harvest has left 31 percent on local beets in the ground.
Updated: 1 week ago
Wind farm gets permit for 277 turbines
LARAMIE — Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council has approved a permit for a 277-turbine wind farm that’s planned for construction on the border of Albany and Carbon counties.
Updated: 1 week ago
Several factors contribute to risky roads, officials say
DOUGLAS — Wyoming roads have always been risky with long distances between cities and higher speeds, but signs this year are pointing to them becoming more dangerous than anytime in the last few decades.
Updated: 1 week ago
Hunting, reducing animal concentration strategies in CWD plan
JACKSON — Wyoming wildlife managers may intensively hunt down mule deer and hold populations low for long periods of time in areas where chronic wasting disease threatens to become prevalent.
Updated: 1 week ago
Lawmakers seek to develop more school trust lands
Facing diminishing fossil-fuel income, lawmakers want Wyoming to take a proactive approach to develop some of the state’s 3.6 million acres of trust lands, and recently backed a bill to jump-start that initiative.
Updated: 1 week ago
Taking back ‘Tumbleweeds:’
In an explosion of creativity this fall, Jackson actor and playwright Andrew Munz wrote a one-man play called “Tumbleweed.”
Updated: 1 week ago
Vet and canine partner helped each other overcome challenges
DOUGLAS — Retired Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler sits quietly at the kitchen table, large, muscular hands wrapped around a Longmire Red Pony Saloon cup filled with hot coffee. He glances at a chewed-up tennis ball wedged into a recliner and quickly shifts his eyes away from that all-too-painful reminder of his combat brother, a member of the 10th Special Forces Group.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Lawmakers advance ‘piecemeal’ electric grid deregulation bill
A legislative committee yesterday backed a bill that would allow the buyers of early retirement coal plants access to the grid, a deregulatory step that could affect electricity consumers statewide.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Middle school sexual orientation survey rankles parents
JACKSON — When some Jackson Hole Middle School students powered on their tablets one day in October, they found a survey with a pointed, personal question.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Officials examine allowing reservation police to arrest non-tribal members
RIVERTON — Wind River Police Department agents might not have to wait for a law to let them cite or arrest non-native offenders on the Wind River Indian Reservation
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Allegations made against former bishop in Missouri
CASPER — Kansas City police took a report in August alleging that retired Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart molested a teenage boy in Missouri in 1974, a spokesman for the department said Wednesday.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Judge won’t show files to Nichols
LARAMIE — Former University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols has been admitted as a party to the court case regarding the potential release of university records pertaining to her ouster from UW earlier this year.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Wyoming Supreme Court hears public defender arguments
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday morning in a case that could decide the future of public defender representation in the state.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Chasing coal plant longevity, bills open door to deregulation
Lawmakers are considering two bills aimed at propping up coal-fired power plants, but some say they could lead Wyoming down the road to deregulation and a fundamental reordering of the electric utility system.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Wyoming PSC’s uncomfortable moment in the spotlight
The eye of the Wyoming Legislature these days is fixed upon the Public Service Commission.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Old plants, new ideas: Who might buy a retired coal power plant?
Where utility giant PacifiCorp sees escalating costs and regulatory liability, Wyoming leaders see an opportunity — albeit temporary — to help ailing coal communities.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Committee advances bill to block affordable housing tool
CHEYENNE — After canceling local government meetings, more than a dozen Teton County elected officials and staff traveled to Cheyenne to plead Monday with state legislators to not eliminate local control of a key housing program.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Yellowstone seeks comment on wireless plan
POWELL — A year ago, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly was just arriving in the park. Shortly after unpacking he quickly began calling for improved connectivity.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Gordon calls for Clean Water Act reform
CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon directly called out Washington state’s role in blocking overseas coal exports Tuesday in testimony to U.S. Congress, marking the latest development in the governor’s efforts to expand markets for Wyoming’s producers overseas.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Committee rejects ‘net metering’ bills
CHEYENNE — Lawmakers narrowly rejected a pair of bills that would have overhauled the state’s net metering system – and critics argued would have effectively killed the solar industry in Wyoming – during a meeting Tuesday in Cheyenne.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Committee rejects ‘net metering’ bills
CHEYENNE — Lawmakers narrowly rejected a pair of bills that would have overhauled the state’s net metering system – and critics argued would have effectively killed the solar industry in Wyoming – during a meeting Tuesday in Cheyenne.
