Daily Darwin

Apparently it was icy in St. Louis on Monday. Two different shots of a firetruck doing donuts in a residential neighborhood.

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Darwin: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, January 23, 2024

 Apparently it was icy in St. Louis on Monday. Two different shots of a firetruck doing donuts in a residential neighborhood.

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — There was a seismic shift months ago behind the scenes with Wyoming’s largest data center development, Project Jade. 

Crusoe, the company that was constructing the buildings for the massive 2.7-gigawatt data center, packed up its stuff and left.

The exit happened quickly and quietly, without the fanfare of press releases and company statements that had preceded the project, which at buildout would use nearly triple the power consumption of the entire state of Wyoming. 

Crusoe’s about face was so quiet, in fact, that few people outside the project even realized anything had happened at all.

That was until Tuesday, when the company was quoted in passing in a Bloomberg article saying that its data center client had asked Crusoe to pause construction of Project Jade, even as the company announced another 5 gigawatts worth of data center infrastructure for Crusoe Cloud. 

Crusoe’s statement made it seem as though Project Jade itself might be on hold or looking for a new partner, but nothing could be further from reality, officials for partner Tallgrass Energy told Cowboy State Daily on background. 

Work on Project Jade never stopped — not even for a minute — following Crusoe’s exit roughly two months ago, Cowboy State Daily was told Wednesday morning. 

Tallgrass officials are now working directly with the data center client and have been “full steam ahead” since Crusoe’s exit.

Black Hills Corp., the parent company of Black Hills Energy, meanwhile released a statement to the same effect, saying that the data center project has not been on pause.

“We remain committed to supporting the project’s data center customer and delivering the infrastructure necessary to meet their long-term energy needs,” President and CEO Linn Evans said. “The project has not been paused and continues to represent a significant opportunity for the company. Our efforts remain fully directed toward successfully delivering the project.”

Black Hills Corp’s statement added that its Wyoming subsidiary, Black Hills Energy, agreed in April to procure long lead-time generation equipment with the prospective customer to support the project, which will be served under Wyoming’s large-load tariff. 

“The customer has provided over $200 million in refundable contributions in aid of construction to date in support of milestone payments to secure generation equipment,” the statement says. “Additionally, the company executed a substation agreement with the large-load customer, and filed a CPCN (Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity) for a substation to support the project in January 2026.”

Project Jade, located in the Switchgrass Industrial Park along Highway 85 south of Cheyenne, is the largest data center yet announced in Wyoming and has received widespread attention because of that. 

Initially, the data center was announced as a 1.8-gigawatt facility. Later, during a Laramie County Commission meeting, company officials said the 

 — almost three times what the entire state of Wyoming uses when it comes to power. 

The facility can ultimately scale to 10 gigawatts of capacity.

Project Jade has always planned to build its own power, which company officials said avoids burdening the local power grid. It will also use a closed-loop system to cool its servers to minimize water use.

The closed-loop system will take an initial 20 households worth of water to fill, company officials have told Laramie County commissioners, and will come from aquifers far below those that supply water to residents of Laramie County and Cheyenne. 

Annual water use will be around three households, once the closed-loop system is filled.

Project plans show five buildings of up to 800,000 square feet. These will have their own onsite wastewater treatment and septic systems.

The company’s efforts to mitigate impact to the community do not stop at water and power. It also included building new roads into its facility to relieve pressure on existing routes, as well as a $2.9 million commitment to help the city of Cheyenne build affordable housing.

The company doesn’t plan to use man camps to house construction workers. Instead, it plans to use a range of local housing, including long- and short-term rentals, hotels and motels, RV accommodations, and other solutions. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Three Projects In One"}]

What the public has been calling Project Jade has actually always been three distinct but intertwined projects, Tallgrass officials said.

There was the power plant itself, a natural-gas-fired facility that includes large turbine generators and fuel-cell systems, which is what Tallgrass is developing. 

That is now being referred to by the company as the Cheyenne Power Hub. 

