It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 29th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.
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Two proposed bills and one proposed resolution to either stall out or ban cloud seeding and other atmospheric manipulations were topics of heated discussion at the legislature’s Agriculture Committee on Thursday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that, during a four hour conversation about the topic, Representative Mike Schmidt, an outspoken critic of cloud seeding, presented the three measures.
“He handed those out to the committee, but they weren't in the advanced materials available to the public. I was able to get the gist - what the two proposed bills, the first two were ones a moratorium, a 10 year moratorium on cloud seeding to get some baseline water research. The other one is a ban on other kinds of atmospheric injections and radiations. And then the third one is this proposed resolution that Schmidt said he wanted to send to Congress, but no one read it aloud or described it, and it wasn't part of the public meeting materials that were available beforehand.”
The topics elicited strong emotions and concern from people who are saying that the skies just don't look right. The committee, by a show of hands vote, asked its staffers to formulate the three measures.
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The body of a hiker who went missing in late July has been found and recovered from the Bighorn Mountains.
The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the body of 38-year-old Grant Gardner was found on the northern route of Cloud Peak on Tuesday evening. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Gardner’s body was found by a couple of out of state hikers who happened to be at just the right spot at the right time.
“A team of experienced climbers from North Carolina had summited Cloud Peak on Tuesday, and as they were making camp, they spotted a glimmer from what turned out to be a piece of fabric on Grant Gardner's backpack. They immediately notified the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office, and they sent their search and rescue team up there… it had been obscured from view in several spots because they'd covered that area multiple times in multiple ways during their 20 day search effort earlier this month, but it was just a difficult thing to spot, and the Big Horn County Coroner is doing an investigation right now to determine what happened to Gardner, but at the very least, this will provide some closure to his family.”
Gardner had summited Cloud peak on July 29, which was also the last time anyone had been in contact with him. The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office mobilized a massive search and rescue operation on Aug. 1 which lasted 20 days.
Read the full story HERE.
Granting Wyoming authority to regulate the byproducts of burning coal to make power, including coal ash, is a huge step for the state in getting out from under sometimes tedious and frustrating federal oversight.
That was part of the message EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin delivered at the Wyoming Capitol on Thursday during a signing ceremony for a letter recommending that the state be allowed to manage coal combustion residuals itself. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson was at the meeting.
“What Wyoming will get if this goes through which it looks like it will is autonomy to manage the program themselves, instead of having the Feds manage it through the EPA… EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was here in Wyoming to sign a letter saying, hey, the EPA supports Wyoming doing this. They could do it at least as good, if not better, than we can. So why not let them do it?”
Zeldin said Wyoming is the fifth state to gain control of its own CCR program, adding that that is a nod to how important the state’s energy industries are to America’s strength.
Read the full story HERE.
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An oft-painted rock south of the Wyoming-Colorado border is demanding the release of the Epstein files. So are Wyoming leaders on the political left and right.
Haystack Rock on U.S. Highway 287 wears many faces, as people paint it with messages ranging from memorials to birthday wishes to political outrage. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that On Wednesday afternoon, someone painted “RELEASE EPSTEIN FILES” on the boulder's highway-facing side.
“There's an attorney based in Laramie named Travis Helm. And he drives down to Fort Collins sometimes to pick up his dry cleaning or eat a good gyro. And he drives past, they call it Haystack Rock… And yesterday it said, release Epstein files in all caps red. And so Helm shot a photo of it… despite being a chronic Trump hater, Helm finds himself in unusual company, as you know, top Republicans like Brian Miller and Representative Tom Kelly also want to see that list released.”
While still campaigning for his second term in 2024, President Donald Trump said he’d have “no problem” releasing more official files relating to accused of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, including the “client list.” But this summer Trump’s Department of Justice walked back reports that Epstein kept a “client list” and declined to make more of the files public.
Read the full story HERE.
