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June 16th, 2017

Max Pixel freely distributed with a Creative Commons Zero - CC0.

Listen to the full show here.

Sexual Assault Cases Rarely Reported, Difficult To Prosecute

When it comes to sexual assault in the U.S., the majority of victims will not make a report, and Wyoming is not much different than the rest of the country. As Wyoming Public Radio's Maggie Mullen reports, investigating and prosecuting alleged sexual assaults is complicated. 

After Budget Cuts State Reshapes Suicide Prevention

In order to manage a $2 million funding cut, the Wyoming Department of Health is scaling back its suicide prevention efforts in counties around the state. Scaling back may be an understatement since all of the suicide prevention specialists will lose their jobs on July 1st. Wyoming Public Radio’s Alanna Elder says community prevention officials are concerned about the future.   

High Waters Break Records, But Somehow Fremont County Suffers Less Damage

For years now, Fremont County in central Wyoming has been swamped with high waters that have damaged homes and highways every summer. In 2011, the National Guard was even called in to help. But this year was different, even though rivers rose higher than ever before. Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards sat down with Fremont County Emergency Management Coordinator Kathi Metzler and Information Officer Tammy Shrower to find out what everybody did right this time.

Hunting A Sticking Point In Grizzly Delisting Plans

Grizzly bears may be taken off the Endangered Species list soon. And, hunts are part of Wyoming’s bear management plans. Those planned hunts are drawing fire from tribes, the Sierra Club, and comments from Yellowstone National Park. Penny Preston reports.

Wyoming Politicians Consider Infrastructure Plan

You may have missed it but President Donald Trump dubbed last week Infrastructure Week. So we had our congressional correspondent Matt Laslo check in with our lawmakers in Washington to see how the effort is going to pass Trump’s hoped for one trillion dollar infrastructure bill. Here’s his report.

Arapahoe School Takes Futuristic Leap

On the Wind River Reservation, students are learning how to use futuristic tools to stretch the bounds of what's possible in the classroom. Rebecca Huntington has more.

Resurgence Of Parents' Voice In Education

What do parents think about Wyoming’s K thru 12 education system? At a time when the state is adopting new guidelines laid out by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, and policymakers are considering major funding shortfalls, Sheila McGuire, president of the Wyoming Parent Teacher Association, spoke with Wyoming Public Radio’s Tennessee Watson, about why the parent voice is so critical. 

New Strategies Seek To Limit Invasive Species

Wyoming is considering new ways to manage its invasive species.  Weeds like cheat grass and toadflax can replace valuable forage area and sage brush, hurting species that rely on them… in fact, non-native species are considered the second greatest threat to biodiversity. Though Wyoming does invest heavily in controlling it, experts find it isn’t enough. Wyoming Public Radio’s Cooper McKim reports both state and federal agencies are working to find more effective strategies. 

Book Focuses On Those Who Live And Work In Yellowstone National Park

A new book focused on the people who live and work in Yellowstone is out. Called People of Yellowstone by Steve Horan and Ruth W. Crocker, it features wonderful photography by Horan with prose by Crocker. Horan photographed 120 people who work in and around the park. It features 87 photographs and stories of people who have a number of jobs and roles. Horan says the idea was pitched to him by his brother and it took several years to complete.

Bob Beck retired from Wyoming Public Media after serving as News Director of Wyoming Public Radio for 34 years. During his time as News Director WPR has won over 100 national, regional and state news awards.
Before Wyoming, Cooper McKim has reported for NPR stations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. He's reported breaking news segments and features for several national NPR news programs. Cooper is the host of the limited podcast series Carbon Valley. Cooper studied Environmental Policy and Music. He's an avid jazz piano player, backpacker, and podcast listener.
Maggie Mullen is Wyoming Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau. Her work has aired on NPR, Marketplace, Science Friday, and Here and Now. She was awarded a 2019 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her story on the Black 14.
Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo is a reporter who has been covering campaigns and every aspect of federal policy since 2006. While he has filed stories for NPR and more than 40 of its affiliates, he has also written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Campaigns and Elections Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Guardian, The Omaha World-Herald, VICE News and Washingtonian Magazine.
Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
When Penny Preston came to Cody, Wyoming, in 1998, she was already an award winning broadcast journalist, with big market experience. She had anchored in Dallas, Denver, Nashville, Tulsa, and Fayetteville. She’s been a news director in Dallas and Cody, and a bureau chief in Fayetteville, AR. She’s won statewide awards for her television and radio stories in Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. Her stories also air on CBS, NBC, NBC Today Show, and CNN network news.
A multi-media journalist, Rebecca Huntington is a regular contributor to Wyoming Public Radio. She has reported on a variety of topics ranging from the National Parks, wildlife, environment, health care, education and business. She recently co-wrote the one-hour, high-definition documentary, The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads, which premiered in 2012. She also works at another hub for community interactions, the Teton County Library where she is a Communications and Digital Media Specialist. She reported for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming for more than a decade before becoming a multi-media journalist. She completed a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in 2002. She has written and produced video news stories for the PBS series This American Land (thisamericanland.org) and for Assignment Earth, broadcast on Yahoo! News and NBC affiliates. In 2009, she traveled to Guatemala to produce a series of videos on sustainable agriculture, tourism and forestry and to Peru to report on the impacts of extractive industries on local communities.
Tennessee -- despite what the name might make you think -- was born and raised in the Northeast. She most recently called Vermont home. For the last 15 years she's been making radio -- as a youth radio educator, documentary producer, and now reporter. Her work has aired on Reveal, The Heart, LatinoUSA, Across Women's Lives from PRI, and American RadioWorks. One of her ongoing creative projects is co-producing Wage/Working (a jukebox-based oral history project about workers and income inequality). When she's not reporting, Tennessee likes to go on exploratory running adventures with her mutt Murray.