It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, December 17th. I'm Mac Watson.

–

Jaxon Sweep doesn't even drink beer. But Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that when Josh Allen personally tapped him to build the biggest beer snake possible, the lifelong Cowboys superfan delivered.

"Jackson sweep was standing in the student section chanting MVP, along with everyone else, and Josh Allen began to single him out. I like to think it was the fact that Jackson was wearing a hard hat. He looked like a guy who could get things done. Someone on social media called him the foreman of the beer snake. And so whatever it was, they met, and it was a dream come true, of course, for Jackson, who had idolized Alan, and Alan's directions were really clear, and to the point make me the biggest beer snake possible."

The slithering tower of cups caught the attention of ESPN and the Kelce brothers who commented on the sheer engineering feat it took to make the beer snake.

Read the full story HERE.

–

A historic 100-year-old Catholic church in Rock Springs has been closed and put up for sale to help fund a new parish campus. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that parishioners are trying to preserve the historic Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic church.

"There were so many of the Slav people coming in. 32% of workers at one point in Rock Springs were Slavic people, and they started to push to have their very own Catholic Church, a place that would recognize their customs, a place where the priests would talk to them in their language, take their confessions in their language. And so there was a bit of a tussle. According to the National Register of Historic Places that took place during that time period, the Bishop initially approved their church, then he backed off and tried to build a new church where both communities would go. That didn't go over real well. So ultimately, the Slavic community did get their very own church in Rock Springs, right next door to the Our Lady of Sorrows, which was the other church, which catered more to Western Europeans."

Saints Cyril and Methodius started as a dug-out, covered basement space on the Slavic side of the town of Rock Springs. The determined immigrants raised $15,000 for their very own church and never looked back.

Read the full story HERE.

–

A south Cheyenne family is lucky to be alive, escaping with just the clothes on their backs. Cowboy State Daily's Scott Schwebke reports that on Tuesday, a fast-moving fire, whipped by strong winds, ripped through their home.

"They ran out, literally, with their clothes on their back, and had no shoes, and they just watched as the house burned to the ground, basically. It was kind of propelled by the high winds. Winds got to over 25-miles-an-hour last night. Firefighters had a hard time controlling it, and eventually it just consumed the entire house, and they lost basically everything…it's a tragic thing to happen, especially tragic around Christmas. They lost all their Christmas presents and all their photos and things like that."

Ben Hopkins, acting chief of Laramie County Fire District 1, tells Cowboy State Daily that the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Read the full story HERE.

–

Vandals damaged multiple displays at Laramie's Winter Lights Fest. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that organizer Brian Welper says he hopes the community discourages the act and the suspected vandals learn from that.

"On Saturday evening, he and his guys found out that they had been vandalized. He said five out of the 80 some displays had cords cut and other things wrong with them, and the crews went and patched them. And I asked Welper, like, 'Did you contact the police?' And he was like, 'No, we put it out on social media. We're just, we're not sure what we want to do, but we are hoping, especially if it's kids, as people are saying, that they learn from this.'"

Welper tells Cowboy State Daily that he's set up cameras to monitor if any more vandalizing occurs, but won't say if he will turn the video footage over to the police.

Read the story HERE.

–

I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….

–

The National Finals Rodeo saw tighter competition this year with a trial run of a new quarter-point scoring system. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that a computer system upgrade means judges can score by full or half points, which opens the door for averages with quarter-points.

"The new ground rule change at the NFR is making the rides more competitive for Team Wyoming, this is because, instead of going to whole points, they're going to a quarter point system…So in the qualifying rodeos leading up to the NFR, what you have is half a point system, two judges. At the NFR, you have four judges. So you need to go to a quarter point system which this new software allows. This is giving the competitors more of an accurate picture of how well they rode or didn't ride."

Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association CEO Tom Glaus tells Cowboy State Daily that this new software is more accurate and reflects the competitor's ride more accurately as well.

Read the full story HERE.

–

A Sheridan man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for bludgeoning his mother and hiding her body under gasoline-soaked blankets. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that 24-year-old Israel Melvin changed his plea after mental evaluations and now faces 22-40 years in prison.

"It's a gamble…If you go to trial and the jury convicts you on second degree murder, the judge has anywhere from 20 years to life that she can sentence you take a plea agreement. In this case, it's a 22-to-40 year agreed sentence if the judge accepts the plea agreement. So in this case, what the gamble is, presupposing 22-to-40 is probably less than the judge would give if we lost at trial. That's always the gamble. And so at that sentencing hearing, Judge Phillips can reject the plea agreement, but if she does that, he gets a chance to withdraw his guilty plea."

On Dec. 10th of this year, Melvin changed course and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after accepting a plea agreement, court documents say.

Read the full story HERE.

–

Colorado's Front Range faces potential wildfire-related power shutoffs Wednesday amid high winds and dry conditions, but Wyoming utilities say they don't expect outages. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that officials are closely monitoring the weather in case it worsens.

"Excel Energy, out of Colorado, is seeing some disturbing trends in the weather for Wednesday with high winds and fast winds and the dry weather, it's been unseasonably warm in the Denver area and all along the front range north of Denver. Xcel Energy is putting into place these preemptive blackouts to mitigate the wildfire risk…Back in 2021 the Marshall fire started on December 30 in Boulder County, Colorado, and it destroyed over 1000 acres, and it was a fast moving wildfire. Authorities don't want a repeat of that."

Communities across Colorado's Front Range could see a Public Safety Power Shutoff, or PSPS, on Wednesday, as Xcel Energy, Colorado's largest utility provider, announced it plans to cut power to areas where high winds and dry conditions are heightening the wildfire risk.

Read the full story HERE.

–

A Texas hunter used his pistol to shoot off part of a buck's antler and free it after it became entangled with a dead deer and was near death from exhaustion. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports one man took it upon himself to save the deer that was clinging to life.

"We frequently see these situations where you get two male animals, in this case, Buck white tailed deer, where they get their antlers just hopelessly entangled, and they can't get it apart from each other. And this guy, he found a couple deer on this ranch that he was surveying. One was already dead and the other one was near death. He did have his 9mm in pistol with him, so he put two and two together. He ended up freeing the deer by shooting half of one of its antlers off. He hit it in just the right point where it blew him off about half the antler, and that was enough to de-entangled it. And it got up and stumbled around. And they came back two hours later, and it was gone."

Outdoorsman Barrett Liquori tells Cowboy State Daily that when he and his friend found the helpless deer in Texas Panhandle country, there wasn't enough time to hike all the way back home to retrieve a hacksaw.

So he turned to plan B, blasting off one of the dead buck's antlers with the Springfield Hellcat 9mm pistol he always carries with him in the field.

Read the full story HERE.

–

And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.