It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, March 5th. 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 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, host Jake Nichols brings you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - presented with Jake’s unique humor and lively commentary. Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage and join the live broadcast!
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Wyoming Treasurer Curt Meier and Secretary of State Chuck Gray are both dreaming big about Trump’s golden age, particularly when it comes to its legacy industries like coal.
The two want to see a port sited in the state of Washington, which has already blocked such an effort once, so that Wyoming can send its coal to market in the Pacific Rim countries. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that during a discussion last week aimed at refocusing the state’s economic development agency, the Wyoming Business Council, both Gray and Meier expressed support for trying again for a port on the west coast.
“Curt Meier has already gone out and sought a legal opinion to find out if Wyoming bought land in Washington, would that create legal standing in the event that Wyoming tries again to build a port in Washington to take coal to market? So what happened last time Wyoming tried to do that, Washington blocked it. It's said that, according to its environmental laws, that this was a hazard, you know, that would be bad for the environment… Wyoming's contention at the time they brought a suit, and their contention is that's really a violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause. You can't block a land locked state from doing legal business because you just don't like coal anymore, and so they filed suit. But the legal process took a long time, and the case fell apart when the developer went bankrupt.”
While Gray and Meier have sparred, sometimes publicly, the two men seemed to agree about the idea of an investment vehicle in Washington, or some other West Coast State, to help further assure the chances of a port effort in Washington, or in another West Coast state.
Read the full story HERE.
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With one swoop of the pen, Wyoming will offer public money for private education to all grade levels while expanding its voucher program for pre-K students.
Gov. Mark Gordon announced Tuesday that he’ll sign House Enrolled Act 52 into law, a bill that creates universal school vouchers for the K-12 level. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the law will also provide income-based pre-K educational saving accounts, or ESAs, for children 4 years and older in Wyoming.
“This is a pretty big deal, $7,000 per child, no matter a parent's income. So you can make $200,000 a year, or you can make $20,000 a year, you'll still get 7000 for your child to access private education with public dollars. Also part of that bill, it expanded the already existing program for pre K school choice in Wyoming, boosting up the cap from 150% of the federal poverty level to 250% of the federal of the federal poverty level… And Wyoming is the only state in the country still to offer school choice for pre K students.”
Gordon said he believes providing support at the start of a student’s education will lead to higher-performing students down the road and eventually a better workforce, as well as help working families.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming legislators have fought back against a Biden administration effort that some say tries to price out oil and gas producers by hiking bond rates 1,400% - and more.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that a $45 million dollar pool of money could help those operators with their bonding.
“What they did was increase the cost of a bond on a single lease by 15 fold, and on a blanket lease from $25,000 to $500,000. Now the administration said that this was needed in order to protect the taxpayer from picking up the tab on reclamation, but Wyoming's leaders have said that it's going to be so exorbitant it'll force many of the state's small operators out of business entirely, and in a state like Wyoming, where close to 80% of its operators are considered small and mid sized operators that could have outsized impacts, not just on production, but on the state's revenue as well… as a way to create a solution, the state has now developed a unique bonding full system in which the Wyoming oil and gas Conservation Commission will partner with private insurers to drop a framework that allows small operators to get access to the capital and the bonds they need to operate without having to post the full cash collateral up front, and instead pay the cost of the bond off over the period of the expected production of the well itself.”
This innovative solution is being touted as the first of its kind by industry leaders, and could change the paradigm for small oil and gas operations - and not just in Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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23-year-old Cody resident Kailey Kline may never know what caused her to suffer seizures and fall into a coma on New Year’s Eve, but her mother remains convinced law enforcement hasn’t done enough to get to the bottom of what happened.
Kline and her mother allege that on New Year’s Eve, Kline had her drink spiked with antifreeze at the popular Silver Dollar Bar in Cody, causing her to be airlifted and hospitalized in Billings, Montana, for nearly a week. But Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the results of a police investigation released last Friday found no connection to poisoning, and led to the Park County attorney closing the case.
“The report from a neurologist and a medical examiner that was signed off on by Park County attorney Brian Skoric, believes that she was not poisoned with antifreeze and that there's certain pieces of evidence to point to that, but the report does kind of leave out some ambiguity… Amber Espinoza, Kaylee Klein's mother, disagrees with the findings… she shared a medical report with me that was given to Klein right after she was admitted to the hospital that does show she had trace amounts of antifreeze in their system… Skoric also interviewed a potential suspect that client had accused of poisoning her drink. Skoric found no any evidence to determine that this person would have caused that and no motivating vectors as well.”
The Silver Dollar bar noted that it is one of the few establishments with bouncers, and that they take extensive measures to maintain a safe environment. But her mother said as a result of The Silver Dollar’s comments, her daughter is now facing bullying and harassment.
Read the full story HERE.
