Rebecca Martinez

The University of Wyoming has announced that it will freeze hiring to comply with Governor Matt Mead’s prescribed 8-percent budget cuts for all state agencies. This is meant as a measure to deal with a projected natural gas revenue shortfall.

In a memo, UW President Tom Buchanan wrote the university’s general fund appropriation could drop by almost 16-million dollars next fiscal year.

Provost Myron Allen says that, to preemptively soften the blow, U-W will begin cutting spending and freezing open academic and staff positions next month.

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After a peaceful quarter century, bears in Yellowstone National park killed two visitors last summer. Now, park officials are adamantly warning visitors to forget the sense of security they feel at zoos and amusement parks because Yellowstone is a wild place. Wyoming Public Radio’s Rebecca Martinez reports.

Many are optimistic that Wyoming’s Uranium Industry will grow

A recent rash of fires in the region have encouraged the U.S. Forest Service to implement fire restrictions throughout the Medicine Bow National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland.

Limited snow pack and dry weather make for prime fire conditions, so the Forest Service is cracking down on building fires, using explosives, smoking, welding or using external combustion engines except in designated areas away from dry plants.

HOST: When the Cold War caused a uranium boom in the 1950s, soil and water in the state suffered contamination. Reclamation has improved the landscape, and regulation is catching up with the industry  but it’s not perfect yet. Wyoming Public Radio’s Rebecca Martinez reports.

REBECCA MARTINEZ: Ore from Wyoming’s rich uranium deposits was refined and concentrated into yellowcake at mills in the state before being sent to processing and enrichment facilities elsewhere. The mills produced large amounts of sandy waste called tailings, which still contained uranium.

The University of Wyoming and Colorado State University want to sell jointly-owned ranch land in southeastern Wyoming to supplement agricultural endowments.

In 1997, the Courtenay C. and Lucy Patten Davis Foundation donated the 50-thousand-acre Y-Cross Ranch to the universities for hands-on agricultural education.

UW Foundation President Ben Blalock says the ranch has become more valuable over time, although the property is still being appraised.

Authorities are looking for an inmate who escaped from the Wyoming Boot Camp for youth offenders at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle this morning.

Twenty-four-year-old James Friesen was six months into a nine-month sentence in boot camp for forgery. While his peers were cleaning up after a welding class, authorities say Friesen climbed over a fence topped with razor ribbon and headed south.

Firefighters have partially contained a wildfire in Guernsey State Park that threatened the towns of Guernsey and Hartville this weekend.

Deputy Incident Commander Jay Esprance of Rocky Mountain Area Incident Management Team C says more than 350 firefighters are working to contain the blaze. Five helicopters, including three National Guard Black Hawks, are carrying water from Glendo Lake.

Esprance says the fire consumed 2,500 acres, and is about 30-percent contained. He says heavy wind made that a challenging feat, but winds have died down.

Rangers in Grand Teton National Park have conducted their first short-haul helicopter rescue of the season.

A Las Vegas woman was injured after slipping on snow while climbing Albright Peak. The woman was wearing sneakers, and was unable to use her ice axe to stop herself from sliding. Rescuers were able to reach her about an hour after she called.

Park spokesperson Jackie Skaggs says the rangers conduct about 65 rescues per year, about 30 of them being major rescues like this one. But Skaggs stresses that the park cannot guarantee sending out rescue teams for every call.

This month, Fremont County changed the way it runs several municipal solid waste transfer stations in rural areas.

Previously, residents could drop off their waste any time, day or night, and they paid their fees on the honor system. But Fremont County Solid Waste Disposal District Superintendent Andy Frey says not everyone followed the rules.

“Historically we’ve had a lot of illegal dumping, lack of payment, vandalism, destruction of property.”

A Wyoming organizationis unhappy that U.S. Senate killed the Paycheck Fairness Act.  Wyoming’s two Republican Senators helped block the bill which would have given women new tools to combat pay discrimination in the workforce.

Wyoming’s delegation opposes increasing the debt limit

Wyoming plans to install water cisterns at the homes of residents in the Pavillion area’s natural gas field. An EPA draft report suggests contaminants in area wells are connected to hydraulic fracturing, but state officials say the cause of the contamination is unknown.
 

A researcher at the University of Wyoming predicts that the state has a bright future in the sheep industry.

Assistant Professor Brenda Alexander says demand for lamb and wool declined for decades as tastes in the U.S. changed, and sheep numbers dropped with them. But growing ethnic populations and newfound popularity of wool blends have caused an up-tick in the U.S. sheep industry.

“Wyoming is really geared to be a part of that, because in Wyoming we don’t have a lot of producers, but our producers have the most number of sheep than any other place in the nation.”

Governor Matt Mead has written to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking for his help to expedite the de-listing of grizzly bears as an endangered species.

Mead writes that the grizzly populations has recovered in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and have cause property damage and the deaths of four people in the area in the past couple of years.

