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0:00color, and simply help our world. Alright, so we could go for this fabric I wish I would like to bolt right out of studio at this moment. Stephanie Heathman will start the show. We'll talk about HR, your company. However, bigger, small, the HR department. How do they function? Stephanie is an expert at that. And we'll particularly look at, what do you do with inner office or romance, romantic relationships? If you watch the office, the TV show,

1:01the HR department has to deal with in her office, romantic relationships, they have a policy. What should the policy be? Stephanie Heathman, Kevin Parks will be here, Laramie County Fire and Rescue, touch a truck tomorrow. Don't miss it. Representative Scott Hiner is pretty excited about Cole getting to Taiwan via Mexico. Brilliant idea, but representative Hiner said the home run would be to actually do Cole in Wyoming with a new cold fire power plant. That's what he'd like to see. Kathy Holman, Prairie Wife and Heels, remembering Frank Gambino, one of the legends in sports broadcasting in Wyoming, died unexpectedly at the age of 63. We'll talk about Frank. Bill Sniffen Friday, representative Steve Harsman

2:01is also on his way to become super intended of public instructions, Steve Harsman perhaps. And he's also known as Coach Harsman. In the Trona County, we'll talk to the Mustangs football coach in his 36th season. They got a big game tonight. We'll see if Coach Harsman is worried at all. They play central and this should be a pretty good showdown. Aaron Brown will be here Wyoming Highway patrol. He's dragging along Y.D. Stugged McGee. So I imagine the Convo will be about all things highway. Amy Ut Edmonds from the governor's office will stop in and we'll check Cole with the governor's right hand woman. Amy Edmonds Rod Miller on a Friday. You know, it's a weekend when Rod and I tips some bourbon and discuss the, you know, for the first time ever, Rod heads up

3:02and I know the old cowboy ain't up this early. But maybe the first time I can remember that I disagree with Rod Miller. Yeah, usually I'm his yes man. I'm like, yeah, but I can't get with him on property tax. He would call me naive and simple because I want property tax cut. I don't want 50%. I don't want a half property tax on prop one, by the way, it's going to be on your ballot. No, I want it all gone. I don't want to pay any property tax. I think it's a fine for owning property. And I think it's wrong to be tacked and anytime there's a proposition to reduce tax, I don't care what it funds. I don't care if the cops and firemen all go away. I will take care of my and and Rod says even the crustiest anti government.

4:05That's me have to consider what happens when your property tax goes way and then suddenly no one answers 911. I don't care. When I go into the back country, I don't expect search and rescue to come get my sorry, but out of there, if I get nine ways to Sunday, I don't get not, I realize it's on me. I'm an individualist. You know how I'm going to defend my property. I don't need the government to have the deed somewhere in a file cabinet to prove I own my property. I'll defend at 170 grains at a time, preferably a 45 caliber. I don't need government and I don't need taxes. If you want to reduce the tax, I'm not going to ponder that for more than three seconds. I wonder what'll happen when government doesn't have the money. I don't care. You want to reduce one of my taxes.

5:06One of the burdens you hit me with every day. You tax my gas. You tax my vices. I don't smoke, but still you tax money when I spend it. You tax money when I save it. You tax money when I give it to someone and you want to reduce one of those burdens on my budget. I'm here. Where do I sign? I'm all for that. So I don't know if Rod and I can get along this Friday. We'll see Jocelyn Russell. She's the sculptorist. Is that what you call a female artist who does bronzes? She's a sculptorist. She's the one who did Grids 399. Fantastic. You ought to see her secretary. She does secretary it. She has with Ron Turkot, the jockey aboard. It looks like it could run down the track if you didn't chain it down. Yeah, I mean, really life like she did a heck of a job with Grids 399.

6:10You can see that at the National Museum of Wildlife, Art Jocelyn. The artist will be on the show. That's pretty good. Pretty good. Cool. Pretty cool. How cool it going to be around the state. Let's see. Chance of rain mainly after forest and casper sunny up until then with highs 80 river 10 fog in the morning. Chance of rain in the afternoon. Sunny in between with highs 80s. Rain likely in Evans and mostly cloudy today. 66 foggy start to the day in green river. Sun should burn through there by the afternoon. You'll get to 75. Pine Del patchy fog in the morning. Rain likely in the afternoon. High 67 fog and rain in Alpine. It's going to look like London 71. The high. Du Bois rain likely 66 Jackson fog in the morning. And rain likely in the afternoon.

7:11Some storms could be severe head up. Pretty good thunderstorm woke me up this morning. About 3 AM. Real good thunderstorm. 70 in the high in Jackson. Thermop chance of rain late afternoon. Mostly sunny until then with highs 81. Cody, you're on a flood watch. From noon through Sunday. It's going to be a soggy weekend up there in Cody with highs 76 today. Flood watch and Buffalo from noon to Sunday as well. Chance of rain late afternoon. 77 the high in Buffalo. Share it in flood watch with highs. Around 81. Mostly sunny in Gillette. Highs in the upper 70s. Becoming sunny today. A new castle highs in the upper 70s. Story to patch you fog to start the day. Sun will burn through in the afternoon with a high of 85. Oh, I could do that.

8:12Chance of rain in Douglas. Highs 81 Cheyenne rain afternoon. Partly sunny till then with highs 78. Laramie yield top out at 73 with chance. Of afternoon showers. At a chance of rain in Rawlands. About three ish partly sunny 73 till then. News were following today in the Cowboy State Daily over the last 24 hours. Big electricity hike in Torrenton. Oh, I feel for you. Emma, Emma Jane Jackson has the story. I almost cried. Said one Torrenton woman after her power rates jumped 190% overnight. The town changed their provider. And what often happens is these these big electric companies, these energy providers, they'll tell you it's rate adjustment, you know, or something like that.

9:15Actually, they're not saying anything. Emma Jane reached out to both the former electricity company and the new one and neither one responded. But the bill came in a hundred dollars higher than normal for the month. And Adrienne Walsh was shocked. I almost cried. She said, she works at a local brewery, lives paycheck to paycheck. And that was hard hit. She has five kids and a hundred and ninety percent increase. That's that's significant. The city announced transmission portion of the utilities wholesale power bill rose 189 percent from June to June of last year to this year. Western area power administration is the region's provider.

10:17And they recently switched to southwest power pool, something like that. I don't know any of these electric companies over there. I mean, this is basically Western Nebraska. Torrenton. Torrenton and its wholesale power provider, municipal energy agency of Nebraska, are working diligently to discern the cause of the sharp increase. Well, I can find the cause of the sharp increase, greed and rising costs of everything in the world. Simple. I mean, I don't you don't even need a statement from the energy company, the electric company. How come the rates went up? Rising costs, passing it on to you, our costs rose. Rising costs of everything. Ice was in Jackson recently, my town,

11:20my town for one more month. And a plain closed ice agent zipped tied a woman at a Jackson bus stop Tuesday, highlighting increased friction between ice and local law enforcement. It's interesting to see how the whole thing plays out in the race for sheriff. Sheriff Matt Carr is running. He's the incumbent. He's being challenged by a challenger's who say car is in bed with ice. He's too close with ice and Jackson is a town, maybe not a sanctuary city, but it's pretty darn close. And for the most part, without the J ones that run the show in Jackson, if the J ones all went away, nothing would get done. You wouldn't get your eggs and bacon. When you booked your hotel room, the bed would still be unmade from the night before.

12:26Nothing, nothing would operate without the J ones. The problem is these J ones sometimes overstay their visa six month, 90 day, one year, whatever it is. In this case, that's what ice is saying. This was a woman from Turkey, which has been the go to country of late. I will note that everywhere I go, I work, you know, as a DJ, and I work closely with the service industry. And every year, it seems there's a different country where all the J ones are imported from. And it hasn't been Mexico in some time. Mexicans just sneak in like they don't commit not J ones. They just come, they just show up, you know, one day there's a, there's a trailer and an RV park. It has six Mexicans the next day. It has eight. I mean, they don't, they don't do paperwork. I'm just in general, not always.

13:28I'm not stereotype. And I'm just telling you how if you see someone who was born in Mexico here in Jackson, hallway, homing, they didn't likely come on a, on a work visa. Either came legally or illegally. And then there's the J one workforce imported every summer season. And every summer season, it seems to change what country is the country do your? And it this past summer, it has been Turkey. And I'm not sure why that is. Must be some, you know, some agent responsible for getting you your workers. I don't know. It was Mel Dova for many years. It's been the Eastern block for a long time. Albania this summer before everybody was from Albania. Gold point that out is basically Russia, but they speak a lot of Spanish in Albanians do.

14:31And this year it's Turkey. And I love the people from Turkey. I get along with them great. We talk about the Turkish women's volleyball team. You find me another Wyoming guy who follows Turkish volleyball. And they're so excited and I play. Yeah, so I love the people. And I, and I see the photo of the woman who was arrested. And she looks a lot like somebody I've bumped into, a server, a bartender. And I feel bad for her story, but I say and she stayed too long at a visa. She's been over a year now on the visa. And they, I don't know if this was an organized operation or what, but an ice agent, not not all suited up in the ice, not wearing a tactical vest or anything like that. Just playing close ice guy, Nabderid Abusta and put zip ties on her.

15:32Some people, you know, in Jackson, liberal saying that's cruel and inhumane zip ties, flexible handcuffs are commonly used by law enforcement. So that's not unusual. But the current sheriff said he would have liked the heads up like, Hey, if you're going to go nab somebody, give me a heads up. This is happening. I mean, he's running, rerunning for office. Sheriff car was kind of miffed about that that nobody told him. The feds didn't tell him. And the mayor are in Jorgensen. The mayor said, this, this can't happen in my town. It's not going to happen. You're not going to pluck people off the street and ship them out of the country. You know, not in my town. I believe was the mayor's quote. So interesting story. Who's got that Emma? Emma Jane. No, Emma Jane was the power. Who's

16:34had Colby Colby Feador place about the Jackson bus stop ice movement? Yeah, other other stories. Well, we, we really going to try to get to when we have a moment. But first we got to get our first guest in here. We're going to talk about the role of HR human resources in your company. In particular, let's look at a few HR high profile cases. How about a variable, the coach of the patriots? Perhaps with a relationship with a reporter. Is that legit? Should the reporter have been fired? Should coach have been fired? What about the cold play, Cam, back in July 2012? We'll talk about all that stuff in a minute. Looking for a career with purpose and a company that invests in you? Howder River Energy Corporation is a consumer-owned electric cooperative serving Northeast Wyoming. And they're looking for leaders to join their team. At Howder River Energy, a good life begins with a good company.

17:37Build your career with an industry leader that develops people and helps you plan for the future. Visit pre-core.coopp and click join the team today. Howder River Energy Corporation. Powering more than electricity, powering people. Okay, let's get your weekend started off from the right foot with HR. It's Stephanie Heathman, founder and CEO of the HR Innovator Group, bringing over 25 years of experience. What did you start when you were two years old? That's impossible. Okay, I'll take your word for it, Stephanie. The topic today is maybe dating in the workplace or relationships that are deemed appropriate, not appropriate. What is the role of HR? Building guard rails if you want a data coworker. Good luck with that.

