It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, September 30th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA.
–The Department of the Interior announced Monday that it's opening more than 13 million acres of federal land for coal leases and investing $625 million dollars to modernize coal plants and jump-start U.S. mining. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this is great news for the coal industry, and for Wyoming specifically.
“The Trump administration, from day one, has been talking about coal and doing things to empower coal. The one big, beautiful Bill Act had, you know, things in it related to coal. I just think this is a continuation of the administration's efforts to boost coal…This is a concerted and coordinated effort across departments. Department of Interior is expanding the acres for coal leases. The EPA has announced that it's rolling back regulations that might hamper coal. You know, this money from the Department of Energy. So this is a concerted effort across departments working together to try and kick start the coal industry and keep it going. I think the other thing that's probably pretty significant in all of this, you know, artificial intelligence is going to need a lot of energy. People are basically looking for every molecule of energy that they can find from whatever energy source they can get it from.”
Since the Cowboy State produces 40 percent of all the coal in the United States, Wyoming Energy Authority Director Rob Creager hosted several out-of-state legislators last week from states that accept Wyoming coal for tours of mines and power plants to see how Wyoming handles its coal industry.
Read the story HERE.
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The county clerk accused of botching portions of the 2024 general election in northeast Wyoming and filing a false post-election audit did not show up Monday for a legislative subcommittee meeting for which she was subpoenaed. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Secretary of State Chuck Grey repeatedly stated this was more than just a simple error.
“It was a seven and a half hour meeting with no lunch break, and a lot happened. Secretary of State Chuck Gray talked at length about how the real issue, and his view, is that she filed a post election audit with his office that you know, he said is either fraudulent or she didn't do one at all, and and that was the real issue to him, is this system that's supposed to be a check on the veracity of the election results, and somehow she missed, ignored, lied about, or otherwise didn't catch 21 errors…Chuck Gray complained about Governor Mark Gordon, whose declination letter where he declined to pursue a removal of Office Action said that, you know that that declination letter did not cite the post election audit. And Chuck Gray was like, this is the issue. Why did the governor not cite it? And Governor Gordon, in response, His office said, Well, that's because the statute only allows us to act upon a locals concern. And Chuck gray is not a Weston county voter, so we had to confine our analysis to the locals filed complaint.”
Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock could face up to $100 in fines and up to six months in jail for not complying with the subpoena, and if a prosecutor takes up a case against her for failing to appear for the subpoena.
Read the story HERE.
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Dozens of outraged residents gathered at the Albany County courthouse on Monday to witness the arraignment of Stuart Schmidt, who is accused of ramming a wild horse with an ATV which lead to it being euthanized.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that even though this was an arraignment, many people came out to show their support for wild horses and other animals.
“Now this was an arraignment hearing, which means there's not any arguments made. All this individual does is come before a judge and say whether they are guilty or not guilty. In this case, he pled not guilty. But regardless of this, even this 15 minute interaction with the judge, there was about 30 community members in attendance, and I spoke to some of the people there who were telling me that they showed up today to show support for animals. These are people that feel strongly that what Schmidt is accused of is a pretty terrible thing, running down an animal with an ATV. They said they don't want to see anything like this happen again. And a lot of the people there were calling for increased penalties…So cruelty to animals here in Wyoming, the maximum penalty that you can receive for that is two years in jail and about a $5,000 fine. But some of community members were calling for fines as high as 15, to $20,000 potentially five years in jail, a lot harsher of a sentence.”
Schmidt is accused of charging at the wild horse with an ATV.. He is facing one count of felony cruelty to wildlife and is out of jail on an unsecured bond.
Read the full story HERE.
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A ranch manager claims that a Gillette elk hunter who says he shot the bull of a lifetime on public land trespassed across roughly six miles of private land to get there. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Terrance J. Monger was cited by a Wyoming Game and Fish game warden for hunting, trapping, fishing or collecting antlers or horns on private land without permission.
“A ranch manager in the same area reached out to us and said, Well, there's more to the story. We are alleging that he trespassed across our property and neighbors property to get there. It's, you know, we have these sections of public land in Wyoming that are what we call land locked. In other words, they are surrounded by private land, and the only way to get to them is through private land. And so that's what this ranch manager said, is that, yeah, these guys shot the bull on public land, but they had to cross our ranch and another ranch to get there so they trespass, and we did check in court records do show that a person with the same name on the same day was cited for trespassing while hunting, which is in hunting trespass is different than criminal trespass. Criminal trespass, a Sheriff's deputy has to investigate that a hunting trust pass a Game and Fish Game Warden can, can, can investigate that, and it's a little bit different charge. It carries a stiffer penalty. And the other thing you have to bear in mind is land for the hunting. Landowners are under no obligation to give any warnings or post their property, it is the hunter's responsibility, 100% all the time to know where they are.”
