Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 645
Jackson receives high ranking in AARP Livability Index CHEYENNE (WNE) — AARP recently released its Livability Index, a list of the most livable communities in the country recently, with Jackson ranking in the top 10 in the nation for communities with a population between 5000 and 24,999. The AARP Livability Index evaluates and ranks communities based on various factors that contribute to residents’ quality of life. It looks at everything from homes and transportation to health and community engagement. Jackson was ranked ninth in the Livability...
CASPER — Over 80 bills died when both chambers of the Legislature adjourned on Friday evening. Friday marked the deadline for the second reading of bills in their house of origin and 81 bills — 25 in the House of Representatives and 56 in the Senate — were scheduled to be heard for the first time out of committee. Friday additionally marked the midpoint of the 20-business-day session where the Legislature is tasked with setting and approving the entire state’s budget for 2025 and 2026. Bills brought forward ranged from the budget, propert...
CHEYENNE - Seven-year-old Emmitt Anderson stood tall in the Wyoming House of Representatives gallery Wednesday. With his cowboy hat off and his hand over his heart, he enunciated each word in the Pledge of Allegiance. His little sister, Waverly, peeked down at the House floor full of lawmakers below, wearing a bright pink dress with two pigtail buns bouncing in the air. On Tuesday, the children's parents, Anna and Carson Anderson, drove the family to the Capitol from the Slow and Easy Ranch...
RIVERTON - A 20-ton lump of stone covered in faded yellow paint sits in the heart of Riverton City Park, unlabeled and unnoticed. Over 100 years ago, when automobiles were new and novel, a cutting-edge roadway was developed to funnel eager travelers directly through Fremont County on the way to America's best idea, Yellowstone National Park. The behemoth boulder pays homage to the days before numbered interstates and Google Maps, when a trip from Denver to Yellowstone involved an engaging...
Bill would OK $50M for lawsuits CASPER (WNE) — The Wyoming Legislature is considering a bill that would allocate $50 million for the purpose of litigating federal land-use policy. The Senate Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee last week moved the bill forward. Citing constitutional principles of co-equal government, Senate File 13 would authorize the Legislature to sue feds for acts and administrative rules, with specific reference to the Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered S...
GILLETTE - For many, the date Feb. 9, 1964, may fade into history. No wars began. No major elections took place. It was a Sunday - a day for staying at home, tidying up and preparing for the week ahead. But for those who remember, the date still holds meaning. Some even deem that unsuspecting evening the night that changed music forever. That night, more than 70 million viewers across the United States tuned in to watch four young Brits perform live on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time....
Wapiti hunter to pay $15K for mistakenly killing grizzly POWELL (WNE) — A local black bear hunter who mistakenly killed a grizzly last spring must pay $15,000 in restitution and is barred from hunting over the next year. At a Wednesday hearing in Park County Circuit Court, Patrick M. Gogerty of Wapiti pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegally taking a grizzly without a license. However, under a deal accepted by the court, Gogerty’s guilty plea was deferred and the case will be dismissed if he successfully completes a year of uns...
CHEYENNE - A bill that would repeal bans on concealed carry firearms in Wyoming's public schools, community colleges, at the University of Wyoming and in many public government buildings passed introduction Wednesday in the state House of Representatives. "Ninety-four percent of mass shootings, and I've seen all the way up to 98% of mass shootings, happened in gun free zones. Why? Because killers don't want bullets fired back," Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, said of "House Bill 125, Repeal...
Man found in woman’s home arrested for drug use, trespassing GILLETTE (WNE) — A 31-year-old man was ticketed for drug use after a 65-year-old woman found him in her home Friday night. The woman called police after finding the man in her apartment in the 600 block of Tyler Avenue. She had not given him permission to be there, but she was able to get him out of her apartment and into the hallway. He appeared to be under the influence of a controlled substance, and EMTs were called. The woman showed police a syringe that she found in her apartment...
CHEYENNE — Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, announced on Tuesday that a public hearing on Feb. 13 would be an official meeting of the Legislature, but legislative leaders clarified they were never notified of the hearing. Steinmetz said in Tuesday’s news release that the Legislature’s Joint Agriculture State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee would hold an “Oversight Hearing...on the Environmental Impact of ‘Net-Zero’ and ‘Carbon Negative’ Policies,” as well as the Annual Forest Health Briefing on Feb. 13 upon adjournment. Howe...
A measure that would provide a $10 million "stimulus" to encourage more carbon capture for use in the oil industry will advance to the upcoming legislative session following a special hearing this week by the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. The stimulus, according to committee members, aims to enhance a federal tax credit program that they say favors direct storage of the greenhouse gas over pumping it into oilfields to produce hard-to-get reserves. "The intent of...
CODY — Elected members of the Park County Republican Central Committee who were ousted last August have been temporarily reinstated by a state GOP committee. “The 22 precinct committeemen and women are free to resume their previous roles,” Colin Simpson said Saturday, citing a letter from the interim chair of the state’s Disputes Resolution Committee. As a reinstated precinct committeeman, Simpson attended the February 3 meeting of the GOP caucus in Powell, during which members elected delegates and alternates to the county convention on Marc...
