Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, May 27th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Fifth-generation Wyoming rancher Trenton Thornock pitched a huge 1.2 gigawatt data center on family land to a skeptical Evanston crowd on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the project is facing a rising tide of opposition against data centers locally and across Wyoming.

"Prometheus Hyper Scale, unlike a lot of the other data centers, you know, they have made that public commitment to community engagement, and so what this meeting was all about was answering the public's questions here in Evanston, it was at times an emotional meeting, a little unruly at times. There were some people in the audience, who just yelled out questions whenever, who would challenge answers and basically say 'You're lying!' There was one person who accused Trenton Fornock of being a sellout because he lives in Texas right now. For the most part, though, it was a pretty civil meeting."

Thornock says he started his company in 2020 with the idea of first innovating water cooling systems and doing things in a more sustainable way and second impr oving the economy of his home state. Wyoming has struggled with outmigration of its youth, losing most of them by age 30 to other states.

Read the full story HERE.

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A fire tore through an under-construction apartment building in north Cheyenne on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that one witness says the burning was so intense, the building was "a total loss" in minutes.

"He said within 10, 15 to 20 minutes it went from just seeing some flames to pretty much being a total loss, and it had been collapsing on itself. While it was burning, they could hear explosions coming from inside the building. Being under construction, there's all kinds of tanks and things with whether you're welding or paint or anything like that. So, whatever they had in there, he said they could hear it popping off."

The under construction building is in the Ridgeview Apartments located at 2025 E. Carlson St. just off Converse Avenue between Sam's Club to the south and Storey Boulevard to the north.

Read the full story HERE.

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State Rep. Mike Yin argued against a proposal by Chuck Gray to ban political party changes after Jan. 1st in election years. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports Yin wants to know why Gray is making it harder for people. Gray says it's an election integrity issue.

"So, what the committee majority, not Mike Yin and not a few others, decided was they're going to ask staff to draft a bill that is going to ban party changes for like three quarters, nearly three quarters of an election year, and so they did that. So now staff is going to build that draft, and then at a later meeting of the committee, probably September, people can come and comment, and they'll decide at that point or later whether they want to adopt the bill, which would give it an edge going into the 2027 lawmaking session, if they do."

The Legislature in 2023 passed a bill banning voters from switching parties between about mid-May and the primary election in mid-August of each election year.

Read the full story HERE.

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Two hikers on a multi-day excursion were helicoptered to safety by Teton County Search and Rescue after becoming i