On a hot and sunny July day Julie McCallister readied herself for a day of campaigning at Saratoga Days, decked out in her “Elect Julie McCallister” polo.

McCallister was running for the Wyoming State House seat in House District 47.

In the art show at the Platte Valley Community Center, McCallister approached potential voters, chatting about everything from the art to why she is qualified to serve.

This week University of Wyoming officials proposed cutting 16 academic programs in order to meet a $15 million budget cut required for the next fiscal year. 

University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols notes that they are also looking at consolidating some programs and so in total she says they are actually looking at 8 to 10 program eliminations. 

Earlier this year the Wyoming legislature cut $36 million from money they provide to school districts. Since that time districts have been trying to get that money back and convince lawmakers that additional cuts would hurt their ability to adequately teach students.  

Restorative justice programs are on the rise across the country. The practice facilitates meetings between victims, offenders, and community members, in order to repair some of the harm caused by crime. Now, a group of volunteers in Casper is looking for ways to incorporate practices of restorative justice into the legal system.

There are currently 10 women serving in the Utah House of Representatives and 6 in the state senate. Together they make up 15% of the 104 elected state legislators. This puts Utah in the bottom 10 states for percentage of women represented in the state legislature.

There are a lot of reasons for the disparity between men and women serving as elected state officials, but according to Katie Ziegler with the National Convention of State Legislatures, none of them has to do with electability:

Over the last three years, the German embassy has donated about $20,000 dollars toward educating University of Wyoming students about the fall of the Berlin wall and German history. Recently, the German Ambassador Peter Wittig visited the campus himself and, while he was here, Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards sat down with him to talk about what Wyoming can learn from Germany’s own coal downturn and the refugee crisis.

It’s late afternoon at the base of Dinwoody Glacier, and its creek is roaring with melted ice nearby. It's been a long day of digging for archeology students Crystal Reynolds, Morgan Robins and Nico Holt. 

“We love digging holes!” they say, laughing. “We love playing in the dirt.”

“It's like playing hide and seek with people you never met,” says Holt.

After public universities opened their doors to women, the chance to study music composition opened up as well. But the best known, highest paid composers still tend to be men. Composer Libby Larsen is one notable exception - she is the eminent musician-in-residence at the University of Wyoming for the 2016 – 2017 academic year.

She joined Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard to talk about her distinctly American-sounding music and some of the biggest challenges still facing female composers.