Wyoming
Fire, looming ruling don’t stop new Wyoming abortion clinic
![Fire, looming ruling don’t stop new Wyoming abortion clinic](https://www.mcclatchy-wires.com/incoming/3iys5w/picture261921425/alternates/LANDSCAPE_1140/Abortion_Clinic_Burned_Wyoming_32870.jpg)
Police stand on the scene of an in a single day hearth that severely broken a constructing that was being renovated to accommodate a brand new abortion clinic in Casper, Wyoming, Wednesday, Might 25, 2022. The clinic, which might additionally present different well being care for girls, had been set to open in June. It might develop into solely the second place within the state to supply abortions. (AP Picture/Mead Gruver)
AP
CASPER, Wyo.
When organizers earlier this yr settled on a summer time opening for a brand new girls’s well being clinic in Wyoming, they felt upbeat about their plans whilst they knew they’d face opposition to what would be the solely such clinic to supply abortions within the state.
There have been the anticipated protests and harassing messages. Issues obtained extra tense after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling that, if finalized, would seemingly make abortions unlawful in Wyoming and half of the states.
Then final week, their constructing was broken by a fireplace police imagine was intentionally set.
None of it has derailed plans to open the clinic — a rarity in closely Republican elements of america the place most abortion suppliers in the mean time are preventing simply to remain in enterprise, not to mention increase companies.
“We are able to’t be bullied into submission,” Julie Burkhart, the clinic founder, mentioned as she watched from throughout the road as Casper police and firefighters investigated the blaze.
For years, Wyoming prided itself on live-and-let-live Western conservatism that took a hands-off method to setting social coverage in authorities, abortion included. That’s altering, nonetheless.
In March, Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, signed a invoice that put Wyoming among the many states that may outlaw abortion ought to the Supreme Courtroom overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion authorized nationwide. The one exceptions can be within the occasion of rape or incest, to save lots of the mom’s life or to save lots of the mom from extreme, non-mental well being issues.
Gordon, who’s operating for re-election this yr, hasn’t made abortion and different tradition warfare points a characteristic of his campaigns or time in workplace. However a latest rightward shift of each the Supreme Courtroom and state Legislature has elevated abortion into a problem in Wyoming.
The deliberate clinic stands in stark defiance of that development.
Its backers embody Riata Little Walker, a Casper resident who not too long ago spoke out at a rally in assist of the clinic. In an interview, Little Walker described herself as pro-life till two years in the past, when fetal coronary heart and chromosomal abnormalities medical doctors mentioned would seemingly trigger her to miscarry prompted her to get an abortion 5 months into her being pregnant.
Had she not been capable of get an abortion at a hospital in Colorado, Little Walker mentioned she might have needed to face a traumatic miscarriage at house.
“Not all aborted infants are undesirable,” Little Walker mentioned. “This must be out there for individuals once they want it, even when they needed their child they usually must make the toughest choice that any father or mother may probably make.”
Her opinion might be not the bulk view in Casper, a working-class metropolis of 58,000 individuals that’s Wyoming’s second-biggest after the capital, Cheyenne.
Often known as the “Oil Metropolis,” Casper has an extended historical past as a hub of oil drilling and cattle ranching, with newer exercise in uranium mining and wind vitality. The town sprawls on the base of Casper Mountain with a skyline dominated by a 180-foot (54-meter) concrete spire constructed within the Sixties.
After the clinic hearth, one minister and clinic supporter, the Rev. Leslie Kee of the native Unitarian Universalist church, referred to as for tolerance by all.
“All this does is stir up division and worry and helplessness and sense that issues are spinning uncontrolled,” Kee mentioned. “Any person’s obtained to step up and name for calm and love and peace. That comes from the human coronary heart.”
Nobody was injured within the blaze, which left the stucco home being renovated for the clinic with damaged home windows and smoke injury. Authorities are investigating whether or not the fireplace is linked to an individual seen operating away from the constructing carrying what seemed to be a gasoline can and a bag.
