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RJ
Business and Tourism Reporter

Renée Jean

Renée Jean is the business and tourism reporter for Cowboy State Daily and is based in Cheyenne. Previously, Renée spent seven years covering energy and agriculture in North Dakota and Montana. She has won many writing awards over a 30-year career, and has written magazine articles for Guideposts.

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Latest from Renée Jean

Microsoft built Cheyenne’s first data center.

Weeks After Unveiling 3,200-Acre Data Center Expansion, Microsoft Adds Another 420

Just weeks after unveiling a 3,200-acre data center expansion around Cheyenne, Microsoft is adding two more parcels totaling 420 acres. The move comes amid a deepening debate over data centers, growth, and water.

Renée JeanMay 29, 2026

Uinta County resident Keaunna Archuleta came to Wednesday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting with five notebooks filled with questions about the proposed Prometheus Hyperscale data center.

Uinta County Planners Give Unanimous OK To 1.25-Gigawatt Prometheus Data Center

Uinta County planners voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend permit approvals for a huge 1.25-gigawatt data center. “Officials need to do their research on data centers,” said one of the few people from the standing-room-only crowd to speak out.

Renée JeanMay 28, 2026

A packed house turned out in Evanston's Roundhouse to hear answers about Prometheus Hyperscale's proposed data center in Uinta County.

Prometheus Faces Skeptical Crowd In Evanston Over Huge 1.2GW Data Center

Fifth-generation Wyoming rancher Trenton Thornock pitched a huge 1.2 gigawatt data center on family land to a skeptical Evanston crowd on Tuesday. The project is facing a rising tide of opposition against data centers locally and across Wyoming.

Renée JeanMay 27, 2026

As Wyoming faces another tinderbox fire season, high-tech home fire systems are starting to catch on across the West. One of the fastest growing is a Jackson Hole, Wyoming, company that makes AI sprinklers that are saving homes from wildfires.

Wyoming Company Uses High-Tech AI Sprinklers To Save Homes From Wildfire

As Wyoming faces another tinderbox fire season, high-tech home fire systems are starting to catch on across the West. One of the fastest growing is a Jackson Hole, Wyoming, company that makes AI sprinklers that are saving homes from wildfires.

Renée JeanMay 25, 2026

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Center of the West 5 25 26

Sitting Bull Contract With Buffalo Bill Museum Returns To Wyoming After $136,000 Sale

Longtime museum supporter Naoma Tate paid $136K to secure Buffalo Bill Cody’s contract with Sitting Bull for the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, keeping a rare piece of Wyoming history in the Cowboy State. “It’s just wonderful this is coming back,” she said.

Renée JeanMay 25, 2026

Volunteers have revived the historic Red Shell School, once featured on the cover of national textbooks, turning it into a vacation rental, museum, and community hub.

Bell At Famous Red Shell Schoolhouse Rings Again After Decades Of Silence

The bell at the Red Shell School is ringing again after a decades-long effort to save the iconic 111-year-old one-room Wyoming schoolhouse. It’s so picturesque it became nationally famous for being featured on the cover of textbooks.

Renée JeanMay 25, 2026

Wyoming’s looser liquor laws — and higher elevations — make for memorable nights and steady business in Evanston on the state line with Utah. It’s Utah’s “Sin City,” where people go for booze, to place bets and buy fireworks.

Evanston Is Utah’s ‘Sin City,’ Where They Can Get Booze, Gamble, And Buy Fireworks

Wyoming’s looser liquor laws — and higher elevations — make for memorable nights and steady business in Evanston on the state line with Utah. It’s Utah’s “Sin City,” where people go for booze, to place bets and buy fireworks.

Renée JeanMay 25, 2026

Opposition to data centers is growing more vocal in Cheyenne — and spreading across Wyoming to Evanston and Casper. "It’s very creepy what we put up with now that we said we’d never put up with,” Sen. Cale Case says about the impacts of AI and tech. Above, a small data center under construction in east Cheyenne.

Opposition And Pushback On Data Centers Spreads Beyond Cheyenne, Across Wyoming

Opposition to data centers is growing more vocal in Cheyenne — and spreading across Wyoming to Evanston and Casper. "It’s very creepy what we put up with now that we said we’d never put up with,” Sen. Cale Case said about the impacts of AI and tech.

Renée JeanMay 23, 2026

Charles Hoskinsons’ $250 million bid to put the “Mayo Clinic of the West” in Gillette, Wyoming, is ending, clinic leaders confirmed on Friday, with closure targeted for late summer. “The organization is no longer financially sustainable,” the clinic says.

Gillette’s Hoskinson Health Clinic To Close, 'No Longer Financially Sustainable'

Charles Hoskinson's plan to build the “Mayo Clinic of the West” in Gillette, Wyoming, is ending, clinic leaders confirmed on Friday, with closure targeted for late summer. “The organization is no longer financially sustainable,” the clinic says.

Renée JeanMay 22, 2026

Mason Stillman, right, talks to a colleague at Campbell County Health where he serves as a psychiatrist.

How Wyoming Is Bringing Doctors Back Home — And Keeping Them

A 30-year program is keeping Wyoming doctors in the Cowboy State, retaining up to 80% of its graduates. For a state that consistently ranks among the lowest in the nation for physicians per capita, that's a huge step forward.

Renée JeanMay 22, 2026

Wyoming regulators are cracking down on bar raffle games like Queen of Hearts and Music Bingo that raise money charities, saying they’re illegal gambling. Above, Brian "Alf" Grzegorczyk has helped raise more than $4.5 million for local charities through his Thankful Thursday events.

