The future of coal may not be as a fuel source for power plants to produce and provide electricity.

Ramaco Resources Inc.’s research facility in Ranchester will help the East Coast metallurgical coal company determine the quality and kinds of critical rare earth magnets buried at different layers of strata below the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.

“There’s three things that you can do with coal. One is burn it in a power plant. There’s also metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, and the third thing, which is what they’re really focusing on here in Wyoming, is converting or tapping into mined coal and then tap it to make rare earths. And this is a big project, they were estimating that they could have over 30 plus billion dollars worth of rare earths in the ground outside of Ranchester.” 

The rare earths find in upstate Wyoming near Sheridan is considered one of the biggest in the United States, if not the world.

Read the full story HERE.

When inclement weather hits central Wyoming, folks who need to travel between Shoshoni and Thermopolis in central Wyoming get a little nervous. If there is significant rockfall on the highway, or a major traffic accident occurs, waits can take hours and sometimes days.  

So Wyoming transportation officials are studying alternative routes or detours around the Wind River Canyon Scenic Byway between, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy. 

“So the Wind River Canyon Scenic Byway resilience study is about safety. But it’s also about more. It’s about, what are their options? Can they make another route to go around? Will it be a full time road? Or will it just be a detour that they can use in case of an emergency? And then the question comes up, who will take care of that detour route? Will it be the county or will it be the state? Or will it even be a federal road? These are all questions that WYDOT is hoping that this study will help them answer.”

WYDOT has secured a $1.6 million federal grant for the Wind River Canyon Corridor Resilience Study, part of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program. 

Read the full story HERE.

One Wyoming man died and one was injured Tuesday after a semi truck reportedly tried to beat a train to a temporary crossing on a curved Nebraska highway.

The crash occurred in the far southwest corner of Nebraska, near the Wyoming and Colorado borders. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that there is more to the crash than meets the eye.

“Authorities said it seems like the semi truck tried to cross the tracks ahead of the train. But as I dug deeper and followed a follow up statement by the same Sheriff there in Nebraska, they said they’re concerned about the railroad crossing. It’s a temporary crossing that was put up so that a large feedlot could go in in that area in southwest Nebraska, and there was an accident there in June.” 

No one in the train was injured in Tuesday’s crash, although both the train engine and semitruck were totaled.

Read the full story HERE.

There’s a trend developing among Wyoming legislative candidates to skip forums and debates hosted by groups they don’t like and or believe will treat them unfairly in those settings.

Politics reporter Leo Wolfson says that candidates can dodge tough questions by avoiding debates. 

“There were five candidates in Fremont County who put out a newspaper ad, basically saying that they would not participate in League of Women Voter forums, because they believe the group is not nonpartisan, as it says… But it’s not just happening there… There’s a few candidates in Campbell County that I spoke with, who are not participating in certain events, and also a few in Natrona County, too.” 

Wolfson reports that candidates on both sides of the political divide have made the choice to skip debates, not just right- or center-leaning Republicans.

Read the full story HERE.

Forest officials continue to call in additional resources to battle a stubborn wildfire in a popular recreation area called Greys River, approximately 30 miles south of Jackson. 

The blaze has grown to 43 acres, and winds are pushing the blaze toward a community that recalls too vividly the last time a fire came their way, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols.

“The Horse Creek fire burning in the Bridger Teton National Forest is about where another major fire began. And that’s going back to … the Roosevelt fire of 2018, that gobbled up more than 55 homes burned, almost 62,000 acres. So this is in kind of that same place, and if prevailing winds keep pushing it, it heads towards Bondurant, a community that was evacuated six years ago during that fire, so it’s got an eerie feeling of being the same thing.” 

The Horse Creek Fire was discovered July 1 in the Big Piney Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Lightning is suspected as the cause. 

Read the full story HERE.

With Highway 22 over Teton Pass once again functioning under a short-term fix, all those involved took a moment Tuesday to receive congratulations from the state’s highest-ranking official.

Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols reports that Wyoming Highway Department of Transportation workers and construction crew members were in Jackson to be recognized for their monumental efforts by Governor Mark Gordon.

“Elks Lodge in Jackson, Tuesday night, Governor Gordon stopped by among other elected officials, both locally and statewide, to congratulate WYDOT and the three or four subcontractors who fixed the Teton pass in 20 days, less than three weeks. So it’s the first time all these groups have gathered together in one place without a backup beeper going off.” 

A long-term solution is already underway. Highway department officials plan to rebuild the section of mountainside that collapsed and put the road back essentially where it was.

Read the full story HERE.

It’s not uncommon for lobbyists to solicit state lawmakers in Wyoming with model legislation and key points they want inserted into law. It’s less common for lawmakers to then adopt those suggestions almost word for word as their own legislation.

But some legislators say that’s what Secretary of State Chuck Gray has done after receiving emails from Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.

“What’s interesting about these emails is that they show that Secretary of State Chuck Gray, basically handed off these suggested bills from FGA, the Florida lobbying group, and handed them off to legislators to run. And they were nearly copy and pasted from what the Florida group suggested, basically proving… that what was tried to be brought in Wyoming was kind of a one size fits all type effort.”

Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed most of those rules earlier this year, saying they ran outside the scope of regulatory authority guaranteed under Wyoming law.

Read the full story HERE.

 The estranged son of a Casper man lost out on his inheritance because he sued other beneficiaries of his father’s will.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that when Chadwick Traylor contested the way his father, Doc Traylor, had chosen to distribute his nearly $4 million dollar estate, the action triggered a no-contest clause in the longtime Casper chiropractor’s will.

“His son hadn’t seen him for several years before his death… And so the neighbors and other people, a handyman, started kind of taking care of him, walking his dog checking on him. And he left substantial sums of money to a lot of these friends… And so the son sued three of the people who benefited from this will – but there was a clause in the will that said if you sue if a beneficiary … to try to invalidate, or warp the will somehow, then he gets nothing.” 

Traylor argued that he didn’t violate the “no-contest” clause, because he was a residuary beneficiary under the trust, not just a beneficiary. But the Wyoming Supreme Court disagreed.

Read the full story HERE.

A Wyoming drug dealer couldn’t finish his methamphetamine run from Colorado last month because his purple Volkswagen bug slowed to a crawl and spewed black smoke when he reached Chugwater.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 41-year-old Wade Schear of Gillette was already on the radar of the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.

“So he rolls through Chugwater on his way back home to Gillette from Colorado. His Volkswagen Bug is billowing smoke, he’s going 20 miles an hour on the highway. And a Platte County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over to see what was up. And he reportedly found out, you’re acting nervous. So next thing, here comes a drug dog, who gives the air a sniff, and they say they found quite a bit of methamphetamine and cash in the car.”

Schear faces one felony charge of possessing methamphetamine with the intention to trade it and another of knowingly possessing a felony amount of methamphetamine.

Read the full story HERE.

SAN FRANCISCO — Business owners in the San Francisco Tenderloin neighborhood said they have seen a drop in crime recently. And they’re thanking District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.

 business owners like Jesus Kauil say they have seen it all: from people shooting needles in the bathroom to drug dealers running inside his business, trying to escape from the police.

“They would come in here looking to hide so that they wouldn’t get arrested, and there’s no way to tell them, don’t come in. So they would come in here waiting for things to calm down, and then they would go back out,” said Kauil, the owner of Los Yucatecos, a restaurant he opened three years ago on Ellis Street.

But he said, luckily, he hasn’t witnessed this in quite some time, at least over the last year.

“So I don’t see those people anymore, and that’s why I can notice and say, something is changing,” Kauil added.

He’s just one of many business owners and residents who are paying close attention to San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ actions. 

On Wednesday, Jenkins released new data regarding her office’s efforts to combat drug trafficking in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.

“We have seen an overwhelming decrease in the amount of drug dealing going on in the Tenderloin. We still have a long way to go to get the Tenderloin to where we wanted to be. We still have trouble spots, but we have seen a massive change in the amount of activity during the day that’s going on,” said Jenkins.

Jenkins notes that these efforts have led to an increase in convictions. So far in 2024, there have been 128 felony narcotics convictions, with 92% of these being felony offenses compared to just 20% when Jenkins first took office in 2022.

“We are here to do a job, and that’s to make sure that our streets are safe and clean, and I want them to fear consequences. We have to have a healthy fear of consequences in San Francisco to get our streets to where we want them to be, and that’s another part of the commitment. No more we’re giving misdemeanors. We believe in true accountability,” Jenkins emphasized.

This is exactly what Kauil wants to keep seeing. He said the complicated quality of life in the Tenderloin means fewer customers. These days, he can barely get 120 people, while back in the day, he said he would get at least 400 daily.

“We like it here. We have great support. We have customers, but sometimes there’s a little fear, especially at night,” Kauil explained.

Despite the challenges, Kauil is hopeful. He’s not going anywhere and believes things will keep getting better because, ultimately, this is his home.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Coach Abby Fliehler was fired from her job as as high school track coach at the last school board meeting.

The Denver School District won’t say why, but did say she can stay as an art teacher.

In a packed meeting, parents and students in the Denver school district filed a petition to have Coach Fliehler reinstated.

When asked if the public wanted to comment on the petition, almost everyone in the room raised their hands. Every comment was in support of the coach.

Fliehler came to the meeting with her attorney and a union representative where she said she had no complaints filed against her, and she was let go because she’s spoken up against the school.

Josh Decker, a parent at the meeting, said coach Fliehler has had a very positive impact on the district.

”Abby has been an amazing role model and coach for my girls. I feel she’s the best coach currently on the staff at Denver here, both middle school and high school,” Decker said.

Several members of Denver High School’s current and former track team also spoke at the meeting.

Decker’s daughter, a graduated track runner, said the track team doesn’t understand why Fliehler was fired.

”How was this decision made. We all just have a lot of questions right now and the board does not seem to be answering any of them,” said Aubrey Decker.

The School Board took no position tonight on the petition to keep Coach Fliehler on the track team.

A move to table the issue ended with a tie vote, a fifth Board member was not present. Board members gave no reasons for their decision.

However, the issue is not over. After the meeting, parents and students were out in the hallway collecting signatures to put the petition back on next school month’s board meeting.

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