Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Friday, October 11th. 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.

Most of the time, fire rests at night.

But not the Elk Fire burning in northern Wyoming, now at more than 76,000 acres with a perimeter of 225 miles. This fire has been a much different beast.

That's what fire officials told a gathering of residents at a community meeting Wednesday evening. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean was also there.

"The strategist guy, field operations chief, Adam Ziegler… said, this has been an unusual fire. Most of the time, fires are a little quieter at night and they're more active during the day. This one's kind of been the opposite. It's awake all night and it's running downhill instead of uphill."

Ziegler said battle lines have been drawn at the Red Grade Road near the small town of Big Horn. There the firefighters have set up a catcher's mitt scenario, to stop the fire in its tracks.

Read the full story HERE.

While wildfires are raging in Wyoming, the southern states have been decimated by back-to-back hurricanes. It's all connected, and it's almost over.

According to Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi, we just have to get to Oct. 18.

"Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day's assessment of what's happening right now is that the jet stream is stuck, which is why for the last four weeks, Wyoming's been warm and dry and stayed warm and dry. And it's the same reason why you had two hurricanes develop within a couple days of each other and wreak havoc across the south. But what's happening is there's a change, a literal change in the winds. The jet stream is going to dip… And it's going to bring cold temperatures. So this is the dam breaking."

Based on Wyoming's historical climate data, warm weather usually ends by the third week of October.

Read the full story HERE.

After Cheyenne's school board voted to stop using eight of its elementary schools while rebuilding or expanding others, some parents want a re-vote.

Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland explains that the massive rehaul would trigger the release of $83.4 million the Wyoming Legislature has set aside to rebuild an elementary school and build another school. But it would result in potentially more students per classroom, which concerns some parents of students in Laramie County School District Number One.

"Parents in the south triad have been saying that their children are struggling to learn in these older buildings for several years. You know, they've referenced a lack of air conditioning, they've referenced toilet flushing problems… whereas other parents are saying, Yeah, but is it worth shutting down?... everyone's saying, Well, you know, consider what you're going to lose. It's it is a dire balancing act."

The Wyoming Schools Facilities Commission meets Nov. 6th and 7th, at which time it will have the chance to approve the study to release the money for the district's rebuilds.

Read the full story