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LARAMIE — While there are no confirmed cases of monkeypox in Wyoming, the virus is spreading elsewhere across the United States. At the same time, the BA.5 subvariant of COVID-19 is now the most dominant in the state. In the third year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, monkeypox now also is raising concern for health officials across the county. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced a public health emergency declaration for the monkeypox outbreak during a press conference Thursday. Nationwide, 6,617 p...
Gordon taps Secy. of State Buchanan as a judge CHEYENNE (WNE) — Gov. Mark Gordon’s office announced Saturday morning that he has appointed Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan to be a district court judge for the 8th Judicial District, serving Goshen County. That has been his home county. Buchanan plans to remain in office for now “to fulfill his forthcoming duties and ensure a smooth transition before taking the bench,” according to a news release from the governor’s office. No timeline for him to assume the judgeship has been determine...
After Gordon certifies trigger bill, abortion will be banned in Wyo. Wednesday JACKSON (WNE) — Abortion will be banned in Wyoming, with narrow exceptions, starting Wednesday, July 27. Gov. Mark Gordon certified Friday the state’s “trigger bill,” which was passed during the 2022 budget session and intended to go into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade. The Supreme Court overturned the 49-year-old precedent on June 24, prompting Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill to review the Wyoming law. Hill said Thursday that th...
JACKSON — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, acting with authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has killed one of Grizzly 399’s offspring that was frequenting human-occupied areas in Sublette County. WyoFile first reported the management action Thursday afternoon. Dan Thompson, Game and Fish’s large carnivore supervisor, told the Jackson Hole Daily that the bear was killed Tuesday after more than a month of conflicts. WyoFile earlier reported that the two-year-old male bear and one of its littermates left Jackson Hole and t...
RAWLINS — More than 30 workers at the local HF Sinclair oil refinery are out of work and 55 more have been put on notice in what the company calls a realignment “to reflect best practices for operational excellence.” The company has confirmed that 32 employees at the refinery in Sinclair were laid off this week and 55 others given their pink slips as of September. The move comes after last year’s acquisition of Sinclair Oil by HollyFrontier and the creation of HF Sinclair. “As a result of the recent acquisition, we are aligning our facilitie...
Man who pulled shotgun on fireworks users bound over GILLETTE (WNE) — The man accused of threatening a group of adults and children with a loaded shotgun because they continued to light off fireworks has been bound over to District Court. Randy A. Stephens, 41, was charged July 1 in Circuit Court with felony aggravated assault and battery and six counts of misdemeanor reckless endangering after allegedly using a shotgun to threaten a group of people setting off fireworks June 30. He waived his preliminary hearing July 7 and was bound over to D...
CASPER — Beneath Wyoming’s surface lies a bounty of resources most of us haven’t thought about since high school chemistry. None of the increasingly sought-after rare earth elements — neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, another dozen lanthanides and a couple of others — are household names. On the periodic table, they’re housed mostly in the block of outliers relegated to the place where Alaska and Hawaii sit on U.S. maps. But many of those elements are household staples. They’re what let smartphones glow and ring and buzz. They make fridges c...
Wyoming Department of Health: state saw 98 abortions in ’21 CODY (WNE) —Nearly 100 women were reported as having received abortions in Wyoming in 2021, according to a recently released report by the Wyoming Department of Health. The 2021 Wyoming Abortion Report was released soon after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering a bill sponsored by a Cody representative to ban nearly all abortions in the state. The report is required to be released by June 30. It records that the Wyoming Department of Health Vital Statistics Ser...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Wildlife Task Force met Thursday to debate six propositions for limited-entry license allocation and its impacts on hunters. These were considered as part of an effort to develop a comprehensive proposal with solutions for license allocation between resident and resident hunters, equity in opportunity for residents to draw licenses in limited quota areas and courses of action to preserve the economic impact to the state following the changes. Along with developing license pool drawings and a waiting period after h...
SHERIDAN — Wyoming’s election district boundaries may have been approved months ago by the Wyoming Legislature, but that doesn’t mean redistricting is no longer a topic of conversation. During a meeting of the Legislature’s Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions committee last week, the committee — which created the initial redistricting plan considered by the Legislature earlier this year — agreed to learn more about a proposal from Rep. Marshall Burt, L-Green River, and Andy Craig of Libertarian think tank The Cato Institute....
GREYBULL — He resides in Buffalo, N.Y., but the victim in last week’s grizzly bear attack near Meeteetse may be more familiar with Wyoming’s high country than just about any other adventurer who hails from the Cowboy State. Barry Olson, a 1971 graduate of Greybull High School, has been coming back to Wyoming every summer for more years than he can count, spending four to seven weeks at a time in his personal quest to reach the top of every 13,000-foot peak in the state. He estimates there are “35 to 36” of them in all and Francs Peak, a 1...
Sublette County Health’s hospital a reality PINEDALE (WNE) — The century-long quest for a hospital in Sublette County is finally a reality. On June 28, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved a $32-million loan application submitted by the Sublette County Hospital District to construct a new critical access hospital. The USDA’s historic decision gives the SCHD the green light to break ground on its proposed 70,000-square-foot hospital facility in Pinedale. In addition to inpatient and emergency room care, the critical access hospital will...
