It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, March 14th. 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 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, host Jake Nichols brings you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - presented with Jake’s unique humor and lively commentary. Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage and join the conversation!
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A Wyoming-based social media influencer set off a firestorm of outrage in Australia after a video surfaced reportedly showing her grabbing a baby wombat and running back toward her vehicle with it.
Samantha Strable, who sometimes goes by the name Sam Jones online, was roundly condemned by Aussies reacting to a video allegedly showing her snatching the wombat from in front of its mother.
Even the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese publicly blasted her, according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“I managed to get a hold of a wombat rescue specialist in Australia. Just talked to her on the phone, and she said, the reason this is a big deal is because, you know, their wombats are struggling there. They've been dealing with a lot of weather related, weather, fire, floods, those sorts of things. Also, they have a really bad mange breakout among their wombats, and so just from the Australian point of view, is extremely disrespectful for this American to run up and grab one of their treasured species of wildlife and go running down the road with it swinging. There's worry about the little wombat getting injured by this? Is it going to be rejected by its mother now and so that that really, that that brought into focus for me, and I hope for our readers, why this is such a big deal, and why this is set off such a firestorm of rage in in Australia.”
There have been widespread calls to kick Strable out of the country, and Australia’s Immigration Minister Tony Burke stated that her visa was under review following the incident.
Read the full story HERE.
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A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees fired last month, including 1,000 probationary employees who were terminated from the National Park Service.
The firings stemmed from Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) workforce reduction effort.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that San Francisco-based U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, halted the terminations in a Thursday ruling from the bench.
“So there were a handful of outlets that were there that caught these fiery comments where he's basically saying, Look, Trump administration, you did this the wrong way. You had the Office of Personnel Management push other agencies into firing and cutting probationary employees. You know, even before those agencies could take action to implement the doges, the doge agenda, and as he's saying, you sidestep protections that are in place.”
The Trump administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court immediately. The White House ridiculed the ruling as “absurd and unconstitutional,” and as nitpicking agency actions that are all under the same executive branch of government.
Read the full story HERE.
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The state of Wyoming took another step on Thursday night against transgender athletes participating in sports in Wyoming.
Gov. Mark Gordon signed Senate Enrolled Act 94 into law, legislation that requires Wyoming’s university and community colleges to restrict an athlete’s participation in sports to their biological sex at birth.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the law also prohibits these schools from competing against other schools that don’t adhere to the same standard.
“Wyoming already passed a ban on this for the youth sports level from grade seven to 12 in 2023. This extended to the intercollegiate level, which includes University of Wyoming and all The state's community colleges… what it means is basically the sport participation is restricted to biological sex at birth. So it's not that these transgender members can't necessarily play sports, it's just they have to be restricted to the biological sex at birth sport… Spoke to Senator Wendy Shuler, a Republican from Evanston, who's the bill’s sponsor, and she said she was tickled pink to see that the governor signed this bill into law. She believes it will help improve fairness at the collegiate sports level, and will also protect women's safety.”
Controversy surrounded the University of Wyoming and other schools in the Mountain West Conference last fall, as conference member San Jose State University rostered a transgender volleyball player on its women’s team.
Read the full story HERE.
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Grizzlies are starting to stir in Yellowstone National Park. On Wednesday, fresh grizzly tracks were spotted in the snow in the park's northern section, which means a bear is wandering somewhere.
The first grizzly of spring is as much of a tradition as the groundhog in February, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“Everybody likes seeing the first Grizzlies of spring. It's like Punxsutawney Phil or slander lil that we have here in Wyoming. But it's actually it's a very dangerous time, because if Grizzlies perceive that you are a threat to a food source, they will react aggressively, and they tend to be more aggressive during this time of year for the simple reason that they've taken a long nap, they're hungry and they're cranky, so everyone would be advised to be on their guard and be cautious, because Grizzlies are waking up and roaming the countryside, and heaven help you if you get between them and their food.”
Grand Teton’s grizzlies tend to emerge later than Yellowstone’s. Most photographers and grizzly enthusiasts don’t expect to get their first grizzly shots of the season until late March or early April.
