Wyoming
UW trustees vote against concealed carry rule; firearms to remain prohibited on campus for now
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Following deliberation and public input, the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees voted 6–5 today against the proposed rule allowing the concealed carrying of dangerous weapons on campus grounds.
This means that the University of Wyoming will continue to operate under current policy prohibiting any dangerous weapon on university grounds, concealed or not and regardless of the bearer’s status as a concealed carry permit holder.
In a campus-wide email, UW President Ed Seidel said that the nature of the issue, with the university having been directed by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon to make a decision on the rule before the state legislature makes it instead, means the issue will likely rise again.
“In that event, be assured that the administration will continue to work in the best interests of the university, with the safety of campus as our top priority,” Seidel said.
Members of the Board of Trustees appeared to agree with that sentiment, as Board Chairman Kermit Brown said in the body’s Thursday meeting that continued deliberation over the issue will be like “sawing sawdust.”
The board members who voted in favor of the rule are Kermit Brown, Brad LaCroix, Jim Mathis, John McKinley and Dave True. The board members opposed are David Fall, Brad Bonner, Carol Linton, Macey Moore, Laura Schmid-Pizzato and Michelle Sullivan.
According to Seidel, some exceptions to the current rule may be allowed at the discretion of the UW Police, which would have enforced the new rule if it were implemented starting around the new year. The UW Police website can be viewed here.
The state legislature will begin meeting for the 2025 General Session the second Tuesday of January. During the session, a new bill regarding concealed carry on campus is likely to spring up. Wyoming’s legislature can be monitored at the body’s website here.
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Wyoming power plant booming with suspected UFO, drone sightings — but still no answers after over a year
Fleets of drones and suspected UFOs have been spotted hovering over a Wyoming power plant for more than a year, while a local sheriff’s department is still searching for clues.
Officials with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office recorded scores of beaming, drone-like objects circling around the Red Desert and Jim Bridger Power Plant in Rock Springs over the last 13 months — though they didn’t specify how many, the Cowboy State Daily reported.
Sheriff John Grossnickle was one of the first to witness the spectacles, and last saw the mind-boggling formation on Dec. 12, his spokesperson Jason Mower told the outlet.
The fleets periodically congregate over the power plant in coordinated formations, Mower claimed.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t been able to recover any of the suspected UFOs, telling the outlet they’re too high to shoot down.
The law enforcement outpost’s exhaustive efforts to get to the truth haven’t yielded any results, even after Grossnickle enlisted help from Wyoming US Rep. Harriet Hageman — who Mower claimed saw the formation during a trip to the power plant.
Hageman could not be reached for comment.
“We’ve worked with everybody. We’ve done everything we can to figure out what they are, and nobody wants to give us any answers,” Mower said, according to the outlet.
At first, spooked locals bombarded the sheriff’s office with calls about the confounding aerial formations. Now, though, Mower said that people seem to have accepted it as “the new normal.”
Mower noted that the objects, which he interchangeably referred to as “drones” and “unidentified flying objects,” have yet to pose a danger to the public or cause any damage to the power plant itself.
“It’s like this phenomenon that continues to happen, but it’s not causing any, you know, issues that we have to deal with — other than the presence of them,” he told the outlet.
The spokesperson promised the sheriff’s office would “certainly act accordingly” if the drones pose an imminent harm.
Meanwhile, Niobrara County Sheriff Randy Starkey told the Cowboy State Daily that residents of his community also reported mystery drone sightings over Lance Creek — more than 300 miles from the Jim Bridger Power Plant — starting in late October 2024 and ending in early March.
Starkey said he’s “just glad they’re gone,” according to the outlet.
Drone sightings captured the nation’s attention last year when they were causing hysteria in sightings over New Jersey.
Just days into his second term, President Trump had to clarify that the drones were authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to quell worries that they posed a national security threat.
Still, the public wasn’t convinced, but the mystery slowly faded as the sightings plummeted.
In October, though, an anonymous source with an unnamed military contractor told The Post that their company was responsible for the hysteria.
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