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[{"type":"text","text":"Remember, it's always good to familiarize your children with tools...."}]

Bonus vid 1 8 14 24

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

<title>Bonus Video 1: Wednesday, August 14, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Remember, it's always good to familiarize your children with tools....

Bonus Video 1: Wednesday, August 14, 2024

 Remember, it's always good to familiarize your children with tools....

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Project Jade, Wyoming’s largest data center, is now Project Tembo, and the company behind the 2.7-gigawatt facility is a mystery no longer.

The data center will be owned and operated by none other than Google, giving Cheyenne yet another of the world’s largest tech companies in what is fast becoming an emerging tech frontier. 

Cheyenne has hosted Microsoft data centers for the past decade or so and that company has announced plans for a major expansion on a 3,500-acre tract of land 

 it was joining the Wyoming fold with an $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center campus on a 960-acre parcel in the High Plains Business Park. That project, recently making headlines because of 

 that showed up in Cheyenne’s wastewater system, is set to open as early as 2027. 

Google’s new facility likely isn’t the last large tech company to show up in Cheyenne. In addition to its 10 existing locations, Cheyenne has five more under construction and another nine in advanced stages of discussion, according to data from Cheyenne LEADS. 

LEADS has also had 36 data center companies or site selectors express interest in Cheyenne or Laramie County, plus another 30 “tire kickers” that made at least one exploratory call.

Prometheus Hyperscale, meanwhile, has said it’s talking with “name-brand” companies for one gigawatt-scale data center 

Google’s project, according to planning documents filed with Laramie County, will be a 716-acre campus 8 miles south of Cheyenne in the Switchgrass Industrial Park, formerly used for seasonal cattle grazing. It is surrounded by rural, agricultural private and state-owned lands, as well as a solar field. 

The nearest residence is .1 miles east of the project. Single-family residences are also located .5 miles north and 1.34 miles south of the location. All of them are “low-density,” Google said in its filing.

Deeds filed with the application identify the owners as the Lazy D Grazing Association and Boyd and Allison Meyer. 

The application outlines a project that includes four data center halls and an office hub, as well as logistics and network buildings and new access roads off U.S. 85, with a planned completion date of 2031. The size of each data center hall is not mentioned, other than to describe them as “large-scale” facilities designed to support “a large number of computer servers operating simultaneously, along with associated mechanical and electrical equipment” for high-density computer workloads.

Google’s data center facilities are being built by Jupiter Star Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Jupiter Star Holdings is replacing Crusoe, which last month told Bloomberg it’d been asked to “pause” construction of Project Jade at the customer’s request. 

That initially led some to believe the huge data center project, which can scale to up to 10 gigawatts, had been put on hold.

Subsequent statements, however, made it clear the project 

. Crusoe actually had been asked to pack up and leave by the data center client, which was taking over construction of the facilities. 

Tallgrass Energy executives told Cowboy State Daily at the time the project was “full steam ahead” and they would still be building out and delivering a bring-your-own power generation hub for the data center client. The client, Tallgrass added then, had not changed, though they declined to confirm who was building such a large data center.

Black Hills Energy also put out a media statement at the time, saying the project was continuing. In a subsequent interview with Cowboy State Daily about how the company is handling 

 coming to its Cheyenne-area grid, the company confirmed it is a partner in the project. 

That suggests the project will eventually be connecting to the existing electrical grid and infrastructure, even though it has been touted as bringing its own power.

Google’s application says Tallgrass Energy will “combine energy resources from Black Hills Energy, fuel cells, and its power plant” to a substation that will serve power to the data center campus.

Wastewater treatment, meanwhile, will occur on site with evaporative lagoon storage. Connection to Cheyenne’s municipal wastewater system was not deemed cost-effective. 

All wastes will be handled in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws, the document goes on to say, and disturbed areas will be revegetated with native or adapted dry-land perennial vegetation. 

Traffic studies will also be conducted, and efforts will be made to minimize noise, wildlife impact, and visual impacts.

Most of the new details about the former Project Jade aren’t coming from press conferences and ribbon cuttings right now. They’re from a June 30 site-plan amendment, filed with Laramie County’s Planning and Development, along with a stack of other documents.

The site-plan overview filed with the amendment identifies Google in its first sentence, publicly revealing the company behind the former Project Jade for the first time.

