politics

Last week, a bill was introduced in Congress that would require Native American tribes to be included in the management of grizzly bears. The legislation, called the Tribal Heritage and Grizzly Bear Protection Act, would permanently place grizzly bears under federal protection much like the bald eagle. 

A much more concerted effort is underway to abolish the death penalty in Wyoming. The League of Women Voters, religious groups, the Wyoming ACLU and Wyoming's chapter of the NAACP have organized a campaign after an effort to abolish capital punishment failed in the State Senate this year after passing the House. Sabrina King of Wyoming's ACLU is leading the nine month campaign to gain support for the effort and she discusses the effort with Wyoming Public Radio's Bob Beck.

A new United Nation's report compiled from scientific data across the globe predicts that if unchecked, manmade climate change could cost around one million species their very existences. That caught the attention of Democrats and Republicans, but that doesn't mean Wyoming lawmakers are changing their tunes.

Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi announced he will not seek re-election in 2020, opening up one of Wyoming’s three congressional seats. In a piece out in the Casper Star Tribune, politics reporter Nick Reynolds takes a deep dive into the news and what it could mean for Wyoming. He joiend Wyoming Public Radio's Caroline Ballard to talk about Enzi's seat.

This week President Trump met with House Democratic leaders behind closed doors and he told them he wants to work with them to pump $2 trillion into the nation's ailing infrastructure. But Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi is worried about the $22 trillion debt.

In 2016, the Obama administration halted new leasing of coal on federal lands with a goal to reexamine the environmental impacts of the program. Just a year later, the Trump administration lifted that moratorium. In a report, Interior Department secretary Ryan Zinke wrote, "given the critical importance of the Federal coal leasing program to energy security, job creation, and proper conservation stewardship, this Order directs efforts to enhance and improve the Federal coal leasing program." 

President Trump is now backing a lawsuit that would invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, and that's promising to make health care a major election issue next year. Wyoming Republicans are fine with that, even though they have failed to repeal and replace when they controlled both chambers of Congress.

Wyoming now has two lawmakers in Washington who are also Republican Party leaders and they're promising to make the progressive Green New Deal on climate change a major part of the debate going forward, even as Democratic Party leaders are trying to change the subject. 

Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney turned some heads in Washington last week when she opposed a resolution denouncing all forms of hate. She was one of a mere 23 who voted against the measure.

It's Sunshine Week, where media outfits are discussing public access to meetings and documents. Wyoming has never been a leader in this area, but a new law could change things. Lawmakers passed an Open Records law this year that requires entities to meet records requests in 30 days. 

March 10-16, 2019 was Sunshine Week. The annual event recognizes the importance of access to public information, and the journalists who defend a culture of transparency. Wyoming Public Radio News Director Bob Beck sat down with reporter Tennessee Watson to talk about what's behind the struggle to get elected officials in Albany County to talk about a recent officer-involved shooting. 

Early one November morning last year, Devils Tower Senator Ogden Driskill got a call from Afton Senator Dan Dockstader.

"He'd discovered that Rocky Mountain Power was accelerating closure of a number of their coal-fired units down around Kemmerer in his district," Driskill said.

House Democrats are pushing an effort to overhaul the nation's election and ethics laws. But Wyoming Republicans say the effort is a smokescreen to help keep Democrats in power.