Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 2nd. I'm Mac Watson

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The cause of last week's double fatal crash in remote Natrona County has been released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the WHP says the tanker truck plowed into seven vehicles, killing two.

"New details released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol on Wednesday morning show that a tanker truck driver failed to slow down or stop when traffic was queued in a construction zone on US Highway 26 This is about 45 miles northwest of Casper on Friday afternoon. The driver so far has not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says this is still a very active investigation."

The crash happened at 1:50 p.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, with the WHP having identified driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the crash. As of Wednesday, no criminal charges had been announced.

Read the full story HERE.

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Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Wyoming cities and industries are worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

"I did connect with a couple people from the municipalities of Cheyenne and Rock Springs, of course. Rock Springs is directly in the Colorado River drainage because of the Green River. Cheyenne is indirectly because of water rights trades. Some of the water that goes into Cheyenne is actually traded for water that comes off the Colorado River. And they both said, 'Yeah, I mean, this is not like an immediate emergency. Oh my god, we're going to run out of water this year,' but they are saying, 'Longer term, we've got to think of some better things, some better solutions, maybe some other sources we can go to for water, because this situation is getting dicey.'"

Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks, who served on the Legislature's Select Water Committee says Wyoming may have to make some stark choices in the near future because "power generation is subservient" to irrigation water rights, he tells Cowboy State Daily.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they "endangered children" and "exposed women to their radical transgender agenda."

"Make Liberty Win is generally the flyer factory in Wyoming, that's an out-of-state PAC that spends a lot of money backing Freedom Caucus aligned candidates, they've started sending out flyers showing like Senator Kail Case and Representative Lloyd Larson in sheep's clothing, and you know, claiming that they had a radical trans agenda, and both Case and Larson said no, we had nuanced, careful close-up reasons for these votes that you can't, that they're not putting on a flyer, and then on the other side, Americans for Prosperity, which is a PAC that in Wyoming takes some pride in not resorting to cartoon tactics like that. They have gone out hard against House Speaker Chip Nyman because they've endorsed Senator Ogden Driscoll, and they have a bone to pick with some of Nyman's votes."

Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, while Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly