It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, May 5th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Expecting up to 8 inches of snow, southeast and other parts of Wyoming will finally get a little bit of a late winter Tuesday and Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists are saying snow will turn to freezing slush and that could be a problem.
“It's actually a combination of two different weather systems that are going to collide somewhere over Southeast Wyoming, northern Colorado, and Western Nebraska, which is going to lead to wet, heavy snow. Enough to impair travel on I-80 and I-25 and it's going to be around one to two inches of water equivalent of snow, which could be upwards of one to two feet of snow in the mountains. This is going to be a statewide system in terms of temperature. We're going to see temperatures drop 30 degrees, some places closer to 40 degrees in just six hours or so. And there's going to be scattered snow, rain and thunderstorms throughout the state, but the bulk of it is going to be in the southeast corner.”
Up to 8 inches of heavy, wet snow could fall during that duration, accompanied by a huge drop in temperatures.
Read the full story HERE.
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With dozens of Cheyenne-Area data centers in various stages of discussion, some residents want to hit the brakes. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports a petition is circulating, calling for a data center moratorium.
“When you total the whole thing, it's like 70 of them all coming toward Cheyenne. It's like Cheyenne has become this data center magnet, right? And there's, you know, people who are saying, ‘Wait, it's too many. It's too fast.’ Senator Case is saying maybe a moratorium is not such a bad idea. We could use a little more time to figure out how we handle this at a state level too. You know, do we want to have the industrial siding commission look at cumulative impact?”
The Cheyenne petition comes as other Mountain West counties and more than a dozen states weigh enacting temporary moratoriums on new data centers, reflecting a much wider national debate.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s political registration data isn't seeing huge changes yet, despite a push from some politicos to register Republican to participate in the generally more decisive GOP primary election. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that all Wyoming parties have shrunk in registered membership from January to May, but one party stands out.
“Since January, from January to May, the registration numbers in the Wyoming Democratic Party have shrunk by more than 500 but all the other parties have also shrunk, and so these shrinking to different degrees have given the Republican Party more of a percentage of the whole. The Democratic Party lost the most in terms of percentage of the whole. Most people I talked with Monday said it doesn't sound like crossover voting. Doesn't sound like a big push to go from Democrat to Republican, but it's still early. The Wyoming Democratic Party told me the half of the people they lost from January to May either died or moved away. The other half, we don't know. Could be different.”
All parties saw steady decreases in the four months since, as voter registration dropped by 1,404 total. But the GOP gained in dominance in terms of percentage of the whole, up to 77.4%, while the Democratic Party lost the most percentage-wise, down to 11.4%.
Read the full story HERE.
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With the Wyoming Highway Patrol short 36 troopers and overtime restricted, local law enforcement can be left to pick up the slack to fill gaps. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that one WHP dispatcher says more people are asking, “They’re not here yet. Where are they?”
“Wyoming Highway Patrol is facing a significant trooper shortage, with 36 unfilled trooper positions. The problem is they're over budget by about two-and-a-half-million dollars, so there is a hiring freeze until October, and no overtime for the troopers they do have. Local agencies like sheriff's offices are having to step it up. The problem is that pulls them away from the dirt roads and the local communities where they're needed. A Platte County sheriff's officer says that they are also understaffed, so this means longer wait times and troopers having to cover greater distances.”
Staff and budget shortages at the Wyoming Highway Patrol are stretching troopers thin across nearly 7,000 miles of state highways, slowing response times and straining local and county agencies to make up for the gaps in service.
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 contractor filed a lawsuit Monday claiming the more than $100 million award to fix a catastrophic 2019 failure of the Wyoming-Nebraska tunnel system was done illegally “in secret.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that it also claims there was no competitive bidding process for the work.
“Drill Tech Drilling actually is suing the Goshen Irrigation District and the Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation District in Nebraska. Now those are the ones that run that giant tunnel system that had the collapse back in 2019 that was catastrophic. And so the theory behind the lawsuit is that at least one of the districts okayed a sort of behind closed doors, quiet hiring process, rather than the public bidding process required by law four, very significant. This is, like a $100 million dollar plus project. One of the claims is just asking a court to tell the districts, ‘Hey, this was illegal.’ The other claims are accusing it of things that would have a little more teeth, like violating the public records public meetings act, and this case is ongoing.”
The lawsuit asks the court to intervene in what Drill Tech calls an unlawful bidding process that cut it out of the opportunity to win a job on the massive tunnel repair.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s lone Representative, Harriet Hageman, was one of three Republicans to vote against the 2026 Farm Bill, saying “special interests” have added “too much bloat” to the legislation. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the Wyoming Farm Bureau praised the new bill for looking out for rural ag producers.
“The bill is supposed to help rural communities. It's supposed to go toward fixing rural infrastructure. It supports wildfire risk reduction by calling for the reducing of forest fuels. And it also helps with what Hagaman introduced is the Grazing Act. It directs the US Forest Service to implement strategies that allow livestock grazing in order to reduce vegetation, and that's an act that Hageman authored to help grazers on national grasslands.”
The bill now moves out of the House to the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming ranchers are cheering a bill that targets labeling of plant-based and lab-grown proteins being passed off as farm- or ranch-raised meat. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Rep. Harriet Hageman says it’s an effort to “prevent mad scientists from masquerading as meat producers.”
“The Act is about making clear whether protein that you buy at the store is from an actual animal or whether it was made in a lab or plant based. consumers have been confused because of lack of transparency, of labeling
when they buy their meat at the store. So this bill would effectively clear that up and help people to know what they really are buying.
The bill, entitled the “Fair and Accurate Ingredient Representation on Labels (FAIR) Act, calls for those types of products to be clearly labeled as “lab-grown” or “imitation” and was introduced by Missouri Republican Rep. Mark Alford.
Read the full story HERE.
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A video showing a grizzly bear being chased by a pair of coyotes seemed so unlikely, even those watching weren’t sure they believed it. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that this bear got too close to their den of pups, which motivated them to be aggressive with a predator that could have torn them apart.
“It looks like a young grizzly, maybe just recently separated from his mom, was out, wandering about, doing his thing. Apparently, got too close for comfort to these coyotes. These coyotes just go after him, and the bear initially tries to chase one of the coyotes back with him. Both the coyotes come at him, and he just turns tail and runs. And it's funny, because the coyotes together, you know, don't add up to a 10th of what this grizzly is.”
None of the animals made contact with each other during the brief, dramatic encounter at Blacktail Ponds in Yellowstone National Park.
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.