There are the data center buildings, which are essentially warehouse-like shells that will one day hold the racks of computing power for the unnamed data center client. 

That was in Crusoe’s court as the data center client who will eventually use all the computing capacity that’s built out in the data center.

Crusoe’s exit, which happened early this year, changes just one thing in all of that, Tallgrass officials said — the eventual sign on the buildings.

Everything else has stayed functionally the same, including the client. 

Dirt work at the site has already begun, Tallgrass officials say, leading up to construction of the power plant itself, which is the longest lead-time item. 

Work on the power generators is expected to ramp up this summer and will be brought on in phases. The first available phase is expected to begin operating sometime in 2027.

Service to the data center client is targeted for early 2028, after which the project is expected to create more than 100 permanent jobs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Who Is Tallgrass"}]

Tallgrass has long operated large-scale, multi-commodity infrastructure, including more than 10,000 miles of pipeline and energy-related assets across 14 states.

The company has been in Wyoming for the past 10 years, where it has its third largest employee base at more than 200 existing employees. It operates more than 3,000 miles of natural gas, crude oil, water, and carbon dioxide pipelines.

Some of its infrastructure includes carbon dioxide wells for carbon capture, including some assets that are in the vicinity of Project Jade. The carbon capture capabilities have been touted as a vital element of building out the data center.

In the last three years, Tallgrass has invested almost a billion dollars into Wyoming’s economy. Its investment on Project Jade dwarfs that at $7 billion.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crusoe Still Busy"}]

No one is saying publicly why Crusoe left the project, or whether the data center client is the one who asked them to leave.

Crusoe did not respond to Cowboy State Daily inquiries about its exit, and Tallgrass officials said they learned of Crusoe’s public statements the same way everyone else did — by reading about it in Bloomberg’s article.

While the reasons Crusoe exited the project remain unclear, one thing that isn’t unclear is just how busy Crusoe is right now.

Even after stepping away from Project Jade, Crusoe has more than 40 gigawatts worth of projects either in its total development pipeline or under active negotiation, according to its website. 

Its Bloomberg comments, meanwhile, came with an announcement of 5 more gigawatts for the Crusoe Cloud.

The company is widely expected by industry experts to go public and has been actively working on a pre-IPO funding round north of $10 billion.

Carson Kearl, a data center analyst for energy data analyst Enverus, said more dance steps are ahead for the data center space.

“There are a bunch of these Crusoe-like developers across the Lower 48 with announced projects of significant scale and capacity,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I would say a majority of them do not have a publicly disclosed tenant or an off taker. 

"Our view is the reason they don’t have those disclosed is because they don’t have them, period.”

Kearl has been tracking data center capacity in various stages of discussion across the nation and said he expects as much as 80% to 85% of the projects to get canceled purely as a function of "supply chain constraints on the data center side of things, like how many chips are actually available between now and about 2030.”

Wyoming, as a state with lots of wide-open space and abundant energy, meanwhile, is well-positioned, to capture the real projects, Kearl added. 

In the race to build out data centers and capture market share first, Wyoming offers exactly what these companies want. 

“The ability to do behind-the-meter projects in an area where you would have faster interconnection times or power timelines … is super attractive,” Kearl said. “Everyone’s kind of working to try and make that faster, to level the playing field.”

Building your own power is not an inexpensive tactic, however.

“You’ll be well into the $100-plus-a-megawatt-hour range,” he said. “And then if you layer in the CCS (carbon capture and sequestration), it would probably be even higher, into the mid-$100 range.”

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<title>Partner Pulling Out Doesn’t Slow Huge 2.7GW Cheyenne Project Jade Data Center | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Crusoe, a founding partner in the huge 2.7-gigawatt Project Jade data center near Cheyenne, quietly pulled out months ago. That hasn’t slowed the project, which is going “full steam ahead,” remaining partner Tallgrass Energy told Cowboy State Daily.

