Wyoming News Briefs

Wyoming’s average gas prices are down again this week

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have fallen 1.3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.27 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming.

Prices in Wyoming are 5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 27.3 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.82 per gallon, while the highest was $4.19, a difference of $1.37.

The national average price of gasoline has risen 1 cent per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.41 per gallon Monday. The national average is down 18 cents per gallon from a month ago, and stands 13.8 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million weekly price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.

The national average price of diesel has fallen 1.6 cents in the last week and stands at $3.73 per gallon.

Man crashes Porsche going 120 mph in town, gets arrested for DUI

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 39-year-old man who drove his Porsche more than 100 mph in city limits ended up crashing and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as several other charges.

The man was seen swerving onto the sidewalk and into opposite lanes of traffic, said Police Deputy Chief Brent Wasson. An officer clocked his speed at about 120 mph.

He hit a guardrail near the intersection of 4J Road and Seventh Street and rolled three to four times, according to witnesses. After the crash, he tried running away from the scene but was quickly caught by officers.

There was more than $1000 of damage to the Porsche, and the total cost of damage to the guardrail is unknown at this time.

The man was arrested for DUI, which is his third in 10 years. If convicted, it would be a felony.

In addition to DUI, the man, Dustin Ostert, was arrested for driving under suspension, not having an ignition interlock device, swerving and reckless driving.

Gordon criticizes BLM’s lingering Indaziflam approval

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Another summer and another fire season will pass in Wyoming without the ability to use the herbicide Indaziflam on Bureau of Land Management lands to fight cheatgrass, according to a news release from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office.

BLM has not approved its usage, which still awaits signature on the Record of Decision.

Wyoming has been urging the approval of Indaziflam on BLM lands to help grazing permittees eliminate cheatgrass, a terrestrial invasive species. The herbicide is approved for use by the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, and is being applied throughout Wyoming successfully to limit the spread of cheatgrass and other invasive species.

“The BLM’s sluggish approval process prevents Wyoming from utilizing one of the most effective tools against this cancer on rangeland. It represents yet another inconsistent approach to regulation and allows cheatgrass to spread needlessly where federal agencies cannot align,” Gordon said in the release.

“Wyoming is engaged in an ongoing battle against invasive annual grasses, and we need all available tools to improve habitat for wildlife and reduce fire risk. Without the ability to use Indaziflam across land ownerships, several large landscape-level treatments have been on hold, while cheatgrass continues to spread,” the governor added.

Cheatgrass is an especially aggressive invasive plant, which prolifically spreads seeds and thrives in disturbed areas. The noxious plant outcompetes more beneficial grasses and changes Wyoming landscapes, causing significant negative impacts to native wildlife habitats and rangelands, leaving it susceptible to fire.

Wyoming is far outpacing BLM control efforts as the state invests millions of dollars annually to prevent the proliferation of terrestrial invasive species, including cheatgrass, ventana and medusahead, the release said.

Rafter survives capsizing

CODY (WNE) — A rafting accident in the Shoshone Canyon on Sunday left one of the three passengers stranded.

The person was subsequently rescued, according to the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

Dispatch received a 911 call from a caller who had been rafting on the Shoshone River downstream of Hayden Arch Bridge. The party of three had purchased a raft from a local store that afternoon and decided to float the section of whitewater below the bridge, which is currently flowing at 4500 cubic feet per second (cfs) and not safely runnable on a raft.

At some point during the ensuing float, the raft capsized in the rapids. Two of the subjects were able to get to the shore on the south side of the river while the third went missing. Rescuers learned the third subject had gone through the rapid named “Iron Curtain” and was able to swim to a small cave on the north side of the river.

Search and Rescue, along with sheriff’s deputies and Cody Regional Health EMS personnel were dispatched to the scene. SAR members gained access to the male subject via the road on the north side of the canyon and immediately deployed two swift-water rescue members to contact him. They were able to assist with getting him into a personal flotation device and a harness. Once the subject was safely secured to a rope system, SAR rope team members raised him approximately 150 feet to the road where he was turned over to EMS staff.

The man was suffering from hypothermia. He was assessed by EMS and subsequently refused transport to the hospital for further evaluation.

Wyoming woman convicted for child abuse, two counts of assault

CASPER (WNE) — A Wyoming woman has been convicted of aggravated child abuse, assault resulting in serious bodily injury and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Kandace Sitting Eagle, 33, was convicted on June 13 in district court in Cheyenne in a four-day trial, the District of Wyoming’s U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

“According to trial evidence, on Dec. 12, 2023, an Arapahoe school resource officer conducted a welfare check on a 13-year-old student that had not been to school in over a month. He found the child in a crawl space under the trailer where the parents, Kandace and Truman Sitting Eagle, were hiding the child,” the release said.

The child was taken to SageWest Hospital in Riverton and then to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City via air ambulance.

