Wyoming News Briefs

Monsters take over downtown Rock Springs

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — RAAAAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!!! Monsters are taking over downtown Rock Springs this summer. 

Eight whimsical monsters, created by local artist Kaye Tyler, will take up residency at various locations around downtown throughout the summer. 

The Broadway Theater will be showing Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures movie Monsters, Inc. at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 2. Following the movie, everyone is invited to go on a scavenger hunt to find each downtown monster. 

Upon finishing the scavenger hunt, participants can stop in the Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency office for a special prize. 

The Rock Springs library will also have special monster-themed activities all summer long. In July, it will have a voting booth set up for kids to choose their favorite downtown monster. The prize for voting will be a small button/ pin with their favorite monster image on it. In July, kids can make a floating Loch Ness monster at the library, and in August, they can visit the library and pick up a packet of monster crafts and activities to take home.

For more information on the program, contact the Rock Springs Main Street/URA at 307-352-1434 or visit its website at DowntownRS.com.

Percentage of out-of-compliance health inspections doubles in Sheridan County

SHERIDAN (WNE) — The percentage of out-of-compliance health inspections at Sheridan County businesses more than doubled during the first five months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

According to the Wyoming Department of Agriculture website, 22 of 73 routine health inspections conducted in Sheridan County between Jan. 1 and May 23 were out of compliance. 

This means roughly 30.1% of Sheridan County inspections were out of compliance. During the same period in 2021, 13 of 92 Sheridan County routine health inspections — or 14.1% — were found to be out of compliance.

The county’s increase in out-of-compliance inspections comes as the Wyoming Department of Health reports viral gastroenteritis has increased in Wyoming, particularly in Sheridan and Park counties.

Park County experienced a similar but smaller increase than Sheridan County in out-of-compliance health inspections, increasing from 24.8% during the first five months of 2021 to 26.9% during the same period in 2022.

The increases in out-of-compliance inspections in Sheridan and Park counties are contrary to state-wide trends. Wyoming’s out-of-compliance inspections declined from 261 during the first five months of 2021 to 233 during the first five months of 2022.

Health inspections are conducted by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture/Consumer Health Services inspection specialists in most of the state with the exception of Laramie, Natrona, Sublette, Sweetwater and Teton counties, which have individual health departments.

All food establishment inspection reports from the Department of Agriculture are broken into two categories: food-borne illness risk factors and good retail practices. For more information on the out-of-compliance businesses, see wda.safefoodinspection.com/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx.

Wolverines once again proposed for Endangered Species Act protection

JACKSON (WNE) — Wolverines are once again proposed to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

That’s the result of a Wednesday ruling in federal court that marked the latest swing in a decades-long see-saw over the mustelids’ status under federal law.

Judge Donald Molloy, of the U.S. District Court for Montana, said in a 15-page decision that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must revisit a 2020 decision in which it decided against listing the species as “endangered” or “threatened.” Molloy said that “serious errors undermine the Service’s decision” and gave the agency 18 months to reconsider its ruling.

Molloy’s order came after environmentalists challenged the 2020 decision to withhold protections. They argued that wolverines face localized extinction as a result of climate change, habitat fragmentation and low genetic diversity. 

The 2020 decision, which came under the Trump administration, was based on research suggesting the animals’ prevalence was expanding, not contracting. 

Biologists estimate that fewer than 300 wolverines exist in the lower 48 states, where environmental groups are calling for them to be listed. Populations in Canada and Alaska are relatively healthy.

Wednesday’s decision doesn’t offer wolverines protection under the Endangered Species Act.

It also won’t change much of how wolverines are managed in Wyoming. The state considers them a “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” and manages them as non-game species, meaning hunting them is prohibited. 

Between 2001 and 2008, researchers identified four adult wolverines regularly inhabiting the Tetons, with kits — in the years they were reared — beefing the population up to seven. But in 2015, researchers trying to determine the impacts of backcountry recreation on wolverine numbers in the Tetons were only able to find one animal. 

State wildlife officials were unavailable Friday to update those numbers.

Cheyenne police shoot, kill homicide suspect

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Local law enforcement shot and killed a suspect in a Nebraska homicide, the Cheyenne Police Department announced Saturday afternoon. 

