Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, March 5th. I'm Mac Watson.

–

A committee charged with investigating the so-called CheckGate controversy over handing out checks on the Wyoming House floor said Wednesday it found no bribery or wrongdoing. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the incident warrants a rules review, extra signage, and more training for legislators.

"There was no bribery or misconduct. According to the special committee's findings, they treated it as a learning opportunity, saying we should develop a lesson on the institution of this house, avoiding the appearance of impropriety. Management Council should consider putting more signage at the entrance to the chamber, and this is a good time for a rules review. The highlight was actually a kind of a connection moment between Representative Steve Harshman of Casper and Representative Darren McCann, who's involved in the controversy, received a check. All of this kind of blew up. So Darren McCann said, 'I mean, a lot of you get to move on, but forever, when you Google my name, this will come up.' And Representative Steve Harshman, who has had rather an explosive controversy himself that he ended up apologizing for cursing another member said, 'Hey, I've been there. We're in this. You know, there's social media trolls, and we deal with this, but we do heal, and we can't move on.'"

Special Investigative Committee Chair Art Washut, from Casper, read aloud to the House on Wednesday from a special report all seven committee members signed. "Taken together…the committee recognizes that the conduct that occurred on the House floor was undesirable and must never occur again."

Read the full story HERE.

–

TerraPower was approved Wednesday for a construction permit to build a first-of-its-kind nuclear power plant near Kemmerer. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports this is the first such approval in 10 years.

"It's the first nuclear construction permit that the federal government has issued in about 10 years. But it's also for this very new one of a kind type of plant that nobody's ever built before. So in a lot of ways, it's breaking a lot of ground, literally in Kemmerer, and figuratively in the industry. And so today's announcement that that construction permit has been approved means that Terra power can actually start building the actual reactor part of their facility."

The National Regulatory Commission announced the approval of the project's construction permit which will allow the Bill Gates-backed company to start work on building the actual reactor at its site about four miles outside Kemmerer. In a statement, the company calls it "a historic day for the United States' nuclear industry."

Read the full story HERE.

–

A head-on crash on Sunday evening has left a Torrington family of three without a father and a Buffalo father of four in the hospital. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that authorities say no cause has yet been determined.

"Cody Thomas of Torrington was headed to Gillette and Andrew Winter was going to the Wyoming police academy. He'd been there since early January on his way to becoming a Buffalo Police Officer, when their cars collided. Andrew Winter died at the scene, and Cody Thomas was air flighted to Casper's Banner Wyoming Medical Center for treatment. What we know now is that he's out of the hospital and he's recovering at home, and that the family of Andrew winter is just reeling because