Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 713
Man arrested for sixth DUI one month into probation for fifth DUI could get up to 7 years GILLETTE (WNE) — A man who pleaded guilty to his sixth DUI offense could face six to seven years in prison. Jude Armijo, 32, reached a plea deal where he’ll plead guilty to felony DUI, and the state will recommend a six-to seven-year prison sentence to run concurrent to a five-year sentence for violating his probation. At the time of his sixth DUI, Armijo was just one month into a five-year probation that he’d been sentenced to following his fifth DUI. On...
JACKSON — Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens struck down the two most recent attempts by the Wyoming Legislature to outlaw abortion in Wyoming. Owens granted a permanent injunction Monday for the “Life is a Human Right Act” and a medical abortion ban passed by lawmakers in the 2023 session. Her 35-page summary judgment order on Johnson v. State of Wyoming was filed more than a year after the first legal challenge from women, health care professionals and nonprofits supporting access to and offering abortion services. Owens...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee sponsored two draft bills and a potential efficiency study Friday, with hopes of diverting additional money and using it more efficiently on the state’s highways. The committee voted 13-1 to sponsor the draft bill titled “Severance tax distribution-highway fund,” with opposition from Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, and unanimously in support of another titled “Vehicle sales tax distribution-highway fund.” The purpose of both bills is to divert...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee voted Friday to sponsor a bill draft that would add citizenship/residency status to state-issued identification cards. If passed during the 2025 general session, the bill would require a complete redesign of ID cards issued by the Wyoming Department of Transportation. The additions would be a line reading, “Not a United States citizen” and colors that would indicate the citizenship status of a cardholder. The number of these types of cards n...
POWELL —- A young Michigan man who allegedly poached nine mule deer in Cody over the summer is now facing more legal trouble, as investigators say they’ve also tied him to the killing of a cow last year. Twenty-year-old Josh Wielhouwer was already facing 18 misdemeanor counts in connection with deer that were killed and left to waste in Cody in August and early September. Last week, prosecutors added a felony count of property destruction for a cow that was killed north of the city in 2023. Like the deer, the domestic animal was apparently sla...
Average gasoline prices in Wyoming down 4.2 cents a gallon in past week CHEYENNE (WNE) - Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have fallen 4.2 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.06 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com's survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 8.3 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 25.3 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.75 per gallon, while...
Family of three found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning RIVERTON (WNE) — A family of two adults and a toddler died after an undetected carbon monoxide leak consumed their home in Riverton. Police were initially called to the 900 block of East Adams Street Thursday morning at around 7:40 a.m. after someone reported smelling fumes in the area. “Fire department personnel found a high concentration of carbon monoxide around [the] home,” the Riverton Police Department (RPD) reported. Police and firefighters forced open the door to the residence an...
CHEYENNE — More than a dozen Wyoming schools had received threats of either an active shooter or a bomb on campus as of Monday afternoon, according to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Part of a national trend, Wyoming is not unique at this moment, and these threats appear to be “spilling over” from other states, DCI’s Ryan Cox told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Based on current information, it appears that threats have been made in other states in the past month. Schools and local police departments are responding to threats...
Two Park County residents found dead; carbon monoxide poisoning suspected CODY (WNE) — Two Park County residents, Jeff McKearny, 64, and Steven Werbelow, 66, were found dead in their camper on October 23. The suspected cause of death is accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, according to county coroner Cody Gortmaker. The two men were hunting near Eagle Creek Campground up the North Fork, which is where their bodies were found. Investigations are still ongoing, Gortmaker said. Werbelow, who was a Powell resident, was an accomplished t...
LANDER — Patricia Nelson has been cutting hair at Profiles Hair Salon in Riverton for more than 20 years. Like many small local businesses, she’s the owner-operator; she’s invested in her business by purchasing the building and spends her days cutting and blow-drying right alongside the other hairdressers in the salon. Recently, she came into work and found an unusual piece of mail. It came from the Fremont County assessor’s office, and it said that she had just 15 days to respond. The documents inside listed a registered agent for Billecom LLC...
Juvenile shot on Hamilton Way; Police located suspect CASPER (WNE) — A minor was shot in the early hours of Saturday morning on the 3200 block of Hamilton Way, just north of its intersection with Sun Drive, in Casper. Officers were called to the incident due to a traumatic injury report and found “a chaotic scene with multiple juveniles and young adults,” according to a press release issued by Casper Police Department on Monday. The victim, who was not identified in the release, sustained “an apparent life-threatening gunshot wound.” First res...
The C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet is shown burning in the sky above Heart Mountain in this photo taken Sunday night near the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. The comet, discovered in 2023, only comes to our part of the galaxy once every 80,000 years. It can be viewed for the next ten days in the early evening. Watch for where the sun sets and then look up about 15 degrees from the horizon about 45 minutes after the sun dips below the horizon....
