Welcome to the Laramie Reporter’s “In Other News” segment, a biweekly rundown of the top news stories from Laramie and Albany County as reported by local, state and national media. Subscribe to our newsletter to get this rundown in your inbox every other week.
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The Laramie Reporter has launched its weekly 2022 campaign coverage with candidate features for the House District 45 race, the House District 46 race, and the House District 13 race. Future features will cover other house and senate races, as well as the race for county commission and county sheriff.
Reading status: Open access
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Activists have been pushing for a civilian oversight board for years, arguing there’s a need for an independent body to review police policies or uses of force. A measure to consider such a board was shot down in March, and many walked away from the fight thinking such an oversight board would be illegal. A WyoFile investigation found the issue was not so cut-and-dried; the issue has never been tested in Wyoming courts. Courts in other states, however, have treated police as a special class of employee for the same reason activists do: the police are allowed to hurt or kill civilians in certain circumstances. Additionally, WyoFile looked at Cheyenne’s use-of-force review board and found the civilians on the board are always outnumbered by members of law enforcement — despite the claim that the board provides outside oversight on police conduct.
Reading status: Open access
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Part of downtown was evacuated last week after an anonymous bomb threat was made to the Laramie Police Department. But there was no bomb, and the police eventually determined that the event was a “swatting” incident. Someone likely using an online 24/7 livestream of the Second Street and Ivinson Avenue intersection called dispatch and convinced police that he was on scene, and had placed a bomb in a specific vehicle. A Pride Month event just three blocks away was alerted to the threats. A spokesperson for the police said they did not believe the Price Month event was the target of the harassment and that the suspect — who remains unknown — might even have been from out-of-state.
Reading status: Open access
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Laramie residents protested the overturn of Roe v. Wade last week, lining Grand Avenue Friday evening with signs, while some even slowed traffic with their bikes. Wyoming Public Media reports that the state’s “trigger ban” will outlaw most abortions in Wyoming sometime in the next month. In Albany County, it’s already common practice for those seeking an abortion to travel to Fort Collins.
Reading status: Open access
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The Laramie City Council finalized its purchase of the Bath Ranch; it also approved other water-related projects to support residential development on the north side of town. The Laramie Boomerang reports the council voted last week to approve the North Side Tank Project — adding one million gallons of treated water storage — and the Transmission Line Project. The city is also closing its deal on the Bath Ranch, which will significantly increase the amount of water the city can draw from the Laramie River. “Securing water for future growth is an increasingly important challenge for cities in the west to be prepared for,” Mayor Paul Weaver said.
Reading status: Laramie Boomerang paywall
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Laramie residents have recognized both Juneteenth and Pride Month. The director of UW’s Black Studies Center told the Laramie Reporter that Juneteenth is a time for reckoning, and lamented that the holiday — recognized federally for the first time last year — is already becoming commercialized. And a host of Pride Month events culminated at Pride in the Park, nearly 53 years to the day after the Stonewall Uprising kicked off the gay rights movement.
Reading status: Open access
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The shift to renewable energy is necessary and inevitable, a former Wyoming governor told the Mountain West Innovation Summit in Laramie last week. Wyoming Public Media reports former governor Dave Freudenthal said Americans have been paying less for energy than what it’s worth and everyone is going to have to get used to slightly higher prices. PacifiCorp’s Wyoming vice president, Sharon Fain, told the audience that her company plans to buy the small nuclear reactor currently planned for Kemmerer.
Reading status: Open access