Wyoming
Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, July 31. 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.
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It’s wildfire season in the West, and while Wyoming tends to live in the smoke clouds of its Western neighbors, the Equality State itself is battling its own wildfires.
In northeast Wyoming, two fires have already caused damage to homes and buildings, and Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols reports that the Shoshone National Forest is blazing between Cody and Yellowstone.
“Clearwater Fire started by lightning and made significant progress Monday due to high winds 40-50 mile an hour gusts. Pushed that thing right up the elk fork drainage directly at – if you’re familiar with the area – that cute little campground, Wapiti, right off the highway. And for firefighters, highway access is the main concern from Cody to the east entrance of Yellowstone – that’s highway 14-16-20. And if this fire does not jump that highway, I’d be surprised. It’s knocking on the door.”
In Campbell County, a handful of people were left without homes to return to after erratic winds shifted direction Saturday and thrust a grassfire onto Peaceful Valley Drive just west of Gillette. Dozens of pets, horses, goats, chickens and other animals were saved, but some dogs were reported killed.
Read the full story HERE.
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Homes under $1 million are practically nonexistent in the Jackson Hole real estate market, and the rare few that are available go fast.
That’s even as the latest Jackson Hole Real Estate report from the Viehman Group shows the $2 million to $3 million segment of the Jackson Hole market is the most stagnant right now. Business reporter Renee Jean reports that sales have dropped off 6% overall, even as overall inventory has risen 5%.
“There’s still pretty robust demand for those homes, if people just would let go of pandemic pricing and come down just a little bit… these are people who can afford to sit on the market for a while and see what it does. And so, you know, you could see some price drops in the Jackson market, but I don’t think anyone should expect that that’s going to last for very long.”
Right now, there are just 10 condos or townhomes under $1 million dollars, and only six single-family homes less than $2 million on the market.
Read the full story HERE.
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For the first time since their inception, the most significant moves toward tightening Wyoming’s relatively opaque and lenient limited liability corporation laws may be about to happen.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the Legislature has convened a Business Fraud Working Group that’s spent the summer meeting to gain a better understanding of the alleged fraud some people commit under Wyoming-registered businesses because of the state’s LLC laws.
“Wyoming’s LLC laws and trust laws are renowned for being extremely private, and allowing sometimes some nefarious actors to get involved in the state. So this would basically at least make an effort at trying to kind of address some of those issues that had been brought up.”
Wyoming has some of the most lenient and private corporate business filing laws in the country, and some of the lowest associated fees for registering LLCs.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Green River man is facing up to 10 years in prison on claims he pointed a loaded 9 mm pistol at a teen who parked a powered-off dirt bike on the grass in front of the man’s home.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 70-year-old Boyd Kettle was charged Monday with aggravated assault in Sweetwater County Circuit Court.
“Boyd Kettle allegedly comes out and chastises the teen and points a loaded pistol at him. The reason that there’s an inference in that affidavit that it was loaded is that police met up with him later and collected a nine millimeter Taurus that had a full magazine and also one in the chamber.”
Wyoming law contains multiple variations of aggravated assault. Among those are charging options for people accused of pointing a “drawn deadly weapon” at others.
Read the full story HERE.
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Former President Donald Trump is paying attention to Wyoming and its 2024 races for the state Legislature. Over the weekend, Trump endorsed Cheyenne Republican Senate candidate Darin Smith on his social media platform Truth Social.
While Trump has endorsed Wyoming candidates before, he hasn’t expressed support for anyone running for the state Legislature until now, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson.
“Smith is running in Cheyenne is rural Laramie and Platte counties for the state senate for a seat currently occupied by Senator Anthony Bouchard, a Republican from Cheyenne. It’s notable that Smith got the endorsement, as it is the first endorsement Trump has ever made for a Wyoming State Legislature candidate.”
The track record shows that a Trump endorsement usually turns out well for those candidates.
Read the full story HERE.
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A half-shredded blade hanging from a wind turbine just off Interstate 80 west of Cheyenne is a reminder that these towering electricity generators are not immune to the sometimes-violent hail and lightning storms that roll through southeastern Wyoming.
Laurie Farkas, a spokeswoman for Black Hills Energy, told energy reporter Pat Maio that the blade was damaged by a lightning strike July 17 at the Corriedale wind farm west of Cheyenne.
“If you look at it really closely, and I did, I stopped off on the side of the road there and looked at it with the telephoto lens, and you can see, like strands of rope, almost, dangling where it had been snapped in half. And it’s basically a carbon fiber type of substance, and they have to be disposed of properly in the right landfill and whatnot. And there is a big landfill that does take them up in Casper, but they stopped doing it a couple years ago.”
Lightning damage is the single largest cause of unplanned downtime for wind turbines and the most common insurance claim filed by wind farm owners.
Read the full story HERE.
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The needless suffering of animals dying slow deaths tangled in old barbed wire fences inspired an army of volunteers to clean up rusted wire from an area between Cody and Yellowstone National Park.
Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to volunteers involved in the Absaroka Fence Initiative, which aims to rid the area of these specific hazards to wildlife. The initiative was sparked by a property owner who witnessed a tragic incident in 2012 in which two deer were tangled in barbed wire right in front of her house.
