Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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Via Wyoming News Exchange CHEYENNE — The House Appropriations Committee slashed a request for $40 million to fund a 988 hotline trust fund by three-quarters Tuesday morning. “I’m disappointed,” Rep. Jon Conrad, R-Mountain View, said after the meeting. “We worked hard on this.” Conrad was one of several lawmakers listed as co-sponsors of House Bill 186, “988 hotline-appropriation,” which included the request for $40 million in general fund money for the 988 System Trust Fund Account. Instead, House Appropriations voted to allocate $10 million th... Full story
CHEYENNE — Earthquakes were recorded two nights in a row almost exactly 24 hours apart along the Continental Divide in southeastern Wyoming this week. The first incident, a 3.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred at 2:14 a.m. Friday, had an epicenter near Antelope Hills, a rural subdivision between Saratoga and Encampment in Carbon County. Its depth was 15.4 km. Residents in the towns of Saratoga, Encampment and Riverside were within a MMI 3.5 shaking intensity zone, according to the USGS. Laramie was within a third zone, MMI 2.5, in which ... Full story
CHEYENNE - State lawmakers will discuss a wide swath of issues during the 2023 interim, from education to energy and mental health to state revenue. At a Thursday meeting of the Wyoming Legislature's Management Council, all other legislative committees presented interim topics requests to the 10-member board, setting the stage for the 2024 budget session. House Speaker Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, chairman of the Management Council, said most legislative committees should plan to tackle... Full story
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s speaker of the House of Representatives hopes to shine a spotlight on mental health issues across the state, removing “agency silos” through collaboration and common goals. “I think mental health issues in Wyoming, and across America, are incredibly important,” Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, said in a Friday morning interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “We see that with kids in schools, we see that with teachers, we see that in the general public. We see it in our suicide rates in Wyoming.” Wyoming’s legis... Full story
CHEYENNE —Ralph Neider-Westerman is executive director of Wyoming Lifeline, one of two suicide and crisis call centers in the state. He knows what it means to live in a very rural place. He knows exactly why calls made by Wyomingites in crisis must be answered by people in Wyoming. “I answered a call several months ago, and it was from a woman who, as is typical, said she was not suicidal, but she had several things going on,” Neider-Westerman recalled in an interview this week. “She had health issues and other things going on, but then sh... Full story
LARAMIE — Although the framework for a new scholarship program for nontraditional students in Wyoming is now in place, no awards will be made until the state’s endowment fund reaches $50 million. Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that creates the Wyoming’s Tomorrow scholarship program in mid-March. But the Legislature only approved a $10 million allocation to an endowment fund to create the program. Before any money will reach students, the endowment must be grown to $50 million, with an ultimate goal of $100 million. Once that goal... Full story
CHEYENNE — A $2.8 billion 2023-24 biennium budget is headed to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk after approval Monday in the House and Senate. In the House, Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, said that this budget session was the “easiest and least controversial” he’d seen in his eight-year tenure on the Joint Appropriations Committee. “I would commend our folks down the hall,” Nicholas said, referring to state senators. “Whenever we had an issue, typically our process was to come to a compromise and work through it, as opposed to fight.” Nicholas said tha... Full story
LARAMIE — Wyoming state lawmakers spent much of Friday finalizing a redistricting plan to send to the full Legislature that includes 62 representatives and 31 senators. The afternoon was not without tension, especially when discussing how the plan would affect Laramie County. In the morning, the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee voted to create shared districts between Laramie County and both Goshen and Platte counties. That meant changes would be made to the Cheyenne area that Sen. Tara Nethercott, R...
RAWLINS —As temperatures dropped below zero this week, people across Wyoming reported a steep increase in their natural gas bills, with charges $100 or more greater than in the same month of the previous year. “In my neighborhood, there are four or five people all wondering what is happening,” said Cheyenne resident Charlie Hardy, explaining that the charge for natural gas from Black Hills Corp. on his January 2021 statement was $283.71. That jumped to $399.35 for the same time period this year. “All last year, our total gas and electri... Full story