After surveying the injury, Burkhart mentioned she expects the beforehand deliberate mid-June opening to be delayed by “not less than a number of weeks.”
Burkhart has confronted daunting odds in opposition to opening abortion clinics earlier than.
She labored intently with Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita, Kansas, abortion physician who was assassinated at church in 2009. 4 years after his homicide, Burkhart helped to reopen Tiller’s clinic.
The Wichita clinic, very similar to the one deliberate in Casper, enabled girls to get abortions with out driving a whole bunch of miles to different cities and states.
Colorado, which codified the correct to abortion in state regulation in April, has lengthy been the first vacation spot for abortions for a lot of Wyoming girls.
“Colorado has been the saving grace for everybody,” mentioned one Casper girl who obtained an abortion in Boulder when she was a 17-year-old in foster care in a small Wyoming city in 1989.
She declined to be recognized, citing issues for her security and employment prospects that have been shared by her daughter, a Casper girl who went to Colorado to get the medicine required for her personal abortion 20 years later, at age 21.
Whereas abortions have continued in Wyoming — there have been 98 within the state final yr and 91 the yr earlier than, in response to state figures — solely a pair medical suppliers at most now do abortions often. The state does not observe who the suppliers are they usually seldom publicize their companies.
The Casper clinic will likely be way more open with its companies, which along with abortions will embody girls’s, household planning and gender-affirming well being care. It’ll assist fill a niche left when town’s Deliberate Parenthood clinic, which didn’t present abortions, closed for monetary causes in 2017.
One outspoken native opponent of the clinic, Ross Schriftman, expressed disappointment concerning the hearth. Nonetheless he mentioned all people ought to oppose abortion and famous the aim is not essentially to make abortion unlawful however “unthinkable.”
“I haven’t got a uterus. However I do have a coronary heart, a thoughts and a First Modification. And I’ve each proper to talk about how I really feel about a problem,” mentioned Schriftman, a member of the Jewish Professional-Life Basis.
Little Walker mentioned her abortion was each heartbreaking and delightful.
On the Denver hospital, Little Walker and her husband, Ian, obtained to carry their daughter, whom they’d named Riana, after she died. They keep her reminiscence in a field with objects together with her ashes in heart-shaped container, prints of her tiny fingers and toes and a child blanket.
“I really feel prefer it’s Riana’s legacy to share her story and assist individuals perceive that abortion is way greater than what the propaganda would have you ever imagine. It is rather more sophisticated. It’s extremely, very grey. And it might have an effect on anyone,” Little Walker mentioned.
“When you end up in a tough place, you simply need to have decisions.”
___
Observe Mead Gruver at https://twitter.com/meadgruver
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Wyoming
WYOMING COUNTY/Law enforcement detail along Rt. 20A nets several arrests
![WYOMING COUNTY/Law enforcement detail along Rt. 20A nets several arrests](https://i0.wp.com/videonewsservice.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cropped-527975_359806690738955_2095817671_n.jpg?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1)
(From provided press release)
On June 28, 2024, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office conducted a detail along Rt.
20A throughout Wyoming County with the purpose of identifying and apprehending crimes in
progress.
Funding for the detail was secured through the United States Department of Homeland
Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s [FEMA] Operation Stonegarden Grant
Program [OPSG], and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency
Services [DHSES].
Assisting the detail were units from Warsaw Police Department, Homeland
Security Investigations Buffalo, and two [2] United States Border Patrol K9 Units. Throughout
the detail, twenty-six [26] traffic stops were conducted, which resulted in five [5] criminal
arrests, and multiple traffic citations were issued throughout four [4] townships. Arrest details
are as follows:
Eric R. Reimer, age 36, of Buffalo, NY, was arrested following a traffic stop on Rt.
20A in the Town of Perry.
Reimer is charged with Operating While Registration Suspended.
Reimer was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in the Town of Perry Court
at a later date.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Abidha S. Abedin, 23, of Buffalo, NY, was arrested following a traffic stop on Rt. 20A in the Town of Perry. Abedin is charged with Operating While Registration Suspended.
