It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, December 15th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Nebraska’s new producer-owned packing plant opened in May and is among the first to be built in America in a generation. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the model is something that Wyoming cattle ranchers would want in the Cowboy State.
“You have basically four companies that control 87% of the market. There's not a lot of room for anyone else in that. It's kind of become this kind of not. It's not a monopoly because there's four companies, I guess, but the competition isn't what ranchers feel is fair the way those packing plants work. It's very difficult for ranchers these days to make a living. They're price takers, not price makers.”
Nebraska has some inherent advantages when it comes to opening a vertically integrated packing plant like Sustainable Beef, which is owned by producers, feedlot owners and other investors, including a minority stake held by Walmart.
Read the full story HERE.
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Roy Vavra mysteriously disappeared in January 2006 after friends reported seeing an unknown white pickup parked in his driveway. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports the last time Ann Vavra-Faris spoke to her twin brother Roy Vavra, she could tell something was off.
“The last time Anne talked to her brother, she could sense that something was wrong. He had missed Thanksgiving and missed Christmas, and so she was concerned about him, and his cell phone wasn't working, so she caught him on his landline at the home he was living in, in Gillette, and she could tell something was off. He wasn't his usual, as she explained it, jovial self, he was more quiet. He was more withdrawn. He disappeared not long after, in January 2006.”
His sister hasn’t given up on finding answers, and now with the help of her cousin, Rachel Heaver, the two are determined to finally solve the mystery.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt. Gary Sams with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office directly at 307-687-6176. Tips can also be submitted anonymously at the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation website.
Read the full story HERE.
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Rodeo fans stampede to Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo, but one obnoxious “Arizona Urban Cowboy” manages to ruin every romantic possibility. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that between mechanical bulls and honky-tonk heartbreak, the only place to escape might be the dance floor at Gilley's.
“When people go to NFR, they go to the stadium, but a lot of folk will come to Vegas to celebrate NFR, and they won't ever step foot in the stadium…And I went to one of the watch parties at a place called Gillies, right on the strip at the old Treasure Island Resort. It's named after a famous country singer, and it is one of the Cowboys favorite place to go during an FR and what I found there is that if you're looking for a place to do some Honky Tonk dancing, you go to Gillies. And it's funny, the generational composition you get at a place like this, you've got every range. I mean, you got people in there looking like they snuck in on a fake ID, and then you got octogenarians, and they're on the dance floor together doing the Texas Two Step.”
The Wrangler’s National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas isn’t called the “Super Bowl of Rodeo,” for nothing. It’s 10 straight days of cowboys, cowgirls, riding, roping, and rodeo-goers running up and down the Strip.
Read the full story HERE.
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There has only been one verified photo of Billy The Kid and it sold for $2.3 million in 2011. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that since then, there have been a wave of newly "discovered" Billy The Kid photos but all have been debunked, including the one of him supposedly playing croquet.
“The problem that historians are facing is that people are using face recognition software to identify and claim that these photographs are famous celebrities. However, as we all know, there's doppelgangers out there. We all have a look at who we look like. There is also the issue that they only are getting 60 to 70% face recognition…So you cannot just use the face recognition software. You also have to use historic data, who the photograph was taken, what studio the photo was taken. You also have to use historic references, the studio who took the photo, and if that person was even in the area at the time, they're claiming the photo was taken.
Daniel Buck, an American West historian and author who has spent countless hours disproving these types of claims says that a fun game people play with software is to put their own face in and see what famous dead celebrity they resemble. Buck said his results came back as the Biblical Apostle Paul.
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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In Wyoming, the most famous bear was Grizzly 399. In Canada, it's a gigantic, 700-pound grizzly known as "The Boss." Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this bear walked away after being hit by a train in Alberta.
“I was able to connect with a photographer that's followed him closely for about a decade now, and he said, ‘Yeah, he really is an incredible bear.’ There's another bear called Split Lip, and that bear has a huge rip in his lip that scarred over, and that's courtesy of the Boss. The two of them have gotten in some real knock-down, drag-out fights, and both scarred each other. And he said. ‘It's getting to the point where the throne is slowly starting to tip from the Boss being the king of the park to Split Lip becoming king of the park.’ But it sounds as if the Boss still has quite a bit of life left him.”
Biologists estimate that The Boss is about 28-years-old and has fathered over half the cubs in Banff National Park.
Read the full story HERE.
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Critics of the 28 license plate-reading cameras in Jackson say they are the equivalent of robo-cops writing down your license plate number every time you drive by. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that critics say the cameras amount to a surveillance state.
“There is no presumption of privacy if you're out on Main Street. However, where this crosses the line, according to the ACLU, is being able to establish patterns that essentially is the same thing as someone slapping a GPS device on your vehicle. And you know, courts have ruled that that's a violation of your privacy through the Fourth Amendment…and they're worried about this surveillance pattern, that according to the mayor. He said that, in his words, his community has been harmed by aggressive immigration enforcement that went after non felon, non offending citizens in Jackson.”
Jackson and Cheyenne are the only two cities in Wyoming, so far, that utilize what are called “flock” cameras.
Read the full story HERE.
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At an appropriations hearing Friday, Wyoming Adjutant General Greg Porter fielded a question by Senate Committee Chair Tim Salazar about UFOs in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Porter said he preferred not to discuss UFOs in open testimony.
“Senator Tim Salazar chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, which makes him arguably one of the most powerful state lawmakers we have. And in the middle of the Wyoming National Guard's budget pitch, Salazar asked, ‘You have incidents of UAPs over your airspace,’ which is the new government named for UFOs, and General Porter answers,‘This isn't something I want to talk about in open testimony.’ This topic no longer cues spooky music, because back in November, December, January, we had multiple Wyoming sheriffs saying they either had reports or had personally seen strange flying objects in strange coordinated formations, often over critical infrastructures, which prompted the legislature to make a bill saying the National Guard can combat these things or deal with these things.”
Following a Cowboy State Daily request for clarification on either the UAP presence or the reasons Porter declined to discuss them publicly, the adjutant general gave “no additional clarification,” the Guard’s spokesman said in a text message.
Read the full story HERE.
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Army veteran and two-time Paralympian Bryan Price received a fully accessible house near Casper from a group called Homes For Our Troops. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the new home gives his family long-term stability and independence after years in spaces not suited for his wheelchair.
“He got a new house this past week thanks to an organization out of Massachusetts that's building these houses for vets that have been injured, you know, and can't they need kind of ADA houses for that that can allow people in wheelchairs to get around…He's been living in places that that weren't really handicap accessible…and it has all all the like, 40-some different adaptations to the house that make it easier for somebody with a wheelchair to get around and do things.”
Homes for Our Troops Executive Director Bill Ivey, who was in Casper for the ceremony, said the organization was excited to turn the home over to Price and his family.
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.
