It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, October 17th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake! From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols brings to life the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.
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It’s not every day that weather forecasts predicting 7-13 inches of snow cause homeowners to stand up and cheer.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean was in the Wagon Box restaurant in Story when the patrons, weary from their battle with the nearby Elk Fire, saw the updated weather forecasts coming across their smartphones.
“We were all just kind of enjoying our dinner and chit chatting, and then I heard notifications going off and people looking at their phones. And it was the Billings National Weather Service in Billings releasing their updated snowfall totals, seven to 13 inches. People were just like exclaiming, and it's great, and, oh, man, I hope it's even more than that. But not because they cared about the nearby ski resort. They were all glad, because it might put a damper on this elk fire that they've been living with now for three weeks.”
The volatile and unpredictable fire has so far burned more than 92,000 acres and is only 28% contained. The snow is expected to be a huge help to the firefighting effort.
Read the full story HERE.
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A defense attorney and judge indicated Wednesday that a 24-year-old man accused of bludgeoning his mother to death in January is sane enough to face prosecution.
Israel Melvin was charged Jan. 10 with one count of second-degree murder after police found his mother dead on the floor of her home with severe trauma to the back of her head and her body covered by gasoline-soaked blankets. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that after several failed competency tests, Melvin’s public defender says his client is now sane enough to face trial.
“Brandon Booth, the defender was clear, like, I'm not asking for a second opinion. He's doing well. He's understanding me. We can probably handle this, signaling that that Israel Melvin is competent to participate in this prosecution and to face trial.”
The judge did not make a ruling Wednesday on whether Melvin is competent to face trial, but Booth’s characterization of Melvin’s improved state indicates that Melvin will be found competent to fight the murder charge of murder.
Read the full story HERE.
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If a certain Wyoming mule deer doe could talk, she’d have an incredible survival story to tell about how she just barely escaped the catastrophic Elk Fire.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz says not only does she have the burn marks to prove it, the doe also managed to get her 5-6 month-old twin fawns out, unscathed.
“I talked to a gentleman who has some rural property there, outside of Sheridan… I think it was the night of October 5 that fire made that huge explosive run. And a day or two after that, this doe showed up on his property, and she has burn marks or singed chair all the way down her flank, which indicates that she got out like, literally, must have been sprinting right ahead of that fire or or perpendicular to it… she's got, you know, two, two of this, this spring's fawns, and the guy said they look fine. They don't have any marks on them. So may, you know, maybe, maybe Mom took a hit for put herself between her babies and the fire… And you know, it makes you wonder how many animals weren't that fortunate.”
Earlier this month, other Sheridan-area residents spotted a large herd of elk bailing down out of the mountains ahead of the flames. It’s hoped the elk will have plentiful forage in the lowlands to get them through winter.
Read the full story HERE.
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The anti-abortion community of Casper came out to a city council meeting on Tuesday night to voice their concerns about alleged harassment and violence they said they’ve been subjected to while protesting outside an abortion clinic.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that nearly 20 people, including a state legislator, told the Casper City Council they want the city to do something about it.
“A few different members of the council said that they they refused to take a stance on the issue of abortion, but said that they're just trying to represent the needs of the constituents that they represent and reach out to them, and that's really just trying to kind of manage the situation from a macro level, if you will. The the city counselor who had originally brought this up, Brandy Haskins, also clarified that it was not women receiving abortions at the clinic that reached out to her, but rather people receiving other health services.”
One of those who spoke on Tuesday was state Rep. Jeanette Ward of Casper, who frequently protests outside the clinic, which opened for business in 2023 after an arson delayed its opening by nearly a year.
Read the full story HERE.
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A grass fire on the north end of the Wind River Indian Reservation prompted the evacuation of at least one home Wednesday afternoon, as authorities worried the fire would jump the Wind River into residential Riverton.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland was at the scene of the fire and spoke to neighbors concerned about their property.
