Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

The Roundup is a gathering of voices, opinions and perspectives from interesting people in the Cowboy State of Wyoming.

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 28, 2025 08/28/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 28, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 28th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Recent steps by the Trump administration and Wyoming are a lifeline for Wyoming’s shrinking timber industry. But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that those steps may be too little, too late for what remains of the state’s family-owned lumber businesses. “I wanted to see… how are our lumber mill industry, timber industries doing since all these changes have come along, are they feeling confident about the future? And, you know, really, they're in such bad shape… they're selling more timber now, sure, but when they go through and start cutting that timber, half of it's dead. You know, got so much beetle kill and so forth out there in the forest that the quality of the timber is much less than it used to be… it's a lot of moving parts and a lot of things that need to happen, and they're not out of the proverbial woods yet.” To get back to an economically viable level of production, Wyoming lumber producers say they would need to see roughly twice as much timber for sale next year. Read the full story . – Casper Police evacuated two businesses late Wednesday afternoon and then were able to negotiate the surrender of a man on the second floor of the building whom his mother said is wanted for murder. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck spoke to a woman walking around the building who identified herself as Robin Behan, the suspect’s mother. She said her son’s name was Alejandro Behan and he had “gone back home” to Riverton for a visit - and said, quote, “it turns out he was wanted for homicide.” “I was able to talk to this individual's mother, who said that, you know, she didn't know that he was wanted for homicide. She thought he was wanted for a probation violation, and she encouraged him to surrender to the police, but he apparently didn't do that, and the police showed up in big numbers, and according to another witness, they used a megaphone, speaking speaking in English and Spanish, and then he later saw this individual being walked out in handcuffs.” A Casper Police Department spokesperson confirmed the department executed a felony arrest warrant in the area near Veteran’s Park off Second Street. Read the full story . – Since 2001, the U.S. Forest Service’s Roadless Rule has forbidden new road construction on national forests across Wyoming’s high country. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz announced the first step toward rescinding the rule. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that that could open up 45 million acres of roadless areas on national forests across the West for possible new road construction - including vast swaths of some of Wyoming’s premier high country, such as the Wyoming Range and Bighorn Mountains. “There are some people who are enthusiastic about that. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman from Wyoming has expressed very enthusiastic support for that, as she sees it would help along with our logging industry and mitigating fire risk. But I heard today from some people that are pushing back against it, like Trout Unlimited back country hunters and anglers. Organizations like that are saying, you know, hey, not so fast. They're saying that just a blanket, across the board elimination of the roadless rule could possibly mess up really good wildlife conservation and hunting and fishing areas.” The Forest Service will publish the notice of intent to rescind the Roadless in the Federal Register on Friday. That will open a public comment period, scheduled to last until Sept. 19. Read the full story . – Wyoming has officially surpassed Texas in uranium production, marking a dramatic turnaround for an industry that has languished for decades under depressed prices and foreign competition. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke to industry experts who say that Wyoming's current production levels are just the beginning of what promises to be an explosive growth period. “They're predicting that the current production rate, which is around 92,000 pounds of uranium each quarter, is what Wyoming is producing right now. That could jump to a million pounds a quarter in the coming years, and put Wyoming at the top of the heap as the leading uranium producer, surpassing Utah… Every year the nation consumes about 50 million pounds of uranium as it powers the 100 something nuclear power plants around the country, and we're only domestically producing 1/50 of that, about a million pounds. And so there's a huge opportunity there for Wyoming to fill in, that need, that demand.” Wyoming currently has three active uranium mines ramping up production, with a fourth project in the Shirley Basin expected to come online before year's end. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Ranchers throughout Wyoming and Nebraska are rallying to provide emergency hay for those impacted by wildfires tearing through Wyoming’s critical cattle grazing lands. Coordinating a portion of the relief effort is the University of Wyoming Extension, which has launched a website designed to connect ranchers with hay surpluses for those who need help providing for their herds. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker spoke to donors who are offering hay through the emergency site to ranchers in need. “I spoke to one individual in Nebraska who was saying that he personally witnessed some of the impacts that that fire can have on cattle. And he told me that, you know, cattle can usually only live about 10 days without eating something, but it takes between 30 and 45 days to regrow grass that's been burned. So individuals like this that are sharing their resources are being very generous and trying to make a really big impact here on cattle in the state of Wyoming.” Wyoming’s biggest wildfire of the season so far is the Red Canyon Fire, which has burned its way through 125,000 acres in the Bighorn Basin as of Tuesday. Other blazes in Willow Creek and Dollar Lake continue to impact the availability of forage for cattle throughout the state. Read the full story . – As summer 2025 winds down, Wyoming finds itself at the center of America's push to break China's grip on rare earth element production. Three separate rare earth projects are now underway across the state, representing the most concentrated domestic development effort in decades. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that this summer, rare earth operations near Ranchester, Upton and American Rare Earths' mine outside Wheatland made big moves to cut into China’s grip on the world’s rare earths production, but many hurdles lie ahead. “I spoke to an expert in Colorado who broke it down and really talked about the hard realities of how hard it is to get one of these operations off the ground. Rare Earth is everywhere, but not in economically viable concentrations where a mine can really profit… we went from ignoring rare earth to really just full speed ahead and Wyoming's right at the forefront.” The Trump administration has made domestic rare earth production a national security priority, as China controls about 85% of global rare earth processing. Read the full story . – A Wyoming state legislator who’s announced his candidacy for governor has stepped down as chairman of a state Senate committee. Sen. Eric Barlow of Gillette announced his candidacy for the 2026 governor’s race Aug. 12. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Barlow removed himself from his role on the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee because of a Wyoming legislative rule dating back to 1975, which says any committee chair running for a statewide office “shall immediately resign from his or her chairmanship” of the committee. “It's an old rule. It's 50 years old, so we've kind of lost touch on whoever enacted it, and why the rule just says you're the chair of the committee, you're running for a statewide office, you got to step down. And he did… Senator Cale Case… said, like, I get why we have the rule, because maybe a guy would use the chairmanship to grandstand, which he said Barlow would not do. He called Barlow a gentleman… And then he said, But if a guy did use a position of power like that to grandstand while campaigning, then Wouldn't we all just know that he wasn't fit to be governor?” Barlow has chaired various select committees and task forces, and remains chair of the Mental Health and Vulnerable Adult Task Force, which is not governed by the committee chair election rule. Read the full story . – In Colorado, mustang numbers are kept in check by volunteers who prowl the range, shooting female horses with darts loaded with fertility-control drugs. Advocates say that it’s working and spares Colorado wild horse herds from helicopter roundups that have ignited controversy in Wyoming, Nevada and other Western states. But the effectiveness of fertility-control darting is extremely limited in Wyoming, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz. “It requires a lot of diligence. These doses have to be administered to each mare about once a year… you get in places like The Rock Springs area, the huge red desert where you get you're talking sometimes 1000s of horses spread across a gazillion acres, it's probably not going to work… one place where it is practical is the McCall of peaks in Wyoming. It works well there because it's a smaller area, easily identifiable horses… And they also have man made water wells there. So there's points where the horses have to come to get water… which makes makes it much easier to be there and and Dart them.” Critics say the BLM’s wild horse roundups are cruel and unnecessary, as helicopters are used to drive mustangs into holding corrals. Others argue that the mustangs are a feral, invasive species, and their numbers must be kept in check to protect the rangeland environment and native wild animals. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37995885

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 08/27/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 27th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – An Albany County man is accused of fatally ramming a wild horse with an ATV on August 18th. 60-year-old Stuart Schmidt is facing felony animal cruelty charges over the incident - but he says the charge stems from a neighbor’s vendetta over a land zoning dispute. The neighbor, conversely, told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that she turned in Schmidt for committing a cruel act — not because of any bitterness over the land feud. “There's multiple sides to this story. There's the neighbor's account and court documents taken from her interview that is like, yeah, he chased after this horse until it was dead. And then the defendant himself, is saying, No, I believe that my neighbor reported it that way because we had a land dispute where I didn't want her to subdivide her land so much that this stopped being a rural area… the neighbor who turned Schmidt in, uh, has surveillance footage of the incident where you can, according to court documents, you can see the chase, but you can't see the ATV hitting the animal.” Schmidt faces one count of felony cruelty to wildlife, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines. He is out of jail on an unsecured bond. Read the full story . – Converse County rancher Mike Stephens has long worried about what massive wind turbines might do to the wildlife on state land near his family's multi-generational ranch. But it wasn't until this month that his attorneys spelled out those concerns in detail in Converse County District Court. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Stephens isn’t the only Convers County resident anxious about how the Pronghorn H2 project will impact the local landscape and wildlife. “There's been an ongoing debate over the Pronghorn H2 project, which would create hydrogen based jet fuel a local rancher has followed through with his litigation and has laid out about six points of that he wants to raise with the district court, saying, Look, this isn't allowed under your own rules… He's saying the state land board violated its own rules that it allowed this wind project to go forward even though it's not feeding electricity directly to the grid, which he says, and his attorneys say, is a requirement.” Also, according to court documents, Game and Fish specifically identified portions of the lease area as "crucial winter range" for mule deer and antelope, recommending complete avoidance of infrastructure development or seasonal restrictions from November through April. Read the full story . – Two Casper police officers will not be charged in the April 28 shooting death of an armed woman who met them at her front door, after she called 911 to report a burglary in progress. Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen issued a letter Tuesday regarding the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old Casper resident Jody Cobia, saying he won’t prosecute. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the use of “deadly force” by the officers was considered reasonable for their own self-defense during the incident. “The woman had called 911, and said that there was a burglar in the house, and when she met the police, video from the body cameras on the police officers showed that she showed up at the door. She had a German shepherd that went out after an officer and she had a gun in her hand and said, where the expletive are my children. And then, according to what the letter said today, there was a click in the gun that she held, and it apparently misfired. And then the officers responded by firing at her and taking her life.” Court records showed that Jody Cobia and her husband had been estranged, and that Aren Cobia had filed for divorce April 14, asking for custody of three minor children. Read the full story . – There’s a long-range computer forecast that’s calling for snow in the first week of September, and possibly on Labor Day. But meteorologist Don Day says those computerized projections can be misleading. He told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that those predictions, quote, “drive me nuts.” “A graphic’s been circulating that shows snowfall throughout Wyoming in the high elevations during the first week of September, and that's gotten a lot of traction. The thing is, that was done by Long Range weather modeling via computers… Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day hates Long Range weather modeling. I mean, he uses it for his long term forecast, but he backs that up with current weather patterns and historical data, so it doesn't rely solely on that. So when people get an interesting idea of what the weather might be in a week or a month, or even further than that, and they share it online to get people ramped up. He doesn't like that, because a lot can change.” Snow is expected at elevations above 10,000 feet by mid-September, but Day said there hasn’t been an “early high-country” snow in Wyoming for several years. Read the full story . – Two-thirds of the Wyoming House of Representatives signed a letter dated Tuesday urging the Trump administration to pardon a 65-year-old diesel mechanic sentenced to prison for deleting emissions controls from diesel engines. “Deleting” those controls is a common practice in the private and commercial trucking sectors alike, but Wyoming man Troy Lake happened to be very good at it. So good, that the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Colorado decided to make an example out of him. Lake was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, fined $52,500 and will live out his days as a convicted felon. That is, unless a president pardons him, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland. “A lot of diesel guys delete their emission system, but not a lot of guys get caught or called the kingpin of emission systems delete brilliance. And Troy Lake did… when Chip Neiman, the speaker of the state house heard about it, he started circulating a draft letter urging President Trump to pardon Troy Lake to his fellow lawmakers in the house, and two thirds of them ended up signing it.” The Wyoming Freedom Caucus on Tuesday said in a social media post that all of its members signed the letter. And even many House members who aren’t Freedom-Caucus aligned also signed it. Read the full story . – Cooler temperatures, higher humidity and intermittent rains have brought some welcome relief for the hundreds of wildland firefighters battling a pair of fires in western Wyoming. But even so, Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the fires continue to grow and cause sleepless nights for area residents on edge about the potential for losing their properties - and valuable winter forage on public lands. “It's more humid, it's cooler, they're getting rain. That's not a magic bullet that just puts it out - these fires are still burning… especially in the dense forest… it's older growth and everything, it kind of forms its own natural umbrella. And so even though it's raining and and there's moisture, it kind of shields… the fuel that's burning underneath.” The incident management team reports that it’s actively protecting the Red Cliff Bible Camp near Cora, which was evacuated late last week as the fire exploded from about 30 acres to nearly 2,000. The camp and a 5-mile radius around Dollar Lake in the Green Lakes area remain under an evacuation order. Read the full story . – What seems like a herd of wild horses cresting the hill over Storey Boulevard in Cheyenne is turning heads as people drive along one of the city’s major east-west roads. The mural, showing a herd of horses galloping over the hilltop, looks finished, but there is still a day or two of work left to do. That’s what the artist, Jordan Dean, told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean. “They are almost finished. The weather is the problem right now. It's humid, and these epoxy paints, which, as we've mentioned before, $400 a gallon, okay? And when you open them up… you have about two hours to use it all up or you lose it… Well, when it's humid, the curing process accelerates, so you have even less than two hours to use up all the paint. And if it rains on the paint that you've just finished, it just basically messes it all up. So you have to have dry weather.” Dean does his work late at night while most of Cheyenne is fast asleep. That makes it seem as if the mural is taking shape through some kind of overnight wizardry to those driving by it every day. It’s been fascinating to watch it come to life, one good weather day at a time. Read the full story . – Beo’s back. A week after the 7-year-old Siberian husky got lost in the Wind River Mountains while on a camping trip with his family, Beo was back in Cheyenne with his family Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the husky traveled dozens of miles before his adventure was over. “Beo was participating in a family camping trip up the Big Sandy trailhead in the Wind River Mountains. When the family thinks he made it over the river, but was either too scared or couldn't find his way back to the opposite bank where the family was… it turns out the dog founds his own rescuers. He found a two guys he was comfortable with and their dogs. They were just hiking along. And once he found them, he stuck by their side. So they actually they managed to get a satellite phone and call down the family and say, Hey, we have your dog… And the family said… we're coming up to you to come get him.” Beo’s rescuers ensured that Beo was well-fed and looked after for the short time he was their traveling companion. He didn’t leave their side until reuniting with his family. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37975340

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 26, 2025 08/26/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 26, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 26th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – With carefully worded legal terms and patriotic sentiments, President Donald Trump on Monday announced an emphasis on prosecuting people who burn American flags. While Wyoming’s two U.S. Senators voiced their approval, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a leading First Amendment expert in the nation said prosecutions stemming from the order would be unconstitutional. “Trump's executive orders are really careful about, like, we're gonna do this controversial, controversial thing, but we're going to do it within the confines of case law and what's legal and what's allowed. So they try to thread the needle. But even so, with his Monday order against flag burning, a top speech attorney professor in the United States was like, it's still unconstitutional, and that's because Trump tried to bootstrap flag burning to other non speech offenses like property destruction.” The order calls for the U.S. Attorney General to prioritize prosecution of the nation’s criminal and civil laws against American flag desecrations that happen in the course of other, tangential crimes. Read the full story . – Firefighting crews working a pair of uncontained wildfires in western Wyoming can expect some help from Mother Nature this week. Late August is usually hot and dry, perfect for turning Wyoming’s forests and grasslands into tinderboxes. But Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that this week will be abnormally cool and wet. “These firefighting crews are finally going to get a little bit of help from mother nature here with these wildfires, especially the two burning in the western part of the state. Although they really haven't grown a whole lot in the last couple of days, they are still 0% contained, at least, that's what they're reporting. So they're burning pretty hot, but the weather is really going to come through for them. Don Day says that pretty much for the whole week they can expect it to be cooler, it's going to be more humid, and he won't guarantee it 100% but he says, they'll probably get some rain.” In response to the Dollar Lake and Willow Creek fires, Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order Monday declaring those emergencies. Read the full story . – A Maryland case of New World screwworm in a human being illustrates an important fact about the flesh-eating parasite that has the agricultural world on edge. The individual has since recovered, and there is so far no indication of any transmission to humans or other animals. But alerts have gone out across the nation, nonetheless, to other agricultural stakeholders. That includes Wyoming agriculture and veterinary officials, who told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean they are mainly pushing awareness right now, as well as heightened vigilance across the livestock industry. “In Wyoming, ranchers probably feel pretty safe. We're pretty far north. This is a subtropical, tropical pest, it requires hot temperatures, moist environments. We don't have either one of those things, really, most of the time in Wyoming, but they have been seen as far north as North Dakota in the past… we're all just as near as the nearest airport to people who have traveled, and potentially have traveled in Central America, which is where this is is kind of taken off from.” Screwworms were once common in the southern United States up until the 1950s or so, and they cost the agricultural industry millions annually. The pests ranged from Florida to California, infecting all sorts of living, warm-blooded animals, not just cattle. Their scientific name, in fact, means “man eater” in Latin. Read the full story . – For one week in June, hundreds of Wyomingites across the political spectrum galvanized under the leadership of a purple-haired, outspoken, female Ph.D. from Laramie. Whether it was fate or a broken-clock moment, Rep. Karlee Provenza has become the face of the Wyoming resistance to a proposed public lands selloff. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to Provenza, who along with Representative Mike Yin, is holding town halls across Wyoming. “They arranged the town halls uniquely so that … the arrangement is discouraging to hecklers, right? Because you walk in and you're expecting, like a stage and like this preachy politician, and everyone's gonna kind of listen and then maybe shout. That's not the way they have it set up. They have these town halls set up in these little tight chair circles… And you're supposed to respond to prompts from Provenza and Yin about the Wyoming you want to see, and then, and then, like, the group scribe stands up and reads the answers… one of the prevailing themes that just kept surfacing Thursday was we're concerned about keeping public lands, and that was the groundswell that Karlee Provenza rode this summer.” The listening-session meetings started in Cheyenne earlier this month. Provenza and Yin went to Casper on Tuesday, and Lander on Thursday, and are planning at least seven more stops in seven more towns in the coming weeks. Read the full story . – The power is finally back on across much of southern Carbon County after lightning hit a power substation and left about 5,600 Rocky Mountain Power customers without electricity for more than 16 hours Sunday and Monday. The outage closed many businesses, affected traffic signals and gave kids in Rawlins a bonus day off from school, according to Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison. “It was a big light show, hail, heavy rain and a direct hit to Rocky Mountain Power's Platte substation. It hit the lightning arrester, and that's supposed to absorb the impact of a of a lightning bolt, and it did its job, but I think it went too far, according to a company source there, who said they blew some fuses and just had a mess to clean up… I spoke to the chief of police in Rawlins, and he said we were ready for it. We have a protocol, all the major buildings, the prison, they all have backup generators. But he said… when I woke up that morning. I was like, Wait, hold on, how am I going to get my cup of coffee?” Fortunately for commuters, some enterprising youngsters who found themselves with a day off of school, set up a battery-powered coffee stand - charging $2 a cup. The power returned at 11:30 a.m. Read the full story . – The section of the Air Force that oversees the military branch’s bases is un-grounding the Sig Sauer M18 handgun, after pausing its use for a month over the July 20 shooting death of a Wyoming-based airman. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Air Force Global Strike Command has completed a “comprehensive inspection” of its nearly 8,000 M18 Modular Handgun systems, after pausing their use July 21 out of what officials say was, quote, “an abundance of caution following a tragic incident.” “It's always hard to grasp at the inner workings of a military establishment, but what we know is that they that an airman died in a shooting incident, January, July 20, the next day, the branch of the Air Force that oversees bases paused that pistol and launched an investigation into into those pistols. A few days after that, someone was arrested on claims of false swearing and involuntary manslaughter in that same debt. And then the investigation of the gun finishes up.” 21-year-old Brayden Lovan died in a gunshot incident on July 20. The base announced about three weeks afterward that a person had been arrested in the shooting on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and making false statements. Read the full story . – The Hillsdale College member classical charter school continues to grow as staff and students started the school year Monday in a new 36,000-square-foot, $15 million building in Mills. The Wyoming Classical Academy, a charter school, celebrates its third year of operations by moving into the new two-story structure, and Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that both students and staff are thrilled. “They use a curriculum from Hillsdale College in Michigan, which is well known for its classical education and in learning techniques… they start out in kindergarten and first grade, they have Spanish, and they have Latin as they get in later in elementary, and then in high school, they can have advanced Latin… They have American history, literature, all the kinds of classic learning that you think about… the students I talked to are excited to be there. The parents I talked to were excited to have their kids there.” The school’s mission statement informs parents that it will, quote, “train the minds and improve the hearts of young people through a content-rich classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character and virtue.” Read the full story . – And forget the night before Christmas, Santa hits Yellowstone National Park four months before. Employees of Xanterra Parks and Resorts celebrated Christmas in August on Monday, the 25th. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the event has been an annual tradition in Yellowstone for more than 70 years. “On the night of August, 24 employees from Xanterra, that's the concessionaire that runs the hotels and restaurants in the park, they come out to Christmas tree rock, and they decorate the trees, and then sometime on the 25th national park employees come out here to take down the decorations. So it's the morning of August 24 here in Yellowstone, you can see the tree behind me has a bunch of ornaments and cards attached to it, and there's a big red ornament on the top of that lodge pole, pine on Christmas tree rock… good natured holiday fun during the busiest time of the year for the park.” There may be no snow, and the timing’s not right, but Old Faithful Inn’s a spectacular sight for that one day in August, when everyone's there to see Yellowstone's wonders — so, why not share the spirit of Christmas with cookies, fun, and great decorations at the peak of summer? Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37957485

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 25, 2025 08/25/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 25, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 24th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Just as hundreds of wildland firefighting crews are getting a handle on multiple fires in the Bighorn Basin of northern Wyoming, spots in the tinderbox-dry Bridger-Teton National Forest are blowing up. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that a new large and dangerous fire has flared up in the Star Valley about 4 miles south of Smoot, prompting an hourslong closure of Salt River Pass along U.S. Highway 89. “Just as fire crews are getting a handle on these fires that are burning in the Big Horn Basin, especially… the 125,000 acre Red Canyon fire that that is now 75% contained… the Dollar Lake fire is burning. It was discovered Thursday, it was only about 20 to 30 acres. It blew up to about 17 or 1800 by Friday, and now it's about 10,000 acres… it's still 0% contained… and it's kind of running east toward square top… with that going on, another fire is blowing up in Star Valley, only about four miles south of Smoot. It's about 4000 acres as of Saturday evening.” There are 61 firefighters on the Willow Creek Fire near Smoot and more are on the way. Officials also warn looky-loos not to impede traffic on Highway 89, noting that watching a wildfire isn’t safe or an appropriate spectator activity. Read the full story . – Last year, the Shoshoni police department issued 2,372 speeding tickets. If you were to divide that into its population of 630, it’s the annual equivalent of about four speeding tickets for every man, woman and child in this mile-wide town. Of course, these citations are not going to local residents. They’re doled out among the 3.4 million out-of-town travelers who pass through each year. Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag rode along with Chief Chris Konija last week. “He is right at the forefront of an institution that is known as Wyoming's foremost speed trap. And… I got to ride along, sit in the car, watch the radar climb, and then when someone speeds, they're right out on their tail, and those tickets come out fast… and it happens all day long… So it is, you know, it makes it wonder, are these speeding tickets really changing behavior? Because that's the goal. That's what they say. We want to slow down the traffic.” Konija seems to genuinely believe that the town can cite its way to robust public safety. With enough citations given, he says, the message will eventually reach all drivers: When you arrive in Shoshoni, you better slow down. Read the full story . – A death Saturday morning on Honor Farm Road just north of Riverton brought at least a dozen law enforcement vehicles and prompted an hourslong investigation. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland arrived on the scene around 7 a.m. Saturday, where officers had discovered the dead body of a juvenile male who had apparently been stabbed. “Fremont County Sheriff's deputies and Riverton Police Department officers responded like early, like 4am to Honor Farm Road - now that stretches alongside the prison farm… I was there while they were processing the scene… I watched them bag up a Nike shoe, a lot of fabric. They took copious photos. And then lastly, they they put the youth on a gurney, and the coroner took custody of the body… the sheriff's office on Saturday said… a lot of the witnesses and the suspects fled before investigators got there.” The investigation revealed that a large group of males who were familiar with each other had had a physical altercation, in which the juvenile was stabbed fatally. No one is in custody as of Saturday afternoon, but law enforcement reports that the incident was specific to those involved and not a random act. Read the full story . – The Minutemen missiles under F.E. Warren’s control have been ready for blast-off, every second of every minute of every hour of every day for decades, in the rural fields of Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. And for anyone who has ever wondered what happens in the underground bunkers that house the controls to the nation’s nuclear arsenal, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean was given an extremely rare opportunity to tour one of the underground capsules from which America’s missiles would be launched - if they are ever needed. “They built this stuff in the 60s and the 70s… So to me, it felt a lot like I'm on this time travel trip. The elevator could be a TARDIS… And then you get down there, and it's dark and it's dungey, and you step on the floor… and there are shock absorbing equipment under there, because if there's an earthquake or an above ground attack, to try to get at these bunkers which have been hardened against attack… And then the air, they keep it dry… And it didn't taste good, you know, it was kind of dank and musty tasting… There's big blast door that you have to open the elevator there… and then everything in there is just really old.” The cost of repairs and updates is driving replacement of the Minutemen system, as well as the sense that the nation’s overall technology will be outstripped by adversaries like China and Russia. The planned installation of the new LGM-35A Sentinel system is estimated to cost around $141 billion dollars. Read the full story . – Nobody wants to hit an animal with a vehicle, but there are certain animals you definitely don’t want to hit. A mule deer will bend a bumper, but a cow could literally cost you an arm and a leg — or even your life. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that size and speed matter, particularly when it comes to the survivability of a livestock-vehicle collision. “I think when most people are driving on highways, they're more concerned about hitting prong horn and mule deer than they are hitting cows. But hitting a cow shouldn't be underestimated, because a mule deer, most will weigh around 200 pounds. Cows weigh around 1000 pounds. And speaking to body shop owners who have worked on vehicles that have been hit by cows, they describe it it's like hitting a brick wall… they couldn't think of a vehicle that wouldn't be shredded apart and torn to pieces by a cow strike.” Hitting a cow is extremely dangerous, expensive, and life-threatening - and drivers should not underestimate cows and the possibility of running into one when driving through Wyoming. Read the full story . – For nearly two decades, Darren Clifford fought wildland fires on the front lines, enveloped by smoke, heat and flames as he used shovels to build fire lines. However, his career fighting these fires has come to an end after years of battling wildfires fought back. Now 42 years old and living in Lander, Clifford needs a lung transplant. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that he’s channeled that passion for fighting wildfires into keeping people informed about wildfires, through his . “When he was medically discharged because of smoke inhalation that led to his lungs being severely damaged, he wasn't ready to give up this love, this passion he had for fighting fires. So what he did is he turned to his computer and started sharing ‘Catch the Fire Bug’… he's sharing the fires that are happening across America, and he is also offering advice and his expertise to those that want to prevent these fires from happening in their own backyard.” Clifford said that he is among an alarming number of wildland firefighters who have been medically discharged and now suffer severe issues from exposure to toxins in the smoke.He hopes that a solution can be found to help those still fighting fires and keep them on the job longer than he was able to stay. Read the full story . – After the Cowboys football season ends this fall, a key University of Wyoming Plaza fixture across the street from War Memorial Stadium will go into a renovation mode - one floor at a time. But when it returns to full operations as the university’s Class of 2027 prepares to graduate, the Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie will have rebranded itself as the UW-themed Graduate by Hilton Laramie. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the renovation will be a whimsical rework and upgrade of the campus hotel. “They're going to transform this hotel into what's called a Hilton graduate hotel. It's owned by a foundation, and it's one of three hotels that they own that all the money that they make is given to charities… This hotel is going to be transformed to to really associate itself with the University of Wyoming. It's going to have a western feel, that's what I'm being told. There's going to have Western art and just a real identity that puts this hotel as part of the University of Wyoming's campus.” The Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting humanitarian works worldwide, owns the hotel and is reimagining the property as an over-the-top UW utopia. Read the full story . – Beef tallow is gaining popularity as a skin care treatment, but slathering it on while vacationing in Yellowstone National Park or anywhere in grizzly country could get you mauled. Grizzlies have a keen sense of smell, many times better than that of dogs - and a retired federal ecologist told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that if the wind is right, it’s likely a grizzly could smell a hiker with beef tallow moisturizer from 5 miles away. “The jury is still out on how effective they are… they're really packed with a lot of vitamins that are good for your skin… what I heard from bear biologists was absolutely not… it's cow fat, and that's like ice cream for bears… if you're using a beef tallow skincare routine. Don't do it if you're planning on going into grizzly country, because you're essentially turning yourself into a walking piece of bear bait.” From a grizzly’s perspective, somebody oiled up with beef tallow would be like putting out a bucket of buttered popcorn at the movies — an invitation to chow down. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37943435