CASPER - Wyoming's attorney general, through a settlement with a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company, has guaranteed that Wyoming residents not enrolled in government healthcare programs can buy insulin products for $35 each month for the next five years. The settlement announced by Attorney General Bridget Hill on Friday morning with Sanofi-Aventis U.S. will be put into effect within 90 days of Sept. 27. The cost of insulin has soared over the last decade and the...
SHERIDAN — This fall, Wyoming voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to create a class of residential property to be taxed independently from commercial property in an ongoing discussion on property tax reform. If passed, Constitutional Amendment A would be a first step: lawmakers would have the option to create a fourth residential tier in the state’s property tax structure, which could be assessed at a different rate than commercial properties. Currently, commercial and residential properties are in the same category for...
Average gasoline prices dip slightly in Wyoming in the last week CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have fallen 0.4 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.18 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 5.5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 53.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.79 per gallon, while the highest was $4.29, a difference of $1.50 per gal...
Average gasoline prices down again in Wyoming in the past week CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have fallen 3.3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.18 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 7 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 57.2 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.79, while the highest was $3.99, a difference of $1.20 per gallon. The nat...
Posts threaten mass shooting; Natrona County school district, police say threat is not ‘substantiated’ CASPER (WNE) — The Natrona County School District announced in an email Friday that there is no “substantiated” threat to schools after concerns grew out of a social media post threatening mass shootings. The post that began circulating Friday on Facebook alleged a student was threatening to attack multiple schools Monday. School district officials said in a press release that they worked with the Casper Police Department to determine...
Average gas prices remain unchanged in past week in Wyoming CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming are unchanged in the last week, averaging $3.25 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 4.9 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 64.4 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.79, while the highest was $4.49, a difference of $1.70 per gallon. The national average price of gas...
DOUGLAS – Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioners have OK'd a new compensation program that may resolve a sometimes-fiery debate over whether the state should pay livestock producers more for forage eaten off their rangeland by over-populated elk herds. The solution establishes criteria for payment eligibility based on the degree to which a local elk herd is overpopulated and the percentage of grass eaten by that game. Additionally, a ranch must allow some hunters on the property to be eligible. I...
Gordon extends executive order to aid in livestock, feed transport CHEYENNE (WNE) — As significant wildfires continue to impact Wyoming’s agricultural producers, Gov. Mark Gordon has extended the executive order which eases restrictions to transport loads of livestock feed and livestock, exempting motor carrier drivers from operating time requirements. “The extension of this EO allows our ranchers to continue to move their livestock to safety quickly and expedites bringing in necessary feed. Wyoming’s commitment to supporting agricul...
A federal judge has upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plans for managing black-footed ferrets in Wyoming, the state where the once-presumed-extinct species was rediscovered some four decades ago. The dispute over how the federal government managed the endangered weasel-like animal traces back nearly a decade to when federal wildlife managers officially designated the Wyoming population as "nonessential, experimental." That classification allows for more regulatory flexibility than...
Gas prices edge slightly higher in Wyoming in the past week CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have risen 0.9 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.29 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 4.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 62.6 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.79, while the highest was $4.29, a difference of $1.50 per gallon. The national ave...
A Wyoming law prohibiting failed primary election candidates from seeking the same office as an independent in the general election is unconstitutional, claims a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon in Laramie County District Court. Matt Malcom, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination in Cheyenne’s House District 61 during the primary, and former Wilson lawmaker Jim Roscoe are the suit’s two plaintiffs. Roscoe represented House District 22 as a Democrat from 2009 to 2012, and then as an independent from 2019 to 2022. Malcom lost his...
Silver Spoon Fire grows to 1700 acres in northern Campbell County GILLETTE (WNE) — The Silver Spoon Fire north of Recluse has burned an estimated 1700 acres since starting Sunday morning. The Campbell County Fire Department “made good progress” on the fire Sunday, according to a Facebook post, and at 6 p.m. Monday, Southwest Area Incident Management Team No. 5 took over the management of this fire, which is about 37 miles north of Gillette. The same team is overseeing the Constitution and Flat Rock fires in Campbell County, as well as the H...
Florida man gets 15 years for fatal crash GILLETTE (WNE) — A truck driver from Florida who was found with beer cans in his cab after crashing into and killing another driver north of Gillette has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Nicholas L. Alvarez, 39, on Aug. 15 received an imposed 8.5- to 15-year sentence for aggravated vehicular homicide, according to court documents. Alvarez pleaded guilty to the charge in May. In addition to imposing prison time, District Judge Stuart S. Healy III also ordered Alvarez to pay $11,196.08 in r...
