It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, October 1st. 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.
–Wyoming’s congressional delegation is blaming Senate Democrats for the federal government shutdown that took effect at midnight. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports from DC that one Wyoming Senator had some harsh words for Democrats.
“US Senator John Barrasso calling it idiocy on the part of the Democrats not cooperate with the Republicans…The Wyoming congressional delegation is essentially saying that the Democrats in the Senate, led by Chuck Schumer of New York, they're saying this is an act of retribution against the one Big Beautiful Bill act, because in the one Big Beautiful Bill act, where huge spending cuts were made, the Democrats had no voice. They were shut out of the process that was a strictly party line process in the Senate, whereas now with the shutdown, the Democrats had leverage. Republicans needed the Democrats vote to avoid a shutdown, and the Democrats said, we're not doing it.”
Back in Wyoming, Governor Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray issued statements supporting the federal lawmakers.
Read the full story HERE.
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As Wyoming’s House Freedom Caucus continues to act as one of the most vocal proponents of property tax cuts on behalf of what it sees as a weary tax base, Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that one Sheridan County official said on Tuesday that relatively few people are using these programs.
“On one side, we've got the House Freedom Caucus and people that are fighting to cut out waste, fraud and abuse from the government. But on the other side, we have these smaller local jurisdictions that are trying to hang on to their limited budgets as property tax revenue continues to decrease. Now today, I was looking for solutions, and I came across property tax relief services. These are actual services provided by county governments to provide relief to the people who need it the most that find that they're struggling with paying these taxes. Now what I found, however, is that not a lot of people are taking advantage of these programs, and that's because some of the way that they're structured requires interest payments to be made on these taxes that are deferred, and what I found is that that kind of represents a prohibitive cost to some people.”
After rallying to pass a 25 percent cut earlier this year, the Freedom Caucus is now aiming for additional relief, as high as 50 percent.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming has again earned the dubious distinction from a safety watchdog group as the nation’s deadliest state for big rig crashes. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that Truck Safety Coalition is blaming extreme and unpredictable weather, including high winds, sudden snowstorms and low visibility, particularly along the Interstate 80 corridor, for the high propensity of the deadly crashes.
“The Wyoming Trucking Association pointed out to me today, they think the study is flawed because it's based on per capita which Wyoming has the smallest population in the US and the most truck traffic, so you're going to have truck crashes, but there's other places that have far more of them than Wyoming. So they think, they think the results are somewhat skewed, but they do admit there is a problem…So you know, this organization uses Wyoming as like a benchmark, but the Trucking Association believes, you know, that's, that's, that's kind of flawed math.”
The Truck Safety Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, released its annual list of the 12 worst states for truck fatalities Monday based on the most recent data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. With Wyoming sitting on top of the list, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma round out the top five.
Read the full story HERE.
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Justin Lucht was working on the Moss Ranch near Lovell on Monday when he spotted one of the many bighorn sheep that frequent the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke with Lucht and found that the Bighorns may have one of the coolest sheep populations in the state because of a distinctive feature.
“So big horn sheep tend to grow symmetrical horns, where the horns sprout out of their head and they curl inward around their eyes. But the thing that's interesting in levels that there have been several big horn sheep spotted that have asymmetrical horns. One grows faster than the other. So instead of having a nice, symmetrical, curved horn set around your head, framing your head, there's one that's a little bit shorter and smaller and less thick, and the other one is massive. And this has been seen in several big horn sheep in this particular population at the foot of the Big Horn mountains near Lovell…You don't see these kind of horns on typical Big Horn rams. They usually just curve and then they curve inward and around the eye area, and these Rams in the big horns, it's not all of them, but a select few have this weird mutation, genetic mutation, where one horn just grows faster and thicker than the other one.”
Several rams harvested from this herd have the same unique look, rather than the more symmetrical appearance of the horns of most bighorn rams.
Read the story HERE.
–Gov. Mark Gordon acknowledged on Tuesday that Wyoming faces a complicated trade-off as the Trump administration moves to expand coal production. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the governor explained the good and the bad for the state.
