From the Big Horn Radio Newscenter…
For July 7, 2008To listen to today’s latest news update, click here.
Bus service will be back in the Big Horn Basin starting tomorrow. The Black Hills Stage Lines will begin passenger and express bus service through the Basin beginning Tuesday, with scheduled stops in Basin and Lovell, and flag stops in Greybull, Deaver, Frannie and Cowley. The bus will also stop in Worland, and shuttle service will be available to Lovell from Cody and Powell. The route runs daily from Denver to Billings. Bus service has been absent from the Big Horn Basin since last December, when the Powder River Bus Service stopped serving the area. A spokesperson for the Black Hills / Arrow Stage Lines says that the bus service is operating on a trial basis this summer through September 30.
Tourists are still hitting the road to Yellowstone National Park this summer despite high gas prices. Visits to Yellowstone hit a new record in June. The park saw visitors at a near-record pace for the first six months of this year. The park recorded just over 612,095 recreational visits in June, that's up nearly 2,500 from June 2007. Park spokesman Al Nash says many families may have made plans to visit the park before gas prices shot up. He says visiting Yellowstone remains the quintessential American family vacation.
Cody has been getting a lot of attention from national media this year. And the Wyoming Division of Travel and Tourism spent the 4th of July holiday in Cody, doing more to encourage tourists to spend their time and money in the area. Chuck Coon with Travel and Tourism says that the division has been promoting the Western Heritage of Wyoming’s towns, particularly by sponsoring cowboys and cowgirls that participate in professional rodeo. He says that the 4th of July in Cody was a great experience for the division this year. Coon says that the Stampede activities provided great opportunities for their staff to visit with tourists, and added that the nationally televised Extreme Bulls event provides the state with great exposure. Wyoming Travel and Tourism is also a sponsor for the Extreme Bulls event, and Coon says that when the event is broadcast on ESPN on September 7th, there will be television ads playing during the broadcast that will promote Cody as well as the rest of Wyoming.
Over the past two decades, government agencies killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone National Park. The goal is to contain a serious livestock disease the bison carry. But the crosshairs are shifting to a new target -- elk -- as the disease infects cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades. The disease brucellosis (broo-suh-LOH'-sis) causes pregnant cattle to abort their young. State officials say elk from infected herds around Yellowstone must be culled. It's a prized big game species, and outfitters and hunters are digging in against the idea. They're concerned that too much hunting could shrink elk herds. They argue that wildlife managers should focus on vaccinating cattle or eradicating the disease in bison -- not on capturing and killing elk.
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, in partnership with Cody Nite Rodeo and the Cody Enterprise, invites everyone to a celebration of National Day of the American Cowboy, Saturday, July 26 at the historical center. Festivities include rodeo games and demonstrations, gallery presentations, and live music; the event is free with paid admission. Aspiring cowboys and cowgirls can learn and practice rodeo skills at the “Little Pokes Rodeo”, organized by Cody Nite Rodeo staff, in the historical center’s Braun Garden. Other activities include gallery talks by education department staffers and volunteer docents, with topics on everything cowboy. Musicians from Dan Miller’s Cowboy Music Revue—Adam McOwen on fiddle and Tim Bushnell on guitar—will be on hand to serve up western tunes in the afternoon. National Day of the American Cowboy, initially the brainchild of American Cowboy magazine, is now in its fourth year. Wyoming’s own Senator Craig Thomas was a supporter of the day and sponsored official annual resolutions up until his death in June 2007.
Jackson Lake Reservoir has reached its full capacity and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says releases from Jackson Dam will be reduced slowly. The reservoir is in Grand Teton National Park. It's now holding nearly 850,000 acre feet of water, all owned by downstream irrigators in Idaho. Mike Beus with the Bureau of Reclamation in Idaho says the agency will manage releases from the reservoir so it releases 200,000 acre feet by the end of September. The Snake River on Thursday was adding to the reservoir's volume at nearly 3,000 cubic feet of water per second while the dam was releasing water at a rate of nearly 5,700 cubic feet per second.
The past two presidential election years haven't been kind to Democratic candidates in Wyoming - the party lost seats in the Legislature in 2000 and 2004. But the chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, John Millin, says he's planning for a different result in 2008. Thousands of Democratic-leaning voters came out of the woodwork for Wyoming's Democratic caucuses in March. Millin says the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns have since then given the state party long lists of names of volunteers and caucus participants. Wyoming Republican Party committeewoman Jan Larimer says she's confident GOP voters will turn out this fall even though the party's presumptive presidential candidate, John McCain, didn't perform well in the state party's caucuses. She says the Republicans will rally around McCain because his values are the closest to Wyoming citizens'.
