It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, November 4th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Wyoming voters rejected a ballot initiative Tuesday that sought to cut residential property tax by 50% for most homes. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the measure drew opposition from local-level agencies that said that would decimate their budgets and ability to provide services.
“So this makes a slightly less-chaotic trajectory going into the legislative session because had Prop 1 passed, there would be kind of this tension about, well, is the legislature going to do more to fund local governments? How is it going to make up the difference for schools? And so seeing that, it makes a slightly more solid legislative session coming up, where they're going to be able to lean back on the things they've researched during the interim and the things they're concerned about with respect to infrastructure.”
Had it passed, the initiative would have exempted 50% of the assessed value of primary homes for people who have lived in Wyoming for at least one year, and in that home for at least six months of the prior year.
Read the full story HERE.
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Eric Barlow, a state legislator of 14 years, is Wyoming’s next governor. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Barlow has made headlines by creating a method for nonviolent felons to have their gun rights restored after their sentences are complete.
“It really was a landslide with 64% of the vote as of late Tuesday evening about 10pm. Barlow had 69% of the vote to Bexdale's 18% and Casner's 13% The governor-elect said, ‘We're very honored with the trust the Wyoming voters have placed in us. We've traveled 448 days. We did the math, meeting people, hearing what was on their minds, what they were interested in, concerned about, and the opportunities for them and their families and communities. I think folks responded to that.’”
Also a rancher and veterinarian, the 60-year-old first clinched the GOP nomination in August by winning every county.
Read the full story HERE.
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Despite speculation around whether the Democrat Lisa Kinney in the U.S. House race would follow the projected blue wave, it was a Republican sweep across the board in Wyoming's five state-level top-elected positions, and its two federal races that were on the ballot. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland breaks down the races.
“It was exactly the Republican sweep in Wyoming major offices that the prediction markets, the pundits were calling for. Barlow an easy win for Governor. Hageman, an easy win for Senate. Chuck Gray, some resistance, but still noteworthy win for U.S. House, and Steve Harshman, Republican for Superintendent Public Instruction. Robert Short for Secretary of State; pretty much a red sweep.”
Wyoming didn’t follow the national trend in the mid-term elections as many Republican incumbents were ousted by Democratic candidates.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming couple still has few answers a week removed from being stranded in Cambodia when their cruise ship abruptly went bankrupt and kicked them off. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the former Wyoming couple says they’re now lugging suitcases around Kuala Lumpur, trying to regroup.
“It's a chance for them to kind of take a beat, get some emotional distance from all the turmoil, and decide what to do next. After Kuala Lumpur, they plan to go to Australia. They have made lots of friends, doing this kind of lifestyle. They've had lots of offers of places to stay while they get things figured out. So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with. They do want to come back to Wyoming eventually. They had a plan to circumnavigate the globe in like four years, and so they don't really want to come back before they've done that.”
Their sudden departure has left Paul and Lynn Montoya figuring out not just where to go next, but what their retirement will look like now without the floating home they paid $179,000 to buy. The couple also loaned Villa Vie $100,000 during the company’s spring cash crunch — money they don't expect to recover.
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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The situation at Flaming Gorge remains dire as drawdowns are continuing despite billions of gallons of water being dumped into Lake Powell last month. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Tony Valdez says his Buckboard Marina is practically dry.
“There's been like a series of really heavy rainstorms, and I checked in Lake Powell over the month of October gained like 600,000-acre-feet of water, just pure 100% gain from rainwater flushing down the river corridor, and that's kind of ironic because that's how much they've taken from Flaming Gorge. I called the marina manager at Flaming Gorge. He said he's upset because he's going, ‘they just got a bunch of rain. Their problem, at least for now, was solved. But things are every bit as bad for us. When do we start getting some water back?’ And I have reached out to both the Bureau of Reclamation and our state engineer. Unfortunately, by publication time, I hadn't heard back from either one of them.”
The Bureau of Reclamation reported that although the October spike at Lake Powell helped, it wasn’t enough to break the long-term trend of critical shortages. Lake Powell remains about 174 feet below full pool, according to the agency.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming meteorologists are watching the earliest polar vortex forming in the Arctic Circle in recorded history. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists are saying it could mean significant winter weather by Thanksgiving.
“Getting one that started before the end of October is unprecedented. Every meteorologist is using that term to describe it, and what that means is, by the time we reach the end of November, notably the Thanksgiving holiday, we could be dealing with intense cold and intense snow, depending on what else is happening around that time. It's the earliest that any meteorologists have seen since they started recording polar vortexes in 1958. When polar vortex Arctic air comes down into the U.S., there are impacts, mainly extreme cold, and there could be significant snow.”
Cowboy State Daily Meteorologist Don Day isn’t going to “paint himself into a corner” about what this will mean for Wyoming, even hypothetically, but the polar vortex could eventually have an impact. That’s especially true for anyone planning to travel for Thanksgiving, he says.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Laramie judge Tuesday elevated the case of Aili Wang, a Chinese national accused of poisoning her University of Wyoming colleague, to Albany County’s felony-level court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the judge found probable cause for attempted murder and aggravated assault charges.
“When someone chooses to exercise their right to a preliminary hearing like this and to cross-examine the state's witness, it is interesting to hear kind of the other side of the story. And some things that Wang's defense attorney Linda Devine emphasized were that though a camera had reportedly captured her going into her colleague's office, messing around with stuff in there. No camera actually captured her putting any poison into either of the reservoirs, the coffee tin, the coffee pot, and the stuff like that. The defense attorney really dwelled on and really splayed throughout her cross-examination.”
The 32-year-old Wang could face between 20 years and life in prison if convicted of the attempted murder charge, and another 10-year maximum if convicted of aggravated assault.
Read the full story HERE.
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A record 81 grizzly bears have died in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 2026. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that livestock predation is the No. 1 reason for bear mortality, but poaching is also a leading cause.
“We've just set another new record for grizzly deaths in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Of course, what that means, depends on who you ask. I did talk to Humane World for Animals, and from their perspective, this is bad news. They contend too many bears are dying. Too many bears are getting killed. But I also talked to a biologist, the statewide bear biologist Cecily Costello for Montana, and she said, pretty much you have more bears. The more your population grows, the more deaths you're going to have. It's just kind of how demographics works.”
Costello tells Cowboy State Daily overall that the grizzly population is stable. The record figure reflects records kept since grizzlies were given Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. In 1972, at least 120 bears in the GYE perished.
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.
