It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, September 6th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by ServeWyoming - Wyoming's center for volunteerism and AmeriCorps service for the last 30 years! For volunteer opportunities, visit ServeWyoming dot org"
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Wyoming residents turned out in force to voice their complaints about the idea of slower statewide mail delivery. But they didn’t get as many answers as they had questions.
The U.S. Postal Service held an online forum Thursday, with the promise of discussing the proposal to move all of Wyoming’s large mail processing centers to other states, which will chop $3 billion in costs - but will do so by sacrificing rural mail delivery, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.
“The Postal Regulatory Commission is ultimately the one who will decide if this plan moves forward or not. The way I understand things, they have not given their blessing to this… They ordered the Postal Service at one point to get an advisory opinion. The Postal Service has been resisting that, saying they don't need it, but it is required by law anytime they make a proposal that's going to dramatically affect service across the nation. I would say, looking at this map, there's no question that that's been triggered here.”
The map that was displayed showed the future locations of all of the large processing centers in yellow. On that map, Wyoming is 100% blue, meaning no part of the state is within 50 miles of a processing center in the proposed new postal service system.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two Cheyenne men accused of shooting at a pair of police officers from their vehicle early Thursday morning face multiple felony charges.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that by apparent coincidence, just a few hours before their arrest, a man wanted for allegedly firing upon one of the accused shooters earlier this summer turned himself in.
“Cheyenne Police Department dispatched these two statements in the same exact moment. One thing, we arrested two guys overnight Thursday on suspicion of shooting at police officers multiple times and then another saying, Oh, by the way, we arrested a third person who is accused of shooting at one of the alleged cop shooters way back in July.”
The arrest of the third person, 21-year-old Noah Salazar, could not have led to the booking of one of the other shooters, as Salazar turned himself in at about 11 p.m. Wednesday, roughly five hours before the alleged shooting spree.
Read the full story HERE.
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U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman believes the surprise guilty plea Hunter Biden gave Thursday to nine federal tax charges is just the tip of an iceberg that includes his father, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Earlier this year, Hageman called the Bidens the most corrupt family in a position of power in U.S. history.
“When it comes to the Biden family, she believes the family and vice president Kamala Harris are rife with corruption, and that this is just one one step in that occurring… Biden is also facing a number of other charges… this opens him up to 17, up to 17 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.3 million, this is on top of the possible sentence of 25 years he could face after already being convicted for lying on a firearms application in June.”
The plea came after he told his legal team that he did not want to subject his family to another trial like the one that was held in Delaware three months ago where he was convicted on three felony gun charges. The plea deal did not come in exchange for a sentence reduction.
Read the full story HERE.
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Guzman Energy LLC, a Denver-based wholesale power provider with some financial backing from an heir of billionaire Sam Walton’s retail empire, is looking to displace legacy energy suppliers in the Western United States.
Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio reports that Guzman, which has a tiny slice of deals in place in rural Carbon County, is taking aim at regional strongholds in smaller communities that oftentimes pay high rates locked in with long-term contracts for power produced by coal-fired generation plants.
“The reason Guzman has caught my eye, at least, is that they've been stepping in and cutting deals with a lot of these co-ops that - distribution electricity co-ops - that have broken away from Tri State Generation and transmission Association, creating a lot of controversy too, I might add… one of the entities that they supply power to, is based in the northern Colorado area, and that that territory extends into southern Carbon County in Wyoming here.”
Generally, rural power customers pay an average of 4.4% of their income toward energy bills versus a national average of 3.3%.
Read the full story HERE.
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After the Fish Creek fire lapped at the barrow ditches along Togwotee Pass and prompted its closure Monday night, the mountain stretch of highway is set to reopen Friday morning.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the fast-moving fire - which has been threatening the historic Brooks Lake Lodge and other wilderness properties - is still not under control.
“Monday night, personnel working on the Fish Creek fire up by the Fremont County Teton line had to shut Togwotee pass down. Now that's a pretty important artery there in Northwest Wyoming, but so the flames were lapping at the borrowed ditches along the southwest side there, but the fire was also throwing spot fires across the highway. So small fires were launching. I mean, as far as three quarters of a mile, there were about 70 of these, and the crews got them all shut down, the spokesman told me, Thursday evening.”
The lightning-caused Fish Creek Fire was sparked three weeks ago, and has grown to nearly 19,000 acres. In northeast Wyoming, five more large fires are largely contained.
Read the full story HERE.
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With four months left in 2024, the number of suicides, fatal auto crashes and killings in Natrona County are “through the roof.” reports.
Categorized as “unnatural deaths,” Coroner Jim Whipps told county commissioners this week that those types of deaths are already on pace to make this year one of the county’s worst. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck.
“Suicides are at 20, which is two under from last year… This year, he's seeing five homicides already this year and accidents. And one thing that he's talked about was the number of young people, 20s and 30s that are dying of alcoholism. And he was concerned about that.”
In Campbell County in the northeast part of Wyoming, Coroner Paul Wallem said he has seen an increase in unnatural deaths in 36% of the cases he’s dealt with - but a large proportion of those statistics are due to a plane crash that killed seven people in July.
Read the full story HERE.
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A top executive of St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, which has produced 41% of the coal mined out of the Powder River Basin this year, told a New York City investor conference Wednesday that the company is creating value through stock buybacks.
The announcement comes at the urging of a hedge fund in Texas that bought nearly 10% of the company two weeks ago, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.
“It's creating value for Peabody, what the hedge fund is doing. And … if you're a shareholder, you're probably going to notice the price of the stock is going up. You may even see some assets being sold, which is why I'm kind of watching this closely. Would that mean, like the North Rochelle antelope Mine would be sold? Who knows?”
The North Antelope Rochelle mine, located about 65 miles south of Gillette, is the largest and most productive coal mine in the world.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Gillette man who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl’s sexual abuser last year was sentenced between 9 and 10 years in prison, while the man he kidnapped got between 10-14 years for molesting the girl.
31-year-old TJ Ott pleaded guilty to kidnapping 23-year-old Zackery Minard after a mother in Gillette found Minard in bed with her 14-year-old daughter last November. According to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland, the fact that Ott was given such a harsh sentence has raised the ire of some who feel he was somewhat justified in his actions.
“A lot of Wyomingites reading the story, saying things on social media are, you know, we're actually upset that he was given close to a decade at all, saying, oh, you know, cowboy justice. But another important component of the story is that was also convicted for a third time, felony level possession of methamphetamine at around the same time.”
For the meth possession, Ott was given a three- to five-year prison sentence, but the judge layered it concurrently, or simultaneously, with his kidnapping sentence.
Read the full story HERE.
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Members of the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, behind the wheels of about 20 jaw-dropping restored works of rolling art, cruised up to the WyoTech campus from the Denver metro area this week.
They gathered for a small car show exclusively for WyoTech students. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz said the show was intended to inspire the students toward careers in hotrod and custom car building.
“Maybe your dad had one of those, you know, square shaped 1970s Chevy pickup trucks. Those things are in huge demand right now, people, if you people can find one that's been rebuilt or restored, they'll pay big bucks for them. So it's not just it's not just something that people do in their spare time. It's something that these WyoTech students could possibly go into as a rewarding and really a lucrative career, rebuilding or restoring cars for people that want to custom order.”
Thursday’s event at the WyoTech Campus was an opportunity for the entire student body to get a peek into the world of hotrods and custom builds.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have a conversation with noted Wyoming Outdoorsman Paul Ulrich. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!
Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