18:38Right. Okay. I can't help, whenever I think about this, Stephanie, I can't help thinking of the office. And I'm sure I'll mention it. The TV show, the office, and there's a HR representative. The policy there is. Yes, you can have a relationship with a coworker. It just has to be disclosed for everybody's protection. What does that mean? I guess somebody could get promoted. Then you're like, wait a minute. It's interesting. Before we dive into the co-play cam incident and the New England Patriots, which, not enough bad things can happen for New England. If you ask me, I'm a bills fan. But that whole thing, talk about the role of HR. What you do, your company helping HR departments and HR human resources. It's a component of any business. It should reflect the size of your

19:41business. I think HR, your HR department should grow as your company grows. But what does HR do? And what do you do? Yeah. So the HR Innovator Group, we are a consulting firm that supports all size businesses across the country with outsourcing their human resources function and payroll. And so our role is to really come in and audit really where this current state of the HR infrastructure stands. And so that includes things like this, Jake. And it's interesting because let me say this, an affair itself generally is not our business. And quite frankly, we don't really want to know on a personal level, right? But the workplace impact absolutely can be. And that's kind of what you were already talking about. If somebody's promoted, if confidential information is misused because of this relationship. And we've seen that. So really,

20:41what HR's role is, is to assess the business risk and exposure with these types of relationships. Not necessarily scrutinize what the individual is doing in their personal life. I understand that HR as I have seen it operate and I, man, I can't think of the last time I was with a big company. This outfit I'm with, I think there is an HR person, but I don't really interact a whole lot. But I do know, I do see there is an intentional kind of firewall built between HR and the company, the function of a company, the employees, why is that? Why should HR kind of stand by itself, but you're still integrated in a company? Yeah, you know, that's a really great question. And we're seeing a huge shift in HR going outsourced versus being internal because of these things like cold play gate and the misuse of trust and just reputation right

21:47overall. And so our business has seen a huge uptick in outreach from all size companies across the country who are saying, you know what, we feel safer with HR being managed externally than we do internally because we don't have this perception issue of trust and relationships. We're nowhere near it, right? So, you know, I think if we want to talk about the cold play gate situation, man, was that impactful for the HR community? You know, you started with a couple of things and first is morals, right? Our moral compass should be going off when we're considering any type of personal relationship with somebody at work. And there's people not even in the HR field that don't want to have a personal relationship with somebody in the workplace, let alone an HR professional and an executive. Yeah, just to remind everybody, this wasn't actual HR person. Let's pretend it wasn't in a minute, but she was the head of the human resources at this

22:50software company, Kristen Cabot, Andy Byron was the one putting the squeeze on her, the married CEO. So, if she was not HR, she was just any employee and the relationship had not been disclosed, but he's married. And let's say she's married, button up to each other. What, that gets a little messy. Yeah. Should there be dismissals, firings? I mean, should there be retribution for that relationship or is that on your own time? Yeah, so there's a lot of opinions on that and really the role of HR going back to that priority is to assess, assess risk and exposure. And so the first thing we're going to do is have that conversation with the individuals. We're going to do that independently. We may do that jointly. And a lot of times we're going to say, well, first of all, do we even approve of this relationship? This one in particular, absolutely not. He's an executive. You're right. He's married.

23:52She's HR. It's completely inappropriate. But what is the relationship creating as far as a legitimate business issue is concerned? And I think we can agree that this one has legitimate issues written all over it. Yeah. This one is cringe time. 10. Definitely. Okay. So let's say another, this risk assessment makes me think of another theoretical relationship, CEO of one company, CEO of another company, neither is married, having a relationship. And both of these companies are, let's say, publicly traded, you know, stocks. And then one day it's some business deal is announced. And it is advantageous to one company and not the other. And now you're like, wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah. So that's where we look at it and evaluate whether favoritism is perceived in that way. So, you know, did you create this relationship to benefit one organization over

24:59the other? And was that relationship creating a conflict of interest? Or, you know, was there some sort of evolution of the relationship as the business continued to evolve on both sides? Right. And so again, we go back to the same kind of synopsis of we need to analyze where the risk and exposure is here and then determine whether it's appropriate or not. In that case, I think you could kind of sit on both sides of the fence, depending on the details that you uncover. Yeah. And again, it brings up the importance of having some policy in place where relationships are disclosed. I know it's your private, you know, affair, like what you do, who you see, especially if you're not married. But, you know, it could get sticky risk assessment. It could get sticky down the line if things happen better to have it all out up front. Okay, we're talking to Stephanie Heathman, founder CEO of the HR innovator group. You can find them on the inner webs under that.

26:01Let's talk about now this relationship NFL reporter covering the NFL in general has now we still don't know the degree of a relationship. Neither one is disclosing much. Diana Racini's won't say there's any relationship. We saw photos. Coach Mike Vrayble of the Patriots pretty much admitted to it by saying he needs to work on some things with the family. Is that now if you go back and look at Diana Racini's work and they have believe me, they've calmed over every report she's ever done in the NFL. Doesn't appear that she's ever done and use the relationship in her job like she was a fair reporter. This was just maybe if it was a relationship did not affect her work is the Atlantic right in firing her. So what should be anything towards her? Yeah, you know, these public very public relationships take a different

27:04turn in the actual practice of how we handle these things from an HR perspective. And you know, there's I'm happy to talk about kind of the blanket no dating policies that in my opinion often miss the point. So disclosure requirements are the most important and make sense in my opinion. What employers should do when one person has authority over another or why terminating someone simply because their personal conduct makes people uncomfortable, right? And so is it actually affecting her performance? Is it creating risk and exposure? It can create an entirely difference that of HR problems. But we don't uncover what those problems are until we have conversations and we see who's willing to disclose what, right? It sounds like he has fully disclosed and kind of owned up for any responsibilities he has on his side. It doesn't sound like she has maybe

28:08been comfortable sharing her side of the story, so to speak. But that would be beneficial if she's trying to salvage her job. There's a conversation to be had there. Now would HR, let's say you know is Stephanie, you're higher. You're HR for the New England Patriots football team. And you're doing what you're calling a risk assessment. Are you ever concerned about the brand or how things look for your company, your organization? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, you know, we work in partnership with marketing and branding and the executive leadership team when these things come out in the manner to which they do, especially when they're very public, like I said. And so those impacts are also part of that risk and exposure because they are such a public entity. And so all of those factors line up to when we investigate something like this. And it truly

29:11is deemed an investigation that sometimes if HR is too close to it, which is not typically my company, because we are external. But when it's internal, sometimes you need a third party to come in and be more unbiased to the situation. What about, I mean, is this silly? Maybe it is, you can tell me Stephanie, what about a relationship that isn't technically romantic? We're not spending the night together. There's no, and everybody's keeping their clothes on. It's a different, it's just a very, very close relationship that might come under scrutiny. Is there such a thing as that? You know, I think we spend more time at work than we do at home, right? I think that's that's a given. We spend so much time in the workplace that we do develop relationships, whether those are friendships or someone who really becomes a true confidant in our life. And I think we need boundaries and expectations around those relationships when you're blurring the lines between

30:12a personal relationship and a workplace relationship. To answer your question, not every relationship is inappropriate. And I'd like to say that HR professionals are not responsible for being the morality police. That's not necessarily our job to step in and say whether something's appropriate or inappropriate, but it is when it impacts the business. And so, sure, over the course of 25 years, have I had employees come to me and say, you know, these two individuals, he's a leader, she isn't. They seem a little, you know, chummy, they're rubbing shoulders. They talk more freely and it makes some of us uncomfortable. And we simply have a conversation. I'm the type of practitioner and encourager to those in the workplace at a leadership level go have a conversation. You know, don't allow the perceptions to continue to build because that will create even more risk if we let it go. One other complication, one other risk of a relationship is actually, I don't even know

31:14what the term would be, but it's like the backfire. Let's say there's a relationship just slows within a company. Somebody who has a higher up who makes decisions about hiring, firing, and promoting. There's two people up for a promotion. One is in the relationship with a person making the decision and he passes him or her over for the other one. And then the one on the relationship says, you're just trying to be extra careful and not pick me like that probably happens. Yeah. So that's where sometimes the relationship agreements do come in play. Yeah. And we have the individuals who have disclosed it. They're both very transparent about being in a relationship together and we put legal leads in there that says, if any of these things were to happen, you're not going to retaliate against the other person. And that's when I do believe those agreements make sense because there's added protections and really what we're trying to protect here is the business. We're not necessarily protecting the two individuals who made

32:18these decisions. Again, that's not our business, but the business impact is, look, if you two don't end well or some decision is made that causes drama within the personal side of your relationship, you're not going to come back and use that as a company complaint. Anyone named Toby over in your outfit. I can't stop that. I watch it show all the time. I got it on my brain. Stephanie Aitman is with us. You can find them on the internet. The HR innovator group now on on the website though, it's HR innovators. It is group.com. Okay. Yeah, find out more about what she does. What they do. Interesting discussion. Thanks, Stephanie. Thanks, Jake. Appreciate you. Have yourself a weekend. Thank you for having me on. Take care. Cowboys. Stay daily show. We're going to take a break. We're going to see what they're doing at the fire departments. Touch and truck tomorrow. Are you ready to put your skills to work?

33:20Wyoming Sugar Company is hiring for campaign season from mechanics and welders to general laborers, lab crew and more. There's a place for you on the Wyoming Sugar team. Competitive wages started $17.69 an hour for laborers. Be part of a great team, a great facility and a season of opportunity. Apply today at Wyoming sugar dot com slash careers. That's Wyoming sugar dot com slash careers. Wyoming sugar company put your skills to work. Ready? Set. Make a difference. Seroptimus of Cody invites you to their 18th annual 5K 10K chip time walk run Saturday, October 3rd at the Cody Recreation Center. Run or walk to support the Laney Cole Memorial Women's Cancer Fund providing vital assistance to park County women battling cancer. Registration starts at 8.30 a.m. with the kids race at nine and the five and 10K at 9.30. Register at runsignup.com or sunlight sports in downtown Cody. Seroptimus of Cody making a difference once step at a time. You're listening to the Cowboy State Daily Radio Network.

34:37All right. We got our next guest in here. We're going to have a chat with a real good hockey player. Kevin Parks. Kevin, I heard you're good at hockey. I try my best. Kevin's do an engineer level. Congrats. That must mean you you know a thing or two about fires. Laramie County fire and rescue. We're going to talk about touch and truck that's coming up tomorrow. I think right? Saturday tomorrow. It better be tomorrow. Yeah. It's Friday already. Because I am going to be long. I'm not going to be doing this show tomorrow. So, God leave. It's not Saturday. I'll be in trouble. Yeah. We're getting there. So yeah, tell me what you do, Laramie County fire and rescue and as it has been a busy season, how things going over there? So I'm with the city of Cheyenne. So Cheyenne fire rescue. And so far, I mean, we've

35:44we're always busy, but we've been pretty busy these last couple of months. There's been been a few fires and we're staying busy. Personally, I'm with the training division. So right now, we're working through a fire academy, hiring a bunch of new firefighters. Like you said, we've got a touch truck coming up tomorrow and should be a pretty good event to get some families out there and see what we see what we do. We'll be doing some demonstrations. And again, families can walk around the archer center and take a look at the trucks and whenever I see like a county fair or something and a competition between fire and police, the bravest and the finest and my brothers and cops. So with all apologies to my brother, I think firefighters, man, they're going to be tougher and stronger. Look at the training you got to do. Well, I mean, you know, no disrespect to the cops, but of course it's true, right? Yeah. No, it's it's always a good, healthy competition between cops and firefighters, but we do work in conjunction together quite a bit. You know, there's a lot of us that wouldn't want to do what they do

36:48and there's a lot of them that wouldn't want to do what we do, right? So we all kind of use our strengths and our weaknesses and work, work together pretty well out there on the streets. So touch and truck September 19th, which Kevin and I have agreed is tomorrow Saturday. You're going to get a chance to, you know, the kiddos, man, they are they just fascinated by a fire truck or what? I mean, kids and adults alike, right? Yeah, we do a lot of tours in the fire stations. We love showing off what we get to do at the end of the day where all just big kids that they get to ride around on the fire trucks now. So we love having kids come out and just kind of get to see what we do, get to touch the trucks, get to go in the trucks. We've got rescue rope demos going to be out there. We've got helicopters from both lifeline and the we've got one of the blackhawks coming in. Oh wow. It's going to land out there early in the morning so kids can get in there. We've got police dog demonstrations for the kids. We've got helicopter burn demonstrations.

