Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, January 9th. I'm Reilly Strand, in for Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom brought to you by Visit Casper.

Visit Casper invites you to come enjoy the Casper International Film Festival, January 31 through February 2. A broad range of films from local and international filmmakers will be shown. Learn more and get your tickets at visitcasper.com.

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Federal officials announced Wednesday that Grizzly bears in Wyoming and the rest of the Lower 48 will remain under endangered species protection. In a statement released just after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcement, Gordon implied it was a political move in the last days of President Joe Biden's administration.

"Fish and Wildlife Services, they said their long term goal is still to get the grizzlies delisted someday, but it sounds like from their perspective, that's still quite a ways off. So some people think that's great that Grizzlies remain under protection. Some people think that that's terrible, that's poor policy, and it's not going to work for Wyoming. But the decision has come down. It is what it is. And I guess what we do now is we wait and see."

Gordon stated he hopes the return of Donald Trump to the White House will revive efforts to delist grizzlies and hand management over to Game and Fish.

Read the full story HERE.

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Cody resident Kailey Kline learned a tough lesson on New Year's Eve — don't accept drinks from strangers. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that 23-year-old Kline nearly died after drinking what she and her family believe was a beverage poisoned with antifreeze by a stranger. She was celebrating the new year at the Silver Dollar Bar in Cody.

"Kline believes that her drink was spiked around last call at about 1:30 in the morning, and she hadn't been…crazy drunk or anything like that. Her fiance didn't think she was too out of her mind when he picked her up. And really, when the effects of the antifreeze started setting in, it really resulted in some serious side effects. She started foaming at the mouth and suffering seizures. So this is a really significant event, and if he had just sent her to bed, she might have died from this."

Cowboy State Daily spoke with Kline's nurse, who confirmed antifreeze as the most likely cause of her poisoning, but a definitive cause is impossible to determine due to her blood being drawn too late after the incident.

Read the full stories HERE

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On Tuesday, Trump riffed about "windmills" from Mar-a-Lago, calling the turbines economically unfeasible and harmful to wildlife, saying he wants to stop funding them all-together. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that many new wind farm projects are underway in Wyoming, which have caused controversy.

"So Trump is saying, I want a policy where…new wind farms [can't be] built. And he doesn't specify, are they just going to cut the subsidies? Are they going to do a ban? Are they going to pause permitting? But so, there's a lot of projects that already have the gears going in Wyoming that they might be too late to stop, depending on where they're at."

Wyoming Sen. Cale Case generally agreed with Trump, saying the market should decide if more wind farms should be built. A Wyoming clean energy consultant group disagreed.

Read the full story

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