It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, June 11th. I’m Mac Watson
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Sgt. Zach Burns has been identified as the Carbon County deputy who took multiple bullets in a shootout with a suspect in Baggs on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the sheriff says Burns is in critical condition but improving.
“We still don't know who the suspect is. He died in a shootout with officers. We still don't know how many officers were involved in that, and we don't know, obviously, his identity, whether he was a local guy or whether you know he worked somewhere else and lived in Baggs. When I was in Baggs on Monday and Tuesday, everybody I talked to, nobody seemed to know who he was, so a lot of them were speculating it's probably not someone who grew up here. Otherwise, we would know.”
According to the sheriff’s report, Burns was shot in the neck, arm, and hip. The report also says the suspect died later after another car chase.
Read the full story HERE.
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Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidates courted a largely Christian audience with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the debate was vigorous, but polite.
“It's tough to stand out in a crowd that big. So you have Kevin Christensen talking about saying a prayer with his soldiers moments before invading Iraq. You have Jillian Balow talking about the sacrifices that she's so grateful for that women made so she could be an adoptive mom. You have Bo Biteman harkening to the founding fathers, reiterating the the role of the Congress from the Constitution, you have Chuck Gray talking about the media and insiders, and so there were some bolder overtures that the candidates undertook, possibly in their effort to distinguish themselves from this crowded field.”
The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan in downtown Cheyenne, to these seven GOP candidates.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that rancher Mike Vickrey told the Senate committee that as he sees it, he and other Upper Basin farmers and ranchers have gone above and beyond to conserve water.
“That rancher said basically, in a nutshell, we're doing all we can to conserve water up here on the upper basin. There's only so much to go around. Maybe we need to rethink the allocations, because this all flows back - no pun intended - this all this all flows back to the Colorado River Compact, which was drawn up in 1922 and a lot of people have said there were a lot, there was a lot more water in the river, and a lot fewer people demanding it back in 1922 Maybe we need to change the way we do things.”
Gov. Gordon, along with Senators Barrasso and Lummis met Tuesday with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 57-year-old woman who was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of a newborn boy in early 1988 repeatedly claimed the baby wasn’t hers. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that investigators say DNA testing shows it’s 1.97 million times more likely Eva Martinez is the baby’s mother than anyone else.
“The sheriff's office sent the case and sent DNA samples. and what that lab was able to do was narrow this baby's DNA down to two potential relatives, not direct relatives, but one who could be a grandfather-type. They tracked back to finding the actual biological father of this baby. Apparently he was living with this woman at that time, back in Cheyenne, almost 40 years ago, telling them, okay, this is who I was with, and they were able to get a DNA sample from her tested, and it came up that it's the probability that she's the mother is extremely high.”
Cheyenne resident Eva Martinez was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of who has become known over the past 38 years as “Baby John Doe,” whose body was gruesomely discovered on Feb. 28, 1988, near a culvert off a county road, according to court documents. She faces a first degree murder charge.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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A rural neighborhood north of Cheyenne told Black Hills Energy it doesn't want a planned natural gas power plant during "a very contentious” local-only meeting this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one resident says “The only reason you’d do that is to put a data center there.”
“It's a 935 acre parcel, and so you're going to put power generation on that. What kind of noise is that going to make? How is that going to look? You know, it's a pretty scenic area. It's a historic ranching community, pretty residential. It's like I'm told that the roads out there, like a two-lane dirt road, and so you know people are worried about traffic, they're worried about noise, they're worried about quality of life, how that's going to affect their property values, and kind of all the things you would expect.”
The project will trigger a multi-year Wyoming Industrial Siting Division review process, even as Black Hills Energy pursues a multibillion-dollar merger with Northwestern Energy.
Read the full story HERE.
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U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis says she still backs renaming U.S. Highway 287 as I-47 — aka “The Trump Interstate.” Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that’s despite the fact that the main sponsor said it may not be a priority after he lost a primary race.
“The four lane interstate that John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, proposed to zip through the state of Wyoming, is now in limbo after Cornyn lost his primary election to Attorney General Ken Paxton. Senator Cynthia Lummis is a co-sponsor of the bill. On Wednesday afternoon, she told reporters that she still supports the bill. Right now, it is in limbo. She declined to comment further on what will happen.”
The I-47 Future Interstate Act proposed designating the roughly 1,800-mile U.S. 287 corridor from the Gulf Coast of Texas to Montana as a future interstate route. The route runs through Wyoming communities including Laramie, Rawlins, Jeffrey City, Lander, Dubois and Moran before continuing north into Montana.
Read the full story HERE.
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The state found widespread failures with Sweetwater County School District 1’s special ed program, giving the district a year to correct them. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that one former school board member says, “This wasn't a failure by just one person. This is a systemic failure.”
“The report came out this week, and it shows the school district to be in violation of providing special education services through properly credentialed professionals. It also shows that the school district failed to deliver services in accordance with students’ IEPs, or individualized education programs, and it also shows that parents were not given meaningful opportunities to participate in their students' individual education processes. Former board member Cole Ceppi said that they had seen some of these same problems with their own child in the district when he was a member and their child was in the special department, so he said to realize this is a more systemic problem makes me incredibly disappointed.”
The WDE conducted a five-day special monitoring review in February after receiving complaints and reports of possible noncompliance from parents, current and former staff members, and media accounts.
Read the full story HERE.
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More than 69 miles of the Beartooth Highway are still closed because of a late spring snowstorm in southern Montana. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that officials are warning motorists not to use “map apps” as people have become stranded like a German couple who got lost in Wyoming.
“The Bear Tooth Highway closed at 7:45am Wednesday morning, and it was closed all day due to snow. There is more snow incoming. There's a winter weather advisory for southern Montana, including the Montana portion of the Beartooth Highway until Thursday morning, and Cowboy and Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said it's entirely possible that the Beartooth Highway and several roads in Yellowstone could close again this weekend, because we've got another cold weather system moving in that'll bring more rain and snow that could easily freeze in the ice on the roads overnight.”
The Beartooth Highway sits at the northern edge of the Yellowstone Plateau, a massive landform that covers northwest Wyoming and southern Montana. A rugged area that is its own environment. Drivers ascend from 5,200 feet to 10,947 feet in just 12 miles.
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.
