Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 17th. I'm Mac Watson.

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The state Senate advanced a bill Monday that would rescue the Wyoming Business Council by rebuilding the controversial agency. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports it also would freeze its work while lawmakers and others reevaluate the council.

"So there's three bills. Two of them are twins, right? One the twins are kind of a soft freeze. One of those is still moving on the House side. One of those is paused on the Senate side. But what the Senate minerals committee advanced Monday was the hard freeze. Stop everything for a year like no new projects, no expansions, while we evaluate you and see what the heck what you're all about, right? And Senator Chris Rothfuss gutted half the bill in an amendment that the Senate gets to vote on, but he gutted half the bill saying we don't need to describe this big task force, we the minerals committee can just do this ourselves and appoint a subcommittee if we see fit, but he did keep the year long pause."

Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell voiced optimism Monday, telling the Senate Minerals Committee that he's excited about the intention, the effort, and the interest into diving deep into what the Business Council does.

Read the full story HERE.

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Former Wyoming lawmakers say someone distributing checks on the House floor was "brazen," "shocking," and "unprecedented." Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that one former lawmaker says when it comes to ethics violations, he doesn't recall anything of this magnitude.

"I spoke with Representative, former representative, Ron Micheli, Uinta County Republican, served for 16 years in the legislature, and that was both in the House and the Senate. And when I asked him, Have you ever seen any kind of ethics scandal like this before? And his response was instant. He said, I have never, in all of my time, seen or even heard of something of this magnitude. He said it was unprecedented, and he made some interesting points, because one of the reps who accepted a check on the floor said, 'Well, look, the optics are bad, but it stops at optics.' And Ron Micheli said, 'Look, optics are everything. Sometimes the perception of impropriety is just as bad or worse as actual impropriety, and the damage it does to the institution is hard to understate.' He also made the point responding to Bextel's comments that these were legitimate campaign contributions. And he asked himself, 'Well, I think that is begging some questions.' And he said, 'I think it's actually dodging the point to call them campaign contributions, because none of these members are candidates at the moment, they have not filed for office because that time comes in May. And so he asked, if these are not candidates, then what is the money for?'"

Rebecca Bextel has said publicly that she was distributing lawful campaign checks on behalf of a Teton County donor, and that she did so in person because she knew she'd be in Cheyenne.

Read the full story HERE.

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Speaking of Rebecca Bextel, the Teton County Republican Party is condemning her handing out checks on the House floor. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Wyoming Republican Party distanced itself too, saying she was not representing the party.

"Kat Ruckert, Chair of the Teton County Republican Party, was like, "We joined the Senate in condemning this act, but let's not conflate the issues either.' She was saying, still importan