Top Wyoming News Stories, 2001

1. National terrorist attacks brought concern to entire state, particularly with respect to airport security.
2. Eight UW runners died in crash with drunken driver, south of Laramie on Highway 287 on Sept. 16. They were riding in a Jeep Wagoneer that collided head-on with a large pickup truck. Killed were Joshua Jones, Kevin Slaverson, Nicholas Schabron, lSlhane Shatto, Morgan McLeland, Kyle Johnson, Justin Lambert-Belanger, and Cody Brown. Driver of the other vehicle, Clint Haskins, convicted and sentenced to prison for driving drunk and causing the accident.
3. Wyoming Supreme Court ordered changes to K-12 funding formula. On Feb. 23, the court ordered the legislature to devise a better system for paying for new school buildings and to come up with a statewide tax or similar method to fund $563 million in repairs. On Oct. 2, the court backed away from the earlier ruling by saying that the legislature remained in charge of funding school building construction to standards it deemed fit.
4. Dick Cheney, former U.S. Representative from Wyoming, is sworn in as vice president
5. Army Ranger Spec. John J. Edmunds, 20, killed in helicopter crash in Pakistan. He grew up in Cheyenne.
6. Wyoming’s energy industry continued to bolster the state’s economy with natural gas, oil and coal prices rising. The legislature had a $695 million surplus, making it possible to put away $200 million in the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund and provide $47 million to school districts to fund teachers’ wage increases.
7. Drought continued through much of Wyoming. Most places in the state received below-average precipation and experienced warmer temperatures than normal for the second year in a row. Crop losses from drought were estimated at $6 million for the year. Many ranchers sold cattle early as stock ponds dried up.
8. Snowmobiles remained an issue. On June 29, the NPS set aside a Clinton administration ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks to settle a lawsuit brought by snowmobile groups. The settlement required the NPS to conduct a new study of the impact of the vehicles on the parks.
9. Coal bed methane boom in Wyoming continues. Methane trapped in coal seams in the Powder River Basin continued to be exploited during the year. Almost 230 billion cubic feet were produced, a 54 percent increase over 2000. Lack of pipelines continued to cause concerns, however.
10. Hot dry weather ushered in another summer of fire in Wyoming. A lightning-caused fire on July 29 closed the east entrance of Yellowstone for 11 days. Some 150 mountain homes near Jackson had to be evacuated the previous week due to fire southwest of town. Near Alpine, 40 homes were evacuated due to another fire. Several structures burned in separate fires in the Black Hills in the northeast.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2002

1. Dave Freudenthal is elected governor, defeating Eli Bebout by 3,762 votes. A former aide to long-time governor Ed Herschler and U. S. Attorney in the Clinton administration, he was the only Democrat to win statewide office in the November election.
2. West Nile Virus, a disease spread by mosquitoes, strikes in Wyoming
3. Drought continues throughout the state. In the northwest part of the state, light mountain snowpack led to spring and summer drought.
4. Kaycee flooded, many homes and businesses destroyed. FEMA refuses support, claiming the number of damaged homes and buildings did not meet its criteria for a disaster.
5. Clint Haskins, driver of a large pickup that struck a van in which eight University of Wyoming runners were riding, killing all eight of them, is sentenced to prison for vehicular homicide. Authorities proved Haskins was drunk at the time of the accident, south of Laramie on Highway 287 in September 2001.
6. Legislature passes a law that reduces blood-alcohol limit
7. A man is convicted in the Lisa Kimmell case. The young woman was killed in 1988 and the case finally was solved using DNA evidence gathered from a car buried on the property of the convicted man near Moneta.
8. University of Wyoming changed football coaches. Vic Koenning is fired and Joe Glenn, a very successful coach at Northern Colorado and the University of Montana, is named to succeed him.
9. Crime news was the next biggest story with such incidents as a serial rapist in central Wyoming.
10. Snowmobiles and whether they should be allowed in Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Parks again brought controversy in Wyoming during the year.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2003

1. Death of Wyoming soldiers in Iraq (five killed during 2003)
2. Man charged in murder of Lisa Kimmell, 15 years after her body found in Platte River
3. Prosecutor prosecuted: Kevin Meenan, Natrona County District Attoirney for 17 years, resigned in December after pleading guilty to forgery and theft from step-children.
4. (tie) Brucellosis found in Sublette County cattle herd in Dec. 2003.
5. (tie) Legislators and game officials crafted wolf management plan
6. State projects as much as $1 billion surplus for following year due to energy price rises
7. Snowmobile ban in Yellowstone approved by court; state appealed
8. 9 die, 393 sick from West Nile virus outbreak in state
9. Martin’s Cove leased to Latter Day Saints church
10. State in 4th straight year of drought
11. (tie) Newcastle firefighter killed; Anndee Huber killed when truck overturned en route to fire.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2004

