It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, December 3rd. I’m Mac Watson.
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The University of Wyoming is getting a $1 million dollar grant from the Trump Administration's Department of Ed. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the University’s Firearms Research Center is tasked with creating nonpartisan public school courses about the Second Amendment.
“All of our congressional delegates like it, and they did that, you know, they, they see this is coming from the Trump administration, the Department of Education…they were thankful in that regard. And I talked to Jeremy Harold, who's a state representative…he's been a strong advocate for gun rights…Those behind the grant, just thought that there was a gap with or just not adequate education. What they see is historically accurate, straightforward education in serious civics classes about the Second Amendment specifically.”
The curriculum will focus on factual information rather than the typical heated political debates around the Second Amendment and firearms policy, UW College of Law professor George Mocsary, the Firearms Research Center’s director tells Cowboy State Daily.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Cheyenne Frontier Days lineup has been announced and one famous and familiar face will be back in the Cowboy State. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Blake Shelton will highlight the Frontier Nights concert lineup that was announced Tuesday evening.
“Cheyenne Frontier Days is announcing their concert lineup just a little bit earlier than usual…Blake Shelton's coming back. It'll be a sixth time back in Wyoming. Blake Shelton, of course, you know, he took a four year hiatus. He stepped back from the voice, after 23 seasons…he also found enough time to write a new album.
Other notable acts include country star Trace Adkins and an up-and-coming Texas bar band named Treaty Oak Revival.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Douglas couple is trying to salvage what they can from their 1923 Craftsman bungalow home that was devastated by fire Friday morning. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that a shop next to the home full of the husband’s tools also burned.
“A neighbor who lives, not only on their street, but a street over a few houses down, got up, looked out the window and saw this orange glow. Went to check it out. It was a cottonwood tree in this couple's backyard, and their whole shop, which was just a few feet away from their house, was on fire, along with this tree, fire department is called, and the end result is their house has significant fire loss, as well as the shop is gone, and they are trying to determine what they can salvage from their home.”
Homeowner Judy Naughton tells Cowboy State Daily that she was told by fire investigators that they think the fire likely started in a wood stove in the shop, but the investigation is on-going.
Read the full story HERE.
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While Josh Allen sets NFL records as one of the best football players on the planet, his underdog story and MVP performance on the field are keeping the University of Wyoming in the national spotlight. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that UW officials are thrilled with the publicity.
“One of the kids I talked to, George Pollard, three years ago when he told his classmates he was going to come to Wyoming, the first thing out of their mouth was, ‘Oh, hey, that's Josh Allen's school. Did Josh Allen go to school here?’ I mean, that was three years ago, long before the Super Bowl ad. So, the University of Wyoming is basically getting the kind of publicity that money just can't buy. You can't buy that spot on the front page article that I did about the Josh Allen effect.”
While today Allen is widely recognized as one of the top professional football players in the world, he was rather famously overlooked as a high school recruit before being recruited and ultimately coming to play for the University of Wyoming Cowboys.
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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A Casper man who ran for U.S. Senate in 2024 and made headlines with an aspiration to buy TikTok can keep suing a former state legislator, a judge has ruled. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Reid Rasner’s lawsuit will survive at least into the evidence-swapping phase.
“Judge Kervin sat down and said, ‘Okay, I'm going to look at this showing grace to Reid Rasner, and just kind of being soft toward his claims at this stage. That's required at this stage, according to case law. So he did that, and under that, that soft standard, yes, it survived, and it immediately got catapulted into the discovery phase, so the evidence swapping. And then after the discovery phase, there's other parts, including Bouchard, at that point, can ask for the court, once he has the evidence at his fingertips, he can ask the court to judge the case early in his favor at that point as well.”
Rasner claims former state legislator Anthony Bouchard defamed him as part of "a coordinated smear campaign."
Read the full story HERE.
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The town of Rock Springs hired a 300-goat army to eat through weeds clogging drainage canals this past spring. Now homeowners in Fort Collins, Colorado, are using 600-pound hogs to root out unwanted weeds, but Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz finds the answer to the question, “Are hogs better than goats?”
“The guy who has a hog, said they're really good at weed mitigation, because they go through and actually they root around. They rip things up by the roots there. There are people that have used goats for weed mitigation in Wyoming. And he said, ‘Yeah, goats are great, but they'll just kind of go along and either nibble the tops of plants or or nibble plants down to the ground, whereas the hogs go a step further and rip out the roots.’ So they're trying it in Fort Collins. It seems to be fairly effective down there.”
So will Wyoming see hogs replacing goats for weed control? Weed and pest control experts contacted by Cowboy State Daily said they haven’t heard of hogs being used here in the Cowboy State yet, but they weren’t opposed to the idea.
Read the full story HERE.
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A 64-year-old Cheyenne man faces an attempted aggravated vehicular homicide charge. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Calvin Alexander is accused of striking and injuring a Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputy with his vehicle during a wild Monday evening traffic stop.
“This guy didn't want to pull over. Basically, this guy didn't want to pull over, though the sheriff's office responded. Just kept going back and forth. He's just kind of driving slow and doing U-turns. Finally, they think they've got him to stop. They get out of their cars to go approaching and he instead, according to the sheriff's office, he goes on, hits one of the deputies, hurts them, and keeps trying to get away. And it's not until the sheriff himself arrives and kind of blocks his car in that way that they actually get him and even then, he still resisted. They had to pull him out of the car, and they finally had to tase him to get him going.”
The Sheriff’s office report states Alexander was booked into the Laramie County Detention Center on charges of interference, felony property destruction, driving under the influence, aggravated fleeing, and eluding police.
Read the full story HERE.
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It took three hours, sedatives, a lot of manpower, and a special tractor-forklift rig to get a horse out of a ditch in northeast Colorado on Sunday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that in the Rocky Mountain West, rural responders are prepared for livestock rescues.
“A horse in Weld County, Colorado, fell into a ditch. Its owner couldn't get it out, so the owner called the local fire department and multiple agencies coordinated to get the right tools for the job, and the animal control officer on the Weld County Sheriff's Office staff contacted a local veterinarian to sedate the horse because it wasn't too keen on being rescued, because it's a frightening situation. So it was a team effort by all the agencies involved, but more importantly, everybody who was there knew what needed to be done and knew what they were capable of doing, and if they didn't have the tools or the expertise, they know they knew which agency to call, who would have those tools or expertise or both. And that's something that Wyoming livestock owners should take to heart, is that they don't have to do this themselves.”
The Ault-Pierce Fire Department, Eaton Fire Protection District, Windsor Severance Fire Rescue, Banner Health Ambulance, and the Weld County Sheriff's Office all braved freezing temperatures to safely extract the stranded horse.
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.
