Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, March 27th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show! From 6 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, we bring you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - and this week we've got a fantastic guest host, Charene Herrera, who will keep the conversation lively! Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage to join in.

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Douglas Circuit Court Judge Clark Allan fought back tears when he accepted a prosecutor and defense attorney's plea agreement, giving a 41-year-old woman two years of probation last week for stalking two teens.

Evidence surfaced last year that Marcie Smith was behind a yearlong effort to make then-15-year-old Gillian Holman look like a bully who was cruel and promiscuous. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the families of the teen and her now-boyfriend say they understand why she only got probation, but wish jail time had been offered.

"After I wrote the first story, so many people were like, Why two years probation? What's with this plea deal when the law allows up to a year of jail on each count?... I also asked the moms of both victims in the case, like, what's up with this?... so if there's a claim like, Oh, your warrant is over broad, I can get a suppression on all the fruit of that warrant, and then your case is going to fall apart. Then the prosecutor and the victims have to look at that like, could that happen? And not only could that happen, but do we want to take the risk? Is it more fruitful for us to get those two years of No Contact is allowed? Is that a better, safer bet for us? And in this case, the prosecutor ultimately, with the family reluctantly on board, the prosecutor ultimately decided, yes, it's better to play it safe."

Besides the probation term, Allen ordered Smith to get mental health help, avoid alcohol and drugs, have no contact with the Sorensen and Holman families, and pay nearly $1400 total in costs, fines and fees.

Read the full story HERE.

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"Ghost guns" are a commonly used term for firearms that can be assembled at home from kits made by 3D printers or ordered online.

In a 7-2 decision handed down Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Biden-era rules declaring that "ghost guns" should be treated like regular firearms, making purchases privy to background checks and requiring the guns to carry serial numbers.

Some Wyoming gun rights activists blasted the ruling, telling Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz that it will do nothing to keep guns away from criminals, but will restrict law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights.

"I talked to a couple Wyoming gun rights activists. They don't like it. They didn't like it when Biden was pushing it, and they don't like it now that the the the more, supposedly more conservative Supreme Court has upheld it, because they say, Look at this. This is not going to do anything to keep people from still making weird guns at home. It's not going to do anything to keep criminals or bad actors from getting hold of firearms. All it's going to do is make things more difficult for law abiding gun owners. And then also an argument can be made, which was actually in the dissenting opinion by Clarence Thomas. Justice, Clarence Thomas, that really it amounts to. Legislating from the bench because you're designating just firearm parts in the same category as a fully assembled and functional, functional firearm. An