WyoFile editors scour hundreds of sources every day for important and interesting news about Wyoming. Here is their latest selection.

• Simpson: Disabled Vets Not Helping Deficit--Daily Kos Blog
  September 2, 2010
  Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson's comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes."The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee...."It's the kind of thing that's just driving us to this $1 trillion, $400 billion deficit this year," Simpson said. "It's not that I'm an uncaring person, but common sense is the most uncommon thing in Washington."
• My Summer Home - Timothy Egan, NYTimes.com
  September 2, 2010
  We slept on hard ground in the high, wind-raked expanse of Wyoming’s brown grasslands, and then thrilled at the very sight of the first 14,000-foot mountains to appear in Colorado. Here was Rocky Mountain National Park, a popout card come to life, and Garden of the Gods, a rare act of apt cartographic imagination.
• Magistrate recommends dismissing states' gun suit--Washington Post
  September 2, 2010
  HELENA, Mont. -- A group of states seeking freedom from federal gun laws were dealt a blow Wednesday when a federal magistrate recommended dismissal of a lawsuit launched by gun rights advocates who argue Congress has overstepped its bounds with gun control.The magistrate sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, which says courts have already decided that Congress can set standards on such items as guns through its power to regulate interstate commerce. The recommendation now goes to the federal judge in Missoula hearing the case - and even gun rights advocates recognized it is likely he will side with the magistrate.The issue was launched last year with "firearm freedoms act" laws backed by gun advocates in Montana and led to a lawsuit filed by gun advocates with the backing of Montana, Utah, Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia.
• Constitution Party mainstay moving to Flathead, Mt - Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana
  September 2, 2010
  Baldwin was the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2008 and also served as its vice-presidential nominee in 2004. He garnered some 200,000 votes in 2008.In 2008, Baldwin received the endorsement of Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for president after Paul ended his own campaign. Baldwin earlier had endorsed Paul in the Republican primaries. The Montana Constitution Party nominated Paul and not Baldwin for president, which it could do since it was not aligned with the national Constitution Party.Even though Montana has a lot of Democrat officials — U.S. Rep. Denny Rehburg is the Republicans’ only statewide elected office holder — Baldwin said he doesn’t place a lot of confidence in party labels. He believes Montanans have a love of freedom and an independent spirit, along with the residents of Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas.Although President Barack Obama lost Montana by only 3 percent to Sen. John McCain in the 2008 election, Baldwin said the closeness of the race was because “people were fed up with the George Bush brand of Republicanism, and so was I.”
• State of Wyoming seeks buyers for abandoned "Go Blue" CBM wells--Casper Star-Tribune
  September 1, 2010
  Some 10 years after urging newcomers in the coal-bed methane gas rush to "Go Blue," the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments is trying to find buyers for dozens of abandoned gas wells on state lands -- often depicted in the color blue on oil and gas lease maps.Under a sealed competitive bid process, the state is now offering oil and gas lease rights on 24 state parcels in Sheridan County. Each parcel includes one to 16 coal-bed methane wells, according to state officials. Each lease was either defaulted on or was canceled by the state for various reasons.Harold Kemp, assistant director of the state's mineral leasing and royalty compliance division and author of the 1999 "Go Blue" letter, said he does not think that the state's urging to develop in 1999 played any role in the eventual abandonment of some coal-bed methane operations.
• Feds: Don't drink contaminated water in Pavillion Area--AP
  September 1, 2010
  PAVILLION, Wyo. -- The federal government is telling people not to drink the water from 40 wells in a central Wyoming town, including 17 wells contaminated by hydrocarbons.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released its findings from testing 19 wells for residential drinking water plus four wells for livestock and irrigation in the Pavillion area.Seventeen drinking water wells have low levels of hydrocarbons possibly associated with oil and gas drilling from the 1960s through the present day. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says high levels of sodium, sulfates and other inorganic materials unrelated to drilling are reason enough not to drink the water in a total of 40 wells tested since last year. About 100 people attended a public meeting on the findings.
• Where Wyoming, Other States Get Their Money - NYTimes.com Interactive
  September 1, 2010
  For example, not all states have a personal income tax; those states that forgo personal income tax are able to do so in part because they have access to large revenues from other sources. States with valuable natural resources, like Alaska and Wyoming, can rely on taxing those resources without driving the activity out of state, since the natural resources are geographically fixed. And states that draw a lot of tourism, like Florida and Nevada, can fill their coffers using sales taxes.
