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You still 11 10 24

You Still Here? Sunday, November 10, 2024

Michael Cohen getting trolled during livestream after he promised to leave the country if Trump won. Now Cohen refuses to leave....

Politics 11 9 24

Today In Politics: Saturday, November 9, 2024

This looks like a fun game -- until you make a tiny mistake.

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Bonus Video 1: Saturday, November 9, 2024

"This may be the most impressive two minutes of ineptitude I’ve ever seen in my entire life …"

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You Still Here? Saturday, November 9, 2024

When you lie on your resume, but still get the job....

Inman 11 9 24

Steve Inman: Saturday, November 9, 2024

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Bonus Video 2: Saturday, November 9, 2024

"I can't explain it, but somehow the mascot’s emotion changed when it fell..."

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Bonus Video 2: Friday, November 8, 2024

Good luck explaining this to your insurance agent...

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Bonus Video 1: Friday, November 8, 2024

These political maps are getting uncomfortably personal.....

Politics 11 8 24

Today In Politics: Friday, November 8, 2024

Them: “What’s so great about the 70s?”

Me:

You still here 11 8 24

You Still Here? Friday, November 8, 2024

Forgot to look both ways, as narrated by MMA announcer Steve Inman....

Inman no play 11 8 24

Steve Inman: Friday, November 8, 2024

Bonus vid 2 11 7 24

Bonus Video 2: Thursday, November 7, 2024

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Legislature

The Joint Appropriations Committee majority tried in January to defund the Wyoming Business Council, an agency that gives grants and loans to businesses and communities.

The state Senate, which ran more fiscally moderate this year than the 

, rejected the effort overwhelmingly in February. But then in March, the Legislature passed a budget that funds the Wyoming Business Council’s operations for one year instead of the traditional two-year budget allocation.

The Joint Appropriations Committee is now delving into a monthslong research project into how it can trim the business council, tether it to legislative oversight and refocus it onto what the supermajority Republican Legislature deems proper uses of government.

The committee spent around five-and-a-half hours on that topic while meeting Monday in Lander.

Its members weighed three proposed bills. They also engaged in a spicy back-and-forth with Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Give Me A Number'"}]

“Mr. Dorrell, what do you anticipate will be your ask for the Wyoming Business Council for the supplemental budget? And 

, how much do you need to succeed?” asked Senate Appropriations Chair Tim Salazar, R-Riverton.

Dorrell said the WBC’s figures are still in flux, and he expected it to give its final budget request submission to Gov. Mark Gordon in August. But becoming “whole,” or receiving the rest of its two-year budget, would be the priority, he added.

As of now, the agency’s budget ends June 30, 2027, unless the Legislature acts to restore its second-year money.

Salazar later voiced dissatisfaction with that answer, pressing Dorrell on it again.

“Give me a number. Tell me where that fits into the supplemental budget,” said Salazar.

“I’m not going to give you a number,” 

 Dorrell. “I don’t mean to be obtuse, but I want to work it through the proper channels first.”

Besides having its funding cut to one year of operations, the WBC is slated for a potential makeover.

Both the Appropriations Committee and the Joint Minerals Business and Economic Development Committee are reviewing the WBC’s programs and underpinning laws.

Dorrell said he’s looking for information on which programs the Legislature wants to cut.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also indicated that lawmakers don’t fully understand the agency yet."}]

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to really discuss the exact in-and-out if you don’t understand the things that we do,” said Dorrell, adding that WBC has presented program data to lawmakers in recent months. 

“I’d advocate to at least stay whole, as a minimum, (but also) we should look at investing in our communities, and the state agency that unlocks those,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Humble Ask This Time"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, also parried with Dorrell."}]

“Honestly, I’m not trying to be confrontational, but I’m frustrated,” said Pendergraft. “You were asked what does it cost to be successful — no answer. No answer, no money.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell reiterated that he’d know the answer in August."}]

Salazar’s line of questioning is an echo of one he launched in December, but which Dorrell then handled very differently. 

At that time during the committee’s budget-planning marathon, Salazar asked how much money WBC needs to fix the economic problems facing the state.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell answered $1.7 billion."}]

“Thank you for giving us the courtesy of the truth,” said Salazar at the time.

Around seven weeks later, the committee advanced two pieces of legislation — both of which later failed — that had sought to defund the agency and strip it from state law.

