It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, February 28th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics, thanking the participants, volunteers, supporters, and sponsors of the February winter games in Pinedale. Visit Wyoming senior olympics dot com!
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An illegal immigrant with “probable” Mexican drug cartel ties was in federal court Thursday, where he was told he’s facing a term of between 10 years and life in prison, on claims he’s been distributing meth on and around the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Oscar Espinoza Duarte was one of two Mexican nationals arrested Tuesday in Fremont County, according to Crime and Courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“He appeared in court Thursday, and it's a tiny, tiny Lander-based outpost of the the federal court in Wyoming… it's right next to the Wind River Indian Reservation, which is Federal jurisdiction, jurisdiction for felony level crimes… there wasn't much to this hearing, because they didn't have a bomb hearing or an arraignment. They just the judge just read the charge that he's facing and made a few preliminary steps to get him a public defender.” Â
Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents had been investigating Espinoza Duarte’s circle at least as early as October. Court documents say that an informant implicated Espinoza Duarte as a methamphetamine distributor.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming will no longer have any gun-free zones.
That’s the result of an announcement Gov. Mark Gordon made Thursday evening that he’s letting House Bill 172, a bill banning gun-free zones, pass into law without his signature.Â
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that although the governor let the bill pass into the law, he issued a scathing indictment of it in his letter explaining his position on it.
“Basically he believes that the law subverts local control and that local entities were not really seriously solicited for input on the bill when it was crafted. He basically said that what he has noticed is in the series legislature, there's been a theme of acting for politics and political positioning rather than policy, and doing what's best for Wyoming. He also called supporters of the bill a wild bunch.”
In January, the State Building Commission gave final approval for people to carry concealed firearms in some areas of the Wyoming Capitol. This law will now supersede that action.Â
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s Congressional delegation voted to get rid of oil and gas industry regulations as Congress this week took up a batch of measures pertaining to the energy sector.
The House and Senate voted on Republican-sponsored joint resolutions to scrap environmental regulations established by former President Joe Biden’s administration. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry has the details.
“It's been a real busy week on Capitol Hill with energy policy, Wendy. The Republicans introduced several measures in both the House and Senate to get rid of President Biden's regulations on oil and gas companies. Those are still in process… but the Republicans are moving to get rid of regulations that they see as too much red tape on the oil and gas industries, driving up costs and whatnot.. there's fireworks everywhere you look on the Senate floor when it comes to this stuff, because people's ideologies, their world views on this are just miles and miles apart.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday in the Senate, Democrats brought to the floor a joint resolution aiming to overturn President Donald Trump’s declaration of an energy emergency. Republicans defeated that move on a straight party-line vote.
Read the full story HERE.
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A bill that would make Wyoming’s state and local governments liable for letting males use women’s bathrooms and changing rooms in most public facilities – and vice versa – on Wednesday cleared both chambers of the state Legislature.
House Bill 72 is now headed to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk, after the House of Representatives voted Thursday to approve the Senate’s changes to it. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.Â
“These are interesting issues, because Tara Nethercott, who's the majority floor leader for the Senate, she basically said, I'm going to vote for this, because people are so adamant about it, but I detect serious issues with it. And the chief issue she was talking about is, you can sue the government if they don't do some sort of unenumerated effort to keep males out of girls changing areas. But… it's not authorizing or advancing an action against a person who causes harm in a girl's changing area. So that was her issue, is, why aren't we holding bad actors accountable here? And instead, we're subjecting the government to this sort of unenumerated litigation tirade.”
In the final Senate vote, six senators voted against the bill, and 25 voted in favor.
Read the full story HERE.
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A bill that would cut Wyoming homeowners’ property taxes by 25% appears to have only one more hurdle to leap over before becoming law.
On Thursday, members of the Wyoming Senate and House finally agreed on Senate File 69, which would authorize the biggest property tax cut in Wyoming history. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that, barring a surprise rejection of the agreement by other members of their chambers later on Thursday, Senate File 69 will be heading to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk for a signature.
