A fire sparked in northeastern Wyoming and running into southern Montana continues to grow. The Remington Fire is now at nearly 200,000 acres with 0% containment.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a nearby fire in Johnson County, which forced evacuations and scorched thousands of acres of grasslands, is beginning to lessen in force.
“The biggest fire early on was the House Draw fire, which has now been eclipsed in volume by the Remington fire up in Sheridan County and Montana. The House Draw fire, despite reaching like 175,000 acres early on, is holding and it's 88% contained.”
However, in nearby Campbell County, there’s an all-out effort to save structures and land from the Flat Rock Fire and the Constitution Fire. But McFarland reports there’s been some tension between private landowners and county firefighters.
“There are private sector drivers of big construction equipment out on the flat rock the Constitution fire in Campbell County, and they are, you know, blading and piling up dirt berms and dozing off the vegetation to create these fire break lines. Now, at least a couple of them… who said, yeah, some of these county firefighters just aren't doing much while we're out there scrambling… The fire department has countered meanwhile, saying, you know, some of these strategies where we're supposed to watch the fire line, for embers, for stray embers, it looks like we're sitting around when really we're not… there was another Campbell County resident who said that he didn't understand all the outrage because the firefighters saved his home.”
The Flat Rock Fire has burned more than 52,000 acres and is 35% contained as of the last estimate. The Constitution Fire is nearly 25,000 acres and 28% contained.
Read the full story HERE.
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Colorado’s United Power Inc. severed ties with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association - a cooperative that many rural Wyoming electric companies are members of - in May.
Energy reporter Pat Maio spoke with United’s CEO, Mark Gabriel, about why the company left, taking 20% of Tri-State’s revenue with them.
“What I found interesting about Mark is that he's rethinking the way he thinks about transmission, in the sense that he's no longer thinking big like that, even though he'll take it, get the power delivered to him, but he's thinking more local. He calls it hyper localization of electricity ... the Wyoming co-ops are paying close attention to all of us for reasons that kind of relate to coal. ... he claims that within within the year, there'll be two or three more, and that'll represent 30% of the revenue of tri state, which means financially, they're going to be struggling even more.”
United is working towards getting power from alternative forms of energy, such as wind turbines and solar panels, plus tapping power from utility-scale batteries that store electricity.
Read the full story HERE.
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As many other areas of Wyoming battle huge wildfires, the first snow of the season blanketed Togwotee Pass on Monday morning.
But don’t read into that too much — Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the state isn’t about to be plunged into an early winter.
“I spoke to Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day about and he said there's nothing unusual about getting snow at the high elevations at this time of year, these cold fronts start moving in and getting stronger that can manifest as snow is at the high elevation, so it's a sign that summer is close to ending, but it's not over.”
Another cold front is anticipated to arrive Wednesday night, carrying more moisture and causing a slight drop in temperatures. But by the weekend, temperatures will bounce back to late-summer averages across Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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One of the nation’s elite firefighting teams has moved onto the Brooks Lake Lodge scene.
The team will put in place advanced firefighting strategies that Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports will hopefully safeguard one of Wyoming’s most iconic and historical lodges, which is directly in the path of the Fish Creek Fire in northwest Wyoming.
“There are 44 of these elite teams in the nation. They're each staged in a different region of the country, the Rocky Mountains has about five of them… They use science. You know, of course, they stage all this water, but you know, it's a specific distance from the buildings, and they knock out 80% of the risk just with keeping the ground around the buildings damp so that these fire brands can't fly in and land and start a new fire…these are the guys you call when an asset is too precious to lose.”
The fire has burned more than 11,278 acres in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is at 23% containment.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Casper Police officer faces six felony charges stemming from an alleged 17-hour armed standoff when he was off duty at an east-side apartment complex that began late Thursday night.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that 30-year-old Michael Hughes barricaded himself inside Quail Run Apartments after police were called around 11:30 p.m. Thursday on a report of an armed “suicidal” person.
“Apparently it involved a relationship problem. He was using alcohol. And according to statements in court this afternoon, there was a couple of shots fired…There were some apartments at Quail run that were evacuated. Some people, I think it was volunteer, volunteer, voluntary, but there were some that were evacuated, and according to statements in court today, this afternoon, as part of any bond, if he can make bond, he's not going to be able to go back to that apartment complex.”
