Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, August 20th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Outrider PAC. According to a new survey, 79% of Wyoming Voters support Freedom in Education. Learn more about Educational Savings Accounts in Wyoming at OutriderPAC.com

It's primary election day in Wyoming, and Cowboy State Daily is planning unprecedented coverage of the races and issues that are important to residents.

Cowboy State Daily's editor-in-chief, Jimmy Orr, is here to outline where you can get the most up-to-date information - and hear from experts who have unique perspectives and expert opinions about tonight's event.

"We haven't done anything like this before. This is a live two and a half hour broadcast. We are in 11 communities across the state, and so we will have live election results all evening long… and while we are waiting for election results to come in, our own Wendy Corr will be hosting a panel of six people who are political columnists for Cowboy State daily… and politicos, people who have been around the political game for a long time. We have great guests too. The entire delegation is coming in, John Barrasso, Cynthia lemmas, Harriet Hageman… former governors Dave Fruedenthal and Mike Sullivan, and we'll also get on some of the winners of the night's election… There's a real race in Lusk, and so Renee Jean will be there, and we've got people from all over the state, of course, Clair in Riverton. We've got Leo here in Cheyenne. We've got reporters in Cody and Rock Springs and Thermopolis and Buffalo… It starts tonight, at 7pm, we hope everyone will join us."

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Political reporter Leo Wolfson has spearheaded tonight's election coverage. He says this primary election will have major ramifications, not only for what the next state Legislature will look like, but also what kind of election activity the state wants to reward and condemn moving forward.

"The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is the farther right wing of the Republican Party, has the opportunity to take the majority of Republican seats, and maybe even more so the majority of all seats in the Wyoming house, which would absolutely distinctly put the legislature in more of a farther right, more farther right direction. The current status quo also could continue if the Wyoming caucus, which is kind of the more centered to moderate wing of Republican legislators, if they are able to hold on to the numbers that they have or gain gain seats as well. So that's going to be the big kind of battle that's at play."

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Canada-based American Premium Uranium Inc. has begun exploratory drilling on mining claims in a 40-mile square area in central Wyoming's Red Desert.

American Premium is backed by major investors like New Jersey-based hedge fund Sachem Cove Partners, which has been staking out uranium land in Wyoming since the price of the critical ore on the spot market was around $20 a pound back in 2017. And Energy reporter Pat Maio points out the commodity has more than quadrupled in price since then - which makes the company's Red Desert exploration that much more lucrative.

"It's in a really rich area for uranium, up around UR Energy, which already is up in production. This company is going to be looking at just how extensive the uranium deposits are in the area where it's exploring. They're already saying it could be anywhere between 8 million and 12 million pounds, 14 million pounds."

The industry is finding renewed life after the U.S. has taken steps to begin enriching its own nuclear fuel rather than buy from