Updated: 3 weeks ago
Legislator proposes fees on unoccupied homes
JACKSON — A Jackson lawmaker wants to impose a fee on unoccupied second — or third, or fourth — homes, potentially offering a new way to alleviate Jackson Hole’s housing shortage and its long list of secondary consequences.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Democrats, Republicans tackle issue of civility
CHEYENNE — Erin Taylor joked that there were movie stars present in the Little America Hotel and Resort ballroom early Wednesday afternoon during the Governor’s Business Forum.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Gordon supports Health Department in face of allegations
CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon said he “firmly supports” the state Health Department’s director amid allegations that a 2015 Medicaid fraud investigation was obstructed by various government officials, a charge that has been denied by those involved.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Studies highlight hospital health care struggles
SHERIDAN — Recent legislative studies highlighted the delicate balance between health care access and costs Wyoming hospitals struggle to maintain and indicated that Sheridan Memorial Hospital is something of an outlier compared to other hospitals in the state.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Conservation groups challenge phase-out of feedground
JACKSON — Conservation groups are challenging the pace of the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s planned phase-out of the Alkali Creek Feedground.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
State eyes downgrade of oilfield creeks’ protection
Environmental regulators are surveying two polluted creeks near the Moneta Divide oil and gas field to assess whether their protective classifications are appropriate or should be modified, possibly reducing water-quality standards.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Gordon backs EQC as scrutiny of board increases
Gov. Mark Gordon backed the independence of the Environmental Quality Council last week. In a time when the body is increasingly the subject of political scrutiny and recently was the subject of a court ruling that could diminish its power, Gordon said his own stint on the citizen-oversight board formed his view of it.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Jackson Hole officials hesitant to join climate pledge
JACKSON — Following the climate conference last month that drew representatives from dozens of mountain towns to Park City, Utah, officials there are asking their peer communities to commit to — at least — exploring ways of reducing their carbon footprints.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Navajo Nation refuses to financially back coal mine purchase
CASPER — One of the newest coal firms to enter the Powder River Basin found itself in hot water again Tuesday, after the Navajo Nation president announced it would not financially back the tribal entity’s recent purchase of three coal mines in Wyoming and Montana.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Committee votes to advance Medicaid expansion bill
CHEYENNE — State lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Interim Committee voted 8-5 Tuesday to move forward with a bill authorizing Gov. Mark Gordon to expand Medicaid coverage in Wyoming.
Updated: 4 weeks ago
Funding woes threaten criminal justice reform
Prison officials and advocates worry a lack of funding will kill hard-fought-for criminal justice reform before it can have an impact.
Updated: 1 month ago
Coal production falls to 20-year low
CASPER — After a searing summer for Wyoming’s coal country, new federal production data paints a troubling economic outlook for the Powder River Basin.
Updated: 1 month ago
Commissioners want say in wildlife corridors
RIVERTON — Objections by Gov. Mark Gordon and Wyoming Game and Fish officials to a proposed bill granting county commissioners influence in designating wildlife migration corridors has prompted concern on the Fremont County Commission.
Updated: 1 month ago
Legislators look to address public safety on reservation
CASPER — Wyoming lawmakers are moving ahead with some legislation meant to help improve Wind River Reservation public safety while considering additional legislation with the same goal.
Updated: 1 month ago
UW hosts Women’s Suffrage Symposium
LARAMIE — Celebrating the “Year of Wyoming Women,” the University of Wyoming, together with Wyoming Public Media and the Wyoming Humanities Council, hosted a symposium Thursday and Friday diving into Women’s Suffrage on the Northern Plains.