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To avoid another catastrophic wildfire season and revive Wyoming’s struggling timber industry, logging can’t begin soon enough or happen fast enough, some lumber industry leaders told state legislators Tuesday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that swaths of dead trees, many of them killed by insect infestations, remain a huge fire hazard.
“We had that horrific wildfire season last year, especially in the western part of the state, that continues to be a concern, especially with we still have a lot of dead timber piling up in the forests all over the state because of beetle kill and other infest stations and diseases that are killing trees… the way some people see it, at least people at that meeting saw it, is that logging and kicking Wyoming's timber mills back up into high gear is the answer, or one of the answers that can help mitigate this problem… Of course, you know, the Trump administration is implementing some tariffs that might, you know, pinch down on the amount of timber coming from Canada, which industry leaders here hope will increase the demand for their product here. And kind of, you know, take a dual approach of clearing some of the force out to reduce the fire hazard, while also boosting their industry.”
Industry experts are finding hope in President Donald Trump’s stance that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian timber, as timber from Canada flooding the American market has contributed to the Wyoming lumber industry's woes.
Read the full story HERE.
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Seven election bills, including a controversial ban on ballot drop boxes, met the chopping block in the Wyoming Senate in one blow going into the final week of the 2025 session, drawing Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s criticism of the Senate for letting them die.
Gray played an extremely active role in advocating for the election bills, openly endorsing them in committee testimony. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson spoke to Gray, who called the Senate leadership “weak” on conservative election integrity priorities that he says the people of Wyoming want.
“A lot of Gray's election bills have gone through the Senate this year. He's had three bills already passed into law. There's a few others that are still on the governor's desk waiting for consideration… But most importantly… a bill banning ballot drop boxes was one of the seven that died on Friday. This was a cornerstone of Gray's 2022 Secretary of State campaign. He vowed that he was going to ban these boxes when he took office, and now it looks unlikely they'll even be banned for the 2026 election, when considering that next year's legislative session will be a budget session where bills not related to the budget are discouraged, and the fact that even if this were to be brought up, it would orchestrate some pretty significant changes immediately going into an election later that year. So this might have been his last chance to get that through.”
All of the seven election-related bills that were cut off this week had passed by a large majority in the House, but were among a laundry list that failed to make the deadline to be read for the first time before the chamber adjourned.
Read the full story HERE.
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Strange lighted flying objects have been spotted in at least eight Wyoming counties since October, sometimes over critical infrastructure like power plants, and often flying in formation.
Gov. Mark Gordon on Monday vetoed a bill designed to give local law enforcement agents authority to deal with mystery drones over critical infrastructure, concerned that the bill directly contradicted federal law protecting aircraft. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that both houses of the legislature on Tuesday afternoon overrode the Governor’s veto.
“The Wyoming Legislature passed this law authorizing law enforcement agents to prosecute drone operators who fly over critical infrastructure and potentially disable or destroy those drones. You know, which is, that's the Wyoming fantasy. Every time we talk about drones, people say, shoot them down. The language was more careful than that, saying they could take reasonable steps if this is a problem. But Governor Gordon vetoed it late Monday, saying, Whoa, this conflicts with federal law, which preempts Wyoming law. And you know, it could lead to cops being federally prosecuted or in hot water if they destroy aircraft, which is a felony under federal law…. but both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature on Tuesday came back and overrode that veto, saying, Sorry, we're gonna signal that we're ready to fight for our airspace. And there's also, it's noteworthy, there's also a clause in the law saying the Attorney General will defend cops who act under this law.
The bill would have authorized Wyoming law enforcement to use “reasonable actions” to stop drones, including by disabling or damaging them, and it would let the governor deploy the Wyoming National Guard to stop problematic drones as well.
Read the full story HERE.
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The smiling face on the billboard along the two-lane highway in rural western Nebraska is a grim reminder of a family’s loss and their desperate pleas for answers.
It’s been nearly six years since Moorcroft man Chance Englebert disappeared on a weekend trip to visit his in-laws. Next to a photo of Englebert’s smiling face, the billboard reads, “What happened to me here on July 6, 2019?”
Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that that question is one that plagues law enforcement and Englebert’s friends and family, all of whom have been desperately searching and waiting years for some kind of answer.
“The thought behind the billboard is they want people to come forward with information. So they think that if people drive by that every day, maybe that will, you know, make them feel bad assuming they are holding back information. And they might want to come forward because money did not work. At one point, they had a $22,000 reward, and it did not bring one person forward with credible information, and secondarily, it serves a meaning for them also too, so Chance knows he's not forgotten… The grandmother said they were so proud of the life he was leading. He did his best in his marriage, and he did his best at everything, and so it brings them great comfort to have his face on that billboard so they can say, we have not forgotten about you, and we will not stop looking for you.”
Englebert, who then was living in northeast Wyoming, vanished during a trip to visit his wife's family in Nebraska. Six years later, there's still no answers, nor has law enforcement identified any people of interest in his disappearance.
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, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. And remember 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.
