Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, December 12th. 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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Albertsons on Wednesday announced that it's terminating a $25 billion merger with Kroger, and plans to file suit, seeking billions in compensation.

The merger collapse comes one day after a state judge in Washington and a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the deal, in a suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, and several states - including Wyoming.

Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that both companies threw accusations at each other Wednesday, after the deal's failure.

"Albertsons says Kroger was self serving and willfully insufficient in trying to secure the merger. Kroger is saying that they they were not that it's Albertson's fault and that they interfered with the merger process. Albertsons has actually filed suit against Kroger, seeking billions in compensation for lost time, loss of share value, multiple millions spent. It's ugly."

At stake between the companies is a $600 million termination fee, which Albertsons said is due immediately, but that Kroger says Albertsons is certainly not entitled to.

Read the full story HERE.

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The University of Wyoming is cautiously eyeing the future of its athletics department under a quickly changing college sports landscape.

UW is requesting a one-time payment of $1.5 million from the Wyoming Legislature in its supplemental budget request to help support the school's athletics department moving forward.

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that the request comes as a result of a $2.7 billion settlement the NCAA made in October with thousands of current and former Division I students who are seeking compensation tied to their athletics services and commercial use of their names, images and likenesses.

"UW is going to have to try to find ways to raise money, to try to pay the bills it needs to pay, and be able to get in the the athletes it wants to get in to its teams, whether that comes down to raising money for NIL or other other benefits, and … the fact that it's seeking out money from the Wyoming Legislature shows that the legislature is probably going to play some kind of role in this if They want the UW athletics program to remain competitive."

UW President Ed Seidel said the Mountain West Conference, of which UW is a member, has been holding emergency meetings at an increasing frequency to deal with the dramatically changing athletics landscape.

Read the full story HERE.

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