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JACKSON — With a Dec. 14 hearing fast approaching, both sides in a closely watched legal fight over abortion access in Wyoming agree on one thing: pressing ahead. “This case needs to get decided and we need to move it forward,” said Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde, who is defending two laws passed by the state Legislature. One is a general ban on abortions with some exceptions and the other outlaws medication abortions. Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Melissa Owens asked the parties Thursday if an upcoming Dec. 14 summa...
POWELL — Authorities investigating the disappearance of a Cody woman found dried blood and an apparent bullet hole in the vehicle she was last seen traveling in, court records say. The SUV is owned by Katie Ferguson’s ex-boyfriend, Adam Aviles Jr., who was arrested last week amid the investigation. Aviles is facing a federal charge that alleges he illegally possessed ammunition, but the 26-year-old has not been charged in connection with Ferguson’s disappearance. Ferguson was last seen in early October, as she began heading back to Wyomi...
BUFFALO - Jeanne Peterson and her husband, Robert Suchor, weren't necessarily surprised to find an ancient tree beneath the surface of their property east of Buffalo. Destined to become an RV campground, the couple's land sits just south of the Bureau of Land Management's Dry Creek Petrified Tree Environmental Education Area, where petrified trees provide evidence of a much different landscape 60 million years ago than exists today. "There's more to the desert than meets the eye," Peterson...
CHEYENNE — A Laramie lawyer has sued Secretary of State Chuck Gray, attempting to bar former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., from appearing on future ballots in the state. The complaint, filed earlier this month, is one of many attempts in U.S. courts to disqualify the former president from ballot access. Similar lawsuits exist in Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, the Missouri Independent reported. In a news release sent out Tuesday, Gray spoke out against the lawsuit. He said it was weaponizing the U.S....
LYMAN — A meeting was held Tuesday in Kemmerer during which the proposed TerraPower nuclear plant was discussed and residents questioned the timeline and safety of the proposed plant. The meeting, held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, played to a full house as concerned residents were on hand to hear how the plant would be operated and the safety provisions would be implemented at the TerraPower nuclear plant near Kemmerer. TerraPower has not yet submitted an application for construction, so many of the questions Kemmerer residents had a...
CHEYENNE — State lawmakers advanced a bill draft on Monday that aims to ban all hemp-products containing any psychoactive properties, including delta-8, without providing a distinction between “synthetic” and “naturally occurring” properties. Members of the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee were divided in their opinions of the bill. Some members said the draft was a necessary step toward protecting youth, while others hesitated over the bill’s broad language. Committee co-Chairman Rep. Art Washut, R- Casper, said the bill was “not read...
Wyoming lawmakers want to earmark $50 million to sue the federal government over implementation of national environmental and natural resource laws. Lawmakers added the proposed $50 million appropriation to a draft bill — Federal land use plans-legal actions authorized — that the Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee endorsed Oct. 30. The bill authorizes the Legislature “to prosecute actions involving the proper administration and interpretation of federal acts.” Lawmakers proposed the measure in part because...
The pathway of a highly migratory western Wyoming pronghorn herd that's been known by researchers for a quarter-century is at "high risk" of being lost. That's according to a draft "threat evaluation" released Thursday by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in conjunction with an announcement that the state agency will consider identifying or designating migration corridors used by the Sublette Pronghorn Herd. "In summary, the known current and potential threats pose a high risk to the...
When it comes to the issue of declining rates of kokanee salmon in the Flaming Gorge, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is having conversations with the public about the problem and considering more drastic solutions, such as netting small lake trout on a large scale. The WGFD's Green River Region hosted a public house meeting at the Green River campus of Western Wyoming Community College on October 18 to discuss the Flaming Gorge fishery. Green River Fisheries Biologist John Walrath gave a...
SHERIDAN - Fort Phil Kearny was established by the U.S. Army on July 15, 1866 with the original purpose of protecting freighters and travelers along the Bozeman Trail from Native American tribes. Standing for only two years, the fort would become the site of a deadly battle that spelled death for 81 men. Today, the fort's bloodied history is the catalyst for ghost stories aplenty. Of two major battles at the fort, the one with the highest number of fatalities was the Fetterman Fight, also known...
POWELL — That Cameron Boni remains in jail and not in a mental health facility is a source of frustration for Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah, who’s presiding over Boni’s pending criminal charges. “This is a troubling case for me,” Darrah said Oct. 12, as he ordered Boni to remain held on $100,000 bond, “because Mr. Boni is a product of a system, in my mind, that is broken.” Court records say Boni raced into Powell at 143 mph in May, hitting four different vehicles before his Jetta slid to a stop on Coulter Avenue. No one was serio...
ALPINE - Gary Fralick's calm demeanor shifted to a hustle for the hour that a steady stream of severed heads made its way through his check station on the last Saturday of deer hunting season. The Thayne-based Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist and his colleague, Kelsie Hayes, checked one ungulate deadhead after another. The red-shirted duo was posted up where Greys River Road exits the Wyoming and Salt River mountain ranges. Fralick knows the spot well: This fall marked his 30th...
