Eight months into the year, and our 10th edition for 2025.
Uff.
Mad King Donald fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as he was upset by the Bureau's negative job report, which he stated was rigged.
It was rigged, of course, because facts in Trumpland are rigged if they aren't universally pro Trump.
This is likely to get a lot worse as the fact is that a lot of things Trump has set in motion are going to start having pretty negative consequences. Likewise, some firmly held GOP beliefs on economics and science aren't going to hold up to reality.
Speaking of reality and the news, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is closing its doors due to the budget rescission. The CPB, NPR and PBS are separate entities, but this is not a good development.
Republicans, who don't actually seem to realize the three entities are separate from each other, are rejoicing that public funding is ending for "left wing" media, by which they largely mean media that reports reality and the truth, as opposed to propaganda.
August 3, 2025
Three Kentucky distilleries, all small ones, have filed for bankruptcy within the past eight months, with the lastest coming last week.
While I haven't seen any analysis on it, distilleries were particularly worried about the Trump tariffs and, surprise surprise, booze can be made anywhere. Canadians have pretty much sworn off of US alcohol and were actually a major market. They make their own anyway. Seems like Europeans might be doing so also.
And part of this is probably the impact of an artisanal whiskey boom of the last decade fading.
August 5, 2025
Proposal to address ‘nation’s worst workforce exodus’ fails to get support from Wyoming lawmakers: The Wyoming Business Council says it has more policy ideas forthcoming to address "vicious" shrinking workforce conundrum.
August 10, 2025
Some really interesting things are going on that are definitely Wyoming centric that we haven't noted, or haven't noted much, and should.
The first might be that a proposal to put in a nuclear generator construction facility in Natrona County north of the town of Bar Nunn has really turned out to be controversial. This comes on the heels of a nuclear power plant in Kemmerer that is also controversial.
The ins and outs of the controversy are a little difficult to really discern, but at some level, quite a few people just don't like the idea of something nuclear. It's not coal, and its not oil. Chuck Gray, for example, has come out against this and wind energy. Chuck hasn't worked a day in his life in a blue collar job and he's just tapping into the "no sir, we don't like it" sort of thought here.
What's going to happen? We'll have to see.
Another local controversy is the approval of a 30 lot subdivision on Casper Mountain. This has drawn the ire of a lot people who live on Casper Mountain, and most of it is posed in conservation or even environmental terms.
The irony there, of course, is that people who have already built a house on the mountain are somewhat compromised in these arguments. I get it, however, as I really don't think we need more rural subdivisions in the county, at all.
On the mountain, I'd note that one of the really aggravating things that has happened recently is that last year a joint Federal/State project paved the dirt road on the backside of the mountain to the top of Muddy Mountain. It didn't need to be done and it just encourages land rapist to built houses on the backside of Casper Mountain.
Natrona County Bans Big Trucks On 26 Roads Amid Gravel Mine Controversy
I understand the opposition here, but in context, things seem to lack consistency.
Which gets back to this, I suppose. If a person just doesn't want development, they can say that.
What you can't do, however, is pretend that some major pillars of the state's economy are going to be here forever. The extractive industries are basically on their way out right now.
One of the amusing things about all of this is that the MAGA hat wearers locally who are opposed to nuclear energy are facing it in part due to the current administration.
August 13, 2025
Longtime Wyoming newspaper executives to buy, reopen eight shuttered newspapers: Overjoyed newsroom staff in communities across Wyoming are back on the job with pay after corporate closure laid off 30 employees.
Trump greenlights 14.5 million-ton coal expansion in Wyoming: The newly accessible tract represents a little more than half of the Antelope mine's annual production but signals more coal mining actions to come.
August 15, 2025
Headline in the CST:
US producer prices surge
And the tariff chickens come home to roost.
One Of Wyoming's First Combo Agriculture-Solar Farm Can’t Find A Buyer For Its Power
Trouble north of the border, where unions remain much stronger than they do here:
Air Canada cancels flights (August 15) due to labor trouble.
Air Canada is facing a flight attendants strike and is basically starting to shut down.