The Roundup: A Conversation With Tom Lubnau 08/23/2025

The Roundup: A Conversation With Tom Lubnau EP 2-37 TOM LUBNAU Wendy Corr: Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to the Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people here in the Cowboy State. And today's person of Interest is a very interesting person who has devoted his life to serving not just the state of Wyoming, not just his community, but to his family. This is going to be a really great conversation with Tom Lubnau. First though, I want to make sure that you know about another really great podcast, which is the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement". It is a fantastic resource, really interesting conversations with people who get you where you need to go, and bring you the information you need if you are a serious business person here in the Cowboy State. So don't miss out on the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast. It's a fantastic program - but don't go away, because first we have to talk to Tom Lubnau, who is truly one of Wyoming's premier public servants. And I'm just so glad to be able to have Tom on the podcast today. Hello, Tom Lubnau, how are you this fine day? Tom Lubnau: I'm wonderful. Wendy, thank you for having me - maybe a little too gushing in the compliments, but, but I appreciate what you say. Wendy Corr: Well, Tom, you truly have devoted your life to serving people. You've been a member - how long have you been a member of the, and were you a member of, the Gillette Fire Department? Tom Lubnau: I was. I was on the fire department for 21 years. I retired in 2016 and that's a sport for young people, and I'm not so young anymore. Wendy Corr: But obviously it was important to you to volunteer for that, because all of our fire departments, with the exception I think, there's two fire divisions in the entire state that are not volunteer. Tom Lubnau: There's a few that are career based, but it's really important to our communities. And in some places, if you have an emergency, that's who's going to count, is somebody who's a volunteer. And so I just had a house fire in 1992 and had $50,000 damage to the structure, and about $7.50 to the contents. The fire department here was so professional. I mean, I had my taxes laid out. I was working on my taxes, and it was laid out on a desk, and they put a towel over the top of it and rolled them up, and then took the taxes and put them in a clothes hamper in the garage. And when I got back into the house, I took that towel and rolled my taxes out. This was back, of course, when you didn't have computer taxes, and all the stacks were exactly the way I left them. And I thought to myself, if I can do that for someone else, what those people did for me, then that would be a good thing to do. I have had lots of really interesting, sometimes wild experiences fighting fire, and met some of the greatest friends in the whole world, where we've been to the gates of hell and back, and all came out on the good side. Wendy Corr: That's fantastic. Again, what a great compliment to the people who volunteer, who put themselves in danger, and to do that. Tom Lubnau: It's wonderful, great people, and have great respect for emergency responders. Wish I could physically keep up with the young folks and continue doing it. Wendy Corr: But you were able to do it for so long, and that's fantastic. You also have devoted so much of your life. You've been an attorney since the early 80s. So you've been an attorney, but you took that knowledge and that experience, and you said, I want to serve my community, my county here, and I want to go to the Wyoming Legislature. So tell us about your decision to really, because it is a volunteer thing - you get a little bit of pay, but it really is a choice to take time out of your own business, out of your own career, away from your family, and go down to Cheyenne and make decisions on behalf of the people that elected you. Tell us about about your decisions to do that. Tom Lubnau: Well, the legislature wasn't starting at the top. I had had a lot of public service before that, serving on boards and committees. I actually served a stint on the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee as a young man in the 80s, and so it's very politically active. And one of the things that we miss in Wyoming is that the Jaycees were a very active force. It was a great training ground where I met lots of people and learned how to do things that life just doesn't teach you. And so I'd been active, and we were active in political issues. A friend of mine said, You attorneys have goofed this all up. You need to go to Cheyenne and fix it. And I said, All right, you S.O.B., that's a challenge I'm willing to take. And it was two weeks later that my state representative resigned. And so then it was time to put my time where my mouth was. And so I applied for the vacancy. We had a runoff election between five candidates. I won by 30 some votes. Wendy Corr: Wow. But that was it. From then on, you're in. Tom Lubnau: And then I was in until I was Speaker of the House. And traditionally, the Speaker of the House either moves to the Senate, which I was uninterested in doing, or retire, which I was interested in doing. Wendy Corr: I'm curious. Why were you not interested in running for a Senate seat instead of continuing that aspect of your public service? Tom Lubnau: I guess my biggest curse in life, Wendy, is that I try not to do things halfway. And when I was Speaker of the House, it was taking between six and eight hours every day, plus I had a full time job of six or eight hours every day, and my family life, just in terms of the time available, was suffering. And so there were other priorities and other things in my life that I thought more important. Wendy Corr: Absolutely. Tom Lubnau: And talking to a friend of mine that I served with, he figures it cost him $20 million over his career to serve in the legislature. Now, mine wasn't that much, but if you figure out my hourly rate, it's six to eight hours a day, times $300 an hour, all of a sudden, you do that math, that's a lot of money that I've foregone for public service. Wendy Corr: Yep, that's true. Oh my goodness, I haven't put the math to it before, but yes, that makes sense. Tell me about your family's support of you, though, during the time that you did serve in the Wyoming Legislature. Tom Lubnau: My wife, Rita, is just an amazing person and will support me in any adventure that I choose to undertake. And we have just a wonderful, full life. Our daughter Rachel, was out of the house at the time that I decided to run, in college, and when I first ran, my son was five years old. And I'd come home on the weekends and he'd hug me and wouldn't let go when I'd leave to go back to Cheyenne for a week. It was pretty traumatic. But he played hockey, and all through my legislative term, I think I missed one hockey game, traveling. Wendy Corr: Wow, that's an impressive record there, Dad. Tom Lubnau: He was important, and that was important, and spending the weekends with my family was important. My best was in Billings. It's a long drive from Cheyenne to Billings on a Friday night to watch a hockey game. Wendy Corr: Well, I think that's fabulous, and I love the fact that your family was supportive, and yet you were very supportive of them during those years. But now, when was your last year in the Wyoming Legislature? Tom Lubnau: 2014-2015 Wendy Corr: So it's been 10 years now that you've been out of the Wyoming Legislature, but you are still very much a presence in Cheyenne. And we're fortunate at Cowboy State Daily that you write a regular column for us, which is very - some of them are very informative, and some of them are very entertaining. I mean, genuinely, I loved your column about Led Zeppelin and Stairway to Heaven. That was fabulous. And there was one not too long ago that was about how everybody should go to sunrise Wyoming. Tell me about that. Why is it important for everyone to visit the tiny, little ghost town, mining town of Sunrise, Wyoming in southeast Wyoming, Tom Lubnau: Well, who was that said that if you don't know history, you're bound to repeat the mistakes of history? That's not the exact quote, but yeah, I'm a student of Wyoming history, and I enjoy learning about Wyoming and Wyoming history, and Sunrise is just one of the most interesting stories in Wyoming history and what had happened there. There's an archeological site at Sunrise that is one of the oldest archeological sites in North America. It goes back 40,000 years. It was a red ochre mine where the red pigment from the iron was used not only for war paint, but as a primitive suntan lotion. And then, in the 1880s, Sunrise started out as a copper mine. And after the copper got mined out, there's a huge iron ore deposit there, and so they opened up an iron ore mine and mined iron all the way until the 19 - Well, the mine went bankrupt in the 80s, but in the 1970s it couldn't compete with worldwide mining, and so went bankrupt. But there's still huge iron ore mines there. The iron ore mine was a company - Sunrise was a company town, and then a while down the road was Hartville, not a company town, where the miners and Stockmans, which is the oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant in Wyoming, is. And if you have a chance to go, go. I mean, the food's a little expensive, but what a great restaurant. Well worth it. Okay, and after the choke cherries have bloomed, they have a house drink called the Sweet Melissa. It's marvelous. I recommend only having one. Wendy Corr: I think our Renee Jean went and talked about the Sweet Melissa at the Hartville bar. Tom Lubnau: So Hartville was bars and brothels, and Sunrise was a dry company town, the Rockefellers owned Sunrise. And after a massacre in Colorado, they decided that maybe they needed to clean up their act a little bit and change company mining town conditions. And so they built very, very nice company housing. They built the first YMCA in Wyoming, a YMCA with a dance floor and a movie theater and a three lane bowling alley in the basement, which is still there. And so then the mine went into bankruptcy. Somebody bought it for back taxes after the tax liens expired, and then it was going to be sold, and the Chinese were looking at it. Wendy Corr: And this is recent? Tom Lubnau: This is recent. He bought it - I'll think of his name. John Floyd bought it and so he owns the town. He bought it speculating on the iron ore and to keep the mine out of the hands of the Chinese when they were looking, so John owns it. He's donated the YMCA to the Sunrise historical and archeological, they call it Preservation Society, and they conduct once a year, they have a great big tour there. You can pay and go if you want to tour Sunrise. Otherwise, it's private, so you have to contact the Historical Society or John Voigt to get a tour. There were a lot of houses there, but in order to avoid paying property taxes, when they became abandoned, the mining company burned them down so there were no taxes on them. So there's a a great big, I don't know, it's like, and this is just a guess, it's like a 50 car garage. It's just this big garage in Sunrise, Wyoming, and they burned that down. So there's a lot of history missing just to avoid property taxes. But I guess when you're about to go bankrupt or your economics don't go there, you do whatever you can to stay in business. Wendy Corr: Oh my goodness, so interesting. So now we're all inspired to go to Sunrise and get their annual tour and see just what it was about this town that represented so much of American history, as well as Wyoming history. Tom Lubnau: And the tour takes, I mean, it's a four or five hour tour, so it's, spend the day. You know, I just kind of scratched the surface. I recommend anybody go. Wendy Corr: That's so cool. You've got so many different interests that you touch on in your columns, Tom, I mean, the one that just came out just this week is about free market economy. And you talk about that, the economics of that. You talk about public lands, you talk about property taxes and why we don't want to cut too far into the property taxes. I don't usually get too political on the Roundup, but tell me your view on property taxes and why that's something that is such a hot topic with Wyomingites right now? Tom Lubnau: Well, my old friend John Heinz used to say, nobody wants to pay taxes. You've gotta be crazy to pay taxes, but there has to be some element of responsibility, some skin in the game. When you receive government services that you pay for in Wyoming - we set up this. It's a brilliant property tax scheme. I wish I'd figured it out myself, where the bulk of your property taxes are paid by people from out of state who consume our minerals. And so a third of the state's budget comes from the federal government, and about a third of the state's budget, or a little more, come from people who buy our minerals and pay property taxes for the minerals in our state. And so, you know, a family of three gets, and I don't remember the exact figures, pays about $3,800 in taxes and receives about $27,000 in government services, okay, and so we don't bear the cost of our own government in our state, and we should. I mean, if we're receiving the services, it makes us a more responsible consumer if we do that now. And I think that government services are necessary. I think that the fire department's necessary. I think that police are necessary. I think that schools and property taxes are, those taxes that pay for your local services. Wendy Corr: The roads we drive on, right? Tom Lubnau: Yeah. And so I kind of laugh when people say, wow, there's all this waste in government. Because if anybody knew my friends John Heinz and Frank Philip, who were chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the lead house when I was there, you would know how frugal they are. My friend John Heinz, is it okay to tell you one John Heinz story? Wendy Corr: Tell me a John Heinz story! Tom Lubnau: Alright, John and I, my wife and I, we were traveling on a legislative trip. We were in Turkey and we got food poisoning at this restaurant, eating salad that - you only eat things that are cooked, but we had a salad, and so we all got food poisoning, and then we're all really, really, really sick. And we were traveling with some people from Colorado, a legislator from Colorado, and her two children who happen to be physicians. And there's a whole group of us. There are 20 of us in this group, and John was just really, really sick - typically, a healthy, active individual who was just as white as a sheet. And they these doctors pulled out these Ziploc bags, and they brought an assortment of all kinds of medication that they thought they might need in Turkey. And they said, Well, can we give you some medicine? And John said, No, I've already taken some medicine. And they said, What did you take? And he reached through his shaving kit, and he pulled out and handed him a packet of Anacin from 1982, that he'd saved since 1982. Wendy Corr: Anacin? Oh, my word. Tom Lubnau: So you can't be any more frugal than my friend John. Scottish, and frugal as any human, so when I hear people say we're going to come in and be more frugal than the people ahead of us, I just kind of have to laugh. Wendy Corr: Because you were, you were in - they call it the machine. You were in the machine, but you saw how it worked, and so as a result, you know how responsible the legislature was. Tom Lubnau: But when you first run, when you try to take power, you run against the status quo, until you become the status quo, and then everybody criticizes you and runs against you. But sometimes without knowing that history, you can over promise. And that's sort of been the subject of a lot of my columns lately, as you know - don't over promise. Understand things are the way they are for a reason. And before you seek to change those things, you should understand why those things are the way they are. And that's sort of what got me started writing the column, was, I was hearing lots of things in public discussion that were wrong, and so I wrote a couple letters to the Cowboy State Daily that said, No, this is wrong. This is how Wyoming's budget worked. And then I talked about the statistics and where the money came from and that you can't kick the federal government out of Wyoming, was one of them, and I was like, a third of our budget’s paid for by the federal government. It's going to be pretty hard to kick them out of Wyoming. And just one fire without the federal money from last year would have bankrupted this state. So I'd write these letters, and then our employer conscripted me. Changed me from a letter to the editor to a columnist. And so all of a sudden, I turned from a blowhard into a pundit. Wendy Corr: But you have that experience, Tom, you have that experience. And there are pieces of legislation that you're passionate about, that you continue to - talk about that. Of course, you know, last week, we just had the big, you know, blow up about you not being able to be on the schedule, but then you ended up talking for a half an hour as a public commenter. Tom Lubnau: I wish I'd have made it shorter, but I had a lot to say. Wendy Corr: You had a lot to say, but that's just it, Tom, you've got a lot to say because you're coming from a position of - you're educated about all of these topics, and you're passionate about making sure that those views, not just views, but that information is made public and made known to the public. And so those are things - you know, you talk about Chris Knapp and and you know, the fact that you grew up down the street from him, and he grew up down the street from you - it's not about the personalities. To you, it's about the information. Tell us about that. Tom Lubnau: If you read my column, most of the time, I'm just trying to explain why things are, why I perceive things are the way they are, and what I think we should do about it. And so there's always a bit of research. There's always something history based, and then what I think is wrong and where I think we should go. And I try to look for the positive and things, and sometimes I try to mix it up. I had a column I wrote about Alison Kraus and Union Station that I saw at Red Rocks. Wendy Corr: I love them. They're great. Tom Lubnau: You know, I wrote about the Eagles in the Sphere, and that was the perfect group in the perfect venue. Allison Krauss at Red Rocks was the perfect group at the perfect venue, but there was so much going on politically at the time that I never could submit the Allison Krauss so but I try to mix it up with just things about life too. I don't know if people read either one, but it's kind of fun for me, and our boss lets me write. Wendy Corr: Well, they're obviously reading them, and so that's something - that's really great. Now, what other... /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37926750

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 22, 2025 08/22/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 22, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 22nd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – In February of 2024, Cody Roberts ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, brought it muzzled into a bar, then shot it, setting off a firestorm of outrage across the globe. Although Roberts paid $250 last March toward a citation for violating Wyoming Game and Fish regulations against possessing wildlife, nearly 18 months later, a grand jury on Wednesday called for Roberts’ indictment on a charge of felony cruelty to animals. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that to secure a conviction in this case, the top prosecutor in Sublette County will have to walk a tightrope of legal provisions and exceptions. “Really tricky because there's a felony cruelty to animal statute from 2024 that he can use that was in place at the time of the alleged torment, but it has an exception for lawful taking of wildlife. He can't point to Robert's earlier citation for unlawfully possessing wildlife, because that actually doesn't cover wolves… So then he has to look at the four verbs within that exception and see whether what Roberts allegedly did is covered under a verb that's not within the exception.” Read the full story . There’s also concern that the case might open the door to animal cruelty allegations being brought against hunters or ranchers protecting their livestock from predators. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz spoke to experts on both sides of that question. “There is some concern that applying a felony cruelty to animal charges in a wildlife case could spill over and have some negative effects on hunting or agriculture, like, you know, a rancher goes to shoot a coyote that's killing his sheep and makes, you know, not the best shot and hits a coyote in the leg, is he now going to face cruelty to animal charges? I've heard other people saying, Nah, it applies properly to this case, but there's no real chance that it's going to spill over into other incidents and be misapplied to other cases. But that debate is out there.” In its 2025 legislative session, the state Legislature passed a law criminalizing cruelty to wildlife. But prior to that, the state did have a felony animal cruelty law on the books, which was routinely charged in cases involving domestic animals. Read the full story . – As of Thursday, the Red Canyon Fire, the largest active wildfire in Wyoming, has burned nearly 127,000 acres in the southeastern corner of the Bighorn Basin and is 31% contained. Ranchers in the path of the huge fire are watching helplessly as their winter forage burns up. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy spoke to several families who are now having to make heartbreaking decisions, like selling off their herds rather than watch them starve. “There's several issues, not just the grazing… We got the water loss, we got the grazing, and we also have the historic knowledge that these cows have… this is their home. So you have these cows that have calves every year, and they know where to take their calves…the ranchers who have had their range land devastated by this fire don't know quite the extent of the damage. They don't know if some of their pastures are even usable, and they also don't know if the BLM will allow them back on for up to three years.” To add more complexity to the situation, an incoming cold front is poised to stir up more trouble for firefighters and communities already threatened by wildfires. “When the cold front arrives, which it started doing on Thursday and will continue throughout the day Friday, it's going to manifest as erratic, gusty winds, which, if you're fighting a fire, or there's the potential to start fires. That's not ideal, because it's going to help spread the flames faster. But once the cold front moves on, there's going to be a change in the atmosphere over Wyoming. It's going to be cooler. It's going to be more moisture in the air, and that moisture could manifest as rain fall in places where it's most needed.” Fire restrictions have been enacted throughout Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park, as summer heat and low precipitation continue to dry out the parched landscape. Read the full story . – A Laramie County fire chief and his wife pleaded not guilty Thursday in Laramie County District Court to starving and imprisoning their 13-year-old adopted son. Darrick and Angela Mittlestadt appeared before Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher on charges of aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the charges against the Cheyenne couple stem from an investigation that began on June 22 after their emaciated 13-year-old son was dropped off at the Youth Development Center in Douglas. “The wife dropped off their 13 year old adopted son at a youth center in Douglas. He gave a false name and address, and then later, the next day, in an interview, you know, it came out who he was. He was extremely emaciated that you could see bones, according to the affidavit and things like that. He had hair loss. And so that led to an investigation that removed the couple's other son that they had adopted, who was six years old, from their home.” The boy told his interviewer that he had not been out of the house for two years and was not allowed to leave his room, watch TV, play with his brother or go to the fire station with his dad. Read the full story . – Last year, New Mexico passed a law making gun buyers wait a week before they can physically possess the guns they purchased. But making gun buyers weather a “waiting period” before they can possess the guns they’re buying infringes on the Second Amendment. That’s what a federal court circuit that oversees Wyoming ruled Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Tuesday ruling will likely put neighboring officials in Colorado under a spotlight. “Strong wording out of the 10th Circuit. They were basically like, these blanket waiting periods are unconstitutional. And they toed the line with the way the court system works, saying this particular law is likely unconstitutional… And since Colorado's law is based on that same kind of thing, it puts the prosecutors and the officials in a real pickle where they're potentially faced with the reality of having to prosecute something or not that the 10th Circuit has resoundingly called unconstitutional.” Wyoming does not have a waiting-period law. Such legislation is likely impossible, at present, under the supermajority Republican membership of the state's legislature. Read the full story . – A significant train derailment near Bosler in Albany County on Wednesday sparked a fire and left packages littered all over the tracks. About 20 railcars were off the tracks along Wyoming Highway 30, starting a small fire on some of the damaged railroad ties that was quickly extinguished. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the derailment left a lot of debris alongside Highway 30. “It wasn't carrying anything hazardous. There's just a bunch of debris on the railroad tracks, and it happened far enough off the highway that there were no traffic impacts. So derailments aren't great. You never want to have them. But this one was pretty uneventful, as far as they go.” Crews with the Union Pacific are investigating the incident, but the cause has yet to be identified. Read the full story . – The age-old tale of predator and prey played out in dramatic fashion Sunday, when a black bear in a full sprint chased down and killed a mule deer doe in full view of one of Yellowstone National Park’s busiest highways. Cody residents Lauren and Cameron Newton were driving by and watched it happen. They told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that it was a matter of having the incredible luck of being in just the right place at the right time. “They were driving by just in time to catch a black bear chasing down and tackling and killing a mule deer doe. They think the doe might have had a previous injury, perhaps from getting clipped by a car there on the Sylvan pass highway. And I did talk to a bear expert in Canada, and she said, Oh yeah, black bears, if they have the opportunity, they have the opening to do something like that, they'll take advantage. They will chase down and kill a deer. So nothing unnatural. But it was just, you know, again, these folks say they visit Yellowstone all the time. They've never seen anything like that, or even close.” While the park always has something interesting to offer, it might be impossible to top the experience of watching a bear chase down a deer. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is former Wyoming legislator and columnist Tom Lubnau. You can find the link to this really interesting conversation on our , on our channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37918130

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 21, 2025 08/21/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 21, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 21st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – A Sublette County grand jury on Wednesday greenlit the indictment of Daniel man Cody Roberts for cruelty to animals, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000. Roberts ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, brought it muzzled into a bar, then shot it in February 2024, according to videos and witness interviews. Although Roberts paid $250 last March toward a citation for violating Wyoming Game and Fish regulations against possessing wildlife, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that he can still be charged with a different law for the same conduct — under certain criteria. “A judge has to be satisfied that the elements of the crime with which he's now charged are different from the elements underpinning that citation… we actually see that the legal world quite a lot. And in the case of Cody Roberts, the grand jury met the final or the second and third week of August, and they ended by issuing a true bill, which is a green light for an indictment on felony animal cruelty, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.” The incident with the wolf exploded into international headlines, sparking outrage across the globe from sportsmen and animal rights activists alike; and it put both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wyoming’s wildlife management laws under scrutiny. Read the full story . – At nearly 120,000 acres and 28% contained, the Red Canyon Fire burning about 11 miles east of Thermopolis has been out of control and challenging to fight since it was ignited by lightning Aug. 13. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the next couple of days will be critical in trying to keep the wildfire in check as temperatures soar near triple digits and the fire makes its own erratic, dangerous weather. “These wildfires, especially as they get larger, can, in a sense, create their own weather. And Don Day, our meteorologist, really explains it well… It's already hot outside. It's like nearing triple digits… So when it's already hot and dry out there, and then you have the heat from the fire, it just creates this little vortex… it's the same thing that creates a dust devil, only it pulls around the smoke and debris and stuff. And they could be really dangerous for people on the ground, for the air attacks. So it's not an insignificant thing, and there's been a lot of this spotted in the Red Canyon fire.” At close to 120,000 acres, the fire’s total area is still growing, but at a much slower pace than several days ago when it exploded by tens of thousands of acres a day. It also remains a reported 28% contained, mostly along the fire’s western and northern fronts. Read the full story . – The Carbon County Search and Rescue team stepped in to save the day for a mushroom forager hurt and stranded in a rugged and remote area of the Medicine Bow National Forest. The man, who is in his 70s, and his wife had hiked into a far-flung spot in the Sheep Creek area north of the Platte Wilderness on Monday. Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that the man was in excellent shape, but he fell and suffered a devastating ankle injury that rendered him immobile, leaving him in severe danger. “The wife had to hike three miles before she even find somebody with cell service to call for help. But they did get help in there. The Carbon County Sheriff told me that they had to use chainsaws just to clear a path to get the side by side up there. And they said, We're not going to get this guy out in time. You know, it's starting to get dark, so they called in a helicopter to actually pull the guy off the mountain, but everything turned out great for everyone.” The Carbon County Search and Rescue team has been called out on several rescues this summer. Bakken said rescuers have been busy as more people have been getting outside this summer, going deep into the forests and mountains. Read the full story . – After three weeks of searching in the Bighorn Mountains around Cloud Peak, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office announced that it is suspending its search for missing Minnesota hiker Grant Gardner. Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn announced the end of active Search and Rescue Wednesday evening. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the decision to call off the search was difficult for everyone involved. “Grant Gardner summited Cloud Peak, the tallest peak in the Bighorns on July 29. He texted his wife to say that he had summited the peak, and he hasn't been seen or heard from since the search and rescue operation started on August 1… There could be additional operations in the future, as time and evidence allows, according to the statement from Sheriff Blackburn, but at this point, it'll be a recovery rather than a rescue. So it's disappointing and frustrating for the volunteers who are involved.” Grant Gardner was not an amateur. His wife, Lauren, said her husband was an experienced outdoorsman who anticipated and was prepared for the challenge of summiting Cloud Peak. Nevertheless, the high elevation of Cloud Peak poses a formidable challenge, even for experienced mountaineers. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Waiting on a $250,000 reimbursement for providing security at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, while also kick-starting a partnership with immigration authorities, leaves Wyoming National Guard leaders worried about getting that money. That’s what the Guard’s adjutant general told legislators this week. Gov. Mark Gordon is authorizing the activation of up to 15 Wyoming National Guard members to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, personnel with its missions. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that that’s going to require some money shifting. “The guard… gets millions from the state, but many more millions. I mean, we're talking like at least 90% from the feds, according to the numbers that they gave me Wednesday. And so… the Adjutant General on Monday was telling lawmakers like, we have not been reimbursed for helping secure the President's inauguration, and now we are being shifted in to help ICE…. they're kind of bracing themselves like… Do we have to cut back on other business because we are short from inauguration and we're bracing to help ice with things around the state?” In the partnership with ICE set to begin next month, the state guardsmen would be in a “support” role rather than a law enforcement role, bolstering logistics, transportation, and administrative functions. Read the full story HERE. – An archery hunter trying to fill his Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep ewe hunting tag in southcentral Wyoming ended up with what could be considered the trophy bighorn ram of a lifetime. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Laramie resident Ethan Overton didn’t shoot the ram. Instead, he found the huge “deadhead” — an intact skull and horns — while stalking his ewe. “Him and his buddy were stalking, or had started a stalk for archery shot at a ewe that they had spotted, and he came across what they call a deadhead, which is an intact horn and skull of a gigantic ram that had, to the best of his estimation, probably died two years before, and so it just like he ended up getting a trophy ram without actually hunting one. But of course, he had to go through the procedure. Did the right thing. He took pictures of it and put a GPS pin on it. Then called Game and Fish, Game and Fish came out, looked at it, cleared it for him. He purchased an interstate game tag from them, and because he jumped the hoops and did the right thing, it was therefore his to take home.” Intact deadheads of any species are rare finds and can have monetary value as collector’s items, sometimes selling for several thousand dollars apiece. Read the full story . – The lawsuit in which a licensed professional counselor accused a Casper-based psychiatrist of frequent sexual harassment, and making lewd comments about patients, has been resolved and dismissed without a trial. Former Wyoming Behavioral Institute employee Shawna Punteney filed her federal civil complaint February of 2024, accusing WBI psychiatrist Dr. David Martorano of “intentional, sexually charged behavior” at work. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the allegations were that the behavior was, quote, “outrageous and extreme to a degree beyond all possible bounds of decency.” “Shawna Punteney alleged last year that, you know, he had, that he'd made this toxic workspace and would say lewd things about patients and comment on her anatomy… they did undertake the arbitration efforts and reported periodically to the court, and then, here recently they were like, Okay, we're done. This matter is resolved. And usually when I see that, and especially when no one wants to talk about the case afterward, it tends to mean that there's a settlement that requires confidentiality.” U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed the lawsuit July 29 at the request of all parties, who’d announced the day prior that Punteney’s claims were “resolved.” Read the full story . – There’s a white husky, lost and afraid, in the Wind River Mountains. All he wants is to find his way home, and his family wants him home so much that they're willing to throw a big bone to his rescuer in the form of a $1,000 reward. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Beo, a 7-year-old Siberian husky, is only kind of lost. People keep seeing him, and reporting his whereabouts, but no one has managed to catch him to take him home. “A family was hiking on the Big Sandy trail in the Wind River Mountains, and their husky, apparently, he crossed a river and was either too scared to cross it again or couldn't find the same spot to cross it again. So the family and the dog were separated by a bunch of water, and then he disappeared… So the Christensen family wants their dog back. They're offering $1,000 reward, and said… they've received a lot of calls from people just saying they've seen him. Some people have even given him food to ensure they doesn't have to sustain himself in the wild. And that's all been very helpful, because it gives the family of where the go to find him, and they're hoping that they're going to get him back sooner, rather than later.” The Christensens feel as if they have lost one of their own, and are doing everything possible to spread the word and get him home. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37900605

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 08/20/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 20th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – The Wyoming Highway Patrol voiced its official support Tuesday in Casper for a state-level law decommissioning non-English proficient commercial truck drivers. As a result, the legislative Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee asked its staffers to draft a bill that would expand Wyoming Highway Patrol inspectors’ current enforcement of federal English proficiency regulations to all law enforcement agents in the state. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland has been following this story. “In the past, I've asked Wyoming Highway Patrol about this issue, and … I've gotten hard data and figures and things about enforcement of the non English speaking truckers… but Tuesday, the agency took a stand and came out big and said, We want to enforce on this issue, and we want to see state legislation that would help us, because it would expand enforcement capabilities beyond just our inspectors, out to our troopers, out to county sheriffs, out to city police to where any trekkers that are taking county roads to try to avoid a port of entry could then be decommissioned if they cannot read the signs, converse with the general public, fill out log books in English.” Committee Co-Chair, Representative Landon Brown, said he wants to solicit as much input as possible before the committee’s third and final interim meeting in Cheyenne Oct. 20. Read the full story . – Black Hills Energy announced a blockbuster $15.4 billion merger Tuesday with another regional energy provider that the companies say will help them compete with larger utilities. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the all-stock merger with Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy will serve about 2.1 million customers across eight states to form a single company that hasn’t been named yet. “It's a true merger. They're both good companies. Have low debt. It's not one strong company buying out another, or anything like that. And they both serve rural areas, so they're similar in that regard… I asked them the number one question… What are our rates going to look like? And the CEO from Black Hills said, Yeah, nothing is happening. The rates are staying the same… however, with the merger, it is likely... any future rate increases could be less and farther apart.” Along with Wyoming, the new company will provide electricity and natural gas across parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. Read the full story . – The Wyoming Department of Health has reached out to hundreds of people they believe may have been exposed to rabies during their stay at a Grand Teton National Park lodge over the last four months when a bat colony infected with the disease was discovered in the attic. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that they still need to reach hundreds more, and the sooner the better. “It's a virus, but it's not spread virally. You can't get it from breathing the air or from surface contact… It's transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal, usually via a bite or a scratch. So there are potentially 500 people who stayed at the Jackson Lake Lodge who shared space with a colony of brown bats. Now there's been no confirmation that any of those bats had rabies, but the Wyoming Department of Health and other agencies are responding as if there was a possible infected individual, just so they can play it safe, because rabies is fatal.” Bats and skunks are known to carry the rabies virus in Wyoming, but bats are the most common carriers. That’s why nobody’s taking chances with the potential exposure at Jackson Lake Lodge. Read the full story . – Wyoming became the first state in the nation Tuesday to launch its own digital currency, a stable token that is backed by the U.S. dollar and short-term U.S. Treasury bills. The Wyoming Stable Token Commission reported that the blockchain-based stable token offers the means to make “secure, transparent and efficient digital transactions” worldwide. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck says the move puts Wyoming at the forefront of the entire stable token industry. “It means that people across the world soon will be able to purchase this, make transactions, and it puts the state at the forefront in the nation of this blockchain technology and using it. And according to what people are saying, it's going to help with the country's deficit, because people are going to be buying our state token, which is backed by US Treasury bonds. So that means it's going to make U.S. treasury bonds more attractive, in some ways, to investors.” Buyers will get access to the Frontier Stable Token through Wyoming-based digital asset exchange Kraken in the coming days. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A week after lightning touched off what has grown into the Red Canyon Fire, the largest wildfire in Wyoming this fire season has consumed about 114,000 acres. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the Rocky Mountain Area Complex Management Team 2 in charge of fighting the fire has thrown tremendous resources at the blaze. “There's almost 500 people on there. Now there's a lot of area aerial resources. It is still growing, but not nearly at the rate it was. It's close to 114,000 acres as of the last report, which is still a very large area. But it represents less than 10,000 acres from the previous day's report. So they're getting a handle on it… the costs are adding up. I mean, you can't really help it, but the estimated costs for fighting this fire so far is $5.6 million.” The fire remains at 28% contained, burning mostly grass and brush about 11 miles east of Thermopolis. The containment is mostly on the western side and northern part of the wildfire. Read the full story . – Wyoming lawmakers lamented a predicament on Tuesday: political dread of raising taxes, and a projected $400 million annual shortfall for the state’s highway department. So Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the legislative Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee took a cautious approach to a proposed bill to increase Wyoming’s fuel tax from 23 cents per gallon to 33 cents by the summer of 2027. “There was testimony for and against, you know, with people like, hey, just be careful that little old ladies aren't gonna bite the difference, whether it's actually at the pump, or the cost of groceries with the cost of shipping - and then there were other people like, well, roads and their quality affect every industry… but in this a little political clarity emerged where some of the committee members were saying, I feel like we have to support this, because WYDOT has these ongoing massive shortfalls in funding, and yet bad flyers and campaign insults are going to circulate about me if I do.” The committee amended the bill so that the two-part, 10-cent tax hike would not go into full effect until the summer of 2028, instead. Then they voted to table the bill and debate it again at the committee’s Oct. 20 meeting in Cheyenne. Read the full story . – People riding bicycles on Wyoming state trails might have to start paying permit fees, much like what ATV and dirt bike riders do. The Legislature’s joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on Tuesday passed a draft bill calling for annual bicycle permit fees of $10 for residents and $20 for nonresidents on state trails - in addition to any daily park use fees. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that advocates say these fees are sorely needed to keep up with ever-growing demand from mountain bikers – residents and tourists alike. “If you're going to ride a motorized vehicle, like an ATV or a dirt bike, you have to get those permits, you have to get those stamps that you pay for and put on your vehicle. So it'd be the same thing for bicycles, and it would function the same way - it would raise money to go back into trail maintenance. And what a lot of people are saying is, yes, this is important, because Outdoor recreation is, is growing and growing and growing, and mountain biking is one of the fastest growing segments of that.” The State Parks and Cultural Resources office says that money raised from bicycle permit fees could also be used to match federal grants, bringing in even more money to build and improve trails. Read the full story . – The 44th Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale is off to a strong start. The gallery in Cody opened Friday evening - and although the famous Western art auction isn’t for another month, more than $20,000 of art was sold before the night was over. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi was at the opening at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on Friday evening, along with dozens of artists, patrons, and curious Cody residents. “It's a very colorful show. That's the direct words of the director of the show, Kaitlin Parker. She said, there's a lot of… landscapes at different times of the day when the sun is dancing on the horizon. There's lots of neon pieces, and there's pieces like they've never had before. One of the most striking ones is a saddle, life size saddle made entirely out of hand-formed acrylic, so it's a transparent saddle that's sitting in the middle of the gallery. And of course, this is a million dollar show. The pieces are appraised at a value of over $1.25 million and they could reach that much, if not more at auction.” The work of 104 artists will be displayed at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West until the live auction on Sept. 19. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37887335

