It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, August 20th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Outrider PAC. According to a new survey, 79% of Wyoming Voters support Freedom in Education. Learn more about Educational Savings Accounts in Wyoming at OutriderPAC.com
It’s primary election day in Wyoming, and Cowboy State Daily is planning unprecedented coverage of the races and issues that are important to residents.
Cowboy State Daily’s editor-in-chief, Jimmy Orr, is here to outline where you can get the most up-to-date information - and hear from experts who have unique perspectives and expert opinions about tonight’s event.
“We haven't done anything like this before. This is a live two and a half hour broadcast. We are in 11 communities across the state, and so we will have live election results all evening long… and while we are waiting for election results to come in, our own Wendy Corr will be hosting a panel of six people who are political columnists for Cowboy State daily… and politicos, people who have been around the political game for a long time. We have great guests too. The entire delegation is coming in, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis, Harriet Hageman… former governors Dave Fruedenthal and Mike Sullivan, and we'll also get on some of the winners of the night’s election… There's a real race in Lusk, and so Renee Jean will be there, and we've got people from all over the state, of course, Clair in Riverton. We've got Leo here in Cheyenne. We've got reporters in Cody and Rock Springs and Thermopolis and Buffalo… It starts tonight, at 7pm, we hope everyone will join us.”
—
Political reporter Leo Wolfson has spearheaded tonight’s election coverage. He says this primary election will have major ramifications, not only for what the next state Legislature will look like, but also what kind of election activity the state wants to reward and condemn moving forward.
“The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is the farther right wing of the Republican Party, has the opportunity to take the majority of Republican seats, and maybe even more so the majority of all seats in the Wyoming house, which would absolutely distinctly put the legislature in more of a farther right, more farther right direction. The current status quo also could continue if the Wyoming caucus, which is kind of the more centered to moderate wing of Republican legislators, if they are able to hold on to the numbers that they have or gain gain seats as well. So that's going to be the big kind of battle that's at play.”
—
Canada-based American Premium Uranium Inc. has begun exploratory drilling on mining claims in a 40-mile square area in central Wyoming’s Red Desert.
American Premium is backed by major investors like New Jersey-based hedge fund Sachem Cove Partners, which has been staking out uranium land in Wyoming since the price of the critical ore on the spot market was around $20 a pound back in 2017. And Energy reporter Pat Maio points out the commodity has more than quadrupled in price since then - which makes the company’s Red Desert exploration that much more lucrative.
“It's in a really rich area for uranium, up around UR Energy, which already is up in production. This company is going to be looking at just how extensive the uranium deposits are in the area where it's exploring. They're already saying it could be anywhere between 8 million and 12 million pounds, 14 million pounds.”
The industry is finding renewed life after the U.S. has taken steps to begin enriching its own nuclear fuel rather than buy from Russia.
Read the full story HERE.
—
The Montana motorcyclist who disappeared Aug. 11 while on a Western states road trip with friends is in a Missoula hospital recovering, after an intense five-day search for him ended Friday.
24-year-old Zachary DeMoss was giving two friends a head start as the three headed from Kooskia, Idaho, to Lolo, Montana, on Idaho’s Highway 12. But DeMoss, the more experienced rider of the three, ran into an unexpected problem - quite literally. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to DeMoss’s friends about his miraculous rescue.
“What everyone was asking me over the weekend was, how did he get derailed, and on Monday, when she was ready to talk about it, his friend Ali said, he we think he swerved to hit a deer, and then he bolted over the steep shoulder and his bike crashed into a tree and he fell into a creek.”
The family said they have been overwhelmed by the generosity of those who helped DeMoss, or prayed for him.
Read the full story HERE.
—
A popular social media video that opens with a bear showing up at a family’s front door, set to a sappy love song with cute emojis littered throughout is put out there as a heartwarming tale of nature communing with humans.
What the video really shows is a level of ignorance and interaction with one of the planet’s apex predators that’s really just incredibly stupid, wildlife experts told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“The idea is that this family adopted this bear cub and raised a bear, and now the bear comes back to visit him. Well, first of all, it's obviously fake, because it's multiple clips of different bears in different situations… I talked to a couple biologists, and they said, This is just mind numbingly stupid. I mean, it's not going to end well for the people, because it's only a matter of time before the bear swipes at somebody, bites somebody, stomps somebody, and then when that happens, it's inevitable that the bear at that point has to be killed.”
