Free Republic

It's been a bad week for Newt Gingrich in our early state Republican polling, but we still find him with a good sized lead nationally. He's at 35% to 22% for Mitt Romney, 11% for Ron Paul, 7% for Michele Bachmann, 6% for Rick Perry, 4% for Rick Santorum, 3% for Jon Huntsman, and 1% for Gary Johnson. On the surface that's good news for Gingrich but looking under the hood it's more bad news to some extent. We haven't done a national poll in 5 weeks, too long ago to make a good comparison, but on 6 state polls...

The shale gas boom has been a rare bright spot in the U.S. economy, so much of the country let out a shudder two weeks ago when the Environmental Protection Agency issued a "draft" report that the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing may have contaminated ground water in Pavillion, Wyoming. The good news is that the study is neither definitive nor applicable to the rest of the country. "When considered together with other lines of evidence, the data indicates likely impact to ground water that can be explained by hydraulic fracking," said the EPA report, referring to the drilling process...

Energy: After admitting there's no documented evidence of groundwater contamination due to a technique used to extract oil and gas from shale, the EPA tries to manufacture a crisis in Wyoming. At a House Oversight Committee hearing in May, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson confirmed that, despite fears that hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "fracking," would lead to contamination of ground water, there was no independently documented instances that it had occurred. Jackson told the committee: "I'm not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water." Suddenly the liberal group Pro Publica is...

The Casper City Council agreed to postpone until its Dec. 6 meeting any further action on a proposed gun ban at local government meetings. The controversial Second Amendment right issue continued to occupy the council’s agenda, however, as they attempted to deal with what they perceived as misinformation about the proposal. “There’s obviously a great deal of misinformation being promoted and repeated and exaggerated,” said council member Charlie Powell. “Are there any steps we can take to try to correct some of this misinformation so people know in fact what we’re really voting on?” “I agree with Charlie, there’s to...

A high school football coach in Wyoming has resigned after orchestrating what may be the single least appropriate motivational tactic in recent years, handing his players a "Hurt Feelings Report" in which students were asked to select from various offensive options to describe why they were upset. As first reported by the Buffalo Bulletin, Casper Star-Tribune and The Advocate before being circulated throughout the internet, Buffalo (Wyo.) High football coach Pat Lynch offered up a questionnaire to his players that offered the following possible reasons for their disappointment, as reported by The Advocate (beware in reading the following paragraph: Some...

Following approval of a revised wolf management plan by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to remove the gray wolf population in Wyoming from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. Due to recovery efforts and the provisions of the revised state plan, the Wyoming wolf population is healthy and stable, current and future threats to wolves have been addressed, and a post-delisting monitoring and management framework has been developed. Today’s formal proposal follows an agreement with the state of Wyoming that serves as the blueprint for returning wolf management to...

Your Sept. 23 editorial “Way of the Wolf in Wyoming” implies that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Fish and Wildlife Service have somehow betrayed the species we worked so hard to recover. And it is recovered. Today, more than 1,650 wolves, in 244 packs, occupy the northern Rocky Mountains, exceeding recovery goals for 11 consecutive years. We understand the emotional reaction to wolf hunting, but the facts don’t support your conclusions. Wyoming’s plan will maintain a healthy wolf population...

...Wyoming, however, has an extremely high income per capita of $63,677 (4th highest in 2010), encouraged by some successful state policies such as no income tax and a favorable economic environment with pro-business state laws. This has led to the one of the nation’s lowest average unemployment and fastest growth rates in the last ten years. However, these policies suffer a high burden of federal taxation, increasing the amount of day Wyomingites work to pay off their government burden. Moreover, Wyoming is not without its own state-based problems that drive up the cost of government. Wyoming suffers from some of...

Federal Judge Donald Molloy held his nose and upheld a congressional rider Wednesday that removed Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in Idaho and Montana. The ruling will allow wolf hunting seasons set to begin next month to proceed as planned. Molloy, of Missoula, Mont., previously ruled against two federal rules that delisted wolves and scolded Congress Wednesday, saying the so-called wolf rider attached to a federal spending bill last May undermined and disrespected the rule of law. "Inserting environmental policy changes into appropriations bills may be politically expedient, but it transgresses the process envisioned by the Constitution by avoiding...

Facilities are being added at the Vore Buffalo Jump Historic site west of Beulah, Wyoming, to make the site more accessible to visitors. And this summer marks the first time scientists working at the site have been protected by a shelter built last year. The Vore Buffalo Jump is one of the most important archeological sites in the Black Hills area. It provides some of the most graphic evidence we have of how Native tribes living in the Black Hills area survived before the coming of Europeans and their horses. There are thousands of individual buffalo bones at the bottom...