Hughes has been charged on suspicion of five counts of aggravated assault and one of property destruction $1,000 or more, all felonies. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangering with a firearm.
Read the full story HERE.
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It was just another quiet Sunday evening toward the end of July for Albany County rancher Kelly McGuire when she got a phone call she never would have expected.
The caller was a location scout for country music superstar Lainey Wilson, who was looking for locations to film the video for Wilson’s latest hit song, “Whirlwind.”
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that McGuire’s Oxford ranch was just one of several locations in and around Laramie that were chosen as locations in the video.
“They came out Wednesday, and they did some primary scenes with some of the actors who play a young couple in love in the video. And then that Thursday, Lainey Wilson herself came out and shot her key scenes on the ranch. There's also quite a few scenes that don't have Lainey Wilson in them. They just have the young couple in them that were shot in Laramie. You can see the… Cowboy Saloon. You can see the interior and some of the back of the exterior of Jay's Prairie Rose Cafe. You can see the Garfield footbridge. It goes over the railroad tracks.”
Wilson is one of country music’s biggest stars and played at Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 26.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming and 15 other Republican-majority states are fighting a new Biden administration program that could give citizen status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to suspend the Department of Homeland Security’s Keeping Families Together program, arguing that it is illegal because it exceeds the executive branch’s authority.
“What this program does is it allows illegal immigrants to be able to claim citizenship if they are married to a US citizen. So this is interesting, because up until this point, you had to get a visa to be able to do that… Michael Pearlman, the governor’s spokesperson said there could be up to 1.3 million people in the United States that this could give citizenship to.”
Although illegal immigration isn’t nearly as prevalent in Wyoming as some southern border states, it has gained heightened attention in the Cowboy State with growing Republican criticisms of Biden’s handling of the border crisis.
Read the full story HERE.
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After a judge dismissed their lawsuit challenging a new law restricting THC products in Wyoming, several hemp sellers have appealed to a higher court.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that ten hemp businesses asked a federal judge in July to declare Wyoming’s new law against synthetic cannabis-light variants unlawful and to block it.
“Nearly a dozen hemp sellers sued the state, and Judge Kelly Rankin of the federal court said… your rights are not at stake just because a state decided by its elected representatives what was best for its people.”
In response, the hemp sellers have appealed, filing their case in the 10th Circuit Court.
Read the full story HERE.
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The state of Wyoming has agreed to pay a $127,500 settlement to a man who accused Cheyenne police officers of illegally breaking into his home to arrest him four years ago.
Myron Woods filed a lawsuit last March over a February 2020 incident in which the officers entered Woods’ home, wrestled with him, and arrested him. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that despite the fact that the officers involved in the incident are no longer with the department, the state still chose to settle the lawsuit on their behalf.
“I asked the attorney general who represented these three officers… why is the state footing the bill? And she said, Well, there's a lot of complicating factors, but a) Wyoming has its own self insurance program, and b), generally, if officers are acting in their capacity and doing, you know, doing police work, the state will go ahead and and settle on their behalf. ”
Woods agreed in the settlement to release the state governmental entities and any government employees from any future or further claims stemming from the incident.
Read the full story HERE.
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The second Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple to be built in Wyoming opened its doors in Casper on Monday, giving media and some others a sneak peek inside a building that will soon be accessible only to certain members of the LDS faith.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson attended the opening, and compared the relative ease with which the Casper structure was received, as opposed to the resistance the church has encountered with a similar project in Cody.
“This is only the Second Temple in Wyoming. It's only the 201st worldwide. It's not your everyday church… it was a rare opportunity to get a glimpse inside of one of these temples. And it was a very extravagant building with just, you know, beautiful paintings on all the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, gold hued mirrors… seeing the controversy in Cody and seeing the amazing dichotomy, what's going on in Casper, how there's just no controversy at all for almost the exact same structure.”
The Casper building has roughly the same footprint and height as the Cody facility, but the temple in Cody is being built on a much smaller site and in a more dense neighborhood setting.
Read the full story HERE.