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 08/19/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 19th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – With the Red Canyon Fire burning about 11 miles east of Thermopolis passing 100,000 acres in size, Gov. Mark Gordon has declared a fire emergency, even as crews report it’s 28% contained. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy spoke to generational ranchers in the path of the fire who are working together to save their homes and cattle. “Ranchers here are frustrated because this is a fast moving fire… they're seeing these flames leap over 60 feet swaths of land that they had torn up and hoped to hold back the fire, and it's just not holding it back… We have the perfect temperature for a hot fire. You got high winds, hot temperature and dry fuel. It's definitely a dangerous mix, and it's scary to see. The terrain that this fire is in… it is a lot of ravines, a lot of crevices. Once the fire gets into those areas, it's nearly impossible to put out, until Mother Nature interferes and gives us snow or rain.” Read the full story . The planes and helicopters have made a dramatic difference in fighting back the flames and the ranchers have been grateful to see them arrive and grow. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that there now are 425 personnel working the Red Canyon Fire. “They brought in what they call a complex team, and that's a higher level team to manage the firefighting operations than was there before. And it comes with more people… It comes with more resources. There's a lot of aerial attacks… They're not trying to put out the fire with these things… They're dropping them around the fire to make these lines, these breaks, so that when or if the fire gets to this point, it's stopped.” Also burning in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin is the Sleeper Ranch fire northeast of Meeteetse, which has burned over 20,000 acres and is 40% contained; and the Spring Creek fire about 10 miles southeast of Ten Sleep, which has burned over 3500 acres and is 24% contained. Read the full story . – Authorities in Campbell County had to drop attempted murder charges against three Mexican nationals when their alleged victim vanished. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Adrian Gonzalez-Oviedo, Adan Oviedo-Rivera, and Juan Gonzalez-Rendon were accused of beating their roommate and dumping him in a desolate and freezing stretch of Campbell County with no shoes or shirt in November of last year. “The victim’s sort of a key in the case, because they based at least a lot of their probable cause… on his interview after they found him shoeless and cold in November and beaten. And so if they were going to go to trial, and they had one trial scheduled for July and two more scheduled for August, they were going to need him, according to these documents by the county attorney, and they couldn't find him.” The sheriff’s office notified ICE that it was releasing the three defendants, and ICE picked up each of the three men within two days. Read the full story . – The Wyoming man who earned the nation’s highest civilian award for heroism — rescuing a mother and son from their burning home in 2022 — is now battling back from a devastating crash with a semitrailer on Interstate 80 that nearly killed him earlier this month. 35-year-old Ryan Pasborg of Green River, who received the Carnegie Medal for heroism from Gov. Mark Gordon last year, was nearly killed when his Nissan Titan crashed into a semitrailer stopped in the middle of the interstate. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Pasborg was recently released from the University of Utah Hospital after being airlifted there Aug. 4. “He was driving down Interstate 80 he said about midnight on August 4 or little after and there was a semi, he said, parked in the middle of the interstate without lights or cones or anything. So he hit the back of this flatbed semi at about 80 miles an hour. He spent much of August in Utah hospital, and he started his own business about a year ago. So he has no insurance, and he is just needing some help right now.” The crash left him with a broken sternum, bleeding on the brain, a punctured lung, broken ribs, a broken femur and mangled left hand. He also underwent surgery on his spleen due to blood loss. Read the full story . – These might be the dog days of summer, but Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day has compiled enough information and confidence to put out his extended forecast for the upcoming 2025-2026 winter season. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to the state’s most trusted weatherman - and if Day is right, brace yourself and bundle up now. According to his forecast, Wyoming's winter will come early, stick around longer, and bring plenty of snow and cold with it. “He thinks that it's going to be… a colder and snowier winter, not just over last winter… but snowier and colder overall for the last 30 year average for Wyoming winters… it doesn't mean persistent cold. We're not going to see those long stretches of extreme negative temperatures, but we're going to go from extreme cold to warmer days. And that might sound annoying, but what that means is storms are moving, and if there's movement in the atmosphere, that means more precipitation, which means more snow.” While there's still plenty of uncertainty about what will unfold in the coming months, Day said he's "around 70%" confident in his analysis of how current oceanic conditions, historical data and long-range weather modeling will manifest over Wyoming between October 2025 and February 2026. Read the full story . – A trailer fire in which a 43-year-old woman was found dead Friday north of Riverton remains under investigation. Five Riverton Volunteer Fire Department units and 16 firefighters responded just after 8 p.m. Friday to the trailer home that was fully engulfed in flames. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that so far, there are no indications of suspicious happenings in the fire, though authorities say it’s too early to make a definitive statement. “It's too early to say whether everything was benign, but it's also too early to call anything suspicious. But you know, Fremont County news reporters… are taught that you don't assume the person died of the fire, just that they were dead in the fire. And that's because of a very famous double homicide case from 2011 where people were found dead in the fire, and it turned out they were stabbed to death, not saying that's what happened here… when you talk to officials about fatalities and fires in Fremont County, there's that extra layer of caution.” No one else was found dead or injured in the blaze, according to the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department Chief. The state fire marshal's office is investigating the origin and cause of the fire. Read the full story . – Republicans have a history of painting Democrats as soft on crime, and Democrats could be vulnerable to that label in the midterm elections if they oppose President Donald Trump’s bid to extend the takeover of the D.C. police force beyond 30 days, an extension that requires congressional approval. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports that as Trump plans to expand his law enforcement crackdowns into other blue cities — something he announced last week — Wyoming’s Republican congressional delegation is seizing the moment. “The Wyoming congressional delegation is very supportive of President Donald Trump's takeover of the Metropolitan Washington DC police force. What's interesting is that on the other side of the aisle, nobody is supportive of this... if the Democrats do not support extending this, the Republicans can use it as fodder for labeling them soft on crime, and that this is going to be a really big issue, because Washington has a very high crime rate. It has fallen in recent years, but it's still very high. In fact, we have the fifth highest homicide rate in the country.” A vote on whether to allow Trump’s extension of the takeover is likely to be one of the first orders of business in September when Congress returns from its monthlong recess. Read the full story . – If Samuel L. Jackson has had it with all those bleeping snakes on that bleeping plane, he should steer clear of Wyoming. Rattlesnakes are so common at the South Big Horn County Airport near Greybull, airport staff have gotten used to them, although managers told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz they might freak visitors out. “Really avid Wyoming pilot, because of weather last week, he had to land at the airport in Greybull, and they noticed on the hangar there's a warning saying, watch out for rattlesnakes. We've killed two in the hanger so far. And so I reached out to the manager of the airport, and he said, Yeah, that's just a Tuesday… that's also where that bone yard is, where all those old vintage planes are. He said, anybody who wants to go walk around that boneyard, the first thing he tells them is, watch for the rattlesnakes.” So far, nobody has been bitten. And as a bonus, the rattlesnakes are credited for controlling mice and other vermin. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37873750

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 18, 2025 08/18/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 18, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 18th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Since it first sparked Wednesday, the Red Canyon Fire continues to surge in multiple directions about 11 miles east of Thermopolis. By Sunday evening, the fire had grown to nearly 92,000 acres and was spreading quickly, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson. “It was started Wednesday by a bolt of lightning. And we know that because people saw it… these oil field workers working up on the mountain looked down, and they actually saw the lightning bolt strike, and then they saw the fire spreading… it's just burning through a bunch of cheatgrass, a bunch of other other grasses, brush. They're just really dry this time of year, and the wind is blowing it… it's now kind of passed a little bit into Washakie County. It's pushing south into Fremont County. So it's 0% contained… they're just trying to get some kind of a handle on it.” So far, officials believe only one barn has been lost to the blaze, but that tally could definitely rise as firefighters get more of a handle on managing the fire. Read the full story . – Two Casper-based electricians were headed for a job in Evanston on Monday when they noticed a plume of dust billowing up from the roadway in the distance ahead, around 20 miles east of Farson. Cody Carpenter and Jacob Lanier arrived to discover a man lying face-down in the gravel on the shoulder of Wyoming Highway 28 and a crumpled motorcycle 20 feet away. Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag reports that while the men thought the biker had to be dead, they sprang into action when he groaned. “It was clear that the man had suffered some serious brain injury. He was confused. He was asking the same questions over and over again… They got 911, dispatch on the call, and they just stayed there with him and gave him comfort and kept him out of the sun… It's tough to say what the outcome may have been without them there.” Bob Newman, a retired deputy sheriff from Roundup, Montana, is being treated for multiple head traumas, six broken ribs and other injuries. But he’s alive, thanks to Carpenter and Lanier. Read the full story . – Wyoming’s junior U.S. senator and the speaker of the state House of Representatives both support the idea of a pardon for a 65-year-old mechanic who is in federal prison for deleting emissions systems from diesel engines. Troy Lake was convicted in June 2024 of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. That was after years of deleting or helping to delete emissions controls on diesel engines, including fire trucks and commercial trucks. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to several elected officials about whether or not they support an effort to secure a presidential pardon for Lake. “When I talked to Holly Lake on Friday… She said that people are working behind the scenes to help the Lake family… Senator Cynthia Lummis, up in Congress, was like, Absolutely, pardon this man. This is ridiculous. And Speaker of the House on the state level, Chip Neiman agreed, saying this should not have happened. Some you know, a little more guarded - Representative Hageman, Senator Barrasso, they were like, we want to cut back on overzealous prosecutions. They didn't specifically call for Troy Lake's pardon.” Holly Lake told Cowboy State Daily that she and her family have been overwhelmed by community members voicing support for the pardon cause since news of her husband’s incarceration broke. Read the full story . – Somewhere deep within the untamed expanses of the northern Colorado wilderness, an ordinary animal is undergoing a frightful metamorphosis. Cottontail rabbits, a common species in Wyoming, are experiencing the effects of a seasonal surge in a virus that causes dark horn-like growths around a rabbit’s face and neck. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that images of rabbits with this bizarre affliction have made waves across social media, with many likening their strange visage to that of Frankenstein’s monster or an undead zombie. “It looks like it's horns or tentacles or something strange like that, and it sparked a lot of speculation online about what the heck this could be. So Cowboy State Daily did a little digging into this. We found out that it's caused by something called the Shope papilloma virus, which is specific to rabbits. It only infects rabbits, and really it's not that harmful, other than sometimes these growths could impede their ability to eat food… I spoke to some other people throughout the Cowboy State, however, that speculated that this disease may have been part of the reason for the spread of the legend of the Jackalope.” While no infected rabbits have been spotted in Wyoming, some have made their way as close as Fort Collins, Colorado, sparking speculation they may soon cross over into the Cowboy State. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Hunting guides might be associated with adventurous quests for glorious big game animals such as elk, bears or moose — and not for those diminutive rodents, prairie dogs. However, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that there’s a robust niche market for people willing to pay a guide to take them to where the prairie dog towns are the thickest so they can blast away. “I talked to a gentleman in South Dakota and one here in Wyoming who guide for prairie dog hunts, or prairie dog shooting. And they said that the reason that a guide appeals to some people is they have access to… numerous ranches where they can get people on where they wouldn't normally be able to go… the appeal in prairie dog hunting is shooting. It does involve a lot of shooting… You come out for a pheasant hunt to South Dakota, you might walk for miles, get two or three shots. With prairie dog hunting, it's pretty much constant, go, go, go.” Proponents of prairie dog shooting say they’re doing ranchers a favor and cutting down on the spread of disease. Others argue that prairie dogs fill an important ecological niche and shouldn’t be slaughtered. Read the full story . – The Farmer’s Almanac and the Old Farmer’s Almanac just came out with their annual mid-August forecasts for the coming winter, reviving chatter and head-scratching over the question: Do agricultural producers and others actually pay attention to these predictions? Almanacs and weather folklore blend anecdote, astrological musings, sunspots and mystical math, which meteorologists and researchers widely regard as unscientific and fun, but, according to Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison, not accurate for serious weather prediction. “It does have this nostalgic connection to the ag community in Wyoming, where people remember their grandfather picking up a copy of the Farmer's Almanac at the feed story every year and poring over it and talking about it over coffee. And so, it is in the DNA of the agricultural community in Wyoming… in talking to Don Day, he likes to take a very scientific approach… and he's completely transparent about how he's arriving at what his forecast will be… the best… the traditional almanac method can do is predict a trend… We like to think Don Day is much more accurate than that.” The 2025-2026 Farmer's Almanac winter forecast, dubbed "Chill, Snow, Repeat," promises a wild ride with dramatic weather swings, including an early start with cold and snow potentially hitting as early as September. Read the full story . – Rusty, a super smart Australian Shepherd who once helped save his owner’s life from a drug overdose, is back in a secure and loving home, after he was discovered lost along a highway in central Wyoming, covered in ticks. But the road getting home was definitely not one less traveled, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck. “The saving grace was that Rusty had a microchip, and so… they finally got a hold of the owner's mom and learned that the owner had been incarcerated, she has has an addiction. And so they don't know how Rusty got to Shoshoni, because the owner lived in Cheyenne and was incarcerated in Colorado… after cleaning him up, they understood that he was a very bright, smart dog, a great, great little pooch. And so he ended up staying a couple months with a foster care home. And then… they found another son who said, yeah, he was willing to drive from Oklahoma and pick up Rusty and it turns out that his mom, when she gets out of her responsibilities with the justice system, she's going to come and live with them, and so she's going to be reunited with Rusty. And everybody there is very happy.” How Rusty ended up outside Shoshoni remains a mystery. But Lander Pet Connection director Hannah MacGregor said the fact that Rusty’s owner had him microchipped really helped the story to have a positive ending. Read the full story . – Since its invention, carbonated, sweetened soft drinks have exploded in popularity. Sweet, fizzy and oh so quenching. As Americans, we guzzle more than our share. The latest Gallup poll shows about half of us drink a soft drink daily. And those who do consume an average of two and a half bottles or cans a day. But just as the proper terminology is important when discussing fine wines, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols decided to ask the question, exactly what is the right label for soda - or pop - or soda pop? “I grew up on the East Coast, so it was soda. Pop was, yeah, pop was not it. But out here in the West, it's all pop… your average Wyoming native knows pretty much pop and that's it. And it's not till you travel and go to other places where you learn that, wait a minute, and pop - they don't understand what I'm saying when I say pop. And maybe it's a way to tell who grew up in Wyoming, who's a true Wyomingite, and who might be a transplant.” What and why we call our soft drinks is important enough to warrant several social studies through the years. So this topic may never go flat. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37858680

The Roundup: A Conversation With Wildlife Photographer Tom Mangelsen 08/16/2025

The Roundup: A Conversation With Wildlife Photographer Tom Mangelsen EP 2-36 TOM MANGELSEN Wendy Corr: Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to the roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people in the cowboy state, and whether you know it or not, whether you know the name or not, you have seen the work of this phenomenally interesting person in the cowboy state that we're going to interview today, that we're going to have a conversation with today, and I'm so excited to get on to this conversation with Tom Mangelsen. But first, I want to make sure that you all know about another fascinating podcast that if you're a business person in Wyoming that you need to check out. It is the Wyoming Business Alliance, “Business From the Basement”. This is a fantastic resource for anybody who does business in Wyoming that wants to have just a little bit more insight, maybe a little bit more networking. Check out the “Business From the Basement” podcast from the Wyoming Business Alliance. But don't go there yet, because you're not going to want to miss this. This conversation that we're going to have today is with possibly the most famous wildlife photographer in the world. I mean, this is, bar none, the most famous photo. They call it the most famous wildlife photo ever taken, the grizzly bear with the salmon - it's called, I think it's called Catch of the Day. Is that correct, Tom? Yes, catch of the day taken by this gentleman right here, Tom Mangelsen. Tom now lives in Jackson Hole, but Tom has devoted his life to capturing and really, really understanding these amazing creatures that we have, not only here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but around the world, all seven continents. And Tom has brought those images to those of us who can't get to those places and to experience the magic of these wild animals. So Tom Mangelsen, welcome to the roundup. Oh my goodness, I'm so excited to have you on here today. Tom Mangelsen: Thank you. Wendy Corr: It's my pleasure. Wendy, well, we are just so there's so many questions, so many questions that I have for you and and so I want to start out, though, with most everybody has an origin story. You know, everybody's got an origin story. Your origin, Grand Island, Nebraska. You started off in the Great Plains there, but something drew you to a camera. Tell us about your growing up in Nebraska and how that then took you into this amazing career that you've had. Tom Mangelsen: Yes, I was born and raised in Grand Island. My grandparents, both sets of grandparents, lived there, my parents, my dad's three brothers, and I spent my first dozen years there. Then went to Ogallala, which is in western Nebraska, and sandhill country, which is kind of ranch country, and also a unique place in Nebraska. So both Grand Island Ogallala were right on the Platte River, which is where I spent a lot of time with my father, duck hunting and goose hunting and rabbit hunting and pheasant hunting and quail hunting. And he took me, my dad took me out in the decoy boat when I was pretty much like a baby, 1, 2, 3 years old, my first memories are, you know, from those days, being pulled out in the boat early morning, before sunrise, and setting up decoys, and spending my summers with my brothers and my dad fixing up the tow heads, as we call, little islands where we had our blinds, and learning how to call ducks and geese. And that was my dad's passion, was both hunting and fishing. We'd spent a lot of time cat fishing in the river in the summer times. But all those experiences, I think, mostly learning how to make lines and paint decoys and set decoys and calling, and that was just thrilling for me. I spent every moment I could out of school being out in the duck blind from my dad. And he sometimes actually bribed the priest that we wouldn't have to go to Mass on Sunday. He would give us a dispensation, and we would take him maybe three or four mallards at the end of the day and he would keep letting his boys out of school. Wendy Corr: So it was pretty fantastic. Tom Mangelsen: Or we’d go to 5:45 mass and very early in the morning and have our waders on and our hunting gear on, so we could get out out the doors, and his communion was over, and that was legitimately then we went to mass, so no more mortal sins and things like that. Wendy Corr: But that had to have taught you the patience that you then required later on in in being a photographer and really waiting for those great shots. Tom Mangelsen: Exactly. So we, yeah, we spent, you know, from sunrise till sunset, and I learned I didn't know any better. Basically, I just thought, that's what we had to do if you're going to shoot a duck or goose. You had to wait and wait and wait. And some days we would wait, you know, three or four days before we even saw anything close. So patience is probably the best lesson that I learned from those early days that now transfers into photography. So you have to be very patient in wildlife photography if you want to get extraordinary shots. Wendy Corr: And you have gotten those extraordinary shots. What's the longest that you've ever had to wait to get that perfect shot of some of these amazing animals that you've been out there and really lived in the wild with? Tom Mangelsen: Probably be 1999 - I’d never seen a mountain lion before, even though I spent five or six years in the mountains in Colorado, and 25 years here at that time and in Nebraska in the West, where there were some mountain lions. But on February 14 in 99 my assistant librarian at the office had her husband, who was a naturalist ranger at the National Elk Refuge, said he saw a lion with three young cubs going to a den on the refuge on what's called Miller Butte. It's a fairly high Butte, and he had seen a cougar there three years before was getting so he probably the same one. And I told him, if he had ever seen one again, let me know. So she let me know. And the next morning, I was out there at daybreak, and I thought, I'll just get a picture of a mountain lion, hopefully, you know, I can call it good, and it'd be a record shot. Most everybody would ask me, you have pictures of lions and leopards and cheetahs and elephants and whatever, polar bears, grizzly bears, but you don't have any pictures of cougars? And I said because they are all pretty much taken at game farms and they're captive animals that that they keep in small cages as basically photography or film slaves. And I was never going to go to one of those places and use those animals to do that, which I, I think, is cruel and inhumane. And there's a number of game farms throughout North America, but especially a couple in Montana that are the most probably abusive in the sense that they raise these animals and they breed them. And everybody wants pictures of baby whatever, foxes or raccoons or possums, they have everything. Even have snow leopards and lions and tigers. So I find that they take them out of the cages and they put them out, you know, a little maybe they have five acre fenced in property that they take them out in an area in Montana where it looks like it's natural, and it's it is natural, but people don't realize that these are captive animals. They spend 365 days a year in these cages. So anyway, I was really against that. So this cougar showed up on February 14 in 99 and I thought, well, at least I'll try to go see one. And so that cougar stuck around for 42 days with her three kittens, and I spent all 42 days - I thought this was my once in a lifetime chance photographing a cougar that's not captive, not run up a tree with dogs and not hunted, but most pictures are either from - Well, they're all either captive, like I mentioned, or they're run up the tree by dogs, and their only predator really are wolves and cougars have learned to run up a tree, maybe only 10 feet high. They know that. You know, wolves can't climb trees, and neither can hound dogs, which they're hunted with. And after this 42 days, I realized how cruel and humane it would be to shoot. There's a season right outside of Teton Park, where I live, and just outside the National Elk River where you can kill a cougar and you can't really tell the difference between a male and a female, at least easily. And most outfitters don't necessarily care, because it's maybe five or $10,000 in their pocket if they can lead somebody to kill a cougar. So they run them with dogs up a tree, and then they just shoot them point blank. And half the time, almost 75% of the time, those females, if they shoot a female, will be pregnant or have dependent kittens. So I got on that cause after these 42 days, and went to the game of fish and asked them what kind of protection they have for kittens that the mother gets shot and they don't have any other than that. It's sort of collateral damage, is what they told me, and I felt collateral damage. That's sort of like we, you know, talk about Hamas or something, or, yeah, Ukraine and other people, kids get killed. It's kind of collateral damage, but I felt it's really cruel and not ethical. And so I started the Cougar Fund, which is now 25 years old, and mostly to educate children about the value of Cougars in the landscape and that kind of thing. Yeah, that took a few years to set that up, and we're still trying to stop the hunting, because it really is stupid and not humane. And there's hunting across all across Wyoming, some 300 cats are shot every year. And then all the other states that have Cougars in the West, like 14 of them, now, I believe, including Nebraska, unfortunately, which is really sad to me. But anyway, so I did that, but that was the longest time I spent. I was just trying to get a good picture, and I realized I’d maybe do a little book about cougars. But they were 125 yards away. So that's a football and a quarter length away, field away. And I had a 800 millimeter lens with a 2x extender and dual tripods and lots of bean bags to steady everything, because it was all film in those days, it wasn't digital. And, like with low and distance was far, and so it's really hard to get. The female would hardly ever come out of the cave. When it was light out, she would only come out at night and then go hunting, and sometimes you come back the next day, or maybe the following day. And I realized that if she doesn't come back, then these three kittens will starve to death in February temperatures in the den. So that was the real problem. But anyway, I did get enough pictures to say that I got a nice picture of a cougar. Finally. Wendy Corr: 42 days, you got the picture. My goodness! Now, you have gone and you are famous for going to great lengths to just get that exactly right shot. Tell us about your most famous photograph, which is Catch of the Day, which is the bear with the salmon. Tell us about that. I would love to hear the story behind that photo. Tom Mangelsen: I'll try to make it short, it’s a bit longer story. I was working on a film. I did films after I started when I went to Boulder, Colorado after Nebraska. But anyhow, I was working on a film about sandhill cranes, and I found myself in Alaska along the coast where they stop over before they cross over to Russia and the northern coast of Alaska, across the Bering Sea. And I had about a week between shoots for these cranes. And I was on an airplane, Alaska Airlines going to Anchorage. And I read this article about Brooks Falls, which had these, it's a famous place where bears go to catch salmon in the spring and summer and fall. And I saw these pictures where there were a dozen bears at the falls, and I saw one at the top of the falls, where a fish was jumping near him. And I thought to myself, I wonder if you could take a picture of a bear with a fish immediately in his face. Just a portrait, basically. And I never seen one before. And as to my knowledge that no one had actually captured that, or even maybe tried to, I don't know. So I went, when I got to Anchorage airport, it's called Brooks Falls, and asked about going there because it's a park. And the Ranger said, Wait, do you have a camping permit, or do you have a room? There's a fishing lodge here? And I said, No, I don't have either. And he's, well, it's full up. It's July, and you really have to have a permit. And I said, Well, I said, nothing at all. He's well, there's one campsite along the bear trail. He says it's legal, but nobody wants it, because the bears walk within feet of it along the lake. And I said, I'll take it. And not at that time, knowing a lot about bears, this in 1987, so a while ago. And so I went to KMart and bought a sleeping bag and a tent and some pots and pans and some freeze dried food, etc. So I went there. I walked to where the Falls were, and I spent a week just trying to capture that image. And there were two or three bears they would fight over the Falls area but at the top, because that was a prime fishing spot. A lot of bears were down below, fishing and diving and doing all kinds of different fishing techniques. But all I did was spend my whole time with a 600 millimeter on the tripod and just focusing pretty much on the bear. And whenever I saw a fish coming close to the bear’s mouth, I would click it. But again, it was manual camera, and was pretty much one or two or three frames at a second, not 30 or 40, like we have today with our digital camera. So it was more challenging, and I didn't know I actually caught the picture. A couple times I said like, oh, you know some words I won't repeat on film here, but like, Oh, my God, it was close, you know, oh, this or that. And, and I thought maybe I had got something close, but I didn't know until two months later, when the film came back from the lab that I had actually caught that. I was looking at the photos, the slides over the light table. Oh, that's pretty, pretty cool. And it became pretty, pretty famous. And. It. They say it's one of the most copied photograph probably, or tried to copy. Wendy Corr: How do you get those photos out there? How do you get your work seen with you're just a photographer in 1987 and you're a wildlife photographer, and you're just really starting your career. How do you then say, here, I want the world to see my photos. How does that happen? Tom Mangelsen: Well, in those days, there are a lot of magazines, wildlife magazines, like National Geographic, Audubon, national wildlife, and they will print images like that. And Geographic did a story about bears and most all them do stories about bears. And there had been thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures published from Brooks Falls, but none quite like that. So it was, it stood out to them, and it got published in different places. And they also started - when I first started, I was doing limited edition prints at like craft fairs. And in Boulder, where I moved to, in Park City, where I opened a gallery, I still have a gallery there, 40 years later. Wendy Corr: I've been to that gallery, that's a great gallery. Tom Mangelsen: And in Jackson Hole, where I now live. So my main thrust was doing limited edition prints in these galleries after I did the craft fairs, which weren't very satisfying. So I opened real galleries and displayed my work. And, of course, Catch the Day was one of the more popular images in the galleries. And it just sort of, you know, became famous, I guess. Wendy Corr: Did it launch your career, really? Was that kind of what got you noticed as a wildlife photographer? Or had you already made inroads into that? Tom Mangelsen: I had made inroads into that, but it was, it became my most sort of iconic image. And I use it on my business cards and things like that, because people do recognize and they say, Oh, you're the guy that you got that. And I say, you mean the fish with the bear, yeah, but they always go collect this, and that's what I was doing, Wendy Corr: Yes, yeah, the fish and the bear right there. Yes, Tom Mangelsen: Yeah. Wendy Corr: Now you have been more well known in the area recently, in the Greater Yellowstone region, for your work in capturing images of Grizzly 399, and so you really have become the iconic expert on this bear who you know we tragically lost last year. But tell us about your work with 399 - when did you start following her? Because I know the images of the quadruplets you had so many of those. In fact, there's a great bronze, series of bronzes in your gallery that I saw, that is 399 with the quads. And I just thought that was fantastic. But tell us about 399 and what she meant to you. Tom Mangelsen: Well, I always loved bears. I started off obviously shooting waterfowl and cranes and mostly birds in my early days from the Platte river experience. And my professor, I went to graduate school at the University of Nebraska. So I'll back up a little bit. In 1969 I thought I was going to get drafted and end up in Vietnam, as there's a lot of people my age. That was during the heights of Vietnam War, 68, 69, 70. And anyway, I went to see this professor, who I saw his story about in Midlands magazine in Omaha. His name is Paul Johnsgard, Dr. Paul Johnsgard, and the story was in like an Art section, or it's called Midlands anyway, it's in the Sunday section. And it was about this guy who, I think it was called Birdman, or something like that. And he was the world's authority on waterfowl, ducks, geese, swans and cranes. And he was an artist, and he was a photographer, and he was a professor at the University of Nebraska. And I wrote to him and asked him if, if there's any chance, if I don't get drafted, if you might take me on as a graduate student. He said, bring down your transcripts and we'll take a look. And I took them down, and my grade average was about a B minus overall. What you had to keep if you wanted to student deferment to stay out of the draft, which was a smart thing to do. But he said, I only take five students, and they're all straight A students. I only take five. And he says, Your grades don't really, really match up to most of my students. But so I said, Well, I had won the world's goose calling championship twice - and that didn't impress him too much - but he got, I thought that might, since he was the world's authority on waterfowl. Wendy Corr: Right? Yeah, why not? I mean, toss that out there. Tom Mangelsen: I was grasping, trust me. And I said, Well, we have a cabin. My family has a cabin on the Platte River. Now that caught his attention, because he loved the Platte River, and he thought maybe he could maybe use our blinds in the cabin and be friends. And so he went to the went to the other advisors, and he said, I think this kid, he told me later, I think this kid actually has some potential, which is totally bull crap, I'm sure, but later we became best of friends, and he ended up doing 106 books in his lifetime. And he passed away a couple of years ago, but we were best of friends, and he took me under his wing, and I was his field assistant for a few years. We traveled across the US and photographed ducks and stuff. So that's how I got started with photographing birds. So I started photographing birds, and then I still go to the Platte River in Nebraska every year in March. And Jane Goodall has been coming out for like 20 years every spring to see the cranes. Wendy Corr: We... /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37837975

