Wyoming
updated
10:02 p.m.
Contains only posts that are ID'd as local content. An explanation. Want to help improve our local content filter? Add keywords here.
This list goes a long way toward explaining some of the more extreme laws proposed in this session of the Wyoming Legislature (last year's session, too). This is an updated list to the one we ran in August 2011. Thanks to Larry Kurtz at Interested Party for the update: ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed d...
Hummingbird Minds - 8:29 p.m. - 3 clicks 
Here's a copy of the letter to the editor Cheyenne’s Ken McCauley submitted to the WTE yesterday. It concerns the mandatory drug-testing (aka “punish the poor”) bill making its way through the Wyoming House: Last week several legislators introduced a bill to require drug testing of needy families participating in the (Power Program). The bill was introduced by the sponsor as a state ...
Hummingbird Minds - 7:03 a.m. - 8 clicks
Drinking Liberally convenes in Cheyenne on Thursday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m.-to-whenever, upstairs at Uncle Charlie's Tavern on Yellowstone Blvd. Drink Liberally. Speak Liberally about the strangeness (thus far) in the Legislative session. Talk to Dem issue lobbyists. Have fun. Open to all. ...
Hummingbird Minds - Tue 6:23 p.m. - 8 clicks
Wyoming ACLU tracking anti-choice bill in Wyoming House. The right-wing whackadoodles are at it again. Read more at http://acluwyomingchapter.blogspot.com/2012/02/action-needed ...
Hummingbird Minds - Tue 5:48 p.m. - 9 clicks
From Robert Vernon-Kubichek, Obama for America/Wyoming: We are going to be holding our first volunteer leader training online Sunday, February 26 , at 3pm. Essentially this will be an opportunity for those of you who are interested in taking a leadership role in your communities to hop on and learn about setting goals in Dashboard, running your own team meetings, even...
Hummingbird Minds - Tue 6:44 a.m. - 9 clicks
From Linda Stowers: Don't forget that the Laramie County Democrats meet tonight. Gumbo and King Cake at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting at 7. We will be discussing the upcoming Legislative Reception, the Coalition fundraiser in March, the County Convention in April, and others. Come join us at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) hall, 810 Fremont St., Cheyenne. FMI...
Hummingbird Minds - Mon 1:26 p.m. - 12 clicks
Rev. Joe Bair of Douglas has a fine letter in today’s Casper Star-Tribune . It addresses the “punish the poor” bill advanced by the Wyoming House last week. HB 82 stipulates drug-testing for state welfare recipients. These laws are not really about drug use. Let's call it what it is: picking on the disempowered for the sake of garnering a couple of votes. It's bad public policy, it's crue...
Hummingbird Minds - Mon 12:27 p.m. - 13 clicks
The upcoming week in Cheyenne is filled with events. But there’s one on Friday that you shouldn’t miss. Lyndsay McCandless, director of the Wyoming Arts Alliance, sends this info: The Wyoming Arts Alliance in partnership with the Wyoming Arts Council invites you to join us for the “Arts Advocacy Luncheon for Legislators” on Friday, February 24, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., in the Her...
Hummingbird Minds - Mon 9:02 a.m. - 11 clicks
New West Art Show at the Hynds 1602 Capitol Avenue Cheyenne. Featuring the work of 15 artists. Rachael Eastman,Don Hendricksen,Terry Kreuzer,Phillippa K. Lack, Edward Marron, Mike McIntosh, Lynn Newman, Sally Newman, Connie Norman,Do Palma, Win Ratz, Jennifer Rife, Kevin Robinett, Georgia Rowswell, Laurel Shelley-Ruess . Public reception this Wednesday February 22 from 5:30 till 7:3...
Hummingbird Minds - Sat 3:05 p.m. - 12 clicks
The Wyoming Republican Party is reporting straw poll results on Facebook . Here are the results for Laramie County: Santorum 66, Romney 55, Gingrich 6. No votes for Ron Paul in Libertarian-leaning Wyoming? Santorum whips Romney in heavily-Mormon Wyoming? I can only assume that Laramie County Republicans heart Santorum's anti-birth control, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-public educ...
Hummingbird Minds - Sat 10:43 a.m. - 10 clicks
The Wyoming Public Employees Association reports this today: HB91, sponsored by Representative Pedersen, a bill to change the Retirement System to a Defined Contribution program, failed to collect the required 2/3 votes of the House members today. The final vote count was 30 ayes and 30 noes; a no vote was the correct vote as it killed the bill. So, the bill sponsored by...
Hummingbird Minds - Sat 9:04 a.m. - 11 clicks
Gary Snyder, who's given Mother Nature a voice for decades, will be reading from his work March 13-14 in Jackson. Teton County's a bit too far for a jaunt to see Gary, but it's good to know that he's visiting our fair state, energy colony to the nation. Here's some background on his Wyoming visit: Get free tickets to “Page to the Podium: Gary Snyder” beginning...
