It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 3rd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days. Ten days of rodeo thrills, Xtreme Bulls, live concerts, carnival rides, western heritage, and unforgettable cowboy spirit in Cheyenne, Wyoming! Don’t miss the 129th Daddy of ‘Em all July 18-27th.
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Wyomingites could see more property tax relief in the years ahead.
Fresh off of the passage of one of Wyoming’s largest tax cuts in its history, providing residential property owners a 25% tax break and providing some long-term homeowners a 50% tax break, the chairman of the Wyoming House Revenue Committee told Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian he considers the newly effective laws to be short-term relief.
“There are several options being considered to further reduce the amount Wyomingites pay in property taxes. Those options include getting rid of the whole thing, just no more property tax at all, changing how it's determined, how property tax is calculated. And the other one, putting a cap on how fast property taxes can rise, there currently is a cap, but, um, some lawmakers say we may want to lower that a little bit, just because inflation's high and people may not have enough money to be able to pay a 4% increase, which is where the current cap is.”
Legislation to remove property taxes isn’t unique to Wyoming. One Senior Policy Analyst said the country is in what many are calling a property tax revolt, in which states around the country consider eliminating the property tax altogether.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 53-year-old Jackson man is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, accused of killing a local photographer in a drunk driving collision.
Florence McCall, a well-known photographer in Jackson, died at the scene of the June 21 crash. Investigators say she was bicycling onto South Park Loop Road when Jody Utter’s vehicle struck her.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Utter’s case rose to the felony-level court on Wednesday.
“According to court documents, he was driving on a road in Teton county that intersects with a bike path, and he, you know, he told investigators that she got in the road, and I didn't have time to react, but investigators smelled alcohol on him, and then they did detect, I think, a point two something, blood alcohol concentration and the the scene evidence also showed that he was allegedly driving in the wrong lane… he's waived his preliminary hearing. He's chosen not to take that chance to argue the really, the lesser fight of whether there's probable cause in this case to keep this case going. And he advances down to the big fight of, you know, trying to show his innocence against the state trying to improve his guilt at the trial court level.”
Utter is facing up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, if convicted. He also faces a misdemeanor count of drunk driving.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 74-year-old Casper man will not be charged for the shooting death of his daughter’s boyfriend four months ago.
The Natrona County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday it won’t prosecute Clarence Daniels in the death of 47-year-old Jeremiah Reyes on March 8th. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the office says there’s not enough evidence to justify the charge.
“This man that was the daughter's boyfriend had been in prison for beating the daughter in 2016 and so he goes to the home with a loaded 44 caliber pistol. There's a confrontation. The gun goes off in the bedroom, and then the district attorney's office is saying that they can't find the evidence that's going to charge this man with either second degree murder, manslaughter or anything else. They're seeing it more as a self defense situation. What's interesting is that the Casper Police Department initially asked for second degree murder charges and aggravated assaults.”
Court documents also showed a previous incident between Daniels and Reyes on July 7, 2024, in which Daniels had confronted Reyes and put a gun to Reyes’ head before firing a shot into the floor.
Read the full story HERE.
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A former Wyoming Supreme Court justice will be Wyoming’s next attorney general. Gov. Mark Gordon appointed Keith Kautz to the post Wednesday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian reports that Kautz served as a Wyoming Supreme Court justice from 2015 to 2024, when he was constitutionally required to retire at age 70.
“Wyoming is one of a very, very few states that the attorney general is appointed by the governor. Most states elect their attorney generals, and he was appointed by the governor… The governor's previous Attorney General was appointed by the governor to the Supreme Court, and the new Attorney General was on the Supreme Court… I talked to former Attorney General Bill Hill, and he said Mr. Kautz was first rate, and he did a great job as a justice, and he's very confident that he'll do a great job as Attorney General.”
Prior to the Wyoming Supreme Court, Kautz served as a district court judge in the 8th Judicial District, which includes Converse, Goshen, Niobrara and Platte counties.
Read the full story HERE.
