Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 526
EVANSTON — Uinta County School District No. 1’s Rule CKA, which allows for approved staff to carry concealed firearms on district property, has again been ruled invalid, this time by the Wyoming Supreme Court. The history of the district’s rule is lengthy, contentious and complicated. Almost immediately after the Wyoming Legislature’s passage of W.S. 21-3-132 (the enabling statute) in 2017, UCSD No. 1 trustees expressed interest in adopting a policy to allow for concealed carry of firearms by authorized personnel as part of the distric...
CHEYENNE – State lawmakers, during a meeting Friday, narrowly advanced a measure to increase excise taxes on cigarettes and moist tobacco snuff, marking one of the only revenue-raising measures to be advanced by a legislative committee during interim meetings this year. The bill, if approved by the Legislature during its regular session next year, would raise the tax on cigarette packs from 60 cents to 84 cents, keeping with inflation since the last time a cigarette tax increase was passed in the state in 2003. It would also increase the tax o...
CHEYENNE — With Wyoming facing a structural revenue deficit worth hundreds of millions of dollars in its K-12 education fund, state lawmakers narrowly rejected a proposal to raise mill levies on properties to supplement education funding during a committee meeting last week. The proposal, which the Joint Revenue Committee turned down by a tied 7-7 vote Thursday, would have gradually added nine mill levies, meaning the amount that can be taxed based on a property’s assessed value, for real, personal and industrial properties. During the com...
Free, safe and effective vaccinations intended to help prevent future COVID-19 infections have started in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and state epidemiologist with WDH, said the first approved vaccine is recommended for most people who are age 16 and older with two doses about three weeks apart needed for the vaccine to be effective. “Putting an end to this pandemic will take all our tools. Now we can add vaccines to wearing masks, social distancing and staying home when we a...
CASPER — A lawsuit filed this month against the Food and Drug Administration in U.S. District Court alleges the owner of Cody Labs misled federal regulators when it moved production of a drug from its Cody manufacturing facility to upstate New York last year. Competing drug company Genus Life Sciences filed the suit in the District of Maryland Southern Division seeking to overturn approval of a drug the FDA approved earlier this year. It alleges that drug company Lannett lied to federal regulators when it stated in numerous documents it w...
CASPER — Leading environmental groups in Wyoming have come out in fierce opposition to a major pipeline project proposed for the state, over concerns the development could disrupt sensitive wildlife habitat and exacerbate climate change. If approved, the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative would formally designate about 1,100 miles of public land for future pipelines, constructed primarily to deliver carbon dioxide to oil sites. An additional 900 miles of private and state land would also be interspersed throughout the corridors. Proposed o...
Gov. Mark Gordon last week sent proposed budget cuts to the Wyoming Legislature that slash public services and weaken the already thin safety net supporting Wyoming’s most vulnerable. In a press release accompanying his budget proposal, Gordon said his government took a “strategic” path to reducing programs instead of recommending indiscriminate percentage cuts. The goal is to manage the state’s fiscal crash with the least impact to citizens, the governor said. But given the scale of the savings budget writers must find, cushioning the public...
JACKSON - Bear biologist Mike Boyce was staked out on a road in south of Wilson for much of Tuesday keeping tabs on five grizzly bears that were napping, playing and feeding on a deer carcass. "They devoured it in just a matter of a couple hours," Boyce said from the scene. For three weeks and running this has been what the Wyoming Game and Fish Department employee's workdays look like: keeping tabs on grizzly 399 and her four cubs, spreading the word of their whereabouts and trying to keep...
CASPER — There’s a new organization in town, and it’s been making the rounds in the Wyoming Legislature’s interim committee meetings. Meet Powering Up Wyoming. The group describes itself as a grassroots organization promoting the use of an “all of the above energy strategy” to prepare the state for an uncertain economic future. The team lobbies for some relative newcomers to the energy landscape here: wind and solar energy, as well as storage technology. Last week, the organization announced it had formed an inaugural advisory board of director...
CASPER – The rise in coronavirus infections prompted Wyoming’s chief justice on Friday to suspend jury trials until further notice. The COVID-19 surge had caused some courts to fully or partially shut down, according to a statement released Friday by the Wyoming Supreme Court. Courts have also experienced difficulties finding enough jurors. Those realities prompted Chief Justice Michael K. Davis to order a halt to jury trials for the time being. “The Court is therefore implementing measures to protect the health of the public and court perso...
CHEYENNE - Despite opposition from some officials in Laramie County and elsewhere in the state, Wyoming lawmakers narrowly advanced a bill Wednesday that would make wind energy producers pay more in taxes in the first three years of new projects. The legislation, which won approval on a 7-6 vote from the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, would remove a tax exemption on electricity generation that applies to new wind energy projects in their first three...
SHERIDAN — Administrators from local school districts asked legislators to push for an increase in the amount districts can keep in reserves, especially as budgets tighten across the state. Currently, school districts by law can keep 15% of their budgets in reserves. Sheridan County School District 2 Superintendent Craig Dougherty said a higher cap on reserves would allow districts to continue funding student programs when revenues are down. Dougherty also noted school districts are not currently encouraged to be fiscally responsible, b...
