Free Republic

The operation was years in the making. The Florida-based company announced plans for its KelTec West factory in Rock Springs in 2022. Wyoming’s Second Amendment-friendly culture and politics played a big part in choosing Rock Springs when the company decided to expand its operating capacity, KelTec West plant operations manager Chris Williams told Cowboy State Daily. “At the time (2022), Florida was teetering purple,” he said about the political climate there. “Wyoming is a solid red state, and it looks like it’s going to stay solid for decades to come.” Other firearms companies that recently set up shop in Wyoming,...

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said he has confidence in Attorney General Pam Bondi despite reports that she is feuding with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino over her handling of the case related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. “I do,” Barrasso said, when asked in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” about whether he has confidence in Bondi. “We ran to make this country safer and more prosperous. Pam Bondi and her team are getting hardened criminals off the streets,” he continued. “America is safer with Pam Bondi as attorney general.”...

In a groundbreaking moment for the American mining industry, the Fluor Corporation has confirmed the feasibility of large rare earth element deposits at Ramaco Resources’ Brook Mine in Wyoming. This announcement marks a significant step towards redefining the United States’ position in the critical minerals market. The confirmation by Fluor not only solidifies the economic potential of the Brook Mine but also positions Ramaco Resources as a key player in reducing the country’s dependency on foreign sources of rare earth elements. Ramaco Resources, initially known for its operations as a metallurgical coal miner, was thrust into the spotlight with this...

Federal officials on Monday took a first step toward reopening vast areas of public lands in two Western states to new coal sales as part of President Donald Trump’s push to expand U.S. fossil fuel production. The Interior Department proposal comes after the Biden administration, citing climate change, tried to end sales of the fuel from the nation’s most productive coal fields — the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. The Trump administration is instead considering selling leases for coal mining on more than 2,600 square miles (6,800 kilometers) of federal lands in that region, according to...

The Wyoming Democratic Party’s State Central Committee is operating at a loss and could be left with about two weeks worth of funding by the end of the year, its treasurer said during a Sunday meeting in Rock Springs. In its federal and non-federal accounts, the state party had $36,580.20 as of May 1, Party Treasurer Dudley Case said at the meeting. But the party has been spending more money than it has been raising each month, which has led to a $21,795.32 loss this year. That's about a $5,000 loss per month, in the first four months of the...

Ranchers say their hands are tied as reintroduced wolves—listed as endangered—are feasting on cattle instead of hunting elk and deer.. Descendants of rewilded wolves are taking a heavy toll on cattle in Northern California and Oregon, killing calves and full-grown animals and putting stress on cow-calf operations and ranchers’ pocketbooks. Because wolves are listed as an endangered species under state and federal law, ranchers are hamstrung: They can’t shoot or harass these protected predators. The penalty for killing a wolf is steep; federal law carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine, unless a rancher...

A series of devastating wolf attacks occurred over Memorial Day weekend at the Lost Marbles Ranch, Crystal River Ranch and McCabe Ranch, leaving two calves dead and others injured. A broad daylight attack at the Lost Marbles Ranch, carried out by three wolves from the notorious Copper Creek pack, took place in the heart of the calving grounds, a large meadow where ranchers actively monitor mothers and newborns during the critical calving season. The wolves separated a cow and a calf from the main herd, severely injuring the calf. While many in the public romanticize the idea of seeing a...

According to an email sent May 13, 2025, by Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Gibbs, Nicole Rosmarino is the sole finalist for the director of the State Land Board, which is the state’s second largest landowner with 2.8 million surface acres and 4 million mineral estate acres. Gibbs said, per statute, the board provides public notice for 14 days prior to a formal appointment which will occur at the next regularly scheduled public board meeting, which is June 11 and 12 in Denver. An email sent to DNR confirmed the hire Friday. The mission of the State Land Board...

A top financial backer of left-wing causes in the US has been accused of sexually harassing a female employee, pushing for “threesomes” with her and her future husband while they worked at his California winery — and then retaliating against them for calling out his “lewd” conduct. Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss exposed himself, “brazenly groped,” and made other unwanted sexual advances toward Madison Busby before forcing her to resign her job, according to a jaw-dropping lawsuit filed April 25 in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. ... Wyss, a resident of Teton County, Wyo., purchased the property in 2000 and...

Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss national who lives in Wyoming, has become a “Democrat-aligned mega-donor,” according to the Associated Press (AP), thanks to his funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing groups. “Newly available tax documents show that his giving through the Berger Action Fund, which describes itself as advocating for ‘solutions to some of our world’s biggest problems,’ swelled in 2021 to $72 million, cementing Wyss’ status as a Democratic-aligned megadonor,” the AP reports. Wyss, who built his fortune creating the medical device company Synthes USA, which was sold in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson for $20 billion,...

