It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, December 10th. 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.
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It’s official. Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp, or UEC, has finalized its acquisition of global mining company Rio Tinto’s former Wyoming uranium assets.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that UEC can now produce up to 12.1 million pounds of uranium annually, including 8.1 million pounds that can be produced here in Wyoming, to fuel the nuclear plants that may be the power supply of the future.
“Uranium Energy already owned, like 20 sites in Wyoming now, they own a couple more really rich sites. That gives them a really deep bench. They're accelerating their timeline. They are now the nation's number one when it comes to capacity for uranium production, and that's all really on the backbone of Wyoming's assets… You know, Wyoming has a great climate for artificial intelligence. What does artificial intelligence need?... artificial intelligence takes a lot more computing power. So, artificial intelligence companies that are incorporating that, you know, meta, Google, all of those say that they are looking at nuclear power as the likely alternative that they'll turn to.”
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have all said they expect nuclear power to run the huge data centers they foresee needing as they incorporate advances in artificial intelligence to their operations.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’s getting colder around the Cowboy State, with some serious snow expected in parts of Wyoming this week.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the Northern Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota through 5 a.m. Wednesday. And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that it’ll be a doozy for the first significant winter storm of the season for the region.
“The latest cold snap is heading east rather than west. So it's just going to clip northeast Wyoming. It started on Monday, and it's going to continue into the early morning hours of Wednesday with this winter storm warning. But Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day said that these cold snaps have been favoring the east, but the shift is on the horizon. Eventually, these cold weather systems and these cold fronts from the Pacific Ocean are going to move directly across Wyoming, and that's when we're going to get the real winter weather that we've missed out on for the most part so far.”
Day believes there’s a change on the horizon, especially as 2024 ends. The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s could be the first statewide taste of the colder, snowier winter ahead.
Read the full story HERE.
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Democrats and Wyoming Freedom Caucus are both unhappy with some of the committee assignments for the upcoming session. The Freedom Caucus condemns Senate appointments in particular, saying committees will be controlled “by Liz Cheney Republicans.”
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that presumptive Senate President Bo Biteman and House Speaker Chip Neiman made the selections for their respective chambers.
“The Freedom Caucus is upset with the choices in the Senate, saying they believe that Liz Cheney Republicans are in too many leadership positions on the Senate committee side. The Wyoming Democrats are upset for a completely opposite reason. They are upset because none of their members got chosen for the joint education committee… State Representative Mike Yin… said that he believes there's kind of a larger plot at play to suppress Democrat voices against… he privatization of public education in Wyoming. ”
Committees play an integral role in shepherding bills through the legislative process, holding the power to kill a bill before it’s ever considered by the entire chamber.
Read the full story HERE.
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A transgender University of Wyoming sorority member’s lawsuit against two lawyers who leveled allegations against the student is headed to trial.
Artemis Langford sued Cassie Craven and John Knepper in March, two attorneys who filed a lawsuit against Langford’s sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, a year prior. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Langford’s lawsuit accuses the attorneys of abuse of process, malicious prosecution, intrusion upon seclusion and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Langford's basis for the lawsuit is basically, you know, you guys included too many salacious details about me that didn't support your legal claims… the judge ordered you to reveal your clients names, but not my name, and yet you did, and Langford accused them of basically using these kind of more bombastic allegations or facts in the action to raise money.”
On Friday, the Laramie County District Court Judge set a scheduling conference to map out a route for trial.
Read the full story HERE.
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Photos of a dented lampshade, a clasp from a Carhartt jacket, and a victim lying alongside a bed in a Casper motel were part of the first day of a trial of a 44-year-old homeless man charged with second-degree murder.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck was in court for the opening day of the trial of James Mavigliano, who was on trial for the March 5 killing of another man at a Casper motel.
“According to evidence introduced in court today and in a police affidavit, they alleged that he had strangled a 28 year old man last March… it's a homeless individual, and I was actually in a courtroom… right after this event happened, and he was talking to a judge about another matter, and he said, I killed somebody. And so this is somebody that has confessed to the crime, but… he pleaded not guilty, and now there's a real trial going on.”
The trial is expected to continue for much of the week. The district attorney’s office has listed 23 witnesses as part of the case. Second-degree murder carries a potential penalty of 20 years to life in prison.
Read the full story HERE.
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President-elect Donald Trump is not ruling out the possibility that former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney could face legal prosecution for investigating him.
On “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Trump said the members of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, of which Cheney was vice chair, should be jailed. Politics reporter Leo Wolfson has the story.
“He said that although members of this committee deserve to go to jail, he's not going to direct his new attorney general or the director of the FBI to pursue prosecution against Cheney or the other members of the committee. He did, however, say that he expects them to look into the issue as just a matter of course, Cheney responded to Trump on Sunday, saying there's absolutely no criminal liability of any kind that the committee has committed, and that it's ridiculous that the President Elect is even bringing up this in a Conversation.”
It’s unclear what legal grounds Trump would have to investigate Cheney and the committee, which was working as a function of the Legislative branch and was technically performing legislative duties.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 63-year-old jelly and jam vendor from Lander is accused of hauling six pounds of methamphetamine and 29 pounds of dumpster-scrounged marijuana from the area of Las Vegas, Nevada, to Shoshoni.
Mary Renee Weymouth pleaded not guilty on Thursday to five felony drug charges, according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“the agent said he was investigating her. He got her card at a farmer's market where she was selling jellies. Started texting with her, trying to get prices on drugs. And you know, there was another woman involved that was also setting things up, according to the agent's account, and in all of this, so he's texting these women, he applies for a search warrant to ping women's phone, and that's when he discovers the whole trip to Vegas. That's where she's allegedly texting about dumpster diving for marijuana, and she comes home with what is said to be with, what agents say it were six pounds of meth and, like, 29 pounds of marijuana.”
54-year-old Cathy Gordon is also facing similar drug charges related to Waymouth’s case.
Read the full story HERE.
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Nobody’s really sure why a grizzly bear called Ethyl racked up 5,000 miles wandering all over Montana and Idaho, but perhaps she was homesick.
Now the epic travels of this wandering bear are giving wildlife researchers keen insight into bear behavior, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“Ethel liked to get in trouble and had to get relocated twice. And she ended up, over a couple year period, logging 5000 miles, wandering around… Now, logging 5000 miles in two years, that could very well be a record for bears. But they do move around a lot more than people think that they might, and sometimes they will take off on these long journeys… apparently the reason Ethel wandered so far is because she couldn't, she couldn't figure out how to get back home.”
Ethyl’s wanderings were especially unusual because she was already a bear of advanced age when she started her epic 2012-2014 trek. For a bear of Ethyl’s age to wander as far as she did is more indication that she was probably trying to figure out how to get back home.
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! 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.
