It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, October 15th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson. “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 forward slash story."
– When two Natrona County School District 1 trustees showed up for a Friday meeting over a controversy that's sprung up around new Turning Point USA chapters in the district, they were told to leave. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports Superintendent Angela Hensley made it clear that the school board members weren't welcome.
“They had been invited by Kylie Walsh, who's been at the center of a controversy, and the leader of the Natrona County High School Turning Point USA America…they just wanted them to be witnesses and observers. When they got there, they told me that the superintendent directed them away from the meeting, said that they were not board trustees in that sense at that meeting, and basically asked them to leave.”
The parents of Natrona County High School TPUSA student leader Kylie Wall invited the trustees to the meeting and told Cowboy State Daily they left feeling as if their concerns had not been resolved. The school district issued a “statement of clarity” about TPUSA chapters, stating that they wanted to "provide stakeholders with an understanding of processes while encouraging continued support.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Speaking of Natrona County high school, The Natrona County school district meeting room was packed on Monday night with many people having an opinion on the district’s controversy involving Turning Point USA Club America chapters. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that more than 20 people spoke and had three minutes to express their opinions. And opinions varied.
“One of the themes of the night was support for the high school principal, that he does a good job and that he didn't deserve criticism. Another theme of the night was that from some of the students…at least three of them were against the formation of a TP USA club. They used words like homophobic…And then there was members from the TP USA Wyoming, the president of the TP USA Wyoming University of Wyoming chapters came and spoke and just talked about the need for students to be able to dialogue on …hard subjects.”
The district school board meeting concluded with the decision that the TP USA club can continue in Natrona County High School as long as it follows school policy.
Read the full story HERE.
–Lawmakers are starting to point fingers after Radiant Nuclear dumped Wyoming for Tennessee. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports some legislators say the state made a catastrophic mistake in not embracing the industry.
“You have folks like Senator, yeah, folks like Senator Ed Cooper, who spent a lot of time getting to know this industry and promoting it and being very bullish about what it means for Wyoming's economy…Governor Gordon chimed in and really branded those that vocally opposed radiant as ‘Club No” that they were more interested in turning something away than developing something. And so, yeah, the feelings were raw and fresh.”
Matt Wilson, a representative of Radiant Nuclear, appeared on Cowboy State Daily’s radio show and told host Jake Nichols, “Look, you can't have it both ways. You can't be pro-nuclear without being open to being a nuclear waste site to some degree.”
Read the full story HERE.
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On Monday, the Wyoming Joint Judiciary Committee advanced a bill seeking to criminalize "grooming," or pushing children toward sexual acts. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that as drafted, it would penalize grooming offenses with harsher penalties than statutory rape itself.
“This bill has been lopsided, and it remains lopsided going into the 2026 session, where you, in some cases, can face life in prison for grooming a child, which is less than in many cases you can face for, well, I believe in all cases you can face for statutory rape of that same child…and some people acknowledge it, like Representative Ken Chestek was like, ‘Yeah, we got to fix that.’ He voted for it, along with everyone else. But it can still be amended during the session if it's introduced.”
The 13 members of the legislative Joint Judiciary Committee who attended all voted in favor of sending the bill into the 2026 lawmaking session, which opens on February 9th.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
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We’re learning more about the Laramie County man accused of hoarding more than 100 animals. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that Michael Ohearn was investigated — but not convicted — for similar allegations dating back to 2022.
“O'Hearn had similar citations for similar issues stemming all the way back to 2022. Now, while a lot of these cases touched on similar issues of mistreatment of animals, most, if not all of these cases were actually dismissed by prosecutors.”
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office reports that they found over 100 animals alive and 22 dead at Ohearn’s residence. Shelter staffers are still scrambling to feed, clean and care for the massive influx of rescued animals.
Read the full story HERE.
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A group of Wyoming ranchers is building a massive carbon storage project on their land. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the project aims to store carbon dioxide underground, creating new income and supporting the local economy.
“Even though the Trump administration kind of hates carbon capture…it's a strong market, because it's useful for enhanced oil recovery…what they do is they take the carbon dioxide, they inject it into the well, and then it helps boost production at the end of the well's life, kind of extending that out in a very economic way…I think of it as like a garage where you would park your carbon dioxide right? It's a big garage, 102,000 acres worth of land here, with 20 ranchers banding together to create this project.”
The process is called enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, and the technique of injecting carbon dioxide into wells that have the right chemistry can help squeeze more oil and gas out of them, boosting overall economic output.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Gillette woman remains on life support after being shot in the head last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that police are saying Javier Abeyta allegedly admitted to a witness that he shot Marissa Allen.
“Gillette Police went to a home on O Henry Drive and responded to the residents. They opened up the garage, and then they found the victim…and shortly after that, a man… who's the alleged shooter…He dropped the handgun that he was carrying that he used as the murder weapon, allegedly, according to court documents.”
Abeyta was arrested and has been charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault and battery. He remains in the Campbell County Detention Center. Allen is currently in a Colorado hospital, reportedly brain dead.
Read the full story HERE.
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The sister of a man who was killed after fatally shooting a Sheridan police officer last year has dropped her lawsuit against law enforcement. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Genevieve Lowery’s lawsuit was never about money, but about unearthing answers about her brother’s death.
“That lawsuit complaint voiced all these concerns that she couldn't get documents, she couldn't get reports regarding what happened to her brother, what happened during that standoff…They had gotten the DCI report, and they were told that there wasn't body camera footage of the actual shooting in which her brother died, and so she basically said, like, this could happen to anyone, and I really wanted this documentation, and now that I've gotten it, I'm dropping my lawsuit.”
Lowery went on to tell Cowboy State Daily that the information didn’t answer all of her questions. It also brought a tremendous amount of sadness.
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
