It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, April 8th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Wyoming was among the first states to hand voter data to the Dept. of Justice last year. But, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that now, six GOP-led states and 23 Democrat-led states are fighting the initiative in court.
“Trump's DOJ Trump's Department of Justice, requested sensitive voter data, like partial social security numbers, driver's license numbers, other personal identifiers, and some states complied. Wyoming was one of the first ones to just to hand over that information. Other states resisted and refused to hand over that data, including at least six Republican led states that are now being challenged in court. The DOJ is challenging them, and they're fighting for example, the state of Utah is saying, ‘No, the Civil Rights Act enforcement provision can't be bootstrapped to later laws mandate for maintaining voter lists in this way.’”
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said he was granting that request in an Aug. 28 letter to assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
He claimed that after conferring with the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, “We agree that disclosure of the requested records is proper under the Civil Rights Act.”
Read the full story HERE.
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A data center is proposed to go next to the blue-ribbon Montana trout water immortalized in the movie "A River Runs Through It.” Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that neighbors are scrutinizing the plan as industry insiders say the hunt is on in Wyoming and Montana for new data center sites.
“The top concerns, according to these data center site experts, are water. The quick counter is that, well, wait, we've got this closed loop system that recycles the water. Our water use is no different than a lot of other regular businesses. The other complaint is the data center will drive up demand for electricity and not necessarily be matched by supply. And so if demand goes up and supply doesn't, then is the rate payer left paying more because of. That imbalance that has happened.”
The Bonner proposal is the latest test of a question now being asked in rural states like Wyoming and Montana: What does a community get — and give up — when a data center moves in?
Read the full story HERE.
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Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says the city of Cheyenne’s push for annexation is “the mayor land-grabbing” for tax revenue. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Mayor Patrick Collins says he “understands the narrative, but it just isn’t true.”
“The sheriff gives the example of a call comes in to dispatch and the call is in one of these annexed pockets of land, and so technically, the call should go to a city agency. However, the county is often closer, so they will respond, but the county is not receiving the property taxes that the city is. Mayor Patrick Collins disputes that. He says that everyone in the county is on county land, even including the people in the city. The mayor tells Cowboy State daily, this is not a money grab. He said, we're trying to clean up the regulatory, public safety and services.”
While some are critical of the consequences brought on by annexation, others see Cheyenne’s push to annex as a necessary step to embrace the city’s growth, particularly to accommodate data centers.
Read the full story HERE.
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Meteorologist Don Day is the first to caution against prematurely turning sprinklers on. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that even though it's a month early, it’s ok to water your lawn.
“At this point, it's probably safe, because the reason we turn off all those systems in winter is because if you have water in there, the ground freezes, and then the pipes burst. But at this point, the ground is warm. It's very good at retaining warmth, and the likelihood that we're going to get another sustained freeze is extremely low. So, that's not to say that anything you have close to the surface won't freeze, because we're far from out of the winter woods yet when it comes to frost.”
Landscaping companies are getting an early influx of calls from clients who want their sprinkler systems turned on. Since the weather isn’t providing much relief, people want water as soon as possible to keep their greenery alive.
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 Cheyenne man who had a hoard of 101 neglected and 22 dead animals pleaded guilty last week to four misdemeanors. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the director of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter said that's an example of "virtually nonexistent" animal cruelty laws in Wyoming.
“What the director of the sharing Animal Shelter said, not only are the laws inadequate, she says Wyoming has the worst laws for animal cruelty that but, but she's not, you know, clamoring for this guy to spend the rest of his life in jail either. He was facing a lot of time with those felonies. Back in December, the prosecutors actually dropped all of those charges. They said that the evidence they had really didn't rise to that level, and so they charged him with six misdemeanors last week and he pled guilty to four of those misdemeanors in return for having two of them dismissed.”
71-year-old Michael Ohern was originally charged with 22 felony counts of animal cruelty for the 22 dead pets found in his home last October, according to court documents.
Read the full story HERE.
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Calling for more state sovereignty over key issues, former state lawmaker and attorney Lisa Kinney is running for the Democratic nomination for Wyoming’s only U.S. House seat. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Kinney could face whoever survives the huge rumble in the Republican primary.
“What she wanted was to take on Representative Harriet Hageman, who she said, isn't strong enough on the public lands issue, but Harrigan, Harriet Hageman, of course, is running for the Senate seat now. She said that Wyoming's current leadership capitulates too much to the federal government. She'd like to see more sovereignty, more independence of thought, more galvanizing and backing of bipartisan efforts toward development, innovation and intellect.”
Born in Laramie and still residing there today, Kinney represented her community in the state Senate from 1985 to 1994, rising to the rank of Senate Minority Floor Leader in her final term.
Read the full story HERE.
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Grizzly 760 was the grandson of the famed Grizzly 399, said to be mellow and Wyoming’s most polite bear. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports the bear was put down in 2014 and people are still angry about it.
“One guy said he almost seemed polite around people. Just very mellow, very docile. He kind of wandered outside of Grand Teton National Park and was getting into some private property, and people were getting uncomfortable with it, so Game and Fish trapped him and relocated him all the way over by the east side of Yellowstone National Park. He ended up wandering around, down by Clark, and tearing a hunter's deer carcass out of a tree and was eating on it. Game and Fish ended up euthanizing him. One person I talked to, people are still angry about it too. This is something that happened 2014, 12 years ago, and people are still upset about that bear getting put down.”
Grizzly 760 came from Wyoming bear royalty lineage as the son of Grand Teton National Park’s favorite, Grizzly 610, and grandson of the famed Grizzly 399.
Read the full story HERE.
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The slow grind of bulldozers, snowplows, and their chainsaw-wielding operators reached Sylvan Lake along Yellowstone National Park's East Entrance Road this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that crews have been clearing hundreds of miles of snow-covered roads since the beginning of March.
“It's with a convoy of heavy machinery and dozens of operators and mechanics and technicians who are going slowly to make sure that the several feet of snow packed on hundreds of miles of roads are cleared. Now, as of this year, they've reached Sylvan Lake in the east entrance this week, which means as soon as they get there, they're going to turn around and head south to clear the south entrance, then head up the Old Faithful. The last thing they'll clear is the Bear Tooth Highway at the beginning of May.”
Yellowstone author, employee, and winter keeper Jeff Henry told Cowboy State Daily in March 2025, “An old friend of mine, who started doing this kind of work in 1973, said it’s the hardest work in Wyoming.”
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.
