It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, September 4th. I’m Mac Watson.
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We start off with an update. Five days after Timothy Smith vanished in a deadly Grand Canyon flash flood, there still is no sign of the Wyoming hiker. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the National Park Service (who is leading the search) is still calling it a search-and-rescue, not recovery, mission.
“The search for Star Valley resident Timothy Smith has been ongoing for almost a week as of Friday morning. National Park Service investigators are still calling this a rescue mission, not a recovery mission, which is important to his family as they wait patiently to learn more about what happened to their father. In their latest update, Timothy Smith's family said that their hearts are breaking, and they remain anxious as they wait for more information, but the search and rescue teams are actively looking, and they are so grateful that they are.”
Smith was hiking Saturday with longtime friends 46-year-old John Giusti, and 42-year-old Brent Rosenkranz, 42, both of Granbury, Texas, when a violent flash flood swept through Bright Angel Canyon.
Searchers have since recovered the bodies of both men.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Arapahoe-area pastor who made headlines for a controversial sermon describing Northern Arapaho Tribal sundance rituals as idolatry, and urging fidelity to Jesus, has filed petitions for protection against two women who have led protests against her. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Foundations For Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas tells Cowboy State Daily harassing and threatening behavior from protest leaders Alice Thomas and Darci Quiver has been pronounced and ongoing.
“Sarah Lucas has filed petitions for protection orders against Darcy Quiver and Alice Thomas, two of the primary protest leaders for the past two months since the controversial sermon, and the the petitions say that they are engaging threatening behavior. The petition pertaining to Quiver says that she is documenting and posting the family's activities online. The one pertaining to Thomas notes that Thomas did publicly post a photograph of Lucas's house and her home address, and when I interviewed Sarah Lucas, she said, ‘Oh no, there's a packet. There's more documentation of this kind of behavior.’ She said that she wants to air it in court rather than in the media before the court hearing. She has said that they are refusing to leave and her attorneys have sent at least one tribal government a letter saying they're defending religious liberty.”
Lucas preached on July 5 against a portion of the Sundance, which she characterized as praying to pipes. She urged tribal members to “tear down the idols” and trust in Jesus.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Cheyenne man says he went out of his mind when he allegedly slashed 52 tires on 22 vehicles parked in front of their homes at a low-income apartment complex. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that 47-year-old German Ramirez Jimenez blurted out that he lost his mind and was “on medication” during his Thursday afternoon first appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court before the judge shut him down.
“I talked to a neighbor of his. He says he knows the guy. When he saw the surveillance video that showed him doing it, what he was more surprised about was how nonchalant he looked. That he just was just casually going and and and stabbing these tires with his knife. But in his words, it looked like he was just bored doing it. He didn't look angry or mad or anything. The victims here, most of them had multiple tires flat, not just one. it's a big expense for someone who can't afford and hasn't budgeted in for an emergency like something like this. So, in his words, it's taking food out of my two-year-old boy's mouth. So it does go a little far beyond just some vandalism.”
Ramirez Jimenez is one charge of felony property destruction which could land him in prison for 10 years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. In the meantime, the judge set his bond at $3,000 cash only and scheduled a Sept. 11th preliminary hearing.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Colorado man was killed Wednesday on Teton Pass when his Ford F-250, which was towing a trailer, crossed the highway and launched into the air before crashing. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Kelly Halpin, who lives at the base of the pass says, “Unfortunately, it's become normal.”
“The Wyoming Highway Patrol says that the truck was picking up speed as it went downhill. It crossed into the opposite lane and then into the opposite driveway, where it went slightly uphill before going airborne and landing on its side. The driver was injured, and 41-year-old Javier Chavez, a passenger, was killed. Highway patrol lists speed and an unspecified factor as possible contributors to this crash. Local resident Kelly Halpin lives near the highway, and from her back porch, she was able to see the smoke from this crash. She says that this is happening almost every three or four weeks that someone's getting killed.”
