Wyoming Public Radio & Media

15/08/2025

Beyond the Range - Episode 17 - Out now!

“The Cultural Matrix Our Economy is Built On” Featuring Grady Kirkpatrick, Programming Director and Wyoming Sounds host at Wyoming Public Media.

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/beyond-the-range-podcast/2024-02-15/beyond-the-range-podcast

15/08/2025

A slew of large wildfires have crews in the northern third of the state busy.

The largest is the Red Canyon Fire, about 14 miles east of Thermopolis. It was estimated to be about 15,000 acres by Thursday afternoon after first being reported Wednesday evening.

The fire is not approaching town and highways are open. But the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office advised immediate evacuation from the Red Hole, Kirby Creek and Buffalo Creek areas (see the red shaded area in the map embedded below). Black Mountain Road is closed just west of Kirby Creek Road. According to the Bureau of Land Management, homes west of Kirby Creek on Black Mountain Road are not currently under the evacuation order. An evacuation center is open at the Thermopolis Fire Hall.

An area east of Thermopolis was advised to evacuate Thursday. Washakie County says crews there are working around the clock to contain several blazes.

15/08/2025

The Buffalo Bulletin has been in Robb Hicks’ family for generations. His wife, Jen Sieve-Hicks, was a reporter for many years and is now an award-winning editor. Both have served as chairs of the Wyoming Press Association.

The pair made their own headlines this week when they announced they’re stepping in to save eight papers that were in jeopardy of abrupt closure after their parent company pulled its support from dozens of outlets in the region last week. News Media Corporation’s Torrington-based publisher Rob Mortimore is also partnering on the new locally-owned venture.

Sieve-Hicks said she had a strong reaction to the news that the papers were shutting down.

“My first thought was, oh my gosh, school's starting in two weeks and all those school things that nobody is going to document: that first home football game, there's not going to be anyone there to take a picture or write a story. That might seem small, but for the participants and the parents and the grandparents, it's not small,” said Sieve-Hicks.

Photo credit: Judy van der Velden/Flickr

The longtime owners of the Buffalo Bulletin have partnered with the company’s former publisher to stop the papers’ closures.

15/08/2025

Yellowstone National Park is having a busy year, but tourism dipped a bit last month.

This July, the park tallied 975,109 recreation visits. That’s 2% fewer visits than last year and 10% down from the record-setting year of 2021.

So far this year, Yellowstone has seen more than 2.6 million visits, putting it just behind 2021’s numbers for the same time period. In 2021, 4.8 million recreational visits set the annual record.

The park has been creeping closer to 5 million annual visitors for the past several years.

Photo credit: National Park Service

This July, the park tallied 975,109 recreation visits. That’s 2% fewer visits than last year and 10% down from the record-setting year of 2021.

15/08/2025

Gov. Mark Gordon announced on Aug. 13 he’s activating up to 15 members of the Wyoming National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) boosted efforts to enforce federal immigration laws.

In a press release, the governor’s office said the guard members will provide “administrative, logistics and transportation support to ICE” over the coming months. The state has over 3,000 National Guard members, according to the governor’s office.

“Guard personnel will not be directing enforcement operations and will remain under the Governor’s command and control while working alongside ICE. The Guard mission is expected to begin within 30 days,” the release said.

They will not have access to ICE databases or the training required to make arrests, according to a spokesperson for the governor’s office.

A spokesperson for the Wyoming National Guard told Jackson Hole Community Radio participation will be voluntary, and personnel will be selected from those who volunteer. The Wyoming National Guard will identify qualified volunteers and coordinate with ICE on final selections. The mission will be federally funded.

Photo credit: Chris Clements/Wyoming Public Media

The move comes after the Wyoming Highway Patrol signed an agreement for boosted information sharing and some enforcement of federal immigration laws.

14/08/2025

Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho students will have a crack at a new scholarship at the University of Wyoming (UW).

The UW Board of Trustees voted to set up the Wind River Promise Fund at a meeting on Aug. 13. A total of $250,000 will be available to enrolled tribal members as scholarships to cover undergrad tuition costs and mandatory fees for full-time students. An additional $2 million will be managed and invested like an endowment.

The money comes from unrestricted operating investment income earned in fiscal year 2026. Getting the scholarship up and running is still in process.

