Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, April 29th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. "5 to thrive" is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.

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A 37-year-old Casper woman was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting during a response to a residential burglary in progress just after midnight Monday.

The Natrona County Coroner confirmed that Jody Cobia was killed in the early morning incident on McKinley Street in Casper. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck spoke to Cobia's estranged husband, who confirmed that his wife was shot by police.

"Apparently there was a call, according to the police, a call that there was a burglary in progress. They got there, and then we don't really know exactly what happened after that. Police are not giving details, but a woman that lived at the house was shot, and the news release that Casper police put out said that the person they encountered was armed."

An autopsy is pending and next of kin have been notified. And because the shooting involved Casper police officers, the investigation has been turned over to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.

Read the full story HERE.

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Interstate 80 stretches over 2900 miles from New Jersey on the East Coast to California on the West. That's made it a superhighway - not just for transporting goods, but also for information. In the past year, $24 billion in data centers were announced across 15 projects, all somewhere along I-80.

While Cheyenne has attracted a healthy cluster of eight of the state's 11 data centers, including Microsoft and soon Meta, there aren't any notable data center clusters along I-80 after that. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean wanted to know why.

"And so looking at why they're in Cheyenne, I learned about the I 80 corridor being kind of co located with this transcontinental optic fiber optic line, which is perfect for data centers… The people I talked to said it's largely a power issue. Rocky Mountain Power is the one that serves those communities, Rock Springs, Rawlins, Green River, Evanston… And I was just told that Black Hills energy has just been a lot more proactive and easier to deal with when it comes to building out the power these data centers need."

One of the other issues for areas outside of Cheyenne could be not enough redundancy. Data centers want to know that if the main route to Chicago is interrupted, for example, that there's an alternate route to get data where it's going.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Rock Springs man was sentenced to 55 years to life in prison on Monday for the brutal stabbing death of a man in July of 2023.

William Brewer had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his friend, 30-year-old Colter Watsabaugh, whom Brewer stabbed more than 30 times after a meth-fueled argument about a woman with whom they were both involved.

Cowboy State Daily'