Gov­er­nor Mead Asks Full Court to Review Road­less Rule Deci­sion (Press Release)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Gov­er­nor Matt Mead, today, directed the State of Wyoming to peti­tion for a rehear­ing of the deci­sion that upheld the Road­less Rule. Gov­er­nor Mead would like the U.S. Tenth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals to con­sider Wyoming’s argu­ments en banc. 

The Peti­tion for Rehear­ing says that the U.S. For­est Ser­vice vio­lated the Wilder­ness Act when it cre­ated de facto wilder­ness areas across approx­i­mately 59 mil­lion acres of the nation’s forests, includ­ing 3 mil­lion acres in Wyoming. In addi­tion, the Peti­tion states that the For­est Ser­vice rad­i­cally altered the scope of the Road­less Rule with­out prepar­ing a Sup­ple­men­tal Envi­ron­men­tal Impact State­ment in vio­la­tion of the National Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­icy Act; that the For­est Ser­vice cir­cum­vented the National For­est Man­age­ment Act under the guise of nation­wide rule mak­ing; that the For­est Ser­vice is required to eval­u­ate for­est use on a forest-by-forest basis rather than by national rule; and that the For­est Ser­vice pre­de­ter­mined the out­come of the Road­less Rule to sat­isfy a Pres­i­den­tial edict.

“The cre­ation of these de facto wilder­ness areas means the voice of the pub­lic and the State are sti­fled in man­ag­ing the lands here,” Gov­er­nor Mead said. “Not only does this pre­vent many uses of pub­lic land, but it also lim­its our abil­ity to fight back against the bark bee­tles that are dev­as­tat­ing our forests.”

The Peti­tion was filed with the Tenth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals today.

Laramie res­i­dent and UW employee places in Swiss Karate Tournament

Photo Cour­tesy Ben Froidevaux

UW Mar­tial Artist Medals at Swiss Inter­na­tional Karate Tour­na­ment (Oct. 29, 2011)

Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Karate Club instruc­tor and Out­reach Tech­nol­ogy Ser­vices tech­ni­cian Ben Froide­vaux won sil­ver and bronze medals at the recent 2011 Basel Open Karate Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Karate Tour­na­ment held on Octo­ber 29–30 in Basel, Switzerland.

Cur­rently train­ing with the Swiss National karate team, Froide­vaux (a fifth-degree black belt) rep­re­sented Switzer­land in the Veteran’s Cat­e­gorie (ages 40+) in both Kata (forms) and Kumite (sparring). Froidevaux was awarded a sil­ver medal (sec­ond place) for Kata and a bronze medal (third place) for Kumite.  He was among over 660 com­peti­tors from 21 dif­fer­ent nations par­tic­i­pat­ing at the tournament.

“Mar­tial arts sport­ing events here in Europe are amaz­ing!  The inter­na­tional tour­na­ments bring together a diver­sity of ath­letes from var­i­ous coun­tries, cul­tures and reli­gions, and the large num­ber of com­peti­tors con­stantly helps raise the high level of difficulty, allowing for a con­stant evo­lu­tion and improve­ment of ath­letic per­for­mance within the mar­tial arts.  Such tour­na­ments also pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for ath­letes from devel­op­ing coun­tries to per­form in an inter­na­tional arena, and thereby receive recog­ni­tion (and often mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion) to help them in their ath­letic careers.  The fans are equally com­pet­i­tive in their spir­ited sup­port for their respec­tive country’s ath­letes, with shouts of approval (or dis­ap­proval) often being heard in 15–20 dif­fer­ent lan­guages, and there’s a great enthu­si­as­tic atmos­phere of friendly rivalry and inter­na­tional camaraderie.”

A UW karate instruc­tor from 2005–2010, Froide­vaux now works as a sports instruc­tor and stunt­man in Switzer­land, reg­u­larly com­pet­ing in karate and fenc­ing tour­na­ments.  He also teaches tra­di­tional mar­tial arts that focus on self-improvement, phys­i­cal con­di­tion­ing and char­ac­ter development.

“Although com­pe­ti­tion is not a focus in tra­di­tional mar­tial arts, tournament par­tic­i­pa­tion is a fun option avail­able to stu­dents,” he says.  “As most tra­di­tional mar­tial artists no longer need to use their fight­ing skills on a bat­tle­field (as in ancient times), contemporary mar­tial arts tour­na­ments can pro­vide a great oppor­tu­nity
to test one’s phys­i­cal abil­i­ties and men­tal focus along­side peer com­peti­tors while putting into appli­ca­tion mar­tial the­ory, strat­egy and phi­los­o­phy all in a safe, con­trolled envi­ron­ment with spec­i­fied rules as enforced by a panel of qual­i­fied ref­er­ees and judges. Tournament com­pe­ti­tion is also a great way to help develop tra­di­tional virtues such as spirit, dis­ci­pline, self-confidence, respect and camaraderie.”

