Wyoming
Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, May 3, 2024
It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming! I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom, for Friday, May 3rd.
Six people became stuck on Highway 212 near Cooke City for 10 hours when Google sent their two-wheel-drive vehicle on a closed, snowpacked road. The tourists somehow missed the ‘road closed’ sign and the massive amount of snow.
And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi points out that the tow truck driver from Cody who rescued the family was not surprised at all.
“It was a family that was determined to get to Yellowstone. They knew the east entrance was closed, but they thought that the north entrance road, or the Northeast entrance road was open, which isn’t wrong. It is open at this time of year. There’s just that nine mile gap between the east entrance and the entrance to the Beartooth highway that isn’t plowed. So they got caught in a snowstorm up there, at around midnight of all times, and they got stuck in the snow and they were stuck there for 10 hours until Zac Beardall out of Cody could come and rescue them. So it’s not that uncommon – he said for this time of year, close to the opening of the park, people don’t know what to expect, or they don’t anticipate that there’s still going to be winter conditions in the mountain.”
The East and South entrances of Yellowstone are scheduled to open Friday morning, weather permitting. As the days progress, more melting snow should make the roads leading to the park less hazardous.
Peabody Energy Corporation, which runs the world’s most productive coal mine in northeastern Wyoming, saw its profit slip 79% from a year ago as production in the region’s surface mining operations sunk to one of its lowest levels in a decade.
Peabody operates three mines in the Cowboy State’s coal-rich Powder River Basin, and all are displaying similar performance, according to Energy reporter Pat Maio.
“The guidance going forward, like into the second quarter, they’re saying like 15 ½ million tons is what they’re forecasting, which is down rather significantly. I think 30 million tons was the high mark back around ‘14 or ‘15, that period, and which was probably when most of the mine, or coal, was pulled out of that area.”
If the steep declines continue, Maio reports that the loss of those mineral revenues could impact the state budget.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s campaign wants Wyoming Senate candidate Reid Rasner to stop making social posts that the campaign believes are meant to lead people to think she is supporting and endorsing his campaign against U.S. Sen. John Barrasso.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson obtained a cease and desist letter sent by Representative Hageman’s attorney, which states very clearly that Rasner does not have her endorsement. But he says Rasner has been prolific – and creative – in his attempts to link his campaign to her office.
“Some of the posts include messages such as ‘Hang on, Harriet, I am on my way, the Wyoming congressional delegation 2024 is getting stronger.’ A different variation of the same post says ‘The Rasner-Hageman duo will crush the deep state.’ What’s also important to note with all these posts is that he’s in the photo with each of these posts, posing with Hageman at an event from a few months ago. So it’s yet to be seen what will happen with this, but it’s probably not a positive thing for the Rasner campaign, considering Hageman’s strong popularity in Wyoming.”
Hageman has not endorsed any candidate in the U.S. Senate race at this time.
The Casper Hall of Justice was evacuated and shut down for several hours Thursday because of a suspicious package.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the building houses the Casper Police Department, Natrona County Sheriff’s Office and Natrona County District Attorney’s offices.
“The Hall of Justice in Casper was locked down and evacuated for a couple hours today starting just before noon, because of a suspicious package that arrived at the Hall of Justice. And some members of the special response team that deal with hazardous materials showed up, went into the building. And after a couple hours, everything was decided, it was an all clear.”
This was the second Wyoming courthouse in three days closed for a potential threat. A hazardous materials threat prompted an evacuation of the Campbell County Courthouse in Gillette on Tuesday. Whether the Casper and Gillette courthouse incidents could be related wasn’t known at the time this story was published.
A man who in 2021 unleashed a meth-fueled violent crime rampage on homeowners and hunters in Douglas was denied a new trial by the Wyoming Supreme Court on Thursday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 43-year-old Solomon Preston Bolen is now serving 30-40 years in prison for the shooting, but is appealing the Wyoming Supreme Court, arguing that his attorney didn’t serve him well enough at trial.
