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Proudly Serving the Hulet and Devils Tower Community
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Man charged after $22K in fraudulent disability benefits GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man is accused of defrauding the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services out of more than $22,000 by continuing to file temporary disability claims for about a year after returning to work. Klaus G. Paugsch, 49, waived his preliminary hearing Jan. 31 and was bound over to District Court on five felony counts of making misrepresentations or false statements in violation of the Wyoming Workers’ Compensation Act. Paugsch qualified for temporary disability ben...
SHERIDAN — Distance education and in-person classes will soon be treated equally when it comes to how the state reimburses community colleges for the courses it offers. The legislation was among the first slate of bills signed by Gov. Mark Gordon during the current session of the Wyoming Legislature. “This bill removes any financial consequence for our community colleges offering courses via a certain modality,” Northern Wyoming Community College District President Walt Tribley said. “It is absolutely the right thing to do philoso...
Cody man charged with perjury CODY (WNE) — The Cody man charged in September for the alleged assault and battery of his pregnant girlfriend was charged Feb. 7 with one count of perjury after he allegedly asked his girlfriend to recant her statement to get the case dismissed. Travis William Rednour, 40, now faces imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of no more than $5000 or both, if convicted of perjury. That would be in addition to felony charges Rednour currently faces for aggravated assault and battery of a pregnant woman and the misdeme...
CASPER — Crossover voting has long rankled Wyoming Republicans. Lawmakers and party leaders have called for the end of the practice in which Democrats and independents instantly switch their party affiliation to cast a ballot in Republican primaries. National politics and the August 2022 Republican primaries supercharged their concerns as Democrats and independents changed their affiliations to back Wyoming’s former Rep. Liz Cheney. Those frustrations drove Wyoming lawmakers to once again attempt to eliminate crossover voting during this yea...
Man arrested for drugged driving, meth possession tried to destroy evidence GILLETTE (WNE) — A 42-year-old man was arrested on a number of charges, including felony possession of meth and drugged driving, Saturday night. He was driving a white 2022 Ram and was stopped at 12th Street and Gurley Avenue after running through two stop signs. Officers could smell burnt marijuana in the truck. The man was extremely nervous and had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes, said Police Sgt. Dean Welch. The man, identified as Steven Everts, stepped out and was...
Police seize 1,342 fentanyl pills BUFFALO (WNE) — Johnson County law enforcement seized more than a thousand fentanyl pills and a handful of other drugs after a report of a suspicious vehicle in the Kum & Go parking lot in early January. “We pulled over 1300 fentanyl pills, which is a big bust for Denver, let alone Buffalo,” Chief of Police Sean Bissett told the City Council after arresting two individuals. In the car were 1342 fentanyl pills, 24 grams of methamphetamine and 54 grams of marijuana, among other things, according to court docum...
CHEYENNE — Data from the early pandemic years shows that more people migrated into Wyoming than left the state, and most came to the Equality State from Colorado. An influx of people from the Front Range means potential new businesses and additional workforce, but also puts a strain on the Capital City’s already stretched-thin housing market, experts say. “I would say that this is a wonderful, terrible thing. As we look for economic growth and business growth, Colorado is a good market for us,” said Dale Steenbergen, president and CEO of the...
GILLETTE — A bill that is making its way through the state Legislature would transfer treatment courts from the Wyoming Department of Health to the judicial branch. Senate File 23, sponsored by the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee, passed its third reading in the state Senate on a 24-7 vote Wednesday, and has now been introduced in the House. Currently, treatment courts are part of the Wyoming Department of Health. The directors of the court-supervised treatment programs in Campbell County are big supporters of the bill. Chad Beeman, the c...
Sheriff deputy shooting case moves to county attorney CODY (WNE) — The investigation into the Park County deputy who shot and killed a male suspect in Powell during a traffic stop last year has been forwarded to the county attorney, said Charla Baugher Torczon, executive assistant at the Park County Sheriff’s Office. In an email sent to the Cody Enterprise in October of last year, Torczon said the case would be submitted to the county attorney once it was completed by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. According to that same ema...
CHEYENNE — The 988 suicide lifeline bill was stripped on Friday of its $40 million appropriation to create a long-term trust fund, as well as the $6 million for a trust fund reserve account. The change was adopted in an amendment brought forward by Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne. His new language removed the trust fund and directed the Wyoming Department of Health to request an appropriation to fund the suicide prevention system in its next budget request. Brown told lawmakers on the House floor that while the state was sitting on a strong c...
The flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids into Wyoming continues to swell, according to data presented to state lawmakers last week. From 2017 to 2021, Wyoming lost 410 people to drug overdoses with a growing share of deaths due to fentanyl. Between 2018 and 2021, the number of deaths caused by man-made opioids like fentanyl increased from 10 to 42 in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Vital Statistics Service. While final death counts from 2022 are still being tallied, the amount of fentanyl seized by law enforcement continues to soar....
AARP COVID dashboard shows improvement In Wyoming’s nursing homes SHERIDAN (WNE) —The latest edition of the AARP COVID-19 dashboard showed substantial improvement in staff and resident cases of COVID-19 inside the state’s nursing homes over the four-week period ending Dec. 18, 2022. Wyoming’s nursing home COVID-19 resident ratio for that period was 7.27 cases per 100 residents, which is the eighth highest in the nation and up from November’s rate of 6.7 cases per 100 residents. Wyoming’s nursing home staff case rate was just over the national a...
