It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, December 2nd. 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 search and rescue operation ended tragically on Thursday, as the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office located the body of a hunter who went missing south of Rawlins.
Bruce Baugh left his Rawlins home at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to hunt elk in the Bridger Pass/Miller Hill area. He was supposed to be home by 11 a.m. that morning but hadn’t been seen or heard from since then.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that on Thursday evening, the Carbon County Sheriff announced that Baugh’s body had been found in a remote area of the Sage Creek Basin.
“Search and rescue effort went out to locate him when he didn't come back and no one had heard from him. His body was found, apparently, about a mile and a half from his vehicle, and it seems he had gotten stuck and had attempted to hike out, according to the carbon County Sheriff's Office. So there were 20 search and rescue volunteers who gave up their Thanksgiving to try to locate this guy, and unfortunately, he had passed away before they found him.”
Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken extended his agency’s condolences to Baugh’s family.
Read the full story HERE.
In 1929, media mogul Moses Annenberg’s car broke down in the Black Hills and he had to make an unexpected stop in Spearfish, South Dakota. This detour led to the founding of his namesake, Ranch A, just south of Beulah, Wyoming.
Years of opulence were followed by shady politics, eventually resulting in the once luxurious lodge falling into disrepair. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that Ranch A is now alive once more with celebrations.
“Ranch A is one of those unique Wyoming areas that a lot of people don't even know exist. It's outside of Beulah, about five miles right off the interstate, and what it is is a cabin, more of a lodge or a mansion, that was built by a multi millionaire in the 1930s. Through a series of events, the state of Wyoming ended up with it, and there was a stipulation on it that you could only have educational events at this place… It took them 20 years to cut through the red tape so that you can have. Your events, your reunions, your weddings at this beautiful setting in Beulah. Wyoming.”
Ranch A is alive once more with celebrations, and visitors are given a chance to experience a little slice of western luxury that had once only been reserved for the rich and elite of the Black Hills.
Read the full story HERE.
A new movie profiling a famous German theologian who became a spy and took on the Nazi regime during World War II includes the name of a Pinedale man in its credits.
John Scanlon said he has been involved in the film project “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” for the past 12 years. One of seven producers for the movie, the former Washington, D.C., attorney also has several other film and TV credits to his name, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck.
“He started a his own quest to get into movies by going over to Africa and trying to shoot a documentary… he produces a 30 minute documentary, which he was able to get on TV, and that kind of led to opportunities, from my understanding, to get deeper into the movie industry… he has produced, he said, over 50 movies now, and … ad a connection with the people that were the primary primary producers with this project… they've been working on this for 12 years.”
Scanlon is encouraged by the movie’s first weekend at theaters across the country especially with a soaring 93% audience score rating from movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.
Read the full story HERE.
Blame it on technology. Blame it on the pandemic. Blame it on a growing sense of entitlement.
However it’s justified, a lot of people are pushing back against an out-of-control tipping culture to the point some are boycotting leaving tips altogether.
Even bartenders in Wyoming, who like restaurant servers, are paid sub-minimum wages because tips are a significant part of their income, have told Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean that tipping has gotten way out of hand.
“Tipping, you know, is really important for waitresses and bartenders. When you're getting paid a couple bucks an hour, obviously that's not enough to live on, so you really depend on a tip. Five bucks an hour, it's not enough to live on. You're still really dependent on a tip. But other places make minimum wage or better, and so asking to tip there that just feels a little over the tops to me, especially when they didn't do anything for you, like you waited on yourself, you got all your stuff yourself. They're just literally ringing you up and cashing you out. And the business is asking for a tip for that. I think that's kind of, you know, that's a bit much.”
The federal sub minimum wage under the Fair Labour Standards Act has been $2.13 for the last 25 or so years, while Wyoming is among states that have set a higher sub minimum wage, at $5.12. If the tips waitstaff make do not make up the difference between the sub minimum wage and the actual minimum wage, employers are supposed to true things up.