GILLETTE - Clarence Barry followed the white hearse past the half-staff flag and up the hill that climbs through the entry gate of Mount Pisgah Cemetery. He knew almost nothing about the man lying in the hearse before him. Like the handful of veterans who Barry invited to the service Tuesday morning, he didn't know where the man was from, or how he got to Gillette. He didn't know whether the man had ever been married, or what kind of life he lived after his military service. Barry didn't even...
Man stuck in the snow gets federal prison on drug and gun charges GILLETTE (WNE) — A Campbell County man who was arrested after driving his truck into a snowbank last spring has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison on drug and gun charges. Jesse Walthers, 40, appeared before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne on Jan. 12. Johnson gave Walthers a 100-month sentence for possession with intent to distribute meth and a 60-month sentence for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, set to r...
Gordon urges BLM to listen to Wyoming on Rock Springs RMP CHEYENNE (WNE) — Gov. Mark Gordon is urging the Bureau of Land Management to “reconsider its restriction-heavy preferred alternative and deliver a reasonable plan incorporating more of Wyoming’s compromise approach to managing the Rock Springs area,” the governor’s office said in a news release. Gordon submitted his comment letter, along with those from numerous state agencies, on the BLM draft Resource Management Plan this week. “No other National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documen...
GILLETTE - A Gillette Realtor and owner of 1st Class Realty has been accused of forging signatures of three local real estate agents and using their identities to close deals without their knowledge, allegedly gaining her higher shares of higher commission rates. Tami L. Hinson, 57, waived her preliminary hearing Tuesday, binding her over to District Court on six felonies: three counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and three counts of forgery, according to court...
Salt River Range avalanche kills former Jackson resident JACKSON (WNE) - David Rice, 41, was caught and killed in an avalanche Sunday in the mountains east of Star Valley Ranch. Rice, an avid musician, lived in Jackson for years and owned Jackson Hole Music, the only music store in town, before closing the shop last year. Until June 2021, he also owned a guitar store in Boulder, Colorado. Rice was killed after a week of sustained snowfall dropped over three feet of snow in the Tetons. That snow...
GILLETTE - While coal is still king in Campbell County, oil and gas are still the second and third largest contributors to the county's economy, as far as taxable value goes. Across the state, natural gas production has been on a steady decline since 2009, while oil production has been more up and down. According to a report put out by the Wyoming State Geological Survey this month, the state's oil production has not yet surpassed its 2019 high, while nationwide oil production has surpassed...
GILLETTE – Uranium production looks to be back on the upswing after years of dormancy. A report recently completed by the Wyoming State Geological Survey found that Wyoming is primed to take advantage of the expected expansion of the domestic uranium industry. And Campbell County should be right in the thick of things. Wyoming leads the country in uranium mining and has the largest economic uranium ore reserves in the U.S. which are located across the Powder River Basin, Great Divide Basin, S...
CHEYENNE - In advance of the upcoming budget session, the Wyoming Legislature's wallet to appropriate funds for budget requests is expected to shrink by $13.3 million. An updated Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG) report informed members of the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee they had $37.3 million in discretionary funds to spend this year. The CREG report is a forecast of the state's total revenue and assets. It includes estimates of Wyoming's mineral prices and production,...
Four Missouri hunters argued in court papers filed Friday that the owner of Elk Mountain Ranch perpetuated Wild West history by illegally trying to block others from thousands of acres of public land so he can use it exclusively. In documents submitted to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, the hunters defended a federal Wyoming judge's decision that they did not trespass when they crossed through the airspace above Fred Eshelman's property to hunt public land in Carbon County. The...
Applications open for internship program for new farmers, ranchers CHEYENNE (WNE) — The GrowinG Internship Program is now accepting applications for 2024, according to a news release from University of Wyoming Extension. “The goal of this program is to provide interns with a hands-on internship at a working farm or ranch in Wyoming, in cooperation with state producer organizations and educational institutions,” said Kendra Faucett, program coordinator, in the release. The program provides a $5000 stipend for a 10-week work experience, which...
If Wyoming keeps throwing hay to help elk survive the winter, the state is creating a future where wapiti will be ravaged by chronic wasting disease and dramatically reduced in number. Hunter opportunities, likewise, will fall off significantly. At least that’s what the experts expect. Eight experts, to be exact, including three employees of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Here are their projections for what’s coming to northwest Wyoming elk herds in two decades if state officials entrusted to manage the herds continue feeding while alw...
Man accused of strangling girlfriend, holding her against her will GILLETTE (WNE) — Officers forced their way into a home and later arrested a 37-year-old man who allegedly strangled his girlfriend and held her against her will Friday night. Police went to the 100 block of Bay Avenue for the report of a man and woman in a fight at about 11:15 p.m., Police Cpl. Dan Stroup said. When they arrived, they forced their way into the home after they heard a woman whimpering and what sounded like strangling noises. In the home, they spoke to the man a...
The Wyoming Department of Corrections’ transfer of 240 inmates to a private Mississippi prison due to a staffing shortage is a temporary fix to an ongoing problem, WDOC Director Dan Shannon says. “We don’t have an inmate housing issue,” Shannon told WyoFile. “We have a staffing problem.” Roughly 25% of the department’s uniformed staff positions are vacant, with most of those occurring at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk. To account for that, the department has also transferred 40 inmates to the Li...
