Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, February 5th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics! Experience the excitement of the Winter Games, February 20–22 in Pinedale, and support the SAFE Initiative. For event details and the full schedule, visit wyoming senior olympics dot com.

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Count Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder a fan of the U.S. Dept of Education getting abolished.

President Trump is outlining his plan to get rid of the department - and Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland on Tuesday that the best-case scenario for Wyoming is for federal school funding to go directly to the states.

"There's all these reports that Trump is getting ready to push for the elimination of the US Department of Education and Wyoming's education head Megan Degenfelder the superintendent said, Well, I haven't gotten confirmation from Trump's administration yet. I was hoping he would do this, but I also hope that all those federal federal dollars will instead go directly to the states for them to establish their own criteria, how to administer them, rather than always deferring to this big agency with its own rules."

Degenfelder said it's her hope that the rules and "red tape" the federal Department of Education has affixed to federal funding will vanish, but the money will be allocated in a block-grant model directly to states.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Senate has passed what its leadership calls the largest property tax cut in Wyoming history.

Senate File 69 as passed on third reading Tuesday would slash taxes by 50% and offer no backfill money for local schools and governments. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that the bill passed on a 23-8 vote and now moves on to the House, which already passed its own version of this bill on Jan. 23.

"The bill received significant debate in the Senate. On Tuesday, it passed on a 23 to eight vote, but many legislators, like senators Stacy Jones and John Cole of Rock Springs expressed concern about what it will do to their local coffers in their local county government… But others, like Senator Tara Nethercott, who supported the 50% said that the legislature can address these issues in the coming years, and that she believes it's an issue that certainly won't be leading to a sky falling type scenario for these local entities."

There are a handful of other property tax bills still remaining, such as a bill to make property taxes in Wyoming based on acquisition value, which passed on first reading in the House on Tuesday afternoon.

Read the full story HERE.

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Efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development have been met with approval by most Republicans, including Wyoming's congressional representative, Harriet Hageman.

The organization's stated purpose is to strengthen U.S. influence abroad by providing money for humanitarian and economic purposes as well as for combating repressive regimes.

But Cowboy State Daily's Sean Barry spoke to Hageman Tuesday, who said that she believes that USAID is, quote, "an insidious organization that needed to be reined in, if not eliminated altogether."

"Rep. Hageman's concern is that the US Agency for International Development, USAID, w