News Brief

BNF steering committee to meet Aug. 28
The annual Bighorn National Forest Steering Committee field trip is planned for Wednesday, Aug. 28. The trip will begin at 10 a.m. at Burgess Visitor Center. The committee will tour locations of interest on the Tongue Ranger District.
 Agenda topics for discussion include updates on external partnerships, vegetation management, local Great American Outdoors Act projects, stream restoration projects, dispersed camping, and other topics. The meeting agenda can be found on the web at https://www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn/home.
The Steering Committee is comprised of Forest Service managers and local government representatives including county commissions, conservation districts, and State of Wyoming agencies. The Committee was formed during revision of the forest plan and continues to help the Forest Service monitor the forest plan and project implementation. Committee meetings are twice a year and open to the public.
For more information about the meeting or the Committee, contact Tongue District Ranger, Amy Ormseth at 307.674.2600 or amy.ormseth@usda.gov.

Musical auditions next week at Greybull High School
Auditions for the community musical will be held Monday, Aug. 26, Tuesday, Aug. 27, and Thursday, August 29 from 6-8 pm in the Greybull High School auditorium.
Auditions are open house style, so choose the most convenient time during one of the blocks. Please have a short musical selection prepared; readings will be provided.
The performances will be Nov. 21-23.
Sixth graders through adults are welcome to audition.
For more information, contact Em Wilson, 307-765-4492, extension 147, or (307) 202-2327.

Voting machines retested in Park County
CODY (WNE) — Park County officials successfully retested their voting machines at 7:00 Sunday morning after a formal request to do so by the Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray.  
The county had to do a retest because under state statute, each candidate in the test must receive a unique number of votes – and that had not been done in the public test conducted in July.
Park County Deputy Clerk Hans Odde said he had confidence in the system, recalling a recount requested by a candidate in the 2022 election. He said the candidate for state legislator was voted for or against on six machines at different locations and that the recount yielded the same vote totals as the original count.
“The testing was successful,” said Elections Deputy Katie Johnson, citing her “full confidence in our equipment and hopes voters come out for election day.”
Johnson said she expects 10-11,000 votes this season and that all of them will be run through one of 12 DS-200 voting machines or one DS450 used for absentee ballots.

Unemployment rate holds steady at 2.9%
CASPER (WNE) — Wyoming’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 2.9% from June to July, the Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Monday.
While Wyoming’s unemployment rate has remained low, the U.S. unemployment rate has increased in each of the past three months, rising from 3.8% in March to 4.3% in July.
Over the year, unemployment rates were higher than year-ago levels in every county, with most counties ticking up two-tenths of a percentage point or less.
The largest increases were in Big Horn (from 2.7% to 3.3%), Uinta (from 2.8% to 3.4%), and Campbell (from 2.4% to 2.9%) counties. Natrona County’s unemployment rate was down slightly from 3.2% in June to 3.1% in July, but remained higher than its rate of 2.8% from July 2023, R&P reported.
The highest unemployment rates in July were reported in Uinta (3.4%) and Big Horn (3.3%) counties. The lowest unemployment rates were in Teton (1.5%) and Niobrara (1.8%) counties.
Current Employment Statistics estimates show that total nonfarm employment in Wyoming increased by 1,200 jobs (0.4%) over the year.