It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, December 11th. 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 takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.
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Judges in two states issued injunctions Tuesday to block the proposed $25 billion merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons.
An Oregon judge says the Federal Trade Commission is likely to prevail in its case against the $25 billion merger proposed between Kroger and Albertsons, so he is issuing a preliminary injunction against the merger - meanwhile, in Washington, a state judge has also issued an injunction to block the Albertsons-Kroger merger.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the cases are two of three the companies face that seek to stop their merger.
“So we have a final decision in the Washington case, which is saying this will be anti competitive in the state of Washington… And maybe Colorado's is the same way. Certainly those could be subject to an appeal, but this case in Oregon is the federal case, and so that is the one that FTC has brought, and that Wyoming is a party to… One of the things the judge highlighted in the case is the FTC analysis that shows grocery market sectors are already unlawfully uncompetitive in like 1900 markets across the country.”
Representatives of Kroger and Albertsons said the companies are reviewing their legal options.
Read the full story HERE.
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January 2025 could be the month when years of political wrangling over the fate of Wyoming’s grizzlies could come to a head, potentially opening the door for bear hunts next fall.
A judge this month gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until Jan. 20 to decide on Wyoming’s petition to have grizzlies delisted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that it’s just a matter of the agency coming up with a delisting plan that could stand up to any lawsuits filed to reverse it.
“A judge has basically given the US Fish and Wildlife Service a deadline to decide on Wyoming's petition to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem… Most of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem is in Wyoming… Idaho and Montana also have separate petitions, which are kind of floating out there. That might also be decided in January. We don't know yet, but Idaho's petition would delist Grizzlies all across the lower 48.”
Grizzlies were delisted in 2017, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had plans in place for a fall 2018 hunting season. But environmental and grizzly conservation groups successfully sued to have the delisting overturned before hunters got the chance to buy grizzly licenses and head into the field.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Joint Appropriations Committee of the Wyoming Legislature isn’t willing to give the governor a blank check to mitigate wildfires in Wyoming.
On Monday, members of the committee grilled members of Gov. Mark Gordon’s staff for more details in his $692 million supplemental budget request. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that around $170 million of that proposed budget would be specifically spent toward firefighting and restoration efforts that were severely depleted during this year’s historically devastating wildfire season.
“Gordon's Chief of Staff Drew Perkins… said the situation is so fluid that they are kind of asking for money in a piecemeal fashion, rather than asking for all that as a lump sum. Still, this did not appease many legislatures on the Appropriations Committee who repeatedly asked Perkins for more detail for how the money, the $170 million requested, would be spent.”
More than 2,000 huge and damaging wildfires, including the second and third largest in state history, decimated Wyoming this summer, burning more than 850,000 acres, including rangeland, fencing and other infrastructure.
Read the full story HERE.
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Video of an interview with the 44-year-old Casper man charged with the death of a 28-year-old man on March 5 at a motel in Casper shows him telling police he wanted his opponent to “chill” so he could stop fighting.
But victim Chance Arias never did. That’s what James Mavigliano told police in a videotaped interview played in Natrona County District Court on Tuesday during Mavigliano’s second-degree murder trial. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck was in the courtroom.
“Jurors this morning heard about a two hour long video of a police interview of the defendant, and in that video… the defendant said that he kept trying to get the victim to, quote, unquote, chill out, you know, and stop and he was afraid. He said that the victim kept swearing at him and and he ended up, you know, putting a cord around his neck, a lamp cord around his neck, and choking him until he said he heard the air come out of the tire. That was his quote.”
Mavigliano initially confessed to killing someone during a probation hearing on March 8 in Casper Circuit Court following his arrest on March 5.
Read the full story HERE.
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Despite vocal opposition from the public, the Cheyenne City Council went ahead and banned large RVs and other “oversized” vehicles from parking on city streets, which would be considered a “nuisance.”
The council did, however, make an exception lifting the ban during summer months. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that council members also created a new temporary permit that allows for the parking of oversized vehicles for up to five days on city streets.
“city councilman Scott Roybal, who has been on the council for a number of years… mentioned how in 1998 the city was actually extremely close to passing a ban, a similar ban… e said since that time, the biggest change that's occurred is that RVs have gotten bigger, and that the presence of RVs parked on the streets of Cheyenne seems to have only increased as a result.”
Nearly all of the roughly 10 people who spoke Monday railed against the ban, many reiterating their perspectives multiple times each. But the council indicated they didn’t believe those people represented the views of the larger populace on the topic.
Read the full story HERE.
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Prosecutors have dropped a five-year felony charge against a man known to pronounce threats and curses over Cheyenne businesses.
The Laramie County District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 13 charged 43-year-old Joshua Hayden-Ali, also known as “Wisdom” or “Voodoo Man,” with the felony charge of intimidating election officials, when he caused a disturbance at an election center open for early voting.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that charge could be hard to prosecute.
“Just in my own research, looking at the elements… this election intimidation, I am sure that that's a tougher one for prosecutors to show like, oh, you know, he's rampaging through the election center. But can we show a jury that he was actually there to screw with the election, because he could come back and say, No, I was having a bad day and tearing up papers, you know, or whatever. So I'm not going to speak for the prosecution, but if I were a prosecutor, that'd be a tough element for me.”
Hayden-Ali also faces two misdemeanors of criminal trespass and breach of peace.
Read the full story HERE.
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A report of gunshots in a Casper neighborhood Tuesday which prompted an hourslong lockdown of four local schools, may be the result of an ongoing dispute between two groups.
Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that officers were in the area near Bretton Drive and Dorset Street when they heard gunshots come from an unknown location just before 9:30 a.m.
“police officers out in a East Casper neighborhood. Tuesday morning, heard some gunshots, which prompted quite a quite a lengthy investigation… they're in the area of Breton drive and Dorset Street, which is not too far from Casper Kelly Walsh High School and several other schools in the area, out of a out of as a precaution, the schools all went into lockdown as police investigated where these shots came from. As of the end of the day Tuesday, there still was no word whether they had actually found the source of those shots.”
No injuries have been reported, and the CPD also hasn’t reported if there are any suspects or arrests made.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Utah man, apparently upset with a car he just bought, but was denied a refund, drove it through the front glass doors of the dealership to return it Monday.
35-year-old Michael Lee Murray had allegedly told staff at the dealership in Sandy that he would drive the car through the front doors if they didn’t let him return it. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson spoke to a few car dealership employees in Wyoming who said this is actually not an uncommon response.
“Dallas Tyrrell, who runs Tyrrell Chevrolet in Cheyenne, told me the story of what happened about 10 years ago when a woman claimed that she had lost the keys that she'd been using to test drive a new Chevy Silverado, and then returned in the middle of the night to break into the building and drive the Silverado off the lot, crashing through both a garage door and a security fence.”
Murray was arrested later that day on suspicion of felony criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. When asked why he wanted to return the car, he told police the dealership "sold him a lemon” and would not give him his money back.
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.
