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Pinedale Roundup chosen for national newspaper initiative
Pinedale Roundup
The Pinedale Roundup has survived blizzards, boom and bust cycles and the slow rearrangement of how people learn what is happening around them. Now the Roundup is preparing for something less visible, but no less consequential: a reconsideration of how a local newspaper survives at all. Over the coming weeks, the Roundup will participate in a national initiative examining new business models for community newspapers. Pinedale is the fifth newspaper in the nation selected for this opportunity, which has strengthened newspapers in North Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, the Roundup reports. Read the full story.
Wyoming Highway Patrol struggles with staffing, low starting salaries
Uinta County Herald
In early February, the Wyoming Highway Patrol Association launched its first-ever online awareness campaign to draw attention to its ongoing compensation and employee retention crisis. The Uinta County Herald met with the WHPA President Lt. Matt Arnell, who is based in Evanston, to discuss the current state of the Wyoming Highway Patrol. “I’m advocating for highway patrol,” Arnell said, “but all state employees are in the hurt locker when it comes to pay issues.” Read the full story.
Douglas families fight to make adults stalking minors a felony
Douglas Budget
Cathy and Dan Holman and their teenage daughter, Gillian, testified before the Wyoming Legislature House Joint Committee on behalf of House Bill 8, working to convince legislators to make it a felony for an adult to stalk a minor. It is presently a misdemeanor. Gillian, 17, and Preston Sorensen, 18, are Glenrock High School seniors. When they were 15 years old, they were stalked by a Glenrock resident who pleaded no contest to charges related to stalking the teens, the Douglas Budget reports. Read the full story.
Casper’s Erickson to run for House District 37 seat
Oil City News
For some time, Casper resident Betsy Erickson said she has felt unrepresented in the Wyoming Legislature. Rather than wait for a politician who shares her values to arrive, she decided to be that politician herself, and recently announced her candidacy for the House District 37 seat on the Democratic Party ticket. A lifelong resident of Casper, Erickson works in communications for WyoUnited, a nonpartisan pro-choice advocacy group fighting for reproductive health rights, Oil City News reports. Read the full story.
Weak layer in current snowpack caused fatal LaBarge Creek avalanche
Jackson Hole News&Guide
The investigation into a January avalanche that killed a Utah snowmobiler east of Star Valley found that the avalanche victim’s partner dug him out within the “window of survival,” or the 15-minute period within which people buried by avalanches typically survive. The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center review also found that the victim’s avalanche airbag wasn’t able to save him, and that the snow failed on buried surface hoar, a weak layer in the snowpack that is still causing avalanches, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reports. Read the full story.