Governor Dave Freudenthal gave his State of the State of Wyoming this morning at 10 a.m..  Because it is a budget session, he spent most of his hour long speech discussing the budget.  The primary message was that the legislature should not touch the reserves.  He believes we are going to need the money in 2012 to keep education funded at the same levels.Â
For non-budget items, he stated that he is in support of my committee’s juvenile justice bills, and likes my DUI bill.  He wants to tax wind.  He …

Chief Justice Voight gave the State of the Judiciary this morning to the full legislature.Â
The housekeeping items were:

Wants to look into District Court Commissioners and make sure that we are using them properly
Video Appearance Rules need to be promulgated
Digital Recording funding
Continue to look into where we are locating judges
Need funding for interpreters
Need to look at cost/benefit analysis for peremptory challenges to judges
Who pays postage on Rule 77(d) when orders are mailed out.

Statistically he stated that circuit court and district court filings are up.  However, within those numbers, criminal numbers are …

Monday, February 8, 2010— the first day of the Wyoming Legislature’s Budget Session.  The primary purpose of the session is to set the budget for the next 2 years.  The new budget year begins on July 1, 2010 and runs through June 30, 2012, so we refer to the budget as the 11-12 budget, even though part of it is in 10.  This morning there is a reception at the Wyoming Supreme Court.  I chair the House Judiciary Committee, so I will attend that reception, since many of the requests …

While out on the open road, I like to take occasional musical breaks from my ipod and explore the radio waves.  Of particular interest are the evangelical Christian stations that always seem to be present in the lonely stretches of country side.

There are reoccurring themes I find fascinating.  It baffles me how someone can die for your sins.  This defies common and karmic sense, but if repeated endlessly seems to somehow have deluded significant portions of our population.

It’s also disturbs me how readily “thou shalt not kill” is ignored as …

The Germans and English have gotten beer to amazing levels over the past few hundred years. Germans have been starting breweries all over the world since the early days. So much of what we drink are German Lagers – Singha, most Mexican beers – you know – the light fizzy stuff. Thanks for the training old world. Now watch as America reinvents beer. Brewers throughout the US are making  Double IPA’s, Imperial Pilsners (Imperial anything really), Double ESB’s (a session beer no more) more and more …