Updated: 1 month ago
Many Wyoming children lack health insurance coverage
CHEYENNE – Wyoming ranks 43rd in the nation for the number of children with health insurance coverage, according to a report recently released by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
Updated: 1 month ago
Film traces burly, beautiful migration route of Deer 139
Grazing along roadways, pilfering gardens or silhouetted on snowy hillocks, mule deer are such a customary part of the Wyoming landscape that it’s easy to overlook them.
Updated: 1 month ago
Forest management combines short-term action and long-term plan
RAWLINS – It’s the season for pile burning — and long-term planning.
Updated: 1 month ago
Local governments look toward I-80 monitoring wells
LARAMIE — With the approval of the Albany County Commission, the county’s planning staff plans to discuss, with the city of Laramie and the Wyoming Department of Transportation, options for installing monitoring wells underground along Interstate 80 in Telephone Canyon east of Laramie.
Updated: 1 month ago
Legislative committee supports task force to look at mental health services
CHEYENNE – A committee of state lawmakers voted Thursday in support of a bill that would establish a task force to study Wyoming’s mental health services.
Updated: 1 month ago
Former state Medicaid watchdog accuses health officials, former attorney general of obstruction
CHEYENNE — The former Medicaid watchdog for Wyoming accused top state health care officials and a former state attorney general of obstructing investigations into health care fraud, telling lawmakers Thursday that he was fired because of his refusal to let the inquiry drop.
Updated: 1 month ago
Murder victim’s family fights for justice 32 years later
GILLETTE — Mike Etchemendy wants closure. His nephew, Johnny Etchemendy, wants that, too, but there’s something more. When Johnny looks in the mirror, he wonders if the face of the father he never knew is staring back at him.
Updated: 1 month ago
Jackson middle schoolers earn break from the classroom
JACKSON — Alexis Jagelski slipped through a willow patch, her fly-rod gently deflecting branches so she could step onto the cobbled shoreline of the Snake River. Gathered in a circle around a guide were four Jackson Hole Middle School students, there to learn the art of fly-fishing from the Jackson Hole Fly Fishing School.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019
Statewide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Wildlife officials about halfway through CWD plan
JACKSON — Wyoming wildlife officials are about halfway through the citizen-driven process of rewriting a management plan for chronic wasting disease (CWD).
Updated: 1 month ago
Campbell County uses new law to help offset bankruptcy fees
GILLETTE — Campbell County spent more than a million dollars in the last year as it tried to collect unpaid mineral production taxes. Thanks to a new state law, it won’t have to bear the full cost of that.
Updated: 1 month ago
Wyoming lawmakers reject proposed alcohol tax increase
CHEYENNE — A bill that would have essentially doubled the state’s excise tax on alcohol in order to provide more funding for substance use treatment programs was rejected by lawmakers during a committee meeting Wednesday.
Updated: 1 month ago
Man accused of killing woman in Cheyenne, taking body to Cody
POWELL — Law enforcement officials say evidence indicates that a former local resident murdered a woman in Cheyenne over the weekend, then attempted to hide her body in a remote area south of Cody Saturday afternoon.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019
Statewide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange member papers
Updated: 1 month ago
Partial settlement reached in lawsuit over horse treatment claims
JACKSON — Former Wilson outfitter Forest Stearns and five people he sued last year for defamation have reached a settlement in the case. But litigation against at least three other defendants will continue.
Updated: 1 month ago
State develops ‘electronic poll books’ for election
GILLETTE — If all goes according to plan, the primary election in August 2020 could look a little different from past elections, not just for voters but also for people working behind the scenes.
Updated: 1 month ago
Lack of cooperation stalled Hart investigation, say bishops
CASPER — The two bishops who succeeded retired Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart say investigations into the disgraced cleric, who’s been accused of sexual abuse by at least 16 men, were hamstrung by a lack of cooperation by at least one of Hart’s alleged victims years ago.
Updated: 1 month ago
Lawmakers take no action on nuclear fuel storage plan
CHEYENNE — Legislators took no action on a plan to store spent nuclear fuel rods within Wyoming – and heard about a possible alternative use of the rods – during a committee meeting Tuesday in Casper.
Updated: 1 month ago
Gun reporting bill fails
CASPER — Wyoming lawmakers on Thursday defeated legislation that would have prevented some people with mental illnesses from buying guns.
Updated: 1 month ago
Indigency standards bill fails in Wyoming legislative committee
CHEYENNE – A draft bill that would have proposed indigency standards to qualify for a public defender failed Thursday afternoon in the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee.
Updated: 1 month ago
Following pushback, lawmakers back off plan to put counties in charge of migration corridors
POWELL — After a proposal to put county commissioners and others in charge of designating migration corridors drew widespread criticism, a state legislative committee is apparently changing course.
Updated: 1 month ago
Sheridan College kicks off Multicultural Center
SHERIDAN — When a student wrote a racially-charged comment on a white board in Braylee Armajo’s dorm in 2017, some people told her to just erase it.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Friday, Nov. 1, 2019
Statewide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019
News in brief from across the Cowboy State from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Bankruptcy, coal experts voice concerns, takeaways
A group of lawyers, academics and coal bankruptcy veterans shared reservations about new coal companies entering the state, at a University of Wyoming School of Law conference Friday, and highlighted signs that the energy industry may have harmed its “social license” in Wyoming.
Updated: 1 month ago
Towns grapple with energy transition
Communities in southwest Wyoming got a double dose of bad news this month as oil and gas company Halliburton announced layoffs at its Rock Springs headquarters just as Wyoming utility Rocky Mountain Power finalized a plan to fast-track the retirement of four of its six coal-fired power units.
Updated: 1 month ago
Whistleblower prompts DEQ to probe bentonite mines
Wyoming environmental regulators will investigate complaints that a bentonite mining company regularly violated rules and escaped proper oversight, Gov. Mark Gordon’s spokesman confirmed.
Updated: 1 month ago
Feds expect 72 grizzlies to die in grazing area by 2028
JACKSON — Federal wildlife officials foresee and have approved growing grizzly bear bloodshed on a sprawling complex of Bridger-Teton National Forest cattle grazing allotments recently permitted for the long haul.
Updated: 1 month ago
FTC set to finish review of Peabody-Arch venture in 2020
GILLETTE — The Federal Trade Commission is expected to finish its review of a joint venture between Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Inc. to merge their Powder River Basin and Colorado coal mining operations in the first half of 2020.
Updated: 1 month ago
Committee approves education funding boost
CASPER — Lawmakers voted narrowly Tuesday to approve a recommendation that Wyoming’s public school system be given a $19 million bump and that the recommendation be sent to Gov. Mark Gordon and the broader Legislature.
Updated: 1 month ago
Committee approves education funding boost
CASPER — Lawmakers voted narrowly Tuesday to approve a recommendation that Wyoming’s public school system be given a $19 million bump and that the recommendation be sent to Gov. Mark Gordon and the broader Legislature.
Updated: 1 month ago
Committee approves education funding boost
CASPER — Lawmakers voted narrowly Tuesday to approve a recommendation that Wyoming’s public school system be given a $19 million bump and that the recommendation be sent to Gov. Mark Gordon and the broader Legislature.
Updated: 1 month ago
Projections show tough economic outlook for state
CHEYENNE – An updated forecast for state revenues released Tuesday paints a grim picture of Wyoming’s economic landscape heading into the next decade.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019
Wyoming News in Brief from Wyoming News Exchange member papers
Updated: 1 month ago
New Air Force secretary visits F.E. Warren base
CHEYENNE — About a week after being confirmed as the 25th U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, Barbara Barrett visited F.E. Warren Air Force Base on Sunday, marking her first official visit to any base since her appointment.
Updated: 1 month ago
Number of moose killed in Teton County collisions rises
JACKSON — An annual report that sums up animals hit and killed on Teton County roads and highways finds the number of moose killed in collisions between May 2018 and this past April is the highest one-year toll in nearly a decade.
Updated: 1 month ago
Gordon says grizzly delisting depends on election outcome
POWELL — If you want to see the grizzly bear delisted, Gov. Mark Gordon says you should support President Donald Trump’s bid for re-election in 2020.