The succession of wrecks has pushed citizens to start Make Teton Pass Safer, a community coalition seeking immediate restrictions and longer-term changes to the highway. The group’s current push includes permanent variable-message signs and highway advisory radio stations at key decision points, giving RVs, trucks and vehicles towing trailers a chance to divert through Snake River Canyon south of Jackson Hole before beginning the climb.
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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The proposed 41,000-acre Laramie Range Wind Project overcame one hurdle with Tuesday's permitting, but many more remain for the 139-turbine proposal on private and state land near Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that includes meeting 26 conditions not yet made public.
“There's still a long road ahead for this huge project. There's a lot of permits that still need to be had, a lot of meetings that they still that the developer still needs to attend, and a project this size, the the sheer size of it makes the process somewhat complex, and so it's caused a lot of questions and I think confusions among people as to what exactly is going on, and does this mean that we're going to see 139 wind turbines, you know, like in a month, and it's not. There's a lot that needs to happen before then.”
Keith Guille, a spokesperson with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality tells Cowboy State Daily that the permittee must meet all local, state, and federal requirements. That will require returning to the Laramie County Commissioners and could necessitate meetings with other agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Land Commission.
Read the full story HERE.
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While two hunters snoozed in the cab of their pickup in the wee hours Tuesday along the I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne, a thief swiped a suitcase and hand-roasted coffee from Belize from the bed. But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the alleged thief left expensive hunting gear, a chainsaw, and camera inside a backpack.
“They pulled into the Lincoln Memorial up there on the pass between China and Laramie, and tried to catch some Z's, and the one guy said at some point he saw a white van with duct taped windows pulled up next to him. and he had a suitcase with some clothes and some coffee that he roasted himself from beans, from coffee beans from Belize, and they couldn't find that suitcase. And they finally put two and two together and figured out that the guy in the duct taped van had probably gone through the back of the pickup and taken the suitcase. But what makes it even weirder is the guy told me there was a chainsaw sitting right there. There was a tote with all my hunting optics. You know things like the rangefinder binoculars right there. There was a $500 sleeping bag right there, and the dude takes a suitcase full of clothes and coffee beans. He got a good cup of coffee out of it. Basically, is what amounts to.”
Both hunters tell Cowboy State Daily that they didn’t report the theft to police, but did have to take an unexpected trip to Walmart to buy $400 worth of new clothes to continue their trip.
Read the full story HERE.
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Three high-profile Wyoming moms condemn the dark, baby-hurting jokes surfacing during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports they also urge thoughtful reflection on the trial, and some said they're grateful for the spotlight on post-partum conditions.
“So there's two things in play here, right? There's the trial, which is still in the deliberation phase. Don't know if she's to be held criminally responsible for strangling those kids, and then there's the bizarre and boisterous social reaction to it, where there's some people in solidarity with the postpartum psychosis, depression. There are some people disgusted by Clancy, and there are some people who have gone so far as to express their solidarity by making jokes about hurting their own kids. I talked to three high-profile moms of Wyoming. One is a mommy blogger. One leads an advocacy group for missing people, and one leads a true crime podcast. They were disgusted at that kind of joking.”
The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial was sent home Thursday after yet another day without a verdict, due to return Friday morning.
Read the full story HERE.
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Would you ever get into a fight over a goat? Well, a group of knuckleheads nearly threw punches and rocks at each other in Glacier National Park because one hiker was upset that two tourists left a trail to get a better view of some mountain goats. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one man shouted, “You want to die?”
“This quickly escalated into shouting, swearing. They were squaring up to start punching each other. Rocks were picked up and almost thrown, and racial slurs were hurled. And this was all because guys got too close to mountain goats. That raises the question of what you do in these circumstances. And at the end of the day, for as passionate as everybody was in this whole thing, this was an almost violent confrontation because of a bunch of goats.”
Fortunately, the incident didn’t escalate further. And the goats? They had run off well before the men started arguing.
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.
