It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, May 5th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. “5 to thrive” is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.
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The Wyoming Republican Party has new leadership, electing Sheridan resident Bryan Miller to be the new chairman at the party’s meeting in Cody on Saturday. Miller beat out Jackson resident Rebecca Bextel by a 42-32 vote.
Miller was able to overcome a strong endorsement by U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman, who had spoken highly of Bextel prior to the election. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson was at the meeting, and reports that Miller’s experience won over the voters.
“Both him and Bextel are both very conservative. Bextel has really made a name for herself, but she's a much more recent newcomer, she's been really kind of staunchly going after getting donors and a lot of money for the party. So she really it's kind of impressive that she was even competitive in this race, all things considered. But at the end of the day, Miller, at the end of the day, Miller is going to be leading the party for the next two years, at least.”
A theme running through Saturday’s party election was unity, with many candidates calling for an end to infighting that has divided Wyoming Republicans.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Dodge Ram pickup and a Mercedes passenger van collided Thursday evening about 15 miles from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park, killing seven people: six in the tour van and the lone occupant of the pickup.
Several minutes after the crash, both vehicles caught fire. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to an eyewitness of the fatal crash.
“There was only one person in the truck, the driver who died, and then six more people in the tour van died, and then there were others who walked away, and there were some who were hospitalized, and some with serious injuries. And around 15 or 20 minutes after the impact, the truck's engine compartment caught fire, according to an eyewitness who was there, and the flames spread quickly and engulfed both vehicles, leaving behind kind of a charred husk of the van. It was only hours later that the man realized with horror, because he had been casually filming, he realized with horror that there were deceased people inside that van.”
There were 14 people in the van, and six of them died, along with the driver of the pickup. Authorities hadn’t released names, ages, hometowns or nationalities of the deceased as of Friday morning because of the magnitude of the incident and the ongoing process of notifying the next of kin.
Read the full story HERE.
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John Lusch grew up in Rock Springs and Saratoga, but moved with his family five years ago to Marshall, Michigan, where he worked for Bud's Towing.
But on Saturday, April 26th, the 45-year-old was confronted by several people in a home about 25 miles from where he lived, and was shot multiple times.
While not much else has been revealed about the incident, Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher spoke with Lusch’s mother, Sandy Christensen, who said she believes she knows what happened.
“John told her the night before on Saturday that he was heading over to Jackson to talk to a guy who owed him money for a car he sold him… So John was on his way over there to either get the keys, get the money, or you know, strike up some new agreement where he would actually get his car paid off… Sandy's point was, you know, John grew up in Wyoming… he's used to a handshake being a person's word, so that somebody would shoot him over $1,000 would have never crossed his mind.”
Ultimately, what happened that night is still unclear, and as of Friday morning there were no arrests for his murder.
Read the full story HERE.
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Scientists have been saying for decades that the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park is in no danger of eruption. And now, they have proof.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to researchers at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, who in 2020 deployed a piece of equipment that was able to reveal what’s hidden miles underground. After sifting through the data, they were able to determine, definitively, that the conditions that would generate a volcanic eruption in Yellowstone just aren't there.
“Vibroseis trucks, what they basically are these massive, heavy trucks with these metal plates on the underside that they put onto the ground, and they send low frequency seismic vibrations into the ground that bounce off of things in the sub service and then they give a signature that can be analyzed to get an idea of what's underneath our feet… the consensus has been for the longest time, that Yellowstone is not dormant, but it doesn't have what it takes to erupt, which is mainly a lot of molten magma and the energy to get that molten magma close to the surface… But in addition to that… there's a layer of gas at the top of the magma chamber that's very easily a fusing out in, out of the rock and into the atmosphere, so any pressure that builds up is very quickly dissipated.”
The new study is exciting, but it has reached the same conclusion as several previous studies of Yellowstone’s current volcanic status. Researchers said it should be reassuring that so many studies are giving scientists the same answer.
Read the full story HERE.
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In 2010, a broken-down boat beached in the middle of nowhere on Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming in a piercing cold, driving rain, put a 3-year-old’s life in peril.
The actions of a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office deputy that night not only saved the boy, but created a memory that for 15 years has resonated with him and his family.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that when David Lew walks with the Rock Springs High School Class of 2025 to get his diploma on May 27, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Detective Sergeant Jeff Sheaman plans to be the one to give it to him — at Lew’s request.
