Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, October 3rd. 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! From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Cowboy State Daily's Jake Nichols brings to life the latest news, weather, sports and in-depth conversations that matter to you.

A father whose son has been missing for two weeks after climbing Yellowstone National Park's highest peak is urging people not to give up on him.

Brian King-Henke, father of 22-year-old climber and Yellowstone-based concessionaire worker Austin King, told Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland that King called his parents and at least two friends from the peak on Sept. 17. That was the last time anyone heard from him.

"He known now that Yellowstone not only is transitioning from rescue to recovery mode, which implies death, but they, they're also scaling back their search efforts here on the 12th day. And so he, he knows these things, and he, you know, pretty much what he has to say is, just keep praying for my son. He said that he won't give up hope until he actually gets a call, if he actually gets the call saying his son has died."

King-Henke said new leads have been reported, including footprints searchers found – and signs of an "off-permit" fire, or a fire outside of designated camping spaces.

Read the full story HERE.

It was another nervous night for people in rural Wyoming with an uncontained wildfire making a run at another small community in Sheridan County near the Montana border.

The Elk Fire, which blew up to about 20,000 acres overnight Sunday and threatened the town of Dayton, grew to about 32,000 acres by Tuesday evening. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the fire shifted with the winds overnight, taking aim at Parkman, a community of fewer than 500 people.

"It didn't get close enough to actually prompt either of those places to evacuate. However, they were both put on kind of like standby notice… people in Parkman are continuing to to rally to help those firefighters there… When I talked to them this morning at the at the park and barn grill, they were busy setting up a buffet for and it's not just for the firefighters and the crews working the fires. It's for their families too… they told me that even though they're ready to evacuate, they're going to keep doing that until and if they're told to evacuate."

There was no school Wednesday for students at Tongue River High School in Dayton or the Slack School in Parkman.

Read the full story HERE.

There hasn't been much talk about a constitutional amendment going before voters this November until recently.

Constitutional Amendment A asks the voters if they would like to support creating a separate, fourth class of taxation status for certain residential properties. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that the proposal to bring the amendment to the voters was passed by the Legislature in 2023. But some who supported it then have changed their minds.

"One of these people is House Majority floor leader Chip Nieman, who said it opens up too many possible consequences that could be negative for taxpayers if things go in a negative way for Wyoming economically. He pointed out that technically, this could raise tax rates. It would allow lawmakers to raise tax rates in Wyoming sometime in the future, which could potentially happen with a diff