It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, April 30th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The horse that made international headlines after he was rescued after seven months in the Wind River Mountains has made a complete recovery. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the owner of Mouse the horse says he’s made it from walking death back to full condition.
“His owner said even his muscle mass that he lost during his long survival journey in the mountains has recovered thanks to this incredible supplement he got from extreme equine supplements, a family company out of Oregon. The story of this horse went worldwide. A lot of people connected with it. They were happy that he was found and he was rescued, and now he's made a full recovery, and he'll be back in the mountains where he got lost later this summer.”
Mouse got lost during a backcountry packing trip in July 2025. The horse simply walked away from the rest of the group near Moon Lake Union Pass in the middle of the night.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two breaks in the 100-year-old Rawlins city water system this week leaves residents in a familiar spot — on notice they may lose water. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the former mayor estimates the cost to fix the system at between $50 - $60 million, which is money the city doesn't have.
“The former mayor of Rawlins said that water line breaks happen more often in Rollins than in any other place that he's been. So this speaks to a water system, a water infrastructure that is over 100 years old in the Rawline area and the city simply doesn't have the money to fix the whole thing. So over the years, they've just been making small fix after small fix as emergencies come up. City leaders are aware that people want answers,so they are relying on the state and on grant monies to help with these necessary fixes. But even those grant monies aren't enough.”
Although there has been a lot of public scrutiny on Rawlins’ water situation since catastrophic failure in 2022, current mayor, Jacquelin Wells, tells Cowboy State Daily that water line breaks are common in communities.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Casper City Council on Tuesday agreed to move toward a 180-day moratorium on gambling expansion in the city. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that City councilman Kyle Gamroth said constituents have reached out to him about "over-saturation of that industry in our community.”
“The discussion kind of brought up some of the concerns that people have been bringing to council. They've heard from constituents that there seems to be an increase in the number of gaming opportunities in the city. And so the city manager talked about how that can affect the city in different ways, in zoning, etc, in new opportunities from other businesses outside of gaming to come into certain areas. So they're talking about establishing districts, possibly for that.”
During the conversation at least three council members spoke of concerns about the number of gambling opportunities expanding in the community.
Read the full story HERE.
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A legislator says that as Wyoming’s data center industry continues to boom, who gets the money generated by them is something the state needs to figure out. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that one lawmaker wants answers.
“Senator Cale Case of Lander spoke with Jake Nichols on the Cowboy State Daily Show Wednesday, and asked, ‘Are we getting enough taxes from these data centers, and where do these taxes go?’ Case is helping with legislation to possibly change the sales tax structure for data centers so that the taxes that data centers pay on the electricity would be distributed to communities throughout Wyoming rather than stay in the communities like Cheyenne, where the data centers are located.”
Case spoke from Milwaukee, where he's attending a U.S. Department of Energy conference focused on protecting the nation’s electrical grid from cyber threats.
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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Scientists for the first time have determined how much water Old Faithful spews when it erupts. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that new research shows an average of 7,300 gallons of liquid water, along with steam, are forced out of Yellowstone National Park's most famous geyser.
“What they did was they measured the water flowing out of one of the out channels of Old Faithful after 45 eruptions in April 2025 and then they used high they use high speed thermal cameras to record the eruptions and then get an idea of how much steam was erupted, which gave them an idea of how much liquid water was needed to produce that steam. What they can do with this data is use that, not only to monitor other geysers, they can see how old faithful changes over time. So there's a lot of potential applications beyond just the purely scientific ones. This is a way that scientists provide information to the park service so they can best manage the resources.”
Old Faithful’s average discharge is 27.9 cubic meters for every eruption. That’s enough to fill 140 standard bathtubs.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gillette police report that a mother whose baby was born with meth in its system admitted using the drug the day she gave birth. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the woman also tested positive for meth while breastfeeding.
“They take a piece of the umbilical cord and they tested it. And it did test positive for having meth in the system, and they came back, and then they so, so they immediately contact DFS, who send someone to her house, and they take a test of the woman of the mother, and she tests positive for for meth, even though she tells police she hasn't used since the day she gave birth.”
Bryaira White Eagle has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday on allegations she used meth while pregnant, then continued to use the drug and breastfeed her newborn for five days after the infant’s birth.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Business Council is again making a case for survival as it prepares to meet Thursday with the Wyoming Joint Appropriations Committee. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that this comes after months of scrutiny from lawmakers.
“Wyoming Business Council CEO, Josh Jarrell was on the Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols Wednesday, and said that the upheaval over the agency and efforts to eliminate it have been eye opening. He said though that he that the Business Council is making strides, and he is very excited to meet with the joint appropriations committee on Thursday to talk about how to move forward and to really evaluate the council's loans and grants.”
Dorrell added that the upheaval over the agency and efforts to eliminate it have been eye-opening and is forcing the Business Council to scrutinize itself.
Read the full story HERE.
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Fiber-optic installation season is happening across Wyoming as companies install digital infrastructure. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that construction is legal with permission from cities, towns, and counties.
“Wyoming residents are noticing holes on front lawns, mounds of dirt. In fact, one resident named Tim Carubie came home after a work trip in Nebraska to find that his lawn was torn up and his sprinkler system was broken. It turns out, this is perfectly legal. The fiber optics companies and cable companies are doing this through utility easements. And for the city of Casper, these are doled out by the city's engineering division. Bob Casados is an engineer for a fiber-optics internet provider called Bluepeak. He says the company is taking a lot of heat for damage that they haven't done. He says people are calling and asking them to make repairs, but he urges people to find out who is doing construction on their lawns and to get a hold of them directly.”
Providers such as Bluepeak, Spectrum, Lumen, and Visionary Communications are all authorized to install high-speed data lines that increasingly are threading through residential neighborhoods.
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.
