Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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The Wyoming Highway Patrol has taken a keen interest in teaming up with C.O.R.E. to bring awareness to their impact-filled program titled “Caught in the Moment” to all Freshman High School students across the state of Wyoming. C.O.R.E. stands for Community Organized Resources for Educating our youth and is a non-profit organization based out of Rapid City, SD. The program was founded by Rick McPherson, a 23-year law enforcement veteran who decided to take a new proactive approach to prevent needless teenage tragedies. McPherson created a uni...
For government to be of, by and for the people it must be out in front of the people. The theme for Sunshine Week 2019 is simply, "It's your right to know." The reason it's your right to know is that it's your government. From the courthouse, to the statehouse to the White House, it is your right to know what government is up to. Every deliberation by city council, county commission, the General Assembly or U.S. Congress is the people's business. Every penny spent by local, state and federal...
They say that a pet will always end up resembling its owner and vice versa, but I have reason to hope this is just a myth. If it’s not, there’s no hope for me at all and I might as well just give up and ask someone else to take charge of my decision-making. While we have three furry friends running around our tiny apartment (literally, in the case of the cat, but only at 3 a.m. and I’d be more inclined to call it “stomping”), I speak in particular of our youngest. Midget, our Oglala Pet Proje...
I am finally back home—quite a change -27 degrees this am and several feet of snow on the ground. Makes the Capitol seem like a banana belt. The legislature adjourned “sine die” at 1:45 a.m. on Thursday. Sine die means a hard adjournment that the body cannot reconvene. This means there is no chance to override any vetoes the governor may make. We did override two governors vetoes on Wednesday – neither of any consequence. The governor did some good work with his other vetoes, taking out some pa...
Anyone who may have doubted Governor Mark Gordon’s conservative chops will have been delighted to read his letter to the legislative body last week. Before signing the supplemental budget, he took the opportunity to take a wire brush to the bill and clean out what he perceived as erosions of proper process, overreaches and plain old mistakes. Three things in particular stood out to us: first, that he took this stand at the very beginning of his first term of office, showing adherence to the promises he laid out in his campaign. Second, that h...
On my very first trip across the pond, I landed in New York City. Bleary-eyed, I staggered the unfamiliar streets in search of sustenance. That was when I stumbled across one of the best ideas America has ever had, though I didn’t know it at the time. At first, I thought I’d been unlucky enough to secure the world’s pushiest waitress. She kept asking if I was done with my soda. I was, for the most part, but I was saving the melted ice to wash down my last bite, so I didn’t want to part with th...
Malicious Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins. Prov. 10:12 By nature, humanity is born bad. Bent toward doing more evil than good (Hab. 2:4). You may argue this, although a simple review of your day will prove otherwise. Most have remorse upon committing a wrong, quickly recognizing the mistake and seeking forgiveness from their victim or the One above. It is a lesson learned, a wrong righted and a society mended and shaped into decency. A noticeable trait in people lately is the practice of malice. The desire and intention to...
We would like to take the opportunity this week to say thank you to everyone who subscribes to this newspaper or purchases it each week from the shelves. Without support for journalism, this nation would be a different place indeed. The New York Times released the results of a survey recently that said 73 percent of news consumers in America who subscribe to a news source say it has never been more important to support quality journalism. It was this survey that launched the newspaper’s ad campaign called, “The Truth Is Worth It”, which aimed...
Distressing news from back home this week: my elementary school has gone into administration. An independent school in a converted family home, Buckholme Towers was the place that taught me how to pull off a straw sunhat and blazer while conjugating French verbs in a squeaky voice. Nobody seems quite sure what happened to this institution of my own learning. The announcement was made out of the blue last Friday, coming as a surprise even to the current crop of parents. I heard tell there is a...
Greetings from Cheyenne! This, the sixth week of the 65th General Session, saw the released of the Joint Appropriations Conference Committee Budget compromise. The final bill is a true compromise with neither Chamber getting exactly what it wanted and much of the final product ended up fairly close to the orginal recommendation from the Joint Appropriations Committee. The House continues to make great progress in considering Senate Files that have been sent to us. There have been many...
Now in its fifth year, one might expect the novelty of the Sundance Winter Festival to have worn off for the people of this community. The impressive crowds that turned out for the first couple of years would, in many parts of the world, have dwindled over time into a tiny, hardcore following. But not here in Sundance. Here, it seems as though the community experienced a revival of town spirit when the festival was launched and has continued to stand in support of an event that it turns out really does cast our little city in an excellent...
Dear Editor, As I ponder whether to write a letter about legal protection for the minority among us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, I am forced to consider what could be the purpose of writing. If my purpose were to change anyone’s mind, it would be better for me to remain silent, for I think that we all reach our opinions, not primarily by what we read, but by a combination of many factors. I believe that we need laws designed to give equal rights to people of the LGBTQ community, because as a conservative Christian y...
“I’m not doing the groceries today,” said my husband last week, a look of pride upon his face. I didn’t think a great deal of this comment; after all, it was cold out and the roads were slippy and I was fairly sure we still had at least one bag of green beans at the back of the freezer. I told him it wasn’t a problem and went back to what I was doing, setting myself a mental reminder that we’d need to replace the bag of beans. We do a lot of our shopping locally, you see, but every so often we...
