It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, May 21st. 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.
A Wyoming legislative committee agreed Tuesday to draft a bill introducing harsher penalties for adults who stalk children, and another that would make child “grooming” a felony.
The move followed emotional testimonies from the Holman and Sorensen families of Glenrock, whose high-school-age children endured roughly a year of stalking from a 41-year-old woman.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that several members of the Joint Judiciary Committee were themselves moved by the testimony.
“Both families that were victimized, were like, We gotta change this, so that if a grown person is stalking a child, they face a felony. We gotta make that an aggravating factor. And so they went, they went to the management council and urged the management council to just even let it be considered this summer… Representative Webb was crying. He burst into tears, and, you know, addressed the family when they were done. I thought that Representative Kelly looked a little tearful, but when I asked him that in a text message, he told me he was biting the inside of his mouth so he didn't utter profanity.”
The committee voted to consider a change to Wyoming’s stalking laws so that an adult who stalks a child who is more than three years younger than the adult can be charged with a felony. They also agreed to study an anti-grooming law that Montana passed this year.
Read the full story HERE.
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Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak has a message for criminals who think they’re smarter than the entire court system, from law officers to judges to jail guards: “Meth around and find out.”
That’s what 60-year-old Vance Aulis of Cheyenne did last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that what he found out was that while in jail, he shouldn’t try to make arrangements to have someone retrieve the giant stash of meth from his car.
“Sheriff Kozak… shared a pretty interesting story about a man on probation for meth related charges, showed up to a court hearing, and the judge… denied his probation, revoked it, he was sent back to the jail, and so while he's in the jail, he's making a phone call, and he doesn't… connect, that in jail, phone calls are not private… the deputy overheard him basically instructing someone on the other end of the line that he needed to go to his car and retrieve the stash of meth that he left in there because he drove to court with a bunch of meth in his car, thinking he'd just be out of court and he can go on and do whatever he's going to do with the meth… And so it's it's just a warning there, just to make sure that when you're on the phone, don't admit other crimes.”
In all, about 6 ounces of meth was found, which the sheriff called a large amount, along with other supplies that indicate Aulis likely intended to portion into smaller amounts and sell.
Read the full story HERE.
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Grizzlies in the Lower 48 could be on the cusp of being delisted, but retired Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik needs to be “in the room” as head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before that can happen.
That’s what a former federal Interior department official told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz. Rob Wallace said that the chances of grizzlies being delisted soon are probably as good as they have ever been.
“Rob Wallace… was the Assistant Secretary of the Interior who oversaw Fish and Wildlife Services service during Trump's first administration… His words were, they need to have Brian in the room, because he's such a knowledgeable guy, not only in terms of the biology with the politics, because what has happened previously during previous attempts to D list Grizzlies is it got tangled up in courts, and Rob seems to have a lot of faith that Brian Nesbit is the person that can craft a way to do it and keep it out of the courts.”
Congressional delegates in Wyoming and other Western states have long pushed for grizzlies to be delisted from federal protection, and for full management of the bears to be handed over to Game and Fish and other state wildlife agencies. During his tenure as Game and Fish Director, Nesvik openly advocated for grizzlies to be delisted.
Read the full story HERE.
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The issue of gravel mining at the base of Casper Mountain continues to stir anxiety among local homeowners as a determined gravel mining operator continues to push for permission.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the Office of State Lands and Investments received a request from gravel mining operator Prism Logistics to renew leases on eight tracts of state lands at the base of Casper Mountain.
But a nonprofit consisting of landowners and residents at the base of the mountain remains focused on trying to prevent the project they believe will impact property values, threaten their health and safety, ruin wells and hurt the only access road to their properties.
“There's still a lot of concerned citizens, especially those that live up by the mountain, about a gravel mining operation. Potentially. That's because the gravel mine operator, Prism Logistics, has filed to extend their leases on the land the state owned land, where he where they intend to mine the gravel. And also, there's a couple court cases that are currently being looked at by a Natrona County Judge, but I was told by the state land board that they're going to consider the new leases at their June meeting, so that will determine whether leases can go forward or not.”