Partner Pulling Out Doesn’t Slow Huge 2.7GW Cheyenne Project Jade Data Center

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, June 11th.  I’m Mac Watson

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"– "}]

Sgt. Zach Burns has been identified as the Carbon County deputy who took multiple bullets in a shootout with a suspect in Baggs on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the sheriff says Burns is in critical condition but improving.

“We still don't know who the suspect is. He died in a shootout with officers. We still don't know how many officers were involved in that, and we don't know, obviously, his identity, whether he was a local guy or whether you know he worked somewhere else and lived in Baggs. When I was in Baggs on Monday and Tuesday, everybody I talked to, nobody seemed to know who he was, so a lot of them were speculating it's probably not someone who grew up here. Otherwise, we would know.”

According to the sheriff’s report, Burns was shot in the neck, arm, and hip. The report also says the suspect 

Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidates courted a largely Christian audience with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the debate was vigorous, but polite.

“It's tough to stand out in a crowd that big. So you have Kevin Christensen talking about saying a prayer with his soldiers moments before invading Iraq. You have Jillian Balow talking about the sacrifices that she's so grateful for that women made so she could be an adoptive mom. You have Bo Biteman harkening to the founding fathers, reiterating the the role of the Congress from the Constitution, you have Chuck Gray talking about the media and insiders, and so there were some bolder overtures that the candidates undertook, possibly in their effort to distinguish themselves from this crowded field.”

The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan in downtown Cheyenne, to these seven GOP candidates.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that rancher Mike Vickrey told the Senate committee that as he sees it, he and other Upper Basin farmers and ranchers have gone above and beyond to conserve water.

“That rancher said basically, in a nutshell, we're doing all we can to conserve water up here on the upper basin. There's only so much to go around. Maybe we need to rethink the allocations, because this all flows back - no pun intended - this all this all flows back to the Colorado River Compact, which was drawn up in 1922 and a lot of people have said there were a lot, there was a lot more water in the river, and a lot fewer people demanding it back in 1922 Maybe we need to change the way we do things.”

Gov. Gordon, along with Senators Barrasso and Lummis met Tuesday with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis.

A 57-year-old woman who was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of a newborn boy in early 1988 repeatedly claimed the baby wasn’t hers. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that investigators say DNA testing shows it’s 1.97 million times more likely Eva Martinez is the baby’s mother than anyone else.

“The sheriff's office sent the case and sent DNA samples. and what that lab was able to do was narrow this baby's DNA down to two potential relatives, not direct relatives, but one who could be a grandfather-type. They tracked back to finding the actual biological father of this baby. Apparently he was living with this woman at that time, back in Cheyenne, almost 40 years ago, telling them, okay, this is who I was with, and they were able to get a DNA sample from her tested, and it came up that it's the probability that she's the mother is extremely high.” 

Cheyenne resident Eva Martinez was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of who has become known over the past 38 years as “Baby John Doe,” whose body was gruesomely discovered on Feb. 28, 1988, near a culvert off a county road, according to court documents. She faces a first degree murder charge.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"–"}]

A rural neighborhood north of Cheyenne told Black Hills Energy it doesn't want a planned natural gas power plant during "a very contentious” local-only meeting this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one resident says “The only reason you’d do that is to put a data center there.”

“It's a 935 acre parcel, and so you're going to put power generation on that. What kind of noise is that going to make? How is that going to look? You know, it's a pretty scenic area. It's a historic ranching community, pretty residential. It's like I'm told that the roads out there, like a two-lane dirt road, and so you know people are worried about traffic, they're worried about noise, they're worried about quality of life, how that's going to affect their property values, and kind of all the things you would expect.”

The project will trigger a multi-year Wyoming Industrial Siting Division review process, even as Black Hills Energy pursues a multibillion-dollar merger with Northwestern Energy. 

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis says she still backs renaming U.S. Highway 287 as I-47 — aka “The Trump Interstate.”  Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that’s despite the fact that the main sponsor said it may not be a priority after he lost a primary race. 

