It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, April 11th. 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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A head-on collision involving a pickup and an SUV on Wednesday night outside of Cokeville left nine juveniles hurt, some of whom suffered serious injuries and required air ambulance transport.
Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George spoke to a neighbor who ran to the scene near his home. Kenny Peterson and his wife found a grim scene, and said that “it’s a miracle” all nine high school-aged teens involved survived.
“It sounds like from the Highway Patrol, as well as witnesses or a neighbor who is nearby, who knows these kids and the sheriff, you have broken bones. One of the kids has a broken pelvis, and then we have other sort of odds and ends. But no, no, nothing that's not recoverable… according to the highway patrol, what had happened was the Highlander, which was heading in one direction, apparently jumped the lane and hit the Dodge Ram… right now, there is no indication that alcohol or anything was involved, or that there was any sort of mechanical problem with the cars.”
The two vehicles were coming from different directions and activities. One was full of teens returning from practice for a school singing group.
Read the full story HERE.
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Sweetwater County Sheriff John Grossnickle on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding between his office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the federal agency has not yet finalized the agreement, but the sheriff signed the local office into an arrangement by which up to five deputies will be authorized to act as immigration agents.
“They already, for years, have had this thing where they can house ICE detainees for more than 48 hours, which is unique. A lot of jails can only go up to 48 hours if they house them for ice at all. They also are. They were recently fast tracked for what's called the jail enforcement model, where their jail deputies can investigate people who are incarcerated for local crimes to see if they're illegal immigrants or otherwise violating immigration law. And so, I mean, they're always maneuvering this way. They have increased the number of beds that they offer for ice from like 15 to 30 recently after Trump was sworn in, and they're also working to mobilize their transportation team to take on detainees from other surrounding counties.”
The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office’s various agreements indicate that it has the most cooperative relationship with ICE of any Wyoming county.
Read the full story HERE.
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A video showing a naked boy with marks on the left side of his thigh and buttocks was shown to jurors as evidence of abuse prosecutors say a former award-winning foster parent inflicted on his children.
Steven Marler is on trial in Natrona County District Court, charged with 26 charges that involve sexual abuse of minors, battery and child endangerment. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck was in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing, which involved testimony from a sheriff’s investigator and photos and videos obtained from the Marler home.
“There were a dramatic series of videos that were shown to jurors today, and sheriff's office investigators said that she had gone to the Marlar home after the investigation of the modelers began and seized the DVR. And initially there was no there was nothing on the DVR, but she found out that Casper police department had a program that would be able to recapture deleted videos, and so they ended up finding more than 1000 videos on there… There were other videos that showed Marler getting on the mattress with his adopted girls and then them giving him an extended massage. There was other videos that were shown of the kids all standing for a long period of time in a parent discipline.”
Marler is being tried on two counts of first-degree, seven counts of second-degree and 11 counts of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor. He also is charged with five counts of battery and one count of child endangerment. The time frame for the allegations spans a decade, from November 2012 to June 2022.
Read the full story HERE.
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When it comes to banning gun-free zones in Wyoming, it’s one thing to pass a ban into law, and another for state agencies, schools and towns to implement it.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that across Wyoming, agencies are now scrambling to make rules to allow for permitted concealed carry of firearms in public buildings in order to comply with a new law passed during this year’s legislative session that bans gun-free zones in Wyoming.
“The process that involves with most new laws, particularly ones that kind of deal with spaces and kind of managing … spaces, is that rules need to be created that kind of go into effect to kind of support the new law, to provide, I guess, more details about exactly how they will be orchestrated on a piecemeal basis, piecemeal being anywhere from state capitals to public schools around the state and the University of Wyoming. So that is kind of what state agencies and school districts around Wyoming are wrestling with right now, as far as trying to scramble to create new rules to address this law that banned gun free zones throughout Wyoming to try to get rules in place by the time it goes into effect on July 1, which is quickly approaching.”
Read the full story HERE.
