It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 10th. I’m Mac Watson
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A Big Horn County grandfather and mother have been charged after a baby died Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports the infant was found in a 95-degree trailer filled with feces, garbage, and a 5-gallon bucket of human waste.
“Destiny's duty said she woke up sometime after 1am to feed the baby and put the baby back to bed, and in the morning around 9am she found the baby in the crib unresponsive. She was on her way to Three Rivers Hospital when she called 911 and when she got to the hospital, investigators saw that she herself was covered in dirt. She had what appeared to be head lice and a strong odor coming from her and the baby. When they looked at the baby's body, there was dirt under its fingernails, as well as an insect that was crawling inside the diaper. Investigators obtained a search warrant, and when they went into the camper where the family lived, they found horrific conditions. There was a bucket of human feces in the bathroom, no running water, no air conditioning, and the temperature was 95 degrees inside their home.”
56-year-old Travis Study is charged with felony child endangerment alleging exposure to meth, along with misdemeanor counts of reckless endangering, child endangerment, possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.
22-year-old Destynie Study is charged with misdemeanor reckless endangering of a child and child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman is demanding answers from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg about how its Cheyenne data center contaminated the city’s wastewater system. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that in a Thursday letter, Rep. Hageman writes she’s “deeply concerned.”
“Hageman issued a letter Thursday to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which is a Facebook giant that also is that also has data centers in Wyoming and Cheyenne, demanding to know things like how could a rare bacteria leak from a closed loop data center cooling system into Cheyenne's wastewater system, and now the company fired back, saying, you know, we haven't found the bacterium in our system, whereas the Board of Public Utilities announced the data center as the source of the bacterium. She really focused her questioning on how could something leak from this, in, you know, how could a rare bacteria leak from this.”
That public announcement about the contamination came more than four months after the Meta contractor — which is building an $800 million data center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed wastewater system with the rare bacterial contaminant.
Read the full story HERE.
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With Pathfinder Reservoir less than 24% full, some farmers and ranchers in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska are being warned they could be out of irrigation water by the first week of August. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that there is a backup plan, but it’s not foolproof.
“The snow pack has been historically low, it was the worst on record this year, and the reservoir where this irrigation, where this irrigation channel originates, is called the Pathfinder Reservoir, and it is at just about 23% right now. So the levels were already low, and it caused the irrigation canals to open up later in the year than they normally would have, and so farmers and ranchers are already hurting for water, and just weeks after the canals open, they're being told we may run out of water first part of August. the Pathfinder Irrigation District has previously said that they are against pulling water from other sources because they have to rent it, they basically pay to use it, and then they're required to return it somehow before the end of the irrigation season, so it's really a lose-lose as far as that goes.”
The district operates a vast canal network that diverts water from the North Platte River at Whalen Dam, delivering irrigation to more than 100,000 acres of farmland. The water originates in Pathfinder Reservoir southwest of Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Cheyenne boy who was 14 when he allegedly shot his mom in the head and charged as an adult with first-degree murder should be in juvenile court, his attorney argues in a Tuesday court motion. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports public defender Emily Williams claims Havoc Leone’s mother “verbally and physically abused” him.
“The motion does lay out some of the arguments the defense plans to make, like the mother is was allegedly abusive to this teen, verbally and physically, they, he was homeschooled for like six years and was kept isolated and didn't have any friends, and just wasn't as mature as other teens his age would have been, so and they mean there's several, they mentioned several times in the motion that society is not kept safer by trying him as an adult, that the extra help that he'll get in the juvenile court actually will make society safer, whether that's that, whether that's really the case or not, that's up to a judge to decide.”
Despite the arguments of abuse and his age — 14 is the cutoff in Wyoming to be charged as an adult — Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl says her office believes the adult charge is appropriate and will oppose Williams’ motion.
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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Two months after a Casper woman was killed during a child custody exchange with her ex-boyfriend, her mother, Shannon Clark, says she wants people to know who her daughter was. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that mom says she misses her daughter everyday and “The quiet moments are the hardest.”
“Jackson's mother, Shannon Clark, talked to Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. She wants people to remember her daughter as more than just a victim. She says that her daughter, Ashley, loved her son more than anything. The couple's three-year-old son witnessed the shooting and is now living with his grandparents. Clark said that is now her mission in life to raise Ashley's son the way she would have wanted.”
Friends have also established the GoFundMe campaign to help provide long-term financial support for Will as he grows up without his parents. For Clark, though, her daughter’s legacy isn't measured by memorials or fundraisers. It's measured every morning when a little boy wakes up in his grandparents' home.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Uinta County rancher charged with videotaping two others torturing a sickly moose by roping, riding, and spurring it is continuing toward a trial date next month. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that two other men in the case have entered plea deals with a special prosecutor.
“Two of three people charged in Uinta County for abusing a moose have entered a plea deal with a special prosecutor, and that deal says that they'll have three years of probation, and they also had to tell the court about the third defendant, who's charged with videotaping both of their abuse, one riding the mute, the moose, spurring it, and the other one lassoing the moose, and call and pulling it with a horse, those were separate incidents back in May 2021 So now the third defendant is still headed to a trial that's going to be in August, August 11th, in Uinta County.”
Court records show 54-year-old Justin Martin of Evanston, faces trial on charges of two counts of accessory before the fact to felony cruelty to animals, and two counts of accessory before or after the fact to wanton taking of a big-game animal, both misdemeanors. His son, Range Martin of Evanston, 23, pleaded guilty June 22 to a felony cruelty to animals charge in return for the dropping of two misdemeanor charges. Kylan Platte, 22, of Malad City, Idaho, took a similar deal and plead guilty to felony cruelty to animals June 30.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming local government leaders in data center-heavy areas who spoke with Cowboy State Daily on Thursday say they've never signed nondisclosure agreements with data center companies. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the agreements can be legal if built correctly, however.
“We've been hearing for a long time that local public officials signed non-disclosure agreements with data centers while being courted by those companies. I contacted the leaders of communities that have known data centers or have been implicated as having them. I called county chairs and mayors, and everyone that talked to me on Thursday said no, I've never signed any such NDA.”
Tom Lubnau, a Gillette-based attorney who’s worked at length with Wyoming’s public-records law, tells Cowboy State Daily that state law allows for local governments to sign NDAs with data center companies, but it’s complicated.
Read the full story HERE.
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The National Weather Service is predicting a record-breaking weekend for many locations in Wyoming with “dangerously hot conditions” in the forecast. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that temperatures will be hottest in the Big Horn Basin with Worland and Greybull expected to top 110 degrees.
“This isn't a one-and-done. We're not going to get relief out of this. Between at least Saturday night and Monday evening, we're going to have record breaking or potentially record breaking temperatures, and it's going to continue to be hot going into Tuesday, Wednesday, and possibly beyond that. So, people need to be aware and be prepared, because this is going to get worse before it gets better. Those aren't my words. That's from Cowboy State Daily, the meteorologist Don Day.”
If there is a bit of good news with the upcoming heat, it won’t feel quite as hot as the thermometer says. Because the atmosphere will be mostly dry, the heat shouldn’t be amplified by humidity.
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.
