It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 18th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The chair of the Wyoming legislative committee investigating the check-passing controversy told his colleagues Tuesday the committee wants to pause its work. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that’s because the local sheriff's office has undertaken its own investigation.
“One day after the house investigative committee into chat gave us form on Saturday, the sheriff was like, now I'm investigating this in case there's criminal something that's criminally actionable, criminally chargeable, and whenever a law enforcement agency opens an investigation, kind of the public's probe into whatever that thing is, freezes. You don't get public records access. You don't get to have these controversies out in public. The Agency keeps the investigation pretty tight until a prosecutor decides to do something with it, or decides why she's not going to do something with it…It's a pause. Because once you have a live criminal investigation, all of a sudden, boom, you've got like, Fifth Amendment concerns and due process concerns. So what Representative Washut, who has the experience in this area, is saying is we don't want to violate someone's rights that they're supposed to retain during a criminal investigation.”
This investigation is in response to Rebecca Bextel, the state committee woman for the Teton County GOP who was also registered to attend the legislative session as “media,” handed out checks Feb. 9 after adjournment, on the state House of Representatives floor.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday banned campaign contributions on state property. So did the Senate, in areas it controls, in response to the "CheckGate" controversy. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the governor is taking action after an incident that happened last week.
“The Capitol has spaces used by the three different branches of government, right? There's a Supreme Court chamber even that the justices use from the judicial branch, there's a governor's chamber and other executive branch offices, and there's an entire second and third floor wing each for the Senate and the State House of Representatives. So if the governor's going to say, “Oh, you can't do campaign contributions in the Capitol, he narrowed that to the part that belongs to the Executive Branch, but the Senate passed a similar rule also Tuesday, saying, ‘We're not doing this. We're not doing this in places that the Senate controls.’ The House as of Tuesday, had not passed a rule, but it has been dealing with this controversy in other ways.”
Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday signed an executive order banning the solicitation, delivery, or acceptance of campaign contributions on property where state business is conducted – including the areas of the state Capitol managed by the executive branch.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Senate voted Tuesday to restore the governor's $11 billion budget, but the House voted against it. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that things got heated when Rep. Mike Yin said budget-planners were stabbing agencies they disliked.
“Representative Yin actually got out the knife hands and was gesturing during this conversation, basically saying, you know, we're stabbing certain agencies. We're gouging things in broad strokes and Representative Tony Locke, and ultimately this house speaker chip nine, and they were like, Whoa, this conversation has gotten really charged. Let's just focus on the substance of the budget…the intervention during the nice hands unfolded because some people were expressing displeasure with the joint Appropriations Committee, with the budget planners who did this, this draft, and the conversation kept revolving back to, can we trust the Budget Committee? Are they listening? Are they being transparent? And when you're having a debate on the floor, you're supposed to focus on the merits of the debate, not in the intentions of the Bringers. And so I think that by the time we got to the knife hands gestures. Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, this has gotten too charged.’”
After a few lawmakers expressed themselves, House Speaker Chip Neiman had the last word, saying “Ain't nobody stabbing nobody.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Meteorologists aren’t seeing a trend just yet, but they do see this week of winter weather as a promising sign. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that at this point, we’ll take any amount of snow.
“This winter season has been dominated by high pressure ridges that have set up elsewhere, and that's siphoned off the winter weather. We are supposed to be getting off to the east coast, where they've had record breaking lows and record breaking amounts of snowfall. That's changing now as we get into the latter half of February. It started Tuesday with the high winds and snow squalls, and then Wednesday and Thursday, we're looking at widespread snow across the entirety of the state, around two to five inches, which isn't much, and it's not going to make up for what we've missed out on. But as many meteorologists said to me, beggars can't be choosers. You take what you can get, and the prognosis is positive that going forward into March, we're going to see more of these precipitation events, and even if there are high pressure ridges blocking that weather, they're going to be strong enough to push through and get us some much needed moisture.”
