It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, May 12th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. “5 to thrive” is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.
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Richard Pitt grew up in Thermopolis - but he lived a life straight out of 1980s drug-running movies like “Scarface.”
Now on the other side of 70, Pitt has spent a lot of years thinking about his life. Most of those years were in federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he spent 28 years. In an exclusive interview, Pitt told Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher how a kid from Wyoming, and a Vietnam veteran who had worked his tail off to become a commercial airline pilot, ended up smuggling for Pablo Escobar.
“I've never met a true adrenaline junkie to the extent that Richard Pitt is… in this story, can only begin to just chip away at the interesting moments of his of his life, because if you can imagine what it's like to fly under the radar at 300 miles an hour, across the ocean in the middle of the night… And I would ask him, How did you do that? And he said, Well, you've got to pay attention… And that's how he talks. You know, everything is not a big deal to him, because he's lived it… and he's paid the price for his crimes, and that's another, you know, I think aspect that it might get overlooked here… he's telling this story because his daughter visited him in prison and she said, Tell me. Tell me why you missed all those years. What were you doing? And this is his swan song, so to speak.”
Pitt has been out of prison for five years and now lives a quiet life in Denver near his daughter, where he continues trying to repair their badly damaged relationship, and has been writing his memoirs.
Read the full story HERE.
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It's been 33 years since Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan stood in his office next to his priest, warring with himself over the execution of convicted serial killer Mark Hopkinson.
Wyoming hasn’t executed anyone since that day. But it has tried. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to several legal experts about the hurdles that complicate death penalty cases in Wyoming.
“It is the task of a lifetime, in particular for Judge Thomas Campbell, back when he was carbon county attorney three inmates during a botched escape attempt killed a prison guard, very violent, very brutal. And his reasoning was, they were already in prison, and it didn't stop them from killing. So I'm going to try these as death penalty cases. And he did. But I mean, this is huge. It's exponential even to a normal murder trial in one there were something like 135 pre-trial motions, where most of the time we consider 10 a lot… he had to decide, do they deserve it or do they not? And having decided to go for it, he went for it… I talked to Governor Mike Sullivan, who, back in 1992 had pressure from all sides, some people urging him to commute Mark Hopkinson so that he would face life in prison instead of his execution.. What he told me was similar to Campbell's thinking - prison had not kept this man from ordering people's deaths.”
As for why Wyoming hasn’t executed anyone in more than three decades, former Gov. Sullivan said he can make a guess, albeit one informed by stark experience. Part of it is sheer statistics, but Sullivan characterized the state’s culture as more thoughtful, “less bloodthirsty” – which could also drive a prosecutor’s decisions about whether, and how often to pursue the death penalty.
Read the full story HERE.
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He’s been kicked out of China twice and banned for smuggling Bibles. He’s faced rocket fire and bullets in Kabul, Afghanistan, and remembers calling a board member of his ministry from Armenia seeking prayer, as he was about to take a suitcase of scriptures into Iran.
Those are just a few of the stories that 63-year-old Patrick Klein told Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck about his work running a worldwide Christian ministry out of Casper.
“He went to a Bible college in Texas, and there he had an opportunity to go to China… And on that trip back in the day, he smuggled some Bibles in, and he met a pastor who had been in prison for 22 years… he asked the pastor, you know, what do you guys need? He said, We need prayer and we need Bibles. And so that started a ministry since then, where he has smuggled thousands of Bibles into China. He's been kicked out of China twice… But he smuggled Bibles into all kinds of closed countries all over the world, and his ministry, Vision Without Borders, is based here in Casper.”
Vision Without Borders is also working to help stem trafficking of women in India by creating safe houses, and has an ongoing outreach to Cuba, as well as launching cargo containers of clothing and other needed supplies to other countries two or three times a year.
Read the full story HERE.
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Smoking pot is legal in some states - but it’s not in Yellowstone National Park.
Starting July 1, the minimum fine for anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession in Idaho is $300 for possession of less than 3 ounces. Fines are higher if charged with possession in Yellowstone, and there’s the potential for jail time.
So Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke to some West Yellowstone cannabis sellers about how they advise their customers about how best to consume marijuana in the region around America’s first national park.
“I spoke to one manager there, and he says, I constantly get this question about, you know, which is safer to go? Should I go back into Idaho? Is that okay, or should I go in through the park? And so it is a bit of a patchwork of legal standing. So, you are legal to have marijuana for recreational use in the state of Montana, unless you're in a national park. So there's part of the northwest corner of Yellowstone that kind of spreads out into Montana, and so you have to be very discreet, is their advice. But off the record, but on the record, when they're speaking directly to customers, they basically say, don't bring it into the park. I mean, they don't want to hear from a ranger saying, Well, these guys told them You said you could do this.”
