The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
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The Joint Agriculture Committee Tuesday revived a controversial gun rights bill on a split-second, unannounced vote moments before the committee adjourned in a move lambasted by critics for its lack of transparency. The bill, last session’s Senate File 81 – Second Amendment Preservation Act, would prevent agents of the state from enforcing any federal law or regulation that restricts a citizen’s right to carry firearms. A heavily amended version of the legislation passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin in March, but died without a heari...
CASPER – Wyoming leaders are hoping for more money from the federal government as Congress remains gridlocked over an additional round of stimulus funding. The state is working to spend the remainder of the $1.25 billion in federal relief granted earlier this year before its Dec. 30 deadline. Still, Wyoming leaders are hoping for more time to spend the money. Simultaneously, they are looking for additional funds to help bolster the state amid a structural decline in revenues driven by woes in the extractive energies. The feeling is a common one...
CASPER — Legislative leaders voted unanimously on Thursday to pursue several pieces of emergency legislation, all but guaranteeing the Wyoming Legislature will meet in its first special session since 2004. In a conference call with Management Council on Thursday morning, Gov. Mark Gordon outlined a tentative agenda for state lawmakers in the coming months to begin to immediately stabilize the state’s economy – which is projected to experience revenue declines anywhere between $555 million and $2.8 billion due to COVID-19 and an overseas price w...
CASPER — Sen. John Barrasso joined several U.S. officials in drafting a letter to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, urging him to stabilize increasingly volatile global oil markets. Sent to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, the letter referenced the coronavirus pandemic and depressed oil prices caused by Saudi Arabia’s current spat with Russian producers. The dispute over oil has hit the U.S., the world’s leading shale producer, particularly hard. A copy of the letter was obtained by the Star-Tribune. “Senior Saudi governmen...
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...
CASPER — The names and salaries of every school district employee in Wyoming will be released this month after a request from a state senator, a move that’s drawn criticism from educators across the state. “There is a big gap between what I’m legally bound to do and what is the right thing to do,” said State Superintendent Jillian Balow. “And I have difficulty figuring out and reconciling how the release of names that intrudes on the privacy of citizens in our Wyoming community, that potentially puts their security, safety and other aspec...
CASPER — State lawmakers are considering a slight tax increase on alcohol sales in Wyoming in an effort to raise nearly $2 million in funding for treatment programs across the state. The proposed tax increase – which would be the state’s first such increase since Prohibition – would essentially double minuscule taxes already imposed on beer, hard liquor and wine in Wyoming through July 1, 2024. These taxes are paid on top of the state’s existing sales taxes, an amount which, according to a 2007 issue brief from the Legislative Service O...
CASPER — Lawmakers on Monday defeated two controversial bills that would have had significant implications on Wyoming’s elections. The bills — one to eliminate the practice of crossover voting in primary elections, another to combat voter fraud by requiring photo identification at the polls — have received considerable attention since first appearing last fall, inspired by national concerns over voter fraud and the revelation that thousands of voters purposefully switched their party affiliations to participate in the 2018 Republican primari...
CASPER — A company co-owned by two Wyoming legislators is suing its former CEO over the use of a trademark attributed to the blockchain-based agricultural company they founded together. In a complaint filed Aug. 30 in federal court, well-known GOP financier and Wyoming Blockchain Coalition founding member Robert Jennings is accused by his former partners in the company, American Certified Brands LLC, of posing as the owner of a brand owned by the company, BeefChain, in an attempt to damage the company’s reputation after being dismissed fro...
CASPER — This winter, lawmakers voted to allow hemp in Wyoming, hoping the crop will become a boon for the state’s agricultural industry. But farmers will have to wait at least one more growing season before they can plant hemp in Wyoming soil. Submitted to the federal government in spring, Wyoming’s industrial hemp plan was put in motion in the green rush following the legalization of hemp in the 2018 farm bill. Some lawmakers and farmers see the plant as a new economic opportunity. It’s ideally suited for Wyoming as a cool weather crop th...
CASPER — A pair of failed bills from the 2019 general session intended to improve the “integrity” of Wyoming elections will be getting a second look from state lawmakers this interim. The two bills – one to require photo identification at the polls, the other to limit the practice of “crossover voting” in the state’s primary elections – will be reworked by the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions and, potentially, introduced during the 2020 budget session, committee members decided at its M...
CHEYENNE — After a drawn out tug of war between Casper and Buffalo for the recommendation to host a new skilled nursing facility for Wyoming veterans, the Legislature has made its final decision: It’s going to Johnson County. Following weeks of location-changing amendments to a bill authorizing the construction of the facility, the Wyoming Senate — days after switching the location for the fourth time — voted 24-6 on Thursday to build the facility in Buffalo. The switch came shortly after a Senate committee voted to amend the bill — which pas...
