It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, November 24th. I’m Mac Watson. This newscast is “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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War Memorial Stadium was electric on Saturday as the University of Wyoming retired Josh Allen’s No. 17 jersey. Cowboy State Daily’s Anna-Louise Jackson was there and describes how Allen punctuated his love for UW with a dig at the university’s rival.
“He comes down onto the field late in the fourth quarter, and it's like, you kind of feel all the eyes, collectively, go to Josh Allen, and then they bring him out to the 50 yard line. They show you, know, some of his clips from, like, his greatest hits from college, and then he gives some brief remarks...The two biggest reactions were when he was introduced after that video play, and then when he concluded his speech with the dig at CSU.”
Allen finished his speech by saying, “And it will always suck to be a CSU fan, ” referring to the Colorado State University Rams.
Read the full story HERE.
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Speaking of the historic day in Laramie as the University of Wyoming retired Josh Allen’s number, fans came from all over to see the former Cowboy’s QB. Cowboy State Daily’s Anna-Louise Jackson reports there’s a common theme to Josh Allen fans.
“There's people from other parts of the state that have gotten to know him and followed him to Buffalo. And what everyone says is like many of the same things, like, he still knows his roots. He's a down to earth guy. He came and he braced, embraced Wyoming, and he did the same thing in Buffalo. And so it's this sense that he's kind of a regular guy. And even though he's had all this crazy success and he's had all of this, you know, fame brought to him, that he's still a pretty regular guy.”
Tyler and Stephanie Spear of Laramie say they not only love Josh Allen for what he's done for University of Wyoming football and the state, but that he's a good role model for their kids.
Read the full story HERE.
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A new research study says Utah's population will grow from 3.6 million people now to 5.6 million people by 2065. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that neighboring Wyoming, however, won't hit 1 million people for 170 years at its current pace of 0.4% growth.
“A new study is projecting that Utah's population is going to grow from 3.6 million people in 2025 to 5.6 million people by 2065 which is actually a more moderate rate of growth than they've previously anticipated. The thing that's going to be driving growth in Utah over the next 40 years is industry. It's jobs. And it's not only jobs in the thing that's going to be driving growth in Utah over the next 40 years is jobs. It's migration. It's people coming to Utah for the economic opportunities it provides. In a diverse economy, there are lots of industries that thrive in Utah, and this kind of sheds a spotlight on where Wyoming is lacking, because Wyoming doesn't have the same level of economic diversification, so it's for the niche fields that it has.”
Researchers with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute says Utah has several “unique demographic characteristics” that will determine its future trajectory. It’s still the youngest state in the nation and has one of the highest average household sizes, with several fast-growing areas projected to continue their growth in the decades to come.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s rural EMS crews are struggling to keep their ambulances rolling amid staff shortages, aging equipment, and a $30 million annual funding gap. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that sometimes, EMT workers have to adapt when the wheels literally fall off during an emergency transport.
“I talked to one EMS provider. He talked about how he was down to one ambulance. At one point, he had to go to the state and ask for a grant for $300,000 and for some reason, it didn't meet their level of being an emergency. So he had to wait, like a year to come back and finally get the money. And in the meantime, he's had to do some repairs on engines and mechanical problems on ambulances to keep them running.”
The state is struggling to fill a $30 million annual funding gap to enable EMS agencies to survive, according to a report from the Wyoming Department of Health released in June.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….
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Jose Mendoza disappeared on a trip home to Casper six years ago after visiting his mother in Utah. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that he also left behind mysterious clues that his sister believes point to someone harming him, and she refuses to give up the search for him.
“Carmen Couch, who is Jose Mendoza's sister, questions the last three transactions made on his bank account. Typically, those transactions he would run as a debit card using his four digit PIN number. So the last three transactions, which one was for gas on the night he was supposed to have returned to Casper and again, it was run as a credit. Then his card was used two more times the following day in Riverton, once again for gas and at a smoke shop, both of those were run as credit. She said he never ran that card. It was always debit. So she questions whether or not he actually used that card.”
Jose Mendoza, who would now be 46, disappeared in early May of 2019 following a trip to Utah to visit his mother. About five months later, Mendoza’s burgundy Subaru Forester was found abandoned more than 400 miles away on the Wind River Indian Reservation in October of 2019.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming radio man has had a wild ride in his career, but none more interesting than his time with NFL Hall of Famer, Kenny Stabler. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that with Stabler, Dave Montgomery witnessed some crazy things in the last days of a pre-cell phone golden age.
“Kenny Stabler, that bearded icon of 1970s NFL. He was a hero for the Oakland Raiders, took them to a Super Bowl, and would wear the ring wherever he went, and it was Dave Montgomery's job to keep an eye on that ring as soon as it came off Kenny's finger, because he was the kind of celebrity that if you asked him about his ring, the first thing he did was hand it to You.…Dave made a point of describing how he would see the ring come off at a place like Jackson's hole, classic bar in downtown Denver. He remembers seeing the ring come off and then travel through maybe 150 different people. And he was tracking it the whole night, just watching it.”
Besides working with one of the most colorful QB’s in NFL history, Montgomery has spent the better part of five decades building a Wyoming media empire.
Read the full story HERE.
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Anyone who pulls up to the Clear Creek Wood Bank at 97 U.S. Highway 16 East in Buffalo during the 2-4 p.m. window on Tuesdays will get a free allotment of split wood from the Bighorn Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that for some, this means the difference between having heat or not for the Wyoming cold winter.
“One of the guys, a logger, said that probably about two thirds of the people in that region have wood stoves. So, so one of the founders, she's a forester, she started this wood bank, had the idea, you know, she was working with a food bank, and saw, hey, you know, there's people that also need wood because she had split wood being stolen from her house in downtown Buffalo. They had a split wood fence, and so people are stealing it to use it for firewood. So she said, Hey, there's a need for a wood bank. And so they started that in 2022. Since then, it's grown.”
In addition to nearly 40 adult volunteers who help with cutting, stacking, and filling people’s vehicles with wood on Tuesdays, there are also students from the local Christian school and the New West High School in Buffalo who regularly come and help.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wolves have been stealing bait from underwater crab traps in British Columbia which some researchers claim amounts to “tool use." Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that some Rocky Mountain wolf experts say it’s impressive behavior, but a stretch to call it that.
“They caught some remote camera video, all the wolf that well, to get back on the they they trap a lot of crabs there. And the crab traps, they involve putting bait on a on a line with a buoy to float the line. And so they like bait kept disappearing from some of these traps…So through some remote cameras, they caught video of a wolf that was going out and swimming and grabbing the buoy, dragging it back onto shore to where she could get access to the rope, and then pulling on the rope and pulling in the bait and gobbling it up. And they some researchers taught her this is, oh, this is evidence that wolves use tools, trying to say that the rope and the buoy were somehow tools. So, I ran that past a couple of wolf experts here, you know, from this region, that have had a lot of experience with wolves. And they were like, you know, they had both seen the video and heard the report, and they're like, you know, that's clever, but is it like? Does that equal use of a tool? They said, nah. It just it shows wolves are adaptable.”
Wolf expert Rick McIntyre tells Cowboy State Daily that there have been some legitimate examples of tool use among wild animals. For example, legendary primatologist Jane Goodall documented chimpanzees using sticks to catch and eat insects, he said.
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