Experts say videos of people supposedly adopting bears can make the jobs of wildlife professionals more difficult.
Read the full story HERE.
—
A lightning-sparked wildfire is uncontained and has burned more than 2,500 acres of heavy timber in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, about 7 miles southwest of Togwotee Pass in northwest Wyoming.
The fire, dubbed the Fish Creek Fire, was started Friday and remains 0% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy.
“The Fish Creek fire just blew up overnight. This is the fire that's outside by Togwotee pass, and it is now at 2500 acres, 0% contained. The US Forest Service is bringing in just a super crew that is going to be supervising over this fire, and they are going to be watching at the same time all the smaller fires that have occurred in their forest. So be on the alert. We could have more smoke showing up. Just depends on the weather.”
Emergency closures on roads leading to Fish Creek are being put into effect and will be open for emergency personnel only.
Read the full story HERE.
—
The Wyoming Republican Party has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Sheridan County Republican group that has been using a trademarked GOP elephant logo on its political mailers promoting local GOP precinct committee candidates.
The chief legal counsel for the party said in a Saturday cease and desist letter that BSCL putting the logo on mailers is “fraudulent, misleading and unauthorized,” according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.
“This was the official kind of logo that is trademarked by the Republican National Committee and they said these gave off a false impression that these mailers were sent out by the party itself, when, in fact, it was put out by a group that it described as Liz Cheney Republicans.”
Although the logo is a registered trademark, the GOP elephant logo is commonly used by Republican candidates throughout the country.
Read the full story HERE.
—
A 22-year-old New Mexico man is in the Uinta County Detention Center on claims that he endangered children and tried to sneak fentanyl into the jail.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that law enforcement first started investigating Agustin Camargo over fears he and his colleague, Roberto Mayorga, were trafficking a 15-year-old girl through the state.
“Somebody called in like a girl at a gas station in Evanston needs help, and so Trooper Scott Nielsen was like, Well, I'm in the area. It would turn into a four hour plus job where he had these two guys who were just shifty, and their stories weren't lining up, and they kept changing their stories, allegedly. And then he has a 15 year old girl and a two year old girl in the backseat of their car.”
The girl told police she wasn’t on the trip against her will. They were going to see a friend, and she’d gone on the trip with her mother’s permission. She added that the two men weren’t related to her, but were friends with her parents.
However, Camargo was found to be in possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia.
Read the full story HERE.
—
A new Wyoming pro-choice abortion group is raising some eyebrows for supporting three Republican state House candidates in Tuesday’s primary election.
Wyoming United for Freedom is supporting the campaigns of House District 57 candidate Julie Jarvis in Casper, House District 50 candidate David Hill in Cody, and House District 43 candidate state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer of Cheyenne.
But politics reporter Leo Wolfson says some of the candidates the group has been pushing are less than enthusiastic about getting that support.
“Spoke to Marcy Kindred, a leader with the group, and she said that she's aware that there's certain candidates that aren't so excited about them, supporting them, but her kind of attitude, basically is that it's tough luck… She believes that more Republicans should kind of speak out for their pro choice beliefs, if they have them.”
Wyoming United for Freedom has also put out a voter guide where it labeled nine Republicans and 12 Democrats as “freedom candidates” for their pro-choice stances.
Read the full story HERE.
—
The opening of the 43rd Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West was packed Friday with art lovers and artists. They sipped wine and cocktails while taking in the 104 works of art submitted by contemporary Western artists valued at more than $1.32 million.
But judging the winners of the prestigious awards given out at the beginning of the month-long show is a tricky task, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“Every year the show has three judges that represent three realms of the art world, the collector, the business, like the gallery and the curatorial historian side. And those three judges, most of whom have never judged the show before, go in and they come up with their choices for what they think are the most deserving pieces. And then they have to come to a consensus to determine which are not just the best pieces that you know reflect the press, artistry, composition, palette, all that sort of stuff, but which represent the show the best. And they take that job really seriously.”
All three judges eagerly await the live auction September 20. One judge said he plans to attend in person and could be bidding on some of the pieces as they make their way down the runway.
Read the full story HERE.
—
And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper by hitting the “Daily Newsletter” button on cowboystatedaily.com. I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
