News

Wyoming Attorney General Greg Phillips appeared before a U-S Senate committee Tuesday to discuss his nomination to the tenth circuit court of appeals.  

Phillips, a Democrat, was nominated by President Barack Obama.  During his confirmation hearing, U-S Senator Mike Enzi said that Phillips is well thought of.             

As part of the National Kick Butts day, Wyoming Prevention Management Organization of Sublette County will hold an educational fair at the Pinedale Recreation & Aquatic Center to educate the community about the harmful effects of smoking. 

The National Rifle Association and Safari Club International are blaming wolves for bringing down the quality of big-game hunting in northwestern Wyoming.
 
     The hunting groups are pushing to intervene in lawsuits pending in federal courts in Washington D.C. and Wyoming. The groups want to oppose environmental groups' push to reinstate federal protections for wolves in Wyoming.
 

Wyoming’s unemployment rate held steady from December to January, according to the latest numbers from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.

At 4.9 percent, Wyoming’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is well below the national average of almost 8 percent. The state’s rate is also slightly lower than in January 2012.

Unemployment rates jumped more than one percent in Washakie and Johnson counties across the construction, retail and leisure sectors in January.

University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension is working to educate ag producers about how to set up their own Community Supported Agriculture operations, or CSAs.

The President wants to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour.  Wyoming’s congressional delegation quickly opposed the idea, saying it will force Wyoming’s small business community to hire and retain fewer workers.   But the U-S Labor Department’s Seth Harris says his office has studied minimum wage hikes extensively and he says such an increase would help the economy, not hurt it.

Wyoming is getting more money from the federal government to improve its lowest-achieving schools.
 
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today that Wyoming will get $1.1 million in 2013. It's the third year the state has gotten a grant from the department's School Improvement Grant Program.

An interim legislative committee is planning to study Wyoming's beer and liquor tax this summer.

Wyoming's 2-cents-per-gallon tax on malt beverages is the lowest in the nation. It has remained unchanged since it was first passed in 1935, about a year after Prohibition was repealed.

The study is among several tax studies assigned to the Joint Interim Revenue Committee this summer and fall.

The jail on the Wind River Indian Reservation is being renovated, and while it’s under construction people brought in for minor offenses are let go with a notice to appear in court instead of being held like they normally would be. Minor offenses are mostly alcohol related, like public intoxication, simple assault, trespassing, and disturbing the peace. 

Chief Judge of the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court, John St. Clair, says only about 10% of people who are issued a notice to appear actually appear.

Grand Teton National Park and Trout Unlimited are partnering to demolish a dam near Kelly, WY, which will restore access to the  Gros Ventre Watershed for spawning trout and non-game fish.

The Newbold Dam was once used for irrigation, but the park’s public affairs officer, Jackie Skaggs says the structure is now obsolete, and removing it will help the park.

“In the long run it saves us money in maintenance for a structure that is no longer needed, is no longer used, but greatly benefits fish and fish habitats,” said Skaggs.

A Federal appeals court recently ruled that the Bureau of Land management did not do a thorough job in determining the effects of some oil and gas leases sold between 2005 and 2010 in Wyoming and Utah. 

The ruling backed up an Interior Department decision that was objected to by industry groups who argued that leases are supposed to be issued promptly after an auction.  Environmental groups joined the lawsuit.  Earthjustice Attorney Melanie Kay says the ruling was common sense.                       

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department plans to remove non-native fish from a stream in the Bighorn National Forest, in order to restore a native fish that has nearly died out.

The agency would use a chemical to kill off brook trout and then re-stock the stream with Yellowstone cut-throat trout, which are native to Wyoming.

The Department of Environmental Quality is considering new regulations for the energy industry in Sublette County, in order to address the ozone problem there.

Ozone is a component in smog and can lead to health problems. In Sublette County, it’s caused by emissions from the oil and gas industry.

DEQ’s air quality administrator, Steve Dietrich, says one area they want to focus on is older production equipment that predates the current emissions rules. 

The effects of automatic spending cuts or sequestration are being felt in the Cowboy State. Because of the automatic spending cuts Yellowstone has been forced to cut 1.75 million dollars from their operating budget. That has caused Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk to delay plowing operations within the park, a move that has upset some gateway communities and caused others to find a solution. Cody officials have been working hard to find a way to open the East Gate on time despite the federal government. From Cody David Koch has more

A small corner of southeast Wyoming sits over the Ogallala Aquifer. The Ogallala is a huge aquifer that stretches from Wyoming and Nebraska all the way to Texas. It’s a key source of water for agriculture, but it’s being depleted faster than it can recharge. So the Natural Resources Conservation Service is trying to help save it. Here in Wyoming, they’re doing that by encouraging farmers to give up their water rights. Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports.

Social workers play a big role in Wyoming and the month of March honors their work. Kimberly Harper is the Executive Director of the National Association of Social workers.  She tells Bob Beck that like a lot of organizations, they are dealing with budget cuts.

