Daily news roundup, Feb. 15, 2008
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Feb 15, 2008 Posted by Bill Luckett
FIRST UP, PRESIDENTIAL SELECTION:
The Jackson Hole News & Guide examines the role of the Wyoming Democratic Party’s national committeeman, who will be a superdelegate to our national convention and thus could single-handedly determine the fate of the free world (and I’m only mostly kidding about that):
Rep. Jorgensen part of super group
And tip-of-the-hat to Park County Chair Margaret Whited, who forwarded me this recent story from the Powell Tribune on our March 8 caucuses:
County Democratic caucus coming up
FROM THE LEGISLATURE:
Big news breaking this morning from the Cheyenne paper:
Committee kills governor’s property tax relief proposal for seniors
Wyoming Public Radio has a piece on the complicated world of natural gas taxation:
Natural gas tax structure considered
Some Wyoming legislators want to change state law to specify that homeowners couldn't be prosecuted or sued in civil court if they kill anyone who enters their home illegally:
The Wyoming Senate agreed Thursday to consider a bill to allow medical furloughs for state prison inmates:
The House on Thursday introduced a bill that would make a second conviction for dogfighting a felony:
Legislators introduce dogfighting bill
House nixes statewide smoking ban, campaign reporting bill moves forward, and panel approves crime victims bill:
The Jackson paper highlights this bill of particular importance to that community:
State considers bill to ban real-estate tax
The Torrington Telegram examines a bill aimed at protecting people from train noise:
House considers railroad noise bill
The Riverton Ranger looks at a measure that would give west-central Wyoming another judge:
Bill would add judge to Ninth District
IN OTHER NEWS:
The Jackson paper reports that a U.S. Senate subcommittee will hear testimony later this month on a proposal to protect up to $1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range from drilling operations:
Wyoming Range bill will get February hearing
From Wyoming Public Radio: Wolf management isn’t all it’s cracked up to be:
Gov: Game & Fish has tough year ahead
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and several other Western senators tore into U.S. Forest Service officials on Thursday over a lack of funding for wildfire preparation and suppression:
Senators rip Forest Service over wildfire budget cuts
The Cody Enterprise reports on the state’s investment in airport infrastructure across northern Wyoming:
WYDOT invests $34 million in Big Horn Basin airports
I’m not sure whether this Wyoming Public Radio piece should count as legislative news or not:
Poll shows residents want more charter schools
The Wyoming Highway Patrol will not apply for any of the $3.3 million seized by now ex-trooper Ben Peech during a traffic stop in Cheyenne last April, even though the seizure played a critical role in investigating a nationwide drug ring, Col. Sam Powell said Thursday:
WHP doesn’t want any of $3.3 million
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports that AMVETS will hold its official grand opening of the only post in Wyoming Saturday in Cheyenne. With a current membership of more than 120, the veterans organization is hoping to become a leader within the veterans community in Cheyenne:
Looks like they high-tailed it out of there. I hope this isn’t a prelude to a natural disaster, like the reports of animals who headed for the hills hours before the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2005. Because from what I’ve seen on the Discovery Channel, NO ONE needs the kind of natural disaster Yellowstone is capable of producing:
Scientists says jackrabbits are gone from Yellowstone
Mountain pine beetles, the notoriously ruthless forest pests, are poised to wipe out all of Wyoming's mature lodgepole pines within five years, U.S. Forest Service officials said Thursday:
‘It’s a bad time to be a tree’