Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 5th. I'm Mac Watson.

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Justin Bradshaw was headed to work on Dec. 16 in Lyman when he got the last call he'd ever take from his 20-year-old daughter, Macey. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that dad was there in four minutes, but it still wasn't soon enough.

"It's suspected that he broke into her home and he held her at gunpoint, and it was right at that moment that her father showed up and the gun shots rang off. So you just kind of have to picture what that's like. You're the father, and your 20 year old daughter calls you, and she says, I need you to come and scare my ex boyfriend away because he's on my porch and I'm scared. And you immediately go to the scene, and it's not even four minutes later that you are there, and yet the gunshots go off, and you still are just kind of in this desperate, helpless place."

The family has established a nonprofit organization called A New Dawn, which is fundraising and organizing mental health resources for young women and others. Macey Dawn Bradshaw's celebration of life ceremony was Saturday in Lyman.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming issued a new pro-rodeo license plate Friday in response to PETA asking for a plate without the iconic bucking bronco claiming that rodeo is cruel. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one state legislator said PETA's request made him want to celebrate rodeo "even more prominently."

"So PETA, in the summer 2024 wanted to confront a Wyoming law that says that the bucking horse and rider needs to be on all of our license plates. And they were like, 'Let's change this law so that people have options that don't include what they called cruelty to animals.' And in response, Senator Brian Boner and some others actually went the other direction and created a specialty plate with a more vivid image of the iconic Steamboat saddle bronc being ridden and a portion of the proceeds from those plates are to go to support rodeo programs and colleges throughout the state."

WYDOT unveiled the plate last Wednesday, alongside another specialty plate to promote search and rescue programs.

Read the full story HERE.

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The University of Idaho's drop from the top tier of Division I college football could serve as a warning to the University of Wyoming about the challenges small markets have in the era of NIL and revenue sharing. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that insiders urge realism as financial gaps widen.

"There are still probably a majority of University of Wyoming fans who don't want anything to change, they they believe that the example set by Indiana this year, a the doormat of the Big 10, now contending for national championship, that Wyoming might one day rise from, kind of the middlings of upper tier college football and really contend for a championship and be a top flight program. ...one of the sources I spoke to really said it best. He said, 'You know, I could argue both sides of this issue. I'm a die hard Pokes fan, but I can see it both ways.' And he didn't really know where he came down. He just wanted something fun and productive and winning on the football field."

Today, Idaho operates without an established revenue sharing fund to pay players.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson left stop-motion