Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, November 13th. I'm Mac Watson.

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The 27-year-old man who was killed by Laramie County sheriff's deputies along I-80 east of Cheyenne on Wednesday was "troubled" and "in and out of jail," says a family member. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the sheriff's office says it's still investigating the shooting.

"27-year-old Anthony Bryant was killed on I 80 near Cheyenne on Wednesday afternoon. I spoke with the sister of his fiance, and she said that he was a troubled person. He had been going through some things. She's devastated when she found out about the loss. She said she hadn't been on Facebook or seen any of the reports, so it was quite shocking to learn of how he died. Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Director Ronnie Jones said that their team has been sent to investigate the incident to figure out exactly what happened, and when they're done, they'll send their findings over to the Laramie County District Attorney."

The shooting happened around 1:42 p.m. Wednesday near mile marker 377, close to the Hillsdale exit, about 15 miles east of Cheyenne.

Read the full story HERE.

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After transgender protestor Rihanna Kelver was accused of pointing a gun at a man, Kelver's attorney subpoenaed the man's college files - as possible proof that the man is prone to anti-trans aggression. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the judge ruled Tuesday that those files aren't relevant to the case.

"So Rihanna Kelver's attorney Andrew Holcomb had told the judge, 'Hey, let's get the alleged victim's college file in here because I'm seeing signs that there were disciplinary issues, that there were anti-LGBTQ gestures,' and the judge said, 'Okay, I will review this college file in my own chamber and decide if you lawyers can have it, decide if the public can see it, decide if it even needs to be out in the public trial,' and so once Westby did that, Judge Westby reviewed the file and ultimately decided, no, this is not relevant to these claims of self-defense that Rihanna Kelver is."

28-year-old Rihanna Kelver was charged in September 2025 with aggravated assault, and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent and interference.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Utah mechanical contractor sped up its southwest Wyoming expansion plans after WE Soda announced 350 layoffs, signing with local unions to match mine-level wages and vacations. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports the company president says, "We want to keep all the work in Wyoming."

"I talked with Chad Hustad, the president of BCS Mechanical, a Utah-based company, and he said plans were in the works to expand into Wyoming about a month ago, but then with the We Soda layoffs announced last week, he said the company is moving up the timeline. He said his goal is to focus on training and job placement to find more work in Wyoming and to find workers in Wyoming to fill those jobs, especially now with the We Soda layoffs and the anxiety that's causing in Sweetwater County."

Hustad says the expansion started about a month ago, when BCS Mechanical bid on a chiller project at a school in Green River. The company was awarded the bid Wednesday.

Read the full story HERE.

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Glenrock is mourning 17-year-old Kristian Martin, who died Tuesday in a car accident. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that Martin wrestled and played football for the Glenrock Herders and the Glenrock USA Wrestling Club remembers him as a special athlete.

"In a tribute, the Glenrock Wrestling USA Club said that he was the kind of kid that you genuinely wanted to have in the room. His personality, his heart, and his determination, along with the way he carried himself, made him truly special. To his family, he was known as Frodo. He was the youngest of six children and the only boy. He died on Tuesday in a vehicle wreck. The Wyoming Highway Patrol has not yet released more information about the details of that crash."

Martin's death has left Glenrock grieving, with coaches, classmates, friends and neighbors organizing memorial gatherings, collecting donations and sharing memories of the teenager. A celebration of his life is scheduled for Saturday at Glenrock High School.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Teton County is the only county in Wyoming with its own lobbyist. It just voted to renew the contract of Nick Agopian, and gave him a raise to $10,000 a month. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one commissioner says it's a little steep, but added Agopian is "good at his job."

"I talked to several people about why does Teton County need its own lobbyist when the counties collectively use the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, which lobbies for things like local control, local funding, and the resounding answer was it's because of the housing mitigation structure that Teton County has in place, where they will charge home builders a considerable fee to contribute to the workforce affordable price-capped housing that the daily grind workers live in in that very luxury community where homes are often unaffordable."

Agopian has represented the county before the Wyoming Legislature since 2024.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Lander pediatrician is harshly critical of the local hospital's new staffing program which he says replaces local doctors with traveling doctors. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports Dr. Ryan Firth is comparing it to a school run entirely by substitute teachers.

"So what's happening here is a Lander pediatrician is saying that Sage West is going to go to what are known as locum tenens. The English version of that is travel doctors. Okay, you've heard of travel nurses. Well, they have travel doctors too. So they bring in a locum tenens to do that. But increasingly, hospitals are using locum tenens instead of local doctors. They're pushing out the existing local doctors in favor of doctors who might spend a week or two at the hospital and then leave, and a new doctor comes, and so we got a Lander pediatrician who's saying, 'I don't think that's the best thing for continuity of care.'"

SageWest says its new partnership would strengthen its ability to treat patients with more complex medical needs and keep more patients close to home when clinically appropriate.

Read the full story HERE.

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Mollie's matriarch 1090F wolf turns 12.5-years-old this month, tying her for the oldest known wolf in Yellowstone since restoration in 1995. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports she has already exceeded the average lifespan by nearly a decade and observers say she appears healthy.

"She's been famous for a long time for being a very long-lived wolf. Wolves typically live maybe about five years in Yellowstone. You know, she hit you know a late 11, then 12, and as of this month, as of November 15, she will officially hit 12.5 years, which will at least tie her for the oldest wolf ever in Yellowstone National Park. There was one more female that they're pretty sure lived at 12.5 years and then died of old age, and there's been a couple of wolves outside the park that lived past 13. But if she lives even a month longer now, she will officially be the oldest wolf ever in Yellowstone National Park."

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park typically live an average of 3.5-4 years, according to wildlife biologists.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Sasquatch statue in an unincorporated town named Garrett in Albany County has been ripped from the roadside tree where he's been lurking for years, and residents want him back. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports one person is furious over the theft and how it was stolen, saying "The asshats left the screws in the tree."

"For those of you who don't know where that is, it's in the northern part of Albany County, north of Laramie. It'd been screwed to the tree. Someone has to come up and just cross onto private property, ripped it off the tree, and made off with it. Nobody knows exactly who would have done it. And since it's a pretty isolated area, they don't have a lot of possibilities, but the people I spoke to thought it was probably someone from out of town because everyone in the community of Garrett loves that thing. It's kind of a local landmark, and they're happy to have a resident neighborhood Sasquatch."

Garrett's Sasquatch has been visibly lurking behind the same tree, right next to the road, since 2022. The wooden carving even has its own "Warning! Please Do Not Feed The Sasquatch" sign.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, November 12th. I'm Mac Watson.

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A suspect was shot and killed during an encounter with Laramie County sheriff's deputies Wednesday afternoon along I-80 east of Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the shooting brought a large police response to the highway, where officers worked to control traffic while emergency crews rushed to the scene.

"The investigation has been taken over by the Division of Criminal Investigations, where they will find out exactly what happened. Just minutes after the shooting, radio traffic captured deputies talking with first responders, asking for medical emergency services. I spoke with Austin Lawrence, who was driving from a doctor's appointment when he witnessed the aftermath, and he videoed it. He said it looked like a very stressful situation, and he prayed that everyone was okay."

The shooting happened around 1:42 p.m. near mile marker 377, close to the Hillsdale exit, about 15 miles east of Cheyenne. Police haven't yet released the suspect's name or what led to the deadly encounter.

Read the full story HERE.

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Incoming Republican Gov. Eric Barlow has chosen Walter Eggers, a Democrat, as his attorney general. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that three former Wyoming AGs say party affiliation does not matter for the non-political position.

"I asked three former attorneys general, a Republican, a Democrat, and then a Democrat who served a Republican, and they all said no. This position is about the rule of law. And then I asked Senator Charlie Scott, a Republican, the longest-serving senator, state senator in Wyoming, who has overseen multiple AG confirmations, and he didn't think it mattered. One thing that is notable about Walter Eggers' record is he represented oil, gas, coal companies for like 24 years. And I asked him about that. I said, 'Did you have to reconcile that with being a Democrat?' And he said, 'No,' that he was proud to have represented those, and still believes that those industries are the lifeblood of Wyoming."

In a phone interview with Cowboy State Daily, Eggers says he's married to a registered Republican, and noted the difference between Democrats and Republicans in Wyoming isn't as great as many people suggest. In his experience, he believes both seek the good of the state.

Read the full story HERE.

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With seven weeks to go, the National Weather Service says 2026 will be the warmest year in Wyoming's recorded history. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports photographers say the fall colors in southern and western Wyoming is the best they've ever seen.

"According to the National Weather Service office in Riverton, nearly all the locations that they keep records of, some of those records going back to 1892, it's the warmest year in Wyoming's recorded history. The fall colors seem to have been fantastic. I heard it was some of the best in recent memory. This will probably be the warmest year in Wyoming's recorded history, and that led into a fall that was above average temperature-wise and below average precipitation-wise for a majority of Wyoming, but we're already seeing signs of what could be coming in terms of the polar vortex reaching us, an influx of air from Greenland, and the Super El Nino. That's all going to come to a head sometime in late November."

