It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, November 3rd. I’m Mac Watson.
This newscast is sponsored by Lisa Kinney for Congress. Lisa has, Chuck hasn’t. That’s why former Gov. Mike Sullivan has endorsed Lisa Kinney for Wyoming House. Learn why Lisa is the choice for Wyoming’s future at Lisa Kinney for Congress dot com.
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Republican Chuck Gray and Democrat Lisa Kinney, running for Wyoming’s U.S. House seat, filmed each other during a bizarre argument at a forum in Centennial. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the two candidates are accusing each other of lying and underhanded behavior during their campaigns.
“It's kind of a mess because on the one hand we don't have video so far of what happened right before the doorway clash. What we can see on the video is them videoing each other. There's two videos, one from each candidate, and Kinney is confronting Gray about political attack ads that a separate PAC, backed by Gray's father, has leveled against her. And then the woman who organized the event came and confronted Kinney. The accounts are different. Kinney said that she was pushed. The woman said that she only touched Kinney and told her she was out of line. It was definitely a unique ending to the forum at the Centennial Library, which is a casual event designed for the very rural voters in that area to get to know their candidates all the way down the ballot.”
Gray tells Cowboy State Daily in a text message that Kinney “decided to try to make a scene because she’s upset about an advertisement, and now is deciding to lie about what happened.” According to Kinney’s account, she approached Gray to discuss issues and tried to get him to take a photograph with her.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Casper mother was found dead inside her wrecked vehicle on Casper Mountain following a desperate dayslong search after she didn’t pick her kids up from the local Boys & Girls Club. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports Kandice Gunter’s sister says, “It’s not fair.”
“30-year-old Kandice Gunter had been missing for days as her photo was circulating around the internet, and different people were trying to organize search parties to go out and look for her. Over the weekend, her body was discovered, and her vehicle had launched off of Casper Mountain in an area known as Lookout Point over a guardrail. I spoke with her sister Kayla Gunter, who was distraught when she discovered the news that her sister had passed away. This was not the outcome that she was hoping and praying for. Gunter leaves behind two children, ages six and nine.”
At about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, multiple first-responder agencies were dispatched to Casper Mountain Road after reports that a vehicle had left the roadway and gone through a guardrail, the Casper Police Department reports. Responders located the vehicle and Kandice Gunter, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Read the full story HERE.
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Renowned wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen called a Yellowstone ranger an “asshole” for hazing a grizzly and wolves away from a carcass. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that he said it ruined a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for tourists who traveled thousands of miles to see the wildlife.
“Prominent wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen was there and he said there were probably 100 people gathered there. So he and others are upset because they say, you know, the younger bear that was circling in, he wasn't really trying to go for the people. It was just trying to take a wide berth to try to get his turn at the carcass, and so their argument is is that the Park Service jumped the gun, no pun intended, and kind of ruined that viewing opportunity for everybody because once the animals were pushed off, they didn't come back, and everybody lost their chance. I did talk to a photographer, another photographer, who said, you know, sometimes that's what happens. It's that the Park Service, they're just erring on the side of prudence, and yeah, it stinks when people's viewing opportunities may be cut short by this.”
Park rules state that there must be at least 100 yards between people and large predators such as grizzlies and wolves.
Read the full story HERE.
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A slow cashier kept one trucker at the counter just long enough to save his life before a fleeing van plowed straight through an Evansville truck stop. Cowboy State Daily’s Emma Jane Jackson reports one trucker says, “If I got my change right away, I'd have been walking right through that door.”
“Roger Meinerts is a trucker from Iowa, and he told me that he was the only customer inside the convenience store when a van plowed through the glass doors early Sunday morning. When he first heard it made contact, he kind of froze and then quickly moved out of the way. When he heard the van make impact, he quickly moved out of the way, and he said as soon as he got out of the way, the driver pressed on the gas again and drove clear through the store all the way to the other wall. The van was owned by Loenbro. It's a construction contractor company. When I reached out to them, the company's attorney said that they were reporting the van as stolen and that the driver was not one of their employees.”
