Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, September 24th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake! Launching October 1st at 6 a.m., Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols is making morning radio cool again. Tune in from wherever you are for the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.

A 21 year old Wisconsin man fell to his death at Devils Tower on Sunday evening.

Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that there isn't much information available yet on the incident.

"The victim's name is Stuart Phillip Porter from Wisconsin. He was climbing Devil's Tower on Sunday, specifically the El Crako Diablo route, and according to the National Park Service, he was repelling the second pitch of that route when he fell, sustained major injuries, and he was declared dead at the scene when first responders responded. This is the seventh recorded climbing death at Devil's Tower, and the first one since 2017 when a Gillette resident died during a climb."

Porter's climbing partner was stranded but was later rescued from the Tower by local climbing guides.

Soon after summitting the tallest peak in Yellowstone National Park last week, a 22-year-old concessionaire worker went missing.

Authorities had more than 20 ground searchers, two helicopters, drones and a search dog team scouring the area of Eagle Peak in the park's remote southeast corner on Sunday in the hopes of finding Austin King. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports King was last seen Sept. 17.

"Eagle Peak is apparently not the most challenging climb in Yellowstone, but it is the highest. So with that high elevation that you know there's cooler temperatures, there's thinner air… It's also a hot time for bears to be up that high looking for pine nuts… on the one hand, the experts said, King is in good hands, because this is an impressive collection of search teams, and they're great to work with, and they are caring, and they're out there looking, on the other hand, it's a very dangerous environment."

King stands 6 feet tall, weighs 160 pounds, has brown hair, hazel eyes, wears glasses and was last seen in a black sweatshirt and grey pants.

Read the full story HERE.

It's easy to complain when you're not in power, but when the tables are turned in politics, so do the expectations of the public.

Since the primary election Aug. 20, leading members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus have told Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson that they would like to see a measured approach in making changes for the 2025 session of the Legislature.

"The Freedom Caucus struck a very defiant, very aggressive pose on the campaign trail. Many of their candidates really stressed a kind of a no compromises approach to property taxes and abortion and a few other issues as well, really going up pretty strongly against the governor - and now a few leading members of the group are giving a little bit more of a kind of a moderate pose, in some regards, just saying that they need to be kind of measured in the way they make changes, and they're gonna have to learn how to govern and kind of get used to being in a position of power, something that the Freedom Caucus has never had during its time of existence."

Some members of the Freedom Caucus have argued for as much as a 30% cut to the state budget, which would represent a historic drop to the government's funding and likely lead to layoffs of state employees. Others have argued for signific