Wyoming

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 2, 2024

Published

2 years ago

August 2, 2024

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, August 2nd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom – Brought to you by Wyoming Senior Olympics! Don’t miss the action at this year’s summer games from today through August 4th in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more info and a schedule of events, visit Wyoming Senior Olympics dot org.

—

Historic Fort Laramie, Wyoming’s first settlement, nearly went up in flames when an out-of-control wildfire nearly burned through it the past couple of days.

The flames from what’s now being called the Pleasant Valley Fire reportedly came to within about a mile of the site that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio spoke with residents of the town of Fort Laramie, who had been told to prepare for evacuation late Tuesday evening.

“I interviewed one lady who works for the city government there and she was telling me that she lives literally in the center of the town and it’s a town of like 200 people, right? … They loaded up two chickens in a carrier into their orange dodge 1976 van … And then they had two cats, they put them in carriers and threw them in the back of the van as well. And then they brought their German Shepherd Dog and tossed it into the back of the van as well… But they just kind of kept watching and you know, the firefighters in that neck of the woods, were able to draw the line at the canal … to the west west of town about two miles out.”

There are a handful of other fires burning around the state, as well, in the northwest, the northeast, and the south-central part of Wyoming.

Read the full story HERE.

—

The Wyoming Legislature this year did not entertain any budget or bill action featuring language about keeping former President Donald Trump off the ballot.

Yet, a handful of mailers sent to Wyoming residents last month claim that several Republican Wyoming House incumbents voted for such a measure.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray is defending those mailers.

“This all stems back to a footnote, the appropriations committee put on Chuck Gray’s budget, which said that he wasn’t to spend Wyoming taxpayer dollars on out of state lawsuits without the legislature’s permission… And so those mailers essentially equated people who voted not to delete that footnote, it equated that vote to a vote to scrub Trump from the ballot.”

Among those who have spoken with Cowboy State Daily, the legislators whom the mailers target disagree wholly with Gray’s claim that their votes equate to an attack on Trump.

Read the full story HERE.

—

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife plane that apparently looped into Wyoming airspace Tuesday has raised speculation that the aircraft was tracking wolves that had crossed the state line into Wyoming.

But Wyoming and Colorado wildlife agencies told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that there isn’t any active tracking of wolves in the area.

“Colorado Parks and Wildlife, it did confirm that they are doing some counts of pronghorn antelope. They’re, they’re they’re doing some, you know, of their herd counts, which happened about this time of year anyway.”

Wyoming Game and Fish spokeswoman Breanna Ball stated that her agency wasn’t involved in tracking wolves near the Colorado state line.

Read the full story HERE.

—

Posters seeking information about missing University of Wyoming professor Nash Quinn cover bus stops, storefront windows in downtown Laramie and on trailheads throughout Albany County.

Yet despite a massive multi-day search that’s had law enforcement, search and rescue groups and volunteers covering nearly 70,000 square acres of private and public land, Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Quinn and his white mountain bike remain missing.

“There has been nothing found. It’s a very rare case where they haven’t his bike hasn’t been found in any traces of him. And I spoke to the sheriff and I asked him if he had gotten any tips and he said none. So this is a rare incident. And everybody is just very confused what where he might be and what might happen and unfortunately, there are no updates.”

The 39-year-old fine arts professor, avid cyclist and disc golf player is believed to have gone for a bike ride sometime between July 8 and July 21, and never returned.

Read the full story HERE.

—

Major changes are coming to Wyoming’s television news scene with the transfer of two stations owned by Gray Television, to Marquee Broadcasting.

The sale of stations KGWN in Cheyenne, KCWY in Casper, KSTF in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and KNEP in Sidney, Nebraska, had been pending FCC approval since February. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that approval has now been granted.

“CEO Gene Steinberg told me, one of the first things we’re going to do is just listen to the community, and kind of take an assessment of what the needs are, and respond accordingly. There probably won’t be any changes in play until later this fall.”

Two weeks into the acquisition being finalized, Marquee has already hired a news director, who will focus on listening to what the communities want to see in its news coverage.

Read the full story HERE.

—

And after the dramatic explosion of Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park destroyed part of a boardwalk on July 23rd and sent visitors running, the ripped open landscape looks more like a war zone than a tourist attraction.

Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that as scientists try to piece together what happened, they’re recruiting “citizen scientists” to help research the aftermath of the blast.

“What they’re hoping is that people who witnessed it themselves or took pictures of the Black Diamond pool, or the general area, in the hours and days leading up to that explosion, might share that information with them so they have a better understanding about what happened, and how they might be able to understand these things in the future.”

Biscuit Basin will remain closed to tourists for the rest of 2024. Scientists need to analyze the area to understand its current and future behavior better while the National Park Service assesses the infrastructure damage caused by the explosion.

Read the full story HERE.

—

A challenger to incumbent state Rep. Landon Brown is accusing the lawmaker of “flip-flopping” on votes, comparing him to 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Exie Brown, who is running against Landon Brown for the for Wyoming House District 9 seat, says Landon voted against a bill prohibiting males identifying as females from participating in female-designated school sports in 2022, but then voted to support it in 2023.

Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson spoke to Landon Brown after the remarks were made at a Politics In the Park rally in Cheyenne Wednesday evening.

“Landon Brown explained to me that he has no problem switching his vote on a bill if he thinks the bill has been improved from what was not passable before. And he thinks the matter’s just kind of simple as that.”

Rep. Landon Brown clapped back at his challenger, saying he’d rather focus on issues than taking pot shots at people.

Read the full story HERE.

—

Peabody Energy, the largest coal producer in Wyoming and the United States, saw coal sales out of its Powder River Basin open-pit mines drop 16.4% in the second quarter of 2024 from year-ago levels.

And energy reporter Pat Maio says profits continued to fall.

“They’re seeing continued declines… in coal production, and, you know, the challenges that they’re trying to meet as a result of that. And I mean, they’re at historic lows for the last decade.”

Peabody President and CEO Jim Grech cited depressed natural gas prices as a main reason for the challenges with selling coal, as utility companies have selected that rival commodity to fuel their power plants.

Read the full story HERE.

—

The state of Wyoming may take a more active role in promoting building more affordable housing in communities around the Cowboy State.

The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee unanimously advanced legislation when it met this week that clarifies state-owned land can be used for residential purposes. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the legislation is a result of increased pressure in areas around the state with serious affordable housing shortages, like Jackson and Laramie.

“And a lot of what this bill does is basically clarify that the state can do this… it allows for a prioritization to use it for this purpose, for residential purposes, whereas kind of currently, it’s just they’re allowed to do it.”

However, critics say these are local issues, and that the state shouldn’t set itself up to be in the residential landlord business.

Read the full story HERE.

—

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a father against a counselor who denied the father access to his 7-year-old daughter’s counseling file.

Crime and Courts reporter Clair McFarland explains that the decision stems from a contentious custody battle that began in Montana, but crossed state lines when the girl and her mother moved to Park County, Wyoming.

“The girl … starts going to a counselor, and the father, while he’s applying for a change in the terms of his custody, he sent a subpoena to the counselor saying I want the records that you have from counseling my daughter. The judge denied some of those records, saying there’s a concern for the child’s best interests. That was wrong, according to the Wyoming Supreme Court, because in our rules of civil procedure, here in Wyoming, you can’t deny a subpoena based on the child’s best interest. There’s a list of reasons you can deny a subpoena, but that’s not one of them.”

Wyoming law also gives a parent the authority to waive his child’s medical confidentiality privilege.

Read the full story HERE.

—

And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have a conversation with Wyoming country music artist Chancey Williams. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube Channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you’ll find it in our FREE daily newsletter! Thanks for tuning in – I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.

Source link

Wyoming

Wyoming Crow Hunters Can Blast All They Want, But Nobody Eats The Birds

Published

4 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming Crow Hunters Can Blast All They Want, But Nobody Eats The Birds

Mention of bird hunting might conjure up images of hunters and their dogs huddling in freezing duck blinds or pounding the brush in hopes of kicking up pheasants. But crow hunting is a thing in Wyoming too.

“It’s about the sport of it,” Dan Kinneman of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily.

He started crow hunting when he was 14 and is about to turn 85. He’s never tried cooking and eating crows or known anybody who has.

Instead, shooting crows is essentially nuisance bird control, as they’re known to wreak havoc on agricultural crops.