“The investigation proved that the child had suffered weeks of physical beatings, isolation, starvation and psychological abuse at the hands of Kandace and Truman,” the release said.

Kandace will be sentenced on Aug. 29; she faces no less than 10 years and up to life imprisonment, an up to $250,000 fine and up to five years of supervised release.

Truman, 36, pleaded guilty, the press release said, on April 8.

He was charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury. He will be sentenced on Aug. 6 in the same district court in Cheyenne.

Western in running for $2.4 million to implement Nuclear Technology Program

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — Outgoing Western Wyoming Community College President Kim Dale announced at the Tuesday, June 11, board meeting that Western is a contender for a $2.4 million grant to implement a Nuclear Technology Program.

The grant would come from Gov. Mark Gordon’s Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP), which is a collaboration to align education and workforce development and support innovation, entrepreneurship, and research to help drive Wyoming’s economy. WIP helped fund Western’s Powerline Technology Program.

Dale said a press release about the award should be forthcoming from Gordon’s office, but she wanted to let the board trustees know about the award prior to her retirement.

The Nuclear Technology Program would be created to support TerraPower’s advanced nuclear power plant in Kemmerer. With two years of funding, Dale said she expects the implementation to take about two years.

Western is being considered because of the recent success and growth of the Powerline Technology Program.

Dale said she has been working closely with TerraPower and credited the “awesome” work Western has done to support local industries.

“We do good things and put it to work,” she said. “We continue to provide quality workforce opportunities, to our students and to the state.”

17-year-old charged as adult for stabbing mom while she slept

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Campbell County teen made his initial appearance in court Wednesday for attempted first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing his mother in the back while she slept in bed.

Tharles O. Smith, 17, remains held in the Campbell County Detention Center on $250,000 cash-only bond, and is next due in court for his preliminary hearing June 21.

Prosecutors are trying the teen as an adult and have upped the charge from attempted second-degree murder, for which he was originally arrested early Tuesday morning.

Smith is accused of stabbing his mother in the back with an eight-inch kitchen knife while she slept. Her left shoulder blade was fractured and her left lung damaged.

An emergency doctor told investigators that she was “very lucky” to have survived, according to court documents.

Deputies responded to the residence west of Gillette at about 11:45 p.m. Monday after the woman reported her son had stabbed her. Smith met deputies outside of the home to direct them to where his mother was.

Deputies found the woman lying in bed with the kitchen knife, 13.5 inches long with an 8-inch blade, still sticking out of her back. She was airlifted to Campbell County Memorial Hospital for treatment and deputies found and detained Smith at the home.

Smith told investigators he and his family had an ongoing dispute about his having to move out of their home. Later on, Smith could not sleep because he was “too angry” and felt his parents “were trying to get rid of him,” according to court documents.

Smith could not explain to investigators why he stabbed his mother and said that he had been “troubled” and often angry since he was young.

Attempted first-degree murder carries a life sentence.

Park Service calls for bison populations to grow in the West

CASPER (WNE) — The National Park Service is calling for a 20% increase in the bison population.

The service has released its preferred alternative for a new Interagency Bison Management Plan, which comes more than two decades after the inaugural plan and could increase the animal’s population by 1000, lifting the cap to 6000 bison after calving.

At the heart of the plan is an effort to reconcile the fact that the animals’ primary protected habitat in Yellowstone is not large enough to accommodate its migratory needs, which are a response to snow conditions, available forage and population density, similar to other western ungulates.

The 2000 plan originated from concern that bison migrating outside Yellowstone National Park would transmit the bacterial disease brucellosis to cattle and disrupt interstate commerce, and capped the population at 4800.

More than 20 years later, new science and information reveals the original plan’s assumptions regarding brucellosis transmission were incorrect or have been qualified by additional findings. Managers believe it is now safe to allow for larger bison populations in part because fewer cattle are ranging in proximity to the park, and because federal and state disease regulators have taken steps to reduce the economic impacts of brucellosis outbreaks in cattle.

The plan also prioritizes the transfer of bison to tribal nations through the Bison Conservation Transfer Program as a way to manage overpopulation.

Since 2019, around 400 bison have been transferred to tribes across the U.S, and the new plan will see that figure grow.

Relatedly, the plan will rely on revamped tribal treaty hunts in which tribes harvest bison outside the park. Bison would be managed within a population range of about 3500 to 6000 animals after calving, considered an “ecologically sustainable population of wild and migratory bison.”

Steamboat Geyser trespass nets Washington man jail time, Yellowstone ban

JACKSON (WNE) — A 21-year-old man who entered off-limits terrain to take pictures of Yellowstone’s most dangerous geyser was sentenced June 4 to seven days in jail for thermal trespass, banned from the national park for two years and fined $1,500.

