Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, October 8. 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.

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For the first time since the Elk Fire literally blew up overnight more than a week ago, prompting a laundry list of evacuations and threatening the rural northern Wyoming towns of Dayton and Parkman, firefighters are preparing to attack the 73,000-acre wildfire rather than react to it.

Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the weather conditions that had spurred on the blaze backed off enough Sunday to give the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team more opportunity to get control of the situation.

"Last report, they were 10% contained with it. And best of all, Monday afternoon, some of the evacuation orders were lifted for some of the areas where people had been told to go. Not all of them, but some of them, which is a good sign when you start letting people go back home and they've been gone for a week, some of them."

Holding at about 73,000 acres, the fire remains very active. There are 680 people working to build breaks and lines around the fire, as well as clear out or burn any fuels within where safe to do so.

Read the full story HERE.

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Central Wyoming's only dedicated cancer center is at risk of having to shut down over a nearly $2 million dispute with an insurance company.

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that the Rocky Mountain Oncology Center is claiming that health insurer Mountain Health Co-Op is refusing to pay for $1.9 million in patient coverage, saying it overpaid that amount last year and is attempting to balance the books.

"This is a huge hit for Rocky Mountain Oncology, so much so that they filed a lawsuit against mountain health on Friday to try to get a judge to force an injunction requiring that mountain health resume paying for its patients at the facility. Most importantly, in the lawsuit, Rocky Mountain oncology argues that this could put them out of business, which would remove the only dedicated Cancer Center in Central Wyoming."

The oncology center claims Mountain Health has committed breach of contract, breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Gillette man is in jail after police say he repeatedly stabbed a 30-year-old woman before eluding police for a day.

Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that 31-year-old John Bosh has been charged with violent crimes before, as well as failed to appear for court, prompting the judge to set bail at three quarters of a million dollars.

"What there is is a prior felony conviction for strangulation of a household member. And so the rest