It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, January 7th. I’m Reilly Strand, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom brought to you by Visit Casper.
Visit Casper invites you to come enjoy the Casper International Film Festival, January 31 through February 2. A broad range of films from local and international filmmakers will be shown. Learn more and get your tickets at visitcasper.com.
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A 44-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of stealing a Winnebago and fleeing from police. After the Winnebago’s tires were shredded by spike strips, the RV’s bare rims threw sparks up to 50 feet. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the accused driver, Ryan Jenkins, is in jail awaiting criminal charges.
“This is a heavy machine. So once one tire is spike stripped and flattened... you are... not only tempting fate with a heavy machine riding on rims, but you're also set up for a spectacular show... they took him to the jail so he wasn't hospitalized. And they also noted that the car dealership parking lot that the guy reportedly crashed into, no, none of the vehicles there were damaged.”
The police statement described the scene as Jenkins kept driving through several traffic control devices on “just the sparking wheels,” until he failed to navigate the bend at the intersection of Lincolnway and Nationway, where he went off the road at the Cowboy Dodge car dealership on East Lincolnway.
Read the full story HERE.
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State Sen. Cheri Steinmetz has proposed a “Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again” bill that would repeal low-carbon energy requirements that coal plants retrofit carbon capture technology by 2030. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that Steinmetz believes stricter carbon rules jeopardize the Wyoming economy, but critics of her bill say becoming carbon negative is necessary to keep coal-fired power plants alive.
“What's significant about this bill is that it would basically repeal a 2020 bill that was passed by the legislature that creates deadlines for coal fired power plants to build carbon capture infrastructure at their facilities. So, this refutes an effort that was made at the time by lawmakers who said they wanted to kind of provide a carrot and stick so that these coal fired power plants would be able to last longer, and not get shut down because of not basically integrating to where the markets are headed towards a more clean, reduced carbon type output.”
Steinmetz’s stance aligns with views presented during the legislative session last year in a hearing that denied the effects of climate change. However, sources have said rising temperatures could exacerbate decades of drought already seen in the Colorado River Basin.
Read the full story HERE.
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Craig Johnson’s upcoming novel “Return to Sender” was inspired by a story he read in Cowboy State Daily about the mail carrier who has the most remote route in the United States. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke with Johnson ahead of his book’s publish date on May 27.
“Craig Johnson's fans will all know that one of the ways he gets his ideas is from news clippings…It was Jake Nichols' story about the postal worker who has the longest mail route in the United States, right here in Wyoming. Tebra Morris, she's got a 300 mile long postal route that she manages along Highway 287…Craig’s got the…crime writer mind, right? So, his first thing he's thinking about is, "oh, if she went missing, where would you look for her?”
Before Johnson publishes books, he said he visits the areas he writes about to make sure his stories are realistic.
Read the full story HERE.
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A mutant Wyoming mule deer with striking blue eyes and a light coat is causing a stir among wildlife watchers. It’s a rare animal, but wildlife observers say the fawn appears to be healthy. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the fawn might have a genetic mutation called leucism.
“It appears that the deer is otherwise healthy…He or she just has a strange colored coat and strange colored eyes…The condition’s a bit more common among whitetails. It’s rather unusual to see it in a mule deer, but it’s appeared in this mule deer. Maybe someday [it] will grow up into a weird looking adult deer. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.”
Experts say leucistic deer aren’t known to have high survival rates in the wild.
Read the full story HERE.
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The spectacular explosion of Black Diamond Pool was the most dramatic event of 2024 in Yellowstone National Park. Elsewhere, it was a pretty average year with nearly 1,200 earthquakes, 300-foot eruptions of Steamboat Geyser and Abyss Pool getting hotter. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the Black Diamond explosion was one of the biggest changes in Yellowstone that scientists had seen in decades.
“Mike Poland, the scientist in charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said that the only constant in Yellowstone is change and 2024 was a pretty typical year in that regard. There were a lot of changes. Some were a lot bigger than others, but the park is always changing, so their goal is to better understand that change,”
Poland said the main focus of 2025 is monitoring the park to ensure scientists know when big changes might happen, so they can keep Yellowstone visitors safe.
Read the full story HERE.
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Court documents say a Yellowstone National Park concession worker, who was killed in a July 4 shootout with park rangers, ranted about hating non-white people and that he would quote “go postal here” if he couldn’t find a new job. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a recent civil petition filed by the federal government contained the most detailed allegations of Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner’s militant white supremacist views. The petition aims for the feds to get ownership of Fussner’s vehicle and several guns.
“This is US government versus 2021 Nissan Rogue. Well, they're not suing the item, necessarily, they're challenging it. So, that they get to keep it if no one else has a valid enough claim to it to contest theirs. And so that's what the US government is doing, is saying these items we believe are used in a terrorist attack, and so we should get to have them…As mundane as civil forfeiture filings are… This one contained the most raw and exposed narrative offered of the July 4 shootout to date…describing allegations of extreme racism and plotting of a mass shooting event.”
The petition said the law authorizes the federal government to seize possessions of an individual plotting or committing a federal act of terrorism.
Read the full story HERE.
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People who pay big bucks for a premium ski experience at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah are having to cross picket lines to get to the mountain. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that a ski patrol strike at Park City has wreaked havoc on the mega-sized ski area and has people pointing fingers at each other with allegations of unfair treatment and unreasonable demands.
“What's really interesting about this strike, to me, is that it's not necessarily something I've ever seen before... There's about 17 ski areas around the nation that unionized now, Park City being one of them, and the ski patrol is really trying to flex their muscles out of a desire to get a $2 per hour, pay weight, pay rates... I spoke to one patroller at Eldora Mountain, which is just outside Boulder in Colorado, and he was saying that... These ski patrollers, not only can they not really afford to live off what they're making, but they're going to food banks. They're sleeping in their cars. They are just trying to find a way to survive while pursuing this job that they love.”
Park City Mountain released a statement that it has increased Park City patrol wages more than 50% over the past four seasons. The statement said the average entry-level hourly patrol wage sits at $22.40, while the average patroller earns $25 per hour.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two of the world’s most watched luxury estates come from Wyoming. That’s according to Mansion Global, an international luxury real estate site which connects the world’s most affluent buyers with the world’s best property listings. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Antlers Ranch near Meeteetse and Granite Ranch, a 34-acre, creek-front property surrounded by U.S. National Forest land in Jackson Hole, made Mansion Global’s top five most-viewed luxury properties for 2024.
“To have two homes from Wyoming make this list, it's really pretty special. The two that made the list were Antlers Ranch near Meeteetse, and that is kind of like a little Yellowstone... the one that made the top of the list... was Granite Creek... It's surrounded by the Gros Ventre, so it's one of those rare in holdings where it's just inside national forest land... It's a beautiful place, and that was the number one on the list of Mansion Global's most popular mansions around the world, right here in Wyoming”
Wyoming’s top listing, Granite Ranch, beat out a mountain treehouse in Karuizawa, Japan, which made the No. 2 spot, and the former getaway of James Bond star Sir Roger Moore, which came in at No. 3.
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.
