When you think about Wyoming businesses, you might think about cattle ranchers, national park vendors, or oil and gas developers. But, as the state rises to the top for new business filings nationwide, the lineup now includes some potentially unexpected names.

One company, for example, looks to be creating a mobile golf game where you play as President Donald Trump.

“Look at that beautiful swing. Isn’t it perfect?” says what sounds like an AI-generated Trump in a preview for the yet-to-be-released game.

Developers say users could pay about $100 to virtually play with Trump’s signature driver.

“The greatest golf game ever created,” the Trump voice claims.

The Wyoming-registered company is also an early user of the state’s new chancery court. It had a business dispute earlier this year over who gets to develop the game with trademarked Trump material.

“Never a boring day in chancery court,” Judge Ben Burningham said, laughing.

He’s an expert in complex litigation and is the chancery court's first and only full-time judge.

“I love the law. I love to read the law. I love to write about the law,” he said.

The court was created in 2019 to resolve business and trust cases quickly. It wraps up cases in an average of 116 days versus potentially over a year in district court.

Burningham, who appears to be an even-keeled family man, just got his robe last March. Part-time judges took cases before that. He said the court saw six cases in 2022. In 2025, it had 48.

Some are from companies located in Wyoming, like a pair of fireworks sellers whose relationship went up in flames. Many others involve businesses that are registered in the state, but filings don’t show if they have physical ties here, like the Trump golf case.

“Having a specialized forum that can offer predictable, focused, and fair resolution of business disputes has only helped draw companies to the state,” Burningham said.

Companies are increasingly filing in Western states because of favorable business laws.

Parties in several chancery court cases declined Wyoming Public Radio’s interview request or didn’t respond.

Wyoming is the birthplace of LLCs. Businesses do pay the state to file, but the fee is relatively small, and filing is anonymous. Also, there’s no corporate income tax. Add the chancery court on top of all that, and businesses can save time — and time is money for companies.

Out west, Wyoming was ahead of the herd in starting a court. Utah and Texas followed its lead, opening their doors in 2024.

“I think a lot of people don't realize that states are competing with each other for corporate domiciles,” said Cheyenne-based attorney Matt Kaufman, who pushed the state to develop the court.

He said Delaware has long been the leading state for companies to “domicile,” or register as a business. It’s also home to the nation’s first chancery court, founded in 1792. However, Delaware’s status may be slipping.

“We just saw an enormous wave of people suddenly coming to Wyoming,” Kaufman recalled.

Almost a decade ago, he said Wyoming started leading the way in blockchain, cryptocurrency and other digital assets, and businesses took notice.

“ So instead of people forming companies and going and raising venture capital and just having to default to Delaware because that's what everybody does and that’s what everybody expects, suddenly, Wyoming is this also acceptable jurisdiction,” Kaufman said.

Many are Wyoming businesses in name only. Kaufman said some may want headquarters here, but there are sometimes not enough workers.

Still, in the past few years, Wyoming has overtaken Delaware as the state with the most new businesses per capita, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Then, there’s the Elon Musk factor.

In late 2024, the Delaware chancery court rejected his $56 billion Tesla CEO pay package. Musk then urged companies to leave the state, and some did, in a phenomenon dubbed as “DExit.”

Not many household names ended up in Wyoming, but Musk took Tesla to Texas. Nevada got Dropbox and Tripadvisor.

“One critical lapse in judgment can actually drive a mass move out of state,” said Anahit Baghshetsyan, an analyst at Nevada Policy, a libertarian think tank.

Baghshetsyan has been researching chancery courts as her state considers creating one of its own. She said the state could benefit economically. Unlike Wyoming, Baghshetsyan said, Nevada has a big pool of workers, so companies may want to relocate there.

“It would also be a great opportunity to headquarter within the state and host conventions and seminars and conferences within the state, and that would be driving business and foot traffic to the Silver State as well,” she added.

