Daily news roundup, Feb. 14, 2008
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Feb 15, 2008 Posted by Bill Luckett
I’d like to kick off today’s news roundup with a look at a couple new online media offerings. The first one is called WyoFile, which can be found at www.wyofile.com. A self-described “non-profit, public service journalism enterprise, focused on politics and public policy issues in Wyoming, for Wyoming citizens and news media,” WyoFile employs a handful of insightful columnists and offers some different viewpoints than we usually find in the traditional media. For today, I’ll just refer you to the WyoFile main page, and starting tomorrow I’ll add WyoFile to the list of sources I scan to compile the news roundup.
The other one is a Casper Star-Tribune legislative blog written by Jared Miller, the fine reporter who now has my former job covering politics and state government for the Casper daily. If you, like me, appreciate stories that are sometimes a little off the beaten path and written in a more conversational tone than what you will find in the newspaper, check out Jared’s blog.
Now on to today’s news.
The Green River Star gets the top spot with this interesting story on the city of Rock Springs hiring a lobbyist. To represent the city throughout the legislative session, the city hired former Rock Springs Urban Renewal Agency and Mainstreet Director Lisa Skiles-Parady as a lobbyist until March 31:
Rock Springs hires private lobbyist
The Wyoming House Wednesday agreed to look at three more property tax relief bills, in addition to four already in the House Revenue Committee:
More tax relief bills get hearing
The Cheyenne paper updates us on the carbon sequestration legislation:
Clean coal bills pass second House reading
The Wyoming Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to allowing counties to step in with regulations whenever land is divided into lots smaller than 140 acres for the purpose of building homes:
Subdivisions bill gets first Senate nod
A Senate committee, on a 4-0 vote, endorsed a bill Wednesday night that would require jailers across the state to hold accused drunken drivers until they are sober:
Panel backs holding suspects until they’re sober
A bill that would provide the wrongly convicted a legal mechanism to clear their names with DNA evidence easily passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday:
The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would develop a statewide crime victim information database and raise court surcharges for criminal defendants.
Committee approves crime victims bill
The Wyoming House introduced 22 bills and rejected six Wednesday. The Senate introduced three and didn't reject any. Here's a roundup of some high-profile bills that received the necessary two-thirds introduction vote Wednesday:
And that’s just the legislative news! Now to other topics …
The Laramie Booerang has a story on the new Barack Obama presidential campaign office in that town:
The Gillette News-Record has this AP story that General Electric has signed a letter of intent with the University of Wyoming to develop a coal research plant in the state. Although final details of the project are still being negotiated, company and state officials said Wednesday that the planned $100 million facility could be operating by 2010:
A small exploratory drilling project proposed for Little Mountain south of Rock Springs is a bad idea that could lead to large-scale development of a popular recreation and wildlife area, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told federal officials this week:
Governor raps drilling proposal
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne faced hard questioning Wednesday over the proposed 2009 budget and Western issues including funding for rural counties, the fate of Yellowstone National Park's Sylvan Pass and states' share of mineral royalty revenues:
Senators grill Interior chief on budget, more
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has asked a federal judge to allow it to withdraw from a recent agreement concerning a timeline for deciding whether sage grouse should be listed as an endangered species across much of the Rocky Mountain West:
Feds want out of sage grouse agreement
The Jackson Hole News & Guide has this report on airline service in that community: