It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, April 4th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Wyoming Community Gas. The Choice Gas selection period ends on Wednesday April 23rd – This is your opportunity to select your Natural Gas Provider for the coming year. For more information, visit Wyoming Community Gas dot ORG.”
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From the moment an on-the-job accident all but ruined Laramie firefighter Dylan Schilt’s body, he’s been determined to get back the full use of it.
The 32-year-old was crushed when a massive stone fireplace chase collapsed on him and another firefighter responding to a house fire at the end of February. He suffered a broken back, shattered ankle and collapsed lung, and was left temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. But Schilt told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that even while covered in rocks, knowing his back was broken, he knew he would walk again.
“They determined that his spinal cord was not severed. He did suffer some bruising and scarring on the spinal cord, so it's been rough, but he told me today that he now has feeling in both his legs, and they're working on it. They're they're getting to the point where he's trying to walk again and learn some balance. And he told me he's determined. He wants to go back to doing everything, including being a firefighter.”
He’s been doing several hours of physical therapy a day, focusing mostly on learning to walk and balance again, and strengthening atrophied muscles. Schilt said his accident and recovery have brought him an appreciation for the ties that bind together first responders, as well as good people in general.
Read the full story HERE.
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When 15-year-old Roxton Lookingbill didn’t catch any fish Wednesday evening on the Wind River, he started walking back toward his grandmother’s house along a little dirt road that passes by a tow yard — and something caught his eye.
It was a small toolbox, and surprisingly heavy. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that when Lookingbill opened the box, he didn’t find a set of sockets or tools — he saw four hand grenades.
“Even though he had brought them home to his grandma's house, they left them out in the yard, because they just weren't sure. And they did call police, and then there was a huge alarm, and the bomb squad came down from Natrona County and took them and so just very dramatic, and they had to reassure the neighbors that the grandma was okay. We just found grenades down by the river. But, you know, after I wrote the story about this, it looked like every single dad in Wyoming was in the comments saying the blue spoon or handle signifies that these are training grenades… Joey Correnti, who was actually an explosives instructor, instructor in the army was like, You know what? Yes, blue signifies training, but you don't know where these came from. You didn't load or empty them yourself. So still, ultimate caution, call the police.”
Correnti said he was glad the Riverton situation ended as calmly as it did. But looking at the rusted box, he suggested the teen might want to get a tetanus shot.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two wind farm projects in eastern Wyoming got a green light before the State Board of Land Commissioners on Thursday, but not before tempers flared yet again between Gov. Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray.
Gordon and Gray were on opposing sides when it came to approving the two separate wind farm projects that would lease state land in Converse and Niobrara counties over the course of a 40-year term. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that both wind projects were approved by the board on 4-1 votes, with Gray the only member to vote against both.
“Gray basically believes that wind energy is a hoax and predicated on government subsidies, while Governor Mark Gordon has consistently espoused an ‘all of the above’ energy policy and he believes that these very large wind farms could have a strong benefit for converse and Niobrara counties where they will be built. The wind farms will be used strictly to support a hydrogen plant that's also going in that region of the state, but they will provide more than 200 jobs when fully completed, and will also provide sorely needed economic money, tax revenue for Niobrara County, which is the poorest county in the state.”
An executive session was held for around 30 minutes to discuss the issue, where Gray said the board was assured by their legal counsel there were no vulnerabilities in it, a conclusion he disagreed with.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming residents pay less than most Americans for electricity. That’s what a Wednesday report from the American Legislative Exchange Council shows, declaring that Wyoming is home to the lowest power bills in the United States.
And the ALEC report is just one of many sources that shows that Wyomingites pay less for electricity than most any other state. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that energy affordability is a topic popular enough to qualify as clickbait on the internet.
“No matter your politics, no matter where you stand on energy policy, you're interested in your own electric bill. And maybe that's why we're having all these reports come out that really drill down and show how much we're paying and what the portfolio of energy for each state is… One consistent thing in all these different reports is that Wyoming has low per kilowatt rates. And so one report found that we're paying 8.24 cents per kilowatt hour. Another had it around 11 cents. Either way, that's really low based on comparisons to places like Hawaii, where it's 30 and 40 cents per kilowatt hour.”
The Cash Net USA report found Wyoming households spend around $1,500 on electricity each year, $439 less than the national average.
Read the full story HERE.
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In 2024, the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office referred 16 separate election complaints to Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill’s office for prosecution.
