It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, May 28th. I’m Mac Watson
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The ACLU is helping a Cheyenne-based church, barbershop, and nonprofit group sue Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak over his three agreements with ICE. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the complaint says “Wyoming sheriffs do not have limitless authority.”
“The lawsuit the ACLU filed on behalf of a church, a group, and a barbershop on Tuesday alleges that Sheriff Kozak bypassed the public comment county commission notice and debated the deliberative phase of advancing a rule of this magnitude. Kozak did not comment immediately, but the case is asking the court to basically block these agreements.”
The complaint asks for “declaratory judgment” against Kozak, meaning the plaintiffs want the court to say that they’re correct under the law and Kozak is wrong.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 12-month moratorium on data centers in Cheyenne was rejected on a 9-1 City Council vote after hours of emotional, and at times angry, testimony Tuesday night. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that one resident told the council, “The people who put you in your position are terrified.”
“Mayor Patrick Collins had to call the meeting back to order several times when people laughed at a comment or clapped or were giving looks to other people who were making comments. One person said that, you know, people are terrified of these data centers coming in. It's a fear of the unknown, because things are happening so fast. The fear is we don't know what impact these are going to have. Are we going to suffer long term consequences because of data centers being, you know, built right next door, so to speak.”
The discussion pitted data center workers happy with good jobs against local residents who are skeptical — and some fearful — of the impacts that rapid data center growth brings to the city. About half of those who spoke were in favor of the moratorium with the other half opposing it.
Read the full story HERE.
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U.S. House candidate Bo Biteman was quick to share a letter from the White House thanking him for his work as state Senate president. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Biteman says he was honored to receive recognition from the White House.
“The White House on Tuesday, sent Senate President Bo Biteman, who's one of those 10 candidates, a letter that's basically an attaboy saying, ‘Wow, good job, Senator. You helped with these priorities, your leadership was important here,’ and Bo Biteman posted it to social media. We won't know how Wyoming feels about Trump this go-around exactly until August 18, when the Trumpy and not Trumpy candidates shake out in a big primary election, but if we are extrapolating strictly from recent history in other states, it tells us that alignment with Trump is a key in a Republican primary like this.”
Alex Meyer, the president’s deputy assistant and director at the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, tells Cowboy State Daily that these letters are “not something that’s ever really happened before.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming is killing more “conflict” grizzlies than would be killed by hunters if the bears were delisted, the state Game and Fish director said on Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Director Bruce holds the same opinion about delisting bears as her predecessor, Brian Nesvik.
“She kind of said, you know, we have to kill an average of 21 a year, whereas the hunting season, the last time they had a proposed hunting season, they would have issued 20 hunting tags for grizzly bears, but you know that leads to the argument. Okay, well, if they start hunting him with that, would that eliminate the conflicts? It might or might not. There are people who argue that hunting grizzly bears doesn't make any difference, even in areas where grizzlies are hunted, such as Canada or Alaska, they still have conflicts with bears.”
Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce made those remarks before the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, which is meeting in Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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More news from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom is right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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Another case of a transgender person asking for an altered birth certificate showing a different sex has been filed with the Wyoming Supreme Court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that there are now at least two cases where applicants are asking courts to order the Dept. of Health to issue new birth certificates.
“It's interesting in light of What Is a Woman Act, though. Judge Eames, in the earlier challenge, wasn't even, I mean, he wasn't altogether relying on the What Does a Woman Act, what he was actually doing is saying, look, the definition of birth certificates in Wyoming is a document that lists the facts of birth, and so we're not going to do this, and so it'll be interesting to see how the high court rules, and if they refuse these sex marker changes, is it going to be because of the definition of birth certificates or the What Is a Woman Act or something else?”
Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, whose office represents the Department of Health, declined Wednesday to comment on the pending case.
Read the full story HERE.
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Rock Springs Police say a credit card skimmer was found on diesel pumps at a gas station off Interstate 80 this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that a former bank employee says she will never pay at the pump again.
“Jamie Stahl used to work at Wells Fargo in Rock Springs, and she said on a daily basis she would hear complaints from customers who said they had been scammed by a credit card skimmer at a gas station. She saw so many of these scams when she worked at the bank that she tells her family to never pay at the pump to always go inside.”
According to the FBI, the practice of skimming has cost financial institutions almost $1 billion in the last year.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Colorado Maverik station can’t sell any diesel after someone dumped an RV’s waste tank into the station’s underground diesel supply tank this week. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one avid RVer said the mistake is “almost unbelievable … the dump stations are very obvious.”
“From what we understand, apparently someone pulled into a Maverick in Montrose, Colorado, confused the dump station with the valve that actually led to the diesel fuel tank, and they emptied their black water tank into the diesel fuel tank. So naturally, they're not providing any diesel at that gas station at the moment. Multiple calls subsequent to try to get more information were not responded, and we can understand why it's a pretty crappy situation they're dealing with down there.”
The Maverik will have to pump everything out of the tank and thoroughly clean it before it’s operational. That’s what happens when someone’s No. 2 becomes someone else’s No. 1 problem.
Read the full story HERE.
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For those wondering how a dog shot a woman with a shotgun in Nebraska this past weekend, gun experts say it pulled the trigger. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one expert says if someone claims the shotgun went off because it was knocked over or kicked around by a dog, they are “lying out their ass.”
“We went to the experts down at Frontier Arms here in Cheyenne, and asked them, said, you know, hey, how could a dog shoot accidentally trigger a shotgun, and they said that's exactly how they used the trigger, that shotguns do not just go off if they're jostled, or if they're, you know, if they're bumped, if they're thrown around. we stopped short of testing it out on their shop dog, a little wiener dog, to see if he'd get it done, but apparently it doesn't take very much, doesn't take very much force when you are, when you do have a finger, a claw, or whatever on that trigger, it only takes about anywhere from three to five pounds of pressure for that to go off.”
Arthur Huckfeldt and Ryan Allen at Frontier Arms and Supply in Cheyenne tell Cowboy State Daily that the only way a loaded, properly functioning shotgun can go off is to physically pull the trigger.
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.