WHEATLAND -- A Wheatland man shot and killed his three children and his brother, and shot and injured his wife Thursday evening. Platte County law enforcement got the initial call of shots fired at 5:45 p.m. Thursday. Wheatland Police officers and Platte County Sheriff's deputies responded to the 700 block of Oak Street, where they became involved in a brief standoff with Everett Conant III, who was born in 1975. His exact age was not available from police this morning. Conant surrendered without incident and is in custody. At a news conference this morning, Wheatland Police Chief Randy Chesser said...

While Wyoming has never regulated the open carry of a firearm, concealed carry was regulated and required a permit issued by the state. But not anymore. Wyoming’s ‘Constitutional Carry’ bill went into effect today propelling Wyoming into the elite group of states that allow citizens to carry a concealed firearm without requiring a permit in order to do so. But there are benefits to keeping the permit even after the bill takes effect ...

MISSOULA- The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation filed a note it plans to appeal any decision that adversely affects a state's right to manage fully recovered wolf populations. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy is expected to decide whether Congress acted within Constitutional bounds when it delisted wolves in parts of the West. "We are protecting our right to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals any decision that results in another setback for conservation and science-based wildlife management," said RMEF President and CEO David Allen. An unfavorable ruling may stop wolf hunts planned for this fall in both Montana...

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming was hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3, one of many earthquakes that the park is assailed with every year. According to local news sites and the US Geological Survey (USGS) May 8, 2011. ... A 7.5 magnitude earthquake, which occurred in 1959, near the Hebgen Lake though, had killed 28 people. According to geologists however, the Yellowstone caldera itself is unlikely to experience large earthquakes because the weakened bedrock is less likely to burst due to high subsurface temperatures.

Almost 50 million years ago, ants the size of hummingbirds roamed what is now Wyoming, a new fossil discovery reveals. These giant bugs may have crossed an Arctic land bridge between Europe and North America during a particularly warm period in Earth's history. At about 2 inches (5 cm) long, the specimen is a "monstrously big ant," said Bruce Archibald, a paleoentomologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who reported the discovery today (May 3) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Though fossils of loose giant ant wings have been found before in the United States,...

LOST SPRINGS, Wyo.- Residents of a Wyoming town said they are looking forward to the state changing their sign from "POP 1" to "POP 4," the true number of residents. Lost Springs residents said there were actually five people living in the town when the sign was made after the 2000 U.S. Census but they were unable to have it changed despite lobbying officials, The Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune reported Monday. "None of us know exactly what happened," Mayor Leda Price said. "I made a lot of calls ... It was like everybody was passing the buck." However, Price said the...

Here's a recipe for climate catastrophe: First, authorize enough new coal production in Wyoming to yield 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Then authorize a new export terminal in northwest Washington to ship that black gold to Asia, where the other half of Chimerica will burn it to power the factories we shipped them in the infinite wisdom of globalization. This process is called carbon offshoring, and it's the nastiest, planet-killingest scheme of which you've probably never heard. China is just the beginning: ... The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should block these deals on national...

Down in Austin, Texas, the legislature has in its hopper, a law to keep Islam’s sharia law from being used in Texas. Such laws have cropped up in Alabama, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and possibly three other states but I have not been able to identify which ones. Oklahoma passed a constitutional amendment against sharia law. It was approved by the citizens with a seventy percent majority. A good firm majority. Unfortunately, one Islamic gentleman filed a federal lawsuit against it. Federal judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange placed an injunction then later ruled it unconstitutional. It...

http://www.ammoland.com/2011/03/02/constitutional-carry-now-the-law-in-wyoming/

House committee OKs concealed-weapons bill The House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee discussion of Senate File 47, Concealed weapons, is about 52 minutes. The quality of the recording is not great, but voices are clear. By Bill McCarthy, Cowboy State Free Press CHEYENNE – A committee voted 8-1 today to send legislation allowing law-abiding Wyoming citizens to carry concealed firearms to the House floor. “This bill is about a law abiding citizen’s right to carry open or concealed in the state of Wyoming,” said Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, a bill sponsor. “It is very difficult to restore a right...

The barbaric Middle Eastern practice of honor killing has made an appearance on our shores. It happens when men murder members of their own family to avenge purported slights against Islam. For instance, Pakistan-born Muzzammil Hassan allegedly beat and then beheaded his wife Aasiya in Buffalo, N.Y. on Feb. 12, 2009. Six days earlier, Aasiya announced her intention to file for divorce and obtained a restraining order. In another example, Iraq-born Faleh-Hassan Almaleki allegedly ran down his 20-year-old daughter Noor with his Jeep Cherokee near their Phoenix home on Oct. 20, 2009. Noor was killed and the mother of her...

