Wyoming News Briefs

Information sought about missing Cody woman

POWELL (WNE) — Family members of a missing Cody woman are asking anyone with information about her whereabouts to get in touch with law enforcement. 

Katie Ferguson was last seen on Oct. 10 in Arkansas, Ferguson’s mother, Mona Hartling, wrote in a Nov. 5 Facebook post. 

Ferguson had been traveling from Dothan, Alabama, to Cody with her ex-boyfriend and their two children, but “somewhere near Little Rock, Arkansas she disappeared,” Hartling wrote. 

Hartling shared few other details, explaining in a Saturday post that “we can’t do anything to hurt her [Ferguson’s] case.” 

Ferguson’s ex, Adam Aviles Jr., reportedly returned to Cody with the two children. Aviles was arrested last week, but there’s no indication that his arrest was related to Ferguson’s disappearance. 

Court records say Aviles and the children had been living with his father. 

On Nov. 6, however, Aviles’ father told the Park County Sheriff’s Office that he’d just kicked Aviles out of the house after finding meth and paraphernalia. Hours later, Aviles allegedly stole his father’s 2000 Chevy truck, Sheriff Darrell Steward wrote in an affidavit. 

Steward said he and agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation searched Aviles’ father’s home on Nov. 8 and found additional drug paraphernalia that the father had apparently been unaware of. Then, as the officers prepared to leave, Aviles reached out to say he was at a family member’s home and wanted to turn himself in. Aviles was taken into custody.

On Nov. 9, the Park County Attorney’s Office charged Aviles with misdemeanor counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and possession of a controlled substance. Those charges were dropped Monday afternoon, but Aviles remained in custody at the Park County Detention Center, indicating another agency has placed a hold on him. Both Steward and Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric declined to comment on whether that was the case. 

New documentary highlights migration in and through Grand Teton National Park

CASPER (WNE) — “Animal Trails: Rediscovering Grand Teton Migrations,” a new Wyoming-made documentary, shows how the migration patterns often depend on habitats up to 190 miles away from Grand Teton National Park — not just in it. 

The film was released by the Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park. It was directed by Gregory Nickerson. A summer screening at Grand Teton’s Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center and Colter Bay Museum first introduced it to the public. 

“The film documents more than a decade of research revealing how Grand Teton National Park’s mule deer and pronghorn actually depend on habitats up to 190 miles away from the park boundaries,” a press release says. 

In the winters, big game herds travel to Idaho and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, as well as across the Cowboy State. Those routes are “vital for their survival.” 

“We are living amid a revolution in migration science happening in and around the edges of one of America’s crown-jewel national parks,” Nickerson, a writer and filmmaker with the Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming, said in an online article about the film. 

The park has been tracking mule deer migrations since 2013, along with UW, Idaho Fish and Game, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes Fish and Game of the Wind River Indian Reservation. One of the key tenets of the film, the article says, is its understanding that Indigenous people were the first to track and understand the impacts of migration patterns. The 25-minute film will show at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center and Colter Bay Museum next summer. It is also available to watch on Vimeo or YouTube. 

Gillette atheist appealing to Supreme Court after judge dismisses $24 million lawsuit against city

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette resident is appealing a district judge’s decision to dismiss his lawsuit against the city of Gillette.

Earlier this year, District Judge Stuart S. Healy III dismissed Bruce Williams’ $24 million lawsuit in which he alleged that he was discriminated against because he is an atheist. The city argued that it has governmental immunity.

Williams is now asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to send the case back to District Court.

In Healy’s motion to dismiss the complaint, he wrote that Williams’ claims didn’t have any real proof behind them.

“He asserts, without citation to controlling authority or cogent legal argument, that the [Wyoming Governmental Claims Act] is simply not applicable to his claims. His argument in this regard may be kindly characterized as purely subjective speculation — conclusory, attenuated and unsupported by citation to existing law or fact,” Healy wrote.

Williams alleged that since 2014, he’s been the victim of “conspiratorial oppression” by the city and that the city has violated state law 97 separate times by showing a preference for Christian leaders over non-religious people.

That includes not allowing him the right number of invocations per year, not allowing him to give an invocation as an atheist to the city council in a public meeting, “using preferred religion as control” and three instances when members of the city council walked out as he was about to give an invocation.

Williams was seeking $250,000 in damages for each alleged violation of state statute, which comes out to more than $24 million. 

The city claimed Williams’ suit didn’t have any foundation because it has governmental immunity, a protection afforded to government entities when it comes to lawsuits. In a response to the city’s motion to dismiss, Williams claimed that governments in Wyoming don’t have immunity.

Barrasso, Lummis express concern over nursing home staffing rule

CHEYENNE (WNE) — U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both R-Wyo., sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) regarding the agency’s proposed minimum staffing standards in nursing homes.

A news release from the Senate delegation’s office said they “disapprove of the administration’s one-size-fits-all approach that does not account for the needs of rural states, such as Wyoming.”

The release said, “Should the proposed rule become a requirement, it will result in nationwide nursing home closures due to provider shortages, financially devastate facilities in Wyoming, and leave vulnerable individuals in rural communities without care.”

The letter urges CMS to rescind the proposal and work with Congress, states and key stakeholders on alternative solutions.

Sales and use tax collections up 14.1% in FY 2023

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Wyoming’s total sales and use tax collections in fiscal year 2023 expanded at a strong pace, according to the state of Wyoming Economic Analysis Division’s annual publication “Wyoming Sales, Use, and Lodging Tax Revenue Report.”

