Day at the Wyoming Legislature: Tuesday, Feb. 1

Developments on the 16th day of the 2011 General Session of the Wyoming Legislature, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011:

HEALTH CARE — The Senate approved a proposal to change the state Constitution to specify that no state or federal government agency could force people to participate in a health care system. The House approved a bill that would declare last year's federal health care reform law unconstitutional and void.

INTERNET IMPERSONATION — The House gave preliminary approval to a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to impersonate another person on the Internet in order to commit fraud.

NUCLEAR ENERGY — The House gave preliminary approval to a bill that calls for creating a task force to study nuclear energy production.

DRILLING RULES — The House gave preliminary approval to a bill to require the state OSHA office to review its rules on drilling for oil and gas wells each year to make sure they remain internally consistent and necessary.

LOTTERY — The House for the second time approved a bill that would allow the sale of multi-state lottery tickets in the state.

TAX COLLECTIONS — The House defeated a proposal to give city and county governments a larger slice of state sales tax collections. The measure would have taken roughly $33 million out of the general fund each year for redistribution to local governments.

WIND POWER — A House committee on Tuesday endorsed legislation that would extend a moratorium on the ability of wind farm developers to forcibly take land so they can stretch power lines to their turbines.

RIGHT TO HUNT — The Senate gave preliminary approval to a resolution that would allow voters to decide whether to enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the state Constitution.

(This report is from the Associated Press.)

Day at the Legislature: Monday, Jan. 31

On Monday, Jan. 31 — the 15th day of the 2011 General Session of the Wyoming Legislature — state lawmakers took the following actions:

HEALTH CARE — The Senate for the second time approved a proposal to change the state Constitution to specify that no state or federal government agency could force people to participate in a health care system. The House for the second time approved a bill that would declare last year's federal health care reform law unconstitutional and void.

LOTTERY — The House gave preliminary approval to a bill to allow the sale of multistate lottery tickets. Thirty-three of 60 House members voted for the bill Monday. It could also allow creation of an in-state lottery, but would not allow the sale of instant scratch tickets.

TEACHERS — A Senate committee endorsed a bill to establish a uniform statewide method to evaluate teacher performance in the classroom. The evaluation would include the academic achievements of their students.

DISCRIMINATION — The Wyoming House shot down a bill the sponsor said would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

PUBLIC INFORMATION — The House sent two bills to the Senate that deal with public records and public meetings. Both bills would set new requirements on government agencies on how they release information to the public.

I-80 TOLLS — A Senate committee voted down a bill that would have allowed the Wyoming Department of Transportation to seek federal authority to collect tolls in Interstate 80.

(Report from the Associated Press)

Police seek suspect in Thursday stabbing

Powell police are seeking a 20-year-old Lovell man in connection with a reported stabbing Thursday afternoon.

Just before 2 p.m., police received a report of a man having been assaulted with a knife in front of Northwest Trading Post, at 410 S. Clark St.

The man was reported to have been involved in a altercation with 20-year-old Raymond Ortiz, said a press release from Police Chief Tim Feathers sent this (Friday) morning.

"Ortiz allegedly brandished a knife, cutting the victim on the hand and then fled the scene," Feathers wrote.

Responding officers searched the area, but were unable to locate Ortiz. Feathers said that as a precautionary measure, several Powell schools were put on lockdown during the search.

Anyone with information regarding Oriz's whereabouts is asked to contact local law enforcement immediately. Powell police can be contacted at 754-2212, anonymously via the 764-8400 Crime Tips Line or by email sent to crimetips@cityofpowell.com.

"This has been referred to the Park County Attorney for charges to be filed and application is being made for a warrant for Ortiz’s arrest," Feathers wrote.

Ortiz is described as being 5’9” tall, 170 lbs with brown hair and brown eyes. His photo is below.The man allegedly cut in the altercation was treated and released from Powell Valley Hospital.

We'll have more on the incident in Tuesday's Tribune, and post updates here as needed.

*UPDATE* Tribune site disrupted by hacking

There's a bad reason why this week's Powell Tribune stories are not up on powelltribune.com -- our site was apparently hacked over the weekend.

We're working to fix the problem.

We had been having trouble with our site since Monday, but it wasn't until today that we learned the problem wasn't just a technical glitch.

As a Google search for "Powell Tribune viagra" reveals, some spam pages were added to our site to promote websites hawking certain types of pharmaceuticals. We apologize to anyone who has clicked through to one of these sites while following what they thought was a powelltribune.com link.

There's no reason to think the hacking had anything to do with any of our news content or that there was any particular reason for the timing. It appears the Tribune's site was vulnerable, and someone just happened to take advantage of that vulnerability. It happens relatively often on the Internet.

We've seen no evidence that any of the stories currently on our site have been manipulated in any way to spread misinformation. You can feel free to continue browsing old stories on powelltribune.com as the added web pages promoting the pharmaceuticals are not accessible by clicking around on the site; that's partially why it took us so long to figure out we'd been hacked.

The Tribune blog you're currently reading is hosted on completely different servers with a wholly separate interface and is not affected. Similarly, folks with an electronic subscription to the Tribune can continue to log in and read our latest issues without interruption. We're also confident that our print edition currently on newsstands remains 100 percent hack-proof.

We are currently working to relaunch the Tribune website, but do not have a timeline as to when things will be back to normal.

We're sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues. We'll keep you posted.

College trio releases free EP

There is no particularly profound story as to how The Orienteer came to be known as The Orienteer.

The recently-formed three-member band of Northwest College music students had been struggling to come up with a moniker for themselves, but they were about to record a video and a reporter from the Northwest Trail was coming to do an interview.

The name The Orienteer "ended up sort of being the one we agreed on," said Wes Hogg, who plays guitar and sings for the trio.

