Good morning, and welcome to Cowboy State Daily Video News for Monday, April 8, 2024!
A public outcry has been sparked by a photo depicting a wolf with its muzzle taped shut next to his captor, who later shot the animal; the town of Kemmerer looks to modular housing to head off an expected employment boom in coming months; and why hasn’t one of Wyoming’s most historic - and largest - mansions sold?
We’ll take a look at these stories and more today from Wyoming’s largest news organization. I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
Cowboy State Daily has obtained a photo of a wolf that was captured and had its mouth taped shut while it was reportedly taken to a local man’s house and a bar in the rural town of Daniel, before it was killed.
Cowboy State Daily’s editor, Jimmy Orr, received the photo, which has sparked outrage the likes that Orr said he’s never seen for this publication.
“so Wendy, as soon as we were able to get the photo, that's when the story really exploded… I mean, hundreds of emails that we've received over the weekend. And there were two commonalities in those emails. And one was, how is it possible that there is no penalty for this… outside of the equivalent of a parking ticket, which is a $250 Fine. For illegal possession of a wolf... This the second thread is Where is the outrage by the elected officials? Why isn't anyone saying anything?”
The photo shows the wolf with red tape wound tightly around its muzzle sitting and looking down while Daniel resident Cody Roberts poses with the animal in his house.
With more than 12,000 workers expected in the coming years to build billions of dollars worth of energy development projects, Kemmerer is looking to modular housing as one solution to an expected crunch.
Energy reporter Pat Maio says the Lego-like homes, created by a Colorado-based company, will start arriving next spring.
“they're gonna be building literally hundreds and hundreds of single family homes multifamily apartments. And that's, and I took a look at what they're they're building. And it's, they're actually pretty, pretty contemporary, pretty modern looking.”
The company believes it can produce roughly 30 homes in a 35-day period at its factory in Buena Vista, then deliver the modular homes 400 miles north to Kemmerer.
An Encampment woman has been found guilty of scamming welfare agencies out of thousands of dollars by running a scheme in which she pretended to live apart from her husband and on virtually no income.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Sarah Fitzwaterand her husband Matthew Wagy were outed due to their Facebook posts.
“Sarah Fitzwater would send in applications for Medicaid benefits or food stamps or energy assistance, and she would sign off on these as if she were living on about $1,000 a month of child support…DFS in eligibility investigators started … fishing around on Facebook. And there were all these posts like there were photographs of their wedding in Cabo, Mexico. There are photographs where she's bragging on her husband, Matthew, there's one post by the Little League thanking them for a generous donation.”
McFarland reports that the couple defrauded the welfare system out of roughly $44,000 dollars over the last five years.
The discovery of 14,000-year-old artifacts near the historic former mining town of Sunrise in southeast Wyoming has the area poised to become an archaeology tourism destination.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the finds are so remarkable that the area is preparing for an influx of both domestic and international tourists - as well as students.
“Eastern Wyoming College has set up a new program for archaeology and anthropology that's going to include a six week summer field school there at sunrise. So I think we're gonna see some really interesting things happen in the Torrington area as a result of some partnerships to really develop that site and really dig into the science that's there. It's going to be world class.”
The field school is designed to be a premier opportunity for students to literally get their hands dirty, working with real scientists who are making discoveries that could rewrite our understanding of North America’s human history.
And Laramie’s Holliday House, originally built downtown in 1878 and moved out of town in 1978, features 13 bedrooms, seven baths and 7,000 square feet of space.
The listing price has decreased by nearly $300K but it still hasn't found an owner, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz.
“the price has been dropped all the way down to $525,000. And for that, you get not only the mansion, you get the basement that it was set on the more modern basement that it was set on top of and it was moved there in 1978. And you also get there's also a three unit little mini motel behind it that's included as well as three acres and a Quonset hut for you know, so that's quite a deal for $525,000… Somebody could turn it into a bed and breakfast, a wedding venue, or something along those lines, and there would certainly be plenty of room on site for the owners to live.”
Most recently the Holliday House was the home of a socialist LGBTQ commune.
And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper by hitting the subscribe button on CowboyStateDaily dot com
I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
