Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, April 21st. I'm Mac Watson.

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Weeks after lawmakers tried to kill the agency, the Wyoming Business Council approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho Tribe to study the prospect of a "large" data center on the reservation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one tribal leader says "Hell no."

"The Wyoming Business Council, which is fresh off of its own controversy from lawmakers nearly killing it this session, approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho tribe to study potentially putting a data center on the reservation, and there's some outcry of this on social media, as well as a one of the people who's currently contesting whether he is a leader of the Eastern Shoshone tribe said absolutely not. Patrick Lawson, the director of Northern Arapaho tribal industries, said, 'We are hoping the study addresses all of these concerns, and we're also hoping for that economic development to this area.'"

Proponents say the study is merely a preliminary step, gauged to estimate the reservation's capacity to hold a data center — one that would bring much-needed jobs to the area.

Read the full story HERE.

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An employee at the Rock Springs Flying J Travel Center truck stop in Rock Springs died Sunday morning after getting pinned between trucks while managing commercial traffic in the parking lot. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that veteran truck drivers say it's an accident that could have been prevented.

"I spoke to two truckers who said that this was a preventable accident. They both have brought their rigs to the Flying J they have pulled into the parking lot, they have gone into the fuel station to get fuel, and they both told me that maneuvering in that parking lot is incredibly difficult because it is so crowded and there's so many parked cars. So they say this could have been avoidable if parking restrictions had been better enforced, and perhaps with more training, so that employees who work at truck stops should know the blind spots."

RSPD spokesperson Elizabeth Coontz confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that the worker's family has been notified and the investigation is ongoing.

Read the full story HERE.

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Nobody was more surprised to see someone offering some "abandoned horses" Sunday on Casper Mountain than Morris Carter. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that's because the horses belong to him and they're not abandoned.

"Casper resident Morris Carter learned that his horses had wandered onto private property after a post on a popular Facebook group started to blow up. That post was made by another Casper mountain landowner named Mark Huseman, who labeled it 'Abandoned horses, free to a good home.' According to Morris Carter, he went and picked up his horses; he was unable to reach Mark Huesman. Huesman says that he was just trying to address a recurring issue that his comment was sarcastic, that he had no intention of giving away Carter's horses. Another property owner I spoke to says that he's been having problems with Morris Carter's horses for 30 years."

Carter tells Cowboy State Daily that he leases pastures in the area and has maintained informal working relationships with surrounding landowners for years.

Read the full story HERE.

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