Day and many other meteorologists are still processing the mea culpa they had to endure after their winter weather forecasts fell through last year. Because of a relentless series of "logjams" in the Arctic Circle, the predicted snowy, colder winter turned into one of the warmest, driest winters on record for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region.

Read the full story HERE.

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Levi Johnson had to do some detective work when his baby's medicine failed to show up in his Burns mailbox. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that when it finally arrived, he found four baskets of mail left beside the road.

"He picked it up and took it home to make sure nobody could steal any of the mail. And then he took it into the postal service the next day because he wanted to make sure the postmaster knew what had happened. Evidently someone who identified themselves as the carrier texted them at 10:30 at night and said, 'Oh, hey, you know, I need to come pick those up. Can I come pick those up?' And they're like, 'Yeah, we're in bed and we're just going to take it to the post office tomorrow.' Several people in that area did report that they have missing mail and have had it for weeks now."

Although Johnson's family has received the medication and some other missing items, the family is still waiting for regular paper mail, including bank debit cards. The experience has left him questioning what training carriers receive.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Ranchers are getting nearly 20% less for cows used in ground beef since President Trump's 90-day plan to lower prices, according to a new report. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports meatpackers are paying less and consumers are seeing little savings at the grocery store.

"Trump enacted this 90-day plan to import more beef trim that took effect September 1st. Ranchers had a fit over it because they knew right away that they were not going to come out on top here. It was going to be the meat packers. That's because the beef trim is only purchased by the meat packers. It's not something that people buy in a grocery store. Sarah Carden is Farm Action's senior director of research and policy. She said that what is striking about these numbers is how much the price is falling on cattle producers, while the meat packers continue to benefit."

In August, Trump announced a plan to allow an additional 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings into the United States over 90 days at lower tariff rates. The administration said the move would help bring down ground beef prices at the grocery store while protecting American ranchers and giving them room to rebuild the nation's depleted cattle herd. The plan took effect Sept. 1 and is scheduled to end Nov. 30.

Read the full story HERE.

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Cheyenne cops were called when someone spotted strangers around a neighbor's house. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports it turns out, they were putting up Christmas lights and calls like this happening everyday in the Cowboy State.

"Calls like this are happening all over Wyoming. Thousands of calls come in every year for some of Wyoming's larger cities, and a small percentage, 20% or less, actually result in criminal investigations. Even less result in convictions. I spoke with Alan Thompson, a former Sheridan County sheriff's deputy and he said that he's heard some crazy things over the years. Once someone called in Sheridan, and they said that an elk had escaped from the elk refuge and was located in town. When he arrived, it was just a very large deer, possibly the biggest deer he's ever seen. And then one that happens almost every year on the Fourth of July, someone will dial 911 reporting that they heard gunshots, and it turns out it's just fireworks."

In Casper alone, false security alarms became such a headache that the police chief brought the issue before the City Council in 2022. At the time, officers were responding to around 1,200 private burglar alarms every year — and 99.2% were false.

Read the full story HERE.

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The historic Wagon Box restaurant in Story is listed for $3.195 million, but owner Paul McNiel isn't "hellbent" on selling. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that McNiel is considering selling or seeking a financial partner.

"Just because it's being sold though doesn't mean the restaurant's closing. Doesn't mean the lodges aren't available. Everything is still open. Evidently, they do have a new chef coming, a guy named Julian Gagnon. He co-founded Washington DC's French Bistro Butterworths in 2024 with a chef named Bart Hutchins, and he's going to bring a little French flair to home-style cooking. Meatloaf and fried chicken, on up to duck breast and pierogies stuffed with duck confit. It sounds amazing. So he's planning to open mid-December if everything goes well, and he wants to try being open seven days a week."

McNiel tells Cowboy State Daily that his goal remains the same — making the Wagon Box a destination for locals and travelers.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Laramie County woman said she's at wit's end trying to combat a badger that "murdered my entire chicken flock" and has since evaded her efforts to trap it. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports Heather Nicklas says the lone badger is an "overachiever" and her livestock dogs haven't been any help.

"She reinforced her coop and put underground mesh wire and stuff to kind of badger-proof a little bit. That's worked so far this year. She hasn't lost any chickens, but she said the badger is still punching holes all over her property. Apparently, still trying to get into the chicken coop, and also she's worried about her bigger livestock, like her pony and her alpacas, things that might step in the badger holes and break their legs, and so, and she tried live-trapping it. That didn't work. She says she's only seen it once. It's pretty evasive."

Retired biologist Franz Camenzind of Jackson tells Cowboy State Daily that he recommends that if Nicklas can live-trap it, the best thing to do would be "moving it at least a couple of miles away." But, he admits, they are elusive.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, November 11th. I'm Mac Watson.

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For 84 days, a 4-year-old collie mix outsmarted a small army of volunteers determined to bring her home. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that on Tuesday, a dog that spent nearly three months running from people found her forever home with the one person she had come to trust the most.

"The problem was not finding her; it was catching her. So a lot of people saw her, caught sightings of her on security cameras, saw her, you know, drinking out of ponds on golf courses and mountain lakes. But as soon as anyone tried to approach her, she would run off. A woman named Bonnie Hodges happened to have a live trap for a dog. This is a humane trap that can get dogs up to 40 pounds, coyotes, and foxes. They set this live trap, and eventually, Rogue walked into it, and they were able to get her that way. She went back to the Humane Society, got a bath, was evaluated for behavior to make sure she hadn't picked up any negative habits, and then she was ultimately adopted by the trainer at the Humane Society that she absolutely loved." For Casey Corbett, a volunteer at the shelter who led much of the search, Rogue's adoption was the perfect ending to a story that began with a terrified dog running for her life. Corbett tells Cowboy State Daily, "She now gets to live out the rest of her years with the person she has come to trust and love the most."

Read the full story HERE.

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Former Wyoming congressional candidate Reid Rasner is suing his campaign consulting firm for not providing "quality and valuable advice and strategy" in the U.S. House race where he finished fifth. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the complaint says he paid the company $2.2 million.

"This is different from Rasner's other ongoing lawsuits in Wyoming state and federal court districts. Those are all defamation cases, whereas this one is, you know, a breach of contract, unjust enrichment case against FP1 Strategies, saying that they basically ducked out on a lot of communication and didn't provide good consulting."

The civil complaint Rasner's attorney William Fix filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming is different: it accuses the Virginia-based GOP strategic consulting firm FP1 Strategies LLC of breaking faith with Rasner to enrich itself.

Read the full story HERE.

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Two downtown Douglas businesses were destroyed and several historic buildings suffered extensive damage from a fire that erupted Monday afternoon. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the city's downtown remains closed as investigators searched for the source of the blaze.

"I spoke with Mayor Kim Pexton. She said two businesses were completely destroyed. One was a consignment shop, and the other a vape shop in downtown Douglas. Several other buildings were heavily damaged by smoke and water. The mayor said that on Tuesday night the town met so they could discuss how the community could come together and help support business owners after the fire."

Mayor Kim Pexton tells Cowboy State Daily that the neighboring College Inn Bar survived but suffered extensive smoke and water damage. The nearby Corner Barber Shop also was damaged. The investigation into what started the blaze is ongoing.

Read the full story HERE.

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Democratic lawmaker Mike Yin filed a new election finance complaint against former gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel, noting that she listed corporations as donors, in violation of Wyoming law. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that statements say a ranch and LLC both gave her money.

"He originally filed a campaign finance complaint against Rebecca Bextel and two other Republican contenders for the governor's seat, like late October. He had urged Team Bextel to cure deficiencies in her campaign finance reports before the election. The amendments that her team has made since then don't show that cure that he was proposing, and so when he was combing through those to see did they do a refund because they reportedly accepted more than a maximum donation. He also found where Team Bextel had listed companies like a ranch and other corporations that had given to her campaign."

Yin is the minority floor leader of the state House of Representatives. But he said he filed three campaign finance complaints, then one amended complaint Monday, with the Secretary of State's Office as an individual.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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The Manderson mother whose 2-month-old baby died in a filthy camper now faces 10 new felony charges after investigators say they found videos on her phone of children being sexually abused. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports Destynie Study is facing 10 new felony charges.

"This is a new case stemming from a July 6 incident when Study found her two month old baby unresponsive in a crib in the family's camper. Investigators later seized her cell phone, and that's when they found a hidden folder containing alleged child pornography. DCI agents found a screenshot from Study's phone that looked like a Snapchat advertisement asking for $10 for 10 pictures and up to $95 for all the pictures. Though it remained unclear what content she was selling and how much she had, they did find separately at least 50 files of child sexual abuse materials in her phone."