Collin Ingram (on stand-up bass) Amos Helvey (playing the mandolin and sharing vocal duties) fill out the band's roster.

The group recently released a three-song EP, titled "The Dichotomy of Parting," and it can be downloaded for free here.

Hogg said putting out a free EP seemed to be "the fastest way to get our name out there and lets people know what we're about."

If the names already sound familiar, there's a reason for that - the three are also members of Home Brewed, a six-member alt country band in Park County.

Ingram, Helvey and Hogg (of Cody, Cody and Meeteetse, respectively) all ended up at Northwest College this fall and found themselves without the time and money to get together and practice with their fellow Home Brewed members, Hogg said.

So they started a new group.

"The Orienteer came about as a result of us still playing together and coming up with new ideas that weren't necessarily appropriate for Home Brewed's style," said Hogg.

The Orienteer describes its music as "progressive acoustic." I asked Hogg to explain what exactly that means.

"I would consider progressive acoustic any kind of acoustic music that doesn’t fall into any typical acoustic categories like bluegrass or folk," he said. "Despite our instrumentation, our songwriting is much more influenced by early emo and post rock bands like American Football, Good Luck, and Thrice than it is by Lester Flatt or Carter Stanley."

This video of the band performing, filmed by Orienteer-friend Levi Wells, probably explains it best:

The EP and above video were recorded in Northwest College's recently-finished studio, which Hogg dubbed "amazing." He rated it higher than a professional studio in Arizona, where Home Brewed recorded this summer.

"The studio at NWC offered much better tools for creating a quality product," Hogg said.

The Orienteer isn't meant to replace Home Brewed, but while that band is on hiatus, The Orienteer members are hoping to spread their music as far as possible.

Hogg said the group hopes to tour next summer and "play as many folk and bluegrass festivals as will have us."

Cold cloaks Powell, but warmer temps en route

Car engines groaned reluctantly to life in this morning’s below-zero temperatures.

According to Terry Foley’s PowellWeather.net, at 7:19 a.m. Wednesday, it was 10.5 degrees below zero in Powell with a wind chill of 28.3 below.

Temperatures didn’t improve much during the day. It was 2 degrees below zero with a wind chill bouncing between 7 and 14 degrees below zero at around 10:30 a.m. today as Jack Frost toyed with the wind.

Cody was hit harder. Weather Underground said Cody’s low temperature hit a record at 16 below zero early Wednesday morning. The previous record was 15 below zero on Nov. 24, 1993.

The frigid temperatures were due to an Arctic cold front that dropped into Wyoming from the north, said Andy McNeel, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Riverton.

On Thursday, the high is expected to reach 13 degrees under mostly-sunny skies, with a low of 1 degree. Black Friday is forecast as bright with mostly sunny skies and a high of 24 and a low of 13 degrees under partly cloudy skies, according to the National Weather Service.

“We do have a gradual warming trend in place,” McNeel said. “Saturday, we’re talking close to 30 degrees.”

A winter storm warning was issued in Yellowstone National Park and northwest Wyoming Wednesday, but McNeel said he was not expecting road conditions to worsen over Thanksgiving.

People driving Thanksgiving weekend should check highway conditions before embarking and use care in negotiating Wyoming’s snowy roads.

“It’s always a good practice to give WYDOT (Wyoming Department of Transportation) a call,” McNeel said, referring to the department’s road and travel information. Call 1-888-WYO-ROAD (1-888-996-7623), or in Wyoming, simply dial 511.

Road condition information also is available online at www.wyoroad.info.

“It only takes a few minutes and could save you a lot of trouble,” McNeel said.

AAA advises these winter travel tips:

• Slow down and allow extra time to reach your destination.
• Watch for ice on bridges, even when the rest of the road appears dry.
• Look ahead. Actions of other drivers can alert you to potential trouble and afford you extra seconds to react.
• Four-wheel drive can get a vehicle off the start line faster, but it doesn’t stop any sooner than a two-wheel drive.

McNeel advised staying off the highways if icy roads are too daunting for the driver.

“If you’re in doubt,” he said, “it’s always best to not chance it.”

Tribune Staff Writer Gib Mathers wrote this article.

Audio: A grizzly meal in Yellowstone

“Grrrrrrowl ...”

Three grizzly bears quarrel over an elk kill conveniently provided by seven wolf members of the Molly Pack near Indian Pond in the Mary Bay area of Yellowstone National Park.

Though the scene was too dark to get good visuals, James Yule of Worland got outstanding audio of the Oct. 14 affair and graciously let the Tribune post it here. The following 1:20 clip represents about six minutes of audio, clipped to remove dead space.

While the timeline has been condensed, “the audio's all pure,” Yule told the Tribune. If the clip doesn't appear in a player below, you can download it here.

Yellowstone sounds - time: 1:20

“They’re ripping and tearing,” said Neale Blank, a local photographer who witnessed the grizzly spectacle while his friend Yule recorded it.

Low-throated moaning as the bears' plaintive-sounding wails waft the dawn air.

The day before, the wolves brought down a cow and calf elk, but in their jubilation, they announced to the animal world their success.

“When a pack makes a kill,” Blank said, “they celebrate.”

They bark, howl and cavort, he said.

Grizzlies, attuned to the wolves’ merrymaking, arrived pronto.

The sounds morph from moans to growls as the bears bicker over choice cuts.

Then, a gaggle of geese honk, as though their echoing expressions are background music for nature’s concert.

While the audio played at the Tribune on Thursday, Blank rewound the scene in his head.

“The sounds of nature; you can always see in your mind,” Blank said. “You’ll never forget it.”

You can see some of James Yule's nifty wildlife videography on his YouTube channel.