It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 28th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Hiker Shaun Mackelprang thanked rescuers from his hospital room in Pinedale on Thursday for saving his life. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports the Missouri deputy attorney general had summited Wyoming's highest mountain peak but then became lost for five days.
“The spokesman for the Sublette County Sheriff's Office says that it was the ground team that actually found him. He was conscious, but he was severely dehydrated, disoriented, and had gotten confused and lost as he was ascending the mountain. But he was able to stand on both feet and get into the helicopter on his own. Cowboy State Daily spoke to Mackelsprang's brother Romell, who said that even though this was an unfortunate event, Sean did achieve what he set out to do. He made it to the top, and he signed his name in the registry at Gannett Peak. Unfortunately, due to severe weather, things took a turn during the descent.”
Mackelsprang specifically thanked Tip Top Search and Rescue and the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office for being “ready and prepared to stand up for me in my time of need.” He is expected to make a full recovery.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Mark Gordon said reports of “aggressive” behavior by federal election monitors at polling places in Cheyenne last Tuesday have left him “shocked.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Gordon alerted the Wyoming Attorney General, but said it's too early to know if litigation is in order.
“So election day is chaotic, and so into that chaos walked a couple of federal election monitors that the U.S. Department of Justice sent to Wyoming to monitor the election. So, clerk Debra Lee called it a poorly managed exercise by the feds. Governor Mark Gordon, hearing about this, he told me Thursday in an interview that he was shocked that the Trump administration felt it needed to do this to Wyoming. The secretary, when pressed by the governor during the canvassing meeting, kind of defended it, saying, ‘Wyoming law allows for observers.’ What Wyoming Law specifically carves out is an opportunity for designated poll watchers chosen by each party who are residents of that county to go and watch.”
As for the federal agents visiting, by Gordon’s count, at least six of Laramie County’s seven polling stations, The governor tells Cowboy State Daily, “We were delighted to let them participate as observers.”
Read the full story HERE.
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An elk hunter who helicoptered into a section of public land surrounded by private land in Johnson County, and later accused the rancher of trying to swipe an elk head from his party, was cited for trespassing after shooting a bull elk on private land. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Andrew McKean ended up shooting an elk that was just inside private property.
“These guys they posted a video of the hunt because it was kind of a unique hunt on the Outdoor Live Channel. The rancher watched the video, and in one of the the scenes where the hunter is shooting his elk, the rancher recognized the landmark and goes. That's on my property, and by golly, it was. so he comes back and charges the hunter with trespass. And so the hunter who I published an article, kind of a confessional article in Outdoor Life, and who I also spoke with today on Thursday said, ‘Yep, I made a mistake. I screwed up. It was absolutely trespassing.’ He did in court documents verify this. On Monday, he appeared before the Johnson County Court, pleaded no contest, and was fined. And court documents also verify that the rancher was charged with pled guilty to misdemeanor theft and ended up paying I think a few $100 in fines.”
McKean said that as best as he could determine, the elk was probably 22 to 40 yards inside DeLapp’s property when it was shot.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cases of the parasite known for causing weeks of relentless diarrhea have more than tripled to 19 in Wyoming since July, with three people hospitalized. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that investigators say some have picked up the parasite inside Wyoming but they don't know where.
“This is the parasite that causes severe watery diarrhea that can last for weeks. So far, three Wyomingites have been hospitalized, with a fourth potentially being hospitalized today. Officials say that the food sources linked to this Wyoming outbreak wasn't contracted in Wyoming. Two of them came from Mexico, and the others were domestic, but not in the Cowboy State.”
Wyoming is not among the federal government's list of states where recalled food has been distributed. The FDA listed 31 other states and said recalled products were sold at select Walmart stores in 15 states, also not including Wyoming.
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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About 400 jobs are on hold as Pacific Soda seeks to push back the start of its proposed $6 billion Dry Creek Trona Project in southwest Wyoming a year. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the company is blaming China's flooding of the soda ash market and permit delays.
“This is a $6 billion project. It would be an expanded mine that would add about 220 million, I believe it was. So it's really a very significant project and one that would generate a lot of revenue for Wyoming, a lot of tax revenue, a lot of export revenue, and then the jobs in question, you know, their average pay is over $100,000. what they're asking for here, since DEQ wasn't able to get their permit done in time for the construction season this year, they've asked for a one-year extension. So instead of their deadline to start construction being December 2026, it's going to be December 2027.”
Wyoming has the world’s largest known deposit of naturally occurring trona in Sweetwater County. Trona is used to produce soda ash, an essential raw material with many uses, including the baking soda.
Read the full story HERE.
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A judge on Tuesday dismissed the ACLU's lawsuit against Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak, saying the plaintiffs' complaints didn't match the laws in the case. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one plaintiff, a barbershop, noted that deputies had worked with ICE to deport its employee to Nicaragua.
“According to the judge who dismissed this case Tuesday, they didn't show how these harms connected to the laws that they were claiming Kozak broke. That they were claiming he had, you know, breached his authority. You served authority from the county commission. Kozak faces another immigration lawsuit from a firm out of Colorado and an investigator out of Cheyenne. He has claimed that that one is a little bit of a political maneuver. That one has a hearing set for September.”
Kozak also faces another immigration-advocacy suit that Colorado-based Lichter Immigration, its investigator Kevin Lewis, and its attorney Drake Hill are waging against him. The Lichter suit accuses Kozak's office of withholding important records from the firm while it represents an immigrant who needs those records to fight his own case.
Read the full story HERE.
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A proposal that could bring a utility-scale data center to more than 5,300 acres of private ranchland near the Platte and Goshen county line cleared another hurdle Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the meeting ended with a unanimous vote to recommend rezoning the property for industrial use.
“The meeting was packed. It was at the Agriplex 4-H building in Wheatland. A lot of people were there. Those who commented publicly, it was about half and half for the rezoning, half for the rezoning, half against it. People who are for the rezoning said, you know, Wheatland is a dying town. We need something. We need a shot in the arm. If we don't grow, we're going to die. Those are just a few of the quotes that came out from people in support of this rezone. Those who are opposed to it are, you know, bringing up the familiar concerns: the water usage, the viewshed, the noise potential, the kinds of things that we commonly hear in these conversations, these community conversations around data centers.”
The request involves 5,344 acres northeast of Wheatland in the area known as Goshen Hole. The land, owned by Gregor and Cindy Goertz, is currently zoned Ranch, Agricultural, and Mining. The zoning change would allow the property to be used for utility-scale energy generation, energy storage and a data center campus.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two descendants of Grand Teton's famed Grizzly 399 were sent to a zoo in Colorado Springs after their mother was killed in Montana for cattle predation. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports cubs typically are euthanized if no zoo has availability because they won't survive alone in the wild.
“The story gets more interesting because it was one of those rare instances where wildlife officials were able to get a hold of a zoo, like, almost immediately, and the zoo had space and was qualified and able to take care of grizzly bears, and also happened to have an opening. So they sent the cubs to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and so these cubs have been down there since June, and the pieces of the puzzle finally came together, and it turns out that these are Grizzly 399's grandkids.”
A female grizzly killed in the East Rosebud Creek drainage in Montana on June 5 was Grizzly 964, one of a set of twins born to Grizzly 399 in 2017.
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.
