The News Editorial: Another edition of things that make you go hmm

As I write this the Wyoming Legislature is about 30 minutes from officially starting the 2025 General Session and already several bills are making me go hmm, what are they thinking.

First up is a bill I referenced last week regarding fireworks. The bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Harshman (R-HD37, Casper), states “No municipal ordinance shall prohibit or otherwise regulate the use or possession of fireworks between noon and midnight on July 4 of each year if the use or possession would otherwise be permissible under this act unless the prohibition or regulation is part of an open fire ban.”

What happened to local control. Why does the Legislature get to dictate what a mayor and council decide is best for their community?

Per some news reports the Palisades wildfire in California is being investigated as possibly reigniting from an earlier fireworks-caused fire during New Year’s Eve. If that does not raise some red flags I do not know what will.

The Legislature should heed their own cries to Washington, D.C. and realize the best decisions are made at the local level. Legislators around the state and gathering in Cheyenne should not dictate what we do here in Worland, or in Ten Sleep, or Thermopolis, or any other community.

Decisions such as fireworks need to be made at the local level, let’s hope the rest of the legislators agree with us before this bill goes too far in the session.

Speaking of local control, let us talk about Senate File 90 regarding youth organizations in school. The bill would require school districts to allow participation of youth patriotic organizations. They define youth patriotic organizations as serving those under the age of 21, having an education purpose, promoting patriotism and civic involvement and that is a 4-H club or an organization listed under specific federal code including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boy Scouts of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Civil Air Patrol, FFA, Girl Scouts, Marine Corps and/or Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

Again, why does the Legislature get to dictate to our local school boards what type of organizations they allow or do not allow?

Another bill that has me going hmm, and is also sponsored by Harshman, would allocate $80,000 for a task force to look into a “Monument to America,” for the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Do not get me wrong, I am all for supporting that anniversary, but $80,000 ($40,000 for salary, per diem and mileage for two legislators of the task force and another $40,000 for salary, per diem and mileage for two non-legislative task force members). That seems like a lot of money, not to mention how much money the state will spend on this monument. The monument, per the bill will be “similar in size and scope to the Mount Rushmore National Monument and shall feature important historical American figures as recommended by the task force including Native American leaders.” The leaders should be from 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, per the bill.

Can’t you just wait for that debate over who to include or not include.

My guess is this bill was drafted under the idea of “if you’re going to dream, dream big” but dreaming with taxpayer money should be realistic and take into account Wyoming has boom and bust cycles.

More interesting is the fact that the task force report is due on July 4, 2026. So we will have a report, but not a monument, in time for the country’s 250th celebration of independence. This deserves more of a HUH than a hmm.

And two things unrelated to the Legislature that makes me go hmm.

The first is whether I am visiting with someone or seeing posts from people online, it amazes me that people complain about things that they did not know when that exact issue or event was reported in this newspaper. When asked the usual comment is they do not read the newspaper.

Here’s the thing, if you do not want to invest in reading your local newspaper to find out what is happening in your community and when, do not complain about not knowing.

Also, many were upset about Facebook backing off of their fact checking. If you are on Facebook you know certain things were getting fact checked but most posts are never fact checked. I have remarked many times that trying to correct people’s posts would be a full-time, more than 80-hour a week job. It is literally impossible.

One story quoted someone as saying they were worried about getting the correct information without fact checking. This is a more shaking my head moment than hmm.

You should not be depending on social media, i.e. Facebook and people’s memes or posts for your official news sources. You should be looking at legitimate news media pages for legitimate, fact-based news.

All you have to do is look at last summer and the number of people who shared the Casper Planet (satire site) story about a shipment of king cobras that overturned on Interstate 25.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol had to actually issue an official response and let people know this is a satire site and the story is not true and people were upset.

Do not be upset if you do not take the time to vet your news information and where you are getting your information. If you go to the Casper Planet’s Facebook page it states, “Delivering the Snews that doesn’t matter directly to your Snews feed. Did we say this is satire? Well it is, names/locations are made up.”

You have to do that on your own. Do not make others do this for you.

That’s it for this edition of things that make you hmm, huh and smh.