Free Republic

Same-sex couples will have to wait until Tuesday before they can get married in Wyoming. Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael says the state will notify a federal court at 10 a.m. Tuesday that it won't appeal last Friday's ruling that struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled last Friday that the state must permit same-sex marriage, but he issued a stay until this Thursday in order to allow time for the state to appeal. Skavdahl said his ruling will take effect immediately if the state files paperwork saying it will not appeal.

Gay couples in Wyoming will soon be allowed to marry after a federal judge on Friday struck down a state ban on same-sex nuptials and defendants in the case, including Gov. Matt Mead, announced they will not appeal. "I’ve never been prouder to be a Wyomingite," said Jeran Artery, who led the fight to legalize gay marriage through his work with Wyoming Unites for Marriage and Wyoming Equality. Gay couples are expected to start marrying in the next week. Some visited county clerk's offices Friday to begin the paperwork for marriage licenses. Other couples are relishing the thought that their...

A jaunt on a stolen train Thursday ended in a crash and possible federal felony charges for the 22-year-old driver. Derek Skyler Brux was charged Friday with reckless endangering, felony destruction of property and felony destruction, obstruction or removal of railroad track or fixtures after allegedly stealing a train from North Antelope Rochelle mine and driving it south 13 miles before plowing it into another train. Deputies were called out to the mine at about 8:55 a.m. Thursday. The incident started when Brux, a utility coal operation for Rail Link, allegedly became upset about his supervisor's response to working conditions,...

A Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage in five states reverberated further on Thursday, with the attorney general of West Virginia conceding that its ban on same-sex marriage was no longer defensible but South Carolina officials vowing to keep fighting to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. Since the Supreme Court decision on Monday and a ruling from a federal circuit court on Tuesday, new developments have appeared almost hourly as gay-rights advocates press for action in nine other states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Casper, WY - Young children in Wyoming are not allowed to speak their first language of English in the classroom. Officials said it's part of a new program designed to help them speak Spanish. It's the first program of its kind in Wyoming's history. The students, whom are ages 5 and 6, speak English for half the day, then switch for the other half.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued a statement Tuesday saying that he expects the state to seek a stay of Jackson’s decision. He said the state will seek an emergency rule from the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow continued state wolf management. ... Wyoming took over wolf management in late 2012 after the federal government ruled that wolves no longer needed protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

(Reuters) - One of four workers hurt in a storage tank fire on Tuesday at an EOG Resources Inc natural gas production facility in Wyoming has died, the company said on Wednesday. The man who died was one of two contract workers who, with two EOG employees, were cleaning the tank when the fire ignited on Tuesday afternoon, said Houston-based EOG Resources spokeswoman K Leonard. "The tank stores natural gas, and was undergoing cleaning when the explosion occurred," the Lincoln County Homeland Security & Emergency Management said in a statement. Leonard said the site south of La Barge, Wyoming, contains...

Wyoming Considers Steps to Assist Its New Refugees State Weighs Creating a Resettlement Program Dan Frosch Sept. 21, CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Draped in a brightly hued robe and veil, Amal Hassan certainly stands out from the locals as she walks along the outskirts of this high-plains city, pickup trucks rumbling by. Somali refugees such as Ms. Hassan are becoming a more common sight here in the nation's least populous state, the only one without a refugee-resettlement program. Such initiatives provide social and financial services to refugees such as Ms. Hassan, 29 years old, who were admitted legally into the U.S. Now, with...

Sheriff's officials in Goshen County are touting a grenade launcher as a useful tool for keeping the peace, even though they have never used it. The Casper Star-Tribune reported Sunday that officials bought the weapon for use in the county jail, which houses 25 inmates and has not had a large fight in the past year. Lt. Jeremy Wardell says the grenade launcher, one of three the county has owned, is a less-lethal option for controlling riots. He compared it to pepper spray or a Taser. "We would use it in situations when less-lethal force is justified to get the...

The U.S. Senate Energy Committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that would force congressional approval of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project, but the measure seems unlikely to be taken up by the full Senate. The bill, the latest effort by lawmakers to breathe life into the long-delayed pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, will languish without a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring it to a vote. The measure, from Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would take a decision...

