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The guitar Kurt Cobain played in Nirvana’s iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video over 30 years ago is headed to the auction block.
Julien’s Auction will put the 1969 left-handed Fender Mustang guitar up for bidding during its “Music Icons” event, commencing both online and live at New York City’s Hard Rock Cafe from May 20-22.
“I’m left-handed, and it’s not very easy to find reasonably priced, high-quality left-handed guitars,” Cobain had said during final interview with Guitar World in 1991. “But out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two of them.”
For the past 12 years, the guitar was displayed at Seattle’s Experience Music Project, now named MoPOP Museum of Pop Culture.
The Beverly Hills based auction house is hoping the Competition Lake Placid blue-colored string instrument could fetch $800,000.
The auction of Cobain’s guitar will also include an NFT (nonfungible token) of his longtime guitar tech Earnie Bailey discussing its importance. Cobain’s 1964 Dodge Dart automobile, his painting of Michael Jackson, a personally drawn 1985 Iron Maiden “Killers” skateboard and his United Airlines boarding pass are also up for grabs.
And it’s all for a good cause.
A portion of the proceeds for the three-day event will be donated to the Indianapolis Colts’ and the Jim Irsay family’s national mental health charity’s “Kicking the Stigma” campaign in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
Irsay, owner & CEO of the NFL’s Colts, owns an eponymous collection of artifacts from music, pop culture and American history.
Cobain, who referenced suicide, religion and drugs in song lyrics, died by suicide on April 5, 1994, at age 27.
Julien’s Auction chief Darren Julien told the Daily News that the Cobain family was impressed with what Kicking the Stigma represents and what the campaign has accomplished.
“They felt it was the appropriate organization and cause to benefit from the sale of Kurt’s items and to bring awareness to mental health,” he added.
Martin Nolan, Julien’s executive director, said the company is “proud to present this remarkable collection of items synonymous with the life and career” of the late grunge rock trailblazer.
“These precious items represent the touchstones of Kurt’s legacy as one of the most influential and most admired artists of all time which endures today long after his untimely passing with his music more popular than ever evidenced by their ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video viewed by billions and counting on YouTube and other channels,” he said.
Considered Nirvana’s biggest hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was ranked No. 5 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. He was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/features/kurt-cobain-s-smells-like-teen-spirit-guitar-up-for-auction-benefiting-mental-health/article_88703de8-a50b-5333-9c1d-f2d77de33244.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:24Z
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It’s the fall of 2019, and Matthew McLachlan has just sent paperback copies of his most recent full-length stage play, “Orion,” to around 500 different theater companies, universities and colleges across the country.
Perfect timing, because in the next four months, the world would be entering the biggest societal shutdown in modern history.
Out of all the institutions he contacted, around five responded to him about turning his play into a stage production for their theater departments. The majority would ultimately bail due to the pandemic, but one school would maintain contact with the young New York City playwright.
“I walk into my office one day, and I got a piece of mail, an envelope, so I open it up. There’s a play inside of it called ‘Orion,’” said Jason Pasqua, head of the theater department at Laramie County Community College. “Inside the envelope is a little letter from this guy that I’ve never heard of, Matt McLachlan.”
While Pasqua was impressed with “Orion,” his interest piqued in a different direction as he began email correspondence with McLachlan.
“I go, ‘What else do you have? I’m thinking about putting together a small show, maybe some one-acts and monologues,’” Pasqua said.
“He said, ‘I see what you’re doing, and it works, what else you got,’” McLachlan said in a phone call from his New York apartment. “So, I sent him all my one-acts and monologues.
“I was an actor first, so I remember looking through all these plays and things like, ‘Where’s the good stuff? Where something that’s interesting and funny?’”
COVID-19 restrictions tightened their grip on the country before anything could come together, but when travel was feasible again, and Pasqua was planning the theater department’s return to form in 2021, the two reconnected. Together, they revived the concept over lunch in New York City.
After the extravagant technical display built into their previous production, “She Kills Monsters,” the theater department at LCCC wanted to focus in with a collection of more contained, character driven one-act plays.
“A Night of One-Acts You May or May Not Enjoy, with Matt McLachlan,” a program title that accurately reflects the playwright’s sense of humor, did spend some time in development purgatory. However, every one-act that McLachlan’s written will be featured over the course of the following two weekends, the majority of which are being performed for the first time.
The two weekends feature a completely different selection of one-acts.
Structure of a one-act
A one-act can be likened to a literary short story – a tight character study that still follows a complete narrative arc, only in a shorter span of events. Each piece ranges from 10 to 15 minutes in length, and demands a good deal from the actors to be successful.
From a directing standpoint, Pasqua can deal with small mistakes when they’re made in a larger production. One hiccup in a large group can go unnoticed, but he and a former student, co-director Charles Deathridge, know that the decisions they make in a two-person play are worth much more.
“If you’ve got two people on the stage, and that relationship between them is not honest, or you see that real and honest listening is not happening, it is going to show,” Pasqua said. “If you would have asked me three months ago if this will be a piece of cake ...” He shakes his head. “It isn’t.”
Good writing elevates any performance, and if it’s believable relationships that Pasqua is trying to obtain, then the focus of McLachlan’s writing is a big help. His work centers around relationships of all kinds, though he gravitates to situations that are more uncommon.
“In New York, you have plenty of people to watch and see, some of the most unlikely pairs, and that’s so cool,” McLachlan said. “It makes no sense, but I’m here for it.”
Most artists struggled during the pandemic, but McLachlan used the time to get to work.
It isn’t a particularly dire situation, when he’s locked inside for about two years, getting paid by the government to hole up in an apartment and write. He had his friends around – actors that could help him workshop his plays once he completed them.
In other words, McLachlan kept busy, and jokes that he feels guilty for putting his nose to the grindstone and completing two-and-a-half full-length stage plays and a screenplay for a TV pilot while so much of the world was struggling. He’s a slow writer, and he burned himself out by the end of it, but now there’s at least some time to rest while new career opportunities begin to pop up.
“I’ve been such a such a pack animal my whole life, and just really loved making friendships and various relationships,” McLachlan said. “I kind of put myself out there to other people, recharge when I’m around other people, and all types of relationships are so interesting to me.”
What to expect
The works featured in “A Night of One Acts” span about eight years of his writing career. All of them give the audience a glimpse into a small conflict in a relationship.
McLachlan writes for more than a display of conflict. When he writes his characters, he wants their actions to develop who they are. The relationship, and how they behave within it, allows him to circumnavigate the core personality of a character.
“I really love any and all types of relationships, but I think the specifics of what goes beyond the relationships, with the feelings and what’s within the relationships, I think is really compelling to me, whether it’s romantic, friendship or familial,” he said.
In other words, McLachlan is looking to capture the things that aren’t said between people in a relationship – the gray areas that can hardly be expressed or quantified.
But his works don’t come without a good deal of situational humor. McLachlan is a writer that looks for an odd, but enticing premise.
“What the Psychic Said” is the 10-minute story of a man who visits a psychic, only to be foretold of the woman of his dreams. Some months later, the character encounters her and decides to strike up a conversation.
As silly as the premise may seem, “What the Psychic Said” becomes a story of a man who is ultimately giving into his fantasies.
“Writing something that has real meaning, instead of, ‘I’m gonna write a fun thing about a ‘meet cute’ that involves a psychic,’” he said. “This is actually about my ability to want, to make everything correct so that I’m comfortable.”
McLachlan is holding a presentation Monday where he’ll discuss his creative process and how to make it as an actor and playwright. The majority of what he plans to share are the basic bits of information that he wishes others had pointed out to him when he was entering the industry.
He attended an acting program in his native state of Florida at a college similar to LCCC. During this time, he didn’t speak to a single other playwright, making his move to New York City intimidating.
Besides “trying not to embarrass himself,” McLachlan wants students to know that their creativity is valued.
“I just want everyone there, especially the students, to know that they are as important of a piece on the chessboard as anyone else,” he said.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/features/lccc-invites-nyc-playwright-for-a-night-of-one-acts/article_e3f5eb5d-e34b-5d29-a70c-6dcb69f92782.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:25Z
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...HIGH WIND WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH
SUNDAY AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph
possible.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Watch means there is the potential for a hazardous
high wind event. Sustained winds of at least 40 mph...or gusts of
58 mph or stronger may occur. Continue to monitor the latest
forecasts.
&&
NEW YORK – Pamela Anderson smiled and held a bouquet of roses after making her much-anticipated Broadway debut with Tuesday’s performance in “Chicago.”
Anderson waved to the audience and held hands with her co-stars during the curtain call at the Ambassador Theatre Tuesday night, which kicked off her eight-week run playing Roxie Hart in the musical.
The “Chicago” performances led by Anderson are set to continue through June 5.
“She just looked like she was having a great time at the end of the show,” an unnamed attendee told People after Anderson’s debut.
Anderson, 54, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” last month that she was excited to get outside of her comfort zone by starring in a stage musical.
“I like that kind of dangerous, crazy feeling that you can’t do something, and then you surprise yourself,” Anderson said at the time. “You don’t know what you’re capable of until you try it, and so that’s what I’m really curious about, is what can I actually do?”
Anderson, who played C.J. Parker on “Baywatch,” is the latest big-name star to portray the dancer-turned-murderer Roxie on Broadway, with Christie Brinkley, Brooke Shields, Gwen Verdon and Liza Minnelli among the others.
Chicago, which debuted on Broadway in 1975, was revived in 1996 and has been playing ever since, making it Broadway’s longest-running musical.
Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/features/pamela-anderson-makes-broadway-debut-in-chicago/article_ed1f2b9b-bbb8-5504-acf7-f7ce6701386b.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:26Z
|
Cheyenne and Laramie County
Cheyenne Audubon Field Trip
– April 16, 6-9 a.m. Free. A field trip to see sharp-tailed grouse on leks and other prairie birds north of Hillsdale. Call 307-343-2024 to register. The group will leave at 6 a.m. from the front parking lot at Pilot Truck Stop, 8020 Campstool Road. https://cheyenneaudubon.org/
Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market
– April 16, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. A seasonal indoor farmers market with live music where local vendors sell their produce, meats, cheeses, crafts, canned good and more. Cheyenne Depot, 121 W. 15th St. 307-222-9542
Saturday Morning Book Club
– April 16, 10-11 a.m. This month, the club will discuss “The Exiles” by Kristina Baker Kline, and offer coffee and treats. Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Easter Egg Hunt at the Louise Event Venue
– April 16, ages 1-3 from 10-11 a.m., ages 4-6 from 12-1 p.m., and ages 7-10 from 2-3 p.m. Free. JazMinn’s Events & Decor presents an Easter egg hunt for younger children. There will also be treats provided by Kates Cookie Shed and photos with the Easter bunny, courtesy of AG Photography. Limited to 40 participants per age group. Sign up on signupgenius.com. Participants must bring their own basket. The Louise Event Venue, 110 E. 17th St. 307-220-1474
Laramie County Library Eggstravaganza
– April 16. It’s time for the yearly Eggstravaganza. This year, the library will be presenting egg-citing workshops for different age groups. Visit its calendar for a full list of events. Attendance for some events will be limited, so sign up at lclsonline.org/calendar/. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Virtual SaturD&D
– April 16, 1-3 p.m. Join the library’s teen Dungeons and Dragons online community and get started on creating a character today. Don’t have a Discord account yet? No problem. They offers Discord Communities for teens to interact, chat, and play online. To participate, you will need a phone, tablet or computer with internet connection and a Discord account. RSVP for the event at lclsonline.org/calendar/.
”Dutch Hop!” Documentary Film Screening
– April 16, 1-5 p.m. A screening of the documentary “Dutch Hop!” which focuses on the musical and dance traditions of the German-Russian community in Southeast Wyoming, Northern Colorado and Western Nebraska. The filmmakers, Chris Simon and Annie Hatch, will be present for a discussion of the film, followed by a performance and dance featuring Wayne Appelhans and the Dutch Hops from 2-5 p.m. Call John Chrysler at 307-256-2010 for more information. Pine Bluffs Historic High School, 607 Elm Street, Pine Bluffs. 307-630-5320
Glow in the Dark Dodgeball
– April 16, 12-8 p.m. 3rd Annual Glow in the Dark Dodgeball Tournament of Champions is an event that brings Laramie County community members together for friendly competition and to support a great cause. All proceeds earned from tournament registration go to Laramie County Grief Support Group to assist families that have lost a loved one. Event Center at Archer, 3801 Archer Parkway. 307-633-4670
Genealogy: Searching the Newly-Released 1950 Census
– April 16, 3-4:30 p.m. The eagerly-awaited 1950 U.S. Census has just been released and is available for family history researchers to find their families. We’ll show you why this is exciting for genealogists by doing a few demonstration searches in the 1950 census on Ancestry Library Edition and other genealogy databases. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Beer & Paint Night at Black Tooth
– April 16, 5-8 p.m. $40. Black Tooth’s first Beer and Painting Night event. Local artist Danielle Kirby will lead a class on a painting that could be random, funny or serious. All painting materials are provided by Black Tooth. Tickets include three beers. Black Tooth Brewing Co. 520 W. 19th St. 307-514-0362
Kratos Productions presents: “Creation” ft. Protohype
– April 16, 6 p.m. $25. An EDM showcase of heavy bass music sounds, dancing, lights, lasers, love and unity. The Lincoln Theatre, 1615 Central Ave. 307-369-6028
Easter Day Brunch
– April 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. $40 for adults, $15 for children. Enjoy a brunch buffet for the whole family. Private rooms available for an additional fee. Visit www.themetdowntown.com for more information. The Metropolitan Downtown, 1701 Carey Ave. 307-432-0022
Easter Hoppy Hour at Danielmark’s
– April 17, 1-6 p.m. Happy hour in honor of Easter. There will be ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, and chocolate cupcakes, plus all the “hops” you can fit in your tummy. Danielmark’s Brewing Co., 209 E. 18th St. 307-514-0411
Make it Mondays
– April 18, 1-5 p.m. Get crafty at the library every Monday! Participants will be making beautiful heart paper flowers to celebrate the coming of spring. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Coffee Connections at Burns Branch Library
– April 18, 2-4 p.m. Coffee Connections is the place to come for coffee and conversation with your friends and neighbors. On April 18, we will be showing the film “News of the World” (rated PG-13), starring Tom Hanks. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
”How to Become a Playwright” presentation by Matthew McLachlan
– April 18, 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. As part of the LCCC Foundation’s Cultural and Community Enrichment Series, McLachlan will present on how to become a playwright and how to work with a playwright as part of the Dinneen Writers Series. LCCC Playhouse, Laramie County Community College, 1400 E. College Drive. 307-778-5222
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Craftastic Tuesdays
{/div}
{div class=”subscriber-only”}– April 19, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Get crafty on Tuesdays. Take home paper straw tulips set in plastic egg vases that will look perfect for the Easter season. Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646{/div}
Tales Together
– April. 19-21, 10:15-10:45 a.m. and 11-11:30 a.m. An in-person interactive early literacy class for preschool children and their caregivers. Practice new skills incorporating books, songs, rhymes, movement and more. Pick up weekly craft packet from Ask Here desk on the second floor. Call to reserve a spot. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Food For Thought @ The Metropolitan
– April 19, 11:30 a.m. $25. Cynthia A. Fisher will present “Price Transparency: Delivering Better Health care at Half the Price.” Fisher is founder and chairperson of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, a nonprofit organization seeking health care price transparency. Ticket price includes lunch. The Metropolitan Downtown, 1701 Carey Ave. 307-432-0022
Dinner and a Book Club
– April 19, 5:30-7 p.m. This month’s selection is “Look Again” by Lisa Scottoline. It’s a fast-paced thriller about a mother’s search for her son’s true identity. Join in for a lively discussion and bring a dish to share. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
LCCC Music Department presents “Let’s Dance”
– April 19, 7 p.m. Free. This concert will feature LCCC’s Brass Band, Jazz and Wind Ensembles and will feature a variety of classic, contemporary, ballroom and folk pieces written to inspire movement. Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium, Laramie County Community College, 1400 E. College Dr. 307-778-5222
National Poetry Month Celebration
– April 19, 7-8:30 p.m. Poetry lovers will hear poems read by local authors and have a chance to read their own poems, or one from a favorite poet. Presented in partnership with WyoPoets. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Cheyenne Audubon presents Sage-Grouse Update
– April 19, 7 p.m. Daly Edmunds, Audubon Rockies policy and outreach director, and Vicki Herren, retired Bureau of Land Management national sage-grouse coordinator, will present “Greater Sage-Grouse – The Largest Conservation Effort in U.S. History: The Ups and Downs.” A Zoom link will be available at https://cheyenneaudubon.org/. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
STEAM Connections
– April 20, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Explore a STEAM challenge that promotes creativity, building and problem solving. This month’s STEAM discoveries are building bird nests and LEGO building challenge cards. Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Virtual Tales Together
– April 21, 9:30-10 a.m. Free. Join the Laramie County Library for a virtual interactive early literacy class where young children will practice new skills incorporating books, songs, rhymes, movement and more. Pick up weekly craft packet from Ask Here desk on the second floor. RSVP at lclsonline.org/calendar/. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Fun for Kids! Pine Bluffs Branch
– April 21, 10:15-10:45 a.m. Join us for an interactive storytime session to promote early literacy through books, songs, puppets, crafts and much more. This week’s theme is “Seasons.” Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Sit, Stay, Read! Read to a Therapy Dog
– April 21, 4-5 p.m. Everyone loves to hear a story, even our four-pawed friends. Visit the library and practice reading aloud to one of the community’s therapy dogs. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
BUZZ: Adult and Teen Spelling Bee
– April 21, 5-6:30 p.m. Visit the Burns Branch Library for this fun spelling competition, hosted by staff from the Burns and Pine Bluffs branch libraries. The competition’s words will be similar to the word lists used by schools and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Sign up at either branch library or by calling 307-547-2249 or 307-245-3646. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Craft Night: Learn to Make Seed Paper
– April 21, 6-8 p.m. Adults. Celebrate Earth Day with the Seed Library of Laramie County and learn how to make seed paper for planting and gifting. RSVP for this event at lclsonline.org/calendar/. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
”An Evening of One Acts” @ LCCC
– April 21-23, 28-30, 7:30 p.m. $10. LCCC’s spring production is a series of one-act plays over two weekends. Playwright Matthew McLachlan collaborated with the theater department in the creation of these plays. Laramie County Community College, 1400 E. College Drive. 307-778-5222
Earth Day at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens
April 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; April 23, 12-3 p.m., various events and workshops. Visit the Botanic Gardens to celebrate Earth Day and learn easy ways to save money and reduce our impact on the environment. All classes are free and are first-come, first-served. Full list of events online at https://www.botanic.org/adultclasses/. Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, 710 S. Lions Park Drive. 307-637-6349
Classic Conversations: Lunch and Learn Series
– April 22, 12-1 p.m. Join Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra’s William Intrilligator, soprano vocalist Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, and bass-baritone vocalist Rhys Lloyd Talbot for an informal and entertaining discussion, including musical insights about the concert on April 23. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Movies at the Library, Burns Branch
– April 22, 1-3 p.m. Join the Burns Branch Library for a family friendly movie and some popcorn. This week’s movie is “The House with a Clock in Its Walls.” Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Friday Matinee, Pine Bluffs
– April 22, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Spend your Friday afternoons at the Pine Bluffs Branch library to watch a matinee. Each week will feature a different movie. This week’s movie is “Clifford the Big Red Dog” (PG). Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Cheyenne Gaming Convention
– April 22, 3 p.m.-midnight; April 23, 8 a.m.-midnight; April 24, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. $50 for three day pass. A charity fundraising video game convention featuring DnD, video games, card games and board games. Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center, 204 W. Fox Farm Rd. 307-638-4466
Teen Craft Afternoons
– April 22, 3-5 p.m. Never know what to do with your hands? Not anymore! Visit craft afternoons and spend some time making unique crafts. Snacks will be provided. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Count on Planting with Paul Smith Children’s Village
– April 22, 4-5 p.m. Children and families. Like counting games? Enjoy planting? Then this event is for you! Go to the library and join special guests from the Paul Smith Children’s Village to play, learn and plant all in one spot. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Friday Night Jazz
– April 22, 6 p.m. 21+. Bring some friends, grab a drink and food, and listen to some beautiful music by Jazztet in the relaxing Hathaway’s Lounge. Two-drink minimum required. Little America Hotel and Resort, 2800 W. Lincolnway. 307-775-8400
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Comedy Night at The Metropolitan
{/div}
{div class=”subscriber-only”}– April 22, 7:30 p.m. $20. Laughter is good for the soul. Get your giggles on at this 90-minute comedy show featuring two awesome comedians. The Metropolitan Downtown, 1701 Carey Ave. 307-432-0022{/div}
The Samples @ The Lincoln
– April 22, 8-9 p.m. $25. Boulder, Colorado-based band, The Samples, will perform reggae infused rock/pop. The Lincoln Theatre, 1615 Central Ave. 307-369-6028
Yoga Together
– April 23, 10:15-10:45 a.m. 18 months to 5 years old. Experience stories, stretching and fun with a special early literacy class. This month’s theme is “Splish Splash Ducky.” Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Virtual SaturD&D
– April 23, 1-3 p.m. Join the library’s teen Dungeons and Dragons online community and get started on creating a character today. Don’t have a Discord account yet? No problem. They offers Discord Communities for teens to interact, chat and play online. To participate, you will need a phone, tablet or computer with internet connection and a Discord account. RSVP for the event at lclsonline.org/calendar/.
Fur Ball presents Jurassic Bark
– April 23, 5-10 p.m. $110. The Fur Ball is Cheyenne’s pet-friendly gala, which raises money in support of the animals and programs at the Cheyenne Animal Shelter. Little America Hotel and Resort, 2800 W. Lincolnway. 307-278-6195
CSO presents “A Time to Transcend”
– April 23, 7:30 p.m. $10-$50 for in person, $15 per household for livestream. This Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra concert will feature Jennifer Higdon’s “Blue Cathedral” and Brahms’ German Requiem to close the 2021-22 season. This evening will feature vocal soloists Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson and Rhys Lloyd Talbot, plus a large local choir. Cheyenne Civic Center, 510 W. 20th St. 307-778-8561
Wyo Music Showcase
– April 23, doors at 7 p.m. $5, free entry 11 and under. A local rap showcase hosted by Wyoming Wave Recording Studio featuring Trey Wrks, 2une Godi, Compass, Alienation and more. There will also be a raffle. The Louise Event Venue, 110 E. 17th Street. 307-220-1474
Young Readers Book Party
– April 24, 1:15-2 p.m. Grades pre-K to 2. Join the library for a celebration of reading with young readers that’s a little bit early literacy class and a little bit more. The class will read and talk about books, sing, play and learn. This month’s themes are Bird Art and Family Storytelling Games. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Hausmusik 2: Wyoming Brass Quintet
– April 24, 2 p.m. Adults, $50; students, $25. CSO presents an afternoon with the Wyoming Brass Quintet in the beautiful new Blue Community Events Center at World Headquarters. The recital will be followed by a reception including light appetizers. Blue Federal Credit Union, 2401 E. Pershing Blvd. 307-778-8561
Speed Friending at Blacktooth Brewing Co.
– April 24, 6-9 p.m. $25. This speed friending event will be structured just like speed dating, but for anyone wanting to meet new people. Black Tooth knows it’s difficult to make the first move or initiate a new friend-date, so the team wants to facilitate those connections. Tickets include two beer tokens. Black Tooth Brewing Co. 520 W. 19th St. 307-514-0362
Chicago at the Civic Center
– April 24, 7-10 p.m. $54+. The legendary rock band with horns, Chicago, is coming back to Cheyenne. Cheyenne Civic Center, 510 W. 20th St. 307-778-8561
Make it Mondays
– April 25, 1-5 p.m. Get crafty at the library every Monday! We will be making beautiful heart paper flowers to celebrate the coming of spring. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Minute to Win It, Burns Branch Library
– April 25-30, 1-5 p.m. Can you complete our wacky and fun games in just one minute? Compete against your friends and family, or see how fast you can win the games by yourself. Every participant gets a prize. Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Tales Together
– April 26-28, 10:15-10:45 a.m. and 11-11:30 a.m. Join the library for an in-person interactive early literacy class for preschool children and their caregivers. Practice new skills incorporating books, songs, rhymes, movement and more. Pick up weekly craft packet from Ask Here desk on the second floor. Call to reserve a spot. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Fun for Kids! Burns Branch Library
– April 26, 10:15-11 a.m. Join in an interactive storytime session to promote early literacy through books, songs, puppets, crafts and much more. This week’s theme is “Bears.” Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Famous Illustrators
– April 26, 4:15-5 p.m. Grades K-2. Join the library for a peek into how some of your favorite book illustrators make their art. This month, the focus will be on Lois Ehlert. Wear play clothes, as it could get messy. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Book Discussion Group
– April 26, 6-7:30 p.m. April is known for Earth Day and the sowing of spring seedlings, so join Laramie County Library in reading Octavia Butler’s dystopian novel “Parable of the Sower.” Join the group for tea and scones on the last Tuesday of the month. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Virtual Tales Together
– April 28, 9:30-10 a.m. Free. Join the Laramie County Library for a virtual interactive early literacy class where young children will practice new skills incorporating books, songs, rhymes, movement and more. Pick up weekly craft packet from Ask Here desk on the second floor. RSVP at lclsonline.org/calendar/. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Fun for Kids! Pine Bluffs Branch
– April 28, 10:15-10:45 a.m. Join in an interactive storytime session to promote early literacy through books, songs, puppets, crafts and much more. This week’s theme is “Bears.” Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Brown Bag Book Club
– April 28, 6-7 p.m. Grade 4-6. Book Club will meet twice during the month of April. The club will chat about the book, do some crazy activities and enjoy a delicious treat. Participants can bring a “brown bag” meal, and drinks will be provided. Participants can pick up “Masterminds” by Gordon Korman from the second floor. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Movies at the Library, Burns Branch
– April 29, 1-3 p.m. Join the Burns Branch Library for a family-friendly movie and some popcorn. This week’s movie is “Jungle Cruise (PG-13).” Burns Branch Library, 112 Main St., 307-547-2249
Friday Matinee, Pine Bluffs
– April 29, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Spend your Friday afternoons at the Pine Bluffs Branch library to watch a matinee. Each week will feature a different movie. This week’s movie is “Tom and Jerry: The Movie” (PG). Pine Bluffs Branch Library, 110 E. Second St. 307-245-3646
Friday Night Jazz
– April 29, 6 p.m. 21+. Bring some friends, grab a drink and food, and listen to some beautiful music by Jazztet in the relaxing Hathaway’s Lounge. Two-drink minimum required. Little America Hotel and Resort, 2800 W. Lincolnway. 307-775-8400
Cheyenne Audubon Free Talk
– April 29, 7 p.m. Award-winning Pinedale wildlife photographer Elizabeth Boehm will be presenting a free talk, “Bird Photography Using Blinds.” Wyoming Game and Fish Department Headquarters, 5400 Bishop Blvd. 307-777-4600
Art for Art
– April 29, 7-10 p.m. $35. An immersive art experience hosted by Arts Cheyenne. Local and regional artists are coming together to create a multi-sensory evening of enjoying art, with an art auction and experience. The Lincoln Theatre, 1615 Central Ave. 307-369-6028
Southeast Wyoming Concert Series presents Joe Robinson
– April 29, 7 p.m. $20. Joe Robinson’s live “one man” acoustic/electric show is an energetic display of virtuosity and witty, finely crafted lyrics delivered with his personable Aussie charisma. Joe won “Australia’s Got Talent” in 2008 at the age of 17, and has since earned a reputation as one of the world’s greatest guitar players and brilliant song writers. Call 307-214-7076 for more information. South High School Auditorium, 1213 W. Allison Road. 307-771-2410
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Dueling Pianos
{/div}
{div class=”subscriber-only”}– April 29-30, 8-11 p.m. $20. Come laugh and sing along in an evening of musical entertainment directed by your requests. The Metropolitan Downtown, 1701 Carey Ave. 307-432-0022
Cheyenne Audubon Free Photography Workshop
– April 30, 7 a.m. Award-winning Pinedale wildlife photographer Elizabeth Boehm will be presenting a free bird blind demonstration open to the public. Cheyenne Botanic Gardens’ Paul Smith Children’s Village, 710 S. Lions Park Drive. 307-637-6349
Meet the Birds!
– April 30, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. $15. A bird identification class for adults and children 12 and older. Just before the peak of migration, let Cheyenne Audubon members introduce you to 50 local birds. A combination of classroom discussion and short walks into Lions Park, a Wyoming Important Bird Area, with borrowed binoculars or your own. Cheyenne Botanic Gardens’ Paul Smith Children’s Village, 710 S. Lions Park Drive. 307-637-6349{/div}
National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day
– April 30, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Join local animal shelters to celebrate National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day! You can fill out adoption documents, see pictures of other adoptable animals, learn how to take care of your new pet, and donate pet food and supplies to the shelters. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
”Wild Creek Whispers” Book Signing
– April 30, 10-2 p.m. Local author Cindy Reynders will hold a signing of the first book in her new series about a Wyoming private investigator. Barnes and Noble, 1851 Dell Range Blvd. 307-632-3000.
Virtual SaturD&D
– April 30, 1-3 p.m. Join the library’s teen Dungeons and Dragons online community and get started on creating a character today. Don’t have a Discord account yet? No problem. They offers Discord Communities for teens to interact, chat and play online. To participate, you will need a phone, tablet or computer with internet connection and a Discord account. RSVP for the event at lclsonline.org/calendar/.
”The Price is Right” at the Laramie County Library
– April 30, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Grades 3-6. “Come on down” to be a contestant in our version of “The Price is Right” gameshow. Participants could win cool prizes as you learn about how far your money can go. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561
Tunes, Taps and Apps
– April 30, 5 p.m. $60. Join the Symphony Friends for a fantastic evening of locally brewed beer and chef-curated appetizer pairings in support of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. There will also be a cash bar and silent auction. The Atlas Theatre, 211 W. Lincolnway. 307-638-6543
Cheyenne Capital Chorale Spring Concert
– April 30, 7 p.m. Free. This concert is titled “Pieces Put Together for Beautiful Music.” South High School Auditorium, 1213 W. Allison Road. 307-771-2410
Ongoing
Desert Diamond @ The Outlaw Saloon
– Through April 17, 8:20 p.m. Stop by the saloon for a performance by the band Desert Diamond. 312 S. Greeley Highway. 307-635-7552
Governor’s Capitol Art Exhibition
– Through Aug. 14, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Presented by the Wyoming State Museum, this exhibit compiles 66 different pieces of artwork from artists around the state of Wyoming. Wyoming State Capitol basement extension, 200 W. 24th St. 307-777-7220
41st Annual Western Spirit Art Show and Sale
– Through April 17, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Stephanie Hartshorn, artist and member of the American Impressionist Society, and Mark Vinich, co-founder of Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studios, have selected 232 unique pieces of art for this year’s art show. Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, 4610 Carey Ave. 307-778-7290
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”Mountains and Monochromatic” April Art Show
{/div}
{div class=”subscriber-only”}– Through April 30. Wednesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. No explanation needed for the mountains. This art show also features monochromatic works to convey simplicity, peacefulness, starkness, purity or other meaning. It can use different shades of one color, but, by definition, should contain only one base color. Cheyenne Artists Guild, 1701 Morrie Ave. 307-632-2263
Art & Text: Artist as Storyteller
– Through May 17, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Enjoy visual stories and the written word created by K–12 students in Laramie County School District 1. Art is located throughout all three floors of the library. Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave. 307-634-3561{/div}
The Front Range
Canyon Concert Ballet presents “Snow White”
– May 7-8, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. $30-$40. This debut production brings to life the legendary fairy tale of Snow White. This production from new Artistic Director Michael Pappalardo will be complete with new sets, costumes and his exquisite choreographic style. Lincoln Center Performance Hall, 417 W. Magnolia St. 970-221-6730
”Black and White in Black and White” Exhibit
–Through May 28, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. $8. This new exhibit features striking photographs attributed to African American photographer John Johnson who took powerful, early 20th-century portraits of African Americans in Lincoln, Nebraska. Greeley History Museum, 714 9th St, Greeley, Colorado. 970-350-9220
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/features/todo/saturday-calendar-4-16-22/article_2f9a1708-a058-5630-b76a-91414996e053.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:39Z
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SATURDAY
Kiwanis Club of Laramie Easter Egg Hunt: 10 a.m., Kiwanis Park in West Laramie.
Peeps and Paws puppy event at Laramie Animal Welfare Society: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1889 Venture Dr. It’s an Easter puppy party!
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
Ester Extravaganza: 2-4 p.m., Trinity Baptist Church, 1270 N. 9th St.
UW planetarium presents “Distant Worlds, Alien Life?”: 2 p.m., UW Planetarium. For millennia our ancestors watched the stars and questioned the origin and nature of what they saw. Yet, Earth is the only planet we know for sure to be inhabited.
UW Percussion Festival free featured concert: 6 p.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.
UW planetarium presents “Liquid Sky, Pop”: 7 p.m., UW Planetarium. Enjoy a custom playlist from today’s top artists.
SUNDAY
Walk with a Doc: 1:30-2:30 p.m., UW Fieldhouse. Hear from health care professionals and get your steps in.
Laramie Connections free Meet and Eat dinner and faith gathering: 4:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1517 E. Canby St.
MONDAY
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
UW Music presents “Adzel Duo: Clarinets Alive”: 7:30 p.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. For tickets, call 307-766-6666 or visit uwyo.edu/finearts.
TUESDAY
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
UW planetarium presents “Wyoming Skies”: 7 p.m., UW Planetarium. What’s up in the sky around Wyoming?
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
WEDNESDAY
Laramie Rivers Conservation District meets: Noon, 5015 Stone Road.
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Award-Winning Author Jesmyn Ward speaks: 5 p.m., UW College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.
Ivinson Medical Group women’s health prenatal education: 5:30 p.m., Ivinson Memorial Hospital in the Summit Conference Room. Learn more or register at ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
Albany County post-redistricting meeting: 6-7 p.m., Albany County Commission room at the courthouse. Also via Zoom at {span}tinyurl.com/2p94p7nn. Use {/span}ID: 86733040896 and passcode: 411120.