37:51They're going to be cutting up a car, which is always fun to watch. Never fun to be a part of, but you know, kids love watching us kind of get to tear apart a car. And we've also got some escape houses and like a mini version of the firefighter combat challenge that kids can do. So, I would love to do any of that stuff. So this is way more that like I know, touch and truck implies the kids actually get to push a button or put their hands on the truck, but this is real hands-on experience. Like you can go mess around, get in the truck. I mean, how much can they can have there's certain buttons? I'm sure you don't want them to push, but they can get a feel for it. When I give a tour for for demonstrations, I always like to say, look, if we can't break it, that's a good chance to kick you in either. So, for the most part, I mean, granted outside of touching stuff that's going to turn things on, but the back of the truck, the air packs that we use, the gear that we use, they'll get to put it on. Just kind of feel what it's like to be a firefighter for a day. Yeah, and feel what it's like to, you know, do like drag a hose somewhere.

38:57Can they do that? I mean, I would like to like take the holes from the truck and there'll be a part of the combat challenge where they get to kind of push a hose around drag. We've got like a teddy bear or a mini mannequin that they're going to be able to like, they're rescuing somebody from a fire. Oh, yeah. Climbing some stairs, things like that. That's very cool. Yeah, so this happened. You're going to be there. Yep, we're there from 10 to 3 tomorrow. All right. We're at your events in there. 10 to 3. Wait, where is it? Oh, Archer. Yeah, in the main building at Archer there. Okay. Yeah, everybody get out for this. It'll be so fun. Kids love it. Adults love it. Kevin, what let's go back to that training just a bit. What how long do you have to train before you're whatever certified like volunteers and paid fire personnel have to everybody's got to go to the training. How many weeks is it? How intense? Correct. So for I don't want to speak too much on the volunteer side, but I do know that

40:02they also do their own version of an academy. Arz is Monday through Thursday, seven to five every day. The volunteer academy is due to most of them having other jobs. We'll typically be later at night or on the weekends, so that takes a little longer for them to go through it. Our academy is 13 weeks and our firefighters come out with firefighter one, firefighter two, and hazmat. After that, they go into a probationary period for a year where they're constantly training. So the main bulk of the training is 13 weeks and then but it never really stops. It's such a wide variety of things. Fire departments can respond to obviously you think of a structure of fire. That's going to be a big one. You better know how to put it out and how to do it safely out of rescue somebody out of there. But also I you forget fire departments often first on the scene in auto accidents, car accidents. And I'm sure you've seen a lot of those fire department having to respond. Maybe cuts somebody out. Do the jaws a life thing or try to put out an EV car on fire. Supposedly,

41:04that's impossible. But what the new EV stuff is definitely a new challenge for the fire service. And then you know, you got trains down in your neck of the woods. Any you are a look at the train tips over with hazardous material. They got to call you on that. That's correct. So we have hazardous material. A emergency response team, seven. It's a regional team. So we cover Laramie, Platte and Goshen counties. We've had a couple trained environments here in the last couple of years. Yeah. Okay. You know, I carry around. I have a fire extinguisher here in studio. I got one in my truck. But man, I have not had them service or checked in years. I would, you know, I'd like to know more about what I should be doing about maintenance upkeep on fire extinguishers. Can I bring one? Are you going to do any of that during the event tomorrow? I do not know of any plan to do any fire extinguisher checking. A lot of what we do in the city of Cheyenne for fire extinguishers is

42:06this contract that out through third party companies for businesses. I would say if somebody brought a fire extinguisher to me by all means we look at it. They all have expiration dates on them. And that's probably where we'd start with making sure that it's in service and ready to go. There's also a gauge on every extinguisher. So making sure that gauge is in the green is always a plus. Right. Okay. When's do you play hockey against the cop shop? So we we actually know league that up and down the front range between it goes all the way down to Colorado Springs fire and police. We've got Denver fire. I'm not sure. I think there's like 20 or 30 teams in the league at this point. It started out as a game between us and the four columns police department and has just kind of turned into an entire league. There's actually a championship game after the avalanche game at ball arena this Sunday. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty cold. That'll be the best hockey ever played in that arena because the avalanche stink. Go

43:10Montreal, Canadians. There you go. Yeah, visit Cheyenne. Big haps guy. Yeah. Dude, totally. We are so young, so fast. We're going to be we're going to be dominant for years. I like the move picked up Chris Criter the other day. That big goon. Yeah, we're going to be looking good. All right. So find out more about this event. Touch of trucking. I'm reading in a visit Cheyenne visit Cheyenne dot oh, RG and Laramie County fire department is going to be there Cheyenne fire department. Kevin's going to be there. That's all you need to know any Dalmatian's going to be hanging out. Oh, we've got we've got Sparky. We've got McGruff will be there. Smokey the bear and then there's a couple other mascots from from other various organizations. It'll be walking around all kinds of events. All kind of fun things to do for kids and adults

44:11should be fun. Hey, thanks, Kevin. Thank you. Cowboys. Stay daily show us Kevin Parks and the touch of truck event tomorrow. I think it gets started at 10 a.m. Yeah, 10 to three. Three, of course. Well, we should have led with that. I mean, smart favorite word, right? Three won't cost you a thing. Go learn more about what the fire department's hunting out there is going to be all kinds of trucks. They'll be ambulances there. Go see the ambulance. They'll be, uh, looks like they got a greater of front end loader. They get all that stuff. But all kids love that. And some kids never grow out of it, man. They got the they got the John Deere and the Sandbox and the next thing you know, they're 30 years old with two kids and they go to work with a lunch pal and get him that same front end loader. It's just a lot bigger. Kids are fascinated by hydraulics,

45:14big tires, trucks, you can touch a truck, hands on CPR training, vehicle extrication demo, which means basically chopping up a car. Oh, yeah. Dude, I want to see the saw that does that. Live fire demonstrations, the cops are going to have their canines doing stuff like maybe knocking somebody down. That'd be cool. I'm not volunteering to be the bad guy, but I want to see the canines do their thing. Fire hose bowling. Yeah, you don't want to miss that. And the junior fire fighter challenge, all this stuff going on and touch a truck tomorrow. If you is in Shia and you better get there. Laramie County Fair Complex at the archer. 10 to 3. Hey, what's say we rodeo here in the early morning? It's the rodeo road show on the western Agnet. Work high everybody. I'm

46:17Will Rasmussen off of a trip from Lewis tonight, a whole and had the honor of officiating the funeral for the late great hall of famer Jim Sutton in on night. A sound to coat up some news over the weekend has come out. Plus the extreme bull riding event happened in Pendleton, Oregon and a subprayload to the Pendleton Roundup. We'll talk about that coming up. Maltan Cours is like to raise a cold Cours banquet and a cold Cours light. In the regular season of professional rodeo, we'll talk about what's going on in the world of professional rodeo this weekend on the road show coming up. You know, good horses don't happen by accident. They're bred, raised and proven generation after generation. The Weaver family has been breeding and raising horses in Montana for 130 years. Join them September 19th at the Expo Park in Great Falls for their 31st annual production horse sale preview at 11 sale time one o'clock. Selling 80 AQH a registered halter broke wheelings and yearlings bred for speed

47:22versatility and performance. Get all the details at weaverhorses.com and remember you can bid online to be a devi auction. Agriculture is an optional and the future of livestock production isn't something we can take for granted. Across the country farmers ranchers livestock markets, individuals and industry leaders are finding common ground and taking action. Together we're tackling labor challenges improving risk management tools supporting young and emerging producers and strengthening rural America. One industry working together a stronger future. Learn more or sign on to the movement today at common ground coalition dot net. Of course a lot of the rodeo eyes are on the penalton round up there in northern Oregon. That is a huge rodeo. The biggest rodeo of the weekend going on that started about Monday of this week. So the penalton round up going on penalton Oregon also going on big duans down at the New Mexico state fair which is a major down in Albuquerque. The Dixie Lions Club rodeo in Saint George, Utah on the grass. Beautiful St. George

48:30going on. Avaline Texas a couple of reasons I want to point this rodeo out to you. It is a big rodeo going on, but it also marks the return of Bob Tomman who's been out with an injury that has kept him sideline since March rodeo Houston. So welcome back Mr. Tomman. Othello Washington going on and Rough Rider Cups the Rough Rider Cup in Mandan, North Dakota. Huge money this weekend and just a couple of days and Omaha Nebraska. That is an old rodeo that's been going on for an awfully long time and the eyes of the rodeo world will be on Omaha, Mandan, North Dakota, Pendleton, Albuquerque and more. We'll keep you up to date the best we can right here on the rodeo road show. I'm Will Rasmussen on the Western Ag Network. This is the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show with Jake.

49:34Yes, it is and we burned down one hour on a finally Friday Cowboy State Daily. So more coming up, you don't want to miss. Representative Scott Heiner is in next. We'll reminisce about Frank Gambino, the goat, the legend and Andrew Rossi stops by next hour. Now it's news time. Cowboy State Daily Show in hour two of a finally Friday and we get with Representative Scott Heiner. We're going to talk about Cole. Cole is good, man. If you've been a good little boy and girl, Cole is what you get in your stocking. That is a positive thing in Wyoming. Scott is house majority leader. Also chairs the Wyoming House Minerals Business Economic Development Committee. And recent repeal of EPA strict standards, that's a Biden error thing. That was good news.

50:39We're excited about that. We've got Cole and we've had Cole and the base load power that Cole brings. Wyoming's been all about it. The problem is getting it, the people who want it. And we took a major step the other day, although a representative Heiner thinks the home run would be doing things at home. But that was a pretty solid double in the gap. If you're doing the baseball and now analogy, getting cold to Taiwan via Mexico. Exciting. Yes. Top of the morning. Yes, sir. Beautiful morning. It is today. I'm seeing here that the miss coming off the river. I got some antelope and deer out in the past year. It's a beautiful sunrise. So things are looking up for Wyoming. Cole has been the lifeblood of Wyoming for generations. We have built some fantastic things here in Wyoming on the back of Cole. And Cole is not done. Cole, as Trump says,

51:41clean, beautiful Cole. And Cole can be very clean now with latest science and technology. So I applaud this opportunity to to transport Cole to other nations to provide their energy needs because Cole is the best energy fuel source because it's high in B.T.U. factor and it's stable pricing. But one of the concerns I have, Jake, is that we are we have been going through a lot of boom and bust with our energy here in Wyoming. And a lot of that is because of geopolitical influences. It's not because we couldn't find the oil. We couldn't find the coal. We ran out of natural gas. It's because of politics that we went through these these booms and busts. And so this external market to the United States is just going to feed into that boom and bust scenario that we've had in the past. The way to fix that is to bring manufacturing here to Wyoming.

