Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 12th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Rep. Mike Yin claimed on Wednesday that Teton County GOP leader Rebecca Bextel distributed checks on the floor of the state legislature. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Yin's accusation prompted outrage and a formal protest.

"Representative Mike Yin was saying, 'Hey, I don't want to make any accusations specifically, but a person from Teton County that is championing bills was distributing checks on a legislative chamber floor during this session, and we should not vote on bills that she supports because of the implications'…Representative John Bear challenged him on a point of order. And then later, House Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams filed – she made an official complaint against him that went into the record. Bextel texted me, 'I haven't written any campaign checks this year.' I asked if she had distributed any checks at all or anything else, and what those things were, she said, 'None of your business.' However, she's taken to Facebook to say that she was distributing checks, but then there was nothing illegal about it."

Bextel didn't respond to a later inquiry about whether she requested Bear or the House to run House Bill 141.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday to allow hand-counted recounts. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that this is despite county clerks warning it wouldn't work under tight deadlines.

"This legislative session, there have been a lot of election reform bills. Some have been voted down. Some have advanced, like a bill today that would spell out a requirement for hand counting ballots in certain situations when a recount is desired. The Secretary of State Chuck Gray argued that right now, or all a recount does is it reruns the ballots through the machine, and he's not satisfied by that stand. And the bill that he's backing would say, 'No, county clerks, you've got to hand count these.' Well, the county clerks are saying, 'Hold on a second. This is going to take a lot of time.' The clerks are okay with doing that. They just want a realistic structure to the mandate that would come down. They want to be able to execute whatever is required by law. And according to them, this House Bill sets them up for failure."

Secretary of State Chuck Gray told the committee he was in complete support of the bill, calling it "probably one of the most vetted election bills in this session."

Read the full story HERE.

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A lawyer for Cody Roberts wants to bar testimony about him allegedly running a wolf down with a snowmobile or taping its mouth shut. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that attorney Robert Piper wrote that these were "prior acts" in his motion filed Monday in Sublette County District Court.

"His defense lawyer made another motion this week, this time to exclude testimony that relates to him running down the wolf with a snowmobile or taking his mouth shut. He claims those are prior acts compared to what the prosecution is going after him for, and therefore should not be they should not hear testimony about that. It's kind of an interesting motion, because those alleged details pretty much launched his case to international status as far as people noticing and being, you know, following his prosecution…His trial is still scheduled to start March 9, so it's less than a month away. So it will be interesting to see what