• New Yellowstone Visitor Center Is Tame by Nature - Review - NYTimes.com
  September 1, 2010
  Maybe that taming is part of the point: there is something about Old Faithful that seems to encapsulate all the passions and paradoxes of national parks. The Old Faithful Visitor Education Center acknowledges that: you enter the new building (designed by CTA Architects Engineers of Billings, Mont., to echo the inn and other park architecture) and you face a 36.5-foot-high pentagonal window space looking out on Old Faithful as if the geyser were the altar of a new form of cathedral. Homage is being paid. The geyser is the center of attention as you enter the 26,000-square-foot building; its spacious entrance hall and peaked roof lead the gaze outward and upward. But the geyser is so carefully framed here, it can seem almost denatured. The center contains a bookstore, a gift shop, a theater for introductory films, a research area and a 4,500-square-foot exhibition space. It is grander than many Park Service facilities; the park has a private fund-raising associate, the Yellowstone Park Foundation, which collected $15 million in donations, matched by $12 million in federal money. Nature is here being presented for the delight of millions, and if it isn’t seen from behind glass, it might as well be.
• Public Documents To Detail Chemicals Used in Wyoming Drilling--Dustin Bleizeffer, Casper Star-Tribune
  August 30, 2010
  Despite vigorous opposition from industry, it appears state regulators and the general public will have broad access to documents detailing chemicals used in oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other drilling operations.Wyoming is set to implement new rules forcing the oil and gas industry to reveal such information beginning Sept. 15.While the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission doesn't plan to make special efforts to compile and present the information to the public, agency officials say the information will be readily available.Operators must disclose the information within regular permitting, sundry and other documentation they submit to the agency. The documentation is listed on a well-by-well basis on the commission's website (wogcc.state.wy.us)"I think if there's an incident, people should have a better feel for what went into the wells," said commission supervisor Tom Doll. "We'll see exactly what they pumped into the well. Further, they have to report what comes out of the well after they've completed the (well stimulations)."
• Ranchers Speak Their Minds at Historic Meeting in Colorado | NewWest.net
  August 29, 2010
  Ranchers arrived at hotels, at campgrounds, anywhere they could find to sleep in Fort Collins last night in preparation for today’s meeting jointly held by the Departments of Justice and Agriculture to address competition--and, more precisely, the lack of it--in livestock industries. Advocates for the cattle industry, R-CALF USA chief among them, pushed to fill meeting rooms at Colorado State University this morning as speakers from the federal and state levels gave their takes on enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, which is in place to guard against monopolies in meatpacking. That law, Montana’s Attorney General Steve Bullock told the crowd, needs “a new set of dentures.” Dept. of Justice antitrust attorney, Christine Varney, chimed in: “I don’t know what the answer is, but I sure know there is a problem.”
• Wyo. congressmen "floating in oil" - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online
  August 29, 2010
  CHEYENNE -- Oil Change International has launched a website ( http://dirtyenergymoney.com/ )that claims oil industry contributions may influence the voting record of Wyoming's U.S. senators.The nonprofit research and advocacy organization profiled 46 Democratic and Republican U.S. senators, posting energy contribution totals and votes on oil industry tax cuts and bailout legislation. CleanUptheSenate.com shows smiling senators bobbing in a sea of petroleum as part of a six-figure advertising and social media campaign.
• The American Spectator : Why Colin Simpson Lost
  August 29, 2010
  But why did Colin Simpson finish a dismal fourth? In a previous piece I speculated that the race should have been a battle between Simpson and Micheli, two experienced pols with long statewide legislative records (Simpson served 12 years in the Wyoming House; Micheli 15). But this is an anti-incumbent year, even for Republicans.
• Simpson Apologizes to Critic - NYTimes.com
  August 29, 2010
  Alan K. Simpson, the Republican co-chairman of President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission, removed his “size 15 feet” from his mouth to apologize to a critic on Wednesday for a stinging letter in which he compared Social Security to “a milk cow with 310 million tits.”The apology came as some liberal groups and members of Congress who oppose any changes to Social Security benefits called on Mr. Obama to fire Mr. Simpson, a former senator from Wyoming long known for his irreverent and often biting remarks.But at the White House, Jennifer Psaki, the deputy communications director, said, “Alan Simpson has apologized and while we regret and do not condone his comments, we accept his apology and he will continue to serve
• Pilots don’t like Air Force Training Plans for MT,WY--Billings Gazette
  August 29, 2010
  Wade Cebulski of the Montana Pilots Association said because the Air Force plans to fly planes as low as 500 feet above ground to more than 30,000 feet, private pilots in small planes as well as regional commercial flights could be affected.Debbie Alke, with the Montana Aeronautics Division, said the state is concerned about commercial and private flights through the area, as well as emergency medical flights. There’s also concern that the military training area is so large that small pilots trying to avoid it entirely will face high fuel costs.
