Wyoming

LINCOLN, Neb.-- Veterans' groups told lawmakers Thursday that Nebraska's tax on military retirement pay is driving people out of the state, while some lawmakers questioned whether the losses are influenced more by warmer climates and family connections elsewhere.

WASHINGTON, Jan 31- The United States would violate global trade rules and damage its credibility if it decides to subsidize steel, chemical and other manufacturers by restricting exports of liquefied natural gas after years of pressing other countries like China to drop restrictions on natural resource exports, experts said.

*Nebraska the most drought-stricken state. Jan 31- The unrelenting drought gripping key farming states in the U.S. It's not a pretty picture, "said climatologist Mark Svoboda of the University of Nebraska's Drought Mitigation Center.

WASHINGTON, Jan 24- Four Republican farm state U.S. senators on Thursday expressed concern that possible free trade talks between the United States and European Union may not dismantle longstanding EU barriers to U.S. pork, beef, poultry and other farm products.

CASPER, Wyo.-- A judge heard arguments Tuesday over whether Wyoming regulators should empower the public to look up the ingredients in the chemical products used for hydraulic fracturing, the petroleum industry practice that splits open oil and gas deposits with pressurized water.

RALEIGH, N.C.-- Interest groups hashing out North Carolina's fracking regulations started work Tuesday by tackling rules on what the public will be told about chemical additives pumped underground and how broad trade secrecy exceptions will be allowed.

CHEYENNE, Wyo.-- A coalition of medical groups is urging the Wyoming Legislature to approve expansion of the federal Medicaid program, a key element of the national Affordable Care Act. The Senate Labor Health and Social Services Committee is set to consider a bill Wednesday that would expand Medicaid eligibility.

CHEYENNE, Wyo.-- The legislative panel responsible for drafting a supplemental Wyoming state budget bill is recommending that lawmakers reject Gov.

WASHINGTON-- The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago, "Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20- A White House adviser on Sunday said he was optimistic Congress will approve at least part of President Barack Obama's proposals to reduce gun violence in the wake of December's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15- States are not alone in racking up massive public pension bills: U.S. cities need hundreds of billions of dollars to make good on their promises of retirement healthcare and income to workers. Omaha, Nebraska, Portland, Oregon and Providence, Rhode Island were all at 50 percent or below.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15- The natural gas boom has brought fortune to Wyoming over the last year and lifted its revenues beyond expectations, but in his state of the state address last week, Governor Matt Mead pressed legislators to cut spending by 6 percent.

Drillers deny that and have said Environmental Protection Agency testing methods may have tainted water samples in Pavillion, Wyoming, the region the EPA examined in the report.

WASHINGTON, Jan 4- Two influential U.S. senators have asked the Interior Department to examine whether coal companies are dodging hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty payments on lucrative sales to Asia, citing a Reuters investigation into the matter.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the incoming chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the panel's leading Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, said they were concerned that coal companies may be shorting royalty payments.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the incoming chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the panel's leading Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, said they were concerned that coal companies may be shorting royalty payments.

It has become a flashpoint issue, putting the EPA-- charged with safeguarding the nation's water-- in the middle of a fight between environmentalists and the energy industry.

It has become a flashpoint issue, putting the EPA-- charged with safeguarding the nation's water-- in the middle of a fight between environmentalists and the energy industry.