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During Gov. Mark Gordon’s state-of-the-state address Monday, lawmakers’ greeted Gordon’s strident pledges to defend Wyoming’s fossil fuel industry with raucous applause and a clear signal that the Republican majority is in lockstep with his position. Gordon used much of his second annual state-of-the-state speech to elevate his stature as a defender of coal, while also calling for a tax break for oil and gas. He touted his administration’s petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to try and open coal ports on the west coast and asked lawmakers...
CHEYENNE – Gov. Mark Gordon gave his second State of the State address Monday morning, offering proposals to protect Wyoming’s energy industries and emphasizing the state’s need to find long-term ways to fund its education system. Gordon’s speech in the House chamber of the Capitol marked the beginning of the 65th Wyoming Legislature’s budget session, which will last until mid-March. With the state facing a structural revenue deficit projected to grow in coming years, Gordon said his budget aims to start a serious conversation about the state...
CASPER — Renewable energy’s standing in the nation’s electricity sector may eclipse coal’s as soon as next year. Led by solar and wind, renewable generation could produce as much as 21.6% of the nation’s electricity by 2021 — beating out coal at 20.8%, according to new projections published last month by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In the meantime, coal consumption will decrease another 11% this year, the federal data agency predicted. “That’s not a surprise,” University of Wyoming economist Rob Godby said in response to the d...
RIVERTON — A structural deficit in Wyoming’s K-12 school system will require a $222 million transfer from savings in the coming biennium, forecasters have informed the Joint Appropriations Committee. “That is what is supporting the school foundation program going forward,” said Don Richards, cochairman of Wyoming’s Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, “a transfer from the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account.” The solution is not permanent: Richards said the LSRA is losing money, with its balance falling from more than $1.5 billion in th...
CASPER — The new owner of three Powder River Basin coal mines says it has established an agreement with the U.S. Interior Department to pay overdue mineral production taxes back to the federal government in installments, according to a statement from the company in response to a Star-Tribune article published last week. Navajo Transitional Energy Company assumed ownership of the Antelope and Cordero Rojo mines in Wyoming and the Spring Creek mine in Montana from bankrupt coal firm Cloud Peak Energy last year. As part of the sale agreement, N...
CASPER — Like a near-consensus of the world’s scientific community, Gov. Mark Gordon believes in climate change. Like many across the planet, Gordon believes the problem is a man-made one, and that something needs to be done about it. But – as he’s maintained on the campaign trail and into his second year in office – it doesn’t need to come at the cost of fossil fuels. It was a tumultuous first year for Gordon, whose plans to move the state’s coal industry toward the experimental world of carbon capture technology came amid a number of coa...
By Camille Erickson Casper Star-Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange CASPER — President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion appropriations package Friday night, averting a government shutdown and saving health care for hundreds of retired coal miners in Kemmerer. Coal has been the critical economic building block for the southwest Wyoming community, where miners have labored at the open pit coal mine in Lincoln County for decades. They’ve contributed millions of tons of thermal coal to the nation’s electricity supply. For many miners, worki...
By Isabella Alves and Tom Coulter Wyoming Tribune Eagle Via Wyoming News Exchange CHEYENNE – Former Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol at 12:39 a.m. Friday at his residence. Murray, 61, who was elected secretary of state in 2014, resigned from the position last year following two separate allegations of prior sexual misconduct. According to the arrest report, Laramie County Sheriff’s deputies went to Murray’s residence on Wildflower Drive in Cheyenne after they received a report of an...
By Seth Klamann Casper Star-Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange CASPER — Wyoming is the only state in America that doesn’t have a local affiliate to the national suicide prevention hotline, and lawmakers were skeptical Monday of a $1 million request to change that. “We can do this a whole lot better,” said Rep. Bob Nicholas, the Republican co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee, which holds the state’s purse strings. “To me, you’re throwing money before you’re throwing your brains at it.” That sentiment was echoed by Sen. Eli Bebout,...
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. With the 2020 election approaching, states around the country are working diligently to avoid further influence in their elections, doing everything from upgrading their voting systems to taking a magnifying glass to their own practices in-house. But election interference, according to the nonpartisan Alliance for Securing Democ...
Rock Springs was recently named one of three pilot communities for the Wyoming Arts Alliance Professional Development Program. The Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency and Community Fine Arts Center jointly applied for the program earlier this fall. The Wyoming Arts Alliance’s (WyAA’s) mission is to advance a creative and culturally vibrant state, fulfilling their vision of More Art. Better Wyoming. In support of that mission and vision, and supported by recommendations from the 2016 Community Forum and Survey Results, WyAA lau...
CHEYENNE — In terms of funding, the last decade has been a tough one for Wyoming’s community colleges. Since the 2011-12 biennium, community colleges have lost $53.8 million in funding when adjusting for inflation, according to a report presented by community college representatives during a meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Education Interim Committee last month. During the meeting, Northwest College President Stefani Hicswa said community colleges act as an economic engine for the state, developing and training citizens to meet local needs...
