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Great marriage tip: "We listen and we don't judge"

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Bonus Video 2: Thursday, January 30, 2025

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You Still Here? Thursday, January 30, 2025

Bulletproof face mask vs different caliber bullets.....

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Bonus Video 1: Thursday, January 30, 2025

"We need to Make Asylums Great Again," as narrated by MMA announcer Steve Inman.....

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Steve Inman: Thursday, January 30, 2025

"I think we should diversify every position but mine...."

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Today In Politics: Thursday, January 30, 2025

Morris is trying to leave the party early but not if Clifford has anything to say about it, as narrated by MMA announcer Steve Inman.....

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Steve Inman: Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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Bonus Video 1: Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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Today In Politics: Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Why it's always good to make sure everyone is on the same page when you go hunting....

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Bonus Video 2: Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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You Still Here? Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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Bonus Video 1: Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Perhaps the best NFL commercial of all time.....

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Today In Sports: Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

A Casper man says he's being forced to part ways with his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig at his wife's behest, blaming the vehicle's irresistible appeal to the opposite sex.

"I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less," Austin Griess wrote in a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post advertising his lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon for sale. "My wife is making me sell my lifted AMC Eagle because of all the attention it brings. 

"I only have eyes for her, yet this car seems to draw in way too many female lookers for my comfort."

Austin Griess found the 1984 AMC Eagle 4X4 Wagon on Facebook Marketplace during the dead of winter.

During the cold months he worked on it, installing a lift kit, tuning it up and making it reliable enough to serve as a daily driver. Then he said he turned it into a true “chick magnet” by added a modern stereo.

The goal was to debut the finished wagon with 150,000 original miles on it at a Memorial Day car show.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We didn't make it in time for entry,\" Griess said."}]

"The payment is due here in June," he joked. "No trophy making a payment."

After months of wrenching and modifying the Oldsmobile, he said that his wife has had enough of competing with the AMC for attention.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The wife just kind of had enough of me at that point,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"So, the Eagle is now looking for its next owner."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding Bigfoot"}]

Along with making whoever drives it irresistible, "This would be a perfect Bigfoot hunting rig,” said Griess, adding that his day job is in sales.

[{"type":"text","text":"The four-door Eagle is rugged, practical, and weird. "}]

"That's the ideal car to take your wife and two kids and throw all your crap in the back, go to the mountains for a picnic, and go fishing" says mechanical philosopher Ron Gordon. 

The Eagle is powered by a 4.2-liter inline-six engine shared with old Jeeps.

The original muffler is still hanging on, although Griess admits it's become a little rough around the edges.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a little bit raspy,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Perfect For Wyoming"}]

Long before crossovers filled dealership lots, vehicles like the AMC Eagle were doing much of the same work.

Ron Gordon owned an auto shop in Big Piney for 15 years and has spent nearly 70 years around cars. When shown photos of Griess’ golden Eagle, his first reaction was blunt.

"One of the Lee brothers made it: Ug Lee or Home Lee," Gordon said with a laugh.

[{"type":"text","text":"But beneath the humor was genuine admiration."}]

"It was a pretty unique car in its day," he said. "It was the first real sport utility vehicle on the market."

[{"type":"text","text":"The Eagle debuted years before today's crossover craze."}]

It combined station wagon practicality with four-wheel-drive capability, making it particularly appealing in places where winter weather and rough roads were facts of life.

"It'd be good for anything from going fishing or to sheep ranch," Gordon said.

That versatility made vehicles like the Eagle a natural fit in the Cowboy State. 

Griess agrees, calling it "the perfect Wyoming car — great for snow, inclement weather and getting off the paved roads."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before SUVs"}]

To understand why people get nostalgic about station wagons, Gordon said you have to remember what Wyoming life looked like decades ago.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then, a trip to town wasn't a quick errand."}]

"It was 60 miles to go buy groceries," Gordon recalled. "When you got in the car to go someplace, it was an event."

Station wagons weren't fashion statements, he added, "They were tools. They hauled groceries, hauled kids, and camping gear." 

Gordon remembers one summer when his family traveled to Idaho, where his father was working in the mountains.

