Episode Details

Just three weeks after part of the highway on Teton Pass fell off the mountain, Wyoming transportation officials announced it will reopen on Friday. The detour will have significantly slower speed limits but no weight limitations, according to Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols, but at least this highway that is considered the lifeline between Jackson and Idaho will be open for locals and travelers once again. "That section that they're building the bypass on, it's going to have reduced speed limit to 20 miles an hour. It's only a very short section, it's going to slow down there significantly, but it's going to be a lot better than the option currently for the last two weeks, which has been the drive around. So it'll be a regular two lane highway, they, you know, it's it's a fix that it's going to work for now." WYDOT Director Darin J. Westby credited department engineer Bob Hammond, along with full cooperation from both private and public agencies, with the quick turnaround. Read the full story HERE. Closure may soon be a little closer for the families of two people shot and killed in a double murder during a 2015 robbery at a Cheyenne business. On Tuesday afternoon, the Cheyenne Police Department announced it arrested 68-year-old California resident Douglas Smith in connection with the murders at The Coin Shop in downtown Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that Smith was actually the person who dialed 911 after the shooting. "I spoke to Mike Moser, who was friends with one of the victims, the owner of the coin shop. And he said that it really hit Cheyenne hard when this happened, because of the nature of the murder. It happened in the middle of the day in a very busy part of town. And Moser said he believes the city lost some of its innocence that day." Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said it will be his department that's responsible for bringing Smith back to Wyoming. Kozak was chief of the Cheyenne PD at the time of the murder, and he said there was no other case he lost more sleep over. Read the full story HERE. Despite outrage over a wolf being run down with a snowmobile in the infamous Daniel wolf torture incident, banning that practice in Wyoming doesn't seem imminent. Some members of a legislative working group on Tuesday argued it should remain legal, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz. "It's kind of decided that really, the focus should be on trying to craft some sort of legislation that penalizes or discourages allowing an animal prolonged suffering, regardless of the method that is used to try to kill it for whatever reason - whether it's attacking livestock, or you know, whatever is going on. So it's a complicated issue, not a pleasant subject at all." A representative for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association pointed out that in some cases, running predators over with snowmobiles could be more humane than shooting them. Read the full story

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