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Post-“Roe” Wyo: The upcoming fight for abortion rights

September 14, 2022 in , /by

Abortion remains temporarily legal in Wyoming as challenges to the Legislature’s 2022 “trigger ban” play out in court. If state judges ultimately decide that the ban is unconstitutional—a pretty likely outcome—the fight will move back to the Legislature and then, potentially, to a vote in 2024.

The 2022 general election this fall will play a large role in shaping these events, and in any case pro-choice advocates will need to organize to win.

Overturning Roe v. Wade did not end abortion rights in Wyoming. In fact, it was just the beginning.

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  1.

    Wyoming lawmakers’ plan to import drugs from Canada won’t lower prescription costs

    Prescription drug prices are rapidly rising in Wyoming and across the United States. Nationally, drug costs have increased on average 5 - 10 percent each...


  2.

    A single vote stops Wyo. Medicaid expansion, but a movement grows

    Access to healthcare for 24,000 uninsured Wyomingites came down to a single vote this year. The movement supporting House Bill 162, “Medical treatment opportunity act,”...


  3.

    What Mike Enzi’s death says about Wyoming’s healthcare system

    Across Wyoming, people are offering memorials and kind words for former U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, who died after a recent bicycling accident near his home...

GOP Medicaid expansion supporters defeat primary challengers

August 18, 2022 in , /by

Many GOP lawmakers have wrung their hands and worried that doing what they know is right—supporting Medicaid expansion—would cost them at the polls. But overwhelmingly, GOP incumbents who backed Medicaid expansion won on Tuesday, dispelling those fears.

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  1.

    Elderly, disabled, suffering: Proposed Wyoming healthcare cuts will hurt struggling people across the state

    From young to old, proposed budget cuts to the Wyoming Department of Health will hurt people of all ages, all across the state. The state...


  2.

    Second Medicaid update bill clears Wyoming Legislative committee

    Two separate bills that would update Wyoming’s Medicaid program and extend coverage to 24,000 uninsured people in the state have now advanced out of committees...


  3.

    Wyoming lawmakers eye funding options for Medicaid upgrade

    Just six weeks after a Wyoming Senate committee thwarted a proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income residents, the issue is coming back before state...

DERAILED: Everything you need to vote smart in the 2022 Wyoming primaries (Part 4)

August 4, 2022 in , /by

Our “DERAILED” series explained why you should vote in the 2022 Wyoming primary elections. Now we tell you how. Find your new voting districts, polling place, and learn how to research your candidates to cast a smart ballot this August.

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  1.

    The silver lining of Wyoming’s new voter ID law: A path to online registration

    Wyoming, which has no known instances of voter impersonation this century, now has a voter ID law. Residents will have to present a valid ID...


  2.

    County clerks: The puppetmasters of Wyoming redistricting

    Wyoming’s once-in-a-decade election redistricting process is under way! But the folks running the show aren’t who you might think. Over the next six months, state...


  3.

    Bill advances to limit voting in Wyoming primary elections

    For years, the Wyoming Republican Party has tried to force the Legislature to pass laws that would restrict primary elections, limiting who can vote. The...

DERAILED: Special interest groups count on low turnout to influence Wyo. primaries (Part 3)

July 29, 2022 in , /by

Many groups with narrow agendas target the primary elections in order to flip seats in the Wyoming Legislature, and they depend on low turnout to succeed.

The more Wyomingites vote in the elections that count, the less influence special interest groups will have over our state.

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  1.

    Wyoming lawmakers use “voter fraud” hysteria to push ID bill

    Dozens of Wyoming lawmakers have sponsored a bill to require voters to present IDs at the polls because, they say, people are losing confidence in...


  2.

    Proposed election map would force 16 Wyo. legislators into runoffs

    The Wyoming Legislature’s Corporations Committee threw out a map last week that was rife with political gerrymandering and gave outsized influence to rural legislators. They...


  3.

    Outcry confronts bill to restrict Wyoming voting, prompting committee to kill it

    A cavalcade of angry Wyoming voters attended the hearing on Monday of Senate File 97, “Change in party affiliation,” which would have blocked residents from...

DERAILED: No matter what you learned in school, Wyoming Election Day is not in November (part 2)

July 22, 2022 in , /by

Despite what we learn in school, Wyoming’s real Election Day is in August.

All six races for statewide and Congressional seats in 2022 will be decided by then, along with all but a handful of Legislative and county-level contests.

If you’re waiting until November to cast a ballot, you’re missing the chance to make your vote count.

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  1.

    Wyoming takes meek steps to increase mail-in voting in 2020. It should be doing more.

    States across America are making voting by mail more accessible for the 2020 election, and Wyoming is one of them. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted...


  2.

    New proposed Wyoming voting map gerrymanders Albany and Laramie Counties

    https://vimeo.com/669848743 The Wyoming Legislature is going through “redistricting,” the once-a-decade process of redrawing the state’s voting districts. In this video, we’ll see how the current...


  3.

    Wyoming Senate scraps “redistricting” plan in a reckless power play

    The Wyoming Senate derailed the state’s redistricting process on Tuesday morning, sending lawmakers back to Square One with just a week left in the 2022...

