Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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Florida man gets 15 years for fatal crash GILLETTE (WNE) — A truck driver from Florida who was found with beer cans in his cab after crashing into and killing another driver north of Gillette has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Nicholas L. Alvarez, 39, on Aug. 15 received an imposed 8.5- to 15-year sentence for aggravated vehicular homicide, according to court documents. Alvarez pleaded guilty to the charge in May. In addition to imposing prison time, District Judge Stuart S. Healy III also ordered Alvarez to pay $11,196.08 in r...
State’s unemployment rate holds steady at 2.9% CASPER (WNE) — Wyoming’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 2.9% from June to July, the Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Monday. While Wyoming’s unemployment rate has remained low, the U.S. unemployment rate has increased in each of the past three months, rising from 3.8% in March to 4.3% in July. Over the year, unemployment rates were higher than year-ago levels in every county, with most counties ticking up two-tenths of a pe...
The political action committee affiliated with the hard-line Republican Wyoming Freedom Caucus announced late Thursday it returned thousands of dollars to the Crook County GOP after the Wyoming Senate president alleged the donation was illegal in a complaint he filed last week. "While we are immensely grateful for the Crook County Republican Party's commitment to the liberty movement, no amount of support is worth a politically motivated prosecution for the sake of another headline meant to...
New York man pleads not guilty after saying he would shoot up a school CASPER (WNE) — The case of a man who called 911 to report that he was going to shoot up several locations — including a mission, Walmart, high school and the Natrona County Library — was taken up in court recently as officials sought to determine if he should stand trial. On June 22, 2023, police arrested Bryce Montesdeoca at the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission in Casper, where he had been staying since his recent move from New York. Montesdeoca had a 9 mm pistol he claim...
Utility requests rate increase to offset fire costs, new power lines CASPER (WNE) — Rocky Mountain Power, Wyoming’s largest public utility, filed a request to increase customer rates in order to underwrite new infrastructure and cover the rising costs of insurance premiums relating to wildfire risk. The company is seeking to levy an additional $123.5 million, or an overall increase of 14.7%, resulting in an extra $17.17 per month for the typical residential customer. Around half of the increase is requested to pay Wyoming’s share of new infra...
Arch coal production stays down in PRB GILLETTE (WNE) — The amount of thermal coal shipped from Arch Energy Resources, the bulk of which comes from its Powder River Basin mines, dipped further as the industry’s slow start continued through the first half of the year. The roughly 9.7 million tons mined from Black Thunder marked the lowest production number at the mine this millennium, and its first time notching fewer than 10 million tons in a quarter, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration data. After shipping 12.8 million tons — p...
The 2023-'24 winter proved the third deadliest for Yellowstone wolves in the decades since Canis lupus was reintroduced to the landscape in 1995. Overall, 13 wolves were shot by legal hunters, caught by trappers, killed by poachers or died of suspected hunting-related injuries. Like in past winters, the vast majority of wolves that met their fate after straying beyond the protections of Yellowstone National Park did so in Montana, near the park's northern boundary. Eight wolves were legally hunt...
Delta-8 THC and similar hemp-derived substances will remain illegal to sell in Wyoming following a federal district court judge's decision today not to grant a restraining order or injunction on the ban. "Public interest is best served by denying Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction," U.S. District Court Judge Kelly Rankin wrote Friday. "The Court appreciates the hardships [the ban] places on Plaintiffs. It is unfortunate their businesses face financial strain and they cannot use the...
Devils Tower on pace to have busiest year ever GILLETTE (WNE) — Devils Tower has been on a record-setting pace so far in 2024. Through June, 192,682 people visited the national monument in Crook County. That’s up more than 5000 visitors from 2021, which is the busiest year on record for Devils Tower. In 2021, 550,712 people visited Devils Tower. It was the first time the national monument broke the 500,000-visitor mark, and it happened as the country started to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and people began flocking to the outdoors. But...
The Wyoming Department of Transportation would like to remind motorists of the new penalties for violating highway closures to light and high profile vehicles that went into effect July 1. The "Light and high profile vehicle closures bill" (SF0113) passed in the 2024 legislative session. The bill language notes that, "any person who willfully fails to observe any sign, marker, warning, notice or direction" for closures to light, high-profile vehicles is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon...
Wyoming has narrowed its definitions for who can bid on state oil and gas lease parcels, disqualifying parties that intend to conserve the land rather than produce the mineral resources. The change, made under emergency rulemaking in June, was mandated by House Bill 141 – State land oil and gas leases-operator requirement, which the Legislature passed during the budget session. Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn) brought the bill on behalf of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. The association r...
GILLETTE - The last several months have been a whirlwind for Crook County ranchers Shondah and Randall Otwell. They have been putting the finishing touches on their product, the water rippler, which they hope will make life easier for ranchers all across the country when it hits the market this fall. The water rippler solves a problem that has plagued the agricultural industry for generations. In the winter, water tanks freeze over and ranchers have to go out to each tank and break the ice...
Kidnapped man lands up to 14 years in prison GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man who pleaded guilty to the second-degree sexual abuse of a minor received has been sentenced to ten to 14 years in prison. Zackery Minard, 22, was found in bed with a 14-year-old girl by the girl’s mother, who called her boyfriend, Timothy James Ott. Ott, 30, and a friend beat up Minard, put him in a car trunk and drove him out of town, eventually abandoning him on a country road. The temperature outside was about 35 degrees. According to Minard, Ott told him to wal...