Allegiant Air has announced plans for nonstop flights between Casper and Las Vegas twice a week. John Fenyes, the Las Vegas-based airline's director of sales, said Wednesday that flights on a 150-seat jet will start Sept. 19. The flights will depart Casper/Natrona County International Airport on Monday and Friday mornings. Fenyes says market research showed that customers from Casper and Cheyenne frequently use Allegiant Air in Fort Collins, Colo. Fares will start at $99 one-way, but Allegiant is making a special introductory offer that could shave $20 off that price for flights purchased by July 26.
Making services available to more women and children, the Wyoming Department of Health has increased the income eligibility ceiling for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program. Under the new guidelines, which began July 1, a family of four with an annual gross income up to $39,220 will qualify financially for the program. This is an increase of more than $1,000 over the previous year. Janet Moran, WIC program manager with the Wyoming Department of Health, says that WIC is really a preventive health program. By providing nutritious foods and educating families on healthy eating, the health of low-income women, infants and children are protected. With 19 local agencies and 18 outreach clinics in Wyoming, WIC serves approximately 12,000 women and children per month.
The Sublette County Sheriff's Department says a man whose body was found Thursday near the Big Sandy River apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The department and volunteer searchers have been looking for nearly two weeks for 24-year-old Garrett Bardin, the son of Sublette County Sheriff Wayne Bardin. Garrett Bardin's truck was found in the area last week. Dick Blust Jr. is spokesman for the department. He says no positive identification of the body has been made yet, but that the search for Garrett Bardin has been scaled back considerably since the recovery of the body. Blust says that other than Garrett Bardin, the department has not received any other reports of men missing in the area recently. Garrett Bardin's parents expressed their thanks for everyone involved in the search for their son.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to decide by the end of the month where to limit coal-bed methane development in the Powder River Basin as it considers how to protect sage grouse there. BLM officials say that if allowed to continue, the coal-bed methane industry's current practices could result in killing off sage grouse in the Powder River Basin. They say the bird population there has ties to other important populations in Wyoming and Montana. The agency says it needs to curb development in the Powder River Basin over the next two years while it rewrites its management plan for the area.
A foundation has moved to Wyoming with the aim of helping some of the 80,000 uninsured people in the state to get health insurance. The CoverMe Foundation was founded in Kentucky. Founder Alec Shea and his wife moved to Laramie last fall. The organization links people with government-funded programs, community social services and private insurance. Shea says the program tries to find uninsured people before they incur medical costs. He says the program screens people for eligibility to allow them to go to doctor's offices when they get sick, instead of going to the emergency room.
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to investigate how federal law enforcement officers treated members of the Rainbow Family during their annual gathering this year in western Wyoming. Federal officers arrested five Rainbow Family members Thursday night. The U.S. Forest Service says the arrests occurred after a mob of perhaps 400 Rainbows threw rocks and sticks at 10 agency police officers after they tried to arrest one member of the group. Linda Burt is executive director of the ACLU in Wyoming. She says her organization plans to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear how law enforcement treated them. Burt says she's concerned about reports that law enforcement officers have been ticketing Rainbow Family members for the smallest traffic infractions. She also said she's heard reports that officers have walked among the Rainbow camps asking people if they're using drugs with reason to suspect that any crime has been committed.
Statistics showing alcohol-related crashes in Campbell County were 18-percent higher than in the rest of Wyoming in 2006 are pushing a new program in the county to reduce that number. Gillette Police Chief Rich Adriaens says the new program is not just another anti-drunken driving campaign using familiar scare tactics. Adriaens says Gillette's new "Worth It/Drive Sober" campaign intends to emphasize the fact most people in Wyoming already drive sober. The chief says the campaign is intended to get residents to ask themselves what makes it worth it for them to drive sober, whether it's their children or their spouse or some other reason.
Laramie City Manager Janine Jordan has confirmed that former Police Chief Bob Deutsch is no longer working for the city, but she hasn't said why. Jordan released an announcement Tuesday night saying that Commander Dale Stalder had been appointed as an interim replacement for Deutsch. Deutsch joined the department in 2005 as chief of police. He said Wednesday that he couldn't comment on the situation. Jordan said Wednesday that she couldn't discuss Deutsch's employment because it was a personnel matter. However, she said the former chief was an "at will" employee and that he didn't receive severance package. Mayor Klaus Hanson says he was "totally surprised" when he received the e-mail regarding the appointment of an interim chief.
A Texas-based wind energy company is making plans for the construction of a new wind farm in eastern Carbon County. Project manager Nate Sandvig of Horizon Wind presented plans for the project this week to the Carbon County Commission and the Carbon County Planning Commission. Sandvig says meteorological towers are being installed in the area now to gather data that will be needed to get financing for the proposed project. Sandvig says if the project is approved, it would be built in phases and could ultimately be capable of producing 500 megawatts of power. The new wind farm would be located in the Simpson Ridge area south of Medicine Bow, near PacifiCorp's Arlington wind farm.
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