It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, May 22nd. I’m Mac Watson.
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Converse County this week rescinded an order that could have fast-tracked data centers and given the county more control in the process. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one legislator says it's a legal issue, but people also "lost their minds” when they heard the words “fast-track.”
“Representative Kevin Campbell said that there was a dearth of transparency in this whole process, and that that was his main qualm with it, but in the meantime, the Attorney General's office reportedly settled it anyway by saying, I know you can't just put in one of these industrial parks if you don't already have zoning, you can't put it in without a mechanism like that, and Commerce County does not have zoning.”
Commission Vice-Chair Rick Grant tells Cowboy State Daily that the prospective industrial park wasn’t meant specifically for a Prometheus Hyperscale data center and the county hasn’t received an application for any such development.
Read the full story HERE.
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Parts of Wyoming got up to 2 inches of water from this week’s storm that shut down I-80 and Rawlins for more than a day. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports all that precipitation wasn’t a drought-buster.
“Speaking to Wyoming meteorologists, we don't want a drought-busting storm all at once, because for as low and as dry as we are, if we got all the moisture we needed to break a drought in one fell swoop, we'd be talking about widespread destruction. May has been a very good month in terms of moisture. We've gotten several inches in the areas that needed it most, and that's definitely improved the situation. But at this point, we're looking at a prolonged drought that isn't going to be rectified by a single event, but if we continue getting more of these storms that drop an inch or two of liquid water at a time, we can make a nice dent in the drought situation.”
Meteorologist Don Day tells Cowboy State Daily “Getting rid of a drought is like eating an elephant — one bite at a time.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming regulators are cracking down on bar raffle games like Queen of Hearts and Music Bingo that raise money for charities, saying they’re illegal gambling. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that event organizer Brian Grzegorczyk asks, “Why is horse racing an exception, but not charity?”
“His nickname became Alf Evermore, and so most people just know him as Alf, but so he has a pub here in Cheyenne called Alf’s Pub, and he is the founder of a charity effort called Thankful Thursdays, and in 16 years that charity has been around 16 years now, and it's given more than four and a half million to local groups over that 16 year period, and so you know it's become a powerhouse for giving money to local charities.”
According to Wyoming Gaming Commissioner Nick Laramendy,
Wyoming statutes define gambling as risking any property for gain that is contingent in whole or in part by chance.
Read the full story HERE.
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A wildlife filmmaker spotted 47 grizzlies in the Absaroka Mountains before noon, more than twice as many as he's ever seen in one day in the Yellowstone area. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that they were gorging themselves on moths, so he tried one.
“He says he's eaten them a few times. He said they taste like honey roasted peanuts, apparently. Army cut worm moths taste like honey roasted peanuts, that's what he describes the flavor of them. they come up out of the prairies, and they're going up over the mountains on their migration route, that you know, long about that time, late in the summer, early in the fall, but they'll get up on the mountains, and to rest, they'll crawl underneath the rocks, and so the bears go up there and just are flipping rocks over and scooping up these moths and eating them.”
Moth eater and wildlife photographer Casey Anderson tells Cowboy State Daily that grizzlies will travel many miles from the low country and climb all the way up to the mountain peaks to gorge on army cutworm moths.
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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People are blaming — and crediting — the Wyoming Freedom Caucus for the Legislature's nearly $4 billion school spending package. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports whether the caucus deserves either depends on whom you ask.
“The Freedom Caucus was taking some credit and celebrating when that package passed. So this controversy followed, right? And people were blaming the Freedom Caucus. And at first I was thinking, why are they blaming the Freedom Caucus? but then I looked back, and I saw that, you know, the Freedom Caucus had taken credit for the package, so it's become just this circle, this narrative circle, where they took credit for it, and then now there's this backlash against it, and now they're taking the blame, even though in reality it's almost a full legislature project.”
On the one hand, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ former chair, speaking on behalf of the caucus, took credit for nearly $4 billion per-biennium school spending package after it became law. On the other hand, the spending plan itself contains a mix of favored and hated provisions, and it’s often misunderstood.
Read the full story HERE.
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A former BLM director says Steve Pearce’s confirmation to lead the agency is good news for Wyoming’s energy industries, ranchers and land use. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that William Perry Pendley says “What the BLM director decides determines the fate of Wyoming with regard to its ability to use the land.”
“Former National BLM manager William Perry Pendley really is excited about this new director, because he is pro multi use on land, so it's this idea that you know we don't have to lease land for just one use, like conservation or grazing or recreation, there is land can be used for multiple things at the same time, and that's something that was not popular in the previous administration. According to Pendley, Pierce brings a private sector background to the BLM, and that's important, because work with the BLM often intersects with private sectors with private business, so it's good for the person in that role to have that experience.”
That reality is hard to overstate in Wyoming, where public lands define much of the state. In sprawling Sweetwater County alone, roughly 74% of the land is managed by the federal government.
Read the full story HERE.
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Some Wyoming firearms companies say YouTube is unfairly censoring and banning them without giving solid reasons why. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports one video creator says, “I hate to lose the audience, but I don't miss the BS,” about dealing with YouTube before getting kicked off.
“Big Horn Armory, that's a company out of Cody that makes rifles and other firearms. They were recently booted off of YouTube, and apparently for violating community status. I talked to their founder and CEO, and said they never clearly explained to them why. He said it was never clearly explained to them, and they were just booted off, and so they switched over to Rumble, which is a different video platform.”
Greg Buchel, founder and president of Big Horn Armory Inc., tells Cowboy State Daily that their posted content on YouTube didn’t include any of the platform’s clearly forbidden material, such as instructions on how to alter a firearm.
Read the full story HERE.
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Steve Price, a “legend” who raised money for many Cheyenne causes, passed away earlier this month. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports one fellow auctioneer says “I don’t know anybody who wasn’t his friend.”
“Steve Price was a legendary cowboy in Cheyenne, and also an auctioneer who raised a bunch of money for many nonprofits in the city. He didn't really have a business, but he just used that to help nonprofits, and he helped so many, including the animal shelter, the hospital, you know, also the state fair board.Somebody at the animal shelter told me that there was this bid that went on for like 10 minutes over a Josh Allen jersey a few years ago that he just kept egging people on, you know, to raise their bid, and so everybody I talked to said he was one of the best people they've ever met.”
The 70-year-old died while visiting family in Dundee, Michigan, on May 4th. A celebration of life is planned on Saturday at the Archer Event Center in Cheyenne.
Read the full story HERE.
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.
