It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, April 23rd. 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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Cristy Cobb said her son Liam dealt with mental health issues long before he died by suicide at the age of 19, jumping from a wind turbine near Douglas earlier this month.
Cristy told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that she hopes that her son’s life can serve as inspiration that it’s possible for life to get better, even when people feel they’re in a dark place.
“She described him as very tortured in that… he had been dealing with mental health issues for a few years. He had even told his parents a few years ago that he planned to commit suicide and had a plan to do it. So this was not nothing new, and not, you know, necessarily a huge shocker for the Cobbs, but they actively tried to fight it, and they did what they could for Liam those last few years, trying to reach out to him as much as possible, be as supportive as possible… he pursued different kind of forms of athletics, just to kind of get his endorphins up, to kind of have a better attitude towards life. He pursued cycling and bodybuilding, and she believes those things at least helped kind of hold off some of the demons that were ailing him. But at the end of the day, it still wasn't enough.”
Cobb said she wants her son’s death to serve as a reminder for people to reach out to those they know who have mental struggles and let them know they matter.
Read the full story HERE.
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A judge has found sufficient evidence to charge a former certified nursing assistant in Gillette with involuntary manslaughter, in connection with the freezing death of an 88-year-old memory care patient at the Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center.
57-year-old Bernard Hale was bound over to district court Tuesday on charges that he was responsible for the death of Judith Duvall, who wandered outside of the care facility in early January and died the morning of Jan. 10, after spending more than nine hours in frigid temperatures before being discovered by staff.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Duvall’s official cause of death was exposure and hypothermia.
“The crux of the argument is whether or not Bernard Hale was negligent in not opening the door after Judith Duvall triggered the alarm and went outside. The State argues that, yes, he definitely was based on the standard of care for CNA professionals, he should have opened that door and gone outside to look for her or to look to see if any patient had gone out and in, then also interviewed the patient who was closest to the door. So the state alleges he did neither… the counter argument by the defense is that the legacy did not have written protocols in place dictating that particular door policy so and their further argument is there was another CNA also working that night… he also it heard two alarms and also did not open the doors.”
Hale is currently being detained in the Campbell County Detention Center. If found guilty of the charge, he faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Read the full story HERE.
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Law enforcement on the Wind River Indian Reservation is investigating the case of a person found dead there Monday.
Meanwhile, the daughter of a man who has been missing since at least December told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland on Tuesday she’d received a tentative confirmation the decedent is her long-missing dad, Rex Lofts, who was last seen December 14th.
“Authorities discovered a deceased person on the reservation Monday night. The person was in a truck… the truck had been shot… it was a male from the sounds of the scanner traffic. And I was in touch with the daughter of a long time missing person… Rex Lofts, and his daughter, Kodie Olsen, has… not heard from him since, like November. And so I was in touch with her, and she said, Well, the coroner said that it may be him, and she would let me know after her autopsy.”
Bureau of Indian Affairs officers from Wind River Agency and an agent from the BIA’s Missing and Murdered Unit are working with the FBI to identify and investigate the death.
Read the full story HERE.
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The smokestacks towering above the Dave Johnston Power Plant are a fixture on the skyline outside of Glenrock, and a group of engineering and technology experts are meeting there this week with the goal of making them obsolete.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that 8 Rivers, a decarbonization technology company based in Durham, North Carolina, is developing technology that will not need smokestacks to release emissions from burning coal.
“They've developed a type of turbine technology that uses oxy combustion, using pure oxygen to… to burn coal, or a coal blend of some kind… the end result is that it produces pure CO two that can then be piped out of the plant instead of sent up the smoke stack. So It aspires to basically make smoke stacks obsolete and deliver on a promise that seems too good to be true in a lot of ways. Can you really generate clean emissions, free power from coal?”
A massive team of engineers is currently working on the turbine that promises to produce “dispatchable clean energy” using coal.
Read the full story HERE.
