Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, January 14th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Nine of Wyoming's top legislators advanced a bid Tuesday to defund and dismantle the Wyoming Business Council. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that opponents call the move short-sighted while supporters say it stops government from unfairly competing with private businesses.

"Last summer, Representative Ken Pendergraft told us that he wanted to get rid of the agency, and then over the intervening months, Representative Tom Kelly from Sheridan said the same…And then this all kind of erupted with the super-conservative-led Joint Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee is the most powerful in the legislature, and they advance this maneuver to just gut it and shut it down, but they still have to get that past the 93 person legislature next month if they want it to last."

If the state Legislature approves the action the Joint Appropriations Committee advanced Tuesday on a 9-3 vote, it would slash the Wyoming Business Council's two-year budget from about $94.2 million to $2 million — just enough to close the agency.

Read the full story HERE.

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The 2026 legislative season is ramping up, and Utah lawmakers are fully embracing the nuclear industry while Wyoming legislators appear to be avoiding the subject. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that State Sen. Ed Cooper of Ten Sleep, drafted a bill titled "Advanced nuclear reactor manufacturers-fuel storage," but he has no plans to introduce the legislation during the upcoming budget session.

"He thinks that the Freedom Caucus is going to oppose it and is worried that, yeah, he wouldn't get the support. And there's a lot of other stuff to do during the short budget session. So I compared what's happening in Wyoming with what's happening in Utah, which is a little bit more open for business when it comes to the nuclear industry...there's a couple bills that would really facilitate further investment in the nuclear industry and further empower the state of Utah to perhaps perform some of some of the regulatory duties now done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

The upcoming Utah legislative session begins Jan. 20, with multiple efforts focused on nuclear energy and waste management that could position the state as a western hub for nuclear fuel processing.

Read the full story HERE.

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Republican Jillian Balow is running for the state's lone U.S. House Seat. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that before going to Virginia to be the top educator, she was the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Wyoming.

"The thing about Jillian Balow is she was the superintendent of public instruction when it was a very hot seat to be in. She weathered Covid in that office. She was the person in conjunction with Governor Mark Gordon, who said, 'We're shutting down the schools around March 14, 2020,' and she did reopen the schools fairly quickly, especially compared to other states. Which is one reason that officials commonly attribute Wyoming performing well on national tests in the years that followed."

This pits Balow against Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Casper businessman Reid Rasner, both MAGA-style candidates, for the lone seat in the House of Representatives.

Read the full story HERE.

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