Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 7th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.

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Eight rural communities across Wyoming are without their legacy hometown newspapers after News Media Corp. abruptly closed them without notice Wednesday morning.

Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson spoke to several employees who were notified via phone call and email that their jobs were terminated, effective immediately.

"On Wednesday, they came to work. They're ready to go, most of them, because Wednesday is publication day… They're ready to go to press, and they're told, No, we're shut down… the group publisher told me that it was as much a surprise to him as it was to anybody else. He had no clue that the shutdown was coming, and then it was just going to be that abrupt… And not only was the shutdown effective Wednesday, that was also the last day that they have health insurance, they shut that down for them too… people talk these days about news deserts, big, you know, areas that aren't covered by any news… and for eight of them to just shut down in one day, there's a lot of local news. It's just just not happening."

Among the shuttered papers is the Pinedale Roundup, which has been the local newspaper for folks in that western Wyoming community for 121 years. Other papers shut down are Wheatland's Platte County Record-Times, the Guernsey Gazette, the Torrington Telegram, Lusk Herald, Uinta County Herald, Bridger Valley Pioneer and Kemmerer Gazette.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Democratic Party is hopeful a newly announced series of town halls in districts considered Republican strongholds will prove to Wyomingites it is not backing down in the face of fierce Republican opposition.

Democrats currently hold a combined eight seats in the state legislature, with two in the Senate and six in the House. Cowboy State Daily's Jackson Walker reports that State Democratic leaders are now pushing back through a series of listening events scheduled in red districts across Wyoming.

"This is an approach that kind of mirrors a game plan used by Democrats on the federal level such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. They did their Stop Oligarchy tour across the country this year in red districts across the US… when I asked Democratic Party chairman for the state of Wyoming if he was inspired by this tour that was done on the federal level, he said, No. He said, This is something that we're doing locally. We're only focusing on the state of Wyoming. And he wants to show people that Democrats are here for Wyoming voters. They're caring about the issues that are important to them, and they're ready to turn the tide, given some of the unpopular decisions that Republican lawmakers may have made in recent days."

Areas scheduled to host these listening sessions include Cheyenne, Casper, Lander and Park County, with more sessions planned.

Read the full story HERE.

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More than 200 Laramie County residents converged on a meeting of the county's governing board Tuesday to criticize proposed land use rule changes impacting home-based busine