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A judge has ordered federal wildlife officials to decide by Jan. 20 whether Yellowstone-area grizzly bears should be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. The order, issued by U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson, could speed up a potential handover of authority to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana - opening the door for grizzly bear hunting. Johnson issued the decision Friday in response to a Wyoming petition that sought to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to honor a missed...
Wyoming’s largest electricity provider, Rocky Mountain Power, has agreed to trim a temporary rate hike for its 144,000 customers. The decision follows pressure from the Wyoming Office of Consumer Advocate and Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers — a powerful rate-scrutinizing group that accounts for about 70% of the company’s electrical power consumption in the state. The Wyoming Public Service Commission on Monday approved a settlement agreement between the parties that finalizes an $80.6 million increase — about 7% less than Rocky Mountai...
The whereabouts of the pint-sized pika, a mammalian indicator species that is losing its alpine habitat to climate change, have been mapped for the first time in Wyoming's reaches of the Rocky Mountains. Biologists who keep watch over non-game species for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department surveyed the distribution of the talus-dwelling lagomorphs, finding pikas in nine mountainous areas: the Salt River, Snake River, Wyoming, Wind River, Gros Ventre, Teton, Absaroka, Bighorn and Snowy ranges....
Recent sentencings from the US Attorney's Office District of Wyoming: Injury or Depredation to U.S. Property Sherette Joseph Lujan, 48, of Riverton, Wyoming, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with 3 years of supervised release for injury or depredation to United States property. The court also ordered him to pay $2,304 in restitution. According to court documents, on June 15, the Riverton Police Department was dispatched to the Riverton Post Office for a report of a man breaking windows in the building with a metal object. Officers d...
Continued criticism of the near-final plan guiding management of 3.6 million acres of public lands in southwest Wyoming has sparked speculation that the incoming Republican-led Congress will nix the new charter through an oversight instrument that's never been used to intrude into federal land use planning. Worries emanating from environmental advocacy groups and retired federal government employees are that the next Congress will undo the Bureau of Land Management's Rock Springs Resource...
Unlawful Possession of a Machine Gun Preston Lewis, 21, of Rock Spring, Wyoming, was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment with three years of supervised release for the unlawful possession of a machine gun. According to court documents, on April 11, the Rock Springs Police Department was called to a firearms dealer for a report of a suspicious male who had purchased approximately $18,000 worth of high-dollar firearms. Police later found the defendant at another firearms dealer. During questioning, the defendant admitted to straw purchasing f...
U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) released the following statement after being elected by Senate Republicans to serve as the Assistant Majority Leader for the 119th Congress: “I want to thank the people of Wyoming for their support and for allowing me to continue serving our state in the United States Senate. I want to thank my Republican colleagues for their confidence and their vote today. It is my honor to serve them as Assistant Majority Leader. “We have an extraordinary opportunity in front of us. Voters spoke loudly. It is our job to...
A bill honoring the life and legacy of former Shoshoni Postmaster Dessie A. Bebout passed the United States House of Representatives this week and is on its way to the President’s desk for approval. The legislation was introduced in the Senate by U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Tom Carper (D-Del.), where it passed unanimously in April of this year. The bill then progressed to the House, where it was supported by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) and unanimously passed. The legislation honors Dessie Bebout b...
Congresswoman Harriet Hageman recently introduced the Visa Integrity Preservation Act, a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to close the loophole that has allowed the Biden administration to grant mass amnesty to over 500,000 immigrants who illegally entered the United States or overstayed a visa. This would require illegal aliens under all circumstances to depart the United States and be subject to an interview before they could receive a nonimmigrant visa. The bill would also bar them from reentering the United States...
Wyoming is poised to become the first state in the nation to see a Freedom Caucus take the statehouse reins after Republican lawmakers on Saturday selected four members of the hard-line group for House leadership, several legislators told WyoFile. Saturday's vote at the GOP caucus in Casper was not entirely a surprise since all but one of the races were uncontested. The results, however, are significant - the national Freedom Caucus movement hopes to recreate its Wyoming success in other...
SHIRLEY BASIN-Josh Oakleaf stood where Carbon County miners scoured the earth's surface starting 60-some years ago in search of the uranium that fueled the United States' rise to becoming a nuclear superpower. After the mine went bust in the late 1970s, the land - part of the Heward Ranch - would have initially been a moonscape. Federal environmental regulators initiated a partial reclamation effort here in the 1990s, but much bare ground remained and the landscape still didn't support much...
Facedown in the dirt, with bear bites on his back and rump, Dennis Van Denbos wondered how this would end. It wasn't looking good. "When I [got] that third bite ... I thought, 'They are just going to eat me,'" he said. "It wasn't a fearful thing, it was just a recognition that this was going to happen." The year was 2007, and Van Denbos had taken an early walk in Grand Teton National Park that had turned perilous after he happened upon a sow grizzly and her three cubs as they fed on an elk...
JACKSON - After an acrimonious, three-hour meeting, Wyoming's top five state elected officials have approved a contract for a $100 million sale of the Kelly parcel to Grand Teton National Park. "I believe in our office we can take the $100 million and turn it into $1.6 billion," Treasurer Curt Meier said, shortly before voting for the deal. "That that could be a perpetual - actually, generational - fund that would benefit the students and the education system of the state of Wyoming until the...