52:43Let's take the full cycle here. Let's bring mining jobs to Wyoming. Let's build power plants in Wyoming. Isn't that a novel idea? Burn the coal right here in Wyoming and generate electricity that our nation so desperately needs right now for energy dominance. Yeah. Over the past eight years, we have lost 25% of our coal mining jobs. Those are high-paying jobs. Over 10,000 jobs we've lost here in Wyoming. And the generation, the electric generation here in Wyoming continues to be going down. For example, just in the past year, we have exported 12% less coal-fired electric generation than in years past. That's the lowest worth the lowest point since 1990 in coal electricity generation. So we're continuing to reduce the amount of coal we're utilizing here in

53:44Wyoming. But we have industry that wants to build a coal-fired power plant here in Wyoming. But they've been thwarted in every time that they've tried to build a plant here. I know of two or three companies that have tried to build coal-fired power plants here in the last five years. But they don't get the support they need from our governor's office to be able to do this. Hopefully they haven't completely walked away from the plans and ideas because things are changing in DC. Now, you mentioned the governor's office. We'll talk about Governor Gordon and you know, what role he's playing. In fact, we have one of his representatives on later today. We'll talk about coal. But yeah, the decline of coal has been well documented. There was a time in 2008 coal did 94% of our electricity was derived from coal. That's now about half the electricity we do

54:45is coal. We got to get back up there. It's a dependable base load power as representative Hiner points out if we have the plants in state, we're less influenced by what coal's doing on a global market and what coal's doing in Washington DC. Who knows in 2032 whether coal's going to be great. But if we do it in state similarly to mining uranium processing the yellow cake and then shove it into a nuclear plant like that's a vertical integration of an entire product. We can do that with coal. And then we don't, you know, we do our own the Wyoming just run itself on coal. I like that idea. Yes. And looking at the surrounding states, we're one of there's only two states that are reducing the amount of electricity being exported. There are two blue states. Wyoming and Colorado, all of our pure states that are red states, they've increased the amount of electricity they're producing. New Mexico increased their electric electricity production by 40% over

55:50the past year. Utah, North Dakota, they're all increasing the amount of electricity they're producing while we're reducing that. So something needs to be changed on that that front. We need to utilize the God-given natural resources. Wyoming has been given and produce electricity, produce manufacturing and bring those jobs here to Wyoming. We hear all the time. We don't have jobs for our children. And yet we continue to export our natural resources rather than building coal-fired power plants right here in Wyoming, which would bring mining jobs, high-paying mining jobs back to the state, but also bring those high-paying jobs of manufacturing and electricity production here in Wyoming. And so we need a stable environment and that will help do that. So that's, I applaud the efforts to export this coal that will bring new jobs to Wyoming. But I'm just concerned about the boom and bust cycle that that will accentuate. Let's bring the other side of the coin, the manufacturing

56:53side here to Wyoming and strengthen our economy. Yeah, this this recent announcement, it is when you look at a dependence on that market still being there five years down the road, 10 years down the road. Peabody Energy Union Pacific and the Mexican rail partner Farrow Max now have a deal in place to get coal eventually shipped to a port in the Gulf of America and then out to Taiwan. That's good news. We export coal to half the nation like 26 states. I mean, that's good for Wyoming. It's good for tax revenue, but if you really want to build jobs and be self-reliant as a state, let's do it all in Wyoming. Can we, is there an appetite to do it? Representative Heiner has been critical of the governor's office regarding a 2021 state of the state address when Governor Gordon promised to be

57:54net negative in carbon emissions. Now, how does that play if you're doing coal? That seems like it might be a little speed bump. You're seeing what his agenda has been for the past eight years. That's not the only time he's mentioned that he wants to make Wyoming net carbon negative. And that's not net neutral. That's net negative that his agenda. To do that, you cannot bring a manufacturing facility to Wyoming that uses fossil fuel. That goes against his personal agenda. And so that's why we're struggling to get these new plants built in Wyoming. And frankly, they're still out there. These, these businesses are still interested in Wyoming because we have those resources, but they are waiting for a change in administration to be able to come see if they have favorable situation, favorable atmosphere to come back to Wyoming. As early in the governor Gordon's two terms, it was different times and maybe talking about being carbon neutral, carbon

58:59negative, that worked for DC. Now we see, you know, Trump, we see the EPA announcement earlier this week. Would governor Gordon say, Hey, that was different times when I was talking about that. I don't know. I guess we'll have to ask the governor, but it's certainly is this representative Hiner, the main hindrance now because it seems DC, big, beautiful, cold message from President Trump is go for it. Well, Wyoming start putting coal fire plants in there, coal burning plants in there is the hiccup, the governor's office. That's a major hindrance that we've been running into. We've been, you know, in my part of the state, we have two major coal mines that are losing their market. They're laying off people, they're shutting down there because the gas plant or the power plants have been converted to natural gas. So there's high-paying jobs we're losing and this

1:00:01impacts not only the employees, but their families and the service industries and the implications are huge here in Wyoming because we are an energy-producing state. We need to do everything we can to bring those jobs back, but to make those jobs secure by bringing back the manufacturing, the energy production side as well as the energy usage side. And we know the electricity is needed here in the United States for energy dominance. Everybody says that they have a hard time bringing businesses into Wyoming because there's a not enough electricity generation. Well, here's a perfect opportunity. The science is improved with coal-fired power plants to where there's almost no emissions. Follow the science, don't follow the politics, and that's the problem. We've been, we've been following politics where coal has been labeled as dirty, but science shows that we can do this and make it very, very clean. So let's let science prove itself. Let's build some of these plants here in Wyoming. Let's bring the jobs back, but also bring the manufacturing to

1:01:05Wyoming. So we have a stable economy that's not susceptible to boom and bust that we've had in the past. And we can do this. We can do this as we all get behind the cart and push the cart together. We've heard this representative, Hiner. You're right. I mean, EPA, regional administrator, Cyrus, Western. He said, he talked about, you know, this recent EPA, the recent ruling and and and advancements, innovations, inscience in UW is going a great way towards making sure we can burn coal the cleanest. I mean, we haven't turned our backs on the environment. In fact, we've been foremost at this state of Wyoming in making sure we can burn coal clean. So this misnomer that was big black smoke stacks, that's thinking in the past, man. We can do it clean. We've proven we can do it clean. And I hope when the general session starts, it'll be here soon, that you send a

1:02:06message, lawmakers send a message to industry that, yeah, we want to help you. We want to get this going. Coal fire power plants in Wyoming. But Jake, we've got a law here in Wyoming. It's HB 200 that requires our power plants to put carbon capture on their plants. The Wyoming house, legislative house has tried to repeal that for the past two years. And the governor's office and the Senate have thwarted that. They've stopped at every time. I want all of your listeners to look at their electricity bill the next time they get their electricity bill. There is a line item there that we are paying for that carbon capture research right now. Every one of us is repairs are paying for that. It has cost the state of Wyoming millions of dollars. And that's the the underlying reason why our power plants are being converted from coal to natural gas. Natural gas is not the fuel of choice because the the price structure of the fuel is very

1:03:11very cyclic. It goes up huge amount and you can't store natural gas. That's why Texas almost had a grid collapse here a few years ago because they can't store coal. You store the you store a pile right by the power plant. Yeah. But HB 200 is the reason why we're losing coal fire generation here in Wyoming. And the Wyoming house has tried to repeal that in numerous times. But the governor's office and the Senate have stopped us each time. So first and foremost, this next session, they need to repeal HB 200 so that we stop forcing these power plants to be converted away from coal and let coal be the king that it is here in Wyoming. Interesting. Representative Scott Heiner with us. Yeah, I mean, it seems like all all green light for coal. President Trump is a pro coal EPA recent decision this week. And then the fact that Wyoming, you know, if you're going to anything about

1:04:12Wyoming, you know, is we don't have enough electrons and we can't get them from here to there. And we got data centers that need it and your power bill every time you open it up, you're like, what the yeah, coal. There's never been a time more important for coal to step up and be the base load power energy leader. It is representative Hunter. Thank you. Thank you, Joey. Have a great weekend. Don day with the day with a forecast. Let's see if Don is here yet. He's not so I'm going to duck out for a quick break. We'll get with Don Dave right after this. Ready, set, make a difference. Seroptimus of Cody invites you to their 18th annual 5K 10K chip timed walk run Saturday, October 3rd at the Cody Recreation Center. Run or walk to support the Laney Coal Memorial Women's Cancer Fund providing vital assistance to park County women battling cancer. Registration starts at 8.30 a.m. with the kids race at 9.00 and the 5.10K at 9.30. Register at runsignup.com or sunlight

1:05:14sports in downtown Cody. Seroptimus of Cody making a difference once step at a time. This is the Cowboy State Daily Radio Network. Let's also have a weather discussion with this guy Don day day with a forecast. Pretty good thunderstorm early this morning woke me up Don. Yeah, Western Wyoming 10 quite a bit thunderstorm activity over the last couple of days. This is going to go down as the wet is September in Wyoming of all time. No, but you know, it's going to be wet. We've got flood watches in effect for parts of Northwestern Wyoming, Northern Wyoming, a good hunger southern Montana. So we're looking at subtropical moisture being widespread this weekend. I mean, typically September, I always tell my wedding industry people they're thinking about

1:06:19a good time to, you know, have a wedding in Wyoming. And I think July, August, you could get those monsoonal moisture thunderstorms. And for me, September, I'm like usually dry is a bone. It's like bulletproof. Yeah, usually, yeah, usually can be, but this is a bit of a unique situation. This, this is the beginnings of where we're starting to feel the El Nino impacts a little bit. All this moisture in the Pacific. We've got the right wind pattern coming in. So it's not your typical September pattern for sure. Yeah. And you said, well, we feel it more or not one it's more when it's cooler as it cools down, we'll feel it as we get in a fall winner. We're real right. Yeah. So we're just now at the beginnings of it. And so this could bring some really beneficial moisture to some areas. Now, the flood watches are in effect for good reason because while it's not widespread heavy rain, this subtropical moisture can cause pockets of very intense rainfall. And so it's in these isolated areas that you got to watch out for, especially

1:07:22folks who are camping or hunting up into the high country and keep your distance from those creeks, streams and aroyos. Yeah. And keep in mind, it doesn't have to rain where you are to cause a flash flood if you're in the mountains. Yeah. Aroyals, there is a southwest word. Um, yeah. Cody, uh, Buffalo in particular, why is that it? Because the, the system could just sit there for a while and like, and rain and rain and rain in one spot. Well, what it is is it's called training where one shower thunderstorm will develop and another one will develop behind it and cover the same location. Yeah. And that's why if you look at where the watches are, it effect, it's mainly near and over the, the higher mountains because the mountains will help form those showers and thunderstorms and the wind pattern is just right. And that's what we've seen down in New Mexico and Arizona and parts of Colorado over the last couple of days. There's been flash flooding. There's been this situation down there. I mean, trillions of gallons of water

1:08:26has fallen from the sky in parts of the Southwest United States that haven't seen, you know, this is, this is the most rain they've seen in in a long time. Dang. All right. Um, interesting weather times were living in. Have a great weekend, Don. Bye. Don day in the day weather forecast. Oh, today's Friday, we forgot to do a, yeah, if you're playing high school football around the state, watch out. It could be kind of rainy and lightning activity and some of these high school football games. And then the Cowboys Laramie forecast, Cowboys playing football tomorrow. But what I usually get a game, game day forecast, but I forgot. Speaking of sports, let's get this young lady in here. Kathy Holman joins us. She's a, uh, Perry wife and heels media influencer,

1:09:30media personality blogger, Kathy. Uh, we're going to reminisce about Frank Gambino. I'm, I never got real. I mean, I'm even in the biz like sports broadcasting. I do play by play for high school. I know, obviously, new of Frank. I know his work, uh, you know, with in Casper K2, uh, with Wyell Prepp's and David Settle, I know all that. You know, Frank back, back in the day, you and he worked together at K2, yeah. Yeah. He actually was one of the first people that I met. And you could mention that I was a mommy blogger. So mommy blogger to radio, huge transition. No idea what I was doing. I was terrified. And Frank just took me under his wing, had the utmost confidence in me. And one of my first memories of him is walking into the radio station and he's at his computer. And he's in a shouting match with his computer because Frank and technology never

1:10:35landed well. And he had, uh, quite a very full vocabulary, shall we say? And, um, you know, I was trying to think of what I would say about Frankie as many of us, um, called him. And I don't know how someone could be so grouchy and opinionated yet the kindest man ever, ever. I called him my sunshine after that first day when I met him, um, you know, he always would just, but just my son, it's a hey sunshine. Hi. And so I always used to tease that grouchy guy that he was my sunshine. So just a true gift to have gotten to know him that way. And then of course, on a personal level as a mom with five children who are athletes, they were high school athletes. So I was looking back through my text with Frankie before this interview and before talking to Cowboys State Daily about my experience with him and half the text are him asking me about my kids because they were injured

1:11:39or congratulating me on my kids. Happy Mother's Day text from him. And then me just saying, Hey, handsome. I see you on the field. Can I give you a hug? I think that went a long way for the kids and you can probably say whether it did, but these student athletes looked at Frank Gambino different. They, he was like kind of a god to them because he was going to give it to you straight. He was so authentic. He wouldn't tell you if he had dropped the pass. He'd be like, I was awful. You can't drop that. And yet he would elevate you to rocks. Yeah, he made you feel like you played in the NFL. And let's talk about the fact too, that those of us that know Frank from his high school and youth sports coverage, how could the man possibly be in Gillette, Pinedale, Birds, Glenrock and Cheyenne all in one day with pictures to prove it of what the kids were doing. I mean, his coverage was second to none. And he would come in with

1:12:40Drew and I. That was my co-host on the my country morning show. And he would come in and talk sports. And he knew just as much about, you know, Fort Laramie and what their wrestling team was doing. And, you know, K-Dub and NC. And then, oh, let's talk about sports on a national level. He could cover that with the same respect to the statistics, the names of the players, the history of the sport. It was just he was a genius. Yeah. His knowledge, he had a database, I guess, in his head, like, did he, me, like he could be talking to a junior wrestler in Matizzi and say, you know what, last time that guy pinned you last year, remember? And you'd be like, what? Yeah. And he'd be like, and by the way, your uncle's roommate, I remember watching him ranked little 10 years ago. And that's it. And when I think he summed it up to when you said the kids respected him. And that's so true. When he did the interviews with them, they knew that they were bringing something of value to their program.