UW Jazz Studies program presents jazz combos in concert: 7:30 p.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Recital Hall. Free to attend.
Relative Theatrics presents “Black Sky”: 7:30 p.m., Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Plains Civic Center, 710 E. Garfield St. Tickets are $16, and $14 for students and seniors. Get them online at relativetheatrics.eventbrite.com.
THURSDAY
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Ivinson Medical Group women’s health prenatal education: 5:30 p.m., Ivinson Memorial Hospital in the Summit Conference Room. Learn more or register at ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
UW Jazz Studies presents UW Jazz Ensembles I and II in concert: 7:30 p.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. For tickets, call 307-766-6666 or visit uwyo.edu/finearts.
Relative Theatrics presents “Black Sky”: 7:30 p.m., Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Plains Civic Center, 710 E. Garfield St. Tickets are $16, and $14 for students and seniors. Get them online at relativetheatrics.eventbrite.com.
FRIDAY
Albany County CattleWomen meet: 11:30 a.m., location tbd. Visit wyaccw.com in the week before the meeting for location and more information.
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
UW planetarium presents “Earth Day”: 7 p.m., UW Planetarium. Observe our beautiful planet from the ground, sky and space as we learn about glaciers, atmospheric science, meteorology, extreme weather events and climate history.
Violin virtuoso Augustin Hadelich with UW Chamber Orchestra: 7:30 p.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets available at uwyo.edu/finearts.
Relative Theatrics presents “Black Sky”: 7:30 p.m., Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Plains Civic Center, 710 E. Garfield St. Tickets are $16, and $14 for students and seniors. Get them online at relativetheatrics.eventbrite.com.
April 23
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
UW planetarium presents “From Earth to the Universe”: 2 p.m., UW Planetarium. The night sky, both beautiful and mysterious, has been the subject of campfire stories, ancient myths and awe for as long as there have been people.
Relative Theatrics presents “Black Sky”: 7:30 p.m., Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Plains Civic Center, 710 E. Garfield St. Tickets are $16, and $14 for students and seniors. Get them online at relativetheatrics.eventbrite.com.
April 24
Understanding Medicare informational meeting: 3 p.m., American Legion post, 417 E. Ivinson Ave. Free and open to the public.
April 25
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Wyoming’s energy economy panel discussion: 6 p.m., online at uweconomists.eventbrite.com. Features four University of Wyoming economists.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
America Sewing Guild Laramie Chapter meets: 7 p.m., United Methodist Church, 1215 E. Gibbon St.
April 26
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
April 27
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
April 28
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
April 29
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
UW planetarium presents “Mars”: 7 p.m., UW Planetarium. The red planet is host to many questions; did it used to be like Earth? Did it once harbor life? Could it still support life?
April 30
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
UW planetarium presents “Mexica Archaeoastronomy”: 2 p.m., UW Planetarium. Illustrates the important role played by astronomical observation for the evolution of pre-Hispanic cultures in central Mexico.
UW planetarium presents “Liquid Sky, Electronica”: 7 p.m., UW Planetarium. Enjoy a custom playlist of music from today’s top artists.
May 1
Learn about veterans benefits and how to apply: 3 p.m., American Legion post, 417 E. Ivinson Ave. Free and open to the public.
May 2
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
May 3
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 4
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Ivinson Medical Group women’s health prenatal education: 5:30 p.m., Ivinson Memorial Hospital in the Summit Conference Room. Learn more or register at ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
May 5
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Diabetes Support Group meets: 5:30-6:30 p.m. via Zoom. Email questions@ivinsosnhospital.org for the link.
Cinco de Mayo at the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site: 5:30-7:30 p.m., Horse Barn Theater at the site. Free to public.
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
May 6
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 7
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
VFW Post 2221 Commander’s Charity Dinner: 5:30-8 p.m., 2142 E. Garfield St. Tickets 412 at the door, all proceeds to benefit VFW Poppy Fund and Albany County Search and Rescue.
May 9
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
May 10
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
Albany County Republican Party meets: 6 p.m., Albany County Public Library.
May 11
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Ivinson Medical Group women’s health prenatal education: 5:30 p.m., Ivinson Memorial Hospital in the Summit Conference Room. Learn more or register at ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
May 12
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
May 13
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 14
University of Wyoming graduation ceremony: 8:30 a.m., UW Arena-Auditorium, undergraduate ceremony for the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering and Applied Science and School of Energy Resources.
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
University of Wyoming graduation ceremony: 10 a.m., Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts, for the College of Law.
University of Wyoming graduation ceremony: 12:15 p.m., UW Arena-Auditorium, for master’s and doctoral students from colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Business, Education, Engineering and Applied Science, Health Sciences and Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
University of Wyoming graduation ceremony: 3:30 p.m., UW Arena-Auditorium, for undergraduate ceremony for colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and Office of Academic Affairs.
May 16
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
May 17
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 18
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Ivinson Medical Group women’s health prenatal education: 5:30 p.m., Ivinson Memorial Hospital in the Summit Conference Room. Learn more or register at ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
May 19
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
May 20
Albany County CattleWomen meet: 11:30 a.m., location tbd. Visit wyaccw.com in the week before the meeting for location and more information.
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 21
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 23
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
America Sewing Guild Laramie Chapter meets: 7 p.m., United Methodist Church, 1215 E. Gibbon St.
May 24
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 25
Laramie Tai Chi and tea: Meets at 1:30 p.m. at the north end of the stadium in Laramie Plainsman Park, North 15th and Reynolds. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
May 26
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Stitching the Past Together creative aging class: 6:30-8 p.m., Albany County Public Library large meeting room. Students will learn memory-based storytelling through beading techniques in this free course. Register at acplwy.org or at the circulation desk.
May 27
Free stress relief clinic: Noon to 1 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 28
Free stress relief clinic: 10-11 a.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
May 30
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
May 31
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Free stress relief clinic: 1-2 p.m., Laramie Plains Civic Center Phoenix Ballroom.
Have an event for What’s Happening? Send it to Managing Editor Greg Johnson at gjohnson@laramieboomerang.com.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/announcements/whats-happening/article_836ace0e-7c5c-5761-9757-07652629ed51.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:45Z
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CASPER — An abortion clinic is set to open in Casper this summer. The clinic would be the only facility to offer surgical abortions in Wyoming, and opponents have begun to organize against it.
Surgical abortions can end a pregnancy further in its term than abortions by medication. A Jackson doctor is currently the only provider of medical abortions in Wyoming.
The Casper clinic’s Second Street facility is still under construction, but its founder says it should be staffed and ready to open by the summer if all goes according to plan. It’s operated by Circle of Hope, a national health care nonprofit with a mission of providing reproductive care to underserved, rural areas.
In addition to performing abortions, the clinic plans to offer family planning, OB/GYN and gender-affirming services.
Casper will be the company’s first location, but founder Julie Burkhart said the organization is planning on expanding across the country. The nonprofit lists a Washington, D.C. address on its website but registered the Casper address with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office earlier this year.
“Casper is centrally located, so this clinic will be as accessible as possible to the majority of Wyomingites ... including people in the rural parts of the state,” Burkhart said. It’s also positioned to be accessible to people in nearby areas of South Dakota and Nebraska, she said.
Abortion is a divisive topic in Wyoming. In this most recent legislative session, lawmakers passed three abortion-related bills through the committee stage, one of which became law. That bill would ban abortion in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
The clinic is working with a community advisory board of Wyoming residents from local churches, tribes and health care.
“There is a robust, diverse community of people in Wyoming who believe that people should be able access the health care they need, including abortion,” said Rev. Leslie Kee of Casper’s Unitarian Universalist Church, who sits on the committee. “Opening this clinic is essential for those across our state who currently find that care is out of reach, including people living in rural areas, members of Native tribes, and those with low incomes.”
But others in Casper and around the state oppose the clinic’s opening.
“I don’t think there’s a market for it,” said Michelle St. Louis, an anti-abortion Casper resident. “We all know teenagers who chose to go through with their pregnancy; it’s not their first inclination to get an abortion. Most women don’t want to do that.”
Several local residents are planning a prayer event outside the facility on April 21, and a “life chain” demonstration the following Sunday.
A larger coalition from across Wyoming is coordinating a trip to Casper for the clinic’s anticipated opening in June, Park County Right to Life President Tim Lasseter said.
The groups are planning a peaceful protest for the opening, Lasseter said, reaching out to churches and anti-abortion groups around the state.
“We expect there to be a large turnout,” he said. “We’re not looking for confrontation, we’re just looking to let people know we disagree.”
Marti Halverson, president of Right to Life Wyoming, said the statewide group is planning “multiple tracks” of opposition to the clinic.
“The organization has some money we’re willing to put behind the effort,” she said Thursday, but declined to specify what members were planning. “You have 53 life-friendly legislators, a governor who says he’s pro-life,” Halverson said. “This should be shut down tomorrow.”
Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Burns, opposes abortion and said the practice shouldn’t be used as birth control.
Bouchard himself was adopted as a baby, and said that since Americans are leaving the country to adopt children, there should be no reason to abort a fetus that could be adopted in the U.S.
Burkhart says she’s no stranger to opposition — she’s operated reproductive health clinics in Washington, Oklahoma and Kansas. Her former boss, nationally known abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, was murdered in 2009 at his Wichita church.
“We do recognize that there are people in Wyoming who are opposed to what we’re doing, including many in the state legislature,” Burkhart said. “We hope that those who oppose our work will do so peacefully and without harassing or intimidating people seeking or providing reproductive health care.”
Surgical abortions can be performed later in a pregnancy than medical ones, which are limited to those who have been pregnant for 10 or fewer weeks.
Until recently, one doctor in Jackson did provide surgical abortions — though state health department statistics from recent years show very few were actually performed. But after the doctor sold his clinic to St. John’s Health in 2020 and resigned as a hospital contractor in October, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that he’s barred from practicing there by a non-compete clause in the sale.
Another Jackson-based doctor is now the state’s sole abortion provider, though her office only offers medical abortions.
“Because of legal restrictions and other barriers to abortion access, people sometimes need access to abortion care after that (10-week) period,” Burkhart said.
Chelsea’s Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to Wyomingites seeking abortions, has assisted 63 people so far in 2022.
Its money helps cover the cost of the abortion medication, which starts at $350 for a mail-in dose.
Nurse Cristina Gonzalez, who works with the fund, said the organization doesn’t turn away anyone who needs help.
“(The Casper clinic) would increase access because it’s providing options to individuals in the state, not overwhelming one resource,” Gonzalez said. “Now, if you’re outside that 10-week time frame, you’re looking at having to go to Colorado.”
A Wyoming law passed in 2019 prohibits all abortions after viability, the point when a fetus could survive outside the womb.
According to the health department, 91 abortions were performed by Wyoming providers in 2020 — the first full year the state required providers to report statistics. One of those was reported as a surgical dilation procedure. Eighty-eight were medical, and the other two did not specify the method.
Among those who received abortions in 2020, 48 (or 53%) were already mothers to at least one child. Four had four or more children.
Every abortion during that year was performed before 10 weeks, though one did not report. More than half were performed before reaching six weeks of pregnancy. Gonzalez said most of the people Chelsea’s Fund helps are single working mothers who already have children.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/abortion-clinic-to-open-in-casper/article_00812d72-3134-5cc0-86ad-9d194adbf811.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:52Z
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Look up. That’s the advice of University of Wyoming assistant professor Dr. Riley Bernard. Starting in about a month and going strong through the summer, looking up in the dark is the best way to spot bats.
These winged mammals perform aerial acrobatics in the evenings as they hunt for prey which, in their case, is a ton of insects. In fact, a bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single hour. This noshing on bugs makes bats very beneficial to all of us, and especially for farming where they help minimize the need for pesticides.
“Bats are just so cool,” Bernard said. “They’re the only mammal that can truly fly, and are just very interesting.”
These interesting animals are in peril in many areas in North America. Biologists first discovered sick and dying bats in 2007 in a cave in upstate New York. The bats died from a disease called white-nose syndrome, or WNS, which now has already killed millions of bats in North America.
This fungus looks like white fuzz on bats’ faces, which is how it got its name. It attacks the bare skin of bats while they’re hibernating and in a relatively inactive state. As it grows, the fungus causes the bat to become more active than usual, burning up fat that is needed to survive through the winter. Afflicted bats might even fly outside their hibernation cave in the daytime and in the middle of winter. The bats actually die from starvation.
The disease spreads mostly from one bat to another or from bats touching areas in cold, damp places where the fungus lives. Humans also are a factor, inadvertently carrying the fungus from one roost site to another on their shoes, clothing and gear.
The disease jumped from the Midwest to Washington state in 2016. Given the distance, the likely transmission was via humans, not bats.
According to a Wyoming Game and Fish Department press release, WNS was confirmed in bats at Devils Tower National Monument last year. It was potentially detected in southeast Wyoming as early as 2018.
Bernard, who oversees numerous bat research projects in Wyoming, said she and the other biologists take extra precautions to ensure they don’t inadvertently spread the disease.
The team uses disinfectant wipes to clean their gear. They scrub and clean their boots, remove clothing and put it in bags to wash in hot water later. They wear N95 masks, gloves and other protective clothing.
Such precautions and decontamination methods are advised by the National Speleological Society. Spelunkers, or people who explore caves, are advised to follow decontamination protocols outlined on the White-Nose Syndrome webpage (whitenosesyndrome.org).
Caves in the east are known to contain hundreds, if not thousands, of hibernating bats. Ian Abernethy, vertebrate zoology program manager with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database at the University of Wyoming, said the vast majority of hibernating bats in Wyoming have fewer than 50 bats at any given location.
“We still have a lot to learn about how and where bats hibernate in Wyoming,” Abernethy said. “They seem to spread out across rocky outcrops and scree fields rather than in large numbers in singular locations.”
Bernard said that tracking bats via radio-telemetry is problematic because of their small size.
“A bat weighs about the same as two pennies,” she said. “The telemetry equipment must weigh less than 5% of the animal’s weight, so the telemetry gear is very small. The battery life is only about 12 days.”
According to Bernard, there are 14 bat species that breed in Wyoming. The hoary bat is fairly common, but it doesn’t hibernate here; therefore, the species is not at risk of getting WNS. Little brown bats, northern long-eared bats and Townsend’s big-eared bats are three Wyoming species that are susceptible to WNS.
There is hope that the behavior of Wyoming bats where they spread out to hibernate will help limit the spread of the disease. Still, WNS is here and that is disheartening.
Female bats have only one pup per year, so recovery of the populations will be a slow process. Cavers and others exploring bat roosting or hibernation areas are urged to take the necessary precautions to minimize human-caused spread of the fungus.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/bats-are-on-the-brink-in-wyoming/article_e280b722-d0ce-5d78-96af-e3fbf27a02f7.html
| 2022-04-16T14:47:58Z
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TORRINGTON — The Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) Board of Trustees discussed the unsuccessful presidential search with students, staff and community members during the regular meeting on Tuesday.
During the open forum, members of the public shared their thoughts about the recent search for a new college president which ended with the board deciding not to pick any of the final three candidates.
Susie Delger, the Interim Director of Nursing at EWC, told the board she had a very sad heart about the decision and said Dr. Randy Smith had 75% of the support from the students and faculty to be the school’s next president.
Delger had previously informed the board she would stay one more year if he were chosen to help the nursing program she initially helped establish.
“I didn’t do it alone. I did it with a team,” Delger said. “I wanted to be on Dr. Smith’s team as many others did. He told a truth that somehow falls on deaf ears here.”
Delger told the board the staff has long deserved raises and believed Smith would have addressed it.
“Dr. Smith, while perhaps not the most diplomatic, had a vision for this college that gave us hope that he could help us get it significantly better,” she said.
Another concern addressed by Delger was the involvement of Gold Hill Associates consulting firm, which was hired by the school for the search process. She claimed the consultant did not properly vet the candidates and added the committee was tasked with searching for “dirt” on the candidates.
Delger asked the board if Dr. Smith had the appearance of “dirt” and could not share it. A major concern highlighted by several speakers was about the transparency and communication between the board and the public in regard to making the decision.
Associate Professor Kelly Strampe said the staff felt its feedback was part of the reason none of the candidates were selected based on the language used in the press release from the college on Friday, April 8.
She also said there was confusion amongst the faculty and staff since there was more than 70% support for one candidate.
Strampe added the staff should have received a separate email about the decision rather than finding out at the same time as the public through the press release.
“To believe that the same press release that is sent to social media and local news media is appropriate for the people with the most to lose and gain in this situation is incomprehensible to us,” she said.
Strampe asked the board not to appoint an interim president and to reconsider the favored candidate or one of the other two final candidates.
Instructional Technologist Aaron Bahmer said the staff was and still is angered by the press release and added the language of the press release misrepresented them.
“We see this declaration to be ultimately detrimental to the community’s support of the college,” he said. “And by this, I mean us, the employees, our donors and the people in the counties we serve as well as the students and parents of students, applicants and prospective students.”
Bahmer said whatever the reason was to reject the three candidates could have been conveyed to the staff before the press release was sent out.
Jonathan Pieper, a student at EWC, said many students are discontent with the decision and said he knows several freshmen who plan to transfer since the announcement.
“I personally wasn’t going to come back but I know I can’t leave a place worse than when I came here. I wanted to come back and be part of something and hopefully turns this college around,” he said.
Trustee John Patrick said Gold Hill returned to the college 47 applicants for the position, which was narrowed down by the search committee to 10 for Zoom interviews.
“Out of that process they were then ranked… one through 10 in the order that the selection committee felt that they should be,” he said.
After multiple votes, the top five were forwarded to the board who felt there was a gap in confidence between the top three candidates and the other two.
Director of Institutional Development John Hansen, who was on the search committee, clarified there was confidence in all of the candidates, but the final three were the strongest applicants.
Patrick said the three candidates came to campus and met with students and staff along with the president’s cabinet members and the board.
“None of them disqualified themselves at that time,” Patrick said. “They were all people that the board was willing to consider.”
Two days after the board members’ meeting with the candidates, the trustees met again and met with Walt Nolte with Gold Hill Associates who reported the results of further investigation. Nolte listed the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, and Patrick said for one candidate, “he could not give us a recommendation on.”
After Patrick was advised by the board’s legal counsel to refrain from discussing any further information on the process, Pieper asked the board if there would have been a better way to conduct the search to have known each candidate was qualified before they visited the campus.
“Why did we even get to meet them as student senate and every other student here, we were all there, we talked with them we wrote down our choice, we don’t know if they were considered or not… and we were wondering, if you’re going to take all that time, why would they be disqualified after the fact? They should be all ready to hire at that point,” Pieper said.
“Would you take any comfort in the fact that the board asked the exact same question,” Patrick asked, which was followed by mixed responses from the audience.
Trustee Kurt Sittner said every decision made by the board was made with the interest of the community in mind.
“I may see things slightly different than you do but… all the decisions that we made were made with EWC in mind and the reason that we did not hire any of these candidates is because none of these people were the best people for EWC,” Sittner said.
Board members were asked if they believed an interim president would be able to move the college forward.
Chairman Bob Baumgartner said he personally believes an interim president could with the help of the board. Sittner asked the audience if Baumgartner’s response was “tough to stomach” which many community members said it was.
“We will regain your confidence. We have the ability to do that; we have the desire to do that,” Sittner said. “I hope that you can work with us long enough to allow us to do that.”
Converse County Advisory Member of the board Jim Willox responded to a previous statement about how the language in the press release appears to read as though the staff feedback led to none of the candidates being picked and acknowledged how it may have been confusing.
“That was supposed to convey, we really did take it into effect, and still had to make a hard decision. So don’t think it was ignored. That’s what it was supposed to say, and I understand how it got interpreted a little different,” Willox said.
In terms of the search firm used during the process, Patrick said the board will not be working with Gold Hill Associates in the future.
Baumgartner added the board will only have to pay the consultant for his expenditures and not his $30,000 contract due to the unsuccessful search.
One community member asked the board to provide an “entirely false scenario” for more context as to why no one was selected. Trustee Patrick began to talk about a hypothetical situation of one candidate being accused of a serious crime but was advised by the board’s attorney Tim Bush to not go any further.
Trustee Tom John McCreery told the public the board worked really hard to find a new president during the process.
“The board was as crushed as you guys, it was awful. So I want you to understand that it’s one of those things we can’t talk about of course, legally, but believe me we really worked at it,” McCreery said. “It just didn’t work out.”
In terms of appointing an interim president, Patrick said it is needed since current President Lesley Travers retires on July 1, and the school needs to have a president.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/community-questions-eastern-wyoming-college-presidential-search/article_26bdde7b-7071-5529-aa74-3d61f5e25103.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:04Z
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Another Laramie restaurant snuck onto the big screen recently when it was featured on the Food Network series “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”
On March 25, the local Crowbar & Grill made an appearance on an episode titled “From Italian to Asian.”
“It was a lot of fun. It was kind of full circle for me,” said owner Andy Glines, who started his business nearly 10 years ago. He said the show “was a big influence in why I even started the Crowbar.”
When he was younger, Glines bounced from zoology to public administration as possible career areas before finally landing in the restaurant business after getting inspired by Fieri’s show.
“When I was out of college and not sure what I wanted to do, I was watching a show and thought, I kind of wanted to do that,’” Glines says on the show.
‘Lights out’
“We’re digging into Asian flavors and a taste of Italy in some surprising spots,” Fieri says during the intro of the episode. He described the Crowbar as “an international bar food twist in Laramie, Wyoming.”
Right away, locals who love the spot at 202 S. 2nd St. in downtown pointed Fieri to the “lights out” bulgogi fries, which features strips of beef marinated in sweet and savory Asian flavors. It’s piled on a plate of twice-fried shoestring potatoes, topped with kimchi and Sriracha mayo and garnished with green onions and sesame seeds.
‘My mouth just started to water,” Fieri says while general manager Emily Madden shows him how she makes the dish.
When tasting the bulgogi fries, Fieri says the beef “is super on-point” and that “the kicker is the fry. The fries are dangerous.”
Along with the Korean-inspired loaded fries, Fieri and Madden make one of the Crowbar’s other favorites, a Middle Eastern pizza featuring spiced ground lamb on a base of tzatziki sauce.
“It’s dynamite!” the host exclaims. “Even though it’s elevated bar food, you’re elevating it to another level, and it’s really done with discipline.”
On the road with Guy
Glines said “Triple D” inspired him to build a special, inclusive place for the Laramie community, and he did just that. While he’s enjoyed the place the Crowbar has become, it hasn’t happened without its challenges.
“Last fall was really tough on us and all the other restaurants as well,” Glines said about the local economy. “We got a call that said we were gonna be on it and that was pretty big news.”
The restaurant had just come up for air after the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that didn’t deter Glines and his crew from providing the best meal for Fieri they could offer.
The staff closed down the restaurant and did lots of special cleaning to get the space ready for its closeup.
“The filming was a lot of fun,” Glines said. “The crew was really cool to work with.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/crowbar-grill-on-the-map-to-flavortown/article_7d84b08b-5d2a-5de8-af3e-0f9801337092.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:10Z
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Wyoming Game and Fish Department aquatic invasive species inspection stations for watercraft are resuming seasonal operations across most of the state beginning Friday.
All boaters must stop when coming upon an AIS inspection station.
“AIS check stations will be open and operational throughout Wyoming again this year, and it’s vital to stop and get your watercraft inspected,” said Josh Leonard, AIS coordinator. “Game and Fish is dedicated to keeping invasive species out of our state’s waters. Boaters who stop at check stations are a key partner in these efforts.”
AIS watercraft inspections are crucial to keep Wyoming waters free from aquatic invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels. To date, mussels have not been detected in any of Wyoming’s natural waters.
Watercraft owners can make their check station stop quick if their watercraft are clean, drained and dry. Additionally, before hitting the water this spring, boaters should remember that:
• A Wyoming AIS decal must be displayed on all watercraft (including rentals) using Wyoming waters with the exception of non-motorized, inflatable watercraft 10-feet in length or less. While these watercraft are not required to have a decal, they still require an inspection when coming from out of state.
• Boats must stop at established check stations each time a boater passes a check station. Check stations are established at ports of entry, border locations or at boat ramps. Inspections also are available at Game and Fish regional offices, but you must call ahead.
• Any watercraft transported into Wyoming from March 1-Nov. 30 must undergo a mandatory inspection by an authorized inspector prior to launching on any Wyoming waterway.
• If boaters entering Wyoming do not encounter an open AIS check station on their route of travel, it is the boater’s responsibility to seek out an inspection before launching on any Wyoming waterway. Inspection locations may be found on the AIS website.
• A watercraft may launch without further inspection if the watercraft has a properly affixed seal applied by an authorized inspector and is accompanied by a valid seal receipt during transit. The person transporting the watercraft may remove the seal immediately prior to launching on the destination water and must retain the seal and valid seal receipt while on the water.
• Even if a watercraft has been previously inspected and has a valid seal and seal receipt, boaters are still required to stop at any open AIS check station. Having the properly affixed seal and valid seal receipt will expedite the inspection process.
For the most recent and up to date information on Wyoming AIS, visit the Game and Fish website, https://wgfd.wyo.gov/AIS. The 2022 AIS decal is also available online; having a decal is a requirement for many watercraft. There also is a combination watercraft registration and AIS Decal that may be purchased for one or three years.
Watercraft users may also call the Game and Fish Office for more information at 307-777-4600.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/game-and-fish-ais-inspection-stations-open-this-spring/article_bef7fc56-73ee-5bfc-a9d7-5e2ac2449eb1.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:16Z
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For Brent Bien, there were three incidents that motivated his run for governor.
The first time the idea came up was when former President Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. The second time was when current Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon “shut the state down” because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are 20,000 square miles bigger, 300,000 people fewer than South Dakota, and (they were) open for business,” Bien told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Thursday.
The final trigger for Bien came with President Joe Biden’s election in November 2020.
At that point, Bien thought, “We have a governor that’s already put our freedom on the table, (and now) there’s nobody at the federal level that’s going to stand up for our freedom,” he said.
After speaking with some other conservatives in the state and learning they weren’t planning to challenge Gordon in 2022, Bien decided he was the man for the job.
Bien, who is running as a conservative Republican, is originally from Laramie. He and his wife, Susan, moved back to Wyoming about three years ago, following Bien’s retirement as a colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps after close to three decades.
Working primarily as a Marine Corps aviator, Bien provided support in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo, and spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most recently, the candidate was in Guam, leading the ongoing Defense Policy Review Initiative, which he said included building a Marine Corps base on the island territory.
Bien then worked as director of safety and standardization for Bighorn Airways in Sheridan until last fall, when he retired to focus on his run for governor.
Throughout all of his travel, Bien said he had maintained his Wyoming residency and has voted in every Wyoming election since he was 18.
Having watched the state’s politics for decades, Bien said he’s seen “a lack of leadership” among Wyoming’s governors – especially the current one. In shutting down the state, Gordon hurt businesses and workers, and allowed an appointed health official to run the state, Bien said.
The gubernatorial candidate wants to see “proactive leadership” in Cheyenne – a strong governor like Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota or Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, he said.
“Wyoming should be leading,” he said. “I know that we are involved in some lawsuits against certain things that are coming down federally, but it seems like we always jump on the bandwagon. ... Let’s be the first.”
‘The three P’s’Bien said his campaign “revolves around making Wyoming the freest state in the nation.” To do that as governor, Bien would emphasize “the three P’s”: protecting personal freedoms, pursuing government accountability and promoting state sovereignty.
When it comes to personal freedoms, Bien said he’s particularly focused on “protecting private property rights, rights of the unborn, and, of course, the Second Amendment.”
Bien said working toward government accountability means protecting voter integrity and ending crossover voting, moving toward more limited government, “fiscal discipline,” and school choice and educational transparency.
In promoting state sovereignty, Bien said the goal would be to protect the state from federal overreach and reduce dependency on the federal government.
“I’m all about working with the federal government, as long as it doesn’t encroach upon personal freedoms, nor the sovereignty of the state,” Bien said.
He said that overreach has been happening for a long time, but has really ramped up since Biden took office. As an example, he cited what he called “the Biden 30/30 land and water grab,” referring to a goal announced early in Biden’s presidency to conserve at least 30% of land and water in the U.S. by 2030.
Bien also said he is a “big believer in promoting energy expansion.”
“I think that fossil fuels are just as much our future as they were our past – we just have to change the narrative on them,” he said. “We have the technology to make – particularly coal, because we’re such a coal state – to make this extremely clean.”
Bien said coal coming from the Powder River Basin is “the cleanest coal in the world” because of its low sulfur content.
Bien also spoke in favor of what he called “insulationism.” At its core, he said, it means strengthening certain industries within Wyoming so the state doesn’t have to rely as much on the federal government and industry outside the state.
The candidate drew a distinction between “insulationism” and isolationism, which he said he’s not at all interested in.
“It’s just to better protect the state, to insulate the state from bad federal policy,” he explained. “And there’s no way to completely do that by any means. But when I look at the cost of everything in the grocery store, the gasoline and all this stuff – I mean, there is a way to do this.
Grassroots campaigning
When he spoke to the WTE Thursday morning, Bien was readying for an evening visit to Thermopolis.
Visiting towns across the state, even those with a small number of residents, has so far been a significant part of his campaign. In the past month, Bien has made stops in Hudson, Recluse, Thayne and even tiny Spotted Horse, according to his Facebook page, alongside larger destinations like Gillette, Casper and Cheyenne.
During one recent visit to Cody, Bien said a campaign event originally scheduled for two hours lasted about eight.
These visits and interactions with potential voters have only strengthened his commitment to his core campaign principles, Bien said.
Bien acknowledged that the road ahead would be difficult in terms of challenging an incumbent for the gubernatorial seat. Even so, he feels he’s developed a following through grassroots campaigning.
“I’ve had a career successfully leading people to accomplish desired results, but it does come down to putting teams together and listening,” he said. “I always listen. And some ideas may work, some may not, but I always listen to the folks on what their concerns are.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/gordon-challenger-wants-to-protect-personal-freedoms/article_92b6a4e7-6f25-5578-8051-751d7a85c714.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:23Z
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On the record April 16: On the record Apr 16, 2022 3 hrs ago Comments Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save The following calls were included in the Albany County Sheriff’s Office responses:MONDAY, APRIL 11• 8:32 a.m., 3200 block of Pfe Rd., trespassingTUESDAY, APRIL 12• 3:24 p.m., Interstate 80, accident• 6:26 p.m., 200 block of Gilmore Gulch Rd., animal bite• 10:51 p.m., 500 block of S. Hayes St., possible domestic disturbance• 11:25 p.m., 700 block of S. 6th St., possible domestic disturbanceWEDNESDAY, APRIL 13• 3:43 a.m., 800 block of Hermosa Rd., emergencyTHURSDAY, APRIL 14• 12:37 a.m., Interstate 80, possible possession of controlled substance• 7:30 a.m., Interstate 80, emergency• 7:36 p.m., intersection of E. Harney St. and W. Snowy Range Rd., possible domestic disturbanceThe following calls were included in the Laramie Police Department responses:MONDAY, APRIL 11• 10:55 a.m., 1500 block of W. Snowy Range Rd., shoplifting• 12:27 p.m., intersection of Interstate 80 and S. 3rd St., emergency• 2:06 p.m., 2600 block of Riverside Dr., trespassing• 5:40 p.m., 2400 block of N. 9th St., possible domestic disturbanceTUESDAY, APRIL 12• 11:23 a.m., 1000 block of Reynolds St., computer crime• 2:49 p.m., 2100 block of E. Grand Ave., hit and run• 3:48 p.m., 2200 block of E. Grand Ave., trespassing• 10:51 p.m., 500 block of S. Hayes St., possible domestic disturbance• 11:25 p.m., 700 block of S. 6th St., possible domestic disturbance• 11:52 p.m., 1500 block of Jefferson St., possible domestic disturbanceWEDNESDAY, APRIL 13• 2:42 a.m., 1000 block of N. 22nd St., emergency• 6:49 a.m., 1500 block of Venture Dr., accident• 2 p.m., 4300 block of E. Grand Ave., hit and run• 2:24 p.m., 1700 block of E. Grand Ave., accident• 7:49 p.m., 3500 block of Willett Dr., possible domestic disturbance• 8:58 p.m., 3000 block of E. Grand Ave., traffic hazard• 9:03 p.m., intersection of S. 15th St. and E. Spring Creek Dr., accidentTHURSDAY, APRIL 14• 7:42 a.m., 900 block of E. Boswell Dr., accident• 8:51 a.m., 1800 block of Banner Rd., burglary• 9:03 a.m., 300 block of S. Pine St., report of death• 11:13 a.m., intersection of N. 3rd St. and W. Snowy Range Rd., littering• 11:40 a.m., 2000 block of Venture Dr., trespassing• 12:05 p.m., 2000 block of Venture Dr., hit and run• 6:28 p.m., 400 block of E. Boswell Dr., emergency• 7:36 p.m., intersection of E. Harney St. and W. Snowy Range Rd., possible domestic disturbance Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Recommended for you Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus Latest e-Edition Laramie Boomerang To view our latest e-Edition click the image on the left. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. 2022 Wyoming Legislature Updates Sign up to receive daily headlines on the 2022 Wyoming Legislature session. News Updates Would you like to receive our daily news? Sign up today! News Updates - Laramie Boomerang Want to keep updated on news headlines? Sign up today! News Updates - Rawlins Times Would you like to receive our daily news? Sign up today! News Updates - Wyoming Business Report Would you like to receive our daily news? Sign up today! You must select at least one email list. Please enter a valid email address. Sign up Manage your lists
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/local_news/arrest_record_and_police_calls/april-16-on-the-record/article_b8a5e3b2-c3d6-5970-957c-99eaa57e61e7.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:29Z
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Food Network superstar Guy Fieri has been front-and-center around Laramie the past few months, but perhaps never so much as he was at The Alibi Wood Fire Pizzeria and Bakery on Friday night.
Friends and locals gathered at the restaurant for a “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” watch party. The downtown eatery was the fifth Laramie spot to be featured on the popular television show, which follows Fieri as he travels the country in search of unique culinary creations.
As if getting national recognition for their homemade pizza and sandwiches wasn’t exciting enough, employees spiced up the watch party by dressing up as the famous foodie himself.