Photo Cour­tesy Ben Froidevaux

UW fires Heath Schroyer, the Search is on for a new mens BB head coach

Heath Schroyer scrunches his nose at a call dur­ing the Wyo vs. BYU game. (John McK­night /LFP)

Mon­day Feb­ru­ary 7 was a dark day for Wyoming Cow­boys head bas­ket­ball coach Heath Schroyer.  Lis­ten to the Tele­phone con­fer­ence where Ath­letic Direc­tor Tom Bur­man explains the Uni­ver­si­ties Posi­tion going for­ward. Lis­ten Here. … Con­tinue Reading

UW Mar­tial Artist Wins Bronze Medal at Inter­na­tional Karate Tournament

Ben Froide­vaux (on right side of podium) at the 2010 Basel Open Karate Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Karate Tournament.(Courtesy)

Decem­ber 14, 2010 — Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Karate Club instruc­tor and Out­reach Tech­nol­ogy Ser­vices tech­ni­cian Ben Froide­vaux won a bronze medal at the recent 2010 Basel Open Karate Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Karate Tour­na­ment held on Decem­ber 11–12 in Frenk­endorf, Switzer­land just out­side of Basel.  There were over 560 com­peti­tors from 15 coun­tries par­tic­i­pat­ing at the tour­na­ment, includ­ing National team mem­bers from France, Ger­many, Italy, Den­mark, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Lux­em­bourg, Rus­sia, Turk­menistan and Switzer­land.  Now train­ing with élite mem­bers of the Swiss National Karate Team, Froide­vaux (a fifth degree black belt orig­i­nally from Neucha­tel, Switzer­land) rep­re­sented his native coun­try in the Veteran’s Divi­sion (ages 40–50) in both Kata (forms) and Kumite (spar­ring).  Froide­vaux was awarded a bronze medal (3^rd place) for Kumite and also placed 4^th in Kata.

“It’s very inter­est­ing and edu­ca­tional to expe­ri­ence the dif­fer­ences of mar­tial arts com­pe­ti­tion in Europe and the USA”, says Froide­vaux (a 3-time State Games of Amer­ica National karate cham­pion) who also holds mul­ti­ple regional and Wyoming state titles in karate and fenc­ing.  “Like in the USA, the Euro­pean tour­na­ment orga­niz­ers and ref­er­ees are strict, with well-enforced rules for the safety of the par­tic­i­pants, which lim­its the num­bers of injuries that can hap­pen”, accord­ing to Froide­vaux.  “Although the karate styles are sim­i­lar to those in the USA, the choice of Katas in com­pe­ti­tion is stan­dard­ized and the level of dif­fi­culty and per­for­mance is very high, which makes for great spir­ited com­pe­ti­tion, inter­na­tional cama­raderie, and an enthu­si­as­tic fan-based atmos­phere of friendly rivalry much like that at a good foot­ball or bas­ket­ball game.”

20,014 in atten­dance to see Cow­boys take on #10 Utah

(Jeremy Stegall/LFP)

On Sat­ur­day after­noon the Wyoming Cow­boys 2–5 (0−3 MWC) faced off against the #10 Utah Utes 6–0 (3−0 MWC) for the final time as con­fer­ence foes. Utah came into the game with an insane vic­tory over Iowa State last week, 68–27. The Utes are 6–0 for the third time in seven years. The Pokes are com­ing off of pos­si­bly the hard­est first half of a sea­son in the entire nation. The only team with a sim­i­larly dif­fi­cult road to start is the Ore­gon State Beavers.

The Cow­boys won the toss to begin the game but decided to defer to the sec­ond half. Utah marched the length of the field with rel­a­tive ease. The Cow­boys did stop one drive with an inter­cep­tion in the end zone by senior cor­ner­back Mar­cell Gip­son. The inter­cep­tion was the first of Gipson’s career. The Cow­boys showed some life in the first half but either shot them­selves in the foot with a silly mis­take or they took more risks than were nec­es­sary. Risky calls on offense are a sta­ple of Coach Christensen’s, like it or not. The shin­ing moment for the Cow­boys in the half was a blocked PAT by senior Chris Prosin­ski, who also climbed to 7^th on the Cow­boys all-time tack­les list.

At the half the #10 Utah Utes were way up on the Wyoming Cow­boys 23–0. … Con­tinue Reading

Inter­view with Ron White

Nation­ally known come­dian, Ron White, per­formed in Laramie on Wednes­day. We had the chance to sit down and ask him a few ques­tions. See the inter­view video here. … Con­tinue Reading

Learn­ing from the Big Boys

(Matt Kimsey/LFP)

Wyoming Cow­boys 2–4 (0−2 MWC) come home to Laramie to face #11 Utah Utes 5–0 (2−0 MWC) in a dif­fi­cult Moun­tain West matchup. The Cow­boys will bat­tle another Top 25 team and should expect to be pushed around a bit.

