Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 11th. I'm Mac Watson.

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At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Mark Gordon said it was refreshing to see so many bills die. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor says he sees that as a sign that lawmakers are respecting their higher priority of passing a two-year state budget.

"It's a budget session. It's 20 days you're drinking from a fire hose. The chief function of it is to pass a two year budget. It's a really rigorous task in normal times, but we also saw drastic changes from the Joint Appropriations Committee in January – complicating this task even further, right? And so, lots and lots of committee bills, even which normally have a little bit more deference, died. They didn't clear introduction this week, even so far, on day two, and the governor said, hey, that's kind of refreshing. Honestly, I'm thrilled that the legislature is focusing on the budget, because that's what we're supposed to do during even numbered years."

Gordon delivered these remarks during a round-table style press conference he hosted with reporters in the state Capitol Tuesday.

The Wyoming Constitution outlines a 20-day legislative budget session for even-numbered years, and a 40-day general session for odd-numbered years.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Torrington woman is accused of providing a young child to a now-convicted child sex predator for the promise of $5,000. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Angela Montoya denies the charges, saying the alleged acts were simply the predator's fantasies.

"This woman is accused of basically allowing a young child, three-to-four years old, in her care, to be used by a pedophile guy who is now a convicted, former boyfriend of hers. The court documents are very vague about that, just saying that she had custody of the child. So we don't know what this woman's actual relationship with the child is. At some points she adamantly denies giving him access to a child and in other parts she admits it… says that she felt very helpless and afraid of the guy. They mentioned that he had offered $5,000 to her at one point, there's nothing in there as to whether any money actually was exchanged.

Her arrest comes after the October 2025 conviction of her boyfriend, 69-year-old Alvin Lee Syrovatka, for sexual exploitation of children and sexual abuse of a minor, according to a redacted affidavit of probable cause filed in Montoya's case.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming cattle ranchers say they're concerned over President Trump's executive order allowing 80,000 more metric tons of beef trimmings from Argentina to be sold in the United States. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that ranchers say it won't lower grocery store prices and risks introducing diseases.

"We import really cheap beef, they're called beef trimmings, from other countries, so that we have a leaner product to mix in with the fattier meat that we produce. We have to do that in order to get the right consistency… Argentina has some of the cheapest beef in the world...But the other concerning aspect of Argentina's production is they're not as strict on the health protocols as our producers would like. They sometimes forget to report that they've had instances of diseases like Hoof-and-Mouth disease so you risk introducing that in to the American herd by importing this kind of product from Argentina without co