“The river crosses between Riverton and the reservation, the Wind River does, and on the reservation side, it's a lot of grass and shrubbery and fields, kind of more rural looking and very sparse homes, sparsely populated on that side… But meanwhile, on the north side of the river that fire was threatening to jump into Riverton, into just very dense neighborhoods, a golf course there, so they kind of were scrambling, and they called in aerial resources to drop chemicals on the flames Wednesday evening.”
Cowboy State Daily will update the story as it develops.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s lone member of Congress said she’s heartbroken over the devastating wildfires that have burned more than 600,000 acres across the Cowboy State this fire season.
Now with the volatile and obstinate Elk and Pack Trail fires that are making national headlines, having burned about 180,000 combined, Harriet Hageman is pointing at a 23-year-old rule pushed by former President Bill Clinton as the culprit. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“Harriet Hageman says that this huge wildfire season in Wyoming and across the rest of the West really goes back more than 20 years to the roadless act that President Clinton championed back in 2000-2001… basically, it took another 58 million acres out of out of play, for people to be able to to do things on, including having, you know, motorized vehicles on most of those lands… people haven't been able to get back in there and reduce those fuel loads to go, go in there and manage those lands to help prevent some of the wildfires.”
Hageman’s family homestead near Hartville also burned in the 29,000-acre Pleasant Valley Fire earlier this summer.
Read the full story HERE.
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If his colleague hadn’t barked at him to get down, a Rock Springs Police Department officer would have been shot by a 9 mm bullet Monday evening, court documents say.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Kevin Lorentzen was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and reckless endangering, after shooting at officers from inside his home.
“There's been a lot of episodes of this person basically saying ‘the neighbors are trying to kill me’… And so they hear of a disturbance, they show up. The neighbors say, Oh, he's pacing. He's carrying something, he’s shirtless, you know… They're knocking at the door… Officer Garretson shines her flashlight in the home just one more time, just to make sure nothing's going on. And the way she reported it later, she was looking down the barrel of a gun. He was allegedly pointing the gun at her, and so she screams, you know, get down. And officer Mignerey gets down just as the bullet flies past.”
If Lorentzen is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison on an aggravated assault charge and up to one year in jail on a reckless endangering charge.
Read the full story HERE.
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Colorado voters will decide Nov. 5 whether to ban mountain lion hunting there.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that critics of the measure believe it’s irresponsible management of wildlife, much like the state’s 2020 voter initiative to reintroduce wolves.
“They're talking about the similar to the the wolf reintroduction, talking about putting a measure on the ballot so everybody in Colorado can vote on whether to keep mount lion and Bobcat hunting in Colorado. And some people are saying, you know, that's ballot box biology. This is a mistake…other people are saying, No, you know, the importance of of hunting these big cats is overblown. We don't need to do that. It's cruel. It's unnecessary.”
Mountain lions killing and eating pets and livestock is nothing new in Colorado, or in Wyoming. In September, a man killed a mountain lion with a shovel in a Colorado campground after the big cat apparently went after his dog.
Read the full story HERE.
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Statues honoring Esther Hobart Morris and Chief Washakie were scooted into their final resting places at the Wyoming Capitol on Wednesday.
In some ways, the move was a little anticlimactic as the statues were only transported a couple hundred feet away from their previous locations, but politics reporter Leo Wolfson spoke to State Auditor Kristi Racines, who believes the move was still significant.
“A number of people had expressed concern and complained that the statues that used to be located outside of the Capitol were kind of being tucked away in a hard to see place at the Wyoming Capitol building. Racines believes that these statues will be in a much more public location and really given the respect that they deserve at the Capitol building.”
Morris was a leader in Wyoming’s suffrage movement, which eventually led to the Cowboy State becoming the first in the union to grant women the right to vote. Washakie was a warrior, peace negotiator, friend of Brigham Young and leader of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel! And don’t forget to drop in on the Cowboy State Daily morning show with Jake Nichols, Monday through Friday from 6 to 10 a.m.! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