The idea’s bounced back and forth between tribal members, state legislators and the university for years. Some advocates say that because UW is a land-grant university, and continues to benefit from land taken from tribal nations, it has an obligation to support Indigenous students.

Schools like the University of Colorado Denver, the University of Arizona and the University of California have set up similar scholarship funds in recent years.

Photo credit: Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Media

The Wind River Promise Fund sets aside $250,000 to cover undergrad tuition costs and mandatory fees for full-time students. Another $2 million will...

14/08/2025

The Wyoming Legislature’s interim Joint Judiciary Committee opted to set aflame a draft bill that would’ve made nominees to the state’s highest court undergo legislative scrutiny.

That’s after a passel of practicing and retired attorneys, including two former chief state Supreme Court justices, spoke against the idea of requiring Senate confirmation for justices in front of the committee dais in Casper.

Michael K. Davis is one such former justice. Appointed by former Gov. Matt Mead, Davis served as the court’s presiding judge from 2018 to 2022, starting as an associate justice in 2012.

“Injecting the power in the Senate to reject an appointee that has already undergone an extensive vetting by both the [judicial nominating] commission and the governor cannot improve what is already the best system possible,” Davis said to the committee.

The bill would’ve put the question of Senate confirmation to voters as a state constitutional amendment on the ballot in a future election.

When there’s a vacancy on the court, the Judicial Nominating Commissionn

Photo credit: Chris Clements/Wyoming Public Media

The interim Joint Judiciary Committee opted to toss a draft bill that would’ve made nominees to the state’s highest court undergo legislative...

14/08/2025

The Trump administration is giving the go-ahead to more coal mining in northeastern Wyoming.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is opening up about 850 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acres in the state’s Powder River Basin, which produces the majority of the nation’s coal. The expansion will add onto the southwest corner of the Antelope Mine.

The West Antelope II South Tract Mining Plan Modification is expected to produce an extra 14.5 million tons of coal. That’s just shy of what the mine produced in 2024, a particularly low production year. According to project documents, this will extend the life of the entire mine by half a year, into 2037.

Gov. Mark Gordon applauded the expansion and noted additional decisions in the works, like expanding the Black Butte Mine in Sweetwater County.

“While this announcement is a positive step forward, we are also keenly aware of a pending decision on the Black Butte Mine expansion in Sweetwater County, which was also halted by the previous administration,”

Gordon said.

Photo credit: OSMRE

About 850 acres of BLM land in northeast Wyoming are opening up for additional coal mining at the existing Antelope Mine.

14/08/2025

A grand jury is convening, likely this month according to familiar sources, to decide whether felony charges should be brought against a Sublette County man who allegedly tortured a wolf in February 2024.

A grand jury is a controversial legal tool rarely used in the state system.

Grant Smith, incoming director of the University of Wyoming (UW) College of Law Defender Aid Clinic, said it’s kind of like a pre-trial.

“Instead of deciding whether someone's innocent or guilty, the grand jury is deciding whether there's enough evidence to officially charge someone with a crime,” Smith said.

That someone is Cody Roberts.

Back in February 2024, Roberts allegedly ran down a wolf with a snowmobile and brought the live wolf into a local bar. Video footage later surfaced showing the live animal lying on the barroom floor, leashed and muzzled, with patrons chatting in the background. Another video shows Roberts trying to kiss the wolf.

Photo credit: Caitlin Tan/Wyoming Public Media

A controversial legal tool rarely used in the state system will determine if Cody Roberts is charged with a felony for alleged wolf torture.

14/08/2025

Written on the Wind #517: George Zuckerman Papers

George Zuckerman wrote the screenplay for the 1956 melodrama Written on the Wind.

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/archives-on-the-air

13/08/2025

Eight newspapers across Wyoming will stay open after their parent company announced they were shutting down nearly a week ago. Longtime local newspaper executives with Wyoming roots announced plans on Aug. 12 to intervene and keep them running.

That includes papers in Niobrara, Goshen, Platte, Uinta and Sublette counties.

Pinedale Roundup Editor Cali O’Hare said all the fired employees got on a phone call on Tuesday to hear the good news from their News Media Corporation (NMC) publisher Rob Mortimer, who’s based in Torrington. He told them he was partnering with Jen and Robb Hicks, publishers of the Buffalo Bulletin, to rescue Wyoming’s newspapers.

Longtime local newspaper executives announced plans on Aug. 12 to intervene and keep them running.