In Other News ...

The top news stories from Laramie and Albany County as of February 22, 2022.

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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Laramie’s police-community working group recommended some changes to police practices during a meeting with the city council. The group recommended new response models for mental health calls, a new anonymous complaint system, and the creation of a citizen academy and a police-community committee. The group recommended further consideration of a civilian oversight board. This recommendation was neither strongly worded nor unanimously backed (the group only voted 10-8 to include it among its other recommendations). One of the group’s co-chairs said that some members of the committee “were there just to be obstructionists to the civilian oversight board specifically.”

Reading status: Open access

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The University of Wyoming dropped its mask mandate for classrooms, hallways and most other common areas this week. University administration had recommended keeping the classroom requirement in place, at least until March. They argued that immunocompromised students, and faculty and staff with immunocompromised family members, still needed that level of protection. But the Board of Trustees, on a split 5-6 vote, rejected the recommendation, and voted instead to remove the mask mandate from most areas of campus. Masks are still required in Student Health Services and in medical residencies in Cheyenne and Casper.

Reading status: Open access

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Albany County will have a lot to decide at the polls this year. The Laramie Reporter broke down what positions will appear on the primary and general ballots. Candidate filing takes place in May.

Reading status: Open access

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UW’s College of Arts and Sciences has a new dean: Camellia Moses Okpodu. Wyoming Public Media interviewed the new administrator about restructuring, budget cuts and the importance of the arts amid a pandemic. Okpodu floated the idea of including a line in the state budget to support UW’s herbarium, which serves the state.

Reading/Listening status: Open access

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The fight for Medicaid expansion in Wyoming continues. Wyoming Public Media reports that while an expansion bill failed introduction this week, legislators may still include Medicaid expansion in the state’s budget, where it needs fewer votes to pass. Without expansion, state residents continue to fall in the “gap,” earning too much for traditional Medicaid but too little to afford their own insurance. Expansion would close the gap. Healthy Wyoming, a coalition of nonprofits dedicated to the issue, hosted a rally on the first day of the State Legislature’s budget session, and has been recruiting business leaders to their cause.

Reading/Listening status: Open access

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Plant and animal life continue to fight their way back following the Mullen Fire a year and a half ago. Wyoming Public Media reports the 176,000-acre fire cleared out some lodgepole pines; in their place, aspens are growing. That’s allowing bighorn sheep to move around more freely, but it’s also fertile ground for cheatgrass — something Wyoming Game and Fish is actively combatting with herbicide treatments.

Reading status: Open access

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The University of Wyoming will host Tommy Orange, author of the novel “There, There,” in coordination with Albany County Public Library’s “Indigenous Words” book club. Wyoming Public Media reports Orange is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe in Oklahoma and will be doing a public reading of his book March 3. The same week, the library will host the first meeting of its new book club to discuss Orange’s work.

Reading status: Open access