The family camped, and he and his brothers slept in the back of a station wagon.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"There was a bear come in one night,\" Gordon said."}]

The animal poked holes in juice cans before dogs chased it away and up a tree. Looking back, Gordon laughs at the memory.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I guess the station wagon was a safe haven for me,” he said."}]

For families throughout the West, station wagons were simply part of life before minivans hit the scene.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Everybody that had a big family had a station wagon,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Time Machine "}]

Griess was born in 1988, but said he grew up surrounded by remnants of the decade. 

His parents were older. His uncles still wore the giant mustaches that survived long after the 1980s were over. 

"Life was simpler back then," says Griess. "If you wanted to do something, you just did it." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The AMC Eagle was meant to embody that mindset. "}]

"It just screams going out and camping with just the necessities," he said.

Music helps complete the vision. The Eagle has speakers — of course. Its soundtrack, according to Griess, has plenty of Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent, and old-school rock.

It’s the kind of music that sounds best with the windows down and a dirt road ahead.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let The Eagle Fly'"}]

Selling a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle won't be easy. Building it was part of the fun, said Griess, and bringing it to life was the reward. 

"It's hard to part with,” he added. "But when you have limited space, you've got to let go sometimes. Let the Eagle fly free."

Its next owner will get a lifted station wagon, a conversation starter, a piece of nostalgia, and a camper.

Or, as Gordon puts it, they'll get exactly what station wagons were always meant to be, "a helluva good car." 

AMC Eagle IMG 5493 6 20 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Casper Man Selling His 1984 AMC Eagle 'Chick Magnet' Because Wife Wants It Gone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper man says his wife is making him sell his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig — a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon with 150,000 miles he says attracts too much female attention. "I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less,” he said.

Casper Man Selling His 1984 AMC Eagle 'Chick Magnet' Because Wife Wants It Gone

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

There was a lot of wet weather and strong winds across Wyoming on Saturday, and they combined to produce a short-lived but threatening landspout tornado in Sublette County.

Big Piney resident Stephen Nelson was out on his deck when he noticed something swirling around north of town.

“I was doing something and thought, ‘That’s a dust devil.’ Then it was a big dust devil. Then it was a funnel cloud," Nelson told Cowboy State Daily.

The funnel cloud snaked its way from the ground up to the ominous storm clouds overhead. Nelson spotted it around 11:55 a.m., and it was gone by noon.

“The storm has moved over towards the Pinedale area,” he said. “I’ve heard, second and third hand, that they’ve lost power in Pinedale.”

, over 732 Rocky Mountain Power customers reported power outages in Sublette County around 1:30 p.m. The issue had been addressed by 2 p.m.

However, landspout tornadoes weren’t the primary concern of Wyoming’s meteorologists on Saturday. They were keeping a closer eye on potential 70-mph wind gusts and whether this weather would bring any precipitation.

“We’re busy today,” said meteorologist Taylor Wittman with the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Riverton. “We’ve got some active weather, but the tornado was a bit of an anomaly. Our major concern is 50 to 70 mph wind gusts across Wyoming Saturday."

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s A Twister?"}]

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said the funnel cloud spotted near Big Piney was “a well-formed landspout.” It’s like, but not exactly, a tornado.

“A landspout is defined as a tornado that does not arise from organized storm-scale rotation,” he said. “You get a circulation near the ground that is brought into an updraft, that then causes that funnel situation.”

Even though they tend not to be long-lived, landspouts should be taken seriously. Day said they have a destructive potential comparable to that of a regular tornado.

“You can get 70, 80, 90 mph wind gusts in a landspout,” he said. “They're not going to bring the intensity of the wind and the destructive power of a tornado, but they can certainly cause damage.”

Landspouts tend to be more common in the spring and summer, especially when Wyoming’s area gets humid. When summer thunderstorms carry moisture into Wyoming, the likelihood of landspouts increases, as was seen in Sublette County on Saturday.

As the system moves, there’s a chance more landspouts could form. Day believes it’s a risk worth taking seriously.