“All the ranchers will let you hunt crows. I’ve never been refused access to hunt crows. They all hate them,” he said.

In Wyoming, crow hunting season runs from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. No license is required, and there’s no bag limit. Hunters can shoot all the crows they want to.

It’s a ball for hunting dogs too, Kinneman said.

“My yellow Labrador retriever, he doesn’t care whether it’s a crow or duck. In fact, he likes crow hunting more than duck hunting, because there’s more action,” he said.

Crow hunting requires skill, patience and a good set of decoys, an experienced Wyoming hunter said. The upside is, there’s no bag limit, hunters can blast all the crows they want. No one eats them, though.

Don’t Expect It To Be Easy

Kinneman said that in the days of his youth, crow hunting was as simple as driving around and “shooting them out of trees with rifles.”

However, as the number of people and buildings potentially in the paths of bullets grew, such practices fell out of favor. Crow hunting became more regulated.

And it evolved to resemble hunting other birds, such as waterfowl.

Meaning, hunters started setting out decoys, hiding in blinds and using calls to tempt crows to within shotgun range.

Kinneman is no stranger to hunting of all types. He’s taken numerous species of big game in Wyoming and elsewhere. And in July 2005, he shot a prairie dog near Rock Springs from well over a mile away.

He hit the prairie dog from 2,157 yards away. A mile is 1,760 yards.

But bird hunting has always been his favorite.

“It’s my life,” he said.

He has a huge collection of duck, goose and dove decoys. And two tubs full of crow decoys.

The uninitiated might think that going out and blasting crows would be a slam dunk.

That isn’t so, Kinneman said. He likes crow hunting for the challenge of it.

“Hunting crows is hard. They are a lot smarter than ducks and geese,” he said.

Pick Up After Yourself

Even though he doesn’t eat crows, Kinneman said he never just left them littering the ground where he shot them.

“I never let them lay out there. I always picked them up and disposed of the carcasses,” he said.

That’s good ethics and it shows respect for the ranchers, he said.

“Leaving them (dead crows) out there would be no different than just leaving all of your empty shotgun shells out there,” he said.

“You have to pick up after yourself, or the ranchers won’t let you back onto their land,” he added.

Slow Year

At his age, Kinneman isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be able to get out crow hunting. And this year has been a total bust.

“I love doing it. But this year there are no crows,” he said.

The Riverton area is along major crow migration routes.

Picking a good hunting spot is a matter of “finding a flyway” that the crows are on and then setting up a spread of decoys and a blind along the route.

But with an unusually warm winter, the crow flyways have been practically empty, he said.

Migrations Are Off Everywhere

Avid birdwatcher Lucas Fralick of Laramie said that warm, dry conditions much of this winter have knocked bird migrations out of whack.

“I do know that because of the weather, migrations are off all over the place,” he said.

One of his favorite species is the dark-eyed junco, a “small, sparrow-like bird,” he said.

They usually winter in the Laramie area and leave right around March. This year, they were gone by November, he said.

“They’re a cold-weather bird,” he said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

Source link

Wyoming

Wyoming State Parks surpasses five million visitors in 2025

Published

16 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming State Parks surpasses five million visitors in 2025

Wyoming State Parks is thrilled to announce that system-wide visitation surpassed the 5-million-visitor milestone in 2025. With an estimated 5,048,419 total visitors, the agency saw a 5% increase over 2024, marking its highest visitation levels since the 2020-21 recreation surge. This continued growth reaffirms Wyoming’s reputation as a premier destination for recreation, history, and culture. […]

Source link

Wyoming

University Of Wyoming Budget Spared (For Now), Biz Council Reined In

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

University Of Wyoming Budget Spared (For Now), Biz Council Reined In

If the Wyoming House and Senate approve its budget changes, then the chambers’ Joint Conference Committee will have helped the University of Wyoming dodge a $40 million cut, while also limiting the Wyoming Business Council to one year’s funding instead of the standard two.

The Joint Conference Committee adopted numerous changes to the state’s two-year budget draft, but didn’t formally advance the document to the House and Senate chambers. The committee meets again Monday and may do so at that time.

Then, the House and Senate can vote on whether to adopt that draft by a simple majority.

First, UW

Starting in January, the Joint Appropriations Committee majority had sought to deny around $20 million in exception requests the University of Wyoming made, while imposing a $40 million cut to the university’s block grant.

