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CHEYENNE — Squatting is a nationwide issue that’s made it difficult for owners to sell or sometimes even visit their residential property, and Casper law enforcement says Wyoming is not immune to it. Transient people move into vacant homes, sometimes causing damage to the property, and often refuse to leave after the owner or police confront them. This issue is commonly treated as a civil dispute by law enforcement due to the difficulty of verifying whether the occupant is a legitimate tenant, according to a memo from Pacific Legal Fou...
CHEYENNE — A budget to fund Wyoming state government for the next two years was signed into law Saturday morning by Gov. Mark Gordon, hours before the midnight deadline. The governor had the final say on which amendments would be vetoed in the 2025-26 biennium spending plan, since the Wyoming Legislature submitted the budget on the last day of the session, March 8. In a typical budget session, the final week is used to submit a budget to the governor, and he usually has three days in which to sign it or use his line-item veto authority. On t...
CHEYENNE — Federal regulation around gun laws has prompted some Wyoming lawmakers to work to preserve gun rights for residents at the state level. Three bills were forwarded to the Senate floor by members of the Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee on Tuesday. These bills would broaden access to gun ownership in the state, with one or two taking a stance against gun law regulation by the federal government. Two years ago, federal lawmakers urged banks to adopt a new merchant category code for credit card p...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming House of Representatives and Senate approved mirror budget amendments Monday that would allow the state to send $2 million to Texas or provide resources like personnel to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. If the amendments in both chambers are, in fact, identical, and no additional changes are made to this amendment on third reading of the budget bills, the allocation will be automatically adopted in the state’s 2025-26 biennium budget and would not be up for negotiation in a joint conference committee. On both sides of the...
CHEYENNE — A Laramie lawyer has appealed the dismissal of his attempt to bar former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., from the Wyoming ballot to the Wyoming Supreme Court. On Jan. 4, U.S. District Judge Misha Westby granted Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s motion to dismiss the case, Newcomb v. Chuck Gray, on the grounds that the lawsuit is “not yet ripe.” Laramie-based lawyer Tim Newcomb, who filed the lawsuit against Gray in November, submitted an appeal of the district court’s dismissal to the Wyoming Supreme C...
CHEYENNE — As several agencies within Wyoming state government continue to struggle to provide services due to a shortage of full-time employees, the Wyoming Department of Transportation this week announced a $2,000 hiring bonus program. The “strategic” move is to help the department find enough staff to meet its mission in providing state services, according to a WYDOT news release, and is available to all permanent positions. “We recognize the importance of attracting skilled and dedicated individuals to join our team,” said Taylor Rossetti,...
CHEYENNE — State lawmakers advanced a bill draft on Monday that aims to ban all hemp-products containing any psychoactive properties, including delta-8, without providing a distinction between “synthetic” and “naturally occurring” properties. Members of the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee were divided in their opinions of the bill. Some members said the draft was a necessary step toward protecting youth, while others hesitated over the bill’s broad language. Committee co-Chairman Rep. Art Washut, R- Casper, said the bill was “not read...
CHEYENNE — When Gov. John Allen Campbell signed an act granting women’s suffrage in 1869, Wyoming became the first state in the country to give women the right to vote. Women’s suffrage was further solidified 20 years later during the Wyoming Constitutional Convention in 1889, when this right was enshrined as part of the state’s constitution, again making Wyoming the first state to do so. The room where the convention was held, known as the Historic Supreme Court Room, resides within the Wyoming State Capitol and is open to the public. The sta...
CHEYENNE — Officials from the Wyoming Military Department advised legislators against restarting the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy until sufficient staffing for the residential program for at-risk youth is secured. Maj. Gen. Greg Porter, the state’s adjutant general, stressed to the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee that a restart of the program isn’t possible until the staffing issue is resolved. “What I would offer — and I would tell the governor of Wyoming the same thing — until we are able to solve the s...
