It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, January 2nd. I’m Reilly Strand, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Radio Show with Jake. Listen every morning from 6am – 10am on CowboyStateDaily.com and soon will be broadcast on your local radio station.
A video of a horse drowning in June that resurfaced last week has caused outrage and has led to an investigation by a sheriff’s office in Montana. The horse was purchased in Cheyenne for competing, and taken back to Montana by college rodeo rider Tatum Hansen. Hansen found the horse with the guidance of Reno Ward, a star of the hit History Channel series Ice Road Truckers. Ward was riding the horse in the video his sister, Terra, posted to social media.
“On December 26, that video surfaced on social media. Since then, a dispute between a brother and sister….has made its way onto the internet. The sister wound up in jail after allegedly violating a restraining order, and there's still a lot of hard feelings….It's risky business when you take a brand new horse into a body of water…One of the experts that I interviewed, said it was highly plausible that this was an accident, but perhaps the owner of the horse should have considered all the circumstances before getting into the water. Complicating all of this is the fact that the horse swam great, reportedly, in the first two ranch ponds.”
The Powell County Sheriff told Cowboy State Daily the office will continue to investigate the drowning without emotion, based solely on facts.
Read the full story HERE.
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Teton County’s State Rep. Andrew Byron wants to take river otters off Wyoming’s protected species list, where it’s been for about 70 years. House Bill 45 would allow Wyoming Game and Fish to manage the species. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that while Byron believes the otters have rebounded, otter experts disagree.
“What’s interesting about this bill… is that it wouldn't necessarily open immediately… the door for hunting or trapping of otters. It would, however, basically allow Game and Fish to potentially manage the species for hunting someday, since it wouldn't be a protected species anymore… That’s what has some…scientists concerned is that that possibility down the road, in their mind, the species is really still recovering and is not where it needs to be.”
The bill will be considered in the upcoming legislative session, but Wolfson reports it’s too early to say what chance the bill has of passing.
Read the full story HERE.
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A group of ranchers is appealing the state’s decision to allow a water exchange for HF Sinclair’s Carbon County refinery. They claim the refinery is taking their water from the North Platte River and ignoring more than 100 years of Wyoming water law. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the ranchers are standing up for what they see as declining water resources in their area.
“What makes the story interesting is the fact that ranchers are really trying to stick up against a very large oil and gas company being Sinclair. You don't necessarily see that every day, and it really kind of struck me that these ranchers are really not wanting to give the refinery a free pass when it comes to their water access during dry years.”
The Board of Control is reviewing the appeal and its next meeting is in February.
Read the full story HERE.
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Chronic Wasting Disease has worried Wyoming deer hunters for years, and now there are worries that elk could start dying from mass infections of the disease. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Chronic Wasting Disease was recently detected in the carcass of a cow elk that was found dead on public land in the Jackson area.
“The ominous part of that is...the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has elk feed grounds back there. And then, of course, we have the federal National Elk Refuge. And during the winter, elk concentrate. They pile in huge numbers and crowd up in these feed grounds, and that… creates a potential for… an explosion of Chronic Wasting Disease in elk, which we really don't want to see… It's 100% fatal in the wildlife that it infects.”
Experts say during the early stages of infection, animals might appear healthy. As the disease progresses, animals display symptoms like drooling, emaciation and disorientation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Although Devils Tower gets all the attention for unexplained phenomena, the National UFO Center reports Cheyenne is top in the state for UFO sightings. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that isn’t so surprising, since UFO sightings tend to correspond to population density. Plus, Cheyenne is home to an Air Force base.
“They can be just weather balloons or drones that people have seen, but there are phenomena that they can't explain or they won't explain, so that's given some credence to the idea that UFOs are worth taking seriously, which is why sightings like this are like sightings are encouraged to be reported, because it's giving us more information,”
The Mutual UFO Network, an organization of civilian volunteers that follow up on sightings, hopes more Wyomingites will make reports.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two men searching for Bigfoot were found dead in a remote part of Washington state after a three day search-and-rescue effort to find them. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that a Wyoming archaeologist finds their deaths especially tragic, because logic rules that Bigfoot is not out there.
“They were going to go find Bigfoot in the Washington mountains, and...when they failed to come home on Christmas Eve…After three days of searching, they were found [dead] from exposure out there in remote Washington state…So I talked to…an archeologist I know in Wyoming, who is… a Bigfoot skeptic. And he said, Yeah, you know, the biggest thing you have to watch anytime of year…especially in the winter, is the weather, because it can turn on a dime, and it can go from being okay to killing you.”
There have been reported Sasquatch sightings all across the United States and Canada for decades. The dense forests in Washington’s rugged Cascade-Sierra mountains are said to be bigfoot’s favorite hangout with the most reported sightings.
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. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Reilly Strand, for Cowboy State Daily.
