Episode Details

\It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Friday, December 6th. 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 takes you deeper into the stories that matter - and keeps up with the news, weather and sports in your part of Wyoming. Just tune into Cowboy State Daily Dot Com and join the conversation.

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State Sen. Wendy Schuler of Evanston believes it's time to crack down on students using cellphones in schools.

A retired high school teacher of 40 years, Schuler believes that not only has student performance been negatively affected by these devices, but so has their ability to communicate and socialize with each other. She told Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson that her Senate File 21 would require all Wyoming school districts to enact a cellphone ban for their students.

"The ban would be limited to instruction periods, but it would be the first of its kind on a statewide level to restrict cell phone use by students in schools… she was stunned by the level of the use of this technology by the time she retired, and was really kind of disturbed and concerned by how much less students were actually talking to each other."

Schuler said she's seen a number of studies showing that cellphone bans led to improved testing scores, which she believes could occur as a result of the ban.

Read the full story HERE.

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The former head housekeeper of the historic Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne is accused of stealing about $26,000 worth of coins from a guest's room and having other people sell them to coin dealers for cash.

46-year-old Rene Manzanares faces one count of felony theft, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the case started in May, when the Cheyenne Police Department was contacted by a coin dealer in Cheyenne.

"The most interesting part is how all that money got to come to Wyoming in the first place. You know, just this woman is a friend of the hotel owner and is going to help out during Cheyenne Frontier Days, and she decides to bring her box of silver and gold coins with her and leave under her bed. And, you know, there's, there's, I think there's a little tension in the affidavit. We don't know, did the maid come in and clean and allegedly take it then, or did it actually get left behind and was allegedly taken then?... but I think that to be the coins on this journey would be the most fun because of the trip that they've had, you know, reportedly from Colorado to a renowned Wyoming hotel and then to various purses and then coin shops."

The detective estimated the coins' value at $26,000, but noted that they could be much more valuable depending on their years and conditions.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming has no shortage of elk, and many of the state's herds are as big as they've ever been, but finding them has been supremely challenging for hunters this year.

Massive wildfires that burned more than 850,000 acres struck prime elk habitat in some parts of the state, such as in the Bighorn Mountains above Dayton. But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that even in areas where the elk herds weren't directly hit by the fires, there was still a ripple effect.

"The areas that were actually affected by the fires, which there's a lot of Wyoming that wasn't, but even in those areas that weren't, a lot of the hunters that were counting on those areas th