It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, November 5th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson. “Brought to you by the University of Wyoming Center on Aging. Did you know that 1 in 3 Wyoming adults have pre-diabetes, and most don’t realize it? Are you tough enough to know your numbers? Take the quiz at: Find Out WY dot org."
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Dick Cheney, regarded as the most powerful vice president in U.S. history and former congressman of Wyoming, died Monday night at the age of 84. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Dick Cheney’s early life got off to a rocky start.
“He had a turnaround, because he flunked out of Yale, and he was a lineman for a power company in Wyoming, and then he ended up graduating university Wyoming, University Wisconsin, marrying his high school sweetheart, Lynn, and launching really a spectacular political career. The people that remembered him Tuesday remembered him as carrying strength and respect, carrying strength and commanding respect.”
Cheney died at his home in Wilson, Wyoming, from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
Read the full story HERE.
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Our continuing coverage on the passing of Dick Cheney continues on Cowboy State Daily. The nation is remembering Dick Cheney as the serious, steely-eyed, no-nonsense former secretary of defense and vice president who some dubbed a “war hawk” and others “Darth Vader.” Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that in his home state of Wyoming, they also say he was a heck of a funny guy.
“He thought he was going to a radio station in Riverton to be on a show, and sped there because he was behind. He pulled up, it was, it was held in the house, and apparently the radio station had moved out of that house a few months before. He didn't know that. He pulls up to this house and kind of barges through the door and I'm ready to get on the radio and find some woman in her nightgown, holding her baby, vacuuming her floor, because now it's her house. And he's like, yeah, that the radio's down downtown now. And he's Oh, okay, you know. And as he's leaving, she goes, Well, who are you? You know? He's like, I'm running for office. And she says, Well, okay, well, who are you? And he goes, I'm Al Simpson, and I want your vote.”
Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney was on the Natrona County High School football team, senior class president, and married his high school sweetheart Lynne Vincent.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Wyoming Republican Party on Tuesday asked a legislative committee to loosen state laws that allowed a court to overturn an internal election. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the committee agreed to one of the party’s many suggested tweaks.
“The way it works is the electoral chain is not quite connected already, right? You vote for precinct committee men and women from your neighborhood, from your party at a state run election, and then those go on to be voting members of the county party, who, in turn, can elect a state chair, who's not necessarily from among them, can elect state delegates, and the state delegates are not necessarily from among them, but this would take it a step further and say that state chair, or whoever can also vote. And so you're, you're kind of expanding the voting power beyond the realm of people that were chosen at the ballot box.”
The proposed change now advances to the state’s lawmaking session, which opens Feb. 9.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news, after this….
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Casper native and University of Wyoming football star Logan Wilson is now a different Cowboy…a Dallas Cowboy. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports on the former Cincinnati Bengal going to Jerry’s World in the DFW.
“He had played for six years at the Cincinnati Bengals, but was traded to the Dallas Cowboys right before the NFL trading deadline, so the hope is that he's going to get more playing time there. He was a starting linebacker with the Bengals, and had seen sort of his role get diminished. Cowboys are trying to make a push for the playoffs, so they're hoping that Logan can help sort of firm up the tackling.”
Always a great ambassador for his home state, Thomas has partnered with Visit Casper to promote local tourism and share the Wyoming way of life with a national audience.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming legislative committee advanced a bill Tuesday to criminalize dropping off ballots for other people, with a few exceptions. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that supporters of the bill say it protects election integrity, while critics say it could make felons out of well-meaning friends.
“It's a ban of ballot harvesting. They're nervous that someone's going to grab like, 20 ballots from a nursing home, people that maybe didn't know what they were doing when they filled them out, and drop them all off at the County Clerk's Office and sway an election. Detractors of the bill are saying this isn't happening in Wyoming, and proponents are saying, we only don't know whether it's happening because we don't have a law banning it.”
If the bill is signed into law, a person violating that law would be charged with a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Florida county sheriff’s office has what they say is the nation's first search and recovery otter for finding bodies underwater. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that a Wyoming sheriff’s office is “not counting out” the possibility of using a recovery otter.
“I talked to some search and rescue folks here in Wyoming, particularly Sweetwater County, where, you know, they have jurisdiction over that big part of Flaming Gorge. So that's something they deal with is, you know, from time to time, sadly, people who get lost in the gorge, in the Flaming Gorge reservoir, and they said, Well, you know, we don't have any immediate plans to bring an otter on board. It's not something outside the realm of possibility. They could definitely recognize the utility of it.”
A Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson tells Cowboy State Daily the department isn’t going to adopt an otter and hire a trainer. But if there were an otter trainer in Wyoming, the sheriff’s office might call and ask for help.
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