“Court documents described just a bombastic crime spree, where Bolen is shooting two different hunters through their legs with one bullet, during sort of a truck chase in a circular driveway and is ripping through fields and stealing guns and breaking into homes and asking everyone wild questions. His argument was that his lawyer, and his trial judge should have put the question to the jury whether he could not be considered guilty, because he was essentially crazy at the time that he committed these crimes.”
Wyoming defendants can’t be found not guilty for mental incompetence if their mental incompetence was primarily self-induced – in this case, fueled by the amounts of methamphetamines Bolen had used prior to the incident.
The MVP of Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers was Matt Hilton. But don’t bother looking for the 37-year-old right-hander on either team’s roster.
Hilton, who grew up in Buffalo, Wyoming, is the hero beekeeper who saved Tuesday’s game from 20,000 Africanized bees.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols spoke with Matt about the team’s need for his unique skills.
“Are we surprised it took a guy from Wyoming to get the show on the road at Chase Field? Probably not. It might have been a little enlightening to learn a swarm of bees could actually pose some level of threat to baseball fans. But I think the real eye opener in this story is the fact that Chase Field, home of the world champion Arizona Diamondbacks, has a pest control company on call 24/7 for just such an emergency. Brilliant.”
After completing his task Tuesday to a standing ovation, Hilton was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
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Radio Stations
The following radio stations are airing Cowboy State Daily Radio on weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings. More radio stations will be added soon.
KYDT 103.1 FM – Sundance
KBFS 1450 AM — Sundance
KYCN 1340 AM / 92.7 FM — Wheatland
KZEW 101.7 FM — Wheatland
KANT 104.1 FM — Guernsey
KZQL 105.5 FM — Casper
KMXW 92.5 FM — Casper
KBDY 102.1 FM — Saratoga
KTGA 99.3 FM — Saratoga
KJAX 93.5 FM — Jackson
KZWY 106.3 FM — Sheridan
KROE 930 AM / 103.9 FM — Sheridan
KWYO 1410 AM / 106.9 FM — Sheridan
KYOY 92.3 FM Hillsdale-Cheyenne / 106.9 FM Cheyenne
KRAE 1480 AM — Cheyenne
KDLY 97.5 FM — Lander
KOVE 1330 AM — Lander
KZMQ 100.3/102.3 FM — Cody, Powell, Medicine Wheel, Greybull, Basin, Meeteetse
KKLX 96.1 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Ten Sleep, Greybull
KCGL 104.1 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin, Lovell, Clark, Red Lodge, MT
KTAG 97.9 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin
KCWB 92.1 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin
KVGL 105.7 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Basin, Ten Sleep
KODI 1400 AM / 96.7 FM — Cody, Powell, Lovell, Basin, Clark, Red Lodge
KWOR 1340 AM / 104.7 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Ten Sleep
KREO 93.5 FM — Sweetwater and Sublette Counties
KGOS 1490 AM — Goshen County
KERM 98.3 FM — Goshen County
Check with individual radio stations for airtime of the newscasts.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two men were detained in Wyoming in connection with a fatal shooting at a downtown Salt Lake hotel that killed one man.
Carlos Chee, 23, and Chino Aguilar, 21, were both wanted for first-degree felony murder after the victim, identified as Christian Lee, 32, was found dead in a room at the Springhill Suites near 600 South and 300 West.
According to warrants issued for their arrest, Chee and Aguilar met with Lee and another woman at the hotel to sell marijuana. During the alleged drug deal, Aguilar allegedly shot and killed Lee after he tried to grab at his gun.
MORE | Shootings
Investigators said they found Lee dead in the room upon arrival, as well as a single shell casing on the floor and a small amount of marijuana on the television stand.
The woman told investigators she had met Chee on a dating app and that he agreed to come to the hotel to sell her marijuana. She had been hanging out with him in the room, which Lee rented for her to use, when Lee asked them to leave. Lee was then shot and killed following a brief confrontation.
Chee and Aguilar allegedly fled the scene in a 2013 Toyota Camry with a Texas license plate that was later found outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming just a few hours later.
The two men were taken into custody and detained at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
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ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
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by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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