It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, February 3rd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics! Experience the excitement of the Winter Games, February 20–22 in Pinedale, and support the SAFE Initiative. For event details and the full schedule, visit wyoming senior olympics dot com.
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The 21-foot-tall neon Tumble Inn cowboy that spent decades beckoning to drivers along U.S. Highway 26 in Powder River is nearly back to life.
After 18 months of work to restore his smile and cowboy hat, his signature red neon thumb that waves back and forth, welcoming people to come on in, is working again.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that it’s part of a herculean effort to restore the historic cowboy that was nearly lost to the elements and time.
“The cowboy, I've been told, is pretty much done, except for the painting of his head and his cowboy hat, and the work on the neon lights is ongoing. The artist told me that she's done patterns of the missing lights where the lights were missing, and so she's gonna be busy bending, bending the bulbs and all of that stuff in the coming month.”
The hope is that sometime in late spring, the long-and-tall Tumble Inn Cowboy will be standing his ground in downtown Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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Meanwhile, the race is on to save another iconic Wyoming neon sign. The Lou Taubert neon sign that towers over Center Street in Casper is in desperate need of repair.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that the huge, handmade sign that went up in 1964 is the last remnant of Casper's historic street of neon that earned it the nickname “Little Las Vegas.”
“It was kind of a name that the business owners gave themselves, but it was because of all the neon signs. Almost every single business had these signs, and they were handmade, and that is what is so unique about them. So the Lou Talbert sign is one of the few that's still standing, and last winter it got damaged, and so the owners are looking at, how do we do this properly? And that's the key too, is that anyone can go through and fix a neon sign, paint it, put decals on, but you want to make sure that the historic aspect of the sign is still preserved, because it is iconic and it is part of Casper.”
Current city ordinances only allow flat-facing signs on downtown buildings, but because the Lou Taubert sign is iconic and part of a bygone era of downtown Casper, that sign has been grandfathered in.
Read the full story HERE.
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The House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee is considering a bill that would make Wyoming the first state in the nation to ban election voting machines.
The committee heard a vocal appeal Friday from those in support of House Bill 215, which if it becomes law would make all elections in the state have ballots counted by hand. Political reporter Leo Wolfson has been following this story.
“This is basically catering to people who do not trust the voting machines in Wyoming and nationally, and it seems that the solution for them is to just get rid of them entirely and have hand count elections. So this is if this were to pass the law, it would make Wyoming the first state to do this… Wyoming has been using electronic machines since 2004 and some type of machine for voting since the 1950s so this would be taking us to the early 20th century… I think the biggest concern expressed by a lot of the county clerks is the amount of time and money it would take to count these ballots on election night. People pretty much would be guaranteed to not get the results back… some of the bigger counties probably not till the next day at the earliest.”
The committee did not vote on the 43-page bill, and will continue hearing testimony today.
Read the full story HERE.
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Thanks to TerraPower’s nuclear plant in Kemmerer, there are literally hundreds of nuclear power plant jobs on the horizon. While Wyoming’s nuclear technology jobs AREN’T going to require a deep dive into math and physics, those jobs ARE going to come with six-figure salaries.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that nuclear techs are set to be the next “it” job in the Cowboy State.
“You got all these small modular reactors, and TerraPower is talking about building plants wherever coal plants are closing in Wyoming, so like two more sites they could be at, they're talking about building plants around the world, actually. So I think this is the next big growth job sector that we're going to see. These jobs right now pay in the six figure range. The base pay isn't that much, but there's usually over time, and so the median annual wages are like $106,000 something like that.”
Western Wyoming Community College, with a $1.9 million grant from the Wyoming Innovation partnership, is gearing up to train all the people Wyoming’s emerging nuclear sector will need, with a brand-new degree program that will be the first of its kind in the state.
Read the full story HERE.
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Deep in the heart of central China — in fact, a two-hour bus ride from the bustle of Beijing — lies a mountainside resort looking every bit like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And that’s by design.
The reproduction resort town in a magnificent mountain valley is a carbon copy of Jackson. Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols reports that Jackson Hole, China, offers the nation’s more upwardly mobile class a taste of French fries and freedom, and all things stereotypically USA with a Western cowboy flair.
“My biggest takeaway about the two Jackson Holes are what it means to the Chinese to copy Jackson Hole for them. It's the freedom of the United States, the freedom of America, the open space, the Wild West, the cowboys and Indians, you get it… what it's turned out to be in China is the same thing Jackson Hole Wyoming has turned out to be, and that's kind of a exclusive gated community that's not a real part of their state or country… The new Neo Chinese have, like, white collar jobs. They have spending money, and they have second homes in Jackson, hole, China. It does happen.”
The development of Jackson Hole, China now boasts more than 3,000 homes and is nearly sold out. Larger homes that originally sold for $300,000 are fetching more than $1 million today.
Read the full story HERE.
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If squirrels ever organize for an uprising against humanity, chances are Bob McEachern gave them the idea.
The Montana artist is making a career out of arming squirrels for battle — decked out in buckskin, they're caught mid-action with longbows, spears, rifles and other tools of combat gripped in their tiny paws.
The only saving grace is they’re already dead. Cowboy State Daily’s Anna-Louise Jackson reports that McEachern’s taxidermy creations have become so popular that his unique designs sell in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.
“The longest one took recently is three hours. So the demand is, like, very, very hot for these. But, you know, he's one person, so he's only making about 60 a year… There are some anthropomorphic qualities about squirrels. They have little hands. And, you know, by fashioning them into these warriors, there's people that maybe resonate with the idea of of the squirrel as a hero, or as a survivalist, and then, you know, I think just, you know, like seeing some, like, small creature that's able to defend itself, I think some people may be drawn to that as well.”
Demand for Squirrel Warriors creations is so hot that McEachern recently switched up how he sells the art pieces. Now he alerts subscribers to the Squirrel Warriors newsletter and his 52,000-plus Instagram followers when new pieces will be available.
Read the full story HERE.
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There are advantages to shooting prairie dogs from a vehicle, and apparently it’s common practice in Wyoming — although technically illegal.
A Casper-area resident told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz that he and a friend were shocked this past summer when, as they were shooting prairie dogs from the bed of a pickup, a game warden came by and told them they were breaking the law.
“That started this whole discussion and actually led to this bill being introduced in the legislature. And it's really interesting. I talked to another very experienced Wyoming hunter who's also done a lot of prairie dog shooting, and he too, said, I had no idea that was even a thing. He said it's common, people do that. He said he even knows of people who take shooting benches and attach them to the bed of flatbed trucks so they can have a shooting platform for prairie dogs. Apparently, that's illegal… f this law does get passed, it, it will clear up that weird quirk in Wyoming law.”
Prairie dogs are widely regarded as a nuisance species that can be destructive to agriculture around Wyoming. And usually, all bets are off when it comes to getting rid of them on private farm and ranch land. The ban on shooting them from a vehicle is because of how Wyoming classifies some wildlife species.
Read the full story HERE.
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On the frozen slope of the Lander Valley sits a prairie-dog weather prophet. Her name is Lander Lil - Wyoming’s version of Punxsutawney Phil.
Landerites hatched the notion of Lander Lil back in 1984, when they felt that too much attention was being paid to Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland and her son, Knox, paid a visit to Lil on Groundhog Day to see for themselves whether or not Wyoming can expect a longer winter, or a shorter wait until spring.
“No shadow appeared because it was extremely overcast and there were light flurries of snow at the time. But of course, the joke was, she's not facing west, so she can't see her shadow anyway, and, gosh, I wonder what'll happen next year.”
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 - 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.