Nevada lawmakers already voted in favor of creating a chancery court in 2024, but in order to amend the state’s constitution, the proposal needs more approval. Lawmakers could vote again in 2027 and residents could vote the following year.

Baghshetsyan said she’s heard pushback over states prioritizing quick litigation for corporations, rather than cases involving housing, for instance. Business communities would also have to buy in.

In Wyoming, convincing them is part of the chancery court judge’s job.

“I certainly feel a sense of responsibility and a weight on my shoulder,” Burningham said. “I think I feel that every day.”

But he said that’s what drives him to build up the court, “and help it develop a reputation of deciding things correctly based on the law and deciding them quickly.”

From the Trump golf game case to the Wyoming fireworks one, he said everyone deserves a fair resolution.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

If you’re driving through Fremont County, you might pass through the tiny town of Kinnear. Clifford Fewel lives a few turns off the highway and runs a business called Stay Free Forever out of his home office.

He provides cognitive behavioral health courses for adults and young people around Wyoming and Colorado, especially those involved in the justice system. The courses cover a wide range of topics, from DUIs to anger management to vaping awareness.

As part of Stay Free Forever, Fewel hosts a monthly podcast focused on helping people avoid incarceration or re-incarceration through conversation and educational storytelling. He’s also part of the Fremont County Prevention Program and gave a presentation about his courses to the Wyoming Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving earlier this month.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann sat down with Fewel in his backyard to learn more about his work and its impacts.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Hannah Habermann:  You actually worked in the world of journalism for a long time and then became a corrections officer. What about that experience inspired you to start providing these courses?

Clifford Fewel: I needed health benefits, and I had been let go from a job in Colorado as an ad[vertisement] director. I humbled myself to apply with a state prison because when the economy is tanking like it was in 2008, corrections tend to do very well with hiring.

I was face-to-face with inmates. I didn't have any intrinsic judgment toward them. In fact, I had a lot of empathy for where they were. They really pointed out in the [corrections] academy in Tucson that you're not there to punish these people. You're there to facilitate their incarceration, and that means be decent, be firm, be fair, be consistent. Keep them safe, keep yourself safe, keep the public safe, and that's kind of the end of the story.

HH: I'd love to hear a little bit about where this style of course comes from.

CF: Larry Lloyd founded the American Community Corrections Institute and passed away a few years ago. His son Trevor now runs the company in Provo, [Utah].

Larry was an accountant who had a passion for psychology and he came up with a psychology-based behavioral traffic safety course that he was convinced would help people stop speeding, stop re-offending.

He created this course, and they started offering these courses to people, and lo and behold, they stopped reoffending, and the courts wanted more. He developed a bad check course because back in the '70s, bad checks were still a big deal, and it was really effective.

He started adding on other courses: theft, shoplifting, DUI, domestic violence, sex offender. Some of these courses, like a sex offender course, is not meant to be a standalone therapy, but it's great adjunct therapy. So the courses are really useful for doing that, surfacing issues that people need to think about.

HH: What kind of folks are you working with? How are you getting connected to them? Who is taking these courses?

CF: Most often, it's from the circuit courts in Lander and Colorado. Sometimes it's the prosecuting attorney, sometimes it's the public defender on a pre-trial basis saying, "I want you to take this course so when we go into court, you'll have something to show for yourself," a completion certificate.

I have prevention intervention courses for middle school, junior high, high school, all the way up to these courses that are for the more adult offenders or adult, as my daughter says, “justice-involved individuals.”

Most of the time, I'm dealing with a 20 to 30-year-old male or female who has a DUI or got caught stealing from Walmart or got into a bar fight, got into a fight at home. That’s the core.

HH: Most of these courses take about 11 to 15 hours, and students have about a month to complete them, and they also require a coach. Tell me a little bit about that coaching relationship and how that plays into the program.

CF: The coach aspect is actually the real secret sauce of why these courses work, because you're getting the student out of their own head, talking with someone they know and trust.

In every evaluation, almost, that I get from both coach and student, I read a comment that is something to the effect of, "Wow, this is the first time my mom and I have talked on this level in forever." Or maybe it's their boss or their cousin or their counselor.

