Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, December 19th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday he's appealing a ruling that voided a wind lease on state lands. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that how language is interpreted in this case is one of the key components.

"He said it's it's a bigger issue about how we read language across Wyoming's, contracts, laws, rules, where, when you have this is the definition, including this, this and this Kautz said that that word 'including' should broaden the definition by lumping other things into it, whereas the the ruling out of Converse County District Court said including means it has to include that thing. And so Kautz said, 'Honestly, the way we read language in Wyoming is at stake, and I have to appeal this.'"

Converse County District Court Judge Scott Peasley on Dec. 5 struck down the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners' approval of the lease.

Read the full story HERE.

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The 144 mph wind gust on Mount Coffin in Lincoln County on Wednesday appears to be the strongest wind gust ever recorded in Wyoming. But Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports if there's a wind gust in the mountains and no one's there to feel it, does it really set a record for the strongest wind in Wyoming?

"Mount coffin probably just secured its spot as the windiest place in Wyoming because the 144 mile per hour wind gust was recorded by a sensor that was set along the mountain ridge that is Mount Coffin. But that's also where the previous record holder, as far as we know, was also set back in 2017 because the highest wind gusts ever recorded in Central and Western Wyoming was a gust of 165 miles per hour, also on Mount coffin. It's a little hard to say if that's the ultimate state record holder, because wind records aren't kept as meticulously as temperature records or anything like that. You've got different sensors made by different companies in different places that can skew and make it harder to verify the readings. But nobody's denying the veracity that there was a 144 mile per hour wind gust on Mount coffin on Wednesday."

At 11,255 feet, Mount Coffin is the second-tallest peak in the Wyoming Range. It's also gained a reputation as notoriously windy, with gusts over 120 mph recorded there last winter.

Read the full story HERE.

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For the second time in as many years, a bipartisan coalition introduced a bill in the U.S. House to ban using snowmobiles to run over wolves and other predators on federal lands. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports if the bill passes, it would only affect certain parts of Wyoming.

"If this bill gains traction and it makes it through Congress and it passes and President Trump signs it into law, it would apply to federal land. It would not affect the practice one way or the other, on state controlled land or private property would just be federal land. Of course, there's quite a bit of that in Wyoming. Most of the time when people are spending time outdoors here, they're on land that's controlled by the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service."

The "Snowmobiles Aren't Weapons Act" (SAW), introduced Thursday, was inspired by a February 2024 incident near Daniel, Wyoming. Local resident Cody Roberts allegedly ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, captured, and abused it bef