Updated: 1 month ago
Wyoming sets out to document hate
CASPER — On paper, Wyoming appears to be one of the least discriminatory places in the country.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Monday, Oct 28, 2019
State-wide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Fremont coroner defends inquest in police shooting
RIVERTON — Fremont County Coroner Mark Stratmoen claims Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun is attempting to sabotage the proposed coroner’s inquest into the officer-involved shooting that led to the death of Anderson Antelope.
Updated: 1 month ago
First research project on ground at ITC
GILLETTE — To a casual passerby, the 109,000 square feet of flat, even crushed red stone is a big empty space. To Dave Gribble, the large research pad at the Integrated Test Center represents even larger potential.
Updated: 1 month ago
Agreement reached to keep Spring Creek open
SHERIDAN — The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Navajo Transitional Energy company announced they reached a short-term agreement late Friday that will allow coal production at the Spring Creek Mine to resume.
Updated: 1 month ago
Legislators to review nuclear waste storage plan
CASPER — Despite economic doubts and numerous remaining hurdles, state lawmakers continue to move forward with discussions to potentially bring a temporary nuclear waste storage facility to Wyoming.
Updated: 1 month ago
Uranium industry seeks boost
CASPER — A 70-year low in domestic uranium production has Wyoming producers worried.
Updated: 1 month ago
Lawsuit against Blackjewel gets miners $793K in wages
Blackjewel has agreed to pay $793,847 in back wages on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against the bankrupt coal company in federal court.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Friday, Oct. 25, 2019
State-wide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Bill would allow WRPD officers to arrest non- enrolled suspects
RIVERTON — Lawmakers seek to revive a 2013 proposed bill that would grant the Wind River Police Department the authority to enforce state laws and arrest non-enrolled offenders.
Updated: 1 month ago
Both sides in school district gun policy suit argue their case in court
EVANSTON — A hearing was held in Third District Court on Tuesday, Oct. 22, regarding the lawsuit against Uinta County School District No. 1 over Rule CKA, which allows for approved staff to carry concealed firearms on district property.
Updated: 1 month ago
Spring Creek coal mine closure affecting hundreds of Wyoming workers
CASPER — A Powder River Basin coal mine suddenly ceased operations and sent about 300 workers — a majority from Wyoming — home indefinitely Thursday, over permit disagreements between Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality and the mine’s new owner.
Updated: 1 month ago
History buffs, Sinclair rally to preserve 1920s theater
SINCLAIR — The Sinclair Theater began its life with the rest of the small town, back around 1924 or 1925.
Updated: 1 month ago
New Cheyenne company helps customers create their own custom wine
CHEYENNE — Maybe you can’t bottle happiness, but you can bottle wine made exactly the way you want it now in Cheyenne.
Updated: 1 month ago
Star Valley woman shares life experiences through quilts
AFTON — Neoma Roos Heap Soelberg is a spunky woman with a lot to get done. At 94 years of age she has a number of quilting projects in mind, one quilt on the frames that she is working on for a friend and a plastic tub of fabric squares on her sewing table that sometime in the next year will be transformed into a fabric portrait of Jesus Christ.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019
State-wide news in brief from Wyoming News Exchange member papers
Updated: 1 month ago
Group promoting civil discussion opens chapter in Sheridan
SHERIDAN — About 50 Sheridan residents showed up Tuesday to hear about the launch of the local Better Angels chapter, which is part of a national effort to reduce political polarization and promote civil political discussions.
Updated: 1 month ago
Park to allow volunteer hunters to help eliminate goats
JACKSON — Details are still fuzzy, but Grand Teton National Park will allow “qualified volunteers” to assist with the effort to eradicate 100 or so invasive mountain goats in the Teton Range.
Updated: 1 month ago
Teen suicide rate up 40 percent in last three years
CASPER — The suicide rate among older teenagers in Wyoming has increased by 40 percent over the past three years, according to a sweeping health report released last month that placed the Equality State in the lower half of states for women and children’s health.
