It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, February 14th. 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 7-year-old girl who survived an apparent murder-suicide Monday in Byron was still holding onto life Thursday morning, with medical professionals and her loved ones monitoring her brain swelling closely.
Olivia is the lone survivor of a five-person shooting in which her mother, Tranyelle Harshman, shot Olivia and her three sisters, then turned the gun on herself in what has been described as a severe mental health breach after months of depression and other struggles. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland has been closely following this story.
“On Thursday, Olivia was having spikes in her brain swelling, which her dad, Quinn Blackmer, said was expected. They thought that Thursday would be the bad day for that. They were still contemplating an induced coma, but they hadn't gotten there yet. They were just monitoring, and she was responding well to medication… I also talked to Cliff Harshman, who's been, you know, they had primary custody. He's been raising these girls, and then he's the biological father to the two little ones… He powered through to memorialize the little girls that have died. He talked about the little ones, both on opposite sides of age, two Irish twins, being bundles of joy and being just half mud pie tomboys and half pretty dolled up girls, and he talked about little Brailey and how smart she was and how she wanted to be a scientist.”
Rocky Mountain Elementary School in Cowley, where 9-year-old Brailey and 7-year-old Olivia attended, has brought in four extra counselors and a support dog to help its 171 students in the aftermath of the Monday murder-suicide. McFarland spoke to Principal Eric Honeyman, who said the two girls brightened the school during their five months there.
“Honeyman gave me the sense that this is surreal for him, and he's just focusing on what he has to do… one of the more interesting challenges that he conveyed was they are trying not to get into the specifics of what happened Monday with the kids, those darker details, they're trying to focus on how beautiful Bray was and Olivia is, and how much Olivia still needs everyone's prayers.”
The principal said he’s forever grateful to the many people who have stepped up to help, whether it’s by providing food or volunteer work.
Read the full story HERE.
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The foremost piece of property tax relief legislation being considered during the 2025 legislative session was significantly altered from a flat 50% cut on Thursday in the state House.
As passed on second reading Thursday, Senate File 69 now makes a 50% cut based on the growth of assessed value on a home from 2019-2024, on home values up to $2 million. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the major change was brought in an amendment by Republican Rep. Ken Clouston of Gillette.
“This solution does truly strike a balance of some sort between providing homeowners property tax relief and still not totally gutting funding for local governments and schools and special districts… for instance, if your property taxes grew from $3,000 to $4,000 between 2019 and 2024 you will have $500 cut off your property taxes every year, but nothing more than that, and that also comes into play with the 4% property tax cap that was already passed last year on year to year tax increases… it's still got a long road to travel, but it got a lot of enthusiasm on Thursday and some pretty conservative people that have been kind of linked to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, like Representative Tom Kelly of Sheridan, issued support for it, calling it a elegant solution.”
The amendment also removes the sunset date from the bill, making it a permanent tax cut. But unlike the original bill, it wouldn’t go into effect until 2026.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s congresswoman has been investigating the U.S. Postal Service lately, and what she’s been finding out doesn’t bode well for future mail deliveries in Wyoming under the agency’s controversial Delivering for America plan.
Representative Harriet Hageman told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean that some of Denver’s mail is being processed in Cheyenne, because that city’s mail processing facilities are too overwhelmed with mail.
“So it does beg the question, what does this mean for Wyoming mail, under Delivering for America? That plan is proposing to move all of Wyoming's major mail processing to Denver and to Billings. But if Denver is already so overloaded that Cheyenne needs to do the processing, I mean that just sounds like bad things are ahead for Wyoming mail… so Harriet's put out a couple of bills. One of them is a from the Wyoming congressional delegation as a whole, and Senator Lummis, I think, is leading that charge. But it's called the Postal Act. They're going postal on the Postal Service, and that act would prohibit removing all of a state's major processing capability. That bill essentially says every state should be entitled to have at least one of those.”
Wyoming and South Dakota are two of the states that will be hit hardest by the changes proposed in Delivering for America. Neither state has enough population to qualify for one of Delivering For America’s 60 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers.
Read the full story HERE.
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A heater at the Newcastle refinery exploded Wednesday evening, leaving no injuries reported but unleashing a power surge that killed the town’s electricity and 911 dispatch lines.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to residents who say that the explosion rattled their houses.
“Francesca Romano was she, she lives two blocks from there… she said that this just felt like the biggest Thunder Boom ever, and it, you know, rocked the house. It crossed her mind, it could be an earthquake. But then she felt kind of a sonic ripple, and she looked out at the refinery and saw an orange chug of smoke that had flames down at the bottom toward the equipment. So she grabbed her baby… to go stay in Rapid City… and as she was cresting an overpass style road that overlooks the town. At that moment, the town went dark, and so to her, it was she described something out of a horror movie.”
Power came back on soon after the explosion, and 911 services were restored by about 4:45 a.m. The Newcastle Police Department expressed gratitude for technicians who worked overnight to get the equipment back online.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 16-year-old boy is dead and an 18-year-old has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after a Wednesday night shooting at a Casper home.
The older teen has been identified as Luka Rasmussen. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Rasmussen has not yet been formally charged.
“There was apparently a gathering of individuals... Police say they were minors. They were in a house, and he was apparently being reckless with a handgun. It went off and it killed a 16 year old… we don't have an affidavit yet to understand if he has a record or not. But there was a comment made by the district attorney about drug use, so I don't know if that meant they found drugs in the home, as well as police said weapons that had been stolen. So the district attorney told me he… couldn't comment on whether there'd be additional charges related to those things.”
The Natrona County District Attorney asked the judge for a $500,000 cash or surety bond and alcohol and drug testing as a condition of the bond, as well as no contact with the victim’s family.
Read the full story HERE.
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House Bill 172 calls for people with concealed carry permits to take their firearms into places where they are currently forbidden, such as public schools and inside buildings at UW.
Now opponents are asking legislators to at least consider some exemptions, such as continuing to ban guns in college dorms. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz.
“There was a lot of passionate testimony, both for and against eliminating Wyoming's gun free zones… People that are opposed to it are kind of skittish about, you know, not like, like, who's going to be carrying a gun in our schools or in these different places… their other argument is, really, this should be managed like, like the University of Wyoming. It should be local control… They should have the autonomy to decide their own firearms, firearms policy, rather than have it dictated to them by the state… The pro side is, hey, Second Amendment rights apply. Second Amendment rights can't be decided at the local level, and people should have the right to defend themselves regardless of where they are.”
HB 172 previously passed the House, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is charged with deciding whether to forward it to the Senate floor.
Read the full story HERE.
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While today, the Valentine cards decorated with hearts and cutesy messages tend to be sentimental and sweet, it wasn’t always so.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that in the late 1800s and into the 1920s, although there were cameo valentines and gifts such as jewelry boxes that were the popular gifts of youthful gallants, most of the valentines sold in Cheyenne were the comical digs at your friends.
“I was just going through the Wyoming newspapers, and … I saw this article from 1881 and it was talking about how Valentine's Day is not just for the lovers, but it's also for the haters and it's for those that just want to have fun, because back in the day, originally, Valentine's Day was just to express your feelings, whatever they were, so you might not have a good feeling about somebody, you would tell them anonymously.”
Now 144 years later, the sentiments in these Valentine cards might still ring true, but you also might want to remain anonymous when you send out that card.
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 expert horticulturist Shane Smith. 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.