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 15, 2025 08/15/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 15, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 15th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – One of the most famous trial attorneys of the 20th century and a proud son of Wyoming, Gerry Spence died Wednesday in his Montecito, California, home at the age of 96. Spence was a legend among the trial bar, especially for his civil practice and criminal defense work. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland was notified of Spence’s passing by his family. “Spence's stepson, Chris Hawks, texted me at midnight saying that he had passed, and I stayed up half the night reading his autobiography... And then first thing in the morning, I talked to his law partner of 25 years, Bob Schuster, Jim Fitzgerald, whom he mentored, former Governor Mike Sullivan, who was a friend and a law colleague and a little daunted at times by Jerry Spence during his law career. And you know, really, the prevailing theme was that Spence was successful because he faced his fears and he told powerful stories.” Spence rose to national prominence through a series of landmark cases, including a $10.5 million verdict for the family of nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood; and the successful defense of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos. Read the full story . – The Cheyenne-born restaurant chain that brought the world Taco Tuesday and Potato Olés is quietly saying adios to Wyoming, and fully relocating its corporate headquarters to Minnesota, after 56 years in business. A former Taco John’s Vice President of Marketing told Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison that the move was kept deliberately under wraps, given the strong emotional ties many maintain with the restaurant chain that started as a taco stand outside the entrance to Cheyenne Frontier Days - and now includes around 380 stores. “Just as the soft taco shell binds to the hard taco shell in the Taco Bravo, the people of Cheyenne have an undeniable bond with this chain… You know, when you have a 56 year old restaurant, automatically there's going to be nostalgia. Nothing is more nostalgic than smells and tastes and tradition… Taco Bell is the real kind of gorilla in the room that really took over the world of fast food tacos. But you had these regional success stories… In Wyoming, parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, all the way to Minneapolis, you had Taco John's. And in fact, there's 200 something stores within driving distance of Minneapolis. And I think that was one of the major reasons that taco John's made the decision to break the hearts of so many Taco John's lovers.” Despite corporate headquarters now calling Minnesota home, Cheyenne won't soon shake its love for Taco John's. It’s embedded in the community's DNA through decades of shared meals and memories. Read the full story . – The health care landscape in Wyoming just became a little bit rockier with the announcement that one of the three health care insurers available on the Affordable Care Act’s health care exchange in Wyoming is leaving the state. Mountain Health Co-Op, which insures just over 11,000 people in Wyoming, told its members on Wednesday that it is pulling out of the Cowboy State by the end of this year. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that that will leave the Wyoming network with just two providers, United Health care, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. “We've had quite a few changes at the federal level, with the healthcare exchange markets… Several things have happened in the one big, beautiful bill, things like increased eligibility, documentation requirements… they're sunsetting the premium tax credits… the price of these plans kind of goes up quite a bit, makes them unaffordable, and Wyoming is already a pretty high cost state. And so mountain health Co Op had proposed a 32% increase in their premiums, and now they have decided to just pull the plug on Wyoming and exit the state.” Consumers do have options. There are still two insurers on the marketplace, and hundreds of licensed insurance companies that sell various health insurance products in our state. Read the full story . – Despite being removed from the official agenda of a legislative meeting in Casper on Thursday, a former speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives was allowed to testify there for nearly 30 minutes. Tom Lubnau’s 28-minute remote testimony to the legislative Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, followed his unceremonious removal from the agenda days earlier by Committee Co-Chair Christopher Knapp. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the legislator had voiced concerns with the acerbic nature of Lubnau’s weekly political column in Cowboy State Daily. “In my experience, covering legislative meetings for a public commenter to be given a half hour testimony is almost unheard of, or at least extremely rare and and, you know, Chairman Knapp told me on Wednesday, he was like, Look, yes, he's taken off the schedule, but I mean, he's allowed to speak during public comment, and if I'm chairing that meeting, I'll even give him extra time in light of his great expertise in this area.” On Thursday, Lubnau told McFarland that he was sorry that the controversy distracted from the real objective, which is making good laws in Wyoming. Read the full story . – For more than a century, mineral rights have been carved up, sold off and passed down through families across Wyoming, often leaving current landowners in the dark about who actually owns what lies beneath their property. Now Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that lawmakers are proposing to let landowners reclaim long-abandoned mineral estates, resolving tangled ownership dating to the homesteading era, and protecting the rights of property owners. “With the leadership of the Wyoming Mining Association and a working group the judiciary committee is considering this draft. And basically what it would do is create laws like we have for abandoned property… what this law, ostensibly, would do is revert that ownership to the surface owner and try and give them better standing and basically create a more easy to understand and clear path for these property owners.” The draft legislation is modeled after a similar measure in North Dakota - but lawmakers and stakeholders say it still needs a lot of work. Read the full story . – What was a small wildfire reported about 14 miles east of Thermopolis on Wednesday evening has exploded to an estimated more than 20,000 acres, as of Thursday evening. What’s been named the Red Canyon Fire also has prompted evacuations of homes in the rural area, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson. “Don't know exactly when it was started, but likely started when it was noticed, Wednesday evening. And when I first checked in on it Thursday morning, it was being estimated at about 300 acres - by five o'clock Thursday, it was 15,000 acres… it shows how by mid August, fire conditions are just off the charts. Everything is dry. There's fuel loads just ready to go. It doesn't take much, I think just a squirrel looking at you wrong, will set it on fire, and then it just burns.” The fire is burning in the Red Hole, Kirby Creek and Buffalo Creek areas, which are included in the evacuation. However, while the smoke plume from the fire is visible in Thermopolis, officials say the town isn’t threatened. Read the full story . – Cowboy Energy of Sheridan has invested millions of dollars and spent three years developing what would be one of Wyoming's first agriculture-friendly solar installations. The project promises to generate badly needed property tax revenue for Goshen County while allowing agricultural operations to continue on the same land — putting the “farm” in solar farm. But David Madison reports that there’s a catch: The company says there’s currently no feasible way to transmit that electricity to market. “This company would love to get the project off the ground. They have the support of the economic development team there. I think there are also opponents to this as well… The plan appears to be mostly in place to get this very large solar farm up and running, except the crucial element of where do you transmit? … if you can't get your electricity to market, you don't have a project.” Brian Young, CEO of Go Goshen Economic Development, said the solar project would generate needed economic benefits for the county of about 12,000 people. Read the full story . – When browsing around the F.E. Warren Base Exchange store, one might do a double take when catching a glimpse of a silhouette of an African antelope on a T-shirt commemorating the Wyoming air force base. But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that it was simple miscommunication between the store’s staff and a shirt-maker, when the store put in an order for roughly 50 shirts with an “antelope” on them. “There are so many antelope - we call them antelope, but they're actually prong horn - on the FE Warren base. They wanted to have a T-shirt that kind of commemorated them, so they ordered a t-shirt with an antelope on it. What they got were T-shirts with the picture of an antelope on them, except it was an African greater kudu antelope, an actual antelope, and not a prong horn… The ordering manager said, You know what? We'll just be more specific next time. In the meantime, she said, I'm stuck with these shirts.” Since they couldn’t send back the T-shirts with African antelope on them, the staff decided to make the best of it, adding that people really do enjoy them as a novelty item. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is iconic wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen. You can find the link to this inspiring and entertaining conversation on our , on our channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37832425

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 14, 2025 08/14/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 14, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 14th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – A Wyoming legislative committee chair is removing a former speaker of the state House, and one of the state’s foremost public records law experts, from the schedule of an upcoming meeting because of a political column he writes. Former House Speaker Tom Lubnau writes a column for Cowboy State Daily that is sometimes fiery in tone, and often critical of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican lawmakers with a social-conservative focus. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Lubnau, a Republican himself, was removed from the agenda for Thursday's legislative Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee meeting. “Tom Lubnau, besides being former House Speaker, is probably the foremost expert on the Public Records Act in Wyoming… And so he was going to testify, not not for the press, but for the government… And Senator Cale Case let him know here a couple days ago, like, Oh, whoops. Never mind. My co Chairman doesn't want you on there. Your column is problematic. So I reached out to Chairman Christopher Knapp, and he said, Look, this column is beneath a level of civil discourse that I would expect from someone testifying before this committee… Lubnau conversely, was like, I've been testifying before legislative committees since 1986 without issues.” Lubnau said his political column is a product designed to both entertain and inform people, and its nature doesn’t affect his ability to show decorum at a legislative meeting. Read the full story . – A Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office training exercise on Flaming Gorge Reservoir on Wednesday turned into a real rescue for five deputies and a K-9 on board. The department’s Marine Unit was conducting a joint training exercise near Buckboard Marina with the K-9 division to acclimate the police dogs to being on a boat and the water, when the unexpected happened, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson. “It was a landing vessel, which means the back end folds down to allow people to get on and off. They were coming in slow, lowered the back end. Lowered it too low, and… the boat took on water, tipped it over, and that's what put them in the water… there was a captain who was in a partially enclosed cabin and a canine because… they were training the dogs to get used to being on a boat in case they ever had to do a water rescue… so one of the canines was on the boat when it tipped over and its leash got tangled, and so it rolled over with the boat, and when its handler noticed the dog didn't come out… He dove in and got it off and got his dog out…. another deputy ran back and made sure that the… captain who was in the cabin, got out.” Sweetwater Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason Mower said the result was a “best-case scenario” for having a boat overturned, and added that it highlights the need to always be vigilant and prepared. Read the full story . – The recent listing of Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches drew a global spotlight for its size at more than 900,000 acres — four times New York City, and bigger than Rhode Island. Now there’s an even larger ranch for sale, and it’s also in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a sheep ranch in southwest Wyoming that lies under the shadow of the Wind River Mountains, spanning parts of Sweetwater and Sublette counties, is on the market for just $22 million dollars. “The Midland ranch in southwest Wyoming… is 1.1 million acres, and a really pretty interesting place, too… This is a third generation ranching family… It was first homesteaded in the, I think, the 1890s. There's an old remnant of a pony express remount operation there, along the Big Sandy on this ranch. It was also a crucial point on the Mormon and Oregon trails.” The ranch includes a seasonal residence in the Prospect Mountains for summers. There are functional buildings that serve as bunkhouses for ranch hands and barns, shops and corrals made of old weathered wood. With generations of history, the Midland ranch is a landmark in Wyoming. Read the full story . – A 55-year-old Casper woman is accused of siphoning money from fundraisers that were meant for her Glenrock client, who suffers from ALS. Sherri Roberts of Empower Case Management faces an initial hearing Thursday in Douglas Circuit Court on a charge of exploitation of a vulnerable adult - in this case, a 43-year-old Glenrock woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease named Deanna Cotten. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that police began investigating Roberts after they were alerted by the Wyoming Department of Family Services. “This case manager had done three fundraisers for her client. And according to the information in the affidavit, those fundraisers, the money from those fundraisers didn't all get where they were supposed to be. They were siphoned off. That's what it appears according to the court document, and now this case manager is facing a charge that could get her 10 years in prison.” Cotten is a former businesswoman and author who has written about her efforts to live with the disease. In a statement provided to Cowboy State Daily, Cotten said the case highlights how easily trust can be abused, and the importance of knowing how to protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A Montana outfitter is facing a $10,000 fine after he allegedly shot a grizzly bear during spring black bear hunting season, then failed to report the killing to authorities on time. According to federal law, anyone who kills a grizzly must report it to state and/or federal wildlife agents within just a few days. But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that outfitter Bryant Mikkelson waited weeks to report killing the grizzly bear on May 27. “Not clear whether it was unintentionally or not, but he was hunting black bears in kind of northwest Montana, and shot a grizzly bear… he waited two weeks to report it, and that got him into some hot water, because… anybody who kills a grizzly has to report it to either the Federal or State game officials within five days… he was up in a in a small mountain range, the outfitter was, but there are known to be Grizzlies kind of all throughout that area.” Mikkelson was charged with failing to report the taking of a grizzly bear. He made a plea agreement with prosecutors, who recommended that he be fined $10,000 and sentenced to one year of probation. Read the full story . – A person has been arrested in connection with a gunshot death in July at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. 21-year-old Brayden Lovan died in a shooting on July 20 that remains under military police investigation. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the scope of the investigation includes looking into the Sig Sauer M18 pistol – a model that has been under scrutiny for reports of unintentional firings. “They did not give a name. They did not say which court, if it's a court martial or Federal proceeding. They say that the person was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and making a false statement and obstructing justice, and that this is the fruit of progress in the investigation, after initial reports prompted an investigation into the gun.” Lovan was a defender assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Security Forces Group. Officials say the investigation is ongoing, and further details are not available. Read the full story . – Sharp-eyed Buffalo Bills fans weren’t mistaken when a Wyoming-themed banner appeared on their screens during the team’s first preseason game against the New York Giants on Saturday. Complete with the famous UW bucking horse logo, the targeted branding of the brown and gold continues a campaign of drawing attention to the university through its most famous alum, Bills quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen. That’s according to Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker. “The University of Wyoming on Tuesday announced a partnership with the Buffalo Bills, and it's going to feature a lot of University of Wyoming branding and messaging throughout the 2025 and 2026 NFL season. And what's really cool about this partnership is that they're specifically targeting western New York State students to come to the University of Wyoming… the University told me that it received 43 students from New York in last year's class, and they are hoping on increasing those numbers in subsequent years.” The partnership, which builds on momentum from UW’s 2025 Super Bowl ad, will see the school promoted across several in-stadium and digital marketing assets. UW will also be named the official home game sponsor of the Bills’ Nov. 16 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Read the full story . – It takes an act of Congress and a lot of bipartisan support to rename a post office. In Shoshoni, Wyoming, that honor was just bestowed upon Dessie Bebout as her family, local community and politicians gathered to honor the rededication of the town’s U.S. Post Office building in her name. On Wednesday, her family was joined by members of Wyoming’s Congressional Delegation, local officials and scores of townspeople at Shoshoni High School for the renaming. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy attended the event. “The unusual thing about naming the post office after Dessie is that when you look at the post offices that are dedicated, it's to people like Bob Hope, Walt Disney, national figures, and here in Shoshoni, we named it after a local post mistress. Very unique, and that is the Wyoming spirit… The entire family gathered, and especially her three children, Eli and Nick Bebout and Ruby Calvert. They were there talking about their mother and really proud of the legacy she has left our state.” Bebout was called a trailblazer who was an advocate for education, veteran and a postmistress for 13 years in Shoshoni, Wyoming, living to age 102 before she died in 2023. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37813040

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 13, 2025 08/13/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 13, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 13th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – As a handful of Wyoming Republicans with name recognition across the state with U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and the 2026 race for governor, a longtime state legislator isn’t waiting any longer. State Sen. Eric Barlow of Gillette officially announced Tuesday he’ll be on the 2026 Republican primary ballot for governor. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that he made the announcement at the Wright Centennial Museum in Campbell County, not far from the generational ranch where he grew up and still raises cattle. “He's a former house speaker, so people know him from that, and he's a Republican, a former US Marine, but in his last campaign, he was accused by his his opponent as not being conservative enough… he said he doesn't like those labels and the measuring of how conservative or how liberal someone is. He says what really matters… is if you're making a difference, if you're getting things done.” Read the full story . But even the opening prayer at Barlow’s announcement for governor cautioned it could be an ugly campaign. However, Barlow said if it gets ugly, it's not going to come from him. “In the opening prayer, the pastor prayed for Barlow and his family to be able to withstand any of the misinformation, the mudslinging campaigns that can come with politics. So that was kind of kind of set up a little bit, and I think it's kind of in the back of people's mind, what kind of a campaign is this going to be? We have a year to find out.” The state’s primary elections are scheduled to be held on August 18, 2026. Read the full story . – In a 4-2 vote Tuesday, a division of Wyoming’s environmental quality agency granted the request of solar power company Enbridge to increase one of its Laramie County projects’ battery storage by 50%. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the approval came despite an emotional objection by a fourth-generation rancher living next door, who said the land will never be the same. “The Cowboy solar project … it’s a huge solar farm going in near Cheyenne, they asked for an upgrade in battery storage. They were going to upgrade from 133 megawatts to like 200, and so they presented before the Industrial Siting panel on Tuesday in a public meeting in Cheyenne, like, we know this upgrade, it's not going to impact traffic or the environment, really, it's not going to increase the footprint of the project. But a local rancher who lives near that site said it does increase the risk of fire, and my place would be the first to go.” Though Enbridge didn’t name the large-scale consumer necessitating the upgrade, others at the meeting said it’s a data center looking to settle in the area. Read the full story . – Six days after a media company shut down eight legacy Wyoming newspapers with no notice, a group of local buyers emerged to take over operations, keep all employees and resume publishing immediately. The owners of the Buffalo Bulletin, Robb and Jen Hicks, along with the former publisher of the eight newspapers under their former owner, News Media Corp., announced Tuesday that they have acquired the papers from the Illinois-based media company. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that the sale required that all employees be re-hired - and paid. “Buffalo bulletin owners, Robb and Jen Hicks, along with the former publisher of those papers, Rob Mortimore, who was working for the company that shuttered the papers, have all said that they acquired these papers and are planning to resume publication immediately and have rehired all the workers at those papers who had been laid off just suddenly on last Wednesday. So this is great news for a lot of Wyoming's communities and a lot of Wyoming's counties. These are small papers, but they were papers that had been around for a long time with, sort of the papers of records in their community.” Mortimore will continue to be the group publisher of the eight newspapers, adding that the outpouring of support from the local towns and cities served by them has been, quote, "overwhelming and humbling." Read the full story . – The pieces might be falling into place for Wyoming’s timber industry to make a strong comeback. That’s what legislators and land management officials said on Tuesday at a meeting of theWyoming Legislature’s Select Federal Natural Resources Committee. They cited the volume of timber being cut in Wyoming, which Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports might outpace the state’s few remaining sawmills to meet the demand. “It really looks as if Wyoming's timber industry is on the cusp of a renaissance. It used to be a much bigger industry and then kind of really contracted down to just a few companies… they had officials there from the state forestry division, the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, and everybody across the board seemed to say that current policy coming out of Washington is really encouraging a lot more cutting, a lot more direct management of the forest, not only To extract timber products, but also to mitigate the risk of wildfires.” The increase in demand coincides with tariffs being placed on Canadian lumber, which for decades had been a main source of wood in the United States. Read the full story . – Wyoming’s all-Republican congressional delegation on Tuesday voiced its support for President Donald Trump’s decision to mobilize federal troops in Washington D.C. Trump on Monday announced he would deploy the National Guard on the ground in the nation’s capital and seize control of its police force to push back against what he said was a surge in criminal activity. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that each member of Wyoming’s delegation said that they support Trump’s decision, adding that crime has become a major problem in Washington. “Each one of them is largely toeing the party line. They are all in favor of President Donald Trump's move to bring in National Guard troops to Washington, DC. Now they largely capitalize on the issue of crime in Washington DC, which has also been something the President has spoke a lot about, saying that this is a necessary measure in order to ensure that Wyomingites who visit Washington DC are safe.” Critics of Trump’s decision argue, however, that Washington, D.C., crime had been declining before he decided to intervene. The Department of Justice in January announced that violent crime in D.C. had reached a 30-year low. Read the full story . – A crowd packed the Thermopolis fire hall Monday night for what’s been a hot topic — the future of Hot Springs State Park — with the one guy who now knows the most about it. Mark Begich, a former U.S. senator for Alaska, is the owner of Wyoming Hot Springs LLC, the company that the state has chosen to operate all of the park’s amenities, including Star Plunge, the park’s popular hot-springs fed complex of indoor and outdoor pools. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that opinions during Monday night’s meeting ranged from hot to hopeful. “So Mark Begich, the US senator from Alaska decided to come to Wyoming to have a meet and greet with Thermopolis residents to talk about his plans, to answer questions. It's been a hot topic for a while now in Thermopolis, and you know, people range from they’re angry to they’re hopeful and everything kind of in between… He answered a lot of questions, he corrected a lot of misinformation… he knows that he needs a pricing structure that works for locals as well as his business… it was great to get to talk to him a little bit and get his thoughts about what he plans and what he foresees in the future.” Begich’s specific plans for the park depend on the outcome of a lawsuit between the state and the owner of the Star Plunge. The two sides have been embroiled in a legal conflict over several thorny contractual issues. Read the full story . – A proposed change to the Wyoming Constitution - to make state Supreme Court nominees clear a state Senate confirmation - died Tuesday, after numerous attorneys brought fierce debate to the legislative Judiciary Committee. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming lawmakers started contemplating changing the state’s largely non-transparent judicial selection process after multiple high-profile cases raised concerns in the public. “It got a little wild during the committee, to be honest, because just this swarm of attorneys and retired Wyoming Supreme Court justices were like, no, don't mess with this system. We work with lawyers from other states who are like, Oh, elections are so bad, or Senate confirmation politicizes the courts. And so as this happened, at least one of the attorneys, Alaina Stedillie, got into a fiery back and forth with multiple legislators, where she was saying, this is going to turn the Senate confirmation hearings into a political circus.” Detractors of that idea say it will deter good candidates from applying to be justices, because they won’t want to announce to the people who depend on them for case continuity that they’re willing to leave. Proponents of the idea say it will give the public more insight into the way their potential judges operate and the way the system works. Read the full story . – A Sheridan couple was baffled and creeped out by trail camera photos showing a masked bandit pilfering their campsite in the Bighorn Mountains over a four-hour period early Thursday. Tammy Cote told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that though no high-value items were taken, it was “weird” to know that somebody had been creeping around their campsite while they were away. “Folks sometimes, they'll set up campsites, and they'll leave their camper and various things up there, and also, as these folks did, set up trail cameras to maybe catch photos of wildlife. So they caught photos of a dude wearing a ski mask and gloves and a headlamp, creeping in and out of their campsite several times between 1am and 5am on Thursday… She said there's no evidence that at any point, he tried to break into the camper. He did break into a toolbox on their ATV and took a few things out of it.” Cote said she has no idea what the intruder’s ultimate motive was, or why he kept wandering in and out of camp for so long. She said the incident gave the camp, quote, “a different feel” when they returned, and added that they decided to move their camp to another location. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37792935

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 12, 2025 08/12/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 12, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 12th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – The nuclear industry expansion debate has reached the city of Rock Springs – which just hired a communications contractor to educate the public about it, and about other hot-button issues. Rock Springs Mayor Max Mickelson supports bringing nuclear-based business to the city, and last week backed the now-finalized hiring of a communications contractor whom he said will inform but not persuade the public about industry particulars. However, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that not all city elected officials are in favor of that move - especially since the public relations contractor is the wife of a city council member. “It's another branch of the pervasive nuclear debate where people are saying, you know, the technology isn't sound enough for us to risk the groundwater and other treasures of Wyoming… the way this erupted in Rock Springs last week and over the weekend was they the city hired a special communications professional to educate the public on nuclear and other matters. And one Councilman who voted nay on that that hired that contract said, we're spending an extra 4000 a month, potentially on a propaganda machine.” The Wyoming Legislature is considering expanding nuclear waste storage opportunities so small nuclear reactors could both generate power and store waste in the state. Read the full story HERE. – A massive search effort continues for a Minnesota man missing for nearly two weeks in the rugged Cloud Peak Wilderness of northern Wyoming. Grant Gardner, a 38-year-old Minnesota man described as a skillful and experienced outdoorsman, texted his wife at about 7 p.m. on July 29 that he’d reached the top of Cloud Peak. But Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that he was reported missing to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 1, and the search effort has grown and expanded since. “At least a dozen agencies, people have donated private aircraft, helicopters. They brought in radar that can just be even the tiniest movement or differences. And then they haven't found him. However, he is an experienced, skilled outdoorsman. He's been out there quite a bit, and his wife says he's very meticulous… Gardner's wife, Lauren, she just texted me, said that she's also very distraught, but also very, very hopeful.” Tips from hikers in the area are being routed to the Bighorn County Sheriff’s Office. In the meantime, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family. Read the full story . – Mining jobs in the Power River Basin just got a boost from the Trump administration with the Department of the Interior's approval of a mining plan modification that will unlock 14.5 million tons of federally owned coal at the Antelope Mine in northeast Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the approval extends the mine's operations by about six months, through 2037. “The Trump administration means what they say, when they say we're going to try and keep coal miners employed. There have been three mines that wanted to have expansions done under the Biden administration. It ran into a long review process. That review process went through all the steps, according to the sources I spoke to, and finally came to a conclusion that, yes, all three mines will be able to expand. For Wyoming, that means the Antelope Mine, which sits right on the border between Converse County and Campbell County.” Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon praised the decision in a statement, and U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman connected the Antelope Mine approval to broader legislative efforts supporting Wyoming's coal industry. Read the full story . – Some people call it gas station heroin, others street-legal morphine. Regardless of such nicknames, kratom has sparked growing concerns nationwide about the safety of the over-the-counter supplement. There so far haven’t been widespread reports of problems with kratom in the Wyoming, but Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that doesn’t mean it isn’t a concern for law enforcement agencies. “There are all these kratom products on the market right now, but nobody's really regulating them… companies are finding ways to boost the narcotic element in these kratom products far, far beyond what would normally be there … making it more like street heroin. Nickname for this is gas station heroin.” Sold as a supplement, kratom has become increasingly popular in the United States as a home remedy for things like pain, coughing, diarrhea, anxiety and depression, and opioid withdrawal symptoms. It’s become widely available in a variety of shops, ranging from convenience stores and herbal supplement aisles to vape shops and gas stations. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A Wyoming state senator representing Laramie and Platte counties hand-delivered his resignation letter early Monday morning, then was sworn in as the interim federal prosecutor for the state hours later. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Smith was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 30 as his pick to fill the position permanently. But to win that title, Smith will have to clear a U.S. Senate confirmation process. “He's serving on an interim basis right now, and what that does is he tendered his resignation to the governor early Monday morning, had he not that would have been a federal law violation. But he did, and the governor turned around and told the Republican Party state chair, and that started the clock for the state chair. He has 15 days to organize all the precinct committee people in that legislative district to choose three nominees to fill Smith state senate seat, and then the two county commissions, with weighted votes according to the population proportion from each county are going to pick one replacement.” In a July 30 interview with Cowboy State Daily, Smith vowed to be tough on crime generally, and to defend crime victims on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Read the full story . – People might not agree about much when it comes to wild horse management, but there’s broad support for horse adoption, and a young Wyoming mustang named Red Solo Cup is looking for a new home. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz spoke to horse trainer Sienna Hawk, who spotted the scraggly-looking little horse with reddish hair, and found it perfectly fitting to name him after Toby Keith’s ode to America’s favorite cheap drinking vessel. “The Bureau of Land Management is starting to partner with some private groups that specialize in picking up and giving some basic training to these wild horses once they're rounded up and taken off the range. And one of those groups, one of the trainers, has connected with the horse… she said she was driving out to the the holding corral to look over some Mustangs, maybe pick a few out Toby key song. Red Solo Cup came on the radio and said that would be a good name for a horse. And it just so happened that that day, she found a horse with a red coat with red hair.” Red Solo Cup is roughly a year old and has been through some basic training. He will be among 16 mustangs up for adoption Aug. 22-23 at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island. Read the full story . – Casper’s Old Yellowstone District used to be the life of the party in the 1950s. First, it was a thriving business district that catered to travelers on their way to Yellowstone National Park. Then it was also home to a huge Amoco refinery that brought workers into Casper’s downtown. But since then, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports, the area that once boasted Casper’s grand downtown hotels has fallen into disrepair and neglect. However, a movement is afoot to restore glory to the district. “Lately, it's really gaining momentum, Wendy, and what's really cool is it's getting one of those Grand Hotels back. A company called brick and bond is going to build the CH Bixby hotel, and it's going to have 120 or so rooms. It's going to have a street level restaurant. It's going to have a rooftop cocktail lounge… this new one, is going to have a view of Casper mountain. You're going to be looking down on David Street Station… It's taken them 20 years to get here, but they're really turning a corner, and having a grand hotel back in the downtown, I think it's a big milestone for Casper.” The hotel itself will employ 80 people, as well as creating meeting and event spaces that will bring new life back to the downtown - and all the parties to come. Read the full story . – The Perseid meteor shower will hit its spectacular peak over Wyoming’s night skies on Tuesday, a chance to witness the annual summer astronomical phenomenon. And Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that Wyoming is a great place to watch the shooting stars - and fireballs. “We're going to be seeing some shooting stars, the potential of fireballs and even potentially a sonic boom. I was told by a professor at the University of Wyoming… that searching for areas where there are dark skies without light pollution is the best way to see the spectacle, and you can do what's called cowboy camping, which is going out into the Wyoming wilderness and setting up a fire and a tent and just taking in the night sky.” While the Perseid shower is normally visible in some capacity between mid-July and September, it will reach peak intensity in the early morning hours of Aug. 12 and 13. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37770470

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 11, 2025 08/11/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 11, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 11th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – As the 85th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally wound up this weekend, one biker said he misses the old days, when ad-hoc burnouts sent smoke billowing down the road, and when there weren't enough cops to do anything about it. He told Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag that he laments the presence of khaki shorts and tennis shoes, and bemoans the rally’s turn toward family friendliness, evidenced by the declining numbers of topless women. Of course, with rally attendance this year already surpassing 300,000 at its midpoint, he’s not talking about the death of an event, but rather the end of a culture. “They said it used to be a lot crazier than this, and it's still kind of crazy, which tells you that it was probably pretty wicked wild back in the day, but it's more family friendly… You talk to some of these old timers, and they go, man, people didn't even wear clothes on Main Street for a while. We used to do burnouts up and down Main Street. Now look at this. You've got cops on every corner.” Read the full story . – Those lawmen at the 85th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally have been busy with violations that run the gamut: assault, trespassing, weapons violations, domestic disturbance, disorderly conduct, drug possession, resisting arrest, theft and, above all, driving under the influence. So, just like the hotels in Sturgis, Zak reports that the Meade County jail has been booked solid to “standing room only” the last eight days. “The infrastructure gets overwhelmed. They've got an 80 bed jail, but that quickly fills up, and they need this overflow jail, which is pseudo kind of a retired little old school jail with the crankshaft bars and it's not comfortable… I talked to one of the inmates who just got out from serving a night for possession of marijuana, and he said people were stepping over each other. Not everybody had a pad. It smelled gross in there. The toilet wasn't working… that's what they have to resort to, because this is a small city only has 7000 permanent residents, and it's overwhelmed with a heck of a lot more during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.” The Sheriff told Cowboy State Daily that when you’ve got half-a-million people coming through, they do everything they can to be prepared, but kind of like the rally itself, they just react and, quote, “hang onto the saddle horn,” so to speak. Read the full story . – Uranium Energy Corp.'s Sweetwater Project became the first Wyoming mining operation to receive fast-track permitting status under President Donald Trump's latest mineral production initiative. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that it’s a milestone for a company that’s re-energizing, going from semi-dormant operations to one of America's leading uranium producers in just 12 months. “Uranium Energy Corp is really reviving a project that was owned by Rio Tinto, northwest of Rawlins. And the person I spoke to there who's got like, 50 years experience in this industry, said that it's really rare to have so much resource ready to go at this time, and it's apparently meeting a need. You know, the Trump administration certainly has declared a priority on getting the full nuclear spectrum up and running, from mining the uranium, to creating different technologies, like the micro reactors that we've reported on.” The restart could double operational uranium processing capacity in the U.S., addressing critical supply chain vulnerabilities. Read the full story . – Mountain lions are associated with, well, mountains. But mountain lions have been expanding their range into the Great Plains states for more than 20 years. However, that migration seems to be picking up steam. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that increasing numbers of mountain lion sightings in Kansas and verified reports of kittens born in Oklahoma show that the big cats’ range isn’t limited by their name. “ I talked to wildlife person in Nebraska, who said, yeah, they've had mountain lions there for years. They've got, in fact, they have a hunting season.…you're not going to see them out running out across the wide open prairies. What they do is they find what they call riparian areas, areas that go along river bottoms. And of course, even even in that prairie country, they got a lot of rivers and tributaries that flow through the prairies and mountain lions, much as grizzly bears have been doing, mountain lions will follow those river channels because it has cover. It has some height. It has outcroppings. It's got places where they can hang out, where they can ambush game, where they can, you know, have dens for their babies and stuff and the guy in Nebraska told me that they are seeing a steady eastward movement of mountain lions.” The mountain lions’ push into the prairie states is part of a larger movement of species that were driven back into the mountains as the West was settled. That includes grizzlies in Montana pushing as far east as the Missouri Breaks, and elk with Wyoming DNA reestablishing herds in Nebraska. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Working on the Jim Baker cabin in tiny Savery, Wyoming, HistoriCorps crew leader Karina Burbank sometimes feels like she’s playing a giant game of Lincoln Logs, with one important difference. It takes a whole lot more effort and sweat to place a real, hand-hewn cottonwood log into Jim Baker’s cabin than it would a toy Lincoln Log. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean paid a visit to the site of legendary mountain man Jim Baker’s historic two-story cabin, which was built 152 years ago, and will continue to stand into the future, thanks to the efforts of a group of dedicated volunteers. “The Jim Baker cabin has a couple dozen logs that have rotted and need to be replaced. They're probably only going to get to about half of them this time around. They're working on the highest priority, worst logs first, and then they may come back and work on the second set the next year… the volunteer I talked to, you know, she said it really makes her appreciate what our pioneers did to survive back then and now, when she sees an older building, and she knows how that's done, the old time techniques it took to do that, and the time and the care and the effort that's in that building.” HistoriCorps travels around the country with a cadre of volunteers, many of whom return each summer to help the nonprofit preserve some of the nation’s most historic structures. The Colorado-based group has won numerous national awards and recognition for their work. Read the full story . – A weed-control contractor drove a gigantic ATV with balloon tires, called a SHERP, through the Blackfoot River near Missoula, Montana, lumbering right past a flabbergasted fishing guide, who captured video of it. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks verified to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that the video is authentic, and that what the driver did was illegal. “A SHERP is a specific, it's a really huge, gigantic balloon-tired, all terrain vehicle. It's actually made by a Ukrainian company. They're kind of touted as, you can go anywhere with this thing. And a fishing guide on the Blackfoot River in Montana… caught video of one literally driving straight up the middle of the river, like right through what he said was some prime bull trout spawning pools, just tearing stuff up. And of course, as you can imagine, that fishing guide was pretty darned upset by this thing. Apparently, the people who were driving it are contractors for a county weed and pest district there in Montana. But they did not inform anybody or get the permits if, even if such a permit even exists to drive the SHERP in the water.” After contacting the operator, the agency was promised that it won’t happen again. Read the full story . – John Lea of Powell was fast asleep after working a graveyard shift at Walmart in Cody last week, when his trailer home caught fire. Lea told Cowboy State Daily that he likely would have died in the blaze if not for his chocolate lab Belle, who woke him up just in time to escape the growing flames. “If you've ever worked a night shift, you know what it's like to sleep in the day. It's like a coma sleep… And that's what was happening for John Lea. He was sleeping in the middle of the afternoon in Powell in a trailer he just moved into with his two dogs… He wakes up in the middle of the afternoon with his dog Belle, this chocolate lab… jumping up all in his face, is how one person put it I spoke to, and so he had no time to do anything except grab both dogs, push them through the flames because the front porch was on fire, and get out with his underwear and his two dogs. That's it. I interviewed one of his neighbors who found him that way, kind of with the 100 yard stare, just taking it all in, watching his trailer burn and everything inside, wallet, keys, credit cards, computer, and so he was left with nothing.” Now staying at the Super 8 in Cody with both dogs, Belle and his 15-year-old senior pup Beauty, Lea has expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from his neighbors and strangers. A GoFundMe has been set up to help Lea and his dogs get back on their feet. Read the full story . – When Brandon Parker was preparing to propose to his girlfriend Melissa Absher, he had a to-do list of sorts. The Spokane, Washington, man penned a song, planned a party with Absher’s family in Montana, and he ordered 100 pounds of gravel from a sapphire mine. To the wrong person, proposing with gravel might have been met with a rebuttal to go kick rocks. But Absher told Cowboy State Daily’s Anna Jackson that Parker’s proposal was perfect. “When they started talking about marriage, she said the only requirement she had was a Montana Sapphire. So he knew that… and then he saw there was this option through the mine to ship the gravel to you. And so he planned this party that was under the guise of a fourth of July party at her…mom's home in Great Falls, Montana, and got a lot of friends together, and then he pulled her aside, proposed, and then they started this sapphire panning party… it sounds like they'll maybe both use some of the sapphires and ring in their wedding bands. She also wants to use some of the sapphires for necklaces for some of the women in their family and their friends.” When the couple exchange vows at a date to be determined, their rings will hold a tangible reminder of all of their loved ones who helped pan for those sapphires — and who have supported them in so many other ways. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37754810

