It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 27th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.
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An Albany County man is accused of fatally ramming a wild horse with an ATV on August 18th.
60-year-old Stuart Schmidt is facing felony animal cruelty charges over the incident - but he says the charge stems from a neighbor’s vendetta over a land zoning dispute.
The neighbor, conversely, told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that she turned in Schmidt for committing a cruel act — not because of any bitterness over the land feud.
“There's multiple sides to this story. There's the neighbor's account and court documents taken from her interview that is like, yeah, he chased after this horse until it was dead. And then the defendant himself, is saying, No, I believe that my neighbor reported it that way because we had a land dispute where I didn't want her to subdivide her land so much that this stopped being a rural area… the neighbor who turned Schmidt in, uh, has surveillance footage of the incident where you can, according to court documents, you can see the chase, but you can't see the ATV hitting the animal.”
Schmidt faces one count of felony cruelty to wildlife, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines. He is out of jail on an unsecured bond.
Read the full story HERE.
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Converse County rancher Mike Stephens has long worried about what massive wind turbines might do to the wildlife on state land near his family's multi-generational ranch. But it wasn't until this month that his attorneys spelled out those concerns in detail in Converse County District Court.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Stephens isn’t the only Convers County resident anxious about how the Pronghorn H2 project will impact the local landscape and wildlife.
“There's been an ongoing debate over the Pronghorn H2 project, which would create hydrogen based jet fuel a local rancher has followed through with his litigation and has laid out about six points of that he wants to raise with the district court, saying, Look, this isn't allowed under your own rules… He's saying the state land board violated its own rules that it allowed this wind project to go forward even though it's not feeding electricity directly to the grid, which he says, and his attorneys say, is a requirement.”
Also, according to court documents, Game and Fish specifically identified portions of the lease area as "crucial winter range" for mule deer and antelope, recommending complete avoidance of infrastructure development or seasonal restrictions from November through April.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two Casper police officers will not be charged in the April 28 shooting death of an armed woman who met them at her front door, after she called 911 to report a burglary in progress.
Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen issued a letter Tuesday regarding the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old Casper resident Jody Cobia, saying he won’t prosecute. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the use of “deadly force” by the officers was considered reasonable for their own self-defense during the incident.
“The woman had called 911, and said that there was a burglar in the house, and when she met the police, video from the body cameras on the police officers showed that she showed up at the door. She had a German shepherd that went out after an officer and she had a gun in her hand and said, where the expletive are my children. And then, according to what the letter said today, there was a click in the gun that she held, and it apparently misfired. And then the officers responded by firing at her and taking her life.”
Court records showed that Jody Cobia and her husband had been estranged, and that Aren Cobia had filed for divorce April 14, asking for custody of three minor children.
Read the full story HERE.
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There’s a long-range computer forecast that’s calling for snow in the first week of September, and possibly on Labor Day.
But meteorologist Don Day says those computerized projections can be misleading. He told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that those predictions, quote, “drive me nuts.”
“A graphic’s been circulating that shows snowfall throughout Wyoming in the high elevations during the first week of September, and that's gotten a lot of traction. The thing is, that was done by Long Range weather modeling via computers… Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day hates Long Range weather modeling. I mean, he uses it for his long term forecast, but he backs that up with current weather patterns and historical data, so it doesn't rely solely on that. So when people get an interesting idea of what the weather might be in a week or a month, or even further than that, and they share it online to get people ramped up. He doesn't like that, because a lot can change.”
Snow is expected at elevations above 10,000 feet by mid-September, but Day said there hasn’t been an “early high-country” snow in Wyoming for several years.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two-thirds of the Wyoming House of Representatives signed a letter dated Tuesday urging the Trump administration to pardon a 65-year-old diesel mechanic sentenced to prison for deleting emissions controls from diesel engines.
“Deleting” those controls is a common practice in the private and commercial trucking sectors alike, but Wyoming man Troy Lake happened to be very good at it. So good, that the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Colorado decided to make an example out of him. Lake was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, fined $52,500 and will live out his days as a convicted felon. That is, unless a president pardons him, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.
“A lot of diesel guys delete their emission system, but not a lot of guys get caught or called the kingpin of emission systems delete brilliance. And Troy Lake did… when Chip Neiman, the speaker of the state house heard about it, he started circulating a draft letter urging President Trump to pardon Troy Lake to his fellow lawmakers in the house, and two thirds of them ended up signing it.”
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus on Tuesday said in a social media post that all of its members signed the letter. And even many House members who aren’t Freedom-Caucus aligned also signed it.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cooler temperatures, higher humidity and intermittent rains have brought some welcome relief for the hundreds of wildland firefighters battling a pair of fires in western Wyoming.
But even so, Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the fires continue to grow and cause sleepless nights for area residents on edge about the potential for losing their properties - and valuable winter forage on public lands.
“It's more humid, it's cooler, they're getting rain. That's not a magic bullet that just puts it out - these fires are still burning… especially in the dense forest… it's older growth and everything, it kind of forms its own natural umbrella. And so even though it's raining and and there's moisture, it kind of shields… the fuel that's burning underneath.”
The incident management team reports that it’s actively protecting the Red Cliff Bible Camp near Cora, which was evacuated late last week as the fire exploded from about 30 acres to nearly 2,000. The camp and a 5-mile radius around Dollar Lake in the Green Lakes area remain under an evacuation order.
Read the full story HERE.
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What seems like a herd of wild horses cresting the hill over Storey Boulevard in Cheyenne is turning heads as people drive along one of the city’s major east-west roads.
The mural, showing a herd of horses galloping over the hilltop, looks finished, but there is still a day or two of work left to do. That’s what the artist, Jordan Dean, told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.
“They are almost finished. The weather is the problem right now. It's humid, and these epoxy paints, which, as we've mentioned before, $400 a gallon, okay? And when you open them up… you have about two hours to use it all up or you lose it… Well, when it's humid, the curing process accelerates, so you have even less than two hours to use up all the paint. And if it rains on the paint that you've just finished, it just basically messes it all up. So you have to have dry weather.”
Dean does his work late at night while most of Cheyenne is fast asleep. That makes it seem as if the mural is taking shape through some kind of overnight wizardry to those driving by it every day. It’s been fascinating to watch it come to life, one good weather day at a time.
Read the full story HERE.
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Beo’s back.
A week after the 7-year-old Siberian husky got lost in the Wind River Mountains while on a camping trip with his family, Beo was back in Cheyenne with his family Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the husky traveled dozens of miles before his adventure was over.
“Beo was participating in a family camping trip up the Big Sandy trailhead in the Wind River Mountains. When the family thinks he made it over the river, but was either too scared or couldn't find his way back to the opposite bank where the family was… it turns out the dog founds his own rescuers. He found a two guys he was comfortable with and their dogs. They were just hiking along. And once he found them, he stuck by their side. So they actually they managed to get a satellite phone and call down the family and say, Hey, we have your dog… And the family said… we're coming up to you to come get him.”
Beo’s rescuers ensured that Beo was well-fed and looked after for the short time he was their traveling companion. He didn’t leave their side until reuniting with his family.
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.
