SNOWBOARDER SLAYING UPDATE!

BREAKING...FOX to AIR UPDATE ON BEN BRADLEY MURDER MYSTERY!

Filed 4:59 p.m. MST

(CT) - Sources tell The Cowboy Times that Tommy Bowman, a "Person of Interest" interviewed by Rock Springs Police, Sweetwater County sheriff's investigators and the FBI in connection with snowboarder Ben Bradley's homicide, will appear tonight on FOX's 'On the Record' with Greta Van Susteren...8-8:30pm MST (check your local TV listings).
Photo Captions & Credits: (R) "Ben Bradley & friends at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort - Winter 2005-06" courtsey of Randy Shacket; (L) "Bradley murder suspect Tommy Bowman who reaffirmed his innocence this week on TV," courtsey of FOX News

(Click here & Read an exclusive interview with Ben Bradley homicide suspect Tommy Bowman, courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

(Watch exclusive interview via FOX's 'On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren', scroll down for "Vital Clue" video clip)

'Energy: Invest now, or we all pay,' says think tank

BREAKING...GLOBAL ENERGY NEWS!
By THE COUNCIL on FOREIGN RELATIONS & The NYT

JAD MOUAWAD: Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations. My name is Jad Mouawad. I’m with The New York Times.

Before we begin, I was asked to remind everyone to please turn off your cell phones, and also this meeting will be an on-the-record meeting.

With us today is Dr. Fatih Birol, who’s the chief economist at the International Energy Agency and the author of IEA’s yearly World Energy Outlook.

This year the publication makes a few sobering points. Basically, it shows that without a radical change in policy, energy consumption is set to soar in the next three decades. Paradoxically, the IEA warns that there’s no assurance that the massive investments needed to meet this soaring demand will be made in time.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the CFR)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Magic Hour"-- Jackson Lake, WY, by Gil Brady for The Cowboy Times

Radiation Found on Planes in Probe of "The Spy who killed me"

By TARIQ PANJA
The Associated Press

Filed 11.29.06

LONDON - Authorities found traces of radiation on two British Airways 767 jetliners Wednesday as investigators widened their search for clues into the poisoning death of former Russian spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.

The airline said it would contact passengers who flew on the two jets.

Home Secretary John Reid disclosed the search following a meeting with COBRA, the government's emergency committee. Reid said two planes had been tested so far and that another would be.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Seattlle Times)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of the late former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, poses for photographs after speaking in an interview with The Associated Press in London, Tuesday Nov. 28, 2006. Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic who met with the Litvinenko the day he fell ill with radiation poisoning was being tested for contamination and was under security protection in London on Tuesday as the unsolved death cast a shadow over British-Russian relations. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Da, da, dat, da-da...Snoop busted after 'Tonight Show'

By MICHAEL MUSKAL
L.A. Times Staff Writer

Filed 11.29.06

(LAT) - Snoop Dogg posted bail this morning on felony drug and weapons charges after the rapper-actor was arrested leaving a performance of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," in Burbank.

The artist, whose name is Calvin Broadus, and two members of his entourage were arrested around 6 p.m. Tuesday after a search of his Diamond Bar home and car, Burbank Police Sgt. Kevin Grandalski said in a telephone interview this morning.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The Los Angeles Times)

Where to hear 'Hi, neighbor!'

By ROY RIVENBURG
LA Times Staff Writer

Filed 11.27.06

Still no word on whether a stitch in time really does save nine, but a UC Irvine professor has uncovered evidence to support another famous proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors."

In a study of 15,000 Americans, economist Jan Brueckner found that suburban living is better for people's social life than city dwelling.

(Click & Read courtsey of the LA Times)

Photo Captions & Credits: "A farmhouse sits abandoned in Divide County, N.D. While the nation as a whole grew by about 13 percent in the 1990s, nearly 60 percent of the counties on the Great Plains lost population, according to a U.S. News & World Report analysis of the new census data."

"The Spy who Killed Me": Radiation tests after spy death

BREAKING...NEW VIDEO!
By the BBC & Reuters

Filed 11.25.06

(LONDON) - Police investigating Mr. Litvinenko's death have said it is one of the most difficult cases they have faced.

