It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, September 12th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA.
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The truck driver who plowed into a complicated crash scene the morning of Dec. 21, 2022, hit two EMTs — killing one — and also struck an ambulance, was found guilty Thursday on all three criminal counts he faced.
46-year-old Saviol Saint Jean collapsed on the defense table in front of him and wept with his head in his arms as the three guilty verdicts were read Thursday in Sweetwater County District Court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that half the jurors were crying too.
“They deliberated from 8:45-ish till three. And they emerged from their chambers, somber, very somber, and they trudged in, and then the verdict was pronounced. Three counts, all guilty, two of them felonies… And as they read the guilty verdicts, Saint Jean collapsed onto his arms on the defense table in front of himself and sobbed, and half the jury was crying as well… since it's not a death penalty case, the sentence is up to the judge…. and the judge could honestly, he could go anywhere from probation to 30 years in prison.”
His sentencing will be set for a later date.
Read the full story HERE.
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Less than 24 hours after conservative political thought leader Charlie Kirk was gunned down Wednesday, students on the University of Wyoming campus condemned political violence.
Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday by a rooftop gunman while speaking at Utah Valley University as part of his American Comeback Tour, an event in which he engaged in debates with students on hot-button social and political topics.
His death sent shockwaves throughout the nation, including here in Wyoming, where Kirk visited as part of his national tour in late April, attracting an audience of about 1,800 at the University of Wyoming Arts and Sciences Auditorium. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker spoke to several students at UW on Thursday about their reaction to Kirk’s death.
“While students across the board condemned political violence, there certainly was a different variance of reactions about what happened to Charlie Kirk and kind of Kirk's legacy in the US as a whole. Now, some students were very forcefully against something like this. They were saying that political violence should never happen, that Kirk's death was very sad. I actually spoke to a student that admitted they cried when they heard the news. Others were less so. I spoke to one student in particular who said that they were glad that a voice like Kirk's is out of the spotlight. Their words exactly.”
Read the full story HERE.
The person credited with financially kick-starting Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization was a rags-to-riches Wyoming businessman who ran for state governor in 2018. When the group started, Kirk was 18, and Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming multimillionaire Foster Friess saw something in him.
“Kirk was actually really public about that, publicly crediting Foster Friess with jump starting this organization that started off with a few thousand dollars, and now is in the multi millions. And so I was trying to find someone in Wyoming who could talk about what potentially Friess saw in Charlie Kirk and how that happened, and my search actually led me right back home to the original co-founder of Cowboy State daily, and that was Annaliese Wiederspahn, who was also on close terms with Friess around 2018, and saw this relationship with Charlie Kirk and Friess because she was, she was receiving the funding and hatching the idea for Cowboy State Daily.”
Read the full story HERE.
By the time of his death, the 31-year-old had become one of the most powerful political voices from the conservative and Christian right, especially young people.
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Rocky Mountain Power appears set to capture more of that nearly 30% rate increase that the Wyoming Public Service Commission blocked, after a federal judge ruled that the state’s adjustment cheated the company of $23.5 million in reasonably incurred operating expenses.
When and how Rocky Mountain Power will recoup that $23.5 million from Wyoming customers is not yet clear, according to business reporter Renee Jean.
“The judge ruled that the 2023 decision adjusting a portion of that 30% rate case that the Public Service Commission botched it, they were wrong, and so Wyoming owes, owed at that time, 20 point, whatever million it was in 2023- but here's the thing, since then, there have been actions taken around that disputed figure. You know, so how much of that money they actually owe now, even Rocky Mountain Power didn't know the answer to that when I called them today.”
A spokesperson for the company said it will take time to figure out how much of that figure is still owed to the company, as well as how it should be recouped going forward.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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The status of about 3,000 Wyoming mustangs has turned into a continual legal back-and-forth. Horse advocates, opposed to rounding them up, have the upper hand, at least for now.
