It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, September 24th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake! Launching October 1st at 6 a.m., Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols is making morning radio cool again. Tune in from wherever you are for the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.
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A 21 year old Wisconsin man fell to his death at Devils Tower on Sunday evening.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that there isn’t much information available yet on the incident.
“The victim's name is Stuart Phillip Porter from Wisconsin. He was climbing Devil's Tower on Sunday, specifically the El Crako Diablo route, and according to the National Park Service, he was repelling the second pitch of that route when he fell, sustained major injuries, and he was declared dead at the scene when first responders responded. This is the seventh recorded climbing death at Devil's Tower, and the first one since 2017 when a Gillette resident died during a climb.”
Porter’s climbing partner was stranded but was later rescued from the Tower by local climbing guides.
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Soon after summitting the tallest peak in Yellowstone National Park last week, a 22-year-old concessionaire worker went missing.
Authorities had more than 20 ground searchers, two helicopters, drones and a search dog team scouring the area of Eagle Peak in the park’s remote southeast corner on Sunday in the hopes of finding Austin King. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports King was last seen Sept. 17.
“Eagle Peak is apparently not the most challenging climb in Yellowstone, but it is the highest. So with that high elevation that you know there's cooler temperatures, there's thinner air… It's also a hot time for bears to be up that high looking for pine nuts… on the one hand, the experts said, King is in good hands, because this is an impressive collection of search teams, and they're great to work with, and they are caring, and they're out there looking, on the other hand, it's a very dangerous environment.”
King stands 6 feet tall, weighs 160 pounds, has brown hair, hazel eyes, wears glasses and was last seen in a black sweatshirt and grey pants.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’s easy to complain when you’re not in power, but when the tables are turned in politics, so do the expectations of the public.
Since the primary election Aug. 20, leading members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus have told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that they would like to see a measured approach in making changes for the 2025 session of the Legislature.
“The Freedom Caucus struck a very defiant, very aggressive pose on the campaign trail. Many of their candidates really stressed a kind of a no compromises approach to property taxes and abortion and a few other issues as well, really going up pretty strongly against the governor - and now a few leading members of the group are giving a little bit more of a kind of a moderate pose, in some regards, just saying that they need to be kind of measured in the way they make changes, and they're gonna have to learn how to govern and kind of get used to being in a position of power, something that the Freedom Caucus has never had during its time of existence.”
Some members of the Freedom Caucus have argued for as much as a 30% cut to the state budget, which would represent a historic drop to the government’s funding and likely lead to layoffs of state employees. Others have argued for significant property tax cuts and even getting rid of residential property taxes altogether.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s most famous wildlife celebrities, Grizzly 399 and her enormous cub Spirit, have been making themselves scarce this summer, but some who’ve followed the bears for years say it isn’t time to worry yet.
Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to wildlife photographers who told him the last known sighting was in early September near Moose in Grand Teton National Park.
“The two photographers who follow her probably the most closely. Neither one of them seen her. Seen 399 in her cub for a while. They're not alarmed. It's not unusual for her to disappear for long periods of time, especially this time of year. This is the time of year when Grizzlies are really starting to gobble as much as they can. So maybe she's out, you know, finding some big game carcasses, or, who knows what, back further in the woods.”
Right now is about when grizzlies really start gorging themselves as they fatten up for winter hibernation.
Read the full story HERE.
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The 43rd annual Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale in Cody brought some big money for large paintings.
By the time the bidding ended, two live auctions and their accompanying silent auctions Friday and Saturday had raised at least $1.25 million. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the two highest-selling pieces of art went for $42,500 dollars each - but he says the quality of the art isn’t what makes this particular western art auction unique.
“The thing that makes the Buffalo Bill art show and sales special is that they've taken the time to match artists with patrons. So when pieces are going up onto the runway, it's not just, Oh, I'd like to see that in my home, although that can be a lot of it… It's artists crafting pieces to meet the specific needs and desires of patrons and then putting those up there, and patrons wanting the bid on what they want.”
Money raised from the 2024 show is split between the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce and the artists whose works are featured in the show.
Read the full story HERE.
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The lone daily Delta Airlines flight from Casper to Salt Lake City via SkyWest is counting down to its final trip, set for Dec. 3 in the middle of the busy holiday travel season.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the airline decision follows the Natrona County commissioner’s decision in June to stop providing nearly $1.3 million in minimum revenue guarantee payments for the SkyWest flight
“The last flight that I can find on the website says that it is on December 3, and that's been confirmed by the airport manager here in Casper… I did talk to a passenger that uses the delta connection. He flies out of here basically every Monday and returns on Thursday or Friday, and said that, you know, it's going to be hard for him to use United, because he's he is a vice president for a company that serves many customers in the West, and United has not been a good solution for him, but he's just going to have to work with it.”
Casper/Natrona Airport Manager Glenn Januska said Monday that he hopes that even without the Delta flight, local passengers will still want to use the services available at the airport.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming is about to hit another record low for new oil and gas leases, with the upcoming auction Wednesday offering just 159 acres.
That small number has enormous implications for the future of oil and gas in the Cowboy State. Business reporter Renee Jean explains that those unclaimed acres are laid out almost like a jigsaw puzzle, with large tracts of land between them.
“You have somewhere between two to 3 million acres of land that industry said, hey, we'd like to nominate this for exploration. And those are just sitting there. Some of those are in the Powder River Basin, and they're hampering the exploration effort in Powder River Basin, because in order to, you know, drill this well, I need another mile of permit. And you don't have any way to get to that - because you've nominated it, but it's just, it's just sitting there, ignored.”
Jean said one company alone has nominated around 1 million acres for oil and gas lease sales, none of which have so far appeared in any of the BLM’s quarterly auctions.
Read the full story HERE.
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In one of its rare split decisions, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled 3-2 in March that suspects of criminal investigations can sue police officers for investigating a crime negligently. Wyoming is now the only state in the union offering this specific negligence claim for suing police officers.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that some state lawmakers took a step Friday to undo that decision.
“A suspect can sue a police officer for … negligently investigating the case, there's this new mechanism to sue that Wyoming recognizes now… A lot of people, including the dissent, hated this decision, because they're, you know, maybe even prosecutors can be sued under it… the Judiciary Committee, which is made of, you know, a lot of lawmakers who have been cops, who are attorneys… the majority on that panel said we are going to just, we're going to legislate this away.”
Some lawmakers still believe that the Supreme Court made the right decision. Rep. Ken Chestek of Laramie said that while there may be danger in letting just anyone sue police officers for negligence, there’s also danger in excusing investigatory negligence.
Read the full story HERE.
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A detour built over Teton Pass after part of the mountain collapsed in June will remain in place over the winter.
The original plan was that a permanent fix of Wyoming Highway 22 would be completed by November. But Bob Hammond, a resident engineer for the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Jackson office, told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that estimate was far too aggressive.
“They really weren't able to start the new road until mid August, so their timeline really got pushed back. And it's just not realistic that they're going to get the paving done on that new road by the time winter comes… As a result, the detour will stay open throughout the winter. Bob Hammond said it's not any kind of a risk or anything people need to be particularly worried about… But yeah, certainly people should be at least a little bit careful when driving over the pass.”
Hammond said contractors are still on the road every day and will continue working until it becomes too cold. He expects the permanent new section of Teton Pass to be completed by the late spring to early next summer with a hard finish date of July 31, 2025.
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.
I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
