WYOMING05

Cheyenne Frontier Days canceled for 1st time in 124 years

CHEYENNE – Cheyenne Frontier Days was canceled May 27 because of the coronavirus pandemic, marking the first time the event billed as the world’s largest outdoor rodeo has been called off in its 124-year history.

Event organizers decided the risk of spreading the virus was too great for the more than 140,000 people who visit the city for Frontier Days over the last two weeks in July, Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr told The Associated Press.

Frontier Days carried on through both world wars and the Great Depression, when tough finances prompted it to become a mostly volunteer-run event.

To this day, a small army of local volunteers runs the Western heritage festival of rodeo, music concerts, carnival rides, parades and downtown pancake breakfasts that feed thousands of people at a time.

Bars all over Cheyenne are typically standing-room-only during Frontier Days as people try line dancing and mechanical bull-riding.

Known as the “Daddy of ’em all,” the event features a rodeo that’s a big draw for top rodeo athletes. A Frontier Days belt buckle is among the sport’s most coveted prizes and the event’s payouts of more $1 million in payouts are lucrative in the rodeo circuit.

Officials tried to brainstorm for solutions to keep the storied event on track. They couldn’t uncover one in a safe manner.

“One of the worst things we could do would be to cause our state to go backward in the recovery process,” Frontier Days President and CEO Tom Hirsig said in a news conference with Gov. Mark Gordon.

Frontier Days pumps millions of dollars into the Cheyenne-area economy and some shops get by largely on those two weeks out of the year when their business booms.

Tourism is Wyoming’s second-biggest industry after coal mining and other fossil-fuel extraction. But recent surges of the virus in the cities of Casper and Laramie have worried health officials that some residents may not be taking social-distancing seriously.

About 14,000 showed up for the final round of Cheyenne Frontier Days on the last day of the rodeo in 2019.

Outdoor gatherings up to 250 people now allowed

CHEYENNE – Starting June 1, people were allowed to start gathering outdoors in groups up to 250 people in Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon announced at his May 27 news conference.

This new ease in restrictions applies to outdoor gatherings only, according to the newest order. The gatherings still must follow social distancing guidelines and have increased sanitation. Sporting events, concerts and other events will be allowed to have up to 250 spectators in attendance, not including event participants.

Event organizers of the outdoor events must screen staff for COVID-19 symptoms and make sure personal protective equipment is available, according to the order. If the event is planning to serve food, it must follow the same requirements for restaurants amid COVID-19.

Indoor gatherings, not including religious gatherings or other exemptions, won’t be permitted to have groups of more than 25 people, according to the order.

For the outdoor events, no more than six people, unless they’re from the same household, are allowed to be in close proximity to each other, according to the order. Otherwise, people must stay at least six feet apart from one another, and close contact between people of separate households is prohibited.

The facility must be cleaned thoroughly before and after the event, according to the order.

If people cannot maintain a distance of six feet apart, then they’re required to wear face coverings, according to the order. The event must also encourage contactless payment, such as card payments, and have signs reminding event attendees not to come if they have COVID-19 symptoms.

IDAHO

US Supreme Court won’t put transgender inmate surgery on hold

BOISE – The U.S. Supreme Court won’t put an Idaho transgender inmate’s gender confirmation surgery on hold while a lawsuit over the procedure moves forward.

The order on May 18 means Adree Edmo can continue getting pre-surgical treatments and potentially even gender confirmation surgery this year while Idaho officials wait to hear if the high court will consider their appeal.

Edmo has been housed in a men’s prison facility since she first began serving time on a charge of sexually abusing a child younger than 16 in 2012. She’s scheduled for release in July of 2021.

She sued the state three years ago, contending that prison officials’ refusal to provide her with gender confirmation surgery causes her severe distress because she has gender dysphoria.

Attorneys for the Idaho Department of Correction and private prison healthcare company Corizon have agreed that Edmo’s condition has caused her distress. But they contend her prison doctors have determined the surgery isn’t medically necessary and would do more harm than good because it could exacerbate her other mental health conditions.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has also said Edmo shouldn’t have access to taxpayer-funded surgical procedures that other Idahoans can’t get covered through their own insurance.

Edmo has so far prevailed at both the federal district and appellate courts.

KANSAS

Soldier stopped active shooter on Leavenworth bridge, police say

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Fort Leavenworth soldier was seriously injured May 28 in a shooting on Centennial Bridge in Leavenworth, Kan., and a suspect was taken into custody after another soldier intervened, according to the police chief.

Leavenworth police had been called to investigate a report of a person firing shots on the bridge. It’s unclear what led to the suspect seemingly firing shots at random on the bridge, Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens told reporters, but one person was struck – an active-duty soldier who appeared to be an unintended target.

Kitchens said another soldier from Fort Leavenworth was waiting in traffic when he witnessed the shooting. The soldier intervened, he said, “by striking the shooter with his vehicle.”

Kitchens said the soldier’s actions brought an end to the shooting, “likely saving countless lives.”

The soldier who was shot was taken to a hospital, and was in serious but stable condition Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect was also taken to a hospital with serious injuries from the crash.

The investigation continued as Leavenworth detectives were processing the scene and interviewing witnesses. Kitchens said police have not yet determined why the suspect began firing shots on the bridge, but police were looking into the person’s history within the community.

NEW MEXICO

Snake interrupts New Mexico elementary school Zoom lesson

LAS CRUCES – A New Mexico elementary school teacher on Zoom with students had a lesson interrupted thanks to an uninvited guest: a bullsnake.

The desert animal surprised Sunrise Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Annette Otero Nuñez during a class May 12 via Zoom from her backyard in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports.

The students – at home on their computers or mobile devices – saw Nuñez getting rattled as the snake slithered toward their teacher.

Nuñez called Las Cruces Animal Control and an officer responded while class was still in session.

Animal control officer Juan Valles captured the animal and then gave students a quick lesson on identifying desert snakes and snake safety.

“I think if we educate people and just teach them how to properly go about it, that it’s not a big deal and they’re not something to be scared of,” Valles said.

The bullsnake, prevalent in the American Southwest, is not venomous.