• Gov race has Teton County flavor-Chad Baldwin, Casper Star-Tribune
  August 29, 2010
  Taking potshots at Teton County is a popular pastime for many Wyomingites. While many of us enjoy visiting scenic Jackson Hole, the socioeconomic differences between the resort community and the rest of the state have created something of a division between the two -- and even some animosity.In fact, some people go so far as to declare that the culture, lifestyle and values of Jackson Hole residents are so different that Teton County really shouldn't be considered part of Wyoming.Well, guess what? I'm sorry to break it to all of you Teton County haters, but after Tuesday's primary election, it's clear that Wyoming's next governor is going to "come" from Jackson Hole.
• Wyoming revamps sage grouse core areas plan--Dustin Bleizeffer, Casper Star-Tribune
  August 26, 2010
  Gov. Dave Freudenthal this morning issued a revised executive order updating Wyoming's sage grouse Core Population Area strategy, first implemented in 2008 to help avoid a listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act.The core areas represent habitats where special restrictions apply to several activities, including energy development, agriculture and recreation. The new executive order includes modified boundaries describing the core areas, including corridors for potential electrical transmission lines.The genesis of the revised strategy was to consider new information from ongoing field monitoring, and to grant some flexibility for virtually all forms of industrial activity inside the core areas except for wind energy.The sage grouse core areas strategy was revisited using new data developed from a $500,000 study funded by the Wyoming Legislature, and was developed by an implementation team that included various stakeholders."We need to protect what truly needs protecting and provide flexibility and opportunity outside core areas," Freudenthal said in a prepared statement this morning. "Sage grouse management, as outlined in this executive order, is driven by the best data we have regarding sage grouse habitats, populations and impacts to the species."
• Wyoming Supreme Court Upholds Access on North Platt--Deseret News
  August 26, 2010
  CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Outdoors lovers can continue to hunt and fish on a blue-ribbon stretch of the North Platte River west of Casper, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.The court ruling, written by Justice E. James Burke, sides with state lawyers and rejects a challenge from landowners trying to restrict public use of the popular Lusby Public Fishing Area.The area, which has been open to the public since the 1960s, offers one of the only access points on the river between Gray Reef and Casper. It's particularly popular with commercial fishing guides as a take-out point for drift boats.
• Cheyenne gay couple challenges Wyo. marriage law--SF Chronicle
  August 26, 2010
  A gay couple has filed a federal lawsuit in Cheyenne challenging the Wyoming law that defines marriage as existing only between a man and a woman.David Shupe-Roderick, 25, and Ryan W. Dupree, 21, — who are representing themselves in court, although neither is a lawyer — said the Laramie County Clerk's Office refused to issue them a marriage license on Aug. 9.They are asking U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson to block Wyoming from enforcing any laws that block gays and lesbians from access to civil marriage."I've tried to kind of not rock the boat, so to speak, but there comes a time in everyone's life when there are things that are wrong and you have a moral duty to stand up and you have to advocate for what's right," Shupe-Roderick said Tuesday. "I think Ryan and I agree that this is something that is wrong, and it's something that needs to be changed."
• Pondering the primary by Joan Barron, Casper Star-Tribune
  August 24, 2010
  State Auditor Rita Meyer proved once and for all that gender is no longer an issue in Wyoming gubernatorial campaigns.Meyer lost by only 700 or so votes despite being outspent by more than 2 to 1 by Republican primary election winner Matt Mead. She was highly qualified for the job and ran a good campaign.Meyer also was a target. The last week before the primary election, the campaigns of two of her opponents, Colin Simpson and Ron Micheli, went negative as we say regarding Meyer's position on "Obamacare."The ads featured her different quotes on whether the state should join with other states in challenging the health care reform legislation in court.The Micheli campaign ran ads while the Simpson campaign sent out fliers.After the election, Meyer told Channel 5 she had been "tarred" by her opponents.Whether those negative ads cost her more than 700 votes cannot be proved or disproved.Obviously the other campaigns felt Meyer was vulnerable. But it was because of her statements, not because of her gender.
• 12 of 18 Eligible Wyoming Schools Turn Down Stimulus Funds - NYTimes.com
  August 24, 2010
  In Wyoming, 12 of 18 eligible schools turned down the money. “We only had a couple of weeks before the deadline and would just about have had to shut down regular operations to figure out how to spend all that money,” said M. Neil Terhune, superintendent of Carbon County No. 1 District in Wyoming.
