Wyoming News Briefs JULY 30

Cody schools spend $10K to train for concealed weapons

CODY (WNE) — The Cody School District spent just under $10,000 in the first full year of the CKA program that vets and trains certain staff who apply to carry concealed weapons in school buildings.

No information on the number of armed staff or where they are located is made public regarding the policy as part of an effort to safeguard teachers and schools.

The fiscal year 2018-19 budget concluded at the end of June and included a line for CKA program expenses at $9,838.50. The line in the budget was asked for by trustees, who otherwise required strict anonymity for the program.

There are a few different costs related to the program, one of the biggest being training. Last summer trustees approved Distributed Security and FASTER Colorado as the two companies to use depending on the number of applicants they had to train at any given time.

In its initial proposal, Distributed Security said it would cost $2,295 per attendee for 40 hours of training. FASTER Colorado came in slightly less per attendee, however if less than 10 teachers took the 24-hour training the company recommends sending them to either Colorado or Ohio for training, which would add transportation, lodging and food to the district’s cost.

Other variables like possible discounts for training could alter total costs.

The policy and regulations allow employees of the district to carry a concealable firearm on school property if they pass background checks, a psychological suitability exam and 24 hours of initial training, among other steps.

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Trustees pick new Health Sciences dean

LARAMIE (WNE) — After a two-year search for a new dean for the College of Health Sciences, the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees decided to stick with David Jones.

Jones, a professor in communication disorders, served as interim dean since Joseph Steiner took retirement incentives in 2017 to leave his post amid budget cuts at UW.

Jones served as UW’s vice president for academic affairs from 2014-2016. A member of the UW faculty since 2001, he was the associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Health Sciences from 2007-2013.

Jones taught at the University of Iowa and Indiana University Medical Center at Indianapolis before joining the faculty at UW.

Since Steiner left the university, multiple searches for outside candidates failed to bring in a replacement. And meanwhile, Jones has steered the college through some major initiatives, like a partial privatization of UW’s Family Medicine Residency Clinics — work that was cooperatively done with a legislative task force.

While interim deans sometimes defer tackling big issues, Jones said he’d taken a different approach in the last two years.

“I can understand that’s sometimes the case for an interim, but I tried not to take that approach,” he said. “When you get into the second year as interim, you have to do more than just keep the ship afloat. You have to look at some of the big issues.”

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Woman accused of stealing same car twice

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 21-year-old woman apparently likes red Ford Explorers: She is accused of stealing the same one twice in less than 24 hours.

A 35-year-old woman reported that her 1994 red Ford Explorer was missing from the Walmart parking lot at about 1 a.m. Sunday evening after she parked near the entrance of the Marketside door with the keys in it, Police Lt. Brent Wasson said. She was in the store for about 20 minutes.

Officers were then able to locate the vehicle at 1001 Douglas Highway parked under a tree with the hazard lights on. The vehicle keys, which were on a blue lanyard, were missing. Officers couldn't find them in the area.

The vehicle was then reported stolen again from 1001 Douglas Highway, Wasson said. The woman who owned the vehicle went to recover it and discovered it was gone. The Ford was then entered into the national crime information computer.

A few hours later, the vehicle was stopped by Sundance police on Interstate 90 for erratic driving and Shell was arrested.

Candice Shell, 21, was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft of a 1994 red Ford Explorer late Sunday evening.

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Two bears killed in Yellowstone

POWELL (WNE) — Staff in Yellowstone National Park have had busy summer responding to reports of bears in campgrounds, backcountry campsites and along roads.

In a Thursday news release, park officials revealed three recent incidents involving black bears that became habituated to human food. That included a June incident where a backcountry camper was bitten.

Two of the bears have been killed by park wildlife managers; they’ve been trying to capture the third.

In June’s incident, a woman had been camping at a backcountry site along Little Cottonwood Creek, in the northern park of the park. That’s when a black bear bit into her tent and — although the tent and her thick sleeping bag kept the bear’s teeth from breaking her skin — bruised her thigh.

Rangers set up a decoy tent at the campsite to determine if the bear would continue the behavior. While rangers were there, the bear returned and aggressively tore up the decoy tent, Yellowstone officials say. The bear was killed on-site on June 11.

Then in early July, at a backcountry campsite along the Lamar River Trail, campers left food unattended while packing up their gear. That allowed a black bear to eat approximately 10 pounds of human food. Campers who visited the same campsite the following evening had numerous encounters with the same bear. Their attempts to haze the bear away failed. Rangers moved multiple campers from the area and the bear was killed on July 10.

Finally, since July 18, a black bear has caused property damage to tents and vehicles in a search for human food at the front-country Indian Creek Campground.

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Wyoming this Weekend, Aug. 2-4

By The Wyoming News Exchange

Music on the mountain highlights this weekend’s activities as Wyoming enters the final month of summer.

The annual Beartrap Summer Festival, featuring two days of musical performances on Casper Mountain, will be held Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to music, vendors will offer food and other goods for sale through the weekend.

Other activities scheduled for the weekend include:

The final weekend of the Fremont County Fair and Professional Rodeo, which runs through Saturday in Riverton:

The “Car Show, Cruise and Sock Hop” at Riverton’s Wind River Hotel and Casino on Friday and Saturday;

The Sweetwater County Fair, also known as “Wyoming’s Big Show,” Friday and Saturday in Rock Springs;

The annual Red Desert Audubon Art Show in Lander Friday through Saturday;

A performance by “10 Cent Stranger” in Ten Sleep on Friday;

The Cody Air Fair on Saturday;

The Bighorn Rendezvous at Big Horn’s Brinton Museum on Saturday;

The “Paint the Town Red” celebration at South Pass City on Saturday, and

Spur Outfitters Sporting Clays in Encampment on Sunday.

For more information on these and other events, please visit the Wyoming Tourism Division’s website at TravelWyoming.com.