It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, January 8th. I’m Mac Watson.
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A cut fiber cable caused issues with 911 service from Monday night through Wednesday in Park County. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Park County 911 Manager says they’re working with old technology.
“A lot of the old phone networks still exist and are part of the system, particularly when it comes to 911, it has been trying to update that for a long time, but they've been having trouble getting the funding…if you wanted to report an emergency in Park County, you had to somehow know to go to their Facebook page and find a cell phone number in their posts. That was the number for about three hours to call an emergency in because the office phones were even down, so they couldn't reroute anything. The 911, being on an old analog system, can't really be rerouted, but they can reroute the calls, phone calls, but everybody was down, and so for three hours. That's how you had to report an emergency.”
Park County Communications Supervisor and 911 Manager Monte McClain was told in a voice mail message from service provider Lumen Technologies that the cable was cut in Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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Authorities say human remains found Monday on the grounds of the Sheridan County Airport are likely a Sheridan man missing for nearly nine months. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that a DNA test is pending, but items found nearby, including a wallet, ID the body as James “Bo” Galloway.
“I interviewed Bo's ex wife and best friend, Jamie Banks this morning, and they believe it is him. It's where he was expected to be. They always thought he was somewhere on this expansive property he was renting along the little Goose Creek, and the Sheridan County Sheriff's Office had reported sightings of somebody who looked like Bo on the premises trespassing in early June.”
At this time, authorities do not suspect foul play in the death, and they tell Cowboy State Daily that it’s still an active investigation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Mark Gordon on Wednesday recommended Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock be removed from office. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the governor’s announcement follows two different batches of complaints accusing Hadlock of misconduct after inaccuracies surfaced in two races in Weston County.
“The governor's investigation is pretty step by step in state law, so electors of that county or county commissioners have to be the ones to file the complaint against their local official, and they did that twice. The first time the governor said it wasn't enough, the second time he said, Yes, it is enough to show misconduct or malfeasance. And so he announced Wednesday, he's recommending the situation to the Attorney General, Keith Kautz is referring it to Keith Kautz to prosecute for removal.”
The announcement follows two different batches of complaints accusing Hadlock of misconduct after inaccuracies were found in two unopposed races in the November 2024 general election in Weston County.
Read the full story HERE.
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Mother Nature hasn’t been very cooperative this winter as the ice-fishing season in Fremont County has been a disaster so far. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Boysen Reservoir is nearly ice-free, and some recent days there have felt practically like summer.
“There are some derbies that have already been canceled, and it's looking like the one that they're skittish about, the one in Boysen. And we're supposed to start to get some colder weather. But whether it stays cold enough long enough to really freeze that entire reservoir up solid to where it's safe to go out there and ice fish that, that's, that's an open question. But, but, yeah, it's just, it's been a really weird winter so far, and people are still fishing, but ice fishing, at least in this part of the world, has just been non-existent. And it's usually going, it's usually going full bore this time of year, but not this year.”
Usually by Christmas, there’s enough ice to venture out on parts of Boysen, as well as other popular waters in Fremont County.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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A second Republican candidate has declared his run for Wyoming’s congressional seat. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Reid Rasner made his announcement on Wednesday saying he’s running for Congress “to help President Trump Make America Great Again.”
“It's a trend. I think I wasn't able to get him on the phone when he declared, just as I wasn't able to get Chuck Gray on the phone. And in fact, there are a lot of similarities in the two campaign announcements. They're both touting this Magna push. They're both talking about being super pro Trump and, you know, attacking the radical left. And they, they both were very outspoken on Facebook, and then they're both vying for that Republican primary nomination in 2026 for Wyoming's only House seat.”
Nine days before Rasner’s announcement, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray delivered a similar announcement, touting himself as a Trump-style and “America first” candidate.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Natrona County District Court judge on Tuesday reversed the Wyoming State Board of Land Commissioners’ denial of leases for a controversial gravel mining operation at the base of Casper Mountain. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the order sends the leases back to the board for review.
“The Natrona County judge ruled that the state land board acted incorrectly by not following state law in denying the renewal of leases, six leases on state lands at the base of the mountain so he can try and mine gravel from those parcels…This means that the gravel mine operator has hope. He is hoping that he's going to go back to the state land board and they're going to have to approve his six leases. And then he told me that when that happens, he thinks he can get approval from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality quickly.”
Opponents of the project like Secretary of State Chuck Gray say they will keep fighting the proposed gravel mining operation.
Read the full story HERE.
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The U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.7 billion in contracts this week to strengthen domestic uranium enrichment. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that includes over $28 million to continue developing next-generation laser enrichment technology that could be used on Wyoming uranium.
“There has been since the beginning of the Trump Administration 2.0 a really big push to increase capacity around nuclear power. And so what that means is, you've got to build a fuel cycle from the ground to the reactor. And Wyoming's got the ground. Wyoming is among the top uranium producing states…The frequency of the laser, can tell the difference between the microscopic isotopes of uranium and separate one from the other, and so it does that more efficiently than other technology, according to those promoting it.”
According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, traditional uranium enrichment works by spinning uranium gas at extremely high speeds in centrifuges, using centrifugal force to separate atoms. Laser enrichment takes a fundamentally different approach and has more advantages compared to conventional spinning at high speeds.
Read the full story HERE.
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Broncos playoff tickets hit more than $17,000 on StubHub for a potential AFC Championship. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that long-suffering season ticket holders face a dilemma: Given the opportunity to buy tickets at face value, they now can resell them for double, triple, or quadruple what they paid for them.
“The Broncos have the longest running home sell out streak, and it goes back, I think, to the 60s or 70s by far. So this is not a fan base that just gives up their tickets to another team. Most of the people that you're going to find out when you get to mile high are going to be Bronco fans…That doesn't happen in Denver. It doesn't. You're never going to see a takeover of the stadium. That just doesn't happen in Denver.”
As of Wednesday night, the lowest-priced ticket was listed at more than $1,000 — and that’s for a nosebleed seat in Section 530 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
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.