DCI agents John McCloud III and Tony Giles interviewed Study at the Big Horn County Detention Center. After being advised of her Miranda rights, she allegedly acknowledged knowing the videos were on her phone. Study is being held in the detention center on a $75,000 bond.

Read the full story HERE.

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At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John Barrasso called WE Soda's layoff announcement of 350 jobs a "devastating blow" and pointed the finger overseas for the industry downturn. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports that the Senator blames one country.

"Senator Barrasso blames China. At a Tuesday Senate Finance Committee hearing, he said, 'The cause is clear. It's communist China,' saying that China, with its solution mining, has essentially flooded the soda ash market with a cheaper product that he says is also an inferior product and is pricing Wyoming out of the market."

Wyoming sits on the world's largest known trona deposit, and WE Soda, the world's largest natural soda ash producer, operates in the basin. But the state's producers have been squeezed as China expands.

Read the full story HERE.

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Rawlins hunter Jacob Paintin said although the bull elk he shot had no edible game meat due to previous bullet wounds, he's glad the agony for the bull is over. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports Paintin estimates the bull had been suffering for weeks.

"He said when he saw the bull, it was laying down. He said it got up slowly from his perspective, but he went ahead and shot it and killed it, and then they started trying to gut it and process it, and it was just horrible. It had at least one gaping old wound on its neck. And Game and Fish confirmed, 'Yeah, it's just it's riddled with infection. Don't eat this meat. Bad idea. Maybe you can salvage a hind quarter.' So he got the hind quarters home, got those skins, started to butcher them, and they were riddled with lead fragments, and that meat was also spoiled. So he feels good that he was there at just the right time and just the right place to end that animal's suffering, and it did have a cool rack that he was able to save."

Paintin tells Cowboy State Daily that the bull elk didn't die in vain. He says, "I'm trying to teach my sons good ethics. As hunters we try to do the ethical thing and make sure animals aren't suffering."

Read the full story HERE.

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Christopher Gore was planning to hand his drugs over to the police. He just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that's what the Wyoming man told cops after they discovered more than a pound of meth in his impounded truck.

"This case began. January 17, after 42-year-old Christopher Gore was arrested for eluding the police in Natrona County. His SUV was placed inside a towing yard, and nobody came to retrieve it. Meanwhile, investigators were talking to anonymous sources who suggested there might be drugs in the glove compartment. When they searched the SUV, they found a secret hiding hole inside the compartment. Inside, they found about a pound and a quarter pound of methamphetamine. Gore told the authorities he had every intention of bringing the drugs to the police, but he just hadn't been able to get to it yet. Police found it first, and then the case went to federal court, where he eventually took a plea deal, and on Tuesday he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with seven years of supervised probation."

A sworn statement filed in U.S. District Court shows Gore admitted that he intended to sell the meth to cover personal expenses.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, November 10th. I'm Mac Watson.

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The national State Freedom Caucus Network is still funding a state director for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, despite most of its members losing their seats, the network president said Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports SFCN president Andy Roth "We love the members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus."

"As we know, the Freedom Caucus lost a lot of its lawmakers in the primary election, and so just a handful left, only one of them in House leadership remained. I asked Andy Roth, the national umbrella network president, like, is there a floor for when you will supply a state director to a legislature versus not? And he said, 'No, it kind of depends on circumstances and members themselves.' The caucus had posted in a statement a couple days after the election in 2027, 'Our priorities will remain the same. We will head to Cheyenne, fewer in number, but still strong in our resolve to fight for Wyoming, America's last hope.'"

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a populist-right faction of the GOP, won control of the state House of Representatives in 2024, then weathered significant losses in this year's primary election. House members who tried to ascend to the state Senate, treasurer, and secretary of state positions lost their bids.

Read the full story HERE.

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Blood samples taken from Yellowstone wolves are helping scientists understand why radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster might have turned wolves there into cancer-resistant mutants. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that despite the disaster that initially killed 31 people, Chernobyl wolves have thrived for six generations.

"One of the first places they turned was to Yellowstone, because the Yellowstone wolves are some of the best known, best researched, most thoroughly studied wolves in the world. And they found some really cool stuff. Counter to what you might immediately think, these wolves in the Chernobyl zone are actually developing a resistance to tumor and a resistance to cancer, and they think they're not quite sure why it might have to be with basically the way radiation therapy helps some humans that have cancer. The researcher I spoke with at Princeton, she said there is some hope that this template that the Chernobyl wolves are showing us could possibly someday have applications for advancement and treatment for humans."

Blood samples taken from Yellowstone wolves during the 2010s were used in a genetic database that helped researchers compare wolves continuously exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine with wolves from other populations.

Read the full story HERE.

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Planes twice circled the Foot Creek Fire and disrupted firefighters for more than an hour, causing safety concerns in the air and on the ground over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports that the Johnson County's airport manager said the behavior is consistent with "looky loo" flying.

"Sarah Evans Kirol, the public affairs specialist for the Bighorn National Forest, said that there were two incursions of unknown and unauthorized planes over a 683-acre wildfire this weekend. At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service has drones flying over the wildfire, doing mapping, and taking photos, trying to strategize the next step for putting it out. And she said that she's worried about a collision between any unauthorized planes and the Forest Service drones. This would be a big loss of equipment for the Forest Service. But she said it could be even worse for the planes. It would be potentially fatal for anyone on board, and it could also cause problems for homes and people on the ground."

Evans Kirol tells Cowboy State Daily that a low-flying plane crashing into one of those drones would be a major financial loss for the agency, but she says that's the least of its worries.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Military Department's adjutant general told lawmakers Monday a task force is eyeing at least four "chunks" of public land for a new military base. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the state is participating in the Trump administration's Next Great American Base contest.

"House Speaker Chip Neiman wrote to the governor urging participation along with other lawmakers saying that Wyoming is a good fit because of its patriotism. The F.E. Warren Air Force Base already brings economic advantages. Representative Landon Brown on Monday in committee voiced skepticism, asking essentially if this is something that won't get done. Brown did not elaborate on that, but some important context is that Trump has just two years in his term remaining, and Republicans lost the entirety of Congress on Tuesday."

Wyoming's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Greg Porter, told the legislative Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee on Monday that Wyoming has built a task force and it is eyeing federal and state lands for the project.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Madison Barbee's phone rang at 7:28 a.m. Monday, just minutes after her 14-year-old niece had been hit by a vehicle while crossing a busy Cheyenne street on her way to school. Her mother was on the other end, frantic. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the girl was struck in a crosswalk.

"The grandmother, who has legal custody of the 14-year-old, immediately called her daughter to explain what happened, and then said they were on their way to the hospital. When they got there, it was discovered the girl had suffered from three broken ribs, as well as a broken collarbone and road rash all over most of her body. Coincidentally her aunt was struck at the exact same intersection 10 years ago when she was a student at Cheyenne High. The aunt did recover, but she is saying that she thinks it's ridiculous that they still don't have pedestrian signs. The city is working to make changes. This has come up before the council several times. There have been repeated crashes involving pedestrians and vehicles."

Cheyenne Police Chief Mark Francisco is urging drivers to pay particular attention during the busy morning and afternoon hours when students are heading to and from school. Police did not say whether speed or distraction played a role in Monday's crash.

Read the full story HERE.

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Armed police searched Rock Springs High School with firearms drawn Monday after a caller threatened to bring a weapon and possibly a bomb to the school. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports no threat was found, but frightened parents say a lack of information was unnerving and concerning.

"Interim Superintendent Paul Grube told me that the Rock Springs High School received a call a little after 12:30 Monday afternoon from an anonymous person saying they had a weapon and possibly a bomb and were headed to the school. So that sent the school into the secure status. One parent, Kari Cochran, told me that the parents received a message from the school messaging app at 1:04 p.m. saying that the school was placed on secure status. Then at 1:26 p.m., they got the second notice that the secure status had been lifted, so it didn't last very long. But with a lack of information, it sent a lot of parents into a kind of panic mode, trying to reach their students, trying to figure out what was going on."

A joint statement issued by the school district and police department confirmed that the high school had been placed on secure status because of a potential threat and that law enforcement had cleared the building. It did not provide details about the nature of the threat.

Read the full story HERE.

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Someone went on a mailbox-smashing spree along a rural Johnson County road over the weekend, leaving as many as 15 mailboxes damaged or destroyed. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that letters and packages were scattered in ditches and residents are trying to piece their mailboxes back together.

"Resident Ashley Lane said that an entire row of mailboxes had been vandalized. Some of them were ripped out at the ground level and thrown over a fence. She said there were holes in the mailboxes and there was mail scattered everywhere. She said there were also holes in the mail itself. Johnson County Sheriff's Deputy Kerry Welch said that they are still investigating this. He said about 15 mailboxes were vandalized. He said that he can confirm they were not bullet holes. While this might just seem like a harmless prank, tampering with mail or mail boxes is a serious federal crime. It is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison, and in this case, there are 15 mailboxes that have been destroyed."