“We love the atmosphere. … The food is amazing,” said longtime customer Michael Turner. He used to eat at The Alibi when while attending the University of Wyoming and now drives from Cheyenne for it’s eclectic and tasty menu.
Turner and many other customers agreed that over the years, the restaurant has improved at an impressive rate.
The Alibi started in 1953 as a bar and package store and has grown to become a full-scale restaurant and bakery. Owner Ethan Smith bought the restaurant in 1990, then began renovations to expand the bar and outdoor area.
“The Alibi never sits still,” said Ethan’s wife and restaurant co-owner Kerri Smith. “We are always trying to find new offerings, new processes (and) new ideas to make things better.”
The greatest transition was from 2014-2021, when the pair ramped up the remodeling efforts, adding a full lunch and dinner menu along with breads and pastries baked in their signature wood-fired oven.
The addition of pizza and baked goods allowed the pair to fill a culinary niche in the Laramie community, Kerri said.
‘Shut-the-front-door sandwiches’
It’s that evolution and attention to detail that brought Fieri and his “Triple D” crew to The Alibi. It’s a place with “shut-the-front-door sandwiches,” he said during his introduction, adding that, “you gotta love the name. This is The Alibi.”
Throughout the segment, Fieri and Kerri worked through a couple of the restaurant’s more popular dishes, the cowboy brisket pizza and Reuben sandwich, made with fresh-baked rye bread.
The host loved the bread so much he said it sends The Alibi’s Reuben over the top.
”This ain’t your franchise sandwich shop. The Russian dressing should be bottled and sold,” he said, adding that, “everything has to do with this rye.
”It’s ‘ry-tchous: rye-t here, rye-t now.”
That critique came on the heels of tasting the cowboy brisket pizza, made with on a base of sourdough with beef smoked 14 hours. Topped with a horseradish cream sauce it’s, as one customer quipped, “at the tippity-top, above the top.”
While he liked the brisket, Fieri couldn’t say enough about the sourdough crust, which he said was “out of bounds. This might be some of the lightest, crispiest and delicious ... This is legit.”
An evolution
“I started working here a couple years ago now and I’ve seen the growth and everything that Kerri and Ethan have strived for,” said employee Gaston Osterland. “I’m so happy to be a part of it.”
While being featured on “Triple D” wasn’t something the owners expected, they see it as an exciting way for the Laramie community to gain recognition.
“Laramie should be proud of the culinary destination that has emerged and is currently being promoted nationwide,” Kerri said. “Not only do we have a great outdoor destination, but now tourists are more aware of the culinary experience they can have as well.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/one-rye-tchous-joint-alibi-is-5th-laramie-eatery-featured-on-triple-d-impresses-host/article_10ec4369-4d7b-5a95-9d69-f5265294a13f.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:35Z
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First wild horse adoption of year is April 30
The Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility will kick off BLM Wyoming’s 2022 adoption schedule with an event April 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
BLM will offer approximately 50 wild horses for this adoption, including weanlings/yearlings. The weanlings/yearlings were gathered in 2021 from the Divide Basin, Salt Wells, Adobe Town, White Mountain and Little Colorado herd management areas. There will also be approximately eight 4- to 8-year-old mares from Antelope Hills and Lost Creek herd management areas that were gathered in 2020.
The offered horses will be available for adoption on a first-come, first-served basis. Any person wishing to adopt a wild horse must fill out an application, be able to conform to the BLM’s minimum adoption requirements and have their application approved by the BLM. BLM specialists will be on hand to answer questions and assist with the adoption applications.
“Wyoming wild horses make great companions and trail animals,” Supervisory Wild Horse Specialist Jake Benson said in a news release. “We want to see them all adopted into good homes.”
To reach the holding facility from I-80, take Elk Street Exit 104 and go north one mile, then turn right onto Lionkol Road and follow for a half-mile.
To learn more about BLM Wyoming’s wild horse adoption program, or the Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility, visit blm.gov/WHB.
Yellowstone National Park announces road opening schedule
JACKSON (WNE) – Roads in Yellowstone National Park’s northwestern reaches are set to open April 15, though the south entrance will remain closed.
Four main roads will be open April 15, per the park’s press release.
Three will be newly open for the season: those from the West Entrance to Old Faithful, from Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful via Norris, from Norris to Canyon Village.
One is open year round: from the north entrance near Gardiner, Montana, to the northeast entrance near Cooke City, Montana.
Other roads in the park will open sequentially, according to Yellowstone National Park’s website.
The roads from the East Entrance to Lake Village over Sylvan Pass and from Canyon Village to Lake Village are set to open May 6.
The road from Cooke City to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway is scheduled to open May 11.
Three other main byways are then set to open May 13: those from the South Entrance to West Thumb, from Lake Village to West Thumb, from West Thumb to Old Faithful over Craig Pass, and from Tower Junction to Tower Fall
Then, on May 27, the roads from Tower Fall to Canyon Junction over Dunraven Pass, and the Beartooth Highway will open.
Fishing and boating seasons will begin May 28 and close Oct. 31.
Park roads are set close for the season at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 1.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/outdoors/out-and-about/article_45176a1d-4bf1-5bc0-95e5-b63a6c6d355e.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:41Z
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SHERIDAN — The Wyoming Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in the appellate case of David Ingersoll, 50. On appeal, Ingersoll argued improper testimony offered during his case resulted in an unfair trial.
Ingersoll was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl at Walmart in July 2019, court documents state. A jury found Ingersoll guilty of second degree sexual abuse of a minor after a four-day trial in March 2021, past reporting by The Sheridan Press indicates. During a May 2021 sentencing hearing, Ingersoll was sentenced to 16 to 20 years in prison.
Now appealing the verdict to the Wyoming Supreme Court, Ingersoll’s defense attorneys — the Chief Appellate Counsel for the Office of the State Public Defender Kirk A. Morgan and Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel Francis McVay — said testimony provided by several prosecution witnesses was inappropriate as it included statements vouching for other witness’ credibility or offered opinions on the guilt or innocence of the defendant, Ingersoll’s appellate brief states.
For example, Ingersoll argued several witnesses provided testimony implying the victim’s credibility or otherwise bolstering the allegations made by the victim, which is improper when those opinions decide the case for jurors, Ingersoll’s appellate brief said.
Similarly, Ingersoll argued testimony by the primary investigating officer in the case, Sheridan Police Department then-Sgt. James Hill, directly testified to the defendant’s guilt. Ingersoll asserted Hill’s testimony included a description of how sexual abusers often groom their victims and indicated Ingersoll groomed the victim in this case, implying Ingersoll is a sexual abuser. This statement, Ingersoll’s defense counsel asserted before the court, is about the ultimate issue in the case: Ingersoll’s guilt or innocence.
The problem with these statements is they invade the province of the jury, Ingersoll’s brief argued. Jurors alone are meant to determine the credibility of witnesses and the defendant’s ultimate guilt or innocence.
Ingersoll’s attorneys maintained the cumulative effect of this improper testimony resulted in an unfair trial and requested the district court’s judgment and sentence be reversed and remanded for a new trial.
In its response to Ingersoll’s appeal, the state asserted evidence presented at the trial did not include improper testimony on witness’ credibility or Ingersoll’s guilt. Instead, prosecutors argued the statements were proper fact or opinion testimony on issues relevant to the case.
Not all testimony that supports a witness’ credibility or leads to inferences about a defendant’s guilt is improper, the state argued in its appellate brief. The testimony in the Ingersoll trial did not violate the rule of law by explicitly vouching for the credibility of a witness or directly testifying to the defendant’s guilt, the state argued, and testimony that simply incidentally bolsters a witness’ credibility or explains why a witness’ interpretation of the evidence led to an inference of guilt is not improper.
In addition, the state argued the verdict in Ingersoll’s case was not unjustly affected by the pieces of testimony to which the defendant objected. The state’s trial brief asserts other pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution during Ingersoll’s trial — including photos, texts, social media posts and call logs between Ingersoll and the victim as well as an abundance of other evidence presented during the trial to which the defense did not object — would still have secured a guilty verdict.
“The state respectfully requests that this court affirm Ingersoll’s conviction in all respects,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Joshua Eames summarized on behalf of the state.
After oral arguments Tuesday afternoon, the Wyoming Supreme Court took the matter under advisement. The court will issue a written opinion on the case at a later date.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/state-high-court-hears-arguments-in-sex-abuse-case/article_163ba8e0-6a81-5384-96a9-95f94d364745.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:47Z
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2nd Judicial District Court Judge Tori Kricken to resign
The state Judicial Nominating Commission is accepting expressions of interest to fill an upcoming seat in the Wyoming 2nd Judicial District, which covers Albany County.
Judge Tori Kricken is resigning her position on the bench effective Aug. 15.
Kricken, a former District Court judge in Albany County, was appointed to the 2nd Judicial District bench by former Gov. Matt Mead in October 2016, and began her service Jan. 2, 2017.
The Judicial Nominating Commission will accept applications from qualified persons (a qualified elector in the state and authorized to practice law here), which are available the Wyoming Supreme Court website at courts.state.wy.us/administration/careers. The completed forms must be received no later than 5 p.m. May 13.
The commission asks people to not submit letters of recommendation, as only review documents specifically required by the expression of interest will be considered.
Gov. Mark Gordon will appoint a new 2nd Judicial Court judge from a list of three names submitted to him by the Nomination Commission.
The salary for the position is $160,000 a year with state benefits, retirement and a generous judicial pension, as per Wyoming statute.
Enroll Wyo. offers free health insurance assistance
Many people don’t realize they currently qualify for comprehensive and affordable health insurance, and could sign up today. Expanded benefits and cheaper costs can be found by connecting with Enroll Wyoming, a nonprofit that provides free assistance to explore health options.
People may qualify for the Health Insurance Marketplace based on income or recent life-altering experiences like marriage, a new child joining the home or losing health insurance. This allows Americans to access the Marketplace, where cost savings like tax credits make four out of five health plans as cheap as $50 a month.
People also qualify if their household income is between 100% and 150% of federal poverty levels. For example, a four-member family qualifies if its annual income is between $26,500 and $39,750. Find out if you qualify by talking to an Enroll Wyoming Navigator or visiting www.healthcare.gov/screener.
Enroll Wyoming is a grant-funded nonprofit and doesn’t have sales incentives or quotas. Navigators provide detailed information so families and individuals can make the choices that best benefit their situations, according to a news release.
Connecting with an Enroll Wyoming is as easy as calling 211 and asking for a health insurance navigator.
Wyoming deaths again higher than normal
Official records filed with Vital Statistics Services, which is part of the Wyoming Department of Health, show another sharp increase in deaths last year over what would have been expected before the COVID-19 pandemic; there were also more births, more marriages and fewer divorces among residents.
Among Wyoming residents, there were 6,572 deaths recorded in 2021, 5,986 deaths recorded in 2020 and 5,122 deaths in 2019, according to official death certificate information. Death certificates are completed by attending physicians and coroners and then filed with VSS.
“Before the pandemic, our data has shown steady, small increases in deaths for several years, largely due to our state’s aging population. That’s something we would have reasonably expected to continue,” Guy Beaudoin, VSS deputy state registrar with WDH, said in a news release. “However, the dramatically increased numbers of deaths over the last two years are unprecedented in Wyoming. It’s clear COVID-19 was a driving factor.”
Beaudoin noted the top five causes of death in Wyoming for 2021 were cancers (1,151), heart diseases (1,113), COVID-19 (1,025), various types of accidents and adverse effects (379) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related conditions (355).
“Unfortunately, Wyoming continues to have a high suicide rate,” Beaudoin said. “There were small increases in the number of suicide completions in each of the last two years, but there have been other times over the last decade with significantly larger year-over-year jumps, as well as some years with reductions.”
In 2021, 189 (+7 over 2020) suicides were recorded among Wyoming residents, compared to 182 in 2020 (+13 over 2019). Previously, there were 169 in 2019 (+22 over 2018), 147 in 2018 (-8 over 2017), 155 in 2017 (+12 over 2016), 143 in 2016 (-12 over 2015), 155 in 2015 (+36 over 2014), 119 in 2014 (-9 over 213), 128 in 2013 (-44 over 2012) and 172 in 2012.
Wyoming’s data shows that about 72% of suicide deaths in 2021 were due to firearms, with 22% due to hanging and 4% due to poisoning.
“Deaths attributed to overdoses are another area of interest where over time we have seen increases between some years and decreases between others,” Beaudoin said. “Of note, we do continue to see the percentage of overdose deaths caused by illicit drugs rather than prescription drugs as growing within our state.”
In 2021, there were 95 (+5 over 2020) overdose deaths recorded among Wyoming residents, compared to 90 in 2020 (+9 over 2019). Previously, there were 81 in 2019 (+16 over 2018), 65 in 2018 (+5 over 2017), 60 in 2017 (-34 over 2016), 94 in 2016 (-1 over 2015), 95 in 2015 (-12 over 2014), 107 in 2014 (+11 over 2013), 96 in 2013 (-3 over 2012), and 99 in 2012.
“Last year was the first in quite some time with an increase recorded in the number of new babies in Wyoming,” Beaudoin said. “Previously, we had seen an ongoing significant downward trend over several years.”
There were 6,232 births among Wyoming resident mothers in 2021, compared with 6,132 in 2020. The high over the past decade was in 2015, with 7,678 resident births.
VSS also holds marriage and divorce records. There were 4,274 marriages recorded in Wyoming last year, compared to 3,986 in 2020 and 4,062 in 2019, before the pandemic. As far as divorces, there were 2,158 finalized in 2021, compared with 2,227 divorces in 2020 and 2,253 in 2019, before the pandemic.
Gordon supports lawsuit challenging border policy
Gov. Mark Gordon has announced that Wyoming is among the states joining a lawsuit filed by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri challenging the Biden administration’s revocation of Title 42 border control measures.
These Trump-era border policies helped reduce the flow of illegal immigration at the United States-Mexico border, according to a Thursday news release from Gordon’s office.
Last fall, Gordon visited the southern border and joined 25 other governors in releasing 10 policy solutions that the Biden administration could enact immediately to address the crisis at the southern border. Among those solutions was a continuation of the Title 42 orders, an effective tool at limiting border crossings and supporting public health, Gordon’s office said.
“The Biden administration’s continued failure to fulfill its constitutional duty and secure our border impacts all Americans,” Gordon said in the release. “When the federal government does not fulfill its responsibilities, states are compelled to take legal action to protect their residents from the impacts of this border crisis. Wyoming will stand by our fellow states to protect our borders.”
The lawsuit “challenges an imminent, man-made, self-inflicted calamity: the abrupt elimination of the only safety valve preventing this administration’s disastrous border policies from devolving into unmitigated chaos and catastrophe.” A copy of the complaint is available at https://tinyurl.com/border-policy-lawsuit.
Child Support program No. 1 for 9th year
Wyoming’s Child Support Program was ranked number one in the nation for the ninth consecutive year based on performance and federal standards. The CSP is managed by the Department of Family Services.
Maximus, a company that specializes in health and human services programs, compiles the data for all states and territories. Then, the North Dakota child support director calculates and determines the ranking.
“We believe this recognition as the nation’s number one performing program demonstrates Wyoming families are receiving the services they need, and families are receiving their court-ordered child support,” said Kristie Arneson, economic security senior administrator with DFS, in a news release. “Those are always our goals.“
CSP goals include finding biological parents; establishing paternity; establishing child support and medical support orders; enforcing child support and medical support orders, and modifying existing orders. The CSP also serves as a “pass through” by receiving and disbursing child support payments to custodial parents.
The federal child support performance measures are: the number of cases with a child support order; paternity establishment; collection of current support; collection of arrears (back-owed child support) and cost effectiveness.
To learn more about the CSP, or to apply for services, go to https://childsupport.wyo.gov/.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/worth-noting/article_d7a480d1-ebe1-56b0-856c-001e8c33aaa5.html
| 2022-04-16T14:48:53Z
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After the COVID-19 pandemic sent the economy into a tailspin, Congress enacted a system to help struggling renters stay in their homes: the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Nationally, lawmakers earmarked $46 billion to assist low-income tenants in paying their rent.
The program offers several benefits. Along with covering rent, the relief funding can be used to move into a new apartment, pay utilities or take care of previous housing costs — even at places where they no longer live. Those who qualify can receive up to 18 months of assistance.
For some, the program has been a lifeline, a way to keep a roof over their heads during a time of so much economic suffering. And in Wyoming, there’s plenty of funding to go around.
In fact, the state gave back $168 million in first-round federal rental relief money because it wasn’t being used, and because the restrictions around it were too cumbersome. Wyoming received another $152 million for rental relief that won’t expire until 2025.
But accessing the money has proven difficult for many. Recent reporting by Star-Tribune staff writer Mary Steurer highlighted an application process that is “lengthy, confusing and prone to pitfalls.” Those problems have made it harder for renters to access aid. It’s been so frustrating to some landlords that they’ve stopped renting to those who use the program, defeating the entire purpose of the effort.
Landlords and tenants have reported multiple problems. Applicants told Steurer that even simple paperwork mistakes can take weeks to resolve. A scanned document that’s too fuzzy is enough to slow the process. The complaints aren’t coming from just tenants. Last month, the Department of Family Services, which administers the program for Wyoming, held a virtual town hall that attracted about 150 landlords. They expressed frustration with a system in which even minor errors left applications in limbo.
Other complaints centered on the lack of information concerning where an application was in the pipeline. There is a website that can track what stage the paperwork is in, but it doesn’t offer many details. An informational phone line, meanwhile, spurred complaints of excessive waits.
The cumbersome system is having real consequences for renters who need the aid. It’s not just that they have to wait for lengthy periods. It’s that the system is so unwieldy that it’s prompting some landlords to no longer accept potential tenants who use the program. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The rental market is tight in Wyoming, and landlords may have multiple tenants to choose from for a unit. Why pick a tenant who carries the risk of a lengthy bureaucratic wait? Steurer spoke with multiple Casper renters who said they were pre-approved for the program, but couldn’t find a landlord who would take them.
We recognize that the department wants to ensure that the money is spent appropriately and effectively. We also understand that quickly starting up a major program is bound to be difficult.
But given that this program doesn’t expire for another three years, it’s essential that these issues get addressed. Simple mistakes shouldn’t take weeks to resolve. Communication problems can be fixed.
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was established to help renters. There’s evidence now that the difficulties surrounding it are bad enough that landlords are simply avoiding renters who use it. That needs to change now. At stake is more than $150 million in aid and housing for vulnerable Wyomingites.
Two years have passed since the pandemic began.
It’s time for the state to do better.
Casper Star-Tribune
April 10
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/opinion/editorials/problems-with-rental-relief-program-should-be-quickly-addressed/article_c6734986-85c3-5c01-894a-29d533f88ac2.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:00Z
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We are done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.
The subvariant of Omicron, dubbed BA.2, is causing spikes in infections, hospitalizations, deaths and lockdowns in different parts of the world. In the United States, the statistics have been promising, but cases have been rising enough to prompt the CDC on Wednesday to extend the national mask mandate for travel hubs and public transit, including planes, for an additional two weeks, until May 3, and also extended the national public health emergency determination for an additional 90 days.
While BA.2 creates uncertainty in the course of the pandemic, one fact has become increasingly clear: COVID-19 has exposed significant disparities in how health care is delivered and accessed in our society. In the initial months of the pandemic in early 2020, Black Americans were three times more likely than whites to contract COVID-19 and to require hospitalization, and twice as likely to die of the disease.
“The pandemic exacerbated preexisting social and economic disparities that have long festered in the U.S., including a deeply divided society, widespread poverty, a weak social safety net, inadequate living conditions, and a lack of trust in science that predated COVID-19,” the Poor People’s Campaign summarized in its recent “Poor People’s Pandemic Report.”
These dysfunctions and inequity won’t be overcome until everyone, regardless of who they are or where they’re from, are guaranteed healthcare as a fundamental right.
One of the most compelling speakers on the subject of universal healthcare is no longer able to physically speak at all. Activist Ady Barkan was diagnosed with terminal ALS in 2016 and uses a system that translates his eye movements into spoken words.
“It’s shameful that in the richest country in the world, we choose to inflict so much suffering,” Barkan said, testifying remotely before a recent House committee hearing on “Medicare for All.” “The pandemic has revealed and exacerbated the existing inequalities in our profit-driven healthcare system. It has hit hardest on disabled people, poor people, Black, Latino and Indigenous people, and especially people who live at the intersections of these categories. And one out of three COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are related to gaps in health insurance. Nearly a million Americans have already died from the coronavirus. How much more is necessary to shock our legislators into action?”
Medicare for All is a proposed reform of the U.S. healthcare system that would take the popular Medicare health insurance program currently available to citizens and permanent residents 65 years of age and older and extend eligibility to all. Medicare is a form of single-payer health care, in which the government itself does not provide medical services but makes the payments on behalf of those who it covers. Thus, hospitals, doctors’ offices, pharmacies and the like all remain as they are. The for-profit health insurance companies, however, are removed from the equation, saving over $500 billion dollars per year, as estimated in a report by Public Citizen.
Medicare For All also guarantees that no one would be left uninsured. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the current number of uninsured people in the U.S. at around 30 million.
“When this pandemic started, there was an awareness that our healthcare system was not going to perform well with 30 million uninsured, with far more underinsured,” Dr. Adam Gaffney of Harvard Medical School said on the Democracy Now! news hour. He co-authored a study that showed uninsured people are more likely to contract COVID-19. “We need to be expanding our public health infrastructure to tackle not only the pandemic of the present but the pandemics of the future, to say nothing of the other health threats that face us in the years to come, like the impact of climate change and much more.”
The pandemic has hit Black Americans particularly hard. In a new report, “The State of Black America and COVID-19” by the Black Coalition Against COVID (BCAC), the Yale School of Medicine, the Morehouse School of Medicine and others, Yale’s Dr. Marcella Nuñez-Smith writes, “In January of 2022, rates of COVID-19 hospitalization for Black Americans were the highest they have been since the pandemic’s start.”
Dr. Oni Blackstock, an African American primary care and HIV physician and founder of Health Justice, said on Democracy Now!, “The reality is that we are all interconnected and that if the Black community has access to care, to safety measures, that actually is something that can protect all of us.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/opinion/guest_column/confront-covid-19s-racial-and-class-disparities-with-medicare-for-all/article_92c4d9f0-a812-584e-8d14-75e08de0d52e.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:06Z
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...HIGH WIND WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH
SUNDAY AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph
possible.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Watch means there is the potential for a hazardous
high wind event. Sustained winds of at least 40 mph...or gusts of
58 mph or stronger may occur. Continue to monitor the latest
forecasts.
&&
The New England Patriots have one more in the cheering section with Johnathon, 13. On top of watching football, this athlete also enjoys honing his skills on the field.
Johnathon has a fantastic imagination that he likes using in his writing and drawing. Hagrid, Ron, Hermione and Harry are all well-loved characters, as he is a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. Dogs and horses are Johnathon’s favorite animals, and black, blue and red are his top three colors. If able to pick superpowers, this teen thinks teleporting or Hulk-like strength would be so cool.
Camping and video games are just a few more interests of Johnathon’s. Pizza and cake are the perfect treats when he needs refueling. Johnathon enjoys his interactions with older peers.
This bright seventh grader does well in school and is a strong mathematician.
Johnathon would do best in a Christian family with a mom and a dad in which he could be the youngest or only child in the home; however, his caseworker will consider all family types. Johnathon hopes to have pets in his family. Financial assistance may be available for adoption-related services. Johnathon lives in Missouri. Child ID: 327997
Child profiles are provided by Raise the Future at www.raisethefuture.org. For more information about waiting children, contact Raise the Future at 800-451-5246.
An approved adoption home study is required to be considered for placement of a child. Children can be placed across state lines, so Wyoming families are encouraged to inquire, regardless of the child’s current state of residence.
For information about becoming an adoptive parent, contact Wyoming Children’s Society at 307-632-7619 or visit www.wyomingcs.org.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/a_child_waits/a-child-waits-4-16-22/article_81c1e95d-70bb-5539-b23b-9a97cbbc2a0c.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:12Z
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CHEYENNE – Four members of a family were sentenced Wednesday afternoon in Laramie County District Court after they were accused of working together to steal from a local contractor.
David Dean Brown, David Kyle Brown and Joni Gayle Brown each pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of conspiracy to commit theft. Rhena Brown pleaded no contest in February to the same charge.
Joni and David Dean Brown admitted to helping their son, David Kyle Brown, receive paychecks from Reiman Corp. over a period of about three and a half years for work he did not do. Rhena Brown, David Kyle Brown’s wife, was accused of having knowledge of the fraudulent payments.
Laramie County District Judge Catherine Rogers sentenced David Dean and David Kyle Brown each to three years of supervised probation, with a suspended sentence of three to five years in prison.
Rogers deferred an entry of judgment for both Joni and Rhena Brown under Wyoming statute 7-13-301. This means that if the two women successfully complete three years of supervised probation, the charges against them may be dismissed by the court.
David Dean, David Kyle and Joni Brown each gave remorse-filled statements before their sentencings in which they apologized to Reiman Corp. and to their families.
David Dean Brown seemed to take full responsibility for the crime, saying: “I want to state that everything that has happened is my fault. I am the only one who had the authorization to do this, to have this done.”
He denied that he and his family members were only remorseful because they’d been caught, saying they’d been sorry for their actions from the very beginning.
The Browns are responsible for paying $247,027.96 total in restitution to Reiman Corp., Rogers ruled Wednesday. In their statements before the court, the Browns indicated they were eager to pay back the money as soon as possible.
Additional charges against David Kyle Brown – one felony and one misdemeanor count of falsely obtaining unemployment benefits – were dismissed as part of an agreement in his case.
All four sentences went along with what had been recommended in plea agreements. Felony conspiracy to commit theft carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
None of the Browns had any criminal record prior to these charges, their attorneys and Rogers said during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
The crime
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the incident last spring after leadership within Reiman Corp. said they’d found what they believed to be fraudulent activity by employees, according to the probable cause affidavit.
David Dean Brown later admitted in an interview with a detective that he’d knowingly defrauded Reiman Corp. Brown said he submitted records for hours his son did not work over a period of about three and a half years, according to the affidavit. He also admitted to forging his son’s signature on training rosters to make it appear as though his son was in attendance, though he never was.
Joni and David Kyle Brown also later admitted they had conspired to take money from Reiman Corp. Joni said she and her husband had been attempting to help their son because he was not motivated to work or find work. She said the family had justified their crimes because her husband had “worked very hard” for Reiman Corp. over the years, and that the scheme had gone on for much longer than they originally planned.
At her change-of-plea hearing in January, Joni clarified she’d worked for Reiman Corp. as her husband’s assistant. She denied entering any payroll information, but did admit she knew her son was being paid money he did not earn. Joni said she regretted her actions but said she never told her husband to stop.
David Kyle Brown said his father came up with the plan, according to the affidavit. He was uncomfortable, he said, but ultimately went along with it.
“I was foolish and stupid, and I should have never done that,” David Kyle Brown said at his January change of plea hearing.
After entering their guilty pleas, both David Dean and David Kyle asserted that David Kyle had worked for Reiman during some periods between May 2017 and June 2021.
At a restitution hearing on April 8, David Kyle Brown testified his work for Reiman during this period was “sporadic.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/family-members-sentenced-in-conspiracy-to-commit-theft-case/article_91e1bdd6-6a5c-59d7-a75f-82ba0ff743d5.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:18Z
|
...HIGH WIND WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH
SUNDAY AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph
possible.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Watch means there is the potential for a hazardous
high wind event. Sustained winds of at least 40 mph...or gusts of
58 mph or stronger may occur. Continue to monitor the latest
forecasts.
&&
A logo for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Crime Stoppers-Silent Witness program. Screenshot from the sheriff's department website taken on March 25, 2022.
A logo for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Crime Stoppers-Silent Witness program. Screenshot from the sheriff's department website taken on March 25, 2022.
CHEYENNE – The Cheyenne Police Department is investigating a stolen vehicle and credit card fraud case.
The pictured female is suspected of stealing a gym bag from a locker at Planet Fitness, 1400 Dell Range Blvd., containing a wallet and car keys. The suspect then used the keys to steal a blue 2020 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk from the gym parking lot and attempted to make unauthorized purchases with a credit card that did not belong to her.
The suspect appears to be a white female in her 20s or 30s with red hair and dark, plastic-framed glasses. She was last seen wearing a navy blue Adidas tracksuit and white sneakers.
If you have information about this or any other crime, call Crime Stoppers-Silent Witness at 307-638-TIPS or visit silentwitnesslaramiecounty.com. You will remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/silent_witness/silent-witness-4-16-22/article_2aaeb9c1-b541-58c5-aa01-00978905dd28.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:24Z
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On Monday, April 18, at the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees meeting, we will be launching a new five-year strategic plan. At this point, some people might quit reading, but I’d like to encourage you to continue with a few more lines. Really, this is important information!
Why should you care? I would say because you — our students, parents, staff and community — provided the guidance we used to develop these goals. Thousands of community comments and hundreds of hours of input sessions went into the design of this incredible plan. The bottom line is that we asked for your feedback, listened and developed a framework to tackle the issues that were brought to our attention.
Real people from different walks of life in our community helped narrow the scope and create the plan. It will serve as the district’s guiding document for five years, with a focus on three themes — Student Readiness, Community Engagement and Healthy Environment. By chunking it out, we will be working on outcomes that can be accomplished within one to three years. Others may take three to five years to accomplish. As always, our work will center around our students and their individual needs.
From a lofty standpoint, a strategic plan is a document to help our district move toward continuous improvement. If we want our kids to learn to excel in life, we need to model what it looks like. Our plan will allow us to focus on outcomes and measures; however, it will not be stagnant. As a living, breathing document, we will continue to pivot as systems, technology and innovation shifts. We will continue to seek your feedback around the strategies and initiatives that we implement. Our priority must be our students and their future.
What does this mean? We need to equip our students with the skills to navigate greater life experiences, whether that means staying in our community or moving to another. We’ve worked with the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and other community groups to ensure we’re meeting the needs of our students, along with our greater Cheyenne community. We are working to develop and expand our workforce partnerships, opportunities for internships, dual language programs, STEM and the arts. I have also been meeting regularly with Mayor Patrick Collins and others to discuss the myriad of issues facing our community.
Thank you for devoting the time to take one of our online surveys or attend a community meeting. You told us what you would like to see in our district going forward. Many of you shared loud and clear that we need to provide more opportunities for our pre-kindergarten students. We are working with our local programs and will have more news, soon, about the expansion of our existing pre-kindergarten programming.
We also received a lot of feedback from you saying we need to come together as a community. Kindness will continue to be an expectation going forward, and we will be putting together additional leadership opportunities for our students. Finally, we will promote the importance of our district as a whole so that students from each school know that we stand together as one.
I am certainly humbled to be the superintendent of LCSD1, and I am impressed with how everyone rallied to make this launch possible. Many times, strategic plans take multiple years to develop. The fact that we did it in two quarters is amazing. That doesn’t happen without the commitment of our students, staff and community.
Please consider this launch our district’s call to action. Put an ore in the water with us and row — together we will accomplish great things!
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/guest_column/crespo-why-you-should-care-about-lcsd1s-new-strategic-plan/article_55236315-0e39-5421-888d-3bd0b1e83358.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:31Z
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My wife Judy has told me about Stars of Tomorrow for over 40 years. She competed as a fifth grader and won second place. We still have the trophy in the basement.
I really had no idea what the program entailed until I was asked to judge the 68th Kiwanis Stars of Tomorrow competition at the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium on the Laramie County Community College campus. While acknowledging my lack of expertise in the subject, I loved the experience. The young men and women were so talented. We saw dancers, singers, a comedy act, martial arts, musicians and Claire Nelson, who did an act from the Broadway show “Mean Girls” to win best of show. By the way, the theater is an amazing addition to Cheyenne.
This week was a nice break from last week’s crazy schedule. Monday ended with a four-hour City Council meeting. I was so sure it would be a short meeting, I skipped dinner. Boy, was that a mistake.
One interesting part that took much of the time included the public hearing for the new liquor license we are hoping to award in a couple of weeks. The room was packed with supporters who each wanted to share their reasons. It was a thoughtful and fun conversation. I think we had up to 20 folks who shared. Later in the meeting, we had another liquor discussion. This time, we discussed the transfer to the Horse Palace in the Array building. Many of the speakers were worried about the ills of gambling addiction and what adding this kind of business would do to our downtown. In the end, it was approved. We will revisit the issue next March to see if they manage the responsibility of having the license properly.
Youth Alternatives was started over 50 years ago by Ronn Jeffrey, currently our municipal judge. Today, Jay Sullivan is the skipper. He stopped by to discuss his budget request for next year. Youth Alternatives is doing well; the only concern right now is the shortfall from the United Way campaign. It means programs like Special Friends and Foster Grandparents will get a reduction of 39% in United Way funding. We will need to find a way to keep these programs, housed in Youth Alternatives, and more like them that help so many people, operational. It also means we need to support next year’s United Way campaign.
I did not know that Realtors must do continuing education as part of their license. I was asked to speak to the Cheyenne Board of Realtors during their general membership luncheon to read a proclamation declaring April as Fair Housing Month. I also discussed the hateful covenants that can still be found in subdivisions in Cheyenne and other cities across the nation. These covenants prevent people of color from buying homes in the subdivisions. These were outlawed federally with the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Our Legislature passed a law that lets homeowners remove the covenants simply by filling out a form and taking it to the courthouse. The filing is done at no charge. Soon, our GIS team at the city will have a map that will show if your home has the covenants in question, and the form to make them go away. I do admire our Realtors – so much enthusiasm in a market with no inventory.
I am surprised by the width and depth of topics you get involved with as mayor. Sidewalks have me surprised for what seems like a simple subject. What I am learning is it is not just having smooth sidewalks with no tripping hazards, but you have to make sure the slopes are under 2% to meet the ADA codes. Now, when the finished floor of a building is 18 inches higher than the top of the curb, you cannot make the slope meet the requirements. If you add ramps in areas like downtown, they extend into the neighbor’s entryway. Sigh! It is a complicated and seemingly impossible problem. Well, we have taken this one on and will report back.
Our treasurer, Robin, and I have met with all our departments on the budget, and we are now working to balance the budget. I have shared that we started $2.1 million in the hole before considering requests from our departments. We have begun whittling that deficit down and hope to have a balanced budget by next week. Our next step will be the work sessions that let the departments share requests with the City Council.