1:13:41Because he wasn't a B-Esser. Yeah. I mean, he would tell you exactly like it was. And he had no problem talking about coaches in an authentic way. Yet you knew his criticism came from support and wanting to see growth in the programs, not from maliciousness. If that makes sense. Yeah. And I appreciate what he did. Because it's not easy to be blunt and honest. But you you have to be because then when you give praise, it's more meaningful. But yet you can't be so negative and drawgatory on a player on a raft on a coach. He walked that line. He did it perfectly. He told you called us paid his paid. And then when he praised you, man, you knew you earned it. And we're, you talked about like student athletes like being nervous like Frank can't be no one's interview. You're like, they're like, oh no. What do I do? But he, he just was the faith of the

1:14:42face of youth sports. You would see him on the side of every field. I have so many pictures of him at State Wrestling. It was our tradition just to run up to him and give him a hug and he'd be like, take my picture. And he's just a media legend too. Not everyone realizes too that he also was at K2TV forever with a lot of the grates in our media industry in Wyoming before he moved over to radio. And I think the fact that Bob Price and Donovan, short and so many other grates looked up to him speaks so highly of his professionalism and who he was to all of us in the industry. Bob Price saw something there hired Frank straight out of Drake University in Iowa and they never had to make another hire after that. Frank just owned it. Yeah, here's one thing I can't reconcile, Cathane. You're close enough to be able to tell me is, is this notion that Frank and his vocabulary could get very colorful if things, you know,

1:15:48if his computer went down or his mic wasn't working, you know, it's similar to me of seeing like a devout, you know, a latter day saint. They're only allowed to cost when they're talking about an obstinate meal, you know, you can use a bouquet of profanity would come from Frank on a plethora of occasions, I should say. And it just was the background noise at the radio station. And my co-workers are probably laughing if they're listening to this because you would be in your studio and you would hear it and you would be walking through the hallway and you'd be here. You'd be bringing a guest to be on air and there'd be Frank. But again, like for someone that was so grouchy and opinionated, I don't know a single person that did not love him and just say how sweet he was to. And I really don't know how Frank he did it. And and to like he loved his son so much, we would talk about the parenting and he was just so proud of him. He just an amazing guy at Wyoming's a little

1:16:54less lighter because he's not here with us. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I mean, for me who a Mike is old could always be on. I just I never use language, you know, I don't know how you. Well, sometimes it was on air. I don't know how many fines they had to pay that might be. There might be a telly mark on a board somewhere from from them for for Frank, you know, for sure. And maybe that's something that, you know, why on me, guys may not understand me having spent so much time in New York City, I get people like this, the gruff exterior where you're like, this guy's prickly, but no, he's inside the the warmest we did nicest people. Yeah. Yeah. And and Frankie was just that. And so he was from Chicago and I'm actually from Milwaukee. So we also had. Right. Right. Yeah. Which honestly to be real, I don't know anything about Wisconsin sports. I came out for college and then I've been in devoted. Polk span ever since, but just a piss frame

1:17:57golf. Yeah. I would definitely talk about how much better all the sports in Wisconsin were than everything that was happening in Chicago for sure. And he and he loved it. He loved it. Well, your Brewers are playing pretty well now better. I'm going to just not smile because I have no idea. They're really good. Kathy, you're really good. All right. Hey, thanks for being on. We'll never forget Frank. They'll never be another Frank and be know. Now, thanks. Have a great weekend, Kathy. Thank you. Kathy, home and remembering Frank back in the days. K2 and he's just a main sense. It's hard to believe that there is not a Frank Gambino today doing sports. Reboarding is just yeah, as Kathy said, we're we're lesser today than we were a week ago. Let's get a break in here and we'll be right back with Andrew Rossi after this quick word.

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1:20:01State Daily Radio Network. Hey, we're just rolling along on a Friday. One thing that most Americans can agree on. Shocking, right? That we actually can agree on something super majority. Both left and right politically minded or whatever your walk in life is. American people agree on one thing these days that they want to stop AI their anti AI their new polls. Americans finally agree on one thing opposing artificial intelligence. Super majority's on both Democrat and Republican side in a new poll show that we most of us think AI is advancing too quickly and could quote

1:21:07destroy humanity someday. It's one of those things we actually agree on. The numbers show, let's see a full 63%. I think of Americans are very worried about AI. Depending on which party the numbers trend is hard far is 70% of us. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling artificial intelligence? Of course, Donald Trump when asked about AI and data center saying if you're anti AI or anti data centers, then you're just too dumb to get it is kind of the paraphrase of the president. But most people strongly disapprove of the message from the White House and most of us are worried and oppose artificial intelligence

1:22:09according to a new study. The survey was done by who did this survey? Rees, um, yeah, and this comes days after, of course, the anthropic researcher Jacob Cox and who quit his job for fear that we weren't putting enough guardrails in place when it comes to artificial intelligence, worried that it could kill us by the year 2032 or kill us by the end of the decade. I think political did the poll, political poll. Also a study out of MIT, a recent report on MIT said, here's what artificial intelligence is doing to the college age generation. It's causing us to be quote cognitive surrender. In other words, if artificial intelligence can

1:23:11research that paper for us, if it corrects our spelling, if it does our math, then we don't need to rely on our brains for hardly anything. And the MIT reports stated, probably predictably, that artificial intelligence is causing a cognitive surrender. We're all surrendering our brains and our ability to think in reason because there's a machine that'll do that for us. Very interesting. I probably could have guessed that. Other news, the Houthis are being a bunch of rebels. The Houthi movement and their violence in the Hormuz straight is now expanded to parts of Yemen where they got their start. The Houthis began in the 1990s as a religious movement in northern Yemen and they began as just a bunch of

1:24:17pain in the neck pirates that, you know, anytime they saw a boat, they would just wreak havoc on any ship. It's now become a motley group of Islamic fighters waging civil war against their own government and basically now being the right arm of Iran, they're supplied by Iran, and battling on several fronts. They're of course anti Israel, anti Saudi and their anti-American. These Houthi rebels are more than just a pain in the butt uprising. They are now legit military force. It is hampering any effort to move oil through the straight of Hormuz. The federal judge ruled the Kennedy Senate could not inscribe Trump's name

1:25:18on its facade days later. They're abruptly closed without Trump's name. There's no value. There's no money. There's no fundraising. Officials at the center saying they're at risk of bankruptcy, but Trump promised he could raise necessary funds as long as they put his name back on the Kennedy Center. Trump administration announced today it approved a proposed $2.8 billion arm sales to Israel that would include 40,000 one ton bombs. And also other news and relationships. Trump is considering business deals with Russia to entice Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Has he tried this already? Didn't he go through a period where he was pretty cozy thought he was

1:26:22friendly. Yeah, the president Trump thought he and Putin were BFFs and thought he had maybe an end to the conflict in Ukraine and then Putin just turned turned on him. I'm not sure Vladimir Putin appears to me the kind of guy that will tell you we're best friends and then do something else. Trump also withdrew his nomination for the head of ICE Oklahoma State Trooper. Former Oklahoma State Trooper was to lead ICE, he rescinded that nomination. Just the other day offering no other explanation. Andrew Rossi ready to get in here. We'll chat with Rossi in a moment. Andrew, part of his beat is covering what goes on in Yellowstone and saw some numbers. We got visitation numbers for August and down just a little bit. I thought this would be the year

1:27:26that we would hit 5 million but we're never going to do it now. Yellowstone hosted some 856,000 recreational visits in August. That's down 3% from August of 2025 down just a little bit. Andrew, what's happening in Yellowstone? Did you see that latest report? I did and I'm going to take the ecotistical approach to it, Jake. I'm going to say that visitation is down this year because people saw our story about the Grandpa Tossing Bison and that deterred them from visiting the park. Mark is the only logical explanation. Too dangerous. So many canceled plans. Yeah, I don't want to get flipped by a buffalo. Could be. Could be. I mean, the influence of Cowboy State Daily in the media, you know it. Yeah. I wrote a certain point. If you go into the park, I was in the park in August and you wouldn't have noticed that there were that much fewer guests because everything's still solid.

1:28:30There's still a lot of traffic and every bear gets a throng of hundreds of people. Yeah. Yeah. And parkings at a premium. I mean, you have to go if you want to see animals and have anywhere to park. You got to go early early in late is how I do it. If it's midday, lots of people. You might know the answer to this. When is it when do you go to Jenny Lake? Because it seems like every time I go past Jenny Lake any time of the day, it's mobbed. Yeah. Let's string Lake, lead Lake Jenny Lake. Well, you can't go on a weekend. That's out because all the locals are going to try to be there. But very, very, very, very early. I've been there usually if I'm going to go and I'm going to bring friends and family last summer, it was August, it was peak season. I got there at about 7 30 a.m. Yeah. Those lakes. Big time.

1:29:32Many folks worth it, but it's just hard to find that moment because I mean, sometimes you just don't want to park on the road and that pike in all that way. Yeah. And Jenny, like have you waited in line for the ferry over the lake? That I am not. Yeah. That line can be very, very long. So I do, I have a secret, well, it's not secret anymore, but I had a secret little put in what I put my canoe in and I paddle my own way over to where the ferry went. So you can go to inspiration falls and all that. But even that little secret spot is mobbed by, you know, nine or 10 a.m. And the unfortunate thing about that is Jake and Grand Teton and Yellowstone is that if you're in line waiting for something, they don't have animatronics to keep you entertained like Disney World. So maybe that's something they should explore. Yeah. I don't know. You got to be unplugged. Yeah. The efforts to put more, you know, internet into Yellowstone. I don't, I don't

1:30:35like it. I get the safety issue, you know, if you're in trouble, you want to be able to contact, but I mean, that should be a park where you put it away, man, on plug. No one can hope. What's happening in your world? I see one new news story when I searched for you. It came up the trucker that got stabbed 17 times. So if that's not you, that's Colby. Now that's a little bit heavy for me. Yeah. Um, trucker stabbings. Of course, also what happens at truck stops is baby births. We had that, but that's not you either. Yeah. I don't think that's how I came into the world. So I can't relate to that child. No, you were regular hospital born. I guess the only unfortunate thing is they weren't born at a buckies. That would be an event. Oh, they kid would be named Vocky. For sure. Um, yeah. Well, what is a Rossi story that we're going to see you over the weekend, maybe? Oh, I see. They're hoarding all of my stuff for the

1:31:38weekend. We've got a bunch. I've got an update on Aspen Alley, because as you know, they pretty much clear cut it last year. So now people are going to get an idea of what it looks like a year later and how that's progressing. And it is progressing, which is really exciting. And I guess I'll be curious to see what else they put out there. Got a new there was a new, not a new, but there's a T Rex fossil that came out of Eastern Wyoming that's sharing some very interesting insights to changing what we know about T Rex. I'm very excited about that. There's a new fat chunky squid that turned up in the big horn base. And that's pretty pretty novel concept right there. And this weekend, which is a great thing to talk about, the 45th annual Buffalo Bill art show and sale up here in Cody. That'll be tonight. So I'll be covering the live auction and we'll see if we can break the million dollar mark during an election year, it'll be pretty exciting. Wow. I forgot about that because it's always after our old Bill's fun run and our own art fair

1:32:39thing in Jackson. So yeah, that Cody could be a record center. You think? I will guess we'll have to see. It's hard to say exactly how much you get because there's always stuff coming in. You've got the main live auction, then you've got the quick draw, the next morning, and then you have the silent auctions going the whole time. And then if during the quick draw, they sell multiple editions of the same bronze statue. So that adds to the cost and everything. So it's it's hard to know exactly how much they've made until a day or two after, but I'm the one who's calculating it in real time. So I've got a better idea of how much they're making than anybody who's there at least in the moment. You're going to know first Andrew Rossi big. Yeah, if you're anywhere in part County in the Cody area this weekend, all things are get there, bring money. By the way, we're going to have that sculptor wrist. Is that what you are when you do bronze?