Mustangs in three herd management areas, or HMAs, have become the crux of a protracted legal battle between the Bureau of Land Management and wild horse advocates. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the roundups were originally set to start in July and August, but horse advocates prevailed in a lawsuit in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to halt the roundups.
“It's all because of legal back and forth between horse advocates who do not want the horses rounded up at all and the BLM that wants to zero out these herd units in Salt Wells Creek, part of Adobe town and the Great Divide area. The BLM is making the argument that just there that just isn't a suitable area to have horses, and the horse advocates going, that's awesome habitat for horses, including those rare curly haired Mustangs.”
Horse advocates argue that the mustangs qualify as wildlife and should be managed and protected as such. However, some consider them to be a feral species that competes with native species, such as mule deer and antelope.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Mills man who died after a five-hour standoff with law enforcement Wednesday wasn’t shot by officers. That’s according to the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office, who did identify the man who died as 42-year-old Zachary Albrecht.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Mills Police tried to serve a felony arrest warrant between 11 and 11:30 a.m. when the occupant of the home refused to comply and barricaded himself inside.
“Police are not saying, you know how he died. They are not answering questions right now. The local agency, Mills Police Department, referred us to DCI. DCI is not talking. I went to the scene today. There was a broken window in this two story condominium that a contractor was replacing, there was plywood over the door. We know that yesterday they had an armored vehicle there. And there's not much more we know, except that the victim who's been named had some civil action filed against them, current civil action filed against them in Natrona County District Court, but nothing criminal that I could find related to him recently.”
Natrona County civil court files show Albrecht recently had been involved in a landlord/renter dispute about an apartment directly across the street from where the standoff took place on Wednesday.
Read the full story HERE.
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Someone left a stack of papers at the Hulett Library calling for the local school’s grimacing “Red Devil” mascot to switch to a hawk, sparking outcry in the town this week.
But it’s difficult to tell who’s behind the proposed change. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that even the most vehement opponents of the movement either don’t know or won’t say.
“There was an anonymous pamphlet thing saying, let's find a more inspiring and positive mascot for our school. The mascot is a red devil grimacing, that I'm told actually is named after the way the red dirt kicks up in the wind there in Hulett. And so there was a note attached to the pamphlet like, talk to these people for more information… at least one that I talked to, was like, No, this was a surprise. And then another one of her colleagues said that doesn't sound like her either. And so it became a challenge to piece together who even is behind the movement.”
The pamphlet encourages people to attend an Oct. 20 school board meeting and says a “final vote will be taken.” But school board members who spoke to Cowboy State Daily said they hadn’t heard of the proposal until Wednesday or Thursday.
Read the full story HERE.
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Aviation groupies who love to ooh and ahh at anything cool with wings, there’s nothing like the bone-shaking rumble of a military fighter jet taking off.
That’s what the lucky few near the tarmac at Casper/Natrona County International Airport got to feel Tuesday night, when a pair of Marine F/A-18 Hornets took off after hot refueling. The general manager for Aero Center Casper told Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson that locals better get used to that “deep in your soul” feeling of military jets taking off, because the airport this year began fulfilling a new contract to service military aircraft.
“They have an agreement, they have a contract with the military to do hot refueling for their aircraft… they put down and they refuel while the engines are still running, and they go back up… And they don't just refuel. It's like a truck stop… They run snacks out to them, granola bars, uncrustables, things that they can hold in their hand. So but what's really fun is that these airport people, career aviation people, been there for decades, they still get really excited and giddy when these cool aircraft land… when they take off, man, the power that they have, they say, you don't just hear it, you feel it, and it's, it's just a total experience.”
Longtime Airport Director Glenn Januska said that even after more than 30 years in the aviation industry, he still feels like an excited kid when cool airplanes like these show up in Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is author, keynote speaker and Epic Life Coach Shelli Johnson. You can find the link to this really inspiring conversation on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
