Free Republic

The state agency responsible for building and maintaining Wyoming’s K-12 schools will face huge revenue shortfalls in the years ahead. That’s according to a report by University of Wyoming economists. The vast majority of school construction funding comes from coal lease bonus payments—and those revenues are expected to dry up completely in 2017. The School Facilities Department expects to spend half as much in 2019 and 2020 as its spending now—as the state shifts from building schools to maintaining them. But in the same period, the associated revenues are expected to drop by 95 percent. The UW report found that...

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is out as chair of the Senate Budget Committee. **"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is giving up his bid to become the next Budget Committee chairman — deferring to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and eliminating the only competitive chairmanship battle in the incoming GOP Senate majority. "Sessions has been the panel’s top Republican for the past four years but Enzi technically retains seniority over the Alabaman on the committee and said several weeks ago that he would challenge Sessions for the chairmanship."** This is going to portrayed as a simple matter of seniority. It isn’t. That story...

Wyoming could help finance the construction of a coal export dock in the Pacific Northwest, according to the executive director of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority. Loyd Drain said he had a "serious" conversation with an unidentified party in the past six months about the possibility of financing a coal port. His comments come as state lawmakers ready a bill that would boost the WIA's borrowing authority to $3 billion and allow the agency to work on projects outside Wyoming. "If our ability to provide the financing for a facility is the catalyst to get the dang thing built, then we’ll...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday afternoon conceded to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) after a race to become the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Sessions, currently the panel’s ranking member, said he reached an agreement with his “good friend” Enzi. “We have talked and I am deferring to his seniority so that he can lead the Budget Committee as its Chairman beginning in 2015,” Sessions said in a statement. “Mike graciously deferred to me two years ago after he timed out on HELP as Ranking Member, and it has been my enormous privilege to serve as the panel’s...

Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Flake (R-AZ) Graham (R-SC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Johnson (R-WI) Kirk (R-IL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Toomey (R-PA) Wicker (R-MS) Not Voting Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK)

Officials at Magpul Industries unveiled Wednesday its new facilities in Texas and Wyoming, making good on a vow to leave Colorado in response to the state’s sweeping gun control legislation.

They are going there to get subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers to take to another state. Refugee resettlement is a euphemism for importing whole Muslim communities, importing jihad. I have long documented the targeting of gateway cities (smaller cities) overwhelmed with Muslim refugee immigration from countries like Somalia — cities like Emporia, Kansas, Nashville, Greeley and Fort Morgan, Colorado, Lewiston, Maine et al. The over-saturation and drain on city resources has driven these immigrants northward to settle in Wyoming, according to these reports. Organizations like Lutheran Family Services profit enormously from the Federal government handling these refugees. The sharia compliant...

It seems incredible, but a single missing word could turn a water law into a government land grab so horrendous even a U.S. Supreme Court justice warned it would “put the property rights of every American entirely at the mercy of Environmental Protection Agency employees.” The missing word is “navigable.” The Obama administration is proposing a rule titled “Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ Under the Clean Water Act,” which would strike “navigable” from American water law and redefine any piece of land that is wet at least part of the year, no matter how remote or isolated it...

A Wyoming man named Andy Johnson got all the required state permits when he built a stock pond on his land a couple years ago. But now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is threatening Johnson with fines of up to $75,000 per day, claiming that the two-foot wide, six-inch deep stream he used is subject to federal control.

Vice President Biden and several top White House officials have vacationed with their families at the same log cabin in Grand Teton National Park. Located on Jackson Lake, the rustic getaway is the perfect escape from the fast-paced Washington grind. The cabin also happens to be owned by the federal government, and was banned 20-some years ago by the National Park Service for anything other than “official use.” Some great reporting by Time’s Zeke Miller has prompted the Interior Department to ask for an investigation into Biden’s stay, as well as uses of the cabin by several Obama cabinet secretaries,...

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...