Laramie residents packed the room before their school board Wednesday, expressing staunch opposition to allowing the concealed carrying of firearms in local schools. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz was at the meeting.
“Standing room only, packed, people lined up on both sides of the walls there to talk about the implementation of House Bill 172 which that eliminates gun free zones in Wyoming and will allow for the permitted concealed carrying of firearms in public schools, and at least among the people who spoke, and there were a lot of people who spoke, nobody is a fan of that. And then also a few of the school board members came out and said they're not fans of it, either, but this is a new state law. They have to implement it.”
The University of Wyoming’s Board of Trustees also said the Legislature left them with no choice but to allow concealed carry inside campus buildings, despite strong opposition from UW students, faculty and staff.
Read the full story HERE.
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A recent report from Wyoming’s lead economist offers a mixed bag of good and bad news for Wyomingites.
While tourism and employment numbers are strong, Wenlin Liu with the Department of Administration and Information reports that sales tax revenue is down and housing affordability sits at a 40-year low. In fact, Liu told Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison that the housing market in Wyoming is overpriced, and Zillow reports that low inventory has prompted about 11% of homebuyers to pay more than list price to close deals.
“Housing affordability still remains a real challenge for Wyoming residents, and he explained how it's really a matter of wages not keeping up with price increases at the same time, there's this frustrating reality that there's just not a lot of supply, so that's also raising the prices of homes. And the reason there's not a lot of supply is because people are hanging on to their homes because they don't want to let go of really low interest rates. You know, interest rates in the two and 3% as opposed to what's out there now, in the six and seven and 8% and so … the home prices continue to stay out of reach for a lot, and that's concerning. In some other research that I cite in the story, it appears that up to 11% of homes in Wyoming are actually selling for more than they're listed for, suggesting that there's a bidding war that might go on because the supply is so low, and the number of buyers are are greater than the supply.”
Liu did say that Wyoming’s labor market remained healthy in the fourth quarter of 2024, with job growth exceeding that of the previous two quarters.
Read the full story HERE.
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Environmental groups are up in arms about a new Republican initiative in Congress to study selling public land to be used for affordable housing, and using the money from those sales to help offset the money it will take to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis support a similar effort to possibly sell some lands around Western cities or national parks to build more housing.
“It's a pretty controversial take, considering how much public lands Wyoming has and the strong recreation and hunting culture that is in Wyoming, but they believe this could be a solid use of federal land to open up more affordable housing opportunities… however, other outdoor advocates and people like representative Carly Provenza, a Democrat from Laramie, find this to be a terrible idea, and furthermore, they believe it's being used as a ploy just to fund tax breaks that are given to the wealthy under the budget created under President Donald Trump's administration.”
Barrasso said providing more housing opportunities to national parks and Forest Service employees should be a top priority. Gateway communities like Cody and Jackson, towns with particular housing shortage issues, would be specifically targeted.
Read the full story HERE.
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According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March was one of the windiest months on record across the United States. Average sustained wind speeds were above historical averages, and nearly every city in the eastern half of the U.S. set new wind gust records.
But triple-digit wind gusts aren’t uncommon in Wyoming, so no records were broken here. And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that our normal windy weather still blows away many other states’ records.
“It's not that the information is inaccurate or nefarious, but you don't know where they're drawing that information from. Like a good comparison is winds in Michigan were around five miles per hour stronger than they are on average, but we were having wind gusts of 116 miles per hour in Wyoming. But that's not abnormally windy. That's just Wyoming. So what's abnormal in one place isn't in another place, and that 116 mile per hour wind gust might not have even factored into whatever methodology was used to generate that article.”
In The Washington Post’s ranking for winds in March, Wyoming ranked 43rd with its 23rd windiest March on record. That seems odd for Wyoming, which is consistently one of the windiest places in the nation. But that’s because Wyoming’s March, while windy, wasn’t really any windier than typical, while the other states were setting records.
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 Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak. 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.
