FEATURED Archives - Page 7 of 14

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

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.

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

FEATURED, Voting

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

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.

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

FEATURED, Voting

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

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.

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

FEATURED, Healthcare

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

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.

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

FEATURED, Tax Reform

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

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.

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

2022 Budget Sesssion, Climate, Economy, FEATURED

Save the politicians, screw the people: “Redistricting” showed the bald self interest that drives the Wyoming Legislature

Members of the public made clear their wishes for better representation during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2022 “redistricting” process. But in the end, the chaotic ordeal confirmed that most lawmakers’ number one priority is protecting their own political interests.

Save the politicians, screw the people: “Redistricting” showed the bald self interest that drives the Wyoming Legislature Read More »

2022 Budget Sesssion, Capitol Dispatches, FEATURED, Voting

Wyoming Legislature passes law to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned

The Equality State will become the 13th in the nation with this kind of “trigger law,” which would put a ban into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its landmark reproductive rights decision.

Wyoming Legislature passes law to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned Read More »

Capitol Dispatches, FEATURED

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

More than a dozen Wyoming voters showed up to ask the Wyoming House Appropriations Committee on Monday to defeat Senate File 97, which would limit who can vote in primary elections. They argued the proposal would make voting more difficult and force residents to vote blind. After more than an hour of testimony against it, the committee agreed and thumbed the bill down.

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

2022 Budget Sesssion, FEATURED, Voting

Wyo. House Education Committee kills school censorship bill

Sen. Ogden Driskill, the bill’s sponsor, argued that his proposed law would ensure historical events like the Holocaust receive more balanced treatment. Its opponents said it would amount to drawing a target on teachers’ backs.

Wyo. House Education Committee kills school censorship bill Read More »

2022 Budget Sesssion, FEATURED

Wyoming edges toward banning abortion

A bill moving through the Wyoming Legislature would completely ban abortion in the state—even in cases of rape and incest—in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Another would immediately outlaw “abortion pills,” which can be more readily accessible for Wyoming women unable to travel great distances to end a pregnancy.

The progress of these bills demonstrates a radical shift over the past five years in the Legislature’s position on reproductive rights.

Wyoming edges toward banning abortion Read More »

2022 Budget Session, Capitol Dispatches, FEATURED