Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, December 12th. I'm Mac Watson.

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The financial landscape of college athletics is straining the University of Wyoming's athletics budget as it tries to keep up with exploding NIL deals for Division I recruits. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland explains the reasons why the school is asking the Legislature for more money in addition to their annual budget.

"What they are saying is that this settlement involving the NCAA recently, this past summer, changed everything for them. Changed the dynamic…They're losing, I think it was, half a million from the NCAA as part of the settlements, losing between 300 to 350,000 from the Mountain West Conference as a result of shifting around there and then there's also added economic burdens, like having to extend health care and scholarship offerings to these athletes."

The extra $3 million would bring the state's annual contribution to the program to just over $19 million, UW spokesman Chad Baldwin confirmed to Cowboy State Daily.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Rock Springs family of eight lost their rural rental home, four pets and all their possessions in a fast-moving fire driven by high wind Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that the family is now split up among relatives while the community rallies to help them find new housing.

"I was told by the fire chief that in Sweetwater County that they responded to this home, a rural home north of Rock Springs, they found smoke throughout coming out of the house, and then the winds that day were like 35 to 55 mile an hour gusts, it took them seven hours to put out the fire. Officially, there is no cause of the fire, but the wife in the family told me that they had a fireplace on and she believes that could have contributed to it. What we do know is that four of their pets passed away in the blaze. The family lost their Christmas presents and everything like that."

The home, which has been determined as a total loss, had been the family's residence for 18 months and had six bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Wyoming pilot flying to a visit with a doctor ran out of fuel and made a safe emergency landing on U.S. Highway 14 near Greybull on Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that pilot Martin Mercer did the right thing by landing on the highway.

"We have a lot of experienced pilots in Wyoming, and a lot of times they do have to make emergency landings on the highways. And I think people might not know, or they've forgotten, that's what the highway system was partially established to be, was to establish long stretches of pavement that could be used as runways, and that was intended in the event of military mobilization. But in Wyoming's case, it's more often used as emergency landing strips for people who have problems with their planes, and usually it's single engine, fixed wing aircraft."

After Mercer landed, he had the police take him to his appointment, then after refueling, authorities blocked traffic so he could take off and safely fly home.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Albany County Conservancy is accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of concealing eagle deaths in Carbon County. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that biologist Mike