Despite several years and a spate of new laws designed to delay the retirement of coal-fired power generating units, the state may have to press harder to broker a deal that results in a coal carbon capture project, according to some lawmakers. “We’ll see what it’s going to take to make a business deal that will work for everybody — and everybody includes the ratepayers,” Joint Corporations, Elections and Subdivisions Committee member Sen. Charles Scott (R-Casper) said Wednesday morning. Determined to preserve coal-fired power generatio...
POWELL - Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a July 7 ceremony at the White House by longtime friend, U.S. President Joe Biden. "Joe Biden and I have been friends for 55 years and worked together for 18 years," Simpson said in a Tuesday interview. "It's a high honor and I'm touched." The Cody resident served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1965 to 1977 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978. Simpson held several leadership...
CHEYENNE — Views on election integrity in the 2020 presidential election and the actions taken at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, divided the Republican primary candidates for the state’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives during a debate Thursday night. The event was held by WyomingPBS in Sheridan and was co-hosted by journalists Steve Peck, Bob Beck and Stephen Dow. This was the first time all five candidates had been in the same room together to discuss the issues. Aug. 16 is the primary election. All four Republicans who fil...
Park lifts indoor masking as Teton County COVID risk declines JACKSON (WNE) — Grand Teton National Park has lifted its requirement for wearing masks inside park buildings as Teton County’s risk for COVID-19 has declined. After just one week at high risk for COVID, the county is back down to medium, based on a decrease in new COVID-positive hospital admissions. The Teton County Health Department announced the change Friday afternoon, minutes after an emergency Nixle showed a 28.7% decrease in weekly cases. Since June 10, there have been 119 rep...
JACKSON — Barely a week after floods wiped out roads in the northern part of Yellowstone National Park, officials plan to reopen the park’s southern loop Wednesday with a license plate-based system to control the amount of visitors to the park’s southern half. National Park Service Director Charles “Chuck” Sams III also announced Sunday that officials will likely allow access to more than 80% of the park’s roads shortly afterward. “In the next two weeks, we will be opening the northern loop,” Sams told a crowd of reporters Sunday afternoo...
Gordon forms group to examine gas prices PINEDALE (WNE) — Gov. Mark Gordon on June 8 announced the formation of a Gas and Diesel Price Working Group to address rising fuel costs. That working group includes members of the governor’s cabinet, representatives of the transportation and agricultural sectors, citizens and legislators. “Fuel prices have hit yet another high this past week, driving inflation affecting our seniors, veterans and all Wyoming citizens,” Gov. Gordon said in a release. “Yet, all we hear out of Washington, D.C., is that i...
CASPER — Another iconic Yellowstone species is being considered again for Endangered Species Act protections. Threats to the park’s plains bison — including loss of habitat and migration routes as well as the spread of disease — are concerning enough that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a year-long review of the subpopulation’s conservation status, the agency announced Friday. The decision, which was be published in the Federal Register on Monday, comes after a federal judge ruled in January that Fish and Wildlife Service f...
BUFFALO - Michael Rea focused the lens of his microscope, scanning each section of a small dish, sifting through specks and smudges, looking for something. Behind him, Brent and Stephanie Painter monitored his progress on a small, black tablet. The garage was quiet, other than the sound of the wind. Rea shifted in his seat. "It's not looking good," he said to the Painters. They were looking for embryos, and it wasn't going well. The Painters had hired Rea to extract as many embryos as he could...
GILLETTE - May 25 was an exciting day for all students throughout the district: It was the last day of school. At Lakeview Elementary School, 11 students in fourth through sixth grades ran to each classroom while the rest of the classes were out at recess. They left a little note and Lifesaver candy on each student's desk. "We hope you know how important you are to Lakeview," the note read. The 11 students are part of the school's Hope Squad - a group of students selected by their peers to help...
Monsters take over downtown Rock Springs ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — RAAAAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!!! Monsters are taking over downtown Rock Springs this summer. Eight whimsical monsters, created by local artist Kaye Tyler, will take up residency at various locations around downtown throughout the summer. The Broadway Theater will be showing Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures movie Monsters, Inc. at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 2. Following the movie, everyone is invited to go on a scavenger hunt to find each downtown monster. Upon finishing the s...
POWELL - Native fish populations in Yellowstone Lake have been jeopardized since fisheries biologists found lake trout illegally introduced in 1994. The process of removing the invasive species has cost tens of millions, while labor-intensive methods have evolved. As the park makes headway mitigating the effects of lake trout, two more species have recently caused concern in the fight to protect Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. Tuesday evening, the East Yellowstone chapter of Trout Unlimited...
SHERIDAN — During its first substantive meeting of the legislative interim Monday, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee examined current state trespass law as well as possible additions or changes to statute to reflect technological advancements and stakeholders’ needs. Committee members asked Legislative Service Office staff to begin drafting bills related to trespassing on private property while hunting and detailing how drone trespassing and surveillance might be expressly prohibited. The final forms of these bill draft...
Gillette woman, former CCH consultant, ordered to prison and $172K restitution GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette woman and former Campbell County Health public relations consultant, Alexa Kinney, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison and ordered to pay restitution for federal charges related to defrauding multiple victims and making false claims to the Internal Revenue Service. She was sentenced Thursday in Casper before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson. Kinney was arrested in October on charges related to fraudulent investment o...