Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, December 10th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.

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It's official. Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp, or UEC, has finalized its acquisition of global mining company Rio Tinto's former Wyoming uranium assets.

Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that UEC can now produce up to 12.1 million pounds of uranium annually, including 8.1 million pounds that can be produced here in Wyoming, to fuel the nuclear plants that may be the power supply of the future.

"Uranium Energy already owned, like 20 sites in Wyoming now, they own a couple more really rich sites. That gives them a really deep bench. They're accelerating their timeline. They are now the nation's number one when it comes to capacity for uranium production, and that's all really on the backbone of Wyoming's assets… You know, Wyoming has a great climate for artificial intelligence. What does artificial intelligence need?... artificial intelligence takes a lot more computing power. So, artificial intelligence companies that are incorporating that, you know, meta, Google, all of those say that they are looking at nuclear power as the likely alternative that they'll turn to."

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have all said they expect nuclear power to run the huge data centers they foresee needing as they incorporate advances in artificial intelligence to their operations.

Read the full story HERE.

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It's getting colder around the Cowboy State, with some serious snow expected in parts of Wyoming this week.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the Northern Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota through 5 a.m. Wednesday. And Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that it'll be a doozy for the first significant winter storm of the season for the region.

"The latest cold snap is heading east rather than west. So it's just going to clip northeast Wyoming. It started on Monday, and it's going to continue into the early morning hours of Wednesday with this winter storm warning. But Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day said that these cold snaps have been favoring the east, but the shift is on the horizon. Eventually, these cold weather systems and these cold fronts from the Pacific Ocean are going to move directly across Wyoming, and that's when we're going to get the real winter weather that we've missed out on for the most part so far."

Day believes there's a change on the horizon, especially as 2024 ends. The week between Christmas Day and New Year's could be the first statewide taste of the colder, snowier winter ahead.

Read the full story HERE.

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Democrats and Wyoming Freedom Caucus are both unhappy with some of the committee assignments for the upcoming session. The Freedom Caucus condemns Senate appointments in particular, saying committees will be controlled "by Liz Cheney Republicans."

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that presumptive Senate President Bo Biteman and House Speaker Chip Neiman made the selections for their respective chambers.

"The