It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, April 30th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. “5 to thrive” is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.
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A Wyoming federal judge Monday ruled against a Rock Springs couple who sued their local school district, on claims the district helped to socially gender-transition their high school daughter without their knowledge or consent.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled that Sean and Ashley Willey’s lawsuit doesn’t carry enough proof that Sweetwater County School District No. 1 violated their parental or religious rights. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Skavdahl judged the case early in the school district’s favor and dismissed it.
“This concludes two years of litigation, three years of controversy where the Wiley's had sued the school district there in Sweetwater County like saying they have this policy that's like, respect students privacy, hide pronouns and names from parents. And the judge came back on Monday and dismissed the case and said, Look, they honored the students request to be called by alternate name and pronouns, but they weren't doing active hiding, they weren't doing active burying.”
Sean and Ashley Willey’s daughter attended Black Butte High School in Rock Springs from 2021-2023. During that time, peers and multiple teachers started referring to her by a male name and pronouns. Her mother Ashley, who is a teacher in another school in the district, did not learn of her daughter’s new identity until a district-wide training in March of 2022.
Read the full story HERE.
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Authorities believe that a woman found dead outside her wrecked vehicle on White Mountain on Sunday is a Green River woman who has been missing for more than two months.
Though her identity has yet to be forensically verified pending an autopsy, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said circumstantial evidence points to it being 41-year-old Melissa Amadio, who was last seen on Feb. 26th. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that the description of the vehicle she was driving and other personal effects indicate that the deceased woman is Amadio.
“White Mountain is a flat Butte… and it runs north, south, the distance of Rock Springs… there's a county road that traverses along the rim, and so at some point she her car careened off of that road and rolled down … the side of the Butte, and it was found kind of wedged in a in a ravine… given the color of the car, because it was a kind of tan gold, so as the snow is melting, it's going to be harder to see. And so from what I understand, it was found by people on dirt bikes who were riding the area on Sunday, Sunday afternoon… her body had been ejected about 30 to 50 feet away from the vehicle.”
Amadio’s brother posted about his sister’s death on the Missing People of Wyoming Facebook page, asking for “space” and promising to provide updates about funeral arrangements. He thanked everyone for their efforts in helping to find his sister.
Read the full story HERE.
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Four days after a commercial truck driver was hit and killed while stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 80 near Rock Springs, the Wyoming Highway Patrol is escalating its search for the hit-and-run driver, and asking for the public’s help to find the suspect.
Jeremy Simien, a 41-year-old commercial truck driver from Texas, was struck and killed while standing outside his vehicle on the shoulder of I-80 between Rock Springs and Green River Friday afternoon. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that the incident is sending a ripple of emotion through the entire trucking community.
“Jeremy Simien was pulled over to the shoulder the highway, which is not uncommon… he was standing on the passenger side of his truck when he was struck and killed. And so there's a sense that that really could have been any one of us from the trucker community… Jeremy Simien had only been working for this company, Utah-based Andrus trucking, for two weeks when this incident happened, and yet, even in that short period of time, he had built a sense of community with this company, and it had really crushed his coworkers to hear about it… James Andrus says that he's been running a company. He's been running a trucking company for close to half a century. He's got 300 trucks in his fleet, and he has never seen any of his drivers die in this fashion.”
Anyone with information that can help the search for the hit-and-run driver is asked to call the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Read the full story HERE.
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Welding has been a job hotspot for a while now, and it’s only been getting hotter. That’s showing up at WyoTech in Laramie, where its 9-month program with 58 welding seats already has a waiting list that stretches to next April.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the outsized demand for WyoTech’s career and technical programs is fueling yet another huge expansion at the trade school, which just added 90,000 square feet in 2022.
“Welding is just such a hot job prospect right now. The salaries, average salaries, are good… But all of the programs really are beginning to have waiting lists, Wendy, and so adding this square footage is all about expanding the existing programs, not necessarily even adding new ones, but expanding the existing programs to bring in more students to meet the industry demand that's out there. It's a pretty big success story, especially when you consider that not so very long ago, in 2018 it looked like this school might close… So bringing that back has not been an easy feat, and it's really quite a success story for Wyoming. This school is now nationally recognized… Only about 7% of their students are actually from Wyoming. The rest come from other states… So in a way, there's potential there to help build additional workforce in the state.”
