It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, March 27th. I’m Mac Watson.
A Cheyenne junior high school teacher seen on video on his knees in front of a female student telling her that “I did something very wrong” has been removed from the classroom. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the district attorney’s office is reviewing the case.
“The district attorney has said that, yes, we do have that, we haven’t made a decision yet. They’re reviewing it. So far, there’s been no legal action taken about that. However, in following up with some parents, with students at the school, especially one that has a student in that person’s class, the parent told me that this teacher is no longer teaching at the school.”
The video of the incident was posted to multiple social media pages and elicited strong responses from parents that ranged from anger with the teacher for allegedly putting his hands on a student to speculation about what the girl might have done to provoke the situation.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The Platte County Attorney’s Office has nearly doubled the possible penalties for a Wyoming reporter accused of forging exhibits in an environmental case tied to her staunch opposition to a wind farm. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the 10 new counts against April Marie Morganroth, also known as the Wyoming-based reporter Marie Hamilton, allege that she convinced her landlords that she’d been approved for a home loan to buy their property, and grants to upgrade it.
“We are now up to 20 felony charges. And this case affidavit is different, rather than focusing on things that she submitted and said to the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council, it focuses on her allegedly offering proof that she had loans and grants secured to improve and strike a deal with this home that she was looking at. On the one hand, she's accused of running this deception campaign with the industrial siting Council while opposing a wind project. On the other hand, she's accused of tricking these homeowners into believing that she had secured a loan toward the home and grants to improve it. So different matters.”
Hamilton was already facing 10 felony charges in a March 9th Wheatland Circuit Court case, as she’s accused of submitting forged documents and lying under oath before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
Read the full story HERE.
–
A 15-year-old Texas boy sold his champion pig for a record $505,000 at the Houston Livestock Show and gets to keep about 10%. Wyoming FFA's Stacy Broda says although the money is always fun, raising livestock is more about teaching responsibility.
“Landry Mabry is a 15 year old student from Oglesby, Texas who just competed in the Houston stock and rodeo show, which is the biggest livestock show in the world. And his pig netted a record breaking $505,000 the money, most of it goes towards scholarships for FFA and 4h students, Mabry himself will take home less than 10% of those earnings, which still isn't a bad thing. It's such a public show and just a positive experience for these kids who participate in these agricultural programs.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest livestock show in the world. This year’s junior auction sales brought in a staggering $35,217,099 — money that largely goes toward agricultural education and scholarships.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The Conservative Political Action Conference has confused which Frank Chapman of Wyoming is speaking at its Texas event this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that they are promoting the Frank who is running for U.S. House, but credit him wrongly with being Wyoming's first public defender in 1978 - when he was 10.
“CPAC is a massive conservative group that was touting Frank Chapman, a Teton county rancher, as one of its speakers at a conservative event later this week, or I guess, throughout this week. And they they talk about him being a rancher and having a ranch in Moran, and those things are correct. But then they call him the first public defender of Wyoming. Had he been appointed public defender in 1978 he would have been about 10 and that time, and you know, they talk about him having a personal injury defense practice, those sound more like the older Frank Chapman of Kelly Wyoming, who's still in private practice, who's 75 years old, and who told me that he couldn't run for Congress because he doesn't want to.”
CPAC’s Wednesday post advertised the congressional candidate as a “confirmed speaker” for the CPAC USA 2026 event in Grapevine, Texas this week. Tickets to those event packages range from $45 to $30,000.
Read the full story HERE.
–
I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
–
A 28-year-old Wheatland woman is accused of soliciting a friend to kill her husband, and wanting the deed done quickly because she was afraid he’d take their three children from her. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the husband discovered their text conversation plotting to kill him and went to police.
“This Wheatland woman is accused of pretty serious charges, of soliciting first degree murder. Which carries life in prison, the same as if you had pulled the trigger. The motive for wanting her husband taken, taken out of the picture, appears to be her kids. They were having a kind of a rough patch, and she was afraid that she was in danger of losing the kids. They were having a kind of a rough patch, and she was afraid that she was in danger of losing the kids.”
Molly Hamby made her initial appearance in Platte County Circuit Court on Thursday, charged with solicitation of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit forgery.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The Oscar-winning movie, “The Revenant,” has a lot of Wyoming woven into it because the book that inspired it was written by Lovell-born and Torrington-raised author Michael Punke. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Punke says he’s proud to have grown up in Wyoming.
“It's the Wyoming landscape that informs Michael Punke’s book about his struggles so that is just woven all through the book. Michael, his dad, was a biologist. He took him out on many nature walks, hunting, fishing. Taught him all the wildflowers. He also spent a lot of time out at Fort Laramie, where he got to do things like fire, 1870s mountain Howitzer, baked bread the old time way. This famous movie really has a lot of Wyoming woven into it.”
Many Wyomingites know that the Oscar-winning movie “The Revenant” is based on the true story of mountain man Hugh Glass.
Attacked by a grizzly bear in South Dakota, Glass became a legend in his lifetime after he crawled back to civilization, intent on taking revenge on Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald, who had abandoned him and left him to die.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Long before the famous COVID-era censorship lawsuit Missouri v Biden ended Wednesday, Rep. Harriet Hageman called out the federal government for badgering social media companies. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Hageman says “It was pretty blatant what was going on.”
“Hageman said you could tell when this was going on with social media that the federal government was involved. That issue was something that actually thrust her into the limelight in 2021 before she was in Congress. In the case documents, they spend quite a bit of time comparing the timing of Jen Psaki, the White House spokesperson's comments, with the emails that later came to light, like Jen Psaki would say something like, there will be consequences. We're looking at law changes. We're looking at enforcement changes, if we don't see some of this change. And so there was a tinge of looming there by the federal government that was apparent even before all these emails exploded into public view in 2023.”
The federal government’s demands that social media companies censor some COVID-19 information and some 2020 election content ranged so broadly, they impacted memes showing Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV screen, a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, posts saying COVID-19 originated in a laboratory, and posts critical of the COVID vaccine, court documents say.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The "Voices and Votes" traveling exhibit on American democracy and voting history begins a six-stop tour across Wyoming starting April 18 in Sheridan. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the exhibit is based on a display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
“Democracy will be on display as the Voices and Votes Exhibit from the Smithsonian tours Wyoming. The Smithsonian source I spoke to said he really hopes this rises above the partisan bickering and provides context that that might be a unifier, or at least, help, really show that this is a deep tradition and wonderful tradition that this country has here on our 250th birthday.”
The exhibit features historic campaign memorabilia, patriotic music, old lobbying illustrations and special tie-ins to states and their unique voting histories such as Wyoming’s pioneering efforts for women’s suffrage.
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.
