It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, March 13th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jake! From 6 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, host Jake Nichols brings you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - presented with Jake’s unique humor and lively commentary. Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage and join the conversation!
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There will be no after hours at Devils Tower National Monument. The announcement came unexpectedly on Tuesday that, starting Thursday, the monument is no longer open 24/7, and will only be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the National Park Service has not provided a reason for the sudden change, and he couldn’t reach anyone at Devils Tower National Monument for additional clarification. He did, however, reach out to people whose lives will be directly affected by the closure, including state Sen. Ogden Driskill, whose family has lived at the base of the tower for generations. Driskill called the decision, quote, “stupidity at its highest level.”
“This seems like a pretty short sighted move and without a lot of forethought. On behalf of whoever called it, because Devils Tower National Monument, for one, has always been open 24 hours a day, anybody can head up at any time, and a lot of people do to get night photography or go climbing… But then also, the monument is a corridor for a lot of ranchers and local businesses. The Devil's Tower Lodge operates within the confines of the monument. So are they still going to have overnight reservations? Lots of ranchers go through the monument to access their ranches. Are they still going to be able to do that?... There's not even an explanation, just that, as of Thursday, Devils Tower National Monument will no longer be open 24 hours a day, and we don't know how long that could continue. As far as we know, it's indefinite.”
The abrupt announcement and immediate implementation of the overnight closure of Devils Tower have caused many people to worry that National Park Service sites will become increasingly inaccessible. With no reason given for the changes, people can only speculate.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Colorado-based federal judge overseeing a lawsuit surrounding a transgender player’s inclusion on a college women’s volleyball team refused to remove himself from the case, after a group of women accused him of harboring bias and infringing their speech, by issuing a “preferred pronouns” requirement.
The women are now trying to appeal the decision by U.S. District Court Judge S. Kato Crews, according to an argument they filed Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland explains.
“The reason the judge said no is he like, Yes, I have a preferred pronouns rule in place, but I've never applied it to you guys. So what's the big deal? Whereas the women came back and said, Yeah, but it's still unconstitutional and it's still in place, so what if you change your mind? And so they ask him for the right to appeal, and he's got to look at some things like whether this is a controlling issue in this case, you know, and then he will let them know if they can appeal.”
In his order, the judge wrote that courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court, use people’s preferred pronouns in court out of courtesy and respect, not out of bias and prejudgment.
Read the full story HERE.
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One of the dominant themes during Rocky Mountain Power’s latest double-digit rate increase proposal has been the cost of wildfires, which company officials testified has been driving insurance premiums up exponentially the last few years.
Rocky Mountain Power’s initial ask in this latest rate case was for an overall 14.7% adjustment to cover various costs, totaling $123.5 million for Wyoming. That would have added $17 to an average residential rate payers’ bill per month.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the company has said it needs the money to cover capital investments for transmission, including renewable resources, increased operations and maintenance expenses, and increasing insurance costs due to wildfire risk.
“Rocky Mountain Power is actually looking at self insurance. Instead of purchasing commercial insurance, they would self insure. And their approach that they're looking at is what's called captive insurance company… it's kind of like its own little insurance company. And I guess the advantage is there it takes the profit motive out. It becomes all about just making sure that you can pay insurance claims… The other part of this wildfire discussion included mitigation plans. The company has all along, been doing some wildfire mitigation hardening for wildfires cost them about 4.6 million annually, so they submitted that information as part of this rate filing in advance of the new legislation Wyoming has passed.”
Rocky Mountain Power has been doing wildfire mitigation in other states for a while now, with the cost of that in Wyoming totaling about $4.6 million dollars.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s top education advocacy group called the slashing of the federal Education Department’s workforce by nearly 50% harmful to the state’s students, but Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder called the cuts a “win” for local control over education.
While the Wyoming Education Association stands in strong opposition to the dismantling of the Department of Education, Degenfelder applauded the federal department’s long-anticipated downsizing. She told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland the decision will strengthen local communities’ control over their own kids’ education.
“So we have this statement from Trump, like, we're still going to take care of special ed, we're going to find a way to get that money out. And Degenfelder … she takes him at his word, like, okay, they're going to find a way to get this money to the state. She's always said she hoped for a block grant with not a lot of red tape on it, and so her take it is hopeful and excited for that local control, whereas Wyoming Education Association indicates that it doesn't have faith in that statement. You know, whoa, if you're cutting this department, it looks inevitable that you're going to be cutting funding. And so really, what you have are diametrically opposite reactions to a promise from the Trump administration.”
