It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, September 26th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA.
–The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Obama- and Biden-era rules around a common abortion-inducing drug, after attorneys general of 22 states, including Wyoming, urged the nation’s top health officials to take a closer look at adverse events linked to the drug. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke with the Wyoming Attorney General and reports many petitions like these come across his desk, but this one caught his attention.
“Attorney General Keith Kautz told me, look, when I get these, I look and see if this is even in Wyoming's interests and if there's merit to it. This study is from a partisan group, but it claims to have fairly reliable footing, sourcing claims across some 800,000 abortion cases. And what it says is that the adverse events that are associated with this drug are way higher than those listed on the label. Basically saying it's being passed off as less dangerous than it actually is.”
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary responded to the Republican AGs’ July 31 letter with their own, which surfaced publicly this week.
Read the story HERE.
–
A body believed to be that of a 58-year-old elite endurance athlete and Cheyenne resident, James “Dingo” Dominguez, was found Wednesday.
Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schewbke reports Dominguez appears to have drowned in July when a specialized rowboat he was in capsized during a major storm on Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana.
“He's an elite endurance athlete, a former Marine, member of the Navy, worked for Homeland Security, and so he's also part of an organization called or word bound, which is an organization dedicated to rowing 16,000 miles across three oceans for charity. It's organization in Cheyenne, which is, has a has, like, there's just like three of them. So it's just like a small, probably informal organization, but they plan to row 16,000 miles between, starting in November. They're going to go across portion of the Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico, and finish up in 2027.”
His identical twin brother Jerry Dominguez told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the discovery ends a grueling two months for the family.
Read the story HERE.
–
For more than a century, those in need of medical care in Sublette County were forced to drive more than 70 miles to get to a hospital. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker says that has changed now that Sublette County Health Hospital has opened its doors.
“This is a huge impact on people that need regular visits to the doctor. I also spoke to the owner of a cancer awareness nonprofit who told me that this facility specifically is going to mean a lot of really great things for women in the area. They're going to be able to get mammograms, they're going to be able to get the preventative treatment that they need and hopefully prevent some pretty bad health effects down the line. It was the only county in Wyoming not to have a hospital.”
Senator John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman joined Gov. Mark Gordon in Pinedale on Thursday to cut a ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of the hospital.
Read the full story HERE.
–
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced workers have detected bird flu in commercial turkey flocks in South Dakota in the past month, leading to the killing of more than 400,000 birds. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Protection Service’s website shows eight confirmed flocks of birds in South Dakota and one backyard flock affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza.
“From the USDA perspective, yeah, this is a deal that could become a bigger deal. You know, 400,000 turkeys are a lot of turkeys. Here in Wyoming, we don't have any commercial poultry growers, but we do have backyard flocks. And so I talked to a couple of farmers, one in South Dakota on the Pine Pine Ridge Reservation, and another in eastern Wyoming, and both of them have turkeys that they just put out there in free range. The woman who owns the farm in Wyoming said that.”
A total of almost 440,000 birds have been culled and other outbreaks during the past month have been detected in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Montana.
Read the full story HERE.
–
I’ll be back with more news, right after this.
–
Laramie County Community College is considering a name change. But a name change would be costly, in the six figure range, but would better represent what the college offers, including various bachelor's degrees. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean says it would also clear up confusion, because the college isn’t in the town of Laramie, but in the Laramie County city of Cheyenne.
“In looking at what contributes to a student from Colorado or Utah coming to Wyoming at L Triple C and what discourages them, that was one of the things they found, is that the name is confusing. The students don't realize that it's actually closer to their home than they think in Colorado, for example, and that's a factor in their decision. Why they might pick a college this is close to home. I can, you know, still maintain contact with my family while going to school. They also don't realize, because of the community in the name, they don't realize there are Bachelor of Science degrees, that there's a residence hall, that there's an orchestra, that there are all these things that are more regional college would offer.”
School officials say the process will take about 18 months to decide on the new moniker.
Read the full story HERE.
–
Albany County is seeking $175 thousand dollars from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security to create an anti-terrorism task force. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker spoke with Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans on Thursday, who says that the county is seeking special tactical response training, emergency communications equipment, armored personnel protection and other equipment.
“This is largely an initiative to get ahead of these threats, to be preventative, rather than reactionary. Now these funds are going to come from the federal level, and one county commissioner, Pete Gosar, told me that he's concerned that some of these major cuts to the federal budget could impact his ability to receive this grant. Nonetheless, they're still going to go ahead and try to get this terror Task Force off the ground, and hopefully big things are coming soon to Albany County.”
County officials won’t give specifics on what potential threats there could be for Albany County.
Read the full story HERE.
–
When hunters kill big game animals, there’s a lot left over once the meat has been taken: hide, bones, guts and such. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports, to combat careless and illegal carcass disposal, Wyoming Game and Fish have installed carcass dumpsters at several locations in the Sheridan/Buffalo area.
“Game and Fish is concerned that it can, you know, accelerate the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, which is that condition that is 100% fatal and infected most deer and elk. So what game and fish has done is they increasingly start to put these carcass dumps dumpsters around so encouraging hunters, rather than just toss your carcass anywhere and everywhere, which is illegal, by the way, you're allowed to leave a carcass at a kill site, but you're not allowed to just take it and throw it hither and yon. You're obligated to take it to a landfill or something, and so game of fish is just trying to make that easier. You know, the old saying that the best way to get people to do something is to make it convenient for them. And so hunters have a place where they can go and dump their carcasses in these dumpsters that are far enough removed”
Game and Fish says the response from hunters and citizens has been positive, with the most heavily used dumpsters averaging approximately 7 tons of carcasses during the hunting season.
Read the full story HERE.
–
And Cowboy State Daily’s Mac Watson has our final story for today.
There’s a newly-discovered comet streaking across the night sky, and any Wyomingite with a good pair of binoculars can see it for the next month.
The “SWAN Comet,” as it has been nicknamed, was discovered by an amateur astronomer on Sept. 11. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi says this is an extraordinarily rare event.
“This comet was found by an amateur astronomer, and then once they alerted other observatories, they checked out the same spot and they saw the same thing. So it's we don't know that much more about it at this point. But one of the things that is interesting is that this is the third time in human history, as far as we know, that we've detected a comet that is not from our solar system. It's from outside of our solar system, which is where most of our comets come from, which suggests that our solar system moved through an interstellar field of debris and pick some things up. So it's the third time in seven years that we found a comet that didn't originate from our neighborhood.”
Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator at the University of Wyoming, encourages Wyomingites to find the SWAN Comet while it’s visible. It might be a while before there’s another comet we can see from Earth.
Read the full story HERE.
–
And that’s today’s news! As this is my final newscast for Cowboy State Daily, I want to thank you, the audience, for continuing to tune in to our daily video news, supporting our mission to bring you the stories that matter to Wyoming. I am pleased to turn over the anchor desk to veteran broadcaster Mac Watson, who will be anchoring the Cowboy State Daily Video News going forward. To find out more about Mac, you’ll want to check out this weekend’s episode of the Roundup! Mac and I talk about his career in radio, about his life and family, and he’s got some very entertaining stories to tell! You can find the link to this really great conversation 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.
