It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, February 6th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics! Experience the excitement of the Winter Games, February 20–22 in Pinedale, and support the SAFE Initiative. For event details and the full schedule, visit wyoming senior olympics dot com.
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Wyoming’s congressional delegation cheered President Donald Trump on Wednesday as he signed an executive order aiming to prevent biological males from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in K-12 schools and higher education.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland said Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman attended the huge ceremony in the East Room of the White House and all three members of the delegation praised the president’s action.
“Trump made this executive order, like we're not going to give federal funding to schools that do this, that let males participate in female-only sports… Senator Lummis … called it the women's rights issue of our time. But, you know, looking forward, Senator Barrasso indicated that in Congress, the legislation addressing this issue… the Republicans will still try to get that passed.”
On the state level, there are, at least three bills pending right now, one from the Senate and two from the House that would rather let people aggrieved or harmed by transgender athlete participation sue schools or other government agencies.
Read the full story HERE.
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A coroner’s report reveals significant problems at a Gillette assisted living center, where an 88-year-old resident died of hypothermia in January.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that the coroner’s investigatory report released this week also revealed a second death at the Legacy Living and Rehabilitation center last year, and the terminations of multiple employees.
“The coroner finally got back and said it was hypothermia, and today, also in his release, was a bit of a bombshell in that he also… said, oh… there's a second investigation for a woman who died of an overdose, and that was in November, and he said it's also a police investigation, so this is the first I'd heard of that, so I'm trying to track that down too, and it's not clear if it was an intentional overdose or if it was a unintentional overdose.”
The 160-bed Legacy facility currently has a ranking of one out of five by Medicare.gov, with five being the highest. The facility has been cited before for abuse.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming House committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that would make the Wyoming Attorney General an elected position.
Currently, the AG in Wyoming is a position appointed by the governor, who serves solely at the pleasure of the governor. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the bill’s sponsor believes the attorney general needs to be more directly accountable to the people of Wyoming rather than the governor.
“There's a lot of ethical questions that come into play, as far as whether that person would just be more concerned about political agendas and running to possibly become governor someday, rather than serving the law and the people… this new law would basically make it so that the attorney general would be responsible responsive to the governor, the legislature and the Wyoming Supreme Court. But the caveat is that they wouldn't have to do as they are told by these people. They would work for them, but they would kind of have their own discretion.”
Wyoming is one of only seven states that does not elect its attorney general.
Read the full story HERE.
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A proposal to ban people from hunting, fishing and trapping anywhere in the country if they get caught trespassing in Wyoming goes overboard.
That’s what some outdoorsmen told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz, in reference to House Bill 109, which calls for a two-year loss of privileges as the penalty for trespassing while hunting, fishing, trapping or collecting shed antlers.
“What makes it really significant is Wyoming, along with all the other states are part of the interstate game by our wildlife violator compact, which we've written about before. How that works is, if you were convicted and you lose your hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in any one state, you lose it in all the states… So potentially, if this bill were to pass and be signed into law, someone who trespasses, you know, could end up losing their privileges for two years, pretty much on the whole continent.”
On the other side of the argument, groups representing Wyoming farms and ranches said stiffer penalties might be necessary to curb trespassing.
Read the full story HERE.
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And now let’s take a look at today’s weather, with Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day.
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You can get Don’s full forecast on the Cowboy State Daily website.
I’ll be back in just 15 seconds with more news.
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The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office - and governor Mark Gordon - are arguing this week that a judge misapplied the law when she struck down two abortion bans in November.
In a Supreme Court filing, the attorney general claims that the judge leaned on an abortion-friendly doctors' testimony when proclaiming abortion "health care." That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.
“Jay Jerde, Special Counsel for the AG… basically said, Where is she getting the viability standard? Because Judge Owens in November, when she struck down Wyoming's abortion bans, she was like, I don't see why, you know, fetuses with the potential for life pre-viability are to be afforded special rights over the mother… Jerde said, Where are you getting the viability standard? Because that no longer exists since the US Supreme Court struck down Roe.”
The controversy surrounds two 2023 abortion bans, the Life is a Human Right Act (or “Life Act”) and the chemical abortion ban. Had they been allowed to become law, they would have banned nearly all abortions in Wyoming, but would have left exceptions for the life and health of the mother, and for rape and incest.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that two bills considered Wednesday in the Wyoming Legislature take a new approach to the topic, by seeking to define what is considered a “person” and what constitutes “healthcare,” rather than trying to pass a flat-out ban.
“One bill changes the definition of what's considered a person under Wyoming law, basically bumping that up to very early in the fetus period… And then the other bill is a little more expansive, and it goes after whether the definition of health care under Wyoming law, and basically clarifies that abortion is not health care unless it's to save the life of the mother.”
Each bill provides exceptions for events where an abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant mother but neither provide any exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
Read the full story HERE.
A proposed 2,010-acre solar farm and battery storage facility on private ranch land 30 miles west of Casper will not see the light of day.
After a 7 1/2-hour meeting Tuesday, the Natrona County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to reject the application of EG Haystack Solar LLC, which would have allowed it to move forward with a 199-megawatt generating station and battery storage facility.
“there were probably 15 people that were residents of the area that stood up and spoke against the project, talking about fire issues, talking about glare from the panels, talking about pollution to the ground from metals being used in the project, and potential selenium pollution of Casper Creek. So there were some concerns even by the Wyoming David fish about heard of of prong horn that used that area during the winter for migration.”
The commissioners voting against the proposal said they thought the application failed to meet the criteria needed for approval.
Read the full story HERE.
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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When an intense winter storm gave Cody over a foot of snow, some people decided to make the most of it.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi said one Cody resident strapped on skis for some spontaneous skijoring.
“Some folks decided, if Cody was going to be covered in snow, might as well get someone on a set of skis with a rope attached to the back of vehicle and go skijoring on the unplowed streets of Cody. It's it only found one photo of it, but everybody thought it was the coolest thing. I will say, though, that the Cody police department does not endorse that activity… they said that had they encountered this skijoring group in Cody, they would have used it as an educational opportunity to tell them why they shouldn't be doing that rather than immediately issue a citation.”
Given that the vehicle was driving on an unplowed city street while technically dragging someone behind it, a police spokesperson said that could be considered careless driving and disregarding the safety of anyone else on the road. Granted, hardly anyone was driving through Cody on Monday.
Read the full story HERE.
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.