“The four lane interstate that John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, proposed to zip through the state of Wyoming, is now in limbo after Cornyn lost his primary election to Attorney General Ken Paxton. Senator Cynthia Lummis is a co-sponsor of the bill. On Wednesday afternoon, she told reporters that she still supports the bill. Right now, it is in limbo. She declined to comment further on what will happen.”

The I-47 Future Interstate Act proposed designating the roughly 1,800-mile U.S. 287 corridor from the Gulf Coast of Texas to Montana as a future interstate route. The route runs through Wyoming communities including Laramie, Rawlins, Jeffrey City, Lander, Dubois and Moran before continuing north into Montana.

The state found widespread failures with Sweetwater County School District 1’s special ed program, giving the district a year to correct them. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that one former school board member says, “This wasn't a failure by just one person. This is a systemic failure.”

“The report came out this week, and it shows the school district to be in violation of providing special education services through properly credentialed professionals. It also shows that the school district failed to deliver services in accordance with students’ IEPs, or individualized education programs, and it also shows that parents were not given meaningful opportunities to participate in their students' individual education processes. Former board member Cole Ceppi said that they had seen some of these same problems with their own child in the district when he was a member and their child was in the special department, so he said to realize this is a more systemic problem makes me incredibly disappointed.”

The WDE conducted a five-day special monitoring review in February after receiving complaints and reports of possible noncompliance from parents, current and former staff members, and media accounts. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–  "}]

More than 69 miles of the Beartooth Highway are still closed because of a late spring snowstorm in southern Montana. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that officials are warning motorists not to use “map apps” as people have become stranded like a German couple who got lost in Wyoming. 

“The Bear Tooth Highway closed at 7:45am Wednesday morning, and it was closed all day due to snow. There is more snow incoming. There's a winter weather advisory for southern Montana, including the Montana portion of the Beartooth Highway until Thursday morning, and Cowboy and Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said it's entirely possible that the Beartooth Highway and several roads in Yellowstone could close again this weekend, because we've got another cold weather system moving in that'll bring more rain and snow that could easily freeze in the ice on the roads overnight.”

The Beartooth Highway sits at the northern edge of the Yellowstone Plateau, a massive landform that covers northwest Wyoming and southern Montana. A rugged area that is its own environment. Drivers ascend from 5,200 feet to 10,947 feet in just 12 miles.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 11 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, June 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thursday's headlines include:
* Deputy In Critical Condition
* Woman Arrested In 38-Year Cold Case
* Pinedale Rancher Tired Of Giving Up Water

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, June 11, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

CHEYENNE — Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday in Cheyenne, with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan Downtown, to these seven GOP candidates:

State Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, philanthropist and conservative thought leader Steve Friess, Casper-based combat veteran Kevin Christensen, Army Ranger David Giralt, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, and Moran rancher Frank Chapman. 

Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Democratic lawmaker Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson – a second former Democrat in the GOP race – did not attend the event. 

In a field that big and a race that red, it’s difficult to stand out. But the seven candidates displayed some variations of approach.

Biteman, who emphasized that he’s a family man, a “self-made man” and a hard worker, surfaced as a stickler for small government.

“The role of government is… to protect your rights. Period,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Christensen leaned on his combat experience and his Wyoming roots."}]

Friess pointed to his work helping to prepare executive order proposals ahead of the first Trump administration. He acknowledged that he wasn’t born in Wyoming, but spoke of his move to the state 26 years ago as a conversion of sorts, that also coincided with his baptism into the Christian faith. 

Gray cast himself as a fighter and pointed to his decade in state government and pro-life maneuvers he undertook in 2017 and 2019. 

Balow leaned on her trial-by-fire, of keeping Wyoming schools open for nearly all of the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting for parental autonomy during the massive social shifts that followed. 

Chapman took a warm philosophical approach to some of the cultural issues while castigating bureaucratic bloat. 