The Senate approved a continuing resolution for the budget which included a provision authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels for the purpose of combating Islamic State terrorists. The legislation passed 78-22. Of the 22 Senators that voted no, here are the 12 Republicans that voted against the provision: John Barrasso (WY) Tom Coburn (OK) Michael Crapo (ID) Ted Cruz (TX) Mike Enzi (WY) Dean Heller (NV) Mike Lee (UT) Jim Moran (KS) Rand Paul (KY) James Risch (ID) Pat Roberts (KS) Jeff Sessions (AL)

Rod Coronado, a convicted eco-terrorist, is the leader of the controversial “Yellowstone Wolf Patrol,” a new environmental group that plans to shadow legal Montana wolf hunters during the state’s fall and winter wolf season and document the hunts with a video camera. Coronado, a resident of Michigan, is a radical environmentalist who “sank whaling ships nearly 30 years ago in Iceland and later went to prison after torching a Michigan State University lab in 1992 for conducting research for the fur industry” according to The Buffalo News of Buffalo, NY. He also serves as a spokesman for the radical, militant...

The Powder River Basin, well known for its abundant coal supply, is experiencing a turnaround in oil production. Production has rebounded from a low of 38,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2009 to 78,000 bbl/d during first-quarter 2014. Although U.S. oil production growth is occurring primarily in the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian Basins, the Powder River Basin is among other regions of the country that have also benefitted from the application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The increase in Powder River Basin oil production is largely attributable to production growth in the Turner, Parkman, and Niobrara-Codell formations, which...

A late summer snowstorm dropped up to 20 inches of snow in parts of Wyoming. The rare September snow on Wednesday and Thursday damaged trees and caused power outages in some areas of northern Wyoming. While the heaviest snow fell in the Big Horn Mountains, the town of Buffalo received as much as 10 inches. The 3 to 5 inches that fell in Cody is the earliest recorded snowfall there since 1915, when records started being kept. The previous earliest recorded snowfall in Cody was Sept. 12, 1970. Other snowfall totals included 4 inches at Casper Mountain and 3 to...

The Wyoming Department of Corrections should be able to employ a firing squad to execute condemned inmates if the state can't find the drugs to carry out lethal injections, a legislative committee voted Friday. There's been talk this year about reinstituting the firing squad in Utah. That state outlawed execution by firing squad in 2004, but kept it as an option for inmates convicted before that time. It last executed an inmate by firing squad in 2010. Linda Burp, director of the ACLU in Wyoming, said the United States stands with such nations as China, Iraq and Syria in continuing...

The debate over Germany’s insistence on eurozone austerity has flared anew as an ailing France continues to demand economic stimulus. The European Central Bank may now be siding with Paris, leaving Merkel looking increasingly alone. […] Berlin is particularly alarmed by the stance taken by ECB head Mario Draghi. At the annual conference of top central bankers from around the world at Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August, Draghi surprised those present by saying “there is leeway to achieve a more growth-friendly composition of fiscal policies.” It was a comment that came close to the kind of debt-fueled growth stimulus measures...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney can be a polarizing figure even six years out of office. The Wyoming State Bar invited Cheney, a prominent Republican with deep Wyoming ties, to be keynote speaker at its annual convention next week. Some lawyers are objecting—both to Cheney’s selection and to how the bar announced his appearance. The state bar is a quasi-governmental entity that administers the legal profession using some taxpayer money. In its announcement of Cheney’s speech, it published an unedited biography submitted by Cheney in which he criticized President Barack Obama, saying he weakened the United States’ security posture. …

More than a half-million acres of land across nine Western states is being proposed for designation as critical habitat for the yellow-billed cuckoo. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 546,335 acres of critical habitat is up for listing in 80 separate units in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. The bird is a neotropical migrant that winters in South America and nests along rivers and streams in western North America. ... The Service is seeking information concerning the western yellow-billed cuckoo’s biology and habitat, threats to the species and current efforts to protect...

Between 1989 and 2010, Congress rejected nearly 700 cap-tax-and-trade and similar bills that their proponents claimed would control Earth’s perpetually fickle climate and weather. So even as real world crises erupt, President Obama is using executive fiats and regulations to impose his anti-hydrocarbon agenda, slash America’s fossil fuel use, bankrupt coal and utility companies, make electricity prices skyrocket, and “fundamentally transform” our economic, social, legal and constitutional system. Citing climate concerns, he has refused to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and blocked or delayed Alaskan, western state and offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling. He’s proud that...

(Reuters) - Scientists excavating an ancient Wyoming sinkhole containing a rare trove of fossils of Ice Age mammals have unearthed hundreds of bones of such prehistoric animals as American cheetahs, a paleontologist said on Friday. The two-week dig by an international team of researchers led by Des Moines University paleontologist Julie Meachen marked the first exploration of Natural Trap Cave at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming since its initial discovery in the 1970s. Meachen said the extensive excavation that began late last month uncovered roughly 200 large bones of animals like horses that roamed North America...