It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, December 24th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom.
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Residents in a Laramie County subdivision said they felt terrorized by squatters who had moved into an abandoned home and turned it into a drug house.
The HOA president, who also happened to be a retired police officer, grew suspicious at the comings and goings at all hours of the night - and the house itself was in violation of county codes and seemed to have become a magnet for trouble.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it took months of collaboration with local officials, but eventually, the house in the Happy Valley subdivision was torn down.
“This happens from time to time, that drug house moves into a neighborhood, and things just start to go downhill from there. But what can you do about it? Really? You know, that's a question, and it's it's taken quite a bit of time, but the HOA, by working with Laramie County, was able to not only get the people out there that were bringing that in the neighborhood, but also ultimately tear the house down altogether by working with the county on its covenants.”
Now that the home has been demolished, the owner has plans to put up a new modular home, one that meets all county and HOA codes.
Read the full story HERE.
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Last week the Bureau of Land Management filed its record of decision for a controversial land-use plan in southern Wyoming, finalizing its Resource Management Plan for roughly 3.6 million acres overseen by the agency’s Rock Springs office.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that local officials have vocally opposed the BLM’s plan, saying it’s far too restrictive toward energy development, livestock grazing, recreational access and other uses.
“Sweetwater County sits right smack dab in the middle of that territory. So I talked to one of their commissioners, and he said, you know, we're kind of in the state of limbo. We're feeling… the support from Governor Gordon and our congressional delegates… But the thing you know, kind of one is careful what you wish for. They'd like to see it not overturned, but just kind of held up and sent back down for further review. But what's that mean? That means we're going to have to go through further review. So that means more work to be done, more digging into that 1700 page document.”
The Congressional delegation could play a key role going forward. There’s a chance the BLM plan could be subject to revision, and possibly nullification, through the Congressional Review Act.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Supreme Court has denied a new trial to a woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, because it didn’t agree with her argument that merely failing to take the dying toddler to the hospital for nearly a day couldn’t be child abuse.
31-year-old Carolyn Aune was convicted of first-degree murder last year in the 2021 killing of her boyfriend’s 2-year-old daughter. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the little girl died of internal injuries after having been punched or stomped in the stomach.
“Carolyn Aune on appeal, she came back and said… your first step that you use to convict me is inflicting injury on a minor child, and she says, By failing to do something, how could I have inflicted? Because inflicting is doing something, and I failed to do something. And the Wyoming Supreme Court said, No, you know, we've upheld cases where people have starved children, which is failing to do something, where people have not taken care of children and caused them psychological injury as a result, which is also an act of omission. So the the Wyoming Supreme court basically said, No, this Wyoming child abuse statute is meant to be broad because Wyoming doesn't put up with this.”
The jury found that Aune recklessly inflicted a physical injury on the girl by not taking her to the hospital when her body was apparently shutting down, which it deemed to be felony child abuse.
Read the full story HERE.
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In Wyoming, elected officials are generally easier to reach and communicate with compared to other states with larger populations.
But when it comes to filling political vacancies, the general population is more removed from the process.
State Rep. Steve Harshman of Casper is bringing a bill to change that. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Harshman’s “Vacancies In Elected Office” bill would create special elections when there’s a vacancy for governor, U.S. senator, Wyoming Legislature, or any other elected state official.
“What's significant about Harshman's Bill is that it'll strip away most of the power that political parties currently have to appoint people, as far as selecting nominations for political vacancies in Wyoming… the Wyoming Republican Party has really got a lot of attention for some of the nominations and replacements that they put up for some of these positions in recent years… there's a lot of people out there… who think that the political parties have way too much power when it comes to selecting these nominations.”
Wyoming’s appointment process has been in place for many years. Harshman said there was a time in the recent past when four of the five top state officials were in office by appointment process, which he doesn’t believe is right.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Washington man with ties to Wyoming led police on a two-county car chase, blocked off the interstate and tried backing his truck into the vehicles of the cops who were chasing him - but was ultimately caught after spike strips disabled his vehicle, and, a Campbell County Sheriff’s Office K-9 attacked him when he tried to flee on foot.
41-year-old Benjamin Larson now faces up to 11 years in prison plus fines on five charges leveled against him in Johnson County, plus another 16.5 years in prison and fines on four more charges filed in Campbell County. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.
“So this one had everything, right? You've got the car chase, you've got the alleged alcohol marijuana combo, you've got the interstate, you've got the guy allegedly stopping and backing up into the people who are or towards the people who are chasing him. And then ultimately, you have a lot of car chases end with foot chases. You have a little element of that, and a dog, of police canine bites the guy, and then he lies down.”
Larson faces a felony of police interference based on the allegation that he tried to injure a trooper by charging him backward in his truck.
Read the full story HERE.
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While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that human infections of bird flu are rare, the most recent outbreak is affecting Wyoming’s grocery prices — and people’s holiday dinners.
Millions of chickens and turkeys have been killed and disposed of at poultry farms while dairy farms have been quarantined. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that as a result, prices are increasing at the grocery stores.
“The Wyoming grocery stores that I spoke to, said that they were hopeful that the prices would start to drop. And then they got word another bird flu outbreak, and this was in flocks that had been unaffected up until this point, so the prices are going to continue to be high for your eggs and your dairy and it's just because they had to cull their entire flocks. So you're looking at that the demand is definitely greater than the supply right now, so your Christmas dinner is definitely going to be affected.”
The CDC said that infected birds shed bird flu viruses in their saliva, mucous and feces - but they stress that bird flu infections among people are rare.
Read the full story HERE.
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The doorbell music at Casper’s independently owned Toy Town store was going nearly nonstop on Monday morning as shoppers crowded aisles getting those last-minute gifts and stocking stuffers for the Christmas holiday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck dropped in to see what the hot items were this season.
“What I found was that the hot seller for adults out of the toy store has been a Josh Allen collectible. It's like this big football head of Josh Allen with his arm out, you know… the kids are taking the Spider Man collectibles, but the Josh Allen one is definitely a hot seller for them out of the toy store.”
The holidays represent about 25% of Toy Town’s income for the year. The owner said for other toy stores it may be nearly half, but her store still does good business in the summer when grandparents are visiting grandkids.
Read the full story HERE.
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And for our final story of the day, we’re going straight to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi, who’s spending Christmas in Yellowstone National Park.
“Yeah, the general impression that you get just from people being here is that this is a time to just spend with themselves or with their family in a Christmasy place. And you can't get much more Christmassy, more of a winter wonderland than Yellowstone in the winters. See, I've got old faithful behind me. Old Faithful Snow Lodge is the only hotel in the park, other than the mammoth hotel, that stays open year round, so it's festively decorated. There's Christmas caroling. There's plenty going on, and people are just here to absorb the atmosphere of Yellowstone in Christmas. And it's you have to take a snow coach or snowmobile to get into the park. And there's a lot of interest in the activities. Every activity that they offer is pretty much fully booked, and that's why people come here. They want to savor that experience and be immersed in the Christmas time atmosphere that you can only get in a place like Yellowstone National Park.”
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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!
Since tomorrow is Christmas Day, we’re taking the holiday to spend with our families, so there won’t be a newscast. But we’ll be back Thursday morning with more Cowboy State Daily News. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily, wishing you all a Merry Christmas.