1. Fiery pileup on I-80 near Buford kills seven and injures 29 others. Thirty-six vehicles were involved in the chain reaction collision in heavy fog on August 19.
2. Voters defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have let the legislature consider limits on awards in malpractice cases, such as for pain and suffering. The amendment, crafted during a special session of the legislature, was designed to reduce doctors’ liability insurance and keep doctors in the state.
3. An outbreak of brucellosis meant livestock producers would continue to face stringent testing requirements for the following year.
4. A resurging mineral industry was largely responsible for a record $1.22 billion state budget surplus. The bulk of it, $462 million, was spent on a backlog of school and prison construction needs. About $252 million or 20 percent, was put in permanent or short-term savings.
5. Wyoming sued the federal government on April 22 over rejection of the state’s wolf-management plan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wyoming’s plan would have allowed too much uncontrolled killing of wolves, but state officials thought such a move was necessary to control the growing wolf population.
6. On May 4, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for voters to impose term limits on state lawmakers through a 1992 ballot initiative. Seven incumbents freed to run again were returned to office, while four others retired even though the limit no longer was operative.
7. On Oct. 15, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer struck down a Clinton administration phase-out on snowmobile use in Yellowstone that had been invoked by another judge in an earlier case.
8. A case that had baffled investigators for more than a decade was solved with Dale W. Eaton sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell who disappeared in 1988 near Casper. Her body was later found in the North Platte River. Eaton’s car was unearthed near Moneta and DNA from Kimmell was found in the vehicle.
9. A fire gutted Northwest College’s Bridger Hall on March 30. The incident raised the issue of whether the state ought to help fund sprinkler systems in college structures. The governor included $3 million in the budget for assisting with such modifications.
10. Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Burns of Laramie, Army PFC Collier Barcus, who spent time on a Wyoming youth ranch, Marine PFC Chance Phelps, who grew up in Dubois, and Army Spec. Billy Watts of Cody were all killed in Iraq during the year.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2005

1. On the afternoon of August 12, a tornado with winds estimated at from 113-130 mph struck the southern Campbell County town of Wright, killing two people and destroying 60 homes. Killed were Etienne Iriberry, Sr., 53, and Connie L. Allen, 97. Almost 60 other homes were damaged in the storm.
2. Trent Blankenship, elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2002, resigned in June to accept the position of superintendent of the North Slope Burrough School District in northern Alaska.
3. The Wyoming state legislature created the Hathaway scholarships, a $400 million trust fund to pay for scholarships for Wyoming high school graduates who attend Wyoming community colleges or the University of Wyoming. A special task force developed rules for implementing the program during the summer and fall.
4. Lawmakers approved construction of a new medium-security prison at Torrington. Rawlins and Riverton both objected, claiming that most of the economic benefits would accrue to neighboring towns in Nebraska.
5. The 2005 state legisalutre had an estimated $1.2 billion surplus to work with during the session. It was estimated that the amount would be $1.8 billion by the end of the year.
6. Stan Hathaway, former governor, died at his home in Cheyenne on Oct. 4 after a long illness. He was 81. Hathaway served two terms from 1967-1975.
7. Laramie County District Judge E. James Burke ruled on Jan. 5 that electronic bingo machines were illegal gambling devices. Within days, bingo parlors were closed down throughout the state. Legislative attempts to revive electronic bingo failed and the House passed a bill banning the use of electronic bingo devices.
8. In July, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling that the state of Wyoming had negotiated in bad faith when it refused to allow for a casino on the Wind River reservation. The ruling allowed the Arapaho tribe to continue with plans for a Las Vegas-style casino on the reservation.
9. Country music star and world champion bareback rider Chris LeDoux died March 9 of complications from liver cancer. He was 56. The 1976 PRCA bareback champion earned a loyal following by passing out tapes of his music at rodeos. He lived in Kaycee.
10. Just days after State Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship resigned, an audit of his department revealed possible nepotism, poorly documented budgets, apparent circumvention of state purchasing rules and improper reimbursements for training. Blankenship dismissed the audit findings, claiming their were politically motivated.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2006

