Proudly Serving the Hulet and Devils Tower Community
Proudly Serving the Hulet and Devils Tower Community
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Streaming service airs episode on missing Gillette woman GILLETTE (WNE) — The story of missing Gillette woman Irene Gakwa recently aired on a nationwide streaming service. The 25-minute episode titled “American Dream, American Nightmare” follows Gakwa’s journey from Nairobi, Kenya, to Gillette where she disappeared in early 2022. The episode is part of Paramount Plus’ “Never Seen Again” series, which documents families sharing the stories of lost loved ones. Featured on the show are Gakwa’s brothers, Kennedy Wainaina and Chris Gakwa and Chris...
Driver kills mountain lion on Moose-Wilson Road JACKSON (WNE) — A vehicle hit and killed a mountain lion Thursday evening on the Moose-Wilson Road, a fatal strike that follows a series of other deadly encounters between cars and animals in Jackson Hole. A motorist struck the roughly two-year-old female cat at about 6:30 p.m., said Mark Gocke, a spokesman with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Mountain lions are intelligent, social carnivores that occasionally make public appearances in Jackson Hole. This spring, for example, a young cat w...
A black bear sits in a tree in Willow Grove Cemetery in Buffalo on July 26. The bear was first spotted near Meadowlark Elementary School before crossing Cemetery Road. Police and Game and Fish wardens followed it and attempted to corner it so they could tranquilize it. Unfortunately, the bear climbed about 50 feet up the tree and couldn't be safely tranquilized, so wardens closed the cemetery and waited for the bear to come down. It finally did and moved out of the cemetery during the night....
Minnesota man placed on probation for high-speed chase outside Cody POWELL (WNE) – A Minnesota man who recently led police on a high-speed chase on the North Fork Highway has been released on probation after spending two-and-a-half weeks in jail. On July 24 in Park County District Court, Kirk D. Raymond, 53, pleaded guilty to a felony count of interference with a peace officer; it relates to Raymond trying to injure a pursuing Park County Sheriff’s deputy. Raymond’s guilty plea came as part of a deal with prosecutors that involved three other...
Mountain lion cubs. Snow geese. Foxes. Great horned owls. Bald eagles. Chickens. These animals were all Wyoming casualties of the latest strain of the bird flu that swept across the country the last two years. In neighboring states, there were even reports of grizzly and black bears being euthanized after contracting the virus. The most recent outbreak killed at least hundreds of birds in Wyoming, but health officials say the true number is likely higher because most bird flu stats in the U.S....
Nine school districts to participate in RIDE pilot CASPER (WNE) — Some Wyoming school districts will soon see the first fruits of a statewide effort to rethink the public K-12 education system. Gov. Mark Gordon’s office announced Wednesday that nine Wyoming school districts will participate in a pilot program beginning later this summer that aims to focus on more competency-based and student-centered learning. This initial pilot emerged from recommendations that came out of Gordon’s Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education (RIDE) Ad...
The Bureau of Land Management is moving to modernize federal bonding requirements meant to ensure the cleanup of abandoned oil and gas wells. The reforms come more than 60 years after the agency last updated the minimum bond amounts companies must pay before they can drill on BLM leases, Biden administration officials announced Thursday. If finalized, the rule would put companies under more pressure to see their drilling projects through — a notable change to a federal program that has struggled to prevent wells from being abandoned in the p...
New Cheyenne park shooting defendants plead not guilty CHEYENNE (WNE) — Brothers Jalen and Santana Trujillo, who are facing charges of misdemeanor accessory after the fact to first-degree murder (not a relative), pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing Monday morning. Their case is set for a jury trial, with a scheduling conference scheduled to take place in November. The brothers, 19, are co-defendants with Johnny Munoz, 17, and Julian Espinoza, 16. The four of them, along with Jeremy Lackey, 18, were allegedly in a black SUV, driven by E...
The Wyoming WIC Program, operated by the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH), helps many Wyoming families with free nutritious foods and education, breastfeeding support and healthcare referrals. The Wyoming WIC Program serves women who are pregnant or new moms, infants and children up to age five. WIC features free, easy-to-use benefit cards participants can take to local stores to get nutritious foods at no cost. Some WIC families also are eligible for infant formula benefits. “Our income guidelines are newly and significantly updated, w...
Colorado man dies, bus driver airlifted in Sunday morning crash GILLETTE (WNE) — A 25-year-old Colorado man died and a bus driver was airlifted for treatment after a head-on crash Sunday morning south of Wright. Campbell County Coroner Paul Wallem said Nicholas Finnian Mahoney, of Littleton, Colorado, died instantly at the scene. Sheriff Scott Matheny said the Sheriff’s Office began receiving “numerous” 911 calls at about 7:30 a.m. for a pickup versus passenger bus accident on Highway 59 south of Cosner Road. He said Mahoney was driving...
CASPER — The Bureau of Land Management’s first oil and gas lease sale in over a year netted roughly $14.7 million in Wyoming — about $1.8 million more than last year’s sale. Wyoming will receive 48% — roughly $7 million — of that revenue. While Gov. Mark Gordon applauded the lease sale in a Monday statement, he noted that it represents “not even a quarter of a loaf.” “The fact that our producers participated to the degree they did is a credit to the Wyoming oil and gas industry,” Gordon said in the statement. “Their efforts mean Wyoming...
Strike-down of affirmative action will not impact admissions at UW or CSU CHEYENNE (WNE) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday will not impact the admissions processes at either the University of Wyoming or nearby Colorado State University. Though the court declared race can no longer be a factor in admission, neither university anticipates changes in their own admissions. “The university does not see any direct impact from this,” UW associate vice president of institutional comm...