The Roundup: A Conversation With Brent Weigner 08/09/2025

The Roundup: A Conversation With Brent Weigner Wendy Corr: Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and our focus is on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And wow, wow. You want to talk about interesting, my guest today has so many stories, it would fill a dozen, two dozen podcasts. So we're going to have to figure out how to narrow down the scope of today's podcast guest’s experience and stories, because there's so many things that Brent Weigner can teach all of us. But first, I'm going to first tell you about a podcast that, if you're a business person in Wyoming, that you need to know about. It's the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast, if you're a business person, this is a place for resources, for connections, for networking. If you want to know about how to become a better business person, the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast is the place to go find it, wherever you located this podcast or or your other favorite podcasts. But don't go there first. First. You're going to stay here because you want to hear this conversation with one of the most interesting people, not just in the Cowboy State, but in the world of marathon running, in the world of education, Brent Weigner is one of the most interesting people because he has been running since he was a small child, and he has taken that running and he's made that into a lifelong - can I say obsession, Brent? Is that right? Are you obsessed with running? Brent Weigner: Passion? Wendy Corr: That sounds much better than obsession, it really does. But Brent, you have been running since you were a small child, but since you began running, you have not quit. In fact, you have run more than 200 marathons in more than 200 countries. You have run more than I think, are you closing in on 400 marathons? Brent Weigner: 403 at this point. Wendy Corr: ou've run 403 marathons in your life, plus 35 years of teaching middle school geography, middle school social studies to kids and inspiring them to become runners and travelers. And I just think, Brent, that that is fantastic. Brent, you're a Cheyenne guy. You've been a teacher in Cheyenne forever. Tell us firstabout your teaching career, because I think that that sets us off into a great direction. Brent Weigner: Okay. Well, thank you, Wendy for having me on. I love to talk about running, teaching, just life in general, talk about my faith as well. So I never thought I would end up being a teacher. Only reason I went to college was to run, because I scored like a 17 on my ACT. My counselor told me that I wasn't college material, that I should go to trade school or join the military. And then I ended up getting the scholarship to Greeley, and went there and changed my major three or four times. Then I went to law school, and I decided that wasn't for me. And then I dropped out of law school and decided, well, I think I like teaching, because I was working at the YMCA and teaching swimming at the Warren Air Force base for the youth there. And so it kind of morphed into that. And before I got hired full time, I actually did substitute teaching, K through 12. I would teach any subject and any grade level. Wendy Corr: Wow, no kidding. So, that's how that's what piqued your interest in teaching. Why did you decide on history and geography? Brent Weigner: Well, I taught World Geography primarily, and I actually ended up teaching at the community college for a while. I taught at the University of Wyoming. Taught a lot of different places and different things, but I focused on world geography, because when I was in high school between my junior and senior year, my German teacher took us on a trip to Germany, and I couldn't afford that, and so I asked my mom and dad, and they said, Well, if you raise half the money, we'll pay for The other half. And so we were ranchers. We raised Black Angus cattle and quarter horses. And so I sold three of my Black Angus cows, $200 a head. This is 1967. Wow. That was enough. And so I spent a month in Dusseldorf, Germany, and then a month in Seyfel, Austria, and that experience just ruined me for life. Wendy Corr: I like that it ruined you. I'm not sure, it either ruined you or set you up. Which one? Brent Weigner: Yeah, just piqued my interest in traveling. And after that, you know, I was 100% in to do that. And then between my junior and senior year in college. I lived at University of Munich, and because I'd taken German in high school and I'd taken it in college, and I maxed out all the hours I could take in Greeley. And so my counselor said, Well, you know, if you do a study abroad, you can get 15 hours, and that'll be enough to get your minor in German. Wendy Corr: So you started, though, with this passion for travel, translated that into a career as a teacher, but running was always throughout this - and how did you get started running and marrying these two passions? Brent Weigner: Oh, boy, you know, I think when we were growing up, we grew up north of town, on Riding Club road. And as kids, you know, we play games like the ditch them and hide and go seek and all kinds of running games. We would actually have contests to see who could chase down a horse and halter it. And so we let them hide them out. We let them out in a huge fenced area, you know, many, many acres. And then we'd have everybody have a halter, and someone would say, Go and be the judge. And whoever got the horse first and put a halter on it was the winner. Wendy Corr: Well, that seems right. Brent Weigner: I was kind of a horse whisperer back in the day, and we probably had, over the years, close to two dozen quarter horses, and I was a rodeo kid. Most of my friends were cowboys. Helped Chris Ledoux build his first bucking barrel. Wendy Corr: No way, wow! Brent Weigner: Yeah. And we got paid $100 for pictures and articles in Western Horseman. So this is 1967, so that was good money there. It was right across the street from where we lived, on riding club road, because Yellowstone used to be called Meriden route, and right across the road was the frontier roping and riding club. So in the summer, there would always be at least six rodeos that we participated in. You know, we'd ride yearling Brahma bulls, bucking ponies. So, you know, that kind of worked into the cowboy lifestyle, and then I worked at Frontier park in the summer taking care of the committee's horses and the visiting Queens horses. So I get about three hours of sleep a night during Frontier Days. Wendy Corr: So my goodness, you’ve got a long history there as well. Brent Weigner: Yeah, you know, it everything kind of blended and worked out in terms of my obsession with running, because when I started teaching, all that stuff stayed, and so I think I was unique in a way, because I always thought that education, a lot of it took place outside the four walls of the classroom, you know. And so I would take kids overseas in the summer. We took kids to New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and DC. My favorite trip was, we took them to the former Soviet Union when they still had bread lines. And so, you know, kids remember that. Kids remember that kind of trip. I remember we flew a 45 minute flight from Helsinki, Finland to Leningrad, well, St Petersburg now, but it was Leningrad at the time. And then we took the train to Moscow. I remember the guys, the guards, with the long mirrors, looking under the train cars and making sure no one was hitching a ride. So that was really a unique experience. And then on top of that, with my coaching, I coached year round. So after the season was over, I took kids to Junior Olympic meets, to take them to track meets, take them to road races, cross country meets. My bragging point, my favorite thing about the coaching, well, I have lots of them, but one I think will never be broken, was I founded the girls cross country teams at Cheyenne Central High School and at McCormick. And because back in the day, they thought, you know, if girls or women ran, it would harm their reproductive system. So the first year at Central, I had two girls out for cross country, and then I was there for three years, and then I was at McCormick for the rest of my career. And so when I retired my girls, my McCormick girls, had won the city and the conference championship for 32 years straight. Wendy Corr: Oh, my word Brent, what an accomplishment. Brent Weigner: And then, after the season, we continued running. So I took my 17, 18 Junior Olympic girls to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the summer before we hosted the national championship. Of Little America. And this is back when you could take kids, and you didn't need chaperones, just me and the girls, you know, staying on the campus at the Olympic Training Center and convince them, you know, they were the real deal. And so when nationals came around, we weren't even on the radar, you know, we just out of the clear blue, we won. And so Olympic gold medalist John Neighbor was at the award ceremony. He gave the medals. So I was always, always looking for opportunities, you know, to blend my running with my teaching, with my coaching, and, of course, with my running too. Because if I would, if it was a meet where I could run, I would do that. For example, we took a couple of kids, Kevin Carl Fefferley, I think, and my friend Larry Heideck. We ran the first US Mexico International Marathon in El Paso and Juarez. And so we got, we drove down there, and we were one short of having a team. We had to have five runners. And so I do what I think great coaches do - you know, you recruit or you lie? So I just go around talking, I saw these two kids, they looked like they were runners. They had just graduated from Tucson High School. And so I said, Well, you know, what kind of times you guys running? And when they told me, I says, Hey, you want to be on our team? And so, we won the first US-Mexico marathon. And the Mexican national team had two Olympians on their team, but their third year, their guys kind of sucked. And so, all five of us ran sub-three hour marathons. And so we got a nice article in the paper, and 13 miles, was in El Paso, go over the International Bridge into Juarez, and then the last 13 warriors. And then we finished at Shamazal National Monument. Wendy Corr: What year was that? Because I imagine that it was as scary then as it is now. Brent Weigner: No, no, it wasn't bad back then, at least from my perspective, I remember it as kind of a nuisance. Once we got into Mexico, the kids are running along beside us, trying to sell us cigarettes or gum, and then the busses, you know, on the roads, and then the busses just going by, pulling out, you know, spewing diesel fumes and and you're trying not to suck those in. And the club that sponsored the marathon had an interesting name. They were called the Half-Fast Running Club. Wendy Corr: Oh, okay, okay. Brent Weigner: My jokes, yeah, I know. I hate to be the one to have to explain them to you. Wendy Corr: Okay, just had to say it fast enough. That's all. Brent Weigner: Here's another, here's another fun running coaching story. So I had two junior high kids, seventh graders, that qualified for nationals out in Gresham, Oregon, and so I had a piece of crap Volkswagen, the starter was broken, and so we'd have to push the Volkswagen to get it started. And we didn't have any money. So one of the kids, Jeff Holloman's dad, Israel Holloman, loaned us his tent trailer. And so Jeff was going to run the 400 800 nationals, and David Weaver was going to run the two mile. So we took us a couple days to get out there, and the boys got kind of aggravated with me because they said, Coach, can you park in the back of the you know, wherever we were? Because it's embarrassing, a little embarrassing. Yeah, so we get out there, they did really well, and they're wanting to stay and play tourist. I said, Well, you need to call your parents and see if they're cool with that, because it was just me and the two boys sleeping in the tent trailer. And so you call your parents see what they think. And both the parents said, Okay, you can do that. And I thought, terrific. I said, Okay, guys, you know we could, but we have no money. Oh, coach, we can get a job. I said, Really, how are we going to get a job? Well, hey, I saw one of the kids says, I saw a sign. Let's see what it is - pickers wanted. So we became migrant workers picking raspberries in Gresham, Oregon. Wendy Corr: Oh, my word. Yeah, that is, how long did you stay? Brent Weigner: Just a couple days, two or three days, I don't know, but they pay you right on the spot. You had to have gloves because of the prickly on the Raspberry. And so they give you, like a pint, or maybe, maybe it was a quart, I don't know, but you pick them, fill it up, give it to them. They give you the money. And you work until you think you've got enough money for the day, and then you go do touristy stuff. Wendy Corr: That is just fantastic. But what fantastic life experience for those boys! Brent Weigner: You know, and I always look for opportunities. Here's another interesting story. I tried to get a visa to run a marathon in Algeria, and I couldn't get a visa. But there was a Spanish group, a charity group out of Spain, that was supporting the Sawari people, which are refugees after Morocco invaded Western Sahara, the Sawari people were discriminated against. So a couple hundred thousand of them went in to Morocco and lived in refugee camps. And so we had to pay some money for the entry fee, and then we went and actually lived with some of the refugee families. So we stayed, there was a two room mud hut, nothing in there, but like a bed on the floor. And then the refugees gave up their mud hut and went and slept in tents. And so our situation is just these two rooms in a mud hut, three women in one, three guys in the other, no toilet. You have to go outside, kind of round back and just a hole in the ground to use the toilet facilities. And then our breakfast typically consisted of a piece of bread and tea. And then once in a while, we might get an orange, you know, piece of food of some sort. And then we ran through - there were four refugee camps, as I recall. And we just ran through the refugee camps. Of course, being the grandfather that I am, I'm kind of slow now, and so I think I was close to last place, I might have been last place. And so I looked ahead, and there are a couple of kids waiting for me, and they're talking to me and trying to distract me, and a little kid tried to snatch the water bottle out of the back of my pack. So I turned around. Man, he took off running like crazy, and the the two other boys kind of left, but the organizers were worried about me getting mugged, so I had a truck escorting me the rest of the way. Wendy Corr: Oh, my goodness. So how, how long ago was this? Because this sounds fairly recent. Brent Weigner: Yeah, maybe, maybe four or five years ago. I was 70. I think I was 70 or 71 at the time. I'll be 76 next month. But you know, just, there's different opportunities, you know, and I'm not, I don't threaten anybody. And what's an interesting story, in Africa, old people don't run. Your life expectancy many times is 40. I remember running in, when I ran, you know, earlier this year, actually, in June, I ran two marathons in the Republic of the Congo and Gabon. Wendy Corr: They sound like frightening places. Some are, Brent Weigner: Yeah, some places are dangerous. But the deal is just certain parts of the country. If it's dangerous there, then the whole country gets a black eye. The State Department says, Do not travel. On their list of 13 or 14 countries, they say, Do not travel. I run marathons in nine of them. I was running in - I don't remember which African country, and when I finished, I was literally mugged by young adults and kids. I had a dozen plus hands all over my body, my head, my arms, my legs, and I remember this one, black kid’s going right my face, ‘White man. This is not possible. My father's 40 years old. He's an old man and dying. What is your Juju? What's your Juju? Juju?’ Yeah, my magic. What's my magic? You know? And what I do, I point it up. And then I cross myself, and I said, if you want to know more about my magic, talk to me. So I share, I share my faith whenever the opportunity presents itself. Wendy Corr: Well, that's amazing. Brent Weigner: You know, I had several experiences with the power and the fire, the Holy Spirit, where I actually communicate with a higher power. And I can't really, some ways, I can't explain it. It's, I kind of get chills, and it just stops me in my tracks, and I try to listen. So, for example, and if I get too off here, just redirect me. But in 2020 my wife thought I had dementia, Alzheimer's. I didn't have any symptoms other than memory loss. I asked her, where is that place I keep my money? I couldn't remember where my bank was. So when, you know, jumped through the hoops and the MRI and there was a tumor the size of my fist right here. And so Dr. Bier here in Cheyenne did the surgery. Is benign. It's called a meningioma. It's a slow growing tumor, takes 15 to 20 years to get that big. Wendy Corr: Oh, my goodness. So you've been living with this tumor in your head for all this time, you had no idea. Brent Weigner: Yeah, yeah. And so Dr. Bier, I asked him, before the surgery, I said, when will I be able to run a marathon again. He says, Well, if everything goes okay, in two months. So they did the surgery. I was in and out in the hospital in 48 hours. Wendy Corr: That's incredible. Brent Weigner: Last pain pill I took in 2020 was a Tylenol when I left the hospital. Haven't taken a pain pill since, and so for the first month, I was on a treadmill downstairs, and they only let me walk two minutes at a time, and then gradually up to and then the next month, I could go outside and walk. And so went for my follow up with Doctor Bier, and he gave me the green light. Three days later, I left for Yemen, and after we ran a 10k in Yemen, we ran a marathon and we were supposed to do an apathon, but you probably remember we were there March 17. What happened March 17, 2020? Wendy Corr: The pandemic. Yeah, lockdown. Brent Weigner: So they woke us up, three o'clock in the morning and said, We have to leave. They're locking down the country. So we flew from, it's kind of a World Heritage Site, the island of Socotra. They have unique, endemic species found nowhere else in the world, but we flew to the mainland, and we're stuck at the airport for nine hours. And we thought, oh, man, this is, this is not good. And we were literally the last flight out of Yemen. Got to Cairo three days early, tried to change my ticket on United, and they wanted $5,000 and I said, well, so I just stayed. I just stayed at the hotel. I really am right hooked up to the airport. So just stayed there for three days. Wendy Corr: Yeah, chilled out. Brent... /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37741530

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 8, 2025 08/08/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 8, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 8th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – If size matters, then this Wyoming ranch has it all. The Pathfinder Ranches, at more than 916,000 acres, is bigger than the state of Rhode Island and almost double the size of Jacksonville, Florida, the largest American city by land mass in the Lower 48. It’s larger even than the fictional “Yellowstone” Dutton Ranch from Taylor Sheridan’s famous television series, which is somewhere between 775,000 to 825,000 acres - and Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the ranch - which covers a sprawling area in four Wyoming counties - is on the market for just $79.5 million dollars. “The Yellowstone Dutton Ranch is a fictional ranch. It's purposely exaggerated in size, you know, to suggest something no reasonable person could ever own. But this ranch, Wendy, is bigger than the fictional exaggerated ranch, and it is right here in the real world in Wyoming… it's bigger than a lot of metropolitan cities. It's basically 12 ranches strung together over the decades… It's historic. It's iconic. It's got every kind of outdoor recreation you can imagine… so yeah, if only I had 79 and a half million laying around.” History has left its mark on the Pathfinder Ranches - literally. Independence Rock is near the ranch, and the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, the California and the Mormon trails all cross its land. Read the full story . – The parent company of eight Wyoming hometown newspapers shut them down with no notice Wednesday after a deal to sell them fell through. News of the abrupt closure of the Pinedale Roundup, Platte County Record-Times, Guernsey Gazette, Torrington Telegram, Lusk Herald, Uinta County Herald, Bridger Valley Pioneer and Kemmerer Gazette was alarming to industry leaders, who told Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson that a failed sale is no excuse for the “unconscionable” way employees were treated. “Wyoming newspaper industry people who are very well known, they've been around for decades… they were as shocked as anybody else about the sudden closure of these eight newspapers from News Media Corp… The former publisher of the Casper Star Tribune, said it's, you know, it's a big loss for the whole state, but also his word was unconscionable, to just spring it on everybody and not let them know, ‘hey, this could be coming. You know, we're having some trouble.’ News Media employees said that they knew of the potential for the company to be sold, but had no clue it was close to being shut down. Read the full story . – U.S. Air Force bases depend heavily on the same electrical grids that power homes and businesses. In a blackout, while homeowners are fumbling for the candles and the flashlights, military facilities switch over to diesel generators. Looking to provide a more reliable and long-term source of electricity, nuclear startup Radiant this week signed what it described as a first-ever agreement to deliver mass-manufactured nuclear microreactors to U.S. Air Force bases. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the California-based company hopes the military contract adds momentum to its efforts to establish a manufacturing presence in Wyoming. “This would give a base its own power plant that's not beholden to a cyber attack on the commercial grid, and it can be placed in remote locations. And they're not alone. There's another company that the Air Force is working with that is talking about putting a reactor up at one of our remote Air Force bases in Alaska. And so this is clearly a new market… and it could create a huge industry in Wyoming if the state changes its law. And that's the other complicating factor here is the legislature is considering a bill that would allow for the storage of waste.” Company spokesman Ray Wert expressed optimism that the Air Force deal could boost support for the contentious Natrona County facility proposal. Read the full story . – Saying a Teton County-based ski resort’s year-round roller coaster threw him when his seatbelt came undone, a Wyoming man is suing the resort, and an international roller-coaster equipment manufacturer. In July, Juan Camacho filed a civil lawsuit in Teton County District Court, against Snow King Mountain Resort and Wiegand Sports, over an incident that occurred in 2021 - three years after several seatbelt malfunctions triggered a nationwide recall. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Camacho is asking for a trial to establish judgment and determine “just and proper” damages and relief. “It's a year round roller coaster at a ski resort, and the 2018 accidents happened in August of that year. So, summertime accidents, and the seat belts were recalled, and then they were replaced, and so they got the thing up and running. This plaintiff alleges that in 2021, after the whole 2018 debacle, his seat belt wasn't checked, and it malfunctioned, throwing him from the coaster. And so, he's suing the manufacturer and the Snow King resort.” When Camacho’s seatbelt came undone, and the coaster threw him, he says it caused him, quote, “serious injuries, damages, and losses.” Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A former award-winning foster dad was sentenced in Natrona County District Court on Thursday to 128 years in prison for sexually abusing two adopted daughters, as well as physically abusing them and four other children in his care. Natrona County District Court Judge Kerri Johnson imposed sentences on 50-year-old Steven Marler, who was convicted by a jury in April of 14 charges that involved sexual abuse of minors, child endangerment and battery. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Judge Johnson made the sentences all consecutive. “Steven Marler was sentenced to a maximum of 178 years and a minimum of 128 years. And the judge said she said she did that because she wanted each of the victims that Marler has afflicted over the years to have justice… in court Marler … denied doing any sexual abuse of any children, said that he tried to be a good parent and father and that he had failed, and said he was sorry for that and that he was praying for everybody involved in the case. He did not seem to show any kind of repentance.” In 2013, Marler and his wife Kristen were recognized by the federal Administration for Children and Families with an Adoption Excellence Award, one of only three families across the nation to get the award that year. Read the full story . – As a search for a Minnesota hiker missing in the remote Cloud Peak Wilderness of northern Wyoming continues, confusion over another missing man found dead in Montana has rubbed at already raw emotions. Reports out of Big Horn County, Montana, about finding the body of a missing man in the Bighorn River caused a storm of speculation on social media that it was the man search and rescue teams are looking for in Wyoming. But Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that it wasn’t. “The search for the Minnesotan climbing Cloud Peak, it continues, even though it's going on 10 days since he made it up there. But they're still hopeful that they're going to find him… however, there has been some confusion over reports of another missing man in Big Horn County, Montana, which is just across the border, who was missing and was found deceased in in the Big Horn River… there was enough confusion over that that the Wyoming Big Horn County Sheriff's Office put out a statement saying, yes, it's not the same guy, and we are still looking.” The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office in Wyoming reports Thursday that a full-on search and rescue effort is ongoing for 38-year-old Grant Gardner. Read the full story . – A 26-year-old Mexican national whose pickup “catastrophically dismembered” two motorcycle riders in Goshen County two years ago while driving while under the influence of methamphetamine, was sentenced Thursday, to between 24 and 27 years in prison. In an agreement with prosecutors, Jonathan Cervantes pleaded guilty to two charges, and Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that District Court Judge Edward Buchanan handed down the maximum sentence. “To a case this severe, where the investigator himself is using words like catastrophic dismemberment, it sounds light potentially, but the prosecutor said, Well, there's detainers on him from other jurisdictions… at sentencing, Cervantes apologized, and Judge Edward Buchanan said… I don't get the sense that you have weighed the severity of what you've done… but Cervantes interrupted the judge, which is unusual, at that phase, and said, I do understand it perfectly.” Cervantes is also wanted on felony charges in Colorado and Kansas, on suspicion of illegally re-entering the country (also a felony), and federal authorities have placed a claim on him for deportation proceedings. Read the full story . – Huge gouts of smoke rose over the tiny town of Sundance, which sits along a popular Sturgis Motorcycle Rally ride, the Devils Tower loop, as part of what’s become known to rally goers as Wyoming Wednesday. The smoke is from burning tires - an actual competition that has been taking place for 50 years now, in which riders deliberately burn out their motorcycle tires. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a Gillette woman won the 50th annual Burnout this week, in part by boldly lifting her top to bare it all to win it. “The way they choose the winner of the burnout, it's basically crowd appreciation, right? Who cheers the loudest for who. So the crowd, the person who gets the most cheers wins the money, which is considerable. The purse was 750 bucks. So you know, hey, maybe that's worth pulling your top up… the crowd was pretty loud for the fan favorite last year, but so Goodhouse put it over the top, though, when she lifted her top and boy, the crowd just went wild.” The winner said she’ll definitely be back next year to watch the burnout, though she doesn’t know if she’ll participate again. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is record-breaking marathon runner - and retired Cheyenne teacher - Brent Weigner. You can find the link to this inspiring and entertaining conversation on our , on our channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37727345

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 7, 2025 08/07/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 7, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, August 7th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Eight rural communities across Wyoming are without their legacy hometown newspapers after News Media Corp. abruptly closed them without notice Wednesday morning. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson spoke to several employees who were notified via phone call and email that their jobs were terminated, effective immediately. “On Wednesday, they came to work. They're ready to go, most of them, because Wednesday is publication day… They're ready to go to press, and they're told, No, we're shut down… the group publisher told me that it was as much a surprise to him as it was to anybody else. He had no clue that the shutdown was coming, and then it was just going to be that abrupt… And not only was the shutdown effective Wednesday, that was also the last day that they have health insurance, they shut that down for them too… people talk these days about news deserts, big, you know, areas that aren't covered by any news… and for eight of them to just shut down in one day, there's a lot of local news. It's just just not happening.” Among the shuttered papers is the Pinedale Roundup, which has been the local newspaper for folks in that western Wyoming community for 121 years. Other papers shut down are Wheatland’s Platte County Record-Times, the Guernsey Gazette, the Torrington Telegram, Lusk Herald, Uinta County Herald, Bridger Valley Pioneer and Kemmerer Gazette. Read the full story . – The Wyoming Democratic Party is hopeful a newly announced series of town halls in districts considered Republican strongholds will prove to Wyomingites it is not backing down in the face of fierce Republican opposition. Democrats currently hold a combined eight seats in the state legislature, with two in the Senate and six in the House. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that State Democratic leaders are now pushing back through a series of listening events scheduled in red districts across Wyoming. “This is an approach that kind of mirrors a game plan used by Democrats on the federal level such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. They did their Stop Oligarchy tour across the country this year in red districts across the US… when I asked Democratic Party chairman for the state of Wyoming if he was inspired by this tour that was done on the federal level, he said, No. He said, This is something that we're doing locally. We're only focusing on the state of Wyoming. And he wants to show people that Democrats are here for Wyoming voters. They're caring about the issues that are important to them, and they're ready to turn the tide, given some of the unpopular decisions that Republican lawmakers may have made in recent days.” Areas scheduled to host these listening sessions include Cheyenne, Casper, Lander and Park County, with more sessions planned. Read the full story . – More than 200 Laramie County residents converged on a meeting of the county’s governing board Tuesday to criticize proposed land use rule changes impacting home-based businesses. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that nearly four hours of public testimony revealed a chasm between the way the commissioners characterized the new rules and the way meeting attendees characterized them. “There was a lot of information online circulating like, Oh, this is going to abridge the Wyoming Food Freedom Act and shut everyone's business down, you know, shut down lemonade stands, or require all this onerous permitting. And county officials were really kind of slack jawed… because they were like, We're deregulating. We're actually making a less onerous plan, but it's raising attention now because we didn't thoroughly enforce the old rules.” The Laramie County Board of Commissioners adopted the controversial new land use regulations, but not until after a unanimous vote to remove a proposed permitting requirement for home-based businesses that had enraged those business owners. Read the full story . – For the third time this year, a wolf transplanted to Colorado wandered across the state line into Wyoming and died, though the wolf’s death wasn’t officially announced until nearly two weeks later. Colorado Parks and Wildlife learned on July 24 that wolf 2304, a female, had died in Wyoming. Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to residents along the Colorado-Wyoming line who say that wolves crossing into Wyoming and dying are an inevitable consequence of the animals’ natural urge to wander. “I talked to one person who isn't all that crazy about the wolves being there in Colorado, who said, you know, maybe they're trying to get home. I talked to another person who's very much for the wolf recovery program, who said, you know, this kind of proves the need for… that federal court ruling that could possibly lead to wolves being relisted as an endangered species.” Wolves remain protected in Colorado and may not be legally hunted there. But in the part of Wyoming along the Colorado state line, wolves are classified as a predatory animal. That means they may be killed on sight at any time, with no hunting license required. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – About 25,000 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally bikers made a pit stop in tiny Hulett, Wyoming, on Wednesday for the town’s famous Ham and Jam street party. Picnic tables are set out in the shade beside the Ponderosa Café, vendors line the street and the Harleys never seem to stop buzzing. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it feels a bit like a summer reunion. “It just feels like, I don't know, a backyard, neighborhood barbecue or something… Strangers sit next to each other and meet each other and talk to each other and tell their whole life story, sometimes even when you're trying to work. And that is, I think the secret sauce to the Ham and Jam is just that camaraderie. It's America coming together. It's really the world, the world comes to Hulett for this.” Meeting people and making new friends, not to mention being a little adventurous and trying new things, are just a few of the other things people mention when they talk about their attraction to the Wyoming side of the Sturgis Rally in the Black Hills. Read the full story . – Across the West, a divisive symbol of prudent government cost-cutting to some, and creeping authoritarianism and tech-enabled elitism to others, is making its way to national parks such as Yellowstone and other federally protected public lands, carrying a message. The message is delivered via a giant Elon Musk head. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that a sign on the trailer hauling the gigantic bust reads: “Make America Wait Again. Now With Longer Lines Thanks To DOGE Cuts.” “They're just going from Park to park. They're staying anonymous. What they're trying to do is protest. Elon, as we all know, headed up DOGE… the protest group, they reached out to Cowboy State Daily after they went to Yellowstone Park and said that they were responsible for this, and they said that they're just doing this strictly to protest the cuts that have happened to the park system… it has gone to Yosemite National Park. It's gone to Arches National Park in Utah. It's gone to Yellowstone, and it's gone to Mount Rainier…it plans to head to other places, and so you may see it if you're traveling around the summer.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgam has pledged to keep parks “open and accessible” and make sure parks are adequately staffed, but the demonstrators behind the Musk bust don’t believe that to be the case. Read the full story . – Saying poor construction of a park bathroom left her with long-lasting injuries, an Afton woman unsuccessfully sued her town government for nearly $3 million in a three-day jury trial last week. The jury in Lincoln County District Court returned a July 30 verdict saying the town of Afton was not negligent. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Danelle Lind’s lawsuit dates back to the night of Sept. 10, 2023, when Lind attended a wedding at the Canyon View Park in Afton. “The bathroom door sits on a threshold that's like three and a half inches above the landing leading to it. And so the allegation was, whoa, this wasn't built to the code that prevailed in the early 80s when it was built. And the town also didn't have outdoor lighting, reportedly… the jury decided otherwise, after hearing not only evidence that the woman was wearing a high heeled wedge shoe, but also that the inside of the bathroom was lit so as she opens the door, the light from the inside of the bathroom spills onto the threshold as she's exiting.” Lind suffered what she described as a severe leg injury. Her bones snapped in three places and she had to undergo an emergency room procedure. Read the full story . – And the American Eagle denim company has sparked fierce debate with its ads featuring popular actress Sydney Sweeney and the tagline, quote, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” But Dubois-area outdoorsman and hunting guide Cade Cole decided to have some fun with it, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz. “There's been this controversy blowing up all over the place about, you know, Sydney Sweeney, the jeans commercial. Is it too racy, too sexual? Does it imply genetic superiority of blonde haired, blue eyed people?... Wyoming outdoorsman decided to just have some fun with it, and he got this photo of himself with the jean jacket and some ripped up old jeans and holding his dog in one arm in A magnum revolver in the other with the caption on social media, hey, I have good jeans too.” In the American Eagle ads, Sweeney poses in the company’s denim clothing. In a sultry voice, she talks about how genes pass certain characteristics — such as eye color and personality — down from parents to children. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37715105

