My, how things have changed in my wonderful newspaper business over the past 42 years!

         A week ago at this time, I was mingling with the young, earnest reporters and the gray-haired publishers. Plus even a few of the retired silver-haired mossback curmudgeons (like myself) who could still manage to drive across the state in the dead of winter showed up.

         Laramie hosted the annual Wyoming Press Association convention for the first time in almost 50 years and, as near as I could tell, it was a big success,

         What struck me the most is not so much about what has changed in the 42 years that I have been attending this event, but what has stayed the same.

         Back in 1970, I was a 24-year old publisher eager to prove that we knew now to practice solid journalism in our little town of Lander. The big dogs were Russ Stout of Rawlins, Hugh Knoefel of Worland, Bernie Horton of Cheyenne, Bob and Roy Peck of Riverton, Dave Bonner of Powell, Ron Lytle of Lovell, Phil McAuley at the Casper Star Tribune, Milton Chilcott of Sheridan, Fred McCabe of Jackson, Jim Hicks of Buffalo, Bruce Kennedy of Greybull, Russ Allbaugh of Laramie, Chuck Richardson of Rock Springs, Mel Baldwin of Evanston, Adrian Reynolds of Green River, Gerry Bardo of Lusk, Dick Perue of Saratoga and Jack Nisselius of Gillette.

         There were others, too, that I don’t recall, but those folks were every bit as dedicated as I was to the goal of producing a good newspaper for our readers and if things worked out, making a little profit, too.

Sort of seemed to me that the old guard consisted of Stout, Knoefel, Allbaugh and Richardson.

         The press association was run by Nancy Shelton out of her home in Laramie.   

         I was so young and so new to Wyoming, it was impossible to try to figure out who owned what and where exactly their towns were.

         Then there was a group of good old boys who mainly worked for various state government outfits who invited me to join them for a drink.

         So in the bar at Little America the kid from Iowa got a lesson on how Wyoming folks drank at their annual press convention. Thanks to Ray Savage, Randy Wagner, Gene Bryan, Clyde Douglass and others, I spent the next 12 hours holed up in my room suffering from the worst hangover of my life.

         I barely emerged in time for the big awards banquet Saturday night when that same foursome inquired: “Bill, where have you been?” Never again, I vowed.

         So now, four decades later, many things have also remained the same as they were back in those old days. The reporters are just as inquisitive and the goal of trying to sell more advertising to our customers is just as important as it was way back when.

Most publishers are concerned about how many subscribers they have and how to keep them. 

The need of having a strong internet presence is a huge topic today along with the corresponding question of how in the heck can we make any money giving our product away on the net? Another big changes is the constant (but incorrect) assumption that for some reason, newspapers are dinosaurs.  

Despite obstacles and hurdles, Wyoming‘s newspapers are strong, profitable and serving their communities well.

         President of the WPA this year has been Reed Eckhardt of the Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle with Patrick Murphy of the Sheridan Press as vice- president. Bob Bonnar of Newcastle of the WPA board has done some yeoman work helping with open meetings legislation this past year. Former Associated Press writer Jim Angell is the executive who runs the WPA from its office in Cheyenne.

         A staple at the annual convention is the appearance by the governor. At this venue, I have asked questions of Stan Hathaway, Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan, Jim Geringer, Dave Freudenthal and now, Matt Mead. Well, sometimes it still does feel the same.

         Outside of the internet issues, the biggest change in the press meeting is now two-thirds of the participants are women. Four decades ago, I doubt if it were a fourth. 

         There used to be clouds of cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke everywhere in those bad old good old days. Not any more, thankfully.

         Ken Smith, who now heads the Journalism Dept. at University of Wyoming told me that the numbers of students wanting a career in journalism is at an all-time high, despite this supposedly downtown in newspaper interest. The future is bright for anyone with strong communication skills was my answer to his question about why is this happening?

         Ken is a former publisher of the Green River Star. I recruited him from Ames, Iowa, to come to the Wyoming back in 1978. And now here we are.

         I have never missed a press convention and always felt that it provided both a chance to learn new skills but most importantly, renew old acquaintances and make new ones.

         Like so many statewide organizations, the WPA serves a group of like-minded and energetic people. These are folks who literally work hundreds of miles away from each other, but end up providing that similarly important product to their communities – the hometown community newspaper.

         A few years ago, I published a column listing my Wyoming Bucket List.

         The concept of figuring out those things that you want to do before you die was the theme of a popular movie called The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman back in 2008.

         The movie was inspiring and I   immediately put together my own personal bucket list.

