It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 19th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The Carbon County GOP is calling for resignations of four state reps for their silence on the ongoing “CheckGate” scandal. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the party says they knew defamation claims aimed at Rep. Mike Yin for making the check-passing public were wrong, but didn’t speak up.
“When you belong to and represent a major political party, sometimes you're beholden to accountability maneuvers by those parties and the Carbon County Republican Party met Tuesday night and advanced two resolutions for consideration by the state party that call for resignation of at least four state representatives that are reportedly involved in the Check Gate controversy. And so it's basically saying, ‘We believe these four representatives at least knew that there had been checks handed out on the House floor, and yet, when Representative Mike Yin, the minority floor leader, was talking about this and warning everyone about this last Wednesday, another Representative accused him of defamation. And these four who reportedly knew that he was telling the truth did nothing to stand up for him.”
The first resolution calls for the resignation of Republican Reps. Joe Webb (Lyman), Marlene Brady (Green River), and Darin McCann (Rock Springs). That’s according to a copy of the resolution obtained by Cowboy State Daily.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming lawmakers heard emotional testimony from teachers, miners and students on Tuesday urging them to protect public lands from federal selloffs. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the Senate panel unanimously advanced the resolution titled: “Keeping public lands protected and decisions local.”
“It's basically a declaration that Wyomingites support public land…what this resolution seeks to do is say we're different, that Wyoming doesn't want to sell its public land. We heard testimony from high school students, from teachers, from fishing, from Game and Fish from all sorts of public lands supporters and professionals who work in that space all saying that, look, we want to have a local voice in in how public lands are managed, but we do, and we but we do not want them sold.”
SJR 9 was introduced by Sen. Eric Barlow, of Gillette, with 38 co-sponsors — a bipartisan coalition that includes a total of 17 senators and 22 representatives.
Read the full story HERE.
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Winter weather created nasty driving conditions that contributed to a pair of multi-vehicle crashes Wednesday that closed a 21-mile stretch of westbound I-80 between Evanston and Kemmerer. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one motorist caught in the middle of the pileup says visibility was down to zero.
“The Wyoming Highway Patrol is still investigating the contributing factors into the incidents that happened on Tuesday, let alone the one that was happening on Wednesday afternoon and evening that involved multiple vehicles in both the westbound and eastbound lanes of I 80, but they are going to chalk up a lot of this to icy conditions, winter weather hazards and possibly wind gusts as well. Those are all factors that might have contributed, but we won't know for sure, but based on the images, it looks pretty likely that people were driving in white-out conditions. Roads were slick, and these incidents happened. We don't know if there are any injuries or fatalities involved in Wednesday evening's incident, but we do know there were three injuries from Tuesday's incident that closed a portion of i 80 near Arlington, and those were all minor.”
Bridger Valley resident Amber Gossard tells Cowboy State Daily she was heading west when she got stuck between two separate pileups, describing the crash ahead of her as “six or seven semis in a pile.”
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming House on Wednesday voted to keep a proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Senate did the opposite - setting the two chambers up for a clash in a compromise committee later this month.
“The House of Representatives on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, they deliberated until like one or 2am, right? And that's because they have so many amendments to the budget because they rejected an 80 piece mass amendment on Tuesday, but one of the things they debated Wednesday morning was whether they're going to reverse the proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Ultimately, the House rejected that call to reverse the cuts, keeping them in place, whereas the Senate did vote one day prior to reverse the cut. So when these two budget drafts line up, they're not going to match which then punch that decision to a 10 member compromise committee. They call ‘conference committee’ that could meet as early as next week.”
The Wyoming House of Representatives by a 26-34 vote Wednesday rejected an effort to reverse its budget-planners’ proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming.
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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Two men have been charged in connection with an illegal wolf killing near Cody. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that even though the wolf was killed in a wolf hunting zone, authorities allege it was shot without a license and out of season.
