It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, September 18th. 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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Wyoming’s lone delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives has been appointed to serve on a new committee investigating the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, 2021.
Rep. Harriet Hageman took care in a Wednesday interview with Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland, to differentiate her role on the new committee, from the J6 investigation in which her predecessor, former Rep. Liz Cheney, participated in 2021 and 2022. Hageman said, in fact, that she believes that Cheney’s panel was not a “legitimate committee” under the House rules.
“Because it didn't follow the house rules that underpinned it. A federal judge had disagreed with that in 2022 saying, ‘Yeah, you know, it works, and because of the doctrine of judges being deferential toward the legislative branch, we're just going to back off here.’ That decision did get appealed, but the appeal was, the whole case later scuttled, because the committee changed course and stopped pursuing the subpoena that prompted the court challenge in the first place.”
Along with Hageman, House Speaker Mike Johnson selected Republican Reps. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, Troy Nehls of Texas, and Clay Higgins of Louisiana, to serve on the panel, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia.
Read the full story HERE.
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A new period of tension is looming over the waning availability of water from the Colorado River. Water-use negotiations and infrastructure operations are up for renewal after 2026 and officials from upstream states, including Wyoming, claim that downstream states continue to use more than their fair share.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports all four of the upper basin commissioners expressed extreme frustration over how they perceive the situation.
“The lower basin continually is demanding more and more and more from the upper basin states, and it's getting to the point where the upper basin states are starting to see water shortages, which from their perception, from our perception, that's not our fault. We're not short of water because we're not managing our water well or in a responsible manner, we're starting to see shortages of water because the people downstream from us are being irresponsible and keep coming to us and demanding that we send more and more downstream.”
Bottom line? The commissioners say, for now, they are committed to a seven-state solution.
Read the full story HERE.
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A former Green River teacher and school board member whose wife is accused of beating him with a bottle of Baileys as he sat disabled in his recliner has died, Sweetwater County’s elected prosecutor confirms.
Linda Malone was charged on September 11th with second-degree attempted murder, and three counts of abusing a vulnerable adult. But with the death of her husband, John, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Sweetwater County prosecutor’s office expects to issue a different charge, of second-degree murder.
“Under Wyoming law, they're technically punishable. Under the same framework, it's 20 to life, but judges in Wyoming, they're afforded quite a bit of discretion, and they look at different cases differently. So even though the framework is technically the same, you do have potentially a… sentencing change with those different facts.”
Second-degree murder is not a death-penalty charge in Wyoming. Each count of abusing a vulnerable adult is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. Linda Malone’s case is ongoing in Rock Springs Circuit Court.
Read the full story HERE.
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People drive miles for the In-N-Out Burger chain’s famous “double-double.” When a new store opens, car lines stretch for what seems like miles, sometimes for weeks on end.
The California-based chain plans to open its newest location 45 minutes south of Cheyenne in northern Colorado. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George spoke to several Cheyenne burger lovers who are excited about the iconic restaurant’s proximity to Wyoming.
“There's a cult following for In-N-Out in every state. People are excited. You know, I've talked to some people who are coming out of Five Guys in Cheyenne who are all excited about In-N-Out being a little closer now… one, it's the quality of the burger. A lot of it is nostalgia. If you travel to California or the West Coast when you're a kid, you know, it was such a it's such a big, iconic franchise there, that people remember it.”
The Timnath, Colorado, location would become the second In-N-Out in northern Colorado, and the 13th in Colorado overall. No opening date has been announced.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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Wyoming Highway Patrol officials say they are cracking down on truck drivers who continue to bring oversized loads through the Green River Tunnel in the wake of a deadly crash there earlier this year.
While a detour for oversized loads around the tunnel can add upward of 90 minutes to a driver’s route, several officials told Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker the risk of pushing an oversized load through the tunnel is not worth the reward.
“I spoke to Wyoming Highway Patrol today, who told me that trucks trying to go through the tunnel can cause even more damage to the structure, prolonging the amount of construction time that's required to fix it. So they warned that, in addition to fines and potentially taking away people's permits. Truck drivers should be aware that going through this tunnel is only going to cause more delays, so they advise people just take the detour, let the construction workers do their thing, and the tunnel will be open again in no time.”
Wyoming Highway Patrol issued a strong warning to truck drivers last week after it caught a driver who authorities said purposely skipped the Port of Entry, drove an oversized load without a permit and ignored road closure signs. Those violations amounted to more than $800 in fines.
Read the full story HERE.
–A Cheyenne fifth-grade teacher accused of sexually touching young female students throughout the 2024-25 school year is back in jail after being released on bond prior, because police say they also found child sex content on his phone.
Brian Wrhel was charged July 21 with nine counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and seven counts of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, after multiple female students came forward to say he’d been touching them inappropriately both over and under their clothing, when they approached him during class for help with schoolwork.
Now, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Cheyenne police re-arrested Wrhel on Tuesday on new charges.
“We wrote this story on Brian Wrhel when he was originally arrested in late July, charged shortly thereafter, where he is accused of touching these girls… he had pleaded not guilty and bonded out by a surety bond, and the Cheyenne Police Department actually reported Wednesday, like, ‘oh, he's back in because while we were investigating, we went through his phone and found child sex abuse material, which laymen call child porn.’”
If convicted, Wrhel faces up to a maximum of 285 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
Read the full story HERE.
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A federal judge on Wednesday has shut down the U.S. Forest Service plans to expand livestock grazing on allotments in grizzly bear habitat in Montana’s Paradise Valley, near Yellowstone National Park.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that while bear advocates say that’s a key area for the intermingling of the Lower 48’s two largest grizzly populations, others argue that the sheer number of bears exceeds population recovery goals that were set after grizzlies in the Lower 48 were placed under the Endangered Species Act protection in the 1970s.
“From the bear advocate’s point of view, that's a kind of a vital area where you have some genetic exchanges going on between the two large populations, or sub-populations of Grizzlies that we have, which is the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzlies, our bears here in Wyoming belong to that sub population. The Forest Service previously failed to properly analyze the effects that expanded grazing on six allotments would have on grizzlies. Therefore, the agency’s initial analysis failed to meet the standards of the National Environmental Policy Act.”
The stockgrowers were “disappointed” with Molloy’s decision, saying that cattle producers are losing grazing allotments because of this, even though the population, they say, is recovered and thriving.
Read the full story HERE.
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A brilliantly colored snowbow appeared during a Monday evening snowstorm at the Brooks Lake Lodge in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that snowbows are the same phenomenon as rainbows, but they're much rarer and harder to see and photograph.
“A snow bow is a rainbow in technical terms, it's the same phenomenon. It's light being reflected through the crystals, in water droplets to with the light spectrum. So it's not technically, it's not different. In fact, there's not really a meteor meteorological term for a Snow Bow, but they are rarer and more unusual, because snow tends not to be reflective the as it freezes, the snowflakes condense, and they don't reflect a lot of light, so usually only happens during a wet snow storm that's patchy where the sun can still shine through. And those are exactly the circumstances that manifested over Brooks Lake Lodge and spa on Monday.”
Rainbows aren’t impossible during winter, but they’re much rarer because snowflakes don't reflect nearly as well as raindrops.
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.
