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TexasTowelie's JournalOfficials Ask Public To Be Cautious As Grizzly 399 And Cubs Head Into Populous Areas
Grizzly 399 photographed with an earlier trio of cubs.
Credit TOM MANGELSEN
Grizzly 399 is arguably one of the most famous grizzly bears in the U.S. due to the amount of attention she has gotten over the years. This year is no different.
She and her four cubs have been spotted outside of Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson residents started worrying she could be in danger.
Assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior Rob Wallace, is also worried for two reasons.
"One is to make sure that land owners and homeowners in the area secure what they call attractants, which is foreign sources of food," said Wallace. "Whether it's pet food, bird feeders, chicken coops, compost piles, secure them and airproof them so they [the bears] aren't exposed to non natural foods."
Read more: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/officials-ask-public-be-cautious-grizzly-399-and-cubs-head-populous-areas
Commercial registered agents bring business with unintended consequences
SHERIDAN — It started slowly — a phone call here and there in which the caller sought help reaching a business supposedly located in Sheridan. The staff at the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce, though, hadn’t heard of most of the businesses to which callers referred.
That was four or five years ago. Now, staff members at the Chamber receive multiple calls each week from customers seeking answers from businesses they believe operate in Sheridan.
“The reason we’re getting the calls is because customers who have done business with these companies were unhappy and dissatisfied and hadn’t been able to reach anyone,” said Dixie Johnson, Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce CEO, adding that rarely were any of the calls about the same business. “Once they realized the business was here, they would call the Chamber in hopes we could help.”
Often, though, Chamber staff could do very little. Because the businesses weren’t known in the community, employees at the Chamber would also have to do research to find a phone number or contact information for each business. Often, what they found was only the name of a registered agent.
Read more: https://www.thesheridanpress.com/news/local/commercial-registered-agents-bring-business-with-unintended-consequences/article_8959264a-2e78-11eb-8fab-9b8d11be00ee.html
Weed laws in neighboring states may affect Wyoming
GILLETTE — With the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Montana and both medical and recreational in South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming has become surrounded by weed-friendly states.
That stands in contrast to the Cowboy State itself, which is now almost an island in the region that allows neither recreational nor medicinal marijuana. And with Interstate 90 a major west-east highway through Gillette and Highway 59/I-25 a near straight-shot from pot-legal Colorado, Gillette is an axis of travel between them.
After the general election, marijuana has now been legalized in 15 states plus Washington, D.C. There are 34 states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes.
“Because of the shortened distance to a legalized state, I think it’s natural to assume that we will see more (marijuana in Gillette),” said Police Lt. Brent Wasson. “I don’t know, I don’t expect it to be significant. I think a lot of people who are interested in consuming those products drive to Colorado now.”
Read more: https://www.rawlinstimes.com/news/weed-laws-in-neighboring-states-may-affect-wyoming/article_a9eb7886-f43f-50e8-9031-8f592f193123.html
Proposed budget cuts pound public services
Gov. Mark Gordon last week sent proposed budget cuts to the Wyoming Legislature that slash public services and weaken the already thin safety net supporting Wyoming’s most vulnerable.
In a press release accompanying his budget proposal, Gordon said his government took a “strategic” path to reducing programs instead of recommending indiscriminate percentage cuts. The goal is to manage the state’s fiscal crash with the least impact to citizens, the governor said.
But given the scale of the savings budget writers must find, cushioning the public from harm is no longer possible: “It is a harsh reality that at this point every cut will hurt,” Gordon said in a press release.
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For example, in a round of budget cuts earlier this year, the executive branch sought to protect the state’s mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
Read more: http://www.buffalobulletin.com/news/article_ebaee3f6-2f5f-11eb-b163-4b396997536e.html
The death toll from COVID-19 is rising. How is Wyoming preparing to handle those deaths?
Joey Casada and David Purrington — funeral practitioners at Casper funeral home Bustard & Jacoby — didn’t have much time to talk.
The pair, two of the funeral home’s four licensed funeral practitioners, had about 30 minutes in between appointments at the funeral home when a reporter and photographer visited them earlier this month. With their schedule, it ended up being more like 20.
A lot of things have changed in the last few months with the COVID-19 pandemic, already complicating a business that is as much about human relationships as it is about cold, hard logistics. In each room of the building, bottles of hand sanitizer sat beside floor models of urns and orderly displays of pamphlets on the grieving process and the logistics of funeral preparations. In between meetings, the long, wooden conference table was subject to disinfecting before the next family entered.
In the chapel, socially distanced stands of chairs are placed several feet apart before a stand of cameras and video screens to allow relatives unable to attend safely to view proceedings from afar. That change, made to accommodate mourning families in the interest of public safety, has made their jobs slightly more difficult, they said. Bustard & Jacoby required masks even before Natrona County had a mandate, and the number of mourners allowed in the building has been limited during services, a precautionary measure that has, admittedly, rankled some of their clients.
