Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, October 17th. Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I'm Mac Watson. "Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story."

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Authorities are saying they're one step closer to identifying the human remains discovered Oct. 10 near a national park site in rural western Nebraska as those of missing Moorcroft man Chance Englebert. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports Englebert's family was able to identify several unnamed items found near the remains as belonging to him.

"The Scotts Bluff county attorney's office put out a statement today saying that they can't positively identify that it is Chance Engelbert, however, there were items found near his body that the family have identified as his. The next step is…the remains will be sent to the Douglas County Coroner's Office in Omaha, and with the help of forensic scientists and forensic pathologists, they will then do the next steps in determining whether or not it is actually Chance Engelbert, and that will be done through DNA and dental records. And they'll also be determining the cause of death, whether or not it was accidental, or if there was foul play.

According to a release, the Douglas County Coroner's Office in Omaha is assisting Gering Police in Nebraska with the forensic examination of the remains, including a forensic pathologist and scientists from the University of Nebraska.

Read the full story HERE.

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U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman on Wednesday announced she's urging the federal government to delist transgender treatments from Affordable Care Act coverage. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Representative Hageman joined 35 of her GOP colleagues in Congress in signing the letter that was sent to the head of the IRS.

"There they made some very strongly worded statements in their push to the Treasury Secretary, saying things like, we're seeing this rise in mental illness. There's been recent mass shootings by transgender people. Charlie Kirk's alleged killer was associated with a trans person, and so they were pointing to what they're calling a mental health crisis."

Sarah Burlingame, the leader of Wyoming's top LGBTQ advocacy group, told Cowboy State Daily that the letter weaponizes mass shootings and Kirk's killing for political ends, and thrusts divisive language onto Wyomingites as a whole.

Read the full story HERE.

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A recent ruling that says Wyoming's Rocky Mountain Power customers owe the utility $23.5 million didn't sit well with both the Wyoming Industrial Electric Consumers and the Wyoming Public Service Commission. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports both entities are appealing the ruling but there will be strict parameters.

"​​It's just another chance for a bite at the apple to finally get these arguments unpacked and argued in court, but they're going to be restricted to only the arguments that were on the table at the time the case was decided. They're not going to be able to introduce any new evidence here. The court's going to look at it and decide whether there were any mistakes made on the part of the j