Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, March 2nd. I'm Mac Watson.

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Some Wyoming parents are calling for schools to dump LifeTouch photos after its parent company has an alleged link to notorious sex-trafficker Jeffery Epstein. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports one parent in Natrona County says the company shouldn't be anywhere near his kid's school.

"One of them brought it before the school board. They say, you know, get rid of this company. Let's use local photographers and put the local photographers through a full scale background check before we even let them into the school. It's become a big enough deal that Life Touch took the time to email at least one of our superintendents that I know of. They took the time to send a message directly to him, saying, 'Please don't get caught up in this controversy.'"

In a statement emailed to Cowboy State Daily, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder said state school districts should "demand full transparency and ensure airtight privacy safeguards are in place" when it comes to children's school photos.

Read the full story HERE.

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There was no dealing with the so-called "CheckGate" controversy at Saturday's state GOP Central Committee meeting. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that instead, party leaders blamed the media for its coverage and redirected attention on Gov. Mark Gordon's campaign spending.

"One surprise came from Vice Chairman Ferguson. He wanted to talk about all the spending that Governor Gordon had directed. He brought up Gordon's essentially war chest that he had raised and distributed to lawmakers, and suggested, look how big this number is. It's something like $360,000. Why isn't the media looking into that? I spoke directly to the governor's office on Saturday, and they said, 'This is old news. They're trying to redirect attention. There's really nothing here.'"

Despite the poor optics, Vice Chair Bob Ferguson maintained the donations were legal and that the real story was the governor's far larger financial fingerprints on Wyoming elections.

Read the full story HERE.

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It's been four years since Kenyan nursing student Irene Gakwa vanished from Gillette in February 2022, and her family fears she's dead. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that her ex-boyfriend, now out of prison for stealing her bank card, hasn't been charged but remains a person of interest, police say.

"They found out that Nathan Heightman had actually taken Irene's money. He drained her bank account and maxed out her credit card in the amount of about $7,000. Nathan is currently still on parole. He has not been cleared as a person of interest because Irene's Missing Person case is still ongoing, so police are still investigating what happened to Irene, and until they clear that, until they find the answers, Nathan remains a person of interest in that investigation."

In the years since her disappearance, authorities say there have been no confirmed sightings of Gakwa nor has she reached out to family or friends or left any digital footprint online.

Read the full story HERE.

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Teton County has again b