But according to results of public records requests provided to politics reporter Leo Wolfson, none of them have been prosecuted.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told Cowboy State Daily that not only has Hill taken no action on any of the complaints, she’s also failed to keep him apprised on the status of any of the cases.
“I reached out to Hill, and she said that while that might be true, her office is still actively investigating about half of those cases. The other context that's important to remember is that the amount of complaints has drastically increased during Secretary of State Chuck Gray's administration, spoke to Kai Schon, the former elections director for Wyoming, who preceded Gray's administration, and he said they would typically forward about five to six complaints on average… Gray has really brought a hard line approach to election reform, believing that the state has many vulnerabilities that need to be closed up, despite there being an extremely low amount of fraud documented in the state.”
Hill confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that no charges have been filed in any of these cases, but her office is still actively investigating eight of them, while also recognizing some of the cases are related to the same topic.
Read the full story HERE.
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Mexican authorities announced last week they are deporting a convicted LSD and marijuana dealer from Wyoming who had been hiding out in the town of Culiacán.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 25-year-old Gabriel Rodgers was convicted in April 2019 for possessing stolen firearms and conspiring to distribute LSD and marijuana, and was hiding in the Mexican town after evading his United States-imposed supervised release.
“He was sentenced in early 2019 from 2018 charges that where the court documents describe just this rollicking case, like 30 some guns stolen from a pawn shop in Gillette, and then the guy caught in the act was like, Well, that's because my contact, you know this, this friend was going to sell them in Denver. He's got a good contact there that has already bought eight or nine guns from us, and by the way, the contact will kill people for $1,500 and it's a 16 year old kid… But then Rogers, he did his time, and then … they said, Okay, after this, you need to do three years of supervised release, so report to your probation officer when you get out of jail. He gets out in Nebraska, and he does not report. That's December 2022 he vanishes. And so then, you know, next we hear of him. The Mexican media is reporting that an American man was caught in a Mexican town relating to original charges of drug trafficking, and that the Mexican authorities want to deport him.”
Rodgers showed recent addresses in Sundance, Wyoming, and in Rapid City, South Dakota, before his 2018 arrest.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Hudson man will go to federal prison for at least the next 10 years of his life after pleading guilty Thursday to possessing child pornography.
58-year-old Sean Brennan pleaded guilty to the charge in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne on Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that this is Brennan’s second child porn conviction.
“The first event occurred about 20 years ago. Brennan was actually apprehended while video vigilantes were apprehending him for kind of a sting operation with him being attempting to meet up with a minor, a fake minor, basically… because of that vigilante sting, he was found by federal agents, a little bit later, to have child pornography in his possession, and that's what we were. In attendance for in the courtroom on Thursday… Judge Allen Johnson will sentence him in June for that. But it was kind of interesting. Brendan made the claim on Thursday that he, despite the crimes that he was found guilty for, he is actually very inept when it comes to technology. Johnson called this out, saying, even if that might be true, that technology has gotten you in some very deep trouble.”
Brennan has been in custody at the Scotts Bluff County Detention Center in Nebraska since his federal arrest. He’ll remain there until his sentencing.
Read the full story HERE.
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Once again, Bob the barrel is on thin ice.
Between now and early May, everyone in Pinedale will eagerly await the time and date when the bright yellow barrel breaks through the nearly two-foot-thick layer of ice on Fremont Lake and bobs back to shore.
It’s the Pinedale Lions Club’s annual Fremont Lake Ice Off Guess. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the “Barrel Guess” is one of the Pinedale Lions’ longest-running fundraisers, a tradition that goes back to at least 1940.
“Bob the barrel is currently sitting on 18 inches of ice in the middle of Fremont lake. And the idea is the Pinedale Lions Club sells tickets where people guess the exact date and time when Bob the barrel makes landfall. Now the thing of it is, they sell hundreds of tickets for this, but your ticket is still valid until the next guess. So let's say if you guessed 5pm on April 27 which is within the window of when Bob typically makes landfall… the next guess might be May 1 at 3am but if there's no guesses in between there, you could still win the $500 prize.”
The most likely time for the ice to come off Fremont Lake is between the last week of April and the first week of May. Each $10 ticket helps fund community initiatives in Sublette County.
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. This week, I have a conversation with Casper author Dana Volney, whose short story “A Heart For Christmas” will be made into a major film later this year. 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.
