Daily news roundup, March 3, 2008
-
Mar 4, 2008 Posted by Bill Luckett
Let me be the first to tell you – since none of Wyoming’s print media seemed too keen on reporting – that Saturday night’s Nellie Tayloe Ross banquet will go down as one of the most successful Wyoming Democratic Party functions in recent history, if not longer, by several measures. Attendance at the dinner topped 200 people. My good friend Jason Marsden (director of Wyoming Conservation Voters) told me he has been going to the state party’s dinners since he was a teenager, and Saturday’s NTR banquet marked the most people he has ever seen at such an event.
Our magnificent lineup of speakers included the youngest woman in Congress, the first female lieutenant governor in New Mexico history, the governors of Iowa and Wyoming, our state’s brilliant first lady (Remember: “Jobs, health care, education and Wyoming’s unique quality of life!”), and hopeful future Democratic members of Congress.
We honored former Wyoming Department of Employment Director Cynthia Pomeroy – now one of Gov. Freudenthal’s liaisons to the Legislature – with the Nellie Tayloe Ross Award for her outstanding contributions to the state and to the party. We proudly applauded the fact that our party’s leadership includes a gender balance that is somewhat reflective of Wyoming, in stark contrast to our friends across the aisle, who have exactly zero women in their two-dozen-plus legislative leadership positions. We enjoyed riding this rising wave of Wyoming Democratic Party enthusiasm and energy that we expect to carry into the county caucuses/conventions next Saturday and hopefully throughout the year into the Nov. 4 general election. Now on to “the news,” as reported by the mainstream media (and WyoFile.com) …
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
The Casper Star-Tribune reports that supporters and staffers from both Sen. Hillary Clinton's and Sen. Barack Obama's campaigns are creating a “frothy atmosphere” for the March 8 caucuses.
Clinton, Obama camps rally in Wyo
Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the campaign of rival Barack Obama on Friday for mailers they said contained inaccurate attacks on Clinton's health care plan. A spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Chicago, said the mailer was accurate:
Wyoming Public Radio reports on our efforts to prepare and prepare again for a voter turnout on Saturday that we have absolutely NO WAY of predicting, but that we’re sure is going to be pretty impressive:
Dems scramble to find bigger caucus sites
Also from WPR: Organizer Melissa Turley of the Equipoise Fund, a women's leadership group, says a number of seats in the legislature will be up for grabs in the next election, and that's prompting some women to consider a run for office:
FROM THE LEGISLATURE
Legislature winds down session (Associated Press) A glance at major legislative issues as we head into the session’s final week.
House, Senate strike budget compromise (Associated Press)
Lawmakers debate Hathaway scholarship changes (Casper Star-Tribune)
Panel questions, approves Dept. of Employment director nominee Child (Casper Star-Tribune)
Panel backs nominees Salzburg as AG, Lewis for DFS director (Casper Star-Tribune)
Committee ponders workers’ comp study (Casper Star-Tribune)
Just call them ‘fees’ (Casper Star-Tribune) An excerpt from reporter Jared Miller’s legislative blog.
Wyoming briefs (Casper Star-Tribune) Issues include carbon sequestration, health care
Subdivisions bill survives (Casper Star-Tribune)
Senate considers helium tax bill (Wyoming Public Radio)
Homemade products bill fails (Gillette News-Record)
Local governments to see ‘big increase’ in funding (Jackson Hole News & Guide)
IN OTHER NEWS
After a boom in gas development in recent years -- and in the context of ongoing proposals for large-scale expansion of gas extraction -- many locals were wondering this week what the air is going to be like when thousands of more wells are drilled in the Upper Green River Basin:
‘The last place this should be’
The Gillette News-Record reports that Saturday marked the first day of a three-and-a-half month long statewide ban on most energy-related activities within two miles of active sage grouse breeding areas:
A federal judge is holding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to a deal reached with environmentalists that sets a timeline and other conditions on whether to grant threatened or endangered status to the sage grouse:
Judge holds feds to grouse deal
From WyoFile.com, writer Samuel Western has been “watching with concern” as a financial and environmental drama unfolds southwest of what’s left of Jeffrey City, where “uranium rides again” after soaring to $130 a pound last summer, up from just over $7 a pound in December 2000:
Speculators hit Jeffrey City again
The Powell Tribune reports on Northwest College instructor J.L. “Woody” Wooden’s efforts to provide his students access to photographing the country’s first national park in the winter and to emphasize the importance of winter access to Yellowstone from both an environmental and an economic standpoint:
Northwest College instructor campaigns to keep Sylvan Pass open
From the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, a look at ongoing friction among members of the Cheyenne City Council. Personally, I don’t know if council members Judy Case and Pete Laybourn are being obnoxious, or if Mayor Jack Spiker, through his city employees, is trying to hide information that these council members have a right to see. Say what you will about Laybourn’s personality (which is, um, different).
Post-mortem on Sheridan voters’ rejection of implementing a “city administrator” form of government for that town:
FINALLY, A BIT OF NEWS YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY DON’T NEED
In breaking news, over the lunch hour I learned that my favorite local diner, the Diamond Horseshoe Café in south Cheyenne, is also a long-time haunt of Rep. Stan Blake, who entertained me over a breakfast burrito and lasagna with tales of his notorious history of dining at the ‘Shoe.