Read more: https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/health/the-death-toll-from-covid-19-is-rising-how-is-wyoming-preparing-to-handle-those/article_eaa0f78b-625b-5779-9df2-0b50b1996cb0.html
(Casper Star Tribune)
Growing online theory says Wyoming doesn't exist
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — To live in Wyoming is to face a fundamental existential question: Does the state exist and if not, what does that mean for those who live here?
Much like Shakespeare’s famous rhetorical “to be, or not to be,” residents of an assumed state may exist on an unconscious level. But does that assumption hold when applied to an entire state?
Can we be, but still not be Wyomingites?
Wyoming residents reading a Wyoming newspaper, presumably within the rectangular allotment of land labeled on most maps as “Wyoming,” are likely to believe in their own existence. And to that point, they would probably be right, the Gillette News-Record reports.
But for a growing subset of the internet — comprised of some who live in Wyoming, but mostly those who don’t — the idea that Wyoming doesn’t exist is gaining traction.
Read more: https://buckrail.com/growing-online-theory-says-wyoming-doesnt-exist/
Wyoming health official fired after mask mandate ordered
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Officials in northern Wyoming have voted to remove Dr. Ed Zimmerman from his position as Washakie County health officer, a decision Zimmerman believes is in response to him implementing a mask mandate.
Washakie County Commission Chair Fred Frandson said Tuesday that Zimmerman’s departure was not a result of the local mask mandate but said he could not discuss why he was removed because the county does not publicly discuss personnel matters, The Casper Star-Tribune reported.
Zimmerman said there were several health officials who were worried they could lose their jobs by implementing mask mandates.
“It had to do with the health order in some way,” Zimmerman said of him losing his job.
Read more: https://buckrail.com/wyoming-health-official-fired-after-mask-mandate-ordered/
Wyoming lawmakers to hold 2 swearing-in ceremonies
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Legislative leaders in Wyoming voted Tuesday to hold two swearing-in ceremonies for new lawmakers, one that will follow public health orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and one that won’t.
The 10-3 vote to hold separate ceremonies came as the Legislature’s Management Council met to set a timeline for the 2021 legislative session, which will be delayed until the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.
However, lawmakers are constitutionally required to meet at the Wyoming Capitol on Jan. 12 to swear in new members, ratify leadership and hear a State of the State address by the governor.
An initial plan for the Jan. 12 events strongly recommended lawmakers and their families comply with active public health orders. House Minority Leader Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie, suggested Tuesday that lawmakers set an example and that those attending be required to comply with public health orders.
Read more: https://buckrail.com/wyoming-lawmakers-to-hold-2-swearing-in-ceremonies/
Abbott's Body Count
Inmates from the El Paso county jail zipping up dead bodies in white plastic bags and stacking them like sacks of leaves inside metal containers that have become makeshift morgues. This is Governor Greg Abbott’s legacy: too inept to respond effectively, too petty to work with others, and too weak to make hard decisions. How many of the nearly 22,000 Texans we lost this year from COVID-19 could have been saved under stronger, better leadership?
While the media latches onto the easy horse race narrative of political posturing, eating up obvious comments that he is running for re-election, Abbott’s body count continues to increase at a rate worse than most other states. COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in Texas and its mortality rate is higher compared to other states. More than six times as many Texans have died from COVID since just March than died during the entire twenty years of the Vietnam War.
Like Donald Trump, Abbott was ill-prepared to respond to this pandemic and he has dithered and blundered all year, concerned more about his personal politics than the deaths and economic fallout hurting every Texan.
Precious Time Wasted
In March, as the nation watched the virus spread like wildfire in Europe and New York, Abbott wasted precious time. Medical professionals made it clear we were not prepared to trace and stop the spread and we were woefully short of medical supplies. The lack of testing meant that the only real way to slow the spread was to implement safety measures like strong social distancing and mask wearing. Abbott did neither. Instead he froze like a deer in headlights, scared of unhinged extremist outrage about wearing safety gear that would have slowed down the virus and done less damage to the Texas economy.
Read more: https://lonestarproject.net/2020/11/24/abbotts-body-count/
Amarillo mayor divulges recent COVID-19 diagnosis during Wednesday's COVID-19 conference
During Wednesday's weekly COVID-19 news conference, Mayor Ginger Nelson announced that she and her husband were recently diagnosed with COVID-19.
The city's public health department reported an increase of 726 total COVID-19 cases from Tuesday in Potter and Randall counties, bringing the area's total to 22,803 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Of the total, 7,542 are active, an increase of 460 net active cases from Tuesday. There have been 14,977 recoveries and 284 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the report card, there have been 125,377 conducted COVID-19 tests reported to the public health department, 151 of which are pending. The city's report card includes a COVID-19 hospitalization rate of 39.35% for Trauma Service A, which includes Potter and Randall counties, calculated daily by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Read more: https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/2020/11/25/city-hosts-weekly-covid-19-conference-prior-thanksgiving/6423373002/
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