It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, October 9th. 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! From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols brings to life the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.
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In the early morning hours of Saturday, China Bosh of Gillette was stabbed five times in her arm, twice in her chest and once in the face.
China’s husband John Bosh is charged with attempted second-degree murder and is being held in the Campbell County Detention Center on a $750,000 bond.
China told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland on Tuesday that this is not the first time that her husband has harmed her.
“He attacked her in 2019 at the Keyhole State Park and fled, very similar to what's alleged from Saturday… he was eventually convicted and sentenced to three years of supervised probation… But then so four months after he was sentenced to probation, they got married, and she she became tearful as she was talking about her decision here, saying that she wanted her son to have a father, but that she nothing could persuade her to go back now.”
China said her children are doing all right. She’s starting counseling, and she’s planning to attend a support group.
Read the full story HERE.
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As crews continue to make progress establishing some boundaries around the Elk Fire, which has burned nearly 75,000 acres across the eastern face of the Bighorn Mountains, the evacuation status of the 850 or so residents of Dayton was downgraded Monday.
And Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the efforts of firefighters and local volunteers on the ground protecting property and people haven’t gone unnoticed by their neighbors.
“I talked to a lifelong Dayton resident on Tuesday who said that they're emotionally, finally starting to come down the roller coaster a little bit … because, you know, they're no longer being told that they have to be ready at a moment's notice to evacuate… he said that the firefighters, the pros from the incident management team and the locals have just been doing a phenomenal job. He called them heroes. He said that these guys, they're saving property, they're saving people's lives, and that it's just really a big outpouring of thanks from the people who live there for those guys.”
Read the full story HERE.
The Double Rafter Ranch has been a fixture in northern Wyoming since 1887. It’s still there, thanks in part to what some area residents have taken to calling the “Hillbilly Hotshots” — a group of self-appointed rancher-firefighters — who helped save it from the Elk Fire.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that these ranchers have outfitted their own trucks with water tanks, determined to patrol their ranches and neighbors’ homes for embers carried by wind far from the fire’s frontlines.
“They're not necessarily trained firefighters, although some of them may have had some training… They're kind of patrolling their ranches, their neighbors ranches. They're checking on sprinklers and things like that, basically trying to stay out of the firefighters way, but also looking for those embers that float on the wind.”
Firefighters have tried to discourage the practice, saying that it can result in diverted fire resources when someone untrained is in the area, but Double Rafter Ranch residents say they’re convinced the Hillbilly Hotshots helped avert a tragedy.
Read the full story HERE.
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In the latest of a series of run-ins between hunters and grizzlies, a hunter in Montana tried climbing a tree to get away from a female bear with two large cubs.
It didn’t work.
The man ended up shooting and wounding the bear, which was later finished off by agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. But according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz, climbing a tree is not necessarily a safe course of action when being chased by an angry grizzly.
“I talked to a couple bear biologists… And their answers were basically, well, it depends, you know, how quickly can you get up the tree? How sturdy is the tree? You know, what state is the bear, and is the bear just kind of mildly irritated, or is the bear enraged and really determined to get you? Will you be able to get up there and turn around and, you know, sprayed in the face as it tries to come up the tree after you?... despite maybe some popular misconceptions about them, grizzly bears can climb trees and climb them very well. So don't kid yourself into thinking that's going to keep you safe.”
There have been several bad encounters between grizzlies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho this year, some of which ended with hunters shooting and killing the bears.
Read the full story HERE.
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Late last month, Weston County commissioners notified the Wyoming Republican Party that they will file two vacant Wyoming Legislature seats.
These seats don’t currently exist, but politics reporter Leo Wolfson explains that the Weston County commissioners believe that since the County doesn’t have a dedicated senator or representative solely representing them, they are unconstitutionally represented.
“There is about four senators and representatives total that represent sections of their county, in addition to other counties, the commissioners argue that the Wyoming Constitution states there should be one representative and one senator for each county, so they believe the current law is unconstitutional.”
Senate President Ogden Driskill believes the Weston effort is politically motivated and doubts it’s supported by the majority of people in Weston County, whom he believes will now become less trusting in government as a result of the effort.
Read the full story HERE.
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A domestic disturbance culminated in an officer-involved shooting Monday in Douglas, just two days after a similar incident unfolded in Sundance.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that it is not common to see two officer-involved shootings in such a short time period in Wyoming.
“I certainly haven't seen it this year or last. And so within just over two days that you had one in Sundance, that sounds like it happened after a domestic incident, and then one in Douglas that's reported to have happened after a domestic incident. Very strange how similar they sound just from the initial reports.”
An armed home invasion in Sundance turned into a deputy-involved shooting Saturday morning in which the suspect, 48-year-old Joseph Niemeyer, was killed; in the Douglas incident, law enforcement has not identified the person who was shot, or whether that person was still alive.
Read the full story HERE.
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An agonizing wait for closure for a Colorado man’s loved ones finally ended when a Wyoming search and rescue team recovered his body from an extreme remote location that Colorado teams couldn’t reach.
Colorado Search and Rescue teams made two failed attempts to reach the body of 31-year-old Vincent Pane, who fell to his death Aug. 28 in the Indian Peaks Wilderness west of Boulder. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Teton County Search and Rescue and two Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers from Grand Teton National Park were called in to help.
“His remains ended up in a place that was just impossible to get to, I guess. Colorado crews tried two or three times over the course of about a month to get to it, and they just couldn't… Teton County Search and Rescue has a very specific type of chopper that is made for flying at high altitudes and tight quarters like that, up against deep rocks, as well as a static line that that allowed them to get the job done.”
Though it was a sad mission, Teton County Search and Rescue Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart told Cowboy State Daily it also brought the team a sense of satisfaction that they were able to bring closure to the family.
Read the full story HERE.
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The National Weather Service has announced a change to its winter weather vernacular. Watches and warnings for “wind chill” will be replaced by “extreme cold” to give a broader preview of what can be expected outside during winter.
That doesn’t mean wind chills won’t be posted when they happen. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that extremely low wind chills are still a potent threat, but there’s more to extreme cold than the wind.
“A wind chill warning might last for as long as the winds are blowing but it can still be dangerously cold, so extreme cold watches and warnings are for enduring low temperatures that factor in the wind chill. So it's not like wind chills cease to exist. If they're dangerously cold, they'll still be in the forecast, but nobody's going to be advised about or warned about wind chills, at least officially they're going to be warned about extreme cold, which can exist with or without the wind.”
Regardless of what wording is in front of the watches and warnings, Cowboy State Daily’s meteorologist Don Day said Wyomingites should expect to see “extreme cold” frequently in their forecasts this winter.
Read the full story HERE.
And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel! And don’t forget to drop in on the Cowboy State Daily morning show with Jake Nichols, Monday through Friday from 6 to 10 a.m.! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