Johnson County authorities are urging anyone whose mailbox was damaged to contact the department.

Read the full story HERE.

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Two breeding bulls in eastern Utah survived after being shot in the testicles late last week. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that ranchers called it "pure malice" and was particularly cruel because it injures the animal and is one of the most valuable investments a cattle producer makes.

"Bulls provide a lot of value and income for ranchers over the span of their lifetime. So when one of them is shot and not able to function as it normally would, it messes with the whole business and it messes with the rancher's livelihood.Crook County Senator and rancher Ogden Driskill had very harsh words for this crime. He called it 'malicious.' He even likened it to attempted murder because you injure this animal and then it suffers. So you don't even just kill it and it dies. Captain John Crowley with the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office told me that an investigation is ongoing. However, they have zero leads."

The bulls, owned by Duchesne County rancher Treven Jensen, were discovered injured after Jensen returned from a hunting trip Friday. It wasn't until a veterinarian examined the animals that Jensen learned they had been shot.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, November 9th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Every Wyoming county shifted blue by an average of 21.3 points Tuesday compared to the 2024 presidential race, according to federal election percentages. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports Sweetwater swung the most, from GOP to Dem by 33.4 points in the House race and 22.5 in the Senate.

"Republicans still swept all statewide seats that were up for election this year, and the GOP also held its roughly 90% super majority in the legislature, despite a Democrat picking up one seat, so you know it's not correct to say Wyoming went blue. But if you crunch the percentage points from which voters defected from their share of Trump votes in 2024, and you also crunch the gains that Democrats posted compared to their vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, and then you combine those for a net, you do see a shift. the University of Wyoming associate professor of political science Ryan Williamson said these shifts happen, and they tend to be a reflection on the president."

Republicans still swept the top five state-level seats and the open U.S. Senate and House seats, and kept their roughly 90% supermajority in the Legislature despite losing one seat in the state House.

Read the full story HERE.

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Andrew Mazzella builds luxury doomsday bunkers deep in the Rockies for clients preparing for nuclear war, civil unrest or whatever. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the end result is a fortified sanctuary with its own power, water, sewage, air filtration, and groceries to last a decade.

"Andrew Mazzella got his start in construction when he was a college student. At the age of 19, he was able to take money that he'd earned on crab boats in Alaska, and then start to invest that in something to start building different structures around Bozeman, Montana. Now he said some of his first clients wanted some unconventional builds. They were looking for doomsday bunkers, and he was an opportunist looking to make some money. So one of the first big constructions that he did was this giant 60-foot-long underground doomsday fortress that he built for a guy who had made a lot of money in the corporate world, and he wanted to protect it."

Mazzella tells Cowboy State Daily he isn't terribly worried about surviving a post-apocalyptic world, but if someone is willing to pay him enough money to build an Armageddon abode in the ground, he'll figure out how to get it done.

Read the full story HERE.

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Teton County residents have a life expectancy of 94 years, easily the highest in Wyoming, according to county health department data. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows spoke to a retired doctor who says "people don't get old in Jackson Hole."

"I spoke to Dr. Lisa Ridgway, who is retired but still active and in her 80s. She had been a doctor in Jackson. She was in Sicily at the time that we talked and had just finished a two-mile hike with a backpack and said people don't get old in Jackson Hole. They come to Jackson Hole to live their best life. I also talked to Teton County Health Department Director Dr. Travis Riddle. He told me that individual circumstances, personal choices, and even how long someone has lived in Teton County are all factors in life expectancy and longevity."

New data gathered for a community health assessment puts life expectancy in the county at a remarkable 94 years — about 15 years longer than the national average. The figure, recently shared with Teton County commissioners by the county's health department, even surprised some local officials.

Read the full story HERE.

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Tracy Jensen disappeared after walking out of his sister's house in Big Piney in 1999, leaving behind a young daughter. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports though the court has declared him legally dead, his family won't give up.

"Tracy disappeared in February 1999, and he left his sister's house in Big Piney and went to his work at Gordon's Market and he asked his boss for some traveling money, and he was given $300 with the idea that he was going to drive to Idaho to a relative's house. He never made it to Idaho, and he has never been seen again since. Every year, both the sheriff's office and the family check in, and the sheriff's office runs his information and runs the information on the car, through all the national databases. The Sublette County Sheriff's Office has not found anything to date."

For the family left behind, the uncertainty has been its own kind of grief. Even after the court declared him legally dead, the absence remains sharp and unanswered. Jensen's sister tells Cowboy State Daily, "Part of me believes he's still alive."

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Prairie dogs build elaborate underground communities, protect their families and sometimes kill their neighbors' babies. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that scientists call them vital to the ecosystem, but some call them a nuisance.

"One biologist I talked to, John Hoogland, said that prairie dogs, the lives of prairie dogs and behaviors often mirror that of people. Hoogland tells me there are even deadbeat dads in the prairie dog communities, so they father these prairie dog babies and then really don't have much to do with them aside from maybe playing with them a little bit here and there."

Hoogland tells Cowboy State Daily he never intended to spend his life studying prairie dogs. In 1974, he was a graduate student looking for an affordable research subject. For the past 45 years, Hoogland has studied the animals' behavior, including 16 years observing prairie dogs at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota's Black Hills.

Read the full story HERE.

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Manufacturing employment in Sheridan has doubled since 2018. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports Wendtland Machine Works is part of the much bigger story of how Sheridan built a manufacturing community that not only supports the next manufacturer, but encourages new ones to set up shop.

"Taylor really wanted to be a Wyoming kid. So after he finished his finance degree, he came back to Sheridan, and he went back to college in a career-technical field with the idea that maybe he could start a business. And so he got a job at Weatherby. He wasn't there very long before he opened the business like he was hoping to do, in making parts for these other manufacturers. They've got a nice little cluster of different manufacturers, and each one has a different kind of skill set or equipment, and so they can kind of support each other, provide parts for each other. Weatherby has thrown him some work. He does some work for the Balding's Bits and Spurs, other companies that need little pieces. That's really kind of a cool thing about what Sheridan's managed to accomplish, is that they're one of the faster-emerging manufacturing sites in the state."

Taylor Wendtland trained at Sheridan College, which helped him land the job at Weatherby. He opened his own shop in 2024 and now he estimates 80% of his manufacturing work comes from local customers.

Read the full story HERE.

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Idaho became the 12th state to approve an official state gun last week. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports Wyoming has yet to do so but Bob Budd says the Model 1894 Winchester rifle might be a good fit.

"His family has an 1873 Winchester that's been in his family forever, and he said, 'Ah, that's kind of a bummer. They got that one.' So what? Some people have suggested the Sharps Buffalo rifle, which could come with a little bit of controversy because yeah, it was a common rifle, but it was also the rifle that was used to slaughter the buffalo. And then there's also the 1886 Winchester, which a state firearms historian told me that it that kind of topped the 1873 Winchester because they made it. A much stronger action, so it can handle heavier loads, and that was also one of the weapons that was prominent during the Johnson County Cattle War in Johnson County, Wyoming."

Some lawmakers tell Cowboy State Daily they might be interested in starting the process — probably with a bill before the Legislature. Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, noted one possible snag: Wyoming has so many firearms enthusiasts, could voters narrow it to just one, or even a shortlist?

Read the full story HERE.

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A Colorado woman swears she and her husband saw a Bigfoot in the trees along a highway in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports Lori Bowling says they weren't looking for bigfoot. They were looking for deer.

"On July 28, Lori Bowling from Colorado says that she's positive that she saw Bigfoot. She and her husband were driving by Colorado's San Juan Mountains, and she said she saw something with long hairy arms, about six to eight feet tall, that was unmistakably Bigfoot. I spoke to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer John Livingston. He says that most likely he believes that she was looking at a domestic sheep herder. He said these herders often wear scraggly clothing and they're hiding out in the trees in an attempt to be unseen. A lot of them are from South America and they come specifically to herd sheep in Colorado."

Bigfoot sightings in the Rockies aren't uncommon. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, an independent group that collects and investigates alleged Sasquatch encounters, maintains a public database containing 398 reports from Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Utah. But none constitutes scientific confirmation that Bigfoot exists.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, November 6th. I'm Mac Watson.

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While one Sweetwater County mom braces for having vital medical care for her children cut off, Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports that her bigger fear is what 350 WE Soda layoffs announced Wednesday will do to her neighbors.

"One of the fallouts that the employees of WE Soda are bracing for is the possible loss of health insurance with the sweeping layoff that's coming up. I talked to Bree McMullen, whose husband has worked at the mine since 2019, and she said that it's been really helpful for her family, taking care of their five kids and a granddaughter, two of which, her 18-year-old son and her one-year-old granddaughter, were born with the same condition, and both of them now have ongoing medical needs that she said the job provided really good insurance for. She also said that the pay was good enough that she was able to stay home and raise her kids as a stay-at-home mom."

