It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, November 7th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson. “Brought to you by the University of Wyoming Center on Aging. Did you know that 1 in 3 Wyoming adults have pre-diabetes, and most don’t realize it? Are you tough enough to know your numbers? Take the quiz at: Find Out WY dot org."
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The Weston County Clerk has been formally charged with the crime of dodging a legislative subpoena during a subcommittee's investigation of her handling of the 2024 election. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Becky Jo Hadlock reportedly told an investigator she had other appointments that day.
“This is a tricky beast, because it's one of those really splashy areas where politics and crime intersect. So the management audit committee subpoenaed her to give an account of the 2024, election…she did not show, and at that point, the law says the chairman of the committee shall turn her in so the as soon as she didn't show, the chairman had no choice, essentially, under this law, but to take the the hard nosed path and turn her in. And also, it also says that he shall apply for a court order to make her appear. I'm told by legislative staffers that hasn't happened yet.”
Hadlock could face up to six months in jail and $100 in fines if convicted of failure to appear. However, she could also face lesser penalties, including a deferral or probation, if convicted.
Read the full story HERE.
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Skyrocketing power demand from data and AI centers is reviving calls for more coal-fired electricity. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that fuels the debate about the role of Wyoming coal in the nation’s energy future. “Coal is reliable…It's cheap when you are operating it on a 24/7 basis, but now that you have renewables, which are zero cost on the margin, once they're built, they don't cost a thing, and they come in and they put energy on and so maybe now you're only running the coal plant 50% of the time. You are no longer meeting that overhead. You're not spreading that cost, that overhead over a 24-hour period. You're spreading it over a 12-hour period. Suddenly, the coal costs a lot more than it used to.”
Artificial intelligence centers are expected to grow astronomically within the next decade. According to an estimate by the International Energy Agency, it will surge by 160%.
Read the full story HERE.
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President Trump wants Senate Republicans to scrap the 60-vote threshold in order to end the government shutdown and move other legislation without Democrats’ support. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports from DC that Wyoming’s U.S. senators oppose the idea, saying Democrats would retaliate down the road.
“Senate Republicans, including staunch allies, like Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, yeah, they don't want to go down this road because it is a very dangerous game to get rid of the only tool that protects the minority party in Washington, DC. The US House doesn't have anything to protect the minority party. And then, of course, there's the presidency…They do not want to go along with President Trump and eliminate the filibuster because they know the Republicans are going to be in the minority someday, and they're worried about having the Democrats agenda rammed down their throat. Some of the things they're concerned about granting statehood to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia that would boost the Democrats numbers in Congress.”
The legislative filibuster is a tactic for the minority party in the Senate to block a bill. Under the rule known as cloture, 60 votes are required to end debate on a bill and thus, overcoming a filibuster.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, after this….
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Wyoming Department of Transportation's director says the previously reported $400 million deficit in the department is closer to $600 million now. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that solving this deficit is no easy feat.
“Senator Stephen Pappas, who leads the Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs committee, told Cowboy State Daily…that this issue is not going to be something that's easy to rectify, especially because the legislature recently shot down a 10 cent per gallon increase to the state's fuel tax, while this would have provided some money to WYDOT, this definitely wouldn't have filled the entire deficit, which means that lawmakers are still searching for different solutions to this problem, which may involve digging into the general fund to replace these missing dollars.”
WYDOT Director Darin Westby tells Cowboy State Daily that his department is responsible for maintaining over 7,000 miles of road throughout the state and 2,000 bridges, which may go neglected without proper funding.
Read the full story HERE.
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A California woman moved to Wyoming to escape "imperious" politics. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Venus Bontadelli is suing the town of Powell after being denied a permit to keep her pet pygmy goat.
“According to the complaint, it's a due process issue, okay, right? So the town says you can't have exotic pets or wild pets, unless you get a permit. State law says goats are livestock. And so the city was like, No, and she's saying this is arbitrary, because what's the point of the permit if I can't get around what the rules say? Like, what's the point of having to apply for a special permit if I can't get around what the rules say? And so her lawsuit calls that denial arbitrary. It claims it's not based on good legal reasoning, and therefore a violation of her due process rights, which are under the 14th Amendment.”
Bontadelli is asking the U.S. District Court of Wyoming to declare the town’s denial of her exotic pet permit unconstitutional, and to have the town pay her $1 in nominal damages along with attorney fees.
Read the full story HERE.
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Though a lightning rod for controversy, Dick Cheney was for years a celebrated Wyomingite. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports how Senator John Barrasso lauded the man's legacy, while Wyoming's other delegates and the president were more measured about Cheney's death.
“Senator John Barrasso is one of few Republicans who come out and honor Dick Cheney in the wake of his passing earlier this week, Barrasso. Barrasso and Cheney have a complex relationship stemming back to when Barrasso was originally appointed to the Senate in 2007 and he was actually confirmed then by Cheney, who was vice president throughout the years, Cheney and Barrasso worked together on legislative priorities, but their but their relationship began to deteriorate towards the end of the Biden administration…when Dick Cheney and his daughter, the former Wyoming representative, Liz Cheney spoke out against Donald Trump towards the end of the Biden administration, Barrasso was originally hesitant to speak out against them, but did eventually release a statement condemning that decision by the two.”
When Cheney became the nation’s youngest presidential chief of staff at the age of 34, Barrasso had just graduated from Georgetown with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Their Washington careers wouldn’t overlap until 2007 when Barrasso was appointed to fill a vacancy left by the late Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, who had died in office of leukemia.
Read the full story HERE.
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For years, Japan has had a problem with bear attacks. But lately it’s gotten so bad the military has been deployed to help protect people from getting mauled and killed. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports why Japan is using their military.
“The reason is, Japan doesn't really have like, we've got the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and these agencies like that. Japan really doesn't have that. So if local officials, if municipal officials, were getting overwhelmed by bear attacks or bear problems, if there's no wildlife agency to call in, they need boots on the ground. So they probably said it makes sense that they would call the military to do that. So that's why, as far as why there's bear attacks Japan, unbeknownst to a lot of people, Japan actually has a quite a robust population of bears, both black bears and brown bears.”
For reference, Japan’s brown bears are essentially the same species as Wyoming’s grizzlies.
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.