The immigration wars of 2011 lasted a week in Wyoming. This afternoon the Wyoming House shot down Rep. Illoway's Arizona-style immigration law. The bill died in the Republican controlled "Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee." According to Bloomberg News, no member of the "Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee" moved to vote on Illoway's bill. The ACLU, Wyoming Contractor's Association, and the Wyoming Lodging & Restaurant Association - the usual pro-amnesty coalition - opposed the proposed new law. In case you are wondering, Republicans control and dominate this committee in the Wyoming House: Chairman Thomas Lockhart (R), James Byrd (D),...

Wyoming is one of the many Western states that will be taking on illegal immigration this year. Every Western state with the exceptions of Oregon and Washington have some type of bill under consideration that I am tracking. In Wyoming, Rep. Pete Illoway in the Wyoming House is introducing an Arizona-style immigration law. He describes it as a "clone" of Arizona's popular SB 1070 which has become a model for other states. The bill would allow any state resident in Wyoming to file an action in court against a local government or police department for failing to enforce federal immigration...

Governor Terry Branstad says the state is signing onto the Florida lawsuit against the federal health care reform law. Tim Albrecht, the governor’s spokesperson, says the lawsuit challenges the individual mandate of the federal healthcare bill that would force Iowans to buy the federal government’s mandate healthcare insurance. He the law also expands Medicaid, making it very costly with a “one size fits all approach” that he says would force the states to cut other critical programs. Albrecht says the Republican governor is well aware of the impact of the potential impact the health care bill would have on the...

While one conservationist sees room to negotiate, two hunters disagree.Two seemingly contradictory wolf decisions from two U.S. District Court judges in Wyoming and Montana indicate that it is time to move the wolf debate out of the courts, the head of a regional conservation group said Tuesday. The decisions also show that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “has not done a very good job in terms of keeping up with its legal responsibilities,” Greater Yellowstone Coalition executive director Mike Clark said. At issue are rulings from U.S. District Court judges Donald Molloy, of Missoula, Mont., and Alan B. Johnson,...

Apologies! So here's two Geology Pictures of the Week, very different. Ansel Adams-ish picture of Old Faithful (click for 2x): And here's Wadi Hitan in Egypt, where whale fossils are found (this is a National Geographic wallpaper image). Click for 2x. 1600 x 1200 wallpaper NatGeo article, " Valley of the Whales"

University of Florida researchers presenting new fossil evidence of an exceptionally well-preserved 55-million-year-old North American mammal have found it shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans.The study published today in the online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, describes the cranial anatomy of the extinct mammal, Labidolemur kayi. High resolution CT scans of the specimens allowed researchers to study minute details in the skull, including bone structures smaller than one-tenth of a millimeter. Similarities in bone features with other mammals show L. kayi's living relatives are rodents, rabbits, flying lemurs, tree shrews and primates....

While the civilized world rejoiced at the amazing rescue of the thirty-three Chilean miners after they had spent sixty-nine days trapped in a pit a half-mile underground, some shallow American liberals sought to make a bit of political hay out of the event. And though the despicable effort had no discernable dampening effect on the joyous rescue of the miners, it did offer a glimpse into the murky thinking of those on the left, going deeper than their shameless opportunism and revealing a disturbing level of contempt for their fellow citizens. Chris Matthews, host of the MSNBC political show "Hardball,"...

Wyoming bill sets up fund to fight health care lawJOAN BARRON Casper Star-Tribune RavalliRepublic.com Posted: Friday, September 24, 2010 7:46 am CHEYENNE - A legislative committee will vote in December on a bill to set up a $2 million litigation account to pay for legal challenges to portions of the new national health care reform law. The Joint Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services agreed during a meeting Sept. 8-9 in Buffalo to have the bill drafted. Committee chairman Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, who wrote the bill, said he expects problems to develop when the Obama administration writes rules...

Legend Rock carries 10,000 years of profound beliefs Ice Age paintings and carvings in Europe are revered as sublime achievements of early humans, yet the prehistoric rock art in the American West is far less known. At Legend Rock in central Wyoming, 10,000 years of profound beliefs are inscribed on red sandstone cliffs. As the Pleistocene period ended approximately 12,000 years ago with the passing of the last Ice Age, people were spreading from Asia to North America and south into what is now the U.S. Archaeologists have found evidence that the early immigrants took advantage of the moderating climate...