Google, through Jupiter Star Holdings, has also sent out a required “adjacent neighbor” notice identifying a 32.83-acre area where an office support facility is planned. That was not part of Project Jade’s original conditional-use permit, the letter says.

A hearing has thus been set for the required permit at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 13 in the Laramie County Commission chambers. 

Comments on the matter are to be accepted through July 31, and may be emailed to 

Taken together, the January approvals for Project Jade and June’s amended filings for what’s now being called Project Tembo show that Wyoming’s biggest data center has quietly shifted from a Crusoe-branded campus with an unnamed “hyperscale” client to a Google-owned build advancing through Laramie County’s land use processes. 

That evolution is happening alongside other large-scale tech build-outs in Cheyenne, a city once known as the Magic City on the Plains for its seemingly overnight growth when the Union Pacific railroad arrived.

Some local observers, including longtime Cheyenne attorney and Councilman Larry Wolfe, have begun questioning whether data center and power planning are keeping pace with the speed and scale of these projects. 

It’s a debate that’s likely to grow as Tembo and other campuses continue to converge on Cheyenne’s new tech frontier.

Google 7 8 26

<title>Say Hello To Google, The Mystery Owner Behind Wyoming's Largest Data Center Project | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The 2.7-gigawatt data center once called Project Jade 8 miles south of Cheyenne has been unmasked as a massive Google campus. Google’s project, according to planning documents, will be a 716-acre campus in the Switchgrass Industrial Park.

Say Hello To Google, The Mystery Owner Behind Wyoming's Largest Data Center Project

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Public Safety

A 24-year-old Texan had spent days riding his Triumph motorcycle across the country, detouring through Utah for repairs, crossing Idaho and climbing into Wyoming on what he hoped would become a journey through all 50 states.

As Caleb Batista crested Teton Pass on Tuesday morning, he lifted the visor on his helmet and looked out over the valley below.

"I remember just thinking, 'Oh my God, I rode my bike all the way from flat Texas to this place'," Batista told Cowboy State Daily. "It's a beautiful valley. I can't believe I made it. I'm finally here."

Hungry after skipping breakfast, he started wondering whether Jackson had a McDonald's where he could grab a cheap hamburger.

Seconds later, he was flying through the air after an 

 slammed into his motorcycle from behind.

"I didn't hear an engine, didn't hear brakes, didn't hear squealing or anything," Batista said. "Just boom."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Better View "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For Batista, the trip wasn't just a vacation. "}]

He told Cowboy State Daily he had recently lost his job and was going through a divorce. Rather than sit at home, he decided to chase something he'd always wanted to do.

"I love to travel," he said. "I decided to go on a motorcycle trip because I have a lot of big things happening in my life right now ... so I decided, 'Why don't I take a trip and get my mind off things?’ "

The journey had already thrown him a curveball days earlier when his bike was having mechanical problems that forced him to stay in Salt Lake City waiting for replacement parts before continuing north.

He spent Monday night in Idaho before setting off toward Yellowstone National Park through Teton Pass.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It was actually a really beautiful ride,\" he said."}]

Because he was on a motorcycle, he was able to pass slower traffic in designated passing zones.

[{"type":"text","text":"Near the summit, he overtook a dump truck hauling asphalt."}]

As Batista started down the east side of the pass, he slowed to take in the scenery.

[{"type":"text","text":"He raised his helmet visor for a better view. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I was just thinking, 'I'm finally here',\" the 24-year-old said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then everything changed."}]

"I wish to God there was some warning," he said. "It's my worst fear, getting hit from behind on a motorcycle."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Airborne"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Batista said the impact launched him from his motorcycle. "}]

"I thought maybe I was dreaming," he said. "I thought that I would hit the guardrail, and then fly over the guardrail, and then fly off the cliff. I thought that for a second."

[{"type":"text","text":"His motorcycle cartwheeled nearby."}]

Blood streamed down his face after striking the asphalt.

"I could feel my bones crunching. Like, I could feel, you know, my back every time I hit the ground, my helmet,” Batista said. "Thank God I was wearing my gear. I would probably not have survived, or I would be paralyzed if I didn't have it on, because I hit my head so many times on the ground."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die’.\" "}]

As Batista lay injured on the shoulder, another motorcyclist who had been riding behind him rushed to his side, reassuring him like "a father figure" and telling him, "You're OK, man. You're OK."

From the gurney, Batista could see what he described as "all the carnage ahead." He asked an EMT what had happened, but the medic didn't want to say much, telling him only that "some people aren't going to be the same after today."

The full weight of those words didn't hit until Batista arrived at the hospital and learned two people had died. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Survivor's Guilt"}]

A Wyoming Highway Patrol crash report shows the Kenworth dump truck that struck Batista lost its brakes while descending Teton Pass near milepost 6.8 shortly before 11:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Investigators say the truck first rear-ended Batista's Triumph motorcycle before continuing downhill, striking five more vehicles.

The chain-reaction crash killed Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Tetonia, Idaho, and David Page, 57, of Mammoth Lakes, California.

[{"type":"text","text":"Four other people were injured."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash remains under investigation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"That's probably the hardest part for me,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I have a lot of survivor's guilt.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His voice broke as he explained why."}]

"I don't have a lot of people depending on me," he said. "I'm just a single guy. It should have been me."

Doctors treated him for a dislocated shoulder, a foot injury he believes is fractured, road rash across much of his body and facial injuries requiring stitches.

"If I hadn't been wearing my gear," he said, "I probably would not have survived."

[{"type":"text","text":"His Triumph motorcycle was destroyed."}]

 has been established to help Batista with mounting medical bills, temporary living expenses and replacing belongings lost when his motorcycle was destroyed in the crash.

Motorcyclist teton 7 8 26

<title>Texas Motorcyclist Hit By Dump Truck On Teton Pass Thought He Was Going To Die | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A motorcyclist who was hit by an out-of-control dump truck Tuesday on Teton Pass said he could feel his bones "crunching" as he tumbled across the pavement. "I thought I was going to fly off the cliff," he said. Two people were killed in the crash.

Texas Motorcyclist Hit By Dump Truck On Teton Pass Thought He Was Going To Die

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

It was the hard kick to the groin of a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper that could get a 47-year-old Laramie man up to 10 years in prison after a high-speed chase through two counties in a pickup towing a camper.

The alleged assault on Trooper Brandon Todd came after Nicholas J. Blocker ditched his truck and camper in Curt Gowdy State Park following Todd flattening the truck's tires with Stop Sticks just after 11 p.m. July 2.

Blocker ditched the disabled Chevy truck and camper and tried to hide in the underbrush of the park at night, Todd recounts in an affidavit of probable cause he filed in Laramie County Circuit Court on Tuesday ahead of a Friday court hearing for Blocker.

Todd flushed Blocker out, tackled him and, with the help of another trooper, handcuffed the uncooperative man’s hands behind his back, the affidavit says.

That’s when the Blocker’s trouble exploded from a laundry list of misdemeanor charges into suspected felony assault on a peace officer.

“While standing near blocker after he was on his feet, Blocker then proceeded to square up to me, and using his right leg and foot, kick me as hard as he could in the groin,” Trooper Todd wrote in his affidavit.

That caused him to experience “severe and intense pain in my groin area that was causing me to be nauseous and making it hard to walk on my own power,” he wrote.

Todd continued to assist in apprehending Blocker, but then was transported to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released in the early morning hours of July 3, according to the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Chase"}]

Blocker is scheduled for a Friday appearance in Albany County Circuit Court to face at least three criminal charges and 12 other traffic citations related to the chase and arrest.

That chase began in Albany County, and Todd wrote that he picked it up at about 10:51 p.m. when dispatchers alerted other agencies about the truck and camper trying to elude law enforcement driving eastbound on I-80.

“While monitoring the radio, I heard that the suspect vehicle had taken exit 335 (Buford Road) and had begun traveling eastbound on Buford Road,” the affidavit says.

Blocker continued driving east until he crossed into Laramie County, while Todd set up Stop Sticks at the juncture of Buford and Crystal Lake roads.

At about 11:08 p.m., Blocker’s truck ran over the disabling device, but he continued driving anyway, the affidavit says.

“The pursuit continued eastbound on Crystal Lake Road, where the suspect vehicle then made a left-hand turn and continued westbound on Wyoming 210 (Happy Jack Road),” Todd’s affidavit continues.

