Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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Here are Cowboy State news items for the week of February 25th, 2024:
On Sunday, February 25th, Cowboy State Daily published an article about the team of avalanche dogs who earn their kibble at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort by being on standby to rescue unfortunate skiers and snowmobilers. Meet Levi, Dolly, Toby, Sparrow and Cache! This is a terrific story and you can read all of it here.
Meet the 2024 avalanche dog team! From left to right: Cache, Sparrow, Levi, Dolly and Toby. [Photo courtesy of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort via Facebook.] As the third week of the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 Budget Session got underway, it didn’t take long before our representatives in the Wyoming House got together to kill the newly introduced Property Tax Reduction and Replacement Act affectionately know as House Bill 203 (HB 203) (the latter is the proposed legislation I wrote about so hopefully in last week’s Around the 307 news post). After narrowly passing its first and second readings, HB 203 got the axe during its third reading this past Tuesday, February 27th—voted down by a tally of 14 for and 47 against! You can read the Wyoming Tribune Eagle news story on this irksome state of affairs here and also review the play-by-play on the bill’s demise at this link. It would seem once again, sadly, the status quo prevails.
Thursday, February 29th, the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) issued a press release naming the top three finalist locations for the future home of its National Championship Air Races. Guess what? Casper, Wyoming is on that list! (The other two finalists are Roswell, New Mexico and Pueblo, Colorado.) Should the Cowboy State become home to the National Championship Air Races it could mean a $100 million dollar boost for the Wyoming economy! The National Championship Air Races have been held in Reno, Nevada every September since 1964, however, in 2023 the city and RARA decided to part ways—hence the search for a new locale. The air races feature seven racing classes, static aircraft displays, and military and civilian flight demonstrations. Sounds like a pretty nifty event. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see some of the world’s most beautiful planes fly up to 500 mph a mere 50 feet from the ground! Read the full RARA press release here.
From RARA’s 2018 National Championship Air Races, here’s a look at some T-6 class aircraft. [Photo credit Frank Mormillo via RARA’s Facebook page.] Lastly—it would seem the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is still contemplating closing its Casper Processing and Distribution Center (the last USPS processing center in Wyoming) and moving those operations to Billings, Montana. At a USPS public meeting held in Casper last week over 100 Wyoming residents showed up to voice their concerns. Specifically, citizens wanted to know how closure of the Casper facility would impact receipt of medications by mail, the ability to pay bills, to receive packages, and, (wow-here’s a good one!) to conduct Wyoming elections! Our Wyoming Congressional Delegation (Senators Barrasso and Lummus, and Representative Hageman) continue to work in Washington to address concerns over the USPS Casper closure plan. USPS is accepting public comments on its Casper facility relocation plan through March 7th, and the Delegation urges Wyoming citizens to voice their opinions to USPS via this link.
That’s all for now—thanks for reading! And, have a good week buckaroos!
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