It's getting the student talking about this stuff, real stuff, with someone. They're not just completing an online course or writing in a workbook. They're actually having to verbalize it, and I think that's where the synapses start firing, and new connections are made.

HH: In Fremont County, you've been providing these DUI courses since 2018, and you've been tracking the courses and some of the outcomes. How many people have taken this course in Fremont County, and what are some of the results you've seen?

CF: We had 176 people in Fremont County assigned to the DUI workbook course or the e-learning course. Of those, 14.2%, that's 25 total people, in the three years after they completed the course, reoffended with a DUI. That's like an 85% success rate.

It really puts wind in my sails to keep doing what I'm doing because any time you can take 150, 151 people off the practicing DUI list out there, driving while intoxicated, that's good for everybody.

HH: What do you think contributed to these low recidivism rates, in addition to this course?

CF: We are blessed to have a really active group in Fremont County that's called the Fremont County DUI Task Force. It's part of the overall Fremont County Prevention Program,  that's headed up by a remarkable woman named Tauna Groomsmith.

That flows from what began in 2011 in Wyoming, the Governor's Council on Impaired Driving, which was the result of a tragic accident that most people are aware of in 2001 when eight members of the UW (University of Wyoming) cross country team were killed by a drunk driver.

For a long time, Wyoming was the United States’ leader in drunk driving, and Fremont County was the Wyoming leader. So I moved into a county that was at the epicenter of focus on “what do we do?”

They've come up with SafeRide programs that's growing every month and giving people the option to get a bus instead of driving their own car to public events. They do media, they target it toward all the holidays: July 4th, Super Bowl.

There's a lot of people much smarter than me who have been at this a lot longer, putting their all into solving this problem. I had the good fortune to move in and become a part of the solution, but by no means the only solution.

HH: You've also got a podcast called the Stay Free Forever podcast. Tell me a little bit about that, and who you bring on the show, and what your goal is.

CF: If I see someone do really stellar work on their online course or in their workbook, I will invite them. I say, "Hey, would you like to do a podcast interview and talk about how you came to redirect your life?"

There's some great episodes. I've done 18 so far. But there's also people like a judge, like a former Wyoming highway patrolman, the guy who's the president of the American Community Corrections Institute.

Anyone who has something to contribute or someone who needs help, who needs direction on how to turn their life around, they can tune in, download it for free, and get 40 minutes to an hour's worth of been-there, done-that from someone.

I think that's really good, kind of like free therapy, although I'm not a therapist.

HH: You've obviously spent a lot of time interacting with the justice system in Wyoming and on the Wind River Reservation. Are there changes that you think could take place that could help those systems improve, that could help support the people who are in those systems?

CF: I'll use the Wind River Tribal Court as an example of something that changed for the better.

My courses cost $110. People can make two payments of $57.50, so they're an extra five bucks for the privilege. At the Wind River Tribal Court, they allow me to say to the student, "Hey, once you pay for this course and complete it, they will knock $110 off your fines."

That would be something that I think could be looked at, because fines can be overdone. If there's a willingness to let people know that, “Hey, complete this course, show us your certificate, and we'll drop your fines by the cost of the course,” I thought that was a really civil thing to do.

HH: You provide this course for a lot of people in Wyoming, where there's a lot of talk about the cowboy mentality, people having a hard time asking for help, or being really individualistic. Do you see that come up in your course responses, and how do you respond to that?

CF: People come in with their walls and bridges up, and once they realize that there's a human being on the other end of the phone who's interested in representing them well to the court system, and that this is a path forward and that all it requires is thought and effort, they generally settle down and do a really good job.

HH: What do you hope these courses look like in five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road?

CF: I hope they're in many more languages. Right now, they're in English and Spanish. Every one of my courses is available online in Spanish. I have six of the workbooks that are available in Spanish, and that covers a lot. But we have such a vast number of people for whom English is not their first language, who get in trouble and who need help, just like anyone else does, who need to reassess their risky thinking and behavior. So other languages would be a big deal.