1:33:41Jocelyn is going to be on the show. The Gris 399. She is good. I looked into the stuff she does. Secretariat, for instance, the bronzes she does. She's talented. Jocelyn's tremendous. I've been following the 399 legacy of love stories since they got started. And they Jocelyn told me at the unveiling of the against all odds, Gersley 399, bronze sculpture at the National Museum of Wildlife Art that after we did our story on their project, they raised like in a very short amount of time over $200,000, which was about half of the allotted costs that they had for it. So Cowboy State daily helped out in its own way. But Jocelyn's great. You're going to have a great time chatting with her. Yeah. The money raised significant because, I think, as we've already said, this is not a commission piece. This is grassroots. This is people, you know, with their $10, $5, whatever it is. This is all funded by people who love the bear,

1:34:43love art and love the clash of the two. It's what a piece. It's so cool. Exactly. And third, those listeners who are stretching their heads, most bronze pieces that you see are commissioned. A person will go to an artist and say, you know, I'm going to give you X amount of money to build a life-size statue of so-and-so or I want an elk or whatnot or a bronze sculptor will sculpt something and put it in their shop or wherever they are in the hopes that somebody will see it and buy it. This 399 project was entirely, I guess, the closest thing you could say to it is crowdsourced. They put it out there that they wanted to do this. They had a set price and they just saw if people were interested in giving whatever they could to get their names associated with this project and get it off the ground. And the really cool thing is they had the very heart of this sculpture. There's a steel canister. It's permanently sealed. That contains the names of everybody who donated $399 or more to the sculpture.

1:35:50I don't know exactly what they called that Jocelyn will tell you, but it's a really cool way for people to memorialize themselves and attachment to what will be 399's official monument going forward. That's going to be how people remember her because it's going to be the closest likely likeness that will get of her in the Jackson Valley. Jocelyn Russell will be on the show later. She's our final guest, I think. Andrew Rossi's story got a great quote out of her. She should be a writer also. She said, this is more than a sculpture. It's a statement of love legacy and the bond between people and the wild. It's a very unique the way the sculpture came to be. The bronze still raising money for this, the total bill by the time we pay for it's like 480 something thousand. And we're more than halfway there. Thanks to the media coverage from Cowboy State Daily, which also spoiled Yellowstone's visitation are big mouths.

1:36:52Yeah, well, at least it wasn't that warm spring near Dubois. I'm still hearing about that. Oh, yeah. And you have a great artsy weekend in Cody. You two, Jake is best of an artsy weekend. You can have in Jackson. I got weddings today and tomorrow. So yeah, music will be my art. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Cowboy State Daily show with Andrew Rossi Bewashing for his stories over the weekend, changing what it seems like every week, we have to change what we thought we knew about dinosaurs. One week the T-Rex was not a mean monster. The next week we learned he is then we then we find out more fossil recovery and he was just a big angry bird. What word dinosaurs anyway? I still want to think the T-Rex is like Godzilla like he's a monster.

1:37:58Read the Andrew Rossi story if it involves dinosaurs, Andrew's got it covered. His story about the bronze of 399 and the four cubs by Jocelyn Russell and more I looked into it. I see Jocelyn's super talented. She's done big commission pieces, especially on Secretariat, the fame, racehorse. She's a perfect person to have done the big bronze of Gris 399 for sure. We're going to get next hour with representative Steve Harsman. Only we're going to call him coach, coach, Harsman. He might be on his final farewell victory tour with the Neutrona County Mustangs. They got a big game tonight. I think they're at home. I'm pretty sure

1:39:01they're at home posting Central and this will be a real, this is the game of the week and the 4a. Neutrona County's undefeated, Central's undefeated clash of three inos tonight. Steve Harsman, that's a heck of a football team he's had. He's been doing it for 36 years. Coaching up the Neutrona County Mustangs. Big game tonight. We'll talk about his football efforts, his school education stuff and oh yeah, he's got the side gig at the state legislature. Steve's got a lot going on and a big football game tonight. He'll be on next hour. We got to get out of here for news halfway through the Friday show.

1:40:01One foot out the door for the weekend. We're halfway through finally Friday. I'm almost out of here. See, I'm like, I'm on the edge of the screen. Bill Sniffin is here. He's probably already started his weekend. Morning, Jake. Good morning, Bill. Hey, Jake, you know, I'm retired and you know, the people who are retired, they're seven days of the week or Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. So we're not one foot out the door. We're out the door all the time, allegedly. There is no door. Yeah, you, good for you. Man, Bill Frank, Camino. Oh, man. The dude was pretty legendary. You know, I knew Frank, but did not know him well and I knew him a long time ago. I knew him with George K, which is another legend who was in some ways preceded Frank and mentored Frank. But yeah, those guys were just great. And I did eat just die of a heart attack or

1:41:11fall down his sleep. I guess I was a fast, pancreatic cancer. Oh, right. I believe. Yeah. Oh, man, I didn't realize that. I thought it was. So they had some warning, I guess. But well, anyway, he was a great, great guy. Again, I honestly don't think I've had any contact with him for the last 20, 25 years, but I certainly always admired him and respected him from afar. He was certainly a sports authority of Wyoming and very professional. I enjoyed listening to the stories about profanity and stuff, but you'd never see that on the screen. He was nothing absolutely. And he was presented himself as the friendly guy that he really was. He was a pretty dog gun friendly. And you know, to do this business and Jake, you've been doing it a long time. You've got to be kind of an outgoing personality and kind of kind of be a friendly kind of person. I mean, we all know a lot of grumps in this business, but most of those guys aren't in front of

1:42:16the camera because the reader can or the viewer can see that and it'll come through. But no, I don't think I have anything to add on Frank other than I respected him and I was sure sorry to see see this happen to him. Sad day for Wyoming. Yeah, not the same. So what's what what are you doing? Well, just you know what happened to me literally within the last five minutes. I started thundering here in lander. And I went out on my deck and looked towards the mountains and I to the west and I saw a rainbow. I actually took a picture of it. And in all the years I've lived here, I don't think I've ever taken a picture of a rainbow to the west. You know, the rainbows, the rains come through and then you turn to the east and you can and you can there that's where the rainbows always seem to come. So this was kind of a first pretty exciting. The picture I took wasn't that good. It wasn't that great a rainbow, but it was a rainbow. And anyway, so I don't

1:43:22know if that's a sign of something or not, but it was we like the moisture we want to moisture. I think it's going to be a wet weekend. And I've got a four great grandchildren and two grandchildren coming to visit us this weekend. So I'm pretty excited, but I'm not very excited about rain if it rains all over it. But but otherwise, you know, things are going great, Jake. I was my column next this week is about winter driving and winter roads and what I call the pinch points in Wyoming. A couple of them are right here in my neighborhood. Wind River Canyon and South Boy, if those places are closed, I mean people are just I mean you're just screwed. You can't there's no alternative route. Yeah. You can't you can't you if you have to get to Pinedale and maybe you can go through Du Bois and do it, but if South Pass is closed, it's a bugger. But

1:44:26anyway, it's if you have to get to Rock Springs and you have to go through Rawlands, you're talking like an extra hundred miles. You know, yeah, or or both those east, west, South Pass and I 80, you know, I laugh when I see some truckers, especially when I 80 gets closed because of whether they think, well, we're going to have to go South Pass. That's likely to be worse. I mean, it's careful. South Pass is just unbelievable. I mean, you're up on Red Canyon, a beautiful location. I think they clocked at what 114 miles an hour and I've got a friend here who runs a glass shop and he apparently had a trailer full of windshields and very heavy load. But he somehow came down there during that and of course, whoosh the wind took everything. He was in my god. That load he thought was heavy enough, I think to

1:45:27don't survive it. But 114, no, that's hurricane. That's our hurricane. That might that might set a record on the fastest windshield gets broken. Usually as soon as you put a new windshield in your truck, it takes like one day to get that crack in it. Here's a bunch of windshield. You didn't even get them in the vehicle yet and they're all busted. All right, that's a record. Well, and you know, just to hear here's a story I wrote about a few years ago and I don't know if the policy has changed but because we're the windiest state in America, they generally lose you slightly heavier sand. And because the sand just blows away, well, because of that, you've got these gravel. And so I would absolutely bet that Wyoming has more broken windshields per capita than any state in the union by far. Not I don't think it would be even close. I don't know who would ever be able to dig that information out. But that may be a big story for Cubway State Daily sometime.

1:46:32But I tell you what, I don't know anybody doesn't have cracked windshields. And I just had one on my trip up to Yellowstone and Glacier Park. And whenever you go. Yeah, when you have family friends, visitors come in almost always when I give anyone a ride who's not from here. They're like, why don't you fix your windshield? It's all spidered with a, you know, and I'm like, because as soon as I do, it's going to look like this again in a week or two. And good point, Bill, the granulars of sand aren't so granular. And it might be small pebbles. We have a Doug McGee on in just a little bit from Wydoff. Maybe we'll ask him if there's any kind of data. Why don't you ask him? It may be an old wives tale. I may be perpetuating a myth here. But don't think I am. I think I may have heard this from one of them, Nicole Meas, either Del Jr. or Del Sr. And they both spent their careers with Wydoff. But yeah, I'm thinking about winter

1:47:37driving. I always tell people this time of year, be sure to have food and drink with you and blanket and dress warm. And you know, we're taking a stocking cap and be smart. Because, you know, even though I will say I think Wydoff and the Weather Service is unbelievable, how accurate their forecasts are anymore. But weather can change. It can change very, very quickly. But you need to be on top of it. But anyway, it's like I said, that was the point I was going to make on that. But I don't know, Jake, what else are you talking about? You had some interesting people on earlier, an HR person. And I was thinking, you know, I've owned businesses. And I, would you want to hear some stories about the craziest HR situation? Yes. Okay, let me tell you how about I've got a massive print job. And it's a light literally a 24 hour print job. So we've got this big web press and we're we're printing like tabloid

1:48:42newspapers. This one may have been a job for the National Park Service. We always printed. We were we were the company that pioneered that tabloid you get when you go into the Yellowstone Parks Yellowstone and Grand Teton, you get a tabloid. That was pioneered by a guy named Tony Bevanetto who was a friend of mine. And we had a guy named Bruce Kennedy and we came up with this idea of these tabloids. But anyway, I may have been printing one of those big jobs. I don't know. But anyway, so I for some reason I got up early in the morning and I better go down to the office see how they're doing. And I went down and walked into the dark room and it was completely smelling of weed. All three members of the press crew apparently to get ready for the day had just been knocking down. So I had literally had to call a man and fire him on the spot. I said, you can't feel press. You can't be running a press. And of course, that was back in the day when weed was

1:49:48demon weed. You know, I mean, we're talking, I mean, we're talking 35 years ago now, but it was, you know, today I think a person would be a little more open-minded. But then I was totally screwed. I had to reach out and find a printer from somewhere else to come in and finish the job. But that's one of my stories. I didn't, I was my own HR department back then, I guess. Yeah. And then the other one was I had an editor and a circulation manager, GAL. And they were both no one was married the other wasn't, but they would go back and consummate the relationship in our dark room. You can imagine. Well, it is dark. It kind of puts you in the mood, I guess. And I did not fire them on that one. I didn't, I think I was a little more mellow by then, but I said, hey, take your business somewhere. Get a room. Get a room.

