It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, May 6th. 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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In the early months of 1992, two women were found dead in separate incidents along interstates in Wyoming. The murders remained unsolved for years. But in 2007, DNA results from another murder in Tennessee and a rape in Oklahoma City connected all four of the crimes to long-haul trucker Clark Perry Baldwin.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Baldwin’s conviction on Friday for murdering a woman in Tennessee clears the way for his return to Wyoming for trial.
“About 2007 ish, maybe a little later, started improving their DNA tech and court documents say that they linked the Tennessee murder to the two Wyoming corpses… And then the other main key of the case is the one that got away. Mary Ann Newton says that Baldwin raped her, bound her, asked her to shoot him, and then let her go. … He's been convicted of murder in Tennessee, and he faces at least one more murder charge that's already filed in Wyoming…And then, you know, as long as the judge doesn't grant him a new trial. He will then come to Wyoming and face Sweetwater County Attorney Danny Erramouspe, who has been waiting five years to prosecute him.”
Baldwin will reach Wyoming within about two months, and Erramouspe will prosecute him on a first-degree murder charge.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Bureau of Land Management has approved Pacific Soda’s proposed $5 billion Dry Creek Trona Mine Project south of Green River in Sweetwater County.
The approved project allows Pacific Soda to build mining facilities and employ solution mining to extract trona 2,300 feet below the surface for processing into soda ash and baking soda. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the project could become a more than $5 billion investment.
“It's a big area. It's about 10,000 acres total, south of Green River, to the west of Flaming Gorge, and you know, it's a big deal for southwest Wyoming, for sure, with that many jobs, and probably professionals who know something about this industry, since it already exists… they talked about a couple thousand construction jobs and, you know, 300 high paying permanent jobs running a couple of decades. So if all goes as planned… then it's a major economic boost to the region.”
Currently, Pacific Soda is working with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to obtain their mining permit, which must be approved before any work can begin.
Read the full story HERE.
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Hundreds of people reported seeing a huge purple-green fireball streak across several Western states Saturday night. The colorful meteor was seen as far north as Canada, south as Colorado, and west as the Pacific Coast.
Thanks to reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, it was determined that this was a Wyoming fireball. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that this meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere somewhere over Yellowstone National Park around 9:20 p.m. Saturday, and could be seen over a thousand miles away before rapidly disintegrating.
“Based on the number of reports, which include a number of things like the angle that the meteor was coming in and a bunch of other factors, they were able to determine that the meteor entered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over Yellowstone National Park, close to Yellowstone Lake, and then was visible In the sky for a couple of seconds before exploding somewhere over Idaho. And there was a spectacular spectrum of colors. Most of the time these fireballs are green, which is the burning of iron and manganese. That's not too uncommon, but videos from Jackson and other places show red and purple, white and yellow. So there was a lot of different elements that were burning up inside this meteor as it streaked through the sky.”
Fortunately, there have been no reports of injuries or damage caused by Saturday night’s Yellowstone fireball. Nevertheless, experts said a fireball of this size and colorful brilliance is rare, especially for Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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So-called “Glock switches,” after-market devices that can convert Glock pistols from semi-automatic to fully automatic fire, are already banned, but some states want to take it a step farther.
Bills have gained traction in two state legislatures to ban the sales of Glocks or other similar handguns. And Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that as gun friendly as Wyoming might be, Glock owners here shouldn’t just assume Wyoming won’t see similar bills pop up someday.
“At least two states that I know of, Illinois and California, are trying to take it a step further and ban Glocks themselves, I guess, under the auspices of if people can't even own Glocks then they can't convert them to full auto so, you know, I talked to a second amendment advocate here, and he says it's ridiculous. It probably won't gain traction. But again, at the same time, as with all these things, don't assume it can’t happen here.”
In California, a bill has been proposed banning any further sales of Glock handguns in that state, along with any other similar semi-automatic handguns that might accept after-market full-auto switches. A similar measure is before the Illinois Legislature, and there is some concern among Second Amendment advocates that other states might take up the push.