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 08/06/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 6th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – If anyone could survive a week alone in the rugged Cloud Peak Wilderness of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, it’s Grant Gardner. That’s what his family believes, and what his wife, Lauren, told Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson. Lauren is holding onto hope that her 38-year-old husband is still alive after his solo ascent of Cloud Peak on July 29. :44 “Naturally, she still feels pretty shocked, everything felt surreal to her. But she said that what gives her hope is that her husband is an outdoorsman, that’s where he lives, he’s out there all the time. He has a lot of skill, he has a lot of equipment, he’s very meticulous in how he prepares, he maps everything out. She feels confident that when he went out, he was properly geared up. She said if anyone can survive out there for a week, he can.” That he’s an experienced hiker is one reason Bighorn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said the effort “very much” remains a search and rescue operation, not search and recovery, which would assume he had perished. Read the full story . – A federal judge on Tuesday issued a ruling ordering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider wolf policy in Wyoming and other states, which could open the door to wolves being relisted as an endangered species. Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law last year when it denied a petition from a coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups calling for wolves to be re-listed as an endangered species. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the agency has been ordered to reconsider whether to grant wolves endangered species protection in Wyoming — as well as in Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. 3:44 “This doesn’t mean wolves are going to be delisted right away. What this means is the judge saw value in the plaintiff’s complaint and ordered FWS to go back to the drawing board and come back to the court with a better reason why wolves should remain off the endangered species list.” In Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, wolves were removed from federal protection in 2011 and management was handed over to the states. It’s legal to hunt and trap wolves in all three states. Read the full story . – The brother of a concessionaire employee who was shot to death while firing upon Yellowstone National Park rangers in July 2024 has no claim to the deceased shooter’s car — which the government wants to keep. That was the ruling Friday of U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Klosterman in the legal action by which the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Wyoming seeks to seize the gunman’s 2021 Nissan Rogue. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the government claims the car was an integral part of an attempted mass shooting scheme. 1:23 “Across Wyoming courts, we have this mechanism called asset forfeiture, where the government actually accuses an object of a crime. They actually say, this object is guilty, challenging it as being a component in a crime… 1:52 The courts have generally upheld asset forfeiture, even though it sounds unusual to the layman. But if the government can prove that this object was involved in the furtherance of a crime, and there’s no legitimate claims that overcome that, then the government gets to keep your stuff.” Noah Fussner had laid no claim to his brother’s guns, magazines and ammunition that were inside the vehicle. In a court filing, he wrote that he hoped those would be sold as a small token of reparation to the NPS officer injured on the line of duty. Read the full story . – A new COVID-19 booster shot is coming out this fall and is likely to be unpopular with most Wyomingites, even as the approach of cooler weather signals the onset of cold and flu season. A Health policy research firm released the results of a survey last week showing that 59% of Americans will "definitely not” or “probably not” get the booster - and Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that these results largely fall along political party lines, with Republicans being far less likely to receive the jab than Democrats. 1:57 “Obviously in a state like Wyoming, a decision like that is going to prove highly controversial… 2:12 It seems to be a very push and pull situation between the people and the state. Obviously the Wyoming Department of Health is very in favor of people receiving this booster shot and staying healthy, whereas some Republican lawmakers however are pushing back against it, saying people should have the right to choose whether to receive this shot.” But Dr. Alexia Harrist, the state health officer, says that whether Wyoming residents elect to get the new COVID booster, the Wyoming Department of Health will be ready for everyone. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Before and after school in Jackson, traffic on the pathways around town can play out like a scene from the apocalyptic road rage film “Mad Max” — if all the characters rode e-bikes. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke to a representative of the advocacy group Friends of Pathways, which is working with local schools and law enforcement to bring order and safety to Jackson’s extensive network of bicycle and walking trails. 2:06 “It’s an incredible system, and folks in Jackson are making the most of it, going to work on these e-bikes, going to school… 2:32 but it’s gotten so crowded, and those machines have gotten so fast that there’s a lot of concern for safety… 2:48 it’s kind of intimidating, you come out right before school or right after school and you’re faced with fifty middle schoolers on these e-bikes coming at you at 15 mph… 3:21 they’ve allocated some extra money to create an ambassador program so there’ll be kind of a referee out there.” The safety program now aimed at the bike paths includes teaching youth and parent bike skills through the public schools, removing illegal vehicles and employing traffic calming measures in congested areas. Read the full story . – A rash of garbage fires this year outside Rock Springs that a landfill manager linked to lithium-ion batteries foreshadow the potential for large-scale disasters. That’s what concerned public officials told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland. The general manager at the Rock Springs Landfill said there have been six fires there in the past year, all attributed to lithium-ion batteries bursting into flames. 3:24 “The manager at the landfill was like, these batteries, six times in the past year have burst into flames in this dump, and then they’re catching garbage on fire, and one time this was in the evening when we weren’t there watching…4:08 and the implications as you get bigger and bigger batteries, all the way up to vehicle batteries, electric cars and such… 4:27 it can take like 20-50,000 gallons of water to put out a burning electric vehicle, for example… 4:27 it begs these larger societal infrastructural questions.” Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are prolific. They’re in cellphones, laptops and electric power tools, to name a few devices. If one of the tiny cells within a battery overheats, so too do all the cells in its vicinity and so on, leading to a rapid fire that can reach up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Read the full story . – Wyoming is not an easy state for allergy sufferers, and there’s a reason for that. That reason is sagebrush, and it’s a huge contributor to the state’s overall pollen counts. According to data from pollen.com, Wyoming ranks sixth in the nation for average pollen counts. And Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the state’s hay-fever capital is Evanston, which clocks in with an average pollen concentration index of 6.65 on a scale of 10. “On average, Evanston is the hay fever capital of the cowboy state, and the reason is sagebrush. Now, sagebrush grows all over Wyoming, of course… it has really lightweight pollen that travels a long distance in the wind, which Wyoming has plenty of… And so you have these plants which are all over Wyoming, just pumping out pollen and traveling on the wind everywhere… it's not just the pollen that can be allergenic, but those aromatic compounds that sage is known for that make it smell so great, those can also be allergenic, if you get those on your hand and rub your eyes, and your eyes start to swell. It's kind of a little poison ivy type of reaction there.” But moving away from the Cowboy State isn’t necessarily the answer. Pollens aren’t the only things people can be allergic to, and moving can expose them to a whole new slate of problematic things, like dust, mold and animals that can make one’s allergy bucket overflow. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37698750

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 08/05/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 5th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Wyoming’s few remaining lumber mills have been struggling, but a shift in federal and state timber policy might herald a new era for the industry here. Gov. Mark Gordon on Friday signed an executive order calling for an increase of active forest management in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the order mirrors President Donald Trump’s March 1 executive order for “immediate expansion of American timber production.” “That kind of clears the path for the more aggressive forestry management, which, just my understanding, it's going to result in more logging. And… there's really three big timber companies in Wyoming, and they told me that really, what they're looking forward to is hoping that this gives them more leeway and more of an affordable option to get in there and clear out dead timber first, because there's just loads and loads of dead timber everywhere.” Most of those trees were killed in previous pine beetle epidemics - and while all that dead timber is a fire hazard, industry experts say it might hold at least some value. Read the full story . – Multiple agencies haven’t given up searching for a Minnesota hiker missing for nearly a week in Wyoming’s rugged Cloud Peak Wilderness. Grant Gardner was in northern Wyoming for a planned three-day hike around the Misty Moon Lake area in the Bighorn Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that his goal was to summit the 13,166-foot Cloud Peak, the highest in the Bighorn Mountains. And he did that, according to a July 29 text message Gardner sent to his wife. “He texted his wife from the top of Cloud Peak, saying, ‘Hey, I made it.’ He also texted her that it was pretty taxing and more strenuous than he thought it was going to be. But that was the last anybody's heard of him. Said he was going to go down and camp… They brought in helicopters, they brought in some kind of radar device. They have electronic tracking stuff. They had dogs. They've really been going out looking for the guy… They did find his vehicle at the parking area where he was to begin what he had planned to do. So you know, he didn't come down and get in his vehicle and drive off.” Although Gardner remains missing after many days and nights, Bighorn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said the search for him will continue, and he’s asking anyone who may have had contact with Gardner to call law enforcement. Read the full story . – Peabody Energy's Powder River Basin mining operations were the standout success story for the coal giant during the first half of 2025, more than doubling profits - while the company's overall business struggled. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the company's net income plummeted 95% in the first half of 2025 to just $12 million, amid collapsing international coal prices. “It's a complicated picture, but there is some optimism around what's happening in Wyoming's Powder River Basin...one of the sources I spoke to called it a trifecta of tax breaks. You've got increased leasing and you have a reduction on the amount of royalties paid. So there's all of these incentives that are really helping Powder River Basin coal sell. Now the other picture here that's developing is some challenges, some headwinds for the coal industry, as represented through the overall losses from Peabody.” The idea that Wyoming coal stands as a key and reliable source of electricity generation is something the Trump administration continues to promote. Read the full story . – The nursing home where a 66-year-old woman died of an opioid overdose in late November denied wrongdoing, and asked a judge to throw out a wrongful death suit. The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center in Gillette has garnered headlines in recent months for the Nov. 29 death of Rhonda Parker from an opioid overdose — and for a January incident, where a memory care patient died after she wandered into the cold unsupervised. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Parker’s daughter, Christina Jones, sued the nursing home and licensed practical nurse Emily Ware, alleging they caused Parker’s wrongful death. “Legacy submitted a filing on Friday, basically denying wrongdoing and saying there could be other things mitigating any liability in this case… like, there could have been intervening actions, there could have been pre existing medical conditions. Maybe they didn't follow every rule. When you are suing the government… you kind of just bring that in addition to all your other denials of wrongdoing.” Jones’ complaint seeks more than $51,000 in damages. She is seeking a jury trial and all compensation allowed by law. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Two people were killed in motorcycle crashes in Wyoming late last week, contributing to a particularly deadly summer on the state’s roads, which are experiencing more motorcycle traffic as thousands of riders travel to from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Since July 19, three people have been killed and two others injured in motorcycle crashes in the Cowboy State, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George. “July was a particularly deadly month when it comes to vehicle accidents in Wyoming… But then you have, you know, three motorcycle accidents or crashes that occurred since July 19, including two last late last week, one on Thursday and one on Friday, and commonalities in those were that the riders were all older than 66 years old. Now I'm not going to make any assumptions from that… Highway Patrol is just pointing all this out, because Sturgis is going on right now. It began on Saturday, and it continues until the 10th, and there are just a lot more motorcycles that are out there on the road, so people just need to be more aware of that.” There have been 65 fatal vehicle crashes — resulting in 72 deaths — in Wyoming this year, including 17 fatal crashes in July. Last year, the state recorded 102 total fatal crashes but just five in July. Read the full story . – A University of Wyoming professor is developing what could be groundbreaking technology to protect nuclear reactors from earthquake damage. Ankit Saxena recently received a $200,000 federal grant to develop a system to help absorb the disruption that can be caused by earthquakes. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the research is developing as site preparation is already underway on TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in Kemmerer, and wheels are in motion for a micronuclear power boom in the United States. “It's not as if he's developing technology directly for Kemmerer, but it is in this world where seismic activity happens and you want to have a nuclear reactor. What this research is doing is creating these kind of vibration absorbers that you can bury underground or position around the reactor, be it a full blown natrium reactor, like the one in Kemmerer, or a micro reactor, or small modular reactor. All of those could possibly benefit from this science that he's developing. And really it boils down to making internal particles absorb the vibration before they travel on and reach the reactor.” The National Science Foundation is backing Saxena’s research because it sees potential in seismic damping technology. This puts UW at the forefront of efforts that set out to make nuclear reactors earthquake proof. Read the full story . – The University of Wyoming has become the latest higher education institution to lend its branding to a school-sponsored liquor. UW Athletics has announced it will launch a new Cowboy-themed craft bourbon called “Pretty Good Horse,” in partnership with the state of Wyoming. Producing the booze will be Casper-based Backwards Distilling, which told Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker that it inked a five-year contract with the university to produce the spirit. “Normally universities sort of shy away from association with alcohol, but what we're actually finding is that the University of Wyoming is becoming one of many schools now that is putting out a branded alcohol. So in this specific partnership, they're partnering with a Wyoming based distillery to create a bourbon called “Pretty Good Horse,” which is a reference to the fight song of the University of Wyoming. And they're not alone in doing ventures like these. We've seen these other really big powerhouse athletic schools, such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, University of Tennessee, schools like that, also putting out their own kind of branded alcohol content.” Its initial batch will produce 1,800 bottles and will be available in liquor stores across Wyoming with a shipping option for fans and school alumni nationwide. Read the full story . – Colorado Parks and Wildlife got a call from an alarmed resident in Colorado Springs in July, reporting bears lurking in the storm drains under a suburban street. And while that big male black bear was coaxed out through a manhole, an agency spokesperson told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that this sort of incident is becoming common in the city. “They have a lot of bears in Colorado Springs, especially on the west side of the city that butts up against the mountains… but they actually had one get into the storm drain system somehow, and was wandering around and ended up underneath a suburban neighborhood, and somebody gave Colorado Parks and Wildlife a panicked call and said, There's bears down there… they got a key to a manhole from the city public's work department and opened the manhole, and the bear… he just saw the opening and climbed up the ladder and clambered out… He climbed a tree… And I guess after sunset sometime, he just clambered down and wandered off back into the hills by himself.” CPW agents say they have plenty of experience handling incidents in Colorado Springs, but finding a bear in the storm drains was a new twist. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37676130

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 4, 2025 08/04/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, August 4, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, August 4th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Because he removed emissions controls from diesel engines, a 65-year-old Wyoming man is bracing for his sixth month in federal prison. Tampering with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-required emissions systems is a federal felony, and Troy Lake pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act in June of last year. Lake will also live out the rest of his days as a convicted felon, unless he receives a pardon from President Donald Trump. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that recent changes in the regulatory landscape fuel that hope. “I took on this story because I heard from a person who was trying to help the Lake family, like, these rules might soon be reversed, and yet, this man is in prison. But after I wrote it, I mean, I've gotten a flood of emails and online interaction from people who are just like, ‘Yeah, I'm about to quit trucking,’ or ‘I've burned up on the side of the road. This man is a hero,’ you know. And I didn't frame the story that way. I just told the story head on, bare bones, these are the facts. But the absolute deluge of sympathy and concern and outrage toward the mandates that has followed this story, I did not anticipate.” Lake reported to prison Feb. 10 and remains at the FCI Florence correctional complex in Colorado – but as the Trump administration inches toward reversing the mandates that landed Lake in prison, his family is pushing for the president to pardon him. Read the full story . – A Colorado ranching family recently went under a $6.7 million contract to buy the Muleshoe Ranch just north of Torrington, which includes 4,300 acres with three center pivots and strong water rights. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the seller's decision to get out of cattle ranching reflects multiple pressures facing today's beef producers. “There seems to be a collection of trends right now in the cattle industry. One of them is the drought that's reducing the amount of feed that's available just through rain and growing there on the ranch that's reduced herd sizes. There's been some bottlenecks around process processing. There's also an aging group of ranchers right now who are hitting their golden years. And when you see cattle at the prices they're fetching right now, they immediately think of cashing out. And some are.” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for uncooked beef steaks are 198.43% higher in 2025 than they were in 1997. Read the full story . – Lynn Dianne Olson, known as Dianne to those who knew her, was 16 when she vanished from the GP Bar guest ranch about 50 miles northwest of Pinedale. She and her twin brother, Mike, had come from Utah to spend the summer working on the ranch. She had only been there for about a month when she disappeared on June 28, 1963. Now Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Dianne’s sister, Camillia, holds out hope that it’s never too late to find her sister’s remains. “The theories were that Diane might have wandered off, gotten lost in the wilderness, or she might have tried to hitchhike back to Salt Lake City or catch a ride with somebody, and her sister, Camillia, said there's no way, there's no way that Diane would have done that she was a good just a very wholesome, Athletic, nice girl, and they were very excited to be on the grandparents ranch that summer, working. So her sister believes that she was foul play, that likely somebody raped and killed her sister and buried her body or hid her body somewhere on the property. And her goal, at this point, she no longer believes her sister’s alive, but her goal is to find her and bring her home and give her a proper funeral.” Camillia hopes her sister’s remains will one day be discovered and believes it’s never too late to get answers. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office. Read the full story . – If you’ve ever listened to morning radio in Cheyenne, high school sports or coverage of Cheyenne Frontier Days on the FM airwaves, you’d instantly recognize Larry Proietti's baritone voice. But after undergoing numerous cancer surgeries that have left him disfigured, Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag reports that the veteran broadcaster continues to inspire on and off the mic with resilience and grit. “His entire face was changed, and he said, at times I felt like it was wearing a Halloween mask, and I was afraid that I was going to scare people and scare the kids, so I didn't want to go out. It was impacting the way he was soliciting new business, because he knew how big of a distraction and how uncomfortable it made people feel, and the fact that he has basically swallowed his pride, while still not giving up on improving his situation, getting back to something that he is proud of, in terms of how he looks, while still adjusting to this new reality. It's a really inspiring story.” Proietti is cancer free now, having defied death with the help of medical specialists who successfully removed the carcinoma. He’s back on air with a Sunday morning program while promoting and strengthening his station's other shows. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – The death of a 43-year-old man who spent days repeatedly climbing up and down Snow King Mountain in a test of endurance and athleticism is drawing renewed attention, and scrutiny, on an increasingly popular climbing trend called “Everesting.” Slava Leykind died July 2 at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, while attempting his Everesting challenge, which is trying to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest in 36 hours. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to experienced mountaineers who said that while Everesting might not be the same test of ultimate endurance as an actual Everest ascent, it is an intense physical challenge. “Going up Everest requires oxygen and Sherpas, and it can take up to two weeks, whereas Everesting, you do it within a fixed amount of time, in the case of the event at Snow King mountain in Jackson, 36 hours. So it's something that skilled mountaineers wouldn't take lightly, and they wouldn't recommend other people take lightly as well, because it is an endurance challenge… if you're doing it 19 times, and you're doing it within a 36 hour window, that can lead to some pretty serious side effects, which unfortunately this Connecticut man experienced.” The Teton County Coroner’s Office confirmed that Leykind died of “an electrolyte imbalance causing cardiac arrest.” This condition is called hyponatremia, which can be caused by anything from underlying medical conditions to drinking too much water. Read the full story . – When people found out that artist Jordan Dean would paint 80-foot-tall murals on two of Cheyenne’s water towers, he heard all kinds of ideas about how to accomplish the feat. But Dean told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean that he used a method that’s worked well for him with other major mural projects - epoxy, a couple of boom lifts and a projector. “What they really use are these big booms, boom lifts, they call them. And he actually has two. He has one that's set up to project the image on the tank, and then he has another that he himself is standing in. And he's thinking of himself like he's the tip of the ballpoint pen, drawing these humongous horses on the side of this tank with basically cans of spray paint that are close to the color of the epoxy… This paints rated to like 30 years. If it's properly mixed. It's an epoxy, though, so the minute you mix it, it starts hardening and drying out, right? So you got about an hour to work with this paint… And it's not inexpensive paint either. It's like 400 bucks a gallon.” Dean said that Cheyenne officials were insistent that no taxpayer money be used on the murals, so private fundraising is making the tank murals a reality. Read the full story . – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down its operations after Congress stripped its federal funding amid claims from Republican lawmakers that CPB-funded media outlets propagate a left-wing, “woke” bias. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that for the Wyoming Public Broadcast Service, losing CPB funding represents a budget deficit of $1.4 million annually, or about a third. “Unless the public was or I guess, individual donors, other sources, were willing to cough up 1.1 billion in a big hurry, of course, it was going to shut down. And as it shut down, there's all of this argument about what role public media should serve, if any, going forward. And you know, Joanna Kail, the CEO of Wyoming PBS, said, maybe this is a time, especially for some of those national public outlets that have possibly disregarded their rural satellites, to reflect on what it means to be invested with the trust of the entire public.” The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has managed to survive for six decades, and never before faced the shutdown that is now a reality. Read the full story . – And a Wyoming man has discovered a family heirloom — an ivory-handled Colt .44 revolver — is a part of Old West outlaw history thought to be lost. The grandson of Sam Swanner, a Deputy Sheriff from what was then known as Jackson’s Hole, began to research the history of a gun he inherited from his father. Tom Neiwirth told Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that it most likely once belonged to George Spencer, a 30-year-old horse thief, who had been gunned down in Idaho in 1892. “All the signs are pointing towards this gun is actually the gun that was lifted off an outlaw during the 1892 horse wars here in Wyoming. So the horse wars, just to give you context, crossed over into Idaho, Montana, just spilled over, and it was the ranchers doing a war of extermination on these horse thieves. They approached this cabin, had a gun fight. These two young horse thieves died. They're in their late 20s, early 30s, and one of them had a gun that was ivory handled. They described it and Swanner, Deputy Sheriff Sam Swanner, is known to have bent down and picked it up.” Neiwirth, who was adopted when he was just days old, continues to dig into his birth family’s history, and said the gun he has connects him to the grandfather he never knew even existed. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37658090

The Roundup: A Conversation With Alan O'Hashi 08/02/2025

The Roundup: A Conversation With Alan O'Hashi EP 2-34 ALAN OHASHI Wendy Corr: Well, hey there folks. Welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people in the Cowboy State. We've got one of the most interesting that we've had on this program this morning. I'm very excited to have everybody hear the stories that Alan Ohashi has to tell. But first, I want to make sure that you all know about the "Business From the Basement" podcast. This is a podcast put on by the Wyoming Business Alliance, and it's meant to be a resource and a conversation about people who are involved in business and who have the resources to help you if you are a Wyoming business person. So check out the Wyoming "Business From the Basement" podcast that is put on by the Wyoming Business Alliance. But you don't want to go there yet, because first we're going to have a conversation with Alan Ohashi. Alan has such a great career as a filmmaker, as a journalist, but if you read last week's Cowboy State Daily guest column, he also kind of secretly wanted to be a carny, and so he gave that a try. He also got caught in the Big Thompson Flood, which was a big adventure. Adventure, Alan, you've had a lot of adventures. Let's talk about how your adventures got started. You're a Wyoming guy from the beginning. And are you still, do you now live in Boulder? Is that right? Alan O'Hashi: Yeah, I live in Boulder. I lived in Wyoming probably for 25 years, half my half my career, and then I moved to Colorado in about 1993 after being born and raised in Cheyenne, and when I went to college in Hastings Nebraska, my parents moved on me to Laramie when I was a sophomore. And that happens, I sat out the post Vietnam War recession and in grad school at the University of Wyoming, and then got my first job in Gillette, in the Gillette city government, and then moved to Lander to work for the Gillette or the Lander city government. And then did a good, a good period of time with the Northern Arapaho tribe before moving to Colorado. Wendy Corr: Wow. What did you do with the tribe? Alan O'Hashi: My title was the economic and community development director, and so I worked with tribal members to, you know, a lot of sort of entrepreneurial interest that tribal members had, mostly around agriculture, and myself and some colleagues in the tribe put together a 600 acre farm based on small plot. Small allotments that tribal members had gained when the land was kind of divvied up among families, and then. So that's what I did, plus some big picture, tribal economic development issues around water and some stuff like that. Wendy Corr: Wow, my goodness - so how did you move from government then into journalism? Because you're a fantastic writer. I mean, you've got a gift for that and a gift for storytelling. How did you make the jump from government? Because I understand this. I went from city government to radio, so I get this. Alan O'Hashi: Well, I always was a writer. I had my first byline in the Cary Junior High School Tumbleweed newspaper when I was 13, and I had edited a column that was called the poets corner, where I went around to all the English classes in the junior high and picked out some poems and and curated a kind of a column about those. And I started out as a poet, and then, just through general assignment, you know, covered sports and news and the junior high and became the school paper cartoonist, and continued on doing that through high school at the Thunderbolt newspaper, did some general assignment reporting, but mostly was the cartoonist for the paper. Same thing when I went to college, I was a cartoonist at Hastings for my school paper. And then when I came back to Wyoming, I really kind of shelved the writing and wrote a couple things, maybe freelance things, for the the branding iron at UW but I didn't really do much writing until I went to Lander. And there was, of course, the Wyoming State Journal there, and one of your writers, Bill Sniffin, he was the editor and publisher at the time. And small town, 7000 people, and so the paper was always open to having community members become writers. And so I covered, you know, sports, because it was after hours, generally going to basketball, football games and track meets and whatnot. And also started writing columns. And after a period of time, I'm not sure how long I had compiled a like an anthology of my columns that I had written for the journal. It was called Wyoming Graffiti, kind of after American Graffiti that kind of came out, and that was sent off by my uncle, who has worked for Pioneer printing. My uncle Jake in Cheyenne, and he was a public publisher, or actually a book printer. And so he worked with a number of publishers and sent my manuscript off, or at least made arrangements for me to send my manuscript to a small publisher in Texas. And, my first rejection letter. They wanted to do something with it, I'm thinking as a favor to my uncle, but they just didn't have the bandwidth for it at the time. So I stuck that in the drawer, and it's probably on top of this shelf someplace, that manuscript, and, well, fast forward to 2019 and I was curious about writing. I had not been a writer, but I wasn't very knowledgeable about the business of writing or any of that stuff. And so the Wyoming writing incorporated conference happened to be in Laramie in June, June 2019 and not far from Boulder. So I decided to enroll and sign up. And then the port was - a great part about it was that there was a section where you could pitch or talk to agents and publishers. And so I went up, randomly talked to a book publisher from a small press in the Northeast called Winter Goose publishing, and didn't really talk about anything. I said I was just mostly interested in talking to her about publishing. And she said, Well, do you have any story ideas? And you know, I was, harkening back to my book manuscript, and also, coincidentally, at the same time, I had seen a TV news segment about the West 17th neighborhood in Cheyenne where I grew up, which also happened to be the Japanese neighborhood where I grew up. And so well, you know, I did have this idea about where I grew up in Cheyenne and West 17th Street, just kind of the post war way that Japanese were treated and and sort of gave a like a 10 minute pitch, and lo and behold, she said, Well, why don't you send me a manuscript? So I closed this - my first rejection in 1987, I get my first acceptance, just based on me talking to this woman. Wendy Corr: your elevator pitch. Alan O’Hashi: Basically the elevator pitch. And then in October, I submitted the 80,000 words. And by November, I had my book contract, which was also made into the documentary, PBS documentary “Beyond Heart Mountain.” So that was my pathway to becoming a starving writer and filmmaker. Wendy Corr: Well, you did more than that, though. I mean, because the “Beyond Heart Mountain” was a fantastic documentary, and I was able to do a story about that a few years ago. But you have found your way into filmmaking earlier than 2019 - you have been involved in several films. Tell us about that, because that's fascinating to have somebody who's had such a rich, I guess, diverse career in that so tell us about filmmaking. Alan O'Hashi: Well, just after 9/11, maybe 2004, 2005 I was laid off two regular jobs. And so, you know, I just kind of got tired of working for people who maybe weren't that great of bosses. And so I decided, well, I can, and I'm as bad a boss as they are, I can go off and do that on my own. And so I took some classes at the local public access TV station and learned how to run a camera and run, how to do TV switching and learn how to edit, and took some screenwriting classes with a colleague of mine, who dragged me along to a screenwriting workshop. And so I made my first short film in 2004-2005 and because my mission, always - I'm very, I guess, sort of mission driven. And my goal always was, okay. I wanted to take a script to screen, and so I wrote this story for the Denver screenwriting contest, and I took fourth place. And, you know, the thing was, the first three movies they made into films, liberal films, because they're shot on 16 millimeter. But mine didn't. I just got a certificate - but in the meantime, I just decided I wanted to make the film. And so I got a bunch of my friends together from the TV station, and we made this production all around Boulder. And what was that production? Well, it was called, it was called Stardust, and it was a misdirection story about how an innocent trip to Mexico got mistaken for a drug deal gone bad, and turned out it was not that. So that was my first movie. Wendy Corr: So that was your first movie. But then tell us about the movie that you filmed at Jackson, because I think that's really interesting as well. Alan O'Hashi: Yeah, that was 2013. In June, my partner and I, Diana, we went to where she was going to, New York, for some reason. Or going to Boston for some reason. But anyway, we stopped in New York and stayed with one of my college friends and went to Coney Island. And so I've always wanted, I like roller coasters, and the cyclone on Coney Island in Brooklyn. And so I was on the cyclone, and my phone went off. I couldn't really bother to answer it, but I could feel it buzzing in my pocket. So I got down to the bottom and returned the call. It turned out it was this movie director who wanted to shoot this movie in Jackson, Wyoming. It was called “Mahjong in the West.” And it was a kind of precious script, because it took second place in one of the recent Nichols foundation screenplay contest hierarchy. So, you know, usually it's really hard to place in the top five in that and the only ones that really ever get any notice are the one top two or three films. But anyway, this guy picked out this one movie that happened to be written by a Jackson writer, a pair of Jackson writers. And so there was a production company in New York that wanted to do it, and he asked me if I wanted to help him out with some line production, which is basically doing field work and location scouting and such in Jackson. And I said, Sure, I'd be happy to do it. And my production company, Boulder Community Media, is a nonprofit. And so we also were the fiscal agent for that. In that time, there were film incentives through the Wyoming Film Commission Office, which no longer exists. But anyway, we were one of the last movies that got made using the film incentives. So my part was also to keep track of the bills and keep track of the accounting and all that kind of stuff. But anyway, we made this movie and that got shot or got finished and premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York State, but it's on Amazon Prime right now. But anyway, the kind of the adjunct to that story is, you know, we were talking about my adventures and my first adventure was the Big Thompson Flood, like in ‘76 and about after that, about every 20 years, I always had this flirt with death, and so the next one was in 2013 when I basically ended up on my deathbed that year. And that was really kind of, I was lucky that I was able to get that production completed. Luckily, there was a good ground crew that was able to finish it, but I was bedridden from December until January, 2013 almost, almost didn't make it. Wendy Corr: I want to know more about this, because that's, that's death bed. And yet, here you are. What happened? Alan O'Hashi: Well, that June, I was trying very hard to figure, I was working too hard. And so after I found out about this movie, I came back to Colorado and had to go immediately, like the next day on a production trip to Wyoming to work, check out this job in Jackson. Plus I was doing some work for the Wyoming Arts Council, doing some documentation of artists around the state who had, you know, when they went, they have these contests for writers and artists and visual artists and such. So I was going around doing those. And then when I happened to be in Buffalo doing one, I think it happened to be about Jalan Crossland, and came down with this case of the shingles. And so then buzzed home. I was with a production partner who actually drove back. And so after that, I continued. After I got back to Boulder, I just continued doing production. I had a wedding for some friends, the Jensens in Cheyenne, their daughter got married. And so I was doing that wedding. And I had just a bunch of other stuff going on, not to mention this movie in Jackson and whatnot. Wendy Corr: All while you were suffering from shingles? Alan O’Hashi: Oh, and other stuff I was, it turns out I ended up with this exotic lung disease. It was this pneumonia that AIDS patients would get when their immune systems got shot. And so December 16, 2013, I ended up having to go to the emergency room, and then didn't leave there in rehab until the middle of January. Wendy Corr: Wow, oh my gosh. Alan O'Hashi: Two months. Wendy Corr: And yet you still, all the projects got done. But like I say, it's great when you've got the right team around you. Alan O'Hashi: Yeah. And so that's actually one of the life lessons I learned is, you know, you have to learn how to ask for help. And you know, you grow up in places like Wyoming as a rugged individual, I can do this myself. I don't need anybody to help me. I can fight through anything. And so I knew that my health wasn't that great. But then again, I didn't want to, let people know I wasn't able to finish my work, and so, but you know, as it turns out, you know, people help me out in the end. And so everything worked out great. Wendy Corr: My goodness, I want to go back to Big Thompson Flood, to your first brush with death in 1976. I mean, we just celebrated, we just marked the anniversary of that, just this past week. Alan O'Hashi: Today. Wendy Corr: The 31st - yeah, that's when we're recording. This is the 31st so, 49 years ago today, you were just minding your own business going to work - and tell us the story about this. And if this is a nutshell version, if you want more information, go to Cowboy State Daily and read the story. But tell us what happened, in your words. Alan O'Hashi: Um, well, I mentioned I was in grad school at the University of Wyoming, and I was in the political science department and was taking a class. And maybe it was the Millward Simpson chair, then the Ruckelshaus environmental course that was being taught at that time. Anyway, some special course. And there was a former congressman named Wayne Aspinall. He was a Democrat from the western slope of Colorado, who came and did this seminar. And so at the time, I was this hardcore Republican, and we had these spirited discussions about, you know, free enterprise versus public public goods and all that and so. But for whatever reason we took a liking to each other. And so I asked him if he would be willing to write me some letters to the Department of Interior, the Park Service on my behalf, and, you know, take advantage of a bit of patronage level that I had at the time. And sure enough, he did that favor for me, and I got a job working for the National Park Service as a seasonal ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park. And so I started there that summer, and as a Ranger, and decided to go up to Cheyenne Frontier Days, which is my general course of action every every year, every July, every final week in July, and went to stay with some friends from from some college, classmates from UW and probably went on a Thursday. May have had the weekend off. But anyway, decided to come back on Saturday, the last day, rather than stay over at my friend's house and so I hopped in my car, it was probably seven o'clock at night, dusk, and drove west back to Colorado, south and west. And by the time I got to Loveland, you turn off on highway 34 and then there was, you know, even this is like monsoon season around Wyoming. And so this was typical of that, there was a band of black clouds and a red band of orange clouds above it, and looked like a great, beautiful sunset. Drove towards towards Loveland, through Loveland and got past the dam store, and on my way up to to the park, cars were coming in the opposite direction, and I ran into a police officer, sheriff or highway patrol, and he told me, Well, you better turn around up ahead, because there's some bad water. I didn't know what that meant, but anyway, I drove up and was getting ready to turn around. But you know when you're driving on the road and you can kind of see a, like a trickle of water going across. Well, I saw that, and then all of a sudden, I banged into it, but by that time, it had become a wall of water, and, like, within seconds. And so my car suddenly was inundated with water, rain, mostly. And I caught my bumper, for whatever reason, caught a porta potty and floated me kind of sideways towards the canyon wall, rather than down towards the riverbed, the Big Thompson River. And I waded out, and there was a state of Colorado truck had pulled down looking for people, I suppose, and I walked out, walked out of the water and climbed into the bed of the truck, and they took the bunch of others to this other place, higher ground, called Rainbow Bend, and that's where we spent the night. Wendy Corr: Saved by the Porta Potty. Alan O’Hashi: Yeah, by save by Porta Potty. So enough, you know, sort of reverse PTSD. Whenever I go to some place and and see porta potties, like at the Bolder Boulder, or at the or at the Frontier Days park, or wherever, I always get thrown back to that moment where I saw the porta potties floating down the way. Wendy Corr: Wow, oh my gosh. And so, I mean, so many people died in that and you so easily could have been one of them, had it not just been for your bumper getting caught. Alan O'Hashi: Yeah, it's kind of a way of pleasant awakening, I guess, that you just don't know how life is going to play out. And, you know, I even think back at, you know, had I not gone to Cheyenne for the Frontier Days. You know, how would my life have been different? You know, chances are, I would have worked for the park service. I wouldn't have gone to take this job in Gillette, which meant I wouldn't have gone to Lander, which meant I wouldn't have come to Colorado. And I probably, you know, I would probably still be working for the park service someplace. Wendy Corr: Forks in the road. Alan O’Hashi: Lots of forks in the road, and you just don't know what - even now, when I'm confronted with choices like that, like, I just was offered free plane tickets on an airplane - do I take that, or do I stay on the airplane? And so those are just these strange life decisions that I might that I make now and think about, okay, what might be the consequences? Wendy Corr: Absolutely, oh my gosh. I was just having that conversation with my kids this weekend, so I completely understand that. You know, one of the movies and the book that you wrote, Beyond Heart Mountain, focuses on your childhood in Cheyenne in a Japanese neighborhood, but it was not anybody's typical childhood. It was your typical childhood. It was the way you grew up. But what was it about growing up in that community that influenced you going forward with your filmmaking, with with a lot of the... /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37640905

