Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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Interior secretary says electric bikes in parks OK JACKSON (WNE) — The U.S. Secretary of the Interior has made a top-down decision about the use of electric bikes on National Park Service lands, bucking policies that today are set individually by parks. Going forward, electric bikes, aka e-bikes, will be on an even playing field with human-powered bicycles, according to a policy memorandum that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed Thursday and gave to the media Friday. “E-bikes are allowed where traditional bicycles are allowed,” the f...
UW raises ACT score requirement LARAMIE (WNE) — The University of Wyoming’s board of trustees voted this month, at the request of university administrators, to set a minimum ACT score of 17 for students to be admitted to the school. Previously, high school graduates could be assured admission to UW, albeit with some remedial classes, if they had a cumulative grade-point average of 2.5-2.99. No standardized test score was required. However, that new policy will still require those students with a sub-3.0 GPA to have a GPA of at least 17 or an...
Woman sentenced to prison in stabbing case CHEYENNE (WNE) — A woman who fatally stabbed another woman last year was sentenced Friday morning to five to eight years in prison. Tanya Pearson pleaded guilty in April to involuntary manslaughter per a plea agreement. Laramie County District Judge Thomas Campbell sentenced her Friday. The charge carries a five-year minimum sentence, but she faced up to 30 years in prison under the original charges, which also included aggravated assault and battery. Prosecuting attorney Caitlin Harper said Pearson w...
Council gives initial nod to e-cig ban CHEYENNE (WNE) — The Cheyenne City Council voted 8-1 Monday night to approve the second reading of an ordinance amendment adding electronic smoking devices to the list of smoking instruments banned in public places. A third reading and council vote is needed before the amendment can go into effect. The ordinance approved by council in 2006 already bans cigars, cigarettes, pipes, hookahs and water pipes. The proposed amendment defines an electronic smoking device as “any device that can be used to del...
CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon announced Thursday that he would be ending a legal proceeding he initiated as state treasurer in 2016 over that office’s authority to approve contracts related to the state capitol building construction project. Gordon’s suit challenged the 2014 legislation that created the Capitol Building Rehabilitation and Restoration Oversight Group — the entity responsible for overseeing the $300 million venture— claiming the legislation violated the state’s constitution by not giving the treasurer authority to approve the...
LARAMIE — After what the Laramie Police Department described as a “lengthy and intensive investigation,” a 24-year-old Laramie man was arrested for the killing of a woman in March 2018. Artem Day has been charged with second-degree murder, a felony that carries a minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. If convicted, Day could be sentenced to up to life in prison. He’s also been charged with manslaughter and sexual battery, LPD announced in a Friday afternoon press release. The latter charge led court clerks to refuse the Laramie Boomera...
JACKSON — A Jackson Hole woman’s effort to criminalize running down and running over coyotes with snowmobiles was shot down last week by a legislative committee. Local wildlife activist Lisa Robertson has had the ear of Rep. Mike Yin, of Teton County, who last legislative session unsuccessfully sought to prohibit killing, injuring or torturing predatory animals using snowmobiles. He tried again last week to bring the bill to an interim committee in Thermopolis, but the lawmakers declined in an 11-to-2 vote. Sen. Glenn Moniz, of Albany County, s...
SHERIDAN — This summer, the Bighorn National Forest is taking steps to address concerns about climbing impacts in the West Ten Sleep Canyon after tension in the area for months. The agency is working on a climbing management plan, and has hired a seasonal climbing ranger, according to Traci Weaver, Powder River District Ranger for the forest. Construction of new climbing routes or trails is prohibited, according to a media release on July 19, but these regulations are not new. “In reality, these are federal regulations that we have had all alo...
Alabama man charged with 42 game violations GILLETTE (WNE) — An Alabama man pleaded not guilty last week to 42 big game violations that he is accused of committing over a ten-year period in Campbell County. Russell “Rusty” B. Vick, 54, could spend up to 31 years in jail and pay up to $218,000 in fines if convicted of all the misdemeanor crimes. Among the charges are 20 counts of illegally taking a game animal without a license or during a closed season involving buck antelope, buck mule deer, bull and cow elk from 2003 to 2012, according to cha...
Cody schools spend $10K to train for concealed weapons CODY (WNE) — The Cody School District spent just under $10,000 in the first full year of the CKA program that vets and trains certain staff who apply to carry concealed weapons in school buildings. No information on the number of armed staff or where they are located is made public regarding the policy as part of an effort to safeguard teachers and schools. The fiscal year 2018-19 budget concluded at the end of June and included a line for CKA program expenses at $9,838.50. The line in t...
Irrigation tunnel collapse prompts emergency declaration TORRINGTON (WNE) — Gov. Mark Gordon has officially declared a state of emergency for Goshen County due to the collapse of an irrigation tunnel along the Fort Laramie-Gering canal. In a press release issued Monday evening by the governor’s office, Gordon pledged to deploy state resources to Goshen County “in an effort to provide assistance to farmers affected by a catastrophic irrigation tunnel collapse in Goshen County.” “The Governor signed an Executive Order for a Declaration of Emerge...
CASPER — Just three weeks ago, members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Committee of Travel, Recreation and Cultural Resources decided it was giving up on an attempt to regulate gambling in the Cowboy State. Legislative leadership had other ideas, however. At the behest of the Management Council, state lawmakers revived the prospect of a statewide gaming commission on Monday, bringing back from the dead a proposal that would create a regulatory body to oversee everything from poker games and horse racing to games of skill and sports bet...
