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January 20th, 2017

The White House

Listen to the full show here.

Trouble And Lead In Pinedale's Water

In 2015, the town of Pinedale turned off its sodium silicate water treatment--a type of corrosion control that helps prevent lead contamination from old plumbing. The next year, dangerous levels of lead were found in one residence and at the town’s high school. As Wyoming Public Radio’s Maggie Mullen reports, the treatment has been turned back on, but residents want to know why it was shut off in the first place.

 

Land Transfer Amendment Dies In Wyoming Legislature

A bill drafted for the legislature proposed to revise Wyoming's constitution to allow the state to take over management of federal lands. The idea was intensely controversial and was killed on Friday. But as Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards reports, a couple of weeks ago, some legislators sat down with the Wyoming Wildlife Federation to come up with the alternative to public land transfers to led to the bill’s demise.

 

Congressman Liz Cheney Is Getting Noticed

It’s been nearly three decades since a Cheney has represented Wyoming in Congress, but voters sent Liz Cheney to the nation’s capital to follow in her dad’s footsteps in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressional correspondent Matt Laslo has the story from Washington. 

 

Wyoming Humanities Council Kicks Off "Insight" Series

For the past few years, the Wyoming Humanities Council has put on a series of events called “Ignite” where locals gave short multimedia presentations, like TED-talks. This year, the council is kicking off another series of presentations in Cheyenne, Casper, and Laramie with a name change and a shift in focus to storytelling. Jason Burge joined me talk about some of these changes.

 

Lawmakers Discuss Shortfall And Revenue Ideas

After a historic downturn in revenue, the Wyoming legislature has started this year’s session with a number of concerns. They still have a $150 million shortfall in revenue to fund their current budget and K-12 education funding has a $400 million deficit and they have no money for school construction. Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports that while legislative committees have been focused on other issues, there will soon come a point where lawmakers need to figure out how to move forward.  

 

Students And Teachers Need Support To Embrace Technology

There’s a bill before the legislature that would help improve virtual learning in Wyoming schools, especially in rural areas where hiring teachers in specialized fields can be hard. Districts across the state are already experimenting with online courses, but the Department of Education wants to bring this opportunity to all students. Wyoming Public Radio’s education reporter Tennessee Watson went to Rock Springs to visit a school that’s blazing ahead. 

 

Speaker Of The House Discusses Education Shortfall

Wyoming’s revenue downturn has forced lawmakers to take a look at cutting a lot of money from education.  K-12 education has a $400 million shortfall.  Speaker of the House Steve Harshman joins Bob Beck to discuss the problem and how they plan to fix it.

 

University Of Wyoming Cultural Programs Looks To Spring 2017 Season

As the University of Wyoming begins another semester, a new line-up of cultural programming at the school is on the horizon. Janelle Fletcher is the director of Fine Arts Outreach and Cultural Programs at the University of Wyoming. She sat down with me to talk about what Spring 2017 has in store for students and the public.

 

A Nation Engaged: What Jackson Residents Expect From Trump Administration

As part of NPR’s A Nation Engaged series, we set out to hear what Jackson residents are hoping to see from the new Trump Administration. Rebecca Huntington brings us these voices. 

Bob Beck retired from Wyoming Public Media after serving as News Director of Wyoming Public Radio for 34 years. During his time as News Director WPR has won over 100 national, regional and state news awards.
Maggie Mullen is Wyoming Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau. Her work has aired on NPR, Marketplace, Science Friday, and Here and Now. She was awarded a 2019 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her story on the Black 14.
Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo is a reporter who has been covering campaigns and every aspect of federal policy since 2006. While he has filed stories for NPR and more than 40 of its affiliates, he has also written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Campaigns and Elections Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Guardian, The Omaha World-Herald, VICE News and Washingtonian Magazine.
Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
A multi-media journalist, Rebecca Huntington is a regular contributor to Wyoming Public Radio. She has reported on a variety of topics ranging from the National Parks, wildlife, environment, health care, education and business. She recently co-wrote the one-hour, high-definition documentary, The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads, which premiered in 2012. She also works at another hub for community interactions, the Teton County Library where she is a Communications and Digital Media Specialist. She reported for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming for more than a decade before becoming a multi-media journalist. She completed a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in 2002. She has written and produced video news stories for the PBS series This American Land (thisamericanland.org) and for Assignment Earth, broadcast on Yahoo! News and NBC affiliates. In 2009, she traveled to Guatemala to produce a series of videos on sustainable agriculture, tourism and forestry and to Peru to report on the impacts of extractive industries on local communities.
Tennessee -- despite what the name might make you think -- was born and raised in the Northeast. She most recently called Vermont home. For the last 15 years she's been making radio -- as a youth radio educator, documentary producer, and now reporter. Her work has aired on Reveal, The Heart, LatinoUSA, Across Women's Lives from PRI, and American RadioWorks. One of her ongoing creative projects is co-producing Wage/Working (a jukebox-based oral history project about workers and income inequality). When she's not reporting, Tennessee likes to go on exploratory running adventures with her mutt Murray.