DERAILED: The Wyo. Legislature’s 2022 trainwreck budget session (part 1)

July 15, 2022 in , /by

The Wyoming Legislature’s 2022 budget session was a prime example of how our state lawmakers ignore the real problems of Wyoming and instead focus on emotional “hot button” national issues.
As home and healthcare prices go up, the struggling fossil fuel industries fail to pay for public schools, and Wyoming can’t keep young people living here to build a future, the Legislature is transfixed on issues they repeat from national media.
This is the kind of representation we get when only 30 percent of Wyoming residents vote in the elections that count: the primaries.

SUGGESTED FOR YOU


  1.

    The silver lining of Wyoming’s new voter ID law: A path to online registration

    Wyoming, which has no known instances of voter impersonation this century, now has a voter ID law. Residents will have to present a valid ID...


  2.

    County clerks: The puppetmasters of Wyoming redistricting

    Wyoming’s once-in-a-decade election redistricting process is under way! But the folks running the show aren’t who you might think. Over the next six months, state...


  3.

    Bill advances to limit voting in Wyoming primary elections

    For years, the Wyoming Republican Party has tried to force the Legislature to pass laws that would restrict primary elections, limiting who can vote. The...

DERAILED: How Wyoming’s Legislature got off track, and how to steer it back (series intro)

July 8, 2022 in , /by

The Wyoming Legislature has become more concerned with squabbling over hot-button national issues than addressing the real problems of our state. In a new series, Better Wyoming looks at how this happened, and what we need to do to get back on track.

SUGGESTED FOR YOU


  1.

    The silver lining of Wyoming’s new voter ID law: A path to online registration

    Wyoming, which has no known instances of voter impersonation this century, now has a voter ID law. Residents will have to present a valid ID...


  2.

    County clerks: The puppetmasters of Wyoming redistricting

    Wyoming’s once-in-a-decade election redistricting process is under way! But the folks running the show aren’t who you might think. Over the next six months, state...


  3.

    Bill advances to limit voting in Wyoming primary elections

    For years, the Wyoming Republican Party has tried to force the Legislature to pass laws that would restrict primary elections, limiting who can vote. The...

Wyoming lawmakers stand by as two more hospitals close their maternity wards

June 3, 2022 in , /by

Wyomingites understand that we do not have the cutting-edge medical facilities that big cities offer. But that does not mean we should force small-town women to face stressful and even dangerous situations in order to safely give birth.

Our state can have a hospital system that serves us all. But that means we need legislators who are willing to help support it.

SUGGESTED FOR YOU


  1.

    Elderly, disabled, suffering: Proposed Wyoming healthcare cuts will hurt struggling people across the state

    From young to old, proposed budget cuts to the Wyoming Department of Health will hurt people of all ages, all across the state. The state...


  2.

    Second Medicaid update bill clears Wyoming Legislative committee

    Two separate bills that would update Wyoming’s Medicaid program and extend coverage to 24,000 uninsured people in the state have now advanced out of committees...


  3.

    Wyoming lawmakers eye funding options for Medicaid upgrade

    Just six weeks after a Wyoming Senate committee thwarted a proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income residents, the issue is coming back before state...

Wyoming’s laws invite dirty money with no benefit to state residents

May 6, 2022 in , /by

Russian oligarchs and other bad actors take advantage of Wyoming’s lax laws governing trusts and LLCs to hide their fortunes here. What do we get for acting as a global dirty money laundromat? Not much.

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  1.

    Wyoming faces the biggest financial crisis in its modern history. Lawmakers respond by doing nothing.

    Plummeting oil prices during the COVID-19 crisis have piled atop preexisting struggles in the coal and natural gas industries to present Wyoming with a projected...


  2.

    Screw the schools, screw the youth: Wyoming lawmakers refuse tax proposals to fund education (and everything else)

    Opponents of increasing Wyoming’s taxes sometimes claim that if people have to pay more of their hard-earned income to the government, they will move out...


  3.

    Wyoming Legislature continues its quest to punish renewable energy

    Fossil fuel evangelists in the Wyoming Legislature have not been able to completely hamstring the state’s budding wind and solar industries. But it’s not for...

Wyo. Legislature finally (sort of) admits that the coal industry is dying

April 21, 2022 in , , , /by

Unfortunately, state lawmakers’ responses to the industry’s decline won’t save jobs or help coal communities. They will, however, lead to less funding for public schools and higher energy costs for Wyoming residents.

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  1.

    The Legislature’s plan to keep Wyoming burning coal (whether we like it or not)

    Wyoming has lots and lots of coal, but fewer and fewer people want to buy it. What to do? During the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers...


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    Minerals committee hijacks bill to help Wyoming transition from fossil fuels

    When a bill is heard by a Wyoming legislative committee, there are three typical outcomes: it gets approved, killed, or tabled. Rarely does a measure...


  3.

    Clean power supporters convince Wyoming land board to approve wind energy lease

    A group of Albany County homeowners faced a setback last month in their effort to block construction of a wind farm they say would spoil...