Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, May 5, 2026 cover art

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, May 5th. I'm Mac Watson. – Expecting up to 8 inches of snow, southeast and other parts of Wyoming will finally get a little bit of a late winter Tuesday and Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists are saying snow will turn to freezing slush and that could be a problem. "It's actually a combination of two different weather systems that are going to collide somewhere over Southeast Wyoming, northern Colorado, and Western Nebraska, which is going to lead to wet, heavy snow. Enough to impair travel on I-80 and I-25 and it's going to be around one to two inches of water equivalent of snow, which could be upwards of one to two feet of snow in the mountains. This is going to be a statewide system in terms of temperature. We're going to see temperatures drop 30 degrees, some places closer to 40 degrees in just six hours or so. And there's going to be scattered snow, rain and thunderstorms throughout the state, but the bulk of it is going to be in the southeast corner." Up to 8 inches of heavy, wet snow could fall during that duration, accompanied by a huge drop in temperatures. Read the full story HERE. –– With dozens of Cheyenne-Area data centers in various stages of discussion, some residents want to hit the brakes. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports a petition is circulating, calling for a data center moratorium. "When you total the whole thing, it's like 70 of them all coming toward Cheyenne. It's like Cheyenne has become this data center magnet, right? And there's, you know, people who are saying, 'Wait, it's too many. It's too fast.' Senator Case is saying maybe a moratorium is not such a bad idea. We could use a little more time to figure out how we handle this at a state level too. You know, do we want to have the industrial siding commission look at cumulative impact?" The Cheyenne petition comes as other Mountain West counties and more than a dozen states weigh enacting temporary moratoriums on new data centers, reflecting a much wider national debate. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming's political registration data isn't seeing huge changes yet, despite a push from some politicos to register Republican to participate in the generally more decisive GOP primary election. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that all Wyoming parties have shrunk in registered membership from January to May, but one party stands out. "Since January, from January to May, the registration numbers in the Wyoming Democratic Party have shrunk by more than 500 but all the other parties have also shrunk, and so these shrinking to different degrees have given the Republican Party more of a percentage of the whole. The Democratic Party lost the most in terms of percentage of the whole. Most people I talked with Monday said it doesn't sound like crossover voting. Doesn't sound like a big push to go from Democrat to Republican, but it's still early. The Wyoming Democratic Party told me the half of the people they lost from January to May either died or moved away. The other half, we don't know. Could be different." All parties saw steady decreases in the four months since, as voter registration dropped by 1,404 total. But the GOP gained in dominance in terms of percentage of the whole, up to 77.4%, while the Democratic Party lost the most percentage-wise, down to 11.4%. Read the full story HERE. – With the Wyoming Highway Patrol short 36 troopers and overtime restricted, local law enforcement can be left to pick up the slack to fill gaps. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that one WHP dispatcher says more people are asking, "They're not here yet. Where are they?" "Wyoming Highway Patrol is facing a significant trooper shortage, with 36 unfilled trooper positions. The problem is they're over budget by about two-and-a-half-million dollars, so there is a hiring freeze until October, and no overtime for the troopers they do have. Local agencies like sheriff's offices are having to step it up. The problem is that pulls them away from the dirt roads and the local communities where they're needed. A Platte County sheriff's officer says that they are also understaffed, so this means longer wait times and troopers having to cover greater distances." Staff and budget shortages at the Wyoming Highway Patrol are stretching troopers thin across nearly 7,000 miles of state highways, slowing response times and straining local and county agencies to make up for the gaps in service. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A contractor filed a lawsuit Monday claiming the more than $100 million award to fix a catastrophic 2019 failure of the Wyoming-Nebraska tunnel system was done illegally "in secret." Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that it also claims there was no competitive bidding...
No reviews yet