CASPER â After spending years in prison and getting his criminal conviction overturned, Josh Black is back in the courtroom, but this time itâs Becket Hinckley whoâs in the hot seat.
Black, 41, testified Monday as the star witness in the disciplinary hearing against Hinckley, the former Teton County deputy prosecutor whoâs being taken to task for a laundry list of alleged misconduct during Blackâs 2015 aggravated assault trial.
âI am not going to get anything out of this,â Black said during his testimony Monday. âThe only reason I am here is . justice isnât just one-sided. The other side affects someone else too.â
The dispatch center that responds to 911 calls in Teton County is close to being fully staffed at the start of budget season.
But the high cost of living in and around Jackson Hole may mean itâs not yet out of the woods.
Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr told the Teton County Board of County Commissioners and Jackson Town Council as much during an all-day series of budget meetings Wednesday.
He said his department was budgeting to fully staff the center for the âfirst time.â Thatâs a significant step in the recent history of the dispatch operation, which serves the Teton County Sheriffâs Office, Jackson Police Department, Teton County Search and Rescue, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, the National Elk Refuge and occasionally Grand Teton National Park.
National Elk Refuge officials say theyâre working to rectify rampant disregard for the seasonal closure of the multi-use pathway that parallels Highway 89 and the refuge fence.
Especially on sunny days, cyclists, joggers and pedestrians have been routinely ignoring the gates and signage explaining that the 6-mile-long pathway is still closed. Most days, trail counters along the route are detecting 10 to 20 users, but the counter was tripped 67 times on the most noncompliant day this spring, Sunday, April 4. The intent of the closure, a nod to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serviceâs wildlife-first mission, is to prevent the disturbance of the thousands of elk that remain on the federal property.
A near-fall in the Tetons
Now that
Rod Newcomb is retired, he looks back on 48 years as a Teton guide. The highs, for the guide, are the satisfaction of leading your client up a route and making an uneventful return to the valley. The lows are when something goes wrong on the climb: a client is injured, bad weather arrives and you have to retreat, or, in rare cases, something bad happens to the guide.
This is what happened in the early 1980s on the fourth pitch of the Owen Spaulding route at 13,500 feet. In late August or early September there was a dusting of snow on the route. The fourth pitch begins on a downsloping ledge at the bottom of the Owen Chimney and leads to the top of the difficult climbing. From here, several easy pitches take you to the summit.