It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, June 19th. 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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A map circulated by the Wilderness Society claims that vast swaths of Western public land — including nearly 15 million acres in Wyoming — could go up for sale, based on language in a bill currently before a U.S. Senate committee.
The map was released in response to a measure before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is intended to be included in the budget reconciliation bill, the so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
But Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that the bill would not lead to a free-for-all selling off of millions of acres of public land. But the Wilderness Society stands by its report, which it says is based on the language of the bill.
“Our Republican representative, Harriet Hageman said that's an inaccurate representation. Really what, what could potentially go for sale is just a small fraction of that. I talked to a Wyoming attorney who confirmed that… No way it's going to entail anything anywhere near 14 million acres. Hageman is saying, you know, we're looking only at lands that really don't wouldn't have much public value, except maybe, perhaps, to provide some more housing in places like Jackson, where they need a lot of new housing.”
And hunters are also up in arms over potential federal public land sales included in the Senate budget bill. Prominent groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Wyoming's Muley Fanatic Foundation, and The Boone And Crockett Club all blasted the proposal, saying the land sales wouldn’t do hunters any favors.
“I talked to two very prominent hunters, one in Wyoming and one in Montana, both of which really don't like this idea. They say, you know, either you're going to cut off access to areas where we like to hunt, or you're going to sell off parcels of public land that are at the entrance to millions of acres behind it and will be cut off from that… And then there's also been several organizations… a pretty broad and wide spectrum of hunters and hunting groups are saying, We don't like this. We don't want to see our land sold in this manner.”
However, Wyoming’s neighbors to the north aren’t concerned about the sale of public lands. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Republican Steve Daines, Montana’s senior senator, carved out an exemption for his state.
“Daines is saying, Look, we're going to get an exemption… Montana's public lands won't be up for sale, and this will allow Danes to kind of have it both ways, and the delegation to have it both ways. They can appease their colleague, Senator Lee from Utah, who's really pushing hard on this and the President's agenda to get this bill passed. And they can cover themselves politically in Montana, or so they think. But this has really erupted a big bunch of chatter online and different groups coming out and making their opinions known, including Wild Montana, who I spoke to today, they said they think Daines might still be trying to get the whole public lands thing taken out of the bill entirely, but we'll see.”
Supporters say the land sales could clear a path for much-needed affordable housing developments in Western communities. But the Wilderness Society map shows nearly all of the Bridger-Teton National Forest could potentially be sold, as well as a huge chunk of the Bighorn Mountain Range in northern Wyoming.
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A Wyoming land expert with deep ranching roots has been tapped for a position with the Bureau of Land Management as the Trump administration weighs contentious proposals to sell public land.
Brenda Younkin has been named a senior advisor to the Bureau of Land Management. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that her appointment comes at a time when the potential sale of public lands in Wyoming and other Western states has become a lightning rod across the state.
“She's widely known across the state for her work on land use issues. In fact, in 2015 the Wyoming Legislature tapped her to do a study on what it would look like if 25 million acres of federal lands were transferred to Wyoming. So I mean, she is the expert on this topic… and having someone like her at the BLM, as they're talking about transferring these lands, I mean, Democrats and Republicans alike are pleased with it. They're glad to have someone from Wyoming with that kind of experience. You know, as Senator Gierau was telling me, he might not agree with everything that she says, but at least she knows Wyoming.”
Sen. Mike Gierau said he has a lot of questions about the current push to transfer or sell federal lands — excluding land in Montana, which has an exemption. He said Younkin’s direct knowledge of Wyoming and the West is an asset for everyone in the state.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Tennessee’s ban on gender-change treatments for kids is constitutional.
As far as federal court challenges go, the 6-3 split ruling bodes well for Wyoming’s ban, which is worded similarly. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that, like the Tennessee law, it bans cross-sex surgeries, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for kids.
“There's some technical differences, but in spirit, they're the same. They're a ban on these treatments for kids. And so I was watching like, this probably dictates how Wyoming's ban would fare in a federal court setting where it was sued, you know, an equal protection, 14th Amendment context, and the High Court in a six-three ruling on Wednesday, basically said this ban is about age and medical diagnoses. It's not about whether things are fair for boys than they are for girls. That was the majority ruling. Now the dissent was like, Absolutely not. How can saying that little boys can get testosterone and little girls cannot not be sex discrimination?”
However, the high court’s opinion doesn’t answer the question of whether Wyoming’s ban fits with the state constitution – and that avenue remains open for legal challenge.
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Conflicting witness statements are complicating the case against a 19-year-old man facing a second-degree murder charge in the shooting death of another teen Friday at a mobile home park just south of Cheyenne.
Nathan Pfaff’s murder charge was announced by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on Monday afternoon. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Pfaff reportedly had a disagreement with 18-year-old Ryan Snow, after which Snow was shot, and did not survive.
“It's a really complicated story. Basically, something happened there that left a man dead, and various witnesses giving conflicted statements and just outright lying and then admitting that they lied… one said she was at home. She's a roommate. She said that she was at home asleep, and was woken up by the gunshot, and then later in an interview, admitted that she had lied to detectives before and said actually, I was in the kitchen washing the sink, and then she turned around and allegedly saw half holding the gun… and then even a friend who was over drinking told two different stories to police about what what happened… But what did happen was Ryan Snow was shot in the head, and he died, and somebody pulled that trigger.”
A preliminary hearing in the case has been set for June 27th.
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Federal cuts have terminated a nearly $50 million federal carbon capture grant for work at Gillette's Dry Fork Station power plant.
The canceled project would have built one of the world's largest carbon capture systems, capable of capturing emissions equivalent to 35,000 gasoline-powered cars. But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that investors and partners in the project remain committed to developing this technology.
“Wyoming's been a pioneer in this process, this technology of carbon capture, you know, the idea that you have a coal fired or gas fired power plant, or any other source that has fossil fuels emitting CO2. And for the last 20 years, Wyoming has invested in technologies and research centers and a facility up in Gillette where they're really learning what are the best technologies that can capture CO2, prevent it from going into the atmosphere, and then turn it into a commodity that you can use for things like enhanced oil recovery.”
John Wright, chief technology officer at TDA Research, expressed disappointment about the canceled grant, but said that international interest in carbon capture technology remains strong.
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The daughter of a Gillette assisted living center patient who died from an opioid overdose in late November sued the institution Wednesday, along with the Campbell County Hospital District that oversees it, a nurse and a hiring agency.
Christina Jones’ lawsuit makes wrongful death claims on behalf of her late mother. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 66-year-old Rhonda Parker died after a Tramadol overdose Nov. 29 at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center.
“We've had two events that we know about of that facility big enough to end up in court, but one was in criminal court, and that was where a staffer was charged in connection with an elderly Memory Care woman's freezing death. And then we have this one that was filed Wednesday, where a woman's, a late resident’s daughter is suing, saying, You guys let her die of an overdose… it's an opioid often used in around the clock pain treatment, and according to the complaint, she had seven times the therapeutic limit of it in her blood.”
Weeks after Parker’s death, an 88-year-old memory care patient wandered outside the Legacy building in early January and died. 57-year-old Bernard Hale was charged in the patient’s freezing death, and his trial is set for August.
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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.
