It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 19th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.
–
With the Red Canyon Fire burning about 11 miles east of Thermopolis passing 100,000 acres in size, Gov. Mark Gordon has declared a fire emergency, even as crews report it’s 28% contained.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy spoke to generational ranchers in the path of the fire who are working together to save their homes and cattle.
“Ranchers here are frustrated because this is a fast moving fire… they're seeing these flames leap over 60 feet swaths of land that they had torn up and hoped to hold back the fire, and it's just not holding it back… We have the perfect temperature for a hot fire. You got high winds, hot temperature and dry fuel. It's definitely a dangerous mix, and it's scary to see. The terrain that this fire is in… it is a lot of ravines, a lot of crevices. Once the fire gets into those areas, it's nearly impossible to put out, until Mother Nature interferes and gives us snow or rain.”
Read the full story HERE.
The planes and helicopters have made a dramatic difference in fighting back the flames and the ranchers have been grateful to see them arrive and grow. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that there now are 425 personnel working the Red Canyon Fire.
“They brought in what they call a complex team, and that's a higher level team to manage the firefighting operations than was there before. And it comes with more people… It comes with more resources. There's a lot of aerial attacks… They're not trying to put out the fire with these things… They're dropping them around the fire to make these lines, these breaks, so that when or if the fire gets to this point, it's stopped.”
Also burning in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin is the Sleeper Ranch fire northeast of Meeteetse, which has burned over 20,000 acres and is 40% contained; and the Spring Creek fire about 10 miles southeast of Ten Sleep, which has burned over 3500 acres and is 24% contained.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Authorities in Campbell County had to drop attempted murder charges against three Mexican nationals when their alleged victim vanished.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Adrian Gonzalez-Oviedo, Adan Oviedo-Rivera, and Juan Gonzalez-Rendon were accused of beating their roommate and dumping him in a desolate and freezing stretch of Campbell County with no shoes or shirt in November of last year.
“The victim’s sort of a key in the case, because they based at least a lot of their probable cause… on his interview after they found him shoeless and cold in November and beaten. And so if they were going to go to trial, and they had one trial scheduled for July and two more scheduled for August, they were going to need him, according to these documents by the county attorney, and they couldn't find him.”
The sheriff’s office notified ICE that it was releasing the three defendants, and ICE picked up each of the three men within two days.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The Wyoming man who earned the nation’s highest civilian award for heroism — rescuing a mother and son from their burning home in 2022 — is now battling back from a devastating crash with a semitrailer on Interstate 80 that nearly killed him earlier this month.
35-year-old Ryan Pasborg of Green River, who received the Carnegie Medal for heroism from Gov. Mark Gordon last year, was nearly killed when his Nissan Titan crashed into a semitrailer stopped in the middle of the interstate. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Pasborg was recently released from the University of Utah Hospital after being airlifted there Aug. 4.
“He was driving down Interstate 80 he said about midnight on August 4 or little after and there was a semi, he said, parked in the middle of the interstate without lights or cones or anything. So he hit the back of this flatbed semi at about 80 miles an hour. He spent much of August in Utah hospital, and he started his own business about a year ago. So he has no insurance, and he is just needing some help right now.”
The crash left him with a broken sternum, bleeding on the brain, a punctured lung, broken ribs, a broken femur and mangled left hand. He also underwent surgery on his spleen due to blood loss.
Read the full story HERE.
–
These might be the dog days of summer, but Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day has compiled enough information and confidence to put out his extended forecast for the upcoming 2025-2026 winter season.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke to the state’s most trusted weatherman - and if Day is right, brace yourself and bundle up now. According to his forecast, Wyoming's winter will come early, stick around longer, and bring plenty of snow and cold with it.
“He thinks that it's going to be… a colder and snowier winter, not just over last winter… but snowier and colder overall for the last 30 year average for Wyoming winters… it doesn't mean persistent cold. We're not going to see those long stretches of extreme negative temperatures, but we're going to go from extreme cold to warmer days. And that might sound annoying, but what that means is storms are moving, and if there's movement in the atmosphere, that means more precipitation, which means more snow.”
While there's still plenty of uncertainty about what will unfold in the coming months, Day said he's "around 70%" confident in his analysis of how current oceanic conditions, historical data and long-range weather modeling will manifest over Wyoming between October 2025 and February 2026.
Read the full story HERE.
–
A trailer fire in which a 43-year-old woman was found dead Friday north of Riverton remains under investigation.
Five Riverton Volunteer Fire Department units and 16 firefighters responded just after 8 p.m. Friday to the trailer home that was fully engulfed in flames. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that so far, there are no indications of suspicious happenings in the fire, though authorities say it’s too early to make a definitive statement.
“It's too early to say whether everything was benign, but it's also too early to call anything suspicious. But you know, Fremont County news reporters… are taught that you don't assume the person died of the fire, just that they were dead in the fire. And that's because of a very famous double homicide case from 2011 where people were found dead in the fire, and it turned out they were stabbed to death, not saying that's what happened here… when you talk to officials about fatalities and fires in Fremont County, there's that extra layer of caution.”
No one else was found dead or injured in the blaze, according to the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department Chief. The state fire marshal's office is investigating the origin and cause of the fire.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Republicans have a history of painting Democrats as soft on crime, and Democrats could be vulnerable to that label in the midterm elections if they oppose President Donald Trump’s bid to extend the takeover of the D.C. police force beyond 30 days, an extension that requires congressional approval.
Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports that as Trump plans to expand his law enforcement crackdowns into other blue cities — something he announced last week — Wyoming’s Republican congressional delegation is seizing the moment.
“The Wyoming congressional delegation is very supportive of President Donald Trump's takeover of the Metropolitan Washington DC police force. What's interesting is that on the other side of the aisle, nobody is supportive of this... if the Democrats do not support extending this, the Republicans can use it as fodder for labeling them soft on crime, and that this is going to be a really big issue, because Washington has a very high crime rate. It has fallen in recent years, but it's still very high. In fact, we have the fifth highest homicide rate in the country.”
A vote on whether to allow Trump’s extension of the takeover is likely to be one of the first orders of business in September when Congress returns from its monthlong recess.
Read the full story HERE.
–
If Samuel L. Jackson has had it with all those bleeping snakes on that bleeping plane, he should steer clear of Wyoming.
Rattlesnakes are so common at the South Big Horn County Airport near Greybull, airport staff have gotten used to them, although managers told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz they might freak visitors out.
“Really avid Wyoming pilot, because of weather last week, he had to land at the airport in Greybull, and they noticed on the hangar there's a warning saying, watch out for rattlesnakes. We've killed two in the hanger so far. And so I reached out to the manager of the airport, and he said, Yeah, that's just a Tuesday… that's also where that bone yard is, where all those old vintage planes are. He said, anybody who wants to go walk around that boneyard, the first thing he tells them is, watch for the rattlesnakes.”
So far, nobody has been bitten. And as a bonus, the rattlesnakes are credited for controlling mice and other vermin.
Read the full story HERE.
–
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.
