It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 24th. 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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After a torrent of criticism over his proposal to sell parcels of federal land, Utah Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee hinted at a compromise with hunters, but some Wyoming hunters told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz they’re having none of it.
They say the only option is for Lee to kill the proposal for land sales he’s trying to roll into a federal budget reconciliation bill.
“What I'm hearing from hunters, not only in Wyoming, but Montana and Utah as well as like, we don't care. There's no compromise. There's no change. You can do that we're going to find acceptable. The only thing acceptable to us, kill the bill. Don't put our lands up for sale, end of story. And so, I did talk to one pretty prominent hunter in Utah. You know, he is represented by Mike Lee in the Senate… He said Mike Lee is a good, solid conservative Republican, which is what I like. But on this particular issue, he's just dead wrong.”
Brian Call of Logan, Utah, who runs the popular Gritty Films YouTube hunting channels, said Lee has long supported selling off public lands, and he was probably aware that his latest bill wouldn’t be popular. However, Call speculated that Lee probably underestimated how wide and severe the backlash would be.
Read the full story HERE.
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As debate intensifies over the sale of federal lands, detractors of the plan recall a 2024 court case challenging federal public land holdings, and how numerous Wyoming leaders supported it.
Back in October, Governor Gordon, Representative Harriet Hageman and 26 Wyoming lawmakers all signed on to three different briefs in a lawsuit that went directly to the US Supreme Court, in which Utah argued that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to control so much land within their borders.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that, to the detractors of this current proposal, the Wyoming leaders’ support signifies that they agree with the generally unpopular plan, or at least the spirit of it.
“Governor Gordon and some of those lawmakers are taking a more cautious approach toward the, you know, similar but different proposal now pending in the Senate to just sell off two to 3 million acres of public lands in the next five years. And so I asked, I asked some of them… why did you sign on to this brief? That's like, yeah, Feds give it up… versus, why now, are you more cautious about this, this sell off plan? And the answer that they said to me is, well, with the states getting them, it's more local control, right? It's state stewardship, instead of just immediately toward private companies or whoever.”
State Rep. Karlee Provenza wrote a guest column on Monday in Cowboy State Daily in which she called the governor, Representative Harriet Hageman and several legislators, quote, “literally Lee’s partners in the public land grab.”
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Kraken, a nearly $3 billion cryptocurrency exchange, is moving its headquarters to Wyoming.
The $2.9 billion dollar company left California nearly three years ago. Former state representative Tyler Lindholm, who was among the architects of Wyoming’s digital asset framework, told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean he believes Kraken is now the largest company with a headquarters in Wyoming.
“Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange, but a very big one… For this company, one of the oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchanges out there, to come to Wyoming is a huge deal… The CEO told me the that they feel the state shares their values. They talked about the cowboy code and how they admire the innovative, pioneering approach that Wyoming has taken in this digital asset space.”
Wyoming’s regulatory environment is one of the first things Kraken mentions in a blog post announcing its decision to move to Wyoming. Since 2016, Wyoming has passed more than 40 laws in the digital asset space in a bid to create a regulatory framework that allows cryptocurrency and other digital asset companies to innovate, and includes strong consumer protection.
Read the full story HERE.
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Record-low temperatures and rotary snowblowers working to clear 3-foot snowdrifts to reopen the Beartooth Highway sounds like late April, not late June. Yet that’s what Wyoming’s dealing with after another wave of late winter weather from Canada blew through over the weekend.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that communities throughout Wyoming saw record-low temperatures Monday morning after a colder-than-average weekend.
“The Beartooth highway reopened on Monday afternoon, but that was after it got several inches of snow, and there were drifts up to three feet in some places. There was new snow reported throughout Western Wyoming, particularly in the mountains, and there was a cold spell that gripped the entire state. So these sort of things aren't uncommon. Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day said they happen once every five to six years, but there were some new record low temperatures set in places like Riverton and Casper, where they actually got below the freezing line.”
said Wyoming “dodged a bullet” by getting a relatively small amount of snow this weekend. Neighboring states weren’t so lucky - there was baseball-sized hail in the panhandle of Nebraska, not far from the Wyoming state line, and they got at least a foot of snow on Logan Pass in Glacier National Park.
Read the full story HERE.
