It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, June 16th. 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 legislative committee is proposing three tax hikes on multiple gaming industries, and a plan to insert a money-monitoring system into gaming machines across Wyoming bars, casino-style halls and truck stops.
The flurry of draft proposals came at the end of a Thursday meeting of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments in Cheyenne.
Proponents of the increase told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that it’s time for tighter regulations and higher taxes in light of the gaming industry’s exploding presence in the state.
“We have skill based Amusement Games… all sorts of different formats of horse racing… we have lottery, we have sports betting, online sports betting, as well… Wyoming was taxing much, much lower than the average. And so some of the people were talking, especially the chair of the committee, Senator Tara Nethercott. They were talking like these have been allowed to just explode into every corner of Wyoming Life… And so they proposed three tax hikes.”
Detractors, from the gaming and related industries, said the taxes will harm businesses and local workers and limit the competitive edge of companies that pay taxes to Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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An Albany County Sheriff's deputy pulled over one driver for going 110mph in a 70mph zone. The next day, the same driver was clocked at 116mph.
That’s not surprising, though, according to a new study which crunched data for insurance companies. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that Wyoming ranks number one for fastest drivers in the U.S.
“One of the reasons why, when you talk to folks and look at the study, is there's just wide open freeways in Wyoming, and there's a great distances to travel. And as everybody knows, Wyoming is the most sparsely populated state. So what does that mean less traffic, and you combine that with the legislature setting miles per hour at 80 miles per hour at the highest, you can go fast.”
In the study, New Mexico was second at 71 mph. Idaho was third at 70.5 mph. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maryland ranked at the bottom with long-distance average driving speeds below 55 mph.
Read the full story HERE.
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Since Elon Musk joined the Trump administration, Tesla owners in Wyoming have been targets of vandalism, harassment and internal strife.
But now that the Trump-Musk alliance has hit the skids, Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag spoke to several customers who said they are hoping all the drama just goes away.
“On one hand, you have some people who really are so detached, they don't care one way or the other… they're doing their best to be indifferent to all the reactions, and that includes middle fingers and derogatory statements… And then on the other end, you have some traditional electric car drivers… I spoke with one self declared bleeding heart liberal who said that all along, it's been a pretty difficult thing for her to drive the Tesla, considering this Musk Trump Alliance… She wants to fly under the radar, let people bicker over the politics, and she's just going to be a car owner and a Tesla driver… one car owner I spoke with… he says the value of it has plummeted in response to the politics around Tesla ownership, and he's just really frustrated by that.”
Drivers say they’re doing their best to ignore the volatile politics of Tesla ownership altogether while conceding it’s easier said than done. Many still feel they’re displaying a target each time they push start.
Read the full story HERE.
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A bear shot in Alaska last year officially set the new world record for a hunter-killed grizzly and is a stunning trophy. That’s what an expert Wyoming hunter told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
The male bear, estimated to be 20-25 years old, was shot in September 2024, and Guy Eastman of Cody — who has hunted grizzlies in Alaska and Canada — said the record-setting Boone and Crockett score is truly impressive.
“He said, Yeah, it’s significant, it is a huge bear. The thing about bears, the way they're scored, it's all about the size of the skull. And by that, the skull that's been completely cleaned up. It doesn't have any fur, muscle, nothing left on it, just the bone. And just by measuring the bone, this does set a new world record.”
Despite its prestigious status, it’s still not the largest grizzly skull ever officially recognized by B&C. The largest grizzly skull ever officially recorded by Boone and Crockett came from a skeleton that was discovered in Alaska after the bear had died from natural causes.
Read the full story HERE.
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A University of Wyoming dean who was demoted this spring sued the university last week.
Cameron Wright, former dean of UW’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, says the school illegally retaliated against him after he objected to using state money marked for the engineering college, to bolster a spinoff computing school.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Wright is accusing UW of breaking a state law that forbids state employers from penalizing employees who notify their employers "in good faith" of law or policy violations.
