Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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TORRINGTON - A recent ad campaign by fast food giant Burger King proved to be the last straw for a group of Goshen County ranchers. Burger King released the Impossible Whopper in August 2019, a controversial to some product which features a meat-free patty made mostly of soy instead of beef. The latest ad campaign features BK's plan to introduce lemongrass to cows' diets to reduce methane emissions. In it, teen pop-country singer Mason Ramsey sings about how the new BK diet reduces emissions by... Full story
TORRINGTON — Greg Knudsen, disgraced and disbarred attorney and former Torrington municipal judge, could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted of a slew of felony sexual assault charges. An investigation by the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation looked into incidents dating back to 2012, leading to three counts of felony sexual assault, each one carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. He is also charged with felony burglary, which carries a 10-year maximum, five misdemeanor counts of stalking, which carry s... Full story
TORRINGTON – The Goshen Irrigation District and the Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation District have decided on the best method for permanently fixing a tunnel that collapsed along the Fort Laramie Canal in July. According to a press release issued by the GID, the permanent fix for the tunnel will build on the work completed this summer by SAK Construction, which was done as a temporary solution to repair tunnel No. 2 along the canal. SAK workers installed heavy-duty steel ribbing inside the 100-year-old structure and reinforced the walls and c... Full story
TORRINGTON – Sometime between Wednesday morning and Thursday of last week, the water came back. The Fort Laramie Irrigation Canal had set empty since July. The ditches were bone dry during the heat of the summer – but slowly, the water crept back where it belongs. That’s because the Goshen Irrigation District, SAK Construction and dozens of others in the community worked together on a temporary fix for a tunnel that collapsed on July 17. The collapse caused the water to back up, it caused the canal to breach and it brought a sudden halt to ir... Full story
TORRINGTON – After over a month of nothing but bad news concerning the collapse of a tunnel along the Fort Laramie Irrigation Canal, farmers affected by the collapse can breathe a little easier. The United States Department of Agriculture announced Friday that crop insurance will cover the loss of crops due to the disaster. The collapse was projected to an impact of nearly $90 million in Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle. The decision comes after United States senators and representatives from Wyoming and Nebraska penned a letter on Aug. 22 t... Full story
TORRINGTON — The Goshen Irrigation District announced Monday afternoon that contractors from SAK Construction and GID employees “have succeeded repairing and fixing the collapsed tunnel.” Manager Rob Posten declared tunnel crews have seen the “light at the end of the tunnel.” The tunnel collapsed on July 17. Dirt from the collapse caused water to back up and eventually breach the canal. There has been no water in the canal since the collapse. According to the release, SAK construction completed the excavation of the tunnel and finished... Full story
TORRINGTON – A pair of stakeholder meetings held by the Goshen Irrigation District in Wyoming and the Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation District in Nebraska helped shed some light on some of the lingering questions local producers may have concerning the collapse of an irrigation tunnel along the Fort Laramie Canal on July 17, but there is still a lot of questions about the situation that haven’t been answered – and most of those questions concern money. Chief among those is if the loss of crops along the ditch will be covered by crop insur... Full story
TORRINGTON — Governor Mark Gordon declared a State of Emergency in Goshen County earlier this week due to the collapse of an irrigation tunnel in a remote area along the Fort Laramie-Gering canal that has threatened nearly 100,000 acres of farmland, and it looks like relief is still weeks – and millions of dollars – away. Both the Goshen Irrigation District and Gering-Fort Laramie District held stakeholder meetings on Wednesday. At the GID meeting, which was held at Eastern Wyoming College, GID chairman Bobby Coxbill told the assembly of sever... Full story
FORT LARAMIE – A portion of a tunnel on the Gering-Fort Laramie irrigation canal has caused water to back up and breach the canal a mile upstream from the collapse and will essentially bring irrigation along the canal to a halt until it is repaired. More than 104,000 acres of farmland in Wyoming and Nebraska could be affected by the collapse and the ensuing lack of irrigation water. According to Division 1 water superintendent Brian Pugsley, the tunnel collapsed sometime in the early morning hours of July 17. “All we know right now is that som... Full story
TORRINGTON – An affidavit filed in Eighth Judicial Circuit Court by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent Michael Carlson alleges that Former Goshen County District Court Clerk Kathi Rickard began embezzling money from the court’s two checking accounts almost as soon as she took office in July 2014. Rickard took over for Bonnie Petsch in July 2014, and was elected in 2014 and 2018. The affidavit shows that the discrepancies in the office’s accounts started small, at a few hundred dollars in 2014, but quickly escalated to the point th... Full story