When grass on private land intended for livestock gets munched first by elk - and other big game - wildlife managers are taking steps to better compensate ranchers left with hungry animals. A proposed Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulation change came about because of elk populations that have exceeded state goals and caused landowners problems, said Craig Smith, the agency's deputy chief of wildlife. "It's reached a point where we do feel like we need to do something a little bit extra in...
GILLETTE — In June, someone claiming to be Lt. James Davis with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office contacted a Gillette woman, saying there was a warrant for her arrest. The problem was that no one under that name and title works with the sheriff’s office, and the 62-year-old woman was scammed out of $1750 in Bitcoin the caller instructed her to send. Almost two weeks before that, this fictitious Lt. Davis called a 76-year-old man in Gillette and told him that he had to pay a $3500 fine — in Bitcoin — for missing jury duty. The man sent the c...
Local woman sentenced for role in state park death CHEYENNE (WNE) — In connection with the death of a man in Curt Gowdy State Park, Gizelle Kellum has pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact as a relative. This misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in prison and/or a $750 fine. Judge Steven Sharpe sentenced Kellum to 180 days with credit for 175 days of time served. Kellum’s varying accounts during the investigation were cited by the prosecution as a reason for the charge. Stacey “Jason” Mullen was found unresponsive at Curt Go...
CASPER — A federal judge has halted the implementation of new Title IX rules in Wyoming, Alaska, Kansas and Utah. A lawsuit, filed in May, was initiated by a coalition of states and organizations, including Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United. In April, the U.S. Education Department released new regulations for Title IX, which is a federal statute meant to protect students and school employees from sex-based discrimination. Tuesday’s ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in Kansas blocks the rules, which...
JACKSON - The pace picked up in Wilson as soon as Teton Pass reopened at noon Friday. Cars lined up to drive up Highway 22. Gas pumps at Basecamp bustled. Travelers, locals and construction workers grabbing lunch could only discuss one thing: the road. A paved, two-lane bypass reconnected Jackson Hole and Teton Valley, Idaho, less than three weeks after the Big Fill landslide on June 8. It's a short-term fix that Wyoming Department of Transportation and Evans Construction crews have been...
Police arrest man known for harassing people at Cheyenne businesses CHEYENNE (WNE) — Laramie County Sheriff ’s deputies arrested a 42-year-old man known locally for harassing and “hexing” business owners on June 20 for trespassing. On the day of Joshua Hayden-Ali’s arrest, Deputy Aaron Veldheer responded to a disturbance in progress at the Safeway supermarket at 700 South Greeley Highway. The description of the man matched that of Hayden-Ali. Veldheer spoke with the woman who said Hayden-Ali had been threatening her. She told Veldheer...
CASPER — State Superintendent Megan Degenfelder has traveled to Washington to join other states in opposition of President Joe Biden’s new Title IX rules. Wyoming is just one of more than 20 states trying to sue the Biden Administration for changes to the federal statute that provides equal protections regardless of sex in schools. Enacted in 1972, Title IX has helped women gain equal ground in sports and employment practices. Federal funding for both public K-12 schools and public universities is tied to Title IX compliance. Biden’s new regul...
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s legislative and executive branches are investigating the growing issue of maternity health care deserts, and conversation on Friday indicated the situation may require another year of study. Five Wyoming counties — Crook, Weston, Niobrara, Big Horn and Sublette — have been classified as maternity deserts by the March of Dimes, said Franz Fuchs, senior policy analyst for the Wyoming Department of Health, during the Legislature’s Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee meeting in April. He added that seven mor...
Powell woman dies in apparent suicide at jail POWELL (WNE) — An inmate at the Park County Detention Center died Saturday night in what authorities described as an apparent suicide. The Powell woman, who’d been booked into the jail early Friday morning, was 35 years old at the time of her death. In a Monday afternoon news release, the Park County Sheriff’s Office withheld the woman’s name, saying that a family member had yet to be notified of her death. As a result, the Tribune is not publishing her name either. The sheriff’s office said dete...
Wyoming’s average gas prices are down again this week CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have fallen 1.3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.27 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming. Prices in Wyoming are 5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 27.3 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.82 per gallon, while the highest was $4.19, a difference of $1.37. The national average price...
The Wyoming Department of Transportation has closed access to Wyoming State Highway 22/ Teton Pass due to a landslide at milepost 12.8 and a mudslide at milepost 15. Commuters have been asked to detour around using US 26 through Swan Valley and then into the Snake River Canyon. WYDOT crews are currently evaluating the stability of the area and investigating adjacent areas for potential safety hazards. This is being considered an extended closure, and there currently is no estimated opening...
New mental health program off to a fast start GILLETTE (WNE) — A new program to help Gillette residents with their mental health has gotten off to a fast start. Earlier this spring, the Northeast Wyoming Community Health Foundation launched Hope Source to help people pay for therapy and counseling costs. Nachelle McGrath, executive director of the foundation, said she’s received 20 applications, and ten of them have been approved. The other applications were sent back because they needed more information, and they will be re-submitted. “I...