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 1, 2025 08/01/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, August 1, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, August 1st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at . – Sublette County authorities are calling a grand jury to decide whether to indict Cody Roberts, a Daniel man who ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, brought it muzzled into a bar, then shot it in February 2024. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Roberts paid $250 last March toward a citation for violating Wyoming Game and Fish regulations against possessing wildlife - but he could still be charged under a different law if a grand jury sees fit. “The case was just kind of a PR disaster for Wyoming, not to mention our laws. It shown a spotlight on our laws and the whole world wanted to stereotype Wyoming over this, it seemed like at the time, but Roberts, meanwhile, paid $250 toward a Game and Fish citation for possessing wildlife. And so a lot of the outrage was, well, why isn't he facing something more serious? Well, with this grand jury convening so A, they can look and see if a more serious charge applies to him under the evidence. And B, they can also make people talk. They can subpoena, you know, witnesses, and as long as there's not like a fifth amendment incrimination or spousal privilege privilege situation, they can basically make them talk.” The incident with the wolf exploded into international headlines, sparking outrage across the country from sportsmen and animal rights activists, and put both the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wyoming’s wildlife management laws under scrutiny. Read the full story . – Brian Nesvik of Wyoming was on the verge of Senate confirmation Thursday to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with Republicans working long hours to counter blanket stalling by Democrats of President Donald Trump’s nominees. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Nesvik’s nomination on a 10-9 party-line vote nearly four months ago on April 9. But Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports that only this week did Senate Republican Leader John Thune of South Dakota finally get around to initiating floor action on Nesvik. “The Republicans have been hit with extreme stalling tactics by the Democrats who are really unhappy with the hyper partisan activities by the Republican Party, pushing legislation on strictly partisan votes. They're stalling everything. It's not about Brian Nesvik, it's about everybody. They're dragging it out as long as possible. Because the longer that you drag it out, the more you slow down the agenda overall.” Read the full story . But with Nesvik poised to become the new head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that his open support for delisting grizzly bears has been the deciding factor in whether people supported or opposed his confirmation. “A lot of folks' opinions, one way or another, seem to hinge on Nesvik’s open support of delisting grizzly bears. You know, some people think, hey, that's great. It's way overdue. He goes from Wyoming and goes to Washington and gets done what we needed done. But then other folks are saying, No, we really do not need Grizzlies delisted. They still need the protection, they're still facing growing threat from human encroachment on their range and other such things.” It’s expected that if Nesvik takes the helm at FWS, the odds of grizzlies being delisted will greatly increase. If they are delisted, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department plans to open limited grizzly hunting seasons in Wyoming. Read the full story . – There are few things more unsightly than a baseball cap sitting on one of the gorgeous and delicate bacterial mats that surround thermal features in Yellowstone National Park. However, the best thing a park visitor can do is leave them be. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one visitor seemed to be taking matters into his own hands Monday, going off the designated boardwalks to go after those hats. “The bacterial mats in Yellowstone National Park are living things. They're communities of thermophiles, which are microbes that have adapted to survive in the intense climate… They are durable to an extent, because, I mean, bison walk across them, wolves walk across them, bears walk across them. And if one or two people were to walk across them, probably wouldn't do that much damage, if any. But when you've got hundreds of people who could potentially see one person out there and decide they can walk out there, that's why it's a problem.” While this tourist may have been well-intentioned, stepping onto any of Yellowstone's bacterial mats is considered thermal trespass and is punishable with anything from fines to a temporary ban from the park. Hat and object retrieval is best left to the professionals. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A man accused of harassing multiple hikers along the Continental Divide Trail suffers from schizophrenia and needs help. That's what Nicholas “Cottonmouth” Sampson’s mother told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland. The 36-year-old Sampson, who has been dubbed the “High Country Harasser," was arrested July 24 in Carbon County on breach of peace charges, stemming from claims that he hit a male hiker in the nose after screaming obscenities at a female hiker. “After the story broke, Sampson's mother reached out to me like, you have no idea the struggles that we have had trying to restore his mental health after schizophrenia diagnosis in his 20s, and so she lamented like, Wyoming in March let him go after another battery case, very similar circumstances and some mental health restorative efforts… the reality of our our laws is once a person, once his case has been adjudicated or dismissed in this case, and once he's no longer a danger to himself or others because of mental illness, we can't keep holding someone because… then you're running into some pretty serious constitutional issues.” The new case comes a year after Sublette County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Sampson after two different reports last July, in which he shoved one male hiker to the ground and hit another male hiker so hard that he fell. Read the full story . – Renaming the federal Endangered Species Act to the “Endangered Species Recovery Act” is purely symbolic, but it points things in the right direction. That’s what a former Trump administration official said regarding a measure introduced by Wyoming Republican congressional delegates Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Harriet Hageman on Thursday, to formally add the word “recovery” to the ESA’s title. Wyoming attorney William Perry Pendley told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that the relabeling would aptly reflect the ESA’s original intent. “Now, on its face, that's all it is. It's a relabeling. It's a name change. It's a symbolic move… It sets the tone for the Endangered Species Act to be about getting species recovered and then getting them off the list. Because their critique of the, you know, the Endangered Species Act, one criticism of it is that it has been used to keep animals perpetually on the list and perpetually listed.” Roughly 1,600 species are currently listed under the ESA. Read the full story . – Wyoming lawmakers wrestled with two energy questions Wednesday: Should the state invest heavily in squeezing more oil from aging fields, and should it pass a resolution calling for a compact with neighboring states and Canada to build CO2 pipelines? Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the Joint Minerals, Business & Economic Development Interim Committee delivered a split decision — keeping alive ambitious proposals to boost enhanced oil recovery while rejecting a resolution calling for an interstate pipeline compact. “We already have a pipeline system in Wyoming, and there are pipelines in other states, but the ambition is to expand it and to coordinate with other states to do that. The resolution was ultimately voted down. But I think that there was my sense from being in the room when they discussed it was that people was that legislators generally supported the idea. They just didn't think we needed to pass a resolution to say that.” The committee did vote to move forward with a $250 million plan to boost oil recovery using carbon dioxide injection. Read the full story . – And more than two dozen passengers and crew members of a Delta flight received medical care after heavy turbulence over southern Wyoming on Wednesday forced their plane to make an emergency landing in Minnesota. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that Flight 56 left Salt Lake City at 4:45 p.m. and climbed to 35,000 feet. About a half hour later, the plane climbed another 1,000 feet, where it hit a powerful patch of turbulence. That was over Wyoming. “Passengers say it was rough enough that some of the many of them hit their heads. There were broken bones. Beverage carts went flying. The plane had to make an immediate landing in Minneapolis, and from there… 18 passengers and seven crew were sent to hospitals for treatment and evaluation… talk to our meteorologist Don day, who said there were several thunderstorms over Wyoming at that time. It's a very, very rough time. And he said, flying in the Rockies during the summer is a very, very sort of rough ordeal.” All passengers were being assisted by Delta’s Care Team, connecting them to other flights. And Delta planned to operate a special flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Amsterdam on Thursday evening to help Flight 56 passengers reach their original destination. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is journalist, author and filmmaker Alan O’Hashi. You can find the link to this inspiring conversation on our , on our channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37632235

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, July 31, 2025 07/31/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, July 31, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 31st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days, who thanks everyone for another record‑breaking year. Mark your calendar for July 17 to 26, 2026 for the 130th Daddy of ’em All, celebrating the Year of the American Indian. – The ambitions of Wyoming’s emerging nuclear industry collided with the concerns of citizens at a Joint Minerals, Business & Economic Development Interim Committee hearing Wednesday. Committee members discussed proposed legislation that could pave the way for manufacturers to build microreactors. The catch is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires manufacturers of microreactors to take back and store the spent fuel on site. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the clash of opinions on the topic at Wednesday’s meeting included raised voices and gavel banging. “There's a lot of really sad and disturbing stories about past radioactive contamination. We had testimony from a member of the Northern Arapaho community who blames her breast cancer on uranium contamination in her community… And then at the same time, you had professionals who'd come out from the Department of Energy, who have the latest science, who have all the confidence in the world… I started covering this issue in the 1990s and it was a lot of deja vu that a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same over the last 30 years, and Wyoming is really at the center of it.” Any decision on the legislation was tabled for now, and the issue will likely spill over into next year’s legislative session. Read the full story HERE. – President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated a state senator representing Laramie County to serve as the top federal prosecutor for Wyoming. The selection of state Sen. Darin Smith of Cheyenne was lauded by Republicans statewide. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that, as top federal prosecutor in the state, Smith would be responsible for prosecuting federal crimes statewide, including all crimes that happen within national parks, and nearly all felony-level crimes that happen on the Wind River Indian Reservation. “Wyoming's entire Republican delegation voiced support, saying he's a great pick. In his interview with me, he promised to be tough on violent crimes, tough on immigration related crimes, tough on any chance to curb a suspicious foreign adversary encroachment into Wyoming. He also said he doesn't want to do what he called frivolous prosecution… having worked in media on the reservation for nearly a decade now, I tried to, I sought to pin him down on whether he will seek better policing transparency on the reservation than we currently have. That's dismal at best. And he said he will seek transparency without sabotaging investigations.” Smith must get confirmed by the U.S. Senate before he officially becomes U.S. Attorney for Wyoming. Read the full story . – A Laramie County fire chief and his wife made their first appearances Wednesday on charges that they allegedly imprisoned and starved their 13-year-old adopted son. Darrick Mittlestadt and his wife, Angela, posted bond and were released from custody. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the pair face charges of aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse, with prosecutors alleging that they blocked the door of their now 13-year-old son’s room and starved him from Sept. 1, 2023, to June 22, 2025. “The charges state that their adopted 13 year old son was left at a Douglas Youth Facility, had given a wrong name, and then, when he was interviewed by a forensic interviewer in Casper, told them what his real name was, that he was adopted and he was dropped off there by his mother, and he weighed 50 pounds at the time he was dropped off. He's now in a Colorado hospital, and the couple faces those serious charges.” The human resources officer for Laramie County Fire District No. 1 said Darrick Mittlestadt’s status with the fire district was not something she could discuss. Read the full story . – With federal money in limbo, a roughly $30 million wildlife crossing project near Dubois is on hold, but that could change with federal dollars expected to start flowing again soon. The Dubois-area project is still short by $16 million to $18 million, and Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that many federal grants went into limbo earlier this year as the administration of President Donald Trump combed through federal budgets. “We're getting news here over the past couple days that that could end soon, that at least a part of the federal budget that's earmarked for wildlife crossing grants could be freed up again, which would allow folks here, Wyoming Department of Transportation and other partners in this project, to apply for grants to get that last $16 to $18 million in place on this roughly $30 million project, to start getting that wildlife crossing built, which could again potentially save hundreds upon hundreds of mule deer in the Dubois area.” State officials and wildlife advocates want to build three wildlife underpasses and an overpass along a 25-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 26/287 near Dubois, where hundreds of mule deer are hit every year. They hope that construction can begin in 2027. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – An elementary school teacher in Cheyenne was jailed Monday on suspicion of touching multiple female students inappropriately during the past school year. 55-year-old Brian Wrhel was booked into the Laramie County Detention Center on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that that was about a week after the Laramie County Deputy District Attorney charged Wrhel with 16 sex crimes, all felonies. “One of the things that makes this story striking is, the affidavit says that he was groping, touching girls in class. And I had to read that a couple times - like, in class. And the girls, when they were forensically interviewed, told their interviewer, yeah, I watched him do this to so and so, I watched him do this to so and so he did this to me so and so watched and so the allegation is that this was… a culture of open touching of girls in class.” Seven of the charges are third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and carry a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison. Nine of the charges are second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Read the full story . – Wildland firefighting crews may get some help fighting a pair of wildfires burning southeast of Ten Sleep on Wednesday and Thursday, when expected thunderstorms sweep through Washakie County. Although the storms bring a danger of lightning sparking new fires, the cooler temperatures and rain will help the more than 200 firefighters battling the Tower 2 and Vees fires. Firefighting agencies told Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson that those numbers have been growing since the fires were discovered Saturday. “The tiny town is getting quite a bit of traffic from the command posts. The different fire departments, they're all kind of setting up there, and it's stretching the limits of the town to accommodate them all a little bit, but they're doing it. The largest of the fires is called the Vees fire… They made a lot of progress on Wednesday, upping the containment of that fire from 20% to about 40%... but it's also not near any inhabited places… the Tower Two fire, which is almost contained, which is closer to the town that's only about four miles, four and a half miles away from Ten Sleep. But it also isn't really threatening the town, but they, the mayor says, yeah, we can see the smoke.” The Tower 2 fire has burned about 220 acres southeast of Ten Sleep, but is now 75% contained. So far it has cost about $160,000 to fight. Read the full story . – Cody Police say the man shot by one of their officers Monday evening was wielding a large knife. 22-year-old Lucas James-Erick Alvesteffer of Gillette died Monday evening in an officer-involved shooting, after he pulled a knife on officers following a high speed chase, which began with a routine traffic stop. Clair McFarland reports that Alvesteffer was wanted on warrants for alleged domestic abuse, including assaulting a pregnant woman. “Claims that he strangled his girl while she was 19 weeks pregnant, and so then he got on bond for that and gets into another instance where he's accused of beating her and taking her phone so she can't call police. So her strategy is okay. He's having me take him to the dentist for an appointment. While he's in that dentist chair, I'm gonna go talk to the cops… and the police kind of converge on the dentist office… and he's gone. The dentist staffers say, Oh, he just ran out.” The Campbell County Attorney’s Office on Wednesday asked the court to dismiss Alvesteffer’s felony-level case, citing his death. Read the full story . – And a 29-year-old Cheyenne man has been arrested for taking a motorized golf cart off-roading - inside the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York State. Kevin Sinning, who authorities say appeared to be intoxicated, decided to take a golf cart onto a moving walkway in the airport’s terminal. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a video of the incident that’s been viewed millions of times shows an unperturbed Sinning sitting in the golf cart on the moving walkway, which is too narrow to accommodate the cart. “Not only did he steal this thing and start driving it around the terminal, he drove it into the moving walkway. And it was too wide for the moving walkway, But that didn't deter him. So he destroyed the glass, he destroyed the cart, he destroyed the walkway, and he faces several second and third degree misdemeanors for his conduct that night… lots of people caught him in the act and posted it on Tiktok and social media. So the evidence is pretty irrefutable that he caused a lot of damage with his off roading in the Buffalo International Airport.” The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority arrested Sinning, and he faces a litany of charges. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37617935

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, July 30, 2025 07/30/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, July 30, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, July 30th. I’m Charene Herrera, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days, who thanks everyone for another record‑breaking year. Mark your calendar for July 17 to 26, 2026 for the 130th Daddy of ’em All, celebrating the Year of the American Indian. – A man was fatally wounded in an officer-involved shooting Monday evening after police say he fled a traffic stop in Cody. According to the Cody Police Department, the failure to yield prompted officers to chase the male driver through the city and east of it onto State Highway 14. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the man was later identified as 22-year-old Lucas James-Erick Alvesteffer. “The 22 year old was the subject of a traffic stop for not having proper registration, according to the police department, meaning either no license plate or not the right kind. And he didn't stick around… And an officer involved shooting followed and he was killed. There was one officer who fired, who's been placed on leave. And as is common practice, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation has been called in to perform an independent investigation to look for justification or culpability in the officer involved” No officers were injured during the incident. Cody Police Department Lieutenant Juston Wead declined to comment on if Alvesteffer brandished a weapon or was found with one after his death. Read the full story – Cheyenne is about to get its largest data center yet, with pipeline company Tallgrass and Texas-based digital-infrastructure company Crusoe announcing the construction of a 1.8-gigawatt artificial intelligence data center in southeast Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the two companies did not provide a precise location, but Mayor Patrick Collins confirmed that the data center will be in Cheyenne. “One gigawatt is enough power to power up a million homes… Wyoming only has a population just over, like 587,000 right? So it's like twice the power need of Wyoming for this one data center that's going to scale up to 10 gigawatts. So the scale is just enormous…Communities vie for these big economic development things. But Cheyenne didn't do anything. This company came knocking on their door and it just goes to show the city's kind of reached this critical mass. Enough people know about it. Meta is here. Microsoft is here. Other companies are saying, Wow, they've got everything we need there” Wyoming’s weather and energy production make the state a great location for data centers. However, if the whole state wants to capitalize on the data center race, Jean reports more communities along Interstate 80 must scale up their power infrastructure. Read the full story – A 17-year-old tourist suffered “significant thermal burns” near the Lone Star Geyser in Yellowstone National Park on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the teenager was on a hike in the Lone Star Geyser Basin 3 miles southeast of Old Faithful on Monday morning. His foot broke through a thin crust at the edge of the thermal area and plunged into scalding water. “So one of his feet and one of his ankles was scalded with significant thermal burns from the hot water. He was transported to a hospital for treatment. We don't know much more beyond that. And as to critique many people who have commented, we don't know if this individual was walking off trail at the time. It's possible, but the park hasn't said whether or not he was. We just don't have a lot of information on this specific incident.” The last incident of a person sustaining serious injuries from a Yellowstone thermal pool was in September 2024. This is the first thermal pool-related injury in the park this year. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A proposal to ban watercraft on the upper stretch of the North Platte River’s Miracle Mile section near Casper is drawing fire from some anglers who want to kill the rule before Governor Mark Gordon signs off on it. The “Miracle Mile" is an 8-mile stretch of the North Platte that’s widely regarded as the gold standard for trout fisheries. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the proposal to ban watercraft on the upper three miles of the Miracle Mile has some anglers up in arms. “That's not just anglers. That's recreational people floating on their tubes. Anybody, anybody who's doing anything except wading into the river. And as you can imagine, that's got some folks hackles up… People who don't want this [to] happen are arguing that's a gorgeous section of river we always floated it… It's the public's water. You should let the public enjoy it as they see fit. But I guess the other side of it is, is some people were saying, Well, maybe it's becoming so crowded with boats up there. Maybe we should just regulate it to waiting or shore fishing only. So we'll see how this plays out.” A petition to keep the Miracle Mile open is circulating with about 300 signatures as of press time. It’s not certain when Governor Gordon might decide on the matter. Read the full story – The Casper Police Department continues to investigate why someone left a pressure cooker on a street corner, prompting street closings and a bomb squad response. Police responded to a call about the suspicious item from a concerned resident in the Paradise Valley subdivision on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that while it didn’t contain explosives, authorities said it did hold items associated with illegal drug use. “You know, that harkens back to the Boston Marathon, which used pressure cookers, right? And so the police are saying, you know, they wanted to be extremely careful. And I talked to the woman that initially called it in, and she said that she was out that morning, and her dog was sniffing at this pressure cooker that was sitting at the intersection… And so she took a picture of it and sent it to her husband and said, Hey, should we call this in, you know? And goes, Yeah, I think we should, you know. And so I talked to another neighbor that said, you know, they're glad that it was called in, because you never know with this kind of thing.” Detective Megan Dovala said pressure cookers are a recognized potential threat involving homemade explosives. The incident is still under investigation. Read the full story . – On the same day that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin formally announced a proposal to repeal an Obama-era rule that declares greenhouse gas emissions to be dangerous, Wyoming lawmakers debated how effective carbon capture is as a tool to promote the burning of Wyoming coal. Ultimately, state lawmakers voted down a draft bill that threatened to gut carbon capture efforts. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the two events mark a big day for the debate over climate change. “You had… the EPA in DC, Lee Zeldin, calling out the endangerment finding. Now this has kind of been the bedrock since about 2009 of all kinds of regulations around climate. Zeldin referred to it as the holy grail of those who are trying to defend regulations around protecting our climate and reducing CO two so that's unfolding in DC. At the same time in Casper you had legislators debating whether or not to repeal this carbon sequestration mandate… So you have legislators debating whether or not they should continue with this mandate that requires utilities to at least look into using carbon sequestration on coal fired power plants.” Legislators voted to keep the law as is. Madison reports that means coal fired power plants and utilities will continue to look for ways to sequester carbon. Those who supported that measure believe this will help Wyoming sell more coal. Read the full story – The sudden death of a 21-year-old Casper man has left his family devastated. Braeden Rayner was traveling on I-25 Sunday when the SUV he was in rolled. His cousin, Addyson Rodrick, told Cowboy State Daily that Rayner was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that a year ago, Rayner prophetically posted to Facebook how life can end “in the blink of an eye.” “The 21-year-old Casper man is being missed by his family… He was a passenger in a vehicle… according to his cousin, bringing things back from a work site in Colorado. And the vehicle ended up flipping over, and he was, according to the State Highway Patrol, ejected from the vehicle. So that investigation continues, and there's been a GoFundMe set up by the family to try and help them with funeral expenses… A cousin told me that, you know, he was somebody that was really the life of the party, you know, when he showed up, really an extrovert, and he was definitely loved and is missed by everybody that knew him.” The preliminary crash investigation shows that driver fatigue contributed to the rollover. Two other passengers and the driver were transported to the hospital, but Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Valerie Patmore did not have information on their conditions. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Charene Herrera, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37605180

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 07/29/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, July 29th. I’m Charene Herrera, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days, who thanks everyone for another record‑breaking year. Mark your calendar for July 17 to 26, 2026 for the 130th Daddy of ’em All, celebrating the Year of the American Indian. – The race for Wyoming governor remains a wait-and-see contest as potential candidates hesitate to jump in without knowing what U.S. Representative Harriett Hageman plans to do. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a combination of the Hageman effect, the earlyness of the campaign cycle and some frontrunners’ goals to consolidate under one “conservative” candidate leaves next year’s gubernatorial field with several highly tentative characters. “She's very popular as our lone house delegate there in Congress. And so if she declared for governor, the early polling shows she would just run away with it. And so for that reason, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray and House Speaker Chip Nieman, are like, I don't know if I would run for that seat until I know what Harriet Hageman is going to do. Hagemon is still tentative, and so are a lot of other people. Not all of them are blaming it on the Hageman effect. Some are just saying, I want to focus on what I'm doing right now, or it's too early, and so we'll just have to watch as that develops.” The two who have declared their candidacy so far are Cheyenne resident Joseph Kibler, who runs a web development and marketing company, and 2022 candidate Brent Bien. Read the full story – Arrest warrants have been issued for the fire chief of Laramie County Fire District No. 1 and his wife for allegedly imprisoning and starving their 13-year-old adopted son. Darrick and Angela Mittlestadt are facing charges of aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that while the warrants have been issued, the couple had not been arrested at press time. “The details that are in the court records are really graphic. It talks about a 13 year old boy that they had adopted that weighed 50 pounds when he ended up in a hospital in Colorado, but first he was dropped off at a youth detention center in Douglas and gave a fake name and story… It was uncovered that he was an adopted child of the fire chief and his wife… the boy said that he had been blockaded in his bedroom and had been given one meal a day to eat. People that saw him said he was emaciated, and there was allegations that the boy you know had this bad behavior, but at the hospital and grandparents are saying that they never witnessed that.” Both the aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse charges carry potential penalties of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Read the full story – Gov. Mark Gordon on Monday announced the Wyoming Highway Patrol had entered into an agreement to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while performing their regular duties. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that to date, five Wyoming sheriffs have established agreements with ICE, but this the first Wyoming statewide agency to do so. “With Wyoming Highway Patrol signing on to that, that's significant, because that's a statewide agency. It's also under the governor's purview, rather than a sheriff elected by a county of 40,000 or so people… It's just part of, really, a domino effect… of more and more Wyoming agencies agreeing to work with ICE and the federal agency itself now has so much funding that it's seeking to expand its footprint in Wyoming in other ways.” In a comment to Cowboy State Daily, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming said this move turns the Wyoming Highway Patrol into an extension of the federal government, which they say “puts politics over the best interests of Wyoming.” Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Construction is about halfway done on what Colorado officials claim will be the world’s largest wildlife overpass. It’s a 200-foot-wide, 209-foot-long structure spanning six lanes of Interstate 25 south of Denver. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the project is on track to be completed in December. “I spoke with somebody with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department, and they said, Yeah, it's, it's a bad problem area, because you've got quite a lot of wildlife, mostly elk, trying to migrate through that area between summer and winter range, and the interstate goes right through the heart of it…They've seen a lot of collisions and a lot of road kill there…They said they decided to go with an overpass because, number one, they're more practical. Number two, the animals, the elk, the pronghorn, the deer, seem to like overpasses a little bit more than they like underpasses” The wildlife overpass will connect 39,000 acres of wildlife habitat on both sides of Interstate 25. The project comes with a $15 million price tag. Read the full story – On Monday, the FBI and ATF were called in to help the Casper Police Department investigate a “suspicious package” inside the Paradise Valley subdivision on the southwest side of town. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that after a four hour investigation, the suspicious package was removed from the neighborhood. “We're not exactly sure where it was placed, but there was a picture of a package that was placed at an intersection. And police…have not yet responded to whether that was the actual suspicious package… They said that they had got the package into a container and out of the area…We're still not sure if it was a bomb, a fake bomb, we just don't know.” As of press time, the investigation was still ongoing. Read the full story . – A fight over whether floaters have the right to use a natural water channel connecting Pine Creek and the New Fork River near Pinedale has apparently hit a stalemate. Floaters and anglers use the channel to move between Pine Creek and the New Fork River — both are popular for trout fishing. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that some locals allege a new property owner has been trying to put up new barriers across the water passage, which they believe isn’t allowed. “I've gotten a little bit of feedback from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is the primary jurisdictional agency there. They said they're looking into it, and it would, in fact, be a violation of their policies if somebody were to deliberately block a floatable waterway…It still seems to be a kind of a stand still, kind of a stalemate there… We could see these sorts of things cropping up more in Wyoming, we're seeing a lot of people buy up more Riverside properties. At the same time, we're seeing a lot more people take to… floating just for fun, or floating to fish or however.” The situation is further complicated by the increasing number of watercraft options to meet growing interest in floating. Smaller watercraft means the boundaries of what’s considered floatable water are being stretched. Read the full story – Cheyenne’s Bryan “Alf” Grzegorczyk (GREG-OR-CHICK) had planned a celebratory drink following his once-in-a-lifetime Thunderbirds’ Hometown Hero Flight to salute everyone who nominated him for the honor and made it all possible. But all he could manage after the flight was a celebratory nap. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean caught up with Alf, who said the flight’s 9.4 Gs of gravitational force made him realize just how exhausting it is being a Thunderbird. “They do it to honor…people who have really given back to their communities… He has a thing called thankful Thursdays that he started about 15 years ago, and he's raised more than $3 million for charities with that. It's pretty remarkable… What's really interesting is this idea that we can somehow get people to nine GS without passing out… 1G is what we're at when we're just sitting around right now, traveling on the earth. Two Gs is double that. Three GS is so tough that you can't pick yourself up out of the seat... So the force is just unbelievable.” Life is always good when there are one-of-a-kind stories to tell, and this is one story Alf said he will never tire of telling. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Charene Herrera, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37590970

