Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, December 17th. 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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After news broke that drones circulating over Wyoming's Niobrara County this autumn bear eerie similarities to those now reported over New Jersey and other places, many Wyomingites raised a war cry of "Shoot them down!"

But that's illegal, drone experts and law enforcement told Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland.

"In federal law, it's like punishable up to 20 years in prison to 'destroy aircraft,' is the phrase, and in Wyoming, just under our property destruction statutes, if whatever you're destroying is not yours, and is worth more than $1,000, it can be 10 years in prison. It's a charge as a felony, which means you can lose your gun rights, which is circular and ironic, in this case."

Read the full story HERE.

However, a Wyoming state senator last year quipped that if someone were to shoot down a drone, a shotgun might be the best way to deal with it. And it turns out he probably was right, according to gun experts that spoke to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.

"I hypothetically asked a couple people, because it is illegal, don't do this. Hypothetically, if someone wants to shoot down a drone, what would be the best way to do? It sounds like a shotgun… there's a couple reasons for that. You know, you get a pattern of shot versus a single projectile coming out of a rifle or a handgun. And the other thing is, is that if you fire a rifle or a handgun into the air, you're asking for trouble, because these rifle bullets out of some colibris, they'll go five miles so, and you are liable for every shot fired."

So if a shotgun is the best choice in this purely hypothetical scenario, what's the best ammunition? Experts say perhaps using full-powered 12-gauge hunting loads would work best.

Read the full story HERE.

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Casper and Gillette are the envy of the Cowboy State right now, each with a new Amazon facility that promises to speed package deliveries for those customers living within a 60-mile radius of the new centers.

Amazon's Regional spokesman for Wyoming and Montana told Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean on Monday that he can't say whether more distribution centers are coming to other Wyoming cities, like Cheyenne, Sheridan or Jackson anytime soon, but said the decision to open a warehouse is always data-driven.

"They're using flex drivers. These are pretty similar to what we think of with DoorDash, Uber Spark, those kinds of things… We don't know if they're going to open any other centers in Wyoming… Chey