It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, October 30th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders gouged out the driveway leading from a tribal road into a church property Thursday, then planted two of the tribe's flags. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the incident is the latest outcry after Pastor Sarah Lucas called out “idolatry” in tribal rituals.
“It came to a head on Thursday when tribal leaders took a track hoe and some other equipment and gouged out a driveway between the church and the tribally held road, Rendezvous Road. Now the church sits on private property but is surrounded by the Wind River Indian Reservation. I understand that congregants can still access the church from the other side, from Mission Road. Once tribal leaders were done gouging out the driveway to Rendezvous Road, they dug and mounted two Northern Arapaho tribal flags in that driveway. Lucas told me that she's in touch with her attorney, but beyond that, declined to comment. She was watching the excavation on Thursday, as were several tribal members, and there were at least three of the tribe's governors and Northern Arapaho Business council members there.”
Spectators, mostly tribal members, watched the operation, photographed it, laughed and chattered.
Read the full story HERE.
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Lander's Dakota James Jordan is the first Wyomingite to see his hunting privileges immediately revoked for life in all 50 states after pleading guilty to poaching deer, elk and moose in Fremont County. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports one ex-game warden calls the punishment, “A good deterrent.”
“He is currently in the Fremont County Detention Center, serving a 96-day jail term, and then he had vehicles and firearms confiscated, $18,000 in fines and restitution, and also had his hunting and trapping privileges revoked for life, and that hits even harder because the Interstate. We've talked about the Interstate Game Violators Compact, which basically means any penalties in one state carry over to the other states. As of August of 2022, all 50 states were signed onto that. What that boils down to is this guy not only has lost privileges for life in Wyoming, he's lost them in all 50 states.”
Dakota James Jordan illegally killed multiple deer and elk and a bull moose in Fremont County starting in 2021, according to an affidavit written by Wyoming Game and Fish game warden Jon Desonier and filed with court documents.
Six Wyomingites previously saw their privileges revoked for life, between 2004 and 2020.
Read the full story HERE.
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After a Gillette veterinarian reported an attack on her horse, other livestock owners say roaming dogs are a growing threat across the county. Cowboy State Daily’s Emma Jane Jackson reports one encounter proved fatal.
“I talked to Kaylee Little, who owns a horse breeding business. She said she had to run these dogs off earlier this week, and then for Dana Miller in late August, an attack on her pony Woodrow was actually fatal. The left side of his face was mauled, resulting in an infection. When he didn't respond to medication, they had to make the decision to euthanize. For Kaylee Little, she said that the best thing that could happen is either for the owners to keep them at home, or for animal control to take care of the situation before someone takes it into their own hands. In fact, Kaylee Little said, ‘If they come back to her property again to attack her horses, quote, it's not going to be good.’”
Cowboy State Daily reached dispatch and animal-control officers at the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office. They directed questions to a department lieutenant, who was not immediately available and hadn’t responded by publication.
Read the full story HERE.
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FBI Director Kash Patel met with Wyoming law enforcement leaders in Laramie on Wednesday, then released a video montage touting the state as a law-and-order haven. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Patel said, "Wyoming is doing some of the best work in the country.”
“The FBI held kind of a discussion on Wednesday morning at War Memorial Stadium with Wyoming law enforcement leaders on what the FBI can do, what equipment it has, how it can help in certain situations, and they also talked about prevalent law enforcement issues like drones are a concern on the horizon, a potential threat one of these days. And in the afternoon, Kash Patel and Representative Harriet Hageman and U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Darin Smith had a roundtable discussion as well. The day after Patel visited, he also posted a video montage set to music featuring his visits with Wyoming law enforcement.”
The FBI talked with Wyoming sheriffs and other agency heads about its technology capabilities, managing various crime trends, and working together, Brian Browne, Laramie assistant city manager for public safety, told Cowboy State Daily.
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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Big Piney’s football team faces an 800-mile round trip for its first playoff game Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Mountain View coach Dustin Rees, whose team will log thousands of miles this season, says that’s just how it is in Wyoming — especially when the playoffs begin.
“According to activities director Lori Green, when Big Piney moved to nine-man football, their itinerary began to look something like a road trip map. They're now logging longer distances to play these games against other nine-man teams. Big Piney’s trip to Pine Bluffs will be one of the longest trips that a nine-man football team takes this season. Mountain View will log the most miles, just under 3,000 in one season.”
The itinerary calls for a night in Laramie, a walkthrough after they arrive, another walkthrough Friday morning, then the final push to Pine Bluffs. After the game, they'll head to Cheyenne for another hotel stay before finally pointing the bus west toward home. It’ll take two nights and 27 hotel rooms to get the Punchers there and back.
Read the full story HERE.
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Robert Hastings, a world-renowned UFO researcher and author, says whatever has watched nuclear sites for decades will take notice of Wyoming’s, too. Cowboy State Daily’s Emma Jane Jackson reports he says, “There are many cases where these objects have maneuvered around civilian nuclear-power plants.”
“Before his retirement, the last case that he formally researched was actually at F.E. Warren Air Force Base when a similar thing happened. Several missiles went dark. The base was unable to communicate with them. At the same time, some personnel there reported seeing some kind of mysterious craft. And he told me that with all of the nuclear energy development going on in Wyoming, he would not be surprised if there is more of a presence of whatever has been hovering over nuclear sites for the past several decades.”
As Wyoming prepares to pioneer next-generation nuclear technology, Hastings expects UAP activity to follow and sees their presence as a potential safeguard against catastrophic failure.
Read the full story HERE.
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State Rep. Mike Yin filed election-finance complaints on Wednesday against Wyoming gubernatorial candidates Rebecca Bextel, Brent Bien, and Megan Degenfelder. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Degenfelder and Bextel say Yin's complaints are frivolous; Bien said he's reviewing his donations.
“He said he's doing it just as an individual voter and ‘my interest is in seeing the law applied evenly, and the integrity of our elections protected.’ He wants to see Bextel cure any issues before the election, and he wants Bien and Degenfelder's issues referred to the attorney general to consider whether a fine is merited.”
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told Cowboy State Daily that his office is reviewing the complaints filed by Yin, “according to Wyoming law.” All three complaints say Degenfelder, Bien and Bextel posted contributions reporting that certain individuals donated to their campaigns more than the legal $2,500 limit for statewide races.
Read the full story HERE.
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Casper’s Wolcott Street is a Halloween mecca, where homes get as many as 1,300 trick-or-treaters and spend up to $500 each on candy. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that one resident says, “There have been times when there were 100 people standing in front of our house.”
“Every year, thousands of trick-or-treaters descend on a central Casper neighborhood, kind of around Walcott Street. Bob Tarantola lives on Stafford, and he says that last year he got about 1,300 trick-or-treaters. This year he is armed with $500 worth of candy. Tarantola has lived there for over 20 years, and he said just in the last 10 years, it's really picked up steam. The police department started blocking off some of the streets to slow traffic. It's an older established neighborhood. Abby Roich, a resident who lives there, calls it the ‘Big Tree neighborhood.’ She says it's like something out of a movie. Around 4pm in the afternoon, the youngest trick or treaters start arriving, and that will continue for about four hours.”
A few blocks away, Greg and Lauren Groves have learned the same lesson. Their first Halloween in the neighborhood, neighbors warned them what was coming. They bought four medium-sized bags of candy. Greg Groves ended up making two emergency trips to the store. This year, they’re armed with about 1,000 pieces.
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.