They have been examining two meetings Mr. Litvinenko had on 1 November - one at the Millennium Hotel with a former KGB agent and another man, and a rendezvous at the Itsu sushi restaurant in London's Piccadilly.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the BBC)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Former KGB-spy Litvinenko's condition deteriorated rapidly in hospital" by the BBC

(Click & Watch courtsey of Reuters News Video)

G'damnit, now how the !!@!*$hell are we ever gonna KNOW?

Simpson book, TV plan dropped. News Corp. acts after resistance from stations and advertisers. Rupert Murdoch apologizes.
By MARTIN MILLER, MEG JAMES and GINA PICCALO

Staff Writers for The LA Times

Filed 11.21.06

A brewing rebellion by Fox affiliate television stations, coupled with resistance from the advertising world, prompted Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Monday to abandon its plan to publish a book and air a two-part TV interview with O.J. Simpson.

The interview and the book, both titled "If I Did It," were announced last Tuesday and were widely viewed as a device to bolster Fox's flagging ratings during the important November sweeps. The project had been promoted as revealing how the former football star would have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.t of HarperCollins Publishers, which, like the Fox network, is owned by News Corp.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The LA Times)

'Murder or mercy-killing,' Mon. night in Idaho?

BREAKING...NEW VIDEO...double-homicide

Two People Dead in Shooting: Suicide note found

By KIFI, ABC News

Story Created: Nov 20, 2006 at 7:10 PM MST
Story Updated: Nov 20, 2006 at 10:42 PM MST

(KIFI)--An Idaho Falls couple died Monday night in what police are calling a murder-suicide.

Local News 8 was the first on the scene. Police tells us that Joseph Stachew killed his wife Marlen before shooting himself around 5 p.m.

Before the shooting, police dispatch received a call requesting officers at the home on Adell and Brandon Streets on the west side of Idaho Falls.

(Click & Read on courtsey of KIFI News)

'I so didn't do this': How one Man says he became a Murder Suspect

By GIL BRADY
Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 11.19.06

A former cafe manager and spa technician who says he turned in a stray backpack to authorities in September has professed his innocence in the murder of its owner, Colorado snowboarder and hitchhiker Benjamin “Ben” Bradley.

“I’m totally, totally innocent. I so didn’t do this,” Tommy Bowman, 35, of Rock Springs, said in a phone interview last week.

His voice cracking, Bowman recalled how after he turned in the backpack, nearly four months after finding it, investigators grilled him repeatedly about Bradley’s mysterious death. They also executed warrants to seize Bowman's DNA, some of his possessions and biological matter from his apartment.

Copies of warrants obtained from Bowman show that in early October authorities seized more than 20 items from him. They included a 1981 Ford SUV, a shirt with "multiple cuts," a Swiss Army knife, paraphernalia with “suspected marijuana residue," and towels and sections of a mattress, box spring and carpet with "suspected blood."

Bowman said he told investigators he let a friend stay at his apartment while he was out of town this summer. The friend, Bowman said, allowed a bloody man who had been in a fight to sleep on his couch.

Asked if he knew who killed Ben Bradley, Bowman, who has not been charged in the six-week-old homicide investigation, said: “No, no, no. See, this is the problem.”

Early in June, while jet-skiing in Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area -- about 70 miles from where Bradley's body was eventually discovered -- Bowman said he found a backpack beside the cliffs, across from a beach, and stored it in his car, taking some items from it on a trip to California.

Inside the backpack Bowman said he found a water purifier, snowboard booties, some hashish and marijuana; a title to Bradley’s car in Jackson; and another item that would, ironically, prove invaluable.

At the time Bowman found the backpack, Bradley had only been reported missing after making a phone call from Rock Springs to friends in Jackson at 8:58 p.m. on June 2.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo Captions & Credits: 1) "Ben Bradley's break-away, one-of-a kind snowboard;" 2) "A detail from Bradley's 'board;" 3) "Western Wyo.'s Red Desert at Boar's Tusk, about 25 miles north of Rock Springs, Wyo." 4) "Benjamin 'Ben' Bradley, about 1 month before he vanished last June 2," courtsey of official sources & on-line stock.

TIPSTER HOTLINE...(307) 872.6359...or, please call your local law enforcement agency.

