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Dear Editor, I see pictures of Ukrainian young men and women with grenades strapped to their chest firing machine guns towards some people that are unrecognizable but are firing back. I see middle-aged and old people, men and women, doing the same. Then I see pictures of dead bodies strewn around, mostly with a Russian designation of some sort on them. Then I see pictures and videos of truckers driving around the Beltway in Washington, D.C. with flags flying, their windows rolled up, the heat on in the cab, and cars with people trying to live...
These days, it’s easy to feel like the world’s ending. Honestly, it’s felt a little bit like the end of the world ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re about two weeks shy of the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, and those early days of shutdowns and restrictions were full of uncertainty and fear. We’re still dealing with COVID’s effects but, for better or worse, we’ve started adjusting to it being part of our daily...
After more than one year out of office, former President Donald Trump raised eyebrows earlier this week when he complimented Russian President Vladimir Putin for action the government has taken towards Ukraine. “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen and I said ‘This is genius,’” Trump said on a right-wing radio show Tuesday. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine ... as independent. Oh that’s wonderful.” Russia isn’t an ally of the United States and non-Russian intelligence from several countries including the United Stat...
Amongst the culinary delights of the world, the durian fruit is likely one of the more bizarre and polarizing. Trees producing the fruit are found in Southeast Asia, with the fruit being described by some as the “king of fruit.” The thorny rind contains creamy, custard-like flesh that is used in a variety of desserts throughout the region or simply eaten by itself. Its smell is something else entirely and is the main aspect of the fruit’s polarizing reputation. According to the durian fruit...
Recent movement by the Sweetwater County Commissioners in hiring a consulting firm to help with the upcoming specific purpose sales tax push shows lessons were learned from the 2021 general purpose sales tax ballot’s defeat. We’re not sure hiring a consultant itself is the best use of county money in regards to educating residents about the upcoming special purpose tax initiative, but giving people more opportunity to have their voice heard in these important discussions is something we will always be in favor of. The fact remains that add...
Being arrested for an alleged crime is one of the worst experiences a person can have. The experience is part of a situation that can forever alter the course of someone’s life. Then there’s the booking photo, a photo of someone that is taken during a low point in their life. These booking photos, commonly known as mugshots, are the target of a bill proposing to only allow release of those images after a conviction is made or if the image’s release would assist law enforcement. These images have been a subject of debate regarding their purpo...
Dear Editor, As a resident of Rock Springs, I think it is shameful that Buddha Bob’s at The Sands allowed a coyote killing contest participants to gather and celebrate on Feb. 5. In these cruel and unsporting wildlife killing contests, participants compete for cash and prizes for killing the most, the largest, and even the smallest animals over a specified period. Wildlife management professionals, responsible hunters, and scientists across the country have stated that these contests serve no wildlife management purpose, they don’t prevent conf...
Wyoming powers America. As the nation’s biggest net energy supplier, we fuel America’s cars and we power the West’s homes. When America achieved energy independence, the Cowboy State was a key driver. Unfortunately, the Biden administration is trying to undermine our success, and Wyoming’s workers and families will suffer for it. This is what is going on: During the Trump administration, non-partisan Environmental Protection Agency employees approved the State of Wyoming’s regional haze State Implementation Plan for energy company PacifiCor...
Look, I know what you’ve probably just said after reading that headline. “Of course COVID-19 isn’t fun -- it’s a deadly respiratory disease!” I’m also here to tell you that anyone reading this should avoid infection like the plague. My case seems to be on the milder end of the spectrum -- something I attribute to having previously been vaccinated. That said, the fatigue is something that wears me down in a way I can’t remember ever feeling. Early on, I had severe body aches that felt as thoug...
I saw a tweet online recently that said “Having not gotten covid yet feels like I’ve been hiding in the back of a 2+ year long middle school dodgeball game and the front lines have been THINNED.” (Thanks for summing it up, @ssactrub.) I laughed because it was so accurate. Then I took a COVID-19 dodgeball to the face. Last week, for the first time since the pandemic started, I got back my COVID-19 test results with big letters spelling “Positive” in red right at the top. And let me tell you,...
Green River residents pay a lot for solid waste services when compared to Rock Springs residents only 15 miles to the east. Yes, a portion of property taxes levied in Rock Springs is paid to the Sweetwater County Solid Waste District No. 1, but the bills residents in Green River receive compared to Rock Springs residents’ bills differ greatly. Rock Springs residents even have the choice of solid waste companies to utilize, which isn’t the case in Green River. With continued discussions about solid waste being conducted by the Green River Cit...
Albert Einstein was one of the great intellects of our time. Throughout his life, he never stopped being curious and never stopped learning. As brilliant as he was, he always learned from his past, asked questions and looked forward to the future. One of his famous quotes, and one he believed in and lived every day, was: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." In light of what we have all been through over the past two years, I...