On this day in 1870, in Wyoming territory, women voted for the first time anywhere in the United States [pictured]. The suffrage bill had been signed into law earlier that year by the Republican governor, John Campbell. Appointed by a Republican president, Ulysses Grant, Campbell would later serve as Assistant Secretary of State in the Grant administration. The first woman to cast her ballot was Louisa Ann Swain, of Laramie.

Perhaps you've seen the rotating ads on CMR promoting the Mystic Monk coffee. Well, they do more than roast beans. They are a newly-founded energetic community of contemplative Carmelites known as the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel who are serious about what they do: "strict monastic enclosure, two hours of contemplative prayer daily, study and spiritual reading, and manual labor." While the community is currently still small (under 20) they are being inundated with vocation inquiries and are planning to build a new monastery on a striking site in Wyoming to be known as the...

Governor - GOP Primary August 17, 2010 - 11:37PM ET Wyoming - 393 of 486 Precincts Reporting - 81% Name Party Votes Vote % Meyer , Rita GOP 21,256 29% Mead , Matt GOP 21,206 29% Micheli , Ron GOP 19,610 26% Simpson , Colin GOP 11,251 15% Kousoulos , Alan GOP 336 0% Ubben , Tom GOP 313 0% Self , John GOP 226 0% Governor - Dem Primary August 17, 2010 - 11:34PM ET Wyoming - 389 of 486 Precincts Reporting - 80% Name Party Votes Vote % Petersen , Leslie Dem 8,513 48% Gosar , Pete Dem...

http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/voterinformation/Pages/VotebyMailFAQ.aspx Which counties vote by mail? 38 of Washington's 39 counties vote by mail. Pierce County still maintains poll sites. The polls are open from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on Election Day.

Story Published: Aug 10, 2010 at 7:54 AM CDT Story Updated: Aug 10, 2010 at 1:12 PM CDT SNIPPET: "SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Viewers are calling the KY3 Newsroom and posting information on our KY3 Ozarks Today Facebook page about getting the wrong channels on Dish Network on Tuesday morning. Some of the channels are apparently in Chinese, Arabic and other languages." SNIPPET: "UPDATE On Tuesday, August 10, 2010 12:24 PM, KY3 received an official statement from Dish Network regarding the issue. “Starting at approximately 3:30 a.m. MDT, satellite uplink provider, EchoStar, experienced an equipment failure associated with a primary video...

Federal agents on Monday captured one of two inmates who escaped from an Arizona prison in Wyoming, and were still searching for the other fugitive and a suspected accomplice. Tracy Province was arrested with a handgun in northwest Wyoming, about 60 miles outside of Yellowstone National Park, said David Gonzales, the U.S. Marshal for Arizona. The other inmate, John McCluskey, as well as suspected accomplice Casslyn Welch, were still on the lam.

Federal authorities say two men who escaped from a private Arizona prison and a woman thought to have helped them are believed to be in the area around Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Marshals Service told Fox News on Sunday that Tracy Province, John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch may be hiding in portions of the park that span Montana and Wyoming. Authorities say it's now believed that Province has separated from McCluskey and Welch. The manhunt for the three intensified after forensic evidence linked at least one of the inmates to the killings of an Oklahoma couple who was traveling...

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s job approval rating is lowest in Wyoming and Utah, according to the Gallup polling company, which tracked the numbers for all 50 states and the District of Columbia from January through June 2010. The poll of more than 90,000 adults nationwide showed that in Wyoming, for example, only 29 percent of the people there approved of the job the president was doing. That was the lowest approval rating in the states and D.C.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – An unprecedented special state oil and gas lease auction to handle a rush to drill for oil in eastern Wyoming has grossed a near-record $42 million. The Office of State Lands and Investments held Friday's auction in response to demand from oil companies to snap up leasing rights. Figures released Monday showed bids for the right to drill on state land ranged as high as $3,200 an acre. That's comparable to the high prices paid in May at a regular state lease auction that grossed a record $45.6 million for Wyoming. Friday's special sale was Wyoming's second...

As our own lives become more insulated, virtual, and comfortable, actual episodes of suffering and endurance have become popular stuff. Mt. Everest mishaps, perfect storms, cold mountains, you name it. The name we like best, though, is "Mormon Handcart Tragedy," three words we had never seen so strung before last summer, and now we notice the phrase everywhere. The latest appearance was in a 2004 feature story about the depredation in the New York Times. (Full ignorance disclosure: none of the Roadsideamerica.com Team are practicing Mormons) During a trip last year, we saw two wax representations of the Handcart Tragedy...