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, July 28, 2025 07/28/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, July 28, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, July 28th. I’m Charene Herrera, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days, who thanks everyone for another record‑breaking year. Mark your calendar for July 17 to 26, 2026 for the 130th Daddy of ’em All, celebrating the Year of the American Indian. – ICE officers arrested multiple foreign nationals in a coordinated early-morning operation across Western Wyoming last week. They also discussed what they may do with a massive funding increase. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland rode along with ICE units as they executed targeted arrests in Teton County, which she noted is much different than any other part of Wyoming. “They only visit Teton County for targeted operations like this a couple times a year. [A] couple times a week, they go and pick up detainees from the jail, people who have been incarcerated for things like DUI and then their fingerprints reveal illegal status. But for targeted operations like this, much rarer, and it's much different than operating in any other part of Wyoming, because, by and large, Teton county residents do not want them there. There's a sophisticated network, you know, where community members alert each other that they're there.” ICE officers noted they could use the increase in funding to build more ICE offices in Wyoming, even in Teton County. State Representative Mike Yin said a satellite office in Teton County would likely make the officers “pariahs of the community.” Read the full story – The finishing touches are being put on the University of Wyoming’s new $289 million dormitories and dining hall. When UW students return this fall, they’ll be greeted by the gothic-style sandstone buildings. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck got an inside look at the new buildings, which were based on the university’s older structures and their gothic style that originated in the 1880s. “Students that have been on campus know all about it, but the freshmen will get to see this imposing, but really cool looking structure with sandstone on the outside… What I was told by the officials there is that they've been building buildings to last 100 years now, for the past maybe five, eight years. Their projects have all been this sandstone, and they're trying to go back to the original look of the campus.” The new buildings also offer something none of the students’ old dorms could: Air conditioning. Read the full story . – Anyone who has heard about the giant tree roots under Devils Tower, hundreds of cobras let loose on Interstate 25, or a woolly mammoth calf exposed by the explosion of Black Diamond Pool can thank Casper Planet. These stories and more have attracted international attention, as such stories should — if they were true. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke with Casper Planet Founder Justin Hathaway, an oil field worker whose satirical page continues to outrage and fool people, which only fuels his desire to keep it going. “The thing that I think a lot of people find interesting, is that there's really nothing in it for him. He doesn't make any money off of it. It's not a paid position… He gets a lot of hate on the internet because he posts these satirical stories that people don't think critically about, even for a moment, they just go off about these sort of things, but that's also what kind of keeps them going. It's a labor of love and it's a labor of laughter… He has no plans to stop. And his ideas are limitless. As far as he's concerned, he's got a long list that he hasn't touched yet.” It often doesn’t matter if Hathaway labels the stories as satire, or how ridiculous the headlines are, there are people who still believe. He said people just need to read a little bit. Read the full story . – After a decade-long hiatus, a 29-mile section of the Mormon Trail through Wyoming was recently fully reopened. That means members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can make the trek their ancestors did in the 1800s. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz says modern LDS members use the trek to reflect on the challenges their ancestors faced as they load up handcarts and push them while dressed in period clothing . “For about a decade, it wasn't necessarily closed, it just wasn't getting used that much. Because, I gather, there might have been some issues with some of the jurisdiction there, as well as five years ago we had the covid pandemic, and the church, you know, kind of wanted folks to stay safe and stay away from big crowds…That entire 29 mile stretch is fully open again, and we have people recreating the steps of their forebears along this section that runs near Lander. From a religious or a spiritual perspective, it's very profound for members of the Latter Day Saints Church.” According to church members, the trek isn’t only for them, but anyone who would like to appreciate beautiful Wyoming scenery and experience pioneer history. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Along Montana’s storied Big Hole River sits a ranch where a new golf course is nearly ready for play. It’s the kind of place Charles Kuralt might have stopped to profile for his iconic CBS series On the Road, which celebrated the curious corners of America and the people who live there. It’s also home to the so-called Mistress Cabin where Kuralt, the previous owner, spent time with his mistress and second family. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke with new owner Buzz Warner, who’s gradually won over skeptics in the nearby town of Twin Bridges. “A year ago... the talk of the town was this new golf course. It was going in next to the mistress cabin... And along comes Buzz Warner. He buys it... folks were kind of up in arms in twin bridges, but since then, they've softened. They've seen that it really is quite a low impact alternative to raising feed for cows... now that he's not doing that... there is a substantial amount of water that's staying in the Big Hole River, which is a good thing... it's a remarkable story about a guy who just loves golf, loves trout fishing, and transformed a ranch into a golf course and saved water for the river.” Warner didn’t provide a specific open date, but said the course is nearing completion in a couple more weeks. The mistress cabin has been preserved on the property. – Winning can be decided in less than a second in rodeo. For Hadley Thompson of Yoder her first-place finish at the National High School Finals Rodeo depended on less than a second in goat tying and breakaway roping. This earned the teen the coveted title of girls’ all-around champion at the 2025 NHSFR in Rock Springs last weekend. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy spoke with Thompson, who said she devotes her time to practicing from early morning until dark. “Hadley Thompson says rodeo is all about winning, and the way to win is hard work. She said it was her family, her faith, and a lot of coaches in her corner, and what she does to practice is a lot of goat tying, and a lot of times with her colts… And Salty, the horse that she rode to the championship is one that she actually even trained herself.” Thompson said this is just the beginning of her rodeo career as she plans to go pro in the future. Read the full story – The 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima marks its 80th anniversary this year. The battle and its place in WWII history were highlighted by Wyoming’s National Museum of Military Vehicles this month. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean says Dan Starks, the museum owner, is among a small number of Americans who have visited the island, which is only open one day a year for a Reunion of Honor Ceremony. “It's kind of a commemoration of that battle for everyone who died there, both Japanese and American… Over the years, of course, we were losing all of our World War Two veterans, and so those flights have become open to people who had family members who were there, and Dan Starks was that's how he came to be on that flight. His father is among those who stood on Iwo Jima soil during World War Two.” Starks retraced his father’s steps and reflected on what it was like to be on Iwo Jima. The battle over the tiny volcanic island was one of WWII’s bloodiest fights. Read the full story . – And what do locals do at Cheyenne Frontier Days? Play CFD Bingo. It’s a popular annual pastime for locals that watch tens of thousands of out-of-staters flock to the Daddy of ‘Em All each year. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson headed out to Cheyenne Frontier Days to see how many bingo squares he could mark off. Before the shuttle bus dropped him off, he spotted things like shorts with cowboy boots, a neck tattoo and both a man and woman with a mullet. “I spent an hour at Frontier Days on the Midway to see how many of these boxes I could check off in an hour… The one I saw, by far the most was shorts with cowboy boots… Didn't see a fight, although I wasn't there late at night… I did run into a couple people who thought it didn't find it very funny. They thought it was making fun of Cheyenne and everything, but for the most part, most people, especially the locals, all liked it.” Cheyenne residents also play another unofficial game: Spot the out-of-stater, which most locals say is very easy to do. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Charene Herrera, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37574285

The Roundup: A Conversation With Piper Fennimore 07/26/2025

The Roundup: A Conversation With Piper Fennimore EP 2-33 Fennimore Wendy Corr: Well, hey there folks, welcome to the Roundup. We're a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on really interesting people in the Cowboy State. Our person today is so interesting. And you know what? We found her real close to home here. And so I can't wait to introduce you all to Piper Fennimore. But first, first, I want to tell you about a great podcast that's also Wyoming based. It's the Wyoming Business Alliance “Business from the Basement” podcast. They focus on not just interesting people, but people who know business, people who have experience in business. You've got tips, you've got advice, great things that you're going to get if you tune into the “Business from the Basement” podcast, put on by the Wyoming Business Alliance. But don't go there yet. First, you've got to stay put, because we have to talk to Piper Fennimore now, full disclosure, Piper is here at Cowboy State Daily. She is a digital marketing radio advertising strategist. I do not have her title correct, and she'll correct me on that, but she is a strategist. She is so great at getting out there and fearless when it comes to showing people how advertising on Cowboy State daily can help your business. But she's got an incredible backstory that brought her here to Wyoming. And so, good morning, Piper. We are so glad to have you at Cowboy State daily, and I'm so tickled to have you here on the roundup. How are you today? It looks like I see the reflection in the window. It's a beautiful day in Cody. Wyoming! Piper Fennimore: It is, good morning, Wendy, it is. It's absolutely stunning, nice and cool. Already got my 10 miles on my bike in this morning. So doing good. Wendy Corr: Yeah, you're, you're highly impressive. I haven't done that yet today, no, but I don't do 10 miles on a bike. Hello. So that's, that's crazy. Piper. You're such a positive, you’ve got such a positive energy and such a force. And we're so glad that you found your way to Wyoming. But you've got a myriad of things that you're so good at. And I kind of want to start from the beginning in telling your story, because you didn't know anything about Wyoming growing up in Connecticut, that's where you started. Tell us about growing up in Connecticut. I want you to lead us to that moment when you were seven years old and your life found a direction. Piper Fennimore: Oh gosh. So growing up in Connecticut, tiny, little town, you know, kind of like, if you know anything about Wyoming, kind of like Lovell, itty bitty, or Basin, you know, tiny little town, four miles by five miles. Yeah, that sounds like a city block here in Cody, but it was a tiny little town, one blinking light in the middle of it. So it kind of what, that's kind of what drew me and endeared me to the community of Wyoming, and because of those small towns with those wonderful qualities. Wendy Corr: You had a love as a small child for cooking. In fact, when you were seven, you actually created your own cookbook. And folks, this is important, because not only does Piper, you know, work for us here at Cowboy State daily, Piper is a published author with a book called Seriously Delish. It’s a beautiful book, and it's a very special book and a specialized book. And so we want to talk about how you got from, from being seven years old, creating your own cookbook to publishing your own cookbook that can be found anywhere, right, on Amazon? We've got several bookstores here in Cody. Tell us about, tell us about your culinary journey. Piper Fennimore: So I guess I've always had a love for food. And, you know, having parents that kind of enabled you. That was a good thing. French toast was a favorite, so I was always trying to tweak it. And even at seven, I have notes and rewriting recipes. And I don't know why, but it was, it was just something that was so intriguing to me, kind of like science, but you could eat it. Wendy Corr: That's right, very true. So you found a love for French toast. You found a love for tweaking recipes. How did that then influence your decisions as you grew older and decided what you wanted to do with your life? Piper Fennimore: Well, you know, after high school, I wanted to go to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. I had the application ready. I was going to deep dive into French. And parents said, Nope, you're going to college here in the States. And a great thing, I went to George Washington University. I have a degree in Marketing. And a great foundation for business and for setting me up for success. And so life just took a turn. And when I had an opportunity, I did go to Le Cordon Bleu, but here locally in the States, and yeah, valedictorian, and loved all of it. I just, I soaked in everything they had. You know, not that I, you know, culinary was always something I loved. I used to have a library of cookbooks that kind of rivaled that of the Library of Congress. I had about 800 cookbooks. Wendy Corr: Whoa, where do you put 800 cookbooks? Piper Fennimore: Well, in my move out West, I gave away a couple of hundred. And so now I have about 600 and I, you know, they're my resources, and I kind of pick through them while I'm designing different recipes or create, conjuring up the next deliciousness that I can put together. Wendy Corr: With your degree, though, got you some amazing, amazing work - the Ritz Carlton, hello, tell us about that. Piper Fennimore: Oh, you know, it's one of my favorite jobs that I had. First and foremost, they hired me sight unseen. It was the only job I didn't even interview for. They just said, We heard your reputation. Come work for us. Wendy Corr: Oh my gosh. That's great. How did you build this reputation? Where did you work? Piper Fennimore: Through my chef instructors at Le Cordon Bleu. And, you know, I love performing at a high level. And to me, food is art and there's so many details in it. You know, when you're cooking, and you cook at the Ritz Carlton, you don't have recipes. You learn how to cook with your taste buds and your eyes. So you look at the details, you look at the presentation. Everything in life is in the details, isn't it? Well, so everything about food, you know, my daughter says to me, Mom, I don't know what you do to this food, but it's addictive. I said, it's just, it's the details, it's the details. Wendy Corr: Wow. So you worked at Ritz Carlton in two places, right? Piper Fennimore: Yes, Sarasota, Florida, which was tons of fun, our largest event, there was 950 people on a beach wedding. So it was a crazy, crazy time in the kitchen. And then up in Cleveland, where a lot of our guests were going to the Cleveland Clinic, we actually met the princess of Saudi Arabia, come with her entourage of 80 people that we served daily, and she was attending the Cleveland Clinic. Wendy Corr: My goodness. Now something happened that derailed your culinary career, and it sent you in a different direction to the benefit of a lot of people who love food but can't eat all of the food. Tell us about what happened to you. What were you diagnosed with? Piper Fennimore: You know, it came out and it was very upsetting, celiac disease. So everything about cooking at the Ritz Carlton level, and the way I cook is all about tasting. Like I said, you cook with your taste buds. And with celiac, you can't cook at that level without making yourself very, very ill. And that's what was happening. So I had to pull myself out of of the culinary industry from that perspective. Wendy Corr: That is absolutely, absolutely heartbreaking. Piper Fennimore: It was, it was devastating. I lamented food. You know, even being a chef, my world was turned upside down. Everything I knew about cooking was just scrambled. And it took me a minute to get my head around it, you know, between myself and my daughter, myself, saying, you know, hey, you're a trained chef. Snap out of it, and my daughter saying, Come on, Mom, you can do this. You can do this. She was the impetus behind, pushing me to put all my thoughts, my recipes, my go-tos for being successful as a gluten intolerant person into a cookbook. Wendy Corr: So okay, so yes, so we're going to skip ahead here, because you had a couple of different career changes in there that brought you to Wyoming. But let's talk about your cookbook. Seriously Delish. This is a beautiful book. I mean, it's gorgeous. It's hard back. It's got incredible pictures. And that's part of what you do, though, is, is the presentation. That's what you learned at Le Cordon Bleu, at the Ritz Carlton, is presentation is a big deal. But for people who are gluten intolerant - and there's a lot of people out there who are, I mean, I know my daughter is, my mom has issues with gluten. It is something that you, it's a normal thing now, sadly, in America, but you have come up with a book that makes eating well and eating pretty and eating delicious, something that people who have gluten intolerances can still do. Tell us about your book. Piper Fennimore: So, Seriously Delish. It, you know, it's all the recipes that I use regularly and they're not over the top fancy, but they can be. So you can use them every day, but you can also use them and put together a wonderful family brunch or an event that you're doing at home, and make it fabulous and know that your guests are going to enjoy every bite. And that's the thing out there with people who are gluten intolerant, they're gun shy when it comes to buying gluten free food and cookbooks. I know, when I first was diagnosed, I bought over a dozen gluten free cookbooks to try and get my head around this, and I can't tell you the yuck I experienced with with going through trying, trial and error with these recipes and trying to figure out, okay, how am I going to make this so that it is gluten free, but indistinguishably gluten free, that was the goal. So I guinea pig a lot of people with recreating all these recipes, even the hardest die-hard, ‘eeww, I'm never eating anything gluten free because it's awful’ people, I transitioned. I’m like, see I got you. Wendy Corr: There you go. That's fantastic. Now, where can you find Seriously Delish? It's on . I know that we've got them in a couple of bookstores here. Piper Fennimore: So I'm not on Amazon right now because I don't have physical inventory. So what I have right now is a preorder on my website. So if you go to https://theseriousfoodnetwork.com/ you can pre order my cookbook, and the the paired book. There's a kind of a, help you through understanding best practices, with buying, storing, cooking, to kind of to set yourself up in your home with a mini soup kitchen so that you can make this gluten free life super easy. I also have these little videos on my website to kind of quick start you, because it's so frustrating. I was frustrated. So I just, I put together a couple of videos to kind of give you an insight, you know, things to avoid, like check your toothpaste ingredients. You know, make sure your grill and your toaster are two of the biggest culprits of glutening you, because you inadvertently put bread or something on the grill, or, you know, you're sharing the toaster with someone who's not gluten intolerant. How to keep your utensils separate? What utensils to use, that sort of thing. So a lot of good coaching, coaching, little videos there. Wendy Corr: That's fabulous. I can't wait to include that in the show notes here, folks. So scroll down through and you're going to find the link to the website in the show notes here. So thank you. That's fantastic. And you got, I'm going to plug here, you’ve got something new coming out? Piper Fennimore: I do. I have in terms of books, it's Menu Planning is what it's called, but it's on my website as a second book. It's not a hardcover. This one I'm doing, kind of a magazine. It's something you'll just want as a resource. So I have that as a pre sale. It's ready, ready to go. I'm just fine tuning that one, and then the relaunch of my, my first cookbook. I'm just going through some tweaking there, so looking to have it launched for my birthday in October. Wendy Corr: So, oh, that's great. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So, so you've got this background, this wonderful foodie background, and you are still using that on the regular, but your career shifted because you had to, because you had to pull yourself out of the kitchen. But events, events was something that you knew from working at the Ritz Carlton. Tell us about switching to events and marketing and using that degree that you got from George Washington University. Piper Fennimore: So I had an opportunity to move from the Ritz Carlton in Cleveland down to the Cincinnati area to work in a historic venue, doing events. So events being weddings or corporate events, fundraisers, things of that nature, but also doing a large festival. So it was a New Year's Eve festival that I grew from 2000 to 6000 people, which was kind of fun, ball drop and all. It was called Ball on the Square, and had a lot of fun. Shut down streets. Everybody was having a great time, vendors, the whole nine yards. So, you know, being able to do different sized events, was just a lot of fun, and developing that creativity within me to be able to do any sort of event that needed to be done. Wendy Corr: So that that helped to feed, like you say, that creativity that you were missing from the kitchen. And then that took you into a different area of marketing, but it also took you out west. So let's talk about coming back out here to Wyoming from Ohio, because your daughter, actually was one that hooked you out here. Tell us about that. Piper Fennimore: She and her husband moved out during covid. They were in New York City and moved out to Colorado because they couldn't stand being cooped up. And said, let's go someplace where we can ski. And so they loved it so much. They said, Mom, you've got to come out here. And so life changed, and I had the opportunity. And, you know, being a girl from Connecticut, you know, you come out skiing and experience the West only in the winter time. So this gave me a chance to find out, Oh, wow, look at this place. It's stunning. And, you know, never had I had an opportunity to go to Wyoming. It just wasn't, it Wyoming wasn't on your list part of the agenda, yeah. So I broke the border, I went up to Wyo and just discovered absolute gorgeous and everything from the Beartooth highway to Yellowstone to, oh my goodness, to come Cody, of course, because that's where I've been for the past four years. You know, there's so much, so much in Wyoming to love and enjoy. Wendy Corr: Yes, there is, there is. So you found yourself, because you had the marketing background. You got a job at the Big Horn Radio Network. Piper Fennimore: I did, which gave me a great opportunity to really dive into this state. Wyoming, to me, is just one big, small town with really long roads. Wendy Corr: That's exactly right. Piper Fennimore: And it gave me a chance to meet so many people there. You know, Wyoming has the quintessential small towns. They're all owner operated stores with families behind them, and they're impassioned about what their business is about, no matter what their business is. And I have the opportunity to help them stay in their business, stay in their business mindset, so they could focus on their business. Well, I help them focus on their marketing and through Bighorn radio, that's what we did. Wendy Corr: Isn't that great, to be able to kind of shift that direction? And that's how I first met you. So that's it. I think that that is one of the things that's so fun about, like you say, Wyoming is the people that you end up meeting. But you do more than just your job. I mean, there's those of us who are nuts and we can't just do one job. We have to do a lot of different things, and that's something that you also do. You found a passion for - and I'm sure you made the connection with this organization through Bighorn radio network. But there's an organization in Cody called Downrange Warriors. And you are the child of a military parent. Piper Fennimore: Yep, my father was Navy and so Downrange Warriors, I met the the founder, Todd Bray, four years ago down when I when he came in to have a public service announcement I recorded and aired, and so I actually recorded it in my voice for them, and we just started the relationship from there. And now they're in a position where they can start doing a bit more development. And so I'm helping them a little bit more in my off hours, to just get the word out, get more people involved, so that they can help more people. Wendy Corr: Tell us about, yeah, tell us about what they're about, because I think that there's so many people that could benefit from their mission and how they go about their mission. Piper Fennimore: So the mission is to support veterans, people who have served our country and first responders with their struggle with PTS and suicide, and this organization knows how to do it. They put together a very small group of, kind of coaching through your trauma and help you recognize what it is and let you know that you're not alone. It is an incredible program to go through. I was privileged to be able to go through the program with individuals who said, Yes, go ahead, please join us, because they knew what my heart was. They knew where I came from, and together, we grew. I benefited just as much as everyone else did through it, and it's wonderful. And the program doesn't end in just the 12 to 15 weeks that it goes on because the trauma that these individuals experienced, they're given the tools on how to cope with it so that they can be the person they want to be for their family, their spouse and their children, and be part of of the community that they live in. But life happens, you get triggered. So when it happens, Downrange Warriors is still there for you. So they have a community that you can reach out to at any moment. And I see our Downrange Warriors family all throughout Cody, all throughout the basin, where they mainly are located. And it's wonderful to see how people are doing, to see the smile on their face, to get the hug, to give the hug, and to know that you're you're part of a community that's really making a difference among our service members and our first responders, because they need us. Wendy Corr: They do. It's a great program. I was so fortunate to be able to get to know Todd and the group when I was at the Big Horn radio network and interviewing them for Partyline and doing news stories and things like that. Really a fantastic program. I'm so glad that you're helping them out with this, Piper. Piper Fennimore: And it's funny, because people always say, Oh, they with PTSD. And I'm like, No, it's PTS - it's not a disease, because these are normal reactions to incredibly abnormal situations that these individuals have been placed in, and we just need to help them get to the other side of it and be able to contend with those traumas. Wendy Corr: Absolutely, that's wonderful. I'm so glad you're shining a light on that. I want to put a link to that in the show notes as well. Folks in here, if you know somebody who could really benefit from the community and the coaching and the really soul searching and exorcizing demons that that downrange warriors can help with, I'm very glad to shine a light on what they do. ... /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37549485

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, July 25, 2025 07/25/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, July 25, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 25th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Cheyenne Frontier Days! The 129th Cheyenne Frontier Days ends with a bang for Frontier Nights: Friday, July 25 we’ve got Cody Johnson with Randy Houser, and Saturday, July 26 , Megan Moroney with Waylon Wyatt. When the sun goes down, the stars come out. Only at Cheyenne Frontier Days. – In October of 2023, 33-year-old Katie Ferguson vanished while traveling home to Wyoming with her on-and-off boyfriend Adam Aviles Jr., who was 26 at the time. Now hikers and other outdoorsmen and women in Park County are asked to be on the lookout for two objects that could advance the murder investigation into the 2023 disappearance of the Cody woman. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to the Park County Sheriff, and Ferguson’s mother, about how the public can help in the investigation. “Katie Ferguson's mother, Mona Hartling, reached out to me like, there are still some objects that are believed to be out there potentially in Park County, can we let people know to keep an eye out?... a pink tote with DNA in it, which an investigator at Adam Aviles’ sentencing described in much more graphic terms than that, and the front seat to a Dodge Durango… possibly charred or damaged… these are things that just the compilation of interviews and evidence indicates could still be out there somewhere, and if they are, could be opportunities for a breakthrough in the case.” Though long a suspect in what authorities believe to be Ferguson’s murder, Aviles has not been charged with murder. He was, however, sentenced in September of last year to seven years and three months in prison, for the charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition. Read the full story . – 25 years ago, legendary Wyoming spaghetti Westerner Gap Pucci befriended two nuns after they walked in sandals with no socks in knee-deep snow to see his collection of lighted crosses. Now the nuns say they will buy Pucci’s estate, promising it won’t be cleared to make way for any luxury mansions. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to Mother Marie Wendy McMenamy and Sister Mary Augustine, who said their decision to buy the estate through their foundation came after months of prayer and reflection. “Gap Pucci, he was a very religious man. He wore his faith on his sleeve, and he was a Catholic. He met McMenamy 25 years ago, much tamer story than some of his stories, like, you know, the time the horse ran him off a cliff and they plunged down into an icy river below, or the time he fought off bears. Those are the kind of stories that are in his books… just a wonderful, beautiful little friendship. And now, who knows what's going to happen here, but I bet it's going to be equally beautiful and wonderful.” In the end, the nuns’ decision came down to the sense that the world would lose something special if bulldozers came for Pucci’s historic cabin and replaced it with a mansion. Read the full story . – There’s nothing like the dusty atmosphere of a summer rodeo. Historically, though, that hasn’t been the atmosphere at Cheyenne Frontier Days. As thousands of people filled the stands at Frontier Park Wednesday, Mother Nature decided to celebrate with more than an inch of rain. And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the last week of July is notoriously stormy in southeast Wyoming. “Cheyenne Frontier Days has been held the last week of July since 1897 but they probably didn't consult any meteorologists on that, even if that information was available at the time, because that is one of the wettest weeks of the summer for Cheyenne… according to Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don day, a dry, dusty Frontier Days, that's the exception, rather than the rule. The rule is generally that at least on two or three of those days, there are going to be afternoon showers and thunderstorms that are going to make things cooler, make things muddier and make things just a little more unpleasant for people who are sitting in the stands. But the daddy of them all has been going for this long, and it hasn't been stopped by any kind of thunderstorms or weather or flash floods. So I imagine sacrilegious to change it at this point. So when Cheyenne residents are selecting their favorite hats, buckles, and boots to wear to Cheyenne Frontier Days, they should also pair the perfect poncho to complement their ensemble. If history’s any guide, they’re going to need it. Read the full story . – A 50-year-old woman working at a Casper nursing care facility is accused of tying a resident’s head to a bed to keep her from moving overnight. Court records show an arrest warrant has been issued for Julie Ann Cross, on charges of abuse of a vulnerable adult and false imprisonment. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the incident took place in the early morning hours of July 14 at the NOWCAP Services facility. “It was found by co workers that came in in the morning, and they were trying to turn this resident over, and they they couldn't do it, and then they looked and saw that her hair had been tied to the bed with a scarf… she told an officer, according to court documents, that she tied up her hair in a scarf, you know, but it wasn't tied to the bed, but that the patient probably was just throwing her head back and forth and somehow it got tied to the bed.” The intentional abuse, neglect or abandonment of a vulnerable adult charge is a felony that carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – The airman who died in an on-duty incident with a gun Sunday at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne has been identified as a 21-year-old from Kentucky. 21-year-old Brayden Lovan was a defender assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Security Forces Group. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Air Force wing overseeing the base confirmed that the man’s death involved a gunshot. “Earlier this week, they were like, an airman died. It's a tragedy. And then Thursday, they were like, Okay, this is was this 21 year old from Kentucky… we are now publicly acknowledging that this had to do with a gunshot, and it was at this time that division of the Air Force that oversees the bases said, Yeah, we are grounding this particular gun, the M 18, and using a rifle, of all things in its place, until we know what to do.” Lovan entered active duty in November of 2023, and F. E. Warren Air Force Base was his first assignment. Read the full story . – As President Donald Trump’s mission to do away with the U.S. Department of Education progresses, Wyoming is eager to exercise more control over how education happens here. That’s what Governor Mark Gordon said Thursday on the Cowboy State Daily Show With Jake Nichols. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that, in Gordon’s view, Wyoming and the other states in America need to change a bit of the conversation about education. “He has just recently been named Chairman of the Education Commission of the States… it's a bipartisan group that helps out with policy and helps individual states do things with education… he also talked a lot about having the states Wyoming in particular,... having more control over education… the states know what they're doing better than the feds do. And he called the Feds a bunch of talking heads who try to put everything in a one size fits all box.” Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder also has been vocal about states having more autonomy, saying they know their children better than bureaucrats back East. Read the full story . – Campbell County Commissioner Jerry Means said he would not have signed off on the letter his county sent this week to the U.S. Department of the Interior given a chance to review it again. The expansive letter was approved as a consent agenda item without detailed review by commissioners, but Means told Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison that he now has concerns about language in it regarding public land sales. “He had some issues with some language around the disposal or sale of public land, as we know, is a really hot button issue… in talking to these folks, they made it clear that this is a case by case basis, and so yes, they want to have the flexibility to possibly purchase federal land, trade federal land, sell federal land for the benefit of the county. But the language was sensitive enough that at least one county commissioner would like to revise it, and said he wouldn't have signed the letter had he actually read it.” Though not explicitly mentioned in the letter, Means also worried the document might inadvertently open the door to the possibility for nuclear waste to make its way to Campbell County. Read the full story . – Those at or near the Casper/Natrona International Airport on Wednesday afternoon saw something that would have scrambled U.S. fighter pilots during the Cold War — a Russian fighter jet flying over and landing on American soil. But it’s not the Cold War anymore, and Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the twin-engine Russian-made Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter that landed in central Wyoming was unarmed - and just there for some fuel. “That MiG is the only one in the United States. It's privately owned by a billionaire who was the Trump administration's initial nominee for NASA, but then he was withdrawn… they said he flew in from Oshkosh… and he stopped in, got some fuel, talked to some people for a while, and then he took off to Montana, where he lives.” That pilot is Jared Isaacman, according to Oshkosh air show organizers. He’s the billionaire owner of the plane and an astronaut who has flown missions for SpaceX. Isaacman is also the founder of Draken International, a provider of tactical fighter aircraft that is available for training the military. Read the full story . – And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. This week, my guest is chef, author and Cowboy State Daily marketing strategist Piper Fennimore. You can find the link to this inspiring conversation on our , on our channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/37544005

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