Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, December 2nd. I'm Mac Watson.

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Gov. Mark Gordon fielded questions on data centers Monday when pitching his $11.3 billion budget to lawmakers. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one Wyoming lawmaker called the line of questioning a "political football."

"Gordon was asked questions about data centers and energy diversification and courting Taiwan and Japan to potentially consume Wyoming's natural gas Secretary of State Chuck Gray, on the other hand, ended up in a back and forth about his Spats with Governor Mark Gordon regarding an exception request for publishing information about a ballot initiative, and it's Senator Ogden Driscoll, a Republican from Devil's Tower, said, You know, this would be easier to get behind if it wasn't such a political football."

The two officials on Monday presented different budget requests to the legislative Joint Appropriations Committee, which is set to meet through half of December and half of January to craft a budget bill for the lawmaking session that opens Feb. 9.

Read the full story HERE.

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A 55-year-old Gillette woman is fighting for her life in a Denver burn unit following an early morning house fire on Sunday. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Tammy Jo Schafer suffered burns all over her body trying to put out the blaze with a towel.

"Apparently, she had tried to put out the fire with a towel, according to her daughter I talked to, and then the towel caught her on fire, and so she suffered severe burns, but was able to get a dog out of the house, and a firefighter battalion chief told me that when he got there, she was with sheriff deputies…She was flown from Gillette hospital to Denver suffering burns on 21% of her body. And complicating things is she had a heart issue and COPD so she's in intensive care on a ventilator and fighting for her life right now."

Campbell County Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug Rigsby told Cowboy State Daily that the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Read the full story HERE.

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Snowy weather caused havoc on I-80 over the weekend as semi-trucks and other vehicles were involved in a series of collisions in western Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that motorists were stuck on the highway for hours.

"The first incident occurred around 11:30 when the semi lost control, going downhill westbound on I-80, flipped over on its side, and then other incidents happened after that. Several people described it as a chain reaction, so as they were responding to one incident, another incident happened…So we're fortunate that the worst thing that happened as a result of that, other than the damage to the vehicles, was a broken arm that was the worst of the five injuries reported."

Wyoming Highway Patrol reminds drivers with winter weather, road conditions can quickly deteriorate, leading to black ice and dangerous driving conditions.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….

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Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman co-signed a letter Monday to the FBI seeking statistics on crimes on Tribal Lands. Cowboy State Daily's Sean Barry reports from DC that Rep. Hageman says the Biden adm