That’s about 10% of the state’s grant to UW but a lesser proportion of the school’s overall operating budget.

The Senate sought to restore the $60 million.

The House sought to keep the denials and cuts, ultimately settling on a bargain to cut $20 million, and hinge UW’s retention of the remaining $20 million on its finding and reporting $5 million in savings.

The Joint Conference Committee the House and Senate sent into a Friday meeting to negotiate those two stances chose to fund UW “fully,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily in the state Capitol after the meeting.

But, $10 million of UW’s $40 million block grant won’t reach it until the school charts a “road map” of how it could save $5 million, and reports that to the Joint Appropriations Committee, she added.

“A healthy exercise, I think, for them to participate in, while the Legislature still allows them to receive full grant funding,” Nethercott said.

“I’m hopeful people feel confident the University is fully funded,” she continued, as it’s “on the brink of receiving a new president, having the resources he or she may need to continue to steer the leadership of the University, our state’s flagship school into the future.”

Hours earlier in a press conference, House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said the Legislature has been clear that UW should avoid “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI programming, and that it’s the position of the House majority that the school should tailor its programming to Wyoming’s true business needs – so UW graduates will stay in the state.

Within an earlier draft of the budget sat a footnote blocking money for Wyoming Public Media — a publicly funded media and radio entity funded through UW’s budget.

That footnote is gone from the JCC’s draft, said Nethercott.

Wyoming Business Council

The Wyoming Business Council is set to receive roughly $14 million, confined to one year, for its internal operations, said Nethercott.

“Both chambers have decided to only fund the operations,” Nethercott said, “not all the grant programs.”

She said that’s to compel the Legislature to revisit the concerns it has with the agency, then return in the 2027 legislative session with a vision for its future.

The Business Ready Communities program is “eliminated,” she said.

JCC member Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, elaborated further.

Of the appropriation, $12 million is from the state’s checking account, plus the state is authorizing WBC to use $157,787 in federal funds and nearly $1 million from other sources.

“We’re going to take it up as an interim topic in appropriations (committee) and how to rebuild it and make it work the way we think it should work,” said Pendergraft. But the JCC opted to fund the Small Business Development Center for two years, along with Economic Diversification Division for Manufacturing Works, and the Wyoming Women’s Business Center, Pendergraft noted, pointing to that language on his draft budget sheet.

Pendergraft made headlines last year by saying he wanted to eliminate the Wyoming Business Council altogether.

But Nethercott told the Senate earlier this month, legislators have complained of that agency her entire nine-year tenure.

She attributed this to what she called communications shortfalls that may not be intentional. She cosponsored a now-stalled bill this year that had sought to adopt a task force to evaluate WBC.

The Wyoming Business Council’s functions range from less controversial, like helping communities build infrastructure, to more controversial, like awarding tax-funded grants to certain businesses on a competitive application process.

Wyoming Public Television

Wyoming Public Television, which is not the same as Wyoming Public Media, is slated to receive the $3 million it lost when Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Nethercott said.

It will also receive its usual $3 million from Wyoming.

The entity will not receive another $3 million it had sought to upgrade its emergency-alert towers, said Nethercott, “because we received information from them… they have another source to pay for the replacement and maintenance of the towers.”

Like the Wyoming Business Council, the Wyoming Public TV’s functions range from less controversial to more controversial.

The entity operates, maintains and staffs emergency alert towers throughout Wyoming.

Wyoming Public TV also produces entertainment and informational movies. Its state grants run through the community colleges’ budget.

State Employees

Nethercott noted that the JCC advanced to both chambers an agreement to pay $111 million from the state’s checking account to give state employees raises.

Those raises would bring them to 2024 market values for their work, she noted.

Because that money is coming from the state’s checking account, or “general fund,” and not its severance tax pool as the House had envisioned, then $111 million won’t impact the $105 million investment another still-viable bill seeking to build an “energy dominance fund” envisions.

That bill, sponsored by Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, seeks to lend to large energy-sector projects.

Biteman told Cowboy State Daily in an interview days before the session convened that its purpose is to counteract “green” compacts investors have adopted, and which have bottlenecked energy projects.

Wyoming’s executive branch is currently suing BlackRock and other investors on that same assertion.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.

Source link