GILLETTE - The tornado that pummeled North Antelope Rochelle Mine last Friday traveled a nearly four-mile path from the Converse County line through the massive southern Campbell County open-pit coal mine where it ripped apart buildings, flipped empty train cars and injured eight people. The long-track twister, officially graded as an EF-2 on the zero-to-five tornado scale, grew as wide as 700 yards during its 3.8-mile course northeast into Campbell County with a duration between 5:49 p.m. and...
North Antelope Rochelle Mine workers injured in tornado released from hospital GILLETTE (WNE) — All mine workers hospitalized after a tornado carrying up to 130 mph gusts struck North Antelope Rochelle Mine early Friday night have been released and the large open-pit coal mine is gradually resuming its operations. The tornado touched down at about 6 p.m. Friday while shift change was underway, knocking over at least 12 empty train cars, flipping multiple buses there to transport workers and sparking a search and rescue operation that drew n...
Man who led deputies on chase with meth and fentanyl in car gets 8-10 years GILLETTE (WNE) — A man who led sheriff’s deputies on a car chase through Gillette while his passenger threw meth and fentanyl out the window was sentenced to up to ten years in prison. Zachary Thomas Stott, 29, was given two imposed eight- to 10-year sentences in May for possession with intent to deliver meth and fentanyl. The two sentences are to run concurrent with each other, according to court documents. Dawn M. Merdink, 44, was in the car with Stott and acc...
GILLETTE — Kennedy Wainaina and Chris Gakwa may have made their last trip to Gillette for a while. They’ve made the nearly 800-mile drive several times since reporting their sister, Irene Gakwa, missing last March. This time, they drove east in a 15-passenger van with eight other family members to attend the sentencing of Nathan J. Hightman, the man convicted of stealing from Irene’s bank account, running up her credit cards and deleting her email account in the days and weeks after she was last heard from. At his sentencing Wednesday, Hight...
The Wyoming Department of Transportation wants to remind residents about upcoming changes to license plates for light trailers. Starting July 1, owners of light trailers – defined as trailers weighing less than 1000 lbs. – can purchase a permanent plate for their trailer. Light trailers that are less than 6 years old would incur a $350 one-time permanent registration fee for the plate. To register older trailers, owners will need to pay a $50 one-time administration fee, a one-time fee equ...
Temple Grandin to speak in Sheridan in support of new nonprofit SHERIDAN (WNE) — Temple Grandin, a prominent figure in both the agriculture and autism communities, is coming to Sheridan in July to help raise funds for a new local nonprofit. Grandin is an advocate for the humane treatment of livestock. According to her website, around half the cattle in the U.S. are handled in facilities she designed specifically to reduce stress on animals before slaughter. A professor of animal science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, sh...
GILLETTE — The Campbell County Public Library Board passed an amended collection development policy Thursday night on a 3-2 vote. The vote comes after months of work, dozens of public comments and some help from the Florida nonprofit Liberty Counsel. Board members Charlie Anderson and Darcie Lyon voted against the policy, while board chair Sage Bear and board members Chelsie Collier and Charles Butler voted for it. Collier called the policy a “safety net” for children who don’t have “invested parents” protecting them, and that it would provi...
Bond revoked for Dell Range shooting defendant CHEYENNE (WNE) — Tirso Munguia, 19, one of the three defendants charged in connection with the shooting death of Angelina Harrison, 16, had his bond revoked last week after violating the terms of his bond by allegedly making contact with Harrison’s family. Judge Edward Buchanan ordered the District Court to revoke Munguia’s bond, saying that he “materially violated his bond.” Buchanan also said that his bond could be reinstated on the same terms, with the condition that Munguia be subject t...
Wyoming will spend more than $4 million to kill coyotes, wolves, ravens, skunks and other “nuisance animals” in 2023-’24 — more than any previous fiscal year. Federal trapper Steve Moyles helped make the case for one portion of the expenditures May 18 in a presentation to the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board. The common raven, he told board members, is a “nasty bird” that causes horrific injuries to young, defenseless cattle on calving grounds. “They peck navals, they peck eyes, they actually peck holes in joints of calves,” said...
The owner of Elk Mountain Ranch has dropped the last remaining claim in a civil corner-crossing trespass suit — an allegation that a Missouri hunter stepped on his property well away from the contested corners. In papers filed in U.S. District Court on June 1, an attorney for Iron Bar Holdings and Fred Eshelman told U.S. Chief District Judge Scott Skavdahl that the ranch owner is withdrawing the trespass claim associated with a digital marker known as Waypoint 6. That would preclude the need for a trial later this month. Eshelman had sued four...
The state of Wyoming is going to court again over grizzly bears, this time because federal wildlife officials missed a deadline to decide whether they would pursue removing Endangered Species Act protections. State officials announced their petition in a cheeky press release this week, accusing the U.S. Department of Interior of "hibernating" on deadline. "The petition seeks to remedy the DOI's inaction," the statement from Gov. Mark Gordon's office said. Under federal policy, the U.S. Fish and...
BUFFALO - For more than 50 years, Dave Harness called his mother. He called her on December 7, when they last saw Tony, smiling for the camera and wearing his U.S. Army dress greens as he left Kalispell, Montana. He called her on February 22, Tony's birthday, when he might have gone out into the woods to hunt or fish. And, finally, he always called on March 29, the day Tony died in Vietnam. "My mother was really never the same," said Harness, sitting in Buffalo over five decades later, a...
Gillette woman’s prison sentence commuted GILLETTE (WNE) — The prison sentence of a Gillette woman convicted of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a homeowners association in the early 2000s has been reduced to time served, making her eligible for release. Julie A. Jacobsen, 70, had her sentence commuted April 5 and was transferred to the Scotts Bluff County Detention Center in Nebraska after serving just more than 12 years in the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk. In 2011, Jacobsen was sentenced in Campbell County District Court...