“We should be on our guard for more of these, especially in northern and far-eastern Wyoming, for the next 36 hours,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Watches And Warnings"}]

for Riverton and Lander on Saturday afternoon, anticipating penny-sized hail and wind gusts as high as 60 mph.

Meanwhile, 15 counties in central and eastern Wyoming were under a 

 until 9 p.m. Saturday. The NWS was monitoring “a cluster of strong thunderstorms” with gusty winds and hail.

By 2 p.m., there were thunderstorm storm clouds over northwest Wyoming, too.

Wittman said the sudden surge of severe weather is primarily due to an abundance of moisture, which is what most of Wyoming needs.

“We actually have some okay moisture in the area today, by Wyoming standards,” he said. “The system moving in is bringing enough moisture to make clouds and produce storms. The physics in the air is enough for some of the stronger storms we’re watching.”

Some spots in Wyoming, like Johnson County and the Bighorn Basin, might get 0.1 inches of precipitation from this system. It's not a lot, but every drop is welcome.

Severe summer thunderstorms often come with a higher risk of strong winds and hail, which is exactly what Wittman and his colleagues were watching on Saturday.

“The main hazard will be Saturday afternoon and evening,” he said. “We’ve already seen some 60-mph gusts, but the primary threat will be along western Fremont County, and the Wind River Range, down to Rock Springs and the South Pass area, and that will move eastwards toward Casper.”

Wittman emphasized that this was a dynamic system that was being closely monitored. The timing and severity of its impacts can change quickly, so everyone in the affected area needs to be on their toes.

[{"type":"text","text":"“These storms can intensify as the day continues,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Sunnier Sunday"}]

All the watches and warnings issued by the NWS end before midnight, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be sunny and dry on Sunday. Wittman said the Saturday system might continue impacting Sunday’s weather.

“Saturday should be the bigger day for thunderstorms, hail, and wind, but we do have the chance of showers lingering overnight, and storms again on Sunday,” he said.

However, Wittman doesn’t anticipate an ongoing threat of landspouts. The Sublette County landspout was an oddity during a day of active summer weather in Wyoming.

“That landspout was probably the result of a storm initiation,” he said. “That’s how you might get a little spin-up, but the bigger risk is strong winds, not landspouts.”

Sublette county tornado 6 20 26

<title>Rare Tornado Spotted In Sublette County On Saturday | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A tornado made a rare appearance in Sublette County on Saturday, bringing with it more than 700 power outages. Meteorologist Don Day called it a "landspout" tornado which has the capability of 90 mph winds. "They can certainly cause damage," Day said.

Rare Tornado Spotted In Sublette County On Saturday

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A few weeks ago, tourists chuckled as a young grizzly named Storm was chased off by an angry sandhill crane, but nobody was laughing Thursday when Storm devoured an elk calf alive in front of about 100 people.

The calf was alive for roughly 15 minutes as it was being eaten by the 3-year-old female, wildlife researcher John Winnie Jr. told Cowboy State Daily.

Winnie was there with students from his Yellowstone National Park wildlife ecology field class.

“We were kind of awed at watching a bear take prey," said Winnie, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University.

“But we were shocked and surprised at a calf staying alive that long,” he added.

“There were mixed comments from the crowd,” as 

 near the shore of Yellowstone Lake, Cody resident Vince Vanata told Cowboy State Daily.

“Some people had empathy for the elk calf, and some people were thinking it was just nature taking its course,” he said.  

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Good Find For A Bear"}]

Similar to deer fawns, elk calves have little to no natural scent, Winnie said.

And for about the first two weeks of their lives, the calves can’t walk well enough to keep up with their mothers, he added.

So, their mothers will stash them in hiding places and then leave to go feed, occasionally returning to nurse the calves.

Unfortunately for the calves, that trick doesn’t always work, Winnie said. Sometimes, the mother’s lingering scent from a nursing session will be enough to tip off a bear, wolf, or coyote.

And other times, a calf might move at just the wrong moment (or, from the predator’s perspective, just the right moment).

That might have been the case with Storm on Thursday, Winnie said.

He wasn’t there when the grizzly first found that calf, but said one of his students witnessed the moment. The bear’s head suddenly snapped in the calf’s direction right before she moved in and found the helpless young elk.