Ahead of next year’s January lawmaking session, the two committees are working on a plan to refocus the Wyoming Business Council and reevaluate its many programs.

[{"type":"text","text":"Neither committee has adopted any WBC makeover bills yet."}]

But the Joint Appropriations Committee on Monday discussed four in this vein.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Bill About Federal Money"}]

One of the bills would authorize lawmakers to review and appropriate federal funds seeking to pass through the WBC for capital and investment projects.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Dorrell cast that one as peculiar.  "}]

Congress authorizes federal money for governmental investments, the U.S. Treasury allocates those investments and enforces their terms, and the executive branch of Wyoming runs the program.

“And then all of a sudden, somehow the state Legislature is inserting itself into this process,” said Dorrell. “And while I am happy to report, I’m happy to bounce ideas off of, it feels like gumming up the system …  is exactly what this is going to do. It doesn’t help us act at the speed of business. I’m open to understanding why.”

House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, said lawmakers would consider that concern carefully so they don’t create undue burden. 

Of the 11 companies involved in this system, he said he hopes “the preponderance of them” have been traditional energy companies.

Bear referenced allegations Wyoming continues to wage in federal court litigation with other red states that large investors colluded to kill coal and other fossil fuels by banding together in green-energy compacts.

“Even though these are federal funds, they’re still taxpayer funds,” said Bear, who went on to ask about the WBC’s administration of its investment projects.

Dorrell said WBC’s investment committee can meet spontaneously to consider and authorize those projects, and 

 employee to serve as investments analyst.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Bill To Stop Feeding Airports"}]

The Wyoming Business Council’s Business Ready Community program generally involves WBC sending a grant or loan to a community entity, which then works on economic development and business infrastructure projects.

But WBC doesn’t call it that anymore. The agency rebranded the controversial program this year as the Building Resilient Communities program.

The Appropriations Committee is considering a bill that would ban airports from benefitting from the program, as well as recreational and convention facilities, and infrastructure projects of the WBC’s choosing.

That would leave the program free to fund or invest in land, buildings, facilities, telecommunications infrastructure, rights of way, sewer and water projects, roads and landscaping.

The bill also seeks to add a requirement that the WBC can’t grant or loan money for assets that the applicant owns or will own.

A lawsuit between Gunwerks and the Cody-based economic development group that secured funding for it has been 

over the allegedly dismal state of a building Gunwerks doesn’t own, but which the economic development group arranged to be built for the company with WBC money.   

The bill pertaining to the BRC program would also require WBC to send grant and loan plans to two lawmakers — one state House representative and one senator — for review and comment before sending them to the executive branch for final approval.  

The biggest bill the committee considered would eliminate 13 Wyoming Business Council programs, 

Others Dorrell hopes to keep, he indicated to Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland.

He asked why the Wyoming Partnership Challenge Loan program is on the chopping block. That’s a loan program in which WBC partners with banks to secure loans for businesses.

Dorrell insisted the WBC is not competing with banks, but is helping businesses get loans on components on which banks aren’t authorized to lend, like the more speculative success prospects called “blue sky.”

Disaster loans are “a challenge,” but outside disaster loans, the program is at industry-standard or higher rates of success, Dorrell said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pendergraft raised an ideological roadblock."}]

“My problem with this is ideological. Essentially, it sounds to me like you’re not in competition with the banks,” said Pendergraft. “But if a business goes to a bank and the bank turns them down — presumably because of risk — why is it justifiable to take public moneys and … risk public funds, which to me should be, probably, more cautiously invested?”

Dorrell said banks have to refuse certain investments due to other reasons besides risk.

Pendergraft countered again, asking why the government should be involved in the fate of businesses that don’t provide essential public services.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, rebutted Pendergraft’s logic."}]

On the Select Water Committee, he said, lawmakers are willing to “dole out” significant 

“You want to talk about blue sky?” asked Gierau. “Oh my Lord. And we do it. And we do it because it’s right.”

Haroldson said he’d be happy to put a “question mark” next to this program, and he emphasized that this is only a draft bill set for more contemplation later this year.

[{"type":"text","text":"Here Bear answered Gierau’s rebuke."}]

“As you’re forming that ideology in your mind as to how you’ll approach this, I hope you’ll also not compare water infrastructure to helping mom and pop shops have a successful program,” said Bear. 

Small business success is “quite different from water infrastructure,” he added.

Water infrastructure serves small family farms, which are businesses, said Gierau.

