Will this be the year Wyoming stops sticking it to the poor?
(Opinion) — Many incumbent legislators campaign for re-election on what they’ve supposedly done “for the people.” Voters should focus more on what they’ve done “to the people.” Especially poor people....
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Wyoming mulls tribes’ call for grizzly transplants
Wyoming might consider Native American tribes’ request that grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem be transplanted to reservations rather than hunted, a top official said last week. Even though it...
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Stockmen, anti-grazing groups still clash on data trespass laws
Sheep and cattlemen won a legal volley in Wyoming this month with the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by free speech, environmental, anti-grazing and animal rights activists aiming to strike down the...
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Pete Simpson Forum | Medicaid expansion’s hidden cruelty
Note from Pete Simpson: Medicaid expansion remains one of the most politically-charged issues in Wyoming in recent years. While opposing sides seem so far apart you could drop Wyoming through the gap,...
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Pete Simpson Forum | Medicaid expansion still good deal for Wyoming in hard...
Note from Pete Simpson: Medicaid expansion remains one of the most politically-charged issues in Wyoming in recent years. While opposing sides seem so far apart you could drop Wyoming through the gap,...
View ArticleHillary Clinton has much to overcome with Wyoming voters
(Opinion) — Donald Trump could probably be caught red-handed selling our nuclear codes to Russia or hiring a hit man to get rid of his enemies and he would still win the presidential race in Wyoming...
View ArticleGOP platform puts spotlight on Wyoming Sen. Barrasso
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) had a major national role this summer in chairing the committee that wrote the 2016 Republican Party platform. The platform puts Barrasso’s efforts in the spotlight for...
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Last chance at life
This story is part of a six-topic series addressing issues of importance to Wyoming sponsored by the Wyoming Humanities Council as part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative, a joint...
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Wyo U.S. House candidates make promises on coal
U.S. House of Representatives candidates Leland Christensen (left) and Tim Stubson attended a pro-coal rally earlier this summer. Both also took part in debates this week. Christensen is a Republican...
View ArticleLawmakers eye nuke plant, waste
Wyoming lawmakers may consider working with the U.S. Department of Energy in a new “consent-based” effort to establish sites for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste. Storing nuclear waste was the...
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Lawmakers warm to nuke waste storage
CASPER — Wyoming lawmakers and regulatory officials said Thursday they’re ready to consider revising laws and possibly take part in a federal effort to build temporary and permanent storage for highly...
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Wyoming reconsiders investment strategies
When you don’t have much new income, it’s great if you can pay your monthly bills using money coming in from smart investment of your savings.Not a lot of people have that. But public budgets in...
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Medicaid expansion would protect state infrastructure — workers
Being one of those who routinely “zooms out” when viewing Google Maps, I am inclined to address Medicaid expansion in Wyoming from a big-picture, overarching, perspective. The issues I believe we need...
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Stop politicking about Wyoming’s health-insurance crisis
Wyoming is in a health-insurance crisis, in my view. Whose fault is it? There is plenty of blame to go around. So there is no sense in pointing fingers and arguing about who has caused this crisis....
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Employers have to be the change-agents in health care
Health-care costs and health-care insurance are on people’s minds in Wyoming. In late July, this forum hosted two writers on the pros and cons of Medicaid expansion. Their essays prompted more people...
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Now the Legislature must examine tax landscape
Wyoming is facing fiscal challenges today that are totally foreign to what it has witnessed for at least the last 12 years and perhaps even longer. We have enjoyed, for a decade or more, a generally...
View ArticleLegislature’s time to take gender wage gap seriously
I was wondering if the time would ever come when people in the Equality State would finally get angry about the fact that women here make less than 70 cents for every dollar a man does.Judging by the...
View ArticleChecking in on tax issues
If you want to learn more about the tax issues up for discussion this fall in Wyoming, here are some places to start:The “Tax 2000” report that an official committee of Wyoming legislators and citizens...
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Sales tax exemptions gnaw a hole in revenues
Last week in the Forum we dove into tax issues. That’s because all of us have to these days, like it or not. Wyoming is in the midst of a budget crunch, and that means we have to examine not only...
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Water war continues despite court “settlement”
When environmentalists and Wyoming ranchers agreed on Aug. 11 to end their two-year legal fight over whether a field worker trespassed when measuring water pollution on public grazing allotments, both...
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