Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Sorted by date Results 26 - 42 of 42
Dusty Franklin Whitehead, 65, passed away at his home in Worland on April 14, 2020. He was born on June 24, 1954 in Lamar, Colorado to James Hershel Franklin and Viola (Wagley) Whitehead. Cremation has taken place and as per his request there will be no formal service....
CHEYENNE – Gov. Mark Gordon announced Thursday that he will be releasing modifications to the existing public health orders next week to allow more county-by-county flexibility when it comes to reopening certain businesses and public spaces. At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Gordon said the modified orders will run through May 15. The original orders are set to expire April 30. As of Thursday afternoon, there were 332 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 121 probable virus cases and seven deaths from the virus statewide, according to the Wyoming D...
CASPER — Wyoming’s top educator suggested schools may only open to “special populations” for the duration of this school year and that any openings wouldn’t come until after May 15, just a few weeks before districts will wrap up their spring semesters. “Schools are to continue implementing their adaptive learning plans that are good through the end of the school years,” state Superintendent Jillian Balow said at a Thursday news conference, referring to the plans districts drew up to continue to educate their students through closures. “If...
GILLETTE — The Powder River Basin’s coal workforce shrunk by about 6% Thursday with the layoff of 300 workers from three mines. Peabody Energy Corp. employees were informed Thursday that about 170 employees have been laid off from the North Antelope Rochelle mine near Wright in Campbell County. Navajo Transitional Energy Co. also announced 130 layoffs, 73 from its Spring Creek Mine in southern Montana and 57 employees at the Antelope Mine in southern Campbell County. The layoffs represent about 6% of the 4,834 people employed by Powder River Ba...
CHEYENNE – Wyoming will not be making a complete shift to mail-in voting for its August primary, but state election officials, anticipating a jump in absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are preparing to ensure voters have a wide range of options to participate in the process. While states with elections slated for April and May have delayed theirs until later this summer, Wyoming’s primary will continue as scheduled Aug. 18, largely as a result of it falling later in the year. The primary also will not be held entirely via mail-in votin...
Arch Coal loses money on Powder River Basin mines in first quarter GILLETTE (WNE) – Driven by low natural gas prices and “historically weak power markets,” Arch Coal Inc.’s Powder River Basin mines recorded a negative cash flow in the first quarter of 2020, said John Drexler, the company’s incoming COO in a Thursday morning earnings call. An already floundering thermal coal market has been hit again by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further reduced the nation’s consumption of electricity and cut into the demand for thermal coal, he said. De...
CHEYENNE – Since the coronavirus pandemic began in Wyoming, workers in the state have received more than $42 million in Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits from a combination of federal emergency aid and the state UI fund. The majority of this funding has come from the federal government, and specifically from the CARES Act's Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. Payments of those funds began reaching unemployed workers on April 17, and since that time, $22,439,400 has been paid out to Wyoming claimants. Since March 19, a...
During these very difficult and trying times for many families across the state, the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) would like to remind new parents of an option available if they feel too overwhelmed to care for their infant. Wyoming’s Safe Haven Law provides a safe, legal and responsible way for parents who have a baby they may be unable to care for safely. The goal of the Safe Haven Law is to provide a parent of a newborn the legal ability to voluntarily, without repercussions, relinquish their parental rights so the child c...
CHEYENNE - Wyoming will receive $32,562,651, part of about $13.2 billion allocated to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER Fund), authorized under section 18003 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. "We are grateful for these timely funds,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow. “Wyoming education should not go ‘back to normal.’ School districts and schools will utilize ESSER Funds to make schools more nimble and safer in the face of a resurgence or future pandemi...
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon will hold a media briefing at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 28 in the Governor's Ceremonial Conference room in the State Capitol Building. The Governor will be joined by State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist to provide an update on the public health orders set to expire April 30 and to take questions from media on Wyoming’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The media briefing can be viewed live on Wyoming PBS television, the Wyoming PBS' Facebook page and Wyoming PBS YouTube channel....
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon has announced that new public health orders effective May 1 will allow gyms, barber shops, hair salons and other personal care services to reopen under specific operating conditions designed to minimize public health risk from COVID-19. Other parts of the phased approach involve easing restrictions on day cares and issuing guidance to hospitals allowing them to resume elective surgeries. “These new orders start our process of getting this part of Wyoming’s economy up and running again,” Governor Gordon...
JACKSON — People are wearying of the deluge of COVID-19 information and finding some relief, experts say, could involve something as simple as taking a break. “People need to unplug and maybe limit the information they’re looking for,” said Deidre Ashley, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center. Jakob Jensen, a University of Utah professor, has been studying how people have responded around the nation to information about the coronavirus. Seven weeks into his study,...
Rawlins gas prices highest in state RAWLINS (WNE) – Carbon County has some of the highest gas prices in Wyoming, according to price indexing websites, and some residents are starting to question why. “The price of oil is down so far, and yet the price of gas in Rawlins does not reflect that,” Alice Garvin, 78, said. “Gas has been steadily going down since the pandemic started, and I don’t understand why we pay so much here.” A Wyoming native, Garvin has resided in Rawlins all her life and said she can’t remember a time when the disparity in...
TORRINGTON — Greg Knudsen, disgraced and disbarred attorney and former Torrington municipal judge, could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted of a slew of felony sexual assault charges. An investigation by the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation looked into incidents dating back to 2012, leading to three counts of felony sexual assault, each one carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. He is also charged with felony burglary, which carries a 10-year maximum, five misdemeanor counts of stalking, which carry s...
A top financial ratings service has listed western Wyoming gas drillers Ultra Resources and Jonah Energy among issuers of “top bonds of concern” whose securities could face “imminent” default. Fitch Ratings named the two companies that operate in the Pinedale Anticline, Jonah Field and Normally Pressured Lance, or NPL Field in an April 13 report detailing broader energy industry woes. Together the companies provide hundreds of jobs and generate hundreds of million of dollars in tax revenues from Sublette County operations annually. The energy...
RAWLINS - The company creating a massive transmission line project that will run through Carbon County has given notice that it needs more employees to finish one phase. In an April 17 letter from Gateway Transmission project Rod Fisher to Brian Lovett from the Department of Environmental Quality to ask for approval of a new estimated workforce, Fisher notes that the expected workforce is now projected to exceed the originally estimated amount given in Rocky Mountain Power’s initial application. Originally, Fisher and Rocky Mountain Power e...
The Big Horn County Public Health Department released the following statement on their Facebook page confirming their second positive case of the novel coronavirus: On April 29, 2020 the Big Horn County Public Health Department received notification of an individual testing positive for COVID-19. The individual is an adult male. This is the second resident of Big Horn County who has tested positive to date. This case is not related to the previous positive in our county. Investigation reveals the exposure appears to be the result of an out of...