Our friend Alf and Ms. Sallee brought their two grandsons by to visit the mayor’s office. They do so much for our veterans, and I enjoyed sharing that fact with the boys. I hope Carson and Brayden enjoyed their trip to Wyoming.
One big decision we will need to make in the very near future is how to provide health insurance to our employees. Our Employee Benefit Committee met to have that discussion. The decision was made to pursue the self-insurance model. We have a great consultant that has helped us over the past two years to get ready for this moment. Our employees will not see or feel any change, but our back office will have a bit more to do each month.
Parking tickets have been a big topic of conversation. We still have over $200,000 in past due tickets. I took a ride along with Darrell Hibbens to see what a parking enforcement officer does. Our new technology allows the officer to drive down the street while the technology photographs the license plates. Two hours later, they drive the same routes, and the technology tells you if a car has been parked over the allotted time.
In our trip, we found 15 cars in violation. The officer used his discretion in five cases, and we wrote 10 tickets. In many of the discretion cases, it was determined that the car had parked, moved and come back. No ticket warranted. I was pleased to see the customer service aspect of the job. We found a movie crew from the BBC, a traveler with a camper that was stranded due to high winds and many more cases where the officer was able to use his discretion to provide great customer service. I think these folks will leave Cheyenne with great memories, except the 50 mph winds.
Helping developers and businesses find a way to success is something I really enjoy spending time on. The city team of the BOPU and mayor met with a developer and their team to find a solution to getting water to a part of the city to allow for 1,200 homes over the next six to eight years. These are hard conversations, as the city does not normally pay for these types of infrastructure, we just take on the maintenance once in place. In this case, a couple of great ideas were presented that I hope will result in the housing getting built. We need the housing units, desperately.
Once a quarter, we have a dinner for all the elected officials in Laramie County. This quarter, Albin was our host. I loved the enchiladas, and the cake was amazing! Each entity shares what has been going on and what they see happening in the future. It is fun to get together and share notes.
This week, we opened the city building back to the public. We were able to have our first staff meeting in our building in five months. I had a lot to share and questions to ask for advice from the team. I can’t believe how quickly two hours flew by. One thing I would ask our residents to help the city with is vandalism. It seems like our city facilities are getting vandalized every day.
Last weekend, we had five commercial backflow preventers stolen, a bathroom destroyed, a parking garage spray-painted and much more. I would ask you to keep your eyes open as you drive around and in your neighborhood. Please call the police so we can get this senseless vandalism stopped.
I had a phone call with the city manager from Casper, Carter Napier. We spend time talking and working on ways we can help each other. It is so nice to have a colleague to compare notes with.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend with family and friends. Happy Easter!
If you have a question for me, send it to media@cheyennecity.org. I’ll continue to answer them in my future Mayor’s Minute columns.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/guest_column/mayor-s-minute-working-hard-to-keep-all-city-programs-funded-properly/article_49c4620b-34d5-5a56-ae3b-62f863b3701b.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:37Z
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UP to Arts Cheyenne leaders for trying a new approach to boost participation in the monthly Cheyenne Artwalk.
Starting next month, the event will move from Thursday night to the first Friday of the month. The format also will change to a “party-like” atmosphere, focused on one venue, with the hope people will then branch out and explore other gallery spaces in the neighborhood. There will be food, drinks, artist workshops and live music to accompany the featured exhibit.
Since the new ArtHaus mobile gallery is expected to be completed early next month, it also will become part of the Cheyenne Artwalk, as Arts Cheyenne parks it outside each featured venue to expand the available space.
Arts Cheyenne Executive Director Bill Lindstrom told Wyoming Tribune Eagle arts and entertainment reporter Will Carpenter that the goal is to “attach a Friday night environment to the Artwalk, which has always been an attractive night for people to come out, in general.” First Fridays are successful in other communities across the country, including in Denver, where the largest is the First Friday Art Walk in the Art District on Santa Fe Drive.
Of course, Cheyenne won’t experience a comparable level of success right away. But with the right promotions and buy-in from artists throughout the area, the First Friday concept could take off in the Capital City – and not just during the warmer summer months.
On May 6, we hope to see area residents at the depot downtown for the First Friday Cheyenne Artwalk and the second annual Fine Art Exchange. And mark your calendars for each first Friday after that as a new Cheyenne tradition is born.
DOWN to federal officials for creating racial and income disparity when it comes to access to national campground sites.
According to a recent study by outdoor recreation researchers at the University of Montana, the federal government’s online campground reservation system is struggling to keep up with the surging popularity of outdoor recreation. It also fails to provide equitable access, since it tends to require a high-speed internet connection and some institutional knowledge of how the system works.
Using cellphone location-tracking data sold by businesses that develop apps for smartphones, the researchers traced campground visitors back to the ZIP codes where they live and then took a look at recent U.S. Census data on ethnicity and income. The analysis concluded that more white, upper-income visitors are able to secure the best campsites, which often require reservations.
In addition, the study found that few minority residents have jobs that let them plan a vacation six months in advance, which often is required to secure a reservation at Recreation.gov. Plus, reservations for certain dates open at a specific time, and you may end up competing with thousands of other users for a campsite with a few dozen spots.
So what’s the solution? One of the researchers, Will Rice, said a lottery system – currently used in some Yosemite campgrounds – could help with both long-term reservations and those issued on a daily basis, depending on availability. It’s definitely worth a try, because everyone deserves an equal opportunity to have a great camping experience.
UP to the Wyoming Department of Family Services for creating and preparing to launch the Wyoming Homeowner Assistance Fund program.
According to a news release, “the program officially opens for applications on May 2 to help eligible homeowners in the state who have fallen behind on mortgage payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The program will prioritize helping homeowners who make less than 150% of the Area Medium Income catch up on their mortgage loans. Other eligible expenses also will be covered, including past-due payments of utilities, property taxes, homeowners insurance and homeowners association dues.
The maximum amount allowed per household is $17,000, which will be paid directly to the vendor on behalf of the homeowner, according to the release. And the money can’t be used by anyone who isn’t currently behind on their mortgage payments. (To learn more, visit dfs.wyo.gov/haf.)
This sounds good – we just wish it had been available sooner. We also hope it’s not coming too late to help people stay in their homes during the current period of high inflation.
UP to the Cheyenne Planning and Development Department for working to identify barriers to housing development in our area.
As the department assesses housing needs in the community and decides what changes are needed to the Unified Development Code, the public is asked to complete a brief survey to offer more information. It can be found online at https://forms.office.com/g/w5gSJa1xNT and only takes 5-10 minutes to complete.
Working in conjunction with the city’s Affordable Housing Task Force, we hope these efforts lead to more options for lower and middle-income residents in the future.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/staff_editorials/wte-offers-thumbs-up-and-down-4-16-22/article_43cfe4e1-c337-57a8-9ac1-49b858c4b6db.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:43Z
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CASPER — Relatives of a Casper high school girl asked Natrona County School District board members last month why a certain student athlete was allowed to play school sports after committing a sex crime against her.
After hearing the family’s story, trustee Dave Applegate said Monday he thinks the student code of conduct needs to be “revised to better clarify its intent and to better ensure its consistent application” among students.
Students agree to the code of conduct to participate in school sports. The code defines behavioral expectations for student athletes and outlines disciplinary actions for violations of the code.
But the girl’s family and others who spoke during the March 14 meeting said the district seems to apply the code unequally and unfairly. A woman identifying herself as the girl’s grandmother questioned, for example, why other students lost their ability to participate in activities for what she described as less serious matters.
According to one email sent by the grandmother to a school official, the student athlete had been charged with a sexual crime against her granddaughter, but as a minor.
Juvenile cases are kept sealed from the public. Crimes committed by juveniles only become public if the defendant is charged as an adult. That, according to the family, did not happen in this instance.
The grandmother told trustees that the student athlete was ultimately convicted of a sexual crime and put on probation, which she said started in December and runs until August.
“But yet he continues to be eligible to participate in Natrona County School District sports,” she told board members. “Can anybody tell me why?”
The athlete at the center of the March 14 discussion competed in sports this fall and spring.
At that meeting, trustee Clark Jensen said the board couldn’t legally comment on the student athlete or any disciplinary action against him.
Applegate reiterated this on Monday. But Applegate said he had reviewed the code of conduct since that last meeting and had come to the conclusion that it needs scrutiny.
Overall, Applegate said the code should be more explicit — regarding self-reporting requirements, consequences of not reporting a code violation, expectations associated with intervention plans and the enforcement responsibilities of coaches and athletic directors.
, the difference in consequences for a misdemeanor versus a felony and the application of the code to coaches and others associated with school athletics.
Applegate also offered some thoughts on the school district’s extreme discipline matrix.
The school board developed the school extreme discipline matrix a few years ago after a school incident that “raised questions about consistency and fairness regarding student discipline,” Applegate said.
Community members brought those questions to board members. That prompted the creation of the matrix.
“It has been used extensively across the district, more times than we would hope it would be the case,” Applegate said. “It has improved discipline consistency across the district.”
But the matrix still leaves some flexibility, he noted. That flexibility lets administrators fit disciplinary action to specific situations. And the matrix doesn’t apply to all situations.
The district can’t control, for example, student behavior that isn’t under school supervision.
“Discipline issues outside of school and school activities are managed by parents, as they should be, and when necessary, law enforcement and the judicial system,” Applegate said.
He ended his comments saying that policies, rules and laws “will always fall short.”
“They are, in the end, blunt instruments,” he said. “A sense of fairness as reflected upon all parties is seldom achieved. But that is never an excuse for not trying to improve them.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/casper-girl-s-family-questions-school-district-code-of-conduct/article_09dee2c7-0802-5a2d-b7f7-7237ada47150.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:49Z
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GILLETTE — Austin Rosenau was supposed to meet his mother at Mount Pisgah Cemetery earlier this month.
It wasn’t a special occasion, per se. And it certainly wasn’t an issue that he missed their afternoon meeting, because there will be plenty more.
Rather, it served as a reminder of how close they now are, as well as just how much their family has changed over the past few years.
That’s because just about every day, his mother, Lana Dicus, visits the hand-picked headstone of her daughter, Tristan, who died by suicide more than a year ago. Now that Austin, his wife Autumn and daughter Aspyn have returned to Gillette from Rock Springs, he can be there beside his mother, remembering their loss together.
He and Autumn are both 29 years old and in the middle of three generations of a family that calls Gillette home. After their own past struggles with mental health and substance abuse, their focus is on living a clean life and raising their daughter to avoid similar missteps.
Aspyn is a happy and healthy 7-year-old, unaware of the lives her parents lived before she was born and the family history she has inherited.
But as parents who have navigated the community mental health resources themselves, they hold the challenge of helping their own child traverse that landscape, or help prevent the need from ever arising.
“Now I’m also trying to break that cycle of these other things that may have stigmas attached, mental health being one of them with my child,” Austin said.
The increased demand for mental health services for adults in Gillette has trended similarly for children and adolescents as well. A similar question of whether there are more problems developing or more people aware of treatment options also looms over the recent uptick.
The mental health problems facing some children this past year haven’t necessarily been new problems, said Lexie Honey, a social worker at the Kid Clinic. Yet the volume of patient visits and referrals is noticeably higher.
Depression, anxiety, ADHD and other behavioral problems have continued to affect children and adolescents, but more have sought help in Gillette this past year. Meanwhile, the number of counselors, therapists and available resources have stayed relatively stable, leading to long wait lists at the Kid Clinic and other providers.
“We’ve seen still the same thing, just more,” Honey said. “If we could have more therapists that would be great.”
Akin to the question surrounding the increase in adults seeking mental health treatments, when it comes to children and adolescents, it’s unclear whether there are more of them needing treatment or more awareness to help them find treatment.
It’s also unclear to what extent the myriad of pandemic-related factors may have contributed to the rise in demand for services. That’s a trend noted nationally.
“It’s hard to say necessarily that it’s the pandemic or if it’s the push that we’ve put on mental health during this pandemic time to be more aware and pay attention to those aspects, to get that help and that it’s OK to ask for help,” Honey said.
In order to accommodate the growing wait list of patients, the Kid Clinic expanded its hours and added a fourth clinician to its staff and hopes to add another.
“We’ve definitely have had people who had to wait, because I can only see so many kids in a week,” Honey said.
Its counselors tried offering 7 a.m. sessions, noon sessions and 5 p.m. sessions to fit in extra kids, Honey said. The early morning ones weren’t very successful and the extra workload took a toll on the well-being of the providers themselves at times.
“We’re doing what we can to try and get them all in,” she said.
Natalie Tucker, chief nursing officer at Campbell County Health, talked about the growing number of behavioral health patients of all ages entering the hospital and emergency room for all different kinds and levels of care. Through that wave, an obvious need for more inpatient and long-term availability for children emerged, she said.
It hasn’t happened only in Campbell County, but throughout the region. Finding long-term placements for children has been a national trend, Tucker said, with a shortage of beds a widespread issue.
“I think we need to have even more availability in the region for kids for long-term placement,” Tucker said. “I think that’s where the shortage really is, that we can tell.”
For kids and teenagers, the path toward treatment often begins with recognition. Although they may not always see it in themselves, changes in mood and behavior, or uncharacteristic comments, are often the warning signs when help is needed.
Part of the increase in referrals has come from an awareness by parents, teachers, friends and peers who recognize and report that kind of change in demeanor. Part of increasing awareness comes from reducing the stigma around mental health.
“At times we’re doing really well, but at times we’re still stuck in that stigma of, ‘We don’t talk about that,’” Honey said. “We have seen that push for being more open and more assessments, talking through things to see what the need is.”
In some cases, comments that may have once seemed harmless are held under higher scrutiny these days, which results in some of the new referrals to the Kid Clinic, she said.
At Gillette College, the increased awareness among students and staff has also led to more referrals at the college, which ties into a broader trend of more need for mental health services in higher education.
‘I think our stigma is reducing, which is a beautiful thing,” said Susan Serge, a counselor and director of student affairs at Gillette College.
The college has an Active Minds chapter, a national nonprofit organization that promotes conversation about mental health, with the goal of reducing stigma and raising awareness.
That recognition is becoming more needed because the long-haul effects of the pandemic may be impacting more students at the college level.
“I do think resiliency is wavering,” Serge said. “I think there have been so many hard hits for our students that it’s just been one thing after another and they’re tired.”
The post-high school time in life, including college years, is still when mental health struggles often manifest in young people. But that has been further complicated for students who graduated from high school and entered college amid the pandemic.
“I would say our sophomores have never had a true college experience and that everything has changed so much that it’s just not the typical, you know, get to know your friends and spend time — that social aspect has really been compromised,” Serge said.
As the college’s counselor, Serge has seen the rise in students entering her doors firsthand, but said that uptick has also shown in the number of referrals for medication management, long-term therapy and even occasional inpatient stays.
“It’s not a new trend, it’s been happening for years, that we’ve seen a huge increase in anxiety and depression specific to college students but just across the board, really, even in our communities,” Serge said. “The pandemic just escalated that.”
The trend in higher education pre-dates the pandemic, but was accentuated by some of the added stressors that students dealt with over the past two years.
Distance learning, financial burdens, less connectivity and in-person social interaction are some of the factors that may have added to the burden students carry around Gillette College. Employees and professors are trained to recognize and report warning signs in students, which helps them find the resources that are available through the college.
Not only have more services been needed, but in some cases, the severity of the depression, anxiety or other problems has been greater than in the past, Serge said. What was once relationship problems or homesickness — typical college trials and tribulations — has morphed in some cases into greater levels of depression and even higher levels of suicidal thinking.
“I think it’s been a really exhausting couple of years but I do have hope that our students are building their resiliency, and they’re doing that by reaching out and getting help when they need it,” Serge said. “That’s what we want for our entire community. We want them to understand that they’re not alone.”
Back in Gillette, Austin mines coal for Black Thunder and Autumn works as a forensic peer specialist and case worker for Personal Frontiers, helping people living through the struggles she and Austin once felt themselves.
Now raising a daughter in the same community where they developed mental health and substance abuse problems of their own, Austin and Autumn feel they have learned the tools to keep their daughter from those same pitfalls.
But the community, in their eyes, may still have some catching up to do.
“I would want more access and funding to these places,” Autumn said. “Less stigma about what is happening around mental health and substance abuse.”
Gillette has mental health services for people who need them, but that doesn’t make those options affordable for everyone. The sheer volume of demand has already tested the timeliness of those services, but cost can also serve as a barrier for many.
Parents often do the best they can with what they know, but that “tough love” parenting model of the past is not one Austin adheres to when it comes to his own daughter. Using the communication skills he learned from his own recovery and treatment processes, he said that open and honest communication is something he wants his daughter to grow up knowing.
“I try to always encourage her to talk about everything, talk about her feelings, talk about what she’s got going on,” he said.
That can mean talking about the fun parts of growing up and going to school, or the more difficult conversations that may await them down the road.
“I just have conversations with her,” Austin added. “(I’m) being honest and open with my child.”
Kids inherit traits and grow up in environments often dictated by their parents, then become adults who pass on traits of their own to the next generation, which does what they can with the circumstances they’re given.
And so the cycle continues.
Both children and adults have contributed to the rise in demand for mental health services in Campbell County. Regardless of their age, patient problems may be as unique as the individuals themselves, but in each community, they share the same pool of resources to lean on when in need.
“We care about our daughter so much that we’re going to seek whatever resources we can,” Autumn said. “And I think that might be the pattern we’re seeing. Maybe it’s not more kids who are aware of it, but it’s more parents.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/demand-up-for-mental-health-services-for-kids-young-adults/article_792c1171-9048-5239-9c71-5d4f6e909e52.html
| 2022-04-16T14:49:55Z
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Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory technician Morgan Mahlum, a biology major, left, uses a pass-through box to give materials to Dr. Amy Rhoad, who loads samples into the robotic COVID-19 testing machine in the UW Biocontainment Facility.
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, operations at University of Wyoming are returning to normalcy. On Wednesday, the university announced it will halt its required testing program at the end of the semester.
Throughout the 2021-22 academic year, a random 3% sampling of students and employees have been selected to get a COVID-19 test each week in an effort to monitor the prevalence of the virus across the campus. The program will end May 6, the week before finals begin.
As of Monday, the university had conducted a total of 242,727 COVID-19 tests and identified 3,702 positive cases since the beginning of the pandemic. As of Wednesday, the school only has one active case of COVID-19 and a prevalence rate in the testing program of 0.8%.
“We have now reached a point where surveillance testing no longer will be necessary,” University President Ed Seidel said in a press release. “But it’s great to know that we have the capacity to restart it in the event of an extended surge in viral transmission in our community, as monitored by state and county health officials.”
Testing will still be available for students via on-campus health services. The tests will be free to students until the university runs out of tests provided free from the state, which hopefully won’t happen until the fall semester, UW spokesperson Chad Baldwin said. At that point, the university will buy tests and provide them at a cost to students.
The university also is set to end contact tracing and updates to its COVID-19 dashboard.
The eased requirements come after the university lifted an indoor mask mandate in February. Masks are still required in health care settings and on public transit.
While this could be a hopeful step for the university, officials will continue to monitor Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wyoming Department of Health guidelines and change their approach to the pandemic as necessary, the press release said.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/end-is-near-for-uw-covid-19-testing/article_c0bfb6cf-5787-5911-887f-6efd3e6232ef.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:02Z
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Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has taken steps to protect a wildlife migration corridor to Grand Teton National Park even as a court declined to constrain a gas field across a different part of the route.
Haaland announced a $250,000 grant that will help secure a conservation easement on the Twin Eagle Ranch — formerly the Carney Ranch — on the Upper Green River in Sublette County. The grant will boost The Conservation Fund’s effort to keep development off the ranch that includes the Path of the Pronghorn, where hundreds of antelope trek annually to and from the park in Teton County.
Only days before Haaland announced her seven-state, $2.7-million wildlife migration and habitat grant program, a federal court allowed Jonah Energy to continue its development of the 3,500-well Normally Pressured Lance gas field, which crosses the pronghorn route. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled against three conservation groups that contested the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of, and conditions on, the 141,000–acre gas field.
The targeted Twin Eagle conservation property is on a ranch about 51 miles along the pronghorn path that extends south from Grand Teton. The NPL field is another 66 miles farther south on a route antelope follow to winter grounds that lie beyond that development. Biologists estimate up to 400 pronghorn use the path.
Both the Twin Eagle and NPL properties also are important habitats for greater sage grouse. The NPL is the site of a winter concentration area where biologists estimate some 2,000 sage grouse congregate.
“We remain unconvinced that the BLM has done enough to protect the Path of the Pronghorn and sage grouse wintering habitat,” said Linda Baker, director of the Upper Green River Alliance, one of the parties to the unsuccessful NPL court challenge. “We’ll keep fighting.”
The Department of Interior’s Twin Eagle grant will help prevent subdivision on the ranch of the late Chris Cline, who died in a helicopter crash in the Bahamas on July 4, 2019. The Conservation Fund’s project “will prevent a high threat of subdivision, maintain these migration corridors, protect habitat (including known nests) in the Greater Sage-Grouse Designated Core Area, support climate resiliency, and provide the opportunity for a future wildlife crossing,” according to a summary of grant funding.
Previous owners of the ranch — members of the Otis Carney family — began protecting the property from subdivision with conservation easements in about 1995. But Cline in 2016 began to build a cabin in one scenic and wildlife easement.
The Jackson Hole Land Trust said the building violated the easement and Cline’s builders subsequently took it down. Some parts of the ranch, owned by Twin Eagle Ranch LLC c/o Cline Trust Co. LLC, apparently remain available for subdivision or development that would be prevented by the new conservation easement.
But farther south along the Path of the Pronghorn — the first nationally recognized wildlife migration route — some antelope will have to navigate the NPL field. Baker’s Upper Green River Alliance, Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity asserted in court that the BLM failed to follow federal environmental and planning laws when it permitted that project.
Skavdahl rejected those claims, saying the BLM conducted its analysis properly, even though the project may affect both pronghorn migration and sage grouse winter habitat. BLM had a “reasoned basis” for its decision, which balanced the project’s goals with potential environmental impacts, he wrote in his 47-page decision filed April 5.
The NPL field is expected to generate $17.8 billion over the next 40 years. Jonah Energy did not respond to a request for comment.
The conservation groups argued that the BLM failed to consider development buffer zones along migration routes. Skavdahl said the federal agency did indeed consider migration, that the agency has limited the development density and has and will require other protections for pronghorn.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has not designated a migration corridor through the NPL, Skavdahl wrote. Agency biologists in 2019 recommended designation of a migration corridor for the Path of the Pronghorn. But politicians wrested that authority from the agency before it acted.
“We do know from 15 years of study they avoid intense areas of development,” Baker said of the migrating antelope. “Their migration patterns go through the NPL.”
Pronghorn antelope “have an incredible fidelity to these areas,” she said. “We don’t know why. It’s silly to say they can just go around when we can adjust our habitat more easily than they can.”
NPL also overlaps with part of a winter concentration area where sage grouse flock seasonally. “That’s one of the places they can reliably retire to when snows get really deep,” Baker said.
“It’s the only designated winter concentration area in Wyoming and anywhere,” she said.
The latest data on greater sage grouse in Wyoming indicate an “alarming” likelihood of populations regressing to a 1996 nadir, the state’s former top grouse biologist said earlier this year. Leslie Schreiber, who has since resigned, based her comment on counts of hunter-harvested grouse wings that foreshadow a smaller population this spring.
Wyoming has a healthy sage grouse population, Game and Fish Department director Brian Nesvik told a legislative committee earlier this year.
“It’s at the bottom of a trough in a cyclic trend that we’ve seen throughout time,” he said of the population.
Skavdahl wrote, among other things, that the BLM met its obligations in reviewing NPL’s effect on grouse and had imposed various conservation conditions.
“[T]he BLM was aware of the impacts to sage grouse, including loss of winter habitat, avoidance of the area, and adverse impacts to the overall population,” Skavdahl said. Quoting precedent, he wrote that environmental law “merely prohibits uninformed, rather than unwise decision making.”
Haaland’s $2.7-million grant program will be matched with another $7 million in non-federal contributions that will be distributed to the states and three tribes for 13 projects. In addition to the Twin Eagle conservation effort, the program will aid two others in Wyoming.
A $280,000 grant to the Game and Fish Department will boost a $560,000 project to improve mule deer habitat in the Platte River Valley and in Sublette County. Another $67,800 grant to the Jackson Hole Land Trust will aid a $702,800 effort to permanently protect 980 acres of big game migration habitat in the Upper Green River Basin along Middle Piney and Lead Creeks.
“[A]s habitats and migration routes continue to be impacted by climate change and become fragmented by roads, fences, energy development and other man-made barriers, wildlife are struggling to reach the necessary areas to feed, breed, and find shelter,” Haaland said in announcing the grant program.
Collaborative conservation and honoring private landowner rights are key points, she said. The program will reflect local needs and priorities, improve quality of life for people and support state-led science, she said, much of it focused on the sagebrush ecosystem.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/feds-aid-pronghorn-and-sage-grouse-but-court-allows-development/article_0ab69700-5802-543c-9794-c8f4130134bc.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:08Z
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CHEYENNE — Kevin Phillips is still getting used to his mustache.
For the most part, he can hardly grow a beard. It comes in thick around his jawline, but he points and laughs at how not a follicle will appear on his cheeks.
After a year of perseverance, the hair above his lip is sculpted with classic, maniacal handlebars that curl up next to his nose. His inspiration was one of his earliest influences, Salvador Dali, who grew his own mustache out to where its ends nearly reached his eyes.
“Everybody is gonna be a brand in the future,” he said over coffee. “It’s like, ‘How do I differentiate myself from them?” In the last month and a half, I’ve decided to go full on with a mustache, and I’m gonna go Salvador Dali with it.”
Phillips is a Front Range artist. He grew up in Nebraska, moved to Cheyenne when he was 16, and now lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was here that he pursued a degree in fine art at Laramie County Community College, and where he learned to really critique his own work, refine it and, only after mastering the technicalities, break all the rules.
Phillips has taken on an unexpected new endeavor in the past year, one that’s growing more and more prevalent in the life of a professional artist. He’s sharing his work, critiquing others and creating a community more than he ever expected.
“My brother was the one that convinced me to get a TikTok a couple years ago, and it was like within the first month, my first viral post went crazy.” Phillips said about being “moderately famous” on the popular video sharing app. “Two million views … Hanging art in a coffee shop is nice, and people see it, but $300 to $400 worth of sales isn’t paying the bills when a 15-second clip on TikTok makes thousands of dollars.”
His popularity on TikTok escalated quickly. He’d spent years marketing his artwork on other social media platforms, like Instagram, but had failed to gain a following.
He now has about 55,000 followers that he consistently interacts with. One of his earliest videos reached more than 2 million views, several others are in the hundreds of thousands, while others fail to gain any traction.
“It’s like, that’s Cheyenne,” he said, comparing his number of followers to the city’s population. “Minus the military base, that’s Cheyenne. It’s like, holy smokes, what if everybody in Cheyenne just knew about me? How would I be perceived around here?”
Phillips has a unique art style. He’s influenced by Dali, but then there’s the famous street artists Banksy and Shepard Fairey, and Alyssa Monks, an American figurative painter who creates abstract, hyperrealistic portraits.
For so long, Phillips was absorbing the work of artists like these, incorporating abstract elements and street art techniques to create colorful multimedia projects of pop art and psychedelic oddities.
Phillips mentions the quote ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ in reference to the most unexpected experience he’s had online. Recently, he’s been tagged in videos of people recreating some of his original artwork as he did in his tutorials.
“It’s kind of come to a full circle, where I’m seeing people that are recreating pieces that I’ve done. It’s weird,” he said.
But it hasn’t come without a good deal of change – like growing a mustache, for instance. It’s a product of the realization that to build a fanbase, he first must build a persona.
Always the introvert, Phillips now has to work to be a more approachable character. In a sense, the person in his videos is different than himself – he needs to smile, crack jokes and keep energy high. Growing his presence on the popular app has forced him to reconsider how people perceive him.
His image dictates how people interact with him and his content, which makes all the difference in whether his art is selling. Already, he’s started making a small amount of money through some viral videos, and the rest through traffic to his website, all while continuing to gain a following on the app.
It’s a precarious position to be in. On one end, he has to please viewers and structure videos so that the mysterious TikTok algorithm curates them into everyone’s feed. Serve the viewers too much, though, and he’ll lose sight of his craft.
“I’m doing it for the craft,” he said. “I’m putting a lot more thought into the stories that my artwork is telling now. I used to want the artwork to speak for itself. Now, I need to speak for the artwork a little bit more.”
About a year ago, he leaned a little too far into his pop art style with the intent of attracting views on TikTok, sticking mainly to recreating celebrities’ likenesses in colorful portraits. Thanks to this approach, he had a good three- to four-month period where he was questioning his passion for art.
Then he had a realization. Phillips was letting the social media algorithms control him, and there was something to that concept that he wanted to explore.
Combining his fine art experience – including a fascination with color theory – and his talent for multimedia street art, he chased the concept of humanity’s increasing interaction with artificial intelligence.
It’s possible that humans and AI programs aren’t so different in their actions. Phillips came across a growing movement of artwork created by AI, where programmers create algorithms that instruct AI to learn a specific aesthetic to create an image, similar to the inner workings of the human brain.
The result is a new kind of art, one that is the accumulation of thousands of codes. This is what his “Glitch” series is about, along with much of his work since – finding the parallel between AI and how humans interact with one another electronically.
“I wanted to tell a story and put forth the narrative that things are chaotic, but very structured,” he said about his “glitch art.” “That’s kind of an AI type of thing. They create these really crazy looking images, but AI is extremely structured.
“Line by line, you could tell it what it’s doing and why it’s doing it. I’m trying to replicate that, but in a more human way.”
Out of his catalogue, this concept heavily applies to his personal “Last Supper,” titled “Rebirth.”
The painting conceptualizes time as a cyclical entity, creating a chaotic and multifaceted image of color and abstract symbolism, detailed and eclectic, that comes together as one image, similar to the thousands of digital coded dots laid in place by a computer program.
The big difference is that all of Phillips’ work is painted, not digitally designed.
“I’m definitely putting my own twist on it,” he said of his AI-inspired art. “I’m making a reference to how AI interacts with humans and how humans interact with AI. Humans really are being affected by social media and things like it.”
There’s more work to be done in the field of AI art, and Phillips’ ability to forge his own style becomes more evident as he continues to paint. He’s identified a connection between his TikTok presence and his artwork, and his most recent series draws a connection between the hidden algorithms of the popular app and the controlled chaos of AI art.
Visit the online forum Reddit, and search the subreddit called “place.” It’s both a forum and an art movement where thousands of people contribute to one moving image, one pixel at a time. Somehow, complex images comes together in the end, though they’re constantly changing over a span of five minutes.
Phillips remembers watching one of these come together. Then, as the timer wound down, there was a coordinated attack on the final product, anonymous participants sabotaging the image with white pixels.
“It blanked out the whole thing,” Phillips said. “But it was really strange to me how it looked like an AI was doing it. It made me think that AI might be more like us than we think.
“If you told somebody that an AI did that, they would believe it with the way it was branching out.”
Both on the canvas and online, Phillips is learning think in algorithms.
A body of Phillips work will be hanging in Freedom’s Edge Brewing Co. beginning April 14 as a part of the final installment of the second-Thursday Cheyenne Artwalk. His work is also online at https://linktr.ee/KAPGallery.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/former-cheyenne-artist-merges-art-ai/article_8ac4b24d-4b86-5be6-b1ba-63dc78d6ab70.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:14Z
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As National Sexual Assault Awareness Month continues through April, Carbon County COVE is spreading awareness and support for victims and survivors of sexual assault.
Shelby Oliver, COVE’s direct service advocate, said it has organized events throughout the month to further raise awareness.
The community was encouraged to wear teal for a “Day of Action” near the beginning of the month. Teal is the color of sexual assault awareness and prevention.
A community night was held at the Rawlins fairgrounds Thursday, where people decorated T-shirts that will be displayed during the Clothesline Project event.
The Clothesline Project, happening Thursday, is an “empowering event display, designed to provide healing, support and education about violence and violence prevention,” according to the organization.
It’s “a visual display bearing witness to interpersonal violence. These T-shirts have been created by survivors and other caring individuals to symbolize those that have suffered from domestic violence, sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse/incestuous abuse, physical assault or death.
“The Clothesline Project began in 1990 when members of the Cape Cod Women’s Agenda hung a clothesline across the Village Green in Hyannis, Massachusetts, with 31 shirts designed by survivors of assault, rape and child sexual abuse. Women viewing the clothesline came forward to create shirts of their own and the line kept growing.”
The event runs from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Carbon County Fairgrounds. There will be a raffle drawing with prizes from Bucks, Ichiban and others. Light refreshments will be served.
On April 25, the community is invited to participate in Denim Day.
COVE Executive Director Jennifer Evans said the agency has been serving the community since the 1980s.
“We are a nonprofit domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking program. All of our services are free and confidential,” Evans said. “Some of the services that we offer include helping with victim advocacy and support, court support, medical and court accompaniment, emergency financial assistance, relocation assistance and we have a clothing bank.”
Evans said the goal this month is to raise as much awareness as possible through events and prompt community involvement.
“It’s not just a community problem, it’s a nationwide problem,” Evans said, adding there is a local 24-hour crisis line, 307-324-7071.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/local-agency-works-to-raise-sex-assault-awareness/article_2533371f-7ece-5404-9f61-9796b1146cab.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:20Z
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Nursing staff shortages persist in Wyoming. But there are a number of ways people are trying to turn that around.
Nationwide nursing shortages preceded the pandemic. COVID-19 just made it a lot worse.
A June 2021 survey by the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living found that up to 94% of nursing homes and 81% of assisted-living communities had experienced staff shortages in the prior month.
“One of the most frightening and immediate areas of shortage is occurring in Wyoming long-term care and assisted living facilities with a lack of (Certified Nursing Assistants),” said Lori Hart, Wyoming State Board of Nursing Executive Director.
Hart said she spoke to a nurse during the peak of COVID who was part of a two-person staff managing a 24/7 emergency room.
