Wyoming
Rod Miller: When Transparency Wins, Wyoming Wins
You may not realize it but you, as a Wyoming citizen, won a landmark court victory the other day. The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) and its leadership were slapped down hard before the bar of justice for trying to keep secrets from us.
In a scathing decision, district judge Steven Sharpe reamed the education bureaucrats and their leader, former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder, for lying about spending public money on a private political event. Schroeder and his co-defendants were also assessed minimal dollar fines, but we’ll get to that later.
Here in Wyoming, we are accustomed to being able to see everything for miles around us. There are damn few skyscrapers to block our view.
There should likewise be damn little that blocks our view about what our government is doing. That is why The Wyoming Public Records Act (WPRA) is on the books. Everyone should know that law, and know how to use it when our elected or appointed officials try to get away with sneaky, shady bullshit.
Consider the WPRA the best tool in the citizen’s toolkit to use when government tries to lie to us about what it is doing. Keep that tool handy, well-oiled and sharp.
To recap the controversy: Schroeder decided to host a political rally in Cheyenne with the organization No Left Turn in Education, and enlisted Kathy Scigliano, handmaiden for the Laramie County Moms for Liberty, to recruit attendees. Disregarding the fact that the political rally was outside the purview of his department, Schroeder ordered that the WDE pay for travel and other arrangement for the event.
Plaintiffs in the case that came before Judge Sharpe, George Powers and Rodger McDaniel, got wind of the plans and filed a request for records pertaining thereto through the WPRA.
Schroeder and his subordinates lied about the existence of such records, withheld information and generally obfuscated in an attempt to conceal from the public the fact that state money was illegally spent to organize and conduct this rally.
Lengthy legal gymnastics and several judicial hearings ensued, with the end result being Sharpe’s decision that Schroeder et al violated the Wyoming Public Records Act, operated in bad faith, lied to the public and tried to hide their skullduggery.
Aside from the humiliation of having their greasiness publicly exposed from the bench, the defendants were fined from a hundred to seven hundred bucks each. I consider these fines paltry and inadequate, given the severity of violating oaths of office, snookering the voters of Wyoming, wasting public money, lying to the citizenry, behaving like some “secret government” and being assholes generally.
A few hundred bucks is a mere rap on the knuckles for these offenses. If defendants lose a WPRA case, then fines should hurt like hell and they should be compelled to pay plaintiff’s attorney fees!
As you read this, another case involving the WPRA is ongoing in a Park County district court.
A citizens’ group, opposed to the construction of a huge Mormon church in their neighborhood, has been trying for a couple of years to get background info from municipal planners who gave the go-ahead for construction. The group wants to know if the approval was sufficiently arms-length and above board, or if there was collusion between the church and responsible city officials.
But they’ve been stonewalled.
The defendants in this case in Cody, officials on public salary, should pay close attention to Judge Sharp’s ruling from Cheyenne. VERY close attention.
And the Wyoming Legislature should also be paying close attention to these two cases; with an eye toward tightening up the WPRA, closing loopholes, stiffening penalties and making it more user-friendly for laypersons, not just lawyers, to avail themselves of the act when they want to know what government is doing.
After all, knowing what your government is doing in your name is the first requirement of good citizenship.
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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