The Star Valley Independent is a member of the Wyoming News Exchange. These stories come courtesy of the WNE.
Man accused of harassing bison arrested
CASPER (WNE) — Authorities have arrested a man they say was caught on tape harassing a bison in Yellowstone National Park.
A judge revoked the bond of Raymond Reinke, 55, of Pendleton, Oregon, upon the request of a prosecutor who viewed a viral video of a man confronting a bison and running away. The man in the video, authorities say, is Reinke.
In the video, captured by Lindsey Jones of Elko, Nevada, a man steps in front of the bison amid cars that had stopped to apparently let the animal pass. The bison lowers its head and takes steps toward him. The man runs away before repeating the process again.
Reinke was cited for the incident before the video went viral.
Before the revocation, Reinke was free on bond following a July 28 drunk and disorderly conduct arrest. He told rangers he planned to visit Glacier National Park.
After the judge signed off on Reinke’s probation revocation, rangers in the park began looking for his car.
When rangers responded to the Many Glacier Hotel dining room for a disturbance, they found Reinke arguing with another guest and creating a disturbance, the National Park Service said.
He was also cited for failing to wear a seat belt on Monday.
Reinke was booked into Yellowstone jail on Friday and expected to appear in court the same day.
“We appreciate the collaboration of our fellow rangers in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks on this arrest,” Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said in a news release. “Harassing wildlife is illegal in any national park.”
Reinke’s court-appointed lawyer was not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.
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Anti-hate event draws around 100 to Laramie park
LARAMIE (WNE) — Washington Park in Laramie is a popular spot on weekend mornings for walking, letting children and dogs play or laying in the grass to read. But on Saturday, the band shell on the parks southwest edge was also the venue of an event where attendees made it clear they would not tolerate the hanging of the Nazi Germany flag over the U.S. flag.
Many in the Laramie community and beyond were gravely concerned when news came out earlier in the week when a yet-to-be identified perpetrator or perpetrators ran a Nazi flag up the band shell’s flagpole, leaving the U.S. flag that typically flies there on the ground nearby. The Boomerang broke the story that gained international attention through major news networks.
A spokeswoman for the Laramie Police Department told the Boomerang on Friday the investigation into the matter was ongoing but had no new developments.
In response, locals organized a “unity gathering” on Saturday morning at the site the incident to oppose the gesture.
Among the roughly 100 people that came out were Bonnie Swiatek and her dog Spud. Swiatek lives in Roger Canyon and said she hadn’t heard about what happened until Saturday morning when listening to Wyoming Public Radio.
“I was very upset about it,” Swiatek said.
In learning about the event taking place Saturday to oppose the ideals associated with Nazi Germany and neo-Nazis, Swiatek said she was compelled to make the 8-mile trip from her ranch in Roger Canyon to show her support.
“I decided to come and support and let people know we’re a community of inclusion, not hatred,” she said.
Speakers and musicians took the stage to share their feelings about what took place and emphasize their commitment to values they believe the Laramie community embodies.
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Campbell County joins PILT lawsuit
GILLETTE (WNE) — Campbell County will join a class-action lawsuit against the federal government that alleges underfunding of the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The commissioners will officially join the lawsuit Tuesday at their regular meeting when they approve their consent agenda.
PILT are federal payments made to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands in their boundaries. In fiscal year 2018, Campbell County received $773,973 in PILT.
In June 2017, Kane County, Utah, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The class action alleges the federal government has underpaid counties’ PILT for fiscal years 2015-2017. Since then, hundreds of counties have joined the lawsuit.
Campbell County Deputy Attorney Carol Seeger said if the suit is successful, the county stands to get about $25,000 in PILT.
“This is an opportunity to get $25,000 you may not have gotten,” said County Administrative Director Robert Palmer.
With a class action lawsuit, the settlement already has been agreed upon, Seeger said, and every participating county “is going to be subject to whatever they feel your percentage would’ve been.”
While the county won’t have a seat at the table, it won’t cost the commissioners to participate.
“Is there any risk to being a part of this at all?” asked Commissioner Clark Kissack.
“Unless you want to initiate a lawsuit yourself, there’s no problem with joining,” Seeger said.