HH: Anything else you would like to add that we haven't touched on?

CF: The main thing I would pass along as free advice to anyone out there who’s in the system or has someone they know or love in the system, is communication is your friend.

Stuff happens. People forget. Emergencies happen. It's always, always, always in your best interest to notify the person who's expecting something and to keep track of what you say you're going to do, even if it's just to make a phone call next Wednesday. Use a Post-it note, use your calendar, use your phone to set reminders.

Because the people who communicate, whether you're on probation, parole, pre-trial, the people who communicate and let the court or the system know what's going on are the people who get the grace.

The people who go silent out of fear, and it's a terrible gnawing fear when you're in trouble, but the people who go silent are the ones who invite more scrutiny. It's kind of ironic, but that's the way it works. And so I always say, text, call, keep in touch.

In the last year, Wyoming shot up to 12th place on child and family wellbeing in an annual report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Last year, we came in 23rd. For years, the report has collected data to reflect how families and children are doing across the nation. The Wyoming Women’s Foundation has been using this data to help track what’s going well and what needs work. Micah Richardson is the associate director of policy at the nonprofit. Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards sat down with Richardson to understand this year’s report.

Editor’s Note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and brevity. 

Melodie Edwards: Can you focus on some of the places that we did improve in?

Micah Richardson: An area that we really did well was our economic wellbeing domain. While our numbers were really strong, we still have 12,000 kiddos who are living in poverty, so that is something we need to think about.

When we're thinking about those supports that help people put food on their table, that help them access the healthcare they need, it's really important that we're considering those families and recognizing that even though a huge portion of them are working, they are still struggling sometimes to make ends meet, and those programs and supports are really important.

The other area that was interesting is children living in households with a high housing cost burden. We have 25% who are still facing those high cost burdens, and I think that is not news to any of us. I think we're seeing the cost of living in each of our cities and towns rise, and so continuing to think about are there local programs that can help support workforce living or low-income living.

I know there have been bills in the past that the state could put forward and say, "Hey, can we do something that sets aside some funding so that cities and towns can really think about development and developing housing for [the] workforce and more attainable housing?"

Then the other domain that we did really well in was the family and community domain. One area where we are consistently faring better than many of the other states those children living in high poverty areas. It has been this way for quite a long time, but it dropped even lower, so less than .5% of our children are living in those high poverty areas. That is a place, I think, as a state to feel good about that. We generally have what we need to help kids and families thrive.

ME: If you have other areas that you feel that you want to highlight in terms of where there were improvements, I would love for you to elaborate.

MR: In that health domain, we are always lower on that ranking. While I don't want to celebrate the fact that there were 31 child and teen deaths per 100,000, that is not great; however, it is five fewer than where we were before, and any progress we can make on that front, I think, is incredibly important.

So when I think about those numbers, and knowing from 2019 and 2023 and then now 2024, those are continuing to slowly go down. We're certainly going to have to watch to know if it's actually a trend or if those numbers are so close that it's just hard to tell.

But I do think the focus on, in the past years, on funding 998 suicide hotline, on thinking about more resources in schools, and how we can better support counselors, that was a bill that came up last year that I will be happy to see continued positive improvement. And just the governor taking initiative to host mental health forums and things like that are those steps that we have taken helping to move these numbers down. I hope we can continue to see those numbers drop.

ME: Where are you seeing that children's wellbeing in our state is declining?

MR: We know it's a national trend that since COVID, the education numbers have dropped. I think it's something that in the K-12 system we need to think about. What kind of steps can we take?

So if we can support the early educational opportunities for families, I think that can go a long way to building the outcomes for our children, which we know then make stronger outcomes for communities, for our workforce, for long-term growth of Wyoming, all of that. Right now, federal-level 21st Century funding comes from the feds, and so ensuring that continues to be sent along to our states to support our kiddos.