“There was kind of a long simmering controversy, where, way back last fall semester, he was refusing to divert money from the legislature into a spin off computing school that was run by the University President's girlfriend, domestic partner, right? And so at that time, two lawmakers, Senator Chris Rothfuss and Representative Carly Provenza, wrote the governor like, uh, you have to protect this guy from retaliation… there was kind of a long simmering controversy, where, way back last fall semester, he was refusing to divert money from the legislature into a spin off computing school that was run by the University President's girlfriend, domestic partner, right? And so at that time, two lawmakers, Senator Chris Rothfuss and Representative Carly Provenza, wrote the governor like, uh, you have to protect this guy from retaliation.”
Wright also accuses UW trustees who sought to explain his demotion of, quote, “publicly disseminating otherwise confidential information falsely denigrating his performance as Dean.”
Read the full story HERE.
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A team of Japanese scientists painted zebra stripes on black cows in 2019 to keep biting flies away — and it worked.
So Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi polled a few Wyoming ranchers to see if this unique form of pest control might be put to use in the wide open spaces of the American West.
“Science supports the fact that stripes on zebras are there primarily to deflect biting flies. They've done that study. They've reaffirmed this result multiple times, and in 2019 a team of Japanese scientists painted stripes zebra, stripes on black, on Japanese Black cows. And what they found is that stripes reduce the frequency of flies landing by 50% and as a result, the cows were exhibiting less defensive behaviors like plucking their tails or muscle twitches, that sort of thing… The problem is, when out in Wyoming, you're talking about ranches that have 1000s of cattle, and painting stripes on a bunch of cattle is very time consuming, and when there are other alternatives available that are just easier to manage and don't require any artistic skill, that's what Wyoming ranchers are going to go with.”
One rancher said that while he wouldn’t consider painting zebra stripes on his cattle, he encouraged ranchers to “keep an open mind” about innovative techniques.
Read the full story HERE.
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Thousands of Lego addicts packed into the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center this weekend to click with other lego-maniacs.
Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson spoke to some of the attendees, some of whom came from hundreds of miles away to peruse the plastic blocks. From $1 bargain bins to a $750 chrome Darth Vader, it was nirvana for serious collectors - and those who just like to play with Legos.
“You get inside and there's Legos all over the place. There are little, tiny Lego people. There are giant lego sets, little Lego sets. There are tubs full of pieces of Legos where kids can, for like five bucks, can, like, mix and match to create their own little Lego people… it only, not only attracted people who love Legos, it attracts the people who love collecting. So there's, you know, they might not necessarily be Lego collectors, but they they're Star Wars collectors, and so they go for the Star Wars things. And as a guy who had Legos as a kid… it was pretty cool.”
Inside, the convention lays out like someone crossed an amusement park with a museum. It’s all cool, but there’s a lot you can’t touch. However, for Lego fans both amateur and serious, the Cheyenne Lego Brick Convention opens a world of imagination.
Read the full story HERE.
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And if you ever find yourself feeling a bit homesick while visiting the Adriatic Coast in Italy, you might be surprised and delighted to find a giant Wyoming state flag painted outside a store that’s just steps from the soft sand beaches of this European resort town.
Welcome to Jack and Gill, a store that’s been an institution in this beach destination since 1978, when owner Carlo Betti Ricci first opened shop. Cowboy State Daily’s Anna Louise Jackson stopped into the western-themed store.
“I think the craziest part to me is he's never been to the US, so he is obsessed with the US… I saw the, you know, Wyoming flag outside, and that's why I went in. But he's never seen a buffalo or bison. He's never been to the US. And he his store is sort of like part Army, Navy, part Museum, in some ways, and then part, like country western store… he's been doing this for 47 years, so I would assume that people buy stuff. There wasn't anyone there when I was there, but yeah, I mean, for 47 years, he's had the shop.”
If there was any question about the depth of Ricci’s love for the American West, it disappears when you come across the framed underwear once worn by John Wayne.
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.
