It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, May 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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The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark — and unanimous — decision to rein in the scope of environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects is a victory against federal governmental overreach.
That’s what Governor Mark Gordon and other high-ranking elected officials said about the ruling that addresses the misuse of environmental law to obstruct development. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the case centered on an 88-mile railroad line proposed in northeastern Utah's Uinta Basin that would connect the oil-rich region to the national freight rail network.
“The court decided that it was okay to limit the scope of environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects… The governor says this is a welcome decision, and fits exactly with my long standing belief that NEPA, which is the Environmental Policy Act, has been co opted to obstruct development whenever and wherever… It's valuable use as a tool to understand the environmental impacts of a proposed actions has been diminished, and so he sees this court decision as affirming what he's felt for a long time.”
The court stressed that federal agencies deserve "substantial deference" in determining the scope and content of environmental impact statements, and that courts should not, quote, "micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness."
Read the full story HERE.
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The trend toward tougher enforcement of English-language requirements for commercial truck drivers intensified Thursday when Wyoming’s U.S. House representative introduced a bill to make it a federal law.
Longstanding federal rules already say commercial truck drivers must speak enough English to read road signs, converse with the general public and keep their logs. But a 2016 Obama-era Federal memorandum eroded those rules by instructing highway truck inspectors not to pull non-English-speaking truck drivers off the roads.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that President Donald Trump in April ordered his Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to rescind that rule.
“Trump said… we're going to look into some of these foreign CDLs. We're going to revive English language proficiency. And then the D O T acted on that order, and now representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming is working to put it in federal law. It's already in federal rules that Trump unburdened with his order because they were eroded by a memorandum for the past nearly decade, and now Representative Hageman is pushing the bill.”
In announcing the bill, Hageman referenced a 2017 crash in which a distracted, non-English-speaking truck driver killed an 18-year-old man. The bill’s title is “Connor’s Law.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Just as Wyoming Republican Party leaders dropped its lawsuit against the Laramie County Clerk, they launched a counter-argument in another case. In this case, the party is being sued on claims it cheated its own election processes.
Clair McFarland reports that the Wyoming Republican Party, its State Central Committee, and its controversial Dispute Resolution Committee are slated to attend a June 10 scheduling conference in a lawsuit that a handful of Hot Springs County Republican Party members filed against them last month. At issue is the nature of the Party - is it a private group, or is it subject to governmental oversight?
“The argument here in this most current suit involving the Wyoming Republican Party is, okay, you're a group, but are you private? Since you have this huge, some would argue huge measure of power over state governance, meaning, if there's a vacancy in a statewide office, like even if representative Hageman were to, if her seat were to turn up vacant, or the governor or the Secretary of State, that party, because those incumbents are Republican, would forward three candidates ahead for appointment to the vacant seat. And so the argument, I guess, is, do you still have this right that we give to private groups if you have that much control over Wyoming governance?”
The hearing comes after the state party settled its 2024 lawsuit against Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, over an allegedly inadequate test run of electronic voting machines in the run-up to that year’s election cycle.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Bureau of Land Management plans to proceed with the roundup of nearly 3,000 mustangs in central Wyoming — including rare curly-haired horses — despite a case against the roundup still pending in federal court.
In a process that could take years to complete, the BLM plans to remove all free-roaming horses from the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek herds, along with a portion of the Adobe Town mustang herd. But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this plan has been opposed by wild horse advocates who filed a lawsuit against the BLM in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to halt the roundups.
“There's been a long standing court battle going back and forth between, you know, the BLM, and people who don't want those horses rounded up. BLM announced… they plan to proceed with their end up starting on July 15 at the earliest, although the case is still pending before the 10th Circuit Court, but I verified with the Bureau of Land Management Office in Rock Springs today that… the decision that was made in 2023 is still valid, despite that pending case Before the 10th Circuit Court. Should the 10th Circuit Court this rule against them, then they'll just stop rounding up horses.”
Attorneys from both sides presented oral arguments before the court’s three-judge panel in March, but the judges have yet to render their decision. The plan is to start with the Salt Wells Creek herd, on July 15 at the earliest.
Read the full story HERE.