Mead says the unchecked grizzlies are also costly in a monetary sense.

Wyoming’s demand for emergency medical services has grown drastically over the recent decades, and the state health department doesn’t expect it to stop.

The Wyoming Department of Health says that state EMS personnel have seen a 28-percent increase in emergency calls over the last six years.

Although some states are sending 15 contestants or more, 12-year-old Lia Eggleston of Laramie will be the only student to represent Wyoming in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week.

Most states host many qualifying regional bees, but Wyoming almost lost the only one it has, when AARP could no longer host it two years ago.

Samin Dadelahi of the Wyoming Community Foundation says her group decided to sponsor the state spelling bee last year to avoid Wyoming losing representation altogether.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means National Parks and forests in the state are gearing up for a flood of tourists. But in northwest Wyoming, the Game and Fish Department is urging visitors to be Bear aware while enjoying the outdoors.

Jackson Game and Fish Spokesman Mark Gocke says people should hike in groups, when possible, and make a lot of noise to alert wildlife of their presence. Gocke says some bears seem to ignore visitors, but Gocke warns visitors never to approach a bear, no matter how harmless it seems.

Although controversial, many veterinarians agree that a slaughterhouse could be a humane, efficient way to end the lives of old and unwanted horses.

University of Wyoming Veterinarian Doran  O’Toole says it’s a “sensitive” subject for horse owners, who view the animals as part-pet, part-livestock, and might have difficulty shooting an ailing horse.  He says having a vet administer barbiturates can be costly, and the owner is responsible to bury or incinerate the horse to prevent the carcass from spreading toxins to scavengers.

A federal judge will allow Eastern Shoshone Tribe to challenge the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s plan to sue for the right to kill bald eagles on the reservation they share.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit to the Northern Arapaho Tribe allowing them to kill two bald eagles annually for religious purposes, as long as they do so outside the reservation they share with the Shoshone. Because Wyoming state law prohibits the killing of eagles on state land, the Northern Arapaho are suing Fish and Wildlife for the right to kill the eagles on the reservation.

Concerns about possible water shortages have lead the Riverton City Council to adopt a drought plan and implement mild restrictions. Under the plan’s level green, there are no restrictions. The current yellow level asks residents to conserve water voluntarily. Voluntary water conservation measures include fixing leaks and avoiding watering lawns during the hottest parts of the day.

The Bureau of Land Management will auction off wild horses at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton Saturday morning. Wild horses have no natural predators in Wyoming, so the BLM captures the horses and hosts adoptions to control the population and prevent forage scarcity. BLM Wild Horse Specialist Steve Fluer says buyers adopt wild horses for pleasure, novelty, ranch work, and a variety of other reasons. "They’re very agile. They’re very sure footed. They come in a variety of colors. Kinda the mystique to the American public… they’re sort of a legend in the sense.

Wyoming strives to curb ozone levels to meet federal mandate

Casper has begun banning grass clippings and other yard waste from the trash that goes into their landfill. Officials expect it to save the city tens of thousands of dollars, but people who are into living green are pretty excited, too. Wyoming Public Radio’s Rebecca Martinez reports.

(sound of mulch mower cutting grass)

The Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody will host a “First Look” at the museum’s reinstallation. The Buffalo Bill Museum recently wrapped up a two-year campaign, during which it raised 2-point-7-5 million dollars to cover renovations and update technology.

Executive Director Bruce Eldredge says the museum will offer updated website components, videos and smart phone apps that share additional information about objects in exhibit.

It’s American Craft Beer Week, and Wyoming microbrewers are unveiling their collaborative effort on tap.
This spring, the state’s 13 microbreweries gathered at Wind River Brewing Company in Pinedale to make the country’s first 100-percent participation collaboration brew.

Steve Simpson is the head brewmaster at Snowy Mountain Brewery, and came up with the idea for the project.

Election year politics are derailing efforts to improve Wyoming’s economy.
President Obama is chiding Congress for not acting on his slimmed down plan to spur economic growth in Wyoming and elsewhere. Matt Laslo reports from Washington that election year politicking is expected to derail this latest effort to get the economy moving.

Wyoming Highway 130 between Saratoga and Centennial could open two weeks early this year because of mind winter weather.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is working to remove remaining ice and snow. Tim McGary is WYDOT’s district maintenance engineer for Southeast Wyoming.

“We’ve had significantly less snow up there – in a lot of places less than 50 percent of the normal snowpack – so we have had to use a lot less equipment and we started earlier because a lot of the road was already bare.”

Authorities are investigating a factory pork farm in Wheatland after the Humane Society filed a complaint about harsh treatment of pigs there.

The Humane Society sent an undercover investigator to work at Wyoming Premium Farmsfor an unknown period of time, where she filmed workers kicking piglets and punching sows. The group sent complaints and videos to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office and the Wyoming Livestock Board.
The sheriff was unavailable for comment, but Jim Siler of the Livestock Board says they’ve begun investigating conditions at the farm.