Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 13, 2024

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, August 13th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom – brought to you by Outrider PAC. Did you know that according to a new survey, 79% of Wyoming Voters support Freedom in Education? Learn more about Educational Savings Accounts in Wyoming at OutriderPAC.com

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An avalanche of political mailers have been flooding mailboxes around the state.

While there’s not one side that has done everything perfectly or another that has done everything wrong, Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson says some politicians are more concerned about the trend than others.

“Former House Speaker Tom Lubnau… believes that it’s very concerning trend, that a lot of misinformation is being spread and in our current, modern day news ecosystem where people can kind of just going to do echo chambers and listen to whatever news agrees with their preconceived conceptions, that they end up missing out on the real facts of the matter and just kind of go into a skewed type of world.”

However, Wolfson says that everyone he spoke to about the matter agrees that this is the highest volume of political mailers they can remember.

Read the full story HERE.

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Colorado authorities have issued a Senior Alert for a 76-year-old missing Wyoming woman with dementia who was last seen early Monday morning in Colorado Springs.

Martha James, of Rock Springs, has been missing since Saturday late afternoon when she left home in her vehicle. James has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that her family is worried she may be lost and not able to find her way home.

“Her dementia has been progressively getting worse over the past several months, so her family, her sister in law and brother, are quite concerned about her, because … she’s been getting lost a bit around town… her credit card was used in Rock Springs on Saturday about 530 so then the next time it was used was in Cheyenne, later that evening, and then again on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado.”

James is traveling in a 2022 Silver Nissan Rogue and thought to be with her two dogs, a tan Chihuahua and a white miniature poodle.

Read the full story HERE.

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Australian-based American Rare Earths Ltd. has restructured its rare earths project in Wyoming as part of a new strategic direction to attract Wall Street investment and accelerate development of its critical ores needed for national security purposes.

With Wyoming becoming ground zero for new development of rare earths deposits, energy reporter Pat Maio says companies are in a race to be the first to start producing. And the new entity, called Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc., is considering moving its headquarters to either Laramie or Cheyenne.

“They’ve restructured the business here in Wyoming, and they’re … formally going to make it like a 100% owned, independent company here in Wyoming, which is going to streamline things for them to essentially raise money, lots of money, like half a billion dollars, at least, money, so they can start accelerating into mining for rare earths.” 

The decision to move the headquarters will be made before the end of the year, as well as rounding out the composition of its board of directors.

Read the full story HERE.

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Secretary of State Chuck Gray wanted to make it clear at Monday evening’s State Building Commission meeting that he hasn’t forgotten about Gov. Mark Gordon’s veto of House Bill 125 during the 2024 legislation session, a bill that would have banned gun-free zones in Wyoming.

The Building Commision met to discuss proposed draft rules that would allow for concealed carry of firearms in the Wyoming Capitol building, something that is currently not allowed, according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.

“Secretary of State Chuck Gray certainly didn’t miss an opportunity to criticize Governor Mark Gordon for the veto that he made of the bill that would have … prohibited all gun free zones in Wyoming. Gray said that these new rules would never have been necessary if the governor hadn’t vetoed that bill.”  

The draft rules would only allow people with a concealed firearms permit to carry a weapon in the extension hallway area of the Capitol. This would exclude the main Capitol Rotunda and legislative chambers.

Read the full story HERE.

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An 85-year-old homeowner says he shot a home invader Friday night in Riverton after first fighting the intruder back onto his front porch.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland went to the home of Wayne Williams, who says in hindsight, he should not have opened the door to the man who was banging on his door at 11 p.m.

“But he says, the guy shoved his way inside, and Wayne had his 380 and he tried to shoot, and it just went, click… he had forgotten to rack one into the chamber… So he pushed him out the door, and they’re tumbling down the front porch steps, 85 year old man with a 20 something man… Wayne ends up on top. He’s trying to get free of the guy’s grasp. And he shoots again. This time he thinks he hit him in the leg.” 

