It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, March 28th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show! From 6 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, we bring you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - and this week we’ve got a fantastic guest host, Charene Herrera, who will keep the conversation lively! Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage to join in.
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An endorsement from President Donald Trump holds a lot of weight in the Cowboy State, which has supported Trump’s bids for president with a larger margin than any other state for three elections in a row.
On Wednesday night, Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ 2026 reelection bid. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Lummis expressed gratitude for Trump’s endorsement.
“Trump commended her work on crypto currency issues… she's been nicknamed the crypto queen, and Trump also said that she's looking out for security in Wyoming, certainly with securing its borders and keeping taxes low and things of that nature, and said that she is definitely an America First type senator that would be great to reelect in Wyoming. Lummis was particularly happy, obviously, to get Trump's endorsement… She said ‘Powder River, let ‘er buck. Thank you, President Trump. I will never stop fighting for Wyoming. Its people are proud patriots freedom, maximalists and lovers of liberty. It is truly the last best place on earth.’”
Despite a few rankles with the Wyoming Republican Party, Lummis has enjoyed a relatively high level of popularity during her time in office. Once it became clear President Donald Trump was likely to get the Republican nomination in his bid for reelection, Lummis quickly aligned with him and since that time has consistently supported his efforts.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’s cold comfort for the 28 coal mine workers laid off last week by Kemmerer Operations LLC, but Wyoming coal industry watchers see evidence of an uptick in coal production and sales to electric utilities.
The job losses equal around 13% of the mine’s workforce and the reduction, according to Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison. But there are signs that coal production could increase in Wyoming and elsewhere.
“For Wyoming's coal industry, this was a week of good and bad news. We had 28 people laid off in Kemmerer, which they're hoping to have those employees absorbed in some of the other natural resource extraction industries around that area, and there certainly is a lot going on. At the same time folks are losing their jobs, things are looking up as far as future coal orders go. So I spoke to someone at the Wyoming mining Association, and they said, hey, you know, contracts are coming in. Right now, power plants are purchasing Wyoming coal, and we've seen evidence, according to some research reported by Reuters and others, that in the first three months of 2025 … America's coal fired electric plants were burning more coal.”
The Kemmerer Operations mine produced 2.4 million tons of coal in 2024 with a staff of 215 workers. That 2.4 million tons contributed to roughly 190 million tons Wyoming producers sold last year.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming will lose around $40 million in federal COVID-era grants that it’s used to track infectious diseases, provide immunizations and fight substance abuse addiction, as part of the cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday.
The Wyoming Department of Health confirmed to Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that the state expects to lose more than $39 million in grant funding for its Public Health Division, and nearly $1 million for its Behavioral Health Division.
“Spoke to Representative Rachel Rodriguez Williams, who is the chairman of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and also the chair of the House Health, Labor and Social Services Committee. She supports the cuts and saying that she applauds President Trump's mission to properly allocate taxpayer dollars and a willingness to make tough decisions. She said these grants were intended to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic, which is over… I spoke to health advocacy group better Wyoming, who slammed the news in a statement provided to Cowboy State daily, Nate Martin, executive director, said … More than 90% of the Wyoming Department of Health's budget is just distributed to local clinics and programs. That means cuts like this result in fewer healthcare resources in our local communities.”
Wednesday’s cuts are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services move to cancel around $12 billion in federal grants to states that were allocated this money during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full story HERE.
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Bighorn Basin Towing in Cody is planning one of its most challenging recoveries. A battered pickup is precariously perched on a cliff face near Wapiti, and they’re hoping to recover it intact.
The irony? The truck belongs to Eric Lopez, one of the business’s co-owners. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to Lopez, who said he never thought one of my most challenging recoveries would be for his own vehicle.
“He drives his truck, old blue back home, Parks it and goes inside to get some rest. That night, the winds pick up in Cody, as they often do, and they were strong enough to roll the truck down the cliff, off the cliff, and get it wedged into a crevice and among some giant tooth shaped rocks. And the only explanation that Eric Lopez, the co owner, has is that he must have forgotten to put on the parking brake when he parked it, and the winds were strong enough to push this forward f2 50 up and over a cliff.”
Although the truck crumpled in the fall, the Bighorn Basin Towing crew believes Ole Blue could be salvageable. They won’t know until it goes.
Read the full story HERE.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday called private law firm Jenner & Block LLP a hub of partisan “lawfare,” and ordered the federal government to stop doing business with the firm wherever practical and lawful.
