• The House rejected on a 32-24 vote a bill that would've kept the state's K-8 school alive, but not before it engaged around 80 minutes of debate that featured multiple Laramie representatives crying on the floor.
• After surviving a close vote Thursday and getting approval from the Senate on Friday, a bill that would criminalize the sale and purchase of “sexual contact” in Wyoming is closer to becoming law.
• With its pending elimination of gun-free zones, Wyoming will join New Hampshire, Alabama, Oregon and Utah in allowing people to carry concealed firearms in public schools — without requiring the schools’ permission.
• A new Wyoming license plate that will be available next year will feature a rodeo theme. The lawmaker who pushed for new license plates says it was in response to a PETA effort to strip the bucking horse logo from plates because it glorifies rodeo.
• Boosters of a $19.5 million shooting complex south of Cody, Wyoming, hoped to start construction in April. Those hopes were dashed Friday when the state Senate declined to release $10 million in promised money for the project.
• A bill that would cut property taxes by 25% is officially headed to the governor’s desk, but not without some last-minute opposition from state Sen. Larry Hicks, who compared it to "fertilizer" for failing to provide backfill funding.
• Around 150 Wyoming workers gathered outside the Capitol on Friday to protest moves by the Wyoming Legislature and Trump administration cuts.
Bits and Pieces: The Senate had plans to keep working on bills until midnight Friday to work through a long list of legislation it has left. … Legislators in the House honored former lawmaker Stan Blake on Friday, who helped in singing happy birthday to state Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, who turned 68. … The Wyoming Arts Council held a luncheon at the Capitol Friday in coordination with the Governor’s Arts Awards event on Friday night.
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Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
