Free Republic

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) indicated in an interview at The Capital Times Idea Fest in Madison, Wisc., that conservatives could end up forming a new kind of conservative party, arguing that “far too much has happened that’s too damaging” in the Republican Party. “There is certainly going to be a big shift, I think, in how our politics work — I don’t know exactly what that will look like. I don’t think it will just simply be… the Republican party is going to put up a new slate of candidates and off to the races,” Cheney, an outspoken Trump...

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) gave a priceless response to a transgender activist who stormed the stage at the Texas Youth Action Summit on Saturday. While Gaetz was addressing the audience on stage, a large man in a dress clambered on stage and made a beeline for the congressman. “This is a very strange individual,” Gaetz said as security escorted the trans protester off stage.

Mary Payne always liked the idea of a one-room schoolhouse. She grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series and appreciated the concept of various ages learning together and a more practical, hands-on approach to education. More so, she and her husband Michael weren’t thrilled with their experience with public schools back home in Illinois and had been looking for alternatives for their 5-year-old son after moving to Wyoming. When they heard about something called a microschool in Campbell County, Homestead Learning, they decided to check it out. The couple liked what they saw and decided...

Cody residents are outraged over the “despicable” slaughter of nine urban deer in the city. A 20-year-old Michigan man remains in jail, accused of killing the deer with a bow and leaving their carcasses around Cody. The suspect in an alleged archery killing spree that left nine mule deer carcasses scattered around Cody was arrested remains in the Park County jail, and as the news has spread around town, locals are outraged. Joshua Tamirat Wielhouwer, 20, of Jenson, Michigan, is being held on $36,000 bond, according to the Park County Sheriff’s Office. He faces nine counts of taking a big...

Treasurers and state financial officers representing 14 states sent letters Monday to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson calling on C-suite leaders to resist political pressure to begin selling the chemical abortion drug mifepristone at their pharmacies. The letters were signed by state financial officers of Texas, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The letters follow similar outreach in August from firms, financial advisors, and thousands of Costco members representing more than $100 billion in assets under management, including more than $172 million in ownership of the five retailers. “We...

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris because former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), who beat an incumbent Liz Cheney. Host Dana Bash said, “I want to start with some of the endorsements that Kamala Harris got this week, particularly from former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and her father, the former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.”

DOUGLAS — Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former congresswoman Liz Cheney escaped censure by the Wyoming Republican Party at its central committee meeting on Saturday because those in the state GOP don’t consider them “Wyoming Republicans” anymore. The Cheneys both said earlier in the week that they will vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for president because they oppose former President Donald Trump. At the Wyoming GOP’s Central Committee meeting on Saturday, the party declined to pass a resolution censuring the Cheneys because most of the membership does not view them as “Wyoming Republicans.” A...

At a recent town hall meeting in Jackson, Wyoming, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., offered a simple proposal. If Boulder, Colorado, truly believes that fossil fuels are so destructive, why not prove that life is better without them by giving them up? Anti-fossil fuel crusaders and renewable energy proponents have been unsuccessful in producing a demonstration project in which a small town powers its electricity grid entirely on wind, solar and batteries for at least one year. The idea of such a project was first proposed by Francis Menton, who publishes the “Manhattan Contrarian.” If we’re investing trillions of dollars on...

Devils Tower National Monument reopened Wednesday afternoon after clearing more than 200 fallen trees and 5 inches of hail. But the national monument “will never look the same” after huge hailstones pummeled the area. Cleanup continues after a devasting hailstorm that dropped baseball-sized stones at Devils Tower and closed the monument. At the KOA campground near the base of the tower, they've been repairing damage and clearing away more than 200 trees that were downed by the storm. (Courtesy Andrea Wood) ================================================================================ Devils Tower National Monument reopened Wednesday afternoon after clearing the immense damage caused by a severe hailstorm that...

Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) lost to a political newcomer in a close-fought contest for a state Senate seat Tuesday, an upset that ousts one of the most influential figures in Wyoming politics in recent years. Laura Taliaferro Pearson, a sheep rancher and school bus driver who lives north of Kemmerer, thanked the residents of her four-county district late on Tuesday as she held onto a small lead. The Associated Press called the race around 11 p.m., when Pearson topped Sommers by a 3.4% margin. “I’m thrilled to be a senator representing our great state,” she told WyoFile. “It means the...