We are pleased to share that your Wyoming newspapers have once again won the battle that we suit up for once a year. Our legislature debates new laws that would shroud your government in secrecy and we point out why that’s a terrible idea. This year, the legislature wanted to take public notices out of the hands of newspapers – independent organizations with no dog in the fight other than the mandate to make sure our government is run honestly – and put them in the hands of the people making the notices in the first place. The ones who may f...
Every so often, I fall down a rabbit hole. Not a literal one – although I doubt there’s a single person reading this who would be surprised – but its digital equivalent. I stumbled across an opinion piece recently that argued there’s no reason movies based on historical events should have to be accurate because they are art, rather than journalism, and I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s true they are an artistic medium, but it’s also true that many of us (including me) think we can learn...
Dear Editor, I THOUGHT WE WERE REPUBLICANS! We have earned headlines in Forbes magazine which state, “Wyoming Republicans are More Liberal than Washington Democrats”. I’ve counted 19 bills for taxes our Wyoming legislators have entered. They are increased taxes, new taxes, mils and additional fees. State income tax, sales tax, service tax, gas tax, property tax, the list goes on beyond what you can imagine and many being put in place with regular increases for years to come! And, what about our rights? The anti-discrimination bill for sexual or...
Greetings from Cheyenne! Last Friday, January 18, Senator Driskill and I traveled to China to represent Wyoming at a technology conference and arrived back in Cheyenne on Tuesday evening. I have never traveled internationally, besides my time in the US Navy, and I cannot recommend that quick of a turnaround. The Global Blockchain Summit in China was a resounding success. By the time Senator Driskill and I left the summit, everyone in attendance was talking about Wyoming. The efforts of the...
It seems there’s a new craze sweeping this country thanks to the invention of streaming video, and its name is The Great British Baking Show. I can completely understand why this low-key game show has captured imaginations. In a time where everything is high stress and soaked in adrenaline, it’s nice to settle down with a cup of tea and forget that anxiety is a thing which exists. There’s something comforting about watching good-natured contestants bake Victoria sponges and parkin without a car...
Dear Editor, The letter by Randy Leinen of January 24th had some valid points regarding the sausage making process known as an omnibus bill. They say making sausage is an ugly process, and so too with government spending bills. If each link of the sausage were made simply out of separate ingredients, perhaps the meat, the fat, the gristle and the less desirable parts, who then would purchase it, or vote for it? It’s only by the give and take, tit for tat, that any law maker concedes on one issue to gain advantage for his district or l...
Clever Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Isiah 5:21 (NASB) Clever. At its first impression this word is attractive, wanted and perhaps even worn. It’s not at all a bad thing to be called a clever person or is it? It is one of those words that presents itself as respectable, although once possessed and lived takes on a different dimension. This term and a life wrapped in such is soon seen as superficial and dangerous if not handled properly. After all, the devil is very cunning and a master at the s...
Do you want to be a superhero? It seems like every movie, book or telly show these days features some version of a caped crusader, saving the world from threats both fantastical and extraterrestrial – and they get to wear seriously snappy trousers while they do it. I don’t believe there was every any doubt that a few individuals would step forward and answer, “Yes. This is something that will slot nicely into my daily routine between doing the dishes and streaming six episodes of Jessica Jones...
To the Editor, Maybe I need a refresher in the Civics class that I had in grade school? Don’t all Washington elected officials still take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States? According to Article 1, Section 7 (as it has been historically interpreted) the House of Representatives is responsible for the funding of the government and the bills associated with that funding shall originate in that chamber. The bill is then forwarded to the Senate for concurrence, amending, modification and passage. If a bill passed does not c...
Parents know best! When it came time to enroll my daughters, Grace Belize and Faith, in school, I knew that I wanted them to receive the best education possible. Fortunately, I came across online education and for 13 years it’s been the perfect fit for my daughters. Because of their flexible schedule with Virtual School, both Grace Belize and Faith cultivated a passion for leadership, philanthropy and community service. Both volunteer at Blessings in a Backpack, where they help provide schoolchildren food on the weekends. And because they a...
Greetings from...Cheyenne! It was a busy first week with the inauguration of Governor Mark Gordon and the start of the 65th General Session of the Wyoming Legislature. As of Friday, more than 200 bills had been filled for consideration and committee work was in full swing. One of the highlights was hearing Governor Gordon deliver his first State of the State address to a Joint Session of the House and Senate. This was our first opportunity, as legislators, to hear from Governor Gordon about his...
What happens in Washington, D.C. often seems to stay in Washington, D.C., at least from the perspective of those of us living in the boonies. By the time they reach us, it feels like the ripples of legislation are too gentle to be felt. But when it comes to the longest government shutdown in American history, the opposite has proven to be true: it’s our friends and neighbors who are suffering the fallout, not Congress and the presidential administration. You’ve probably heard the estimates that 800,000 American people are still working wit...
