Wyoming Public Radio & Media

05/01/2025

El Malcriado #487: Lewis Gould Papers

El Malcriado was a biweekly newspaper established by Chicano labor leader Cesar Chavez.


https://ow.ly/UFKJ50VITvH

04/30/2025

What are your thoughts on President Trump's first 100 days in office?

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Please post your comments at the end of linked page.
https://ow.ly/VYu450VKGwt

04/30/2025

Wyoming lawmakers passed a bill during this year’s session to cut property taxes for most homeowners. But for Central Wyoming College (CWC), changes in statewide property taxes could mean losing roughly $1 million of its annual budget.

Senate File 69 went into effect immediately after it was signed by Gov. Mark Gordon. It created a blanket 25% reduction to single-family homeowners’ first $1 million of their home’s fair market value.

Communities across the state are starting to calculate how the corresponding loss of property tax revenue will impact their budgets and services. Community colleges across the state are also likely to feel the dip.

CWC President Brad Tyndall said the property tax changes combined with ongoing inflation has put the school in a difficult situation.

LINK: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/education/2025-04-29/statewide-property-tax-change-could-mean-a-million-dollar-loss-for-central-wyoming-college

04/30/2025

Humans have the technology to literally make snow fall from the clouds. In the drought-stricken Southwest, where the Colorado River needs every drop of water it can get, there are calls to use it more.

Utah, home to the nation's largest cloud seeding program, is at the crossroads of the technology's past and future. The state has become a proving ground for cloud seeding in the West, with water managers, private sector investors, and conspiracy theorists keeping a close eye on their progress. Advocates say the technology works, and now they need to figure out exactly how much.

For a practice that has launched millions of dollars in funding, countless snowflakes and a string of death threats, the technology itself is strikingly uncomplicated.

On an overcast day in the foothills near Ogden, Utah, Jared Smith crunched through a thin layer of spring snow toward a white trailer about the size of a dumpster. Inside, he explained, is a solar-charged battery, a tank of the non-toxic chemical compound silver iodide, a tank of propane, and a few valves and switches that control their flow.

04/30/2025

A federal judge dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought in Sweetwater County by a family who accused their school district of hiding their child’s gender transition from them.

That’s according to court documents obtained by Wyoming Public Radio on April 29.

In a win for Sweetwater School District No. 1, U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl ordered the termination of the court case, finding that the district’s Board of Trustees or administrators did not infringe on the plaintiffs’, Ashley and Sean Willey, right to control their child’s upbringing when the district used the Willey’s child’s preferred name and pronouns.
LINK: https://ow.ly/5VKQ50VKFkt

04/30/2025

Hundreds of students and Wyoming residents gathered on the University of Wyoming campus last week. Not for a band or movie star, but for political lectures and the chance to debate a prominent political activist: Charlie Kirk, a popular figure in conservative media circles, Trump loyalist and co-founder of the conservative youth activism organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

The lines to see Kirk speak at the Arts and Sciences auditorium stretched well into Prexy's Pasture and partially around the building. The auditorium reached a max capacity of 1,800, while a small crowd of people still waited outside for a possible seat. Police and plainclothes security were stationed at every entrance and exit. Two large screens flanked the speaker podium on stage, running b-roll media highlighting interviews conducted by TPUSA on other college campuses. Students closer to the front could be seen with phones in hand, ready to record any debate debacle or opposition outburst. Clearly, these were students who had seen Kirk perform online.
LINK:
https://ow.ly/GpMH50VKEQ7

04/29/2025

The Wyoming Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of banning most abortions in the state.

This issue has been debated by the courts nationally for decades. At one point in 2007, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy speculated that women can be depressed after getting an abortion and regret their decision, but said there was no reliable data to prove this.

That perked Diana Greene Foster’s ears.

“It really was time to not just assume and to actually collect rigorous data,” the University of California San Francisco professor said.

Foster decided to find out: How do women’s mental, physical, and financial health fare if they get an abortion versus getting turned away? The result is her 10-year-long Turnaway Study, following over a thousand women.

She shared her findings with Wyoming Public Radio on a recent trip in the Equality State.

