It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, April 3rd. I’m Mac Watson.
–
Tensions between Gov. Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray erupted again Thursday during a meeting of the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners concerning attainable housing. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports Gordon told Gray to “shut up” during a debate and invited him to step out of the room.
“Secretary Gray introduced an amendment where he wants to see applicants who want to have this attainable housing get screened to make sure they're US citizens. And that ignited a debate. Treasurer Meyer Kurt Meyer raised concern, saying, ‘This sounds like an unfunded mandate. We're putting work on the Office of lands and investments that they don't do normally. This is what ICE does.’ And as the debate continued, there was a little bit of cross talk where Superintendent of Public Instruction, Megan Degenfelder, was speaking and Chuck Gray was speaking at about the same time, and it's the chair's job, Governor Mark Gordon, to keep order, and he apparently had had enough, because he raised his voice. He told Chuck Gray to shut up and to stop. And then he stood up and kind of pointed as though, ‘would you like to step outside?’ I did not hear him say it this time, but the body language was pretty clear. In response, Chuck Gray said the governor was violating his own rules of decorum. And then the meeting took a pause when they came back, they continued to debate the amendment, ultimately tabled it. It could come back up later in April.”
In a statement to Cowboy State Daily after the tense exchange, Gray said his amendment would ensure that state projects “mirror what President Trump has done at the federal level.” He also accused Gordon of being a “liberal.”
Read the full story HERE.
–
Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder has apologized for her department's release of unredacted student information in a public records request. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Degenfelder says the release was the result of "human error" and those involved have been reprimanded.
“It was a public apology because her office released unredacted student information pursuant to a public records request that the Sweetwater County School District Superintendent had filed a parent filed for the same batch of records, and according to the leader of that parent group, also received a file dump of unredacted information. Dagenfield said that the people involved in this disclosure were reprimanded and aren't handling public records anymore.”
The error came to light after a member of a group of parents in Sweetwater County School District No. 1 announced publicly that the district had asked the department in a public records request for a substantial amount of parent complaints.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Gillette-based L&H Industrial built some of the massive hardware that helped the Artemis II rocket blast off on Wednesday taking astronauts to the moon for the first time in 50 years. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this isn’t first time the company has built components for NASA.
“New rockets weigh 6 million more pounds, so trying to wrap your brain around that just a little bit. The Saturn five rockets were already heavy, but so they needed something that could add 6 million pounds to that figure and still get the rocket there in one piece. And so that was L&H's first job for NASA was redesigning these crawlers to carry that much weight. But it's also got to make sure that it's shunting all that force away from the rocket. Is you can't have that bouncing back up and hitting the rocket, all that heat, all that force, it's going to destroy the rocket before it ever takes off. And so they also help design the deflector plates in the deflector system, which takes all that exhaust and heat and pressure away from the rocket as it's lifting off, allowing it to escape forces that would otherwise tear it apart.”
L&H spokeswoman Brittney Thomas tells Cowboy State Daily that the deflector plates were actually the second project L&H handled for Artemis II.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Now that the new 1,285-foot-long, 180-foot-tall Yellowstone Bridge is finished, demolition crews are dismantling the 65-year-old bridge that stood in its place. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the tear-down is expected by end of year and the new bridge should last between 75-100 years.
“The concrete deck of the old bridge is being slowly dismantled. Is starting at one end and going across, and as the spring and summer progress, they're going to take down the steel supporting beams and then the piers that have been keeping this bridge up for the last 60 years. And the new bridge, which cost over $118 million and is over 1000 feet long, not only is a much bigger project that actually has less of an impact on the landscape.”
The Yellowstone River Bridge project began in 2023 and officially opened in 2025. The construction of a new, much taller bridge allows vehicles year-round to run along the Northeast Entrance over the Yellowstone River to Tower Junction.
Read the full story HERE.
–
I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
–
Although a bull from the Connealy Ranch in Nebraska just sold for $110,000 at a spring auction, that's not their record. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the record was a bull that sold for $500,000 in 2022, because of its valuable genetic material.
“Bull semen is considered white gold in the industry. There are certain genetic traits that producers look for. One is how easy a heifer can give birth to a calf. Another desirable trait is the marbling in the beef, the actual ratio of fat to meat and muscle. A third desirable trait is disposition. If a bull has a calm or, you know, just a nicer demeanor, that's gonna up the selling point as well.”
Bull semen is valuable for its genetic potential. It makes scouting prime bulls as important to the cattle industry as talent scouts are to professional sports.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock may be arrested next week, as prosecutors form a new, felony case over her handling of the 2024 election, her lawyer says. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that this saga is going on 17 months now.
“She's facing a civil case to remove her from office. She faced a legislative investigation and subpoena. She's facing a misdemeanor case for not showing for the subpoena she was taking her mother to medical appointments, according to court documents, and now, according to court documents, she's going to face a felony case and potentially be arrested and put in jail right before her civil removal trial starts. Her lawyer told the court that, hey, FYI, she might be in jail when you're expecting to hold her civil trial on whether she gets to keep her office.”
Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock’s office botched two unopposed races in the 2024 general election. Improper ballots from the outside printing company were mixed into the election with proper ballots. The machines could not read the improper ballots, and it skewed the races, reportedly.
Read the full story HERE.
–
American Rare Earths is considering building a processing facility for hard-to-find heavy rare earth metals at its Halleck Creek mine near Wheatland. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it’s a move that could boost Wyoming jobs as it helps cut U.S. dependence on China for critical minerals.
“It's one of the largest, if not the largest, rare earth deposits in America. So it has potential to be very, very significant. Unlike a lot of the rare earth places we write about, this one also has heavy rare earths. So they classify them as light and heavy. They're all important for these technological gizmos, these robotics, artificial intelligence, cell phones, smartphones, medical imaging, just defense, guns, airplanes, you know, just all radar, all kinds of technological things that we do with these rare earths.”
Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy Nick Lissolo for Halleck Creek and American Rare Earths tells Cowboy State Daily that this is a special moment in time and that could mean Wyoming could potentially capture more of the economic value of the resources at Halleck Creek.
Read the full story HERE.
–
When Big Betty, a popular Evanston neighborhood moose, showed up on Wednesday with a large, raw injury, locals were alarmed. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the moose was checked over by Wyoming Game and Fish.
“A lot of them were concerned when photos started circulating on social media that showed this big patch of exposed pink skin on the side. So a lot of people were thinking maybe Betty was injured, maybe she's got some sort of effect, maybe she's got some sort of infection, but Wyoming Game and Fish, they went out there, they gave her a good once over from a safe distance, and they determined that they really couldn't tell why the skin is exposed in that spot and why she has no hair, but there's no reason to think that there's anything wrong with her, per se, it's entirely possible that she rubbed that fur off herself as she was scratching against a house or a tree.”
Evanston resident Shasta Sharp tells Cowboy State Daily that Big Betty has been coming to her yard for three years now. The moose stayed for a couple of hours, then wandered off to the comfort and security of someone else’s yard.
Read the full story HERE.
–
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.