Before he started recording the aftermath of the crash, Meinerts told Cowboy State Daily that several police officers had knees on the suspect’s back struggling to handcuff him, which is also something he heard the suspect yelling about afterward. The Evansville Police Department did not respond to Cowboy State Daily by publication.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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Wyoming emergency responders routinely cross into neighboring states to fight fires, respond to crashes or do rescues. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that some question the costs but a Sheridan County fire chief who crosses into Montana says emergencies do not recognize state boundaries.
“I spoke with Fire Chief Jeff Barron. He is the head of the Tongue River Fire District. He said that the fire district responds to emergencies over the state line five or six times a year. These are often vehicle accidents that occur in the winter, and he said more often than not they are residents of Sheridan County or involved vehicles that have Wyoming license plates. Chief Barron explained to me that a lot of times emergencies can't wait, and his fire department is the closest to the emergency. So even though maybe an accident happened in Montana, the closest fire department or emergency services unit is in Hardin, which is about 45 minutes away.”
Critics have questioned the use of Sheridan County taxpayer dollars to fight fires in Montana and raised concerns about a longstanding practice of providing mutual aid across the border without detailed public accounting of the expenses. Chief Barron says the expenses are relatively modest as the Tongue River Fire Protection District is staffed by volunteers who are not paid for emergency responses.
Read the full story HERE.
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Lilacs around Wyoming are still blooming in November, a rare detour for the colorful flowers that typically blossom in the spring. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Cheyenne Botanic Gardens founder Shane Smith blames the “strange weather we’re having right now.”
“It's unseasonably warm. We just haven't had those double-digit, you know, teens that kind of signal to the plants, hey, it's time for you kids to go to bed now. But a week to 10 days is what Don Day tells me will finally get that cold shot that will put everything to sleep once and for all. And the good news is, the lilacs are probably going to be fine. They're like wild animals, right? They know how to take care of themselves.”
A warmer-than-usual winter like last year’s would “create some havoc,” Smith tells Cowboy State Daily, particularly for fruit-bearing plants. But as homeowners, there’s not much anybody can do about it.
Read the full story HERE.
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An apprentice Park County falconer catches red-tailed hawks to train for hunting by dropping caged pigeons from her moving vehicle. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports the process often catches the attention of people who stop to help the pigeons — and end up scaring away the hawk.
“Somebody saw her doing this. ‘What are they doing to that poor pigeon? What kind of psycho is out here throwing pigeons out of their car?’ And the falconer explained it to me. The reason is if you stop the car, the hawk is going to get suspicious and fly off. The pigeon is in a cage that has snares on the outside. So the idea is the hawk swoops down, tries to get the pigeon, and gets caught in the snare. So that's what's going on with the pigeons and cages. She's still at the apprentice level at this point, and so juvenile red-tail hawks are kind of like the only bird that she's authorized to capture at this point in her career.”
Tessa Clifton is an apprentice falconer in Park County. Falconry is regulated by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and allows licensed falconers to hunt small game with trained raptors. It requires certification and training as an apprentice. Clifton has about a year left as an apprentice before she can become a general falconer.
Read the full story HERE.
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Scientists have discovered what they call “Peter Pan” salamanders in a Laramie pond. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that while their siblings move onto land and area residents escort them across roads, this version of Wyoming's only native salamander grows up but never leaves home.
“I spoke with Mason Lee. She's the senior project director with the University of Wyoming's Biodiversity Institute. She said the city gave them the go-ahead to look for what they're calling petomorphs. It's this type of salamander that basically looks like a tadpole and it continues growing in an aquatic setting versus moving to the land like most salamanders of this species. Western tiger salamanders are well known and common around Laramie. In fact, there's an initiative in the spring where people actually volunteer to help them migrate from the pond where they hatched and grew as tadpoles into land dwellers, and so they're helping them across sidewalks and city parks, only recently did biologists discover that pedomorphs, known as the ‘Peter Pan salamander,’ stays a tadpole that can grow up to a foot long in that pond.”
The technical term for what's happening is “facultative paedomorphosis.”
It's a mouthful for an idea that's wonderfully simple: An animal capable of metamorphosis doesn't necessarily have to do it.
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.