“Trespassing in closed, thermal areas of Yellowstone National Park is dangerous and harms the natural resource,” acting U.S. Attorney Eric Heimann said in a press release about Viktor Pyshniuk, of Lynwood, Washington. “In cases like this one where we have strong evidence showing a person has willfully disregarded signs and entered a closed, thermal area, federal prosecutors will seek significant penalties, including jail time.”

The release said an off-duty Yellowstone employee reported seeing Pyshniuk walking off the boardwalk in the thermal area at Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin, and a park law enforcement officer was dispatched to the scene.

“The employee had taken a photo of the defendant who had clearly crossed over the fence and was walking up the hillside within 15-20 feet of Steamboat Geyser’s steam vent,” the release said.

Steamboat is “the world’s tallest active geyser, but it is also the most dangerous,” the release said. “It has erratic and unpredictable eruptions that can rise anywhere from six to 300 feet high.”

Yellowstone’s website says eruptions can be so powerful that “mature lodgepole pines have been broken by the downpour, undermined and then washed away by the geyser’s massive discharge.”

During sentencing, Magistrate Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick noted that the three-foot fencing around the boardwalk is a clear sign the area is closed. She told Pyshniuk the sentence was designed to deter not only him but everyone else from leaving the boardwalk in the area.

Hageman, Lummis introduce bill to block mandatory EID ear tags

CHEYENNE (WNE) — U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, both R-Wyo., on Thursday introduced a joint resolution disapproving of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) rule mandating electronic identification (EID) ear tags for bison and cattle moving interstate.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has also joined this legislation as an original cosponsor.

Hageman said in a news release: “This rule is a solution in search of a problem that will advance a federal mandate which the American ranching community will have to pay for. This unfunded mandate raises serious privacy concerns for ranchers and their herds, with the potential to lock ranchers out of their traditional markets, thereby furthering vertical integration of the U.S. food supply chain.

“Wyoming’s ranchers provide some of the highest quality meat in the world, yet this administration continues to find creative ways to make their jobs harder,” Lummis said in the release. “Forcing Wyoming’s ranchers to shell out their hard-earned money to trace and chip their livestock not only threatens to erode their privacy, but puts unnecessary pressure on our supply chain. As a rancher myself, I understand the devastating impact this will have on our industry and will do everything in my power to block this administration’s chronic federal overreach.”

“Mandating ear tags for all cattle and bison will financially crush independent Wyoming ranchers,” said Barrasso. “Senator Lummis’ and Congresswoman Hageman’s legislation will stop this overreaching federal mandate in its tracks.”

On May 9, APHIS issued the final rule, which amends animal disease traceability regulations to require bison and cattle ear tags to be both visually and electronically readable to be recognized as official ear tags for interstate movement.

Wyoming Highway Patrol makes arrest related to stolen Lamborghinis in Carbon County

SARATOGA (WNE) — It’s not often the Wyoming Highway Patrol pulls over a pair of Lamborghinis, but that’s exactly what happened recently in Carbon County.

On May 26, Rawlins-area troopers received a report of two rental vehicles which were likely stolen heading toward Carbon County on Interstate 80.

“The rental company reported two males rented Lamborghinis in the Salt Lake City area,” said Trooper Ryan Gerdes. “The drivers then left Utah in violation of the contract, exceeded the allowable miles, were speeding and later disconnected the trackers when told to return the Lamborghinis. Troopers stopped the vehicles at milepost 216 on I80 eastbound.”

Gerdes said the drivers were identified as 35-year-old Andrew Blackman and 32-year-old Dassman Fadil, who used false names to rent the vehicles.

“After confirming the vehicles were reported stolen, troopers arrested Blackman and Fadil for possession of stolen property,” Gerdes said.

The two men are currently being held in the Carbon County Detention Center until their initial hearing.

The rental car company estimated the value of one Lamborghini at $343,000 and the other at $243,000.

Missing woman passed through Moran

JACKSON (WNE) — License plate reader cameras were used recently to try to locate a missing Idaho woman whose cellphone showed she had passed through Moran.

Laura Lane, 54, left her job in Buffalo, Wyoming, and began traveling back to her hometown of Nampa, Idaho, on the morning of June 2.

Sgt. Jesse Willcox of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office said that on June 5, he was notified that Lane hadn’t arrived home and that at around 1 p.m. on June 2, her phone had pinged in the area of Moran Junction.

The Jackson Police Department checked the Flock camera system to see if Lane’s license plate had been located in the Jackson area on June 2, but they were unable to find any record of her traveling through, Willcox said.

Nampa police officers told Willcox that her vehicle has been picked up on their license plate readers in the Nampa area.

Carmen Boeger, the community engagement coordinator for the Nampa Police Department, said Lane is still missing and has been entered into a national database.

“There were a couple notes about a vehicle she possibly had that did hit our license plate readers,” Boeger said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean she was the one driving.”

Lane and her vehicle are still outstanding, Boeger said. Lane was last known to be traveling in a 2013 red Dodge Dart.

Boeger said her department is seeking leads and information.