Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Monday, May 26th. 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.

Gov. Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray have sparred on numerous topics from whether there's a need for additional voter-integrity laws in Wyoming to whether the state should grant leases on state lands for wind turbine projects.

The latter topic surfaced in a Friday discussion on Cowboy State Daily's radio show with Jake Nichols, in which Gordon pointed to his constitutional duty to maximize revenue from state lands to the advantage of Wyoming's schools. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor is accusing the secretary of lobbing dishonest social media attacks at him.

"Earlier this week, Gray posted to social media a photo of a hideous wind turbine with a broken and charred blade out on the hilly landscape, saying, this is, you know, something like, This is Governor Gordon's vision for the future. And Gordon often, you know, spars with gray or banters or weathers these attacks, but he got a little more spicy in a Friday retort that he sent out as a press release, a mass email. And he also appeared on Jake's show that same day… usually he takes a little more even tone, but on Friday, the governor really came out swinging."

In a video response posted Friday to Facebook, Gray called the governor's statements, quote, "bonkers" and "bizarre."

Read the full story HERE.

–

In 2016, Andy Sandness of Newcastle, Wyoming, became the one of the first people in the world to receive a face transplant.

A new book published by Mayo Clinic Press details Sandness' journey from a happy childhood in Wyoming, to struggles with alcohol, to a dark December night in 2006, when the then-21-year-old attempted suicide - and missed, disfiguring his face horribly.

Cowboy State Daily's David Madison spoke with Andy about the revolutionary surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

"It was a long journey for Andy. It was a 56 hour surgery. And the way the story goes, when he saw his face for the first time, you know, he still had a trach tube allowing him to breathe so he couldn't speak. But what he did was he wrote a note, and I think the note said something like, far exceeds my expectations… And the doctors who were giving up their weekends for months, learning and practicing, were elated… they had meticulously figured out where each nerve that we just take for granted, you know, allowed him to smile… he used to be able to smile on the inside, you know, like someone something would make him happy, but he couldn't express it outwardly. Now he could actually smile to the world."

The book is titled "Face in the Mirror: A Surgeon, a Patient, and the Remarkable Story of the First Face Transplant at Mayo Clinic," and it details Sandness' story.

Read the full story HERE.

–

Yellowstone National Park has never published an official guide on how visitors can safely navigate a traffic jam caused by bison. That's why wildlife photographer Max Waugh published his own.

The right way to deal with bison jams is a contentious issue among Yellowstone visitors. Many people frown upo