And Giralt articulated concrete plans on multiple issue points. He also pointed to his parents’ legal migration from Communist regimes, as well as his experience in both the military and as an advisor to federal policymakers. 

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Media’ And ‘Insiders’"}]

In response to a question about the role of faith in governing, Gray aired his long-wrought grievances about the media, Gov. Mark Gordon, an undefined group of “insiders,” and the role of the Wyoming Attorney General.

He quoted a fictional character in an adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo, saying, “God sees everything.” 

“That’s the way I live my life,” said Gray. “No matter whether it’s difficult, no matter the attacks from the media, and no matter the attacks from the insiders, the governor – the highest official in the state of Wyoming who the Attorney General serves at the pleasure of – I’ve been guided by truth and I’ve gotten policy done.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Tanks Are Gonna Roll"}]

In response to that same question, Christensen spoke of leading 234 cavalry squadron soldiers into combat as they invaded Iraq.

That was just one time he shared his faith openly, said Christensen, who described leading all the soldiers in prayer, moments before “tanks are gonna roll.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess turned to Christensen and said, “that was fantastic.” "}]

For his own answer to the faith question, Friess said, “our moral convictions are the center of who we are” and office-holders are accountable for their own actions.

Balow said God is her “everything,” but emphasized cordiality toward people across different faiths, especially while working collaboratively with them. 

Giralt said he and his wife are practicing Catholics, and God is the foundation that will see this nation through the next 250 years. 

Chapman said lawmakers should not only act with faith, but defend the faith exercise rights of others. 

Biteman, a history buff throughout the evening, harkened to how America’s Founding Fathers actually felt about faith in government, saying the Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Parental Rights"}]

All seven candidates said they’d work to defend the family as an institution, and parental rights. 

Giralt kicked off the answers by saying America should keep males out of girls sports, and that the federal government should not let its agencies “be an environment for social experiments or social change.” 

The nation should block taxpayer funds for transgender surgeries and treatments, and he’d oppose federal funding for those efforts, said Giralt. 

Chapman echoed the sentiment and said it’s time to cut administrative bloat in education and eliminate the federal Department of Education. 

The other six candidates, answering a later question, all said they wanted to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as well. Biteman said the federal government could transfer that agency’s money toward paying down the federal debt instead. 

Biteman reiterated a staunch small-government, constitutional rights stance across multiple questions. 

Government’s role is “not to be involved in the family, good or bad, especially at the federal level.” 

He referenced Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which confers specific powers onto 

Those are, to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, pay debts - uniformly across states - and to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. 

“Everything after that is clearly reserved to states and the people,” said Biteman. “Especially the families. Government should not be involved period.” 

Gray countered, saying “there’s a role for the federal government to support (school choice) education savings account programs.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray echoed Giralt’s call to protect women’s and girls’ sports."}]

He took Giralt’s call to block federal funding of transgender surgeries a step further. 

“We have to ban the transgender surgeries,” said Gray. “Not just… the funding of the transgender surgeries.” 

Christensen mirrored Biteman’s small-government approach to the issue, and urged families to be accountable and strive for high values within themselves. 

Friess lent credence to Christensen and Biteman’s small-government approach, but said, “we’ve gotten to the point where it’s so intrusive, you’ve got to start passing law to nip and tuck around the edges and get (the overreach) under control.” 

Balow pointed to her defense of parental “empowerment” during her tenure as Wyoming’s superintendent, and said her work there prompted Gov. Glen Youngkin, of Virginia, to tap her as his top educator. 

“Do what you did in Wyoming, in Virginia,” said Balow, adding that she and Youngkin fought to scale back educational intrusion into parents’ roles. 

[{"type":"text","text":"On What The House Can Do About Abortion"}]

The seven candidates all cast themselves as ardently 

Friess said he became pro-life in seventh grade when Joe Biden came to speak to his assembled school. Biden attested to being a devout Catholic and said life begins at conception, but indicated he wouldn’t impose his religious beliefs on others, Friess recalled. 