She was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in the Town of Perry Court at a later date.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Cierra K. Wheeler, 37, of Edison, NJ, was arrested following a traffic stop on Rt. 20A in the Town of Warsaw.
Wheeler is charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation in the Third Degree.
She was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in the Town of Warsaw Court at a later date.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Endersson E. Rojas Garcia, 32, of New York City, NY, was arrested following a traffic
stop on Rt. 20A in the Town of Orangeville.
Rojas Garcia is charged with Displaying a Forged Certificate of Inspection, Uninspected Motor Vehicle, and Unlicensed Operation.
Rojas Garcia was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in the Town of
Orangeville Court at a later date.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Takia S. Richie, 38, of Buffalo, NY, was arrested following a traffic stop on Rt. 20A in the Village of Warsaw. Richie is charged with Operating While Registration Suspended.
She was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in the Town of Warsaw Court at a later date.
Related
Wyoming
Wyoming Legion Baseball Scoreboard: July 1-7, 2024
![Wyoming Legion Baseball Scoreboard: July 1-7, 2024](https://townsquare.media/site/420/files/2024/05/attachment-Baseball-38.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural)
American Legion Baseball teams are in Week 14 of Wyoming’s 2024 season. The week begins with numerous conference doubleheaders. Then, tournament action takes over the weekend. Douglas and Gillette have tournaments for A-level teams, while Cheyenne has a Double-A tournament for the second straight weekend. The Gillette Riders and Rock Springs Stallions head to tournaments in North Dakota and Idaho, respectively.
WYOMING AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL SCHEDULE WEEK 14 2024
Game schedules for Week 14 are subject to change and the weather. If you have an update or see a game missing, let WyoPreps know by emailing david@wyopreps.com.
Final Score: Casper Drillers 11 Gillette Rustlers 5 (conference game) – a 5-run 5th followed by a 3-run 6th clinched it for the Drillers. J. Pexton had 2 hits & 2 RBIs, and Speiser added 3 hits & 1 RBI.
Gillette Rustlers at Casper Drillers, 7:30 p.m. (conference game)
Casper Oilers at Spearfish (SD) Spartans, 11 a.m. & 1 p.m.
Buffalo Bulls at Laramie Rangers A, 3 & 5:30 p.m. (conference games)
Powell Pioneers at Riverton Raiders, 4 & 6 p.m. (conference games)
Casper Drillers at Torrington Tigers, 5 & 7 p.m. (conference games)
Miles City (MT) Mavericks at Douglas Cats, 5 & 7 p.m.
Buffalo Bulls at Cheyenne Eagles, noon & 2:30 p.m. (conference games)
Sheridan Troopers at Jackson Giants, 1 & 3 p.m. (conference games)
Final Score: Cheyenne Sixers 7 Jackson Giants 0 (conference game) – forfeit
Final Score: Cheyenne Sixers 7 Jackson Giants 0 (conference game) – forfeit
Tournaments
Mountain West World Series in Cheyenne
Laramie Rangers AA vs. Collins Collab 18U, 1 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Parker (CO) Lightning 18U at Cheyenne Sixers, 3:30 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Rocky Mountain Oysters (AZ) at Cheyenne Sixers, 6 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Powell Pioneers at Cheyenne Hawks, 6 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Boise, ID Tournament
Rock Springs Stallions vs. TBD
Cody Cubs at Riverton Raiders, 4 & 6 p.m. (conference games)
Tournaments
Bolln Wood Bat Tournament in Douglas
Wheatland Lobos vs. Evanston Outlaws, 5 p.m.
Torrington Tigers at Douglas Cats, 7:30 p.m.
Hargens/Leisy Tournament in Gillette
Sheridan Jets vs. Rapid City (SD) Bullets, 10 a.m.
Sheridan Jets vs. Miles City Mavericks, 12:30 p.m.
Greeley GOJO’s at Gillette Rustlers, 8 p.m.