RECORDS SUGGEST COUNTY WENT to TOWN on THE DOLE$$$!

BREAKING LOCAL NEWS!
By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Originally published 11.07.06, 12:16 a.m.

TETON COUNTY, Wyo., (CT) – Free flowers and lobster dinners, mojitos with a gal pal during a Texas junket, nights at Nevada strip clubs, a $900 dollar office chair, no-bid makeovers and drinks on the dole are just some of the bills county commissioners here paid with taxpayer' funds over the last seven years, records show.

Last July, Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation, at the direction of Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank, submitted the preliminary findings of its five-month investigation into whether about $20,000 in alleged questionable spending by Teton County officials and employees, dating to 1999, violated any state laws.

The DCI report, submitted to Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman, has never been made public.

To date, no charges against any county personnel or officials have been filed. And when asked to comment last July, county commissioners Larry Jorgenson, Jim Darwiche and Andy Schwartz, who were in office at the time, said they did not recall approving a voucher showing a 2003 repayment for at least one county employee’s night at two Nevada strip clubs.
Schwartz clarified that the payout could not be construed as any kind of additional employee benefit.

Vouchers are the official forms for monetary claims against Wyoming county governments that state law requires to be fully itemized, signed and sworn to by vendors. County personnel routinely submit them for approval by county commissioners prior to any reimbursements for their professional expenses.

Other county records obtained by The Cowboy Times, some costing more than $150, detail a payment for a $933 office chair; plus, various charges incurred by current and former county personnel for the expenses of romantic partners and spouses not on the county payroll.

Junkets, Joyrides, and Strippers

Trips by more than one county worker to attend professional seminars at such popular hot spots as Reno, Austin and West Palm Beach featured many lawfully covered expenses like airfare, hotel, and food and beverage costs, records show.

But other receipts indicate county bureaucrats reported as trip-related records describing payments for activities unrelated to official business in states or places well beyond where any seminars reportedly occurred.

Also, some trips that began as legitimate professional excursions turned into little more than subsidized vacations where speeches or seminars were held early on, often with minimal or no attendance records, and spouses or companions accompanied officials and county personnel at taxpayers' expense, records show.

One voucher shows $76 in county reimbursed credit card charges for expenses at “The Spice House” and “The French Quarter,” two professed Nevada strip clubs, dating to a 2003 trip by county engineer Craig Jackson.

During an interview in his office last September, Jackson said he was accompanied on the trip by county engineering technician Dave Gustafson, currently a mayoral candidate for the Town of Alpine.

Reached for comment late Monday night, Mr. Gustafson, buoyed by his strong primary showing in Lincoln County, responded that for him the visits to strip clubs were, “Just dinner.
“I mean? What were they for, $75 dollars?,” he added.

Jackson has apologized for the Nevada outings and his fiscal behavior, some of which he said might have “been on the line.” And he wanted people to know that he takes his job seriously, showing up each day thinking of new ways to make the county’s infrastructure better and more efficient—extolling, between vows of diligence, the virtues of the county’s state-of-the-art trash system.

“It has never been my intention to defraud the county,” Jackson said Monday.

Explaining their mess

Despite these allegations and vouchers showing questionable expenditures being approved by county commissioners, elected officials, current and past, have explained the irregular bookkeeping as arising from flaws and customs in the county’s voucher-system.

Recently, county commissioner chairman Leland Christensen said the questionable spending concerned confidential personnel matters long resolved in “executive session.” Last September, county commissioners approved new policies they said closed loopholes in how vouchers submitted by county employees were approved and paid.

But numerous public records and witness statements challenge the scope of this official explanation.

Beyond the official story

A five-month Cowboy Times examination of public records dating to 1999 shows that elected county officials here approved tens of thousands of dollars in irregular purchases, private gifts, and questionable expenses by former and present officials and county personnel without itemization detailing an official purpose as required by at least county policy.

Besides questionable voucher-related reimbursements to county employees, records and official responses show at least one no-bid payment for over $14,000 went to the friend of county administrator Jan Livingston, author of the county’s two-year-old policy regulating bids.

Interviewed last August in her Teton County office, Livingston confirmed steering the bid without public notice to a friend who redecorated the county commissioners' chambers this past spring.

