It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, October 2nd. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story."
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More than two dozen sheriff’s deputies stood ready for immigration enforcement duties Wednesday in the Laramie County Board of Commissioners meeting room, waiting to be sworn into the new expansion of their roles. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports that not everyone is in favor of this program.
“This is a pretty well known program federally. States across the country use it to help, you know, local law enforcement help, kind of the federal side of things with federal law enforcement. It's controversial in some states. Here in Wyoming, the State Highway Patrol participates. And you know, Brian Kozak, the Laramie County Sheriff, said that they've had a good partnership with the ice field office. The ACLU chapter of Wyoming is very against it. I got a statement today from Antonio Serrano, who's their advocacy director, saying that it's improper to use of local sheriff's deputies that can be doing other kinds of law enforcement functions locally to do federal law enforcement. They think it's a distraction and that it really just doesn't help build trust within communities, especially immigrant communities. But the ice field director Robert Guadian from Denver, that office serves both Wyoming, Wyoming and Colorado, said that actually a lot of people from these immigrant communities prefer working with ice, because the criminals that the two a 7g program intends to, you know, go after, in a sense, these are people that are terrorizing or victimizing communities that are mainly immigrant.”
The 25 deputies will participate in the task force component of a program which allows the officers to work with federal authorities in enforcing immigration law, and detaining people who are in the country illegally.
Read the full story HERE.
– A federal court on Wednesday sentenced a mother to one year and one day in prison for supplying guns to her son, who in turn killed Sheridan police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee in 2024. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker was in court when Eileen Hurley’s defense attorney had a request for her imprisonment.
“Her attorney specifically called for a special facility to help care for her medical issues, because she's dealing with a myriad of health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and a plethora of others. She's also 71 years old, which her attorney argued is akin to a life sentence, sending her to jail with all of these combined medical issues…Judge Allen Johnson was sympathetic to these pleas and agreed that Hurley should go to a medical facility to help take care of her while she's incarcerated.”
The federal courtroom at the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne was packed with Krinkee family and friends, along with several uniformed police officers and Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming outdoorsman took a break from elk hunting Tuesday and called a bull moose to within 10 feet, simply by grunting at it. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Owen Miller said he’s called bull moose in a few times, though the animals have never gotten this close.
“He doesn't have a moose license or anything like that, but they're in the rut right now, or the mating season. And so he says he's kind of figured out over the years of doing this that he can grunt. He says, you kind of grunt the word ‘rump.’ And it works. So he's had a few come in fairly close, maybe not as close as this one. This one got to within about 10 feet of him. And in this instance, which happened yesterday, yesterday afternoon, it just worked very well. And the moose got right up to within 10 feet of it. But he said he finally just just talked to it. Just said, Okay, that's enough. You need to go away.”
Miller had a similar experience during the same hunting trip, on Sept. 5, when he called another bull in close.
Read the full story HERE.
– As constitutionality questions around school choice persist in Wyoming courts, the state’s Libertarian Party is publicly encouraging opponents to reconsider their stance on it, saying school choice doesn’t need to be “MAGA.” Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel says some are taking to social media to plead their case.
“So this is an interesting, just a couple social media posts put out within the last week, one by the state's Libertarian Party, and then they're one for Americans for Prosperity. They're really just referencing school choice, which is a hot button issue in the state right now, the Wyoming Education Association has brought forward a lawsuit that's currently going up to the state Supreme Court. A bill was passed the past legislative session that allows for school choice, school voucher program, but the Wyoming Education Association and some of the parents of public school children say that this program is unconstitutional under state law…both these posts were just trying to kind of say, Hey, this is not shouldn't be a partisan issue.”
The Wyoming Education Association this year challenged the constitutionality of a new school choice program offering state funds to families seeking alternate education.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s congressional delegation declined to weigh in Wednesday on memes posted by President Donald Trump that mock top Democrats and used vulgarities. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports from DC that it’s not surprising no one is commenting.
“Wyoming's congressional delegation, us, Senate Majority Whip, John Barrasso,...Cynthia Lummis, the junior senator, of course, and us, rep Harriet Hageman, yeah, they didn't want to touch this when I asked them for comment…these are staunch Trump political allies. Wyoming. Three members of Congress are in lockstep with Trump on almost everything. They're not going to criticize him for this.”
Both memes — one posted on social media Monday and the other Tuesday — feature House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York with a fake sombrero and handlebar mustache.
Read the story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
When the Laramie County Combined Communication Center experienced problems early Wednesday morning with its administrative and 911 phone lines, resulting in a busy signal for incoming callers, it posted an alert to the public on its Facebook page. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that people were confused by the post..
“One thing it said in the Facebook that was kind of interesting was that if you have an emergency, you know, go out and find an officer on the street, or come down to the Cheyenne police department or and so immediately on Facebook post, or people that you know subscribe to their Facebook page saw that, and there was a lot of comments about, you know, is this the contingency plan they have for an emergency? I mean, where do you how do you find a police officer in middle of early morning hours in Laramie County? I mean, it's not like you go into like LA and you there's a cop on every street or something.”
The Cheyenne Police Department later clarified that the message was an error and was corrected.
Read the full story HERE.
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A multi-agency search for a man believed to have fallen into the North Platte River began at about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports the search ended more than 10 hours later and now the Casper Police Department has turned the incident into an investigation of a possible case of false reporting.
“They responded to a report of a man in the river his brother reported that said they'd both been smoking marijuana and drinking today, the police are saying that they're looking into filing a false report charge against this individual because they believe that they found the individual reported missing at his home, and he was fine, and they believe that the person was so inebriated or on some medic, some kind of substance, that he he made things up. So the police department isn't saying whether they will actually file the charges. They said they're looking into it. And I asked them about any reimbursement.
Department spokesperson Rebekah Ladd said the man was found safe at his home.
Read the full story HERE.
–When Jane Goodall died Wednesday at 91, the world lost an iconic animal advocate and environmentalist. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that famed Wyoming wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen lost a dear friend.
“He said he first met her about 25 years ago. She was there in Jackson for some kind of an event. And of course, even though it was a quarter century ago, by then, she was already a legend. I mean, she had achieved legendary status. And he said, quote, you know, I was nervous as hell the first time he went to meet her, but he said that there was just, there was no pretentious visit whatsoever about her. She was they just instantly connected. He took her on a tour of Yellowstone, showed her a lot of the cool wildlife around here.”
Goodall passed away in Los Angeles surrounded by her family, according to a media release.
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 Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