         On the big picture I want to visit the Holy Land, South America, Africa, China, do some major charity work, make a movie, write a novel, spend lots of time with grandkids and well, you can see how this works. (Note: outside of spending time with the grandkids have still not made any of those marvelous treks, but . . .)

         Back then I also put together my own “Wyoming Bucket List,” – those places in our great state that I would like to experience before kicking the proverbial bucket.

         Among the things that I wanted to do, and did do, included finally seeing Sybille Canyon between Laramie and Wheatland and driving the back road over the Snowy Range Mountains between Saratoga and Laramie. Also, I finally took that back road from Rock Springs to South Pass and saw the Boar’s Tusk and the Killpecker Sand Dunes. On my earlier list was a visit to Bill, Wyoming, which I managed to do one Sunday afternoon while listening to a Bronco football game on the radio.

         Also finally drove that fantastic Wild Horse Loop from Green River to north of Rock Springs above the White Mountains. We also re-visited the fantastic petroglyphs just south of Dubois. Amazing.

         But I still have not made it to some very important events. So here goes by 2012 Wyoming Bucket List:

         • Hoping to get back to Frontier Days this summer – there is nothing like this event in the world.

• A closer look at Vedauwoo area outside of Laramie deserves attention. Again, I have driven by hundreds of times. It is time for a closer look. Also, to spend some time at Curt Gowdy State Park.

• Crossing the Wind River Range/Continental Divide via horse pack trip with legendary guide, Jim Allen.

         • There is a man-made rock arrow in the Red Desert that points toward the Medicine Wheel. It is between Jeffrey City and Wamsutter and will make a nice quad runner trip.

         • Between Jeffrey City and Muddy Gap is an odd rock formation I call Stonehenge. Reportedly it has names written in it including John Sublette. Sometime this year it will finally get checked off.

         • Our family lived on Squaw Creek for 23 years outside of Lander and our view looked out at Red Butte. Hope to climb it this summer.

         • If Fossil Butte is not on this list, my friend Vince Tomassi will scold me about it. He serves incredible meals every Thursday night in Kemmerer-Diamondville at Luigi’s. Perhaps a tour and dinner, Vince?

         • Enjoy a Scotch tasting part at historic Miner’s Delight in Atlantic City, just above Lander.

         • I have snowmobiled Yellowstone a couple of times but not for 20 years. Hope to do that again.

         • In 1993, I spent a very nervous time hunting a bighorn ram in the Double Cabin Area northeast of Dubois. Would love to go back for a more relaxed trip this time around.

         • Tour UW with a knowledgeable guide and see first-hand all the new buildings and new programs.

         • Some 36 years ago, I photographed what looked like a horrible scar on Togwotee Pass where the area was clear-cut. Would like to go back to those areas and see if the timber has recovered or not?

         • Is there anyone out there who might give me a tour of the “breaks” north of Lusk?   I flew over that area by private plane many times and looked down in awe at this rough country.

         • NE Wyoming is an interesting area including Keyhole Reservoir and the Vore Buffalo Jump. Would like to spend some quality time around Devil’s Tower, too.

         • A tour of Wyoming’s giant coalmines makes sense.

         • Would like to do some fishing in Bighorn Canyon.

         • It is easy for me to get LaGrange and LaBarge confused – perhaps I need to visit them.

         • On the Wind River Reservation, I would like to visit the Arapaho Ranch and also visit the mountains at the extreme north end of the rez.

         So that’s my Wyoming bucket list. What’s yours?

         When you live in the least populated state in the country, it is easy to possibly over-value the importance of a single individual.

         We live in a world of 7 billion people. And in a country of 310 million. Next to that, our paltry population of 568,000 in Wyoming would seemingly put more importance on each individual than more populous places.

         California, for example, has 37 million people in that state.

         A 2011 story in the New York Times said that Wyoming citizens were, by far, the most powerful people in the country. They printed a small map (which I would like to get hold of) showing the states by proportion of their Congressional clout. 

After all, here in Wyoming we have two U.S. Senators, one per 284,000 people while California has one per 18.5 million people. That makes a typical Wyomingite 65 times more influential than a typical Californian, when it comes to making laws in Washington, D. C.

         But it is not just here in Wyoming that sometimes the individual is valued as much as the state.

         It even comes into play as to how much value we place on our individual men and women serving in wars across the sea.

         Most Americans are relieved to see our soldiers coming home from Iraq. Soon, we will see them coming home from Afghanistan, too.

         Not sure President Barack Obama handled all this in the best way possible, but still we are glad to have our folks out of harm’s way.

         Some 4,500 Americans died in the Iraq conflict in a nine-year war.

         My, how things have changed when it comes to warfare.