But at the state level, are there opportunities to support these sorts of systems? We know that it's good for education, but it's also good for our workforce.

ME: One of the areas that I noticed in terms of children's health in the state that is still a problem is obesity. Can you talk a little bit about that issue?

MR: I cannot give you concrete reasons as to why the numbers shift or what they are. The only things I can think of, total speculation, but I think about our rural communities and access to healthy foods in some of these places. What does food access look like in those spaces as well?

This could also be a great space for and a great reason to make sure that we are keeping PE in the curriculum at the elementary and high school levels, and that we are continuing to support outdoor opportunities for Wyoming's youth.

I know the tourism board has looked at some of how can we engage and put more in place and provide funding and that sort of thing. I think that will continue to be important as we think about families, our youth, but all of us, thinking about building a healthy community.

ME: You had mentioned the fact that lots of our children, or more of our children, are living in homes where their parents are burdened in terms of their housing costs. How does that affect children?

MR: Whether you are living in a house that you own, if you are looking to own a house, or if you are renting and those rental prices, your monthly rent, is going up, you are then faced with choices of where you make sacrifices. My hunch would be that, most families, having a roof over their head is going to be number one.

Number two might be the food that you put on your table. Then, you might be moving down the list to making sure you are getting the healthcare that you need, et cetera. When those housing costs are so high that you are now having to make those hard decisions, that's tough on a family, and it increases the stress of parents. Children feel that stress. It also directly impacts the other things that a child and a family need to survive. So, even thinking about transportation and your gas and all of those start to build. It's great to continue renting, but if you're also seeing those rental prices increasing, it's a lose-lose situation.

So what kinds of solutions are out there that we as cities, and towns, and counties can also perhaps look to to try to find some of these solutions that address the issue?

Pamela Galbreath has published a new book titled “In the Scent of Horses, Hay and Old Barns: The Story of Eleanor Prince-Intrepid American Horsemanship Educator.” The biography is set in southeast Wyoming. Wyoming Public Radio’s Grady Kirkpatrick spoke with Galbreath about the book.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity. 

Pamela Galbreath:  The inspiration for writing the book was Eleanor Prince, and her story and her abilities and strengths coming from the East in a rather elite, comfortable setting, and coming to Wyoming because she is so interested in getting horses and making a life of horses.

The story was just so moving to me. That's how I latched onto her and decided to write this book, her biography.

Grady Kirkpatrick: Tell us about Ellie's background, where she grew up in Boston, and how she started her love of horses.

PG: She started her love of horses on pretty much the first page of the book. Very briefly, she was four years old, visiting with her family, and she wandered off to a buggy. There was a horse that was well-known for being cantankerous [and] for bucking. And when her parents found her finally, she was underneath the horse, right by his hooves. The horse was calm, and she was calm.

It was in her blood. She just loved horses. She borrowed horses, and she used that term a lot when she was visiting her grandfather in New Hampshire. When she was in college, she read every book she could find in the bookstores, at [the] college library.

She came to Wyoming in 1956 and rented what she called a small cabin, loved that little cabin, just directly below, or at the base of, Jelm Mountain. [She] found horses by asking people if their very ill horse, their very sickly horse, their malnourished horse, that they were going to part with, if she could buy the horse. She had hardly any money; she came out with very little. And she bought those horses and started working with them and training them and just doing everything with them. And then she met up with a lot of military who were stationed here, and they had children, and all the children wanted to learn to ride horses. So Ellie said, "I can do that."

GK: Oh, yeah, boy, could she.

PG: Could she ever. And so she took this small group of women, almost all of them I was able to interview, and taught them how to ride horses for real.

GK: Talk a little bit about Ellie's approach to horsemanship, and it was far beyond just riding.

