Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, March 26th. I'm Mac Watson.

Wednesday marked the suppression hearing in the DUI case of State Representative Bill Allemand. Cowboy State Daily's Claire McFarland reports that Allemand's attorney argued there wasn't enough evidence for either the traffic stop or the arrest.

"So the judge in Buffalo Circuit Court did not rule from the bench. Wednesday, he gave a little color, asking things like, 'Well, Allemand was confined when the deputy was asking him direct questions, but he said he was going to take it under advisement.' So the state, the prosecutor, Joshua Stensis, actually played body camera and dash camera footage of the arrest, where we can see this encounter, Allemand is swaying. There's a concern about the gun and the deputy handcuffs him, which underpins part of the defense's argument about the lawfulness of that."

If the judge decides the arrest was legal, then Allemand could face trial or work toward a settlement for the charge of driving under the influence.

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Wyoming is processing rare earths for the first time at a new Upton plant. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that this marks a major step toward a U.S. supply chain independent of China.

"This new process that Upton is pioneering could just completely rewrite the playbook. It's going to be cheaper, more economical, make it more feasible to have a domestic supply of rare earth minerals. And these rare earths, what are they used for? They're used for just about everything you can think of. They're in every cell phone. They're in medical devices. They're in our defense systems. Anything high tech probably has rare earths in it, and so it couldn't be more important for us to have a domestic supply of rare earths."

The site could pave the way for hundreds of high-tech jobs and national security gains.

Read the full story HERE.

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A former Union Pacific engineer says the arrest of an engineer charged with being on drugs while operating a 16,000-ton train loaded with hazardous materials is a strong argument against automating humans out of America's freight trains. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that one retired UP conductor and switchman, has been a strong advocate for keeping at least two-person crews on freight trains.

"Are we going towards having these freight trains that have no people on them there? It's not there yet, says Stan Blake, the former state legislator, former head of the trade union and a real advocate for trade safety in Wyoming. This is a good example of why there should be two people, because that. The conductor could have saved lives, could have prevented a potential disaster from happening by noticing the erratic behavior and get that train stopped."

In Friday's incident, the conductor actually had to fight off an aggressive engineer and lock himself in the locomotive's bathroom, where he called for help, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Rock Springs animal rights activist who helped raid a Wisconsin beagle lab earlier this month said saving abused dogs was worth getting arrested. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that Madhu Anderson says she told authorities of her plans.

"Madhu Anderson went to this facility in Wisconsin that has been beleaguered by controversy stemming back nine years when it was at the subject of an undercover in