It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 2nd. I’m Mac Watson
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The cause of last week’s double fatal crash in remote Natrona County has been released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the WHP says the tanker truck plowed into seven vehicles, killing two.
“New details released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol on Wednesday morning show that a tanker truck driver failed to slow down or stop when traffic was queued in a construction zone on US Highway 26 This is about 45 miles northwest of Casper on Friday afternoon. The driver so far has not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says this is still a very active investigation.”
The crash happened at 1:50 p.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, with the WHP having identified driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the crash. As of Wednesday, no criminal charges had been announced.
Read the full story HERE.
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Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being “dead pool,” which means water won't flow downriver anymore. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Wyoming cities and industries are worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
“I did connect with a couple people from the municipalities of Cheyenne and Rock Springs, of course. Rock Springs is directly in the Colorado River drainage because of the Green River. Cheyenne is indirectly because of water rights trades. Some of the water that goes into Cheyenne is actually traded for water that comes off the Colorado River. And they both said, ‘Yeah, I mean, this is not like an immediate emergency. Oh my god, we're going to run out of water this year,’ but they are saying, ‘Longer term, we've got to think of some better things, some better solutions, maybe some other sources we can go to for water, because this situation is getting dicey.’”
Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks, who served on the Legislature’s Select Water Committee says Wyoming may have to make some stark choices in the near future because “power generation is subservient” to irrigation water rights, he tells Cowboy State Daily.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they “endangered children” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda.”
“Make Liberty Win is generally the flyer factory in Wyoming, that's an out-of-state PAC that spends a lot of money backing Freedom Caucus aligned candidates, they've started sending out flyers showing like Senator Kail Case and Representative Lloyd Larson in sheep's clothing, and you know, claiming that they had a radical trans agenda, and both Case and Larson said no, we had nuanced, careful close-up reasons for these votes that you can't, that they're not putting on a flyer, and then on the other side, Americans for Prosperity, which is a PAC that in Wyoming takes some pride in not resorting to cartoon tactics like that. They have gone out hard against House Speaker Chip Nyman because they've endorsed Senator Ogden Driscoll, and they have a bone to pick with some of Nyman's votes.”
Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, while Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as the “Ultimate Civics Showdown” stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on national TV on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Miriam Washut says she had one week to prepare.
“She is one of four sent to regionals in Dallas at the George Bush Library, and then is one of the top four that comes out of that, and then she goes to the Nationals in Washington, DC, where there were 20 kids she was competing against, and she came out on top with $150,000 scholarship, and got to go into the Oval Office and shake hands with President Trump. He presented her with a coin, and she said it was a great experience. She just said she never thought she'd be able to do something like that.”
Washut had to plow through more than 5,000 pages of books, foundational documents and biographies, as well as know the facts on 10 Revolutionary War battles. She then was tested at state and regional levels before the national finals competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
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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After a rocky, two-year run for Gillette’s Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic, Monument Health has struck a deal to keep the facility open. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the state-of-the-art facility will be plugged into the Mayo Clinic Care Network.
“So Monument Health is going to be taking over the Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic, and it's kind of interesting because the Hoskinson family, when they built their clinic in Gillette, had promised they wanted this to be the Mayo Clinic of the West. Well, it's interesting to know that Monument Health is a member of the Mayo Clinic's network, and so, in a way, even though it's not the Hoskinson family that will be operating it anymore, they feel like they've fulfilled their promise.”
Monument Health, which operates five hospitals and more than 40 clinics and specialty centers in 14 communities across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming, has direct access to Mayo Clinic expertise and resources, a connection that has now been extended to Gillette.
Read the full story HERE.
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Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, so says one politico.
“Liz Brimmer, who's a longtime Wyoming politico, said, look, we already say don't Colorado my Wyoming, we're already pretty galvanized in like this independence that this will probably just harden that if anything, and it's it's just a different voice in the giant, the giant US House.”
Democratic socialist 29-year-old Melat Kiros, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.
Read the full story HERE.
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An 18-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of using a root beer bottle Molotov cocktail to firebomb the truck of another teen dating his ex-girlfriend. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that police say “he often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose.”
“Investigators say that the fire bomb, also known as a homemade Molotov cocktail, was made out of a Sprecher root beer bottle that was filled with a rag soaked in gasoline. During the investigation, detectives were able to find out that Seth Hayes had walked into a Menards earlier and bought a four pack of Spreckers root beer. They also learned that just hours before the arson occurred, he had posted Shabbosies, ‘Let It Burn’ onto his social media.”
Hayes is set for a Thursday preliminary hearing on a felony charge of third-degree arson. During his initial appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court late last week, a judge set his bond at $10,000 cash only.
Read the full story HERE.
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A gun-friendly U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to overturn “assault weapon” bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area — and Wyoming gun dealers are all in favor. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that dealers say that could make it easier to sell to customers in Colorado and other states.
“They told me that, well, this would be good for us, insofar as we do get a lot of people coming from Colorado, which doesn't necessarily have a statewide ban, but does have some local bands as well as other states that might have statewide bans, we get customers coming to us. That's how Wyoming firearms dealers could benefit if the Supreme Court decides to do away with these bans on the national level, because it would open up a much wider market for them, and plus, you know, these guys just said on principle they just support the freedom for everybody.”
Colorado doesn’t have a statewide assault-weapons ban, although there are some local bans, such as in Denver. There’s a statewide prohibition on “high-capacity magazines” capable of carrying more than 15 rounds.
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.