Gov. Mark Gordon’s leadership hasn’t been stellar over the past few years as he’s failed to adequately address several problems the state has faced since he assumed office. However, one decision we can get behind is his signing of an emergency order to keep the second unit at the Jim Bridger Power Plant from a premature shutdown through an EPA mandate. Gordon’s order is not absolute, but it does give much needed breathing room to allow for a solution to be found while saving jobs that would have evaporated with the end of 2021. Our hope is...
We’re about a week into the new year — how are those resolutions coming? Many people enjoy beginning a new year by making resolutions, picking out goals they want to reach, plans they want to stick to every day, and ideals for how to improve themselves and their lives. Many of those people also get overwhelmed and frustrated with their grand plans, some more quickly than others. Some may give up on their resolutions, and some may have given up on making resolutions altogether. I do think res...
The end of 2021 means the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasted nearly two years in Wyoming. While the first signs of the pandemic didn’t hit the state until March 2020, its impacts were immediate. State basketball championships were canceled, followed by a closure of public buildings and schools as people scrambled to make sense of the disease this novel coronavirus caused. Now, at the absolute end of 2021, more than 800,000 deaths in the United States have been attributed to COVID-19. It isn’t hard to see a day when that tally hits seven figures...
Wyoming officials can rant and cuss about the federal government’s coal policies as loudly and as angrily as they want, but it won’t change one fundamental fact: They have failed our coal communities and their woe-is-us, innocent-victim act is a load of rubbish. I could use the Western equivalent of that assessment, something that’s found in abundance in horse pastures. But you get the idea. Gov. Mark Gordon said he’s “furious” because none of the state’s applications to a federal coal community assistance program were selected as a finalist...
Christmas is back. For the past month (or more), people have put up their lights and trees, sung along to their favorite festive tunes, bought and wrapped gifts, attended local celebrations and parties, and overall done most of the same activities they do every year. “Something Magical,” a new Christmas song released this year by my favorite Icelandic musician, Dadi Freyr, sums it up well: “We go through the same routine, just like last year, and the year bеfore that, and the year bеfore...
Christmas traditions vary from family to family, but one of the less spoken traditions people tend to share is that of the blurry-eyed Christmas morning. It’s a morning anyone with children can relate to. A morning so early the sun hasn’t started to raise. Children excitedly running to the Christmas tree as they look at what Santa Claus brought them. All the while the adults in the room, still trying to fully wake up and waiting for the coffee pot to fill, stand in the background with a tir...
One thing about Wyoming’s conservative politics is everything bad is the fault of the Democrats. Look at statements made by U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., over the years and anyone can see this in action -- even when his party is in the majority in Congress. It isn’t very surprising to see Mark Gordon picking up ideas out of that playbook when he joined Wyoming’s delegation in Washington, D.C., in slamming the Biden Administration in leaving Wyoming communities out of the “Build Back Better Regional Challenge,” a $1 billion program aiming to...
By HANNAH ROMERO Staff Writer I know this isn’t an especially popular opinion in Wyoming, but country music is probably my least favorite genre of music. So cowboy music (the old, authentic tunes cowboys actually sang), while not as low on my list as modern country, also isn’t exactly a favorite. You won’t catch me jamming out to “Whoopee Ti Yi Yo” on a regular day. However, if you were at the sold-out Bar J Wranglers concert at the Broadway Theater in Rock Springs last Friday night, you could h...
This week, Green River High School’s theater students are performing a play titled “Lockdown,” about a group of students facing a lockdown situation at their school as an entry into the state theater competition. The play features a group of students locked in a classroom with a teacher as the group tries to determine if the lockdown is a drill or a real event and how they should respond to it. Tensions mount as the students and teacher cope with the situation in their own ways, many of whom...
It’s a question that frequently pops up whenever there’s unflattering coverage of a governmental entity or group — often posed by those at the center of that coverage: “Why don’t you focus on anything positive?” It’s a question with loaded meaning, as “positive” generally means something along the lines of “issues that don’t make us uncomfortable.” Regardless of the issue, from recent coverage of campaign signs for a special tax election to coverage years ago of a Sweetwater County sheriff who paid his son and daughter-in-law for ser...
There are likely a number of people locally who don’t agree with the decision to build the Natrium nuclear facility in Kemmerer. We too were rooting for the facility to be built in Sweetwater County, but we also think it’s safe to say that Kemmerer was facing a much more dire economic situation without the facility. That said, we also think Sweetwater County will benefit from the economic activity coming to Kemmerer. One only needs to look at the economic activity in Sublette County 15 years ago to see a similar trend. Back then, Southwest Wyo...
By HANNAH ROMERO Staff Writer Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks. Obviously. It’s also a time to eat delicious food. Believe me, Thanksgiving dinner is one of my favorite meals to ever exist. I love turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing and cranberry sauce and green bean casserole and yams (specifically with marshmallows on top — best way to eat them), and don’t get me started on pies. I digress. Of course Thanksgiving is also a time to be with our families or friends, enjoying th...