CASPER – The nation’s largest coal company published mixed results in its quarterly financial report released Monday, showing both losses and gains in its Powder River Basin coal operations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rock energy markets. Peabody Energy reported a 39% decline in revenue between July and September due in part to lower production volumes and weaker prices for exported coal. The third quarter report painted an uncertain future for its three thermal coal operations in the Powder River Basin, the nation’s epicenter for c...
CHEYENNE – At least 40 state employees have tested positive for COVID-19 during the past week, as the number of active virus cases in Wyoming continued its steady rise to new record highs. The positive tests resulted in portions of seven state-run buildings in Laramie County being decontaminated, two of them for a second time, Gov. Mark Gordon said in a letter sent to all state employees Friday morning. “The rising number of positive cases and quarantines among state employees is impacting our operations, our ability to deliver products and...
Amid record voter turnout in a presidential year, Republicans in the Wyoming Legislature picked up one seat each in the House and Senate. Between last night’s results, August’s primary elections and lawmaker retirements, the 2021 Wyoming Legislature will feature at least 23 new faces. The body on the whole looks to have shifted to the right ideologically once more. When voters hit the polls yesterday, the House tallied 50 Republicans, nine Democrats and one Independent. In 2021, there will be 51 Republicans, seven Democrats, one Ind...
CASPER – A new rule designed to ease the number of drilling applications received by the state and level the playing field for oil and gas operators appears to be working as intended, recent data collected by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shows. In December, the rule change went into effect. Between January and September, the commission received 2,226 applications to drill — an over 99% decrease compared to the same period last year. Supervisor Mark Watson told lawmakers during a Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Dev...
SHERIDAN — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee addressed additions to reasons allowing for executive sessions during public meetings in preparation for the 2021 general session. The decisions may provide less access to public meetings. Current Wyoming state statute allows government entities to hold an executive session on matters concerning discussions with attorneys and law enforcement on matters posing a threat to security of public or private property or threat to the public’s right of access; consider appointment emplo...
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Legislature’s efforts to become the nation’s leader in blockchain technology and digital assets are paying off, attracting industry moguls to put their roots down in Wyoming and bring their businesses to the Cowboy State. For Laramie native Caitlin Long, Wyoming was an easy choice to bring her idea of a digital-asset bank to fruition, not only because of her upbringing, but also because Wyoming is the only state in the country with regulations in place for the type of Special Purpose Depository Institution she wante...
Novel coronavirus infections continue to increase throughout the Cowboy State, leading to fears the state’s healthcare system will be severely impacted by hospitalizations. The deaths of nine residents were reported by the Wyoming Department of Health Monday evening, as well as an increase of 277 active COVID-19 cases. Five of the deaths were of residents living in Big Horn County, all of whom had health conditions known to contribute to a higher risk of severe symptoms from the disease. Only o...
CHEYENNE – Donald Trump and Joe Biden were no-shows, but the last presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle happened Saturday night among little-known independent candidates at the Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne. While each candidate is running on a different platform, all of them share the same belief that the country’s two-party election system is flawed and ripe for revision. Distant from both Washington and the disruptive tone set during Biden and Trump’s face-off a few weeks ago, the candidates who debated here stuck...
RIVERTON — Four Fremont County residents were sentenced in federal court last week for kidnapping, along with aiding and abetting, on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Ashley Rose Yellowbear, 28, Kristen Jade Antelope, 27, Rusty Tso Tabaho, 28, and Samuel Harold Friday, 38, received differing sentences based on their roles in the crime, varying from 114 to 160 months in prison. They were sentenced by Chief US Wyoming District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl. Each is from either the reservation or Riverton. The sentences were in connection w...
CASPER — The number of people in Wyoming who were being hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment rose to 73 on Monday, a higher total than at any previous point in the pandemic. Monday’s total is more than twice what it was when the month began and exceeded the previous high set Sunday. Sixty-eight hospitalizations were reported to the state Monday, but the number did not include five patients hospitalized at Jackson’s St. Johns Health. The new rash of hospitalizations mirror a surge of COVID-19 cases reported statewide since late September, when ca...
A record high for reported new laboratory-confirmed cases in one day pushed the number of active cases in the state over 2,400 on Monday. The Wyoming Health Department, in its daily coronavirus update, said 251 new confirmed cases were reported Monday, the highest number in one day since the illness was first diagnosed in Wyoming on March 12. The previous record of 248 was set less than one week ago, on Friday. The Health Department also said 35 new probable cases were reported Monday, as were 169 recoveries from the illness, leaving the state...
PINEDALE — Signed, sealed and delivered, following a special meeting on Oct. 9, Pinedale Council members voted unanimously to accept a $175,000 settlement against a former Pinedale lab and its future owners in exchange for their silence. The meeting was called for the sole action of “discussing a draft legal settlement with SPL (ex-Zedi).” The settlement was in conjunction with the purchase of Zedi by two subsequent companies – Banded Iron and SPL. In a telephone conference call with Inga Parsons, an attorney with Greenwood Law, council...