The Wyoming Legislature will look distinctly different when it convenes for its 68th session in January. In Tuesday night’s Republican primary, longtime legislators went down left and right. Most notable was House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, who lost his bid for Senate District 14 to Kemmerer resident Laura Taliaferro Pearson by 156 votes. Sommers had served in the Legislature since 2013. The main beneficiary of the upheaval: The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a conservative movement that has positioned itself farther right of more mainstream conservatives, including many incumbents its members have deemed to be part of the “establishment.” All together, Cowboy...

A den of 38-million-year-old snakes were found in the White River Formation near Douglas, Wyoming, have paleontologists super excited. They're among the most important complete fossils of snakes ever found. ======================================================================== Two of the three specimens of Hibernophis breithaupti, the 38-million-year-old snake from the White River Formation near Douglas. These snakes are members of the boid family, which includes modern-day anacondas and Wyoming's rubber boas. (Courtesy Jasmine Croghan) ================================================================== Around 38 million years ago, three small snakes slithered into a burrow seeking shelter from an apocalypse blanketing their world in volcanic ash. They never escaped, becoming entombed in the spot...

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, was teary-eyed and fought back her emotions talking about her family’s loss this week of her childhood home, which went up in flames when Wyoming’s largest wildfire roared through the Haystack Range. The Hageman homestead, a rustic cabin-like structure with plastered walls and built into the side of a hill near McGinnis Pass, Wyoming, was destroyed by an uncontained wildfire in rough terrain littered with huge granite boulders and tinder fueled with juniper pinions woodland and sagebrush. “It’s been pretty devastating,” Hageman told Cowboy State Daily. Back in Washington, D.C., doing what she does there,...

The former National Security Agency contractor did not name any particular US or international lawmakers but warned many didn’t belong to the “tribe” of Bitcoiners. Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has been in exile in Russia since 2013, warned attendees at the Bitcoin 2024 conference about politicians trying to woo them over crypto. In a July 26 speech held virtually at the crypto conference, Snowden said many lawmakers were trying to earn the “love” of Bitcoiners, hinting at those attending the Nashville event. He did not explicitly refer to United States or international politicians, though US...

Sheridan hockey coach Patrick Mudd died over the weekend, after he was allegedly "sucker punched" in a parking lot outside of the Sheridan WYO rodeo. The hockey community laid their sticks outside his home in mourning. =============================================================== A Sheridan man faces up to 20 years in prison, accused of punching a man so hard he died after a parking argument. Cody Joseph McCalla, 33, was charged with involuntary manslaughter Monday in Sheridan Circuit Court. The charge follows a fight Friday outside the local rodeo in Sheridan, in which McCalla punched local hockey coach and player Patrick Mudd so hard, Mudd...

Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Oregon would see the biggest number of stores flipped to C&S.. Kroger and Albertsons have released a list of hundreds of stores that would be divested to C&S Wholesale Grocers if federal regulators approve its proposed $24.6 billion merger deal, and the states with the largest numbers include Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Under the proposal, Kroger and Albertsons would divest stores in Washington (124), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), Oregon (62), Illinois (35), Texas (28), Nevada (16), and Alaska (18). Several states would see 10 or fewer stores divested, including: Idaho (10), New Mexico...

A Gillette 18-year-old who had a bucket of gasoline in a car was burned early Wednesday morning. After gas had sloshed out of the bucket inside the car, a teen lit it on fire thinking it would burn off the spilled gas but not damage the car. ============================================================ An 18-year-old man was badly burned after he transported a bucket of old gasoline to a bonfire overnight Tuesday and his friend lit some gas that had spilled from the bucket, police in Gillette, Wyoming, report. Gillette Police Department officers responded to the intersection of North Burma and West 4th avenues at...

An elderly man found wrapped in tarp near Medicine Bow Peak still has not been identified. It’s being investigated as a homicide, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday. An unidentified body found under suspicious circumstances near a popular recreation area July 4 is being treated as a homicide, even as investigators are still trying to identify the man. The body is believed to be that of an elderly male and was found wrapped in a tarp at the Mirror Lake Picnic and Fishing Site near the base of Medicine Bow Peak, according to a Tuesday statement from the...

Archaeologists are nearing the bottom of their current dig site at Sunrise, Wyoming, a former company mining town...Not only is Sunrise home to one of the largest red ochre mines in North America, but some of the oldest Paleoindian artifacts on the continent have also been found there.Some of those artifacts date back 14,000 years, predating Clovis man, who lived from 13,050 to 12,750 years ago...George Zeimans, the Wyoming archaeologist who has been heading up activities at the site, said he has already dug a few test sites that have found evidence of other artifacts."We know there's a main camp...

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...