Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Friday, January 24th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Visit Casper. Visit Casper invites you to come enjoy the Casper International Film Festival, January 31 through February 2. A broad range of films from local and international filmmakers will be shown. Learn more and get your tickets at visitcasper.com.

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The Wyoming Freedom Caucus promised to make massive cuts to state spending when members campaigned last year. So far, the group has kept that promise, making about $195.2 million in cuts to the supplemental budget just four days into the 2025 session.

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that although Wyoming is in a relatively stable financial position, many legislators feel that the state has been spending too much money at the expense of the taxpayers.

"One of the biggest cuts made on Thursday was 100 million from the Governor's Energy matching funds program… Representative John Bear basically said that he considers this kind of not a natural market and something that sets up Wyoming to be indebted to the federal government over… Raises for the state's school custodians was rejected as well, and then some wildfire restoration money was changed from our original proposal to be a grant program. A lot of the money was taken out of it, and it was made a loan program instead."

More cuts could be yet to come as the budget still needs approval from both the full House and Senate.

Read the full story HERE.

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A pair of bills that would make Wyoming's sheriffs partner with federal immigration agencies whether they want to or not are now pending in the Wyoming Legislature.

But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that even sheriffs who work well with U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, or ICE, aren't happy about it.

"They're going out of their way to strike ICE contracts that at this point they don't have to strike… or to deputize their own people for immigration investigations and to send their guys to training… And when they notice these pieces of legislation that would force them to do that… all the ones I talked to were like, Whoa, you know, what about counties that can't sacrifice two deputies for a six week training? What if, in four years, we hate the federal administration and don't want contracts? I mean, what if the contract parameters change? So they were just kind of like, even though they're all on board… for enforcing immigration law in their counties, they were really not fans of this legislation."

Two county sheriffs who spoke with Cowboy State Daily also characterized the bills as overreach. If the contract bills became law as written, they could put sheriffs in a difficult position balancing state and federal funding alongside the immigration policing initiatives.

Read the full story HERE.

Without a change in Wyoming law, people can potentially be tossed in jail for a year and fined $10,000 for trapping mice in their vehicles.

That's why state Rep. Bill Allemand of Midwest is sponsoring House Bill 211. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the bill will clarify the law so people don't get arrested for things like blasting at prairie dogs from inside their trucks.

"Now it, first of all, we need to clarify it is not under any circumstances legal to shoot from a highway or from a from a busy public road in Wyoming… it is legal to shoot predatory animals from a vehicle. Those are things like coyotes, jackrabbits… Apparently there's a weird loophole