The marketing director at WyoTech said the Laramie school’s overall vision is to be America’s destination trade school.
Read the full story HERE.
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President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a vehicle safety agency to rescind Obama-era guidance that kept highway inspectors from removing non-English speaking commercial truck drivers from the roads.
And Wyoming’s Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives voiced strong approval. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Representative Harriet Hageman believes that it’s not unreasonable for people to want commercial drivers to be able to read English, especially in Wyoming, where changing weather conditions on one of the most traveled interstates in the U.S. creates unique hazards.
“To be a commercial truck driver, you have to be able to converse with the general public, read the signs in English. You have to be able to do this for safety reasons, and that's been in the federal official rules for a long time. But then in 2016 the Obama administration's memorandum said, Okay, guys, but don't take anyone off the road for not being, for not following these rules… Trump has been getting pressure from all sides. He has been getting pressure from certain people in Congress who have picked up on this issue. He's been getting pressure from groups like American truckers united… So you have to wonder if this was Trump's plan all along, or if one particular thing pushed him to this.”
Trump’s order establishes an administration policy that allows the enforcement of an English-proficiency requirement that’s already in the federal rules, but that has been hamstrung for nine years.
Read the full story HERE.
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The American Lung Association has named Fremont County and Casper as having the cleanest air in the United States. At the same time, some Wyoming cities and counties received failing grades for certain types of air pollution.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reviewed the American Lung Association’s 2025 “State of the Air” report, which points to Wyoming’s wind helping to sweep pollution out of the state’s largest cities.
“Fremont County was named the cleanest air when it comes to particulate pollution and Casper tied with Honolulu as the city with the cleanest particulate air numbers, so to speak. The particulate levels were so low it was the freshest air this side of Honolulu. And so those were two positive takeaways from the 2025 state of the air report from the American Lung Association, but it was a mixed bag for Wyoming. Sublette county still struggles with ozone levels that could potentially be harmful to those with asthma. And you know, there are signs in the data that wildfires really do impact our quality of air in Wyoming.”
Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Denver continue to be home to the dirtiest air.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its board of directors, chaired by Riverton resident Ruby Calvert, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for firing three members of the board.
The organization alleged in its lawsuit that it is a private entity that does not fall under President Donald Trump’s authority. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that three CPB board members, all of whom are Democrats, received an email on Monday asserting that Trump had fired them.
“They don't believe the President has the power to remove these board members. It's interesting, because the President does have the power to appoint members to the board. All three members that Trump removed were Democrats and the two remaining Republicans, of which Calvert is one of those two, were left on the board… The whole issue at play here is that the Trump administration is putting a sharper and sharper target on public broadcasting, which includes National Public Radio and PBS, they've been doing that since his second term in office started… they believe that these partially taxpayer funded organizations broadcast with a liberal bias, unfair liberal bias. So that is why they believe it is part of a larger thing that they should be defunded.”
Earlier this month, the White House confirmed it plans to soon ask Congress to pull back more than $1 billion in public broadcasting funding, a move that could eliminate nearly all federal support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS. If approved, it would have a significant impact on Public Radio and PBS stations in Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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This year’s Cheyenne Frontier Days was already shaping up to be one for the history books, with the first ever Wyoming native - Ian Munsick - set to headline a concert during Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Now comes word that the beloved U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, who have flown the skies over Cheyenne Frontier Days nearly every year since 1953, will be moving their hugely popular show to a Saturday. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the move to July 26 is intended to give more people than ever the chance to see this phenomenal airshow in the sky.
“It's called Wings Over Warren, they have been doing that show since 1953 so if you think about the Thunderbird history, they were activated in June of 1953. One of their first shows had to have been Cheyenne Wyoming, if not the very first show… these planes are traveling at super high speeds, and they're 18 inches from one plane to the next at the closest point. So you know, precision, the skill of these pilots to do that is just massively impressive, and that's part of why the Air Force does it. You know, they want to reinforce confidence in the US military. These kind of performances help show what these guys can do. They're the elite, the best of the best.”
The Wings Over Warren Airshow has traditionally been held midweek from 11 a.m. to noon, but having it on a Saturday instead will give the Thunderbirds more opportunities to interact with Cheyenne Frontier Days crowds, both in the park and at downtown events.
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. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
