It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, January 15th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Visit Casper. Visit Casper invites you to come enjoy the Casper International Film Festival, January 31 through February 2. A broad range of films from local and international filmmakers will be shown. Learn more and get your tickets at visitcasper.com.
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Sweetwater County authorities are searching for a plane that left an airport outside Rock Springs on Tuesday morning and never landed in California as planned.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the plane, a Piper Comanche private aircraft, left the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport Tuesday, piloted by a 50-year-old man from Green River - but he failed to make his scheduled destination in California.
“They used automatic surveillance broadcast data and cell phone ping data to isolate where they believe it is. but it's in a really rugged, mountainous area in Sweetwater County, they think so they concentrated efforts on that area throughout the afternoon, after they got the missing persons call. But then, you know, cloud cover, harsh conditions and terrain caused them to regroup and pull back around 6pm and then, when I talked to the spokesperson, Deputy Jason Mower, Director of Public Affairs for the sheriff's office, he said that they were scrambling at that time to get nighttime aerial units in the air that could that could survey the the area.”
As of Tuesday evening, searchers had narrowed their efforts to the area of Pine and Little Mountain, southwest of Rock Springs, in an area described as forested and mountainous terrain, also featuring steep cliffs and ravines.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Legislature gaveled in for its 68th session Tuesday - with lawmakers pushing for their personal projects and agendas.
Politics reporter Leo Wolfson was in attendance at the opening ceremonies in the Wyoming House of Representatives Tuesday, which took on a decidedly partisan tone with numerous biblical phrases and references to the American founding fathers mentioned throughout.
“I think what was really kind of startling in that this is an event that really typically is pretty non partisan for the most part, and you don't see a lot of these type of commentaries being made, but this is probably a prelude to what we're going to see for the upcoming legislative session, with a lot of politically charged type bills and partisanship on full display and rancor. In the Senate, it was very different. There was minimal speeches, given the Senate's a little bit of a different situation too, because only half their members are new.”
However, fireworks were sparked on the first day in the Wyoming Senate, when an attempt was made by Senator Larry Hicks to prevent Eric Barlow from being nominated for chairman of the Senate Health, Labor and Social Services Committee, because of his stance on abortion.
“This was based off of Hicks’ insinuation that Barlow is not necessarily pro life on abortion. If you look at Barlow's voting record, that is really not seeming to be the case. It seems like he's been pretty consistently pro life on abortion throughout his time in the legislature. But Hicks clarified for me that he was really more referring to some of the decisions that Barlow made with bills when he was Speaker of the House, as far as which bills he sent to committees and which bills he sent to his drawer to not be heard again.”
Barlow was still approved with a 28-3 vote. Hicks, along with Senators Cheri Steinmetz of Lingle, and Laura Pearson of Kemmerer, were the only members to not support the nomination.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Legislature is set to consider two bills that would limit transgender people’s access to public or school bathrooms not designated for their natural sex.
One would ban males from using bathrooms and other areas specifically meant for females — and vice versa — in public facilities across Wyoming.
The other bill focuses only on publicly-funded schools - and would put them at a risk of losing accreditation if they violate the mandate to keep bathrooms and changing rooms separate. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the schools bill was sponsored by Dan Laursen of Powell.
“Back in November, his local school board there at Powell was like, we struggled to litigate on our own. This is a huge and very uncertain legal landscape, so we're just going to ask the legislature to do something… So you can, you can see the interplay there between local and state government, but that one just focuses on schools. And so there's the bigger bill, just more expansive. It's any public facility with, you know, where there's multiple occupancy bathrooms.”
Rep. Martha Lawley of Worland, who sponsored the more expansive and stronger of the two bills, said that while campaigning for her seat, she heard more constituent concerns about bathroom, shower and changing room protections than she did about another top issue, property taxes.
Read the full story HERE.
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The world famous Star Plunge pool and hot springs in Thermopolis has been on a legal collision course with the state. It had been expected to close Wednesday, but soakers showed up Tuesday to find it unexpectedly closed earlier than thought.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to several patrons who were hoping to use the facility one more time before it closed.
“Roland Luehne had been told that the extension was through January 14… people showed up on January 14 for its last day… And even though they had called before and been told it would be open, it was, in fact closed when they got there, so they were turned away, and they were not happy about it…Roland Luehne is the star plunges operator and owner, and he's the one who built these facilities. Um, his contract with the state expired December the 31st and he had been granted an extension for two weeks to talk with the state's new selected operator.”
Star Plunge attracts an average of 4,000 people from out of town monthly. With the closure of Star Plunge, Thermopolis loses the economic boost not just to the facility, but to hotels and restaurants. Additionally, 15 people will lose their jobs and healthcare, while close to 1,200 season ticket holders won’t be able to use the facilities that they have paid for.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Powder River Basin is Wyoming’s busiest oil play right now, with about 11 of the state’s 15 operating rigs there.
But for the oil and gas industry as a whole, that’s barely a blip on the radar screen. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that there’s more than just one factor holding Wyoming’s oil production back.
“If you ask the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, they're gonna point at the unfriendly Biden administration, state tax rates are rather high compared to, say, Colorado or New Mexico, but it's also really what's really holding it back is economics and science. We just haven't cracked the code on how to get as much oil out of the Mowry shale as economically as we can in other basins like the Williston Basin, the Bucha and Beagle Ford in Texas, the Permian in Texas.”
Wyoming’s busiest play still only has about 11 rigs running. By comparison, the nearby Williston Basin has around 33 rigs operating in North Dakota alone, and about 35 basin wide.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 71-year-old Casper man faces three criminal charges after allegedly stabbing two people during a Sunday dispute.
Paul Hilburn was in court Monday to hear the charges against him, two counts of aggravated assault and battery and one of domestic battery. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Hilburn said the stabbing was an accident.
“He is alleged to have stabbed his former girlfriend who was in an apartment with him and another male subject who had who was visiting, and he wanted him out of the apartment, and according to a police affidavit, he ordered them out at knife point, and then there was a wrestling match between him and the other two, and they both ended up getting stabbed.”
Both aggravated assault and battery charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The domestic battery charge is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $750.
Read the full story HERE.
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Three political candidates who were denied the chance to launch general-election campaigns after they failed to win their parties’ nominations in last year’s primary election are challenging two Wyoming laws as unconstitutional.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Wyoming Supreme Court is considering their complaint, and whether the state’s “sore loser” statute is keeping failed primary-election candidates from running as independent candidates in the general election.
“In Wyoming, there's a law this is, you know, if you lose in the primary election, like you're running to be the Republican or the Democrat nominee, you can't launch a campaign to run as independent in the general election. And so they call it the sore loser law. And it's it's been under fire since about August. Some people sued it, saying, Whoa, this. This goes against the very broad voter and candidate rights promise in the constitution of the state.”
The lawsuit also takes a jab at a recent ban on switching parties right before a primary election.
Read the full story HERE.
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The costs of applying for Wyoming hunting licenses could quadruple for residents - and go up even more for out-of-staters - under a bill before the state Legislature.
House Bill 2 would boost resident hunting license application fees from $5 to $20. Fees for nonresident hunters would jump from $15 to $75.
Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to proponents of the bill, who say it’s a reasonable price to keep funds flowing for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
“When you put in for your licenses, you have to you front the money for the cost of the license, plus an application fee. If you don't draw your license, you get the the cost of the license refunded, but not the application fee… if the bill passes, the … application fees will go up from $5 to $20 and then for non residents, they could see a boost all the way up to $75 you know, per license. So that that's significant.”
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department does not receive general fund legislative dollars, so fees like these are how revenue is generated for the entire division.
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! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
