It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, October 8th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story."
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A Natrona County High School senior trying to launch a Turning Point USA Club America chapter believes her school principal may be infringing on her First Amendment rights and treating her club differently than others. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the 17-year old student, Kylie Wall, said she approached Natrona County High School Principal Aaron Wilson three weeks ago about starting a TPUSA Club America chapter at the school.
“The president of that club says she's been being treated different by her principal than she's noticing the same club at Kelly Walsh High School, also in the district, has been treated. She's been told by the principal that she couldn't have a public meeting with Kelly Walsh group. We contacted the principal, and he said that he doesn't have any issues with the club, but we do know that there was a teacher who tore a poster off the wall after this student leader posted that about a meeting that was supposed to happen last night.”
Wilson initially hesitated but did allow her to start a club that is associated with Turning Point USA.
Read the full story HERE.
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The family of the man who shot a Sheridan Police Department sergeant last year is suing law enforcement. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the family is saying that police should not have destroyed a home and fatally shot the man after the incident.
“I did go ahead and also obtain the decision letter in which the County's top prosecutor declined to prosecute Officer Michael Chand, the one who shot Lowry. And I also talked to Shand, who said, you know, I had no other choice. He was he'd been shooting at cops from the home where he barricaded himself. He fled with an AR 15. He appeared to me to be smiling, and he was rushing through this tight knit neighborhood toward other law enforcement, other people.”
The lawsuit accuses Chand, Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska, and other unknown “John Does” of wrongfully causing the Feb. 14, 2024, death of William Lowery, 46, who had shot Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee the day before.
Read the full story HERE.
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When former Obama-Appointed U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, Kip Crofts, first read about a reinvigorated push for passage of a Wyoming bill that would require Congress to authorize the deployment of their National Guardsmen, one of his first reactions was disgust. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports that Crofts thinks the president should be able to deploy the Guard when needed.
“He said, the legislature is fine to kind of, you know, duke it out over these constitutional issues, but given kind of the ineptitude of Congress, especially in recent years, he just feels that it's not the right position to kind of be pushing this agenda or kind of initiative.”
Crofts went on to add that Congress already has put the federal government into a shutdown because of inaction and giving them the responsibility of deciding whether to deploy Wyoming’s National Guard is a poor decision.
Read the full story HERE.
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Amid ongoing tensions over how and when to propose new local taxes in Jackson and Teton County, a deeper question over how to best market the area to the world was revealed during a joint meeting of elected officials on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison says residents aren’t quite sure what to do.
“What really came out of that discussion were some pretty strong feelings around tourism and how to nurture it. Whether Jackson needs to continue to market itself to the world, should they focus all of the dollars gathered from tourist sales tax on services like buses and trails and other amenities that Jackson locals and tourists use?”
The meeting adjourned without any vote or formal decision, but what emerged were signs of a community struggling and an ongoing dispute over whether Jackson still needs to promote itself as a destination.
Read the full story HERE.
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Luka Rasmussen was playing video games with his friends, smoking marijuana, and messing around with a handgun back on February 12th. The gun went off, and now Luka stands charged with involuntary manslaughter. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports the 19-year old Rasmussen stood beside his attorney and pleaded guilty to the single charge.
“A 19 year old Casper man took a plea deal Tuesday in the Natrona County District Court. He is responsible for playing with a weapon last February with two other young men in a room. They were playing games. They all had handguns, and he was apparently playing with his weapon, and the weapon went off and killed his friend, and so he took a plea deal from the new Toronto county district attorney.”
Under terms of the plea deal Rasmussen’s guilty plea would be in exchange for a maximum 16-year sentence on the charge which carries the potential of 20 years in prison.
Read the full story HERE.
I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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A new, one-point-two billion dollar, 184-thousand-square-foot data center broke ground in Cheyenne on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that
the company is being innovative about many things, but water use is a priority.
“The related digital and related companies broke ground today in Cheyenne on a 302 up to 302, megawatt data center. I thought, what was interesting about it is their emphasis on, hey, this isn't going to use any water. Clearly, data centers have heard they've gotten the memo. People are concerned about the water usage with these things. It has traditionally taken a lot of water to cool this equipment off with AI, it gets even hotter.”
The facility is expected to generate around $250 million in tax revenue for Cheyenne and Wyoming during its first 15 years of operation, according to figures from Related.
Read the full story HERE.
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U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis on Tuesday expressed her optimism for President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan and recalled the horrors of the Hamas attack at a music festival in Israel two years ago to the day. Speaking with Cowboy State Daily reporter Sean Barry in her Capitol Hill office, the Wyoming Republican said Israel should not be faulted for its military response to the attack.
“I asked Senator Lummis whether she was optimistic President Donald Trump's plan will succeed. She first said, I am hopeful, but then quickly added that it is a cautious hope. She points out that many of the things in Trump's 20 point peace plan, these are things that Hamas has resisted up until now, so there's room to be skeptical. But Trump has multiple countries involved in these talks…but the senator telling me today here in an interview on Capitol Hill, that she is hopeful with that cautious hope.”
Senator Lummis told Cowboy State Daily that she points the finger solely at Hamas for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, saying the group has sabotaged humanitarian aid efforts meant for innocent civilians.
Read the full story HERE.
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Supporters of wind and solar energy initiatives are split on whether the Trump administration’s cancellation of renewable energy projects in blue states last week will impact Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that, although the projects are terminated in other states, it could affect Wyoming.
“I spoke to supporters of renewable energy initiatives, and they told me that they're a little bit concerned that some of these cuts could have an impact here in Wyoming, despite them not actually taking place within state boundaries. Now their argument hinges around the Western interconnection, which is a massive energy grid that connects all of the Western States together. That argument there is that Colorado and these other states that are impacted by the cuts are going to kind of drag Wyoming down.”
The Trump administration last week terminated roughly $8 billion worth of renewable energy projects in blue states. Many of these cuts targeted western states like Colorado, California and Oregon which did not vote for Trump in 2024.
Read the full interview 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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
