AARP Wyoming

It's rare that we see new things happen at the Capitol, but Friday brought a surprise when the lights went out in the building around 2 p.m. as the House was about to gavel-in to session.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide provides in-person and virtual tax assistance to anyone, free of charge, with a focus on taxpayers who are over 50 and have low to moderate income.

The food drive will feature food donation bins around Sheridan decorated in the colors of the Philadelphia Eagles, with others in town wearing the Gold and Red of the Kansas City Chiefs. Donors are encouraged to make their pick for the winner of this year’s Big Game by placing their food donations in bins decorated in the colors of the team they believe will win.

There will be a bit of a break from our bills moving through the House and Senate at the same speed as they have the last three weeks.

Let’s get to this week’s update and the four big things (I know we generally go three things, but it was a big week) that happened this week.

Previous Community Challenge grants have led to impressive results with nearly half of grantees leveraging their projects into additional funding support from private and public sector partners and eight-in-10 overcoming barriers and advancing change.

Wyoming’s nursing home COVID-19 resident ratio for the four-week period ending Dec. 18, was 7.27 cases per 100 residents, which is the eighth highest in the nation and up from November’s rate of 6.7 cases per 100 residents.

Stella Montano, a long-time AARP volunteer and community leader has been selected as the next State President of AARP Wyoming.

Dave Kinskey (above) represents Johnson County and eastern Sheridan County in the Wyoming Senate. A businessperson and former Mayor of Sheridan, he can be reached at his legislative email at Dave.Kinskey@WyoLeg.gov. Kinskey has agreed to pen multiple columns for AARP Wyoming to get our Legislative minds working. We thank the Senator.

A couple of legislative veterans and stalwarts will take the reigns of the Legislature’s Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee.