It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 12th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Utahns who are banned from buying alcohol due to “extreme” DUIs won’t find sympathetic liquor dealers in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one dealer in Evanston says “If Utah says you can’t buy alcohol because you’re too bad of a drunk driver, then we’re not going to sell to you either.”
“Utah has the strictest drunk driving laws in the nation. Anyway, their legal threshold is point oh 5% or just about everybody else's point oh eight and this new law that went into effect January that says that if you're convicted of what's considered an Extreme DUI, you can't buy alcohol in Utah, and they put it on your driver's license or your official ID, it's in red bar right over your head that says no alcohol sale…So, basically, what it got me to wondering is if, as as they're handing out these extreme DUIs to people in Utah, they can't buy alcohol, there are we going to see something like we see with Colorado coming up to Cheyenne to get fireworks. It's very illegal in Colorado, so they come up to Cheyenne, just over the border, and buy their fireworks.”
Now liquor store and bar owners in Evanston who spoke to Cowboy State Daily said there’s no obligation to follow Utah’s laws, but the extra alcohol sales aren’t worth having it weigh on their consciences.
Read the full story HERE.
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Sublette County ranch hand Rachel Misiewicz was heartbroken when a Texas tourist ran over a working border collie during a cattle drive last fall. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Rachel is pushing for a law that would mandate drivers slow to 25 mph near livestock drives.
“On this tragic day last fall, a 11-month Border Collie cur cattle dog named Flo ran across the highway to get some cows and push them back to the herd so they can stay on the shoulder. Well, a couple from Texas allegedly was driving in a Ford Bronco going too fast. My sources say the woman was in the passenger seat, videoing it, and a man was driving, and they hit poor flow. Both the front tire and the back flow died pretty much immediately…Law enforcement showed up, but the driver was not cited.”
The petition, posted on Change.org, calls for legislation that would require motorists to slow to 25 mph when encountering cattle, horses, riders, or active livestock drives on public roadways and would establish a $3,000 fine for failure to comply.
Read the full story HERE.
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Right before Christmas, Navy veteran Al Ellis donated his 207-acre llama ranch in Sublette County as a sanctuary for veterans and first responders. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Ellis wanted to do this for the people who deserve it.
“Al Ellis donated his 207-acre llama farm to the Boulder Crest Foundation because the Boulder Crest Foundation serves veterans and first responders. They provide training and programs for veterans and first responders who have been through trauma. And Mr. Ellis said he has a high regard for those people and wants to basically give them a gift to just be as generous as he possibly can, because they deserve it…When his wife died in August, he decided he wanted to donate his land, his property, including his beautiful, two story log home, he looked he did some research for organizations, foundations, nonprofits, that would accept the land as a donation…So he ended up connecting with boulder crest through one of their program graduates, and that ended up being a really good match.”
Besides being a decorated Navy veteran, Ellis was also a former commercial abalone diver who built a successful pack llama business in Western Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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If she does decide to run for governor of Wyoming, Megan Degenfelder has President Donald Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the president is emphatically encouraging the Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction in a post to Truth Social.
“In Wyoming, the past three presidential elections, Trump has won nearly, or roughly 70% of the vote. It's an energy state he's big on that. It's socially conservative. He's been pretty big on that, and so yeah, for the foreseeable future, a Trump endorsement in Wyoming is still a huge deal. And I intercepted Dagenfelder. She was headed out of a school she'd been to a little school ceremony in Cheyenne at ARP Elementary, and I intercepted her on the phone. When I posed the question, ‘Did you know Trump was going to do this?’ She said,’ I was just leaving the elementary school, and it caught me by surprise.’”
Degenfelder hasn’t committed to run for governor, but has said she’s “strongly considering” it.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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An anti-rodeo law that would all but ban the sport in New York City represents a trend Wyoming rodeo defenders hate to see and they hope will not spread. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that rodeo advocates say even though New York is 2,000 miles away, the misinformation threatens cowboy culture.
“New York has a long history with rodeo. People may not realize that, but Madison Square Garden was actually way back in its history. Part of its origin story was professional bull riding, and they host the PBR there every year to sold-out shows. So, actually, rodeos are not a small thing in New York. But I think the thing is, is there are lots of animal rights groups out there who have been after rodeo for a long time, and so this is not the first time, nor probably will be the last, that a state has entertained some type of rule like this that's really aimed at just getting rid of rodeo.”
The proposed law, which landed on the New York City Council's New Year’s Eve agenda, would ban all calf roping, flank straps, and electric prods at rodeos.
Read the full story HERE.
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At the age of 11 years, 9 months, Wolf 1090F has earned the title of the oldest living wolf in Yellowstone. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz says that is a remarkable achievement considering the average lifespan of a wild wolf is 5 or 6 years of age.
“I talked to a couple biologists and that's a remarkable age. And one of them I talked to said, ‘You get out for some reason, there's a lot of wolves fight with each other a lot in Yellowstone.’ That's what affects the average lifespan. There's so much fighting and killing of wolves between wolves, it drives down the overall age, or drives up the mortality rate, drives down the average age of death.’ You get in places like Canada, where there isn't so much of that going on wolves can. It's not unusual to find wolves out there that are 12 years old or older.
She surpassed the age of the legendary 907F, who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day 2024, a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack.
Read the full story HERE.
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The first thing visitors see when they enter the newly opened Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi are four massive long-necked dinosaurs. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that three of these one-of-a-kind giants, and several other fossils in the world-class museum, are from the Cowboy State.
“When museums want to make a big impression, they go with dinosaurs. And when they want dinosaurs, they more often than not come to Wyoming, because Wyoming has not only a lot of dinosaurs, but some of the biggest name dinosaurs. So when the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi wanted to make a big impression with five long neck dinosaurs in their lobby. At least three of them came from a sauropod quarry near Hewlett, and we're talking about animals that are over 90 feet long, over 30 feet tall. The smallest of them is over 60 feet long. Of the three that are in there that are confirmed to be from Wyoming, and I have strong suspicions that the two other sauropods in that lobby, along with dozens of other specimens in that museum, came from Wyoming. They came with a wish list of what they wanted to make the biggest impression and make a world class natural history museum, and that meant Wyoming dinosaurs, as it often does.”
The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, opened to much fanfare in November. The largest natural history museum in the Middle East was designed to be one of the world's premier institutions of its kind.
Read the full story HERE.
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Laramie WWII veteran Bob Willis earned a Purple Heart after being blown off a tank in the Battle of the Bulge. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the veteran, who also protected Holocaust survivors, celebrated his 101st birthday on Saturday and says one thing saved his life in battle.
“Bob Willis was a longtime dentist in Laramie, and he was a World War Two veteran, and he says, ‘I'm not a hero, I'm just a survivor.’ But his story belies that he was among the soldiers that were a first on the front when the Battle of the Bulge broke out when the Germans staged a counter offensive in late 1944 early 1945 he spent weeks fighting that he climbed up on a tank. His Captain gave him the order to climb up on a tank. He gets up on the tank to tell the tank to shoot at the farmhouse, and then that tank takes fire from a German tank. The shell explodes below him, blows him up in the air, and shrapnel hits him as he's coming down. He understands that he's hit, but he also notices that his Book of Mormon that he had in his pocket, it went through that Book of Mormon. And so, he believes that the Book of Mormon stopped that shell fragment from coming and going inside his body and likely causing an infection.”
As one of the few remaining World War II vets from the “Greatest Generation” in Wyoming, he looks back over the past century with the war years still vivid in his mind. “I’m just a survivor, I’m no kind of hero.” Willis tells Cowboy State Daily.
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.
