Wyoming Public Radio & Media

11/15/2025

Almost 20% of the state was without power Thursday, but the cause still remains unclear.

Around 100,000 residents and businesses were impacted in central and northeastern Wyoming, as well as western South Dakota. The power outages started around 12:45 p.m. and most were resolved late Thursday evening.

The cause is still under investigation by multiple organizations.

The Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) is a federal agency that maintains a 15-state, high-voltage transmission network serving electricity utilities across the region, including in Wyoming.

“This outage was initiated outside of WAPA’s transmission system in central Wyoming, with the incident resulting in an abnormal voltage event that tripped multiple surrounding lines. This included some of WAPA’s transmission lines, which resulted in further power outages to utility communities across the region,” WAPA said in an emailed release.

Previously, WAPA shared an emailed statement Thursday evening saying, “We believe the outage, which began around 12:45 p.m. MST, was triggered by two tripped 500-kilovolt lines near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. This incident resulted in an abnormal voltage event that subsequently tripped a number of surrounding lines, including WAPA transmission, resulting in further power outages to communities across the area.”

Another major transmission line owner in the area is PacifiCorp, which is the parent company of Wyoming’s main utility Rocky Mountain Power (RMP). RMP did not respond to Wyoming Public Radio by press time.

Photo credit: Power Outage

Almost 20% of the state was without power Thursday. The cause is still being investigated.

11/14/2025

Part of the legislative package to end the federal government shutdown contains language that allows U.S. senators like Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) to sue the government if federal law enforcement seizes or subpoenas their data without telling them.

That’s after Lummis and other lawmakers had their phone records from the week of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 subpoenaed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to a document released by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The subpoenas were part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Pres. Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In 2023, the FBI pulled phone records and data related to “Election Law Matters” from nine elected officials, including Lummis, between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

https://ow.ly/EVrS50XrRYY

Wyoming U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis was among nine lawmakers whose phone records were investigated by the FBI over “Election Law Matters” after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

11/14/2025

Wyoming Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could start hitting accounts as soon as Friday, Nov. 14, according to a Thursday late afternoon Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) press release.

SNAP benefits typically would’ve gone out at the start of the month, but were stopped because of the federal government shutdown. Now that the government is beginning to reopen, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed the program will be resumed.

Wyoming recipients will receive their full November amount. While it should hit EBT cards Friday, DFS recommends checking the account beforehand by calling 1-877-290-9401 or visiting the ebtEdge website.

Photo credit: Wyoming Hunger Initiative

Wyoming SNAP benefits could start hitting accounts as soon as Friday. Meanwhile, LIEAP has yet to be refunded by federal lawmakers.

11/13/2025

Tens of thousands of Wyomingites lost power Thursday due to widespread outages that crossed state lines into South Dakota, according to a map from Power Outage.

Some 55,000 Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) customers in the central and northeast parts of the state lost their power, according to the company’s outage map.

“We’re aware of a power outage affecting approximately 40,744 customers in Casper, WY and surrounding areas,” the company posted to Facebook around 2:30 p.m. “The cause is under investigation. Crews are working to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. For updates, please text OUT to 759677 or visit .rockymountainpower.net/outage.”

Wyoming Public Radio has a request for information out to RMP and will update this story when the company responds.

Meanwhile, Black Hills Energy posted around 1:40 p.m.: “We are responding to a large-scale regional electrical outage in South Dakota and Wyoming caused by a transmission facility located outside of our system. We have activated our response plan, and our personnel are well-trained to respond to events of this type. Safety is and will continue to be the company’s top priority. We will provide more information as soon as it is available.”

Two main utilities in the state’s central and northeast corner said they’re aware of the outage. Black Hills Energy said it was caused by a transmission facility located outside of their system.

11/13/2025

The Modern West - The American Spirit

We journey into the Red Desert of southwest Wyoming to visit a trona mine worker building his dream cabin off grid for the two small children he’s raising alone.
themodernwest.org/

11/13/2025

Wyoming and most of the United States was fortunate enough to see the Northern Lights Tuesday and Wednesday night. 🌎✨

Did you capture the moment?

Share your photo in the comments below!

Photographer: Mike Gray - Woods Landing

11/13/2025

Listen to HumaNature Episode 51!
The roof 🗻of the world—a nickname given to the Himalayas —and the place where Wang Ping brought thousands of Tibetan prayer flags. The flags represented the wishes of all different kinds of people, hoping for a better world and environment.
🎧 humanaturepodcast.org/2019 from our Archives!

11/13/2025

Airports across Wyoming and the country have started donation drives to support federal workers who aren’t being paid during the ongoing federal government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.

Shelly Besel, an office manager for the Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport near Gillette, helped get the word out about donations of food and household supplies to support the airport's 12 Transportation Security Agency (TSA) employees and two travelling agents, who’ve been working without pay for 43 days.

The shutdown has been hard on those workers, according to Besel, with at least one agent having to get a second job to support his family.

“It affects air travel,” said Besel. “It affects these people, it affects their lives. It's a stressful situation for them. They're definitely starting to feel the crunch and the financial burden.”

Regional and international airports near Casper, Rock Springs and Laramie are putting out similar calls for help.

Photo credit: Mr. Satterly

Airports near Casper, Rock Springs and Laramie are putting out calls for help as the federal government shutdown reaches day 43.

11/13/2025

Beer Magnate Gussie Busch #544: Jacqueline Thompson Papers

August Anheuser Busch, Jr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1899. Heir to the Anheuser Busch brewing family, Gussie, as he was known, didn’t finish high school. He learned the beer brewing business from his father and grandfather. Gussie was both a consummate salesman and a showman. It was his idea to use a team of Clydesdale horses pulling a beer wagon for marketing Budweiser beer, Anheuser-Busch’s flagship product.
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https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/archives-on-the-air

11/12/2025

Wyoming has distributed roughly $1.2 million to food pantries around the state through the state’s new Hunger Relief Program since Gov. Mark Gordon declared a public welfare emergency on Halloween.

The effort is a response to the ongoing back-and-forth about funding for federal SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps. Benefits did not go out to roughly 42 million Americans at the start of November because of the government shutdown. Roughly 28,000 Wyomingites accessed the program each month last fiscal year, with an average monthly payment of about $185 per person.

The Hunger Relief Program is working to fill in the gaps created by this lapse of federal funding. The Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) is administering the program and has distributed “$109,509 to independent pantries, $544,290 directly to food pantries who are affiliated with the Food Bank of Wyoming and $544,290 to the Food Bank of Wyoming,” according to a Monday press release from Gordon’s office.

The effort is a response to the ongoing back-and-forth about funding for federal SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps.

11/12/2025

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will no longer release a national recovery plan for gray wolves.

That’s because the agency says it’s “no longer appropriate” for the species to be federally protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a Nov. 3 finding.

Currently, gray wolves are listed as threatened or endangered in most of the country, except Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, as well as parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.

Last year, the Biden administration announced it would release a first-of-its-kind nationwide recovery plan by Dec. 12.

“Basically [the plan] analyzes all the threats to the species and then comes up with conservation actions that can ameliorate those threats,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Photo credit: Matt McCollum

The Trump administration could be inching toward delisting the species from the endangered species list.

11/12/2025

Wyoming Sounds welcomes 15-year-old identical twins Liam and Layne from Hyattville, Wyoming.
They'll perform live in a studio session this morning around 11:15 am.
Their first full-length album came out this past summer, The Fight with Time.
Liam & Layne https://liamandlayne.com/home
&Layne