SHERIDAN — Gov. Mark Gordon said on Wednesday that state agencies may have to “limit services” following voter approval of a constitutional amendment that allows lawmakers, if they so choose, to create a separate residential property tax class. He also said he was “pleased” the amendment passed in Tuesday’s General Election. “It was a good election, by all accounts here in Wyoming. Things turned out well,” Gordon said on Wednesday morning. “I am particularly happy about the Amendment A passage. I wasn’t sure it was going to pass. It is a diffic...
CHEYENNE — Squatting is a nationwide issue that’s made it difficult for owners to sell or sometimes even visit their residential property, and Casper law enforcement says Wyoming is not immune to it. Transient people move into vacant homes, sometimes causing damage to the property, and often refuse to leave after the owner or police confront them. This issue is commonly treated as a civil dispute by law enforcement due to the difficulty of verifying whether the occupant is a legitimate tenant, according to a memo from Pacific Legal Fou...
At its peak, the mighty Elk Fire made a furious wind-driven, overnight run. Sheridan and Johnson County firefighters had never seen anything like it before on their home turf. Neither had their parents or grandparents. Between 1:30 and 5 a.m. on Oct. 4, the blaze consumed more of the Bighorns' rugged east slope than any previously documented fire had burned that forest in total. "In a matter of three hours it ran 25,000 acres," Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson said weeks later....
The man who struck and killed Grizzly 399 while commuting home from Jackson on Tuesday night was driving at around the speed limit of 55 mph, law enforcement officials said Thursday. Those details about the Snake River Canyon accident that pulled at heartstrings around Wyoming and the world come from a crash investigation relayed by Lincoln County Sheriff's Patrol Lt. John Stetzenbach. "Looking at the crash itself, the size of the bear and the damage that was done to the vehicle, [the...
JACKSON — Grizzly 399’s cub was not collared when its famous mother was hit and killed by a car Tuesday evening in the Snake River Canyon. That means wildlife managers do not have an easy way to locate the yearling. The cub has not been seen since the accident, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said Thursday. But biologists said they’re optimistic about the cub’s chances because denning season is approaching. The cub is large and approaching 2 years old, when grizzly mothers typically kick off their young. “High chances of survival...
They packed the pews tight at Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church, those without seats standing wherever they could find space. Mourners took off work and school, many traveling across Wyoming to gather on a calm, sunny October morning in Rock Springs. The service started late in order to make room for everyone. This was the funeral of Dawson Fantin, an 18-year-old graduate of Rock Springs High School who'd only recently left his hometown to start college at the University of Wyoming on a...
Shortly after being sued for defamation in July, the political action committee affiliated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus sent out additional mailers, doubling down on claims that landed the PAC in court. That prompted two Sweetwater County lawmakers to file an amended legal complaint this week, seeking to strengthen their legal argument ahead of an upcoming deadline in the case. Reps. J.T. Larson (R-Rock Springs) and Cody Wylie (R-Rock Springs) filed the lawsuit after the WY Freedom PAC...
PINEDALE - Before the sun breached the horizon, hundreds of firefighters filed from their camp to their assignments on the 86,555 acre Pack Trail Fire burning in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton National forests in Fremont and Sublette counties. There were 613 personnel fighting the fire and working to protect the nearby homes, buildings, ranches and acreage as of Wednesday morning. "In 20 years of firefighting, I've never seen anything quite as wild as this one. The amount of fire activity on...
Lawmakers are scrambling to draft a bill that would restrict what wildfire victims can claim damages for when electric utilities spark blazes. Insurance premiums for utilities are exploding due to class action lawsuits stemming from utility-caused wildfires that have resulted in death and property damage - particularly in the West. Some utilities fear they may lose insurance coverage while increasing insurance rates threaten to raise costs for electric customers and bankrupt some power...
Wyoming’s five top elected officials have advanced plans to allow the public to carry concealed firearms in many areas of the Capitol and attached facilities — either with a permit or, in some cases, without. The State Building Commission — a panel composed of the governor, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer and schools superintendent — still faces a long process before finalizing any changes, including a 45-day comment period. A majority of respondents to an online survey conducted by the body disagreed with earlier proposed changes...
Kandace Sitting Eagle, 34, of Arapahoe, Wyoming, was sentenced to 121 months’ imprisonment for aggravated child abuse, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and assault with a dangerous weapon. These crimes arose from abuse of Sitting Eagle’s 13-year-old child. According to trial evidence and statements made at the sentencing, Kandace Sitting Eagle and her husband, Truman Sitting Eagle. Sitting Eagle, 36, pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury on Apr. 8. He was sentenced to 108 months in prison in August 2024, aft...
The boxcar-housed installation, currently located in Laramie, will travel to Wyoming towns along the Interstate 80 railroad corridor. In many ways, Wyoming's heritage lies on the shoulders of immigrants who built the transcontinental rail line traversing the southern portion of Wyoming and the multiple generations of laborers who have kept it running since. That heritage, and the stories of those laborers, deserves more recognition and is worthy of celebration, Wyoming artist Conor Mullen said....
