Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Friday, February 28th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics, thanking the participants, volunteers, supporters, and sponsors of the February winter games in Pinedale. Visit Wyoming senior olympics dot com!

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An illegal immigrant with "probable" Mexican drug cartel ties was in federal court Thursday, where he was told he's facing a term of between 10 years and life in prison, on claims he's been distributing meth on and around the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Oscar Espinoza Duarte was one of two Mexican nationals arrested Tuesday in Fremont County, according to Crime and Courts reporter Clair McFarland.

"He appeared in court Thursday, and it's a tiny, tiny Lander-based outpost of the the federal court in Wyoming… it's right next to the Wind River Indian Reservation, which is Federal jurisdiction, jurisdiction for felony level crimes… there wasn't much to this hearing, because they didn't have a bomb hearing or an arraignment. They just the judge just read the charge that he's facing and made a few preliminary steps to get him a public defender."

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents had been investigating Espinoza Duarte's circle at least as early as October. Court documents say that an informant implicated Espinoza Duarte as a methamphetamine distributor.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming will no longer have any gun-free zones.

That's the result of an announcement Gov. Mark Gordon made Thursday evening that he's letting House Bill 172, a bill banning gun-free zones, pass into law without his signature.

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that although the governor let the bill pass into the law, he issued a scathing indictment of it in his letter explaining his position on it.

"Basically he believes that the law subverts local control and that local entities were not really seriously solicited for input on the bill when it was crafted. He basically said that what he has noticed is in the series legislature, there's been a theme of acting for politics and political positioning rather than policy, and doing what's best for Wyoming. He also called supporters of the bill a wild bunch."

In January, the State Building Commission gave final approval for people to carry concealed firearms in some areas of the Wyoming Capitol. This law will now supersede that action.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming's Congressional delegation voted to get rid of oil and gas industry regulations as Congress this week took up a batch of measures pertaining to the energy sector.

The House and Senate voted on Republican-sponsored joint resolutions to scrap environmental regulations established by former President Joe Biden's administration. Cowboy State Daily's Sean Barry has the details.

"It's been a real busy week on Capitol Hill with energy policy, Wendy. The Republicans introduced several measures in both the House and Senate to get rid of President Biden's regulations on oil and gas companies. Those are still in process… but the Republicans are moving to get rid of regulations that they see as too much red tape on the oil and gas industries, driving up costs and whatnot.. there's fireworks everywhere you look on the Senate floor when it comes to this stuff, because people's ideologies, their world views on this are just miles and miles apart."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday in the Senate, Democrats brought to the floor a joint resolution