The State Board of Land Commissioners is expected to consider the leases at its June 5 meeting.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming legislative committee that oversees court and criminal laws agreed Tuesday to draft a bill targeting sexually explicit materials in public and school libraries, specifically the children’s sections.
The draft motion followed heated testimony from the Wyoming Library Association, Wyoming Education Association, and other parties affected by the issue. It also marks a pivot from the draft legislation the committee considered earlier this year, according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“the committees, for the last oh gosh, like two, three sessions have heard or they've been proposed bills that would repeal an exemption that protects school teachers and librarians, so your creepy uncle can be charged with a crime if he exposes a child to obscenity, but your librarian cannot if he or she does it in the course of their duties… but on Tuesday, they took kind of a different approach, and Representative Jamie Lien out of Casper proposed just very tentative, very rough Bill draft saying we're going to specifically target sexually explicit materials in children's sections of school and public libraries.”
In Wyoming, people who promote obscenity can be charged with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and up to six thousand dollars in fines. Police and judges acting within their duties are exempt from prosecution, and so are librarians, teachers, and museum workers acting within their duties.
Read the full story HERE.
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Eleven days after Senate Democrats blocked a major cryptocurrency bill, the measure that Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis co-sponsored and helped draft passed easily on Monday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports that proponents of the bill say it aims to grow the economy through stablecoins, while including consumer protections, tools to fight money laundering, and provisions to safeguard the financial sector.
“So, a real big comeback victory, you might say, for Senator Cynthia Lummis, the crypto queen, head of a subcommittee on digital assets... Her cryptocurrency bill that was shot down 11 days ago sailed through the Senate with a lot of support from both parties… it's the exact same bill, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, who is a fierce critic of this bill, said, quote, not much has changed. It sounds like there may have been minor tweaks… major cryptocurrency legislation to regulate stable coins has passed the key hurdle in the Senate, clearing 60 votes. That means it'll, it'll easily pass on final passage when only 51 votes are needed.”
A vote on final passage must still be held, and the chamber’s leader, U.S. Sen. JohnThune, said the bill could be amended on the floor. But the late vote Monday to end debate cleared the high bar with room to spare.
Read the full story HERE.
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A mother lode of invasive mussels was removed from a boat lift before they irrevocably damaged the pristine waters of the Alcova Reservoir. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department removed thousands of live zebra mussels encrusted on the recently purchased boat lift.
Wyoming’s waters remain free of zebra and quagga mussels, and Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Wyoming Game and Fish is determined to keep it that way. So every inch of the equipment was scalded to ensure the invaders were eradicated.
“The fact that this Casper boat dock owner recognized that he had a bit of an infestation for a boat lift he purchased, and then brought it to Wyoming Game and Fish to get it decontaminated. They're very happy he did that, because there were over 500,000 mussels encrusted on this thing across every surface. So they had to scald them off, then scrape them off, and then repeat the process over and over again to ensure that when that boat lift is installed at Alcova reservoir, there are no traces of mussels on it… every watercraft or water related device that's been out of state has to be inspected. It has to be inspected. That's state law in Wyoming, because they're serious about keeping these muscles out. Because once they invade, once they get into the water, there's no going back.”
Zebra and quagga mussels are freshwater bivalves native to Russia and Ukraine. Since they were introduced to North America in the 1980s, they have caused tremendous ecosystem disruption throughout the United States.
Read the full story HERE.
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With as many as four pairs of wolves denning together in Colorado, the state’s wolf numbers could soon skyrocket with a fresh crop of wolf pups. That, in turn, could shift the dynamics of Colorado’s wolf population with the formation of numerous established packs.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the likely impending wolf puppy boom is drawing mixed reactions from Colorado residents.
“So I did talk to a couple folks, a couple connections I have down in Colorado, one of whom is wildly happy to hear that there could be a bunch of new pups, one who isn't so happy about it… if it comes true that there really are that many pairs Denning and they in each pair does produce a significant litter of pups, the population of wolves in Colorado could increase dramatically, and what that could lead to is established packs, because we haven't really seen long running established wolf packs in Colorado yet… but with all these dating pairs and pups, apparently, right around the corner, they're going to come to the next level of having established wolf packs in Colorado.”
If any, or all, of the new wolf pairs produce pups, the pups might start emerging from dens in about a month.
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.