1. Barbara Cubin won a seventh term as U.S. Representative by a razor-thin margin over Democrat Gary Trauner of Wilson. Cubin gained 93,336 votes to Trauner’s 92,324. Libertaraian Thomas Rankin got 7,481. Cubin had 48.3 percent; Trauner, 47.8 percent; and Rankin, 3.8 percent of the vote.
2. Both houses of the legislature approved measures in March to repeal the sales tax on food for the coming two years. Rep. Ann Robinson (D-Natrona) introduced the bill. Local governments would be reimbursed by the state for losses in tax revenues. $50 million was set aside for such payments.
3. The legislature approved initial funding for the Hathaway scholarship program and the rules that allowed the 2006 graduating class of high school seniors to receive the monies. The governor signed the bill.
4. The Jackson Canyon fire was started Aug. 14 by lightning and burned more than 10,000 acres on Casper Mountain. It burned several structures and forced evacuation of hundreds of homes.
5. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, running for a second term, gained 70 percent of the vote to defeat Ray Hunkins, Wheatland lawyer and rancher.
6. Two final candidates withdrew from the hiring process in March and the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees voted to add Tom Buchanan, interim president, to the list of finalists for the position of university president.
7. In April, a federal appeals court upheld dismissal of Wyoming’s lawsuit against the federal government over how wolves should be managed in the state after their removal from the Endangered Species Act protection. The state then filed another similar lawsuit that was pending at the end of 2006.
8. Police said Justin Geiger, a University of Wyoming student, killed two other students before killing himself in July. The incident happened off campus.
9. The Wyoming Republican Party ran a series of radio advertisements in August trying to make it sound as though Gov. Freudenthal was spending state money to outfit a state airplane with luxury features. The ad seemed to backfire on the GOP when Freudenthal made it clear that he had never flown in the plane, which is used for aerial photography and mapping.
10. Wyoming’s energy boom prompted some counties to recruit workers from Michigan. At least 800 people looking for jobs attended Wyoming presentations at job fairs held in Michigan early in the year after automakers in that state announced plans to lay off tens of thousands of workers.

Top Wyoming News Stories, 2007*

1. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., the state’s senior senator, dies in June at the age of 74 after a fight with leukemia. Born in Cody, Thomas entered Congress in a special election in 1989 to replace Dick Cheney after he was named defense secretary by the first President Bush. Gov. Dave Freudenthal chose John Barrasso, a Casper surgeon and state senator, to succeed Thomas from a list of three finalists selected by the Wyoming Republican Party. The state party had winnowed the list down from more than 30 people who had expressed interest in the Senate seat.
2. Progress continues toward removing wolves from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pushes to remove wolves from protection in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The federal agency this year said it could accept a Wyoming plan for how to manage wolves in the state once federal protection is lifted, possibly as soon as 2008.
3. U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin’s announces in November that she would not seek re-election in 2008. Cubin, 59, is serving her seventh term in Congress. She has missed more than half of her votes in Congress this year. She has spent much of her time in Wyoming tending to her husband, who has been ill for many years with an immune disorder.
4. There was a three-way tie for the fourth-place story of the year -- the decision by Wyoming Republicans to move up their presidential delegate selection process to Jan 5, 2008, to be among the first in the nation; the death of Robin Munis, 40, who was shot by her husband, an Army-trained sniper, as she sang on stage at a Cheyenne bar; and the Wyoming Cowgirls winning the WNIT Championship.

2008

• Wind River Casino and Hotel, run by the Northern Arapaho Tribe, opens on the Wind River Reservation
• In March, the Clintons and Obama "visited the Cowboy State...It was the first time presidential candidates had truly courted Wyoming voters [Wyoming Democrats] say since 1960." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2008)
• "In April...[Cheyenne Frontier Days] officials decided to outlaw the use of handheld electric shock devices at the rodeo except in emergency situations in order to prevent injuries." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2008)
• "The University of Wyoming women's basketball team played in its first-ever NCAA Tournament" (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2008)
• A strip club opens in Caspar in mid-November (Caspar Journal Dec. 24-30, 2008)
• "J.C. Penney celebrates 100 years in Sheridan...Jan. 19" (Sheridan Press Dec. 31, 2008)
• "On Feb, 19, the Sheridan City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to allow potbellied pigs in city limits in response to Dickieson family efforts to keep their pet pig" (Sheridan Press Dec. 31, 2008)
• "Sam Mavrakis, legendary Sheridan ourdoorsman and Wyoming Hall of Fame inductee, dies March 6" (Sheridan Press Dec. 31, 2008)
• "Sheridan High School is named by Newsweek Magazine May 18 as one of the top 1,300 schools in the nation based on the number of Advanced Placement tests for college taken by students in 2007. SHS was the only Wyoming school to make the list." (Sheridan Press Dec. 31, 2008)

2009

• "The Hitching Post Inn bankruptcy and subsequent closing for safety violations topped this years list of the 10 most important local stories, as voted by the newsroom staff at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle....In September the city forced the historic hotel to close." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2009)

2010

• In September, the "historic Hitching Post Inn burns, arson ruled as cause." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2010)
• "Republican Matt Mead was declared the winner of the governor's race early in 2010..." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2010)
• "The Wyoming Army National Guard's largest ever deployment ended without a single casualty in April....after a year of being deployed to Iraq and Kuwait." (Wyoming Tribune Eagle Dec. 31, 2010)
• In October, Sheridan was "named one of 'America's Best Adventure Towns' by National Geographic, which featured the city on its website." (Sheridan Press Dec. 30, 2010)
• "The Census, which is mandated by the U.S. Constitution every 10 years, was conducted during the spring and summer months in 2010....Wyoming's total resident population at 563,626. This is a gain of 69,844 people over the decade, or a 14.1 percent increase since 2000." (Casper Journal Dec. 29, 2010-Jan. 4, 2011)