My Page: Gil Brady

<< Newer articles <<    Author Home     >> Older articles >>

'08 Fundraising Season Heats Up

The 2008 fundraising season here kicks into high gear with the expected arrival of two prime-time candidates for president of the United States.

Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a Republican, and current Democratic Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico are scheduled to touchdown in Jackson next week to attend Valley fundraisers for their campaigns, according to sources and today's Casper Star-Tribune.

Richardson, Romney, and fourteen other hopefuls, have announced their intention to seek their party's nomination for president.

The two Rs will be the first '08 presidential candidates to visit Wyoming.
[more]

"Innocente"

Two men extradited recently from Mexico, accused of raping one woman and assaulting another on the Town Square two summers ago, pleaded “not guilty” last week during their arraignments in 9th District Court here.

Accompanied by their public defenders and Spanish interpreters, Daniel “Bonilla” Juarez, 21, and Armando Aguilar, 25, listened as Judge Nancy J. Guthrie read aloud the felony charges against them and their rights to: remain silent; challenge evidence and witnesses; produce witnesses on their behalf; and plead guilty, not guilty, no contest or innocent.

Asked following court Thursday if he planned on challenging the state’s DNA evidence against Aguilar, as attorney Kent Brown did during Juarez’s probable cause hearing last month, John DeLeon of the Rawlins' Public Defender’s Office said, “I’m not ready to discuss that…I haven’t received discovery yet. Not prepared to comment to the paper.”
[more]

Hundreds Cheer 'Toppling of Vice President's Statue'

Demonstrators gathered Saturday afternoon at the rustic crossroads of U.S. Highway 22 and the Village Road to protest the war in Iraq and local resident Vice President Dick Cheney.

Following anti-war speeches and folksy, 60s-style sing-a-longs, the crowd of about 250—ranging in age from toddlers in strollers to a 92-year-old woman—marched peacefully along the mile-plus county bike path before assembling outside the gates of the tony Teton Pines Country Club where the vice president owns a home. [more]

All Clear on the Southern Front

State transportation authorities have certified the safety of the Snake River Bridge. The bridge was one of two examined by Wyoming's Department of Transportation inspectors with a similar design to the deadly highway bridge that collapsed last week in Minneapolis, Minn.

Five weeks before the catastrophic bridge disaster in Minneapolis, WDOT announced its plan to replace the heavily traveled bridge in Teton County spanning the Snake River at Hoback Junction.

Built during the Eisenhower administration, the steel and wood arch bridge at the junction of U.S. Hwy 191 and 26 had been rated in the same poor condition as the I-35W bridge that collapsed in Minnesota, killing at least 8 people as of today, according to the Associated Press.

Commuters from Alpine and towns south of Jackson in Lincoln County pass over the Snake River Bridge daily, which serves as a vital link to both counties.

Recently, the state lowered the speed limit on the bridge from 40 to 25 mph. WYDOT told the Jackson Hole News & Guide last September that the bridge was still safe.

Over 250 other bridges throughout Wyoming reportedly carry the same federal deficiency rating as the one that collapsed in Minnesota, but WYDOT has said the designation is not an accurate indicator of safety.

For more on this story, click here and read on via the Casper Star-Tribune

'08 Fundraising Season Underway

By the time county Republicans grabbed local headlines Tuesday, gushing over two Valley residents having moved up the rungs of the GOP ladder, about 50 or so of their rivals had met in near secrecy on famed attorney Gerry Spence’s ranch Monday night to toast Democratic national chairman Howard Dean.

At $2,500 a plate, $500 for cocktails, the main entrée appeared to be the fattening of the party’s war chest for their big push to widen their congressional margins and take the White House in 2008, according to an invitation obtained by NewWest.

The difference in party profiles and public relations is likely one of occasion rather than introversion. High-stakes political fundraisers here tend to be well-choreographed, sparsely chronicled events, often conducted under the radar, while the promotional upgrades of local party loyalists are things of irrepressible joy that lend themselves to easy and desirable headlines.

Still, the increasingly frequent, high-flying Democratic stopover here of late indicates that national leaders and candidates of that party are seizing upon something that their current Republican competitors have so far been slower to grasp: Teton County is good for business. [more]

Wolf Delisting Edges Closer

Today is the deadline for public comment on a federal plan to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extended the open comment period regarding measures that would allow wolves to be killed in the northern Rockies to protect elk and livestock.

Governor Dave Freudenthal and the federal agency struck a compromise earlier this spring to allow the Cowboy state to join Idaho’s and Montana’s wolf management plans. [more]

Feds Rate Local Bridge 'Deficient'

Five weeks before Wednesday's bridge collapse in Minnesota, Wyoming’s Department of Transportation announced its plan to replace a heavily traveled bridge in Teton County spanning the Snake River at Hoback Junction.

Built during the Eisenhower admistration, the steel and wood arch bridge at the junction of U.S. Hwy 191 and 26 has been rated in the same poor condition as the 35W bridge that collapsed two days ago in Minneapolis, Minn., killing at least 5 people as of Friday, according to the Associated Press.

“We really need to get the structure replaced,” WYDOT District 3 engineer John Eddins told the Jackson Hole News & Guide in June.
[more]

Defense Attacks Evidence

One of two foreigners extradited from Mexico in June on charges of rape was bound over Tuesday for possible trial in connection with attacks by four young men on two young women here two summers ago.

Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day found enough evidence Tuesday to transfer the case of Daniel “Bonilla” Juarez to 9th District Court.

Day has barred the pre-trial release of any information likely to identify either alleged victim.

According to court affidavits, Juarez, 21, Armando Aguilar, 25, Federico Lopez of Jackson and Gustavo Zuniga Bonilla of Big Sky, Mont., are accused of conspiring to commit sexual assault after “Aguilar and Juarez began talking about what they could do to a woman.”

The plot was allegedly hatched at a local saloon sometime before bars closed at 2 a.m. on August 21, 2005.
[more]

Another Breezy Sunday Book Review

He’s been called a “cross between Sam Spade and Sherlock Holmes,” or as one White House spokesman reportedly said it best, “We hate that sonovabitch.”

If you don’t know who Greg Palast is then it’s time you woke up and realized you can’t afford to still be sleeping while there's a former corporate fraud investigator dropping juicy bombshells in his latest book “Armed Madhouse.”

From stuffed shirts to James Baker’s desk drawers, corrupt executives and shadowy political rainmakers fear what Britain’s Guardian newspaper calls “investigations up there with Woodward and Bernstein — and a lot funnier.”
[more]

Hot Potato Raises Ethical Conflicts

A local prosecutor has asked Fremont County’s prosecuting attorney to assume the case of former Wyoming Democratic Party chairman Mike Gierau who allegedly drove under the influence of alcohol in March.

Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman, a Republican, said last week that when Gierau was a local county commissioner he recommended Weichman for his current post. Weichman, since reelected, was appointed after current 9th Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day left his old job as county prosecuting attorney for private practice in 1996.

“If the resolution of (Gierau’s) case is perceived to be a sweetheart deal,” Weichman said recently, “there would be at least the appearance that I owed him.”
[more]

<< Newer articles <<    Author Home     >> Older articles >>