Wyoming
No harmful levels of PCBs found at Wyoming nuclear missile base
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/7SV2SYYRSJGPFD6757X5TDH2H4.jpg "No harmful levels of PCBs found at Wyoming nuclear missile base")
WASHINGTON (AP) — No harmful levels of carcinogenic PCBs were found inside the missile launch facilities at F.E. Warren Air Force base in Wyoming, the service said Tuesday, as it looks for possible causes for cancers being reported among its nuclear missile community.
F.E. Warren is among three nuclear bases the Air Force is investigating. Earlier this month the Air Force reported it had found harmful levels of PCBs at two locations at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Results from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota are pending, as are water quality tests from each of the locations.
The three bases house silo-launched Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. In underground capsules, pairs of missileers serve watch for 24 hours at a time, ready to launch the warheads if ordered to by the president.
The U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine collected air and swipe samples from the underground centers at F.E. Warren. No PCBs were detected in the air samples. Of the 300 surface swipe samples, 17 found detectable levels of PCBs, however all of the samples were below the threshold set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for mitigation. PCBs are oily or waxy substances that have been identified as carcinogenic.
In response to the findings, Air Force Global Strike commander Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere directed the cleaning of those areas found with the trace levels of PCBs, even though they are below the EPA thresholds, the command said in a release.
The Minuteman silos and underground control centers were built more than 60 years ago. Much of the electronics and infrastructure is decades old. Missileers have raised health concerns multiple times over the years about ventilation, water quality and potential toxins they cannot avoid while on duty underground.
According to the Torchlight Initiative, an independent group of former missileers or their surviving family members, at least 268 troops who served at nuclear missile sites have reported cancers, blood diseases or other illnesses over the past several decades.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Highway Patrol has issued an official update on the ongoing situation in Cheyenne, where a suspected IED was left outside of the Wyoming State Capitol.
According to a release from the WHP, on the morning of Oct. 21 an object, suspected do be in Improvised Explosive Device (IED), was found on the Great Seal in front of the Capitol, by a pedestrian. The pedestrian brought the suspect IED inside of the Capitol building, and Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers were alerted to its existence.
As a precaution, the building was evacuated at approximately 9;45 a.m. while troopers secured the area. Multipole agencies responded to the incident, including the WHP, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, the Cheyenne Police Department, Wyoming DCI, the Joint EOD Team, Cheyenne Fire and Rescue, AMR, FBI, ATF, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Additionally, the area of 21st to 26th Streets between Carey Ave. and Central Ave. were cordoned off, as drones and K-9 units swept the area. Eventually, all but 26th street were reopened. 26th Street was reopened at approximately 4:30 p.m.
The Capitol itself was closed for the rest of the day but it will be open as usual on Wednesday morning, Oct. 22.
The release notes that the investigation is still active and ongoing. The WHP is working with law enforcement partners to bring this case to its conclusion.
“Information is still being sought in this incident,” the release states. “Anyone with information, images or recordings of suspicious activity in the early morning hours of October 21st, please contact DCI by heading to their website and clicking the dedicated Capitol incident link on the main page.”
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The Wyoming Republican Party platform contradicts what traditional Republicans stand for. I say this as a registered Wyoming Republican voter.
The platform has 23 “timeless truths that will always inform and direct our party and our country…” Meanwhile, unlimited guns threaten life, its anti-abortion fixation drives the government to enforce specific religious interpretations and many of these “timeless” principles emerged in the last century.
The first and highest principle listed, Life (No. 1 in the platform), declares the government’s “only purpose” is protecting individual rights. But then the platform immediately begins a series of demands for government control and violations of those same rights.
Real Republicans believe in limited government, defend individual liberty and respect religious freedom. Yet Wyoming’s GOP thinks it knows better than everyone and forces one narrow interpretation of Christianity. They want you and your doctor to follow their interpretation of their religion.
Many Christians, Jews and others differ on when a fetus becomes its own life. (See Genesis 2:7, Job 33:4, etc.). Ancient religious law treated miscarriage as property damage, not murder (Exodus 21:22). But Wyoming’s GOP encodes a specific Christian view. Their theology “trumps” everyone’s law. Consider: Even 60% of Catholics believe abortion should be legal in most cases.
Real Republicans defend property rights. The government can’t touch your land, business or money without due process. But according to the Wyoming GOP, you don’t own your own body. That’s government property now. A rancher’s cattle have more bodily autonomy than Wyoming women under this “Republican” platform.
Here’s the kicker: After claiming their highest value is life, they abandon every policy that helps children survive and thrive — health care, education, childcare, nutrition programs. They chain women to pregnancy and then abandon the children. The contradictions multiply from there.
The second platform principle, Equality, is then violated through many of the rest of the principles. The largest political party in the Equality State, right after declaring equality for all under the law as a principle, goes about carving out special treatment for gun owners, Christians and businesses.
Consider principle No. 3: Second Amendment. First, the GOP platform omits the first half of the actual amendment’s wording, “a well regulated militia,” and then declares there will be no restrictions on arms or ammunition. This undermines their first principle, Life, by exposing schools, churches and public forums to needless gun violence. How can our militia be “well regulated” when driving a car has more restrictions and training requirements than the Wyoming Republicans’ Second Amendment interpretation? No insurance, licensing or background checks required, or even able to be considered.
Equality again is denied in the platform’s sixth plank: Religious Freedom, which gives privilege to Judeo-Christian viewpoints. Thomas Jefferson, who coined the phrase “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, was also the author of the foundational idea of separation of church and state. The First Amendment says “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Instead, the platform elevates Christian beliefs and pushes specific versions of those beliefs on women and others. Women may have first gained the right to vote in Wyoming, but the Republican party platform denies them religious equality now.
Another notable example, Right to Work (plank No. 20) effectively discriminates against workers attempting to engage in collective action while ignoring that employers engage in what amounts to collective action through PACs, lobbyists and other means on a regular basis. Their wealth advantage, unbound from living paycheck-to-paycheck, enables them to generate governmental and business pressures on employees that need unions or similar structures to achieve equal consideration.
The history of these so-called “timeless truths” is mind-boggling. Gun control was considered common sense by the NRA and most Americans until the 1970s. Now, school violence is a multibillion dollar industry.
Then there are the changes over time in the beliefs on unborn children. In 1968, Christianity Today issued the following statement regarding abortion: “Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed, but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.” It wasn’t until the 1980s that abortion became the wedge issue that it is today.
Right to Work laws originated in the 1940s as a strategy to weaken labor unions and was encoded in the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Timeless? Not even close. Michigan repealed right-to-work in 2023, showing that it is not a settled question. Judeo-Christian principles? Christians, including Martin Luther King Jr., have decried right-to-work as “a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.”
Limited government — except when controlling women. Individual liberty — except for medical decisions. Religious freedom — except for other religions. Constitutional government — except when the Constitution is inconvenient.
Ask yourself who benefits from these principles, and who they harm. A platform with these biases removed would be attractive and defendable by all Wyoming Republicans, not just the most extreme activists.
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