PG: It was. Ellie believed in total communication between horse and rider. She believed that if you just got on a horse and went, you were not riding because the horse was not in any kind of connection with you. She had a term that I don't know how many times it is mentioned in the book called “ground up,” which meant that she wanted her riders to get to know their horse that they were going to be riding, whether they were in a class or they had bought a horse. They had to work with that horse, checking its teeth. I didn't know you could put your hand in a horse's mouth and survive, but she taught that. Saddling, bridling came after, currying the horse, working with the horse, checking the horse all around, loving the horse, petting the horse, all of this on the ground work. Some people would probably get very tired of that, but she insisted that you didn't know your horse until you did that.

GK: Along with her work on the ranch, she supplemented her income by teaching at Harmony Elementary School between Laramie and Jelm. That was, I guess, the late '50s, and she certainly had a knack for teaching and inspiring her students.

PG: She did. As she said to me when we were talking one day, "You know, teaching is no different from riding a horse." And as a teacher myself, I somewhat agreed with her, because you have to know your pupils so well. You have to know what encourages them, what triggers them, how they work. Because she was an artist, and she would watch a student trying to draw, perhaps a horse, and she would see that the student was coming at it from this angle, when maybe this angle might be a little easier. So she was a born teacher because of her born ability to work with horses. She had a number of students who just adored her. I have met some of those students, and they corroborate that they thought she was the greatest.

GK: I expect a lot of folks would be interested in this story, especially people who love horses, those who appreciate ranching in the West, and people living in southeast Wyoming. It really provides an interesting historical perspective on this part of the state, beginning in the late '50s and right on up to the first part of the 21st century. But I think the story is pretty universal.

PG: It is universal. And, interestingly, Ellie had students from every state in the Union, except, for some strange reason, Arkansas. She also had a woman who came over from the Hawaiian Islands. She had a woman who came from the UK. I talk mainly about women, but she had men who came from various places to take lessons from her. So it's really a larger than Wyoming story for everyone.

GK: She became renowned in horsemanship nationwide.

PG: She did. She really did. She had three books that she published. The first one was on basic horsemanship. The other two books dealt with everything from breeding to learning how to take care of your saddle. Those books, published by Simon & Schuster, were all over.

GK: What do you think Eleanor Prince's legacy and impact was over the years?

PG: I think her legacy is her personality. She could blend with anyone. She could blend in any situation. She was a remarkable, strong, amazing woman. I believe her story deserves a place in Wyoming's history. I think her legacy, as well, in a more narrow approach, is that she was able to combine dressage riding, which some people call [the] ballet of horses, cavalry, Western, Eastern, and help riders be able to use all of those or just one of those. But she was not just an English rider. She was all of these, and she also helped others if they wanted to breed horses. She was a good businesswoman in so many ways, and has, I think, given Wyoming so very much.

This is a breaking news story. It may be updated.

A Natrona County court struck down three of the state’s abortion restrictions. This doesn’t change much on the ground, since the laws were already temporarily blocked, but it does make them unconstitutional.

The June 12 order includes a law which required abortion seekers to get an ultrasound 48 hours before ending their pregnancies.

Another required abortion clinics become ambulatory surgical centers, which means making certain building renovations and getting admitting privileges at a local hospital. The last one excluded the use of abortion pills for off-label uses.

The Wyoming Legislature passed those laws in its 2025 session. The Natrona County court temporarily blocked them from going into effect shortly after, while litigation continued. The June 12 decision is more permanent, unless the state decides to appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

In his order, the retired judge assigned to the case, Thomas T.C. Campbell, referred to a January decision from the Wyoming Supreme Court. In that decision, the court struck down two near-total abortion bans, saying the state constitution protects the right to make their own healthcare decisions.

That includes “the decision to obtain an abortion,” Campbell wrote.

“Laws curtailing that right are irreparable in nature,” he added.

Breaking down the arguments

In regards to the ultrasound law, the state previously argued that requiring women to get ultrasounds two days before abortions protects them from the consequences of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.

However, Campbell said the state offers “no competent evidence that such instances are occurring with any measure of regularity.”

“What’s more, the State offers no cogent evidence illustrating that a waiting period is necessary for any purpose,” Campbell said. “The Plaintiffs, on the other hand, provide proof that a waiting period holds no utility.”

