It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, October 27th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel appeared on Tucker Carlson's show over the weekend, claiming Eric Barlow is a Democrat and is against fossil fuels. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports she also said the U.S. didn't land on the moon.
“A lot of the interview was her oft-repeated concerns about what she calls scams in Teton County, and complaints about her opponent, Senator Eric Barlow, whom she consistently levels claims against. This is not the first time Carlson has taken an interest in Wyoming politics. He co-founded the Daily Caller News Foundation with backing from the late Wyoming philanthropist Foster Friess, and then Carlson turned around in June and gave a $7,000 campaign donation to Friess’ son Steve Friess in the latter's House campaign.”
Bextel vies for election against the Republican nominee, state Sen. Eric Barlow, and the Democratic nominee, Ken Casner. The election is Nov. 3.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming judge has rejected a plea deal that would have given a Riverton man 18- to-20 years in prison for shooting a woman in the face and leaving their 5-year-old daughter alone in a motel room with her dead mother. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports 25-year-old Sterling Louis Black Jr. could once again face a second-degree murder trial in the March 7 death of Angelina Rose Bell.
“Because this was a binding agreement, Judge Jason Conder couldn't simply sentence him to anything that he wanted. He either had to accept the plea or reject it altogether, which is what he did. The rejected agreement means that both parties have to decide where they'll go from there. I did reach out to the defense attorney. He did not respond before publication. I also reached out to Angelina Bell's father, Byron Bell. He said this was the deal of a century, and he was very relieved that the judge rejected it.”
Bell said some of the deepest hurt comes from losing the future he had pictured — growing older alongside his daughter and watching her and her “sisters,” the cousins she grew up close to, raise their children together.
Read the full story HERE.
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Bomgaars won’t sell firearms to Colorado residents at the national chain’s Wyoming stores because of a clash in state regulations. Cowboy State Daily’s Emma Jane Jackson reports that a Cheyenne gun shop owner says, “Colorado is the gift that keeps on giving” to smaller businesses.
“I talked to Ryan Allen, the owner of Frontier Arms Supply, and he said that they, as a small gun shop, they're able to navigate these restrictions. Like Colorado customers have to abide by Colorado's three-day waiting period, but his store is small enough that it's easy for them to just hold those guns, mark them, and release them at the right time to Colorado customers, and he said that he's actually seen an influx, both with people buying firearms as well as other things like ammunition and shotgun shells, either that aren't accessible in Colorado or people just coming to Wyoming to avoid the 6.5 percent increased tax on these things in Colorado.”
Aaron Bomgaars, executive vice president of Bomgaars, tells Cowboy State Daily that the company has a statewide policy in Wyoming prohibiting sales to Colorado customers “out of an abundance of caution. We don’t allow sales of firearms to Colorado residents due to the differences in state regulations.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming GOP Chair Bryan Miller said the party won't endorse Eric Barlow for governor because he didn't commit to the Republican platform, and won't endorse Bextel because she's not a Republican. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports He also said Checkgate “destroyed the Freedom Caucus.”
“It's important to note a couple Freedom Caucus members are still standing, like Tomi Strock, Bill Allemand. But yes, they were largely demolished in the primary election. Miller credits CheckGate for that. The controversy in which Bextel handed out checks on the floor of the House a couple days before a bill she had championed was up for an introductory vote. And he said that there wasn't corruption, but it gave kind of a photo op attracting claims of corruption, which then drove what he called the leftist fundraising efforts headed into the primary.”
Miller lamented that the party landed at odds with President Donald Trump in the gubernatorial primary. Trump endorsed Degenfelder. Party leadership endorsed Bien.
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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Cheyenne police say a drunk man dressed as Black Spider-Man was found unconscious after being booted from a bar for trying to fight people. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports he told police that someone dressed as the traditional red-and-blue Spider-Man attacked him in the bar.
“I spoke with the Cheyenne Police Department spokeswoman Alex Farkas, who says they did find a man dressed as Spider-Man unconscious in the parking lot, but there was no evidence that he had been assaulted. In fact, she said that reports came in that he had actually tried to hit patrons at the Crown Bar and was thrown out by bouncers. When police found the alleged Spider-Man, he was unconscious and was later transported to the hospital. When police spoke with the man in the parking garage, he said that he didn't throw any of the punches; that there was another Spider-Man in the traditional red and blue costume, who had caused chaos at the Crown Bar. Police say he was heavily intoxicated, and they took him to the hospital. That Spider-Man, it should be noted, was dressed in a black costume, what's known as Spider-Noir.”
As far as an identity of the webslinger, Brian Snyder owns Bohemian Metals across from the parking garage and lives above his shop. He tells Cowboy State Daily he had, in fact, spotted a red-and-blue Spider-Man walking toward the Crown that night and took careful mental notes. Snyder describes the red-and-blue Spider-Man as “Too out of shape to be the real Spider-Man, kind of pudgy. Just imagine Jack Black stuffed in a Spider-Man costume.”
Read the full story HERE.
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After a hunter found two graves in the same spot from men who died 45 years apart, a gravesite researcher says she’s baffled by it. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Michelle Nelson says back then you were buried where you died.
“There's been little tidbits posted about this site previously, but you know she did some digging, and the one from 1877 was a soldier, possibly a civilian, a French civilian contractor, was working as a surveyor, and the story is that he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his rifle up there in 1877. The grave from 1922 was apparently a railroad tie hack, and she said her research revealed that he apparently died of a heart attack up there. But there's really no information like what he was doing in that location or how he ended up being buried right next to that other gentleman.”
Nelson said the site is obscure, but not undiscovered or entirely unknown. She provides information for the website Find A Grave, which offers information about little-known or undocumented burial sites.
Read the full story HERE.
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Better Wyoming Action & Research, a left-leaning PAC, has retracted about 20 false mailers it sent about GOP Albany County Sheriff candidate Daron Wyatt. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Wyatt says, “Even one of them being delivered with factually inaccurate information is an issue.”
“They tell me that only 20 copies of the false mailers were dispatched before that retraction. But but they have claimed things like that why it had been investigated by the FBI and that why it had destroyed torture evidence. He was really bothered by the false claims, and he's been burying a lot of false claims throughout the campaign by now. It's kind of an onslaught on Wyatt, to be honest. He did not vow any kind of legal action on Monday. He said right now he's just focused on taking the high road.”
Better Wyoming Action and Research endorsed incumbent Democratic nominee Aaron Appelhans on Monday.
Read the full story HERE.
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Thermopolis police report that a local man said he was drunk the night he shot up his neighbors’ homes last week and was caught on video in an apparent attempt to ambush one of them. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that police also say that it was lucky no one answered the door that night.
“This guy apparently was caught on the surveillance camera at the door of one of the one of the houses, banging on the door, and then after banging on the door, according to the affidavit by police, he then would hold the rifle he was holding up, put it up against his shoulder, and hold it up to the door as if he was ready to shoot whoever was going to answer the door. So that's why the police say, ‘Hey, it's lucky nobody answered the door.’ What's kind of strange is, at least according to the affidavits, there didn't seem to be much of a motivation other than he was drunk. He told police, ‘I was just drunk. I was a little depressed, and I was just shooting off steam.”
42-year-old Joseph Cavalli is being charged with two felonies, aggravated assault, threatening with a deadly weapon, and property destruction, and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Although he was initially held on a $250,000 bond, that has been reduced to $5,000 cash only.
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.