         Lately I have been reading books that relate to warfare and some statistics are so staggering that maybe they need to be mentioned.

         I bring this up because we now live in “the time of the individual” whereas in the past, it seems the individual did not count. All that mattered a century or two ago was the state or the country or the empire.

Another example of the power of the individual was Israel trading 1,000 Palestine political prisoners for one Israeli soldier being held as a POW.

         But back to some remarkable statistics. Here are some stats from some recent readings.

         In Ken Follett’s new best seller Fall of the Giants, a lot of time is spent dwelling on World War I. In one battle at Verdun in France, over 300,000 French and German soldiers were killed. Another half million were wounded in the 1916 event.

         It was an artillery battle with over 40 million shells launched by the two armies.

         Other battles were almost as terrible but Verdun stands alone when it comes to statistics like these.

         The battle in Argonne Forest was the worst World War I battle for Americans with more than 125,000 casualties from all Allied countries. 

         Austria, which started the war in response to the assassination of one of its princes, lost 300,000 men in 1914 alone.

         In another passage early in the book, it is reported that the Russian Second Army surrendered to a German force. Over 92,000 Russians surrendered. Often the Germans did not have enough soldiers to guard their prisoners.

In an audio book about the Civil War, narrator George C. Scott reported that the battle of Antietam early in the war saw 23,000 American casualties, counting both sides. It was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

The numbers of soldiers killed in previous wars compared to today just seem so breathtaking. It is like as the population of the world doubled, which would seemingly make life less precious, it has become much more precious.

Probably the expansion of modern media has a lot to do with the development of this attitude plus, obviously, the way modern warfare is conducted.

But it is not just soldiers who died in these previous wars.

         Another book I am reading is The Rape of Nanking, which reports about how when Japan invaded China in 1937. The Japanese soldiers systematically murdered over 300,000 men, women and children in seven weeks. And they did it in the most terrible ways imaginable.

         Not sure all this is all that interesting, but I could not help but notice the large numbers jumping off the pages of these books as I was reading them.

         Life is so precious. Just amazing to think that 70 years ago, the life of an individual apparently was just not worth that much.

         For a state with the smallest population in the country, Wyoming has been getting plenty of national publicity lately. 

         Our people, places and issues seem to have an outsized effect on the rest of the country at times. Perhaps not during any time since Vice President Dick Cheney was in and out of Wyoming have we noticed so much news about our state:

         • The lead editorial recently in the Wall Street Journal, the largest newspaper in the country, focused on the pollution of water wells in Pavillion, a rural hamlet north of Riverton.

         Titled: “The EPA’s Fracking Scare,” it offers a thorough discussion of how natural gas well development may have polluted peoples’ wells.

         The editorial opines: “The safety of America’s drinking water needs to be protected, as the fracking industry itself well knows. Nothing would shut down drilling faster and destroy billions of dollars of investment, then media interviews with mothers afraid to let their kids brush their teeth with polluted water.”

         An HBO documentary aired earlier in 2011 also featured the Pavillion people who could actually set water coming out of their taps on fire.

         Scary, indeed.

         • Former U. S. Senator Al Simpson of Cody continues to be in the limelight as he rails against both Congress and President Barack Obama for not doing more to deal with the country’s $15 trillion deficit.

         As co-chairman of Obama’s Deficit Reduction Commission, Simpson and his group came up with the best plan, yet presented, to cut the deficit without destroying the American economy.

         Each time Congress and the president stumble as they attempt to do something, Simpson shows up again on TV offering stern warnings and making a very strong case.

         • There are 35 football bowl games this holiday season on TV. The first one? It was the New Mexico Bowl, featuring Wyoming against Temple.

         Although the Cowboys lost the game, this gave both the state some national publicity and the University some great recruiting fodder.

         We are also impressed that Coach Dave Christensen signed a five-year contract extension. My fear is that as he continues to be successful he will join Bob Devaney, Pat Dye, Dennis Erickson, Dana Dimel, Fred Akers and others out the door to a bigger program.

         • Our junior U. S. Sen. John Barrasso continues to climb the leadership ladder in the Senate.

         With natural charisma and incredible media skills, Barrasso could very well be the most often featured politician on the national talk shows and cable networks.

         As he gains influence, this can only help Wyoming.

• Most major news outlets ran a feature not long ago where Wyoming was identified as the “best-run” state government in the country.

         Now, this is something to be happy about.

         Our thrifty, conservative ways have served us well during the national economic downturn.

         States finishing last? California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey. Is that surprising?

         • Another person getting national attention is Dana Perino, a native of Evanston. She worked for the George Bush White House as press secretary. She now appears on the Fox News TV show “The Five.”

