It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, April 21st. I’m Mac Watson.
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Weeks after lawmakers tried to kill the agency, the Wyoming Business Council approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho Tribe to study the prospect of a "large" data center on the reservation. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one tribal leader says “Hell no.”
“The Wyoming Business Council, which is fresh off of its own controversy from lawmakers nearly killing it this session, approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho tribe to study potentially putting a data center on the reservation, and there's some outcry of this on social media, as well as a one of the people who's currently contesting whether he is a leader of the Eastern Shoshone tribe said absolutely not. Patrick Lawson, the director of Northern Arapaho tribal industries, said, ‘We are hoping the study addresses all of these concerns, and we're also hoping for that economic development to this area.’”
Proponents say the study is merely a preliminary step, gauged to estimate the reservation’s capacity to hold a data center — one that would bring much-needed jobs to the area.
Read the full story HERE.
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An employee at the Rock Springs Flying J Travel Center truck stop in Rock Springs died Sunday morning after getting pinned between trucks while managing commercial traffic in the parking lot. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that veteran truck drivers say it's an accident that could have been prevented.
“I spoke to two truckers who said that this was a preventable accident. They both have brought their rigs to the Flying J they have pulled into the parking lot, they have gone into the fuel station to get fuel, and they both told me that maneuvering in that parking lot is incredibly difficult because it is so crowded and there's so many parked cars. So they say this could have been avoidable if parking restrictions had been better enforced, and perhaps with more training, so that employees who work at truck stops should know the blind spots.”
RSPD spokesperson Elizabeth Coontz confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that the worker’s family has been notified and the investigation is ongoing.
Read the full story HERE.
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Nobody was more surprised to see someone offering some “abandoned horses” Sunday on Casper Mountain than Morris Carter. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that’s because the horses belong to him and they’re not abandoned.
“Casper resident Morris Carter learned that his horses had wandered onto private property after a post on a popular Facebook group started to blow up. That post was made by another Casper mountain landowner named Mark Huseman, who labeled it ‘Abandoned horses, free to a good home.’ According to Morris Carter, he went and picked up his horses; he was unable to reach Mark Huesman. Huesman says that he was just trying to address a recurring issue that his comment was sarcastic, that he had no intention of giving away Carter's horses. Another property owner I spoke to says that he's been having problems with Morris Carter's horses for 30 years.”
Carter tells Cowboy State Daily that he leases pastures in the area and has maintained informal working relationships with surrounding landowners for years.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Sweetwater County deputy shot an armed suspect during an incident at a Rock Springs apartment building early Monday morning. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the sheriff’s office says the armed person had already sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound before officers arrived.
“I talked to people who saw kind of the police scene and the chaos early in the morning, and there, there was a person a neighbor, got his truck hit. He's not sure if that has anything to do with the shooting. This press release from the Sheriff's Office says that the person who the deputy shot already had a self inflicted injury at the time. The statement says the person was taken to a hospital.”
Deputies responded at about 4:10 a.m. to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Blvd in Rock Springs to help the Rock Springs Police Department with a reported disturbance involving an armed person, says the sheriff’s office statement, dispatched about five hours later.
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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Casper police Monday released dramatic bodycam video of the rescue of an 18-month-old child after an hours-long armed standoff Saturday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports police say a man held a baby while gripping a handgun in his waistband and verbally challenged officers.
“It was a four unit apartment complex where this occurred, and that then started a standoff, and according to police, he would show up at the door. He was armed. He had an AR style rifle, also a handgun, and that led to at least a three or four hour standoff with him before, and what we also understand is that he had an 18 month old child with him. There was negotiations that took place that went apparently nowhere, and then about, probably little after midnight, because his neighbor told me this was over about one o'clock that that police breached the door, rescued the child and arrested the individual, because both he and the child were asleep on the floor.”
The Casper Police Department says police found broken glass scattered about and drug paraphernalia in the apartment along with several weapons.
Read the full story HERE.
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Yellowstone visitors had a front-row seat to the stark reality of the contest between predator and prey early Sunday. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that nine members of the Wapiti wolf pack went after a herd of bison in a very strategic way.
“These two wolves, one on each side, kind of nipping at a bison at its side, in hindquarters. Some bison were wounded, including visibly, and then the wolves backed off at about 6pm but I talked to some biologists, and they said, ‘Well, that doesn't necessarily mean the hunt is over.’ What they'll do is they'll come in and they'll wound them. They'll either, you know, cause them to give them wounds that actively bleed or damage tendons, something like that, wait a couple days, back off and then come back. And that gives the more time for the animal to bleed out or for the tendons to stiffen up to where they can't use them properly. So the bison that survived the wolf attack might not survive in the long run. When they're attacking something that huge, instead of trying to kill it all at once, they'll nip at sort of the Death By 1,000 Cuts principle.”
April Holm and her husband, Patrick, frequently visit Yellowstone, getting material for their Holm On The Range wildlife photography and video business. She tells Cowboy State Daily that they were in their pickup right about sunrise on Sunday when they spotted bison, apparently running from wolves.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming college student and mother says a commercial truck driver’s quick reaction saved her from a potentially fatal head-on crash on state Highway 210 on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Winnie Brockman says she thought she was going to die.
“She was traveling to class at about 7:30am on Monday morning when she saw a car coming at her about a half a mile away. She predicts, and something in her head just said to pull to the right side of the road, so in a split second, she made a life saving decision. There was a semi truck in the opposite lane who also pulled off to the right. She said that a white SUV veered right between them, just barely missing her. Brockman said she's sharing her experience publicly to urge drivers to think twice before attempting to pass someone in a hurry. She asks people are you really going to risk putting someone's life in danger just to get where you're going a little bit faster?”
Brockman tells Cowboy State Daily that her mother died in a head-on collision back in 2019.
Read the full story HERE.
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Fans lined up in a crazy-long line Saturday to buy bottles of Nate Romanowski Rye signed by Joe Pickett author C.J. Box. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this year’s rye continues a collaboration between Box and Pine Bluffs Distilling that started last year with Joe Pickett Bourbon.
“CJ, and a group of about 10 people in all including CJ, will taste the barrels and rate them, and then, based on that rating, the winners go into the blend. Chad does the blending and makes it all taste right. The first time they did this for bourbon, Joe Pickett Bourbon, and they had four barrels. And like the part that they sold to the state, the 84 cases that they sold to the state, that sold out in 12 minutes flat. So this time, he made 10 barrels instead of just four.”
Romanowski Rye starts out as Pine Bluffs Distilling’s standard rye recipe.
Although rye’s not typically Box’s favorite, this rye is an exception. Not least because Box was among the taste testers who chose the barrels in the blend.
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.
