Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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POWELL — As a grizzly bear chased a wounded elk into the river in the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park, a Cody wildlife photographer trained her video camera on the surprising series of events. The result of B.E. Judson’s effort gave the world a somewhat hard to watch, yet intimate and educational view of a day in the life of predator and prey. What may be a common event outside the view of visitors became a rare glimpse of the savage nature of wild places. The video has been viewed by more than 1.3 million people since being pos...
GILLETTE — The Select Committee on Community College Funding agreed Friday to start working toward drafting a bill that would clarify state statute regarding community colleges and potentially clear the way for the possible creation of Gillette College’s own community college district. Several parts of the state law, specifically regarding the mill levy requirements for community college districts, needed clarification, said Sen. Jeff Wasserburger, R-Gillette, co-chairman of the committee, which is comprised of state senators and rep...
Brand inspection case to resume in December PINEDALE (WNE) — The 2019 livestock brand-inspection misdemeanor case against Rex. F. Rammell is picking up about where it left off eight months ago – in Sublette County Circuit Court. Rammell contested five citations after a deputy stopped him in June 2019 and he did not have current brand inspections for horses he was moving from Sweetwater to Sublette County. He has a Rock Springs mailing address and owns a veterinary clinic in Pinedale. He argued the state law requiring brand inspections bet...
Yellowstone sees record visits in September CODY (WNE) — Despite COVID-19, a national economic slowdown and fewer in-Park lodging options available, Yellowstone National Park broke its September record for visitation. A total of 837,499 people passed through the Park’s turnstiles in September, a more than 21% increase in traffic from September 2019. The previous record was set in 2018. After a very slow start to the year, Yellowstone has now rebounded to within 11% of 2019 visitation at this point, reaching 3,383,872 visitors. It is about 500...
Plea agreement reached in Rock Springs stabbing case ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — A Rock Springs man originally charged with attempted second-degree murder in a stabbing case pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of aggravated assault and battery as part of a plea agreement Monday morning. Alexander Cave, 27, entered his no contest plea before Judge Suzannah Robinson during a change of plea video hearing in Sweetwater County District Court. He will be sentenced at a later date following a pre-sentence investigation. Cave was arrested Jan. 29, 2020 f...
CASPER — Wyoming football is officially back. So is the rest of the Mountain West. After a week of various media reports, statements from university administrators and state officials, and rampant speculation, the Mountain West has become the third Football Bowl Subdivision conference to reverse course after postponing football and other fall sports indefinitely last month. The league announced Thursday night that UW and the conference’s other 11 football teams will play an eight-game, conference-only schedule beginning the week of Oct. 24 foll...
Longtime Powell professor killed in accident POWELL (WNE) — A longtime professor at Northwest College died last week after being run over by a vehicle on a Coulter Avenue sidewalk. Dennis Brophy, 75, had been walking in front of Rimrock Tire when a customer pulled out of the business s parking lot and struck him, said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt. The driver of the vehicle, 21-year-old Shay Dillon of Powell, had been attempting to make a right-hand turn onto the state highway. Dillon reported that he had been looking to the left (east) f...
GILLETTE — A Gillette man is accused of kidnapping his wife and leaving her naked at Walmart, allegedly telling her he wanted her to be embarrassed. John Jesse Crump, 37, is charged with kidnapping, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. He also has been charged with misdemeanor counts of domestic battery and false imprisonment. The two had been to Boot Hill Nightclub on Sept. 12 and had begun to argue on the drive home. She told police he told her she needed to pack her belongings and move out, but she said couldn’t because it...
Gillette man faces five drug charges after 121 fentanyl pills found in home GILLETTE (WNE) – A stash of 121 fentanyl pills found in a home on Rohan Avenue in July — an amount described as “large” and “not indicative of a user quantity” by an agent with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation — and has led to drug charges against a 38-year-old man. Matthew Skipper has been charged three counts of delivery of fentanyl and heroin and two counts of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and fentanyl. Skipper was convicted in 2012 and serv...
Grand Teton sees near-record visitation JACKSON (WNE) — Despite a lack of in-park lodging due to COVID-19, Grand Teton National Park reported the second highest number of recreational visits — an estimated 710,198 — on record for August. Although recreational visits grew by just 1.2% compared to the previous August, that number still marks the second highest recreational visitation on record — eclipsed only by August 2017 when an actual solar eclipse drew lots of visitors. Below are August trends for recreational visits over the last several...
CASPER — The federal government’s once-a-decade effort to count every person living in the United States is nearly complete. It’s been a tumultuous year; the U.S. Census Bureau launched its first large-scale web campaign, contended with a global pandemic and was told in August it would have one less month to complete its count. Efforts in Wyoming are still far from complete. With less than a month before the deadline, 17% of the state’s households have yet to be counted in the 2020 census. As of Thursday, less than 60% of Wyoming househo...
GILLETTE — Under the right circumstances, carbon under pressure produces diamonds. But the intense pressure from multiple fronts now squeezing Powder River Basin coal is crushing the industry. Already struggling with weakening demand for U.S. coal, the nation’s largest coal-producing region also has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with historically bad results. Through the first eight months of 2020, PRB production is nearly 25% below this time last year and hundreds of high-paying jobs have been lost. While the last four months of the...
Hanna residents allowed to return home after fire CASPER (WNE) — Hanna residents were being allowed to return home starting at 1 p.m. Sunday after a wildfire prompted evacuations a day earlier. The Carbon County Office of Emergency Management was working with local authorities to bring back the residents who evacuated, the agency said in a press release. However, residents that return were being asked to shelter in place. The fire has burned roughly 7,500 acres since it ignited Saturday and is 0% contained, according to the Bureau of Land Manag...