The incident occurred just after noon on Saturday near the 2500 block of East 11th Street, CPD said in a news release distributed by email. 

Members of the Cheyenne Police-Laramie County Joint SWAT Team responded to the incident involving the homicide suspect, Davin Darayle Saunders, according to CPD. 

The police department here recently advised the public that he was believed to be in the area, after officers were dispatched to the Walmart at 580 Livingston Ave. for a report of a domestic disturbance with a firearm. They searched the area but could not find the suspect, who had reportedly fled the scene on foot.

“Further investigation revealed Saunders was located at a residence,” in the area where he was ultimately shot and killed, CPD said Saturday. 

The SWAT team went to the location Saturday with a warrant to enter the residence and asked Saunders to leave the building, CPD said. When he refused, the officers deployed gas to flush him out of the home. Saunders responded by pulling a firearm, and officers fired on him, killing him. 

No one else was injured, according to CPD. 

Police officials in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that Saunders was wanted in connection with several shootings in that area. 

“Saunders has an extensive history of violence,” Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer wrote on the department’s Facebook page, adding that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Around May 13, Saunders allegedly shot his sister in the foot at the home of their grandfather, Spencer recounted. He allegedly then killed his aunt, Karen Cooper.

Experimental plane crashed Monday morning into storage unit; pilot dead, no others hurt

CHEYENNE (WNE) — A single-engine experimental plane crashed at around 8 a.m. Monday into a storage unit on Crook Avenue, near Nationway.

The crash appeared to have caused a relatively small blaze that was extinguished within about half an hour. Besides the pilot, there were no other fatalities.

The pilot of the aircraft, which federal air authorities described as an Express 2000 RG, was its sole occupant. The person, who authorities did not identify by name, has died, according to an update the Cheyenne Police Department distributed by email at around 1 p.m. Monday. 

The individual was an adult male, CPD spokesperson Alex Farkas said by phone Monday afternoon. 

“No further injuries have been reported,” according to the police department’s news release.

The airplane had taken off from Cheyenne Regional Airport and was headed to Texas, according to National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Jennifer Gabris. 

Coroner Rebecca Reid said in a brief phone interview that it might take a few days to get a positive identification of the pilot. 

When the plane crashed, Cheyenne Storage was closed to customers, a co-owner said by phone Monday afternoon; she would not provide her name.

Both the FAA and the NTSB will investigate the incident, an FAA spokesperson wrote in an email to the WTE. In approximately 15 business days, the NTSB will release a preliminary report on the crash, Gabris said.

A final report, with an analysis and suggesting a probable cause of the crash, will be released within a year or two, the spokeswoman estimated.

Torres transferred to juvenile jail facility following judge’s order

SHERIDAN (WNE) — Christian Torres, a 15-year-old accused of first-degree — or premeditated — murder of his adoptive father, has been transferred to a juvenile detention facility to await trial this fall, 9th Judicial District Court Judge Melissa Owens ordered Wednesday, May 25. 

“The court finds it necessary to immediately intervene for the safety and the well-being of the minor defendant…” Owens wrote. 

Owens is overseeing Torres’ criminal trial because 4th Judicial District Court Judge Darci Phillips recused herself from the case.

During a hearing on the defendant’s request to be rehoused in a juvenile facility, Torres’ defense team, attorneys Jonathan Foreman and Anna Malmberg, presented evidence indicating Torres was physically and sexually harassed while in custody at the Sheridan County Detention Center. 

Foreman argued Owens’ authority to order Torres be housed in another facility pursuant to Wyoming’s Title 14, which governs the juvenile justice proceedings in the state. Just because Torres is charged as an adult in this case does not mean Title 14 — which guarantees juveniles special protections under the law — is inapplicable, Foreman argued. 

Foreman also indicated there may be civil remedies available under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law that prohibits juveniles from being housed within sight, sound or touch of adult inmates, or the 14th Amendment. 

Deputy Sheridan County and Prosecuting Attorney Christopher LaRosa responded Title 14 is irrelevant because Torres is charged as an adult. 

“He’s not a juvenile under the law,” LaRosa argued. “He’s charged as an adult.”  

LaRosa argued there was no state or federal statute that granted the judge authority to dictate Torres be removed from the Sheridan County Sheriff Office’s custody and housed in a juvenile facility elsewhere. 