The president also told all federal agencies to cancel contracts for which the firm has been hired to do any service – a move that may impact the Northern Arapaho Tribe, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.
“The order says, if Jenner & Block worked on your federal contract, we're going to take a good look at that and maybe even canceling it in the name of making sure no taxpayer dollars go to Jenner and Block. That's the order. And with the tribe, you can tell that Jenner and Block is at the very least, very well versed in these contracts, because they're lobbying agencies and Congress about them all the time. So there's some strong indication… that they may be involved with these contracts, which would put them in Trump's crosshairs.”
Jenner & Block lobbies Congress and federal agencies on the tribe’s behalf with respect to Indian Health Service funding, housing funding, water infrastructure, Bureau of Indian affairs funding, public health, and other matters.
Read the full story HERE.
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A prolonged dispute over fireworks businesses that sit just north of the Wyoming-Colorado border on Interstate 25 appears set to take off again.
Laramie County commissioners have again denied a permit for one of four fireworks businesses owned by Seasonal Fireworks, the same Colorado company they have previously described as “obnoxious.”
The business owner’s father Pete Elliott, who manages the fireworks stores for his daughter, Breanna, told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean that he is being unfairly portrayed and discriminated against by both Laramie County commissioners and a rival business.
“He's talking about lining up an attorney to defend his reputation and represent him separately in the case, his daughter had filed a suit last year saying that the county had been arbitrary and discriminatory against the business because the business has satisfied all the requirements for a business permit. They've been inspected, they've passed all of that. There are no police citations for violations… the commissioners agreed that they have on paper, at least satisfy the requirements for a fireworks permit, but the commissioners are called to weigh the balance of public good as well. That's their contention in this case, and it's not just a rubber stamp, you know, and you get your your permit because you checked all these boxes. It's about the public good for the county.”
Last year, a court ordered Laramie County to issue seasonal fireworks permits to preserve the status quo during a lawsuit Breanna filed, examining whether the county’s 2024 denial was arbitrary and capricious.
Read the full story HERE.
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A North Carolina man took a creative and goofy approach to bear deterrence — in a video making the rounds on social media, the man steps out of his house in a bear suit to spook away a black bear that had plunked down on his lawn.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz spoke to Wyoming bear experts who said trying that tactic on a grizzly bear would probably get a person mauled, possibly killed — or perhaps even worse.
“They said, Yeah, that might have worked for that guy, but no, not a good idea in Wyoming. You know, a Grizzly probably isn't going to take it the way that black bear took it, number one - and number two, they also brought, you know, to put it delicately, they brought up the possibility, what if it's mating season for bears, and the bear gets the wrong idea. So anyway, for a couple reasons, that worked great for this guy in North Carolina, good for him, but folks in Wyoming say we're not going to do that here.”
One Wyoming wildlife photographer, who himself has been charged by animals like bears and moose a time or two, told Cowboy State Daily that he admires the creativity of the man’s approach to bear deterrence, but doesn’t recommend it for Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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The late former Wyoming U.S. Al Simpson was brought into the Wyoming State Capitol Rotunda on Thursday to lie in state, one of the last opportunities for the public to pay tribute to the man.
Simpson died March 14 at the age of 93. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson was at the ceremony Thursday morning at the Capitol, when Simpson’s flag-draped casket was carried into the Capitol by a military procession from the Army National Guard.
“The event was just, you know, just kind of honoring a man who started his career in politics at the Wyoming capitol. Interestingly enough, he was in the legislature for about 12 years before he went over to the US Senate for 18 years. And so it's kind of where it all started, one could say, and his body will lie in state there until Friday afternoon when it will be removed… There was about 100 people there in attendance, including all of Simpson's family… I spoke to state auditor, Kristy Racines, who was one of the statewide electeds there, and she was clearly quite emotional during the ceremony. I asked her what Simpson meant to her, and although she didn't meet him for the first time until 2018 she described him as the goat, which is an acronym for the greatest of all time. She said he just kind of held a legendary presence.”
A military recession of Simpson’s casket will take place at 2 p.m. at the Capitol on Friday. At 11 a.m. Saturday, Simpson’s family will host a free celebration of life for Simpson at the University of Wyoming’s Arena Auditorium. His funeral service will take place Monday morning in Cody, an event that will be broadcast live on Wyoming PBS.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, we take a tour of Cyning Meadowcroft’s old English Mead Hall that he built outside of Cheyenne. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!
Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