“The cut is permanent, and it would affect all fair market home values in Wyoming up to $1 million. It certainly didn't come without a bit of a tortured path. …the proposal had already been made on Tuesday, and the Senate expressed frustration and irritation when the House members said they needed more time to consider it. There were some allegations made that they had already shook their hand on the deal the previous night, and there was frustration that a meeting was held at seven in the morning about it. But regardless, it seems that all that is water under the bridge and an agreement has been passed.” Â
The property tax cut will go into effect immediately for the 2025 tax year and will apply to all residential properties, associated structures and land.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming's congressional delegation welcomed the appointment of a University of Wyoming graduate with extensive land-use management experience in western states, to lead the U.S. Forest Service.
Tom Schultz, who worked for an Idaho timber company as well as state lands agencies in Idaho and Montana, will replace Randy Moore as chief, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry.
“He's had a long career in both the private and public sectors, and so you can see why the lawmakers are really high on on him… As you know, the US Forest Service, it deals with both business and industry recreational uses as well. The Business and Industry is energy and oil leases, and it's timber. It's also cattle grazing permitting, permitting for for livestock grazing on, on these public lands, of course, there are millions of acres of them in Wyoming, and part of it is, of course, to facilitate recreational uses, from hiking to off roading and so on… I think that Mr. Schultz is a lot friendlier toward the business community.”
In addition to a master’s degree in political science from the University of Wyoming, Schultz holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Montana.
Read the full story HERE.
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Lawmakers at the Wyoming Legislature were still grappling with what it means to have no supplemental budget come out of this year’s legislative session on Thursday, with many looking to salvage portions by adding them to other bills.Â
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson explained that anything that was in that supplemental budget is not going to be covered, unless legislators find a way to tack that funding onto an existing bill.
“What we saw on Thursday was the first wave of those efforts of smushing things into bills, as Senator Mike Gareau, a Democrat from Jackson, described it… And it became a little bit contentious at times during the House floor discussion on Thursday when some of these amendments that were brought to bills just did not have anything to do with the actual bill itself, which, the legislature is not supposed to do that… But we saw at least about five to seven examples of this occurring just today alone, and I would expect to continue to see that most of these efforts were passed and supported.” Â
Gov. Mark Gordon issued a statement Thursday, voicing his disapproval with the Legislature for foregoing a supplemental budget, which has long been the way the state has handled costs and overruns that the state’s current budget did not plan for.
Read the full story HERE.
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Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced on Tuesday that a mountain lion was found dead and wrapped in a tarp near Troy, Montana.Â
But what has even seasoned experts baffled is why the mountain lion’s head and tail were cut off and taken after the animal was killed, possibly illegally, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“There is an active mountain lion season, so maybe killing the animal wasn't necessarily illegal, but someone just kind of abandoned the carcass, and they took the head and the tail and then just left the rest of the carcass wrapped in it in a tarp. And of course, that's a no no to just abandon a carcass like that, even if it is during hunting season. But the part that stuck out is, is, why would someone cut off the tail and take it? And I spoke to the investigating Warden up there in Montana, as well as a couple other retired Game Wardens here in Wyoming… to their knowledge, there's no black market demand for mountain lion tails, because I know there, there's black market demand for all kinds of weird stuff, like people, they'll buy bear claws. They will buy, you know, elk parts, whatever on. But apparently mount lion tails, that doesn't explain it.”
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is seeking tips on the case. Anyone with information may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.Â
Read the full story HERE.
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Prop Money Incorporated proudly claims its fake money can pass for real on camera, which is why it’s used in movies and television productions. Â
But it might be just a little too realistic, according to Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Montana recently prosecuted a credit union employee in Missoula for stealing money from a bank vault and replacing it with fake currency from Prop Money Inc. 35-year-old Edward Nurse pleaded guilty to swapping out nearly $400,000.
“On the money itself, it says for motion picture purposes. And someone who worked at the Parkside credit union thought no one would notice that, because he was in charge of the vault. He was in charge of keeping tabs on those stacks of money, those real stacks of money. And this 35 year old gentleman got the bright idea that he was going to replace around $400,000 worth of that real money with the fake stuff… Apparently, he got in deep at a casino just north of Missoula, and he started using funny money to try and cover his debts.”
Nurse was sentenced to 600 hours of community service, six months of home confinement and five years of supervised release - and must repay his former employer $389,000 in restitution for the real cash he stole.
Read the full story HERE.
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