Read the full story HERE.
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U.S. Marshals personnel and Uinta County Sheriff’s Office deputies were involved in a shooting on Wednesday at a local business that left a suspect dead.
In a Thursday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland, Sheriff Andy Kopp confirmed that the suspect was wanted on felony-level warrants.
“US Marshals deputies and sheriff's deputies were working together to try to arrest someone who's not from Uinta County… that arrest attempt was at a trailer park, and he fled to a business. There was one occupant inside the business building who left as the guy got there, and then it does not say what, what prompted it. The statements I've gotten do not say what, what prompted it, or who shot, but it says that there was an officer involved shooting. He was hospitalized, and then he later died.”
The U.S. Marshal’s Service of Wyoming said the man was wanted out of Laramie County on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender, explaining that federal authorities get involved in such cases when there's a suspicion a sex offender failing to register may have crossed state lines.
Read the full story HERE.
A bot cyberattack interrupted the first day of sales for this summer’s Cheyenne Frontier Days’ concerts.
Tom Hirsig, CEO of Cheyenne Frontier Days, told Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson that a bot attack disrupted ticketing partner AXS’ sales platform and processes for selling tickets to this year’s Frontier Nights concert lineup as well as the festival’s Extreme Bulls competition.
“He said that they had about 270,000 bots in the queue, which made it pretty obvious that it was not humans, considering the ticket sales had just opened. There was only a few people who were actually legitimately able to buy their tickets before they had to shut it down. But he said it's not the end of the world, at the same time. They're going to resume the ticket sales on Monday morning, at 9am Mountain Time, and he expects everything to go smoothly from there. The concerts themselves are not until Frontier Days, which is in mid July, so there's still plenty of days and time for people to buy their tickets.”
In the past, Hirsig said Frontier Days has been able to sell a significant amount of tickets on the first day of sales for its shows. This year’s lineup includes Ian Munsick, Brooks & Dunn with Chancey Williams, Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson, and Megan Moroney.
Read the full story HERE.
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Both of Wyoming’s consumer advocate groups foresee more rate increases ahead for Rocky Mountain Power’s customers, beyond the utility’s latest double-digit rate increase proposal.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean explains that one reason for the potential rate hikes is that some of the pressing rate increase questions were put off this time around, since a complicated power-sharing agreement between multiple states, including Wyoming, expires at the end of this year.
“Utah wants out. They want a new compact. They want to be just with Wyoming and Idaho and leave California and Oregon and Washington together… But at the same time, when you have six states paying into a system, there's a huge what they call economy of scale, and that is an economic term. It just means when you get to a certain size, it starts to cost less to do the same thing. If you cut that in half, you don't necessarily get the same economy of scale anymore, and everybody's going to pay more. So that's a real possibility. If this compact falls apart, I don't think we've seen the end of rate increases yet with Rocky Mountain Power.”
Public Service Commissioners said they plan to meet for final deliberations on the rate case by April 15. If they approve the settlement agreement by then, the proposed settlement rate of 10.2% would go into effect June 1, and that will bring the overall rate increase in the past two years to 30.4%.
Read the full story HERE.
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And just one tick bite can set off a chain reaction of maladies that can all but ruin a person’s life.
That’s what three bite victims told outdoors reporter Mark Heinz. In a story that Mark is working on for this weekend, three people described years of suffering, and the frustration of going to one doctor after another – with baffling symptoms – and still not getting a proper diagnosis.
“One suffered from a combination of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease. Second one from Lyme disease. And then the third one, a gentleman from Alabama was bitten by one of these lone star ticks and got that, really, that bizarre red meat allergy as a result of this… the two Lyme disease victims have, these people have been suffering for, really, for decades, with symptoms. One of them described it. She said it's like going through life walking underwater. It's really, it's a debilitating chronic disease that just in all three cases, it resulted from being bitten by the wrong tick just once, and these people had years of health problems, she's totally up ended their lives.”
You can read more about this story in the weekend edition of Cowboy State Daily’s newsletter. And for a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have an in-depth conversation with Cowboy State Daily politics reporter Leo Wolfson. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!
Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
