Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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CASPER — Electric vehicles are deepening America’s partisan ruts, and it’s evident on both car lots and capital hill. Polling and sales data show that while Democrats are buying EVs in droves, Republicans are hesitant to make the switch from internal combustion, according to surveys from Gallup, Pew Research and others. Wyoming — the most red state in the union — fits this description: the market share of new EV sales in the Cowboy State was 2.1% in 2023, dragging significantly behind the nationwide average of 9.5%, according to industry...
Wyoming joined more than 20 states this week in filing two lawsuits in federal court to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful pollutants emitted from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The lawsuits allege the EPA has overstepped its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from electrical power plants when it issued four sweeping rules in April, including one that mandates a 90% reduction of carbon dioxide at the smokestack by 2032. Although the EPA’s emission red...
CHEYENNE — University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel recommended closing the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on Friday, following a decision by the state Legislature to defund the office effective July 1. Duties and personnel from the ODEI will be reassigned to other university entities, Seidel said, with the assistance of a new vice provost position in the Office of the Provost. UW spokesman Chad Baldwin told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the university doesn’t “anticipate any layoffs, but the ODEI staff positions have been...
Political community group hosts town hall with Prism Logistics CASPER (WNE) – Prism Logistics Manager Kyle True stepped into the spotlight Thursday to address a Liberty’s Place 4 U town hall meeting in Casper. True is seeking to build a gravel pit on state land at the base of Casper Mountain near Coates Road, and his plans have been met with fierce opposition, led primarily by residents in the surrounding area. Thursday’s town hall hosted by the political community group was one of the first public meetings to discuss the topic at which True...
Average price of gasoline remains unchanged in last week in Wyoming CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming are unchanged in the last week, averaging $3.27 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy. com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 0.3 cents per gallon higher than a month ago, and stand 8.0 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state on Sunday was $2.87 per gallon, while the highest was $4.19, a difference of $1.32. The national ave...
More than 17,500 Wyoming enrollees lost Medicaid or Kids Care CHIP coverage over the previous 12 months ending March. That’s because the Wyoming Department of Health is performing its federally mandated eligibility review for the services. The state paused that annual effort during the pandemic while the feds temporarily bolstered Medicaid funds to help cover extra enrollees. Of those removed from the rolls, 12,380 — nearly 70% — lost access due to “procedural reasons,” like failing to return renewal paperwork. About three quarters of those...
Wyoming sues Biden administration over new methane rule CHEYENNE (WNE) — Wyoming has joined the states of North Dakota, Montana and Texas in suing the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management over a new rule that undermines existing state regulatory programs and harms Wyoming oil and natural gas producers, according to a news release from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office. The suit was filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. The rule — commonly known as the “methane waste prevention rule” and relea...
GILLETTE - Justin West stopped bull riding in 2010. He'd recently had a bad fall, and doctors told him that if he had one more accident he would likely be paralyzed. A few years later, he was in the Big Horn Mountains for his brother's birthday. They were riding snowmobiles when they came up on what they thought was a 5-foot drop. It turned out to be a 40-foot drop. "I closed my eyes, and all I thought about was, I'm dead," he said. Miraculously, West survived the fall. But he knew instantly tha...
CASPER — If you’re a ghost on the grounds of what formerly was Fort Caspar, you might very well be a young soldier who died during the Battle of Platte Bridge in 1865. You liked playing checkers and maybe smoking a cigar and thinking of a pretty girl back home, all the way on the other side of the Mississippi River. You could also be a child who drowned in that same vicious river while trying to get to what is now Oregon or Utah or Montana. You might, if you’re really aware, be in awe that people who now use that same river for recre...
Six fatal crashes so far in Campbell County this year GILLETTE (WNE) --- So far in 2024, 21 people have died in 18 fatal crashes in Wyoming. A third of those crashes, which resulted in six deaths, happened in Campbell County. In 2023, there were 11 fatal crashes in Campbell County. In 2022, there were seven. 2021 had four fatal crashes, and 2020 had eight. Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny said when it comes to these crashes, “it randomly spikes and sometimes it doesn’t.” The first crash wasn’t until Jan. 30, then there was another one abo...
The United States Postal Service has decided to move Casper’s processing and distribution center to Billings, Montana. The decision comes as part of the USPS’s Mail Processing Facility Review, which it says will help modernize and streamline postal services. The Casper location will be reworked into a local processing center. Local processing centers are limited to sorting “letters and flats to individual mail carrier routes in the regional area,” the USPS Office of the Inspector General’s website says. Since the postal service has also deci...
Woman arrested for aggravated assault after allegedly hitting motorcycle with her car GILLETTE (WNE) — A 63-year-old woman was arrested for aggravated assault after allegedly chasing a motorcycle throughout town and intentionally hitting it with her car Sunday afternoon. She and a 53-year-old man have been in an ongoing dispute over the ownership of two motorcycles, said Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson. Sunday afternoon, the woman sat outside the man’s room at the Arrowhead Motel and waited for him to leave. The man left his motel room and...
