It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, November 8th. 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 takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.
A pristine 640 acres of land in Teton County known as the Kelly Parcel is coming to the end of its days as a political football.
At its meeting Thursday, the State Board of Land Commissioners approved by a 3-2 vote, a $100 million sale of the state-owned land to the federal government and Department of Interior. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the land will be incorporated into Grand Teton National Park.
“The approval certainly was not without controversy. On Thursday, superintendent of public instruction, Megan Degenfelder raised the biggest objections to the land sale because she believes it should be tied to an exchange for purchasing mineral opportunities in the Powder River Basin… Secretary of State Chuck Gray was equally as passionate about that position, and accused Governor Mark Gordon of trying to do backroom deals without including the rest of the board on the issue, and squandering opportunities like this one in the past as well.”
After the Kelly Parcel sale, the Office of State Lands and Investments will use the proceeds to pursue the possible purchase of federal lands with potential for minerals development.
Read the full story HERE.
The University of Colorado-Boulder this week has invited its students to write poetry, color and drink tea, or enjoy aromatherapy and slime-making. It’s one of many major university offerings nationwide to help students cope with election stress.
But multiple sources confirmed Thursday to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that the University of Wyoming has seen none of that.
“The president and founder of Bridge UWYO said that they're kind of doing the opposite. They're inviting a vast political spectrum of groups to a panel next week to talk about the results of the election. So their answer, rather than offer a retreat, is to call everyone into a boisterous discussion.”
The group has invited other UW student groups, ranging from the conservative-leaning (though technically nonpartisan) group Turning Point USA, to the College Democrats.
Read the full story HERE.
In what is becoming a familiar scenario this fall, a Wyoming hunter said having his 10 mm pistol locked and loaded saved him and his father from a grizzly mauling in the Meeteetse area.
Garrett Kalkowski told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that he shot and killed a female grizzly with his Glock 10 mm pistol after it burst from the timber about only 4 yards away from he and his father Vince on Oct. 3.
“The way he described, there was no time to think, it's like, he started to draw his pistol, and the bear was there, like four yards. Just boom, right there. And so he just said, a matter of seconds, he ended up, you know, pretty much emptying his whole, his whole magazine into the bear. And the bear rolled away and rolled into the trees. They think it died.”
Kalkowski’s grizzly encounter mirrors other instances of hunters shooting grizzlies in self-defense in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Read the full story HERE.
Two huge late-season wildfires that had been threatening communities in northern Wyoming for weeks are under control, which means U.S. Forest Service crews are now busy starting fires on purpose.
Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that prescribed burns like those now underway are important, because they reduce fuel in the forest and the chance of a devastating wildfire down the road.
“It seems kind of ironic now that they got the big wildfire out, they're starting wildfires, but they're doing some control burns, some some of them that they've had to put off because all the resources were were taken up by the pack trail fire, and because until those October snowstorms started to come, the conditions were so dry and so dangerous that they really couldn't do that kind of burning, but they're doing it now.”
Anyone who sees plumes of smoke coming from the forest is likely seeing those controlled burns, specifically in the La Barge and Pinedale areas.
Read the full story HERE.
More details have emerged about the Anschutz acquisition of Oxy/Andarko oil and gas assets in the Powder River Basin.
A spokesman with Occidental Petroleum told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean on Wednesday that the company is keeping 150,000 acres of what it considers core acreage in the Powder River Basin, which it intends to develop in the future.
“Oxy - Occidental Petroleum - got in touch with us… They still didn't tell us exactly how big the sale was, but last year's sheet that Anschutz was circulating suggested that Oxy had 350,000 acres in the basin, Anschutz had like 400,000 and some change. So if Oxy is keeping 150,000 that would be up to 200,000 that this sale could have been, that would make Anschutz up to 660,000 with this deal, which is still pretty hefty. That's that makes them much bigger than anyone else in the basin as far as acreage goes.”
Oxy also did not sell any of its assets outside of the Powder River Basin to Anschutz. It will keep more than 650,000 net acres it manages in Wyoming, a figure that includes the 150,000 core acres in the Powder River.
Read the full story HERE.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal impact on Interstate 25 near Bar Nunn that diverted traffic off the southbound lane for about four hours Wednesday night, after a juvenile pedestrian tried to cross and was hit by a vehicle.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck says that Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call at 7:30 p.m. of a juvenile who assaulted a family member.
“The juvenile took off. Deputies responded to the call, and then a couple hours later, there's a juvenile trying to cost cross I25 near Bar Nunn, north of Casper, and was hit in the southbound lane and killed… We don't know, you know, if the juvenile was a male or female, the age, or anything like that.”
Information about whether the driver of the vehicle that struck the juvenile was ticketed, or driving at or below the posted speed limit, was also not available.
Read the full story HERE.
The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office deputy who shot and killed a man from Wright, who had fired a shotgun at his patrol vehicle, acted in self-defense.
That’s the official determination from Campbell County Attorney Nathan Henkes, who reviewed the independent investigation by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation regarding the Aug. 4 shootout between Campbell County Sheriff’s Deputy Samuel Boyles and 55-year-old Christopher Morales.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Boyles had been responding to a report that Morales had attacked his wife.
“He pulls into a very dark driveway, and as he's putting his vehicle into Park, a shotgun blast hits the windshield. And so, you know, my instinct would probably be to duck into the back seat. But … Apparently, the thing to do, which he did, was to get out and run behind the vehicle and take cover. So that's what he does, and he draws his pistol, he fires, I believe, five shots, and most of them hit Morales, who then dies.”
Henkes determined that the use of deadly force by Deputy Boyles was reasonably necessary under the circumstances presented to protect himself, and others on scene, from serious bodily injury or death.
Read the full story HERE.
Sports fans and dog lovers alike are mourning the death this week of Ben, the beloved dog of college and NFL football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. The 10-year-old golden retriever died Thursday after an eight-month fight with leukemia and lymphoma.
Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George spoke to Cheyenne Animal Shelter Director Britney Tenant, who said Ben’s death is felt by so many across the nation, because the bond between dog owners and their pets is an experience that's universally understood.
“About three years ago, he started bringing his dog with him on two games and on road trips. And the dog would barge into sets, sometimes looking for pets or jump into segments. And that's how he sort of captured the nation's heart… it was a shared sort of feeling that, a unifying feeling that many felt, sort of both, you know, sympathy for Kirk Herbstreit and also just remembering how cool this dog was, and how everybody had that sort of shared love for this dog.”
Wherever Ben went, football programs tried to one-up each other by giving Ben special VIP credentials and gifts. The Atlanta Falcons gave him the position of “wide retriever” while Penn State University most recently gave him a pass that labeled him the game’s “treat analyst.”
Read the full story HERE.
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 Cowboy State Daily’s own co-founder and executive editor, Jimmy Orr. 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.
