Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 3rd. I'm Mac Watson

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The City of Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspending taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a contractor for Meta contaminated the city's wastewater system. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that the process took months of cleanup.

"The city announced on Thursday that it is suspending taking wastewater associated with data center systems after this bacterium was found back in February. Once the bacterium was found, the company, or the contractor, which is Goat Systems LLC, was effectively banned from using the city's sewage system. It took at least a week to 10 days for the state lab to determine what the actual bacterium was. It was something that the city of Cheyenne had never seen before, and there was speculation that it could be linked back to a data center, and that was confirmed with the announcement Thursday that it is connected to the Meta project called Project Cosmos."

The announcement was made by the Board of Public Utilities on Thursday in conjunction with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial contamination.

Read the full story HERE.

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Recreationists celebrated Wednesday evening as the 18,800-acre Belvoir Ranch west of Cheyenne was opened to the public. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the new recreation area provides 13 miles of trails, giving hikers and cyclists a long-promised playground in the city's backyard.

"This was the late Councilman Scott Roy Bulls Pet Project. Here, he was its champion for 20-plus years, the 23 years it took for this project to become a reality. He was always the one saying, "We have to open this to the public. It's an amazing recreational opportunity, you know, it belongs to the public. We have to open this to the public, and so, you know, after 23 years, finally it's come to fruition."

The new trailhead and roughly 13 miles of singletrack and shared-use paths give hikers and cyclists a long-promised playground in the city's backyard, turning what was once mainly an insurance policy for future water and landfill needs into a full-fledged outdoor destination.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Business Council's biggest critic in the Legislature, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, was mostly relieved at a Wednesday audit report showing the Wyoming Business Council isn't hiding any bank accounts. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports he says he still has questions.

"That was scuttlebutt during the appropriations committees meeting, that lawmakers were wondering things like, do we even know what all the business council has going on, and so as part of the budget the business council was required to submit to a department of audit probe, and the department concluded, 'Yeah, there's not these outside accounts, pretty much everything's on the up and up, some negligible and documenting errors.'"

Rep. Ken Pendergraft, from Sheridan, made headlines in 2025 when he announced a goal to eliminate the WBC. That's a government-funded entity that gives grants and loans to communities and businesses.

Read the full story HERE.

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Scattered human bones found in Wyoming's rugged Wind River Mountains nearly a year ago have been identified as a Scottish man. Cowbo