Records show the decorator’s business had been dissolved by Wyoming’s Secretary of State four days before county commissioners approved a warrant for $14,217 to Pamela Stockton Interiors, LLC.

While confirming the no-bid payout, Livingston explained that Stockton’s arrangement was not, legally speaking, “a contract.” Livingston also added that the county's need for timely services often requires her to rely on those, such as Stockton, with greater expertise than hers.

In a brief phone chat this summer, Stockton declined comment about the payout or whether her business had been dissolved prior to receiving county monies, other than to say, before hanging up, “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I don’t want any part of it.”

On Monday, Stockton again declined comment about the matter, redirecting discourse on the subject back to the county.

Jackson attorney Peter Moyer, listed on state records as Stockton’s business agent, has downplayed any questions over his client's company having been dissolved at the time she received payment.

“It was probably because someone missed paying a $50 dollar mail-in fee,” he has said.

A check of Wyoming’s Secretary of State's Web site showed that Pamela Stockton Interiors, LLC, was dissolved last June 5 for “Admin. Dissolution (TAX)” and was still listed late Monday night as “over delinquent” and “inactive”.

Attempts at Muzzling the Press
Last summer, during a phone debate on whether this inquiry and this writer were legitimate, Livingston said she agreed "the public has a right to know how its money is being spent."

Livingston also said she supported the “1stAmendment and Freedom of the Press” despite usurping that right earlier the same day by disrupting a meeting between this reporter and Mr. Jackson in his King St. office, some four blocks away from Livingston’s seat in the county administration building on Willow St.

After advising Jackson that he did not have to complete our interview, Livingston attempted to discredit "freelancers" by claiming because one has not been “assigned the story” by an “editor,” they are therefore a peddler and profiteer. Told that the U.S. Constitution permits any citizen to question public servants about public records, Livingston nodded and smiled then advised Jackson he was free to terminate the meeting, which he did.

Earlier this year, county commissioners, over the objections of Darwiche, renewed Livingston’s contract and gave her a raise to about $94,500 per year.

Scuttlebutt on a muzzler

At a fall meeting in a downtown hotel, Darwiche said that Livingston was "too unprofessional" and lacked the business acumen for the responsibilities of her job and liked to use her sweater as a decoy, too.

According to county observers, Livingston’s position as county administrator had allegedly not been legally formed until long after she took the job. Questioned about this purported legal curiosity in a spirited phone call last September, Livingston acknowledged the query without flat denial or complaint, saying only, "Mmm, that's debatable."

Intimating whistleblowers?

Following a luncheon attended by Darwiche and Weichman last summer, a county employee and whistleblower alleged Darwiche had relayed a message during the luncheon on behalf of county commissioner chairman Leland Christensen. Christensen reportedly told Darwiche to inform the county employee that they were “no longer protected by whistleblower laws.”

Both Darwiche and Weichman have confirmed that the meeting occurred; although, only Darwiche opted to go on the record about its contents. Christensen’s phone number could not be obtained by press time for comment, but efforts continue.

In exchange for cooperating with this report, the six-year county employee and whistleblower requested that their name and title be withheld until securing full legal protections to shield them from any possible retaliation.

According to Darwiche and the county whistleblower, after interpreting a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting the "free speech of public employees," Christensen, believing the new high court ruling might concern the county whistleblower, asked Darwiche to relay his thoughts on his behalf.

This fall, Darwiche confirmed furnishing Christensen's message to others at the lunchtime meeting, but did not say that he thought it contained any veiled threat.

What’s next?

In a June 19, 2006 letter, from Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank to the county whistleblower, Crank wrote that any “prosecutive decision” as a result of DCI’s investigation rested with "Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman".

Wyoming law and county policy ban payouts for county claims unsupported by itemized vouchers and unrelated to county business. Knowingly falsifying a voucher is a potential felony punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

However, most county observers, knowledgeable about the controversy, say the legalities of the scandal will likely turn on proof of ever-elusive notions regarding criminal intent.

Asked last September if he would prosecute lawbreakers, Weichman said: “Probably.”

STAY WITH THE COWBOY TIMES, "First in news, last in BS!"

Dean & Trauner Schmooze in Spa!

By JH News & Guide/wire reports

Filed 11.18.06

Gary Trauner earned high praise from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean for his unsuccessful bid for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House.

Dean said Trauner did “really well,” and held up the surprisingly close race between Trauner and Republican incumbent Barbara Cubin as evidence of the effects of his 50-state strategy in Wyoming during the last election.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the JH News & Guide)

This photo was removed because of the photographer's massive and unconstitutional crisis. Should Mr. Boner still possess half the cockiness his mutual admiration blogosphere society appears to instill in him, we would encourage Mr. Boner to proceed with his threatened lawsuit and prove that his complaint withstands more than peer-reviewed scrutiny--The Cowboy Times.

Firefight rages in Iraq near kidnap site

By The Associated Press

Filed 11.17.06

BAGHDAD (AP) — British ground forces and U.S. military helicopters fought with gunmen Friday in southern Iraq where four American security contractors and their Austrian co-worker were abducted in a convoy hijacking near the Kuwait border.

(Click & Read on courtsey of USA Today)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Spc. David Hodge of the 4th Infantry Division salutes Thursday during a memorial service at Fort Hood, Texas" courtsey of the AP.

Trauner hangs it up

Democratic candidate for U.S. House, Gary Trauner, pictured here. File photo, Casper Star-Tribune.

By BOB MOEN
Associated Press Writer

Filed 11.16.06

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Democratic newcomer Gary Trauner decided Thursday not to seek a recount in his narrow loss to Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin in Wyoming's closest U.S. House race in 36 years.

"It is time to put this election to rest and look to the future," Trauner said in a statement released through his campaign. "Wyoming is counting on Mrs. Cubin to provide first-rate representation for all the people of the state, and I trust she will do so."

The State Canvassing Board on Wednesday certified the Nov. 7 election results, in which Cubin beat Trauner by 1,012 votes out of 193,369 cast.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Wallowing "Wogs" deny hoging county trough

By Miss CARA FROEDGE

JH News & Guide

11.15.06

Months after receiving the results of a state criminal investigation into how Teton County pays its bills, Prosecutor Steve Weichman said he likely will not press charges against employees or commissioners.

Weichman said Monday, about four months after receiving documentation from the Division of Criminal Investigations, he almost is finished reviewing the case. The paperwork shows Teton County commissioners authorized almost 300 payments to creditors without itemized receipts or receipts at all. State law requires county commissioners to approve only those vouchers that have itemized receipts attached.

“The results of the investigation have not resulted in any recommendation of prosecution,” Weichman said. “It has also cleared much of my alarm. What remains is a wheelbarrow full of public documents I assume you would find great interest in. That doesn’t mean it’s criminal.”

(Click & Read on courtsey of the JH News & Guide)

Cubin wins 7th term

Democratic challenger Gary Trauner, left, and U.S. House Representative Barbara Cubin, right. File photos, Casper Star-Tribune.

By BEN NEARY
Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., won a seventh term against Democratic challenger Gary Trauner, the final state canvass showed.

The State Canvassing Board, made up of four of Wyoming's top elected officials, certified the results Wednesday. While the race remained very close, it fell 79 votes short of triggering an automatic recount, Secretary of State Joe Meyer said.
(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Campaign calls draw scrutiny

By JARED MILLER
Star-Tribune capital bureau

CHEYENNE -- Wyoming Secretary of State Joe Meyer will ask local and federal prosecutors to look into allegations of illegal automated campaign calls before last week's general election.

Meyer's office received three complaints about illegal calls linked to the contentious U.S. House race and the race for governor.

Meanwhile, the spokeswoman for Democrat Gary Trauner's apparently unsuccessful U.S. House campaign said illegal calls may have influenced that race. Linda Stoval said stronger laws are needed to prevent future violations.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo Captions Credits: "Wyoming Sec. of State Joe Meyer" courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune

Still testing authority

By GIL BRADY

Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 11.13.06

JACKSON -- He has been a Bondurant rancher, avant-garde livestock breeder, beef jerky producer, Appaloosa horse-lover, published critic, amateur prospector, wandering cowboy, frequent gadfly and former jailbird on appeal before the Wyoming Supreme Court.

But last Thursday afternoon, the irrepressible Terrence “Terry” Amrein, 60, an ex-con caught between fading icon and dapper eccentric, appeared destined for further controversy outside the heavily guarded Clifford P. Hansen federal courthouse here.

“America cannot afford more federal embarrassment by their court system,” Amrein said moments before entering court, a produce box crammed with papers and records under his arm. “They can’t intimidate me.”

Amrein’s latest legal drama stems from his recent experiences while camping with horses in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

In 1993, after what he says was a humane livestock experiment that produced “waste-fat-free beef,” Amrein lost an appeal of a lower court’s conviction of cruelty to animals before the state Supreme Court.

Authoring the court’s lone dissent, Justice Walter Urbigkit wrote: “This case provides a continuing examination of the campaign by certain state (including judicial) officials against Terrence Amrein.”

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo captions & credits: "Terrence 'Terry' Amrein outside federal court" by Gil Brady for The Cowboy Times

Officials seek help in snowboarder homicide

By GIL BRADY and ANDREW WYATT
Star-Tribune correspondents

Filed 11.11.06

JACKSON -- Want to help crack a mystery?

Detectives say the whereabouts of a "one-of-kind" snowboard could offer clues about the apparent killing of an outdoorsman and hitchhiker.

Officials have said Benjamin William Bradley, 28 or 29, of Tabernash, Colo., died suspiciously sometime between June 2 and when his remains were found Oct. 1, absent his favorite snowboard, in western Wyoming’s Red Desert.

Bradley’s missing custom-made snowboard splits into two short skis, permitting the user to climb slopes, and can be reassembled into a regular downhill snowboard, Sweetwater County sheriff’s investigators reported.

“He never went anywhere without it,” former roommate, fellow 'boarder and friend Randy Shacket said of Bradley’s cherished 'board. Shacket added that Bradley paid more than $1,300 for the snowboard and had personally selected everything from its shape and length to its unique design.

Also, investigators reported that Never Summer, the snowboard's maker, believed that Bradley's 'board -- which detectives say was not found on or near his badly decomposed body -- was black and depicted a bald eagle grasping white ribbons with the words "Denver" and "USA."

Last month, Capt. Mike Dayton of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said that sightseers had discovered Bradley’s body beside a geological formation known as Boar's Tusk.

The formation stands about 25 miles north of Rock Springs and many miles from the nearest paved road. At night, Dayton said in a phone interview last week, Boar's Tusk is not readily visible from nearby access points. But a dirt road does circle the 150-foot landmark.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo Captions and Credits: 1) "Bradley's Never Summer snowboard"; 2) "Benjamin William "Ben" Bradley about 1 month before he vanished last June 2"; 3) "The Red Desert's mystical 'Boar's Tusk,' about 25 mi north of Rock Springs, Wyo.," courtsey of Never Summer, official sources and on-line stock.

SWEETWATER COUNTY TIPSTER HOTLINE...(307) 872.6359...or call your local law enforcement agency

Is "The Big One" Coming?

BREAKING...VIDEO!

By KTLA NEWS
Huge Quake Predicted for California!

(KTLA NEWS) - Seismologists say Southern California is on the brink of the big one. The earthquake is expected to devastate Southern California.

(Click & watch courtsey of KTLA News)

Photo Captions & Credits: "SOCAL's San Andreas fault" courtsey of National Geographic

Trauner looks for 38 votes

By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune Staff writer

Filed 11.10.06

JACKSON -- Democratic U.S. House candidate Gary Trauner said Thursday he has no plans to ask for a vote recount, but will wait to concede the election until county boards certify election results and provisional ballots are counted.

"We owe it to Wyoming's citizens, both those that voted for me and those that voted for my opponent, to ensure that all their votes have been counted and that their final selection is accurate," Trauner said at a news conference at a Jackson hotel. "We can stand for nothing less."

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Recession?

BREAKING ECONOMIC ANALYSIS...America's economy!
By The ECONOMIST

Filed 11.09.06

Wall Street: Not the election, stupid. It's the economy.

WASHINGTON - Rarely have Wall Street's seers been so split. Not only are they divided about where the economy is headed, they even disagree about how it is faring today.

Pessimists, such as Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics, reckon output is slowing from its already desultory pace of 1.6% a year in the third quarter and that recession is imminent.

Optimists say GDP growth is rising after a weak summer. After analysing bond, equity and credit markets, Stephen Jen of Morgan Stanley recently argued that the risk of recession was only 13%, down from 19% a month before.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The Economist)

There's a new Sheriff in Town, JPD's Todd Smith!

Breaking Lincoln County Election News: Smith Accepts!

By LAUREN M. WHALEY
JH News & Guide

Filed 11.09.06

Jackson Police Department Sgt. Todd Smith claimed a sweeping victory in the race for Lincoln County sheriff Tuesday.

The investigations supervisor for the Jackson Police Department, a Republican, won 4,094 votes for 67 percent of the vote, easily beating Democrat Bill Thek, who won 1,958 votes for 32 percent.

“I was definitely pleased by the election,” Smith told the Star Valley Independent for today’s edition. “This is a journey for me and I look forward to the biggest challenge of my life with this new position.”

(Click & Read on courtsey of the JH News & Guide)

Photo Captions & Credits: 1) "Lincoln County, Wyo., Sheriff-elect Det.-Sgt. Todd Smith"; 2) "Lone Star" courtsey of ToddSmithforsheriff & John Sayles, writer/director.

DEMOCRATS RUN THE TABLE

BREAKING ELECTION....NEWS!

By LIZ SIDOTI and BOB LEWI AP Writers Nov 08 8:45PM US/Eastern WASHINGTON

Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994.

Jim Webb's squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday's elections.

(Click & Read courtsey of BREITBART.COM)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Virginia Democratic candidate for Senate Jim Webb rallies supporters after declaring victory Wednesday over incumbent George Allen (R-Va)" via the AP

Democrats' Blowout: 13.4% Victory Margin

BREAKING...Nat'l Electoral Analysis!
By BRAD DeLONG via The Wall Street Journal

“One way to look at last night’s election is that the implicit gerrymandering of the Senate and the in-the-tank-ness of the press corps are keeping people from realizing how big the blowout was,” says Brad DeLong, a Berkeley economist and blogger, and a former Clinton Treasury aide.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The WSJ)

Cubin-Trauner: "Too Close to Call"

By BOB MOEN
Associated Press Writer

Filed 11.08.06

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- The race for Wyoming's lone U.S. House could be headed for an automatic recount.

The race remained too close to call Wednesday, although incumbent Republican Barbara Cubin said she was certain she'd beaten Democrat Gary Trauner -- and she wasn't waiting for someone else to declare a winner.

"I'm calling it," Cubin said in an interview from her home shortly after midnight Tuesday. "I just feel really gratified that we're ahead, and I'm sure that we won the election."

Trauner, who was seeking to become the first Democrat since 1976 to win Wyoming's House seat, wasn't so sure and said the vote difference was so thin that it appeared an automatic recount would be triggered.

"I don't know if anyone on either side imagined this is where it would end up," Trauner said in a telephone interview shortly before midnight Tuesday.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Dems Reclaim House; Control of Senate Hangs on Va. Race

By DAN BALZ and DEBBI WILGOREN
Washington Post Staff Writers

Filed 11.08.06, 4:18 PM, EST

WASHINGTON - President Bush said today that as leader of the Republican Party he shoulders some of the blame for the large losses his party suffered yesterday, when Democrats easily recaptured the House and neared control of the Senate, after a bitter midterm election campaign dominated by war, scandal and questions about Bush's leadership.

"While the ballots are still being counted in the Senate, it's clear the Democrat Party had a good night last night. And I congratulate them on their victories," Bush said at a press conference at the White House. The president also announced that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was stepping down and would be replaced by former CIA director Robert Gates. Democratic leaders have called for Rumsfeld, the architect of the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, to resign.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The Washington Post)

Machine problems slow vote count

BREAKING ELECTION NEWS!
Casper Star-Tribune

Filed 11.08.06

Problems with a new ballot-counting machine plagued the Natrona County clerk's office Tuesday.

Regular ballots for all 46 precincts were counted by 8:15 p.m., but 3,942 absentee ballots remained uncounted long into the evening. The votes stood to affect several races, possibly including the U.S. House of Representatives contest and the Wyoming Senate District 29 race.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)