Hummingbird Minds - Fri 8:05 p.m. - 11 clicks
Teton County, Wyoming, billionaire Foster Friess, a member in good standing of the 1% and one of right-wing wacko Rick Santorum's largest funders, wants women to keep their legs -- and mouths -- shut. Yesterday he said , This contraceptive thing, my gosh it's such inexpensive, back in my days we used Bayer aspirin for contraception, the gals put it between their knees and it w...
Hummingbird Minds - Fri 7:26 p.m. - 12 clicks
For the most part, Wyoming fares poorly in children's health care. It's not Alabama-bad, but statistics provided by national organizations regularly put us somewhere in the middle of the pack. This would seem to run counter to Wyoming's status as one of the few states that prospered economically during the past decade. The latest Wyoming Kids Count data report ranks ...
Hummingbird Minds - Thu 5:47 p.m. - 13 clicks
No, this isn't just another batch of Zombie energy company lobbyists. They are Zombies though, gathered in front of the State Capitol during the annual Legislative session. This was a flash occupation (note the upside-down "We are the 99%" sign) to promote a new movie being filmed in Wyoming. "From the Trailer to the Grave" is an all-Wyoming production, a "Redneck Zombie Romantic Come...
Hummingbird Minds - Thu 5:47 p.m. - 17 clicks
Fringe elements of the Wyoming State Legislature are trying to replace the state’s very successful pension system with a defined contribution plan or 401(k). One doesn’t have to be paranoid to suspect that this is in line with the current conservative meme that public workers are blood-sucking leeches on the body politic. We have seen this approach used to deadly effect in Wisconsin and Ohio and ...
Hummingbird Minds - Feb 15 - 14 clicks
Grand openings are scheduled next week for two new beverage-oriented businesses in downtown Cheyenne. The Freedom’s Edge Brewery opens on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Historic Tivoli Building. According to a recent article in the Casper Star-Tribune , Freedom’s Edge will open with eight beers on tap, from a stout to a pale ale. Owner Tim Moore has been a home brewer for...
Hummingbird Minds - Feb 15 - 10 clicks
The 2012 Wyoming Poetry Out Loud state competition will take place March 5-6 in Cheyenne. Sixteen student competitors and their teachers are expected, the largest slate for the Wyoming competition since its inception in 2006. Out-of-state guest judge this year is James Coppoc. Coppoc, a poet, spoken-word artist and musician from Ames, Iowa, teaches English and American Studies at Io...
Hummingbird Minds - Feb 14
This press release comes from the Wyoming Democratic Party . We can expect more of this type of anti-worker legislation from the Tea Party wing of the Wyoming Republicans. It duplicates anti-worker legislation seen in legislatures across the country and promoted by the Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Get more info on ALEC here . Here's the Wyoming Democ...
Hummingbird Minds - Feb 14 - 4 clicks
Invitation from Bob Vernon-Kubichek, Wyoming State Director of Obama for America: I wanted to cue you all in about a training event we will be holding Wednesday, February 22. It will start at 6:15 p.m. at the Laramie County Library in the Cottonwood room. The event is going to be an introductory training on building a strong neighborhood team in Cheyenne, an...
Hummingbird Minds - Feb 13
If you live in town as I do, Sundays are generally quiet: anyone with a camper, boat, or motorhome has left town for the cool mountains, lakes, or reservoirs, with ATVs, dirt bikes, or kayaks strapped on anywhere they'll fit. We're a vehicle-heavy culture. Houses are mostly small where I live, and wouldn't even count as garages in one of those episodes on HTV. Even mobile homes will have some ki...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
An excerpt from Chapter 4 in my book Some People Who Wander Are Lost June 10 The RV park is empty except for two motor homes that are staying over and three stragglers like myself. The sun is hot and high, the horizon treeless. “Say, you’ve got Wyoming plates. What’s the road like to Casper?” It’s a little man in a powder blue shirt, double knit pants and a yellow golf...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
Our roundtable session Oct. 29 at the John R. Milton Writers' Conference at the University of South Dakota was entitled, “Snarky Slacktivists or Online Outlaws?: Leftie Bloggers in Red State Wyoming.” Presenters were Michael Shay (me), hummingbirdminds prop.; Jeran Artery, author and editor of Out in Wyoming ; and Meg Lanker-Simons, the power behind Cognitive Dissonance . The fourth member...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
Tar sands and oil-bearing shale lurk under the surface in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, and at least one company has plans to extract them from state-owned lands near Arches National Park. Now the Bureau of Land Management seeks to hold public meetings and solicit public comment on an expanded plan for extraction from federally owned public lands. Urgent to Salt Lake City : the first meeting i...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6 - 2 clicks
Railroaders, electricians, state employees, teachers, construction workers, students, artists, a contingent from Occupy Fort Collins (CO), retirees and at least one minister gathered together for the "We are the 99%" rally today in Cheyenne. ...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
Clean energy proponents and policymakers have recently become interested in so-called “rare earths.” These are 15 elements known as lanthanoids in the periodic table, plus scandium and yttrium; uses include wind turbines and hybrid car batteries . Despite the name, they’re not truly rare. Much ado is being made over the fact that China presently controls 97% of the world’s rare earths, an...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