WE Soda is set to cut 40% of its workforce in Sweetwater County. Representative Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, tells Cowboy State Daily that this announcement hits at an especially bad time since the holidays are coming up. He emphasized that the cut of 350 employees is 3% of the county.

Read the full story HERE.

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A popular AI police dispatch app reported that a man was killed behind a Gillette apartment complex Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports the only problem with the report is that it was completely wrong.

"The incident was actually categorized as a fatality report, but come to find out, according to Campbell County Sheriff's Lieutenant Dan Maul, this was just a routine traffic stop. A woman was apprehended and taken into custody for a warrant, but there was no physical altercation or anything that would indicate that someone had been killed. Welcome to the increasingly strange world of AI-generated police reports. Crime Radar is one of the most popular apps in the country, with over four and a half million downloads and people using it to keep track of live police dispatch calls, and this isn't just happening in Gillette. There are several incidents in other states where heinous crimes, overdoses, shootings, have been misreported by Crime Radar in the past."

Byron Oedekoven, a former Campbell County sheriff and longtime leader of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, tells Cowboy State Daily he's not opposed to using artificial intelligence. He sees its potential, but draws a firm line between using a machine to gather information and allowing it to make decisions about what's true.

Read the full story HERE.

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Glenrock voters ousted their mayor Tuesday amid a monthslong fight over the town's Flock license plate reader cameras. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports transparency hawks say he lost because of the Flock controversy, while others point to a general feeling of unrest.

"I spoke to John Galloway, who has done public records requests and writing and transparency work on this topic. So he pointed out that during the primary election, Judy Colling lost to the mayor, but in the general election, she bounced back and defeated him. He's pointing to in the meantime exchanges between the mayor and residents versus calling having a really direct public response about where she stands on Flock cameras and skepticism toward them. Other people said, 'No, why would you blame the mayor? Maybe some people are ready for change.' All of this has unfolded since early July."

The controversial cameras were bought and installed in 2024 after the police department included them in its budget and the council approved their purchase, installation and use, according to Mayor Bruce Roumell.

Read the full story HERE.

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Mail troubles are brewing in Lincoln County. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports one homeowner in a new subdivision has been waiting over a year to receive mail service, while nearby Grover residents must now travel to Afton to collect mail after their local postal services were closed.

"They all thought they'd be getting mail like any day now, but they still don't have the locking mechanism for these boxes a year later. Evidently, there's one guy for the whole state of Wyoming to put these locks into place, and the homeowners themselves can't hire somebody to do the work. It has to be done by an authorized postal person, and there's only one guy in the whole state for that. And so they are still waiting a year later for an actual physical residential address."

Mark Call said his request dates back to November of 2025 and that he, his wife, and his neighbors have repeatedly contacted postal officials seeking service since then. He said he was told the lock would be installed in early 2026, but the work remains unfinished.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A Rock Springs UFO investigator says he has no explanation for videos of mysterious rotating lights a Gillette woman captured. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson spoke to the woman who says she's seen the strange object multiple times in Wyoming and Montana.

"Gillette woman Sommer Chase said that she and her husband both started seeing these mysterious rotating lights when he was working as a miner in Colestrip, Montana, and then they moved to Gillette over the summer. She told me that when she and her husband take their regular walks in the evening, it's pretty common to see these same lights that seem to rotate in a triangle shape in the sky. She finally posted these on social media pretty recently, and she was kind of concerned about being called a liar or just being met with skepticism. But she actually found that not only did the video get 200,000 views, but there were people commenting from all over the country saying that they've seen the same thing."

Chase tells Cowboy State Daily that her sightings stretch back to her childhood on a North Dakota farm, long before anyone carried a camera in their pocket. She adds she's certain she isn't hallucinating and believes the lights aren't satellites or drones.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Rock Springs man who told his girlfriend "I will wait 20 years so I can kill you" was sentenced Tuesday to 12-20 years in prison. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports police say he kidnapped the woman and tortured her for days, even threatening to murder her cat and family.

"24-year-old Jake Thomas Canestrini in October accepted a plea deal and was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault and battery. Sweetwater County Judge Clark Stitz sentenced him to 12 to 20 years, which coincidentally, before he had even been arrested, he allegedly told the victim in this case that he would wait up to 20 years to kill her."

The case began with the woman's account of what happened after her parents left town May 30. She and Canestrini were living at her parents' Rock Springs home. Shortly after the parents left, she told investigators, Canestrini threw her to the ground multiple times and would not let her leave. Rock Springs Police Officer Tiffany Harris wrote in an affidavit supporting the original charges that he repeatedly hit her in the head.

Read the full story HERE.

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With 408 applicants waiting for housing vouchers and 158 waiting for one-bedroom public-housing units, the Rock Springs Housing Authority is closing both waiting lists Dec. 1. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports the agency's director made the difficult decision.

"I spoke with Rock Springs Housing Authority Director April Thompson. She told me that it was a very difficult decision because she wants to help everyone. She said if she could give everyone an affordable place to live, she would. However, that's not the reality. I talked to Mayor Max Mickelson, and he said that the City Council will be discussing some ordinances later on this month to really look at affordable housing and just some of those key issues that Rock Springs is seeing, but you know the state as a whole as well."

Thompson tells Cowboy State Daily that the agency could continue accepting applications, but that would mean telling people they might wait four or five years before receiving assistance. Instead, Thompson decided to close the two lists for the first time in her 13 years with the Housing Authority.

Read the full story HERE.

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An orphaned moose calf apparently has bonded with a huge bull in Grand Teton, following the bull around like a puppy. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Grand Teton wildlife watchers say the bull is affectionate and patient, but gets annoyed when the calf tries to nurse.

"Nobody's sure what happened to the calf's mother.out of all the moose out there has kind of latched on and bonded with this one huge bull, and and people say you know the bull's patient, lets him hang out with him, nuzzles him and stuff, and then they probably if the calf tries to nurse the the bull pushes it away. But really the calf is big enough now that it's eating solid food. It's eating forage. I also talked to biologists and said that if it's to the point where it's weaned off of milk and it can eat forage, it is weird for it to bond with a bull rather than go find a surrogate mama cow."

Female animals will sometimes adopt the offspring of other females that were killed. They might also babysit each other's calves, fawns or cubs. When a female grizzly was spotted in Yellowstone in 2024 with five cubs in tow, the consensus was that some of the cubs must have been adopted.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, November 5th. I'm Mac Watson.

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A trucker accused of stabbing another trucker 17 times at a rest area along I-80 in Wyoming was bound over to felony-level court Wednesday for attempted first-degree murder. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports Andrew Kris Bzdak could get life in prison if convicted.

"This case began shortly after 3:30 a.m. on September 13. After frantic callers were reporting that a man had been stabbed inside a rest area off of I-80 near Rock Springs. When authorities arrived, they found a Sikh truck driver who had been hauling freight. He had stumbled outside of the rest area and collapsed onto the pavement. He had been stabbed multiple times in the head, chest, and other areas of his body, a total of 17 times. This crime gained national attention. Some people were calling it a hate crime, although local authorities are saying a motive has not yet been established."

Bzdak appeared in Sweetwater County Circuit Court wearing an orange jail uniform, his wrists secured in handcuffs attached to a chain wrapped around his waist.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Constitution Party chair is happy that Rebecca Bextel vaulted it to major-party status Tuesday by winning more than 10% of the vote, but says it's not a Freedom Caucus Party. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports party Chair Joshua Shimkus says, "that's not where the party is heading."

"It is interesting as a potentially a paradox because Bexel is aligned with the Freedom Caucus politically, polled more than 31,000 votes in the governor's race, lending the party legitimacy. So whether all 31,000 of those voters are aligned with the Freedom Caucus. It's not safe to say. However, the person for whom they voted is. But yet, you talk to the Chair. He said, 'no, that's not the direction of the party.' So, I asked, 'what is the difference between this party and the Republican Party?' He said, 'There's just more emphasis on the Ninth and 10th Amendments, and those federal amendments emphasize the individual.'"

Does this mean a mass migration of Freedom Caucus members to the Constitution Party is in the near future? State House Speaker Pro Tem Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, tells Cowboy State Daily that the caucus isn't planning a defection to the Constitution Party.

Read the full story HERE.

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WE Soda announced Wednesday it will cut 350 jobs and ditch underground dry mining to fight Chinese competition, leaving its 800 workers reeling. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports that the union president says, "It feels almost like a sucker punch," for the trona mine's workers.

"We Soda is moving from underground mining to solution mining to try to meet that competition. For the workers, though, that means a huge hit. I talked to Marshall Cummings, president of the local union, and he said that this is an earth-shattering moment for him and his membership. Ultimately, this is going to impact more than 40% of the workforce, bringing the total number of employees from over 850 down to 500 in the next two years."