1:50:51And I don't know, I don't know what the professional, I think HR professionals would object to both of those scenarios that I just described. Oh, yeah. You probably handled them. You probably have a pressman's labor union, which requires its employees to use a certain amount of marijuana. I don't know if it's fireable offense anymore today. I don't think it would be today, but when you had that HR GAL, I thought of those. Yeah. At the day good morning. When I'm on with Jake, I'll try to remember those two events happened in the middle of the land or Wyoming at the Wyoming State Journal. So, but anyway, the it's interesting. I got to tell you, the thunder just hit. I don't know if you could hear it. I would not enough. It actually shook my house. I'll bet that's our thunder from this morning. We had a quiet thunderstorm three, four in the morning here. I bet it came over to you. Yeah, I bet it is. Well, you know me,

1:51:52I'm always talking about beautiful places in Wyoming. And right now or not in the next two, three weeks, Battle Mountain South, Saratoga, and that area. It's going to be unbelievable. That's where Aspen Alley is. Yeah. I haven't been to Aspen Alley for a while, but the last time I was there, it had a lot of those wonderful Aspen trees that got old and had died. And so I don't know if Aspen Alley will ever have its glory that it has. I think one of my coffee table books has a picture by Randy Wagner of it in its glory. And I tell you, when it was in its glory, it was just blindingly beautiful, like the all the gold. But Battle Mountain, I swear, has more Aspen trees on it than anywhere on the planet. You drive up that mountain and it's just it's just solid, massive forest of Aspen. It's beautiful. Hey, Bill, have do you know, like through the years, and neither of us are arborists or foresters, but are colors more vivid in the fall after a

1:52:58particularly wet summer or a dry summer? I think it's a dry summer. I think when you don't have much rain all summer, that fall is more like wow popping, but I might be wrong. I don't know. You know, I think anecdotally, you might be right, but only because I think they turn a little earlier. Probably. So you see them a little longer. The danger here in Wyoming, of course, is wind and snow. If we get an early snowfall, it'll just knock the heck out of those beliefs on those trees. And again, and the other thing though, that when you've had a dry summer, I think they leave turn sooner, but then the winds will blow them off the trees faster. So you end up, you know, knee deep in leaps, and it's still a beautiful fall, but it's a very timing thing. I mean, sometimes I've got a lot of Aspen on my property here.

1:54:03And some years will have three, four weeks of unbelievable color. Sometimes it'll be three days, because just to the timing of the snows and the wind and all that. But I just love that. And right now we're thinking about going on a family trip back to Iowa. We've got some relatives that are old. They're even older than me, Jake, if you can imagine. And you kind of want to go see him one last time. But Iowa, where I grew up, is up on the upper Mississippi river. And it's it's incredibly timbered with hardwoods. And so the colors are unbelievable. So I'm kind of looking forward to that. I've not been back there in October for I can't remember the time, probably 30, 40 years. So that'll be a, that's so I'll be able to report to you at some point in the future, whether I saw some some Iowa version of this color that we're talking about for Wyoming. I want to see that. Well, I'm in Wyoming, Aspentry's in the fall and most beautiful thing on earth

1:55:06in my opinion, but nothing prettier. They're pretty nice. Golden, golden, the shaky. So are you bringing the big beast over to Iowa? You got to be. And my motorhome for sale, you guys. I just put a whole bunch of money in it. But now I just, I think our motorhome days are done. I don't think there's a law out there, but there's a law of common sense. It says should an 80-year-old man be driving a 62-foot long motorhome and car that weighs 40,000 pounds is I'm not so sure there isn't a law of common sense. It's time to hang up your spurs, old man, and turn it over to somebody else. So I'm going to either sell that or give it to one of my kids or do something with it. But it's such a nice motorhome. It's 20 years old. But gosh, it's only got 50,000 miles on it.

1:56:07It's got Wyoming logos all over it. So it's kind of a kind of a neat, it'd be perfect for, you know, I should I should promote that as for what do they call it when you go to the football games, tailgating, it'd be perfect. They're tailgating at UW. Oh my gosh. I should dig it down there and put it for sales. I'm in it. That's what I should do. Okay. Yeah. Do you leave it anywhere for five minutes? You'll have two people with smoking weed in it and consummating and no time. But this this RV's already broken that way. Hey, thanks, Bill. Hey, Bill, it's good. We're going to talk with coach Harsman next. He's got a big game, Neetrona County tonight. Cowboy State Daily show with Jake moving along and I'll finally Friday. Let's get with Representative Harsman after this quick break. This is the Cowboy State Daily show with Jake. Kind of finally Friday. We welcome into the Zoom room Steve Harsman,

1:57:28Representative Harsman, Superintendent Harsman coach Harsman. That's kind of where we're going with this. Where's a lot of hats? This guy in the 36th season coaching up the Neetrona County Mustangs could be his fair weld tour. We'll see a big game tonight. Oh, get central. Steve, you're looking blurry in your video, but it doesn't bother me. You with us? Oh, he go. Yeah, I think he's having issue. It took him a long time to connect. It took him a long, it took us a long time to beam him aboard the USS. Cowboy State Daily show. Well, make another try it. Steve hopefully. Representative Harsman, longest tenure in the House State House of Representatives,

1:58:34longest tenure. He's been doing that for a long time. He's been coaching up the football team for a long, long time. 36 seasons with Neetrona County Mustangs. And he's looking to be the next superintendent of public instruction. He won the Republican primary back last month. And that's what's got some folks thinking and speculating, including Cowboy State's Daily Jeff Welsh thinking it could be the final fair weld tour coaching voters will likely end. Steve Harsman's Hall of Fame football coaching career. That's the story from Steve Harsman in the Cowboy State Daily. This story from Jeff Welsh on Steve Harsman. Yeah, he, a lot of irons in the fire. There's a lot of different ways you, uh, Steve Harsman may have touched

1:59:39your life through the decades, but there's many a young man, uh, now a medium sized, uh, young medium man that has been influenced by coach coming up through the Neetrona County football program. And as I said, big game tonight, Battle of Unbeaten's. Oh, that'll be interesting. Let me see if I can get Steve back in here. Hey, can you hear me? Yeah. Uh, your, uh, Wi-Fi is pretty funky, though. I don't know how long it'll last. Yeah, I don't know why I was on and I've got full bars on my internet, but, uh, uh, we need an IT guy. So, um, we're going to talk about a little less about the campaign for a super antenna public instruction, probably less about the longest tenure, uh, tenure house of representatives,

2:00:39uh, Harsman. Well, I want to talk about coach Harsman, um, such a fantastic career coaching up those Mustang kids and, um, man, you come a long way from 1991 when Steve Harsman was hired. He didn't win a game. Oh, and hate that first year. Did you wonder back then? What have I signed up to do? Yeah, gosh, I would, I, well, thanks for having me and it's been such a blessing, you know, and I see those kids today who are now in their 50s, you know, but, uh, and I apologize to gosh, they just couldn't overcome poor coaching and we were all bunch of young guys. I think I was 27 and, and, uh, we were working like crazy, but, uh, uh, yeah, just, you know, just the opportunity to come here and I think, you know, Coach Hill and Coach Gail Dean and all those, uh, that had come before and Coach Reagan right before me and, um, so it was really an honor. And then, uh, what was like everything, you know, when a job is usually open, usually there's some work to do and, and, uh, so yeah, and, uh,

2:01:46the kids really went to work and, uh, yes, went and, you know, we, um, kind of turned it around there a little bit after a couple of years. That's second year we were really, we lost like five close games, you know, we were really close and, uh, and up when in Noel Bull, it's probably why we're talking this morning. Actually, it probably be somewhere else probably. Well, a tough start, it took a while to get that first win, but after a while, they could not get this guy out of the job and they'll be sad to see him go. Certainly on those way to, uh, Hall of Fame stature, goat, coach, you know, that kind of thing, legendary building. Really, Steve, I'm serious. Um, let's talk about, uh, you know, first before we talk about numbers, wins and losses, all this, again, let's, I'm sure you know this, um, but I want to, I want to make sure our listeners know this. We don't measure, uh, high school sports by wins, losses, final score. This is about teaching up young men and women,

2:02:51and, you know, a supplement to their educational experience, uh, and, and instilling life lessons. That's the win here. Yeah, 100% and I think, uh, you know, in all of our studies show, you know, used, I think years ago called extracurricular. Now it's called co-curricular and we realize the importance whether kids are in the, in the marching band tonight or in our junior ROTC or in the band or the dance team, all those things, the cheerleaders. It's, uh, really putting your heart and your soul into something and, and, you know, joining a team being a part of something that's kind of bigger than yourself. And I think, uh, that's the, you know, that's life when you're a parent, you're part of the team, right? And, and when you're a husband, you're, you're, move farther down the bench on that team, because your wife's in charge and, and, uh, so that whole, you know, the whole thing is such a good training ground to get up early to put in the work to do all that thing. And, you know, he is soon forget all that the wind's losses system. But it's really those connections you make

2:03:58that stay with you forever. I want to talk about some of the things you remember what they are, whether they're certain players, certain seasons, whether it was something that took place on the field in the locker room, wherever, uh, I'm always interested to know on what sticks in the mind, you know, 36 seasons. But first let's talk about this year. If it is to be a farewell tour for coach, harshman, he may go out with a bang. Watch out for this. Neatrona County Mustang team. I don't want to jinx you, but they've been moving up the ranks. Man, the latest while preps coaches and media poll now has Neatrona County number two chasing down. Of course, those shared in Bronx. If the Bronx were ever going to have that record setting wind streak snapped, it could be next weekend. Watch out. That's a game that a lot of folks have circled on the schedule. But so far this year, a win over Laramie who have been putting up points like crazy, you beat East, you wiped out thunder

2:04:59and this is the game of the week in the for a central Neatrona County. You get them at home. You're rushing a taxman. Fantastic. What do you, what do you think about today? Well, I think the team with even a more potent rushing attack or the Cheyenne Indians, you know, go back to, you know, Cheyenne and Casper. It's one of the oldest high school rivalries west of the Mississippi that, you know, and that got all these great pictures of the days when they take the train down and the student body. It'd be in a couple of cars and they would get there and they'd bust each other's kids to the stadium. And so it's just so much history. And, you know, I think the thing with for a football, particularly this year, there are so much parity. I think anybody can beat anybody basically any night. And, you know, Thunder Basin last week, one of their top players, we didn't know until we arrived returning state wrestling champ. He was unable to play. And so I mean, just all these things

2:06:01week by week and so our focus is never on winning a game. It's always about really practicing well today. One day at a time, really folks in and trying to stack days on top each other and improve it and getting better. And, yes, you know, I think all coaches like and John Wooden probably is the guy who said it best. It's, it's not measured in the wins and losses really, but it's, are you realizing your full potential? You know, are you maximizing those gifts that God gave you to the fullest extent? And when that happens, man, it's a beautiful feeling because you know what, you know, and, and we've had teams over the years that have done that. And they weren't state champions, but man, it's just such an incredible feeling when you, when you start reaching the top and of your potential. So that's pretty neat. I'll give you a little draft Kings advice. I'd bet the over tonight. These are the top two offenses in the four A's and so, Netrona, this is going to be fun. Um, you got a couple of

2:07:03weapons. Number two, number 21, Patton True Brody Wilcox. Those are some athletes, man. I like this team. I like them a lot. Yeah. I think, you know, and Pattonat is the youngest of all the true boys. The truth has been playing football, the Toronto for over 80 years. And really incredible history and, and Brody too, he's grown up, you know, orange and black since the day was born, probably at Orange diapers and he is, yeah. So those guys and, and really the whole team, I think, it's just a lot of good young people and good guys who, you know, care about each other and are putting in the work. And, and so, you know, we'll keep, keep plugging away and, and, you know, victories are not final and defeats not fatal. And, and, you know, it's the, we've got to keep plugging away and onto the next day. So, yeah. Well, let's enjoy this coach while we got him. Again, this could be if, obviously, if you do move on in

