Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 18th. I'm Mac Watson.

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The chair of the Wyoming legislative committee investigating the check-passing controversy told his colleagues Tuesday the committee wants to pause its work. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that's because the local sheriff's office has undertaken its own investigation.

"One day after the house investigative committee into chat gave us form on Saturday, the sheriff was like, now I'm investigating this in case there's criminal something that's criminally actionable, criminally chargeable, and whenever a law enforcement agency opens an investigation, kind of the public's probe into whatever that thing is, freezes. You don't get public records access. You don't get to have these controversies out in public. The Agency keeps the investigation pretty tight until a prosecutor decides to do something with it, or decides why she's not going to do something with it…It's a pause. Because once you have a live criminal investigation, all of a sudden, boom, you've got like, Fifth Amendment concerns and due process concerns. So what Representative Washut, who has the experience in this area, is saying is we don't want to violate someone's rights that they're supposed to retain during a criminal investigation."

This investigation is in response to Rebecca Bextel, the state committee woman for the Teton County GOP who was also registered to attend the legislative session as "media," handed out checks Feb. 9 after adjournment, on the state House of Representatives floor.

Read the full story HERE.

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Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday banned campaign contributions on state property. So did the Senate, in areas it controls, in response to the "CheckGate" controversy. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor is taking action after an incident that happened last week.

"The Capitol has spaces used by the three different branches of government, right? There's a Supreme Court chamber even that the justices use from the judicial branch, there's a governor's chamber and other executive branch offices, and there's an entire second and third floor wing each for the Senate and the State House of Representatives. So if the governor's going to say, "Oh, you can't do campaign contributions in the Capitol,' he narrowed that to the part that belongs to the Executive Branch, but the Senate passed a similar rule also Tuesday, saying, 'We're not doing this. We're not doing this in places that the Senate controls.' The House as of Tuesday, had not passed a rule, but it has been dealing with this controversy in other ways."

Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday signed an executive order banning the solicitation, delivery, or acceptance of campaign contributions on property where state business is conducted – including the areas of the state Capitol managed by the executive branch.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Senate voted Tuesday to restore the governor's $11 billion budget, but the House voted against it. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that things got heated when Rep. Mike Yin said budget-planners were stabbing agencies they disliked.

"Representative Yin actually got out the knife hands and was gesturing during this conversation, basically saying 'We're stabbing certain agencies. We're gouging things in broad strokes' and Representativ