Mountain West World Series in Cheyenne
Laramie Rangers AA vs. Greeley GOJO’s, 4:30 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Powell Pioneers at Cheyenne Sixers, 6:30 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Collins Collab 18U at Cheyenne Hawks, 7 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Phil Brown Classic in Jamestown, ND
Gillette Riders vs. Dickinson (ND) Roughriders, 12:30 p.m.
Boise, ID Tournament
Rock Springs Stallions vs. TBD
Casper Drillers at Cheyenne Eagles, 11 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. (conference games)
Casper Oilers at Utah Yaks (Kaysville, UT), 3 & 5:30 p.m.
Tournaments
Bolln Wood Bat Tournament in Douglas
Evanston Outlaws vs. Lovell Mustangs, 10 a.m.
Wheatland Lobos vs. Lovell Mustangs, 12:30 p.m.
Torrington Tigers vs. Green River Knights, 3 p.m.
Green River Knights at Douglas Cats, 5:30 p.m.
Hargens/Leisy Tournament in Gillette
Sheridan Jets vs. Premier West (Denver, CO), 10 a.m.
Sheridan Jets vs. Greeley GOJO’s, 3 p.m.
Miles City Mavericks at Gillette Rustlers, 5:30 p.m.
Premier West (Denver, CO) at Gillette Rustlers, 8 p.m.
Mountain West World Series in Cheyenne
Laramie Rangers AA vs. Parker (CO) Lightning 18U, 11 a.m. (at Powers Field)
Powell Pioneers vs. Parker Lightning 18U, 1:30 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Laramie Rangers AA at Cheyenne Hawks, 3:30 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Powell Pioneers vs. Rocky Mountain Oysters (AZ), 4 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Greeley GOJO’s at Cheyenne Hawks, 6 p.m. (at Pioneer Park)
Collins Collab 18U at Cheyenne Sixers, 6:30 p.m. (at Powers Field)
Phil Brown Classic in Jamestown, ND
Gillette Riders vs. Bonivital Black Sox (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), 8 a.m.
Gillette Riders vs. Edgeley (ND) Post 146, 4 p.m.
Boise, ID Tournament
Rock Springs Stallions vs. TBD
Casper Oilers at Utah Yaks (Kaysville, UT), 10 a.m. & noon
Laramie Rangers A at Casper Drillers, 1 & 3 p.m. (conference games)
Final Score: Laramie Rangers AA 7 Jackson Giants 0 (conference game) – forfeit
Final Score: Laramie Rangers AA 7 Jackson Giants 0 (conference game) – forfeit
Tournaments
Bolln Wood Bat Tournament in Douglas
Pool A Seed 3 vs. Pool B Seed 3, 8 a.m.
Pool A Seed 1 vs. Pool B Seed 2, 10:30 a.m.
Pool B Seed 1 vs. Pool A Seed 2, 1 p.m.
Winner of 10:30 a.m. game vs. Winner of 1:00 p.m. game, 3:30 p.m. – championship
Hargens/Leisy Tournament in Gillette
Rapid City Bullets at Gillette Rustlers, 4:30 p.m.
Sheridan Jets at Gillette Rustlers, 7 p.m.
Mountain West World Series in Cheyenne
Cheyenne Sixers vs. TBD
Cheyenne Hawks vs. TBD
Laramie Rangers AA vs. TBD
Phil Brown Classic in Jamestown, ND
Gillette Riders vs. TBD
Casper Oilers Baseball-2023
Casper Oilers Baseball-2023
Gallery Credit: Casper Legion Baseball
Wyoming
Big land, small schools: Inside the politics of rural education in Wyoming
![Big land, small schools: Inside the politics of rural education in Wyoming](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/07/01/USAT/74270271007-crowheartrecess.jpg?auto=webp&crop=3024,1701,x0,y1274&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Wyoming’s smallest schools aim to meet kids where they’re at
Educators say smaller schools and class sizes allows for individualized education, and for kids to teach each other across grade levels.
The thought of one-room schoolhouses evokes dirt floors, dusty chalkboards, and Little House on the Prairie. But Wyoming, America’s least populated state, still has 18 schools with three rooms or less.