A liberal redistricting group funded largely through secretive donations by a Swiss billionaire is hitting the airwaves with a well-funded ad campaign attacking the "billionaires buying our elections." The new ad from the National Redistricting Action Fund, a partisan lobbying group helmed by former attorney general Eric Holder, goes after the power billionaires wield through anonymous "dark money" contributions. Unmentioned is the at least $3 million funneled anonymously to the National Redistricting Action Fund in recent years by Hansjörg Wyss, a foreign billionaire who has quietly emerged as a liberal megadonor in the United States. Wyss's dark money contributions made...

Rep. Abe Hamadeh said ranked-choice voting is pushed by corporate interests and confuses voters.. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., is joining forces with a fellow freshman lawmaker to renew efforts in Congress to outlaw ranked-choice voting nationwide. Hamadeh and Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, recently introduced the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act that would amend the Help America Vote Act to ban ranked-choice voting. The bill pairs Begich, whose state uses ranked-choice voting, with Hamadeh, whose state has chronically dealt with issues of election integrity, and voter trust in ballot counting. "Ranked-choice voting destroys 'one person, one vote' in our country and...

Wolves in California are costing ranchers millions of dollars far beyond just the price of cattle killed, .. A Wyoming rancher says the secondary costs of predation are well-known here. ... As California’s wolf population expands, the predators there are costing ranchers millions — not just in value of the cattle killed, but through collateral effects as well ... one wolf can cause $69,000 to $162,000 in “direct and indirect losses from lower pregnancy rates in cows and decreased weight gain in calves,” .. Those results should come as no surprise to Wyoming ranchers, Jim Magagna, executive vice president of...

If you watched Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, you may have seen Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hold up a photo of the Maude family of South Dakota. I'd heard a little bit about the fifth-generation ranching family before that, but I decided to learn more because I couldn't believe the story Rollins told about how the Joe Biden administration treated them. It's unbelievable. Or maybe it's not, given all we're learning about the last four years. ... Trump Admin is reversing Biden-era failures in 100 days! The U.S. Gov has dropped charges against the Maude family, victims of...

PUC Public Comment Hearing Info re: Xcel Energy JTS.. ... The PUC invites community members to provide comments regarding Xcel Energy’s Just Transition Plan (JTS), Proceeding 24A-0442E. The JTS is Xcel Energy’s next Electric Resource Plan to address the acquisition of new utility resources to meet future electricity needs on its system. The primary objectives of the JTS include fulfilling resource adequacy and providing reliable service; continuing progress on emissions reductions; and, delivering a just transition in communities where generation assets are retiring. Xcel Energy’s Unit 3 coal-fired facility in Pueblo will retire no later than Jan. 1, 2031, and...

CHEYENNE — Already facing serious federal charges for allegedly carrying 18,000 rounds of ammunition through Wyoming, Ricardo Paez-Quinones, 35, dug himself into an even deeper hole on Friday. Paez-Quinones was a no-show for his bond hearing on Friday morning in U.S. District Court, leading Judge Alan Johnson to put out a bench warrant for his arrest. Johnson suspected that the topic of his bond was what led Paez-Quinones to avoid coming to court, leading him to engage “in some form of self-help.” “We can receive an explanation for that at a later time,” Johnson remarked. Paez-Quinones is an illegal immigrant...

A 25-year-old Gillette man who is already in prison for assaulting jail officers is now accused of attacking prison guards when they wouldn’t let him keep gingerbread-making supplies in his cell. He’s serving a five-to-10-year prison term in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins. The Carbon County Attorney’s Office charged him with felony police interference Monday, on evidence that he kicked and thrashed at prison guards. If convicted, he could receive an additional prison term of up to 20 years — 10 years on each of the two counts of felony interference he now faces. The incident dates back to...

Wyoming has become the first state in the United States to require proof of citizenship for residents to register to vote. This measure, which will take effect in July 2025, will apply to all elections: local, state, and federal.Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon allowed the voter residency bill to become law without his signature.This afternoon, WY Governor Mark Gordon allowed HB 156 to become law without his signature, establishing requirements for Proof of 1 Residency and U.S. Citizenship in order to vote!This is a major win for Election Integrity in Wyoming! pic.twitter.com/0GhziPJ1l7— American Action Fund (@AmericanActFund) March 21, 2025While Gordon did...

Four Missouri hunters who stepped diagonally from one parcel of federal land in Wyoming to another did not illegally trespass on the airspace of adjacent private property, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, firmly protects public access to millions of acres of land in the court’s six-state jurisdiction and substantially strengthens the rights of “corner-crossers” throughout the West. The case is rooted in a quirk of the region, where vast swaths of terrain have been divided since the 19th century...

West Virginia and Wyoming took major steps toward securing their elections by passing prohibitions on the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV). On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed into law SB 490, which stipulates that “[n]o state, county, or local elections office may use ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting to conduct an election or nomination of any candidate in this state for any local government, statewide, or federal elective office.” Any “existing or future ordinance” adopted by a local government promoting the use of such a system would be declared void under the measure.Often referred to as...