Free Republic

Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican, is running for Senate in Wyoming next year, seeking to replace retiring GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who announced last week that she would not ​run for re-election. Trump quickly gave Hageman his "my Complete and Total Endorsement, writing in a Truth Social post hours after she launched her campaign that he knows Hageman well and she "is a TOTAL WINNER! Harriet has ALWAYS delivered for Wyoming, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate." Hageman, 63, was elected to be the state’s lone representative in Congress in 2022 after ousting then-Rep. Liz...

Thank you, Wyoming! Serving our state has been the honor of my life. - Cynthia Lummis

The girl Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers say they rescued from two kidnappers told her sister before the incident that she was being followed and that someone AirDropped to her a photo of a gun pointed at the house where she was staying, court documents say. The Wyoming Highway Patrol on Nov. 29 arrested two men who were traveling with a 16-year-old girl, on claims the two men were kidnapping her from her home in Wisconsin. They struggled with cellphone pings in the sparse state and resorted ultimately to scouring the state’s roadways until they found the girl, the agency said...

The September day was rapidly fading as 12-year-old Kaci Bulkley settled in for a shot at her first elk, a huge bull, 600 yards away. She couldn’t quite get her custom-built 7mm Remington magnum rifle steady enough, so her dad, Hazer Bulkley, offered some help. “I wasn’t feeling too steady. So my dad took off his shoe, and put it under the gunstock” Kaci told Cowboy State Daily. That provided the solid rest she needed, so she pulled the trigger and landed a lethally solid hit. “He (the bull) took about 10 seconds to go down. He went about five...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Investigators in Wyoming sought to identify two men they believe left a homemade bomb in front of the state Capitol, causing the building’s evacuation after a passerby found the object and brought it inside. The bomb, at a time of heightened political angst in the U.S., put the sleepy capital of the least-populated state on edge for awhile, with drones overhead and officers with bomb-sniffing dogs combing the Capitol grounds. But a day later, things appeared back to normal. No security was visible at the 135-year-old, sandstone building where visitors have always been able to more...

The U.S. Department of Education has contracted with far-right organizations Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation to develop a “patriotic” curriculum, perpetuating Stephen Miller’s guttural threat that “Children will be taught to love America. Children will be taught to be patriots.” Miller’s words echoed Joseph Goebbels’ commitment to indoctrinate children in 1930s Germany. On Veterans Day, we recall how 1950s American kindergartners learned to love our country. We stood proudly facing the flag with hands over our hearts, pledging “allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one Nation...

President Donald Trump pardoned Troy Lake on Friday. The 65-year-old Wyoming diesel mechanic spent seven months in federal prison for tweaking and removing emissions systems on ailing engines. He was originally sentenced to one year and one day in prison, but was released early to home confinement with an ankle monitor in September. He and his business Elite Diesel were also fined $52,000. Though relieved to be free of the dismal prison in which he spent his 40th wedding anniversary and his 65th birthday, Lake said that he believed he’d spend the rest of his life as a convicted felon,...

R.C. and Annia Carter survey their ranch near Ten Sleep, Wyo., on Oct. 14, 2025. The Carters have practiced regenerative or holistic agricultural practices to cultivate their pastureland. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times ================================================================ TEN SLEEP, Wyo.—The alfalfa weevil, scourge of Western ranchers, appears when the frost melts, skeletonizing leaves and profits. There are ways to limit its damage—early harvest, livestock grazing, and intercropping alfalfa with grass—but most growers opt for insecticides. R.C. Carter, a third-generation rancher in Northern Wyoming, recalled a realization he had while using a 1.5-gallon container of concentrated pesticide to spray a 60-acre alfalfa pasture. “I was...

For 15 years, Matthew Shepard’s unspeakably brutal murder on a lonely prairie in Wyoming has been a byword for the very worst of American anti-gay bigotry and a rallying cry for a more tolerant, more inclusive society. The 21-year-old University of Wyoming student was found trussed to a fence post, bleeding and half-frozen to death, in a rocky field on the outskirts of Laramie. He had been pistol-whipped so severely that his brain stem was crushed. His killers even removed his shoes, on the off-chance he broke free of his bonds and tried to run to safety. Shepard’s death inspired...