Updated: 1 month ago
Poll shows Cheney ahead of Lummis in potential Senate race
CHEYENNE – A poll published Wednesday shows U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney leading former Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis by 20 percentage points in a potential race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Enzi.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019
News in brief from the Cowboy State by Wyoming News Exchange member papers
Updated: 1 month ago
Governor wants legislators to back off of migration bill
As Gov. Mark Gordon finalizes an executive order to protect wildlife migration corridors, he wants lawmakers to hit pause on a controversial bill that would supersede his efforts by revamping the state’s corridor designation policy and challenging existing migration protections and protocols, his policy director said Friday.
Updated: 1 month ago
Wyoming ranks low for breast cancer screening
SHERIDAN — Wyoming ranks second in the nation for having the least women in the U.S. meeting recommendations by the American Cancer Society for mammograms, according to Health Testing Centers.
Updated: 1 month ago
Miners called back to work at former Blackjewel mines
GILLETTE — Dozens of former Blackjewel LLC coal miners are getting the calls they’ve been waiting nearly four months for: Come back to work.
Updated: 1 month ago
Vatican still investigating claims against former bishop
CASPER — The Vatican’s “administrative penal process” into former Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart — which could see the cleric removed from the priesthood — has yet to resolve, the church said Tuesday, and investigations in Kansas City are on hold until the process in Rome finishes.
Updated: 1 month ago
Jackson’s bag ban to expand to smaller businesses
JACKSON — Since Jackson’s grocers and major retailers moved their last plastic bags in April, the hundreds of smaller businesses throughout town have been exempt from the ban that rid the largest stores of single-use sacks.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019
News from around the Cowboy State from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Can Wyoming law delay coal plant closures?
A new Wyoming law aimed at extending the life of coal-fired power plants is coming to its first test, even as the Wyoming Public Service Commission wrestles with the fine points of how the conceptual legislation will be practically applied.
Updated: 1 month ago
Media distrust in Wyoming: A Q&A with Rod Hicks
Media trust in America has sunk to alarming lows. From an acme of some 70% of Americans who reported having a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media in 1976, that number had plummeted to 32% by 2016.
Updated: 1 month ago
Utility regulator copied, sent coal lobby letter
The Wyoming Public Service Commission — in concert with five equivalent bodies from other states — last month asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to accelerate an inquiry that could subsidize coal plants in the name of electrical grid reliabili
Updated: 1 month ago
Jackson officials inspired, troubled by climate conference
JACKSON — A conference on climate change earlier this month gave Jackson Hole officials new ideas about how to curb the region’s impact on the environment, just weeks after updated data revealed a rise in carbon emissions in Teton County.
Updated: 1 month ago
Gordon predicts more budget cuts
CASPER — With a month until his administration releases its first budget, Gov. Mark Gordon said all ideas to trim spending are on the table in 2020, explaining that Wyoming appears to be entering “a new period” in its history as the outlook for fossil fuels as the state’s primary economic driver grows increasingly grim.
Updated: 1 month ago
Nichols asks judge to show her UW files
LARAMIE — In a public records dispute between the University of Wyoming and Wyoming news organizations, an attorney for former UW President Laurie Nichols has asked Albany County district court Judge Tori Kricken to show Nichols the records related to her ouster that are currently being considered for public release.
Updated: 1 month ago
F.E. Warren AFB hosts former "Top Chef" contestants in friendly competition
CHEYENNE — It’s hard to keep up morale on military bases, especially among those working in the kitchen. But when there’s an event that allows servicemen and women to face off in teams named The Startled Koalas, Kitchen Regulators and Chop It Like It’s Hot, fun is unavoidable.
Updated: 1 month ago
Wyoming News in Brief – Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019
Stories from around the Cowboy State from Wyoming News Exchange members
Updated: 1 month ago
Report says Grand Teton one of most threatened parks
JACKSON — A new report from an environmental advocacy group lists Grand Teton National Park as among the dozen parks most threatened by the hurried pace of energy leasing and drilling taking place under the Trump administration.
