It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, October 28th. 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."
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In what could be the first step toward building a new coal-fired power plant in Gillette, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced Monday that Basin Electric Power Cooperative will receive $4 million in state-matching money through the Wyoming Energy Authority to study building a second unit at the Dry Fork Station power plant. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that coal advocates are saying this is a pivotal moment for American energy.
“This is pretty big news, because the last time anyone fired up a new coal fired plant, it was in 2013 down in Texas. The second most recent coal fired plant is the Dry Fork, is that initial original power generating station fueled by coal? And so now they're going to, you know, spend, you know, little over a year looking at, okay, can we pull this off feasibly and what’s the latest.”
This coal-fired plant will be the second additional one in Gillette, the first one opening in 2011.
Read the full story HERE.
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Reclusive Wyoming billionaire Timothy Mellon has been identified by The New York Times as the anonymous donor of $130 million to the military during the government shutdown. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports, last year, Mellon did fund an eye-catching, controversial billboard.
“In 2024 he put up a massive billboard on the Colorado Wyoming border,
alerting people driving into Colorado, they were getting ready to enter Venezuela, and that was part of a kind of a ton of tongue in cheek, kind of a warning regarding a partner complex in a war that was apparently taken over by Venezuela gang members…He's reclusive in that he doesn't come out and make public statements that he does, but he does make a lot of big donations. He gave $50 million to President Trump's campaign in…2024.”
The 83-year-old Mellon lives in Saratoga, Wyoming, and is grandson of former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and an heir to the Mellon banking fortune.
Read the full story HERE.
–Although Donald Trump didn’t take up Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso’s invitation to attend Saturday’s Border War football game between the University of Wyoming and rival Colorado State University, the president did send a message. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports the video was all about energy.
“This video was due in part to his invitation for Trump to actually attend the game in person. While Trump is traveling overseas this week, he was able to film a video message in which he touted Wyoming's coal industry, in which coincided with the university's blackout jerseys honoring Wyoming's coal industry.”
This was the first time the Wyoming Cowboys wore something other than brown and gold. UW won in a 28 to zip shutout of the Rams in the 117th Border War game to claim the coveted Bronze Boot traveling trophy.
Read the full story HERE.
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An Evanston-based judge on Monday declined to dismiss a legal challenge by Thermopolis Republicans. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that they’re accusing their state party of waging backroom power plays to thwart state law and cheat people of fair representation.
“Some hot springs county Republicans who were vying for state delegation and leadership positions, basically accused the state party of doing kind of a back room arbitration to oust them after they'd already been elected to those positions. And so they filed Sue. They filed a legal challenge, saying the state party broke the law here and they flouted state law. And a judge on Monday was like, yeah, it's likely that they did that. Uh, no one in the suit is disputing that they did that. They claim they have a constitutional defense. The judge said, Yeah, well, that constitutional right that you're claiming to associate with whom you wish and to dictate the terms of your own membership, really, because you have some control over state political processes, it has to be weighed against the people's right to have fair and orderly elections.”
The judge ordered their attorney, Clark Stith and the state Republican Party’s attorney Caleb Wilkins to file motions for summary judgment by Jan. 12. He said he’d hear arguments about those motions on March 11.
Read the full story HERE.
I’ll be back with more news, right after this…
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The town of Glenrock and its Mayor Bruce Roumell have been named in a convoluted, Virginia-based bank's $350-million lawsuit accusing them of leaking trade secrets. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker unwinds what this suit is all about.
“The lawsuit stems from a private investigation which examined the activities of Colorado-based Flatirons bank. Both banks are involved in establishing accounts that distribute payments from lawsuit settlements, which are known as qualified settlement funds or qsfs. This lawsuit essentially alleges that the Virginia this lawsuit essentially alleges that the Virginia based bank, Eastern point Trust Company had its this lawsuit essentially alleges that the Virginia based Eastern point Trust Company bank had its intellectual property stolen by the Colorado-based Flatirons Bank, which is then beginning to do business with cities throughout Wyoming, including Glenrock.”
The city attorney for Glenrock, Amy Iberlin, says the lawsuit amounts to spontaneous, ill-founded bullying by an out-of-state company.
Read the full story HERE.
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A group of shops and people who sell marijuana-like substances that were legal in Wyoming until July 2024, failed to show that the state's new ban on those substances violates their rights, so ruled the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the judge said the plaintiffs didn’t prove their case.
“Wyoming last year narrowed, basically mirror of the federal exemption to the marijuana ban. You know, the Feds in 2018 exempted hemp saying, Oh, this low concentration THC product is under the hemp exemption. It's not marijuana. And Wyoming came back and said, Yeah, you know, we're seeing synthetic versions of this lower concentrated stuff to where it is psychoactive, and we're going to go and ban that. And so the sellers of these products too, and saying, This is government taking our stuff. This is government over regulation. This is interference with interstate commerce. And the 10th Circuit, which is the appeals court between Wyoming's Federal Court and the US Supreme Court, says in the middle there, it said, I know you guys have failed to show that a federal right was actually violated.”
In 2024, Wyoming banned the distribution of marijuana-like substances that include more than 0.3% of delta-9 THC, and/or concoctions of delta-8 THC.
Read the full story HERE.
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Each day in the month of October, Cowboy State Daily publishes a spooky tale that has Wyoming ties. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy tells the tale of the Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming, where some of the guests who didn’t check out are more popular than the ones who do.
“Robyn Cutter, the Park County archivist, has actually uncovered some of these stories behind the guests by going back in old newspapers. She found out that room 35 where all this paranormal stuff is happening, was actually the same room where, in 1912 a US Cavalry soldier, Frank Cunningham shot up the room after he had some hallucinations…then there's the guest that we still don't know who they are, but they're definitely present. The rocking chair that moves by itself. The smell of perfume in the room, these guests are still there…And a final story that we were able to collect was that a former employee from the 1990s said that a gentleman in a fedora would be sitting in the booth, and they would go to take care of him, and he would be gone. The older waitresses finally told them it was a ghost.”
William F. “Buffalo Bill" Cody celebrated the opening of his Irma Hotel with a huge party in 1902. The now-iconic hotel, named after his youngest daughter, has gone on to host more than 120 years of princes, Indian chiefs, cowboys, and even ghosts.
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.