This week­end the Cow­boys will face the fourth Top Tier oppo­nent of the 2010 sea­son. The Pokes have already played three Top 5 ranked teams. No other team in the nation has faced that many highly ranked teams in 2010. The only team that has a remotely sim­i­lar look­ing sched­ule is that of the Ore­gon State Beavers who also played TCU (#6), Boise State (#3), and took on Ari­zona (#9).

Do not fear Cow­boys fans. The final half of the sea­son is the most impor­tant for the Pokes. Wyoming fin­ishes with five Moun­tain West Con­fer­ence games, none of which are out of reach for the Pokes. Even if the Cow­boys only win four of their last five, they will fin­ish at 6–6 (4−4 MWC) and make them­selves bowl eli­gi­ble. I think that the Pokes could actu­ally win all five games and end up 7–5 (5−3 MWC). Some may scoff at the idea of Wyoming fin­ish­ing above .500 after the beat­ing they have received cour­tesy of the Top 25, but I think that the Pokes have the abil­ity to win those games. … Con­tinue Reading

A tale of two halves

On an amaz­ing autumn day the Wyoming Cow­boys 1–3 (0−1 MWC) took on the Air Force Fal­cons 3–1 (2−0 MWC) to begin their Moun­tain West Con­fer­ence sea­son. It was Mil­i­tary Day at Jonah Field and all mem­bers of the armed forces, those who are with us and those who no longer are, were hon­ored before the National Anthem. The Cow­boys faced the Fal­cons for the 49^th time. Air Force leads the series 26−20−3.

In the first quar­ter both teams worked the clock and moved the ball down the field. Both teams got within 10 yards of the end­zone but nei­ther team could put any points on the board. Wyoming’s Austyn Carta-Samuels threw in inter­cep­tion in the end­zone for the only turnover of the game. The Fal­cons then marched down the field with rel­a­tive ease, to end the first quarter.

To start the sec­ond quar­ter Air Force attempts a short field goal but misses wide right. The Cow­boys get the ball on their own 20-yard-line and take Air Force’s option down the field for an even­tual rush­ing touch­down by Alvester Alexan­der. The Fal­cons then did the same and scored a rush­ing touch­down of their own by Jared Tew. The Fal­cons then moved the ball down the field very quickly for a field goal attempt to end the half. Unfor­tu­nately for the Fal­cons, the snap was short and then muffed. No kick attempted. At half­time the game was tied at 7–7. … Con­tinue Reading

Maria the Korean Bride vis­its Laramie

On Fri­day Sep­tem­ber 10, 2010 Maria Yoon was mar­ried to Matt Mick­el­son, a Laramie native and part-time bar­tender at the Buck­horn Bar. With her mar­riage to Mick­el­son, Yoon will cel­e­brate her 48^th mar­riage in 48 dif­fer­ent states. Maria the Korean Bride, as she is known to her friends and sup­port­ers is on a mis­sion to raise aware­ness about love and mar­riage and what it means in today’s soci­ety. Maria has been trav­el­ing across the coun­try since 2001 tak­ing her multi-media per­for­mance on the road. Her per­for­mance is an art that she has designed to bring atten­tion to the social pres­sures she endured as a first gen­er­a­tion Korean-American unmar­ried woman.

For more infor­ma­tion about Maria the Korean Bride you can visit her web­site; www.mariathekoreanbride.com.

Fol­low this link for a higher res­o­lu­tion video.

Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Pro­fes­sor killed in head on Collision

Sept. 7, 2010 — Adrian Ban­t­jes, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor in the Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Depart­ment of His­tory, was killed in a head-on auto­mo­bile crash at approx­i­mately 8:15 p.m. Fri­day about 11 miles south of Saratoga on Wyoming High­way 130.

“The tragic death of Pro­fes­sor Ban­t­jes is a tremen­dous loss for the Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming. He was an excel­lent scholar and a val­ued mem­ber of the fac­ulty who was well-liked by stu­dents and col­leagues alike,” UW Pres­i­dent Tom Buchanan says. “He will be missed by all who knew him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his fam­ily at this dif­fi­cult time.”

Ban­t­jes’ wife, Mary Hen­ning, and daugh­ter Aida, 8, were injured in the crash and both were hos­pi­tal­ized. Hen­ning remained in the hos­pi­tal as of Tues­day morn­ing. Aida has been released from the hos­pi­tal. … Con­tinue Reading