Blocker then turned into Curt Gowdy State Park, where he ditched the truck and camper and took off on foot “through a drainage and into the thick timberline,” the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Caught"}]

Trooper Todd followed the man through the timberline and “found Blocker hiding in thick vegetation, attempting to hide from law enforcement,” the affidavit says.

Blocker continued to resist law enforcement, ignoring commands to come out of his hiding spot, then trying to run on foot again, Todd wrote.

“I intercepted Blocker at the edge of the thick vegetation and the edge of the beach,” the affidavit says. “When I made contact with Blocker, he had his right hand behind his back as if attempting to reach for a concealed weapon.”

He didn’t have a weapon, and instead “made a quick and sudden movement with his right hand and arm, and pointed his fist at me,” Todd wrote.

That’s when Todd and another trooper took Blocker to the ground, handcuffed him, and stood him up — then Blocker kicked Todd in the groin.

The man failed to get away, however, and was instead put into a wrap restraint and handed over to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Charges"}]

Court documents don’t detail what started the chase with law enforcement in Albany County.

However, in addition to a long list of alleged crimes and violations related to the chase, he also faces a domestic battery charge from earlier that evening.

[{"type":"text","text":"His tally from the chase includes one felony:"}]

• Interference with a peace officer causing injury, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.

[{"type":"text","text":"And multiple misdemeanor charges:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Driving while under the influence."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Interference with a peace officer — resisting."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Two counts of reckless driving."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Speeding six-plus mph over the 75 mph speed limit on I-80."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Failure to travel in a single lane."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Two stop sign violations."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Failure to comply with a red traffic signal."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Following too closely."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Fleeing or attempting to elude."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Not signaling before making a turn."}]

Highway patrol and Buford 7 8 26

<title>Laramie Man Allegedly Kicks Trooper In Groin At End Of Truck Towing Camper Chase | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was an alleged kick to the groin of a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper that could get a Laramie man up to 10 years in prison after running from the law in a pickup towing a camper. The “intense pain was causing me to be nauseous,” the trooper said.

Laramie Man Allegedly Kicks Trooper In Groin At End Of Truck Towing Camper Chase

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

A vocal crowd of Green River residents opposed a nearly $112,000 anti-terrorism 

 Tuesday, and the City Council and mayor voted 6-1 against approving the grant award.

That means the Green River Police Department will not receive the $111,956 in federal Department of Homeland Security money that the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security had awarded it.

Green River Police Chief Shawn Sturlaugson had planned to install around four Motorola brand license-plate readers, largely at city entrances, to respond quickly to criminal getaway or vulnerable-person situations, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

He defended the plan at the City Council meeting Tuesday evening, saying a guardrail policy is in progress. He hoped to limit data storage to 30 days and he had no intention of using the cameras proactively or on things like expired registration.

Green River City Councilman Gary Killpack moved to accept the grant award. Councilman Robert Berg seconded the motion for the sake of holding a vote, he said. Then Berg, Mayor Pete Rust, and the other four council members – Jessica Maser, Mike Shutran, Sherry Bushman, and Ron Williams – voted nay. Some of them applauded with the crowd after their nay votes.

The people's proactive shutdown is unique. Oftener in Wyoming cities such as Cheyenne, Jackson and Glenrock, the major outcry against license-plate reader cameras unfolds after the cameras are already in place.

In the case of license-plate readers that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Wind River Intertribal Council had installed at the entrances to the Wind River Indian Reservation, it is unknown if any public meeting was held on the topics prior to installation. 

But first, numerous people attended the meeting and 10 spoke against the cameras.

No one spoke in favor of the license plate reader grant or installation effort.

Marshall Burt – a former lawmaker and the first Libertarian elected to the Wyoming Legislature – acknowledged that he’d “kicked the hornet’s nest” by raising awareness of the meeting and urging people to attend.

“I don’t know you, chief; I want to say you’re a good person and I believe you have good intentions,” Burt said to Sturlaugson.

Yet, he warned, Motorola would store the license-plate reader data and could aggregate or share it. Litigation is unfolding on these data problems nationwide. And the government can work around the Fourth Amendment by going through third-party data holders, said Burt.

