It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, February 13th. 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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The Byron woman who shot her four daughters then herself Monday suffered from depression and other wracking mental health struggles.
That’s what her husband, Cliff Harshman, told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland in a tearful interview on Wednesday. He urged the public to consider his wife Tranyelle’s struggles, and that her death is a loss to him as well.
“He was upset at how quickly the news traveled before people had a chance to really rationalize the weight of her struggles… his word was Shame, shame on, you know, the the news, the judgment… he said that this was completely unexpected, that she fiercely loved her kids, that she loved him, that she was a wonderful wife and mother. And he he did note, though, that she'd been struggling with depression, post traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression, and that she'd been seeking treatment, and he indicated that something went wrong with the treatment.”
Cliff was the biological father to the two younger girls, ages two and three, but was stepfather to the two older girls, ages seven and nine. As the seven-year-old, Olivia, fights for her life in a Salt Lake City hospital, Harshman and Olivia’s father, Quinn Blackmer, are leaning on each other - and asking the public to pray for their little girl.
“There's scattered shards of light in very, very dark situation. And one of those is that the the ex husband, the current husband, both dads, each has two of these children have bonded and are leaning on each other and are they're both praying for Olivia, the seven year old. That's Quinn Blackmer’s daughter, but Cliff Harshman has also been raising her and all of their concerns right now are wrapped up in her and in her well being and just praying for her… Wednesday, she had a CAT scan, and the surgeon came out saying, you know, it looks like not, there's not major vessel damage. The surgery that she pulled through earlier this week, what was, what Black Mirror called clean up and and exploratory and so right now they're, I mean, as of, as of Tuesday, or, excuse me, Wednesday morning, they were monitoring for swelling, and she was heavily sedated while they were trying to get her through the brain swelling, and if it got too bad, they would induce a coma.”
Cliff said he has been startled by the amount of help he’s received. The hotel where he’s staying refused to take his money. The Murdoch’s in Powell donated clothes to him since he left his change of clothes in California and has not been staying in his home — where a cleaning crew remained all day Tuesday.
Read the full stories HERE and HERE.
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Retirement might not last long for former Wyoming Game and Fish director Brian Nesvik, as President Donald Trump nominated him to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
If confirmed, Nesvik will be leading the Fish and Wildlife Service through some familiar territory — including the ongoing debate over whether to delist grizzly bears from federal protection in the Lower 48. That’s according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“He was nominated by President Trump to be the new head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, so basically doing what he was doing before, but on the national level… I talked to a few people, overall… the reactions were quite positive… including from congressional delegates, our Governor, and just… some folks around Wyoming seem to be… happy that Brian Nesvik could very well be stepping into this new role as head of Fish and Wildlife Service… we weren't able to get you to comment directly from him, because, you know, the he has to kind of keep a lid on things until the nomination goes through. But we'll definitely be catching up with Brian some point in the future.”
Nesvik began his career with Game and Fish in 1995 and was appointed director by Gov. Mark Gordon in 2019. He retired from Game and Fish in September of 2024.
Read the full story HERE.
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Local government and special district reserves were the focus of debate in the Wyoming legislature on Wednesday, regarding the proposed bill that would slash Wyoming property taxes by 50%.
Politics reporter Leo Wolfson reports that regional firefighters and law enforcement officers showed up to the state Capitol in an effort to lobby House lawmakers to oppose Senate file 69, because they're concerned about what the bill could do to their coffers.
“I spoke to one fire chief from a rural fire district outside Wheatland, who said that it could cause a nearly $20,000 cut to his $70,000 budget. You know, these are not necessarily departments or agencies that are rolling in the dough, and this would be kind of a significant cut for a lot of them to their overall budget picture. The house has attempted to pass a backfill option in its supplemental budget, but there's no guarantee that's going to pass, because the Senate and the Governor have kind of expressed a lot of negativity about any kind of backfills. They kind of want voters to really experience what they're asking for, so to speak, with these property tax cuts.”
Representative Steve Johnson, a Republican from Cheyenne, said he believes that local government should have no more than a year of expenses in reserves - a position supported by others in the House.
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A single-engine airplane was forced to make an emergency landing on Wyoming Highway 789 near Rawlins on Wednesday afternoon.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the pilot wasn’t hurt and walked away from the landing, which one longtime pilot called a best-case scenario in the freezing cold temperatures.
“The cliche of a good landing is one you can walk away from, but nobody was injured on the ground. The pilot had a perfect straight runway to land on, and even if they didn't hit the asphalts of the highway, they had a wide berth on either side of hard, frozen ground that could have worked just as well. So not only were they able to land it in the emergency, they were able to get it completely off the road, so there wasn't even a traffic stop for the whole thing.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the incident.
Read the full story HERE.
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Universal school choice funded by public money got one step closer to reality in Wyoming on Wednesday — barely.
The Senate Education Committee advanced House Bill 199 on a 3-2 vote, which would create universal school vouchers in Wyoming, giving parents $7,000 per child to seek private education if they choose. Politics reporter Leo Wolfson has more on this story.
“It was some interesting discussion, and a lot of people, a lot of testimonies from the public on it. The one change that was made to the bill, it was kind of a significant change on Wednesday is that state and national assessment tests will be required from people pursuing these private educations that was not passed in the House version of the bill, so this is the first reading it got in the Senate. Spoke to a few school choice supporters about that on Wednesday, and then they're not sure how that's going to affect the future of the bill.”
Currently, 33 states have enrolled some form of school choice program, 14 of which are universal.
Read the full story HERE.
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Control of the House and Senate has swung back and forth during Cynthia Lummis’s time in Washington - eight years as Wyoming’s US Representative during the Obama administration, and four years as a Senator during Joe Biden’s presidency.
However, with a Democrat as president for all 12 of her years in the nation’s capital, Lummis often found herself trudging uphill. But not anymore.
Thanks to the 2024 elections, Lummis and her conservative colleagues have gone on offense, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry, who spoke to the senator on Wednesday.
“It's going to be a whole lot of energy production, a whole lot of conventional energy production across the West, and we'll have to see how much of that takes shape simply through Trump and his administration versus legislation, and they are talking about which what they want to do, how do they want to approach things? Because it certainly does take legislation, not just executive orders and administrative action, regulatory action, to accomplish everything that they want to accomplish.”
Lummis, who is the chair of the Senate’s Western Caucus, said a major goal of her caucus is revamping the permitting process for energy, infrastructure and other land-development projects. Another priority of her caucus is removing the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the Endangered Species List, and shifting management of the species to the states.
Read the full story HERE.
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Google tapped a Jackson Hole outdoor wildlife guide for its Super Bowl ad campaign, which showcased all 50 states.
Wyoming’s ad shows off wild Wyoming, as well as one of the state’s leading outdoor guide businesses. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to Adam Lackner of BrushBuck Wildlife Tours, who said that although he leads tours around the world, by far his customers’ most requested tours are in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
“So when Google came calling to do a Super Bowl ad for Wyoming, they hit his company up to give him a tour of Yellowstone National Park and glitter National Park… The point of the Google ad, from Google's perspective, is to show how businesses are using their work across the country… In Wyoming, they chose Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, and it really is a pretty cool video with all the cool wildlife, and it aired during the Super Bowl in the Wyoming viewing area.”
Wyoming’s 30-second Google ad spot took an entire week to film and included a film crew of 10 people.
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.
