Wyoming's suicide rate is one of the highest in the nation.

Session Recap: Funding restored, Wyoming must now work to rebuild its suicide prevention program from scratch

After completely defunding Wyoming's statewide program in 2017, the Legislature allocated $2 million this year for suicide prevention. The scope of damage—and what a new program will look like—is unclear.
Single mothers would have been the main targets of Medicaid work requirements in Wyoming.

Medicaid work requirements didn’t pass this year, but they fit too well with Wyoming’s history of denying public assistance to assume they won’t be back

A work requirements bill passed the Senate with gusto, suggesting there's no small number of lawmakers eager to kick folks in Wyoming off Medicaid.

Better Wyoming director Nate Martin appears on "Speak Your Piece" talk radio show

Better Wyoming director Nate Martin spoke with Darian Dudrick for the Cody-based "Speak Your Piece" talk radio show about what BW is, what we want, and how we're going to get it.
They ain't legal, but weed brownies like these will go another year without being specifically named in Wyoming law.

Session recap: Another year, another effort to criminalize edible marijuana fails. Is the Legislature getting ready to turn a corner on cannabis?

In killing yet another proposal to criminalize edible cannabis, a House committee doubled down on its position that Wyoming needs marijuana reform
Earl DeGroot, head of Wyoming Sportsmen for Federal Lands, speaks at a 2017 rally for Public Lands Day in Laramie.

Session recap: How the death of “Wyoming Public Lands Day” illustrates mining’s grip on the Legislature

What should have been an uncontroversial win for public lands advocates became a way for mineral industry-connected lawmakers to demonstrate their supremacy.

Book review: The currents young Wyomingites swim against

In an essay for High Country News, BW director Nate Martin looks at two books that explain why Wyoming can't keep its young talent.
Neither pipelines nor oil spills nor climate change nor protests are going away. There's no reason to think bills like SF-74 will, either.

Session recap: Wyoming hasn't seen the last of pipeline protest bills like SF-74

The bill vetoed by Gov. Matt Mead that would have punished protesters like those at Standing Rock with imprisonment and absurd fines was a small part of a much larger fight. It's likely to be back in some form soon.
Inmates at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins might get some breathing room thanks to new reforms.

Session recap: Criminal justice reform makes progress

After years of failed measures to decrease Wyoming's prison population and otherwise improve the system, 2018 saw several positive bills pass.
Gov. Matt Mead says "Get that imprecisely crafted bill out of my face." The House obliged.

House upholds Mead’s veto of pipeline protest bill, killing it for good (until next year)

The Legislature needed a two-thirds vote from each chamber to override Mead's veto. The Senate mustered the votes, but the House did not.
Sen. Leland Christensen is the sponsor of SF-74, which passed the Senate unchanged but has been heavily amended by the House.

House amendments might scuttle a consensus vote on pipeline protest bill

The Senate left the bill much as ALEC wrote it. But amendments in the House to address free speech and landowner concerns imight make it difficult to reconcile the two versions before the 2018 session closes.
The Legislature won't be threatening these children's education ... for now.

Rumors of a budget deal suggest no deep cuts to public schools this year

This session that saw threats of public school funding cuts as large as $80 million a year. But as a final deal nears, only a small fraction of those cuts remain, which education advocates are scoring as a win.
Rep. Charles Pelkey (D-Laramie) pointed out that the East India Tea Company would have loved using SF-74 to arrest the patriots who carried out the Boston Tea Party protest of 1773.

Debate continues over controversial pipeline protest bill

The saga of Senate File 74 is not over yet. The controversial…