During a visit to Green River from London in September, WE Soda CEO Alasdair Warren told Cowboy State Daily that a flood of low-cost Chinese natural soda ash production has fundamentally disrupted traditional export markets.

Read the full story HERE.

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For those wondering what's in those industrial-looking semi-trailers with military escorts on I-80 through Wyoming, it could've been a nuclear missile. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports one trucker who recently passed a missile convoy says, "I was terrified."

"When the Air Force is transporting nuclear missile components to their silos across southeast Wyoming, you can tell because the payload transporter three is very distinct. It looks like a heavily armored semi-trailer. There's an escort of armored vehicles and helicopters that are supervising it as it goes along I-80. If the U.S. Department of Energy is transporting a nuclear payload, those vehicles are designed to be as subtle as possible. You would never know it. In fact, the vehicles that they use to do that are so secretive, only three photos are known to exist, and they're kind of boring because they look like normal semi-trucks. So it's entirely possible that Wyomingites have passed components of a nuclear missile, if not a nuclear payload itself."

The vehicle that trucker Roberto Figueroa passed near Burns was a Payload Transporter III, a $1 million semi-trailer built specifically for the U.S. Air Force. According to the F.E. Warren Air Force Base website, the semi-trailer has "the ability to load, unload, transport, emplace, or remove and replace Minuteman weapon system aerospace vehicle equipment and supporting equipment in a controlled environment."

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Brothers who ran Peak Resorts before selling to Vail Resorts for $264 million in 2019 are now negotiating to buy Snowy Range Ski Area in southern Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports one of the brothers, Jesse Boyd, says, "We love to ski, and we just miss being around it."

"Jesse said he was driving around in Wyoming and saw the Snowy Range ski area, and he was like, 'Wow, that I've never been there. I never skied there.' There's not very many resorts where that's the case. He skied all over the country, and so you know he decided to check it out. He decided to bring his group, his other brothers, and his best friend to Wyoming to check out the snowy range. So they made them an offer basically that they couldn't refuse."

Boyd says that he could foresee buying a couple more resorts, but they aren't out to rebuild the 17-resort public company they once helped run before its sale to Vail Resorts. "No more empire building," Boyd tells Cowboy State Daily.

Read the full story HERE.

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A video from the Wapiti area appears to show hunters driving toward deer, shooting near houses and using a pickup's hood as a rifle rest. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that one outdoorsman who saw the video says it's "disgusting."

"Paul Ulrich, of course, who is in the Wyoming sportsmanship group, the Hunter Ethics groups. Paul said he was appalled by what he saw in the video. One of the retired game wardens said, 'it's tough to tell from one video, but laying a gun across a rifle across the hood of a vehicle is according to his interpretation of the Wyoming statute – that is a violation because that is still using a vehicle to hunt big game.' Even if you're just using it as a rifle rest, that's a no-no."

The videographer tells Cowboy State Daily that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department told them the hunters have the landowner's permission to hunt. But the videographer said the hunters were still shooting too close to houses and a busy highway. A request for more information sent to Game and Fish wasn't answered by publication time.

Read the full story HERE.

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Lincoln County was the only Wyoming county to vote in favor of Proposition 1 in Tuesday's general election, a controversial measure to cut residential property tax by 50% for most homeowners. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Niobrara, the state's reddest county, rejected it the hardest.

"We reported that Prop One only survived one county, and that's Lincoln. And that is because of a quirk of the Wyoming Constitution that says, essentially, under votes and over votes count as no votes. And so, technically, part County has a narrow split to where more people voted for than against. But once you lump in those over votes and under votes, technically Prop One didn't survive Park County despite its larger number of favor than most. Wyoming's reddest county, Niobrara, which went 90 plus percent for Trump in 2024, gave Prop One its most resounding defeat of any county at 70 some percent."

The petition-led ballot initiative sought to change state law and add the cut to Wyoming's other property tax exemptions, such as a 25% cut on the first $1 million of home value, and a 50% exemption for long-term homeowners over 65.

Read the full story HERE.

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Casper residents say motorcycles, cars and pickups race down East Second Street like it's a dragway. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that one woman says the roaring engines and reckless driving has frustrated neighbors for years.

"Geraldine Henrikson lives near East Second Street, and she says that they drive like maniacs. She says these are mostly young people who are showing off. They'll park at different places like Dairy Queen, she said, and then usually in the evening hours after the sun goes down, she can hear their revving engines as they race down the street. Resident Frank Sanchez, who also lives nearby and is an Uber driver who is on those streets at night says that it is an absolute nightmare. He talks about people not wearing helmets, not wearing protective gear, driving way too fast, going up to 60 miles per hour over the speed limit."

The complaints about East Second Street aren't new. Eight years ago, Casper police identified the city's 10 intersections with the worst crash records, using data collected by the agency and the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Half of them were on East Second Street.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, November 4th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Wyoming voters rejected a ballot initiative Tuesday that sought to cut residential property tax by 50% for most homes. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the measure drew opposition from local-level agencies that said that would decimate their budgets and ability to provide services.

"So this makes a slightly less-chaotic trajectory going into the legislative session because had Prop 1 passed, there would be kind of this tension about, well, is the legislature going to do more to fund local governments? How is it going to make up the difference for schools? And so seeing that, it makes a slightly more solid legislative session coming up, where they're going to be able to lean back on the things they've researched during the interim and the things they're concerned about with respect to infrastructure."

Had it passed, the initiative would have exempted 50% of the assessed value of primary homes for people who have lived in Wyoming for at least one year, and in that home for at least six months of the prior year.

Read the full story HERE.

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Eric Barlow, a state legislator of 14 years, is Wyoming's next governor. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Barlow has made headlines by creating a method for nonviolent felons to have their gun rights restored after their sentences are complete.

"It really was a landslide with 64% of the vote as of late Tuesday evening about 10pm. Barlow had 69% of the vote to Bexdale's 18% and Casner's 13% The governor-elect said, 'We're very honored with the trust the Wyoming voters have placed in us. We've traveled 448 days. We did the math, meeting people, hearing what was on their minds, what they were interested in, concerned about, and the opportunities for them and their families and communities. I think folks responded to that.'"

Also a rancher and veterinarian, the 60-year-old first clinched the GOP nomination in August by winning every county.

Read the full story HERE.

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Despite speculation around whether the Democrat Lisa Kinney in the U.S. House race would follow the projected blue wave, it was a Republican sweep across the board in Wyoming's five state-level top-elected positions, and its two federal races that were on the ballot. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland breaks down the races.

"It was exactly the Republican sweep in Wyoming major offices that the prediction markets, the pundits were calling for. Barlow an easy win for Governor. Hageman, an easy win for Senate. Chuck Gray, some resistance, but still noteworthy win for U.S. House, and Steve Harshman, Republican for Superintendent Public Instruction. Robert Short for Secretary of State; pretty much a red sweep."

Wyoming didn't follow the national trend in the mid-term elections as many Republican incumbents were ousted by Democratic candidates.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Wyoming couple still has few answers a week removed from being stranded in Cambodia when their cruise ship abruptly went bankrupt and kicked them off. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the former Wyoming couple says they're now lugging suitcases around Kuala Lumpur, trying to regroup.

"It's a chance for them to kind of take a beat, get some emotional distance from all the turmoil, and decide what to do next. After Kuala Lumpur, they plan to go to Australia. They have made lots of friends, doing this kind of lifestyle. They've had lots of offers of places to stay while they get things figured out. So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with. They do want to come back to Wyoming eventually. They had a plan to circumnavigate the globe in like four years, and so they don't really want to come back before they've done that."

Their sudden departure has left Paul and Lynn Montoya figuring out not just where to go next, but what their retirement will look like now without the floating home they paid $179,000 to buy. The couple also loaned Villa Vie $100,000 during the company's spring cash crunch — money they don't expect to recover.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Wyoming meteorologists are watching the earliest polar vortex forming in the Arctic Circle in recorded history. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists are saying it could mean significant winter weather by Thanksgiving.

"Getting one that started before the end of October is unprecedented. Every meteorologist is using that term to describe it, and what that means is, by the time we reach the end of November, notably the Thanksgiving holiday, we could be dealing with intense cold and intense snow, depending on what else is happening around that time. It's the earliest that any meteorologists have seen since they started recording polar vortexes in 1958. When polar vortex Arctic air comes down into the U.S., there are impacts, mainly extreme cold, and there could be significant snow."

Cowboy State Daily Meteorologist Don Day isn't going to "paint himself into a corner" about what this will mean for Wyoming, even hypothetically, but the polar vortex could eventually have an impact. That's especially true for anyone planning to travel for Thanksgiving, he says.

Read the full story HERE.

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The situation at Flaming Gorge remains dire as drawdowns are continuing despite billions of gallons of water being dumped into Lake Powell last month. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that Tony Valdez says his Buckboard Marina is practically dry.