“Most of us are understanding when Arby’s has to close early because they don’t have enough staff. What happens when a rural ER faces this issue? A long term care unit?” she asked. “In the light of public safety, nurses pushed past personal exhaustion and did what had to be done.”
Some nurses, she said, turn to substance abuse to cope with the workload.
There are a number of ways to tackle nursing shortages. Hart said joining the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Compact, which was created in 2020, could help.
That would allow advanced practice registered nurses to hold one multi-state license. They could use that license in any of the states that are part of the compact.
Right now only three states have joined: Utah, North Dakota and Delaware. The compact won’t be enacted until there are seven member states.
“This is an important area to consider in the next few years to assure seamless transition between states (including telehealth),” Hart said.
Wyoming already has experience with compacts. It joined the Nursing Licensure Compact in 2018. The idea is pretty much the same; now Wyoming nurses can have one license to practice in any compact state. To date, 39 states have joined.
Wyoming Hospital Association President Eric Boley said these compacts have been “successful as all get out,” particularly for bringing in more nurses during the pandemic.
Another obvious solution to address nursing shortages is upping nurse salaries.
Monster. com lists a median salary of $15.41 an hour, so for a 40 hour week, that would come out to be over $30,000 per year. Salary.com says they earn about $28,600 a year.
Intuit estimates that the average annual salary for CNAs in Wyoming is about $27,500. To compare, the average wage at Walmart is $16.40, which comes out to be about $34,000 a year.
Another part of the solution may be increasing salaries for nurse educators, who often earn less than practicing nurses despite their required master’s degree.
Some states have passed legislation to retain and recruit nurse educators. Washington, for example, passed a 2019 bill that appropriated $60.8 million toward increasing nurse educator and high-demand program faculty salaries at community and technical colleges.
That was after the Washington Center for Nursing and the Council of Nursing Education in Washington State found low pay to be the primary reason nurse educators thought about leaving their positions, according to an article from the Washington State Nurses Association. At the time, more than 800 qualified nursing school applicants were turned away each year because of faculty shortages.
Increasing salaries could help Wyoming tap into its pool of unemployed or part-time nurses.
The Wyoming State Board of Nursing and Wyoming Workforce Services partnered during the pandemic to try to identify nurses who had worked less than 4 quarters in 2020. They made a list that could help facilities find nurses and CNAs who might not be working.
“Nurses and CNAs both in Wyoming and across the nation are experiencing extreme fatigue as well as frustration in their jobs,” Hart said. “Perhaps an equally important question to consider is what can Wyoming do to keep licensed nurses and certified CNAs providing care?”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/nursing-shortage-continues-in-wyo/article_f1463474-4897-5094-9bed-03f4d6488dc6.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:26Z
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JACKSON — Nadine Salas is interested in going into law enforcement but has had concerns, reflecting on what she’s heard about the profession and being a young Latina woman. She’s wondered whether the space is necessarily safe for her — and whether she should even ask questions about it.
“I think I’ve internalized a bit of that,” said Salas, 25. “I’m trying actively to break out of that.”
That’s why, a few weeks back, she decided to ask law enforcement ranger Shelby Barbay a handful of questions about policing in Grand Teton National Park.
Salas was one of 20 or so participants in this year’s National Park Service Academy, a federal program aimed at introducing a diverse slate of American students and young professionals to Park Service careers. Through a weeklong orientation in Grand Teton and internships at other American parks, participants get training, exposure to the Park Service’s different jobs and connection with mentors and peers.
For Salas, the program — and the conversation with Barbay, in particular — inspired her and gave her more confidence to explore a career in law enforcement.
“Which I know that I absolutely want to do,” Salas said.
Fear, she said, had been getting in the way.
On a gray afternoon in March, Salas and the other members of the 2022 National Park Service Academy cohort were bouncing around Grand Teton’s administrative headquarters, talking with Jenny Lake rangers about search and rescue and emergency medical services, getting experience throwing a mock spike strip under the wheels of a fleeing vehicle and experimenting with a fire hose connected to one of the park’s structure fire engines.
The games, the conversations on that gray afternoon — all of it was in service of introducing them to the Park Service’s various career paths.
But Julie Gonzalez, Grand Teton’s community engagement coordinator, said Park Service employment isn’t necessarily the end goal. She graduated from the program.
“If that’s a byproduct of what we do, we’re all here for it,” Gonzalez said. “But, really, we just want to create this understanding and connection with folks to what the National Park Service does. And help create that sense of belonging, that this is something that you can do if you want to.”
After their week of orientation in Grand Teton the participants in this year’s National Park Service Academy will go on to summer internships at Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Mount Rainier and Yellowstone national parks, Gonzalez said.
But the program isn’t focused on one type of work in the park — or participant. Internships focus on wildlife, trails, interpretation, fire and more. And, while there are people in the academy with backgrounds that center around environmental science and conservation, the program is open to people of all majors and backgrounds, including people from technical and vocational schools.
“I think that’s representative of the National Park Service as a whole,” Gonzalez said.
Marco Lopez, 27, works in the dental field and is finishing his associate degree in May. From Chicago he grew up visiting national parks like Glacier in Montana and Badlands in South Dakota. The outdoors resonates with him, and he started volunteering with his local forest preserve. So when he found out about the academy through his community college and got the offer, he dropped everything to make it happen.
“Let me put it this way,” Lopez said. “I drove 21 hours in my own personal car from Chicago, I quit my job. I turned my whole life around just to try and jump on this opportunity. It’s been the best thing ever for me.”
Lopez and Rowan Ball, 21, will both be working in law enforcement at Mount Rainier National Park this summer.
But unlike Lopez, Ball didn’t grow up visiting the national parks. They’re from eastern Pennsylvania and always felt like the parks were far removed from their life. Ball was working in the Southwest on a conservation crew when they found out about the National Park Service Academy through the American Conservation Experience’s Emerging Professionals in Conservation program. That’s a program that connects recent graduates with jobs in federal land and wildlife agencies.
Ball thought the academy would be a good opportunity to learn about the National Park Service before diving into it. And they haven’t been disappointed.
“Every night that I’m here I get a little emotional,” Ball said.
Plus, their cohort members and Grand Teton staff have been incredibly welcoming, something Ball worried about before getting into conservation.
“My main concern when I was considering pursuing conservation is not being taken seriously or respected because I’m nonbinary,” they said.
The Academy has helped alleviate that fear.
“I am not only accepted but celebrated and very respected,” Ball said. “It’s done wonders for my confidence and my concept of what my future might be.”
Gonzalez said the cohort has had conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the Park Service.
She acknowledged that “there’s a lot of work to be done” to have Park Service staff better represent the “mosaic” of American people, as the academy describes its goal. The space cultivated at the National Park Service Academy, for example, might not be representative of every park where graduates go on to work, Gonzalez said. But she said strides are being made. The leadership of the National Park Service’s individual units, Gonzalez said, has a lot to do with whether having “a representative, diverse and inclusive workforce is a priority.”
Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins has made that a priority, Gonzalez said, and that trickles down into other division chiefs.
“Which is part of why we see a lot of folks that go through this program and get hired,” Gonzalez said.
Three National Park Service Academy graduates currently work for Grand Teton, Gonzalez said: Two are permanent employees, and one is in a seasonal role. But during the summer, Gonzalez said, the park hires more. In 2021, she said, about six graduates were hired for seasonal work.
“What gives me hope is seeing that leadership has recognized this as a priority,” Gonzalez said.
For Salas, breaking into a career rooted in conservation and the outdoors was always a concern.
In the Mexican community she grew up in, it wasn’t common to go camping or climbing — or pursue the other adventure-driven sports associated with national parks like Grand Teton. Her family would go outside, visiting nearby lakes for people’s birthdays or getting together to eat in the local park.
“After coming to the Academy, I think my biggest fear, which was not belonging, has been completely eradicated,” Salas said. “Not only do I see myself in this space, this is the most diversity I’ve ever seen in any kind of working group.”
She’s interested in “holding space in a position in the National Park System” so she can resonate with people with similar life experiences.
That, Salas said, would be invaluable.
“Somebody could just see me and be like, ‘OK, I look like her. We might have the same background,’” she said. “’I feel like this is a space that I belong in, too.’”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/park-service-program-aims-to-better-reflect-the-american-mosaic/article_00b18faa-2ce5-5737-ace9-159419f4cd5e.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:33Z
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GILLETTE — The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a lot of crazy things over the last two years.
In the latest in that long list of craziness, people are pushing for COVID-19 to be listed on their loved ones’ death certificates as a cause of death, sometimes even when there were no symptoms of COVID when they died.
It has everything to do with federal money available to help with funerals that were a result of COVID-19.
Campbell County Coroner Paul Wallem said it is a complete 180-degree turn from the first year of the pandemic, when people did not want COVID-19 listed on their loved ones’ death certificates.
Now, that’s completely changed, because there is money available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to help pay for COVID-19 funerals.
This week, Wallem said that in three of four recent cases, people asked for a COVID test to be done on the body.
One had been in the hospital the day before the request for a test was made, and he didn’t show any signs of COVID. In another case, “the request came in five days later, so it wouldn’t be accurate on a body dead that long.”
Wallem worried that he would see an influx of these requests as word gets out about these FEMA funeral dollars.
Since April 2021, FEMA has provided more than $2 billion in COVID-19 funeral assistance to support more than 300,000 applicants. FEMA also launched a new outreach campaign in March to reach additional eligible families in need.
“It could become a pretty common thing,” Wallem said.
Testing for COVID at the hospital can get pretty expensive, he said. He worried that if the trend continues and he gets 25 or 50 requests for tests, the money would have to come out of someone’s budget.
He said he would talk to Campbell County Public Health to see if it would be able to do those tests free of charge.
There already have been instances where doctors were asked to lie on the death certificate. Wallem said a funeral home in another Wyoming county allegedly called a doctor, asking if he would put COVID on the certificate anyway because the family didn’t have any money.
The doctor refused, Wallem said.
As the coroner, it’s his job to investigate deaths and help grieving families get closure, but there needs to be a line drawn in this case.
“If there are no symptoms and it’s pretty obvious they’re trying to get money for the funeral, not for closure on what happened with a loved one, that (test) should probably be paid for privately,” Wallem said.
Applicants eligible for the FEMA funeral money may qualify for up to $9,000 for each deceased individual per application, with a maximum of $35,000 for families who may have multiple funeral expenses due to COVID-19. The average award is $6,500.
As of March 15, FEMA had received 653 applications from Wyoming, and 441 were successful, for a success rate of 67.5%. About $2.4 million has been awarded in Wyoming, the fourth lowest in the country, after Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii. That comes out to about $5,445 per funeral.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/people-asking-for-postmortem-covid-tests-to-pay-for-funerals/article_a2d5b64f-afee-518a-98af-ac859b5828cc.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:39Z
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Snowflakes caught in a chilly wind whizzed by as Chrystal and Calvin Alpers ate lunch in Cody. They could have seen birds flitting between branches in nearby pines and squirrels scampering from tree to tree, but they were too busy catching up on the morning news while enjoying some fast food together.
Nearby picnic tables were understandably vacant on the wintry spring day, but the couple was comfortable inside one of the new geodesic domes installed next to the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce office.
“They’re kind of convenient,” Calvin admitted. “It’s nice during the winter, because they stay naturally warm from the sun’s radiation.”
They visit the translucent domes “several times a week,” Chrystal said, often bringing their children or meeting them there after school at nearby Cody High School. They cited comfortable furniture and appointments including an attractive animal hide area rug. But the real reason they enjoy visiting is the ability to enjoy time in the park without being blown away by the area’s notorious winds.
They first discovered the domes while on a date night after seeing friends’ posts on social media. Purchased by the Park County Travel Council with funding from the federal government’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, they are the newest “Instagrammable” destinations, according to Ryan Hauck, the council’s executive director.
“The demand has been more than what we’re expecting,” Hauck said.
Besides the daily visits by folks looking to share a meal or some time together, Hauck said he’s seen out-of-state school buses full of children come and eat lunch and has had requests from businesses seeking to use the domes for a day and organizations seeking to run events among the six domes.
The domes, which cost about $4,000 apiece from maker Hypedome, meet city codes for wind ratings, built to withstand 85- mile per hour winds and gusts up to 115 mph.
“They can handle that easily,” Hauck said.
Hypedome suggests their structures are perfect as a garden lounge for home or business, a meeting room, or a comfortable glamping pod. They are available in several sizes, including for up to 14 guests.
First designed by Buckminster Fuller prior to WWII, the spherical structure of a dome — using the strength of triangles rather than typical rectangle construction techniques — are able to withstand extreme weather.
“The geometric principles used in construction of eco living domes guarantees an inherent ability to withstand the extreme forces of nature, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, and any climate condition,” according to Pacific Domes, one of the country’s first and largest producers.
The company produces domes for temporary and permanent living options, including models used by researchers in some of the most inclement ecosystems in the world. Yet, despite the ease of building, cost savings and safety, some in Cody feel the construction style sticks out; they rest alongside the chamber building, which features the log construction typical of the Western flair found along the city’s main street.
Several people have gone public with their disapproval.
Diana Nagy gave the project “two thumbs down” in a recent letter to the editor of the Cody Enterprise.
“I feel compelled to chime in on the very unWestern domes located near the Chamber of Commerce building and the Travel Council’s role in placing them there,” she wrote, adding “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Scott Weber was even more vocal about his dislike for the project, writing in a letter to the Enterprise that all of the CARES Act money awarded to the Park County Travel Council was “wasted.” He called the domes a reaction to COVID-19 social distancing recommendations.
“They are a reminder that another scare could come upon us and they are just the ticket to isolate,” Weber wrote.
Hauck, however, said the domes are not intended to isolate visitors or encourage distancing protocols.
“Does it work for COVID 100%? It does. But is it meant for COVID to segregate people? Not at all,” he said. “It’s a great outdoor option to enjoy what we have [in downtown Cody] and get people out of the wind and to create more overnights [by visitors]. It’s a cheap way to gain another attraction in our area.”
Although it didn’t draw much attention at the time, the domes were first discussed at a November meeting of the Cody City Council. Filling in for Hauck, Cody Country Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tina Hoebelheinrich noted their growing popularity across the globe.
“It really [has] become a standard part of how people have adapted to a pandemic, by moving those intimate dining situations or even just meeting situations out to the outdoors where there’s ventilation and smaller spaces with less public access,” she told the council.
Hoebelheinrich noted that the domes would supplant “old dilapidated picnic tables,” giving both local residents and tourists another outdoor dining option in the winter months.
“Ryan [Hauck] has done such a brilliant job spending that money for projects that make a lot of sense and really would improve our community greatly,” she said. “And I feel like this is one of those projects.”
After asking a couple questions about whether there would be adequate bathroom access in the winter and whether the domes could withstand the wind, councilors unanimously agreed to allow the installation of the structures on city property.
Cody Mayor Matt Hall called the domes a “pretty novel idea” that could enhance the experience for both tourists and locals. But some locals have since complained.
Park County Commission Chairman Dossie Overfield raised the issue during a March 1 meeting, telling Travel Council member Ruffin Prevost that she had received “a lot” of calls about the “plastic bubbles.”
“Most of the phone calls that I’ve received have been negative,” Overfield said, “that they might be OK in the cities but not OK in Cody, Wyoming.”
Prevost said he had also expressed misgivings about the domes.
“I support his [Hauck’s] decision after the fact, but I was not entirely in favor of it,” Prevost told commissioners. “Because I said, ‘I don’t know that this is necessary. And I don’t know how well received it would be.’”
However, other board members felt differently and the plan was approved. Prevost added that he’s seen similar domes prove “very popular” in bigger cities — and he noted they were purchased only after more pressing items were acquired with the CARES Act funding.
For instance, the travel council purchased “every piece of camera gear, every piece of recording equipment or new laptops, everything we could get equipped to do in-house marketing,” Prevost said — something that will “save substantial money over the long haul.”
Hauck has heard the negative feedback about the domes and has no problem with the critiques.
“I think one of the reasons this place is so special is because we have such passionate locals that love where they live,” he said.
Hauck also said those with positive feedback often don’t speak up. Proof of their popularity, he said, is that the domes are drawing interest from other communities and private citizens who love the idea.
“I’ve gotten calls from all over the state asking where I got them, how much cost and how could they get them?” he said. “It’s not just over the state, but locally as well. I’ve had a lot of ranchers call me. They didn’t say this out loud, but I think they’re interested as using these as like a glamping option.”
The Park County Travel Council has tentative plans to hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the domes during the city’s Parks and Pancakes Day, which is scheduled for May 6. The domes are open daily, closing at 10 p.m., and will feature festive lighting as soon as power supplies are secured.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/translucent-domes-generate-mixed-reactions/article_6d7e9a75-d119-58f6-8391-5528a2f9bbc7.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:45Z
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The Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources recently broke ground on a demonstration house made of coal-derived carbon building materials and char bricks.
The house is being built in tandem with a second house made from conventional building products and Pacific Clay bricks. The coal-derived bricks are made using low-energy, eco-friendly process technologies developed in the CCCC.
“The goal of the project is to see how the coal-derived building materials, especially char bricks, stand up to different environmental conditions and compare to conventional building materials that are currently used in the market,” said ChooiKim Lau, the UW Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management graduate student leading the project. “Our team will evaluate performance characteristics, such as the mechanical integrity, thermal resistance, light weight, fire resistance, toxicity and electromagnetic radiation tolerance, with comparative durability, noise resistance, moisture absorption and weathering.”
Originally from Alor Setar, Malaysia, and now a resident of Laramie as a U.S. citizen, Lau is working alongside undergraduate students Noah Scott and Jon Scott of Cheyenne. They work under the direction of Kam Ng, an associate professor in the UW Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering within the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
The goal of the demonstration is to showcase the various building materials that are made from Wyoming coal and, in particular, the coal-derived char bricks.
Focusing on the future of Wyoming coal, the project is part of the Carbon Engineering Initiative at the CCCC dedicated to discovering and advancing new uses for coal by making commodity products that are nonenergy and fuel based.
In addition to the char bricks, researchers at UW have developed a multitude of coal-derived building materials, including mortar, plaster, flooring materials, roofing, insulation and structural units to supplement concrete, timber and steel.
“The goal is to ultimately utilize all of these materials to build a completely coal-derived carbon-based house,” Ng said. “While the other materials are in varying stages of development, the char bricks are well advanced and to the point that we can really find out how they compare to the industry-standard clay bricks, and also determine how well they work with existing construction materials and in conventional building designs.”
Last summer, the team manufactured more than 4,000 coal-derived char bricks in the span of 30 days using basic tools and equipment. The bricks were produced using a zero-waste construction method in which they can be manufactured, transformed and recycled in a comprehensive life cycle, minimizing residual materials.
“Our bricks are completely sustainable and unique, in that they are created from coal byproducts,” Lau said. “We use pyrolyzed char from coal as the feedstock for the bricks. The char is one of the byproducts from processing coal through an integrated pyrolysis and solvent extraction process. Furthermore, lower-quality bricks can be broken down and recycled as feedstock to make new, high-quality bricks.”
The initial findings regarding the properties of the char bricks show attributes that are superior to clay. They are lighter weight, provide better insulation and have the ability to regulate the moisture content in the building.
“The porosity and thermal properties of the coal char bricks are such that they have the ability to absorb moisture from inside buildings on humid days and release moisture on dry days, which means that the building is consuming less energy,” Lau said. “Additionally, according to the industry-standard fire endurance test, char bricks receive a rating of Class A, which is the highest score possible.”
The char bricks also are more economical to produce. The team made each individual brick by hand and used the Wyoming summer sun to dry and cure the bricks, bypassing the costly firing process used in the manufacturing of clay bricks.
Richard Horner, the CCCC’s director, said products derived from coal are an extremely important step forward for Wyoming.
“Our objective in the School of Energy Resources is not just to do research, but also to commercialize these efforts and create new jobs and industries in Wyoming,” he said. “Currently, coal is a main source of income for the state, so efforts to keep mines operating will allow us to have a continued revenue stream for our state to invest in education, infrastructure, medical care, emergency services and the overall well-being of Wyoming citizens.”
The efforts also will play a major role in growing Wyoming and creating diversification opportunities in the manufacturing industry, he said.
“The people in Wyoming coal communities have extensive knowledge of our coal and reserves and, therefore, their skills are very valuable,” Horner said. “The more mines we keep open, the more jobs we retain and, in the event a mine closes, we hope to have created a new employment opportunity in the manufacturing sector.”
Once construction of the demonstration houses is completed, the team will carry out yearlong performance monitoring tests to provide a baseline to see how the coal-derived building materials perform compared to conventional building materials. The data and results then will be shared with interested industry partners with the hope they’ll take the technology to market.
The team is optimistic about the feasibility for the scale-up or mass production of the technology.
“We are eager to gather performance data on our building materials,” Ng said. “We hope that our research will highlight the competitive advantages of our coal-derived char bricks to the construction industry and increase the products’ marketability, usage and consumption, further advancing to the next stage of commercialization and production.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/uw-breaks-ground-on-carbon-block-house/article_b1578ad2-89f7-5674-9274-6f4683013e19.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:51Z
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It’s a fair question. Posed by an inquisitive mind wanting to know — given my disagreement last week with a failing grade given to the Wyoming Legislature for its recent budget session by a newspaper editorial board — what grade I give the session.
I’m reluctant to say, because one point I made in that column was that lawmakers shouldn’t be taking directions from ink-stained wretches, myself included. I’ve penned my share of editorials, some of them right, some of them wrong.
I once endorsed a candidate for sheriff in Moffat County, Colorado, who was handily beaten by the guy I didn’t endorse. I became friends with the sheriff I didn’t endorse, and he, with a big laugh, took endless glee in telling people he wanted me to endorse his opponent in all future elections. Ouch.
Since the Cheyenne paper invited opposing views, however, and since my current occupation is being profoundly retired (except for a little writing on the side), I’ll venture a few opinions from the perspective of a harmless, grouchy old coffee drinker who keeps an eye on taxes and is worried sick about the national debt.
When it comes to not raising taxes, I give the Wyoming Legislature a solid A. The majority has withstood the persistent and often hysterical calls to find “new sources of revenue.”
Education is almost always the first “woefully underfunded” consumer of tax dollars cited. But in Cheyenne, on my way to exercise every day, I see a brand new junior high with an artificial turf athletic field right next to a high school with an artificial turf athletic field (can’t they share?) and a brand new swimming pool. One junior high in town doesn’t have its own artificial turf athletic field, and some folks wonder how we can justify such cruel unfairness.
Many of us played on actual grass when we went to school, and if everyone now has to have their own artificial turf field, maybe education isn’t in such dire straits after all. One of Warren Buffet’s rules is to “never ask a barber if you need a haircut,” and it looks to me like there’s some laudable skepticism in the Legislature over the need for new taxes. Good.
On rejecting Medicaid expansion, I give the legislature an A. If “free money” (with endless strings attached) from a federal government that’s already $30 trillion in debt doesn’t give you the willies, I don’t know what will.
On spending COVID-19 “relief” funds, we’re far more conservative than some states. Good. In Colorado Springs, $6.6 million will be spent on irrigation systems at two golf courses. That’s COVID relief? Horse feathers!
That said, when you look at the recent record of our Legislature, you have to wonder if this is the state that cast the highest percentage of votes for Donald Trump in 2020. Seven of 10 Wyoming voters supported Trump. But on some important issues, the majority of lawmakers are far more squishy, more milquetoast, more spineless than your average Trump supporter.
Last fall they took a bye on protecting Wyoming workers from mandatory vaccines, even as more and more vaccinated people are showing up with breakthrough cases of the COVID virus. Their reaction to health care workers demonstrating against mandates: Now, now, now dearies, we lawmakers know best. Failing grade.
This session, the milquetoasts in the House defeated a bill prohibiting transgender males from competing in women’s sports, even though it passed handily in the Senate. This is the party that voted seven of 10 for Trump? Sorry, failing grade.
Defeat also was handed to those who want more transparency over what is taught in schools. How do most Trump voters feel about that? Failing grade.
I also give the Legislature an F for kicking my senator off his committees, even as they agonized over “one man, one vote” on redistricting. I’m one man, where’s my one vote on those committees? The voters should decide the fate of Anthony Bouchard, not his colleagues.
Bottom line: The milquetoasts get credit for shunning higher taxes but they shrink from some issues dear to those who voted dramatically for Trump.
Hard to give them anything better than a C-.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/opinion/guest_column/lets-give-them-a-gentlemanly-c/article_df78cf9c-25de-51d5-8769-d946400894e6.html
| 2022-04-16T14:50:57Z
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Olga Sukhenko, the mayor of Motozhyn in Ukraine, was taken by Russian troops on March 23 along with her husband and son. She was tortured and all three were murdered. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been murdered, raped or tortured by Russian invaders.
A theater sheltering 1,300 civilians, clearly marked as sheltering children, was destroyed by Russia, killing 300. Humanitarian convoys have been blocked, starvation has been used as a Russian tactic and thousands of Ukrainians have been kidnapped and taken to camps inside Russia. An estimated 11 million Ukrainians have been displaced by war and are refugees.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, without provocation, disagreeing with Ukraine’s right as a sovereign nation to freely choose what countries it associates with. Russia’s invasion was ordered by dictator Vladimir Putin, who had previously destroyed Chechnya, large parts of Syria and parts of eastern Ukraine, all while turning Russia from a democracy back into a dictatorship.
By unleashing his army on a free country and a NATO partner, he has shown that he is a mad dog who must be put down like a mad dog. In the words of President Biden: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
After more than six weeks of war, Ukraine is winning, but it will take much more to win.
The Ukrainian people knew the Russians were coming and prepared well. They are a united people in arms, eloquently led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Their courage, aided by NATO armaments, turned the tide against the Russian Army, which is in full retreat in the north.
President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European leaders have led a united response to support Ukraine and deter Russia. Half of Russia’s assets have been frozen, Russia’s economy and trade have largely been shut down and NATO’s eastern flank has been reinforced with 315,000 allied troops there, stronger than any likely Russian attack force. Finland and Sweden are considering NATO membership. NATO has supplied huge quantities of armaments to Ukraine, including 17,000 antitank missiles and 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles.
Ukraine, the USA, 30 NATO nations, 53 nations that have aided Ukraine and 140 nations that supported Ukraine in the UN are in conflict with Russia. The USA and NATO are active allies of Ukraine without displacing Ukrainian sovereignty.
As a sovereign nation, Ukraine will decide regarding any agreement it may make with Russia to end the war. We as sovereign nations will decide whether to end any sanctions against Russia.
Because of the number of nations involved, this is a world war even if combat has not yet spread beyond Ukraine. World War II began in Asia in 1931 and in Europe in 1939. The United States became involved through sanctions and the Lend-Lease program long before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
We are at war, a war where all the blood is shed in Ukraine, but we have our role as the Arsenal of Democracy.
First, help Ukraine establish air superiority in its country. Supply Patriot air defense missile systems and provide Mig-29 fighters along with any other aircraft types that the Ukrainian air force can operate. Ignore Russian threats regarding such supplies as NATO has enough forces to stop any Russian attack.
Second, help create a superior Ukrainian Army that can recapture all territory, killing or capturing Russians who do not retreat. Provide a million small drones as quickly as we can make them. Mass produce the TALON infantry robot and send thousands to Ukraine. Provide all the tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers that Ukraine wants.
Third, provide thousands of cruise missiles, of types that only carry conventional warheads, allowing Ukraine to attack targets several hundred miles inside Russia, including Moscow itself. If no military base, no leader, no railroad bridge and no gas pipeline in European Russia is safe from Ukrainian attack, so much the better. Include anti-ship missiles so Ukraine can destroy Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Fund the construction of a new Ukrainian navy, including submarines, in Bulgarian and Romanian shipyards.
Fourth, provide ample funding: $10 billion a month from the USA and 10 billion euros a month from Europe would contribute greatly to Ukrainian victory.
Putin began this war, but the free peoples of the world will finish it. Our terms are death or surrender for all Russian invaders, war crimes trials for all those responsible, Russia to again be a democratic and free country and Russia to pay complete reparations to Ukraine.
Some of you read that and think it is unreasonable. In January 1943 at the Casablanca conference, Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated, “The elimination of German, Japanese and Italian war power means the unconditional surrender by Germany, Italy and Japan.”
It was that policy that led to the German, Italian and Japanese peoples being free, democratic and allies of ours today. This war may end without freeing Russia, in which case it may simply be a rehearsal for the next war. Much better to completely win the war if we can.
I have been to both Kyiv and Moscow and look forward to the time when the Russian people, after future decades of freedom and democracy, join with us and with Ukraine in a NATO Alliance that stretches from the Bering Strait in Russia around the world to the Bering Strait in Alaska, a union of peaceful peoples that could be the basis for nuclear disarmament and the final elimination of dictatorship in the world.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/opinion/guest_column/the-world-is-at-war-including-the-united-states-of-america/article_debdf5a5-5e03-541e-933a-46b11161b674.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:04Z
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Goals. We hear about them all the time. Goals at school. Goals at work. Goals for the new year. Goals for our finances, our love life and our status. Goals, goals, goals!
This is not a lecture on how to write a goal and stick to it. I want you to think about the goal that matters the most – your Soul Goal.
You may already be neck-deep in your life goals. You are probably already measuring them, tracking them and think you have everything under control. Yet, are you experiencing a little gnawing inside? Is there a tiny whisper nibbling at your heart? Has it been there for years, but you have hushed it?
That whisper is your Soul Goal. The good news is this is one goal you don’t have to write down, track or measure. You just need to listen to your heart because it is already there.
I believe the soul is the script of all we have been and all we will be. It has drama, action, comedy, heartbreak and love coded into this personal documentary. Yes, there is an intended outcome to the story. I believe the ending to your script is to successfully learn how to love yourself and others. The Soul Goal is our personal method of how we accomplish that.
Have you always had a desire to paint, work with animals or heal?
If we are here to learn how to love ourselves and others, and your inner desire is to paint, then you learn to love yourself through painting. By painting you create art that is a gift you can share with others. In doing so you touch their hearts. You love others by creating your art.
If your inner desire is to heal, you may become a doctor, nurse, counselor or reiki master. You love yourself by following your inner voice and by doing this you heal and love others. You touch their hearts. You love others through healing.
Do you see how this works? Your Soul Goal is the technique by which you reach the outcome of loving yourself and others.
Listen to that whisper. Pay attention to the gnawing. If it is unclear what your Soul Goal is, pay attention to when you feel the most alive, happy and content. This is the criteria for your Soul Goal. And it doesn’t have to be difficult.
I am a writer and a speaker. While working through other careers in my life, the whisper and the gnawing was always there. I would attempt to incorporate snippets of my Soul Goal into my work. I would speak about work topics and I would write heart-filled stories and give them as gifts. I knew when I was doing this I felt the most alive, happy and content.
My Soul Goal is simple. It is one line: Share my life lessons through speaking and writing. In the process, I love myself by doing what makes me feel the most alive. I love others by reaching out with my heart to touch theirs.
I’m not suggesting you give up all of your other goals. School, work, family and life goals matter. I’m not suggesting you quit your job to become a starving artist.
What I am suggesting is that you listen to your heart as it whispers your Soul Goal. I am suggesting you find a way to incorporate this whisper into your life.
You don’t have to create ideas that you format into action steps and turn these into strategies and objectives. You can tiptoe into accomplishing your Soul Goal. Take a painting class one night a week. Volunteer at an animal rescue center or a nursing home. Whatever your whisper is calling you to do, find a place and begin.
Remember, your Soul Goal makes you feel alive, happy and content. It should be fun! It should bring you joy! It just takes loving yourself enough to do what your soul is asking you to do.
Pennie’s Life Lesson: When you fulfill your Soul Goal you feel alive, happy and content.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/opinion/guest_column/what-is-your-soul-goal/article_76681715-0cc4-5983-9404-80f595f0fc21.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:10Z
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CHEYENNE – Patience at the plate helped Cheyenne Central set the tone early Friday afternoon.
Behind 10 hits and five walks, the third-ranked Lady Indians scored 14 runs in the first inning. They carried that to a 27-2 conference victory over Cheyenne South. The game went 4½ innings because of a 15-run mercy rule.
“We had really good pitch selection in that first inning and did a good job of laying off pitches that we didn’t want to hit,” Central coach Carrie Barker said. “We drove the ball hard and didn’t have many at-bats that weren’t quality at-bats.”
Taylor Gebhart started the scoring for Central with a double to left field that scored Izzy Kelly, and Lauren Lucas sent another double that hit the center field fence to drive home another two runs. That was Lucas’ first double of the frame. Maddie Birt and Izzy Thomas hit back-to-back triples to extend the Indians’ lead to 8-0 before they pushed six more runners across home plate and held a 14-0 advantage entering the second.
“That’s a big thing we talk about at practice all of the time is starting off hot. I think that’s one of the major parts of the game. It’s such a mental game,” Lucas said. “One of our coaches always says, ‘It’s a game against the ball,’ so it’s just about getting started right so that if we have any errors, we have that to fall back on.”
Shayla Peterson got South on the board in the top of the second when she hit an infield single and eventually scored on a Brogan Allen wild pitch. However, that was the most offense the Lady Bison could muster until the fifth inning.
Unlike the first frame, South limited Central’s bats in the second and third, as Alyssa Albaugh surrendered just three hits over the two innings. A double from Ashley Bunch in the third stretched the Indians’ lead to 17-1.
“Alyssa gives us a little bit of a different look – a little more velocity and keeps hitters off-balance with a couple of different pitches,” South coach Curtis Quigley said. “So, all in all, we settled in, but we have a lot of learning that we have to take in to just keep getting better.”
The quality of at-bats returned for the Indians in the fourth frame. They connected on five hits and drew six walks to put together a 10-run inning before Allen ended the game early with a pair of strikeouts. It was Central’s seventh consecutive win.
Allen was 4-for-5 at the plate with five RBI, and Lucas and Bunch both went 3-for-4 with three RBI. Birt was 2-for-3 with five RBI and two triples.
Prior to Central’s winning streak, it dropped four consecutive games – two to Campbell County and two to Thunder Basin. Following a tough road trip at Laramie on Tuesday, the Indians will travel to Gillette for a doubleheader with both Campbell County and Thunder Basin.