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Whether a former award-winning foster father abused multiple children either sexually or physically is in the hands of a jury.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the jury began deliberations Tuesday after nearly two weeks of sometimes graphic and emotional testimony in the case against Steven Marler, who is facing 17 separate charges, ranging from varying degrees of sexual abuse of a minor, to allegations of battery and child endangerment.
“One of the things that the prosecution brought up was a recording of Marla denying that he ever touched any of his adopted daughters sexually. He said that he did one time pray with a daughter in a room, and he was asked … how he did that, and he said he couldn't really remember. He must have been laying beside the bed, or he said he may have laying in the bed with her, but he denied any kind of sexual contact.”
In 2013, Marler and his wife, Kristen, were recognized by the federal Administration for Children and Families with an Adoption Excellence Award, one of only three families across the nation to get the award that year.
Read the full story HERE.
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Mineral revenues have been in decline in Wyoming over the past decade, which has resulted in a corresponding drop in funding for Wyoming’s public schools.
How to address that loss of revenue from oil and gas leases was a major topic of conversation at a state trust land forum at the University of Wyoming on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson was at the meeting.
“With mineral revenues declining over the long term, they've declined significantly in Wyoming over the past 10 years, it leads many questions about how the state is going to fund its public schools, which are significantly dependent on the leasing revenue generated from oil and gas leases on state trust lands… there's been a number of lawsuits over whether these schools are being adequately funded or not… One proposal would be potentially raising grazing rates for people who do ranching on these state trust lands… but ultimately, the Wyoming constitution says that the state lands must generate the highest revenue possible for the beneficiaries, and there's just no exceptions built into that.”
Around 88% to 90% of the leasing revenue the Office of State Lands and Investments generates each year comes from oil and gas. Revenue from mineral leases is expected to be $123 million in 2025, the lowest sum in Wyoming in four years.
Read the full story HERE.
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Hundreds of mule deer are killed along a 25-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 26, roughly centered around Dubois, so a coalition of state agencies and tribal and private groups pegged it for Wyoming’s next major wildlife crossing project.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that as the administration of President Donald Trump continues to comb through federal budgets, grants for highway projects aren’t readily available, so some major Wyoming wildlife crossing projects are on hold.
“A lot of private money has been raised for those, and that's awesome, but they're also really dependent, heavily dependent, upon federal grants. And those are kind of frozen right now because of what's going on with the administration... I did talk to one of the the bigger fundraisers, the manager of the wildlife fund, and he said … he doesn't envision that wildlife crossings are something that's ultimately going to get cut because in this day of, you know, crazy polarization and partisanship, that seems to be … one of the few things that everybody can agree on.”
Building three wildlife underpasses and an overpass along a 25-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 26 near Dubois remains the top priority among pending projects in Wyoming. Another high-priority undertaking is the proposed Halleck Ridge project, an overpass along Interstate 80 in the Elk Mountain area.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’s a nightmare on 17th Street. That’s what neighbors of a parking garage in downtown Cheyenne say, regarding the unsavory activity taking place there that disturbs the peace and makes those who use it uneasy.
While the city has taken steps to make the garage safer, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to business owners who say there continue to be nightly noise violations, as well as vandalism.
“People go drive their cars around, race around the garage, blow out their tail pipes, you know, to make that big popping sound on those modified exhaust hang out on the top floor, sometimes paint balling the businesses across the way. One time, Bohemian metals owner Brian Snyder told me he was sitting there talking on the phone… and somebody came racing out of the garage and rammed right into his Toyota Tacoma truck while he was sitting there… Brian said he doesn't get a full night's sleep any night… he's heard about assaults in there and other things. The lady next door told me she's heard about a kidnapping.”
The mayor says that the city is looking at ways to further light up the garage at night, including lowering the lights so light disperses better, and painting the walls white. The city has also installed high-definition cameras in the garage and installed stations where patrons of the garage can alert security if something were to happen.
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.