“Water infrastructure,” countered Bear, “would be much similar to the road in front of the small mom and pop shop. ... It’s got a common usage.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The County Infrastructure Bill"}]

One of the bills contemplates a revival of the old budget appropriation called the County Consensus Funding program by which counties, if at least half of the governing boards of the local governments within them agree, could receive construction and infrastructure grants through the State Loans and Investment Board.

The Wyoming County Commissioners’ Association has asked the Legislature to send $75 million per year into that program. The draft bill says “XX” where the appropriation would go.

Three-quarters of the allocations to counties would hinge on population, and one-quarter on how poor their property values are.

Apropriations Business Council IMG 6584 6 22 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Wyoming Business Council Chief Spars With Committee That Tried To Kill Agency | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The head of the Wyoming Business Council sparred Monday with the Joint Appropriations Committee, which has tried to kill it. "No answer, no money," was the reply CEO Josh Dorrell got when he said he won't know the WBC's budget ask until August.

Wyoming Business Council Chief Spars With Committee That Tried To Kill Agency

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Hunting

Arguments over grizzlies north of the border in Alberta, Canada, are remarkably similar to those in Wyoming and Montana, with some calling for the bears to be hunted again and others saying that would be a horrible idea.

The Rural Municipalities of Alberta is lobbying the provincial government to reinstate grizzly hunts, which were banned there in 2006.

Hunt advocates cite increasing conflicts with humans, as bears push farther into foothill and plains habitat — much like Montana’s expanding population of 

However, provincial authorities have stated not to expect grizzly hunts anytime soon, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 

Grizzlies have been designated a threatened species in Alberta since 2010. At the time, it was thought there were fewer than 1,000 adults in the province.

The latest population study of Alberta’s grizzlies from 2018 suggested there could be more than 1,000 adult bears in the province, according to CBC.

Grizzlies in the Lower 48 have been under federal Endangered Species Act protections since 1975.

There is a renewed push to get grizzlies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho delisted and possibly hunted. Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce recently stated that her agency probably 

 over conflict management than hunters would if there was a grizzly season.  

The debate over whether to hunt grizzlies has been going on for a while, says human-bear conflict expert Kim Titchener, who lives in Alberta, in an interview with Cowboy State Daily.

“It keeps coming up. More so in areas that are the outskirts of grizzly bear habitat, where there’s a lot of livestock and agriculture,” said Titchener, the president of Bear Safety and More.

There have also been incidents of grizzlies and hunters running into each other and hunters getting mauled, she added.

There’s no evidence grizzly populations are “massively regrowing,” but bears have been showing up in new areas, Titchener said.

“These people haven’t seen a grizzly bear on their landscapes for 50 to 100 years,” she said.

That’s also what’s happening in Wyoming and Montana. Grizzlies have shown up in farmland near Powell and spotted as far south as the Kemmerer area.

In Montana, bears have wandered as far east as the Missouri Breaks.

Alberta allows hunters to apply for special tags for “problem bears,” such as those that have chronically raided chicken coops, Titchener said.

“There’s only been a few cases where we’ve allowed a hunter to do that,” she said.

And Titchener questions the effectiveness of that approach, versus having wildlife agents remove problem bears.

“It seems like the government pandering to the hunting community, and not really solving the problem,” she said.

Protecting livestock and poultry with electric fencing and livestock guardian dogs would probably be more effective, Titchener said.

She also questions the argument that allowing widespread hunting would make grizzlies more fearful of humans.

“If you kill a bear, you don’t really teach other bears. Dead bears don’t pass that information on,” Titchener said.

How much territory grizzlies reclaim could hinge upon human tolerance, she added.

“Do you want to have bears in only a very select area? Or are we going to accept that they are going to go out into lands where they once lived? That’s a choice that the public needs to make. And we can’t just hunt them back into oblivion,” Titchener said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘They Just Know’"}]

Guy Eastman of Cody participated in one of the last grizzly hunts along the British Columbia/Alberta provincial line. He killed a grizzly bear on the B.C. side in about 2007, right before B.C. followed Alberta’s lead and banned grizzly hunting.

As he sees it, Canadians had far fewer problems with grizzlies when they were hunted, said Eastman, who represents the third generation of the famous outdoor multimedia family that launched Eastman's Hunting Journal and a popular outdoors television show.