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The dizzying, supercollider pace of energy investment in Wyoming — especially nuclear — is bringing waves of new faces into the state. It’s happening so fast that state trade associations and industry insiders find it hard to keep up.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that there’s a growing tribe of specialized investors and their tech experts looking to be part of Wyoming's growing nuclear industry.
“I spoke to the head of the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce. I spoke to the head of the Wyoming Mining Association, and they both agreed that it's difficult to track everything as it develops in Wyoming. And so what you're left with is a parade of press releases and general statements and a lot of uncertainty. You know, the one thing that's clear is that stuff is happening exactly what it means for the state. What is hype and what is real? It can be hard to sort through… things are speeding up so fast that even those that have a front row seat are struggling to keep up.”
The rapid pace of development is creating challenges even for industry insiders trying to track all the activity. Even Travis Deti, the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, admits he sometimes struggles to follow along. He said the interest right now, especially with the president's executive orders, is to put a focus on developing our nuclear industry at home.
Read the full story HERE.
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An earthquake that struck the Hayden Valley area of Yellowstone National Park Monday evening rattled the nerves of humans on the scene, but grizzlies that were there were completely unbothered.
That’s what one wildlife photographer told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz. Julie Argyle, along with her husband and some friends, were watching a female grizzly with two cubs, and Argyle was taking video of the bears when the quake struck at 6:39 p.m.
“She was out taking some footage of a mom grizzly with a couple of cubs, and she just happened to have her video going when an earthquake hit the Hayden Valley area, and it visibly shakes the whole scene. And the cool thing about it, the humans were freaked out, but the bears just didn't care… the other thing she said is, you know, you know, there's that long standing thought that that animals have much better sense of these things than we do. So she said, the fact that the bears just didn't care at all comforted her and the other people there, because they say, Okay, well that was probably, that's probably that's probably all we're going to get. Because if something really big was coming in, the animals would have freaked out.”
Experts say that Yellowstone has experienced massive quakes and volcanic eruptions in the past – and such events are bound to happen again. Argyle said that had Monday’s quake been the precursor to a real monster, there wouldn’t have been anything she and the others with her could have done.
Read the full story HERE.
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A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the lawsuit of a former Laramie High School student who sued her local school district on claims that a 2021 mask mandate was unconstitutional, and she suffered retaliation after she was arrested for refusing to comply with it.
Grace Smith and her parents Andy and Erin Smith sued the district first in state court, then in federal. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that U.S. District Court Judge Kelly Rankin dismissed Smith’s complaint Wednesday with prejudice, meaning on a permanent basis, after issuing an opinion casting her claims as ill-founded.
“She, you know, protested, organized a walkout, was suspended, came back to school, ultimately was arrested for being on school grounds after the suspension. And, you know, she waged a suit saying that this mandate was unconstitutional. I was retaliated against for exercising my rights. The school board exceeded its authority. It can't promulgate health regulations, and judge freedenthal rejected it once before, but she kind of jumped ahead in her reasoning, so the 10th Circuit shot it back down… you have to look at the the first things first, and then judge Kelly Rankin did that, and it ended up being dismissed a second time.”
Rankin said Smith failed to plausibly allege that the actions taken against her were done in retaliation for permissible speech, adding that Smith’s claim that the board violated her due process rights did not hold water.
Read the full story HERE.
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When a Cody woman found multiple snakes in her garage, she could have overacted like Samuel L. Jackson in the cheesy cult action film “Snakes on a Plane.” Fortunately, she had a better option. Deb Simpson called “PC” Oberholzer with Kodiak Pest Control to evict two bull snakes from the walls of her garage.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi found out that, actually, pest control companies don’t usually deal with snakes.
“Snakes tend not to be problems. They tend to avoid people, and they're very good pest control themselves. Because the things that people call pest control about like mice, rats, insects, whatever else, those are things that bull snakes eat, and they eat quite effectively. They've been even known to kill and eat rattlesnakes before. So if you've got a friendly bull snake lurking on your property, let it be, let it do its thing… they're a natural part of the world and they're pretty good at what they do. So nothing wrong with having a bull snake in your neighborhood.”
However, in this case, Simpson was smart to want them gone. If she allowed a breeding pair of bull snakes to live rent-free in her garage, she’d quickly gain several slithering squatters.
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, my guest is retired District Court Judge Steven Cranfill. 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.
