Posted inEnergy

‘Wyoming is watching’ as historic electric rate hike hearing begins this week

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile A 21.6% electric rate hike request panned by customers and politicians as an unjustified threat to households and the state’s economy will be scrutinized beginning Wednesday at a multi-day, court-like hearing before the Wyoming Public Service Commission. The high-profile and historic rate hike from Rocky Mountain Power — the largest proposed increase […]

Posted inHealth

Doctors reject ‘excited delirium’ yet it’s still used to explain in-custody deaths

Brooks Walsh hadn’t questioned whether “excited delirium syndrome” was a legitimate medical diagnosis before the high-profile police killings of Elijah McClain in Colorado in 2019 and George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020. The emergency physician in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was familiar with the term from treating patients who were so severely agitated and combative that they needed medication […]

Posted inWyoming

Wyoming 988 suicide hotline is performing well. But it faces a fiscal cliff.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of harming themselves, please call 911. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text “WYO” to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line. by Madelyn Beck, WyoFile CASPER—Katrina Ferrell helps people in crisis.  As program coordinator […]

Posted inWyoming

Construction boom, labor and housing challenges loom in SW Wyoming

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile Four years ago, southwest Wyoming was reeling from energy industry layoffs, anticipating further economic challenges and wondering how to prevent an all-out youth exodus. Today, anxieties remain high, but for very different, and many say better, reasons. At least five major industrial projects appear imminent, thanks in large part to an influx of […]

Posted inWyoming

Sorority sisters hire big-name appeals lawyers for potentially unappealable ruling

The six students who sued a University of Wyoming sorority for admitting a transgender woman cannot appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss the case. That’s according to attorneys for Kappa Kappa Gamma, who filed a motion to dismiss in a federal appeals court this week.  Meanwhile, the plaintiffs appear to be anticipating a long legal battle. According […]

Posted inWyoming

Lawmakers to local authorities: Don’t enforce federal land policies

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile A legislative committee will draft a measure to prohibit state and local authorities from aiding or cooperating with federal land management agencies “when they pursue policies which harm Wyoming’s core interests.”  The move is in response to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s draft plan for managing 3.6 million acres of federal […]

Posted inWyoming

Overdose prevention in Wyoming boosted by $2 million from CDC

Money to combat the nation’s opioid crisis continues to flow into Wyoming, recently in the form of $1.95 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s on top of the millions the state’s receiving via opioid settlements with companies accused of contributing to the crisis.  The CDC funding from the Overdose Data to Action initiative, which […]

Posted inWyoming

Wyoming sides with industry, OKs ‘Path of the Pronghorn’ lease as-is

The fluid mineral industry’s immense influence in Wyoming was on full display Thursday as the state’s top five elected officials finalized a controversial gas lease in the pinch point of a world-famous pronghorn migration path without the wildlife protections requested by two state agencies.   At issue was “Parcel 194,” a 640-acre tract of state school […]

Posted inEnergy

Wyoming passes up federal funds to voluntarily close oil and gas wells

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile Gov. Mark Gordon announced this week the state will decline an invitation to apply for millions in federal Inflation Reduction Act funds aimed at shuttering low-producing oil and gas wells. The Mitigating Emissions from Marginal Conventional Wells program would pay the costs of voluntarily closing and remediating wells that produce less than the equivalent […]

Posted inWyoming

As demand soars for property tax relief, lawmakers look to grow refund program

by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile After a record number of Wyoming residents used the state’s property tax refund program this summer, the Legislature is considering expanding the initiative again to increase financial relief and reach even more taxpayers.  As residential property values have risen, so have property taxes. Counties like Sheridan, Teton and Park have jumped higher than […]

Posted inWyoming

‘Conservation’ proposal for SW Wyoming would limit large energy projects

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile Undeveloped areas will be largely off-limits to industrial-scale energy projects — be they fossil fuels, trona, hard minerals, wind, solar or a combination — under the Bureau of Land Management’s preferred “conservation” scenario for managing 3.5 million acres of federal land in southwest Wyoming, some observers say. That’s primarily because the BLM’s […]

Posted inWyoming

Plaintiffs fighting to keep abortion legal rebuff Wyoming’s call to oust experts

by Madelyn Beck, WyoFile Expert witnesses should be allowed in the case over Wyoming’s abortion bans because their statements bolster claims of unconstitutionality, plaintiffs challenging the laws argued in a recent filing.  The plaintiffs — who include women, doctors, a clinic and an advocacy organization — pointed to findings the 9th District Court in Teton County […]