WYOMING

Goat shoot from helicopter suspended after governor complains

CHEYENNE – Grand Teton National Park officials suspended efforts to shoot mountain goats from a helicopter after criticism from Wyoming’s governor prompted Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to intervene.

Bernhardt told park officials to suspend the shooting late Feb. 21, hours after the effort began and Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, called the helicopter shooting a “farce” in a letter to acting Grand Teton Superintendent Gopaul Noojidail.

Gordon said he looked forward to a “more fruitful conversation” about ways to address the mountain goats more cooperatively with the National Park Service.

The Park Service suspended the flights since the initial effort, which was “effective towards meeting our objective,” park spokeswoman Denise Germann said Feb. 24.

She said she didn’t know how many goats had been killed. She said Gordon’s letter contributed to the decision to stop the flights, but didn’t mention Bernhardt’s role.

The Park Service seeks to eradicate about 100 nonnative mountain goats for the benefit of about 100 native bighorn sheep, saying the goats compete with the sheep for food and habitat and can spread diseases including pneumonia to the native animals.

The Park Service released a plan in January to use a combination of shooters on the ground and on contracted helicopters before goats become too plentiful to be easily eliminated from the craggy mountains.

State officials said they objected from a hunting-ethics perspective: Shooting from helicopters leaves the meat to waste. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, which sets the state’s hunting and fishing rules, passed a resolution in January condemning the plan.

Technicality extinguishes sparkler record attempt

GILLETTE – An attempt in Wyoming to break a world record for the most sparklers lit simultaneously failed on a technicality.

Guinness World Records officials ruled each participant was required to light his or her own sparkler during the attempt in Gillette, The Gillette News Record reports.

The attempt in August was part of the Pyrotechnics Guild International’s 50th annual convention.

The event had an apparatus for lighting multiple sparklers, which was built by students and instructors at Gillette College. Volunteers with torches lit sparklers and distributed them to participants.

More than 1,700 people attended and 2,500 sparklers were lit. The current record is 1,713.

Basic guidelines are listed on the Guinness website, but the specific guidelines were not received prior to the attempt.

Christen Burdette of the Campbell County Convention and Visitors Bureau center said Guinness officials were impressed and complimented the event, but unfortunately the effort was not viable.

“It’s a bummer, but that just means we have to do it again,” Burdette said.

UTAH

Lawmakers get tough on porn, ease up on polygamy

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah lawmakers voted Feb. 18 to put new regulations on pornography and remove some on polygamy in separate proposals moving quickly through the legislature in the deeply conservative state.

Senators voted unanimously to change state law to remove the threat of jail time for consenting adult polygamists, a step that supporters argue will free people in communities that practice plural marriage to report abuses, like children being taken as wives, without fear of prosecution.

A majority of people in Utah belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had an early history of polygamy but has forbidden it for more than a century.

An hour later, House lawmakers approved a proposal to require pornography to carry warning labels about harm to minors. An adult entertainment industry group called the vote a dark day for freedom of expression.

The labeling proposal from Republican state Rep. Brady Brammer would carry a potential penalty of $2,500 per violation.

Republican lawmakers called it a creative solution. The measure would apply to material that appears in Utah in print or online and allow the state and residents to sue producers.

The new measure is narrowly aimed at hardcore obscene material, but the way the law is written could still allow for thousands of lawsuits, said Mike Stabile, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a pornography and adult entertainment trade group.

Utah has publicly declined to prosecute otherwise law-abiding polygamists for years. The new proposal would keep harsher penalties for other crimes sometimes linked to polygamy, including coerced marriage.

IDAHO

House panel OKs bill to ban transgender women athletes

BOISE – Legislation preventing transgender women from participating in sports that align with their gender identity headed to the full House on Feb. 20.

The legislation would apply to all sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. A girls’ or women’s team would not be open to a student who was born male, even if they identify as female.

Bill sponsor Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a Republican, said the legislation is needed because athletes who are genetically male have physical advantages over females and, as a result, can limit female athletic, economic and self-growth opportunities provided through sports.

She said the law would work by requiring athletes to have a physical exam, a genetic test and hormonal test to prove they could compete as a female.

Opponents of the legislation say it unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender girls and women, and will subject female athletes to invasive tests so they can participate in sports.

Kathy Griesmyer of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho called the bill “shocking” and said her organization was prepared to take legal action should the measure become law.

Mistie Tolman of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii said the legislation doesn’t address any real-world concerns, noting transgender athletes have been competing in Idaho for years. She also said the legislation could lead to some girls choosing not to participate in sports because of the prospect of an internal examination of their reproductive organs to determine their biological sex.

Several transgender adults spoke about the sadness they felt as young students being turned away from participating in sports. Several women testified that their experiences competing in sports as young girls would have been adversely altered had they had to compete against transgender females.

NEW MEXICO

State House Republicans say they see path to majority

SANTA FE – New Mexico House Republicans say voter anger over a red-flag gun bill and overspending will help them reclaim the majority in 2020.

House Minority Whip Rod Montoya said Feb. 20 that Republicans will take back the New Mexico House in 2020 and challenge Democrats in key swing seats.

Republicans captured the House in 2014 for the first time since the President Dwight Eisenhower era. Democrats retook the House in 2016.

The New Mexico legislative session ended Feb. 20 after the Democratic controlled-body passed a $7.6 billion with massive spending increases.

Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, said Republicans are working on a strategy to explain to voters the effects over overspending.

If Republicans don’t make inroads they could be redistricted into a permanent minority with redistricting coming up, Harper said.