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 […]
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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
Western Wyoming’s big buck country sees slowest hunt in 30 years
ALPINE, Wyo. — Gary Fralick’s calm demeanor shifted to a hustle for the hour that a steady stream of severed heads made their way through his check station on the last Saturday of deer hunting season. The Thayne-based Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist and his colleague, Kelsie Hayes, checked one ungulate deadhead after another. […]
Posted inWyoming
Lakers icon Jerry Buss grew up in Kemmerer. But the town’s done little to honor its famous son.
by Brady Oltmans, WyoFile The high school library is one of the few places in Kemmerer where you’ll find a record of Dr. Jerry Buss. Sitting on the top shelf of a bookcase against the southwest wall, next to a mounted bison head, are yearbooks dating back to 1945. In the 1950 edition, there’s a black […]
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
Up for auction? Could a corner lot in Grand Teton National Park really be developed?
by Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile Uncertainty is swirling around what will become of a square mile of state land within the boundaries of Grand Teton National Park that’s positioned to go to public auction. It’s a common refrain in Jackson Hole and beyond that the best outcome for the 640-acre lot, a tract known as the Kelly […]
Posted inWyoming
Gillette courthouse death ruled suicide, investigation ongoing
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 Tennessee Watson, WyoFile Dennis Green died last month after taking his own […]
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
State lays out case in abortion ban case, seeks to skip trial
This story includes highly summarized arguments from the state’s case for why Wyoming’s two abortion ban laws are constitutional. To read a similarly-shortened version of the plaintiff’s case, go here. New filings show that both parties in the lawsuit over Wyoming’s abortion bans have something in common: They want to skip a trial and get the […]
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
BLM says plan for SW Wyoming won’t restrict recreation. Users still fret.
by Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile ROCK SPRINGS—It’s hard to hear above the din in the hotel ballroom where hundreds of people have gathered to learn about the Bureau of Land Management’s draft plan for 3.6 million acres of southwest Wyoming. Over by the maps displaying special land designation proposals, a gray haired woman pops forward with a […]
Posted inCourt
Corner-crossed landowner hires high-powered appeal attorneys
by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile The Carbon County landowner who lost a civil suit alleging four hunters trespassed by passing through the airspace above his ranch has hired three appeal attorneys, including one who clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh. The three lawyers filed papers in the U.S. Court of Appeals […]
Posted inWyoming
Death in Campbell County Courthouse under investigation
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 Tennessee Watson, WyoFile Anne Collins last heard from her old neighbor Dennis […]
Posted inWyoming
The toxic mystery of Wyoming’s backcountry cyanobacteria blooms
Kelsee Hurshman stepped carefully into the shallows of subalpine Upper Brooks Lake high in the Absaroka Range. The lake bottom was muck, and the water looked nasty — pea soup colored, with a bunch of floating thingies. The green, detritus-filled cove was nothing a healthy person would think of drinking from, but a thirsty dog […]
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
Wyoming’s jails are among the deadliest in the nation for suicide
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 Shane Sanderson, WyoFile Dave Johnson has a simple life. He goes to […]
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 […]
Posted inWyoming
A chunk of Grand Teton Park could go up for auction. Price tag: $62M
by Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile The state of Wyoming has taken a key step toward unloading its last remaining 640 acres locked within the borders of Grand Teton National Park. The land, in the heart of Jackson Hole, could be sold at auction. Progress toward the sale of the so-called Kelly Parcel came late Monday, when the […]