Three Gillette girls accused of stealing more than 140 garden gnomes face misdemeanor charges of possessing stolen property, larceny and trespassing. The teenagers were caught trying to steal a lawn ornament last week in Sundance. Police found 143 garden gnomes in their trunk while searching their car. The girls, whose names were not released, told police all of the gnomes were stolen in Gillette as part of a prank. They have been charged in Crook County and also are expected to face charges in Campbell County, Gillette police Detective Becky Elger said. Two of the girls are 16 years old;...

The Carmelites of Wyoming are looking to expand their present facilities, and McCrery Architects have come up an ambitious design for the Carmel. James McCrery, the architect, offers this statement: The vision for the New Carmel is for an authentically Catholic, Carmelite Monastery that embraces the French tradition of gothic architecture. This is the architecture that the Catholic Church truly owns! It developed in the 13th century in response to the strong growth of monastic life at that time. 800 years later, in this 21st century of Our Lord, these Holy Monks live a rich monastic life that is...

William Ayers is Wyoming-bound. We’ve kept you abreast of developments regarding the University of Wyoming’s attempt to ban controversial professor William Ayers from speaking on campus — an effort that led to a lawsuit filed by Denver attorney David Lane. Yesterday, United States District Court Judge William Downes held a hearing in Casper at which the university claimed its actions were motivated by security concerns, not speech issues. But Downes didn’t buy that. Moments ago, he delivered a ruling videoconferenced to Denver during which he ordered that Ayers be allowed to speak at the university tomorrow. Downes cited a four-part...

Qualifying Scores for the Class of 2010 National Merit Semifinalists: Alabama 208 Alaska 211 Arizona 210 Arkansas 203 California 218 Colorado 215 Connecticut 218 Delaware 219 District of Columbia 221 Florida 211 Georgia 214 Hawaii 214 Idaho 209 Illinois 214 Indiana 211 Iowa 209 Kansas 211 Kentucky 209 Louisiana 207 Maine 213 Maryland 221 Massachusetts 221 Michigan 209 Minnesota 215 Mississippi 203 Missouri 211 Montana 204 Nebraska 207 Nevada 202 New Hampshire 213 New Jersey 221 New Mexico 208 New York 218 North Carolina 214 North Dakota 202 Ohio 211 Oklahoma 207 Oregon 213 Pennsylvania 214 Rhode Island 217 South...

By Genevieve Judge, Local News 8 Reporter BLACKFOOT - A man in Blackfoot is facing several charges after officers say his pit bull attacked a dozen people at the Blackfoot Sixth Grade School Thursday. 11 of the 12 were students, one was a teacher. Three of the students were sent to the hospital. Abel DeLuna, 28, is facing misdemeanor charges of harboring a vicious dog, dog rushing a person, failure to get a dog license and failure to get a rabies shot. Thursday was an unusual day for sixth grader Jaylinn Eddy. Her recess at the Blackfoot Sixth Grade School...

Ayers Reconsidered Bethany Stotts, March 31, 2010 The 2008 elections are over, but former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers is not likely to be out of the limelight anytime soon. The University of Wyoming’s Social Justice Research Center recently canceled an April 5 speech by former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers due to “personal and professional reasons, including safety concerns,” according to a March 30 UW press release. This isn’t the first time. Ayers’ scheduled appearance “…raised hundreds of objections from citizens and politicians…” reported Bob Moen for the Associated Press on March 30. He later adds that “UW spokesman...

Robert Brot is no Richard Gere, according to his "Pretty Woman." The Manhattan real-estate developer who says he rescued a woman from a life of prostitution, as Gere's character did in the movie, was more like her pimp than her Prince Charming, she told The Post. "Tried to save me from the escort business? No, he got me into it," said Lind sey DeLeon, 26. "He told me, 'I'm going to show you the high life. I'm going to show you how to live.' And he did." Brot, 57, paid for her to move from Wyoming to the city,...

Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming — they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms. The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains. > "When they're really thick, people say they'll eat T-shirts on a line," he said as he recalled a time in the mid-1980s when the grasshoppers were so thick that you couldn't put your hand on the shady side of a fence...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Some members of the Wyoming Legislature want to instill "cowboy ethics" in state law, lest lawmakers and citizens forget the state's western roots. The code would stress the importance of living with courage, keeping promises, finishing what you start and saying more by talking less. Based on the "Code of the West" outlined in a 2004 book called "Cowboy Ethics" by James Owen, a retired Wall Street investor from Texas, Senate File 51 galloped through the Wyoming Senate last week and on Monday lassoed unanimous approval from the House Minerals Committee.....