Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, October 11, 2024

Friday's headlines include: * Elk Fire Baffles Firefighters * Cheyenne To Close Eight Schools * Once-In-Humanity Comet Visible Over Weekend

WC
Wendy Corr

October 11, 20249 min read

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, October 11th. 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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Most of the time, fire rests at night.

But not the Elk Fire burning in northern Wyoming, now at more than 76,000 acres with a perimeter of 225 miles. This fire has been a much different beast.

That’s what fire officials told a gathering of residents at a community meeting Wednesday evening. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean was also there.

“The strategist guy, field operations chief, Adam Ziegler… said, this has been an unusual fire. Most of the time, fires are a little quieter at night and they're more active during the day. This one's kind of been the opposite. It's awake all night and it's running downhill instead of uphill.”

Ziegler said battle lines have been drawn at the Red Grade Road near the small town of Big Horn. There the firefighters have set up a catcher’s mitt scenario, to stop the fire in its tracks.

Read the full story HERE.

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While wildfires are raging in Wyoming, the southern states have been decimated by back-to-back hurricanes. It’s all connected, and it’s almost over.

According to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi, we just have to get to Oct. 18.

“Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day's assessment of what's happening right now is that the jet stream is stuck, which is why for the last four weeks, Wyoming's been warm and dry and stayed warm and dry. And it's the same reason why you had two hurricanes develop within a couple days of each other and wreak havoc across the south. But what's happening is there's a change, a literal change in the winds. The jet stream is going to dip… And it's going to bring cold temperatures. So this is the dam breaking.” 

Based on Wyoming’s historical climate data, warm weather usually ends by the third week of October.  

Read the full story HERE.

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After Cheyenne’s school board voted to stop using eight of its elementary schools while rebuilding or expanding others, some parents want a re-vote.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland explains that the massive rehaul would trigger the release of $83.4 million the Wyoming Legislature has set aside to rebuild an elementary school and build another school. But it would result in potentially more students per classroom, which concerns some parents of students in Laramie County School District Number One.

“Parents in the south triad have been saying that their children are struggling to learn in these older buildings for several years. You know, they've referenced a lack of air conditioning, they've referenced toilet flushing problems… whereas other parents are saying, Yeah, but is it worth shutting down?... everyone's saying, Well, you know, consider what you're going to lose. It's it is a dire balancing act.”

The Wyoming Schools Facilities Commission meets Nov. 6th and 7th, at which time it will have the chance to approve the study to release the money for the district’s rebuilds.

Read the full story HERE.

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A door may soon open for Wyoming to become a site for storing nuclear waste if a bill advanced by the Legislature this week passes.

The draft legislation adopted Tuesday would lay the groundwork for changing Wyoming’s laws to allow outside groups to use the state for temporary storage of high-level radioactive fuel waste created by nuclear power plants. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that proponents of the idea say that it will bring Wyoming in alignment with federal regulation, and bring economic benefits.

“The storage of nuclear waste in Wyoming has been a long time discussion. This is certainly not something that just popped up overnight. Goes back at least all the way up to the early 1990s… A lot of people believe that this is just opening a door for storing nuclear waste in the state. However, former House Speaker and Senate President Eli Bebout… said it's a great economic opportunity for Wyoming and is very safe opportunity at that.”

The legislation falls short of approving temporary storage in Wyoming, but provides more clarity for how Wyoming could consider storing nuclear waste if it wants to.

Read the full story HERE.

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Quick thinking helped avert a fresh wildfire catastrophe about 7 miles north of Sheridan off Interstate 90.

Jacob Williamson, a Wyoming Department of Transportation District 4 worker, spotted a plume of smoke as he was heading back to his office. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the first thing he did was to call 911 and report the fire - then he joined the ranks of what locals are calling the Hillbilly Hotshots, regular folks who are helping to fight the devastating fires in northeast Wyoming.

“In true hillbilly hotshot form, he jumped out with his shovel and, you know, got a fire extinguisher and started trying to beat back the fire, or at least slow it down until the firefighters could get there… the SNS construction folks decided they better go check on him, and they showed up with shovels and a couple of rodeo kids saw them trying to put out the fire and turn back around to go and help.”  

Williamson told Cowboy State Daily he was proud to become a member of the informal crews patrolling for fire, and that he thinks that is exactly what everyone needs to be doing right now — looking out for every ember and plume of smoke started by a stray spark.

Read the full story HERE.

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A 26-year-old man accused of killing and dismembering two motorcyclists with his truck in August 2023 while high on meth pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Johnathan Cervantes attended his arraignment Thursday afternoon in Goshen County District Court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Cervantes had eluded the charges against him for nearly a year, for a crime in which the victims died so violently, it traumatized even the first responders.

“The affidavits generally tend to be more polite and understated, because agents know that they'll be read or referenced in court, but even the court affidavit said that they were catastrophically dismembered.”

Cervantes faces two counts of aggravated vehicle homicide and one of felony meth possession. If convicted on all charges, he could spend 47 years in prison.

Read the full story HERE.

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Losing her beloved English bull terrier Jester in a beaver trap in February hit Becky Barber of Afton hard. But she decided to channel her sadness and anger over Jester’s death toward something positive.

She told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that she is now working with a trainer who uses rattlesnakes to train other dogs to avoid traps in the Wyoming outdoors.

“She helped put together this training program to train dogs to avoid traps in the wild, and she found this guy… who for years, has been training dogs to avoid rattlesnakes… they start applying negative association… they'll use electronic collars… He took the bait, the bait scents the trappers are using, and then, you know, got the dogs acclimated to those scents, and then he started applying that negative association, negative reinforcement. And apparently it worked.”

The trainer said that as far as he knows, no one else in the industry has ever done this kind of training with traps. 

Read the full story HERE.

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Gov. Mark Gordon said he’ll ask the Legislature for money to replenish state accounts that have been drained fighting Wyoming wildfires this summer.

He said at a Thursday press conference that the cost of this wildfire season is more than what was planned for in the two-year biennial budget that went into effect in July. That’s according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.

“The state has spent all of its $39 million budget that was appropriated for fighting forest fires over a two year period… There's just no way of kind of putting in words how cataclysmic these fires have been for Wyoming… Governor Gordon said he's going to reach out to the legislature for more money to fight fires, potentially next summer and beyond.”

Gordon does have permission to pull up to $20 million from the state’s rainy day fund, which he said he’s been doing since draining the suppression account.

Read the full story HERE.

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When Wyomingites step outside shortly after sunset over the next few days and look west, the brightest object in the sky could be "the green comet," which has passed the sun and is making its closest approach to Earth this week.

And Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the next time it could come around and be seen on Earth again could be in 70,000 years — or maybe never.

“So the comet, whose name I will not attempt to pronounce, is going to be making its closest approach to Earth around October 12 and 13th. So Wyomingites who want to see it will want to go outside about 30 minutes after sunset and look towards the west… It has a 70,000 year orbital period. So it'll never again be seen by humanity. And it's possible they never be seen again, because the sun could have hurtled this thing straight out of the solar system and into the infinite void of space.”  

Wyomingites will want binoculars or a telescope for the best view, but the green comet will be visible to the naked eye for the next few days. It could even shine brighter than our nearest planetary neighbors - and be one of the brightest comets in the last decade.

Read the full story HERE.

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And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have a conversation with authors from Cowboy State Daily’s American West series. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!

Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.

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Wendy Corr

Broadcast Media Director