• The Associated Press: Monastery plan on Wyoming ranch sparks debate
  August 23, 2010
  MEETEETSE, Wyo. — A proposal to build a 145,000-square-foot monastery and coffee-roasting barn on a remote Wyoming ranch drew so many opponents and supporters to a public hearing that a second session had to be scheduled.The New Mount Carmel Foundation of America wants to buy the 2,500-acre Elk Meadow Ranch outside Meeteetse in northwest Wyoming and build a French Gothic-style monastery for the Carmelite Order.Forty monks would live at the monastery. The coffee roasting facility would supply the group's Mystic Monk brand.The New Mount Carmel Foundation needs two permits from Park County, which require the approval of the planning and zoning commission and the county commissioners.An Aug. 17 hearing of planning and zoning panel lasted nearly four hours, and about 20 residents were still waiting to be heard when it ended. Commissioners voted to resume the hearing on Sept. 7.Opponents said the monastery would increase traffic and could affect wildlife and livestock. They also raised concerns about wastewater and effects on the landscape.Some said they were not given enough time to review the plans and applications, and that the documents leave unanswered questions."This structure is built for 1,000 years — we're only asking for 30 more days," said Debra Wendtland, a Sheridan attorney representing four nearby landowners.
• Ex-BLM leader saw his view of Christo proposal evolve - The Denver Post
  August 23, 2010
  Back in 1997, when Patrick Shea first heard of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's plan to dress miles of Colorado's Arkansas River in shimmering fabric, he wondered to himself how anyone could consider the project art. He was national director of the Bureau of Land Management back then. Raised in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, he considered art "something with a frame around it."Today, Shea has become more than an advocate for their "Over the River" plan. He's urging former colleagues to consider public art on public land as one of the multiple uses allowed under the BLM's 1976 charter, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act."One of the reasons I became such a big advocate for 'Over the River' was that it expands the categories people have in thinking about public lands," said Shea, who left the BLM's helm in 1999 and now is a lawyer in Salt Lake City.
• Deficit? - Come Again, Republicans? - Editorial NYTimes.com
  August 23, 2010
  Republicans are also eagerly attacking another important source of savings: the new law’s elimination of the subsidies given to the private managed-care plans known as Medicare Advantage. That is projected to save $132 billion over the next decade, but don’t expect to hear about that part on the campaign trail.Instead, Republicans are warning seniors enrolled in these plans that their coverage may disappear. Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, even charged that the cuts would “kill” the Medicare Advantage program, which now serves some 11 million beneficiaries. That is preposterous.The law simply forces managed-care plans to compete on an even basis with the traditional Medicare program. Some beneficiaries may face higher costs or lose some gold-plated benefits, but only the most inefficient plans will disappear when the unjustified subsidies that are propping them up are withdrawn.
• Air Force Powder River Environmental Impact Statement--Executive Summary
  August 23, 2010
  PIERRE, S.D. -- The U.S. Air Force issued a draft environmental impact statement on its plans to quadruple the airspace in which it can conduct training exercises with its B-1 and B-52 bombers stationed in the Dakotas.The 496-page document released Friday looks at several options and outlines potential impacts dealing with noise, air quality, the use of land and the effect on both ground and air safety.Expanding the training range could affect some commercial and civilian flights, but is unlikely to cause significant problems in air quality or harm water or soil in the area, according to the draft report, which also acknowledges noise from low-flying bombers could startle and annoy people, livestock and wild animals.The Powder River Training Complex is centered just northwest of where South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana meet. The Air Force wants to expand the training area for B1-B Lancers from South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base and B-52 Stratofortress bombers from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base.Here is a list of the Wyoming public meetings on the Air Force's proposal to expand its training exercises):SUNDANCE Thursday, Sept. 16,Sundance Secondary School,1016 E Cleveland;GILLETTE,Monday, Oct. 18,Allen Mickelson Fire Training Center,701 Larch; SHERIDAN,Tuesday, Oct. 19,Sheridan Senior Center North Entrance,211 Smith Street
• Rex pioneers Niobrara Shale oil in Laramie County--Washpost
  August 23, 2010
  CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The first of potentially dozens of new oil wells in Laramie County is being drilled by Rex Energy Corp.State College, Pa.-based Rex began drilling the well 14 miles northeast of Cheyenne on July 22. The company expects to finish drilling in a couple weeks.Excitement has become widespread that the right combination of drilling techniques could unlock large amounts of oil from the Niobrara Shale beneath eastern Wyoming, northern Colorado and western Nebraska.The techniques include horizontal drilling. After drilling its well nearly 8,000 feet deep, Rex plans to drill about 4,000 feet sideways, company President and CEO Benjamin Hulburt said Wednesday. "At this point we plan to drill at least two wells this year and potentially six, with the intent of moving into a full-scale drilling program in 2011," he said.