Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, October 30th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by 4 Wyoming Pack. 4 Wyoming Pack says, "This November, Wyoming will vote to allow residential homes to be taxed at a lower, fairer rate, even the playing field, and give families a much-needed break." 4 Wyoming Pack wants you to Vote Yes on Amendment A.

A controversial marching band performance that included acting out a sacrificial stabbing on an altar was the target of praise and outrage from local parents at a Monday meeting of the Natrona County School District Board of Education.

The performance by the Kelly Walsh High School marching band at the Oct. 19 state competition was titled "The Offering," and included a dramatic reenactment of someone on an altar being sacrificed.

Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that three members of the public spoke out at the school board meeting and there were comments, both pro and con, posted to a YouTube video of the performance.

"Their program involved a … human sacrifice program, where a band member goes on to an altar that has an eclipse on it, and then that band member is stabbed by another band member. And there were some people in the community that were concerned about that, but there was also a lot of people supporting the band, saying this was just acting, and they showed off their skills marching and their skills playing."

A description of the program online said it's a "tribal-themed" show that "presents a ceremony of sacrifice to the sun with primal rhythms and fiery visuals igniting the field."

Read the full story HERE.

Since Wyoming's famed Grizzly 399 was struck and killed by a vehicle, there have been calls for lower speed limits, more wildlife safety fences near highways - and questions over whether her death was somehow preventable.

Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the short answer seems to be that one animal's death, even an animal as beloved as 399 was, won't lead to any immediate changes.

"There are several projects in the whole area, as well as on that particular highway, that you know, they're continuing to try to make the road safer, you know, trying to put in more wildlife crossings and more fences and things like that. But it still comes back to driver caution… Grizzly 399's death definitely does, you know, raise back up that overall concern about how we manage our highways and how we put in wildlife crossings. But there's nothing really specific to that one particular incident. It's still more of just a general idea of, let's keep doing what we can."

The speed limit is 55 mph where Grizzly 399 was hit. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office reported that the driver of the vehicle that struck there wasn't speeding, distracted or doing anything wrong.

Read the full story HERE.

A national database released this month by Do No Harm, a group of medical professionals that opposes administering transgender-related treatments to kids, shows that the number of transgender-related treatments given to kids in Wyoming from 2019 to 2023 is less than any other state in the U.S.

Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the database compiles information from insurance records and other open sourced resources to come up with their findings. But she says Wyoming senator Anthony Bouchard, who this year proposed Senate File 99, a b