It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, September 17th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The Sheridan County Republican Party posted, then apparently took down, a statement last week touting Wyoming Constitution Party nominee Rebecca Bextel for governor over Republican Eric Barlow. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the party's chair says she doesn't know who made the post.
“You have all of these ‘cry foul’ from people who have, like Joanne True, was censured by the state Republican Party six years ago for backing a PAC, a nonpartisan PAC, which in turn gave some money to Democrats, and she called it staggering hypocrisy, saying, ‘Oh, okay. Now we have Republicans in leadership that are backing non-Republicans; the very thing I was censured for.’ The chair Sharon McCright told me that she wasn't sure why the post was taken down or why it was up. She's not sure who made it. She said she and two other people have access to the page, and those two people prefer not to be named.”
Gail Symons, an incoming Sheridan County GOP precinct committeewoman and Cowboy State Daily columnist, called the party’s fleeting gesture of support ironic.
Read the full story HERE.
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Peabody Energy, Union Pacific, and Mexican rail partner Ferromex have shipped coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to the Port of Guaymas, opening a Pacific export route for America's largest coal mine. Cowboy State Daily’s Emma Jane Jackson reports that one mining official calls it “a huge step.”
“Travis Deti, the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said this is a huge step in the right direction. After years of struggling to get coal out of the country with lack of access to ports on the West Coast. He said that he's hoping this new route offers a way for Wyoming coal to reach a larger customer base around the world. But House Majority Leader Scott Heiner, who also chairs the Wyoming House Minerals Business and Economic Development Committee, said that he would prefer to see Wyoming coal burned here at home and powering our own state's electrical grid.”
The shipments, part of a joint pilot project to test whether the cross-border supply chain could work, have already moved multiple trains from Wyoming to Mexico, with the first cargo vessel now heading across the Pacific to Vietnam.
Read the full story HERE.
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Melissa Harris can’t believe she’s about to go to trial for standing on her own property and stating what’s basically the unofficial Wyoming state motto: “Get the f*** off my lawn.” Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the Wright-area woman has been charged with breach of peace.
“Just telling someone, ‘hey, get the f off my lawn,’ whether it rises to the level of breach of peace, that's that's the real issue. In this case, because other people heard the vulgarity and apparently were offended, but this has been tried before the Wyoming Supreme Court, who has weighed in on it before too, saying that not just saying a vulgarity means that you're breaking the law. There has to be some kind of push behind it that incites some kind of violence or incites something in some way. While people will joke, hey, you know, you get people say that all the time, but you know, to actually lose your liberty for any length of time is a pretty serious matter.”
Harris is set for an Oct. 27 jury trial on a single misdemeanor breach of peace charge.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming-based author and longtime angler C.J. Box on Wednesday lampooned CNN's video of California Gov. Gavin Newsom fly fishing with news anchor Jake Tapper. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the author evaluated their casting techniques and says, “Everything about it is performative and wrong.”
“Look, when we see this, sometimes Trump's interior leader Ryan Zinke had his reel on backwards. Chuck Schumer tried to grill a hamburger raw with the cheese already on it before it reaches that almost done stage. And of course there was John Kerry's staged hunting trip. So we see from time to time politicians really try to put on the outdoorsman guys, and it flops. This, according to C.J. Box, best-selling author and Wyomingites, this was one of those times. He said, "What are they doing? You don't break your wrist with every cast. You know you try to lead with the fly, not the line. So he had a lot of critiques over this video that CNN set to suspenseful music that was supposed to be a focus on Gavin Newsom saying that he is not going to run for president if Kamala Harris decides to.”
If anyone knows anything about fly fishing it’s the 67-year-old author who says he’s been casting for about 30 years.
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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Sweetwater County School Board members said Wednesday that due to personnel rules they can't discuss Superintendent Joseph Libby's suspension. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that a recent investigation by the Wyoming Department of Education describes a culture of mistrust in the district.
“Mayor Max Mickelson served on the school board for two terms and a little bit before he left to become mayor. He also told me he has two kids in the school district. Mickelson said periods of leadership change naturally, create uncertainty, and parents are entitled to ask questions. He said, ‘But I hope we do not allow that uncertainty to obscure the 1000s of ordinary acts of competence and care happening in our schools every day.’ Interestingly, that really echoed a statement that School Board Chair Cole Wright made in his statement that he made on Wednesday, and he said, ‘the board recognizes that periods of leadership change create uncertainty and speculation. However, the board respectfully asks that we don't allow this period of time to take away from the tremendous amount of ordinary acts of care and proficiency displayed in our schools every day.’”
The Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to place Libby on leave after a lengthy executive session that took up most of the scheduled board meeting. The board also voted unanimously to eliminate the assistant superintendent position held by Nicole Bolton.
Read the full story HERE.
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An Idaho family is suing a trucker and a trucking company after a bullet struck their pickup with their 2-year-old inside in November. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore he suit says J&A Logistics was negligent in retaining the driver, who faces attempted second-degree murder charges.
“According to the suit, J&A Trucking had 150 driving violations in the 24 months before the November incident, as well as an at-fault driver incident that killed two people in Texas less than a week before the road rage incident that happened in Rawlins. The family is now seeking damages for emotional distress, trauma, and medical expenses.”
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Wyoming, also lists 53 false-log violations and dozens of equipment problems, including 50 tire-pressure violations, 38 brake-adjustment violations, 22 automatic brake-adjustment failures and 17 brake out-of-service violations.
Read the full story HERE.
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Twenty-five years ago yesterday, a drunk driver killed eight members of the University of Wyoming cross-country team on U.S. Highway 287, rocking the state five days after 9/11. Cowboy State Daily’s Kerry Drake reports that families, friends and the university are making sure the eight are always remembered, including an event that took place in Gillette.
“There was an event Wednesday in Gillette, called in memory of the eight. It's an eight-mile run, and it's in the hometown of Morgan McLaren, who was one of the stars of the track team. He had been an all-state all-state cross country champion, and went on to the university. And I talked to his brother yesterday, and he was filled with memories of, you know, how competitive they were, and it was it was nice to see that he had so many fond memories of his of his brother, who he said he was well his brother was much younger, he was much better than any of them.”
After the crash, UW sophomore Anne Hedderman summed up for The Associated Press how the community was coping with the horrific national and local news: “It was blackness upon blackness.”
Read the full story HERE.
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The three-way race for Wyoming's House District 11 pits Libertarian Ryan Shollenberger against Republican Dan McIntosh and Democrat Britney Tennant. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that's one of Wyoming's rare “purple” districts, where the libertarian's run for office is a wildcard.
“We got a Libertarian in the house running for House District 11 against Britney Tennant. That's a well-known Democrat animal rescue person in Cheyenne, and Dan McIntosh, who was born and raised in that area, and has a resounding victory coming out of his Republican primary. And so it's really interesting to watch this seat that has gone in the not so distant past to Democrats, in the more recent past in tight races to Republicans. Now we're going to go ahead and inject a Libertarian in there and see what happens.”
For around 93% of Wyoming legislative seats in recent history, being a Republican equals a general election win. But House District 11 is a rare “purple” seat with a tight margin between the two major parties.
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.