The citation was issued for the alleged violation on Sept. 18 and was filed Monday in circuit court.
Read the full story HERE.
–A pilot was hurt Saturday when his aerobatic kit plane flipped after striking a dirt berm during an emergency landing in an alfalfa field northeast of the Torrington Municipal Airport shortly after takeoff. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that the single-engine plane was en route from an airshow in Spanish Fork, Utah, to its headquarters near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when the accident happened around 4 p.m.
“They stopped at the touring airport to refuel. All four planes refueled. They took off. The lead plane, however, almost immediately after it took off, began descending, losing altitude, probably some kind of an engine problem. The pilot tried to make it back to the airport, but couldn't, ended up in an alfalfa field. Were turned over, and he was injured, had abrasions and cuts, but no broken bones, and he was taken to local Torrington Hospital, where he was later released. And the cause of the investigations that are is being looked at by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The pilot, whose name has not been released, had taken off after refueling at Torrington Municipal Airport when his plane encountered a mechanical problem less than four minutes later.”
The pilot, whose name has not been released, had taken off after refueling at the Torrington Municipal Airport. His plane encountered a mechanical problem less than four minutes later.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
–State Rep. Bill Allemand of Casper, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that neither he nor his family own any land that has been leased to wind energy developers.
Now Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that was a response to Bar Nunn Public Works Director Dustin Smart, who claimed Allemand is hypocritically leasing land to wind developers while at the same time showing staunch opposition to public subsidies for nuclear storage projects.
“Now, this is a huge accusation, because Bill Allemand is a very big opponent of nuclear energy developments, and this sort of argument kind of weakens his stance a bit. So I spoke to the representative today, and I asked him about these accusation which he flatly denied. He said that he does not own a single acre of land anywhere in the United States, and he said that his family doesn't own any land in the counties where these wind turbine developments were. He said that the argument that was made against him was using AI, and he argued that this person from bar none wasn't exactly backing up their sources with any evidence. So he feels strongly that that is not the case. And Cowboy State daily did do some digging today. We couldn't find any records directly associated with Bill Allen himself, although what we did find was a land trust that is owned by a cousin of Bill all men's father, which would make him a third cousin. So it's a very distant relationship, and they are not involved financially in any way.”
Smart claimed via social media that Allemand has an incentive behind his anti-nuclear platform, according to a series of screenshots Allemand released in a Sunday press release addressing the allegation.
Read the full story HERE.
–Two hikers who were trapped in a storm Sunday on Medicine Bow Peak in Albany County and needed to be extracted by Albany County Search and Rescue. Cowboy State Daily’s Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the hikers are claiming that the All Trails GPS app misled them into a treacherous boulder field.
“They supposedly claimed that the app they were using, this All Trails, GPS app they were using kind of led them astray and led them into that spot or that boulder field in the first place. So I talked to a couple different people. First of all, I reached out to All Trails. They did respond. They do dispute that claim. They said that, you know…that trail is properly marked on their app, and it's marked as an extremely difficult trail. And then I also talked to a guy who's kind of manages the Central Wyoming he's part of the Central Wyoming trail advocates, and he does they are also on another GPS app that they help manage. And he says, the way they do that is they use, you know, local administrators like him to verify trails as best they can. And he said, you know, at the end of the day, no trail app is going to GPS app is going to be 100% right all the time, simply because, you know, there can be gaps between various people in various locations sending new trails in and then them getting put on the app.”
The Albany County Sheriff’s Office say the hikers wisely “sheltered in place” as storm clouds rolled in, bringing rain, snow and lightning. They were rescued without incident.
Read the full story HERE.
–And…Yellowstone National Park is one of the few places in North America where you can see bears, bison, and other wild animals thriving in their natural habitat. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports, usually it’s the people who get too close. Not this time.
“So, the rules are clear. You're supposed to maintain 25 yards between yourself and all bison at Yellowstone National Park. But there's not really a real set for when the bison decides to close the distance with you. So a bunch of people were watching the grizzly that pulled the elk out of the pit of mud near the eastern entrance, and they almost got blindsided by this bison, because they were on the top of a really steep ridge that they didn't think a bison could walk up. But then the Ranger spotted it, he alerted everybody to get back, and the bison just wandered through where everybody had been standing moments before, watching the grizzly gorge itself. So, sometimes the bison just decide to close the distance, rather than people closing the distance, which is what happens more often, results in the injuries that we see in the parks when people get too close to bison.”
The bison seemed mildly curious about the all the camera equipment but eventually lost interest and wandered off on its own. Thankfully, no one was injured.
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 Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
