In Other News ...
"Bible Guy" is banned from tabling, UW details its state budget requests and early voting remains popular in Wyoming. The top news stories from Laramie and Albany County as of December 14, 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.
-
The University of Wyoming banned an anti-LGBTQ activist from tabling in the student union for one year. Todd Schmidt had used his table in the union to specifically target an individual university student, inciting confrontations, protests and a communitywide conversation about rising bigotry and the university’s responsibility to address it. Members of the local queer community and their allies criticized university administration and police for not removing Schmidt the day of the harassment. Less than a week later, UW announced Schmidt’s suspension from tabling in the union. The incident was only the latest anti-LGBTQ action on campus, where students say hateful activists are being emboldened by national rhetoric.
Reading status: Open access
Employees of UW’s Coe Library were told to remove pro-LGBTQ materials, such as rainbow flags, from public spaces. The Branding Iron reports an administrator told an unnamed supervisor to remove the pride materials, for fear they would offend legislators and university donors. In a response to The Branding Iron investigation, library administrators denied that version of events, saying the distinction was instead between what’s allowed in public spaces versus what’s allowed in private spaces, like personal offices.
Reading status: Open access
-
The Laramie Reporter continued its coverage of the 2022 election cycle with a breakdown of campaign finance for some expensive local races. Candidates for the Albany County Commission raised almost $41,000 and spent nearly $31,000 between the primary and general elections. Ultimately, the commission stayed in Democratic hands. Candidates for House District 14 raised more than $39,000 — a full $22,000 of that raised during just the general election between Rep. Trey Sherwood and her Republican challenger Bryan Shuster. Sherwood carried the day, winning by more than 300 points in the county’s closest legislative race.
Reading status: Open access
Laramie pediatrician Kent Kleppinger recently traveled to Ukraine, volunteering his talents as a children’s doctor in the war-torn country’s capital of Kyiv. He recounted his adventures during a public lecture at the University of Wyoming last month. Now stateside, Kleppinger is fundraising for two of the institutions he encountered on his travels. He’s hoping to send supplies to the refugee center in Lublin (Poland) Train Station for the families and children passing through, and he’s hoping to raise money to buy high-flow neonatal nasal cannulas for the neonatal intensive care unit in Kyiv.
Reading status: Open access
-
UW President Ed Seidel detailed the university’s budget requests during a meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee last week. The Laramie Boomerang reports UW is requesting major money for construction projects — $11.7 million for War Memorial Stadium’s west stands, $27.1 million for extant research centers around the state and $1 million for a roundabout at 22nd and Willett streets. UW is also requesting $5.5 million to hire petroleum engineering instructors and another $5 million for venture capital funding.
Reading status: Laramie Boomerang paywall
-
University of Wyoming research is adding to the growing body of literature on the harms of vaping. Wyoming Public Radio interviewed Associate Professor Guanglong He about his research, which showed vaping can induce heart failure when the immune response kicks in to eject inhaled aerosols.
Reading/listening status: Open access
-
The City of Laramie’s new Municipal Operations Center is up and running. The Laramie Boomerang reports the new center, on the site of the old WyoTech campus, brings together city engineering, administration and waste management into one multi-building complex. The city launched the ultimately $21.5 million construction project in 2014. The complex is more energy efficient than the WyoTech campus it replaced and features solar panels on the vehicle storage building.
Reading status: Laramie Boomerang paywall
-
The Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center at the University of Wyoming published results from a recent telephone survey, showing where Wyomingites stand on issues such as abortion and early voting. Wyoming Public Radio reports the surveys found only a tiny minority of Wyomingites want a total ban on abortion, but most Wyomingites support at least some restrictions. The surveys also showed early voting is still popular. In 2018, about 31 percent of the state voted early, either in-person or by mail. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, that number jumped to about 48 percent. That percentage has fallen off, but still remains well above pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, some 40 percent of voters cast their ballots early. The sample size was 524 and the margin of error was +/- 4.3 percentage points for both surveys.
Reading status: Open access