Economy

As the nation opened up this summer, people hit the road, with many visiting national parks. The surge of travelers is reflected in the visitation numbers at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.

The U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs report came out Tuesday, showing an overall decline in energy jobs around the nation.

This week the University of Wyoming (UW) announced some big plans. After already reducing $42 million, the university had to cut another $13 million. Those cuts will involve the loss of roughly 75 jobs. Along with that, UW announced it's consolidating a number of departments, and shifting science and math programs from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture.

The headline this week is that American CryptoFed was the first legally recognized Decentralized Autonomous Organization in Wyoming and the nation. Earlier this year the Wyoming Legislature passed a law which offers legal protections to DAO’s with the hopes that it would trigger blockchain businesses in the state. Marion Orr is the CEO of American CryptoFed which is part of the digital currency effort. She joins us to explain all this and what they are hoping to accomplish.

In a new report from the Wyoming Division of Economic Analysis, Niobrara County's sales and use tax dropped a little over 50 percent in the first three months of 2021 compared to 2020. But the decline is slightly misleading.

Americans’ fossil fuel consumption dropped 9% last year to its lowest point in three decades. It was also the nation’s largest recorded decrease in fossil fuel use.

Wyoming's Economic Analysis Division says the first quarter of 2021 included major losses in jobs and revenue from the previous year. Places like Niobrara, Converse and Campbell counties experienced huge drops in sales and use taxes.

The University of Wyoming is embarking on five projects designed to improve the state. It's part of what is being referred to as the Grand Challenges initiative. The idea is for the projects to provide either solutions for a problem facing Wyoming or find a way to improve the state.

The University of Wyoming is moving forward with a plan to deal with a range of issues from rural health care access to developing live stream access to remote wildlife viewing. It will explore that avenue through the school's Grand Challenges initiative.

University of Wyoming Professor Tara Righetti will head to France this summer to study how the European state transitioned its economy and culture away…