Minor killed at Casper mall CASPER (WNE) — A minor is dead following a stabbing just before noon Sunday outside Eastridge Mall in Casper. “The two people most directly involved are in custody,” police lieutenant Scott Jones said, adding that additional individuals who may have been involved have been identified, questioned and may face “further action.” The victim, who is under the age of 16, will not be publicly identified until after an autopsy is performed Tuesday by the Natrona County Coroner. He died shortly after law enforceme...
GILLETTE - Fond memories come to the surface when Terry and Janet Tharp think back to moments they experienced as children at what's now called the Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site. Growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s near Hyattville, the now married couple said the site wasn't called that yet. It was simply a ranch - an area where Janet was taken for picnics on a school field trip and the home of children Terry went to school with. "The kids that lived there on that ranch, they would go...
ROCK SPRINGS - Public acceptance of tattooing has increased in the last two decades. Even teachers, lawyers, doctors and politicians have tattoos. In 1976, the first tattoo convention was held in Houston, Texas. The event provided an opportunity for artists to see work from other artists all around the world or to have the chance to display their own work and be seen by their peers. The inaugural tattoo expo in the Lone Star State was a place for artists and outcasts alike to meet and to be respected as well as appreciated. After the first-ever...
Wyoming became one of the first states in the nation to ban red flag gun laws when Gov. Mark Gordon signed new legislation into law last week. Senate File 109 – Prohibit Red Flag Gun Seizure Act says no local government, agency or police department can implement or enforce any rule that keeps a Wyoming resident from firearms or ammunition unless that gun owner meets certain criteria. It also bans using funds from Wyoming or the federal government to implement red-flag gun seizures. “What we’re doing is we’re prohibiting law-abiding citizen...
Cheyenne police investigating fatal shooting late Saturday CHEYENNE (WNE) — A man was found dead Saturday night, an “apparent victim of multiple gunshot wounds,” the Cheyenne Police Department announced on Facebook Sunday morning. The identities of the victim and the suspect have yet to be released; however, in a news release sent out Monday morning, the decedent was identified as a 38-year-old male. “The preliminary investigation shows that a loud physical and verbal disturbance occurred between the 38-year-old man and a woman at the apartme...
A pair of greater Sandhill cranes forage in a field Tuesday southeast of Powell. Sandhill cranes are known for their dancing skills. Courting cranes stretch their wings, pump their heads, bow, toss foliage and leap into the air in a graceful and energetic dance....
CASPER — Wildfire seasons are becoming longer, more destructive, and with an annual federal cost of $2.5 billion and growing, more expensive than ever, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and federal officials said during a Senate committee hearing last week, where leaders discussed the findings of a solemn report from the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The ampleness of the commission’s inaugural report, at 340 pages, speaks to the scope of the challenge, which leaders concede poses an outsize threat in the West, where fires hav...
State’s unemployment rate steady at 2.8% CASPER (WNE) — Wyoming continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation according to new numbers from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services and federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Monday that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged from January to February at 2.8%. Wyoming’s unemployment rate was lower than its year-ago level of 3.1% and much lower than the current...
JACKSON — A new state bill signed into law requires law enforcement to notify the Wyoming Department of Family Services if they receive a report of a vulnerable adult. The law, House Enrolled Act 6, states that if law enforcement receives a report that a vulnerable adult is “suspected of being or has been abused, neglected, exploited, intimidated or abandoned, or is committing self neglect, law enforcement shall notify the department concerning the potential need of the vulnerable adult for protective services.” Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill...
POWELL — The Bureau of Land Management released a draft Thursday of an updated sage grouse management plan that places species protections back on track after several years of disruptions to the historic 2015 sage grouse plan. That was then credited for halting plans for costly protections for the species under the Endangered Species Act. Following 2019 court orders overturning Trump administration changes to the historic collaborative plans, the BLM has been managing sage grouse habitat according to those adopted in 2015, the agency said. H...
JACKSON — Several bills signed into law by Gov. Mark Gordon aim to safeguard pension funds for state employees across Wyoming. Government employees receive pensions through the state of Wyoming, and the Legislature controls how much of their salary they can contribute for retirement. David Swindell, executive director of the Wyoming Retirement System, said there was catching-up to do to ensure funds will be healthy for employees in 30 years. The promise of a pension is the No. 1 recruitment and retention tool used to fill positions across t...
Wyoming Life Flight now authorized to carry whole blood on air ambulances CASPER (WNE) — Casper-based air ambulance service, Wyoming Life Flight, announced on Thursday that it is now authorized to carry and administer whole blood on its air medical transport services. The organization, which serves the whole state, said in a press release that, “Each unit of whole blood provides red blood cells, platelets, plasma and clotting factors for superior outcomes for patients suffering from trauma or hemorrhagic shock” and that having whole blood...
Mar. 4 – Two VIN checks. Paper service. Traffic stops. Fall. Three house watches. Life Flight. Citizen dispute. Two business checks. Assist other agency. Three EMS pages. Fire. Mar. 5 – Seven VIN checks. Five business checks. Three traffic stops. Two house watches. Welfare check. Suspicious circumstance. Fraud. Traffic complaint. Broken bone. Fall. Five EMS pages. Mar. 6 – Three VIN checks. Two paper services. Three traffic stops. Welfare check. Four business checks. Two EMS pages. Fire page. Mar. 7 – VIN checks. Two fingerprints. Four traffic...
