Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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CHEYENNE – In the first weeks of the coronavirus closures, the share of women filing unemployment claims in Wyoming skyrocketed to levels far above historical norms, suggesting women face unique struggles in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. After Gov. Mark Gordon announced a statewide public health emergency March 13, women made up 51.5% of new unemployment claims in Wyoming in the following three weeks, according to data from the state Department of Workforce Services. For perspective, women in Wyoming made up 25.4% of initial claims in t...
EVANSTON — In some exciting news for Uinta County, the Wyoming Department of Health announced on Monday that a large special testing study conducted at the Wyoming State Hospital found no new cases of COVID-19. A Community Protection Initiative Team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently visited WSH as part of a national effort to visit areas with low incidence of the disease to help support infection control efforts and hopefully keep infection rates low. During that visit, the CDC team recommended WSH p...
WORLAND — The Wyoming Department of Health is listing three of Washakie County’s five COVID-19 cases as recovered. The WDH is also listing two recoveries from the three probable cases as well. These figures are as of Tuesday, April 21. The Washakie County Public Health and the COVID Incident Command Team said of the five lab-confirmed cases, two are female and three are male, ranging in age from the 30s to the 80s. The county Incident Command Team reported in the situation report on Tuesday that they have completed 64 tests with 50 neg...
WORLAND – "I've got a 3D printer, and was just looking for ways to help," and help Steve Radabaugh did. With N95 face masks and other materials used to protect against the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in short supply in the Big Horn Basin and around the country, this help was needed. Radabaugh's wife Sarah, a Worland chiropractor, made the first request – for a comfort accessory to the masks. The accessory, as Radabaugh described it, is "the little bands that go on the back of the head to...
WORLAND – When Meg Stark realized that there was a shortage of medical masks in the country, she reckoned the local hospital might need some to help slow the spread of COVID-19. She was right. Along with Sue Howe, Stark organized a group of women at the end of March to sew medical masks for Banner Health Washakie Medical Center, other local agencies and “anybody that wants them,” as Stark explained. By last Thursday, the women had sewn 1,175 masks, with 550 so far going to WMC, hundreds more for the Washakie County and Hot Springs County Public...
The following statement was released by the Town of Jackson and Teton County regarding shed antler hunters. Administrators and public health officials from the Town of Jackson and Teton County, Wyoming are asking anyone who may be coming to this area to look for shed antlers to wait until after the pandemic situation has stabilized. Several State and County health orders and recommendations are currently in place regarding travel from other geographic areas outside of Teton County and the State...
CASPER — Tribal leaders say the coronavirus, which led to the deaths of four Northern Arapaho citizens on Monday, is spreading on the reservation after initially being tied to two family clusters. As of Wednesday, tests had confirmed 51 cases of COVID-19 in the county and on the Wind River Reservation. At least 24 of those cases were among tribal members — who leaders and others say are especially vulnerable to the illness — on the reservation. In addition, Fremont County Public Health Officer Dr. Brian Gee stated during a Wednesday news confe...
No new cases of COVID-19 have surfaced since a staff member at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, the state’s only women’s prison, tested positive, a prison spokesperson said on Tuesday. The agency announced on April 10 that a staff member had tested positive for the disease. Since then, four staff members who had been in contact with the sick staffer came out of quarantine on April 15 without ever showing symptoms of being ill, Wyoming Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Horan told WyoFile on Tuesday. Three inmates have also been quara...
CHEYENNE - Superintendent Jillian Balow issued the following statements on the reopening of schools in the weeks or months ahead: "School districts have implemented their Adapted Learning Plans, approved by the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE). These plans are authorized for use until the end of the school year, if needed. Health orders, including the order for educational institutions, remain in effect. "There are school districts that want to open school buildings to students as soon as p...
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,...
WORLAND - Grateful to be alive, Lory August of Worland, Washakie County's first COVID-19 case, shared her story Friday of her recovery, a day after getting home. After a 16-day stay in the Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital in Thermopolis, August was released to finish her recovery at home in Worland. Her message to everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic, "You can beat this, be positive, you can survive." Lory August has been battling cancer on and off for three years. She has diabetes and a...
WORLAND — Wyoming residents all know about leaning in. When faced with a strong headwind, they lean in to get to where they are going. As COVID-19 impacts the state, Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies and many other funders are leaning in. According to a press release, “We are increasing food distributions across the state, due to the impacts of COVID-19; and we anticipate that hunger will increase in our state and that the need will extend into the future,” said Tony Woodell, director of the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies. Woodell added...
Audio file: DWS Workforce Programs Administrator Holly McKamey Simoni CHEYENNE – The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) has begun issuing Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation to those individuals who are receiving unemployment benefits. This additional $600 per week is being added to unemployment benefits automatically, and qualifying claimants will receive these payments by the middle of next week. Congress passed the CARES Act at the end of March, and DWS has been working diligently to create a system to administer the funds to W...
Two patients recently transferred to the Wyoming State Hospital (WSH) in Evanston have tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH). Both adult females arrived Monday at WSH, a state-run psychiatric facility and part of WDH. They had been transferred from a Casper behavioral health facility that has been at the center of a Natrona County COVID-19 outbreak. One patient remains at WSH; the other is currently being treated at an out-of-state medical hospital. The patients had no...
Compiled from Wyoming News Exchange newspapers Support for the way both Gov. Mark Gordon and local governments are handling the coronavirus is high, according to a survey by the University of Wyoming. The results of the survey by the university’s Survey and Analysis Center were released Thursday as the number of coronavirus cases in the state grew by eight to total 296, with a recovery rate of more than 65%. The survey of 494 Wyoming residents, conducted Monday, is the second on coronavirus-related issues to be conducted by the Survey and A...
State officials working on phased recovery plan to be released next week CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon has thanked the people of Wyoming for their diligence. “You have done what was asked and have helped to flatten the curve,” he said, “We are, and have been open for business.” Wyoming’s existing statewide orders are consistent with “Phase One” of President Trump’s Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, the Governor continued, and will remain in place until April 30. Governor Gordon acknowledged that there remain serious shortages...
CHEYENNE – A large crowd of protesters gathered at the front steps of the Wyoming State Capitol on Monday to demand a full reopening of businesses, schools and other industries that have temporarily closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The rally, one of several that have taken place across the country during the past week, drew more than 100 people. Though a statewide public health order has banned gatherings of 10 or more people, the leaders of the rally obtained an expedited permit from city officials Monday morning to allow them to p...
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