When I have watched it, she always offers a thoughtful point of view. Not sure what her long-term goal might be, but it appears she can be just about anything she wants to be. She also is a regular contributor to the Washington Post.

         Wonder if she has maintained her Wyoming residency?

         Her biography says she was a barrel racer while growing up in the Cowboy State. A real cowgirl, it seems.

         • One of the best selling books this holiday season has been In My Time, by former Vice President Cheney.

         I am looking forward to reading it later this winter. 

         My understanding is that it contains a lot about his life in Wyoming prior to becoming the Veep.

         And then there is Don Hardy’s definitive book on Simpson called Shooting From The Lip. It is getting good national reviews, too.

• And finally, the Wyoming Business Report says Bloomberg News listed our state as a top performer, outperforming the country in certain indexes in the third quarter.

The Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States (BEES) illustrates how agricultural and industrial states fared better than the rest of the nation from July through September, compared with the previous three months.

Wyoming, the biggest coal producer and the third-largest natural-gas reserve, was the top performer, lifted by higher home prices, a drop in mortgage delinquencies and a jump in tax collections, the BEES index showed.

         My goal is to spend a lot more time on a lot fewer things. – Tom Brokaw.

         Okay, although I may want to slow down a little now that I have reached retirement age, what is the outlook going forward for the great state of Wyoming?

         As one of the rare states that has seen its economy grow and its unemployment rate remain low, Wyoming has enjoyed prosperity rarely seen across our great land.

         While looking into my crystal ball, the image I see offers up a cloudy view, indeed. It is harder to predict our future right now than any time in the past several decades.

         The reasons it is so hard to make these predictions are local, state and national concerns.

         Locally here in Lander, job growth continues to be thwarted by infrastructure problems, primarily the lack of affordable housing.

        Wyoming, statistically, is among the leaders in the country in job growth and population growth, per capita, but we still lag in key areas.

         When out-of-state workers come to Wyoming and do their work and then go home, it continues to foster the colony-mentality of our state.

         Our biggest industries are energy-related followed by the impressive tourism industry and by the agriculture sector. Our fledgling manufacturing sector is being impacted by the national economic downtown and employee recruitment problems.

         But there are success stories aplenty, as reported at the Wyoming Business Alliance forum in Cheyenne last month.

Readers of this column have read the term “Wyoming’s recession-proof economy” many times, which was written with the belief that the country’s energy demand will continue to grow. 

This appears to still be true but the pace may slow for a few years. The country may be saved from the impending electric blackouts and brownouts for a year and two because the economy is flat and growth is stagnant.

Demand for power ultimately will continue to grow but the ability to supply it is on hold due to cancellation of so many proposed coal-fired power plants.

         Coal continues to be nation’s bad boy when it comes to pollution, which is unfair. The Environmental Protection Agency recently bowed out from canceling coal plant construction, leaving licensing decisions to the states.

       It would be nice if the Legislature would show some vision to help out their constituents when it comes to lowering prices for energy within our borders.

       Best way would be to launch some public-private partnerships between the state and private business to building some power plants or to develop natural gas on state lands. One businessman wrote me that his natural gas bill was up a bunch this winter, and this weather has been pretty mild.

       Despite some constitutional issues, such a program could be difficult to implement and the energy lobbyists will go nuts – but the citizens would totally support such a program.

       The biggest problem with our state’s economic growth will be finding the answer to this simple question: where are the workers going to come from?

       We will see record numbers of teachers and state employees retiring. Who will take their places?

       Perhaps a partial answer to this problem will be an invasion of baby boomer/vigorous retirees who will move here to take advantage of our low tax rates and quality of life.

       These newcomers will also contribute to our new title as the oldest state in the union when it comes to average age of its citizens.

       So, now let’s go out on a limb. With my eyes closed and my fingers crossed, here are some predictions for 2012:      

       First, we are seeing an unusual population boom with extra kindergarten classes being added in both Rock Springs and Lander. The prevailing thinking is that we are getting older, as a state, not younger. This is a good trend, by the way.

       Second, the state will continue to be swimming in severance tax money. Wyoming people are the Arabs of America. We will have billions of dollars to spend for years to come. But we could double our severance taxes and it would not make a particle of difference to the industries. It would make a huge difference to Wyoming.

       Third, as we pour mountains of money into education, some leaders are bemoaning that the money going into K-12 education just helps educate future workers who leave Wyoming as soon as they graduate. Instead, these folks think more money should go to community colleges, whose students are 90 percent in-state residents. Interesting.

         Happy holidays and thanks for reading.