Open Spaces Wyoming Public Media

Today on the show, an alleged child assault in a Cody elementary school has parents saying the safety systems that are set up aren't working. Wyoming Rocky Mountain Power customers will see their bills go up again in January. But state officials are still figuring out just how much is fair. The Municipality Equality Index scores cities on how well they serve LGBTQ+ residents. Some of those cities are using their scorecard as a blueprint for progress. And a conversation with Wyoming Representative Harriet Hageman about her reflections from nearly a year in Congress. Those stories and more.

This week, we reach beyond our studios and bring you interviews from Wyoming PBS' Wyoming Chronicle. At one point, the Wyoming Cowboys were an NCAA Division One baseball team. And Jeff Houston was one of the best players they had. He came to Laramie from Arizona. Fossil fuels are an important industry for the state. But as the nation is trying to move away from relying on oil, the state says it's important to diversify. An interview with a historian on the history of oil in Wyoming from 2010.

Today on the show, we’ll talk with a Palestinian student at the University of Wyoming who lives in dread of phone calls bearing bad news about his family from the war in Israel. Plus we check in with a University of Wyoming Ukrainian student who has ramped up her advocacy here in the States. Money from federal spending packages like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is hitting the ground in Wyoming. And some people are noticing. But is this enough to make a political difference in the red rural West? Those stories and more.

Today on the show we hear the first of many stories that we’ve compiled from last summer when the nonprofit Storycorps hosted an oral history project in Cheyenne with veterans. We’ll hear a mom and daughter remembering their family member Scott, who was a veteran. We visit Lander, where a new center for veterans wants to provide a space for community and connection. And we switch gears to an award-winning podcast that discusses hard, intimate topics. It recently featured Wyoming’s speaker of the house and his wife – Albert and Sue Sommers. The host speaks to us about why she wanted to talk to them. Those stories and more, coming up on Open Spaces from Wyoming Public Radio News.

Today on the show, a companion film to Ken Burns' "The American Bison" series follows the return of bison to Indigenous land. Mike Rowe, of Discovery Channel’s "Dirty Jobs" fame, recently spoke at Casper College about the importance of trade jobs. Farmers and ranchers face a lot of outside pressure, from the high price of hay to the allure of early retirement. Why some cattle producers are choosing to keep their lands working. Plus, we learn more about the new season of our podcast "The Modern West." Those stories and more.

This week we reach beyond our studios and bring you interviews from Wyoming PBS’ "Wyoming Chronicle." Almost everyone in the state has a story of hitting wildlife while driving or a really near miss. How some in the state are working to make that less common. And, back in 2011, Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye came to Wyoming. We revisit that interview as a new conflict in the region flares up.