DOUGLAS - David Schultz has had his hands all over former POTUS Bill Clinton's custom wooden dressers and television console. He's also had his hands on former Argentinian President Hugo Chavez's enormous dining room table, and on Muhammad Ali's dressers. At face value, it's an odd trinity of names to tie together, but the commonality between these otherwise unconnected individuals is one man – David. He custom built the pieces as a solo master woodworker at times and also as part of a team w...
RIVERTON — In his document detailing the legal conclusion to an investigation into the Sept. 21 officer-involved shooting in front of Walmart in Riverton, Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun cautioned the public against further proceedings in the matter. The shooting killed 58-year-old Anderson Antelope Sr. LeBrun wrote that because the Riverton Police Department officer who shot Antelope did so because Antelope placed the officer and several bystanders in “immediate peril” by swinging a six-inch knife. The officer had the right to “take...
The remains of a 28-year-old Green River missing woman, Aubree Shanae Corona, have been found. Her remains were found Tuesday after the 2005 Gray Chevrolet Avalanche truck she was driving with a Honda CRF 450R red-and-white motorcycle in the back were located Sunday. According to a press release from the Sublette County Sheriff's Office, the vehicle she had been driving was "located on a non-traveled road" in the Leeds Creek area in Fremont County on Sunday approximately 51 miles from her...
The Green River Shopko Hometown Store will be closing. Shopko announced more store closures Wednesday and the Green River location was one of the stores named. The estimated closing date given by the company is May 12, 2019. Other Wyoming locations that are closing are Lander, Mountain View, Thermopolis, Greybull and Worland. Both Thermopolis and Greybull's closures were announced in January. According to an earlier press release from Shopko dated Jan. 16, 2019, Shopko, a leading operator of...
Green River City Councilman Allan Wilson entered a guilty plea to sexual abuse Monday morning. Wilson was scheduled for a motion hearing Monday at 11 a.m., but the hearing became a change of plea hearing. Wilson plead guilty to the charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. The other charges against him will be dismissed at disposition. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered Monday and will be completed in approximately three months. The disposition will occur afterward.He will...
Castle Rock Hospital District will have to publish its positions and salaries in the county’s designated paper. In a heated discussion at the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, Castle Rock Hospital District board members approached the Commissioners asking for a wording change in their contract. The request was denied when no commissioner would make a motion on it. Prior to the that non action, CRHD chairman Bob Gordon said this year is the first year the commissioners put the a...
Despite the 2018 primary election being more than a year away, a Sheridan man has already announced his intent to run for Wyoming’s highest office. Bill Dahlin announced his candidacy in a media release sent Tuesday evening. Dahlin created the Dahlin for Governor committee June 20, despite not being able to file for the election with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office until May 17, 2018. Dahlin, a businessman and Republican, believes more should be done in diversifying the state economy, saying the politicians from both parties have don...
Daggett County Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen resigned from his post Sunday after an investigation into allegations of prisoner mistreatment at the Daggett County Jail. According to a media release from the Daggett County Sheriff’s Office, Jorgensen’s resignation was voluntary. “Sheriff Jorgensen’s resignation was completely voluntary. It came because of his desire to help the county move forward in the process with Utah Department of Corrections to return inmates to the Daggett County Jail,” the release stated. “He felt a clean break with a new sheri...
Tronox announced its intent to sell its Green River Alkali business in order to purchase another business. According to a press release dated Feb. 21, 2017, which was on the company’s website www.tronox.com, “Tronox Limited (NYSE:TROX) announced a definitive agreement to acquire the TiO2 business of Cristal, a privately held global chemical and mining company, for $1.673 billion cash and Class A ordinary shares representing 24 percent ownership in pro forma Tronox. Concurrently with this ann...
Political games and a large percentage of new legislators in the Wyoming House of Representatives have made for a trying session for two local legislators. John Freeman, D-Green River, said a number of representatives have had to learn what they can and can’t do in the Wyoming House, learning they’re part of a system some campaigned against. Overall, Freeman said the session has been trying for him. Rep. Stan Blake, D-Green River, agrees with Freeman’s assessment of the new legislators. “They ca...
A controversial bill regarding the transfer of land from the federal government to the state was killed by Senate President Eli Bebout, R-Riverton, last week. The bill, Senate File 3, would have proposed an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution outlining how the state would take land granted to it by the federal government. If it would have passed, Wyoming voters would have voted on the amendment during an election before it would be made into law. In Sweetwater County, one of the outdoor enthus...
The search for a missing fisherman believed to have drown while unloading his boat at Cedar Springs Marina near Dutch John, Utah, was suspended due the worsening weather and equipment problems. The Daggett County Sheriff’s Office hopes to bring in more search teams with underwater sonar equipment to aid in the search. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the search was suspended Monday at 8 p.m., three days after the fisherman was reported missing from his vehicle. The search started Friday morning after Daggett County sheriff’s deputies were...
Learn about the history of the railroad in Wyoming at an upcoming presentation at Rock Springs Library. Historian Greg Nickerson will present his program “Wyoming, the Railroad State” tonight at 6 at the Rock Springs Library, 400 C Street. This Wyoming Humanities Council event is free and open to the public. The railroad is responsible for the Wyoming residents know today. The construction of the Union Pacific in 1868 gave rise to the towns, the geography of settlement, the economy and even the politics of Wyoming. When the Chicago Bur...