“It just turned into this horrible agonizing episode where it’s like two or three hours, and they finally got one of the Bucks free and it wandered off the property and didn’t live. The other one Game and Fish wardens had to put down on the site… on Monday, 12 years later, the Absaroka Fencing Initiative… they got about 40 people, and they came in and they removed three miles of old nasty rusty abandoned barbed wire, so that this doesn’t happen to any more animals or pets or things like that.”
Abandoned fences, usually dating from the early 1950s-1990s, are a problem all over the Cody region and the rest of Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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Douglas Smith continues to profess his innocence after being accused of killing two people during a daytime robbery of a downtown Cheyenne coin shop in 2015.
The 68-year-old California resident pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder during his arraignment hearing Monday in Laramie County District Court. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson.
“A jury trial has been set for December in that case, and he is still being held with no bond. During Monday’s court hearing, his attorney argued for reduced bond or any bond at all. But the judge has kind of delayed that for the future.”
Smith is accused of shooting and killing the then-owner of The Coin Shop, 67-year-old Dwight Brockman and his friend, 76-year-old George Manley, during that year’s Frontier Days. The brazen nature of the murder left many in Cheyenne shocked.
Read the full story HERE.
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Accused of going after four transients with a machete under a bridge in Green River — and slicing open the ear of one of them — a California man could face up to 40 years in prison.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 34-year-old Jacob Rial of Gaberville, California, was charged Monday with four counts of aggravated assault in Rock Springs Circuit Court.
“It’s a chasm of two sides to this story if I’ve ever seen one. On the one side, you have the defendant saying they tried to jump me, they tried to drown me. I pulled out my machete, I defended myself. I got away. And on the other side, you have the four people, two of whom are badly cut. I mean, one guy got his ear slashed, and saying, we were just talking, and randomly he grabs a machete out of his tan backpack and starts swinging, and we tried to fight it away from him. And that’s how two of us got cut.”
One of the men had a severe laceration to the side of his head and his ear, and the other had a less-severe cut to his neck.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com – and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel. I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
Radio Stations
The following radio stations are airing Cowboy State Daily Radio on weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings.
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
KJAX 93.5 FM — Jackson
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
KERM 98.3 FM — Goshen County
Check with individual radio stations for airtime of the newscasts.
The Platte County Attorney’s Office has nearly doubled the possible penalties for a Wyoming reporter accused of forging exhibits in an environmental case tied to her staunch opposition to a wind farm.
The 10 new counts against April Marie Morganroth, also known as the Wyoming-based reporter Marie Hamilton, allege that she convinced her landlords that she’d been approved for a home loan to buy their property, and grants to upgrade it.
Hamilton was already facing 10 felony charges in a March 9 Wheatland Circuit Court case, as she’s accused of submitting forged documents and lying under oath before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
That’s an environmental permitting panel that granted a permit to a NextEra Resources wind farm, which Hamilton has long opposed. She’s also reported on NextEra’s efforts and the community controversies surrounding those.
Then on Wednesday, Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver filed 10 more felony charges: five alleging possession of forged writing, and five more alleging forgery.
The former is punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines; the latter by up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Hamilton faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted of all charges in her March 9 case. The March 25 case would add up to 75 years more to that.
Both cases are ongoing.
Hamilton did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment left Thursday afternoon on her cellphone. She bonded out of jail earlier this month. The Platte County Detention Center said Thursday it does “not have her here.”
The Investigative Efforts Of Benjamin Peech
Converse County Sheriff’s Lt. Benjamin Peech investigated both cases at the request of Platte County authorities, court documents say.
When he was investigating evidence that Hamilton submitted forged documents and lied under oath for Industrial Siting Council proceedings, Peech also pursued Hamilton’s claim that she owned property on JJ Road, and that she’d bought it with a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.
The property, however, is registered under Platte County’s mapping system to a couple surnamed Gillis, says a new affidavit Peech signed March 19, which was filed Wednesday.
Peech spoke with both husband and wife, and they said they had the home on the market to sell it, and Hamilton contacted them in about July of 2025.
Hamilton told the pair that she and her husband wished to buy the property and were pre-qualified for a USDA loan through Neighbor’s Bank, wrote Peech.
But the property didn’t meet the standard of the loan, Hamilton reportedly continued. Still, she’d been approved for a USDA grant to work on the problems with the property and bring it up to the standards to qualify for the loan, she allegedly told the homeowners.
Papers
Hamilton provided the couple and their realtor with letters from USDA showing her loan pre-approval and grant approvals, the affidavit says.
During the lease period that followed, Hamilton was late “often” with rent and didn’t provide the couple with work logs until pressed, Peech wrote.
In early 2026, the lieutenant continued, the homeowners became concerned and asked Hamilton about her progress improving the property.
Hamilton reportedly sent the homeowners two invoices from contractors, showing she’d paid for work to be done. She said the wind had delayed that work, wrote Peech.
The affidavit says the Gillis couple sent Peech the documents Hamilton had reportedly given them, along with supporting emails showing those had come from one of Hamilton’s email addresses.
