It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, October 24th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson. “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 forward slash story."
–
A Wyoming elk hunter said things likely would have ended badly for her if she had been wearing her usual lace-up hunting boots when she was charged by a grizzly in the Beartooth Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the type of boot and her law enforcement training may have saved her life.
“It's one of those things that was wet that day…when she was out hunting elk. …this female grizzly with a cub came at her, and of course, she went down on her back, and, you know, raised her feet up, kind of in a defensive position, and the bear bit into one of her feet, bit into boot, and then started to tug. And of course, she wasn't wearing her lace up boots that day. She was wearing pronglong boots. The boot just came off, slid off her foot, and I guess that startled the bear enough that the bear just dropped the boot and ran off.”
Celia Easton lives in Thermopolis and has hunted elk in the Beartooth mountains for several years. She tells Cowboy State Daily that she knows it’s bear country, and added that the level of grizzly activity in the area is higher than usual this year.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Wyoming beef ranchers are joining the national outcry over President Trump’s plan to import more beef from Argentina, arguing it threatens U.S. producers. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports the ranchers are saying they have solutions, but it’s a complex industry.
“Trump's solution is, let's boost the supply. Let's bring Argentinian beef inn that produced an almost immediate backlash from the Ranch community. Trump made those comments on Sunday…He said, you know, you guys, you ranchers, just don't understand things. But it's the cattle ranchers are saying, hey, Trump is the one who doesn't understand this industry. It's a very complex industry. It's a global market.”
Beef producers tell Cowboy State Daily that lowering the high price of beef should start with cutting domestic regulations, not boosting imports.
Read the full story HERE.
–
A truck driver was arrested for DUI after his semi full of potatoes veered off the I-80 and crashed into the Medicine Bow River on Tuesday morning. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the Carbon County Sheriff’s office says driving semis is dangerous enough on I-80 when people aren’t impaired.
“It's incredibly reckless to drive with a DUI, let alone behind the wheel of a semi. But the interesting thing that the Wyoming Highway Patrol revealed is that as they were clearing the truck out of the Medicine Bow River, they found a cat that had apparently been riding with the male driver and the Unidentified Female passenger at the time of the wreck, and miraculously, the cat was uninjured and taken to the Rollins animal shelters, as I thought, it probably exchanged at least one of its nine lives or survived that crash, which was incredibly horrific. I mean, driving while intoxicated is a bad idea in general, let alone when you're behind the wheel of a fully loaded tractor trailer. So it's fortunate that no lives were lost in this incident, because there was an incident in California earlier this week, where an intoxicated semi driver caused an eight vehicle wreck and three people lost their lives.”
The Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers and Carbon County Sheriff's Office deputies extricated 40-year-old Matthew Berggren and an unidentified female passenger from the truck. Berggren wasn’t seriously hurt, while the female passenger was life-flighted to a hospital in Colorado.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Wyoming’s congressional delegation is defending President Trump while he draws pointed criticism from Democrats as heavy equipment has demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports Representative Harriet Hageman says the idea for a space to entertain for presidents isn’t something new.
“Harriet Hagerman said it’s been needed. That past administrations have said that the White House needs a larger space, that the White House needs another, something else, to host people. So that it's so that Trump isn't the first one who's had the idea of doing something.”
The ballroom will be over 90 thousand square feet and cost 250 million dollars that the president says will be privately funded.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The Gillette City Council is directing its city attorney to draft language repealing a controversial “hate crime ordinance” that’s been in place for two years. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports why Councilmember Jack Clary is in favor of the directive.
“He based his decision to approve that directive based off of the desire to remove hate from his community after seeing it so prevalently displayed in other places throughout the country.”
In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the council directed City Attorney Sean Brown to draft language to repeal the ordinance. That document will undergo three public readings before it is officially approved.
Read the full story HERE.
I’ll be back with more news, right after this…
–
An inactive 11-turbine Casper Wind Farm that sits north of Evansville, will be dismantled. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Chevron Power and Energy Management Company confirmed Thursday that the company notified the Natrona County Board of Commissioners in March that the company plans to decommission all of the 240-feet high, 450,000-pound wind turbines on the farm.
“The last time it operated was in 2003 for three months between September and December. But many people you talk to, you know, say they haven't seen it operating in years…The plan was to connect it to Rocky Mountain Power…So now Chevron is saying they're going to remove those wind turbines from the 11 turbines from the wind farm.”
The company says they plan to begin evaluation for potential salvage and recycling, as well as establish temporary roadways and crane pads, as they disconnect electrical systems and internal turbine wiring by the end of the year.
Read the full story HERE.
–
A Kemmerer babysitter found guilty of first-degree murder for beating a 5-year-old girl to death appealed her conviction to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland explains the court's ruling on why Cheri Marler won’t be granted a new trial, even though she was in the ER during a key court hearing.
“You have a right not to be like forcibly interrogated, coerced into writing yourself out. That's under the Fifth Amendment. There's also a section of the Wyoming constitution… So that was the first thing she was saying, this was just a coercive, hours long interview. I was in pain. I was on meds. It was horrible, but the high court came back and said, No, you weren't technically in custody. This was actually a casual interview…Second thing was, you have a right to be at every critical point in your prosecution. …And she was at the ER during the hearing where they were arguing about whether she was interrogated. And so her defense attorney was like, Yeah, well, I'm just going to cross examine the state's witnesses so we can go ahead, not expecting testimony from her. …the High Court said, okay, look, you know you you did kind of indicate that you could have appeared by video if you'd wanted to, but at the end of the day, whether you were there, you weren't there, the state had such a strong case that it hadn't interrogated you forcibly, that it wouldn't have made a difference.”
Marler will spend the rest of her life in prison with no chance of parole.
Read the full story HERE.
–
A 56-year-old man died Wednesday in a gas well explosion in Fremont County near Jeffrey City. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports the incident is being investigated to determine what caused the fatal blast.
Jeffrey City Volunteer Fire Department Chief Vern Redland told Cowboy State daily that while police use the word blowout in their release, this gas well is still operational today. The scene is currently being investigated by OSHA.
The Fremont County Coroner’s Office declined to release the identity of the deceased, citing the ongoing investigation. The fire chief also told Cowboy State Daily that the victim was likely an employee who attempted to turn off a valve after noticing a rupture in the gas flow line.
Read the full story HERE.
–
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
