Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Friday, April 25th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. "5 to thrive" is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.

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High school athletes in Wyoming may be soon able to make money off their athletic performance. That's because the Wyoming High School Activities Association is considering a policy that would allow athletes to pursue Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL, deals under strict parameters in the Cowboy State.

Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson reports that the presence of NIL in college athletics has dramatically changed the overall dynamic, elevating those athletes from their previously amateur status.

"I spoke to WHSAA commissioner Trevor Wilson, who told me, tells me he doesn't think it's going to be a significant change in Wyoming at all, at most. He thinks only really some of the most superstar high school athletes are probably going to be able to take advantage of it. There's statistics that show that of the states that allow it, only 2% of the athletes competing actually take advantage of it, and then one person, less than 1% of that number actually make money from it. So it's a very kind of a marginal thing, I think, on the high school level, but it could be very interesting to see what these athletes do with it."

While most schools support the idea, there are a few districts who say the policy is unnecessary. The Activities Association's board of directors will consider a first reading of the new rules at its meeting next Tuesday.

Read the full story HERE.

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In her first town hall since she suspended in-person events last month, Wyoming U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman took questions from attendees in Buffalo Thursday evening.

Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson was at the meeting, which he said was conducted much differently than any of Hageman's previous town halls - that was in response to a series of gatherings earlier this year that devolved into unruly shouting matches.

"People were asked to register online, go and submit their their information so they knew they were Johnson County people coming here… she did take a lot of questions that people submitted, but she didn't take them in person… If they had a question for her, it was written down and put it in a box, and she would hold the questions out of the box. Now… there wasn't any editing of the questions or anything. There was quite a few that were very critical of her, you know, asking her very loaded questions… as the question period went on… Some of the crowd did get a little more rowdy, but it wasn't nearly as rowdy as the others I went to the one in Afton that kind of started it all."

Representative Hageman's next town hall is scheduled for Friday evening in Sheridan.

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A former Rock Springs English teacher exchanged emails with a high school student about how to access LGBTQ advocacy websites without others noticing.

That's what court documents show in the ongoing case of Willey vs. Sweetwater County School District No. 1. This is a civil federal case in which a Rock Springs couple is suing the school district, on claims that district staffers helped to socially gender-transition their daughter behind their backs. Crime and