It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, April 15th. 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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Nearly every member of the Vedauwoo Volunteer Fire Department resigned Thursday, after weeks of controversy in the department.
Detractors of the mass resignation say the department’s members had been acting outside safety standards and clashing with firefighters from other departments, and that the Albany County Fire District No. 1 Board did its best to address these issues.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the leaders of the resignation wave say they left because the board operated without transparency and good faith.
“There's no real bridging the different narratives about why this happened, right? Because people who are speaking kind of for the mass resignation crowd are saying, We don't know. We don't hear things from the board. We don't have a lot of clarity. We don't have a lot of direction. This just feels like bullying. Whereas, you know, people who, um, are a little more critical of the current makeup of the department, are saying, No, they've been reported for safety concerns. They've been running lights and sirens through Laramie, which you're not supposed to do. They're getting into tiffs with other departments.”
At least one member of the department, Dave Bray, did not resign. Bray was appointed temporary interim chief after a Monday emergency meeting of the district board. And the Albany County Fire District 1 Central Department has been responding to fires in that area.
Read the full story HERE.
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In graphic testimony today, a former foster daughter of Steven Marler described how he sexually assaulted her in the family’s master bedroom in Casper.
This was the fourth day of an anticipated three-week trial involving more than two dozen charges against a former national-award-winning foster parent. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck was in the courtroom for the testimony, which included allegations of severe abuse of some of the boys in Marler’s care.
“There were a series of adopted sons that testified today. One of them talked about how they had just finished shoveling off a metal roof at the Marler household, and then he wasn't going fast enough to get off the roof. He said he was trying to be careful because of ice, and Stephen Muller kicked him in the back and sent him off the roof into some jagged metal at the end of the roof. Cut his leg. He still has a scar as a result of that.”
Other former foster children also detailed alleged physical abuse in the family’s Casper Mountain home.
Read the full story HERE.
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The longtime nationwide debate over abortion has made its way to the Park County Animal Shelter in Cody, where the facility’s director has resigned over a policy to perform spay abortions on pregnant cats.
Cody resident Jona Harris told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson on Monday that she quit because of the shelter’s lack of public transparency about its policies on spaying pregnant cats.
“Jona Harris basically just feels that the animal shelter and the board have adopted kind of a blanket policy for performing these spay abortions, and she doesn't believe that's right. She believes that it should really only be done at least on a case by case basis, and be kind of limited to more kind of medical conditions… she feels like the animal shelter is not being transparent with the public about this policy. She more than anything, wants it put out there what their stance on this issue is, particularly because she said there's people who might be bringing their animals into the shelter and not knowing these pregnant animals that they could get a spay abortion. She even cited a recent example where it appears this did happen, and she ended up taking custody of one of these pregnant cats herself to prevent it from possibly receiving that abortion.”
One of the previous executive directors said the position at the shelter is a difficult one that involves navigating professionalism and empathy for humans and animals, but that she also ran into problems with the board that caused her to resign. Harris was the fourth executive director to serve in the position since 2018.
Read the full story HERE.
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There was still no information available through official channels Monday about a Colorado wolf that died in Wyoming last Wednesday, with Wyoming officials citing a law that keeps wolf hunters’ identities confidential.
That’s left people in both states feeling frustrated, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“There's very little to no official information available, and the reason is, at least from the Wyoming Game and Fish side, is there is a law in place that prohibits the identity or any specific details of a legal wolf taking being released. The reason behind that is they don't want people being stalked, harassed, threatened because of folks that have maybe extremely strong opinions about wolves being hunted and shot, so that's really all we confirm.”
In Wyoming, wolves remain completely protected within the boundaries of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. In some areas adjacent to the parks, they may be shot by hunters with wolf tags during specific hunting seasons. In the rest of Wyoming, roughly 85% of the state, wolves may be shot on sight at any time, with no wolf hunting tag required.
Read the full story HERE.
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A federal judge has ruled that a fired Campbell County library director's lawsuit against the family that accused her of peddling pornography can go forward.
Terri Lesley, who directed the Campbell County Public Library system until the library board fired her in July 2023, sued a local family that accused her of “grooming” local children, because of the types of books that Lesley allowed on the shelves in the library.