WORLAND — More than 4 tons' worth of giant pumpkins were weighed at the 2025 Wyoming State Championship Weigh-Off and Pumpkin Drop on Saturday. Then, a lot of that tonnage was hoisted 200 feet into the air and dropped to explode in spectacular fashion. The climax of the event was watching a 1,700-pound pumpkin smash the crap out of a porta-potty. The cold, windy weather did nothing to dampen the spirits of people whose “pumpkin fever” had them fiendishly devoted to their pumpkins, zucchinis, and watermelons for months. They came to see the weight of their work, then watch it...

Why pay $1.59 million for a used Gulfstream IV jet when you can potentially acquire a Fairchild C-119L Flying Boxcar military transport plane for $150? If that’s out of your price range, how about a Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter tanker aircraft for $25? Those are the starting bids for two of the 16 aircraft available at auction on the website Public Surplus. Big Horn County is selling the aircraft, mainly from the World War II and Cold War eras, after the Wyoming Supreme Court gave the go-ahead. “They’re aircraft in various stages of undress,” Paul Thur, Big Horn County Airport manager,...

- I visited a public high school in Upton, Wyoming, that's changing the conversation around college. - The school has a personalized learning structure, preparing students for one of three futures. - I was surprised at the level of individualization for every student's career and education path.

Zack Ford of the ThinkProgress blog really ought to invest in a dictionary. As the editor of the left-wing blog's LGBT section, he took the lead in blaming Christians, conservatives, and traditionalists for the deaths of 49 people in Orlando last week while simultaneously braying about conservatives "scapegoating" radical Islam. Note to Zack Ford: it's not scapegoating to blame radical Islam when a radical Islamist shoots up a nightclub. It is scapegoating to blame Christians when a radical Islamist shoots up a night club. Scapegoating, by definition, is blaming the innocent. His revolting article represents everything that's wrong with the...

One of the most famous trial attorneys of the 20th century and a proud son of Wyoming, Gerry Spence, died overnight Wednesday, at the age of 96. Spence was a legend among the trial bar — especially for his civil practice and criminal defense work. =============================================================== One of the most famous trial attorneys of the 20th century and a proud son of Wyoming, Gerry Spence died overnight Wednesday in his Montecito, California, home at the age of 96, his family says. Spence was a legend among the trial bar, especially for his civil practice and criminal defense work. He was...

In a groundbreaking development, the United States has initiated the opening of a new rare earths mine for the first time in over seven decades. This historic project, situated in Wyoming, has the potential to transform the U.S. economy and bolster its national defense. The discovery was documented in a recent economic viability study published by an independent source, which estimates that the Brook Mine holds up to 1.7 million tons of rare earths and critical minerals, with a vast untapped area still to be explored. The mine is poised to significantly reduce America’s reliance on foreign sources of these...

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is moving to expand a mine in Wyoming to unlock up to 14.5 million tons of coal. The DOI approved a mining plan Friday for the Antelope Mine in Converse County, Wyoming, that will expand coal mining across more than 850 federal acres and extend the mine’s life through 2037, according to the DOI. The Antelope Mine expansion is the latest move by the Trump administration to boost the American coal industry and clear the way for conventional and reliable energy sources, contrasting with the nation-wide Biden-era assault on the resource that also hit...

The Maude family has maintained a grazing allotment with the U.S. Forest Service Buffalo Gap National Grasslands since the inception of the agency. Charles and Heather Maude have carried on the practices implemented by generations before them, including irrigating the river bottom to grow a feed crop. After the USFS alerted them that a small segment of land might be fenced incorrectly for ownership, they were indicted for theft of federal property. Those charges have been dropped, but a solution to the original issue has not yet been determined. ... Charles and Heather Maude no longer face the threat of...

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...