CASPER — As coal operator Blackjewel LLC went to battle in bankruptcy court last week, another Powder River Basin company quietly contended with its own financial troubles. Cloud Peak Energy filed for bankruptcy in May and is one of six coal companies enmeshed in bankruptcy proceedings in Wyoming. The coal operator owns three mines — Antelope and Cordero Rojo in Wyoming and Spring Creek in Montana — and owes $400 million in outstanding debt. Even so, the company reportedly hired a number of workers from the closed Blackjewel mines. In the l...
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Revenue Interim Committee has a bill on its plate that would allow cities to put an additional municipal sales tax to voters. But instead of voting on the bill, the committee hit pause this week to allow cities and counties a chance to work through major difference on the bill and find a compromise that could pass through the Legislature. Representatives from the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association said they are set to meet this month to try to wor...
JACKSON — As recently as last fall, the animal that’s making headlines as the first Colorado wolf in four years was wandering one of the most remote and wild landscapes left in the Lower 48 states. It was the closing days of October when a pilot contracted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department pinged 1084M with his Snake River Pack mates in the willow complex not far from Hawk’s Rest, a craggy mountain overlooking the Upper Yellowstone River that’s famous for its location — as far as one can get from a road in the Lower 48. The three-yea...
Powell resident Daniel Stanley kayaks along a Powell street on Sunday afternoon after a major storm dropped more than one-half inch of rain, along with hail, on Powell in a little more than 30 minutes. The storm left several homes and businesses in part of Powell flooded with up to one foot of water....
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Government Efficiency Commission on Monday approved recommending a group of about 18 cost-saving measures to Gov. Mark Gordon and the state Legislature. The list could potentially save the state more than $60 million over the 2021-22 biennium. The recommendations come from the national consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired by the state in 2018 on a one-year, $1.8 million contract for the efficiency study. According to the report, which was voted on by the efficiency commission during a Monday meeting, its p...
Gillette resident LaDonna Hatch sets up her 1962 Shasta camper, named “Stitching Sally,” during a gathering of vintage camper enthusiasts in Gillette last weekend. The rally was organized by Paul and Caroline Lacitinola, publishers of “Vintage Camper Trailers Magazine.” The Lacitinolas made Gillette their last stop on a trip of 5,000 to 6,000 miles before returning to their home in California....
Gillette man dies weeks after motorcycle crash GILLETTE (WNE) — Nearly three weeks after a devastating motorcycle crash left Deven Dulany with badly broken legs, arms and internal injuries, the Gillette 20-year-old has died. Dulany had been receiving emergency treatment and care at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado, that included amputating part of his left leg and numerous surgeries. Dulany had been showing some small gains, including moving his arms and right leg some and communicating with friends and family, but...
Haylee Bertalot, 9, of Cody tries the machine gun simulation Saturday at the grand reopening of the Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Haylee was one of several hundred people to visit the museum during its grand opening following a $12 million renovation project. The museum holds more than 30,000 items and more than 10,000 of those were on display for the reopening ceremonies Saturday. The Firearms Museum was closed in August of 2018 to allow the work to take...
CASPER — A man accused of kidnapping a child from a south Casper apartment complex on Wednesday — and then eluding police for 24 hours — now faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors on Friday afternoon filed three felony charges against Joshua Hicks, 32, who, authorities have said, abducted a young girl on Wednesday morning from a lawn near Southwest Wyoming Boulevard and sexually abused her. He then dropped her in the area of the apartment building and left in a truck, according to a series of news releases police issued in connecting to the c...
Black bear killed after raiding picnic sites, trash cans JACKSON (WNE) — One Jackson Hole bear is dead and another two have been hauled to more remote locales after raiding visitors’ picnics and residents’ trash cans. The subadult female black bear that lost her life regularly trolled developed parts of Jenny and String lakes, an area that has seen regular summertime conflict in recent years despite efforts to educate visitors not to feed the bears. “We did intend to relocate it,” Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Denise Germann said. “Bu...
Jackson man confirmed to Interior slot JACKSON (WNE) — A Jackson Hole man breezed through his U.S Senate confirmation on Thursday to fill a high post in Washington, D.C., overseeing the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rob Wallace was confirmed unanimously as the next U.S. Department of Interior’s assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, becoming the first Senate-confirmed nominee in that job in eight years. He’ll answer to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who lauded the Senate’s approval. “I look forward t...
GILLETTE — Nearly 600 workers at Blackjewel LLC’s coal mines in Campbell County are suddenly out of work after the company abruptly closed its Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines Monday afternoon. The move came just hours after the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in West Virginia. But motions that included asking for emergency financial relief to keep mines at Blackjewel’s 32 operations in Wyoming and the eastern United States either were denied or not acted upon. Online court filings as of Monday evening did not inclu...
CASPER — The first week of July is often a slow one in state government, shortened by a federal holiday and marked by a light legislative schedule. However, the first week of July also means something else in Wyoming – the time many of the laws passed by the Legislature this winter finally go into effect. As the clock hit midnight on Monday, more than 200 laws passed during the 2019 legislative session went into effect, impacting the lives of Wyoming residents in some ways major, some ways not. A common centerpiece in many homes around Wyo...