Christian Vivet stood beside his camper at a riverside campground in central Wyoming’s Sinks Canyon State Park, peering through binoculars at the limestone cliffs above – a landscape vastly different from his home state of Florida. He had traveled to this relatively obscure campground with his wife and dog as part of a ten-week road trip through the western U.S. Unlike the hordes of people who have reportedly taken up domestic camper travel as a new adaptation to COVID-19, it’s an annual pilgrimage for the Vivets, who run a French bistro on a s...
GILLETTE — When he got the call Thursday, Aaron McAllister was hopeful he’d be going back to work nearly three months after being furloughed from the Antelope coal mine. Instead, he got his severance package with the news that furloughs for himself and 79 other coal mine workers are now permanent layoffs. “I had hopes we were actually going to go back to work today,” McAllister said Friday. “We were hopeful, because there’s nothing to lose, so you might as well be [optimistic].” He and his girlfriend both worked at the mine located south...
Barnum gets nine to 13 years in prison for construction project cons GILLETTE (WNE) — The man who conned people out of money for construction projects that he never completed faces a lengthy probationary period after he gets out of prison. Jason R. Barnum, 43, was sentenced in March to nine to 13 years in prison for defrauding the Boy Scouts and a 76-year-old woman of more than $150,000. District Judge Thomas W. Rumpke added to that sentence after Barnum pleaded guilty to another felony count of obtaining goods by false pretenses as well m...
GILLETTE — Campbell County Commissioners will not adopt a resolution against the state’s coronavirus public health orders. At a directors meeting Monday, Commissioners Del Shelstad and Colleen Faber said they had received questions from residents about whether Campbell County would pass a resolution against government overreach similar to what has been done in other communities. The city of Sheridan adopted a resolution July 20 “declaring all legal businesses and personnel in the city as essential.” The resolution was necessary “for the purpose...
Cheyenne travel agent sentenced to prison for stealing thousands CHEYENNE (WNE) – A former local travel agent who stole thousands of dollars from people through his business was sentenced Monday morning in Laramie County District Court. Brian Box received a variety of concurrent sentences across his numerous case files, but will ultimately serve two to four years in prison and 20 years of probation upon release, which slightly deviated from the plea agreement. He was also ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution to numerous victims. B...
Wyoming launches app for coronavirus exposure SHERIDAN (WNE) — Gov. Mark Gordon recently announced that Wyoming has launched Care19 Alert, an exposure notification app that will alert users if they have been in close contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Wyoming is one of the first states in the country to launch a COVID-19 app using Bluetooth Low Energy technology developed by Apple and Google, which does not rely on personal information or location data. Users opt-in to download and utilize the free app. “The Care19...
GILLETTE — Multiple Campbell County Republican legislators and primary candidates are bucking against an outspoken pro-Second Amendment group after a bevy of political attacks targeting incumbents and other candidates ahead of this month’s election. State Sens. Michael Von Flatern and Ogden Driskill, former Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives Tom Lubnau and others are rebuking the claims and question the motivations of Wyoming Gun Owners following a steady flurry of social media posts targeting them and other politicians. The cam...
Wyoming unemployment call center sometimes strained as claim levels remain high CHEYENNE (WNE) – Despite Wyoming’s unemployment rate ticking down slightly in recent months, ongoing steep demand for assistance has kept the phone lines busy – and sometimes unreachable – at the state’s Department of Workforce Services. “We’re getting a lot of calls,” DWS Communications Manager Ty Stockton said Friday. “Quite a few of those are people wanting to make a claim over the phone, and those do take some time. …But quite a few are people who have an...
War Memorial Stadium seating will be limited CASPER (WNE) — The University of Wyoming’s War Memorial Stadium will likely be kept at roughly a quarter of its capacity in the coming season and student capacity may be slashed by as much as two-thirds, the school’s athletic director told faculty Monday night. “There is no way we’re going to put 30,000 people in there for any event this year,” Tom Burman said during a town hall. Though exact details are still being worked out with health officials, Burman said that the stadium’s capacity will...
CASPER — A growing group of Wyoming lawmakers — including the vice president of the Senate — are coming after one of the state’s most aggressive gun rights groups after it lodged efforts to discredit incumbent Republican lawmakers in a number of vulnerable districts ahead of next month’s Republican primary. The group, Wyoming Gun Owners, has been a consistent presence in Wyoming’s politics, presenting itself to residents as an uncompromising and unapologetically aggressive proponent for the Second Amendment in Cheyenne. Throughout the last tw...
Cheyenne man sentenced for hitting women outside bar CHEYENNE (WNE) – A man facing charges for hitting two people outside a local bar was sentenced Monday afternoon in Laramie County District Court to two to four years in prison. Anthony Lane, 34, had been previously charged with aggravated assault and battery with a bodily injury with a deadly weapon following an encounter at DT’s Bar on East Lincolnway on Dec. 29, 2018. That night, Lane punched one woman and struck another in the back of her head with a gun before firing two shots into the...
GILLETTE – When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Wyoming and with the coronavirus having spread through much of the United States, Todd Koehler saw the impacts firsthand at his independent meat processing business, Koehler’s Wild Game. As fears of food shortages gripped the nation, many people early on stocked up on groceries and other supplies. Toilet paper and hand sanitizer were often difficult to find. While grocery shelves stayed mostly stocked, one major part of the U.S. supply chain has struggled to get its product to stores: the meat ind...
