Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, April 16th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Wyoming Community Gas. The Choice Gas selection period ends on Wednesday April 23rd – This is your opportunity to select your Natural Gas Provider for the coming year. For more information, visit Wyoming Community Gas dot ORG."

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President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration has hit the University of Wyoming.

Chad Baldwin, spokesperson for the school, confirmed to Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson on Tuesday that a few international students have had their visas to be in the United States revoked. Baldwin also said federal immigration officials have not communicated with the university about why the visas were revoked, which appears to be in line with what's happening at universities across the country.

"None of these students have been deported yet, or arrested or anything like that… the way it works with these visas getting revoked, is actually the students kind of can self deport, is the way it goes, and they have the opportunity to do so, and then in some instances, they are, they're allowed to stay to where they just can't leave the country because they obviously wouldn't get back in. So it's an interesting thing. This is a phenomenon that's occurring on college campuses all across the country."

A review of university statements and correspondence with school officials shows that at least 600 students at more than 90 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks.

Read the full story HERE.

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The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on April 10 it will no longer require the Bureau of Land Management to prepare environmental impact statements for approximately 3,224 oil and gas leases across seven Western states.

Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that these changes will level the playing field between states like Wyoming, where energy development happens mostly on public land, and "private land" states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where energy producers say the leasing process is less hindered by lengthy environmental impact studies.

"A whole bunch of those leases going back to 2015 were just exempted from further environmental review in the leasing process. And depending on who you ask, that's a good thing or a disturbing thing. You know, environmentalists are concerned that the safeguards protecting our public lands are being kind of run rough shod, and the industry saying, heck yes, this is finally a streamlining of a process that's too cumbersome. And so we talked to experts on both sides and and Wyoming really does fall right into the bullseye of this story with so many of the leases here, because Wyoming has so much public land."

Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate Center for Biological Diversity, said it's too early to tell whether the BLM will change its approach to NEPA analysis when it comes to leasing parcels of public land for oil and gas development.

Read the full story HERE.

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Enjoy the unseasonably warm April weather while it lasts, because it'll be gone by Thursday.

A slow-moving cold front will move across Wyoming between Wednesday night and Friday. When it does, Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that temperatures will drop up to 50 degrees in some places, and the entire state will get some snow.

"We ar