Updated: 1 month ago
Acting UW president promotes university, community colleges
POWELL — The University of Wyoming’s interim president says the state doesn’t just need more Cowboys — it also needs more Northwest College Trappers and other college students.
Updated: 1 month ago
Draft bill would add layers to wildlife corridor management
PINEDALE – The Wyoming legislative committee looking at the process of designating and managing wildlife migration corridors requested a draft bill in August that is posted and will be studied at its upcoming Oct. 23 meeting in Casper.
Updated: 1 month ago
Legislators look at ways to ease sting of coal bankruptcies
CASPER — A string of bankruptcies have ravaged Wyoming coal country this year, as operators erase outstanding tax, labor and reclamation debts during court proceedings, leaving counties and taxpayers facing unexpected budget shortfalls.
Updated: 1 month ago
Native students demonstrate for Indigenous People’s Day
LARAMIE — Keepers of the Fire, a UW student organization, held a demonstration on campus Monday in support of native peoples and the movement to abolish Columbus Day — and to celebrate instead Indigenous People’s Day.
Updated: 1 month ago
NEWS BRIEFS for Friday, Oct. 11, 2019
News from across Wyoming from Wyoming News Exchange member publications
Updated: 2 months ago
Baby born at 9:19 on 9/19/19
GILLETTE — On Jan. 9 this year, Jackie Franco was married to Christopher Franco. That’s 1/9/19. Ten days later, on Jan. 19 — 1/19/19 — she found out she was pregnant. Fast forward exactly nine months and Vedda Rose Franco was born at 9:19 a.m. Sept. 19, 2019, weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce. She was 19.19 inches long.
Updated: 2 months ago
Report: Wyoming kids some of thinnest in country
JACKSON — High fives to our healthy Wyoming kids.
Updated: 2 months ago
Trump highlights Wyoming man’s battle with EPA
CASPER — A Wyoming man who became a poster child for what some saw as environmental overreach visited the White House for the signing of two executive orders by President Donald Trump intended to “improve the transparency and fairness of government agencies,” the White House said.
Updated: 2 months ago
Wyoming Supreme Court affirms murder sentence
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that a Laramie County District Court judge got Phillip Sam’s sentence right the second time around.
Updated: 2 months ago
Welder builds 16,000-pound vehicle
DOUGLAS — He’s not a doomsday prepper, nor does he believe a zombie apocalypse is happening anytime in the near future, his Mad Max infatuation not withstanding. That being said, it’s easy to think otherwise when gazing upon Travis Blankenbaker’s 16,000-pound wasteland war rig, appropriately named Atomic Annie, as it sits in his Glenrock driveway.
Updated: 2 months ago
Quebec 01 missile alert facility dedicated as state historic site
CHUGWATER — Quebec 01, the only Peacekeeper Missile Alert Facility in the world and a crucial factor in ending the Cold War, sits just 30 miles north of Cheyenne.
Updated: 2 months ago
Judge nears decision on Nichols UW records lawsuit
Judge Tori Kricken heard arguments Tuesday over whether records related to the demotion of former University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols should be released to the public, and indicated she could soon issue a decision in the case.
Updated: 2 months ago
Biologist works to separate wolf fact from fiction
CODY — Wolves seen as bogeymen of the ecological landscape, has been the animal’s fate for a century or more, but much of what people say about them is based on myth, not fact.
Updated: 2 months ago
Committee advances bill on gambling regulation
SHERIDAN — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Committee on Travel, Recreation and Cultural Resources voted to move forward with a bill that would dedicate more state resources toward gambling regulation.
Updated: 2 months ago
Blackjewel reopening possibly delayed by permit snag
CASPER — A protracted fight to return two Powder River Basin coal mines to full operation after its owner Blackjewel filed for bankruptcy hit another snag in court Wednesday.
Updated: 2 months ago
Final Capitol renovations nearing completion
CHEYENNE — After the grand reopening of the state Capitol in July, the final pieces of the renovation project are projected to be completed before the 2020 legislative session in February.
Updated: 2 months ago