Wyoming will be blustery, snowy, and cold this week. In short, it’s everything we’ve missed for most of the winter season, up to this point.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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Landowners won’t be able to claim all the tags in certain big game hunting areas under a bill a legislative committee forwarded to the Wyoming Senate floor on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that under a bill a legislative committee forwarded to the Wyoming Senate floor on Tuesday, landowners won’t be able to claim all the tags in certain big game hunting areas.
“Because of different circumstances, there's been instances in which all the tags have gone to landowners. In other words, hunters didn't even get a chance to put in for the tag drawing. And so to rectify that, there's a bill that says, ‘Okay, well, let's place a cap on the number of landowner tags, it can be allowed in any particular hunt area, the percentage seems to be what everybody likes.’ The idea it's the percentage. It kind of seems to be up for debate. Some people are saying, okay, cap it at 20. Landowners. Get a shot at 20% of the tags. The rest go to the public. Well, no, let's do 40. And then it was also suggested today that, hey, let's do it on a case by case basis. If this year in this area, it makes sense to give half or only 5% or whatever, let's do it that way.”
There have been rare instances of every hunting tag in a limited-quota area going to landowners, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce told the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Senate is advancing a first-of-its-kind resolution asking Congress to let the state run the federal mineral leasing program within its borders. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that even supporters acknowledge it's a heavy lift.
“Right now oil and gas producers, miners, they go through the BLM. If they want to do extraction on public federal lands. Wyoming would like to change that. They would like to say, Hey, this is our state. We know best, and we would like to control the leasing of minerals, and we'd like to make more money off of those minerals as a state of Wyoming…these are resolutions so they don't carry the weight or strength of law. They're essentially a strong suggestion to the US Congress that this is what we'd like to see happen. Now lots of Western states have probably daydreamed about running their own mineral leasing programs. Wyoming is taking an official step. ”
The Petroleum Association of Wyoming supports the resolution, comparing it to regulatory authority the state already exercises.
Read the full story HERE.
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Unlike the winter of 2022-2023, when mule deer were starving and dying by the thousands in Wyoming, this year the herd is looking quite healthy. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that avid hunter and deer conservationist Zachary Key of La Barge says the deer are fat and they look awesome, but there’s a catch.
“This can be one of the toughest times for animals, except they're dealing with a lot of snow and a lot of cold this time of year. It's been long enough that they burnt through a lot of their fat reserves, and so they're really trying to get to that final stretch without starving or freezing to death. Right now, the animals are fat and happy, but the double edged sword is, if we don't get some significant moisture in March and April, what can happen is they won't get what they call green up, that that thick green spring grass won't come up, and that has a really heavy protein content. And so especially for animals that are pregnant, like pregnant elk, deer or antelope, if they don't have that rich protein, rich green grass at the end of spring, in the beginning of beginning of summer, and they're dropping their calves or their fawns, then it will affect their lactation.”
During the terrible winter of 2022-2023, deer were starving and dying by the thousands, while this winter they’re downright chunky.
Read the full story HERE.
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Rocky, a Labrador-boxer mix, escaped his harness during a walk near the mountain town of Montezuma, Colorado, on Dec. 28. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that he was rescued last week, having survived alone for 43 days in subzero nights and wolf territory.
“Rocky was moving with his owner from New Jersey to California. They stopped off at Montezuma for a skiing trip. Rocky was left in the hands of a pet handler, he got spooked by something, wriggled out of his harness and ran off into the woods, and at that point, he was in fight or flight survival mode. So he lasted out there for 46 days without any kind of support, and he was in surprisingly good shape considering his ordeal. He lost 26 pounds while he was out there, but he was still active, alert, and he was able to move and call for help, as the rescuers reported. So it's pretty remarkable that not only did he last that long, but they were able to find him within nine hours of their first sighting of Rocky after over a month, he was in good he was receiving medical care.”
Rocky was moving from New Jersey to California so his owner, Steven Maa, could start a new job. On their cross-country journey, Maa stopped in Summit County, Colorado, for a day of skiing on Dec. 28.
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