“It’s the same old story. They (Canadians) quit hunting grizzlies and now they’re having the same old problems,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

“I killed a bear on the backside of one of British Columbia’s ski areas,” he said.

And even though that was in June, there were plenty of people in the area enjoying hiking and other outdoor activities, with no bear trouble, Eastman said.

And he credits legal bear hunts at the time for that.

Eastman argues that grizzlies seem to have a different attitude when they’re hunted.

He recalled grizzlies being skittish during numerous black bear hunts in Canada, when people he was hunting with also had grizzly tags.

“Those grizzlies, because they were hunted, were super, super shy,” he said.

“They just know (they’re being hunted),” Eastman added. “They’re incredibly intelligent. They have about twice the IQ of a black bear. They just know.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fall Is The Worst Time"}]

Allowing grizzlies to be hunted might mitigate human-bear conflicts during the fall, which seems to be the worst time for 

During the spring and early summer, bears can feed on elk calves, he said. And at the height of summer, grizzlies are feeding on moths far above timberline, where not many people go.

“By August, the calves are too big for them to catch and the moths are gone,” he said, so that’s when the trouble really starts.

“If we started hunting them, the number of bear incidents would go down,” Eastman said.

But that would raise the question of how bear viewing would be affected, he added.

“The problem is, human nature. People want to see bears, If you want to see bears, you can’t hunt bears, because they get scared of you,” he said.

‘Grizzlies Are Reintroducing Themselves’

Grizzlies are naturally a plains species; they’ve been contained mostly to the mountains because of human settlement, Danny Kinka, senior wildlife restoration manager for the American Prairie conservation group in Montana, told Cowboy State Daily.

American Prairie has property at the south end of the Missouri Breaks, near the confluence of Judith Creek and the Missouri River.

Grizzlies have occasionally shown up there. And American Prairie likes the idea of an established subpopulation there someday, even though it’s outside of Montana’s officially designated grizzly recovery zone.

Kinka doesn’t see grizzly hunting in prairie habitat being a possibility anytime soon.

“With hunting, the goal is essentially to remove animals that might have died anyway,” he said.

Grizzlies reproduce slowly, and it would be long time, if ever, for enough of them to be established in the Missouri Breaks region for a huntable surplus population, he said.

The main debate over whether grizzlies should be hunted in Montana will probably involve the more abundant bear populations in western Montana, he said.

American Prairie remains optimistic that people will remain reasonably tolerant of grizzlies in the area, Kinka said.

“They’re coming back on their own. It’s not being imposed on anybody through government reintroduction. Grizzly bears are essentially reintroducing themselves,” he said.

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<title>Just Like In Wyoming, There's A Big Argument In Alberta Over Hunting Grizzlies | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As in Wyoming, grizzlies are showing up in Alberta, Canada, in places they haven't been seen in 50 to 100 years. And just like Wyoming, their arrival has sparked emotional debate over whether to hunt the endangered species again.

Just Like In Wyoming, There's A Big Argument In Alberta Over Hunting Grizzlies

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Public Lands

Almost a week after a semitruck carrying 

 flipped over in Yellowstone National Park and destroyed hundreds of hives, bees are still swarming around the area.

Thousands of bees are still homeless and visibly trying to survive in large groups on “bee trees” along U.S. Highway 191. 

Jim Holstein with Yellowstone Tour Guides has been passing through the area where the accident occurred. He took a photograph of one of the bee trees, where thousands of bees had completely covered a small lodgepole in a vast, buzzing swarm.

“They were still there on Monday,” Holstein told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s in the park between Big Sky and West Yellowstone. All the hives have been cleaned up, but there are quite a few bees left.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Trees"}]

Cheyenne beekeeper Michael Jordan is familiar with bee trees. They’re an indication that a colony of bees is actively house-hunting.

“It’s what's called a swarming mechanism,” he said. “The queen leaves and takes about half or more of the colony and moves to a new safe location.”

Jordan said this is common behavior for honeybees when a hive gets overpopulated. The existing queen will take nurse bees and guard bees to sustain herself in a temporary location while scouts search for a permanent 

“The scouts will search until they find a permanent location,” he said. “In the meantime, you'll have groups and colonies hanging in the trees as they regroup.”

Almost a week after a semitruck carrying millions of bees flipped over in Yellowstone National Park and destroyed hundreds of hives, bees are still swarming on trees in the area. “It’s what's called a swarming mechanism,” said a Wyoming beekeeper.