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Writer Explores Deep Roots Of Gillette's Muslim Community
The community of Gillette has seen tension recently with plans for a Quran burning and protests over Gillette’s first mosque. Writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Kathryn Schulz heard this and wondered how a Muslim community came to be in coal mining Wyoming.
She wrote an article this summer about Zarif Khan, a Muslim man from Pakistan who built a restaurant, a life, and a family in Sheridan at the turn of the last century. Many Muslims living in Wyoming today are his direct descendants. Schulz joined Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard to talk about the piece Citizen Khan.
Amid a wave of historic coal bankruptcies, states like Texas and Colorado, have taken proactive steps to make sure coal companies are on the hook for their future cleanup costs. In other states, like Wyoming, over a billion dollars of these cleanup costs have gotten tied up in bankruptcy court. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports on why we’re seeing different outcomes in different energy-rich states, starting off in a small town in central Texas called Elgin.
UW Is Training School Districts How To Teach Science Differently
The University of Wyoming has been working with a number of school districts across the state in an effort to change the way science is being taught in K-12 schools. Just this week ACT test scores show that Wyoming students still have a ways to go in being prepared to take college level science. With the roll out of the Next Generation Science Standards, UW has been working with districts to find new ways of teaching to those standards.
Pete Ellsworth is the former coordinator of UW’s Science and Math teaching center and Ana Houseal is UW’s science outreach educator. She says early results show that within the districts that are doing things differently…scores are improving.
150 Years After Suffrage, Wyoming Women Still Find Equality Elusive
Nearly 150 years ago, Wyoming was the first place in the country to grant women the right to vote. The question is - has that done any good for women in the state? In a new series on women in Western politics, Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard reports the answer might be no.
When The Equal Rights Amendment Came To Utah
You’d think gender equality would be something protected in the Constitution, but women are only mentioned in the document once: in the Nineteenth Amendment which grants women the right to vote. In 1923, suffragists proposed an amendment that would protect women’s rights across the board, but when the vote came to Utah, it was blocked by the Mormon Church. Jennifer Pemberton has the story.
University Of Wyoming's Utility Bill Climbs As Budgets Fall
In fiscal year 2016, the University of Wyoming’s utility bill was $10.8 million—almost $2 million more than fiscal year 2015. Next year, as new buildings under construction come online, that bill is likely to increase, even as the University faces $41 million in budget cuts. That means there may be hard choices ahead—keep the lights on, or keep people employed.
Native American Chef Hopes To Open Restaurant Serving Healthy Indigenous Foods
After years of working as a chef in ethnic restaurants, Sioux tribal member Sean Sherman had an “ah-ha” moment. He suddenly wondered why there were no Native American restaurants, especially since pre-European contact foods are uniquely healthy. Now, Sherman is raising money through a Kickstarter Campaignto open one and he’s calling it The Sioux Chef. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards talked to him about where his passion for Native foods began.