“We started trusting each other more as a team (before our winning streak). We’re starting to feel more comfortable, we’re trusting our abilities and have some confidence in ourselves right now,” Barker said. “It’ll be a good week to see how we come and battle. We have quite a stretch of tough opponents in the next couple of weeks.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_central/central-builds-on-big-first-inning-in-win-over-south/article_0745c5a6-5db2-5f47-85ac-c7921b981ce6.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:16Z
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CHEYENNE – The Cheyenne East swimming and diving teams have a pool to call home again.
Laramie County School District 1 held a ribbon cutting for the school’s new aquatics center Friday morning.
The school’s original pool was teetering on complete failure, and the cost of maintaining it was prohibitive. East also couldn’t replace the diving board that was broken in 2018 because the ceiling was too low for modern safety standards. The old board had been grandfathered because of when it was built.
The Thunderbirds had been practicing at Cheyenne Central and Cheyenne South during the two years it took to complete the construction project. East’s divers started practicing separately in 2018.
“It’s been crazy and chaotic trying to schedule with everyone else, not step on toes and make sure everyone gets the training they need to,” said Jon Andersen, who is entering his fifth season as East’s girls coach. “This pool is a dream come true. We have a lot more space, and we’ll be able to be a lot more specific in what we’re doing. Safety also will be a lot better.”
The competition pool is 10 lanes and 25 yards-by-25 yards, but there is a moveable bulkhead that allows the pool to be lengthened. There also is a diving well with two 1-meter springboards and two 3-meter springboards. The diving well also can be used for practice, and warming up and cooling down during meets.
The bleachers above the pool seat 650 people, while there is space for 250 more on the pool deck.
“This space is bigger overall, and lanes are a bit wider than our old ones, so we’ll be able to get a lot more done during practices,” East boys coach Mark Dobler said. “There’s a lot of flexibility.”
Both Dobler and Andersen said they appreciated the collaborative spirit of South coach Jason Garman, former Central coach Mark Miller and current Indians coach Josh Bott. Those men made accommodations for East’s divers and then its swimmers over the past four years. Their teams also were inconvenienced by East lacking a pool and never complained, Dobler said.
The T-Birds have lost athletes because they couldn’t make transportation or practice times work. Having an on-campus pool could be a boon for East, junior Josh Woods said.
“We’ve had practices that end really late, and we’ve had to drive across town to get to them, and I know quite a few guys who quit because of that,” said Woods, who both swims and dives. “It’s going to be great to have our pool right here, attached to the building and be able to practice right after school.
“This could bring a lot more people into swimming because they see a lot more support for swimming.”
LCSD1 Superintendent Margaret Crespo, Trustee Rose Ann Million Rinne and East Principal Sam Mirich emphasized that the pool doesn’t just benefit East’s swimming programs. Instead, it benefits all students in the district and community.
“This pool was designed from Laramie County School District 1 as a district-wide competition pool,” Million Rinne said during her prepared remarks. “The board considers it not only a replacement for the deteriorating East High School pool, but as a facility for the entire district and community to benefit from.
“We look forward to having district, state and invitational swimming events here, giving everyone the opportunity to compete in this state-of-the-art facility. State and invitational meets will bring spectators and competitors from all over, boosting our local economy.”
East athletics director Jerry Schlabs said the district already has talked with Wyoming High School Activities Association representatives about Cheyenne making a bid to host the girls and boys state championships.
“One of the main intentions of the new pool was to host the big invites here, have the junior highs here and be able to host state here,” Schlabs said. “The board and the district did an amazing job of building it with the seating to be able to do that. We worked with the (WHSAA) to figure out what their requirements are and met those.
“We’ll put in a bid for it, and we hope to be in the rotation in the future.”
Crespo said construction was at times delayed, in part, due to supply chain woes, one factory they were working with closing and another catching fire.
“Our team still came together and made it happen for our kids and community,” Crespo said.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_east/lcsd1-unveils-new-cheyenne-east-pool/article_98485e05-3ad3-5f7d-bf5d-23ad4006cfc8.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:22Z
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CHEYENNE – Kaden Anderson spent his sophomore season with Cheyenne American Legion Post 6 learning what it took to compete at the varsity level and trying to earn his pitchers’ trust.
He was one of three young catchers on that squad, but ended up seeing the bulk of the action behind the plate. That summer gave him the experience and wisdom to become a leader for a 2021 ballclub that set program records for strikeouts and earned-run average.
“There was a night-and-day difference between his sophomore and junior years,” Cheyenne manager Ty Lain said. “His sophomore year, we were basically asking him to just keep the ball off the backstop. He spent so much time in the bullpens and practice with our pitchers that he really developed into our third pitching coach.
“He is now a guy who can talk to pitchers between innings or make productive mound visits. His leadership was huge for our staff last year.”
Anderson will be counted on to provide continued leadership to a veteran pitching staff when the Sixers open the season against Laramie at 12:30 p.m. today at Powers Field. Cheyenne is scheduled to also take on Rock Springs at 5:30 p.m. today.
Anderson takes pride in the fact he is now looked upon as another pitching coach for Post 6.
“I paid attention to what our pitching coach was telling our pitchers to do, and I would try to apply that to all of our pitchers so they could feel good about what they were doing and have a plan on what they needed to fix,” he said.
Anderson’s leadership went beyond Cheyenne’s hurlers last summer. He also helped then-freshman Hayden Swaen adjust to catching after spending the bulk of his young career as an infielder.
“He taught me to stay level-headed and be the man out on the field who tells people where they need to be and what’s going on in certain situations,” Swaen said. “Those were things I never would think of. He helped me see them, and I’m really thankful for having him and him helping me get through last season.
“He played a big role in me learning how to play catcher and how to play on varsity.”
Anderson remembered how nervous he was stepping into a varsity role as a sophomore, and did his best to ease Swaen’s transition.
“I tried to help (Swaen) calm down and play the game the right way,” Anderson said. “He was very open to everything I was telling him. He has increased his catching ability tremendously in just one year.
“He’s a lot better at framing (pitches), a lot better at blocking, and his arm is a lot better because he’s throwing out more kids. It’s going to be fun seeing what he does the next few years.”
Anderson is more than just a leader and rock-solid backstop for the Sixers. He also packs a solid bat. The Cheyenne Central senior posted a .307 (50-for-163) batting average with 12 doubles, a triple and 33 RBI in 63 games.
As a sophomore, Anderson posted a .322 average (28-of-87) with 14 RBI in 38 games.
“He played tremendously offensively at the end of last year, and made a case for being MVP of the state tournament,” Lain said. “He’s always going to hit for average and be a tough out, but he’s worked extremely hard all off-season to put on strength, and I think you’ll see better power numbers out of him.
“Of all the guys, he’s probably come the furthest from entering our program to where he is now. His work ethic is why.”
Anderson batted .625 (10-for-16) with two doubles, four RBI and no strikeouts in five state tournament games.
Anderson played fall ball with the WYCO Select program, which gave him the opportunity to do something he hadn’t since he was an eighth-grader: Pitch.
“It’s definitely in the cards for me this year,” Anderson said. “I pitched this fall and during our spring training, so I think the rust is knocked off, and I’m ready to go and help the team the best I can. I talked to (Lain) during spring training, and he told me to prepare to be on the mound because we lost some arms.”
Lain wanted Anderson to focus on filling the crucial role of catcher the past two seasons. He still expects Anderson to carry the load behind the plate this summer, but Swaen has progressed enough that Anderson will see some innings as a relief pitcher.
“He has pitched at the younger levels and has good zip on his fastball, and will be a bullpen option for us,” Lain said. “(Swaen) has a really good handle on what he’s doing behind the plate, so we think we can give him more responsibility and pitch Kaden some.
“(Anderson) has a good feel for his breaking ball, he can throw it for a strike, and he’s got good zip on his fastball. He can definitely help us on the mound this summer.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/other_sports/baseball/cheyenne_post_6/catcher-kaden-anderson-has-become-leader-for-post-6/article_431a1e55-5db6-5d0a-a5d1-57430ba8ea51.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:28Z
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LARAMIE – With four veteran defensive ends leaving the program this offseason, no position on the University of Wyoming defense had more uncertainty surrounding it entering the spring.
The quick progress of this group, however, has turned potential concerns into a source of excitement.
UW coach Craig Bohl noted after the second practice of the spring that the “speed and quickness of our young defensive ends” was what had impressed him most. With eight practices now completed and the Cowboys set for their first scrimmage today, defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel echoes this sentiment, noting the development of DeVonne Harris, Sabastian Harsh, Oluwaseyi Omotosho and Braden Siders has been “a pleasant surprise.”
“They’ve been playing pretty well,” Sawvel said. “They’ve done some good things. We’re trying to do a few more things with them, to take advantage of their speed and quickness on some stuff. We’re not huge at that position. That might be a problem in a couple games, but for a lot of people, I don’t know it will be a huge determining factor.
“They’ve been solid in assignments, they’ve been solid in their fundamentals, and they’ve played physical, so that’s been a pleasant surprise. You didn’t know fully (what to expect). We’d seen DeVonne play, but Sabastian had been primarily on special teams, Olu had been primarily on special teams, Braden Siders hadn’t played, and those guys have done pretty well.”
Harris – who totaled 13 tackles, one tackle for loss and a pass deflection in 13 games during his first three years with the program – is the only UW defensive end to receive notable snaps in this Cowboys career, outside of special teams.
He didn’t expect to be thrust into such a prominent role at the end of last season. After Garrett Crall graduated and Solomon Byrd, Jaylen Pate and Victor Jones entered the transfer portal, though, that changed.
Harris says his chemistry with Harsh, which he describes as “really darn good,” has helped with the transition from being a reserve to the most experienced guy in the defensive end room.
“It was pretty tough at first,” he said. “Going from one of the backup guys to that top role, you have to mature faster. (Sabastian) has helped me a lot, because we can talk to each other about anything.”
Harris is pleased with the progress he’s seen on the field throughout the first half of spring practice. Now, his greatest focus is bulking up for next season.
He’s currently listed at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, but would like to be closer to the 235- to 240-pound range by the fall.
“If I can get my weight up, my play on the field will shoot up,” Harris said.
In addition to Harris, Harsh is another young defensive end that has been praised by Bohl on multiple occasions throughout the spring.
Like his teammate, the 6-foot-3, 237-pound sophomore didn’t expect to be in this position – as one of the top candidates to land a starting role – at the end of last season. However, he says he’s been preparing for the moment since last fall.
“I knew at some point my time would come, but us young dudes needed to be ready for it,” Harsh said. “Each day during practice on the scout team, after practices, I would tell them, ‘This next year, we have to go crazy. We have to start doing something on the field.’
“Just with the older guys leaving and all that, they left us with some pointers and talked about how to be leaders and step up to the plate. I think we’ll be ready.”
Harsh points to the defensive ends’ ability to take coaching points and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing as a vital part of their growth this offseason. Watching this development first-hand gives him confidence in the depth of the position group heading into next season, something he believes will allow the Pokes’ edge rushers to remain fresh throughout the course of games.
“DeVonne, Olu and Braden, all of them are hard workers, and they have grit,” Harsh said. “At the end of the day, regardless of if I’m in or out, I know someone is going to be able to do the job and get the assignment right.”
All-Mountain West honorable mention and starting defensive tackle Cole Godbout has noticed a difference, as well.
“Watching the defensive ends’ growth,” Godbout said when asked what’s impressed him most about the defense so far this spring. “I think we have one guy that’s played more than a couple games. Those are kind of my young little bros, and watching them step up and do their thing has been great.”
A pair of open starting spots – and in the case of Harsh, Omotosho and Siders, the chance to play their first significant defensive snaps at the college level – has brought a new energy to the defensive end group this offseason.
So has a defensive scheme that gives them more freedom on the field, allowing them to make the most of their strengths.
“This year, I like that they’re setting us loose on the edge,” Harsh said. “There isn’t a lot of, ‘I’ll cover you, you cover me,’ on the line. It’s more so like ends go in high and get the job done. It makes us feel like they’re trusting us a lot more to go play how we want to play, with speed, physicality and stuff like that. The book is wide open right now.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/university_of_wyoming/football/growth-of-young-des-a-bright-spot-for-uw-this-spring/article_59f9edda-26ad-53d1-8713-5164a19e6e81.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:34Z
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The University of Wyoming tennis team rebounded after dropping the doubles point Friday against Utah State, rallying to win 4-1 thanks to a strong showing in singles play.
UW (9-11 overall, 3-4 in Mountain West) had a fast start on the singles side at the UW Tennis Complex when Sophie Zehender opened with a 6-3, 6-1 win at the No. 2 spot. Maria Oreshkina won 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 1 position.
Lucia Malinak and Ida Krause delivered comeback wins for the Cowgirls at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Malinak dropped the first set 6-2, before taking the last two 6-2 and 6-4. Krause also lost the first set 6-2, and started out down 4-1 in the second, but she came back to win 7-6 with a 7-5 tiebreak victory. She then rallied from 5-3 down in the third set, again winning the tiebreaker 7-5 and coming away with a 7-6 win.
Wyoming will close its 2022 home slate today at 10 a.m. against Boise State. The Cowgirls will celebrate senior day prior to the match with Mihaela Kaftanova and Krause being honored.
UW distance runners begin California swing
A group of Wyoming track and field distance runners began a three-day stretch of competition in California on Thursday night at the Mt. SAC Relays and Bryan Clay Invitational.
Turning in one of the best performances of the evening at the Mt. SAC Relays, Leah Christians ran the 10-kilometer race in 34 minutes, 14.69 seconds. In addition to placing 11th, she vaulted to second on UW’s all-time list.
Seven student-athletes competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with Katelyn Mitchem recording the best finish for the Cowgirls at 10:25.55. She finished 11th and set a personal record, improving on a time that was already third in school history. Kaylee Kearse finished in 49th place in 11:00.74, moving up to sixth all-time. Anna Spear, eighth all-time, ran a 11:09.21 to finish 54th.
For the men’s steeplechase, Seth Bruxvoort led the Cowboys at 8:56.42 for a 16th-place finish, moving into 10th on UW’s all-time list. Albert Steiner, Josh Rodgers and Mason Norman also competed in the event, finishing 32nd, 49th and 57th, respectively.
Abigail Whitman was 24th in 10km at 35:18.32, moving into fifth on UW’s all-time list.
Kylie Simshauser and Gus McIntrye competed in the 5km at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Simshauser ran a 17:11.43 to finish eighth and McIntyre was ninth at 14:17.69.
Wyoming volleyball unveils 2022 schedule
The Mountain West released its conference volleyball schedule this week, bringing the Cowgirls’ 2022 slate into focus.
UW will again host a pair of nonconference tournaments with Creighton, Iowa State and Wichita State coming to Laramie Aug. 26-27 to open the season. Wyoming will also host a tournament Sept. 16-17 with Idaho, Morehead State and Nicholls State.
The Cowgirls will travel to Grand Canyon and Winthrop in early September for nonconference tournaments.
Their league slate features 18 total matches, starting Sept. 20 on the road against Border War rival and defending co-MW champion Colorado State. They’re scheduled to face UNLV in their home opener Sept. 24.
UW will host five home matches in October against San Jose State, Nevada, Utah State, Fresno State and San Diego State. The Cowgirls will host Air Force and New Mexico on Nov. 10 and Nov. 12, respectively, before closing the regular season with Senior Night on Nov. 15 against CSU.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/university_of_wyoming/other_sports/uw-dominates-singles-play-to-rally-past-utah-state/article_6f348914-1c81-58d0-bda7-82aad709e979.html
| 2022-04-16T14:51:41Z
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Biden to host Southeast Asian leaders for May 12-13 summit
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in Washington next month for a summit, the White House said Saturday.
The May 12-13 gathering is meant to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to being a partner with countries in the region.
The White House previously had announced that the summit would be held March 28-29, but the regional grouping of countries known as ASEAN sought a postponement due to scheduling concerns among some of its members.
The summit will commemorate 45 years of relations between the U.S. and the ASEAN nations. The gathering follows Biden’s participation in an October 2021 summit where he announced $102 million in new initiatives to help these countries with COVID-19 and health security, climate change, economic growth and gender equality.
“It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner in Southeast Asia,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Saturday in a statement. “Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, secure, connected, and resilient.”
ASEAN’s 10 members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Its members have been at odds with each other over Myanmar, which has been wracked by violent unrest since the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year.
ASEAN is seeking to implement a five-point plan for Myanmar it reached last year stressing dialogue, humanitarian assistance and an end to violence. But Myanmar’s ruling military council has delayed the plan’s implementation even as the country has slipped into a situation that some U.N. experts have described as a civil war.
Myanmar’s lack of cooperation led ASEAN last year to bar its leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, from attending its annual summit meeting, an unprecedented step for the body whose members traditionally have avoided public criticism of each other and have operated by consensus.
It has applied a similar policy for subsequent meetings, saying that it would allow Myanmar to send only non-political representatives.
Biden hosted Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, for talks last month in which the president tried to assure Singapore and other Pacific allies that the administration remains focused on the region even while working with Europe and other allies to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/biden-host-southeast-asian-leaders-may-12-13-summit/
| 2022-04-16T16:18:17Z
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Teenager confronts suspected home intruder, helps police catch him
MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WCVB) - A Massachusetts teenager is earning rave reviews after she confronted a home intruder and helped police catch him.
“I think it was very scary,” 14-year-old Avery Cormier said.
Cormier did not let fear stop her when a stranger broke into her home in Middleborough, Massachusetts, on Friday morning.
“I heard the boots walk through the house and I thought that my mom might have just forgotten her phone and came back until I realized that’s not my mom,” she said.
So, she grabbed two steak knives from the kitchen and confronted the man.
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs to get out of my house, get out. That’s really it,” Cormier said.
Cormier said she didn’t really have a lot going through her head as it happened.
“It was just kind of adrenaline,” she said.
The suspect then fled and Cormier called 911. She also managed to record a video of him driving away.
It’s the video that police said cracked the case.
“She had the wherewithal in the moment of extreme stress and scary event to be able to think on her feet,” Middleborough Police Chief Joseph Perkins said.
And now 58-year-old Joseph Ridge is behind bars. Police said he has a long criminal record.
“She’s a straight-A student. She’s like, she’s just, she’s ... I don’t know, I’m blessed to have a daughter like her,” Cormier’s mother, who did not provide her name, said.
Cormier is relieved there was no violence, and in hindsight thinks she should have first called 911.
“Call the police before you do anything,” she said. “Don’t just grab knives and go chase after him. Might not work out.”
Copyright 2022 WCVB via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/teenager-confronts-suspected-home-intruder-helps-police-catch-him/
| 2022-04-16T16:18:25Z
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Week in Review, April 11-15: Tulane Innovation Institute, Gripnr Raises $2.5M
NEW ORLEANS — Here are the week’s top business stories:
N.O. Tech Startup Aims to Bring Roleplaying Games to the Blockchain
Tulane Alumni Investing Millions to Create Innovation Institute
La. Bill That Would Exclude Solar, Wind from Tax Exemption Put on Hold
N.O. 500 Survey: Supporting Nonprofits Is Good for Business
10th Annual Greater New Orleans Annual Office Market Report Is Now Available
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https://www.bizneworleans.com/week-in-review-april-11-15-tulane-innovation-institute-gripnr-raises-2-5m/
| 2022-04-16T18:16:00Z
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BUFFALO — Nationwide, concern is rising about the potential for Russian cyberattacks, and cybersecurity experts are warning that Wyoming is not immune to that threat.
“It really depends on whether they can get in (and) whether they can trick you, not necessarily your size or where you live,” said Laura Baker, executive director of CyberWyoming.
President Joe Biden’s administration has warned repeatedly that Russia may launch cyberattacks against U.S. entities in retaliation for economic sanctions meant to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Locally, those in the cyber- security field say they’ve seen a marked increase in attacks originating from Russia, though it’s difficult to say if they are directed or sponsored by the Russian government.
According to Baker, at a February CyberWyoming meeting, the group’s members agreed that they’d seen a dramatic increase in attempted attacks.
One even said they’d seen a 100-fold jump, Baker said.
Those attacks aren’t unprecedented, though, according to Shane Brown, CEO of the information technology and cybersecurity firm DigeTekS.
DigeTekS contracts with various entities in Johnson County to provide security, including the county, the Johnson County Healthcare Center and First Northern Bank, which received first place in a cybersecurity competition in 2019.
While the number of attacks nationwide has increased significantly in the past few months, the same kinds of attacks have been deployed for years by hackers in Russia and throughout the world, Brown said. While small targets — like those in Buffalo — may not seem as appealing as large ones, successfully attacking enough small targets can turn a profit quickly, Brown said.
“Even if they can get 10 bucks from something that costs less than a cent to send out, I mean, that adds up after they put it on time and time and time again,” Brown said.
A small bank might see anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 attempted attacks in just one day, Brown said, whereas a small liquor store might see 1,000 attempted attacks in a day.
Not all of those attempts are readily evident; many of them are just automated scans probing for vulnerabilities. If no vulnerabilities are found, the hackers will move on.
For many hackers, including those based in Russia, the interest is financial, Brown said.
But others infiltrate systems without intending to do anything immediately. In time, they might be able to use their access to launch a separate attack or gain access to a more important system. Doing so from another computer also makes the attack more difficult to track, Brown said.
Baker added that, from her experience, the Russian government’s goal is to disrupt the course of everyday life, everything from the operations of a small business to spreading misinformation and disinformation online.
Hackers, Russian and otherwise, have pivoted from attacking big cities to attacking small communities, where governments and businesses aren’t used to combatting significant assaults, Brown said.
According to an FBI white paper distributed at the end of March, local governments are often targeted by hackers, leading to the disruption of essential services. Many of those local governments targeted are small counties or municipalities, in part because small communities often lack the resources to keep their security systems up to date.
“What they’ve determined is that rural areas, smaller areas, typically don’t have the same capabilities that they’re finding when they get to bigger areas,” Brown said.
But Marilyn Connolly, Johnson County’s emergency management director, said she and the county take cybersecurity seriously.
About three years ago, the county conducted a cybersecurity assessment that revealed potential vulnerabilities in their system. That led the county to contract with DigeTekS and begin ramping up its security. While the extra layers of protection — such as changing passwords more often and using multi-factor authentication — can sometimes seem like a nuisance, it’s worth the extra effort, Connolly said.
“You’d think it wouldn’t be a problem in Buffalo, Wyoming, but it’s amazing how many things our IT guys pick up on a daily basis,” Connolly said.
Other entities in Wyoming have suffered serious cyberattacks, and healthcare facilities are at particular risk, according to the FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Report.
In 2019, Campbell County Memorial Hospital was hit with a ransomware attack that blocked access to 1,500 computers, according to reporting by the Gillette News Record. It took the hospital almost three months to begin operating as normal again.
In December, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s payroll software was hit by a ransomware attack, causing 55% of its employees to be overpaid and 45% percent to be underpaid, according to Wyoming Tribune Eagle reporting.
And in March, the Memorial Hospital of Carbon County suffered a ransomware attack, a statement released by the hospital said.
Ransomware attacks are increasingly common and sophisticated, according to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a federal agency created in 2018. Such attacks involve the distribution of a virus that blocks access to computers and the information on them. Affected organizations or individuals can regain access to the information — for a price — or wipe their computers, losing the data forever (unless it is backed up on a separate system).
But while those threats are real, there are things governments, businesses and individuals can do to protect themselves, Baker and Brown said, such as purchasing antiviral software or following best cybersecurity practices. Hackers are looking for the weak link, they said, and if they encounter much resistance, they’re likely to move on.
Right now, the most important thing people can do is educate themselves and remain aware of the threat, Baker and Brown said.
“If we start talking about (cybersecurity issues) at the library and the dinner table, we’re all going to be more secure,” Baker said.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/cyber-risks-on-the-rise-across-nation-wyoming/article_eabacb81-93b5-5479-adda-db82fc627cd5.html
| 2022-04-16T18:29:03Z
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The Independent Order of Oddfellows recently gave a generous donation to the Rock Springs High School speech and debate team for their trip to the National Speech and Debate tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. From left to right in back are Gerry Jensen, Jim Wilson, William Wilson, Roger Jones, Linda Wilson and Joi Jensen. In front, from left to right, are three out of the 11 qualifiers traveling to the national competition, Hallie Cozzens, Sophia Cozzens and Tori Hester.
ROCK SPRINGS – The Independent Order of Oddfellows gave a generous donation to the Rock Springs High School speech and debate team on Thursday, April 14.
Eleven RSHS students will be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky for the 2022 National Speech and Debate Tournament.
Qualifiers include:
Gwennan Pritchard – World Schools Debate
Tori Hester – Informative Speaking
Hallie Cozzens, Informative Speaking
Cienna Bennett – World Schools Debate
Ryan Madsen – Policy Debate
Dawson Fantin – Program Oral Interpretation
Conner Murray – Policy Debate
Shiva Yeshlur – World Schools Debate
Danyell Jacobson – Informative Speaking
Sophia Cozzens – Original Oratory
Clara Luzmoor – World Schools Debate
Coach Stephanie Cozzens said she was surprised to receive the $1000 donation.
“I really appreciate how enthusiastic they are about the speech and debate team,” said Cozzens. “They’re wonderful supporters of our team.”
She also noted that she is very excited for the Tiger team.
“I’m so proud because we have such a young team so I didn’t expect it.”
Rock Springs resident Linda Wilson is the Noble Grand of the local Oddfellow Lodge.
“We like helping the students of the debate team,” Wilson shared. “We know they’ll do very well.”
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Rock Springs lodge was started in 1875.
Anyone interested in donating may make checks out to Bitter Creek Speech and Debate.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/oddfellows-donate-to-rshs-speech-and-debate-qualifiers/article_c118aac2-9e9d-5ca5-9b14-488377757622.html
| 2022-04-16T18:29:09Z
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CHEYENNE – The Laramie boys soccer team shifted its mindset a few weeks ago.
The Plainsmen started the season taking as many shots as they could. The thought being that eventually a few of them were going to go in.
That approach yielded wins. However, several of those matches were closer than they should have been. That led Laramie to adopt a quality over quantity approach.
The strategy worked well during a 3-1 victory Friday evening at Cheyenne East.
“At the beginning of the season, we had a lot of shots and just couldn’t get anything to go into the back of the net,” said Laramie senior Landon Whisenant. “Now, we’re starting to turn it around. When we get our chances, we’re trying to finish them the best we can.
“The more we shoot is good, but we have to remember to maybe play a little more possession and get an even better shot.”
Laramie coach Anne Moore pointed to Laramie’s 2-1 victory over Campbell County for the change in mindset.
“We’re being more efficient with our shots,” she said. “When we went up to Campbell County, we outshot them 30-4 and it was a 2-1 match. We had shots that hit the post, hit the crossbar or missed the goal.
“We’ve been focusing on picking a spot and hitting that spot instead of just kicking it as hard as we can and hoping for the best.”
On Friday, Laramie put 10 of its 14 shots on frame. East took eight shots overall, including five on goal.
Laramie’s three goals came off neither the hardest nor the prettiest shots, but they did come as clear looks on frame.
Christian Smith put the Plainsmen ahead in the 11th minute when he gathered the rebound of a shot that bounced off a collection of East defenders inside the penalty area and hit a low, line drive shot from the left side that found its way through the crowd and past East goalkeeper Connor Fisbeck and inside the far upright.
In the 27th, freshman Sammy Heaney took a pass from classmate Catcher Pannell inside the 18 and stuck it between East keeper Joseph Wheeler and the right upright.
Whisenant extended the lead to 3-0 in the 41st by stuffing a left-footed shot between T-Birds keeper Rylan Ward and the right upright.
“We’re going to have to figure out how to shore up some things defensively,” East coach Ryan Cameron said. “We did a nice job, at times, of keeping the ball. Too often right now, we’re losing the ball without pressure against us. Those are unforgivable.
“I can kind of understand if we give the ball up when the other team is pressuring us, but we have to understand the value of the ball. Laramie has some dudes who can go, though. Their dudes made some plays, but we have to keep battling and figure out ways to keep the ball out of the back of our net.”
The T-Birds’ best scoring chances came midway through the second half.
Connor King took a pass from Brenden Bohlmann in the 61st and fired a shot that Laramie goalkeeper Talon Luckie jumped up to snare. In the 64th, Edwin Lopez got a shot close to the goal off a Fred Gamboa free kick.
East finally broke through in the 78th when Cooper Rich’s shot off a corner kick bounced off a defender and caromed high into the air. Jaxon Miller ran in to head the ball into the goal to avoid the shutout.
LARAMIE 3, EAST 1
Halftime: Laramie 2-0.
Goals: Laramie, C. Smith (unassisted), 11. Laramie, Heaney (Pannell), 27. Laramie, Whisenant (Hoberg), 41. East, Miller (Rich), 78.
Shots: Laramie 14, East 8. Shots on goal: Laramie 10, East 5. Saves: Laramie 5 (Luckie); East 7 (FIsbeck 1, Wheeler 2, Ward 4).
Corner kicks: Laramie 2, East 3. Offsides: Laramie 2, East 1. Fouls: Laramie 8, East 9. Yellow cards: Laramie 2 (L. Smith, 77. Luckie, 78).
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_east/efficient-plainsmen-top-east/article_39d3a50d-217f-5dc6-b10b-f2765f212ce1.html
| 2022-04-16T18:29:16Z
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Bald eagles infected with bird flu, at least 3 dead, officials say
SAVANNAH, Ga. (Gray News) - Bird flu has been detected in Georgia bald eagles and it is affecting their nesting, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
In a recent report, officials with the DNR said samples from three bald eagles found dead in Chatham, Glynn and Liberty counties came back positive for avian influenza, or bird flu.
The department also reported that bird flu is likely undercutting nesting success for the eagles in Georgia’s coastal counties.
Officials said about a third of the eagle nests in Georgia are in the coastal counties. Annual aerial surveys of nesting bald eagles have revealed more failed nests than expected with nest success currently down about 30%.
Overall, the department reports the bald eagle population in Georgia is strong and initial survey results of eagle nesting outside the coastal region look to be on par with previous years.
Avian influenza has been detected in wild birds in more than 30 states this year, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The viral disease is highly infectious, untreatable and potentially lethal to infected animals. However, the risk of transmission to people remains low.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/bald-eagles-infected-with-bird-flu-least-3-dead-officials-say/
| 2022-04-16T18:40:38Z
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Dale Earnhardt’s grandson to race legendary No. 3 car in NASCAR race at Talladega
LINCOLN, Ala. (Gray News) - An Earnhardt will once again be behind the wheel of the No. 3 car for a NASCAR series race.
Richard Childress Racing announced earlier this week that Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, will be driving his grandfather’s No. 3 Chevrolet on April 23 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Jeffrey Earnhardt has competed in all three NASCAR national series. He has 135 Xfinity Series starts and owns a best finish of third-place with Joe Gibbs Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2019.
“It’s great to have an Earnhardt back in one of our cars,” said Richard Childress, chairman and CEO of RCR. “We think Jeffrey is a talented young driver and I’m confident he will run well at Talladega.”
Earnhardt, 32, is a native of Mooresville, N.C., and is eagerly anticipating his first start with RCR.
“What a dream come true,” said Jeffrey Earnhardt said. “The chance to be behind the wheel of the No. 3 car for RCR, that my pawpaw made famous, has long been a dream of mine and now it’s finally happening.”
Dale Earnhardt more than left his mark on the sport with seven premier series championships, tied for the most all-time, and 76 NASCAR Cup Series wins, which ranks eighth overall.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/dale-earnhardts-grandson-race-legendary-no-3-car-nascar-race-talladega/
| 2022-04-16T18:40:45Z
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Georgia man accused of leaving grandmother in freezer to die
ARMUCHEE, Ga. (AP) — Police say a northwest Georgia man killed his grandmother by stuffing her in a freezer while she was still alive.
Floyd County Police discovered the body of Doris Cumming, 82, late Thursday in the Armuchee home she shared with her grandson, 29-year-old Robert Keith Tincher III.
Tincher was charged with murder, aggravated battery and concealing the death of another. He remains jailed in Rome. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Police said Cumming’s family believed she had moved out of state, but grew concerned after not hearing from her and reported she might be missing.
Police said they believe that Cumming was injured in a fall in December and that instead of getting her medical attention, Tincher dragged her through the home. Criminal charges say Tincher “heard and saw numerous bones break.” He then wrapped her in plastic bags and placed her in a large freezer, with the charges saying Tincher “acknowledged her back broke going into the freezer.” Charges say there was “no altercation or provocation” leading up to the acts.
“From what we determined, at the time, he believed she was still breathing and had some movement at the time she was going into the freezer,” said Floyd County Investigator Brittany Werner told WAGA-TV.
Tincher continued living in the home with the body inside the freezer for months, but moved it to a storage unit in March, fearing Cumming’s body might be found.
Werner said Tincher told police he didn’t call 911 because he was wanted for arrest because of terroristic threats made in 2018 against his wife.
Tincher also told investigators how much he loved his grandmother.
“He said she was the only family member that gave him the courtesy and love and attention he needed,” said Werner.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting an autopsy to determine Cumming’s cause and time of death.
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This story corrects that suspect’s last name is Tincher, not Fincher.Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/georgia-man-accused-leaving-grandmother-freezer-die/
| 2022-04-16T18:40:52Z
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Woman arrested for helping 100 plus people illegally get driver’s licenses
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WJXT) - A subcontractor with the tax collector’s office in Jacksonville, Florida, hired to translate for immigrants, is accused of helping more than 100 people illegally get driver’s licenses.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said 56-year-old Afsaneh Baghai-Amri has been arrested for helping people get driver’s licenses illegally.
The investigation started when someone at the tax collector’s office alerted the Florida Highway Patrol that 137 people who applied for their driver’s licenses listed Baghai-Amri’s home address in Ponte Vedra, Florida, as their own.
It was reported most of them were immigrants from Afghanistan.
Highway patrol then set up surveillance at the tax collector’s office and her house.
In one of the videos, they said the woman was observed helping an applicant with the answers on the test.
Highway patrol ended up going to the tax collector’s office when she had just completed two application forms for driver’s licenses for two different men.
They both listed her address as theirs.
The woman admitted to the Florida Highway Patrol none of the men lived at her house and she was trying to help them get employment.