Read the full story HERE.
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Members of the Wyoming Republican Party are so inspired by President Donald Trump’s efforts to sharply curtail illegal immigration in America that they want Wyoming to play a direct part in detaining immigrants before deportation.
On Saturday, the party passed a resolution calling for the opening of a federally funded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the measure passed on a 42-32 vote.
“Not only do pretty much the vast majority of the members of the Wyoming Republican Party support this, but a lot of them were also expressing concern about illegal immigrants in Wyoming basically being allowed to get away after they're already put in custody because ICE agents can't come to the state fast enough… What's kind of an interesting nuance, however, to all of this is that the Sweetwater County Sheriff's office… five of their deputies now have the ability to become basically deputized ICE agents, and can go up to Jackson or any other location in Wyoming and basically take some of these people under their custody and hold them for 72 hours or more while they wait for ICE agents to come and pick them up.”
ICE uses more than 190 different facilities for detention across more than 40 states and U.S. territories. The nearest ICE facility to Wyoming is in Aurora, Colorado.
Read the full story HERE.
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A week after a local woman was shot and killed by Casper police during a response to a report of a burglary, the department has confirmed that three officers remain on administrative leave.
Otherwise, Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that authorities continue to be tight-lipped on releasing more information about the April 28th incident that resulted in the death of 37-year-old Jody Cobia, including how many times she was shot.
“They're just saying that an investigation continues into the shooting that involved Casper Police Department officers and a… resident of a house on McKinley Street in Casper that woman that lived at the house was killed. Police said that there was a person with a gun and there was a shooting, and we know that she died, and that's basically all we know, except we learned today that three police officers were involved, because three are now on administrative leave.”
As is standard policy with officer-involved incidents, the Casper Police Department isn’t investigating the shooting. That’s being done by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.
Read the full story HERE.
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The superintendents of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks predicted an “outstanding” summer despite staff cuts to the federal parks system that have worried many outdoor enthusiasts.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi attended the 2025 National Parks Day Lunch in Cody on Monday, where Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly and Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins voiced optimism and encouraged gateway communities and visitors to enjoy Wyoming’s national parks, saying they are in “fantastic shape.”
“There have been those reports of federal layoffs and cuts and staffing. But Sholly actually said that Yellowstone has more permanent and seasonal staff going into summer 2025 than it's had in the last five years. So they're confident that they've got enough people to do what they need to do… and Jenkins is confident as well. The two parks work together, since they're right next door, but they share expertise and resources when needed.”
If the trend of visitor growth to the pair of national parks holds, more than 8 million visitors could enjoy the pair of parks this summer. Yellowstone had more than 4.7 million visitors last year, while Grand Teton recorded 3.6 million.
Read the full story HERE.
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Distant relatives of raccoons, ringtails are mostly nocturnal, skilled climbers and many people would say, incredibly cute – with huge eyes and pointy, cat-like ears.
They’re also seldom seen in Wyoming and are mostly found in deserts in the Southwest United States.
However, Cowboy State Daily’ Mark Heinz spoke to a rural Baggs-area resident who had a ringtail visit them early Sunday morning.
“Her dogs are barking. She didn't know what was going on, so she went and there was a little critter hanging out in the eaves of her house. So she took a photo of it posted online. Turned out it was a ringtail… they're commonly called ring tailed raccoons or ring tailed cats, which isn't exactly accurate… they are somewhat related to raccoons, not at all related to cats, but they are their own species… so she took this picture and somehow that picture ended up getting forwarded to the local game warden, who was really excited to see it. She got a report of a ringtail two years ago, set up trail cams, and was never able to capture an image of it. So she was thrilled to see solid evidence of a ringtail.”
The frisky critter slipped away and hadn’t been spotted since. The game warden still hopes to live-trap the ringtail and get a better look at it, before releasing it back into the wild.
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.
