Features

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:

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.

In Grand Teton National Park, the White Grass Dude Ranch entertained visitors who came for mountain views and the chance to play cowboy. It closed in 1985 and soon the ranch's cabins and lodge started falling apart once people stopped using them.

That's how White Grass joined a backlog of some twenty-seven thousand historic properties nationwide that the National Park Service couldn’t afford to maintain. But things have changed.

Wyoming Public Radio celebrates its fiftieth anniversary Wednesday, September 14th 2016. Station News Director Bob Beck joined Morning Edition Host Caroline Ballard to reflect on his time at the station, the changes that have taken place, and what the future might hold.

The art exhibition THE BRIDGE is made up of 47 works of art that are meant to show the commonalities between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Its goal isn’t just interfaith dialogue, but interfaith friendship, and this month it has shows in Laramie, Rock Springs, Lander, and Powell.

While the National Park Service celebrated its 100th year of existence recently, the beloved federal agency is trying to figure out how to make it through the next century, while protecting the national parks “unimpaired for future generations”. Some people are concerned new funding sources may put corporate logos in the parks.

144 years after Yellowstone National Park was established, people from around the world still gasp and cheer when Old Faithful erupts.

Fighting wildfires increasingly relies on new technology, like drones and a web program that traces every lightning strike in real time. But in the Black Hills of Northeastern Wyoming, the most basic technology is still relied on—the human eye.

Warren Peak Lookout Tower is six miles Northwest of Sundance. It’s at 6,710 feet and it’s breezy. Karen Maloy is the lookout for Warren Peak. It’s her 11th season. She’s worked at towers across the country. Her first assignment was in college.

The University of Wyoming is beginning another school year, and with it comes a new season of visiting performers through the school’s Cultural Programs. Janelle Fletcher is the Director of Fine Arts Outreach & Cultural Programs, and she joined Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard to preview some of the fall season acts.

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.

Nearly 150 years ago, Wyoming was the first place in the country to grant women the right to vote. Congress didn't pass the 19th amendment, guaranteeing all American women the right to vote, until 1919, and it was ratified by states in 1920. Wyoming was ahead of its time, giving women the vote in 1869, but there are conflicting accounts as to why the state was a trailblazer.

Women are only mentioned in the Constitution 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.

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 Campaign to open one and he’s calling it The Sioux Chef.

There’s an old joke from the movie The Blues Brothers:  “What kind of music do you usually have here?” asks Elwood. “Oh, we got both kinds,” answers the bartender. “We got Country and Western!”

This week, the New American Economy issued a report on the economic impact of immigrants in every state, highlighting the role immigrants play as entrepreneurs. One place where immigrants are starting new companies in Wyoming is the Wyoming Technology Business Center – a business incubator for start-ups.

This week the University of Wyoming hosted a summer institute for an organization that supports women of color in academia. One of the guest speakers was Sarah Ortegon, artist and former Miss Native American USA. Wyoming Public Radio’s Maggie Mullen spoke with Ortegon about her paintings currently exhibited at the UW Art Museum, partly inspired by her childhood on the Wind River Reservation. Her work will be exhibited until September 2.

The Cathedral Home for Children just north of Laramie is a boarding school for teens that have had traumatic experiences. Besides providing a safe space, the home helps the kids deal with their emotions. This summer they’re trying something new – drumming circles.

Thanks to innovations in camera technology, wildlife biologists are now able to peek into the lives of animals like never before. Now, a new book called Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature, compiles the best camera trap photos from around the world. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards talked with author, Roland Hayes, head of the Biodiversity Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Professor at North Carolina State University. Hayes starts the conversation by explaining just what a camera trap is.

Bob Jensen has spent most of his time in Wyoming thinking about improving the economy. For ten years he led the Wyoming Business Council, the state’s economic development arm. Several months ago during a meeting of some Cheyenne entrepreneurs the idea of developing a coding school was pitched. And that discussion led to the development of Array, School of Technology and Design in downtown Cheyenne.

“It is a grassroots effort to try and effect workforce quickly for a growing tech industry in Wyoming,” said Jensen.