Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Monday, May 5th. 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.

– The Wyoming Republican Party has new leadership, electing Sheridan resident Bryan Miller to be the new chairman at the party's meeting in Cody on Saturday. Miller beat out Jackson resident Rebecca Bextel by a 42-32 vote.

Miller was able to overcome a strong endorsement by U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman, who had spoken highly of Bextel prior to the election. Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson was at the meeting, and reports that Miller's experience won over the voters.

"Both him and Bextel are both very conservative. Bextel has really made a name for herself, but she's a much more recent newcomer, she's been really kind of staunchly going after getting donors and a lot of money for the party. So she really it's kind of impressive that she was even competitive in this race, all things considered. But at the end of the day, Miller, at the end of the day, Miller is going to be leading the party for the next two years, at least."

A theme running through Saturday's party election was unity, with many candidates calling for an end to infighting that has divided Wyoming Republicans.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Dodge Ram pickup and a Mercedes passenger van collided Thursday evening about 15 miles from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park, killing seven people: six in the tour van and the lone occupant of the pickup.

Several minutes after the crash, both vehicles caught fire. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland spoke to an eyewitness of the fatal crash.

"There was only one person in the truck, the driver who died, and then six more people in the tour van died, and then there were others who walked away, and there were some who were hospitalized, and some with serious injuries. And around 15 or 20 minutes after the impact, the truck's engine compartment caught fire, according to an eyewitness who was there, and the flames spread quickly and engulfed both vehicles, leaving behind kind of a charred husk of the van. It was only hours later that the man realized with horror, because he had been casually filming, he realized with horror that there were deceased people inside that van."

There were 14 people in the van, and six of them died, along with the driver of the pickup. Authorities hadn't released names, ages, hometowns or nationalities of the deceased as of Friday morning because of the magnitude of the incident and the ongoing process of notifying the next of kin.

Read the full story HERE.

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John Lusch grew up in Rock Springs and Saratoga, but moved with his family five years ago to Marshall, Michigan, where he worked for Bud's Towing.

But on Saturday, April 26th, the 45-year-old was confronted by several people in a home about 25 miles from where he lived, and was shot multiple times.

While not much else has been revealed about the incident, Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher spoke with Lusch's mother, Sandy Christensen, who said she believes she knows what happened.

"John told her the night before on Saturda