It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, December 2nd. I’m Mac Watson.
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Gov. Mark Gordon fielded questions on data centers Monday when pitching his $11.3 billion budget to lawmakers. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one Wyoming lawmaker called the line of questioning a "political football."
“Gordon was asked questions about data centers and energy diversification and courting Taiwan and Japan to potentially consume Wyoming's natural gas Secretary of State Chuck Gray, on the other hand, ended up in a back and forth about his Spats with Governor Mark Gordon regarding an exception request for publishing information about a ballot initiative, and it's Senator Ogden Driscoll, a Republican from Devil's Tower, said, You know, this would be easier to get behind if it wasn't such a political football.”
The two officials on Monday presented different budget requests to the legislative Joint Appropriations Committee, which is set to meet through half of December and half of January to craft a budget bill for the lawmaking session that opens Feb. 9.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 55-year-old Gillette woman is fighting for her life in a Denver burn unit following an early morning house fire Sunday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Tammy Jo Schafer suffered burns all over her body trying to put out the blaze with a towel.
“Apparently, she had tried to put out the fire with a towel, according to her daughter I talked to, and then the towel caught her on fire, and so she suffered severe burns, but was able to get a dog out of the house, and a firefighter battalion chief told me that when he got there, she was with sheriff deputies…She was flown from Gillette hospital to Denver suffering burns on 21% of her body. And complicating things is she had a heart issue and COPD so she's in intensive care on a ventilator and fighting for her life right now.”
Campbell County Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug Rigsby told Cowboy State Daily that the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Snowy weather caused havoc on I-80 over the weekend as semi-trucks and other vehicles were involved in a series of collisions in western Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that motorists were stuck on the highway for hours.
“The first incident occurred around 11:30 when the semi lost control, going downhill westbound on I-80, flipped over on its side, and then other incidents happened after that. Several people described it as a chain reaction, so as they were responding to one incident, another incident happened…So we're fortunate that the worst thing that happened as a result of that, other than the damage to the vehicles, was a broken arm that was the worst of the five injuries reported.”
Wyoming Highway Patrol reminds drivers with winter weather, road conditions can quickly deteriorate, leading to black ice and dangerous driving conditions.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….
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Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman co-signed a letter Monday to the FBI seeking statistics on crimes on Tribal Lands. Rep. Hageman says the Biden administration’s immigration policies led to Native Americans being exploited and victimized by drug cartels.
“Obviously, illegal immigration was a huge problem under the Biden administration, millions of undocumented people, including many people involved in drug trafficking setting up shop in the US, including many. On tribal lands. So illegal immigration is is definitely at the root of this. She believes that these cartels are, in fact, transnational, as she puts it, and and are just exploiting the vulnerabilities of indigenous people and also taking advantage of the quilt work of law enforcement that takes place on tribe tribal lands…we'll see what she gets with the information that rep Hageman requested on crime statistics, especially with the focus on on drug cartels. Will this lead to legislation? We don't know. She hasn't said it will. She hasn't said it won't, but it'll take time for the FBI to furnish all these statistics she's asking for.”
The letter signed by Representative Hageman of Wyoming and Jim Jordan of Ohio claims that tribal members are vulnerable to carry out the bidding of drug cartels. No specific Native tribes are named in the letter.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Mark Gordon is seeking an extra $1 million to defend its fossil fuel industries and natural resources outside of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that state leaders are also exploring shipping up to 20 million tons of coal a year to Asian markets through a revived Oakland export terminal.
“You have plenty of coal advocates in Wyoming to make them likely the majority what this does is it, and again, they emphasize it's not just about coal, but when federal policy is perceived to be impinging on Wyoming's ability to develop natural resources, there is this fund that can move things along, at least they hope they will. And basically they had to talk about, could the state add some money to this fund. But really, what the most interesting stuff that came out about it was the potential for a coal export facility in Oakland, and the perceived demand by Japan and Taiwan for Wyoming's coal and natural gas.”
Gordon’s chief of staff, Drew Perkins, tells the Cowboy State Daily the governor’s proposed budget asks for $1 million to add to a $3.3 million fund provided to Wyoming through the Federal Natural Resources Policy Account.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Burns man is dead after his pickup hit a stopped train Friday night on County Road 154 north of Interstate 80 east of Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke details the accident and says a local resident who captured video at the scene described it as “a pretty bad deal.”
“The the arms were down on the on the intersection, and so were the lights were flashing, and the train was stopped at the track, and his car just plowed into it…this is the first time at least five years in Wyoming that there's been a fatality from a car being struck or hitting a train. So this is a pretty unusual occurrence.”
The Laramie County Sheriff’s office has identified the driver as 45-year-old John Balczewski, who was not wearing a seat belt. An investigation is underway to determine what led to the crash, including whether Balczewski drove into the train intentionally or accidentally.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Bigfoot hunter says he’s determined to continue his quest for the elusive creature, despite an FBI report releasing 50-year-old recently unsealed records. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Alan Magargle of Colorado says the released documents were disappointing, to say the least.
“The FBI released a report from the 1970s that somebody sent in 15 hairs to have them testing, and they turned out to be deer hair. And this guy told me, ‘Well, you know that that's kind of boring and kind of a letdown. We figured we heard the FBI was releasing something, and it turned out to be nothing.’ But, as far as he's concerned, the quest continues for Sasquatch, and, still trying to nail down if they really are running around down there in Colorado, that's very close to the Wyoming State Line.”
Magargle tells Cowboy State Daily that he developed a passion for Bigfoot hunting after he and a friend were hiking in the New York state’s Adirondack Mountains and came across two broken trees blocking the trail.
The thing was that the trees didn’t appear to have been snapped off by wind or any other such natural force.
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.