They also said one of the two men admitted to cheating on his driver’s license exam because Baghai-Amri gave him the answers.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Baghai-Amri is charged with 178 counts of supplying unlawful licenses along with two felony charges over exams.
Copyright 2022 WJXT via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/woman-arrested-helping-100-plus-people-illegally-get-drivers-licenses/
| 2022-04-16T18:40:58Z
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KAPALUA, Maui (KITV4) - A slew of weather alerts are posted for the State of Hawaii this Saturday morning. Alerts indicate concerning winds, rainfall amounts, and even snow. The National Weather Service says some weather models are indicating 48-hour rainfall accumulations reaching or exceeding the 6 to 10 inch range for some windward areas of Maui County and the Big Island.
A transition to a wet trade wind pattern is in store for portions of the state this weekend as a disturbance settles to the south of the state. Windward and mauka showers will increase in coverage, with some making it into our dry leeward areas periodically with the gusty trades in place. The best chance for heavy showers and even a few thunderstorms that could lead to flash flooding will be over the eastern end of the state. A return of drier trade wind conditions is expected early next week.
Here is a re-cap:
FLOOD ADVISORY - Big Island (5-8 am); has expired. Flood advisories could pop up and down throughout the day. Please see our news alerts for the latest.
WINTER STORM WARNING - Until 6am Sunday
Periods of heavy snow expected with accumulations of 6 inches or greater for the Big Island Summits above 12,000 feet.
Heavier bursts of snow could be accompanied by gusty winds, low visibility in clouds, and cloud to ground lightning.
WIND ADVISORY - Until 6pm
East winds 20 to 30 mph with localized gusts to 50 mph. Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and portions of the Big Island, including areas downwind of the Kohala mountains, interior, and the southeast slopes.
Winds this strong can tear off shingles, knock down tree branches, blow away tents and awnings and make it difficult to steer, especially for drivers of high profile vehicles.
FLOOD WATCH - Until 6am Sunday
Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible for Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe and the Big Island through late tonight.
Flood prone roads and other low lying areas may be closed due to elevated runoff and overflowing streams. Urban areas may receive more significant flooding and property damage due to rapid runoff.
A passing upper-level disturbance will support heavy showers and thunderstorms that could lead to flash flooding through tonight. The highest flood risk will be across windward slopes, though heavy rainfall and thunderstorms could occur anywhere.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Weekend Meteorologist and Maui County correspondent
Malika has been at KITV since July 2020. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and attended Mississippi State University for her certification in Broadcast Meteorology. Malika started her career in the Hawaii news industry in 2007.
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https://www.kitv.com/news/local/possible-6-10-of-rain-for-parts-of-the-state-high-winds-snow/article_b8d73ff6-bda1-11ec-9e41-770ead386b81.html
| 2022-04-16T18:44:30Z
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A beautiful Easter Sunday is ahead of us!
Temperatures will be a little chilly, but the sun will be shining!
This weekend is looking to be nicer than any in recent memory! Today, many of us reached into the 70s for our high temperature. We will be dipping into the upper 30s overnight as the sun goes down. We will see mostly cloudy skies, which could hinder those of us wishing to view the peak of the Pink Moon tonight.
The Pink Moon, while not actually pink, is named after a flower native to North America called the Phlox subulata. This flower is sometimes also called moss pink, hence the name Pink Moon, and is representative of the early blooming of spring!
Easter Sunday is looking to be a little chillier, though a beautiful day nonetheless. Temperatures across our area will be in the upper 50s, and we will see mostly sunny skies through the day! We could see a very small chance of isolated showers late in the evening, though likely nothing to halt outdoor plans.
Looking ahead into next week, things are looking incredible, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s after Tuesday.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/beautiful-easter-sunday-is-ahead-us/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:18Z
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Elementary school employee charged with sexually assaulting several 8-year-old girls
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (Gray News) - Police in Virginia have arrested a school employee after several girls told a teacher about inappropriate encounters happening at the school.
The Prince William County Police Department reports that 33-year-old Jonathan George Skocik, an IT specialist at John Jenkins Elementary School, was taken into custody and charged with sexually assaulting four 8-year-old girls while at the elementary school.
According to police, Skocik inappropriately touched four girls in his office between March and April 2022. The girls told a teacher what happened and the teacher alerted school administrators.
The 33-year-old was removed from the school and from any contact with children as detectives conducted their investigation. On April 15, detectives obtained arrest warrants for Skocik and he turned himself in.
Authorities said Skocik was charged with aggravated sexual assault and indecent liberties by a custodian. He is currently being held without bond with a pending court date.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/elementary-school-employee-charged-with-sexually-assaulting-several-8-year-old-girls/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:25Z
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Multiple people injured in shooting at South Carolina mall, police say
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Police have reported multiple people have been injured in a shooting at a mall in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Columbia Police Department said they were responding to reports of shots fired at the Columbiana Centre Saturday afternoon.
According to WIS, police confirmed several people have been injured but the extent of the injuries is unknown at this time.
The mall is being evacuated as police officers assess the scene.
A reunification site for loved ones has been set up at the Fairfield Inn at 320 Columbiana Drive, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
The main entrance to the mall on Harbison Boulevard has been closed as well as parts of I-26 West in the area.
Police ask that people use caution when driving in the area.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Copyright 2022 WIS via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/multiple-people-injured-shooting-south-carolina-mall-police-say/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:31Z
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Pandas devour ice cake to celebrate 50 years at National Zoo
WASHINGTON (AP) — The “cake” was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it.
The National Zoo’s most famous tenants had an enthusiastic breakfast Saturday in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.
Xiao Qi Ji’s father Tian Tian largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighboring enclosure with the sounds of his chomping clearly audible during a statement by Chinese ambassador Qin Gang. The ambassador praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations.
Pandas are almost entirely solitary by nature, and in the wild Tian Tian would probably never even meet his child. He received a similar cake for lunch.
In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China, Saturday’s celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program, which has helped bring the bears back from the brink of extinction.
Xiao Qi Ji’s birth in August 2020 was hailed as a near miracle, due to Mei Xiang’s advanced age and the fact that zoo staff performed the artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the entire zoo. At age 22, Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States.
Normally they would have used a combination of frozen sperm and fresh semen extracted from Tian Tian. But in order to minimize the number of close-quarters medical procedures, zoo officials used only frozen semen.
“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo’s senior curator for mammals.
In honor of that long shot, the now 20-month-old cub was given a name that translates as “little miracle.” His birth in mid-pandemic sparked a fresh wave of panda-mania, with viewership on the zoo’s panda-cam livestream spiking by 1,200 percent.
“I know how passionate people are about pandas,” Amaral said. “I’m not surprised by that passion at all.”
Sure enough, crowds started streaming straight for the panda section at 8 a.m. when the zoo opened. Sisters Lorelai and Everley Greenwell, age 6 and 5, ran toward the enclosure chanting “Pandas! Pandas!”
They watched the cub tumble around, try to wrestle his mom and tear the zero off the giant 50 emblazoned on the ice cake.
“They knew this was coming,” said their mother Kayleigh Greenwell of Mount Ranier, Maryland, said of her girls. “We’ve been talking about it all week.”
The zoo’s original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs: Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei — also by artificial insemination. All were transported to China at age 4, under terms of the zoo’s agreement with the Chinese government.
Similar agreements with zoos around the world have helped revitalize the giant panda population. Down to just over 1000 bears in the 1980s, the species has since been removed from the lists of animals in danger of extinction.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/pandas-devour-ice-cake-celebrate-50-years-national-zoo/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:38Z
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Ukrainian mayor and lawmakers attend Vatican Easter vigil
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday invoked “gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war” in an Easter vigil homily in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian lawmakers.
The pontiff noted that while “many writers have evoked the beautify of starlit nights, the nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death.”
Francis did not refer directly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but he has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace. That call appeared in vain Saturday, as Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a stark reminder that the whole country remains under threat.
GRAPHIC WARNING: Videos may contain disturbing images.
At the end of his homily, the pontiff directly addressed Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov and Ukrainian lawmakers Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rusem Umerov, who sat all together in the front row.
“In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. We can only give you our company, our prayer,’’ Francis said, adding that “the biggest thing you can receive: Christ is risen,” speaking the last three words in Ukrainian.
Fedorov was abducted and held for five days by Russian troops after they occupied Melitopol, a strategic southern city. Fedorov and the lawmakers have been visiting European capitals asking for more aid for their war-torn country and met earlier Saturday with the Vatican’s No. 2, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
For Christians, Easter is a day of joy and hope, as they mark their belief that Jesus triumphed over death by resurrection following his crucifixion.
“For with Jesus, the Risen Lord, no night will last forever; and even in the darkest night, the morning star continues to shine,’’ the pope said in his homily.
Francis, who has been suffering from an inflamed ligament, did not participate in a candle-lit procession up the aisle of the darkened basilica at the start of the Mass. He instead sat in front of the altar on a wooden upholstered chair in white robes. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said the Mass instead.
Arrayed before the steps of the altar was a row of cardinals, wearing ivory robes and face masks for the first Easter vigil Mass with the faithful present since the pandemic.
Among those in the basilica were seven adults who were baptized by the pope during the Mass. The Vatican said these new faithful are from Italy, the United States, Albania and Cuba. From a shell-shaped silver dish, Francis poured holy water over the bowed heads of the seven, after they walked up to him one by one and listened to him calling their first names.
On Sunday, Francis celebrates Easter Mass in the late morning in St. Peter’s Square and gives a speech from the basilica balcony, known by its Latin name “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and to the world), in which he recounts the trials and conflicts facing the world.
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This story corrects the last name of the mayor to Fedorov.
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Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/ukrainian-mayor-lawmakers-attend-vatican-easter-vigil/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:45Z
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VIDEO: Orphaned bear cub recovering after losing family in accident, police rescue
Published: Apr. 16, 2022 at 3:58 PM EDT|Updated: 54 minutes ago
GREENFIELD, Mass. (CNN) - An orphaned bear cub is on the road to recovery after being rescued by police in Massachusetts.
In a Facebook post last week, the Greenfield Police Department said officers found the furry animal squealing in a tree.
Officers said they got the cub, placed it in the back of their cruiser, and took it to the station.
The cub was deemed uninjured by veterinarians and then delivered to a bear center in New Hampshire.
Authorities said they believe the cub’s mother and siblings were killed in an automobile accident.
The baby bear has since been named Alma, and police said it would stay at the center until she’s old enough to make it on her own in the wild.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/video-orphaned-bear-cub-recovering-after-losing-family-accident-police-rescue/
| 2022-04-16T20:52:54Z
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A former Albany County sheriff and deputy deny accusations of manipulating video evidence related to a wrongful death lawsuit in the 2018 police killing of Robbie Ramirez, a Laramie resident.
Former Albany County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Derek Colling killed Ramirez by shooting him three times during a traffic stop in 2018. A grand jury declined to indict Colling of manslaughter in 2019, but now the county faces a $20 million civil lawsuit filed by Ramirez’s mother, Debra Hinkel, in 2020.
When Colling shot Ramirez, two of the bullets were to his back. Hinkel, along with community advocates, have maintained that the killing was an unjustified use of force against Ramirez, who was unarmed and struggled with mental illness. The lawsuit also claims Colling has a history of excessive use of force, which then-Sheriff David O’Malley has been accused of overlooking.
The accusations
In a motion filed March 10 in the wrongful death lawsuit, Hinkel claims that video submitted from Colling’s body camera was intentionally altered to omit the last five seconds of footage. The video submitted in response to the lawsuit also has no sound and ends a second before Colling begins shooting Ramirez.
Similarly, dash camera video was altered to delete recordings of the beginning of the encounter, as well as secondary camera feeds, the evidence audit log and sound, the motion claims.
These missing pieces of evidence are crucial to the lawsuit, as they would have provided a perspective of the shooting other than Colling’s testimony, Hinkel’s motion says. Video of the final shots Colling took could have supported a claim that Ramirez was not a threat and that Colling’s use of force was not justified.
Albany County officials falsely claimed they didn’t have the body camera log and dash camera video with a time overlay, which would have made it clear that original footage had been altered, according to the motion. Hinkel’s legal team didn’t gain access to the information until after they consulted with experts from Axon, the company that made the body camera.
“When police lose or destroy video evidence of a fatal shooting, the civil rights plaintiff suffers a degree of prejudice that is simply incomparable to other contexts,” the motion states.
Colling and O’Malley respond
In a response filed April 7, Colling’s legal team claims that his body camera became disconnected by accident and that he plugged it back in and informed dispatch when he noticed the disconnection after the shooting.
“(Hinkel’s) chief theory, as it relates to Colling’s alleged bad faith spoliation, is that Colling intentionally unplugged his Axon body camera after the shooting. This is simply not true,” according to the former deputy’s response. “During the physical struggle with Ramirez, the Axon body camera wire connection to the battery pack became unplugged. Colling did not realize that the body camera cord to the battery pack had disconnected because his focus was on Ramirez.”
Colling’s legal team also claims that it would have been impossible for Colling or any other deputy to download, edit and reupload the video because that technology is not available for body camera videos. The only way to view videos is through a mobile app, and the app wasn’t working on Colling’s phone, the response claims.
After the shooting, Colling waited in a nearby church with Deputy Jay Peyton before DCI Special Agent Brad Wnuk arrived and took him to Stitches Urgent Care for a blood draw, where he surrendered his body camera and other gear. During this time, he was not out of sight of Peyton and wouldn’t have had an opportunity to alter footage, the response says.
The response also argues that contrary to Hinkel’s claims, there was no audio on the dash camera or body camera video, and that while the body camera was powered off for five seconds during the encounter, only one second of this length of time would have shown the shooting because the shots were fired in rapid succession.
In a separate response, O’Malley agrees with Colling’s argument, and adds that the former sheriff shouldn’t be held liable if alterations of evidence were discovered because there isn’t evidence pointing to his involvement.
“No evidence has been presented,” O’Malley’s lawyers write in response to Hinkel’s motion. “Accordingly, no sanctions can be imposed against Colling. This court must deny (Hinkel’s) motions.
Beyond any allegedly altered footage, Hinkel’s motion claims Sheriff’s Lt. John Beeston deleted the original body camera video, as well as the dash camera video and corresponding evidence audit log, in the fall of 2019 after the county attorney said evidence would be preserved for impending civil suits.
The motion requests a default judgment, meaning the court would automatically rule in Hinkel’s favor. O’Malley and Colling both argued a default judgment would be inappropriate.
O’Malley is represented by the law firms Sundahl, Powers, Kapp & Martin LLC and McPherson & Thompson LLC. Colling is represented by Williams, Porter, Day & Neville P.C. and the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/rawlinstimes/news/former-sheriff-deputy-deny-altering-evidence/article_45854f5a-cc92-512a-bfb9-f26df860888d.html
| 2022-04-16T21:44:52Z
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Best friends become ‘perfect match’ for kidney transplant
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX/Gray News) - A Texas middle school administrative assistant is getting a new kidney thanks to a surprise by one of her best friends and co-workers.
KBTX reports Dawn Oden received her first kidney transplant back in 2014, which was donated by her brother.
However, this time around it was looking a bit different. Oden said she had a 22% chance of finding a match and was in need of someone to step up.
“Back in December 2020, I got COVID and I already had a transplanted kidney. I was doing well, but since I got COVID it’s been kind of a rough road,” Oden said.
The middle school assistant said she was worried about finding a donor until she got a surprise.
“We found out someone had stepped up but wanted to remain anonymous,” Oden said.
Little did she know her “anonymous” donor was one of her best friends, attendance clerk Jamie Alvarado.
According to Alvarado, she secretly went and got tested to see if she would be a match to donate her kidney, and she ended up matching.
“I knew it was a long shot, but it worked out,” Alvarado said. “We need her, her boys need her, her grandchild needs her. To have that opportunity to get to do that, whether it worked out or not, I knew I had to give it a shot.”
When Oden found out who the donor was, she said she was stunned.
“Shocked, but not surprised because that’s just the heart Jamie has,” Oden said.
On Thursday, students and fellow staff at College Station Middle School sent the two women off before the scheduled transplant surgery next week.
“I don’t know exactly how I would be handling it if I did not have the support system that I have,” Oden said.
Copyright 2022 KBTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/best-friends-become-perfect-match-kidney-transplant/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:16Z
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Board of Supervisors take on the budget, body cams
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - Body cameras continue to be a major topic of discussion in Augusta County.
At the Wednesday, April 13 Board of Supervisors meeting, Augusta County leaders took on the budget, and many community members spoke out about body cameras.
Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith included body and dash cameras in the budget, so it’s up to the board to include the allowance in their budget. Right now, it’s not there.
“I think I’m being accurate when I say there’s not a board member on our board that’s opposed to body cameras. It’s a matter of affordability, it’s a matter of need. It’s a matter of timing,” said Vice Chair of the Board Butch Wells.
Smith is asking for $3 million over five years to pay for the cameras. Last night’s discussion ended with Supervisor Scott Seaton proposing they schedule a public hearing to discuss body cameras, which would be publicly advertised as such. The motion failed, with Supervisors Wells, Gerald Garber, and Michael Shull voting against it.
“If there’s an outcry for body cameras, they’re more than welcome to come in at any one of our meetings during our public session and say we’re in favor of this and this is what we’d like you to see. Any given day, all of our emails are listed, our phone numbers are listed, and I’m not hearing that,” Wells said.
Last year, protests outside the sheriff’s office got heated at times with protesters demanding the sheriff look into body cameras. Protests stopped when Smith said he’d conduct a study.
“We’re still testing cameras. Since I started testing cameras, several vendors have come out with new cameras, with new features,” Smith said.
However, Smith is looking for other things first: a new radio system, a new fleet, and better wages for deputies.
“I have to make sure that the people of this community are protected, and I have to make sure my deputies go home at the end of the day,” Smith said.
For now, the future of body cameras in Augusta county isn’t clear, but supporters say they have no plans of dropping the discussion. To see their full budget document, click here.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/board-supervisors-take-budget-body-cams/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:23Z
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FDA authorizes 1st breath test for COVID-19 infection
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued an emergency use authorization for what it said is the first device that can detect COVID-19 in breath samples.
The InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, the FDA said, and can be used in doctor’s offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites. The test, which can provide results in less than three minutes, must be carried out under the supervision of a licensed health care provider.
Dr. Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, called the device “yet another example of the rapid innovation occurring with diagnostic tests for COVID-19.”
The FDA said the device was 91.2% accurate at identifying positive test samples and 99.3% accurate at identifying negative test samples.
“InspectIR expects to be able to produce approximately 100 instruments per week, which can each be used to evaluate approximately 160 samples per day,” the agency said. “At this level of production, testing capacity using the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer is expected to increase by approximately 64,000 samples per month.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/fda-authorizes-1st-breath-test-covid-19-infection/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:29Z
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International cycling company coming to Harrisonburg
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - An international cycling company is coming to the Friendly City. Lauf Cycling is an Iceland-based company that will open its U.S. Distribution Center and Headquarters in Harrisonburg.
Lauf was founded in 2011 and specializes in the manufacturing of made-to-order, high-end gravel and mixed terrain bikes.
“It’s a great young company that we were seeing they were on a very fast growth trajectory, so we wanted to grow with them. Having an international company here and having this be their U.S. headquarters was very enticing to us and they’re just great people to work with,” said Brian Shull, Harrisonburg’s Economic Development Director.
Lauf’s U.S. Operations Director Timothy Rugg, a former professional cyclist, lived in Harrisonburg briefly in 2012 and said the city is the perfect location for the company.
“Harrisonburg has so many programs and opportunities around the city for biking already, so to be able to put our brand image with the Blue Ridge Mountains the Shenandoah Valley, and what’s already happening here is a good opportunity for us to make an impact on the community here which we couldn’t do with some of the bigger cities,” said Rugg.
The growing biking community in Harrisonburg and the Valley was one of the biggest reasons why Lauf chose the Friendly City for its U.S. headquarters.
“We have a great place to ride and we have a great community here that we can ride with, so we can share in our development and growth with the local community here, and hopefully that can get us involved in more projects that are constantly underway here as well,” said Rugg.
Because Lauf addresses a different part of the cycling industry the city says it will not be competing with other local bike shops in the area.
“They will just be selling bikes so they’re not selling the other equipment, the helmets, and the shoes and all that. They ought to have a great relationship with the other bike companies in the area and they sell direct to consumers so somebody will get online anywhere in the U.S. order their bike and it will be shipped to their door,” said Shull.
“We’re just going to be focusing on the distribution side of things with the brand here, so we’ll be doing some light assembly and logistics of shipping and receiving, but we don’t expect to be doing services that would be competing with the local bike shops that are already here,” said Rugg.
Lauf hopes to ship 300 bikes a month from Harrisonburg by the end of the year. The company ships bikes around the world but says about 80% of its market is in the U.S.
Lauf will be building out its warehouse at a shell building at 156 E. Washington Street and hopes to have that up and running within a year. In the meantime, it will operate out of a shared space with Brothers Craft Brewing.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/international-cycling-company-coming-harrisonburg/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:37Z
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Man guilty of killing wife, 3 kids, pet dog in Florida
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A physical therapist from Connecticut has been convicted of killing his wife, three young children and the family’s dog two years ago in central Florida.
A 12-member jury on Thursday evening found 46-year-old Anthony Todt guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty.
Prosecutors weren’t seeking the death penalty, which means Todt will receive a mandatory life sentence.
During closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell said Todt nonchalantly detailed the killings to investigators after his January 2020 arrest at the family’s home near Walt Disney World.
He later claimed that his wife killed the children and then stabbed herself.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/man-guilty-killing-wife-3-kids-pet-dog-florida/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:43Z
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New Jersey to start recreational marijuana sales April 21
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Recreational marijuana sales in New Jersey for those 21 and older will begin April 21, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday.
“This is a historic step in our work to create a new cannabis industry,” said Murphy, who made the announcement via Twitter.
The news comes just three days after state regulators greenlighted permits for seven facilities, which already sell medical cannabis, to begin retailing recreational marijuana. It’s also about a year after the state’s regulatory commission started operating, and a year and a half after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to allow recreational marijuana for people 21 and older.
New Jersey and 17 others states, along with the District of Columbia, have legalized recreational marijuana. Thirty-seven states, including New Jersey, have legalized medical marijuana.
New Jersey’s recreational sales are slated to begin ahead of New York, where sales are not expected to start until the end of the year, state officials have said.
Neighboring Pennsylvania has medical cannabis but not recreational. Some cities, including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have passed ordinances to decriminalize marijuana or make it a low law enforcement priority. Legislation to permit recreational marijuana in Delaware was defeated last month in the Legislature.
Three of the seven New Jersey facilities, known as alternative treatment centers, are in the northern part of the state. Three are in the south, and one is in its central.
To get approval, the centers agreed that the coming influx of recreational buyers won’t interrupt access for patients. The facilities said they would reserve parking spaces for patients as well as keep hours specifically for patients only.
There are about 130,000 medical marijuana patients in the state, with an estimated roughly 800,000 potential recreational consumers, and fewer than 800,000 estimated “tourism” consumers, according to the commission.
Ben Kovler, the CEO of Green Thumb Industries, which operates dispensaries in several states, is preparing for the start of recreational sales at facilities in Paterson and Bloomfield. Kovler said he expects a “tidal wave” of demand.
“We are witnessing the end of prohibition 2.0,” he said in an emailed statement.
The alternative treatment centers that already had medical cannabis retail sales are getting a head start in the recreational market, but regulators have attached strings to their advantage. The centers have to meet social equity standards, such as providing technical knowledge to new marijuana businesses, especially social equity applicants — those located in economically struggling parts of the state or people who have had cannabis-related offenses.
“We remain committed to social equity,” Cannabis Regulatory Commission Chair Dianna Houenou said in a statement. “We promised to build this market on the pillars of social equity and safety. Ultimately, we hope to see businesses and a workforce that reflect the diversity of the state.”
How much tax revenue New Jersey gets from recreational marijuana isn’t clear. Murphy’s fiscal year 2023 budget, which is pending before the Democrat-led Legislature, estimates revenues of just $19 million in a nearly $49 billion budget. In 2019, as legalization of recreational marijuana was still just pending before voters, he had estimated about $60 million in revenue.
Legislation governing the recreational market calls for the 6.625% sales tax to apply, with 70% of the proceeds going to areas disproportionately affected by marijuana-related arrests. Black residents were likelier — up to three times as much — to face marijuana charges than white residents. Towns can also levy a tax of up to 2%.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/new-jersey-start-recreational-marijuana-sales-april-21/
| 2022-04-16T22:34:57Z
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Texas moves to ease border gridlock over ‘sense of urgency’
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The logjam of trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border finally began breaking Thursday after nearly a week as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott eased off his latest dramatic action over immigration that has gridlocked some of the world’s busiest trade ports and taken a mounting economic toll.
“There is a sense of urgency now to reach deals that did not exist before,” Abbott said.
The two-term Republican governor, who for days has allowed commercial trucks to backup for miles into Mexico after requiring them to stop for additional inspections in Texas, lifted that order for bridges in El Paso and other cities after announcing a new security agreement with the neighboring Mexican state of Chihuahua.
It remains not a full repeal of Abbott’s policy that he rushed into place April 6 as part of an ongoing fight with the Biden administration over the flow of migrants and drugs. The lengthy extra inspections elsewhere along Texas’ 1,200-mile border — including in the busy Rio Grande Valley — will continue, Abbott says, until similar agreements are reached with other Mexican states.
But the deal with Gov. María Campos Galván of Chihuahua, who joined Abbott for the announcement in the Texas Capitol, sets in motion the biggest relief yet for traffic that has snarled the Texas-Mexico border and raised warnings of higher prices for U.S. shoppers and spare grocery store shelves.
“People like me who buy millions of dollars of produce a week are starting to curb their purchases toward other regions of the country,” said Brent Erenwert, CEO of Brothers Produce in Houston, which relies heavily on imports from Mexico.
The inspections ordered by Abbott came in response to the Biden administration announcing last month it would wind down a public health law that has limited asylum-seekers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19. When that happens, the number of migrants coming to the U.S. is expected to increase.
It was the second consecutive day Abbott has lifted inspections at some bridges, starting Wednesday with Laredo, which was the busiest U.S. port of entry for trucks last year.
Traffic coming into the Texas at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, where more produce crosses than any other land port in the U.S., has also resumed after a dayslong protest by Mexican truckers came to an end.
One custom agency based in Mexico, the Association of Customs Agents of Reynosa, on Thursday put the losses at the Pharr-Reynosa bridge at $7 million a day.
The agreements between Abbott and Mexico’s governor so far have varied.
Across from Laredo, Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel García had told Abbott is state would put in place checkpoints and policing. For Chihuahua, Galvan provided a security plan she said was in the “implementation stage” and includes agreements to share intelligence captured by security cameras and other technology. It was not clear whether Campos Galvan’s security plan had already been underway.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican who has urged Abbott to walk back the inspections order, said Thursday one major agricultural company told him that 100 trucks sent to Mexico for deliveries have been unable to come back across because of the congestion.
He questioned what the holdout achieved, and in the case of Abbott’s agreement with Nuevo Leon, said it did not appear substantive.
“They’re just basically going to leave it up in good faith,” Miller said. “There’s no enforcement, no reckoning on that if they don’t.”
The White House, the Mexican government, trade groups and reeling businesses have bashed the extra inspections as redundant and a new burden on an already fragile supply chain.
Abbott’s border inspections come at a time when U.S. supply chains are already overwhelmed. A surge in demand from customers — the result of a surprisingly fast recovery from the devastating coronavirus recession of 2020 — caught businesses by surprise and led to bottlenecks at factories, ports and freight yards. It’s also pushed up prices, contributing to the highest inflation in 40 years.
COVID-related factory shutdowns in China and the rocketing cost of shipping goods across the Pacific Ocean have many companies looking to Mexico, where there’s no ocean to cross and there’s relief from the political and trade disputes between Washington and Beijing.
“A lot of companies, right now, they’re looking at Mexico as a way to bypass ocean dependency,’’ said Bindiya Vakil, CEO of the supply chain consultancy Resilnc. “If I’m one of those companies, I’m looking at this new regulation on the Texas border and I’m really concerned because this means additional delays, and that was supposed to be my solution -- to go to Mexico and avoid the ocean altogether.’’
The U.S.-Mexico border is crucial to the U.S. economy. The United States last year imported $390.7 billion worth of goods from Mexico, second only to China.
But as the inspections taper off in Texas, Abbott says he will continue putting migrants on buses and sending them to Washington, D.C., calling it a message to President Joe Biden. “If he’s not going to come to the border, we’re going to take the border to him,” Abbott said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protections Commissioner Chris Magnus said Thursday that Abbott was moving migrants without “adequately coordinating” with the federal government. The first bus arrived Wednesday, and Abbott said more are on the way.
___
Associated Press reporters Paul Wiseman in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Maria Verza in Mexico City and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/texas-keeping-most-truck-inspections-despite-border-gridlock/
| 2022-04-16T22:35:04Z
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What to expect during dreaded tick season
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - It’s heating up outside, which means bugs are making their appearances.
Ticks are known to be in areas like high grass or in the woods, but they’re also known to carry diseases, like Lyme Disease, and infections. Tick season usually begins in April, but there is some variation to that.
“Subtle differences depending on temperature, humidity, how mild the weather was, but I don’t think there’s any reason to think it’s going to be an easy tick year,” said allergist and assistant professor Jeffrey Wilson.
Wilson said ticks should come out this year at similar rates as other years.
“I don’t have any sense it’s going to be a particularly bad year, but it seems like over the past 10 years, there’s been a lot of bad tick summers and I expect that will probably hold true this year as well,” Wilson said.
To avoid exposure to ticks, you’re advised to stay in shorter grass or on hiking paths. You should also wear long clothes and tuck pant legs into your stocks. Lighter clothes tend to attract fewer ticks, and there are sprays you can use to deter them.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/14/what-expect-during-dreaded-tick-season/
| 2022-04-16T22:35:12Z
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DEA plans National Prescription Drug Take Back Day for late April
(WOWT/Gray News) - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is planning its next National Prescription Drug Take Back Day for the end of this month.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 30, the public is encouraged to bring any unused and unneeded medications to law enforcement agencies across the country. You can find the nearest collection site using a search tool on the DEA’s Take Back Day website.
“The drug overdose epidemic in the United States is a clear and present public health, public safety, and national security threat,” the website states.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose deaths reached a record high in late 2021, with over 105,000 deaths in the 12-month period ending in October of that year.
The Take Back Day is designed to guard against medication misuse and help prevent opioid addictions before they start.
Copyright 2022 WOWT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/15/dea-plans-national-prescription-drug-take-back-day-late-april/
| 2022-04-16T22:35:18Z
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Gun safety instructor under fire for using controversial slides during presentation
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) - The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is reviewing its room rental policy after a controversial class was taught at one of its facilities over the weekend.
Nephi Khaliki, a gun safety instructor, has come under fire for telling jokes based on offensive racial stereotypes while teaching the private class in a public space.
Video shows Khaliki, the owner of Vegas Conceal Carry Weapons, on stage teaching the firearm training course that included slides that read “Firearm Safety for White People” and “Firearm Safety for Black People.”
He could also be heard saying, “Always make sure there are no minorities in your backdrop. Always lick the chicken grease off your fingers before shooting.”
Khaliki responded to what some are saying about the presentation they saw over the weekend.
“You saw one segment. There’re other segments in there that equally go after every other group and they busted on me right back. It was a fun event,” Khaliki said.
Khaliki, who is Arabic and also considers himself a comedian, says there was nothing racist about the event.
“It has nothing to do with gun safety. Except taking a very mundane subject that gets easily forgotten and shocking their system and making them remember the safety rule. Always keep the weapon pointed in a safe direction. That’s the joke,” he said.
Several Republican political candidates were in attendance, including North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, and candidate for sheriff Tom Roberts, who said he condemned the graphics used during the class.
Marcus, who attended the class and didn’t want to share his last name, said Khaliki didn’t just point out or focus on one particular ethnic group or minority during the class.
Officials with the library district said they haven’t decided on whether Khaliki will be allowed to return in the future, but will take a closer look at who is using the facilities.
Copyright 2022 KSNV via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/15/gun-safety-instructor-under-fire-using-controversial-slides-during-presentation/
| 2022-04-16T22:35:25Z
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https://www.kitv.com/news/local/12-injured-in-shooting-at-south-carolina-mall-3-detained/article_e208f25c-bdce-11ec-ae61-cfea6b9f2c4a.html
| 2022-04-16T22:47:23Z
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(CNN) -- US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers inspecting luggage at Washington Dulles International Airport recently discovered an unusual find: three and a half pounds of bat meat.
The charred meat was found in the baggage of a passenger from Maryland arriving from Ghana April 5, CBP said in a news release.
Bat meat is considered "bushmeat," which can carry infectious diseases, and is therefore prohibited from entering the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In addition to bat meat, the traveler was also carrying prohibited plants in his luggage, including 12 pounds of tetraplura (a flowering plant from West Africa), turkey berries (yellow-green, pea-sized berries), and eggplants, authorities said.
The plants were seized and destroyed, and the meat was turned over to the CDC for further inspection, the CBP said. The traveler was released.
"Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists play a very challenging frontline role in protecting the public, our nation's agricultural industries, and our economic vitality every day against the deliberate or accidental introduction of potentially crippling animal diseases that may be carried in passenger baggage," Daniel Escobedo, CBP's Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, DC, said in the release.
Bushmeat has been linked to the spread of Ebola, as humans may be exposed to the virus when hunting, butchering, and eating infected animals, according to the CDC. Bats, in particular, have been suggested as one possible source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite these concerns, the bushmeat trade continues to grow due to food insecurity, among other issues.
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https://www.kitv.com/news/local/cbp-officers-discover-bat-meat-in-travelers-baggage-at-washington-dulles-airport/article_9dfcaabe-bdcd-11ec-ab1d-8b7b3ffc5f0a.html
| 2022-04-16T22:47:27Z
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Matthew Butler, who spent 27 years in the Army, holds a 2014 photograph of himself during his last deployment in Kabul Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Sandy, Utah. Butler is now one of the military veterans in several U.S. states who are helping convince conservative lawmakers to take cautious steps toward allowing the therapeutic use of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs. The therapeutic used of so-called magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs is making inroads in several U.S. states, including some with conservative leaders, as new research points to their therapeutic value and military veterans who have used them to treat post-traumatic stress disorder become advocates. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The medicinal use of hallucinogenic mushrooms is making inroads in U.S. states as military veterans advocate for the therapeutic value of psychedelic drugs, including in conservative states like Utah, Texas and Oklahoma.