“I think that was the moment I became pro-life,” said Friess. “I saw the utter inconsistency in saying one thing and enacting policies going the other way.” 

Friess said that he worked with a group of capable Washington D.C. attorneys ahead of the first Trump administration to prepare executive orders for the incoming president. 

, was an expansion of the “Mexico City policy” — a  global ban on federal global aid going to fund abortions, he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"“That was my contribution to the battle there,” said Friess. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Mama, The Planner"}]

Balow said she’s an adoptive mother, and expressed gratitude for the women who “chose life” for her children. She noted that she volunteers on the board of directors for the Wyoming Children’s Society, and said she also supports the group financially. 

“This is what the pro-life movement looks like in action, and this is what I’ll take to Congress,” said Balow. 

“How did we reach a place where our culture can celebrate choice— the choice to end a life --yet think it’s unbearable to place a child for adoption to be loved by a family?” she asked, adding that her pro-life convictions would hold in congress, and that tax dollars and policies should not back abortions. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Giralt discussed a concrete plan for pro-life moves in the House. "}]

Firstly, he said, he wants to back a bill outlawing the mailing of abortion drugs. Secondly, Giralt he wants to solidify into standing law a recurring budget amendment barring federal funding for abortions.

“It’s used as a negotiating bargaining chip,” said  Giralt. “That should no longer happen.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Attorney, The Minimalist"}]

Chapman said that as an attorney, representing a person who had caused an accident in which a 3-week-old child was killed was “absolutely the worst experience of my life.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"He became tearful as he spoke of the case. "}]

He said that when kids are born, “we need adoption,” and “we need to support them.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"He agreed aloud with Giralt’s two policy plans. "}]

Biteman also said he’d vote for those two policy plans if elected to the House. 

Beyond that he said, the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion a state’s-rights issue with the 2022 overturn of Roe vs. Wade. 

It’s up to the Legislature, where his time is waning, to grapple the issue, and probably change the Wyoming 

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Jan. 6 ruled that a health care autonomy clause in the state Constitution confers a fundamental right to abortion access. 

Biteman pointed to his staunch pro-life record in the Legislature, where he championed numerous pro-life bills.  

[{"type":"text","text":"University Of Wyoming"}]

Gray also pointed to his time in the Legislature, and his 2017 sponsorship of House Bill 182. That bill, which became law, directed medical staffers performing abortions to inform patients “of the opportunity” to view an ultrasound of the child and hear his heartbeat. 

Biteman, who was in the House then, had voted in favor of that bill as well. 

Gray said in 2019 he heard a “rumor” that the University of Wyoming “was funding abortion in their student plans” and he asked the Legislative Service Office to ask UW if that was happening. UW “admitted to it,” and “we put a nice little rider” on UW’s budget threatening to claw back money if it continued that practice, said Gray. 

The student health care plans were then funded through premiums students paid, not public money from the Legislature. Buying insurance through the university was voluntary for all students, except some international students. 

As for Congress, Gray said, “we need to have a national pro-life policy.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sure, But Science Is your Friend Too "}]

Christensen said he believes life begins at conception, and it is a matter of faith.

But science also backs that assertion, he said, and state leaders should be prepared to carry pro-life policies on a scientific as well as a faith basis to defend the cause from claims that it’s based on dogma alone. 

[{"type":"text","text":"And he urged societal revival. "}]

“As pro-life as I am, let’s be as pro-mom and baby as well,” he said. “We have to break the cycle of what’s causing us to be in the situation where abortion is being used as a form of birth control,” Christensen said, adding that families should strive for accountability, faith and values. 

US House forum IMG 6452 6 10 26

<title>Wyoming U.S. House Candidates Face Christian Lobby, Swap War Stories | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

Wyoming U.S. House Candidates Face Christian Lobby, Swap War Stories

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Negotiations moved up a notch this week with Wyoming leaders meeting in Washington, D.C., with other states.

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, January 23, 2024

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