The Sage Grouse contemplates how current term limits have fallen victim to extended campaign seasons, essentially neutering the opportunity for real policy work.
Lawyers are not generally held in high esteem these days. But in many instances they are heroes of personal rights and freedom — at least that's what The Sage Grouse overheard at the Wyoming Bar Association convention in Cheyenne last week...
The mystery behind the wintertime ozone problem that has plagued parts of the Intermountain West is deepening as pollution levels during the first quarter of 2011 dropped in northeast Utah but increased in southwest Wyoming. In Wyoming, after two years of clean winter air in the Upper Green River Basin, EPA monitors registered 13 days between January and March when ozone levels exceeded the eight-hour health standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb). That includes a March 2 ozone reading of 124 ppb -- higher than the worst ozone levels recorded last year in Los Angeles.
Meeks used to have abundant water on his small alfalfa ranch, a 40-acre plot speckled with apple and plum trees northeast of the Wind River Mountains and about five miles outside the town of Pavillion. For 35 years he drew it clear and sweet from a well just steps from the front door of the plain, eight-room ranch house that he owns with his wife, Donna. Neighbors would stop off the rural dirt road on their way to or from work in the gas fields to fill plastic jugs; the water was better than at their own homes. But in the spring of 2005, Meeks' water had turned fetid. His tap ran cloudy, and the water shimmered with rainbow swirls across a filmy top. The scent was sharp, like gasoline. And after 20 minutes — scarcely longer than you'd need to fill a bathtub — the pipes shuttered and popped and ran dry.