“Which we wouldn’t do for $25,000,” said Commission Chairman Mark Christensen. “It’d cost us more than we’d get.”
Campbell County joins 11 other Wyoming counties, including Sheridan, Converse and Crook counties, in the lawsuit.
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Accidental alert sends rescuers into backcountry
JACKSON (WNE) — Rescuers hiked 14 miles in and out of Alaska Basin around 4 a.m. Friday to find a woman who didn’t realize she had accidentally activated her emergency device.
Teton County Search and Rescue was alerted after the 51-year-old Teton Valley, Idaho, woman’s inReach device sent out an alert for help.
Air Idaho flew over the location late Thursday night and saw lights flashing that they took for a distress signal, Teton County Undersheriff Matt Carr said.
“Because of the smoke and terrain they were unable to land,” Carr said. “But they saw lights so we sent a team in.”
The woman who owns the device was not answering on her Delorme inReach Explorer, and officers were unable to get in touch with the woman’s emergency contacts who were registered to her device.
“We made contact with her, and she had the beacon in her sleeping bag and had accidentally activated it,” Carr said.
The woman had no idea she had activated her device or had received messages back inquiring about her emergency.
A separate group nearby had an LED fence around their llamas, which is what Air Idaho mistook for a distress signal from above through the smoke.
Carr said the woman’s device was an older model.
“As a search and rescue community, we need to demand a little bit more out of these device systems,” Carr said. “Once you activate your device maybe a beep should alarm so you know you’ve put a request out.”
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Arch weathers wet spring
GILLETTE (WNE) — While both Peabody Energy and Cloud Peak Energy Corp. reported an unusually wet spring led to reduced production of Powder River Basin thermal coal for the second quarter of 2018, Arch Coal Inc. says it weathered the storms much better.
The company exceeded sales volume expectations for PRB coal in the second quarter, selling 18.8 million tons of coal, said Paul A. Lang, Arch’s chief operating officer during an earnings call this past week.
That’s down from the 19.7 million tons sold in the first quarter, but more than the 18.1 million tons sold in the second quarter of 2017, Arch reports.
Lang attributes maintaining production in the basin to “addressing and overcoming the operating challenges from the first quarter.”
By holding its own, Arch posted a net income of $43.3 million for the quarter, the fourth straight profitable quarter for the company, according to its earnings report.
Arch also saw a slight increase in its cash margin realized per ton of coal sold, from $1.38 per ton in the first quarter fo 2018 to $1.40.
“Sales volumes during the second quarter were better than projected due to (the) Black Thunder (mine’s) ability to increase loadings during periods of heavy rain that appear to have constrained shipments at several mines in the basin,” the company reports.
“Additionally, the early arrival of summer temperatures boosted demand and worked to somewhat offset the normal shoulder season shipment lull,” the report says. “Average sales per ton declined less than 1 percent, or $0.09 per ton, over the same period.
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Casper College enrollment declines
CASPER (WNE) — Casper College’s enrollment continues to fall, mirroring a recent trend across most of the state’s community colleges, though officials here hope to wind up even by the end of the fall semester.
The school is down roughly 83 students, according to Linda Toohey, the school’s associate vice president for student services. That follows drops of more than 40 students — combined full and part-timers — in each of the past two years, according to state data.
Toohey said there had been some technological problems and that some students will turn up late; by December, she said, the college hopes to be near fl at enrollment compared to last fall.
College spokesman Chris Lorenzen said the school had budgeted for its current fiscal year based on that hope becoming reality: that enrollment would end up flat.
If there’s any solace, it’s that most of the state’s other seven community colleges are also experiencing drops. While the schools’ fall 2018 data is not yet available on the state Community College Commission’s website, five of the six other institutions lost students — full and part-time — between fall 2015 and fall 2017. Only Western Wyoming Community College saw an increase, of 97 students, over those years.
Laramie County Community College, by enrollment the largest community college in the state, gained students between fall 2016 and 2017, as did the Northern Community College District, which has Sheridan and Gillette campuses.
The struggles of the community colleges come as the University of Wyoming is expecting another strong year for enrollment. While the state’s sole four-year institution had a heavy drop heading into fall 2016, the school has had near-record breaking freshman classes last year and heading into fall 2018.