About 5.7% of the $2.1 billion in total revenue received by Wyoming school districts in fiscal year 2024 came from the U.S. Department of Education federal fund.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Mark Gordon signed a wildfire funding bill into law Tuesday, but not before using a line-item veto to cut out a section of the bill that would have defunded his $152 million Energy Matching Funds and Large Project Energy Matching Funds programs.
The programs are designed to provide matching money for private or federal projects related to carbon capture and other alternative energy projects. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the section defunding the programs were actually added into the wildfire funding bill as an amendment late in the session.
“That piece was actually in the supplemental budget that was killed when the Senate said they weren't going to pass a supplemental budget, so representative John Bear attempted to bring it back by passing an amendment that did pass in the house to add it on to this wildfire restoration bill… the governor basically vetoed eliminating this program. He does believe it's beneficial to Wyoming, and it is needed to support the state's fossil fuel and mining industries, even if the program itself sometimes uses alternative energy approaches. So the money will remain, even though it was slashed in the bill that went to his desk.”
As approved by the governor, SEA 62 provides $49 million in grants from the state’s general fund to pay for restoring grass and preventing noxious weeds and grasshoppers as a result of land destroyed by the wildfires.
Read the full story HERE.
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A not-so-welcome sign of spring, the emergence of ticks, has already begun, and experts are on the lookout for two particularly nasty species.
Neither species – the black-legged tick and the lone star tick – have been verified as having established populations in Wyoming yet. And entomologists told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that they aren’t really wanted here.
“It's not too early to start thinking about ticks. I did talk to a couple entomologists today, and they're saying, Yep, they're, they're, it's the time of year. You can expect to see them out on things like exposed rock faces that produce some heat, or plants that are exposed to get on the plants. And they're… on the lookout for a couple species of ticks that we don't know that we have yet, but that we could get. These are disease bearing ticks. The black legged ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, which is really nasty stuff, and then something called the lone star tick, which can, which can carry spotted fever and some other nasty pathogens, not known to be in Wyoming yet.”
There are still large gaps in Wyoming’s tick surveys, and entomologists say they’d like the public’s help. As they did last year, they’re asking folks who want to become “tick wranglers” to pitch in.
Read the full story HERE.
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A mental health evaluator doesn’t support a Gillette man’s claim that when he allegedly tried to kill his wife by stabbing her eight times, he was not sane enough to rationalize his actions.
31-year-old John Bosh is accused of stabbing his wife in the arms, chest and cheek after a drunken argument at his grandmother’s house in the early morning hours of Oct. 4. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Bosh withdrew his “not guilty by reason of mental illness” plea Friday - but kept on the books his plea of “not guilty.”
“So in Wyoming, you can have this whole defense, like, I was too insane to rationalize my conduct when it happened. And you can also have, at the same time, you can have this claim like, also, I didn't do it and it, you know, it's looks a little illogical from the outset… But often they, they kind of focus on one or the other at trial, and everything works out. So in Bosh's case, he still is maintaining his innocence. He's going to trial on that… when you plead not guilty by reason of mental illness. Instead of the prosecutor having the responsibility to prove your guilt all of a sudden, you have the responsibility to prove that your mental state at the time of the crime was just so so off the rails that you couldn't rationalize what you were doing.”
Bosh faces one count of attempted second-degree murder, which is punishable by between 20 years and life in prison, and another of aggravated assault, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. His case now may proceed to his June 9 jury trial on the “not guilty” plea.
Read the full story HERE.
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Collin Binko, a fine arts teacher at Jackson Hole High School, is Wyoming’s newest Milken educator. The prestigious Milken Educator Award, “the Oscar of Teaching,” was presented to Binko during a surprise ceremony Wednesday afternoon.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and Milken Educator Awards Vice President Jennifer Fuller presented Binko with the award. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi explains that the award is given to exceptional educators in the United States for their outstanding dedication to excellence in education.
“The thing about the Milken Educator Award winners is they don't know that they're Milken Education award winners until everybody knows. So there was an Assembly convened at Jackson High School, Colin Binko, who's a fine arts teacher, who's taught Fine Arts at every grade level in Teton county school district number one, he attended, but he didn't know that he was the award winner until his name was announced. And as you can imagine, there was enormous surprise and shock and just a huge amount of appreciation, because he's revolutionized how students take in Fine Arts in the Jackson community.”
Binko was among 45 teachers selected from across the nation to receive the honor for the 2024-2025 school year.
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, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
