It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, August 1st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Wyoming Senior Olympics! Don't miss the action at this year's summer games from today through August 4th in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more info and a schedule of events, visit Wyoming Senior Olympics dot org.
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The town of Hartville and the nearby Pleasant Valley subdivision southeast of Glendo State Park in southeastern Wyoming are bracing themselves against a fast-moving wildfire that ballooned overnight Tuesday, and has burned through more than 28,000 acres of grasslands in the region.
Firefighters are furiously battling flames, heat and rattlesnakes, but the fire remains 0% contained. The people who had to frantically get out of the way of the flames told Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio that it was like being caught in a surreal, hellish nightmare.
“It's actually two wildfires that combined. One is called the Haystack fire which is north of here in Goshen County and then the one I'm at here, now, closest to me in Guernsey is called the Pleasant Valley Fire. Those two fires combined overnight, it's about 28,000 acres… I did speak to one woman who's really anxious. She's an older woman, and she's really anxious about what is left of her home, and she lives on Pleasant Valley. So she's got concerns about what that's going to look like when she does return.”
Firefighting resources in the area have been limited because of the eruption of multiple wildfires across Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region, including the nearby states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Relief from some welcome rainstorms is on the way, but it won’t get to much of Wyoming until next week. When it does arrive, it should give the Cowboy State a good soaking, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“This is a cyclical pattern that we have to go through. There is relief coming, but it's going to come in waves and unfortunately, the fire season is just getting started and could get a lot worse.”
Read the full stories HERE and HERE.
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A ballot initiative to lower property taxes in Wyoming is going back to the well.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray announced Monday that the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming Through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption” didn’t submit enough eligible signatures to qualify for the 2026 ballot.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that roughly 30% of the over 44,000 signatures submitted were determined invalid by the Secretary of State’s Office.
“Now, it's worth noting they only fell about 1000 short and they have a lot of time to still get the signatures if they do so before the general election on November fifth, then they'll be all good and ready to go. But they technically even have till April 2025 to do so - however, they will be subject to higher requirements if they wait till then, as the signature requirements are based on election turnout, and presidential elections typically have higher turnout than non presidential elections.”
The initiative, if approved for the ballot, proposes reducing residential property taxes by 50% in Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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A sharp-eyed real estate agent saved a Casper Mountain landowner from a scammer trying to sell her land out from under her.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck said it’s a growing problem that can cost landowners and unwitting buyers big money.
“Casper mountain area owner … was contacted by a real estate agent about listing her house. And he was just checking on that because he was kind of suspicious. And it turns out, yes, she was not selling her property on Casper mountain… there's a big scam going on right now in Wyoming and across the country where people try to sell people's vacant land, land that has no mortgage on it. So they make a deal. They do it all online, and then they, you know, act as the owner and get the cash.”
Typically, scammers claim to live out of state and have land they want to get rid of. The goal is to do an online sale and get the proceeds transferred to them.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Canadian man who stole a miniature poodle from a woman’s home, hopped the border and fled to Riverton, Wyoming, got caught by local authorities with methamphetamine.
50-year-old Paul Sheehan pleaded not guilty Monday in Lander Circuit Court on two citations, one for misdemeanor meth possession and one for misdemeanor theft, but according to Crime and Courts reporter Clair McFarland, Sheehan seemed to be overly fixated on the poodle.
“The owner, Elena said, he was hanging around my neighborhood and he was always asking, Can I look after your dog? Do you look after your dog and then, you know, after he allegedly stole it and ends up in Riverton, reportedly with a meth straw. He had the poodle on his lap.”
After Sheehan’s arrest, the mini poodle, Teddy, was taken to a local shelter, where he’ll stay until funds can be raised to send him back over the border to his grateful owner.
Read the full story HERE.
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And the last few years have seen a veritable explosion in the number of car washes opening in the Cowboy State. It seems like every third building being erected in Cheyenne is a car wash, with the other two being banks and drive-thru coffee shops.
Cowboy State Daily contributor Aaron Turpen reports that there’s a reason for the sudden popularity in automated car washes: subscriptions.
“Here in Cheyenne, there used to be one automated carwash about, I want to say six or seven years ago, when I first came to Cheyenne itself, and now there are no less than five. And it seems like every third or fourth building being built is yet another carwash… The big change was the idea of subscriptions. It started at a carwash chain on the East Coast, and has spread around the country very quickly. It gives them a base income to work off of and that changes their business model entirely.”
The car wash industry in the United States sees revenues of over $14 billion annually. Most experts recommend a bi-weekly car wash schedule.
Read the full story HERE.
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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 Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel. I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