“The problem is, it took place in June. So two problems with that. Number one, the season didn't even start until September. Number two, the person who the game warden says killed the wolf did not have a license, so you're hunting out of season without a license. So it's kind of a double whammy, and then another person that was with him allegedly is being charged as an accessory to that crime or that violation that supposedly took place. I did talk to a wolf what one, probably one of the top wolf biologists in the country, who said that, ‘Yeah, there's a reason why we don't, we don't have wolf hunting, or generally don't have legal wolf killing there in June, because it can be highly disrupted to pack structure at that time. You've got growing pups that are voraciously hungry, and they really rely on adult wolves to bring them back solid food, because they're weaned off their mother's milk at that point, but they still completely rely on the adults to go out, get them solid food and bring it back to the den. So if you start killing adult wolves in June, you put the pups back at the den at risk of starvation.’”
Charges were filed Friday in Park County Circuit Court in Cody against Noah Mick of Cody and Carbondale, Colorado, and Cole A. Mick of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The wolf was allegedly killed by Noah Mick on June 1, 2025, months before wolf season opened, according to citations issued by Wyoming Game and Fish.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming has surpassed Delaware as the top state for business incorporations per capita, and with that has come more LLC fraud. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that could crack down on using the state's business-friendly LLC laws to scam people.
“In Wyoming, it's fairly easy to assign a registered agent, and for no one to be able to figure out who's really running this company. And a lot of times they're just registered in Wyoming, but they're doing business in another state. Well, along comes this piece of legislation today, Senate file 82 and it's pointing out a problem with this. What happens is that you have fraudsters who create a Registered Agent. They literally point to a name in the phone book and turn some unsuspecting Wyoming resident into the face and name and address of a registered company. So instead of paying a legitimate Registered Agent, they basically assign this without the will of this private citizen. So this bill aspires to provide a little bit more transparency into the business registering process, which brings in millions of dollars in registration fees for Wyoming. ”
The bill passed 23-8 and now heads to the Wyoming House, but its passage exposed a divide in the Senate over whether the state’s wildly successful business incorporation industry has become a magnet for fraud.
Read the full story HERE.
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A pair of brothers from Ecuador will spend more than two years in prison for hauling nearly 75 pounds of illegal drugs across Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced they were also wanted by ICE.
“These guys cut a deal, and it's a pretty, pretty good deal, because you know that each of them got sentenced to 27 months in prison and then probation. But the probation might not matter, because as soon as they get out, they're being deported, according to the judge's order. And it could have been, had they gone to trial and been convicted, they could have gotten up to 10 years. But in any case, if you’re in the country illegally, or if there is some other underlying circumstance and you're not a naturalized citizen, they will deport you after you're done serving your sentence.”
The U.S. District Court for Wyoming sentenced 23-year-old Edgar Narvaez Vega to 27 months in a federal prison instead of the maximum 10-year sentence he could’ve received if convicted at trial of possession with intent to distribute meth, fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. Edgar’s brother, 22-year old Pedro Narvaez Vega, 22, got the same deal according to federal court records.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming hasn’t yet been linked to a cattle fraud case that’s hit 14 other states. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports Agridime, out of Texas, is accused of offering a deal that Sublette County rancher and former Green River Valley Cattlemen’s Association President Mike Vickrey said sounded too good to be true.
“A company called Agridime is in the middle of a $220 million cattle fraud case that spans 14 states. Five individuals connected to this company, which is based out of Texas, were indicted last week for allegedly targeting cattle ranchers and cattle buyers and feed lots. Allegedly, a cattle buyer would pay this company $2,000 for a cow. The company would raise the cow, feed it, then butcher it and process it, sell the meat, and the investor would make money off of that initial purchase, about 2000 to 2200 people are owed money in this case, according to court documents. one of the five individuals indicted under this company is a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. We reached out to this man on social media, and although we can't confirm the legitimacy, he did respond and said that he'll tell his side of the story in a few days…And he told us that there is more details to come, but he did not disclose his location.”
According to the U.S. Justice Department, five people connected to Agridime collectively squandered $220 million from 2,200 victims between January 2021 and December 2023.
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.