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A proposed wind farm that promises to bring jobs and increased revenue to Laramie County is dividing ranchers and landowners, some of whom worry the initiative could negatively impact their private properties.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that in an initiative it calls the Laramie Range Wind Project, Spanish energy giant Repsol intends to build as many as 170 wind turbines on roughly 50,000 acres of private ranchlands and 6,150 acres of state lands.
“I spoke to some people on this side of the issue that said there are significant environmental concerns. There's also safety hazards posed by the increased amount of construction traffic that'll come to the area. But on the other side of the issue, there's also some significant pros. One rancher told me that this is a land right issue, that people should be allowed to use their land how they want, and if they want to partner with a development like this, they should be allowed to.”
The project plans to begin construction in 2027 and last until November 2029.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper was hurt Tuesday when a semi crashed into a patrol vehicle on Interstate 80 near Rawlins.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the trooper was leaving the scene of a prior crash at mile marker 201 west of Rawlins and attempted to turn into the median from the right shoulder when a westbound semitrailer struck the left side of the trooper’s vehicle.
“There was a passenger vehicle that was hit by a semi that was driving erratically on I80, and while first responders responding to that, the Wyoming highway patrol, at least one trooper was on the scene when they were leaving the scene, turning out onto the highway again, they got hit by a semi… there's been a lot of discussion about how that was handled. Were the emergency lights on, but based on witness testimony from the scene, would that have mattered? Because… people weren't exactly slowing down when they saw an active accident scene on the highway.”
The trooper was taken to Memorial Hospital of Carbon County in Rawlins with minor injuries and was released later that day. The truck driver was not hurt and was not ticketed.
Read the full story HERE.
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The three contenders for the Wyoming Senate seat vacated this month by Darin Smith are all pro-life, pro-ICE, and pro-restriction of sexual content in children’s libraries.
A group of Wyoming Republican Party precinct committee members from Laramie and Platte Counties on Monday chose Taft Love, Roy Birt and Jeff Barnes as three nominees to fill Senate District 6.
But as similar as their platforms are, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the three differ in how they’d approach those issues.
“A lot of them agree on the issues, like they do not want sexually graphic books in children's sections of libraries. They all tend to be pro life. They want to work with ICE… And so it's, it's interesting that even if you have these matching values across the board, if you give a man the power to rewrite state law, he's not going to use it the same way as his fellow candidate.”
Smith, a Republican freshman legislator from the Cheyenne area, resigned from that seat Aug. 11 so he could lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Wyoming as the state’s top federal prosecutor. The Laramie and Platte County Commissions are scheduled to choose one of the three nominees for the position on Friday.
Read the full story HERE.
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If EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin thinks President Donald Trump should pardon a Cheyenne mechanic in prison for removing federally mandated emissions controls from diesel engines, he’s not saying so publicly.
Zeldin was at the Wyoming Capitol on Thursday to sign a letter of support to give the state control of its Coal Combustion Residuals Program. While he was covering that story, Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson asked a question that’s been on the mind of many Wyomingites who’ve been following the story of diesel mechanic Troy Lake.
“I asked him about the push to pardon Troy Lake… as a diesel mechanic, what Lake was doing, He was disabling the emissions controls on diesel engines… Because Lake was prosecuted by the EPA under Biden's administration, Now that we're in Trump's administration, I asked the administrator if he knew of the pardon request and what he thought of it? He said, Yes, I'm aware of it. His staff has researched it… As far as what his opinion is on whether he should be pardoned or not… if President Trump wants his opinion, he'll give it to him, but he won't do it publicly or in the media.”
Two-thirds of the members of the Wyoming House of Representatives sent a signed letter dated Tuesday to the Trump administration urging a pardon for Troy Lake. In the letter, legislators expressed concern that the prosecution was used as a political statement.
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 Kristie Thompson, a career Forest Service employee and wildland firefighter. You can find the link to this fascinating conversation 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.