Total sales and use tax collections for FY 2023 reached $1.2 billion, an increase of 15% from the previous year. The state-imposed 4% tax collection grew 14.1%, the second consecutive year of a double-digit growth.

“With this strong expansion, the amount of total sales and use taxes for fiscal year 2023 reached a new record,” said Wenlin Liu, chief economist with the Economic Analysis Division, in a news release. “However, it’s still 11.1% less than FY 2015 level if measured in inflation-adjusted dollars.”

As the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic faded, Wyoming’s economy continued to rally in FY 2023, with a lasting rebound in oil and gas drilling, robust payroll job additions, low unemployment rate and strong income growth. Compared to FY 2022, nearly every major industrial sector experienced an increase in sales and use tax collections.

Across the state, year-over-year statewide sales and use tax collections increased in 22 counties, led by Converse (42.6%) and Carbon (34.9%) counties. Albany, Campbell, Niobrara and Sublette counties each experienced over 20% increases.

Total lodging tax collections (including the statewide lodging taxes), $57.1 million for fiscal year 2023, were down slightly from the $59.1 million collected in the previous year, or -3.4%.

Gillette bank robber gets up to ten years

GILLETTE (WNE) — A man who robbed $2000 from First National Bank in Gillette while on a “soul-searching” trip from Texas has been sentenced to up to ten years in prison.

Preston J. Selph, 34, received a sentence of nine to ten years in prison Oct. 27 for robbery, a charge that was amended down in an agreement with prosecutors, according to court documents.

Selph pleaded guilty to the felony charge in August after being found competent to proceed in court earlier this year. 

While entering his guilty plea in August, Selph said he was on a “soul-searching type of trip from Texas” when he found himself in Gillette without any money or gas the morning of Nov. 9, 2022.

He told the judge he had asked for help and didn’t receive any, at which point he heard a voice tell him to try the bank. He then went into First National Bank with a note that read, “$2000, I’m armed. You have ten seconds,” according to court documents, and handed it to a teller.

Selph was arrested that morning less than half an hour after robbing First National Bank on South Douglas Highway.

Despite his saying he heard a voice, he was found competent to proceed and worked rationally with his public defender on his defense, ultimately opting not to go the route of entering a not guilty by reason of mental illness plea, according to court documents.

It was the first bank robbery in Gillette since March 1993, when an unknown man made off with several thousand dollars from First Interstate Bank, said Robert Henning, director of the Campbell County Rockpile Museum, at the time of the crime.

In that instance, the bank’s security camera system was not working during the robbery and the suspect was never found.

Lovell beet season ‘exceptional’ according to Western Sugar Cooperative official

LOVELL (WNE) — It’s turning out to be a great beet season, with sugar content slightly above projections in the late harvest.

In the beginning of October, preliminary numbers showed a 17 percent sugar content average. Now, according to Ric Rodriguez, member of the Western Sugar Cooperative board, the crop is looking at an 18.50 percent sugar content average.

Tonnage is also slightly above projection. A 28-ton per acre crop average was projected in early October. Rodriguez said the Lovell area crop is now at a little better than a 28-ton-and-a-half per acre average.

“We had adequate moisture in the spring,” Rodriguez said when speaking on why he thinks the crop has done well this season. “For most of this autumn we had a perfect fall. It was a moderately warm October until the final weeks.”

The only hiccup in the harvest was the final week of October, when temperatures dipped below freezing. Rodriguez said harvest was forced to shut down on Oct. 25 with 500 acres remaining to be brought in.

Those 500 acres worth of beets were all frozen, but with the weather again warming, Rodriguez said those beets are being brought into the factory currently.

“They won’t store for more than a week,” he said. “So, the factory will be processing them pretty quickly.”

Rodriguez said he estimates that 96 percent of beets were brought in before the frost.

“As far as tonnage, we’re about at average, and we’re ending with a little bit better of a sugar content,” he said. “It’s been an exceptional year for Lovell.”

Archer accused of firing arrows at neighbor’s home, pointing bow at her

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 46-year-old woman accused her 47-year-old neighbor of shooting arrows at her home and threatening her with a loaded bow Monday evening.

The woman told officers that the man had been on his patio when he fired the arrows at her home in the 500 block of Longmont Street at about 6:15 p.m. She said the man also pointed the bow at her, Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson said.

When police arrived, the man was walking unsteadily out of his home and yelling profanities. The man, William Wright, refused to listen to officers and resisted them.

Other family members at the home were also leaving, and one told officers that Wright had walked out with a bow before officers arrived. Police received a search warrant for the home and found a bow, along with several arrows.

Officers also documented damage to the side of the woman’s home from the arrows. Wasson said that Wright had been drinking, and he was arrested for aggravated assault, interference with a peace officer and intoxication.

Yellowstone’s October visits up 26% from year ago

JACKSON (WNE) — Recreational visits to Yellowstone National Park in October were up 26% over a year ago.

The total, 299,127 recreational visits represented a whopping 75% increase from October 2019, when “several short-term, weather-related road closures likely impacted visitation,” a Yellowstone press release said.

The park compares 2023 numbers to 2019’s because 2020 and 2021 produced unusual visitation trends due to COVID-19 and 2022 saw historic flooding that closed the park for about two weeks in June.

So far this year, Yellowstone has hosted 4,446,509 recreational visits, up 37% from 2022 and up 12% from 2019.

In 2021, the year-to-date total for October was 4,789,349 visits. That figure was 3,753,531 in 2020, a year that saw the park close March 24 through May 17, with two entrances opening May 18 and the other three opening June 1.