Read the full story HERE.
The Sweeney family of the Quaking Aspen Mountain District in southwest Wyoming had suffered through typhoid fever, tragedies from tick bites and the ups and downs of Cowboy State ranching.
A new family now owns the ranch, and the Sweeney family would have been lost to history - except for a veterinarian and his camera. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy spoke to Larry Friedman about how he captured memories of the past.
“He didn't realize what he was doing at the time. He was just going around taking pictures and capturing history that was fading, and he didn't even realize it was disappearing at that time… talking to the old bachelor living alone on this ranch, taking pictures of his family home, and then start digging and discovering the stories that are there as you're looking around.”
The pictures that Friedman took are among the only remnants remaining of a by-gone era. He donated the negatives to the American Heritage Center in Laramie and is grateful for a hobby that helped him capture a little piece of Wyoming’s history.
Read the full story HERE.
Most political pollsters aren’t receiving compliments from the public at large about their predictions leading up to the 2024 presidential election. In fact, many people are questioning why the presidential polls were so off again this year after similar dismal performances in the 2020 and 2016 elections.
Dustin Olson, a managing partner with the Republican polling firm American Pulse who has done polling in Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that the biggest problem within the polling industry these days is that many pollsters could use a little more humility.
“You don't know what you don't know, and you really have to work to seek out what you don't know sometimes, and that sometimes, if there's any shred of doubt, as a pollster, you need to pursue that and really try to expunge all possibilities that your data might be limited or skewed… Olson was pretty accurate with his polling this year. He was within the margin of error for almost all of his polls, and he correctly predicted that it would be very likely that Trump would win the popular vote.”
One of the biggest hurdles pollsters must overcome every election is reaching a group of people that accurately represent the actual voting electorate. The people willing to participate in polls tend to be college educated, which creates a natural bias towards Democrats that pollsters must find a way to compensate for.
Read the full story HERE.
A trapping reform group says trappers should be required to check their lines every 24 hours to prevent the accidental deaths of mountain lions and pets.
Unchecked traps account for numerous deaths of mountain lions, dogs and other “non-target” animals - that’s what Lisa Robertson, spokeswoman for Wyoming Untrapped, told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz.
But he also spoke with some Wyoming trappers who said they’re already doing that.
“There are some folks who are concerned that… f trappers don't go out and check their traps like once a day at least… that an animal that isn't intended to be trapped, whether it's a pet or livestock or a species, such as a mountain lion, that's not supposed to be trapped, can get caught in the trap and can linger and die… I talked to some trappers, and they said, well, most of us do that anyway, not just for ethical reasons, but for practical reasons. If you leave your trap unattended for too long, it can get vandalized. People could come along and steal your catch. A hawk can come down and eat the animal you were trying to trap, all sorts of things can happen.”
A retired federal trapper said that checking traps at least every 24 hours is good ethics, as most animals can survive being caught for a short period without suffering debilitating injuries.
Read the full story HERE.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Wyoming All-State Marching Band brought a brassy and thoroughly rehearsed slice of Western hospitality to the City of Brotherly Love.
One hundred sixty high school students traveled across the country to perform in the 124th annual Dunkin Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the Wyoming All-State Marching Band led the way as the first marching band in the parade and made two appearances before it was over.
“It was raining when they walked past the Rocky Steps where the infamous Rocky Balboa statue is, but everyone said it was a fantastic showing for Wyoming and a great opportunity for the Wyoming all state marching band to show their stuff, as they consistently do, and they need support, because their next stop is Hawaii in 2026.”
Since 1991, the Wyoming All-State Marching Band has taken the best of the best from Wyoming’s high school marching bands to give them a chance to enhance their extracurricular activity with opportunities to learn, grow, and travel with their peers. At the Thanksgiving parade, they played the themes of Ghost Riders in the Sky and the theme from The Magnificent Seven.
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.