A former deputy chief for the U.S. Park Service’s Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services said he doesn’t advocate for cannabis use in Yellowstone, but if one wanted to elevate their experience by bringing marijuana into the park, then be discreet. Also, don’t smoke and drive.
Read the full story HERE.
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Several small-town museums are facing financial questions they hadn’t expected, after federal funding for the humanities was unexpectedly cancelled by the Trump administration in April.
The Meeteetse Museum, the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, the Homesteader Museum in Powell and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody are just a few of the organizations scrambling to fund ongoing projects that have had grants cancelled mid-project. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to representatives from several of these historic preservation sites about how they’re working through these unexpected financial burdens.
“I think the biggest issue here… is the funding that was cut in the middle of things. You know, Meeteetse Museum has already signed a $40,000 plus contract with a company to install solar panels. They've made the first two payments, $35,000 worth, and now suddenly, with the funding cut off in the middle of everything, they still owe $9,000 on this project. That's not a normal part of their budget for these small museums like that. This is kind of a big deal. Where is that money going to come from? And can they even get out of their contract now? Because, you know, they signed contracts with the federal government too, about how the money would be spent if, if they suddenly backtrack and cancel their contract with this company. You know, I'm not even sure they could legally do that, first of all. But what about the money that's already been spent?”
The cancellation of funding has left many museums across the state wondering about the status of grants they’ve only partially received, as well as raised questions about the future avenues to support programs.
Read the full story HERE.
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Dive-bombing wolves with drones has scared wolves away from cattle in Oregon. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz spoke with one expert who hopes to work with ranchers in Colorado and Wyoming, to see if drones have a similar effect on wolves here.
“They've had some degree of success using drones to haze grizzly bears in Montana out on the prairies, and now folks want to try that same tactic with wolves in Colorado and Wyoming to see, just one more tool in the toolbox, to keep a safe distance between wolves and livestock. And it's not just drones themselves. What seems to work most effectively with these animals is if they put loudspeakers on the drone so people can yell at the animal through the loudspeakers or flashing lights or something that's going to be really irritating and or frightening to the animals.”
Drones capable of carrying the necessary equipment, such as loudspeakers and night-vision cameras, cost about $5,000 to $10,000 each. But if the idea catches on, cattle and sheep ranches might be able to use them for more than just chasing off wolves. They could also possibly be used to scare away other predators, such as bears and mountain lions.
Read the full story HERE.
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Blake Shelton’s 30th song to hit No. 1 on the country music charts is titled, “Texas”. And part of that success can be attributed to Gillette native and Nashville songwriter Josh Dorr.
Dorr is one of the four songwriters for “Texas,” a song about hitting the bar and wondering what's been lost after a breakup. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to the Wyoming native about how the song came about.
“He just got together with some of his friends during a jam session in Nashville, and they started crafting the lyrics behind this. It's not really a breakup song. It's a post breakup song, because apparently, all the single ladies go to Texas after they break up with their guys, so they just crafted a song around that concept. A recording of that song ended up in front of Blake Shelton's manager, and he said, That's Blake Shelton's next number one hit. And sure enough, that's what's happened… And I spoke with Josh, and he's super psyched about the fact that he has a number one hit that he can add to his growing list of accolades in the music industry.”
Dorr has been working as a singer-songwriter in Nashville for 15 years. He’s already had considerable success, writing songs for country artists like Jordan Davis, Jon Pardi, and Kolby Cooper.
Read the full story HERE.
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And on the west side of Laramie lives a dive bar that may be the inspiration for a lovable piece of pop culture Americana — Moe’s Tavern from the hit animated TV show “The Simpsons.”
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson visited with the owner of Bud’s Bar, Shelley Peterson, who believes her bar did inspire Moe’s because of the similarities of their two designs and a man named Sean Hart, an artist and former patron from Laramie who worked on “The Simpsons.”
“I went and visited on, I think, on a Tuesday night. And it was everything as advertised. It was a dive bar to the fullest. The place was fairly busy for a Tuesday night, but the people there were having a grand old time. And they have kind of a diagram there at the bar that they show off, you know, explaining some of the connections that they think they have to the Moe's bar in The Simpsons. And some of the connections are, there might be some legitimacy. Some of them are pretty common, I think, in almost any bar. But it was very interesting to just to kind of hang out there and talk to the locals.”
Bud’s actually has a long history that dates back much farther than The Simpsons. It’s the second oldest continuously existing bar in Laramie, and has a rough and tumble past, known for attracting bikers and the occasional fight.
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.
