It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, June 19th. I’m Mac Watson
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Data centers with huge power needs are lining up to plug into Wyoming’s power grid. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that regulators, utilities and lawmakers are wrestling with how to serve massive electric loads without spiking rates for regular consumers.
“As Senator Case put it to me, it's like comparing Earth to Jupiter, the kind of loads that we used to deal with versus what we're looking at, it's Earth to Jupiter, orders of magnitude different. so into all that matrix comes Senator Lummis. She is pushing a federal fix to, you know, ensure that data centers can connect in a reasonable timeframe to the grid and get the transmission that they need. Does this kind of federalize the grid when it comes to data centers, so is that bypassing local control? Senator Case told me, well, that has implications, you know.”
Wyoming exports roughly 12 times more power than it uses, a fact regularly touted by data centers planning to build in the Cowboy State, who suggest their projects will help keep more of that power at home.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Drug Enforcement Administration has installed license plate cameras on or around the Wind River Reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Sen. Cale Case calls it “somewhat '1984'-ish.”
“The BIA finally confirms, ‘Look, it wasn't us.’ The DA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, has an agreement with the tribes, and so my efforts over the past several months to get the tribes to comment have been futile, but Senator Cale Case, at a committee meeting on Tuesday, said this is the growing surveillance state. In an interview Thursday, he said, ‘This is 1984 ish.’ that doesn't mean everyone within the tribe agrees, but the statements, the public statements, have been that the tribal governments entered into an agreement with the DEA to put these up.”
Sen. Case added that the installation of the camera is “a big step in our surveillance society.”
Read the full story HERE.
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John Bear, one of the most powerful members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, has a GOP challenger for his Gillette House district. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports challenger Doug Moore says the difference between him and his opponent is he doesn’t see himself “being a career politician.”
“So you got Doug Moore, who works in the coal sector, who's a business owner, longtime resident of Gillette, and you've got John Baer, who also has has backed the coal industry and has been a budget hawk in the legislature. So, looking at these two men, I asked Doug, like, ‘What's the differences? Are you going to join the Freedom Caucus?’ Because John Baer is a big Freedom Caucus, a big voice for the Freedom Caucus, and Doug Moore said, ‘No.’ He feels that the Freedom Caucus derives too much direction from its national umbrella entity, and he said he wants to represent the people.”
Bear countered Moore’s statement with “I am the only conservative in this race.”
Read the full story HERE.
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A man in Yellowstone who was caught stepping illegally onto a fragile hot spring could get jail time and a hefty fine when park rangers catch up to him. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a visitor who posted a photo of the trespasser said, “Don’t be this guy.”
“When Yellowstone catches someone in the act of thermal trespass, they impose fines and even jail time as a way to deter people from repeating the behavior, from straying off the boardwalk, from stepping on the fragile thermal features, because it protects themselves from serious injury or even potentially death, and it protects the fragile landscape, so everyone can enjoy it, but apparently all the fines and jail time and signs and boardwalks aren't enough to stop people, as was evidenced by this person who was caught stepping onto the very fragile terraces at Mammoth Hot Spring, looking for what I can only assume to be a better selfie.”
Earlier this year, 50-year-old Eric Bedient was sentenced to five days in jail for walking directly across Canary Spring, Mound Terrace, Palette Hot Spring, and Jupiter Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in November 2025.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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A long-awaited speed test to see whether Wyoming pronghorn are faster than Africa’s cheetahs was a bust. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that a buck and a doe antelope were captured this spring near Pinedale by Wyoming Game and Fish researchers, with the animals outfitted with high-tech speed tracking collars and set loose.
“They went through all this and everybody was excited, and the darned antelope never got the, I think, the buck that his fastest speed was 27 miles an hour, and it's, it is because what they were hoping for is after they were captured and messed with and set free, they take off running really fast, they didn't, I mean, they went like 20 miles an hour, which, you know, it's probably like a trot for an antelope. for the rest of the two or three hour testing period, they were just wandering around.”
Officials are hoping to do another test in the winter with the challenge being how to nudge the pronghorn into an all-out sprint, without unnecessarily harassing or stressing them.
Read the full story HERE.
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George Mocsary, a firearms law expert, says the U.S. Supreme Court's Thursday opinion upholding a marijuana user's right to keep a gun is important for Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that Mocsary says “the case is ultimately about whether government can take away a constitutional right.”
“I was asking him about this law, and he's like, this is bigger than marijuana, or I was asking him about this case, you know, and he said, this is bigger than marijuana. Firstly, guns are part of our everyday life here in Wyoming, but secondly, if the government can just kind of create a broad category untethered from specific showings of danger for that person in that category, then who's next? I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but that's kind of the indication he gave.”
A federal law bars habitual users of unlawful drugs from knowingly possessing guns. People convicted under that law can face 15 years in prison and lose their carry rights for life.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming's congressional delegation says they don’t support a Democrat bill that bans the sale of large swaths of federal lands. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Rep. Harriet Hageman says she opposes any effort that threatens our Western way of life.
“Senator Cynthia Lummis, Senator John Barrasso, and Representative Harriet Hagman, all oppose this. They say it's, it's kind of a devil in disguise bill that they see it just causing more problems and causing more federal control and less public access to Wyoming's public lands. I also talked to some Wyoming conservationists who are at least from what they can tell kind of like what they know of the bill so far.”
The lead bill is H.R. 9176, the Public Lands Integrity Act, introduced to the House earlier this month by Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico. A mirror bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado.
Read the full story HERE.
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For 15 years, Steve Braithwaite has driven a 23-foot banana across the country. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that on Wednesday, just like hundreds of times before, he was pulled over by law enforcement.
“Steve Braithwaite was pulled over in Billings, Montana by a highway patrol trooper. The trooper said that his luggage on the back was covering up his license plate, but Braithwaite claims this happens all the time. He says he is one of the most pulled over men in America. He believes that law enforcement officers are just, just trying to get a closer look at his banana car. He's been driving this car for over 12 years. He got started because he was an antique car collector, and he says that he got bored going to the old car shows. When he was standing in the gas station line, he noticed a banana, and it wasn't curved like a regular banana, it was straight, and that got the wheels turning, and he began to think about how he would make an automobile out of a piece of fruit.”
Braithwaite tells Cowboy State Daily that he’s driving from his native Michigan to Seattle, Washington with his goal to reach all 50 states in his banana car.
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.
