Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, January 7th. 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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A 44-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of stealing a Winnebago and fleeing from police. After the Winnebago's tires were shredded by spike strips, the RV's bare rims threw sparks up to 50 feet. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the accused driver, Ryan Jenkins, is in jail awaiting criminal charges.

"This is a heavy machine. So once one tire is spike stripped and flattened... you are... not only tempting fate with a heavy machine riding on rims, but you're also set up for a spectacular show... they took him to the jail so he wasn't hospitalized. And they also noted that the car dealership parking lot that the guy reportedly crashed into, no, none of the vehicles there were damaged."

The police statement described the scene as Jenkins kept driving through several traffic control devices on "just the sparking wheels," until he failed to navigate the bend at the intersection of Lincolnway and Nationway, where he went off the road at the Cowboy Dodge car dealership on East Lincolnway.

Read the full story HERE.

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State Sen. Cheri Steinmetz has proposed a "Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again" bill that would repeal low-carbon energy requirements that coal plants retrofit carbon capture technology by 2030. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that Steinmetz believes stricter carbon rules jeopardize the Wyoming economy, but critics of her bill say becoming carbon negative is necessary to keep coal-fired power plants alive.

"What's significant about this bill is that it would basically repeal a 2020 bill that was passed by the legislature that creates deadlines for coal fired power plants to build carbon capture infrastructure at their facilities. So, this refutes an effort that was made at the time by lawmakers who said they wanted to kind of provide a carrot and stick so that these coal fired power plants would be able to last longer, and not get shut down because of not basically integrating to where the markets are headed towards a more clean, reduced carbon type output."

Steinmetz's stance aligns with views presented during the legislative session last year in a hearing that denied the effects of climate change. However, sources have said rising temperatures could exacerbate decades of drought already seen in the Colorado River Basin.

Read the full story HERE.

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Craig Johnson's upcoming novel "Return to Sender" was inspired by a story he read in Cowboy State Daily about the mail carrier who has the most remote route in the United States. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean spoke with Johnson ahead of his book's publish date on May 27.

"Craig Johnson's fans will all know that one of the ways he gets his ideas is from news clippings…It was Jake Nichols' story about the postal worker who has the longest mail route in the United States, right here in Wyoming. Tebra Morris, she's got a 300 mile long postal route that she manages along Highway 287…Craig's got the…crime writer mind, right? So, his first thing he's thinking about is, "oh, if she went missing, where would you look