Interesting report from Reuters : A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as "shell" companies, paper entities able to hide assets. More than 2000 corporations are registered at tha...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
In April of 2007, I posted a diary in Feminisms, a now-defunct and sorely missed series concerned with women’s issues. The posting was about a friend of mine, Dawn, who after a short lifetime of bad luck and social malady, shot her boyfriend to death and was sentenced to 45 years in the state women’s prison. At the time of the diary I had been out of touch with Dawn for several years and so of c...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
I'm not changing the title. Each diary is new, and I think a set title helps people find a blog - there are so many. "Life" refers to my life, and I doubt if adding "my" would change anything, AND I live in Wyoming. My "paradigm" should you wish to call it that, is based on an integrated p.o.v. That is, I'm not religious or political, therefore those belief systems have much less influence on ...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
two newsworthy votes this week. The Wyoming legislature is 84% republican. First they voted down an anti-abortion bill. Then they voted down a bill banning gay marriage/civil unions. The votes seemed to be expressions of conservatism with a small c. They said they wanted to limit the role of government in two very private parts of people's lives. Visit msnbc.com for breaking n...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6 - 2 clicks
A lot of Kossacks and probably even more people of Wyoming will be unsurprised by the recent findings of the EPA. For those of us here in Oklahoma, it's probably too late, but those of you who live in eastern states where hydraulic fracturing is just getting underway, should sit up and take notice Abrahm Lustgarden for ProPublica reports: A pair of environmental monitoring wells dril...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
An exerpt from Chapter 2 in my book, Some People Who Wander Are Lost. March 18 Elevation 8640; information courtesy of the Wyoming Department of Transportation. I’m driving to Laramie because it’s Saturday morning and I own a new truck. The brief and bouncy storm that bestowed rain on Cheyenne last night dropped snow in the hills twenty miles to the west. The wind picks up the crystals and...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
No freaking way! That stuff does get into the Ground Water -- What about all these heart and flowers PSA's , we've been forced to watch on the TV, promising us how fracking safe, Fracking is? Busted! Fracking Chemical Found in Wyoming Water Supply by Tina Casey, cleantechnica.com -- Nov 13, 2011 The U.S. EPA has just released test results indicating that at least one comm...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
For any who may be reading this series for the first time : this is a thought experiment where I try to see what would happen if the size of the House of Representatives were doubled to 870 members from 435. And yes , I know Republicans have the trifecta. This entire series is theoretical to begin with, gimme a break. Ohhhhhhhhhhhk! La-homa where the wind comes sweeping down the plain! And t...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
When the first American explorers and fur traders began to move out onto the Northern Plains following the Corps of Discovery (i.e. Lewis and Clark) in the early nineteenth century, they encountered the tribe they came to call the Crow hunting in Montana and Wyoming. At this time, the Crow were horse-mounted buffalo hunters with a good understanding of the ecology of the country. However, like m...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
I find this to be a little more fun than generic redistricting: Canada-style, for those who don't know or remember, is a form of redistricting started at Swing State Project modeled after the Canada form of Congressional districts, called ridings. The two big differences are they have names instead of numbers, and are much (much) smaller, at 110,000. So a state that would only get 1 congressiona...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Feb 6
I attended the second General Assembly for Occupy Cheyenne Monday night. We met outside in the parking lot of a city park. Temp hovered around freezing but thankfully the wind was not blowing. By the light of of city lamps and T's flashlight (somebody came prepared), we spoke about next steps. ...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Nov 23
I've taught in high schools and middle schools for 22 years, and I think I'm qualified to render a judgment in this case: this football coach and guidance counselor isn't fit to be around young people, and probably isn't fit to associate with human beings of any variety whatsoever. But he's still providing "guidance" to the young men and women of his school, even after spewing some of the most o...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Nov 14
Author, entomologist and University of Wyoming Professor Jeffrey Lockwood writes this week in WyoFile about the collision between art and energy policy in Wyoming. ...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Nov 12
As the country awaits results from a nationwide safety study on the natural gas drilling process of fracking, a separate government investigation into contamination in a place where residents have long complained that drilling fouled their water has turned up alarming levels of underground pollution. A pair of environmental monitoring wells drilled deep into an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., con...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Nov 10
On a sunny Saturday in Wyoming's capital city, a group of some 90 people came out for Occupy Cheyenne . It was spurred on by several Facebook pages, a Twitter hashtag, a handful of local prog-blogs, a notice in the weekly shopper newspaper, and word of mouth. ...
DailyKos (Wyoming) - Oct 16