As for the law requiring abortion clinics to become ambulatory surgical centers, Campbell said the state didn’t prove it had a compelling government interest in this matter.

“Additionally, assertions regarding the general health and welfare of women are unsubstantiated,” Campbell wrote.

Campbell also said the state didn’t set forth a compelling interest regarding the off-label law.

The order comes months after another Natrona County judge blocked the state’s newer Human Heartbeat Act temporarily. That law attempted to ban abortions at around six weeks, or when cardiac activity is detected.

That case is ongoing.

Today on the show, we hear how more businesses are registering in the Cowboy State. A new business court could help bring more. Wyoming is ranking better every year on child and family wellbeing. But more can be done. And, how one Kinnear resident is supporting change for people involved in the justice system. Those stories and more.

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In Albany County, the school board pitched a new policy Wednesday that would limit students’ ability to make or share deepfakes.

Deepfakes are AI-generated videos or other AI-generated media depicting real people, often doing or saying things they did not actually say or do.

As the technology to make them has become more ubiquitous, deepfakes have been used to alter news photos, push misinformation and generate nonconsensual sexually explicit content, sometimes even involving minors.

“We just have to be very strong in saying, ‘No, we’re not going to do this in our district,’” Superintendent John Goldhardt said during the school board’s most recent meeting.

The proposed policy would prohibit students from making or sharing deepfakes depicting private individuals, like classmates or teachers, but not necessarily public individuals like celebrities or the president.

Chief Human Resources Officer Nathan Cowper said it would also ban all deepfakes depicting sexual activity.

“I would say those are the two main prohibitions of the policy,” he said. “We are always behind in these situations, and so the policy does say that this policy should be reviewed annually.”

School leaders weren’t aware of any other school districts in Wyoming looking into similar policies, but said Albany County should be proactive.

“Deepfakes between students have impacted the mental health and well-being of students, and unfortunately there have been young people across the country who have taken their own lives due to the severity of a deepfake,” Goldhardt said in an email. “In addition, deepfakes can potentially destroy and/or severely harm an educator's professional and personal reputation and credibility, and that is simply unacceptable.”

The move comes as a new state law adds criminal penalties for the making or sharing of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes.

Albany County Schools’ proposal passed unanimously on first reading this week. It will need to pass three readings to take effect.

School leaders say they are developing a more “comprehensive” AI policy that could be adopted next summer.

This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.

One of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, Yellowstone National Park, has its busiest May on record.

The National Park Service (NPS) says 570,272 people visited the park in May. That number is 20% higher than in May of 2021, which kicked off the busiest year on record with more than 4.8 million visitors. Yellowstone has seen more visitors this year to date, around 773,653 people, which is slightly higher than last year. This is typically the start of the park’s peak season. Other popular national parks, like Grand Teton and Yosemite, have also seen an uptick in visitation in May.

This year also marks the 250th Anniversary of American Independence celebrations. Yellowstone will be hosting many celebrations, which could draw crowds. Independence Day weekend will be free admission for Wyoming residents.

The growth in visitation comes at a time when Wyoming’s national parks face a combined $1.6 billion maintenance backlog. Pres. Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” has decreased the NPS budget by nearly $67 million since it was passed last year.

Yellowstone is due for upgrades to meet building codes, new wastewater systems, and more than 1,000 miles of trail work. With less funding, visitors have already experienced maintenance delays and staffing shortages.

Members of the Torrington High School band recently returned from a once-in-a-lifetime trip. The Torrington Telegram reports they traveled to Philadelphia and Washington, DC, to perform as part of the America 250 Concert Series. Students got to tour several iconic American landmarks and museums.

Powell High School music makers also recently returned from a trip, but this one was a bit further afield. The Powell Tribune reports band and choir students performed in historic venues in Italy. They were the first Wyoming group to present in Ponte San Nicolo outside of Venice.

And, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, the amount of water from one of Old Faithful Geyser’s eruptions could fill 140 household bathtubs.