Wyoming Highway 130 opens

LARAMIE (WNE) — Wyoming Highway 130 — also known as Snowy Range Road — is again open to Wyoming motorists looking to explore or cross the Snowy Range.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation announced the road’s opening Monday, May 16, after a closure of six months — alongside the reopening of Wyoming Highway 70, which was closed for five months.

Buried under several feet of snow and without the traffic to justify regular plowing, the highways are closed annually and cleared between April and May by WYDOT crews working dozers, rotaries and plows.

“On 130, the main difficulty we had this year was the ice buildup that was within the snowpack — this was caused by the freeze-thaw cycle that we had here,” WYDOT Spokesman Matt Murphy said.

Highway 130 — the main east-west thoroughfare through Medicine Bow connecting Albany and Carbon counties — is attacked from both sides with a Saratoga crew setting out on the west end of the closed road and a Laramie crew starting on the east.

The two crews work their way to the middle, dozing sections of the snowbank between them down to a height of 4 feet, coming through with a rotary that blows most of the remaining snow off to the side of the highway and finally cleaning up the thin layer of slush with a regular plow.

Though the road is cleared and open, WYDOT urges motorists and bikers to use caution.

“The snowdrifts that are on the side of the road can melt and then you get some water over the road’s surface,” Murphy said. “At nighttime, that will freeze. If you’re driving through in the morning, it’s good to keep that in mind in case you hit a slick spot or two.”

Mountain lion rules come up for new cycle

PINEDALE (WNE) — Just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. That especially goes for mountain lions, whose elusive and silent natures often keep them hidden from public view. 

For Wyoming Game and Fish, mountain lions’ hunting seasons are set on a three-year management cycle, so hunting seasons approved in July for this autumn will carry over for two additional seasons. This next three-year cycle begins on Sept. 1. 

Game and Fish uses this three-year cycle to combine and update mortality, conflicts, objectives and harvest data into reports for preseason meetings like the May 16 meetings at the Pinedale Regional Office. 

The Wind River Management Unit consists of hunt areas 3, 4, 17, 18 and 28. 

“The goal is to sustain mountain lion populations within the core habitat with ‘umbrella guidelines,’” Lander large carnivore biologist Justin Clapp said, with large areas of contiguous habitat across the state. “Mountain lions can be found anyplace in the state.” 

The public can submit written comments at http://www.wgfd.gov through June 3 at 5 p.m. on the proposed hunting season regulations for mountain lions (Chapter 42) and gray wolves (Chapter 47). 

The purpose is to gather comments so the Game and Fish Commission can study them before voting on both trophy game hunting seasons at its July 18-20 meeting. 

Clapp presented trends for the state and Wind River Management Unit shown with hunting-harvest data rather than individual animal counts. Without seeing any animals but those killed, biologists inspect those for sex, age, lactation status, location, hunter’s selectivity of trophy animals, if outfitted and days hunting.

Togwotee Pass to get more wildlife ambassadors

JACKSON (WNE) — More wildlife ambassadors and cops. That’s part of the plan going forward for managing bear-watching people on Togwotee Pass.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol told the Jackson Hole Daily last week that its officers could start ticketing people who park in the highway right of way, where parking is illegal, rather than in pullouts, where it’s allowed.

Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr added his forces to that plan Thursday. He told the Daily that his officers will also start patrolling the pass over Memorial Day weekend. 

Parking illegally on the shoulder could run violators up to a $250 fine, Carr said.

And Friends of the Bridger-Teton, the nonprofit auxiliary for the Bridger-Teton National Forest that recently received $1 million from the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board to educate visitors, said it is looking to hire a fourth wildlife ambassador to help manage the fracas.

“This has already been a very busy summer, and it’s not even summer yet,” said Scott Kosiba, executive director of Friends of the Bridger-Teton.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Bridger-Teton and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have all established a presence on Togwotee Pass, with Game and Fish officials hazing roadside bears that dwell there as needed.

At issue is a highway with a 55 mph speed limit, a family of bears that frequents it, and gaggles of wildlife photographers and watchers who visit, aiming to catch a glimpse of grizzly 863, known colloquially as Felicia, and her cubs.

The confluence of the three factors has wildlife officials, land managers and law enforcement officials worried about the safety of people and bears.