The judge said the civil suit can continue because the law protects LGBTQ advocates, according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“Even though the Bennett family was like, No, dismiss this lawsuit… she's invoked laws that don't make sense or that haven't been used this way. The judge says, No, I want to see what the evidence bears out. But in the process… Judge Johnson really blazed the trail because we don't have a lot of good contouring for how this federal section of the Ku Klux Klan act is to be used, and what classes of people it protects and Judge Johnson, kind of going through a sequence of cases and strapping logic from different cases together, said, Okay, looks to me like it protects the LGBTQ community…. bold judges aren't as common as you think… but it's interesting that he made a bold call, and it'll be interesting to see how it bears out.”
Lesley’s long and public war with the Bennett family started in June 2021, when the library advertised “Pride and Rainbow Book Month” and LGTBQ-related books for teens to access, according to court documents in the case. The Bennetts began a campaign to publicly discredit Lesley and push her to remove books with LGBTQ content from the library.
Read the full story HERE.
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The President Donald Trump-endorsed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) Act is now moving to the U.S. Senate.
But fears have started to mount that if passed into law, the federal legislation, which requires proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote, will make it harder for married women, especially if she has changed her last name as a result of a marriage and doesn’t have a passport or marriage license readily available.
However, Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Wyoming’s congressional delegation and Secretary of State Chuck Gray all say these concerns are simply being used as a fear tactic to scare people away from supporting the legislation.
“He doesn't believe that there's any proof that a maiden name wouldn't be accepted. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt also agreed, and she called it a false fallacy that is being propagated… But I also spoke to Marissa Carpio, policy director for the equality State Policy Center, which also opposes this bill, and she said that some people kind of get confused, and they think that voter disenfranchisement means that someone who's directly prevented and blocked from voting, when in reality, someone who has to go through onerous hurdles and burdens in the pursuit of voting, is also facing a form of disenfranchisement.”
Both U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis say they plan to vote for the bill that passed the House on a 220-208 vote last week.
Read the full story HERE.
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Ian Munsick isn’t shy about being from the Cowboy State. And Tuesday, he’s bringing that pride and love for the West to a national audience.
Munsick has been invited to appear on national television on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” where he will perform his latest single, “God Bless the West.”
But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports the call from Clarkson’s show came at an awkward time.
“So Kelly Clarkson, of course, world famous artist, more than 80 million records sold around the world, you get a call from Kelly Clarkson, I mean, you gotta take it right, especially if you're a country music singer. But Ian was on his way to the Bahamas for his brother's wedding, and he's like trying to think, how am I gonna make this happen? You know, fortunately, he had already been working on a live recording … he was going to release it in a couple of months. So just move that timetable up, cycle that in, and that made it work out.”
Bringing the West to the rest has long been Munsick’s motto with the work he does, and that’s the inspiration behind the song, “God Bless the West.” In fact, the line is a battle cry at every concert.
Read the full story HERE.
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If you’ve ever wanted to have a pet kangaroo, the good news is the Wyoming Game and Fish Department can issue you a permit to own one. That bad news is, as an outside pet, your kangaroo would probably freeze to death here.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz uncovered these facts while researching a popular post making the rounds on social media, which claims to show a map of where a person can legally own a kangaroo in the U.S.
“A map that supposedly shows the legality of owning kangaroos in the United States, lists Wyoming as a state where it is not legal to own a kangaroo. According to what I found out, that is not true. You can, Wyoming Game and Fish Department lists kangaroos and wallabies, by the way, as animals that you can legally own in Wyoming, provided you have a special permit to do so… I was not able to find anybody that owns a kangaroo in Wyoming. I talked to one person I know who does animal rescue, and she had, we featured her before. She has some exotics at her place. She's got COVID and some different like South American raccoons and some odd animals. She said, No kangaroos yet, but if she gets the opportunity, she'd love to have one.”
Kangaroos can endure chilly weather relative to what they’re accustomed to on their home turf in Australia. Meaning, about 37 degrees at the coldest. Wyoming’s cold and freezing winds? Not so much.
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.
