Wyoming is first state to adopt use of well-known technology

Wyoming decided to “Google it” as it became the first state to use Google as a communication and collaboration platform across the state Gov. Matt Mead announced June 22, at a news conference at the capitol. 

Google President of Enterprise David Girouard speaks as Wyoming Chief Informtion Officer Flint Waters and Governor Matt Mead listen during a news conference Wednesday morning in Cheyenne. (Photo: Seneca Flowers)

The legislative branch of the state of Wyoming now officially uses Google web applications as a means of communication, document sharing and collaboration, Mead said. “Wyoming is moving forward in technology.” 

Mead said he wanted to change the way Wyoming communicates, including the way state employees communicate with one another and the public.                          

Wyoming Chief Information Officer Flint Waters said the estimated cost of integrating Google into the legislative branch was $5 million but that the cost may fall much below that mark. Waters said the cost was minimal in comparison to how much the state could save each year, which a conservative estimate placed as roughly $1 million a year. With the communication aspect of the Google programs, interoffice mail would be cut and Waters said the mail was just the beginning of the savings. With 10,000 state employees on Google apps, a larger document storage capacity, the ability to share documents and increased security, Waters said Google was a good investment for the state.

It spread through the air, infecting horses one at a time; by June 8, 12 horses died from a deadly, mutated strain of equine virus. But as of right now, Wyoming horses still appear free of the disease.  

Vaccines for equine herpes protect horses from most strains of the disease. there are currently no reports of EHVM in the state (Photo: Seneca Flowers)

There were 421 horses at the National Cutting Horse Association’s Western National Championship in Ogden, Utah from April 30 through May 8. Thirty-eight of them were from Wyoming. 

Several horses, 88 as of June 8, were confirmed to have contracted the equine herpes virus Myeloencephalopathy, the neurologic form of Equine Herpes Virus-1, but only one from the Cowboy state was suspected of potentially having the disease.

The USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service defines EHV-1 as a “contagious viral disease of horses that can cause respiratory disease, abortion and occasionally neurologic disease.”

The neurological variant, EHVM, is a mutated form that currently has no vaccine, according to lecturer and University of Wyoming State Equine Extension Specialist Amy Mclean. She added that outbreaks like this sometimes spark research and development of such vaccines though.