LINK:
https://ow.ly/qgXW50VJWSf

04/29/2025

The Emmy-award winning Indigenous filmmaker behind "Prey," the 2022 installment in the "Predator" movie series, will speak in Jackson and Riverton this week.

Jhane Myers’ talks are part of a multi-day program called Native Voices, which is hosted by Central Wyoming College in partnership with Wyoming Humanities and Native American Jump Start.

The week-long celebration will also include a night of stories from professional Indigenous athletes Connor Ryan (Lakota) and Ellen Bradley (Tlingit), cultural presentations and a star quilt exhibit featuring Northern Arapaho mother-daughter duo Cherokee Brown and Miracle Seminole.

One of this year’s featured guests is Jhane Myers (Comanche/Blackfeet), who was the lead creative producer for the 2022 movie “Prey,” a prequel in the popular sci-fi “Predator” franchise.

04/29/2025

The Argentine Menace #486: Ray Josephs Papers

Ray Josephs was an American journalist who spent more than a decade reporting from Buenos Aires. By 1946 he was convinced that the political situation in Argentina represented a menace to the people in Argentina. But that wasn’t all. He felt that Argentinian politics menaced the stability of Latin America.

# AmericanHeritageCenter
https://ow.ly/MeW150VIT5y

04/28/2025

Recent tariff increases are expected to raise prices across the country as businesses that rely on overseas production and materials are hit with higher costs.

“Reciprocal” tariffs from the Trump Administration were set to go into effect on Wednesday, but the White House announced a 90-day pause on tariff increases for most countries while hiking them yet again for China. Trump also left in place a 10% baseline tariff that went into effect on April 5.

The increased tariffs are likely to impact goods from countries around the globe and a wide range of businesses, including one of Colorado's largest industries – outdoor brands.

An uncertain future of new tariffs has the Colorado outdoor industry concerned. New and longtime brands are now preparing for what's next.

04/28/2025

Join Our Team!
Wyoming Public Radio and Media is seeking a PT Engineering technician. Position information and link to online application at wyomingpublicmedia.org/current-job-openings.

04/28/2025

The pop-up planetarium was one way to celebrate and educate people on the new Wyoming designations. The airport, which has less than a dozen gates, is the first in the world to receive a certification.

According to airport staff, they have upgraded over 250 lighting fixtures by pointing them downwards, replacing bulbs with warmer colored options and making them motion-sensors. The airport is specifically dimming or turning off lights between sunset and sunrise, largely between 12 and 4 a.m., except for the ones needed for planes to land safely, like runway and air traffic tower lights.

Wyoming Stargazing Executive Director Sam Singer has been working for a decade to get the tourism-driven gateway community to reduce light pollution. He said these efforts are especially important, since this is the only commercial airport located entirely in a national park, Grand Teton.

The Jackson Hole Airport in Grand Teton National Park joins more than 80 other internationally recognized dark sky places in our region.

04/28/2025

A study out of Utah found that each year, one ungulate dies from getting caught up in fence line for every two and a half miles of fence. There’s been a push recently to remove or replace fences to allow deer, pronghorn and elk to move about and migrate. But one of the biggest hurdles is knowing where all those miles and miles of fence actually are.

Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab’s Kristin Barker is part of a team that mapped more than 150 miles of fence on public lands east of Yellowstone near Cody.

The map will be used to help wildlife, while also balancing the needs of working cattle lands.

LINK:
https://ow.ly/1vJ750VJ2mH

04/28/2025

Big changes in public services might be coming soon to Wyoming communities as the cumulative effects of property tax measures passed in recent legislative sessions come into focus.

That’s according to Ashley Harpstreith, the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM). They’re an advocacy group for all 99 incorporated cities and towns throughout the state.

“They all are going to have to trim,” said Harpstreith. “You're going to see, with cuts like these, [it] starting to impact services.”

The association’s 18 member board met on April 24 to talk about the property tax measures, including and especially a blanket 25% reduction to single-family homeowners’ first $1 million of their home’s fair market value. Board members consist of mayors, clerks, treasurers and council members from every region in the state.

Big changes in public services might be coming soon to some Wyoming communities.