It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, February 7th. 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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When a truck collision turned into a three-man fight Saturday at a bonfire party spot outside Reliance, the girlfriend of one of the brawlers shot the other two.
Court documents allege that 16-year-old Addisyn Fisher of Rock Springs is charged as an adult in Rock Springs Circuit Court with two counts of aggravated assault. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one of the victims suffered a gunshot wound in his neck or jaw area, and another was shot through the hand.
“Usually we do not identify juveniles charged with crimes unless they are charged as adults, and that was the case here… the claim is that her boyfriend was chasing this other truck down with his truck and rammed into it. And so another guy saw this and got mad, and then the driver of the truck got mad, and then the one was supposedly holding Fisher's boyfriend down while the other punched according to witness interviews, and the witnesses and the victims said that Fisher kind of rounded the truck With a gun in her hand and shot the two men that were then winning the fight against her boyfriend.”
Fisher was arrested without incident Monday. She posted a cash or surety bond of $50,000.
Read the full story HERE.
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The 2025 Wyoming legislative session reached its halfway mark on Thursday.
Politics reporter Leo Wolfson observes that the session looks and feels distinctly different from years’ past.
“There's a few things that have definitely jumped out to me. One is kind of the sheer predictability of every vote in the House… the Freedom Caucus legislators are very much… aligned. They're very obedient to their cause, for what that's worth, and they are voting extremely consistently together… their side is winning on… almost every single vote… the Democrats and the non Freedom Caucus Republicans have been on the losing side of nearly every vote, whether it's an amendment or a main Bill vote as well… They've been also taking a very, very Razor's eye approach to the budget… they're opposing a lot of additions that were being proposed to be made to the budget.”
The 2025 legislative session is schedule to end in mid-March.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Bureau of Land Management’s controversial management plan for millions of acres in the Rock Springs area has been shut down by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports, though, that there’s uncertainty from all directions on what happens next.
“I talked to one of the Sweetwater County Commissioners today, what that means for them is… they got homework now they got… o go back to the drawing board and decide what the next move is going to be… there has to be some sort of resource management plan for the Rock Springs office. The one in place is… I think it's decades old the resource management plan. So, you know, I think there's consensus that something needs to be crafted and put forward.”
The BLM manages about 3.6 million acres of land from the Rock Springs office, the bulk of it in Sweetwater County. The previous administration’s preferred plan would have restricted public access in about half of that area for hunting, motorized recreation, cattle grazing and energy exploration.
Read the full story HERE.
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The United States Geological Survey is conducting a first-of-its-kind survey of southern Wyoming. This week the agency will gain a bird's eye view of what lies deep under the surface.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that USGS will use helicopters flying between 100 and 200 feet from the surface while carrying a sensor that resembles a large hula hoop, to conduct an airborne electromagnetic survey of areas of Albany, Carbon, Converse, Laramie and Platte counties.
“They're using that sensor to send electromagnetic currents into the ground down to about 1500 feet down. And those will be sort of like a map that you can make a 3d map out of. But more importantly, it'll help identify underground water sources, critical minerals, rare earth mineral, rare earth metals and lots of other things. So it'll give geologists a better idea of what's buried underneath Wyoming in a spot they specifically call the Cheyenne belt.”
When this survey's results are completed, they will be publicly accessible to any agency, business, or individual who could benefit from knowing what’s waiting to be unearthed between the Front Range and Medicine Bow Mountains.
Read the full story HERE.
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Thursday updated its student-athlete policy for collegiate sports, to bar athletes born as males and identifying as women from participating in women's sports.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to a spokesman for the University of Wyoming, who said the University of Wyoming will have no problem complying with the new ban.
“So, it's a domino right? Trump signs theater saying you don't get any federal funding if you're going to allow this cross sex participation into women's sports. The NCAA says, well, here's our new policy in compliance with that. And UW said, we're going to have no problem complying… They never, they never explicitly linked their forfeitures of games against San Jose State University, which had a trans player. They never linked that to the whole transgender controversy… but it certainly does back up what they're now saying about being able to comply with the NCAA ban.”
Proposed laws to ban male participation in female-designated sports are still pending in Congress. Three more similar bills are pending in the Wyoming Legislature, as well.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two separate committees in the Wyoming Legislature voted down matching bills on Wednesday night that would have banned all voting machines and required hand count elections in Wyoming.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that a House committee voted the bill down 8-1, while the same Senate committee did not take a vote on a matching bill at all.
“The house corporations elections and political subdivisions committee has been very open to bills kind of like this… but this one was just truly not up to snuff. It went before both the Senate and the House versions of this committee last night, both of them into the wee hours of night… There was very vague details given about what it would actually take to implement this, the cost figures, the amount of time it would take to count ballots, all of these things were really never answered in very concrete terms.”
The topic of banning voting machines and implementing hand count elections will be referred for consideration in this summer’s interim session.
Read the full story HERE.
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Some trespassing hunters are becoming so brazen, Wyoming ranchers fear having guns pulled on them.
Rep. Bill Allemand of Midwest told the Wyoming House Agriculture, State and Public Land and Water Resources Committee on Thursday that if something isn’t done to curb trespassing, he fears there will be, quote, “shootouts and blood on the prairie.”
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that despite that testimony, House Bill 109 – which proposed taking away trespassers’ hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years – died in the committee.
“He said there's been some ranchers that have sincerely worried about having pistols pulled on them. You know, people are emphasizing this isn't hunters in general. Apparently, there's just a few. There's a few really bad actors… And you know, if they get caught trespassing instead of apologizing and leaving, they like get belligerent. And so I don't this bill is dead and gone, but I, my inclination, is that this issue of trespassing, how to resolve this and how to manage it probably isn't, isn't going away.”
In addition to threats of violence, ranchers have complained about trespassers cutting their fences and locks on their gates, and leaving trash scattered on their property.
Read the full story HERE.
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For those tired of the dark, dreary days of winter, February is the month of optimism.
That’s because this is the month where the most sunlight of the year is gained.
Yes, June has much more sunlight than February. But February is where we see the biggest increase - especially in Wyoming, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Jimmy Orr.
“A lot of the stories we do, Wendy, are based on messages and letters and emails that we get from our readers. And somebody was complaining about our long winter in Wyoming. Well, you know, if you're from Wyoming, we do have long winters, and that's part of the deal. But… the green flag gets waved, and the cars take off and they go zero to 60 and, you know, three seconds, or whatever it is, this is a month that gets… the biggest increase… of sunlight at one time… it's all about the latitude, and the higher up you are, the more you get this time of year, and the reverse in the fall. And so the winners in Wyoming are Greybull and Cody, and they get the most with an hour and 19 minutes of fresh new sunlight in February.”
However, although the days will appear longer, we’re also at the time of year when Wyoming starts to see more wintry weather.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have a conversation with longtime Wyoming legislator Eli Bebout. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!
Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
