It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, May 12th. I’m Mac Watson.
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A surge of as many as 70 proposed data centers converging on Cheyenne has prompted one councilman to propose a 12-month moratorium on new construction. However, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Mayor Patrick Collins says,“an outright moratorium or a ban, that’s not our way.”
“This moratorium, which has been proposed by Councilman Mark Moody, it would be a 12-month moratorium. It wouldn't apply to any data center that's already under construction. There's two major ones that it would affect. Microsoft has proposed tripling its size in Cheyenne. And then there's the one on the Cox ranch. We don't know who the operator is there, but that one's been put on hold until September, giving the council some time, you know, to have additional information about that development.”
The moratorium idea follows a grassroots petition seeking 7,000 signatures to halt new data center construction amid questions about power and water use.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s new education funding model is leaving many schools short of money for sports and activities. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that lawmakers are urging schools against “hacking and whacking” programs while they fix it.
“What's happening is a reevaluation of how activities are funded has made it so that activities are actually seeing a shortfall. So sports, speech and debates, stuff like that. So the Wyoming high school activities Association on Friday put out a presser saying, Okay, think about limiting stuff. And so lawmakers in response are saying, ‘okay, okay, hold on.’ House Speaker Chip Neiman said, ‘Yeah, but this also might be a good time to find some of these efficiencies that we that we could but aren't using.’”
As a whole, Wyoming K-12 school districts are receiving an extra $114.1 million in the coming school year, says a report by the Legislative Service Office. That’s an 8.6% increase from the prior school year to a total of $1.95 billion, or $22,626 allocated per kid.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Trump administration has moved to open more National Park Service land to hunting. But Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that doesn’t mean fluorescent orange hunting vests and rifle shots will light up Yellowstone National Park this fall.
“It doesn't sound like we're looking at any big changes in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. There already is some limited, what they call elk control hunting in on one end of Grand Teton Park. in Yellowstone itself. Forget about it. I was told that would take an act of Congress. An executive order can't change that. They would actually have to change the law. Congress would have to say, ‘Okay, you can hunt in Yellowstone,’ and nobody's holding their breath, waiting for that to happen.”
The move calls upon the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agencies under the Interior Department to “identify and remove unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers to hunting and fishing on Department-managed lands and waters.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Riverton police say a woman accused of lighting a man on fire claimed she acted in self-defense. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that a witness told police the woman became angry when the wheelchair-bound man wouldn’t give her money for meth.
“Ozshnee Gray was arrested on Thursday after confessing to police that she lit a man on fire. According to an affidavit, Gray poured an entire bottle of vodka on his head and lit a lighter when police arrived, his eyebrows, his hair and his face were visibly burned. When investigators pressed for why she didn't just leave, she couldn't really come up with an answer. She said that he didn't ask her to leave.”
Gray made her first court appearance Friday and is being held in the Fremont County Detention Center on a $20,000 cash-only bond.
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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The Wyoming AG's Office filed a brief Monday defending the What is a Woman Act in the case of a transgender woman seeking a birth certificate change from “male” to “female.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a judge last year ruled that birth certificates should “record the ‘facts of birth.’”
“The transgender person, whom we call KR in the case, caption calls KR, is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court, ‘Hey, this is discrimination. You gotta make the Wyoming Department of Health change my birth certificate to say female.’ On Monday, the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, speaking for the Department of Health, fired back, saying, ‘No, the Wyoming or the What is a Woman Act is constitutional. And not only do we not have to change your birth certificate, we can't change your birth certificate.’”
Enacted in 2025, the What is a Woman Act requires Wyoming agencies that collect sex-based data on people to do so according to each included person’s biological sex at birth.
Read the full story HERE.
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A plan to build Wyoming’s first subscription-based solar project is on hold, but isn’t dead, so says Lower Valley Energy’s CEO. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the co-op is now focusing on communicating with customers while pursuing a piece of state-owned land near a garbage dump.
“Lower Valley Energy CEO, Bear Prairie, says that the project is not dead. It's just moving in a different direction than initially planned, due largely to public input. So the project initially was going to be built out on private leased land of seven acres near a gravel pit. Now they're looking at state-leased land, about 14 acres near a garbage dump located south of Thane, Wyoming in Lincoln County.”
Co-op members would be invited to buy shares of the solar farm and then receive credit on their bills for the amount of electricity that their panel produces. The project could power anywhere from 200 to 500 homes.
Read the full story HERE.
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The family of a Lander convenience store clerk credits strangers for saving the woman’s life after she was stabbed several times by a suspected burglar. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the victim’s daughter says the family is beyond grateful.
“Aiko Miller credits the two men for saving her mother, Dale Medford's life. She says one man used a vehicle to scare away the attacker, the other quickly started administering aid. Now neither of them is being publicly named at this time because they are key witnesses in this ongoing investigation. Back in April, Dale Medford was working as a clerk at the Loaf ‘N Jug in Lander, when Lorenzo Hopper showed up and jumped over the counter, stole a bottle of alcohol and left. A couple hours later, he returned, and he violently attacked the clerk with a knife. Medford is home now and she's expected to make a full recovery.”
In her only public statement since the attack, Medford acknowledged the community’s concern for her well-being in a Facebook post saying, .
“I appreciate you all.”
Read the full story HERE.
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A Sheridan-area rancher is on a special quest for “Big Wonderful Wyoming” mudflaps. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Pepper Fipps, the cow boss on the Rafter Star Ranch, wants only one kind of flaps for his ranch trucks.
“They were quite the thing back in the day, but they’ve become a lot more rare. It's mostly because a lot have a lot of trucks have gone from the old school, heavy steel bumpers to more composite bumpers, or even bumpers that are molded right into the frame, and that makes it really difficult, if not impossible, to drill those bumper bumpers to mount mud flaps. He wants those, specifically wants those. He says, ‘I want to display some pride in my state, in our cowboy heritage.’ So he wants those mud flaps.”
The mud flaps feature an outline of the state and the iconic Steamboat bucking bronco logo, and “Big Wonderful Wyoming” in big, bold letters.
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.