Riverton Police Department representatives declined Monday to comment beyond a preliminary statement they issued Saturday – which says the incident appeared to be a shooting in response to an attempted burglary. 

Read the full story HERE.

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The Perseids, one of the year’s best meteor showers, reaches its peak over Wyoming on Tuesday morning. And stargazers in the Cowboy State have a great spot to see it, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.

“Historically, the Perseid meteor shower peaks on the evening of August 12 and 13th, but the peak means that’s just when it’s max visibility for meteors. So that’s up to 50 to 100 an hour during the peak, but it’s visible from mid July through the beginning of September… if you want to see the Perseids, according to sources I talked to, you want to get to a high place, in a dark place, get comfortable with it as wide a range of view as possible, and just look upwards and see what you can see.”  

While there’s a month-and-a-half window to see the Perseids, they historically peak Aug. 12 and 13, according to NASA. The peak can be between 50 and 100 meteors every hour.

Read the full story HERE.

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Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said she believes the Wyoming Republican Party is attempting to “disrupt” the upcoming primary election ahead of Election Day.

Last week, the Wyoming Republican Party filed a lawsuit against Lee for what they claim was an illegitimate test of election tabulators. Politics reporter Leo Wolfson says Lee is calling the complaint an effort to disrupt the current primary election.  

“The lawsuit is frustrated that a equipment test that was performed last week on the voting equipment was not done with the exact procedures that it’s supposed to take place. So the Republican Party lawsuit kind of follows up on a complaint that was already filed by the Laramie County Republican Party. But Lee is standing by the test that she performed.” 

On Monday, the Wyoming GOP put out an email claiming that five other counties had errors similar to Laramie’s in their tests. They also listed six county clerks who they claim are refusing to provide their test results.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Gillette, Wyoming, man accused of slitting his mother’s throat to defend himself from distant attic people has been found sane enough to stand trial.

32 year old Scott Patenaude is scheduled for a Thursday arraignment in Campbell County District Court, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.

“the case paused so that the authorities could see if he was mentally fit to stand trial. You cannot give a plea in Wyoming unless the court recognizes that you are mentally fit, mentally competent to do so, and after the Wyoming State Hospitals assigned Doctor delivered that report, pad node and his counsel didn’t dispute the finding that he was mentally competent.”

During his police interview, Patenaude reportedly said he had an infected tooth that kept him from sleeping, loud trucks roared along the road and woke him, as did an “intelligent tapping” in the attic.

Read the full story HERE. 

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The state of Wyoming and 16 other coal-producing states are suing to challenge a rule crafted by the Environmental Production Agency that targets “inactive coal ash impoundments.”

The rules were designed by the EPA nearly a decade ago to hold power plants accountable for controlling and cleaning up contamination created by the disposal of coal ash. But Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio reports that they could go into effect in November unless they are overturned by a federal appeals court.

“Governor Gordon believes, with his litigation, though, that this is kind of another cost factor, a burden, a regulatory burden, that’s being placed on the coal industry that could limit its production in future years. So that’s why he’s filing this litigation.” 

Coal ash, or coal combustion residuals, is produced whenever coal is burned at coal-fired power plants. These residuals are considered one of the largest types of industrial waste.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming seems to have become aurora central with another spectacular show of celestial lights early Monday morning, which more expected this week.

The geomagnetic storm that manifested as an aurora Monday was the latest generated during the Sun’s 11-year solar maximum, and there’s a good chance of even better displays to come before the end of the year, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.

“The auroras that manifested over Wyoming Sunday night into Monday morning were part of a severe g4 geomagnetic storm that were the result of coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, generated by sun spots on the surface of the sun. That puts it on par with the solar storm that generated the mid May auroras, which were the best that have been seen in two decades… this was the latest event in a series of what could be several events in August, going into September and October, when we could see spectacular auroras across the skies of Wyoming.” 

The Perseids meteor shower is reaching its annual peak this week — with its best show expected early Tuesday morning — which means meteor fireballs could be seen streaking across the rainbow ribbons of an aurora.

Read the full story HERE.