“Coming off this meeting with Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, Governor Gordon, held a virtual press conference this morning. Members of the Wyoming media asked a lot of different interesting questions, and it was really all about what the Trump administration is doing to promote the coal industry, and Wyoming is greatly impacted by that. And so we've reported on this many times. We just yesterday, we had a story. There's been a huge infusion of enthusiasm and money, and Gordon said, look, but here's the facts, revenue is going to go down for states, and emissions are going to go up…However, what Gordon made the argument was, look, we were trying to hit a sweet spot here where, you know, we're not over taxing the coal industry. We're letting them catch up from the Biden years, where they really felt pinched. But at the same time, you know, we are capturing some revenue, and we hope that the volume will go up, that ultimately, you know, it will increase tax revenue for the state of Wyoming. At the same time, yes, we're going to be burning more coal, so more emissions into the atmosphere. However, new customers in Asia are really keen on using clean technologies, like the ones that are being developed here in Wyoming, to bring down emissions, even though you're burning more coal.”
The governor also conceded budget challenges are looming for the 2026 Wyoming legislative session as federal royalty rates on coal drop from 12 point five percent to seven percent, an estimated annual hit to the state budget of $50 million dollars.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
– Five out of the six men involved in a supercar racing incident in Grand Teton National Park this summer were sentenced last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that while a YouTube star is still facing prosecution for federal misdemeanor charges, others involved in the high-speed incident have been sentenced.
“Edmond Berseghian, who is still being prosecuted, but the other five that were involved in the drag racing incident in Grand Teton National Park in late July, they were sentenced last week, and so four of them got probation, probation and were banned from the park for two years, and one of them was fined. And all of them… were fined. the fines from, like, what the 700 range to the $1,000 range. That's substantial for misdemeanors. Generally, they were already jailed briefly after the incident, and I don't, I don't see more jail time, so I mean, but two years probation and being banned from the park is also significant.”
A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 28th.
Read the full story HERE.
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After a 10-hour search for what officials feared would be finding the body of a 37-year-old Casper man who reportedly fell into the North Platte River had a happier ending Tuesday when the man was found safe and unharmed. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the search for Dexter Fightingbear started at about 2 a.m.
“There'd been a report that two brothers were down by the North Platte River. They had been drinking and smoking marijuana, and somehow they both got into the river, and one of the brothers got out, but the other one did not, and so he alerted authorities that his brother was missing, and there was a few hours search in the early morning hours for this man and this 37 year old, he was not found. They kind of suspended the search until what police said was later on in the morning, when the sun rose up. And we don't know a lot about…how what that search was, except that they had drones. Initially, I went to the scene at 11 o'clock, and I saw some Sheriff a sheriff deputy, and some search and rescue guys with a dog, but I did not see other police along the river at that point, but we know at noon that this gentleman was found.”
When asked if there would be any charges filed, the spokesperson for Casper PD said further information would be coming out about the case soon.
Read the full story HERE.
–An intense aurora was seen in certain parts of Wyoming this past week to the delight of stargazers and amateur astronomers alike. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports, some sky gazers were treated to a very rare and mysterious light show on Tuesday night.
“So a Steve is, it's a backronym for a strong thermal emission, velocity enhancement. And getting into what a background is is too dense for the topic of the discussion, but what it is is a super heated streak of plasma that appears during a really intense Aurora…as people looked up, they saw this white streak streaking through the sky, and that was a Steve, as what they call it. Scientists don't really know exactly how is Steve appears. It's not the same as an aurora, but they tend to only appear, as far as we know, during auroras, so it's a really rare and interesting thing to see. They can last only a few minutes, so but they're blindingly bright…and they got some fantastic images of this thing that's been seen for probably hundreds, if not 1000s of years, but scientists still don't fully understand what it is or how it manifests.”
One eyewitness described the display as an intensely bright searchlight and only lasting about 10 minutes.
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.