The Loan approval documents showed the respective logos for USDA Rural Development and Neighbor’s Bank at the top of each page, the lieutenant wrote, adding that the documents assert that Hamilton and her husband had been approved for the loan.
“There was then a list of items that needed to be completed — 14 items — prior to Final Loan Approval,” related Peech in the affidavit.
A signature at the bottom reportedly read, “Sincerely, USDA Rural Development Neighbors Bank Joshua Harris Homebuying Specialist.”
Grant Document
The documents purporting Hamilton had received a grant also showed the USDA Rural Development logo at the top of each page, with the names of Hamilton and her husband, other boilerplate language and a description of a $35,000 home buyer’s grant.
The project was about 65% complete at the time of review, the document adds, according to Peech’s narrative.
Peech describes more documents: a January notice, an invoice bearing the logo and name of “Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation, LLC,” and another invoice bearing the logo and name of “Pete’s Builders Roofing and Restoration.”
Real Estate Agent
Peech spoke with the Gillises’ real estate agent, Kay Pope, and she said she’d tried to verify the USDA grant and pre-approval by calling Susan Allman, who was listed in the documents as the Casper-based USDA agent. Pope left several messages without response, the affidavit says.
Pope spoke with Hamilton’s real estate agent, and he said he’d spoken to Allman, and he gave Pope a phone number.
Cowboy State Daily has identified Hamilton’s real estate agent and tried to contact him for further clarification.
Pope called that number and left messages without response, wrote Peech.
Peech then called a USDA Rural Development office and spoke with a Janice Blare, deputy state director, he wrote.
Peech sent the three USDA letters to Blare and gave her “all of Hamilton’s names and aliases,” he added.
The lieutenant wrote that Blare later told him the USDA investigated the letters and determined no evidence existed to show the USDA had issued them.
No records existed either, of Hamilton “using all her alias permutations” or her husband within either the USDA loan program or grant program, wrote Peech.
The USDA didn’t have an office at the address listed in two of the letters. The address pertains, rather, to a dirt lot. The USDA Rural Development office didn’t have a program titled “Rural Communities Home Buyer Program” as listed on two of the letters.
On Nov. 6, 2025, the date of the first letter purporting Hamilton had been approved for the grant program, all U.S. government offices including USDA were on furlough, noted Peech from his discussion with Blare.
A person named Susan Allman didn’t appear in USDA’s employee records, Blare reportedly added.
The Phone Call
Peech called the cellphone number one of the letters listed for Allman, “and this was disconnected,” he wrote.
The number Hamilton’s real estate agent had given was a voice over internet protocol number that Bandwidth LLC operates but is assigned to Google, added Peech.
Meanwhile, Converse County Investigator Amber Peterson spoke with the construction and roofing companies listed in the documents.
Chad Derenzo of Pete’s Roofing confirmed the logo and name listed on the documents were his company’s own — but said his company hadn’t issued the bid listed in those documents, according to the affidavit.
“Their company had never contracted to do work for Hamilton or at the… JJ Road address,” the document says.
The invoice also bore an address in Torrington, Wyoming, and his company doesn’t have a Torrington office, said Derenzo, reportedly.
Jessica Loge of Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation gave similar statements, saying the documents bore her logo, but her company hadn’t issued the bid or contracted with Hamilton.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Wyoming State Parks announces pause on potential visitor center project at Sinks Canyon State Park
Wyoming
Coyote Flats Fire near containment as critical fire danger hits Black Hills, Wyoming counties
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The grass is starting to return in the Black Hills, but the damage left behind by last week’s wildfire is still visible beneath the surface. The Coyote Flats Fire is now almost completely contained, but fire officials say the work for crews who battled the flames is far from finished.
“It’s been a long week,” said Gail Schmidt, fire chief for the Rockerville Volunteer Fire Department. Schmidt said firefighters worked the Coyote Flats Fire for multiple days as the blaze forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.
Schmidt also warned the timing is concerning.
“It’s early,” she said. “It’s early — and that’s the more concerning part. We haven’t even hit summer yet.”
Some of the same crews, Schmidt said, have moved from the Black Hills to a second wildfire — the Qury (pronounced “Koo-RAY”) Fire. That fire has burned nearly 9,200 acres and was holding at 70% containment as of Monday.
Between multiple wildfires and routine emergency calls, Schmidt said the pace doesn’t slow down.
“The world does not stop just because there was a fire,” she said. “Life continues. We still have our day jobs that we need to go take care of.”
Another challenge arrives Wednesday, with critical fire danger forecast across the Black Hills and into parts of Wyoming, including Sheridan, Campbell, Crook and Weston counties. Forecast conditions include wind gusts up to 40 mph and humidity as low as 12%.
Schmidt said she believes fire lines are in good shape, but she’s watching the weather closely after recent high-wind events.
“Saturday night, 50 mile an hour winds — that was multiple days ago, and there’s been a lot of work done since,” she said. “I personally am pretty confident that we’re going to be able to hold this fire through today.”
While spring is typically the region’s wetter season — which can help reduce fire behavior — Schmidt urged residents not to become complacent as wildfire season ramps up.
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