CHEYENNE — When Gov. John Allen Campbell signed an act granting women’s suffrage in 1869, Wyoming became the first state in the country to give women the right to vote. Women’s suffrage was further solidified 20 years later during the Wyoming Constitutional Convention in 1889, when this right was enshrined as part of the state’s constitution, again making Wyoming the first state to do so. The room where the convention was held, known as the Historic Supreme Court Room, resides within the Wyoming State Capitol and is open to the public. The sta...
Tata Chemicals North America Inc. is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Tata Chemicals Soda Ash Partners LLC (TCSAP) has signed a cooperation agreement with BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC (BWXT) for a project supported by the Wyoming Energy Authority to assess the viability of deploying small-scale nuclear reactors in the state to provide heat and electricity to industry and to supplement existing power generation resources. Under the terms of the agreement, TCSAP and BWXT will work together to identify TCSAP’s energy needs in Wyoming, p...
Art Lawson wanted to show actor Martin Sensmeier what the Wind River Indian Reservation was all about when he came through town this summer. So Lawson, the Shoshone and Arapahoe Fish and Game's director, took Sensmeier fishing in the backcountry. The actor - star of the upcoming film, "Wind River: The Next Chapter" - got a good glimpse of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho's 2.2-million-acre reservation's wild landscape. "A bear just popped up right in front of camp," Lawson recalled of t...
A red fox jumped into someone's golf cart in Grand Teton National Park a few summers ago, presumably looking for a snack. It wasn't the fox's first foray into begging humans for food, and it wouldn't be his last. After hopping on occupied picnic tables and stealing fish from ice fishermen, park rangers ultimately trapped and killed the creature. It's one thing for foxes to linger near campsites and pose for the occasional photo, it's another for a fox to hop up next to a person. Red foxes aren't...
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is dedicated to ensuring the sustainability of our diverse aquatic ecosystems. To that end, annual fishing closures are in place to protect spawning kokanee salmon and other species in Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River below Fontenelle Dam. Shoreline spawning kokanee are crucial for maintaining and recovering the kokanee population in Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Research indicates that they constitute a significant portion of the kokanee population,...
Wyoming has long had an adversarial relationship with smokable or edible intoxicants, and that may continue with delta-8 - colloquially known as "weed light" and "diet weed." Members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee will consider a draft bill Tuesday in Casper that would effectively ban that substance and any other with "similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity." The discussion comes at a time when stores selling the substance are proliferating in Wyoming, national leaders...
Fear and outrage about rising electric rates have set the stage for lawmakers to go after renewable energy and possibly throw up roadblocks to future wind and solar development in the state. Rocky Mountain Power has testified and submitted data to show that volatile fossil fuel pricing - including a spike in December that boosted Wyoming's revenue outlook - is the primary driver behind its staggering 30% rate hike proposal. But some lawmakers, and many of the utility's customers, say renewables...
CHEYENNE — Officials from the Wyoming Military Department advised legislators against restarting the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy until sufficient staffing for the residential program for at-risk youth is secured. Maj. Gen. Greg Porter, the state’s adjutant general, stressed to the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee that a restart of the program isn’t possible until the staffing issue is resolved. “What I would offer — and I would tell the governor of Wyoming the same thing — until we are able to solve the s...
CASPER — Though the three-day bench trial that will decide the fate of abortion in Wyoming remains months away, the contentious legal battle over the state’s two bans continues to play out in Teton County court. Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens ruled last month in favor of the women challenging the bans after a monthslong clash over the fact-finding portion of the case, also known as discovery, forcing the state and the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office to answer questions about the laws and their meaning ahead of the trial. Owens...
When it came to doing his Eagle Scout project, Logan Wadsworth chose something that combined a way to serve the community with one of his favorite activities. Logan loves camping with his fellow scouts, so after the Boy Scouts worked with the county commissioners to be able to camp overnight at Pioneer Trails Picnic Grounds, Logan wanted to do something that would both complete their camping experience and benefit the community as a whole for years to come. "I thought of putting a couple fire...
As part of the Sweetwater County Library System commitment to the community, there are opportunities to exhibit local artists work. The Exhibits Committee invite both emerging and established artists to display their original artwork in the Sweetwater County Library in Green River and White Mountain Library in Rock Springs. Along with individual exhibits, annual group exhibits include the Sweetwater Open, Photography Open, Quilter's Open, and the Small Works Exhibit. These open shows provide...
Tip Top Search and Rescue and the Sublette County Sheriff's Office were looking for a missing hiker last week, and on Thursday they reported recovering his body. On Tuesday, August 22, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office reported that Tip Top Search and Rescue was seeking public assistance to locate John Diepholz in the Wind River Range out of the Elkhart Park Trail head in the greater Wall Lake area. Diepholz was reported missing to Sublette County Dispatch the afternoon of Monday, August 21...
Rocky Mountain Power's proposal to hike electric utility rates in Wyoming by an average of 29.2%, if approved, would put households and businesses in peril and only serve to line the pockets of the company's shareholders and executives, which includes its parent company PacifiCorp's owner, billionaire Warren Buffett. That was the consensus among about two dozen people who spoke at a public comment hearing held by the Wyoming Public Service Commission Thursday in Casper. "We're going to lose a lo...