Two arrested after police find 121 fentanyl pills in car GILLETTE (WNE) — A man and a woman were arrested on numerous drug possession charges Friday evening after police officers found meth and 121 fentanyl pills in a car. Police received a report of a man smoking fentanyl in a white Ford Escape that was parked at the Ramada Inn. When they arrived, there was no one in the car, but officers could see three fentanyl pills inside the vehicle, said Police Sgt. Steve Dillard. As officers were looking inside the car, a 33-year-old man, Andrew R...
CASPER — Following Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ unexpected vote to enshrine federal recognition of same-sex marriage, some in Wyoming’s Republican Party want to try to censure her. Casper Republican Rep.-elect Jeanette Ward made a motion at the Natrona County Republican Party Central Committee meeting on Thursday to add discussion of Lummis’ potential censure to the agenda. Another incoming freshman representative, Midwest Republican Bill Allemand, seconded her motion, but it ended up failing in a 57-89 vote. Both Ward and Allemand were signatories of...
Man who burglarized Old Trail Town is sentenced CODY (WNE) — The man charged with burglarizing five buildings at Old Trail Town in August of 2021 pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to aggravated burglary, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent. Initially, Zakary Asher Diller, 25, faced six separate charges, but two counts of theft and one count of property destruction and defacement were dropped as part of a plea agreement. After pleading guilty to three felonies, Diller was sentenced to state p...
Copelands’ bankruptcy stalls civil lawsuits PINEDALE (WNE) —Listing a mountain of debts to investors, customers, medical facilities – and collection agencies – Shane and Ramsey Copeland of Marbleton, past owners of Triple Peak Landscaping, LLC, filed for relief in U.S. District of Wyoming Bankruptcy Court. Those who filed civil complaints against Triple Peak and the Copelands hoping to collect almost $200,000 of money they claim Copelands owe them might never be repaid in full. One is Bill Murdock of Big Piney, who invested $143,000 with Shane...
CHEYENNE — Rep. Landon Brown has filed a bill for the Wyoming Legislature’s upcoming general session that would set the foundation for the Purple Star School program in the state’s K-12 schools. The Cheyenne Republican lawmaker wants to streamline assistance for military-connected students and to ensure their transitions from one school to another are well-supported. He said he was approached two years ago by the U.S. Department of Defense to introduce the bill and has been working since then to implement the program with the Wyoming Depar...
POWELL - Having previously toured Yellowstone National Park in summer numerous times, Will Schnorr was excited to schedule a business trip to the region last week. All he had to do was add a couple vacation days to his scheduled stop to give him the opportunity to see the park during late fall. He was lucky, arriving just after the park opened for over-snow travel Dec. 15. He was hoping to get through the East Entrance; the closest to his business call. The West Entrance has the most over-snow...
GILLETTE — The future of two library board members is up in the air after Commissioner Rusty Bell revealed their membership in the Wyoming MassResistance private Facebook group and called for their removal from the board. Commission Chairman Del Shelstad said Thursday he has no issue with putting that on the agenda for Tuesday’s commission meeting, but that he wanted to run it by the other commissioners before making it official. In an email written Tuesday morning to deputy county attorney Kyle Ferris, who was recently hired by the com...
WyDOT cautions drivers about winter conditions SHERIDAN (WNE) — The Sheridan Police Department reported 38 motor vehicle accidents on city streets, not including hit and run accidents, between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15. Data for Dec. 8 was not available, so the number could be even higher. “One of our biggest safety issues is the number of people that drive without their headlights on, especially in windy, foggy or snowy conditions in the middle of the day,” said Wyoming Department of Transportation District 4 Public Involvement Specialist Laura...
RIVERTON — Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, is authoring a bill to clarify language in the state’s Food Freedom Act after Department of Ag inspectors balked at the sale of raw milk on Riverton’s Main Street. “This is an issue also of just small business development, small business growth,” Salazar said of the legislation to a crowd of community members during a town hall event earlier this month. “My belief is that it will receive widespread support in the legislature.” One of Main Street’s newest businesses, Fremont Foods LLC, works much like...
Committeewoman cited over errant shots fired during hunt POWELL (WNE) — Nina Webber, the Wyoming Republican National Committeewoman and a two-time candidate for House District 24, has been charged with reckless endangerment stemming from a morning elk hunt Nov. 30 near Wapiti. Ranch manager Cory Williams at Trout Creek said he and his wife were forced to seek cover as bullets from a group of hunters buzzed over their heads while they were outside their home preparing for work. He said he heard roughly two dozen shots being fired as elk s...
CASPER – The Legislature’s Management Council advanced a bill Thursday that would allow lawmakers and their dependents to enroll in the state employees’ group health insurance plan. The council also moved along a bill to create an independent commission that would review compensation for lawmakers, but it killed legislation that would have boosted lawmaker salaries. The proposed bills come amid increasing workloads for lawmakers and concern that inadequate compensation bars people from serving in the Legislature. Some lawmakers consider the h...
Campbell County hospitalizations for RSV on the rise GILLETTE (WNE) — Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, cases at Campbell County Health rose in the last two months, keeping with recent trends seen throughout the United States. Typically, the virus starts to make an appearance in January or spring, but this year, cases have shown up earlier, said Sherry Bailey, director of acute care at the hospital. In September, Bailey said those tested for RSV at the hospital had no positive cases. In October, the number increased to 5% and those tested f...
CHEYENNE – Wyoming continues to make advances in female political representation, adding four more women to the Legislature this election cycle. Twenty out of 93 legislators who will serve constituents in the upcoming general session will be women, including eight women who were elected to their first term. Yet, as many celebrated the incoming additions to the state’s legislative governing body, there was also recognition of the barriers many women face when deciding to run for office. “It’s wonderful to see women more present in governa...