When we talk about domestic violence, we usually focus on the perpetrators and the victims. But children in abusive families are also deeply affected. We’re joined now by Haylee Reay. She’s a sophomore at UW, and her father killed her mother.

The 13th Joe Pickett novel by Wyoming author C.J. Box has hit the stores.  Box is both a bestselling and award winning author for both his Joe Pickett series which surrounds the trials and tribulations of a Wyoming game warden and for three additional novels.  Box says he writes a book and a half a year.  He joins us to discuss the latest novel Breaking Point, but also reflects on his career.  Box tells Bob Beck that it took awhile before he had success as a writer.

LuLing Osofsky graduated from UW’s Master of Fine Arts program in writing. She frequently wrote about feeling displaced – both culturally and geographically – when she came to Wyoming. In this essay, she writes about international students celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi on UW’s campus. Holi celebrates the coming of spring and the colors that it spring brings. This year it will be celebrated on March 27th.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has released a strategy that includes regulations and voluntary recommendations to address Ozone problems in the Upper Green River Basin in western Wyoming. 

The goal is to keep ozone from exceeding recommended levels.  D-E-Q Air Quality Administrator Steve Dietrich said that the idea is to try and address problems before they start, noting that much of the focus will be on precursor emissions, or emissions that can cause ozone to reach non-attainment. 

Wild horse advocates say a proposed natural gas project in south-central Wyoming could negatively affect herds in the area.

The Continental Divide-Creston project would drill 9,000 new wells near Wamsutter, and Suzanne Roy with the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign says much of the land is home to wild horses.

The Cody Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise 50 thousand dollars to be used to pay for snow plows to clear off the east entrance into Yellowstone National Park. 

Park officials have said they needed to delay the plowing due to federal budget cuts and that would likely mean delaying the opening of Yellowstone by two weeks.   Chamber Director Scott Balyo says it’s a serious issue for the Cody business community.

The Casper Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) will be unveiling a new 25-year transportation plan for Casper and the surrounding communities, later this month. Plan organizers will be looking for public input from residents and businesses at several public meetings throughout the next year.

MPO planner, Sally Kerpchar, says the plan covers the new highway bill, plus much more. 

“The long range transportation plan looks at absolutely every mode of travel—anything that moves people or goods, it looks at,” said Kerpchar.

A district judge in Cheyenne says he will rule in a week whether to restore the powers and duties recently taken away from state schools Superintendent Cindy Hill.
 
  Judge Thomas Campbell heard more than two hours of testimony and arguments Thursday in Hill's lawsuit challenging a new law that removed her as head of the Wyoming Education Department.
 
  

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead has signed a lottery bill into law.            

The Governor’s approval means that Wyoming can either form its own state lottery or enter into a multi-state lottery on July first. 

A C-E-O and a nine member board will oversee the lottery.  Mead said last week that he was weighing the pros and cons of the lottery, but ultimately decided to sign the bill to keep Wyoming residents from driving to other states to purchase lottery tickets.  Mead says he wants to keep those dollars in Wyoming. 

The National Park Service and the Game and Fish Department changed regulations for hunting elk in Grand Teton National Park. Part of the reason for these changes is to avoid contact between hunters and grizzly bears.

Last year a hunter participating in the annual elk reduction program shot and killed a grizzly in the park. In 2011, a grizzly mauled a hunter. Both encounters involved bears protecting animal carcasses.

Next month the Casper City Council will vote to remove or change the city’s smoking ban.  At the very least, councilors are considering exempting bars, health care facilities, and private clubs from the ban. 

The smoking ban was implanted last summer. 

Anna Edwards of the group Smokefree Natrona County says her group will fight to keep the ban in place.  She says they are trying to protect the health of a lot of people, including employees.

Seismic exploration company, GeoKinetics, has been fined for failing to properly reclaim land damaged during work it did with Fidelity Exploration and Production Company in southeast Wyoming.

Last May, the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued a fine for $20,000 for damages to ranchers’ land, but half of it was suspended pending successful reclamation. Now the remaining $10,000 has been re-imposed by the Commission.

Wyoming Cowboy’s Men’s Basketball beat Nevada 85-81 in the first round of the Mountain West Championships in Las Vegas last night.

Although the Pokes were down by four in the first half, they made a strong showing in the second, at one point holding a double-digit lead. Sophomore forward Larry Nance led the Cowboys with 19 points. 

Wyoming now advances to the quarterfinals where they’ll face number-one seed, New Mexico, at 7:30 tonight.

Federal budget cuts are causing schools on the Wind River Indian Reservation to tighten their belts.

Wyoming provides funding to all public schools in the state, but 10 districts – including several on the reservation – also receive money from the federal Impact Aid program.  That supplements funding to school districts that include federal land that is not subject to property taxes.