It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, December 4th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.
--
The leaders of Wyoming’s budding rare earth mining startups were feeling vindicated Tuesday after China announced a ban on exporting several critical minerals to the United States.
The Chinese ban announced Tuesday includes gallium, used to make semiconductors, and germanium, used for infrared and fiber optics technology. China also banned antimony, used for military explosives, and super hard materials like tungsten, used for armor-piercing bullets and shells.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the ban is actually good news for Wyoming’s emerging rare earth industry.
“China has a 90% Stranglehold basically, on the world supply of many of these critical minerals… but it's invigorating to the Wyoming rare earths folks who are already here working on standing up a domestic supply chain, they are years ahead of other states. Here in Wyoming, thanks to these efforts, we've got at least two or three rare earth mine locations, plus we have the Upton plant, which is pioneering a brand new process… which would make a truly domestic supply chain.”
Wyoming’s huge head start over other American states can only be a benefit in what is definitely becoming something of a rare earths arms race.
Read the full story HERE.
--
One of the looming questions about the upcoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is whether he will pardon all 1,500-plus people who have either been convicted or face charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the chances that Trump will issue such pardons increased over the weekend, when President Joe Biden surprised many by issuing a wide-sweeping pardon to his son Hunter for the federal gun and tax evasion charges he was facing. But many Wyoming Republicans aren’t sure a blanket pardon would be the right step to take.
“Even Campbell County Commissioner Scott Clem, who invited a January 6 participant to speak in Gillette last year, said he would like for Trump to not pardon people who committed violent acts on January 6, and specifically acts against law enforcement officers… Jack Speight, former chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party and a former federal prosecutor, agreed and said that he would hate to see anyone who you know did acts of violence committed that day get basically a free pass.”
And a blanket pardon could upset some of Trump’s moderate Republican allies in Congress, who have already said Trump shouldn’t pardon anyone who attacked police.
Read the full story HERE.
--
When his father pardoned him for nearly 11 years of charged and uncharged criminal acts, Hunter Biden’s Fifth Amendment right against speaking on issues that may incriminate him faded, but didn’t vanish.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that despite his immunity from prosecution for any federal crimes, he still has a right to remain silent if there’s a reasonable chance that a state prosecutor could bring charges against him.
“If there's any chance that there's a state component or state jurisdiction to any of these crimes, though - if Congress, for example, wants to coax a testimony out of Hunter Biden where he'd otherwise invoke the fifth, they’d probably have to get immunity promises from the relevant state prosecutors.”
Republicans have frequently accused Joe Biden of personally benefiting from his son’s foreign business deals in Ukraine and China while he was vice president. The Bidens have disputed these claims.
Read the full story HERE.
--
A highly destructive parasite has been confirmed in cattle in Mexico, prompting warnings from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for American ranchers to be on the lookout for it - and an immediate block on animal imports from Mexico.
New world screwworm was found in a cow in a southern Mexico state. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that these pests are fly larvae that infest living tissue of warm-blooded animals rather than dead ones, causing infection in their hosts.
“They burrow into the skin, and they have hooks for mouths, and they are just hearing at your flesh, and they leave these huge wounds, and they were eradicated from America in 1966 and now that they're making an appearance, the USDA… will not allow the cattle to come over, because we have to keep this insect out of America ... The Wyoming Department of Agriculture and our Wyoming veterinarian is keeping an eye on this infestation.”
If left unchecked, the infestations could spread north into the United States, jeopardizing ecosystems and causing devastating economic impacts.
Read the full story HERE.
--
Former University of Wyoming football coach Dana Dimel died Tuesday at the age of 62.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Dimel coached the Cowboys from 1997-1999. At that time, Dimel was the youngest Division 1 head coach in the country, hired at the age of 34.
“I spoke to a number of former columnists, sports columnist reporters in Wyoming who knew Demel pretty well when he was coach, and they were shocked to hear about his death. Former Casper Star Tribune sports editor Ron Goldberg said… dimmel brought a ton of energy and passion to the program, and he really connected with his players and the fan base on a pretty deep level… The team had a winning record all three seasons he coached the team, and he really put out a pretty good product in the field that kind of continued a winning tradition when he took over the coaching job from former coach Joe Tiller.”
UW was Dimel’s first head coaching gig and he had big shoes to fill, coming in on the heels of Tiller’s legendary 1996 season. The cause of Dimel’s death was not released.
Read the full story HERE.
--
Teton County is continuing its run as the wealthiest in the nation, a trend now for the last 20 years. Per capita incomes in 2023 coasted to a new high of over $471,000 — ever closer to a new milestone of half a million dollars.
That puts the mean income for a typical Jackson Hole household at $1.13 million — a figure that business reporter Renee Jean says is anything but typical for the rest of Wyoming. In fact, it’s not even typical for longtime or lifelong residents of Teton County.
“I think it's really interesting that there isn't even another county in the United States that's even close to what Teton County's wealth is right now. The next nearest is Summit County in Utah. Their per capita income is $259,993 it's like almost half of what Teton county per capita income is… There's so much demand for from billionaires to live in Jackson that even millionaires can't afford to live there, and they're moving out to communities around Jackson.”
What’s more, Teton County’s per capita income doesn’t just lead the nation. It blows the rest of the nation away in terms of sheer wealth. The per capita income for America as a whole in 2023 was just under $70,000.
Read the full story HERE.
--
After sitting idle for the past two winter seasons and a summer zipline that’s been closed since 2023, Sleeping Giant Ski Area owner Nick Piazza is looking for someone to help run the resort or just buy it outright.
Piazza told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson he put the ski area located just outside Yellowstone National Park, including all of its associated infrastructure, on the market Tuesday for $500,000.
“He confirmed that the business is looking for either a strategic partner to kind of share the load of duties of running the ski area, or someone who will buy it outright… n the world of ski area sales, this is actually really, really cheap, almost pocket change for someone who could afford to purchase a ski area. Most ski areas are selling for at least a couple million dollars, so it's a pretty good deal regardless.”
Piazza bought the previously nonprofit ski area in 2020 for less than $100. He said his top goal would be to find someone who’s willing to operate the hill on a daily basis, and particularly focus on the mountain’s summer operational activities.
Read the full story HERE.
--
Retired University of Wyoming Professor Robert Kelly gained notoriety among his colleagues during a long career in archeology. A noted expert in his field, he’s literally written the textbook on the subject.
The last thing Kelly ever expected was he’d be the answer to a question on the hugely popular quiz show “Jeopardy!” He told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz he had no idea how or why he was selected for a reference on the show, and wasn’t informed by the show’s producers.
“They've referenced Robert R Kelly started collecting arrowheads at age 10 and contributed to a textbook in this field. And of course, the answer was, what is archeology? And you know, he is very well known in archeology circles, but he had no clue that, you know, lay people would know who he was. And he said that the who did answer the question correctly probably answered it by the clues, you know, from what field of study was not his name, because he said he really doubts that he has name recognition outside. Within archeology, yeah, he has big name recognition outside that field. Probably not.”
Kelly came to the University of Wyoming in 1997, and retired from there in 2023. But even after retiring, he’s stayed active in field work. This summer, he spent time on a field project near Douglas at a site where Paleo-Indian hunters killed a mammoth about 13,000 years ago.
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 Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel! And don’t forget to drop in on the Cowboy State Daily morning show with Jake Nichols, Monday through Friday from 6 to 10 a.m.! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
