Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, June 20th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Presented by Cheyenne Frontier Days - starting July 19th, from sun-up to sun-down - there's something for everyone! Check it out at C-F-D RODEO DOT COM!

A tourist at Yellowstone's Lower Falls risked his life on Wednesday by climbing out to a dangerous section of rocks above the raging 308-foot waterfall.

Photos of a man who climbed out onto an outcropping overlooking the raging waterfall puts into focus the heights — literally — some tourists will go to when breaking the rules, according to Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi.

"I have never had a more visceral reaction to photos than the ones that I saw. It was a man who had climbed down to the brink of the Lower Falls. So there's this narrow, jagged precipice of rock. And he's there crawling away after getting down there and just feet away from him is the brink of the Lower Falls. So the white sheet of water, which I checked the National Park Service's at peak volume, which I imagine we're close to, if not there, right now, 60,000 gallons of water per second 308 foot drop, and he was within a few feet of that."

No climbing is permitted in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but even for a tourism season already predicted to see more bad tourist behavior, the recklessness on display in the photos is almost too much for even seasoned "touron" watchers.

Casper's police chief is urging Wyoming lawmakers to craft criminal penalties against squatting. Now, at least two bill drafts are in the works.

The issue of squatting is gaining attention and prevalence in national media, and has reached Wyoming - and now costs property owners collectively millions of dollars, according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.

"Squatters are creating crime hubs in the houses they're unlawfully occupying, there's all sorts of nefarious things that go on in there. Sometimes the city has to condemn buildings when the homeowners just give up on ever getting their property back. And he said that sometimes people who go to places like Arizona for the winter will come home and everything's a disaster, and they have to stay in a hotel for months, while they sort out eviction processes."

The chief pointed out that vacant businesses, homes caught in the probate system, absentee homes, homes in foreclosure and other processes all can be victimized by squatters.

Wyoming and Utah have become the first states to challenge in federal court an obscure rule touted by the Bureau of Land Management that marks a major shift in how 245 million acres of public lands are managed in the United States.

The rule was designed by BLM to strike a balance between conservation and extractive mining for natural resources. However, energy reporter Pat Maio points out that the rule effectively gives the BLM power to kill off mining projects before they even get off the drawing board.

"It's called the public lands rule, and it relates to trying to find a better balance between conservation on one end and mining on the other. And Gordon is arguing, or at least the statements are pointing out, that the rule has gone too far, and that it avoids the federal law that's supposed to allow states like Wyoming to be able to - you can't like tell a state you can't mine on public lands, which is kind of essentially what's happening here."

The two states announced Wednesday that they have jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City challenging the BLM's final "public lands rule," which was announced April 18.

The attorne