It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, February 18th. 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.
–The final death toll of the Green River Tunnel 26-vehicle collision is three. That’s according to Wyoming’s highway authorities, who add that one person remains hospitalized as of Monday evening.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland traveled to Green River Monday to assess the damage caused by a crash just outside the westbound Green River Tunnel late Friday morning that ended in a pileup, fire and series of explosions.
“I took a run into the tunnel at first light, and it was accurate, even as I approached from several feet away. And it was stark. It was striking too, because, you know, the construction crew was already hard at work, and they had, they had lighting set up in the eastbound tunnel and the westbound tunnel. Not only was it not lit at that time, but it was completely charred, um, the the exterior all the way up the the hillside, and the inside was completely blackened. So I, I walked into it, in the ash, and I walked through the first two thirds, um, and as I got closer to the scene, the the ash at my feet was was very thick, and it didn't want to trudge through it and disturb anything, but I could see kind of the husks and vehicles and parts and and just just charred bits everywhere.”
McFarland met with Andrea Domhoff, a single mother from Green River, who narrowly escaped the blaze. Domhoff said she’s struggling with the psychological effects of coming so close to death.
“She was so bold about sharing her story. She said a few things about that. A, it helps for her to talk about it, because it's such a huge experience to carry good and bad, because, you know, she has this new lease on life, but she's also carrying the flashbacks… she wanted everyone else who's going through what she's going through, who survived that ordeal, to know how she feels and that they're not alone if they're experiencing a lot of these big things right now.”
WYDOT Director Darin Westby told audiences on the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake that while he could not draw conclusions Monday about what might have caused the crash, he warned Wyoming drivers generally about the state’s deceptive weather.
“The difference between one side of the tunnel and the other. You could come into it on the east side and the weather would be just fine. You come out on the west side, which it's only a quarter mile long, the weather can be completely different. And so being prepared for that is always interesting. But yeah, it's, it's a, it's a very necessary tunnel. Otherwise, we'll be putting 9000 vehicles a day somewhere else, which is what's happening right now. And so the crew is working really hard, I believe the Wyoming Highway Patrol investigation, they're done with their portion of it. Now it's all analyzing all the data, putting all that together to develop the investigation report. The National Safety transportation board is also on scene.”
Troopers will use the evidence they’ve gathered to reconstruct the crash digitally to determine narratives, causes and other details, and construction crews are working to prepare the eastbound tunnel for two-way traffic.
Read the full story HERE and HERE and HERE.
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Two men lost their lives Saturday after the side-by-side UTV they were in fell through a patch of thin ice on Glendo Reservoir in Platte County.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that multiple agencies responded to the 911 call that came in just before 10 a.m., but by then it was too late.
“At this time of year, the ice can be up to a foot thick on the Glendo reservoir. But when you have rapid warmings and coolings like we've had in southern Wyoming, you can get these spots where it gets a little bit thinner, where the ice melts and then it refreezes again, so it's not quite as thick. And unfortunately, they just found one of these pockets where it was only four inches thick, and they fell straight through, and there was just there was no chance for them.”
One of the victims was 71-year-old Beulah resident Bill Pridgeon, 71, which Cowboy State Daily confirmed via his brother, Hank. Hank thanked the first responders, who he called “heroes” for attempting the rescue in the bitter cold. The identity of the second victim was not confirmed as of press time.
Officials warn that Glendo Reservoir isn’t safe for winter recreation at the moment.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cheyenne residents Bill Lembke and Susie Degner are going through insurance hell for something completely out of their control.
The couple are rebuilding their home after a truck crashed into it during a freak accident last October, leaving a huge hole in the side of their house and at least $30,000 in damage. But Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that State Farm Insurance is dropping their home coverage, and no other company will insure them.
“The problem is, is they have an open claim to fix those damages still, Lembke has not been able to find someone to perform the masonry needed to replace the brick wall on the house, so the open claim is just kind of sitting out there, and they're waiting till the spring, when they'll realistically be able to find somebody to come do it… they're not able to find a new insurance carrier to replace State Farm as their provider for their home because of the open claim. So this is going to result in them possibly having a lapse in their coverage for at least a few months.”
State Farm Insurance has informed the couple it will still pay out the property damages related to the car crash, but will drop their home insurance coverage once it expires April 1st.
Read the full story HERE.
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Although often overshadowed by mighty grizzlies, Wyoming’s black bears are nothing to trifle with.
But Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz spoke to one bear expert who explained that in Eastern states, black bears have unrestricted access to fresh crops, insects and other rich foods. That calorie-loaded diet turns them into lumbering tanks that would make Wyoming’s bears look puny by comparison.
“To put it rather ungracefully, they pig out. They have crops. They say they have rotating crops of wheat, soybeans and corn and so they just go in there and gorge. He sent me photos of of one bear that was shot by Hunter there 98 which 880 pounds, which is, as far as anybody knows, that is the biggest black bear ever officially weighed. And he again showed me pictures this thing is gigantic, way bigger even than a lot of Wyoming Grizzlies. But he said, really, at the end of the day, at least, in his opinion, Grizzlies are still scarier, or they still demand more respect.”
For the most part, people don’t worry about bear attacks in North Carolina and the surrounding region, because they have plenty of crops and natural food sources to stuff themselves.
However, research indicates that on the rare occasions that black bears do attack, the bear is actually trying to eat the person.
Read the full story HERE.
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Allusions to “Frankenstein” and “The Matrix” have punctuated discussion of new laws to protect “food traditions” and ban the sale of meat created in a laboratory.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that a group of lawmakers in Montana and Wyoming believe their states should join Alabama and Florida in banning lab-grown meat.
“A recent hearing before the House Agricultural Committee in Helena was a little hard to listen to, as a legislator described in detail how lab produced meats are concocted… And it really does feel like something out of science fiction, something out of the Island of Dr Moreau… It's also a threat to cattle ranchers,... four big meat packers are also interested in getting into the business of lab produced meats, meaning they could basically cut the producer out of the equation and and go from lab to table instead of farm to table, and basically eliminate what is a huge industry, of course, for Wyoming and Montana and other western states…. Senator Driscoll, a Wyoming legislator from Devil's Tower, who saw this threat coming months ago, and he's… now one of the sponsors on a Wyoming bill that could do the same as Montana and keep lab produced meats out of the meat department at your local market.”
Wyoming House Bill 168 “prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of cultivated meat for human consumption,” passed out of the House and awaits a vote in the Wyoming Senate. In Montana, House Bill 401 remains under consideration by the Montana House.
Read the full story HERE.
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A video of three turkeys chasing each other around a tombstone in Fargo, North Dakota, had people wondering if the turkeys were having some kind of weird little seance.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to a Laramie rancher who said turkeys just plain do dumb things sometimes. This was behavior Corrinne Schade has seen a million times on her farm, where she raises yaks and about 300 heritage turkeys.
“These guys are just like the original mobsters. You know, the male turkeys are after each other all the time. There's a pecking order out there by golly, and they want to make sure, you know it… Corrinne Schade … saw that video circulating, and all those people commenting, it's a seance, you know, or, … they trained them to do that. No, you don't have to train turkeys to chase each other around. It's just what they naturally and normally do every single day, because they are out to get each other and prove that they are the mob boss of all mob bosses.”
Turkeys, Schade has observed, can be really quite violent. Since seeing the video of three turkeys chasing each other around a tombstone, she said she’s thought about putting a tombstone out in her yard, to see if she can get some toms chasing each other around that, rather than just beating each other up.
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.