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The more than 850,000 acres that burned across Wyoming last year made 2024 the second-worst wildfire season on record. If that happens again, many areas around the state could be in serious trouble.
That’s the message some local-level firefighters gave to the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian reports that shortages of firefighters and equipment could reduce the state’s ability to control and put out wildfires while they’re still small.
“The causes are inflation. People have to work more, and so they don't have as much time to volunteer. And then also, another cause is after COVID, people started working from home, and so they're not as involved in the community as they otherwise would have been… We had a huge wildfire season last year, 850,000 acres burned, and that's not good, because one of the fire wardens said, hey, if we don't do something about the firefighter shortage, these wildfire seasons are just going to keep getting worse, because the fire, if there's not as many firefighters, they can't contain the small fires. That'll turn it then turn into big ones.”
According to a 2022 survey, twenty-nine percent of Wyoming’s fire departments are understaffed and the state is short 468 firefighters.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Star Plunge attraction in Hot Springs State Park could already be open for the summer tourism season. Instead, it’s caught up in an emotional tug-of-war between strong personalities over a venue that many see as vital to Hot Springs County’s economy.
Star Plunge closed in January after the contract of the original owner expired. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that lodging statistics for Hot Springs County show much lower numbers than usual since the closure of the attraction, even though Star Plunge isn’t the only hot springs amenity in the park.
“I spoke with a guy, Dale Clark, is his name. He has an Airbnb in Thermopolis. Normally, by this time, he's almost fully booked for the months of July and August… July is 50% down from usual August. He only has seven days booked. That's not normal for his property. It consistently outperforms the market… That means there are others who are struggling even more… there is the Teepee Pool. But a lot of people feel that that is kind of run down, and it's not their favorite. So when they hear the other, the Star Plunge, which is their favorite, is closed, you know, Roland told me he's hearing some of them say, Well, we're just going to go push on to the next town, you know. Sorry, see you next year, kind of thing.”
Wyoming State Parks Deputy Director Nick Neylon said the agency realizes that Hot Springs State Park is an important part of the county’s economy, though he disputed the idea that Star Plunge alone is responsible for depressed lodging statistics. He believes it is more the misperception that the entire Park is closed.
Read the full story HERE.
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The 29-year-old Riverton man who stole a car with a baby still in it the night of this year’s NFL Super Bowl has pleaded guilty to one count of felony kidnapping.
If Fremont County District Court Judge Jason Conder accepts Patrick Brown’s Friday plea agreement, then Brown could be sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison - or, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Brown could be recommended for a youthful offender “boot camp” program.
“On the one hand… there's this baby on the side of the road. The guy took off on foot, leaving the vehicle there on Super Bowl Sunday. It's very cold after dark… on the other hand, he told another acquaintance… like, I didn't know the baby was there. When I took the car, I heard breathing, and I reached back, and there was this baby. And so… you can see why… potentially, someone might be able to rationalize why he didn't get the life… sentence, applicable kidnapping charge that sometimes applies, or also even why he didn't get a plea agreement that considers the 20 year maximum.”
Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt said his office is just pleased that Brown took responsibility for, quote, “this grievous thing he did.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Dozens of Yellowstone National Park visitors were shocked to witness the death of a bison that slipped into the scalding waters of the Grand Prismatic Spring over the weekend.
The bison attempted to escape but ultimately died in its struggle, leaving its carcass floating at the shallow edge of the pool. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that soon, it will be nothing but bones bleaching in the sun and mineral-rich water.
“I think the big misconception is that things dissolve in Yellowstone thermal pools. I mean, they do literally dissolve. Things are notorious, whether they're animals or in tragic cases, people, when the bodies fall in, they disappear, but they're not dissolving because the water is acidic… There are a handful of acidic pools in Yellowstone, but they have the acidity of orange juice, and you're not going to dissolve a body in orange juice. What causes these bodies to dissolve is the boiling water. So it's just like, it's a morbid comparison, but it's like poaching a chicken or poaching any piece of meat, is that the boiling water loosens it and then eventually leave it in long enough it dissolves away, and that's what's happened in Yellowstone's thermal pools.”
The Saturday morning incident at Grand Prismatic should serve as a cautionary tale. There are many ways to die in Yellowstone National Park, and falling into a thermal pool is a horrifically painful way to shuffle off this mortal coil.
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.
