It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, December 12th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The financial landscape of college athletics is straining the University of Wyoming’s athletics budget as it tries to keep up with exploding NIL deals for Division I recruits. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland explains the reasons why the school is asking the Legislature for more money in addition to their annual budget.
“What they are saying is that this settlement involving the NCAA recently, this past summer, changed everything for them. Changed the dynamic…They're losing, I think it was, half a million from the NCAA as part of the settlements, losing between 300 to 350,000 from the Mountain West Conference as a result of shifting around there and then there's also added economic burdens, like having to extend health care and scholarship offerings to these athletes.”
The extra $3 million would bring the state’s annual contribution to the program to just over $19 million, UW spokesman Chad Baldwin confirmed to Cowboy State Daily.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Rock Springs family of eight lost their rural rental home, four pets and all their possessions in a fast-moving fire driven by high wind Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the family is now split up among relatives while the community rallies to help them find new housing.
“I was told by the fire chief that in Sweetwater County that they responded to this home, a rural home north of Rock Springs, they found smoke throughout coming out of the house, and then the winds that day were like 35 to 55 mile an hour gusts, it took them seven hours to put out the fire. Officially, there is no cause of the fire, but the wife in the family told me that they had a fireplace on and she believes that could have contributed to it. What we do know is that four of their pets passed away in the blaze. The family lost their Christmas presents and everything like that.”
The home, which has been determined as a total loss, had been the family’s residence for 18 months and had six bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Wyoming pilot flying to a visit with a doctor ran out of fuel and made a safe emergency landing on U.S. Highway 14 near Greybull on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that pilot Martin Mercer did the right thing by landing on the highway.
“We have a lot of experienced pilots in Wyoming, and a lot of times they do have to make emergency landings on the highways. And I think people might not know, or they’ve forgotten, that's what the highway system was partially established to be, was to establish long stretches of pavement that could be used as runways, and that was intended in the event of military mobilization. But in Wyoming's case, it's more often used as emergency landing strips for people who have problems with their planes, and usually it's single engine, fixed wing aircraft.”
After Mercer landed, he had the police take him to his appointment, then after refueling, authorities blocked traffic so he could take off and safely fly home.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Albany County Conservancy is accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of concealing eagle deaths in Carbon County. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that biologist Mike Lockhart says golden eagle deaths are soaring due to wind farms.
“Just based on his own observation of the prevalence of eagles, he's noticed a precipitous decline. There are places you used to be able to go and see like 1415, of them hanging out. Well now he goes there and he doesn't see any so their numbers have declined. You know, quite a bit on that metric. He's also tagging the birds…He's looking for a percentage and so of the 160 or so birds he's tagged, he's been able to confirm deaths of 29 birds, half of which were close to half of which were wind farm but there's another 49 birds that had just disappeared.”
The Albany County Conservancy has filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia to force the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release all 1,166 pages of the incident reports about bald and golden eagle deaths and injuries related to the Seven Mile Hill, Ekola Flats, and Dunlap wind farms.
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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Brody Cress of Hillsdale, Wyoming, secured a top spot at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports he rode a legendary animal named Virgil.
“Virgil is going out on top. He has done a great ride, and he's definitely a horse that has a history, and we will continue to watch both Brody's Brody crest and Brody wells at the NFR.”
Cress scored 89.5 points, coming in second to Damian Brennan, who posted a 90-point ride.
Read the full story HERE.
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A DoorDasher is accused of going on an anger-fueled rampage around Cheyenne on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that William R. Ingleby is facing multiple charges on suspicion of threatening people with a loaded 9 mm handgun and physically fighting a 17-year-old.
“A 24 year old guy in Cheyenne that's facing some serious charges related to his pulling a gun on people performing all kinds of acts, at least six acts of road rage, and also fighting with a teen …This individual is facing aggravated assault charges with a weapon, possession of a weapon, also reckless driving. There were six 911 calls in a period of like 15 to 20 minutes of this guy and his girlfriend going around Cheyenne and cutting people off, threatening them, giving them the finger and things like that.”
The aggravated assault and battery charge against Ingleby carries a potential punishment of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, while the possession of a weapon with intent charge carries a potential penalty of up to five years in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office is reporting that a domestic violence incident in rural western Wyoming has left one man dead and an 8-year-old child with a gunshot wound. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that deputies were informed the suspect, 40-year-old Chazz Lilly, was still in the home.
“They get there and they hear the suspect is still at the home. He's potentially, armed. They approach it that way. Eventually enter and discover that the guy is dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot. What isn't clear in the statement from the sheriff's office is whether the eight-year old who suffered a gunshot wound was one of the four children that were involved, or if it was somebody else’s.”
The sheriff’s office says an investigation continues and that “no other information will be released at this time.”
Read the full story HERE.
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Glacier National Park is ending its reservation system for getting into the park, which was meant to keep the park from getting mobbed. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that insiders are saying that national parks are getting overrun anyway.
“It kind of backfired on them, because what happened is, everybody decided, ‘oh well, the heck with your reservations. I'll just show if you said it at seven, I'll show up at six.’ And so, according to what the park supervisors reported as saying, there were a lot of people coming in in the pre-dawn darkness, so you just had a lot of traffic, you know, going through. And you know, in the dark when, you know, windy, narrow roads, lots of wildlife. And so they said, You know what? This isn't working. This is having unintended consequences.”
According to reports, the park plans to end reserved entry during the summer 2026 season.
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.