“One day earlier this year, a young man walked into the sheriff's department there in Sweetwater County and invited him to be the man to hand him his diploma at Rock Springs High School later this month. And it turned out that that young man was a three year old that he rescued as a deputy on an operation at a reservoir in southwest Wyoming, saved his life… It just made his retirement very positive, you know, as he's leaving his career. So a great story about a young man that wants to honor law enforcement and specifically honor this detective who played a huge role in him being able to graduate.”
Sheaman had made the decision to retire earlier this year after the horrific tragedy at the Green River Tunnel. So he said this event will end his career on a much more heartwarming note.
Read the full story HERE.
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People who live in rural Wyoming aren’t catching any breaks lately when it comes to deliveries of their packages — including medications — that they rely on.
Now UPS is eliminating 20,000 UPS workers and closing 73 facilities after reducing the volume of Amazon packages it handles. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that rural Wyoming residents are wondering if the already slow-arriving deliveries they rely on are ever going to get through.
“Rural deliveries are already problematic for a lot of people. We hear about it from quite a few people that live in these smaller areas, like the Kindness Ranch there by Hartville… They have hundreds of animals that they're taking care of… they really rely on timely deliveries for medications for these pups, you know, food supplies and all of that. And so talking with John Ramer out there at the Kindness Ranch, rural deliveries are still pretty slow and problematic. He's paying for a prime account so that he can get the fastest delivery possible. But it's still taking almost a week sometimes for him to get essential items. He has employees who live out there that are on heart medication. They're waiting five to six days to get their medications.”
Regardless of the layoffs, a UPS spokeswoman told Cowboy State Daily in an email that its “record of reliable pickup and delivery” would not change. However, UPS drivers have told Cowboy State Daily about past problems they have observed with the service, including food and medications that required refrigeration left out in hot warehouses overnight.
Read the full story HERE.
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The intertwining story of two Casper families includes elements of undaunted tenacity in the face of seemingly impossible odds, tragedy, inspiration and healing.
And dogs. Because, after all, dogs make any story better.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz brings us a story of 9-year-old Mikey Jonnassen, whose life was derailed because of a brain tumor - and Colleen and Joshua Pike, the couple who is training a dog that will help the boy navigate life.
“He's really, against all doctors predictions, he's gotten to the point where he can sit up, he can walk a little bit, he can communicate a little bit verbally, but his family is working to raise money to get him a service dog, because for him to truly be able to gain independence and give his mom a break from the 24/7 care he's going to need a service dog… so I talked to the family, and I also talked to the people that trained the service dog. and they have an inspiring story of their own, because, you know, unfortunately, they lost their teenage child not that long ago… So they moved back to Wyoming and started this business training service dogs, because that allows them to give back and to help people that are dealing with terrible circumstances, like they've dealt with themselves.”
Training a service dog starts when a puppy is about 8 weeks old and lasts 18 months. So, Mikey will have to be patient once the right puppy is found. And it’s also costly. Mikey’s parents have launched a GoFundMe campaign, for a $7,000 down payment on the service dog.
Read the full story HERE.
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Nestled in the parking lot of a Cheyenne truck stop is a small chapel, a haven for truckers seeking church or a sympathetic ear.
Cowboy State Daily videographers Reilly Strand and Hannah Brock spent a Sunday morning with the couple who runs the chapel, Chaplain Alan Matie and his wife, Kristi. The pair also support drivers with advice they draw on from their more than two decades in the trucking industry.
“I think any of it can be remedied. Whether a chapel will be involved in that, you know, it's hard to say, but if you really think about it, those same issues are out there in every job. Truck Driving is a little more noticeable, because when a truck driver does it, it could cause a death. We see stories of serious wrecks involving trucks every single day of the week, and some of those are preventable. Some of them were because of driver behavior. Whether chapels couldn't do anything about it, to some extent we can, but in the long run, it's driver responsibility. I'll extend a helping hand, but you can't drag someone out."
Alan points out that truck driving is a taxing, lonely job, with some truckers turning to drugs, alcohol or other damaging habits to cope. At the chapel, drivers can find an ear willing to listen to their troubles and guide them back on the right roads.
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, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