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Fire crews from across the Bighorn Basin are responding to several small wildfires surrounding Thermopolis, sparked by a Tuesday afternoon thunderstorm.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a pair of the blazes, called the Hall Road Fire and Coyote Run fires, have burned almost 1,000 acres of juniper and sagebrush within a mile of Thermopolis.
“There have been several wildfires reported around Thermopolis over the last several days, the largest as of Wednesday afternoon, had burned over 800 acres, but there was one, the coyote run fire that was only 175 acres, but it was within a mile of the town of Thermopolis. Now from the on site people that I spoke to, they said that there was no cause for concern with any of these fires… But the thing that they did stress is that these fires have grown rather quickly, and it seems early in the season, but based on just the moisture, and that's in the ground, which isn't a lot, and based on the vegetation, we could have a very bad fire season on our hands if we're not careful and fire aware as we move through the summer.”
Responders from the Meeteetse Volunteer Fire Department, Washakie County Fire District, Fremont County Fire District, Shoshone National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming State Forestry have rushed to Hot Springs County to assist.
Read the full story HERE.
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A judge's decision to temporarily stop payments to Wyoming’s school choice voucher program has brought “utter chaos” to the families of the students enrolled.
That’s what Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder said Wednesday during an appearance on the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake. Cowboy State Daily’s Matthew Christian reports that roughly 4,000 students have enrolled in the Steamboat Legacy Scholarships Program, but the Wyoming Education Association and a handful of parents are challenging the constitutionality of the program.
“There was a judge who issued a recent ruling that said you can't make these payments yet because there's a potential constitutional challenge, and it's easier for the state to keep the money while the constitutional challenge plays itself out. But Degenfelder said that this has caused utter chaos for the people that have enrolled in this program. She said there's one woman who enrolled her daughter in a preschool based on the assumption that that scholarship would pay for that… And the woman took a job afterwards based on that assumption, and so she may have to quit her job if those payments are not made.”
Judge Peter Froelicher is expected to make a permanent ruling in mid-July. Until then, Degenfelder says everything is in a holding pattern.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming company will start drilling dozens of holes in the Powder River Basin this month to explore potential to mine uranium.
Single Water Services will mobilize equipment to the Pine Ridge uranium project north of Glenrock later this month, preparing to launch a massive exploration that could establish Wyoming's second-largest uranium resource. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke to Levi Single, whose four-man crew is a local piece of an ambitious, internationally connected campaign designed to prove up the Pine Ridge deposit.
“They plan to officially break ground July 21, punching holes into the ground and then testing them for mineral deposits using this technology that sounds fascinating. You drop a device down a wire, and as it goes through, it can rate the radioactivity and tell you what minerals are down there, including uranium. And so really, they're just characterizing this huge ore deposit, and it's the first step in what they hope will be not only a mining but a processing operation.”
The Pine Ridge project sits at the center of an international uranium venture that stretches from Winnipeg to Sydney to Namibia's Skeleton Coast.
Read the full story HERE.
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If there was a competition for the best Fourth of July celebration in Wyoming, Cody might win by a country mile. That’s because it throws a five-day party filled with parades, rodeos, fireworks and celebrities that attract huge crowds.
And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi will be right in the middle of the action, announcing the parades that have become a centerpiece of the town’s annual Independence Day, and PRCA Rodeo, event.
“Buffalo Bill himself never actually appeared in a Cody Fourth of July parade, and it wasn't the Cody stampede parade until 1919, but the general allure of it is that, you know, you're talking about a gateway community right outside Yellowstone National Park… it's a spot where everybody wants to be seen… There have been notable names like Cole Hauser was a grand marshal in 2022, Larry the Cable Guy was the grand marshal just last year … I don't know if you could ever say which is the best Fourth of July parade in Wyoming, but just going by history and who shows up, it seems like Cody is the parade that everybody wants to be seen in or seen watching.”
Typical attendees of the Cody Stampede parades include the governor, the secretaries of state and education, the entire U.S. congressional delegation, and high school bands from across the Cowboy State. In fact, in 1976, America’s bicentennial, the grand marshal was none other than “The Duke” himself, 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.