Cynthia Lummis on a comment from the Treasury Secretary saying the US needs to explore ways to buy more Bitcoin:
America needs the BITCOIN Act.
No, it doesn't. Focus on Wyoming issues and pay attention to them Senator.
August 17, 2025
Social Security Benefits Are an Estimated 8 Years Away From Being Slashed -- and the Cuts Are Even Bigger Than Initially Forecast
August 19, 2025
Federal mineral taxes are being reduced from16.67% to 12.5%.
They had been raised during the Biden Administration.
August 20, 2025
August 23, 2025
Employees at Laramie's Mountain Cement voted to unionize. They will be joining the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
August 30, 2025
Well, there's absolutely no surprise. Trump's illegal tariffs were affirmed to be illegal.
D'uh.
The Court's decision starts:
The Government appeals a decision of the Court of International Trade setting aside five Executive Orders that imposed tariffs of unlimited duration on nearly all goods from nearly every country in the world, holding that the tariffs were not authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq. Because we agree that IEEPA’s grant of presidential authority to “regulate” imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders, we affirm.
Even here, however, the Court granted a stay of thirty days on the implementation of its order, which a private litigant would be unlikely to have received, and the government shouldn't have received here. The order should have gone into effect immediately absent the government posting a bond to cover the damages, which would be all the tariffs collected while the matter was on appeal, and all that it has already collected, which should need to be fully refunded.
But a refund won't happen and the implementation of the ruling is delayed by 30 days, so the government can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which doesn't actually have to take the appeal.
Whether the S.Ct upholds it, or proves to be a pure political arm of the government, is another matter.
There were three dissents in the en banc decision.
September 7, 2025
Postal traffic into the United States dropped by more than 80% after the Trump administration ended a tariff exemption for low-cost imports.
September 9, 2025
Wyoming’s massive new federal coal tract not likely to draw high bids: State and coal industry officials want a new 440 million ton coal tract offered for sale, but opponents warn lease won't benefit public coffers like years past.
Like Star Athletes, WyoTech Grads Recruited For Jobs All Over The Country
Wyoming Wool Initiative seeks lamb donations for student program
September 13, 2025
Headline from the Trib:
Local board pulls $25M grant application to develop Radiant Nuclear site
And
Feds fast-track coal mining expansion in southwest Wyoming
And
Court sides with Wyoming utility, rules state should have allowed higher rate increase
Related threads:
The Union Pacific is laying off carmen in Green River and may be closing the shop there.
September 24, 2025
Apparently US immigration raids have caused Michelob Ultra, which is gross, to become the most popular beer in the U.S., displacing Corona, which is gross, for the last 12 months.
September 25, 2025
From the Trib:
Wyoming unemployment falls to 3.2% in August 2025
And the Cowboy State Daily:
The General Services Administration is attempting to rehire hundreds of employees laid off by Elon Musk's moronic Dipshit DOGE.
September 26, 2025
More tariffs. 100% tariff pharmaceuticals, 30% tariff on upholstered furniture, 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, and a 30% tariff on heavy trucks.
September 30, 2025
The Trump administration plans to open more than 13 million acres of federal land for leasing for coal and provide $625 million in funds to expand power generation from coal, the latter a blatantly socialist move, but apparently Republicans are okay with Socialism now.
In Wyoming, The West Antelope III coal lease will go to competitive auction on Oct. 8.
These will prove to be carbon laden farts in a windstorm as coal will continue to decline, but the action will be damaging to long term power generation and the climate.
Cattle prices are reported to be at a record high.
October 1, 2025
Powell Valley Healthcare is shutting down its oncology services and its internal medicine clinic in Cody as a way to remain economically sustainable.
Casper air travel should continue during federal shutdown, but ripple effects loom
October 3, 2025
October 6, 2025
(LETTER) Bob Ide personally benefits from his property tax cuts
October 9, 2025
Hard liquor exports to Canada are down 85% this year.
October 11, 2025
The master negotiator got the big middle finger salute from China over his trade policies and now Trump is threatening 100% tariffs on the country.
Markets are reacting badly.
October 13, 2025
China indicated it wasn't backing down on the tariff matter.
Last edition:
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