That probably means Storm heard the calf rustling in the grass, or caught a glimpse of it moving, Winnie said.

Once Storm started eating, it was hard to watch, he said.

The calf cried out as it was being devoured, but no other elk heard it.

“The nearest cow elk we saw were probably out of earshot, 400 to 500 yards away,” Winnie said.

Vanata said he thinks Storm had earlier been hazed by park rangers from another location.

“I think that if the rangers hadn’t had moved the bear, it wouldn’t have been there to find that calf,” Vanata said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bears Take A Heavy Toll"}]

The elk calf’s gruesome fate was a common one, Winnie said. Elk calves suffer high mortality rates, and predation is one of the main causes.

And most of the predation comes from bears, both grizzlies and black bears, he said.

“I don’t think a lot of people grasp just how high elk calf mortality is,” Winnie said.

It’s thought that as many as 90% of cow elk are pregnant going into spring, “and most of them carry their calves to term,” he said.

So, there might be as many as 80 calves per 100 cow elk when the birthing season starts, usually in early June.

However, “by the time the first of the next year rolls around in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, we’re down to around 20 to 25 calves per 100 cows. And most of the calves that were lost were lost to predation,” Winnie said.

Wolves have the advantage of hunting in packs, so calves aren’t worth their effort, Winnie said. They tend to concentrate on adult elk.

Coyotes will take quite a few elk calves and deer fawns, but bears take the most by far.

As lone hunters, bears have slim odds of taking down adult elk, so they focus on calves during the spring.

And because they can’t count on finding the calves by scent, they’ll scour the ground hoping to find a meal, Winnie said.

He said he’s seen bears apparently “working a grid pattern” in areas where they think calves or fawns might be.

And it’s not uncommon for calves or fawns to be eaten alive, Winnie said.

“I’ve seen it twice before, both times with black bears,” he said.

When taking down larger prey, predators rely on “killing bites,” Winnie said. That’s because they can’t risk injury from an adult prey animal fighting back.

But with calves and fawns, bears can just use their “overbearing weight” to pin down the hapless prey and eat at leisure, Winnie said.

Sometimes mother deer or elk will try to distract the bears away from their young, but usually to no avail, he said.

“I saw once where a white-tailed deer got right in front of the bear, raised her tail and jumped, but the bear didn’t even notice her” as it focused on the fawn, he said.

A sandhill crane recently had better luck scaring Storm away from its young.

When Storm got too close to the crane’s nest, the bird came at the young bear, standing tall with its wings spread. That was enough to 

Storm belongs to famous Yellowstone grizzly lineage. She’s the daughter of Snow, one of the park’s most visible bears.

And Snow in turn is the daughter of Raspberry, likely Yellowstone’s most famous living grizzly.

Raspberry has been missing for about a year and is feared by many of her fans to have died.

Bear eats elk alive storm bloody 6 20 26

<title>Yellowstone Tourists Learn That Nature Can Be Brutal When Grizzly Attacks Elk Calf | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tourists in Yellowstone got a brutal taste of reality Thursday when a grizzly went after a live elk calf and devoured it. John Winnie, an ecology professor at Montana State who was there, said most people don't "grasp just how high elk calf mortality is."

Yellowstone Tourists Learn That Nature Can Be Brutal When Grizzly Attacks Elk Calf

Government & Politics

Politics

In the latest twist in efforts to ban 3D-printed “ghost guns,” New York state and California have moved to ban printers capable of making them. 

A New York law signed last month states that 3D printers should come with technology blocking them from making firearms or firearms parts. A similar measure is before the California Legislature. 

The gun-blocking technology for printers might not be available until 2029 at the earliest, the 

Gun control advocates are hailing the printer ban as a way to get a handle on so-called “ghost guns,” or untraceable firearms made with 3D printers and lacking serial numbers.

In the latest twist in efforts to ban 3D-printed “ghost guns,” lawmakers in New York and California are pushing to ban printers capable of making them.  From a technical standpoint, the bans won’t work, said Kevin Thomas, owner of T&G 3D Printing in Basin.