"There's been like a series of really heavy rainstorms, and I checked in Lake Powell over the month of October gained like 600,000-acre-feet of water, just pure 100% gain from rainwater flushing down the river corridor, and that's kind of ironic because that's how much they've taken from Flaming Gorge. I called the marina manager at Flaming Gorge. He said he's upset because he's going, 'they just got a bunch of rain. Their problem, at least for now, was solved. But things are every bit as bad for us. When do we start getting some water back?' And I have reached out to both the Bureau of Reclamation and our state engineer. Unfortunately, by publication time, I hadn't heard back from either one of them."

The Bureau of Reclamation reported that although the October spike at Lake Powell helped, it wasn't enough to break the long-term trend of critical shortages. Lake Powell remains about 174 feet below full pool, according to the agency.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Laramie judge Tuesday elevated the case of Aili Wang, a Chinese national accused of poisoning her University of Wyoming colleague, to Albany County's felony-level court. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the judge found probable cause for attempted murder and aggravated assault charges.

"When someone chooses to exercise their right to a preliminary hearing like this and to cross-examine the state's witness, it is interesting to hear kind of the other side of the story. And some things that Wang's defense attorney Linda Devine emphasized were that though a camera had reportedly captured her going into her colleague's office, messing around with stuff in there. No camera actually captured her putting any poison into either of the reservoirs, the coffee tin, the coffee pot, and the stuff like that. The defense attorney really dwelled on and really splayed throughout her cross-examination."

The 32-year-old Wang could face between 20 years and life in prison if convicted of the attempted murder charge, and another 10-year maximum if convicted of aggravated assault.

Read the full story HERE.

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A record 81 grizzly bears have died in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 2026. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that livestock predation is the No. 1 reason for bear mortality, but poaching is also a leading cause.

"We've just set another new record for grizzly deaths in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Of course, what that means, depends on who you ask. I did talk to Humane World for Animals, and from their perspective, this is bad news. They contend too many bears are dying. Too many bears are getting killed. But I also talked to a biologist, the statewide bear biologist Cecily Costello for Montana, and she said, pretty much you have more bears. The more your population grows, the more deaths you're going to have. It's just kind of how demographics works."

Costello tells Cowboy State Daily overall that the grizzly population is stable. The record figure reflects records kept since grizzlies were given Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. In 1972, at least 120 bears in the GYE perished.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, November 3rd. I'm Mac Watson.

This newscast is sponsored by Lisa Kinney for Congress. Lisa has, Chuck hasn't. That's why former Gov. Mike Sullivan has endorsed Lisa Kinney for Wyoming House. Learn why Lisa is the choice for Wyoming's future at Lisa Kinney for Congress dot com.

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Republican Chuck Gray and Democrat Lisa Kinney, running for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, filmed each other during a bizarre argument at a forum in Centennial. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the two candidates are accusing each other of lying and underhanded behavior during their campaigns.

"It's kind of a mess because on the one hand we don't have video so far of what happened right before the doorway clash. What we can see on the video is them videoing each other. There's two videos, one from each candidate, and Kinney is confronting Gray about political attack ads that a separate PAC, backed by Gray's father, has leveled against her. And then the woman who organized the event came and confronted Kinney. The accounts are different. Kinney said that she was pushed. The woman said that she only touched Kinney and told her she was out of line. It was definitely a unique ending to the forum at the Centennial Library, which is a casual event designed for the very rural voters in that area to get to know their candidates all the way down the ballot."

Gray tells Cowboy State Daily in a text message that Kinney "decided to try to make a scene because she's upset about an advertisement, and now is deciding to lie about what happened." According to Kinney's account, she approached Gray to discuss issues and tried to get him to take a photograph with her.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Casper mother was found dead inside her wrecked vehicle on Casper Mountain following a desperate dayslong search after she didn't pick her kids up from the local Boys & Girls Club. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports Kandice Gunter's sister says, "It's not fair."

"30-year-old Kandice Gunter had been missing for days as her photo was circulating around the internet, and different people were trying to organize search parties to go out and look for her. Over the weekend, her body was discovered, and her vehicle had launched off of Casper Mountain in an area known as Lookout Point over a guardrail. I spoke with her sister Kayla Gunter, who was distraught when she discovered the news that her sister had passed away. This was not the outcome that she was hoping and praying for. Gunter leaves behind two children, ages six and nine."

At about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, multiple first-responder agencies were dispatched to Casper Mountain Road after reports that a vehicle had left the roadway and gone through a guardrail, the Casper Police Department reports. Responders located the vehicle and Kandice Gunter, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Read the full story HERE.

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Renowned wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen called a Yellowstone ranger an "asshole" for hazing a grizzly and wolves away from a carcass. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that he said it ruined a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for tourists who traveled thousands of miles to see the wildlife.

"Prominent wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen was there and he said there were probably 100 people gathered there. So he and others are upset because they say, you know, the younger bear that was circling in, he wasn't really trying to go for the people. It was just trying to take a wide berth to try to get his turn at the carcass, and so their argument is is that the Park Service jumped the gun, no pun intended, and kind of ruined that viewing opportunity for everybody because once the animals were pushed off, they didn't come back, and everybody lost their chance. I did talk to a photographer, another photographer, who said, you know, sometimes that's what happens. It's that the Park Service, they're just erring on the side of prudence, and yeah, it stinks when people's viewing opportunities may be cut short by this."

Park rules state that there must be at least 100 yards between people and large predators such as grizzlies and wolves.

Read the full story HERE.

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A slow cashier kept one trucker at the counter just long enough to save his life before a fleeing van plowed straight through an Evansville truck stop. Cowboy State Daily's Emma Jane Jackson reports one trucker says, "If I got my change right away, I'd have been walking right through that door."

"Roger Meinerts is a trucker from Iowa, and he told me that he was the only customer inside the convenience store when a van plowed through the glass doors early Sunday morning. When he first heard it made contact, he kind of froze and then quickly moved out of the way. When he heard the van make impact, he quickly moved out of the way, and he said as soon as he got out of the way, the driver pressed on the gas again and drove clear through the store all the way to the other wall. The van was owned by Loenbro. It's a construction contractor company. When I reached out to them, the company's attorney said that they were reporting the van as stolen and that the driver was not one of their employees."

Before he started recording the aftermath of the crash, Meinerts told Cowboy State Daily that several police officers had knees on the suspect's back struggling to handcuff him, which is also something he heard the suspect yelling about afterward. The Evansville Police Department did not respond to Cowboy State Daily by publication.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Wyoming emergency responders routinely cross into neighboring states to fight fires, respond to crashes or do rescues. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that some question the costs but a Sheridan County fire chief who crosses into Montana says emergencies do not recognize state boundaries.

"I spoke with Fire Chief Jeff Barron. He is the head of the Tongue River Fire District. He said that the fire district responds to emergencies over the state line five or six times a year. These are often vehicle accidents that occur in the winter, and he said more often than not they are residents of Sheridan County or involved vehicles that have Wyoming license plates. Chief Barron explained to me that a lot of times emergencies can't wait, and his fire department is the closest to the emergency. So even though maybe an accident happened in Montana, the closest fire department or emergency services unit is in Hardin, which is about 45 minutes away."

Critics have questioned the use of Sheridan County taxpayer dollars to fight fires in Montana and raised concerns about a longstanding practice of providing mutual aid across the border without detailed public accounting of the expenses. Chief Barron says the expenses are relatively modest as the Tongue River Fire Protection District is staffed by volunteers who are not paid for emergency responses.

Read the full story HERE.

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Lilacs around Wyoming are still blooming in November, a rare detour for the colorful flowers that typically blossom in the spring. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Cheyenne Botanic Gardens founder Shane Smith blames the "strange weather we're having right now."

"It's unseasonably warm. We just haven't had those double-digit, you know, teens that kind of signal to the plants, hey, it's time for you kids to go to bed now. But a week to 10 days is what Don Day tells me will finally get that cold shot that will put everything to sleep once and for all. And the good news is, the lilacs are probably going to be fine. They're like wild animals, right? They know how to take care of themselves."

A warmer-than-usual winter like last year's would "create some havoc," Smith tells Cowboy State Daily, particularly for fruit-bearing plants. But as homeowners, there's not much anybody can do about it.

Read the full story HERE.

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An apprentice Park County falconer catches red-tailed hawks to train for hunting by dropping caged pigeons from her moving vehicle. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports the process often catches the attention of people who stop to help the pigeons — and end up scaring away the hawk.

"Somebody saw her doing this. 'What are they doing to that poor pigeon? What kind of psycho is out here throwing pigeons out of their car?' And the falconer explained it to me. The reason is if you stop the car, the hawk is going to get suspicious and fly off. The pigeon is in a cage that has snares on the outside. So the idea is the hawk swoops down, tries to get the pigeon, and gets caught in the snare. So that's what's going on with the pigeons and cages. She's still at the apprentice level at this point, and so juvenile red-tail hawks are kind of like the only bird that she's authorized to capture at this point in her career."