At least four states have approved studying their medicinal properties in the last two years and several U.S. cities have also decriminalized so-called magic mushrooms.
Oregon is the first, and so far only, state to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the psychedelic active ingredient found in certain mushrooms.
But studying them has gotten approval not only in blue states like Hawaii, Connecticut and Maryland but also GOP-led Utah, Texas, and Oklahoma, where the state House passed a bill this year.
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https://www.kitv.com/news/local/magic-mushrooms-for-therapy-vets-help-sway-conservatives/article_bf28e94c-bdc7-11ec-bd81-b35a2c8e6b63.html
| 2022-04-16T22:47:27Z
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Amber Alert issued after hostage situation, kidnapping in Atlanta
ATLANTA (CBS46) - Atlanta Police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a male suspect involved in a hostage situation and kidnapping that occurred Saturday in northwest Atlanta.
APD says officers responded to 1633 Abner Terrace around 12:45 p.m. in reference to a kidnapping. Upon arrival, officers learned that a male suspect abducted an adult female, identified as 38-year-old Kerline Lubin, and her 11-year-old son, Pierre Lubin, against their will, forcing them to get into his black Jeep Compass with Georgia tag CSL5977. The vehicle fled the area.
The suspect, possibly identified as 37-year-old Leonard Cross, is believed to be armed and dangerous. The investigation remains active.
If any information is known on their whereabouts, please contact 911 or the Atlanta Police Homicide/Adult Missing Persons Unit at 404-546-4235. You can also submit information anonymously to the Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-577-TIPS (8477), online at www.crimestoppersatlanta.org, or by texting CSA and the tip to CRIMES (274637). Persons do not have to give their name or any identifying information to be eligible for the reward of up to $2,000.
Copyright 2022 WGCL via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/amber-alert-issued-after-hostage-situation-kidnapping-atlanta/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:18Z
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Blair’s Sweet Treats and More hosts grand opening
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) - Family-owned “Blair’s Sweet Treats and More” opened up shop in Bluefield, W.Va. Saturday. The event featured a ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias, along with an inflatable bounce house, outdoor shopping and more.
The business sells pastries, food and “more.” A full menu can be found on its website here.
Co-owner Deiandra Blair said Saturday the idea to open up shop came during the pandemic.
“We had our second daughter,” said Blair. “It was in the middle of the pandemic and we couldn’t really find a babysitter. So I just started baking cakes...My hobby turned into this rewarding career.”
Blair’s Sweet Treats and More is set to be open Tuesday through Thursday 11-4:30, and Friday through Saturday 11-7:30 at Southview Shopping Center in Bluefield, W.Va.
Along with the shop’s website, you can find out more information on its Facebook page as well.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/blairs-sweet-treats-more-hosts-grand-opening/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:24Z
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Environmental scientist conducts own research, finds rare brain tumors linked to high school
NEW YORK (WCBS) - A New Jersey man is sounding the alarm after he says he discovered that several people who all had ties to the same high school developed rare brain tumors.
Al Lupiano, an environmental scientist and former resident of Woodbridge Township, said he has confirmed 65 cases of people with rare brain tumors. And the common denominator is they were all Colonia High School graduates or had worked there.
“I started doing some research and the three became five, the five became seven, and the seven became 15,” Lupiano said.
The environmental scientist said he was diagnosed 20 years ago and still suffers lingering issues. He started researching a connection when other family members were diagnosed with the same extremely rare tumor on the left side of the brain.
“Fast forward to August of last year, my sister received the news she had a primary brain tumor herself. And unfortunately, It turned out to be stage 4 glioblastoma. Two hours later, we received information that my wife also had a brain tumor,” Lupiano said.
After his sister passed away less than a month ago, Lupiano made a Facebook post asking all Colonia HS alumni if they had brain tumors and the response was shocking.
“There’s truly only one environmental link to primary brain tumors, and that’s ionizing radiation. It’s not contaminated water, it’s not air, it’s not something in the soil, it’s not something that’s done to us due to bad habits,” Lupiano said.
The school was built in 1967 and Lupiano said he is working with local officials.
“It was virgin land. It was woods. The high school was the first thing to be there so there was probably nothing on the ground at that time. The only thing that could have happened potentially is fill brought in during the construction, but we have no records 55 years ago,” Woodbridge Mayor John McCormick said.
The mayor has reached out to the state health department and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
“We are looking at possible things we can do between the town and school and they said they will look at anything we come up with,” McCormick said.
Woodbridge Schools Superintendent Joseph Massimino said he is waiting to hear what the next steps should be from the environmental agencies.
“I’m a lifelong resident here. I raised my family here. So, the health and safety of our students are of paramount importance to me,” Massimino said.
The superintendent said he plans to send out a note to the school community to let them know where things stand regarding the unofficial research.
Copyright 2022 WCBS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/environmental-scientist-conducts-own-research-finds-rare-brain-tumors-linked-high-school/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:30Z
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FDA investigating Lucky Charms after reports of illness
(AP) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating Lucky Charms cereal after dozens of customers complained of illness after eating it.
The FDA said Saturday it has received more than 100 complaints related to Lucky Charms so far this year.
“The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,” the agency said in a statement.
Several hundred people have also posted on a food safety website complaining of nausea, diarrhea and vomiting after eating Lucky Charms.
General Mills Inc., the Minneapolis-based company that makes Lucky Charms, Cheerios and other cereals, said it’s aware of those reports and takes them seriously. But the company said its own investigation has not found any evidence of consumer illness linked to Lucky Charms.
General Mills said it encourages consumers to share their concerns directly with the company.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/fda-investigating-lucky-charms-after-reports-illness/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:37Z
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Flu outbreak postpones ‘Hamilton’ performances
Published: Apr. 16, 2022 at 5:57 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) - Performances of the smash-hit musical “Hamilton” in downtown Portland have been postponed.
KPTV reports show organizers said the performances that were scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Keller Auditorium were postponed due to a flu outbreak within the company.
Organizers said for those with tickets to hold onto them while they work to reschedule the show and further details will be sent via email as soon as they’re available.
For any questions, ticket holders were urged to contact customer service at 503-417-0673 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or send an email to broadway@portlandopera.org.
Copyright 2022 KPTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/flu-outbreak-postpones-hamilton-performances/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:43Z
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Two Virginias show out for Easter Weekend celebrations
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) - Easter Weekend kicked off to a big start in the Two Virginias Saturday. Both Tazewell and Princeton’s Easter Egg Hunts brought out big crowds for petting zoos, face painting, egg hunts and much more.
“We love to see the kids having a great time,” said Tammy Bishop. “It’s an experience for some of the kids.”
“We are so happy that we could even plan something for the community,” said Christy Wood. “That’s all we want to do, is give back to the community.”
Local leaders come together to make events like these happen. For the children though, it’s all about the atmosphere.
“We’re just going to run around until we find some [eggs,]” said Joseph Shrader.
“We do an Easter Egg hunt and we have this big cookout,” said Colton Beavers.
With the Easter Bunny present at both events as well -- there were more than enough eggs to go around.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/two-virginias-show-out-easter-weekend-celebrations/
| 2022-04-16T22:57:50Z
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CASPER — Outdoor recreation is poised to become more accessible.
A bill to modernize mapping of federal lands that was championed by Wyoming’s U.S. senators cleared Congress last week and headed to the president’s desk.
The Modernizing Access to Our Public Land, or MAPLand, Act allocates $47 million to federal land management agencies for the digitization and online publication of maps detailing how public lands can be accessed, when roads and trails are open or closed, what types of vehicles are permitted on those roads and where certain activities, such as hunting, fishing and shooting, are allowed.
It also requires federal officials to update the maps at least twice per year.
Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., both co-sponsored the bill, which was introduced in the Senate a year ago and in the House of Representatives last May.
The bill “isn’t just great for landowners and Americans who love the outdoors, it’s great for America’s economy, too,” Barrasso wrote in a Star-Tribune column following the bill’s introduction in the House. “The legislation will help boost our growing outdoor recreation industry, as well as the many businesses located near or on public lands.”
Much of Wyoming’s public land is surrounded on all sides by private land. Under current state law, it’s unclear whether the controversial practice of corner crossing — stepping from the corner of one private-landlocked parcel of public land to another — is legal or not.
However, as Barrasso’s column noted, non-digitized agency records, including agreements with landowners allowing access to public lands via private property, can be inaccessible to recreators.
Approved by the House in March with a vote of 414 to nine (Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., voted in favor), the bill cleared the Senate by unanimous consent vote last week.
The only opposing votes came from Republicans representing states east of Wyoming, including three from Texas.
“The bill will help fishermen, hunters and hikers to easily plan their adventures,” Barrasso said in a statement. “The people of Wyoming understand the importance of promoting outdoor access while ensuring private property rights are protected.”
Some of the West’s most prominent outdoors and conservation groups have watched the bill’s progress closely and celebrated its passage.
“Inadequate or faulty data can spell disaster for the public land hunter,” Land Tawney, president and CEO of Montana-based Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said in a statement. “The importance of reliable, comprehensive information on access opportunities on our public lands cannot be overstated.”
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/from_the_wire/congress-oks-outdoor-access-bill/article_2a05906b-c34a-5370-97c8-0a573326dbbb.html
| 2022-04-17T00:38:54Z
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US Coast Guard searches for man who jumped from cruise ship
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a man who jumped overboard from a cruise ship early Saturday as it approached Florida.
The man jumped from the Carnival Cruise Lines ship Mardi Gras just after midnight about 55 miles east of Port Canaveral, according to the Coast Guard and Carnival.
The Coast Guard responded with two cutters and an airplane to search for the 43-year-old man. The Mardi Gras and the cruise ship Elation also participated in the search, said Coast Guard spokesman David Micallef.
“The Carnival Care Team is supporting the guest’s family. Mardi Gras,” said Carnival spokesman Matt Lupoli. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the guest and his family.”
Lupoli said the Coast Guard released the ship from the search efforts and it continued to Port Canaveral. It will continue sailing as scheduled.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/16/us-coast-guard-searches-man-who-jumped-cruise-ship/
| 2022-04-17T00:52:15Z
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Concord Softball splits doubleheader with Fairmont State
Mountain Lions win game one, drop game two
Published: Apr. 16, 2022 at 8:18 PM EDT|Updated: 33 minutes ago
ATHENS, W.Va. (WVVA) - The Lady Mountain Lions won game one 3-1 behind a complete game from Caitlyn Bauer.
Concord lost the second game 9-2.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/17/concord-softball-splits-doubleheader-with-fairmont-state/
| 2022-04-17T00:52:21Z
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Long nails could mean fungus, bacteria dangers, studies find
Published: Apr. 16, 2022 at 8:19 PM EDT|Updated: 33 minutes ago
(CNN) - Some say the cost of beauty can be high, and in the case of long fingernails, that cost could be a health risk.
Recent studies found long nails could leave people vulnerable to fungus and bacteria that get trapped underneath.
One study even found MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause severe hospital infections.
Researchers said people could transfer the bacteria into their system by scratching themselves, picking their nose, or sucking on their fingers.
USA Today reports it talked to a nail tech specializing in super-long, Cardi B-style nails. She said she’s never had a client have an infection because they know how to take care of them and keep them clean.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/17/long-nails-could-mean-fungus-bacteria-dangers-studies-find/
| 2022-04-17T00:52:28Z
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North Korea says it tested new tactical guided weapon
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday it has successfully test-fired a newly developed tactical guided weapon, the latest in a spate of launches that came just after the country passed its biggest state anniversary without an expected military parade, which it typically uses to unveil provocative weapons systems.
The latest testing activity came amid concerns that North Korea may soon conduct a larger provocation like a nuclear explosive test in an effort to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal and increase pressure on its rivals amid stalled diplomacy.
The official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un observed the launch, which it said would bolster the effective operation of the country’s tactical nuclear forces and firepower of its long-range artillery corps.
The dispatch suggested the weapon tested is likely capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but KCNA didn’t elaborate. It also didn’t say when and where the launch occurred.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement Sunday that it had detected two projectile launches from the North’s eastern coastal town of Hamhung early Saturday evening.
It said the projectiles flew about 110 kilometers (68 miles) at an apogee of 25 kilometers (16 miles) and at a maximum speed of Mach 4. The statement said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing additional details of the launches. It said South Korean officials separately held an emergency meeting to discuss the launches.
North Korea has started this year with a slew of weapons tests, including its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017. South Korean and U.S. officials said Pyongyang could soon launch additional provocations like another ICBM test, a rocket launch to put a spy satellite into orbit or even a nuclear test explosion that would be the seventh of its kind. South Korea’s military said it has detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before it entered now-dormant nuclear talks with the United States in 2018.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch quoted Kim as presenting unspecified tasks to boost North Korea’s nuclear fighting and military capability after praising what he called successive progress in its efforts to reinforce the country’s war deterrence power.
On Friday, Kim attended a massive civilian parade in Pyongyang that marked the milestone 110th birth anniversary of his state-founding grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It appeared the country passed its biggest holiday without an expected military parade to showcase its new weapons systems.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wvva.com/2022/04/17/north-korea-says-it-tested-new-tactical-guided-weapon/
| 2022-04-17T02:42:12Z
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...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
1 of 3
To plant a tree in memory of Carl Hatcher as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
Carl Robert Hatcher 1940-2022 Carl Robert Hatcher 81, of Cheyenne, WY died peacefully on March 14, 2022. He was born on August 8, 1940 to Warren and Clarice Hatcher, he was raised on a farm and cattle ranch south of Hillsdale, WY. He was a veteran and a member of the Air National Guard where he retired as a civil servant. He was a member of the United Methodist Church in Hillsdale. He is survived by his wife, Linda; sons, Randy of Colorado Springs, CO and Rick of Littleton, CO; daughter, Rebecca of Laramie, WY; five grandchildren and one great- granddaughter; siblings, June Garver and Ed Hatcher. Dad, family and friends will truly miss you! A celebration of life will be held 11:00 a.m. in the Lakeview Chapel at Schrader, Aragon and Jacoby Funeral Home, 2222 Russell Ave., Cheyenne, Wyoming on April 22, 2022. Condolences may be offered at www.schradercares.com.
To plant a tree in memory of Carl Hatcher as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/hatcher-carl-robert/article_c09a1b9b-cdbe-5af3-8c12-876de7e95231.html
| 2022-04-17T03:15:32Z
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Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/jackson-mary-e/article_3d9ff4cf-b816-5a56-b5b6-7312f19910dd.html
| 2022-04-17T03:15:38Z
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...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
Sandra K (MacKinnon) Madden 1941-2022 Sandra Kay Madden, 80 passed away at home on April 5, 2022. She was born in Concord, MA on October 13, 1941, to Frances and Geraldine MacKinnon. Sandy married Charles Madden on May 12, 1962, in Westfield, MA. They lived in New Mexico and Indiana before settling in Cheyenne, WY. Sandy worked for WAFB Youth Center and State Farm Insurance. After retiring, she enjoyed bingo, playing cards, and spending time with her family and friends. Sandy was a care giver and was always willing to help anyone who needed her. She is survived by her children, Deborah McInerney (Bill) and Charles Jeffrey Madden (Debbie); grandchildren, Ace(Jessica), Charlie(Krisi), Scott, Shae, Ashley, Adella (Dylan), and Zac; six great grandsons; companion, Gerald Svoboda; sister, Karen Powers (Frank); brother, Neil MacKinnon (Judy), and her beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Francis and Geraldine MacKinnon; and loving husband, Charles Russell Madden. A viewing will be Monday, April 18, from 11-4 p.m. at Wiederspahn-Radomsky Chapel. Her Memorial Service will be Tuesday, April 19, at 10:00 a.m. at Wiederspahn-Radomsky Chapel with interment to follow at Beth El Cemetery.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/madden-sandra-k/article_fd64f886-2bce-5c3d-b102-d282f11cbdad.html
| 2022-04-17T03:15:44Z
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Walter Lee Modesitt 1948-2022 Walter (Lee) Modesitt, 74, Wheatland, WY, passed away Thursday, March 31, 2022 at Ascension St. Thomas Hospital, in Murfreesboro, TN, after a short illness. Lee was born on February 3, 1948, in Cheyenne, WY, the son of Robert F. and Dolores (Hatch) Modesitt. He graduated from Cheyenne East High School in 1966. Following graduation, he joined the Wyoming Air National Guard. While serving in the Guard he flew on several transport missions delivering supplies to Vietnam. Lee attended the University of Wyoming studying art education and engineering. He retired from Basin Electric/Laramie River Station, in 2005 after a fulfilling 25 year career as Procurement Coordinator. Lee and Terry (Watson) Hibbs were married in 1969. They had a daughter, Kim Lorraine in 1972, and later divorced. On July 19,1980 Lee married Lori Odendahl in Cheyenne, and soon after moved to Wheatland, where they made their home for the next 42 years until his passing. While in Wheatland, Lee continued to pursue his love of art, becoming a member of the Platte County Art Guild. He also owned and operated The Bristlecone Gallery in downtown Wheatland in the early 2000’s. He developed a passion for helping the elderly while delivering Meals On Wheels. He was elected to two terms on the Services for Seniors Board; and was presently fulfilling his second term on the Platte County Senior Citizens Service District Board. Lee was an active member of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Wheatland, where he served on the Vestry numerous times. He will be remembered for his kind cheerful manner, telling of funny stories, and his love of cars. Lee loved a good day fishing at Grayrocks, Glendo, or any other body of water. He also enjoyed the many travels and trips throughout the world he and Lori were privileged to experience. Most of all, Lee was a “people-lover” he enjoyed the company of others, young and old. Children would gather around him as he sketched or painted, (on a park bench, in a restaurant, or at a table anywhere), pretty soon they all had crayons, pencils, and paper and Lee was coaching and encouraging each one to use and expand their creativity. He is survived by his wife, Lori Modesitt, of Wheatland; daughter Kim Modesitt of Cheyenne; grandson Michael Pixley of Cheyenne, two great-grandchildren; brother Ronald (Jill) Modesitt, of Longmont, CO; sister, Mary (Cody) Evans of Wheatland; numerous nieces and nephews; sisters in law-Tere Holmes, Joann Odendahl, Peggy Burns, and brother-in-law Tony (Anita) Odendahl. He was preceded in death by his parents. Funeral services for Lee will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at All Saint’s Episcopal Church at 605 11th Street in Wheatland with The Revs. Joel Dingman and Jill Zimmerschied officiating. The service will also be live-streamed over Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89150260347?pwd=WkZRZy8zbWRTSXRxT2FJY28xUXB6Zz09 Meeting ID: 891 5026 0347; Passcode: 575762 In lieu of flowers memorials to Services for Seniors 1605 16th St, Wheatland, WY 82201 or All Saints’ Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 997, Wheatland, WY would be appreciated by the family.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/modesitt-walter-lee/article_aa1606a7-742f-56c5-b944-c34487f3e040.html
| 2022-04-17T03:15:51Z
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...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
1 of 3
To plant a tree in memory of Charles Nation as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
Charles William "Bill" Nation 1925-2022 Charles William 'Bill' Nation 96, of Cheyenne, died April 13, 2022 in Cheyenne. He was born May 28, 1925 in Lingle, Wyoming. Bill served in the Navy in World War II aboard the USS Schroeder. He was a photographer in his early life, a three-term Mayor of Cheyenne, a Wyoming State Legislator, and served on the Wyoming State Recreation Commission. He is survived by his children, Michael, Martin, Nancy and Molly, 6 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. He was preceeded in death by Ed Nation, Helen Rasmussen and Marie Hall of Cheyenne, as well as his other 9 older siblings. To send the family condolences please visit his obituary page at www.wrcfuneral.com
To plant a tree in memory of Charles Nation as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/nation-charles-william-bill/article_24e14b16-fb07-5240-83de-aa6ad02174ec.html
| 2022-04-17T03:15:57Z
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Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/price-thomas-james/article_8dc7d987-17d4-590a-853a-c632a5284204.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:03Z
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...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
1 of 2
To plant a tree in memory of Ramona Salas as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
Ramona Salas 1931-2022 Ramona Salas, 91, of Cheyenne Wyoming, passed away peacefully on Wednesday April 13, 2022. She was born on March 9, 1931 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, the daughter of the late Severo Torres and Josepha Garcia-Ortiz. Ramona arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1948, where she married her late husband, Delfino Andrew Salas and when he passed in 2017, they had celebrated 68 years of marriage. Together, they had 11 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren. Ramona and Delfino had eleven children, Ernie Salas (Alma), Louie Salas, Eddie Salas (Peggy), Francis Pacheco (Frank), Joanne Arias (Leonard), Cindy Salas-Hehr (Deceased), Andrew Salas (Carolyn), Veronica Vigil (Ray), Jackie Salas (Marcus), Caroline Salas (Rick), and Eric Salas (Ronna); her siblings, Fabiola Torres-Alcon, Perry Torrez, Benny Torres, Cecilio Torres, Lucio Torres, Julio Torres, Ernie-Marla Torres, Robert Garcia, Sally Garcia-Simental, Margaret Garcia, Tony Garcia, Ralph Garcia, George Garcia, Mary Ann Garcia-Love. Ramona loved to cook recipes handed down from generations, including the best homemade tortillas and green chili. She enjoyed camping, fishing, hunting, and watching boxing and wrestling with her family. Ramona will be dearly missed by everyone who knew and loved her. The wisdom, compassion and love that she shared will be cherished and her legacy will live on through all the lives she touched. A Vigil for the Deceased will be held at St. Mary's Cathedral on Monday, April 18th at 7:00 p.m. A Funeral Liturgy will be held on Tuesday, April 19th at 1:00 pm at of St. Mary's Cathedral with an interment service to follow at Olivet Cemetery. Condolences may be offered online at www.schradercares.com.
To plant a tree in memory of Ramona Salas as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/salas-ramona/article_f705ca65-8df6-54a7-9f98-4e3d6423ee0f.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:09Z
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Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
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https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/shook-lyle-r/article_58208c2e-f569-52de-a641-be3779273639.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:15Z
|
...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
1 of 2
To plant a tree in memory of Carol Toft as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
Carol Toft 1941-2022 Carol Toft passed away on April 14 at Davis Hospice in Cheyenne. It was three days before her 81st birthday. Decades ago as a 31-year-old mother, she faced a grave cancer prognosis and prayed to live long enough to raise her four young children. 47 years and 10 grandkids later, the cancer returned and took her body. That cancer is dead. Carol's soul lives. Some might remember her for her accomplishments and local involvement: high school valedictorian and top nursing student at the University of Nebraska, Cub Scout den mother, Eagle Scout mom, Brownie and Girl Scout leader, Cook-McCann softball coach, solver of intractable math homework for the students of Indian Hills, Cole Pool Board Member, Cheyenne Symphony bassoon player, Hobbs nurse, tolerator of and then whisperer to pet snakes and iguanas, JC Penny volunteer of the year, Smokin' Boots Dancer, and P.E.O. sister. But most who knew her remember her best as a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, sister, and friend. A genius at grandmothering, Carol loved hosting people at her home and mountain cabin and making everyone feel comfortable. (So she wasn't a five-star chef, but few of us bowl strikes for all ten frames.) She is survived by her husband, Tom (who once taught her in a class and couldn't believe such a beauty dated let alone married him) and sons Eric, David, and Mark; grandkids. Tom, Quintin, Sarah, Rachel, Luke, Iza, Michael, Joanna, Caroline and Félix; son-in-law, Matt Pope; daughters-in-law Roma, Beth, and Ariane; granddaughter-in-law, Elsa (Froelicher) Pope; grandson-in-law, Lane Brooks; and sisters Nancy Reichow and Barbara Guyer. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sweet daughter, Karen Pope, whom Carol was especially looking forward to seeing and embracing again. Vigil for the Deceased will be Thursday, 7:00 p.m., at St. Mary's Cathedral. Funeral Liturgy will be Friday, 10:30 a.m., at St. Mary's Cathedral. Friends may donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and may also visit her webpage at www.wrcfuneral.com
To plant a tree in memory of Carol Toft as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/toft-carol/article_f83f9983-4316-5942-89bc-f65e36f3d005.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:22Z
|
...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
Cheyenne Audubon presents free sage-grouse update April 19
CHEYENNE – The public is invited to a free talk Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Cottonwood Room of the Laramie County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave., “Greater Sage-Grouse - The Largest Conservation Effort in U.S. History: The Ups and Downs,” given by Daly Edmunds, Audubon Rockies policy and outreach director, and Vicki Herren, retired Bureau of Land Management national sage-grouse coordinator.
The program is sponsored by the Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Society. A Zoom link will be available at https://cheyenneaudubon.org/.
The bird’s biology and management will be discussed, including recent science that shows alarming declines and the Bureau of Land Management’s latest management efforts.
Greater Sage-Grouse are found across 11 western states in North America’s largest but often overlooked ecosystem, shrub steppe, with Wyoming containing the largest share of birds. This inconspicuous lekking species was once so prevalent that they fed many pioneers during their grueling westward journeys.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/cheyenne-audubon-presents-free-sage-grouse-update-april-19/article_0ca54554-f7b7-5534-b8b6-c6266161fd4e.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:28Z
|
...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
East Cheyenne Community Park Open House set for April 28
CHEYENNE – A second public open house for the East Cheyenne Community Park will take place Thursday, April 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Saddle Ridge Elementary School Gymnasium, 6815 Wilderness Trail.
Participants are asked to enter the building at the gymnasium entrance, approximately 100 feet west of the main entrance.
The open house is intended to get additional neighborhood input for the East Cheyenne Community Park Master Plan project. Consultants will be showing park concepts based on previous public input and surveys. At the meeting, you can learn more about the project, timeline, process moving forward, and provide your thoughts and ideas.
The park was purchased in early 2020 with voter-approved sixth-penny sales tax funding. The site is 105 acres located at the southwest corner of East Pershing Boulevard and Whitney Road. It is now open to the public as a low-maintenance natural, open space. The southern portion of the site contains a large pond with a significant population of birds and other wildlife.
A ribbon cutting ceremony for the park was held on July 1, 2021, to formally open the space to the public.
If you have any questions, contact Jeanie Vetter, Parks and Greenway Planner, at jvetter@cheyennecity.org.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/east-cheyenne-community-park-open-house-set-for-april-28/article_b3ea1132-5aae-5891-a800-ee985f0acd3d.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:34Z
|
CHEYENNE – Laramie County Community College is one of 14 community colleges nationwide to receive grant funding and participation in a joint collaboration with Microsoft and the American Association of Community College.
Microsoft and AACC’s “Cyber Skills for All” initiative is designed to increase community college workforce development capacity through collaboration aimed at skilling people for participation in the digital economy.
“Community colleges are critical to expanding the cybersecurity workforce in the United States,” said Naria Santa Lucia, Microsoft General Manager for Digital Inclusion and U.S. Community Engagement. “We’re proud to support the American Association of Community Colleges and these community colleges as they accelerate their cybersecurity programs.”
As a recipient of the funding, LCCC will build upon existing cybersecurity programming in an effort to:
- Overcome regional enrollment accessibility limitations through innovative and engaging options for remote and non-traditional students.
- Drive enrollment increases to the program through retention initiatives to remove or reduce barriers to completion and success.
- Increase cybersecurity program enrollments by 5% in year one, with 10% growth in years two and three, for a total target of 25% growth from 2022-25.
- Develop strong cybersecurity industry partnerships to drive experiential opportunities for students and graduates.
- Align educational outcomes to achieve the National Security Agency Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity recognition.
“This partnership highlights the growing need for cybersecurity training in all markets and will serve to boost LCCC’s ability to deliver inspiring education and training in the field to all of Wyoming and beyond. This grant will help us improve our remote learning capabilities and experiences for all students, through flexible course engagement and innovative practical application experiences regardless of a student's location,” said Troy Amick, program director, Information Technology Pathway at LCCC. “The grant also aims to bolster the workforce by providing scholarships for cybersecurity programs to promote the continuation of education for students in need.”
Currently, cybersecurity is in demand both as a stand-alone academic discipline and as a cross-cutting set of skills and competencies needed in every industry. “Building a robust workforce pipeline benefits both students and local businesses,” said Walter G. Bumphus, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. “We are pleased to partner with Microsoft to help build a national workforce pipeline and directly support the nation’s community colleges with industry developed curriculum and training that helps them to teach the skills needed for a career in the high demand field of cybersecurity. Community colleges are well positioned to help the technology industry train and hire a skilled and diverse workforce across the country.”
LCCC’s Information Technology Pathway currently provides opportunities for students to receive necessary training to successfully enter the IT industry, with degree options including credit diplomas and an associate degree. Students that graduate from the program are workforce ready and transfer eligible. With an IT degree from LCCC, students have the opportunity to enter careers such as Network Security Administrator, Cybersecurity Analyst and Information Security Specialist.
As the voice of the nation’s community colleges, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), delivers educational and economic opportunity for nearly 12 million diverse students in search of the American Dream. Uniquely dedicated to access and success for all students, AACC’s member colleges provide an on-ramp to degree attainment, skilled careers and family-supporting wages. Located in Washington, D.C., AACC advocates for these not-for-profit, public-serving institutions to ensure they have the resources and support they need to deliver on the mission of increasing economic mobility for all.
Microsoft is working with community colleges and nonprofits to help close the cybersecurity skills gap.
To learn more about LCCC’s IT Pathway, visit lccc.wy.edu/pathways or contact program director Troy Amick at tamick@lccc.wy.edu or 307-772-7381.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/lccc-receives-cyber-skills-for-all-grant-to-prepare-skilled-workers/article_71c2b191-3126-59ec-8afe-89f5f4c95ad5.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:40Z
|
...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 3 PM MDT SUNDAY...
* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.
* WHERE...East Platte County and Central Laramie County.
* WHEN...From late Saturday night through Sunday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Mainly to transportation. Strong cross winds will be
hazardous to light weight and high profile vehicles, including
campers and tractor trailers.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected
or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts
of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.
&&
Rotary Club's annual Crow Creek Spring Clean-Up set April 30
CHEYENNE – Spring is in the air, birds are chirping and there is plenty of cleaning up to do to keep Crow Creek flowing strong this summer. The Rotary Club of Cheyenne has scheduled April 30 for the annual Crow Creek clean-up and is asking the community to join in this effort to protect our most precious local, natural resource.
Starting at 8 a.m., meeting at First Street between Morrie Avenue and Russell Avenue. Volunteers are strongly encouraged to wear sturdy boots or shoes, waterproof waders or long pants, gloves, long sleeves, and other attire appropriate for cleaning in and around Crow Creek, as well as for the day’s weather, since the spring weather in Cheyenne can be quite unpredictable.
Rotary Club of Cheyenne will be providing trash bags and will coordinate picking up all bags collected.
The environment is one of seven areas of focus of Rotary International – a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders and problem solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves. The Rotary Club of Cheyenne has committed to support this effort by joining the efforts of our local city of Cheyenne government, local businesses and Crow Creek Revival Committee to protect and revitalize Crow Creek and its tributaries.
Contact Brent Lathrop at bdlathrop@charter.net or 307-286-7661 if you're interested in participating as an individual, a business or would like to set up a team to tackle a segment of Crow Creek.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/rotary-clubs-annual-crow-creek-spring-clean-up-set-april-30/article_ce47eb93-d526-5fcd-b200-5de58bb4e2a4.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:46Z
|
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/workers-memorial-day-remembrance-set-april-28-at-capitol/article_6b9d5df7-6b55-5ba2-b37c-d4c30daa0cb2.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:53Z
|
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – A judge ruled Friday that a man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket last year is still mentally incompetent to stand trial, further delaying court proceedings in the case.
But the judge also said that assessment could change soon.
Experts at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo have said there is a substantial probability that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, can be restored to competency within the “reasonable future” and remain competent by taking medications, Judge Ingrid Bakke said during a brief hearing. It is a prognosis she first mentioned in a March 11 scheduling order.
The prosecution of Alyssa has been on hold since December, when Bakke first ruled that he was mentally incompetent – unable to understand legal proceedings and work with his lawyers to defend himself.
Alissa is being treated at the state mental hospital and was not in court for Friday’s hearing. The judge set a July 21 hearing to again evaluate Alissa’s competency to stand trial.
Bakke’s ruling came nearly a month after Boulder, the home of the University of Colorado, marked the first anniversary of the attack that killed workers, customers and a police officer who rushed inside the store.
Few details have been released about Alissa’s condition. Reports on his evaluations are not available to the public, but a court filing discussing one of the evaluations last year said he had been provisionally diagnosed with an unspecified mental health condition that limits his ability to “meaningfully converse with others.”
Competency is a different legal issue than a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which involves whether someone’s mental health prevented them from understanding right from wrong at the time a crime was committed.
After the hearing, District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the average time to restore someone to competency is six months. He declined to speculate on when Alissa, who as been at the state hospital for four months, may be considered competent.
Robert Olds, the uncle of one of the 10 people killed, front-end manager Rikki Olds, said Alissa has more rights than the victims. He remains fairly hopeful Alissa will go on trial but does not want to anticipate what will happen next because the legal process has been moving slowly.
“Eventually it will happen, I hope,” he said of a trial. “There is always that outside chance it won’t happen.”
Investigators have not released any information about why they believe Alissa launched the attack or why he may have targeted the supermarket. He lived in the nearby suburb of Arvada, where authorities say he passed a background check to legally buy the Ruger AR-556 pistol he allegedly used six days before the shooting.
The March 22, 2021, attack at a King Soopers grocery shocked a state that has seen its share of mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting.
Boulder police Officer Eric Talley, a 51-year-old father of seven, was shot and killed while rushing into the store with an initial team of police officers. In addition to Rikki Olds, Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Suzanne Fountain, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray and Jody Waters were killed inside and outside the supermarket.
The remodeled King Soopers reopened in February, with about half of those who worked there at the time of the shooting choosing to return.
|
https://www.wyomingnews.com/townnews/law/judge-colorado-shooting-suspect-incompetent-to-stand-trial/article_66253723-2281-54f1-8f48-c4834e7f2776.html
| 2022-04-17T03:16:59Z
|
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