Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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For the week of April 14th, 2024 here are Cowboy State news items of interest:
Well, it’s official—say goodbye to mail processing and distribution facilities in Wyoming. On Tuesday, April 16th, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced it will move the bulk of Casper’s mail sorting to Billings, Montana despite public outcry. USPS has already made a similar decision for Cheyenne’s Processing and Distribution Center (PDC) in recent months moving those same services to Denver. Should you be inclined, you can read the USPS Final Mail Processing Facility Review (MPFR) determination on the Casper PDC here. Despite the Casper MPFR assertion that there will be no standard service impacts as a result of moving operations to Billings—one wonders how this might affect handling of, say, Wyoming absentee ballots in the upcoming election? Our Wyoming Congressional Delegation and Secretary of State have been asking those very same questions.
Read two articles published by Cowboy State Daily this week to learn more. First, there’s this one about the USPS Casper PDC announcement followed by this article on how our Congressional Delegation is part of a bipartisan bill seeking to reject the USPS plan for Casper.
Also on Tuesday, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) announced they will once again seek a rate hike for Wyoming customers. The requested 12.3% rate increase (equating to an additional $12 per month on the average residential bill) is subject to review and approval by the Wyoming Public Service Commission. RMP cites coal and fuel supply chain disruptions as the drivers behind the requested increase. If approved the increase would go into effect July 1st 2024. Read the RMP press release here.
On Wednesday, April 17th, numerous media outlets began reporting Wyoming’s U.S. Senator John Barrasso intends to seek a fourth term in Congress. Here’s a link to the Sheridan Media story on Barrasso’s re-election announcement.
Also on Wednesday, the Star Valley Independent published an article (read it here) recapping a recent radio interview with Governor Mark Gordon who offered his explanation on why he vetoed property tax relief bill Senate File 54 (SF 54). SF 54 is the one that would have provided a 25% property tax exemption for many Wyoming residents (you can read my prior post on SF 54 and the other property tax relief bills from the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 Budget Session here). Personally, I did not find the Governor’s explanation on his veto of SF 54 to be satisfactory.
Lastly, this is a little late, but worth reporting—earlier this month on April 7th a disparate group of Wyoming teenagers came together with a self-professed blue-collar work ethic to win the USA National Hockey Championship Youth Tier II 18U 1A title. It was the first time Team Wyoming has won a national championship in this division. Way to go fellas! Read the news release from the USA Hockey website here and also there was a nifty story from Cowboy State Daily from last weekend you can check out here.
That’s all for today ladies and gents! Thanks for reading and have a great week!
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