Tessa Clifton is an apprentice falconer in Park County. Falconry is regulated by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and allows licensed falconers to hunt small game with trained raptors. It requires certification and training as an apprentice. Clifton has about a year left as an apprentice before she can become a general falconer.

Read the full story HERE.

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Scientists have discovered what they call "Peter Pan" salamanders in a Laramie pond. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that while their siblings move onto land and area residents escort them across roads, this version of Wyoming's only native salamander grows up but never leaves home.

"I spoke with Mason Lee. She's the senior project director with the University of Wyoming's Biodiversity Institute. She said the city gave them the go-ahead to look for what they're calling petomorphs. It's this type of salamander that basically looks like a tadpole and it continues growing in an aquatic setting versus moving to the land like most salamanders of this species. Western tiger salamanders are well known and common around Laramie. In fact, there's an initiative in the spring where people actually volunteer to help them migrate from the pond where they hatched and grew as tadpoles into land dwellers, and so they're helping them across sidewalks and city parks, only recently did biologists discover that pedomorphs, known as the 'Peter Pan salamander,' stays a tadpole that can grow up to a foot long in that pond."

The technical term for what's happening is "facultative paedomorphosis."

It's a mouthful for an idea that's wonderfully simple: An animal capable of metamorphosis doesn't necessarily have to do it.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, November 2nd. I'm Mac Watson.

This newscast is sponsored by Lisa Kinney for Congress. Lisa has, Chuck hasn't. That's why former Gov. Mike Sullivan has endorsed Lisa Kinney for Wyoming House. Learn why Lisa is the choice for Wyoming's future at Lisa Kinney for Congress dot com.

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Two Sheridan boys escaped their burning home late last week as 40-foot flames tore through it — one clutching a cat, the other closing doors behind him. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports their mom, Ginia Fraser, says they knew what to do because Sheridan firefighters visited their school.

"Her husband went downstairs to see if someone was breaking into the house, and he saw their camper in the driveway, fully engulfed in flames. He said they had only minutes to get out of the house because it was starting to look like it was going to catch the house on fire as well. Her two sons sleep in the basement, and she said that's always been a concern for her. So they had rehearsed exit strategies if something like this should ever occur. Also, firefighters had gone to the boys' elementary school, and they remembered the things that the firefighters had taught them, including to shut all the doors as they made their way outside, because they were able to get out safe."

Although the camper was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, authorities have not publicly announced a cause or final point of origin of the fire.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wild-horse advocates are incensed by what they say was the needless killing of three rare blue-eyed cremello mustangs by the Bureau of Land Management during a recent roundup. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports the BLM says all three horses were killed because they were blind.

"The BLM is saying it's just one of those things that had to be handled on site as quickly and as humanely as possible. I also talked to a retired BLM official who kind of backed up the BLM narrative, saying, 'Yeah, it's a decision they make on the ground. If a horse is just blind or just has vision problems, it's just going to be too debilitating. They just put it down right there, and there's just really not time to mess around with it.'"

Wyoming Mustang Institute director Chad Hanson tells Cowboy State Daily he thinks the BLM's decision to euthanize the horses was a snap decision before a veterinarian could make a full assessment.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Riverton woman who spent a summer in Wyoming's Gas Hills playing in the raw yellow uranium with her best friend and a poodle still sets off Geiger counters. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that Roni Roemmich says, at least "I don't glow in the dark."

"Roni Roemmich grew up around the Gas Hills and didn't think anything of playing with the yellow tailings left over from uranium mining, There were many other kids just like her who played in the dirt, came home covered in it, and actually had no side effects. While others have said that the uranium mining has definitely influenced their health, for Roni it did not. It was just a curious part of her childhood that she never thought of. Even now, decades later, though Roni says she has not suffered any side effects from the uranium that she knows of, she has been known to set off a Geiger counter."

Uranium was discovered throughout Wyoming beginning in the early 1900s. It was not until 1948, when the Atomic Energy Commission guaranteed a market for yellowcake, which was processed uranium, that prospecting for the yellow rocks started in earnest.

Read the full story HERE.

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Investigators have sent a human bone found in 1998 in the Bridger-Tetons to the DNA Doe Project for forensic investigative genealogy. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports the Teton County Sheriff's Office is hopeful, with forensic science evolving, this can be a break they've been waiting for.

"They sent the tibia bone to the University of North Texas, and they were able to get a DNA profile for this guy. They thought they had it at that point. They thought they would be able to identify him with the profile. However, when they put it in CODIS, which is the national database run by the FBI, there were no hits on it. So nobody had reported him missing, or he had no criminal record that they could trace. The next step is now a new investigator took over the case, and now it's being sent out. The bone has been sent out to do forensic investigative genealogy."

What baffles investigators most was John Doe's IV setup — tube, bag, and needle dangling from a tree limb five feet above where the arm would have been — as though he had been mid-transfusion when he died. The eight or so vials found on the ground yielded no results when tested because they were too degraded.

Read the full story HERE.

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I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel isn't the only moon landing skeptic, as 5% to 12% of Americans agree. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that the nation's leading skeptic says the best proof is that no one has replicated the feat nearly six decades later despite better technology.

"Bart Sibrel mentions many different, several different things that he says causes him not to believe. One is that there's a radiation field around the Earth that he has a quote from a scientist that says it would, it needs to be overcome. And so his argument is that they really haven't overcome this. They didn't have the right radiation shielding for the Apollo astronauts to go through. And so he believes that's one of the reasons that the space missions were essentially faked and they stayed in an Earth orbit instead of going to the Moon. He also points to photos from the moon that have shadows going in different directions."

Sibrel said he believes Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step" onto the lunar surface, which had the world transfixed in front of their TV sets on July 20, 1969, actually was shot a year earlier in a secret hangar at a New Mexico Air Force base.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Laramie couple who sold their home so they could live on a cruise ship is stranded in Cambodia after the company ran out of money for fuel. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that after spending $450,000 so far, Paul and Lynn Montoya are stuck.

"She's kind of running the gamut of emotions from anger to sadness. The other guy really didn't say much about how he's feeling, but obviously they're in a very uncertain situation. Cambodia is not the easiest country to get in and out of. There's some red tape with passports and so on. They were hoping that the company would get enough money together to take them all to Bangkok, which is a little friendlier, a little easier to navigate. This tour would have taken them around the world in about four years. They were hoping to do this to live this lifestyle for the next 15 years. They've only been at sea 17 months. This is a pretty premature end to what they had been hoping for. So many unanswered questions at this point for the couple."

Paul and Lynn Montoya are two of the 200 passengers left high and dry by Villa Vie Residences, which pulled the plug on their cruise ship, the Odyssey. The company told passengers they'd have to disembark the Odyssey in Cambodia, along with pets and any personal items they could carry.

Read the full story HERE.

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Three Wyoming women have built their own farming and ranching operations from scratch, with little money and no inherited agricultural operation — but plenty of determination. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports the women say the secret is to start small, ask for help and be willing to learn.

"I had one, Holly Romeling, tell me that she and her husband Ben started out with 10 cows, a bull, and nowhere to put them. So she was the first to admit that this is really putting the cart before the horse. Another rancher I spoke with, Sierra Schlenker, she started with less than five acres, a trailer, a cheap horse, a bottle-fed calf, and a small garden. So each of these women who I spoke with had a dream of some sort of being a rancher. None of them came from a ranching background. The closest one I talked to grew up with horses, but even that isn't the same as having a herd of cattle or dozens of acres of land. The dream of ranching isn't easy for these women, and they'll all be the first to say so, because if ranching were easy, everybody would do it. Schlenker said, 'You have to start somewhere.'"

Across Wyoming, aspiring ranchers face enormous financial barriers to entering an industry where land, livestock, equipment and operating expenses can add up to millions of dollars. The average American farm producer is 58 years old, according to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture.

Read the full story HERE.

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A black bamboo plant located in the University of Wyoming's Williams Conservatory since 1994 has bloomed for the first time and is turning into a corpse. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the plant blooms infrequently, but when it does, some people say we're all doomed!

"The UW Williams Conservatory director Sarah Lemli says that the black bamboo has been there since the conservatory opened in 1994. These bamboo plants only bloom once every 40 to 150 years, and so it was ironically spectacular that she got to witness it bloom, but she cautions that historically this has been linked to plague, famine, and pestilence. This plant is indigenous to northern India. That's where the bad omen comes from. The people in India started observing that after the plant blooms, it dies shortly afterwards, and it usually brings a ton of rodents who come to feast on it. And when there's an abundance of food, they produce thousands of babies. And when the all-you-can-eat buffet runs out, they move on to crops."

Oncoming catastrophe or not, Lemli says she's glad to have witnessed the "once-in-a-lifetime" event from the campus conservatory.

Read the full story HERE.

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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.