“Now yes, I’d say we are more than (surveilled) every day of our lives,” he said. “A lot of those choices come from myself. If I use my phone and I add an app, and it says I’m going to be monitored, then I make the choice to be monitored myself, right?”

Burt suggested “strongly” that the city study Motorola’s software system closely.

Gregory Sherwin, who identified himself as a lifelong resident of Green River, cast the system as just another slow, well-intentioned erosion of freedom.

He urged the City Council to “defend these principles of due process, presumption of innocence and freedom of association – and the simple right to move about our communities without being constantly monitored, analyzed and profiled.”

Sherwin added, “These are not outdated ideals. They’re the foundation of a free people.”

[{"type":"text","text":"As with many speakers, robust applause followed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Another resident, Dr. Blaine Saunders, reflected on others’ comments."}]

“I’m grateful to be in this town. It’s nice to hear people stand up for their rights. Nice to hear they’re standing up for the Constitution,” said Saunders. “My grandfather was a Wyoming pioneer, and I think he’d be proud of what we heard tonight.”

Multiple people paid respects to Sturlaugson or thanked him for his service. He acknowledged their concerns and their passion.

“Ther’s no one who takes the Constitution and civil liberties more seriously than me,” said Sturlaugson, adding, “I also took an oath to protect the citizens of Green River … This is my job.”

He later said, “Outside of my uniform, I might be sitting with them (the critics).”

Some council members apologized for voting in favor of the grant application months earlier.

“I also want to kind of issue an apology on my part,” said Councilwoman Jessica Maser. “Because when we applied for this grant – I know I voted in favor of it – I did not fully understand what this was.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Councilman Mike Shutran said he wanted to echo Maser’s comments."}]

“This type of a situation I think the gravity’s probably a little bit more than we anticipated. I think public safety is always at the forefront, but undermining the trust of the citizens is something we probably can’t undo,” said Shutran.

Councilman Berg touted the advances of technology. But, he said, “I cannot vote for this due to the fact I’d be telling the citizens of Green River that I think I know what’s best for them. And they have spoken.”

Councilwoman Bushman gave an example of the cameras’ potential benefits – of flagging a sex offender near a school – but she voiced concerns about the potential for a data breach of Motorola’s system.

Ten people urged against the camera installation during the public comment segment. Several more sat in the room and watched. As of Wednesday morning, the YouTube stream of the meeting had garnered 118 views.

Rust and Killpack both speculated that though they heard staunch opposition Tuesday evening, “another side” would emerge from the residents with time.

Rust theorized some people with children want the cameras and will trade their privacy concerns for that safety reassurance.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We are only hearing one side tonight,” said Rust."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Berg countered: “The other side had the same opportunity.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Spectators erupted with applause."}]

Killpack moved to table the vote to a workshop to draw out that other side. His motion died without a second.

Though Rust defended the cameras and speculated about the silent “other side,” he explained his later nay vote on the grant approval by saying he’s concerned about the third-party data holding issues.

Green river council meeting 7 7 26

<title>Green River Residents Shut Down License Plate Reader Camera Project | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A vocal crowd converged Tuesday on the Green River City Council meeting and opposed a $112,000 federal grant for the police department to install license plate reader cameras. Then the City Council and mayor voted 6-1 against finalizing the grant.

Green River Residents Shut Down License Plate Reader Camera Project

A Jackson airport taxi owner had just dropped off passengers in Victor, Idaho, and was heading home over Teton Pass when traffic slowed behind a dump truck hauling asphalt Tuesday. 

Motorcycles slipped around it. A camper pulled to the shoulder near the 8,431-foot summit to let vehicles by. A few pickups followed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dumitru Cebotari was next. Instead, he hesitated."}]

Moments later, he watched a deadly highway crash unfold just seconds in front of him.

"I feel like I had an angel protecting me," Cebotari told Cowboy State Daily. "One second changed everything."

Just before 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, the Kenworth dump truck lost its brakes while descending WY 22 on the east side of Teton Pass near milepost 6.8, wrote the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

[{"type":"text","text":"The truck struck six vehicles before flipping onto its side."}]

A Jackson driver who watched Tuesday's deadly Teton Pass crash unfold says he nearly passed the dump truck moments before its brakes failed and crashed into six vehicles, killing two people. "He was driving way too fast,” the eyewitness said.

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