Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, July 9. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Wyoming Senior Olympics - on July 10th you can help support senior athletes in Wyoming by participating in the WyoGives day of giving!

Yellowstone National Park rangers likely saved a number of lives in an Independence Day shootout with a contract worker who reportedly took a woman hostage and threatened a mass shooting.

28-year-old Samson Fussner was killed in an exchange of gunfire with park rangers early Thursday morning. Campers who were in the vicinity told Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland they heard more than 100 rounds fired - and a former top official of the National Park Service said that the fact that only one ranger was injured was a testament to the team that responded during the crisis.

"I actually set out to write about the training and duties of park rangers because I think that's often an unsung field. But when I talked to Rob Wallace, who formerly oversaw the National Park Service, he said, 'Man, for 100 shots to be fired, and one park ranger injured and the shooter is down and that's the only damage we saw, they must have had an amazing response.'"

Wallace was not the only career National Park Service employee to tip his hat to the Yellowstone force Monday. Leading NPS law enforcement history expert Paul Berkowitz pointed to the rangers' response as an example of sound management by Park Superintendent Cam Sholly.

Read the full story HERE.

A question posed at a political rally in Casper on Sunday about whether Gov. Mark Gordon could run for a third term has people asking if he could legally do that.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray responded that he believes the answer is no, and if Gordon were to run for a third term, he won't certify his campaign.

But political reporter Leo Wolfson spoke to Bradley Cave, the attorney who successfully brought a lawsuit to the Wyoming Supreme Court that overturned a voter initiative that had put term limits on elected officials in Wyoming. Cave said just because a law is in place, it doesn't make it constitutional.

"He basically said that any old law could theoretically get passed and enacted and ruled upon. But that does not mean it necessarily passes the constitutional smell test. And it takes someone to file a lawsuit to basically kind of bring that to a head, which just simply hasn't happened with Wyoming's law prohibiting governors from running for a third term."

There is no mention of term limits anywhere in the Wyoming Constitution.

Read the full story HERE.

Strata Energy, the U.S. unit of Australian-based Peninsula Energy, is on schedule to begin uranium production at its central processing plant in northeastern Wyoming by December.

An executive of the Wyoming business told energy reporter Pat Maio that the company is expected to double its workforce, in order to sell $88 million to $117 million dollars' worth of uranium to a European buyer.

"They're building a processing plant for uranium, turning it into yellowcake and then sending it somewhere else, where they go to enrich it into nuclear fuel for reactors. This company, Strata, like many uranium companies in Wyoming, are really gaining a lot of traction because of the pivot away from Russia for dependency on enriched uranium."

The processing plant will beg