Small schoolhouses and rural education in the Cowboy State are rooted in Wyoming’s constitution, which guarantees a right to an education and outlines the state’s funding model. Students across the state are legally entitled to equitable access to resources, regardless of geographic location.
“Not every state has a constitution that even talks about education,” said Barbara Hickman, assistant professor at the University of Wyoming’s College of Education. “To have it in the constitution that there is a requirement from the people of Wyoming to appropriately fund our public education system, that matters.”
More: Home on the range: inside buffalo restoration on the Wind River Indian Reservation
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The block grant funding model sets benchmarks for funding across the state. Counties that generate enough revenue to fund their schools independently are designated as “recapture” counties and feed their excess dollars back to the state.
The majority of the state’s counties are “entitlement” counties, which means that they rely on state funds and counties with surpluses to help cover their educational costs. Funding levels are adjusted for the state’s smallest districts.
“I think that the model has been put together to try to be equitable and adequate across the state. So if you’re a smaller district, you get quite a bit more money per student,” incoming executive director for the Wyoming Association of School Administrators Boyd Brown said.
More: Some parts of rural America are changing fast. Can higher education keep up?
This reality plays out in schools such as Park County’s Valley Elementary, built in 1918. Nestled along the South Fork River and backdropped by the Absaroka mountains, the school has eight students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. Michelle Dean has taught at Valley for eight years.
Dean and other teachers in these schools face unusual challenges In addition to grizzly bear-proof fences and brutally long winters, teachers must manage curriculums across multiple grade levels and access points for learners across grade levels.
This spring’s project centered around vermicomposting (composting with earthworms) and challenged students to develop their own. Students based experiments around questions like “Can worms jump?” “Do worms like music?” and “Can you train worms to do tricks?”
“I didn’t want the students just working at their desk, at their own grade levels. So I was thinking of how to bring them together and create a community of learners,” Dean said.
Dean noted the challenge of multi-curricular teaching but argued that it paid off in the level of individualized education students receive and said that the students can mentor and teach each other across grade levels.
“Students have more freedom to explore their interests, if they need more time to work on a concept, they have it,” Dean said. “My fifth graders are super supportive of my kindergarteners, and my kindergarteners just bloom with that.”
Schools like Sheridan County’s Slack Elementary, built in 1937 and tucked into the base of the Big Horn mountains, often act as anchors in some of the state’s most rural areas. Many students hail from ranching families and get to school on the same roads their parents took. School events, such as Slack’s beginning-of-year ice cream social and Valley’s annual Christmas play, are gathering places for the surrounding communities.
“The community that shows up. It’s not just the kids that are here, it’s the community that shows up—not just from the kids that are here, but anyone who lives out here,” Principal Ryan Fuhrman said.
Karin Unruh has taught at Sublette County’s Bondurant Elementary for over ten years and said that one of her favorite parts of the job is being embedded in the community. She firmly stands by the quality of the education offered in Wyoming’s smallest communities.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that rural schools can still have access to really good resources and can provide a high level of education to the students. The students can still learn a lot, have their needs met, and actually get more individualized attention than in larger schools,” Unruh said.
Once the students at Bondurant, Valley, Slack, and many other small schools in Wyoming are old enough to travel alone, they will have to brave multi-hour bus rides into the nearest town. To Unruh, investing in rural schools is an investment in the communities’ futures.
“If there aren’t schools in the community, it’s harder to bring in new families, so having a school in a community really keeps the community alive, and keeps people involved in the community,” Unruh said.
While these small schoolhouses may not be the cheapest way to educate students, Larry Gerber, principal of Valley School, says their existence is grounded in the needs of the students.
“If you’re a five-year-old, do you want to spend four hours on a school bus? Is that what’s best for you? Especially for our little guys, to be able to be on a bus for fifteen minutes versus two hours, it’s a dramatic difference,” said Gerber. “The people I always talk to are always surprised that someone would pay that much money for eight kids. What I always retort is, what if one of those eight kids was yours?
Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews
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