Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from June 5 - June 11.

As a boy, John Contos would sit on his grandfather’s shoeshine stand, located across from the historic Mayflower Cafe, to watch the Cheyenne Frontier Days parades as they passed by, before attending the events with his family. Little did he know he’d one day be in charge of the state’s premier event.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from May 29 - June 4.

Unlike many small Wyoming towns that are struggling to grow their economies, Upton is undergoing an economic revival. Dubbed the “best town on earth,” the northeast Wyoming town of just under 900 people — with one restaurant, one grocery store and two gas stations — is chugging forward with business development.

The steep granite slope rose in front of us, stretching towards the mountain’s horizon at nearly 16,000 feet. To the right, streams of Buddhist prayer flags fluttered atop the crest of a mountain pass, and to our left, the sound of voices chanting and horns blasting echoed from a village monastery located far in the valley below.

Jim Facinelli knows a thing or two about Wyoming. Born and raised in Lander nearly 84 years ago, he moved to Cody in 1964 and has called the area home ever since. And for 53 years, he’s served on the Cody Stampede Board of Directors, helping to put on what the town rightly calls “the longest running and only nightly rodeo in the world.”

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from May 15 - May 21.

The soaring mountain range is hardly the sole gem in the crown of Grand Teton National Park; the area’s wildlife is one of the most significant draws for visitors from around the world — of which there were 2.8 million in 2022. The park is also home to a small team of wildlife biologists who study the animals throughout the landscape and keep a close eye on whether they’re thriving or not.

While more Americans are dying of drug overdose than ever before — with an estimated 108,000 fatalities over the past 12 months alone — there is another epidemic of addiction and death taking place largely out of sight in our prisons and jails. An estimated two-thirds of those entering such facilities have an active substance-use disorder and little chance of receiving effective treatment, according to the nonprofit Jail and Prison Opioid Project.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from May 8 - May 14.

Cybercrimes and internet-related theft are on the rise in Wyoming. Losses to citizens and businesses statewide have more than tripled in three years, soaring from $5M in 2020 to just under $18M in 2022, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from May 1 - May 7.

Overseeing five state prisons and a biennial budget of $262 million is no easy task. But it’s a rewarding one for Dan Shannon.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from April 24 - April 30.

When Dan Shannon accepted a job as a corrections officer in Pennsylvania in 1985, he was 21 years old and just looking for secure work. Little did he know it would morph into a lifelong career.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from April 17 - April 23.

The Wyoming State Geological Survey’s slogan is “Interpreting the past, providing for the future.” Simply put, it means understanding earth’s features and processes, which existed long before humans showed up, and analyzing how the knowledge can be applied to our modern lives.

Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that is now the primary cause of overdose fatalities. Over 70,000 of the record 107,000 overdoses last year involved the drug, which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin. To put this in perspective, that’s one fentanyl death in the U.S. every seven minutes, or more than all those killed in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Grace Foulk reports on news throughout the state from April 10 - April 16.