Charity Bar Games Getting Shut Down By Wyoming Gambling Crackdown

Wyoming regulators are cracking down on bar raffle games like Queen of Hearts and Music Bingo that raise money for charities, saying they’re illegal gambling. “Why is horse racing an exception, but not charity?” asks an event organizer. 

Renée JeanMay 21, 2026

Releases of up to 1 million acre-feet of water downriver from Flaming Gorge are gutting the gorge’s world-famous kokanee fishery and has marinas racing to survive. “This is like a holocaust for nature,” said one marina owner about the impact. Above, Buckboard Marina before last year's season. The water level is dramatically lower now, and getting lower.

Flaming Gorge Marinas Race To Survive As 1M Acre-Feet Of Water Sent Downriver

Releases of up to 1 million acre-feet of water downriver from Flaming Gorge are gutting the gorge’s world-famous kokanee fishery and has marinas racing to survive. “This is like a holocaust for nature,” said one marina owner about the impact.

Renée JeanMay 20, 2026

Other Authors

A long line of people formed on both sides of the room during an emotional, four-hour hearing before the Public Services Committee on a moratorium for new data centers.

Cheyenne City Committee Won’t Support — Or Reject — Data Center Moratorium

Cheyenne’s Public Service Committee didn’t endorse or reject a 12-month moratorium on new data centers after hours of emotional testimony Monday. State legislators say the clash exposes issues the Wyoming Legislature may need to address.

Renée JeanMay 19, 2026

Paul Hutton looking over items in the auction, and trying to decide if the Buffalo Bill Center of the West will bid on anything.

Wyoming Museums Can’t Afford Historic Wild West Items So They Go To Auction

A glass negative of Butch Cassidy’s prison photo and Sitting Bull’s contract to be in Buffalo Bill’s ‘Wild West Show’ are among the items in a Western auction. Authenticity questions and steep prices put them out of reach for most Wyoming museums.

Renée JeanMay 17, 2026

Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business.

Wyoming People: Eldon Hongo Traded 6-Figure Career To Train Champion Bird Dogs

Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business.

Renée JeanMay 17, 2026

Rather than a luxury expansion, the new owners of Meadowlark Ski Resort in Washakie County plan to keep it small. “There are going to be some skeptics” because “you have a group from Florida who came in and bought a mountain,” the new owner admits.

New Owner Of Meadowlark Ski Resort Says He Wants To Keep It Small

Rather than a luxury expansion, the new owners of Meadowlark Ski Resort in Washakie County plan to keep it small. “There are going to be some skeptics” because “you have a group from Florida who came in and bought a mountain,” the new owner said.

Renée JeanMay 15, 2026

Wyoming’s world-famous Fossil Cabin was built from more than 6,000 dinosaur bones, weighs 52 tons and was a target for vandals along U.S. Highway 30. It made a nail-biting, 7-mile crawl this week to a new permanent home at the Medicine Bow Museum.

Wyoming’s Fossil Cabin, ‘World’s Oldest Building,’ Moved To Medicine Bow Museum

Wyoming’s world-famous Fossil Cabin was built from more than 6,000 dinosaur bones, weighs 52 tons and was a target for vandals along U.S. Highway 30. It made a nail-biting, 7-mile crawl this week to a new permanent home at the Medicine Bow Museum.

Renée JeanMay 15, 2026

Russia’s state-run nuclear company owned Wyoming uranium assets until 2021. How that happened remains murky, wrapped in closed federal reviews. “No one knows how they got permits,” says the CEO of Uranium Energy Corp., which eventually bought out the Russians.

How Russia Controlled A Huge Chunk Of Wyoming Uranium, And How Wyoming Got It Back

Russia’s state-run nuclear company owned Wyoming uranium assets until 2021. How that happened remains murky, wrapped in closed federal reviews. “No one knows how they got permits,” says the CEO of the U.S. company that eventually bought out the Russians.

Renée JeanMay 14, 2026

Quality Technology Services data center Georgia Elijah Nouvelage Bloomberg via Getty Images 5 13 26

Georgia 30 Million Gallon Water Grab Puts Cheyenne Data Centers Under New Scrutiny

When a Georgia data center quietly drew 30 million gallons of water during a drought, no one noticed until residents’ water pressure dropped. This controversy is causing concern in Cheyenne where 70-some data centers are in various stages of discussion.

Renée JeanMay 14, 2026

Wyoming’s already hot nuclear sector just went global, with Taiwan and Wyoming signing an agreement on modular nuclear reactors to serve the island’s surging, AI-driven demand.

Wyoming Uranium Industry Could Boom With Taiwan's Embrace Of Nuclear

Wyoming’s already hot nuclear sector just went global, with Taiwan and Wyoming signing an agreement on modular nuclear reactors to serve the island’s surging, AI-driven demand. "This deal bodes well for Wyoming," said Wyoming mining honcho Travis Deti.

Renée JeanMay 12, 2026

Lithium ion fire recovery 5 12 26

Wyoming Man Hospitalized After Exposure To Fumes During Lithium-Ion Battery Fire

A Daniel, Wyoming man who narrowly averted a fire in his home last week after a lithium-ion battery spontaneously combusted, has landed in the hospital after inhaling fumes from the burning battery. "It literally blew up kind of in our faces," he said.

Renée JeanMay 12, 2026

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