It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, March 16th. I’m Mac Watson.
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A Wyoming reporter faces 10 felony charges for allegedly forging documents and lying about her credentials while opposing a controversial wind farm project in southeastern Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that according to court documents, investigators found evidence she tried to deceive the state's environmental permitting panel.
“Platte County authorities asked Converse County Sheriff's investigators to come in and help and put this investigation together. And in addition to the documents that already formed part of that meeting, discussing whether they were real, whether the authors, purported authors, actually wrote them, there were other things like that she supposedly, or I guess, allegedly, lied under oath about her credentials, where she had gone to college, what kind of degree she had, what kind of land she owned. So there's three counts of possession of forged documents, there's three counts of forgery, and there's four counts of perjury.”
40-years-old April Marie Morganroth, who also has listed aliases of April Marie Hamilton and April Marie McClellan, now faces 10 felonies in Wheatland Circuit Court. If convicted, she could face up to 65 years in prison and $65,000 in fines.
Read the full story HERE.
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Thursday’s windstorm was one for the record books with the highest wind speed ever recorded at the Cheyenne airport. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that although 14,000 people lost power, it was restored quickly by linemen who dangled from cherry-pickers in the record-breaking winds.
“It was a record breaking windstorm, really, 109 mile an hour gust was measured near Chugwater, 92 mile an hour gusts that are at the airport here in Cheyenne, 94 there's a couple 98 mile per hour gusts. At one point, the highest point, 14,000 customers in and around Cheyenne were without power. Black Hills energy reported that, and a lot of that was down power lines, broken power poles.”
Cowboy State Daily’s Meteorologist Don Day says that Along with record-setting gusts, that same spot near Chugwater that produced the 109 mph gust also had legitimate hurricane-force winds, which were sustained 75.2 MPH for 2 minutes.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Gillette therapist has installed a "Wind Phone" in a park to allow a person to pick up the receiver and speak freely to a loved one to share memories or grief without judgment. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports this is the first of its kind in Wyoming.
“The concept is to put an old style rotary phone in a in a garden or idyllic place, so you can literally sit in serenity with your deceased loved one and process your grief by you can either pick up the phone and call that person, pretend to call that person, or you can just sit in the space and talk to your loved one. She was able to speak to her grandparents and her friend.”
A Japanese garden designer came up with the concept of a “Wind Phone” following the death of his cousin in 2011. He wanted to provide grieving people with a symbolic mechanism to connect with their loved ones in a serene setting to promote healing and reflection.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Kaycee area rancher has been charged with theft after prosecutors say he tried to steal an elk head from hunters who helicoptered into public land near his ranch. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the hunters say they caught the rancher trying to steal the head and antlers off of one of the elk.
“The new development is, is that rancher, or the person who was allegedly the rancher that the hunters say has been charged with misdemeanor theft, and so there has been a charge filed in connection with this, entered or not guilty plea. Trial is scheduled for June. I did talk to one of the hunters from whom the elkhead was there was an alleged attempt at theft, and he said, ‘Yeah, you know, it's cool that they're following up on this, because we did file a report with both Game and Fish and the sheriff's office.’”
The court case against Brett D. DeLapp continues with a pretrial hearing set for June 10 and a trial to begin June 26 in Johnson County Circuit Court after the landowner pleaded not guilty last month, according to a letter and court documents.
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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Grocery store beef prices jumped 15% last year, and the USDA says they're not done climbing. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that across Wyoming, families are cutting out the middleman and buying whole, half or quarter cows straight from local ranchers – and saving a lot of money.
“This might not be news, but there's a lot of us out there that don't realize that you can go out and buy a quarter, a half or a whole cows’ worth of beef. And you know, beef from Wyoming, beef from perhaps your neighbor down the road, who raises cattle more and more in Wyoming, there are smaller processors, and there are ranchers willing to team up with consumers to create a buying opportunity that they say is better than relying on your local grocery store. Why not get a better tasting, less expensive, healthier cut of beef from right here in Wyoming?”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture report paints a grim picture across the meat case: beef and veal prices were 15% higher in January than the year before, and the agency predicts another 5.5% increase through 2026 as the national cattle herd continues to shrink while consumer demand stays strong.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming's famous 21-foot Tumble Inn Cowboy sign, which was falling apart and rescued from remote Powder River, has been re-painted, polished and the neon glass tubes are being restored. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that once completed, it will be publicly displayed in its full neon glory.
“The 21 foot tumble inside that used to stand alongside the road, the highway and Powder River is looking pretty good. and all that's left now is for the neon lights that are to cover them to be completed. And that's that's a little bit of a job still yet to go, according to the neon artist Connie Morgan. And so the plan is to have that put up along West Yellowstone highway on the west side of Casper.”
The sign’s origins can be traced to a Wyoming oilman who wanted to own a steakhouse and bought the log restaurant and bar. He found the sign in Las Vegas and had it revamped for his purposes.
Read the full story HERE.
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Casper Fire-EMS Capt. Brian Dixon's diagnosis of lymphoma is the latest in a line of Casper firefighters diagnosed with cancer, the number one killer of firefighters. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that Brian is
“It's kind of daunting to realize that only in the last few years, decade at the most, there really has been a consensus about how threatening and how dangerous this work really is for long term cancer. It is now officially the top, the number one line, of duty-cause of death for firefighters. That's seven distinct cancers that have collectively been identified as the number one cause of line of duty death for firefighters, and this is just in the last few years. Brian Dixon is the third captain from the Casper department alone to get cancer, and two previous captains have died of cancer, one of pancreatic and one of testicular.”
According to Dr. Jeff Burgess, director of the Center for Firefighter Health and Collaborative Research at the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health, research in recent years has made it unequivocally clear: cancer is the highest occupational risk for firefighters worldwide.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Landmand Golf Course in Nebraska is called the toughest place to get a tee time in the U.S., booking all 11,000 of its tee times in 45 minutes. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports two Sheridan golfers were locked out but were selected in a lottery to represent Wyoming in an August tournament.
“On New Year's Eve, Josh had his computer set up in Sheridan. He was ready to pounce when the tee times for 2026 became available. He spots a link on the Landmand Golf Club website that is announcing this new tournament called the heartbeat. And so he just on a lark, put his name in with his friend Jared, and they got it.”
The format is unlike anything on the national amateur scene: 52 two-man teams, one representing each of the 50 states, one for Washington, D.C., and one wildcard. Three tournament rounds plus a practice round. The whole package for $7,000 per team.
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.