2:08:07November, become the, the next superintendent of public instruction is just not, not going to be realistic to continue to coach. You've got to already got a lot going on right now. The side gig over at the house, you know, in Cheyenne, you, you got football. So, you know, if you're successful in November, it's, you're going to have to go all in on that, you think? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, this thing is, it's about our senior football players. Really, this is their last goal. And we want to really make sure that we, you know, try to make it the best senior year possible for them. And, and as they leave with memories and all that. So, and, you know, I think the thing is, you know, it's, the institution, the whole thing is way bigger than anyone person. And so, I always have said, you know, hey, if I'd died in my sleep, we're going to kick off at seven this Friday. Yeah. We're not canceled this season. I mean, it's bigger than, and so it's not really about any of that. And so really the focus is on

2:09:13our senior guys and on our kids each day and making sure we keep moving forward. And, and rest of that stuff, we really, it's not in our hands. And we just keep working again, folks in one day at a time. Yeah. I mean, it's bigger than you. It's bigger than Toronto County high school football. It's bigger than Wyoming high school football. There's, you know, all kinds of things that work. But let's, let's think back in the past, Steve. What are some of your memories of the 30 plus years in coaching? What stands out? What is something? You'll, you'll always treasure. You're never going to forget. And I'm guessing it's probably not, you know, a touchdown pass is probably not okay. You know, I'm wondering how football it even is. What are the things that you're going to remember? Yeah, that's, that's a, that's a great question. I think, you know, this is my 41st season as a coach. And 39th is a head coach, 36th of Toronto. But it's in such a blessing. And you know how, as you get

2:10:13time flies, it's just a blink of an eye and long days, but short years. And, you know, some things I, first of all, I can see kids. When you ask me that question, I can visualize. I can see their face and the helmet, you know, when they've got, boy, they've got that, when they're in the zone and that passion and their face, I'm not even sure their parents get to see that as much. And I can still see kids and I see them today when they're adults. I can, you know, go back to seeing them in the huddle or a key moment of a game is that part of it's so cool. And then I remember, you know, like John D. Ty Jr., you know, Lord Ressie Saul, he was, he was a great mentor. But I remember, I think it was after my first or second year, we're at a football clinic at the University of Wyoming and Laramie and we're stepping off sides. We're talking and he says, you know, the thing is, I've found is just make the important things important. And you know, it's a, it's a little thing,

2:11:17but make the important stuff important. Because a lot of times, boy, you get going down rabbit holes and you get chased and stuff, we all do it. Man, it's just, I remind myself, I make the important stuff important. And so that's, you know, all that stuff, but it's just been so many great people. It's all about people, you know, and, and we've done, you know, a ton of work each year. We've kind of invested our kids like, hey, let's do a little bit each year and you come back for your tenure year reunion. You can see the tree planning or the work we did on this or the concrete we poured or whatever. And, and so it's been kind of cool that thing to transform and keep improving our facility and, and just a lot of community service to our kids have done a lot. We appreciate the community given us those opportunities, but, you know, from, from trails on Casper from home to special education to, you know, boys and girls club to all those things we've done a lot of,

2:12:17a lot of good work over the years so the kids have done good. Code Charishment joins us on this cowboy state daily, finally, Friday, Friday under the lights. Mustangs, get it on with the Indian Central, Nitrona. This is the game of the week in the 4A. Don't look past this the next week or you're going to watch out. Uh, share, I'm already, I'm looking forward to next week. Yeah, no, sure. I don't think anything about it. First things first. And, and of course, you know, it's more than football, life less and kind of stuff and all part of education. Steve, thank you for spending time with us and we're going to enjoy you while we got your coach in anyway. Yeah, well, I appreciate you and I'm, I'm enjoying it every day. It's been a real blessing. So thank you so much. You bet. Have a great game tonight. Good luck. Cowboys, stay daily, show Steve Varsmer we're going to get with Aaron Brown next. He's bringing along why does it's going to be Wyoming highway patrol. Why do I will talk about winter driving

2:13:21stuff like that? Looking for a career with purpose and a company that invests in you. Powder River Energy Corporation is a consumer owned electric cooperative serving northeast Wyoming and they're looking for leaders to join their team at Powder River Energy. A good life begins with a good company build your career with an industry leader that develops people and helps you plan for the future. Visit pre-core.coopp and click join the team today. Powder River Energy Corporation powering more than electricity, powering people. You're listening to the Cowboys State Daily Radio Network. Cowboys State daily on a finely friday, friday means high school football in the state. So a lot of folks will be traveling to and fro to watch your favorite team. A lot of school buses going to be out there. And then tomorrow of course Cowboy football at the college

2:14:22level and there'll be more people. There's many reasons why you might be out and about on the highways. Aaron Brown from highway patrol wants to make sure you do it lawfully and Doug McGee out of Wyoming Department of Transportation would love to see you do it carefully and safely. Yeah. Hey guys, thanks for being on. How's it going Jay? Thanks for having us. Yeah, we absolutely want to make sure people are getting to the game, getting home safely, you know, have a plan. We've been we say that every year, almost every show. Your best bet when you're driving out there is make a plan, especially if you're planning on doing something that puts you at risk. If you're going to have a few drinks, make a plan. Have a DD. And a plan helps a plan includes a timetable so you know when you have to be at point B. So you know when to leave point A. So you're not running behind because a lot of problems start when you get this impression that

2:15:25I'm running late. I got a hurry. I got to go faster. Yeah, your plan is going to mean plan ahead. Leave that at a time. Absolutely. Absolutely. It is. Hey, Doug, you hearing us. Okay. What's going on over there? I am. Are you hearing me? Okay. Yes. Fantastic. Um, yeah. I'm trying to headphones. So Aaron, how'd you hunt you? Talk Doug into coming on? What's he going to chat about? It'll be a winter driving soon. Bill Sniffen was talking about that. Well, actually, um, we wanted to we wanted things we were going to talk about is, uh, we had an email from one of your folks that does some scheduling and, uh, heard you wanted to talk about the UW-8. Oh, that's right. How did I miss that? Uh, I did see that email. Yeah, we we just, uh, we went through, uh, um, anniversary of that horrific thing. That highway is that 287. That is two. There is something about that highway. It's not the

2:16:27highways fault, but boy, that highway, all any, any highway has potential to be dangerous, can be tricky, but that one, something about it. I'm maybe Doug can help us, but yeah, we're remembering that horrific accident. Yeah, that, that particular route south will learn me to the Colorado border. Um, it does have a lot of, uh, basically open space. Um, the wind can really whip across that surface, um, creating all sorts of issues with traction, especially obviously in the winter. Ice can really build up and maintenance challenges are high. Um, and then I do think the fact that the route connects to college communities can certainly lead to some, some challenging situations where folks are on that road back and forth between social events or sporting activities, uh, driver behavior can suffer at times like that.

2:17:31Oh, Aaron, uh, how often is highway patrol good on that 287? There's probably somebody on that pretty often. We usually have someone coming out there, uh, if not responding, um, at least, uh, being out there, whenever we can. Um, typically we're gonna, right now, it's gonna be a lot of, um, if we get called out there, we're gonna go out there. Um, now one thing I can tell you, we've done on there multiple times and I've been part of it actually. I've been, I've been fortunate enough to be part of it and take pictures and all that is doing meet details on 287, which is our mobile education and enforcement team. And that is where we're, pulling over commercial vehicles, doing, doing random inspections that, you know, that they, they might, they might think, oh, if I go out to 287, I don't have to go to the port. Yeah. Um, but, uh, instead they get inspections and a lot of folks pass and then the ones that don't

2:18:31get put out of service and get a chance to fix it and try again. Yeah. Um, it's a popular alternative route. Yeah. If you want to stay off the main, uh, you're not tricking anybody, uh, highway patrol, somebody will find you if you're doing it wrong. Um, yeah, what, what else you want to talk about that, uh, that, well, what was the year that accident happened by the way? Let's go back. That was a, that was a one, uh, September, 16th, 25th anniversary. Yeah. And, sorry, go ahead. Well, I can just, yeah, so I was a new employee at WhiteOT at the time of that crash. I'd only been here maybe a couple of months in the public affairs team at the time. I was a videographer and coming into work, uh, the morning we found out about that, it was, uh, very difficult time for

2:19:33everybody to get the word of that and learn, one of the details of that. And for me, as a new employee, not having a lot of experience in the, uh, world of highway safety and crashes. It was, it was pretty challenging. Uh, and certainly just, just beyond measure, trying to figure out what those families were going through and what they were dealing with. It was heartbreaking. Really doesn't begin to explain it. But, yeah, um, yeah. Memory of the eight, cowboy state daily is written it up both at the 20th anniversary, um, five years ago, the 25th. This was, um, what, uh, this was a cross country team. What, what team was cross country runners? Yeah. Cross country. Yeah. Cross country runners. Um, and, you know, one of the things about this crash that I have with the troll, I can definitely speak on. I mean, I remember what it happened.

2:20:35Uh, I was, I was 16 at the time. So, you know, you're at high school. Uh, didn't know anybody from that team. So at the time, it didn't really register for me. Um, but then as, after, especially after joining Y dot, it, it really kind of sticks with you a bit. It, it comes back and, um, one of the big messages for this thing is it comes down to planning. It's not just planning. It's good decision making. Um, alcohol was involved with this. Um, we know that the, uh, one of the people, the sole survivor of the crash was intoxicated. Um, and, uh, it was one of the main causes of this, this whole thing was someone being highly intoxicated. Well above the legal limit. I think it was a point one six. Um, it was a pretty, you know, pretty, uh, uh, hammered. We'll put it that way. Um, and, uh,

2:21:38you end up, he ends up going across the lane and causes this crash that it's up killing eight people. Um, and it's a tragedy that has not just, it's not just a tragedy that is a tragedy for the sake of being a tragedy is a tragedy that changed things in Wyoming. Cowboys stay daily story. You can read about, uh, the latest Carrie Drake, uh, on September, September 16th wrote the story. Wyoming hasn't forgotten eight cross country runners killed by drunk driver 25 years ago. It's not the only time, uh, student athletes, uh, have been injured or killed going to and from events. Uh, we, we've seen it just all too many times. We really have. Yeah. And we've seen, we, it's not just students either. We see fatalities all across the state. Um, you know, I mean, right now, just in 2026 alone, our latest numbers were

2:22:39sitting at, if I can get bring it up here, we're sitting at 95 right now in the year. Um, which is the second most since, uh, 2022, uh, 2023 was the worst, was, was the worst, um, but we're a ways ahead of every, every other year at that point. We're at 95. Um, we're at 95 deaths with only 80 crashes. Um, and so you see multiple fatalities in these, in these, several of these crashes and it's, it's, it's, again, it can't read, it can't reiterate it enough. It all comes down to decision making, you know, where you see belt, don't drink and drive. Please don't drink and drive. Um, don't drink and ride. Uh, and, um, yeah, so from the highway patrol side, it's, it's, we look up, we look back at it. It, it affects everyone who investigated it. Um, our, our investigative troopers who were on that are, have since retired, but, um, you know, those crashes just talking to troopers, I know now,

2:23:42the crashes like that stick with you, all the crashes stick with you and they, they, they have their people they can talk to and there's, you know, always efforts to help with mental health. So that's been a big thing for our troopers, but, uh, the other part of it is, preservation of life is our number one priority on our roads and, can't reiterate it enough. The best life preserver you have is you. Yeah, Aaron, you and I have talked about it that these fatalities, these, some of these worst accidents, most of them, the stat show, happen not in winter on bad road. That's what you think, is like, oh, it's winter, it's slidy, it's hard to drive. No, we all kind of get the idea that winter is hard and we all kind of collectively slow down and are more careful. It's, uh, it's, it's not road conditions, really, that often contribute to these fatal accidents. It's, it's, it's also in our driving habits. We got, we got to be better.

2:24:44And Doug, I, I'm sorry, you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but we've, since the UWA happened, there have been changes made to 287. I mean, I think it's been, expanded hasn't it to try and help prevent those sorts of accidents? Yeah, specifically 287 South of Laramie, um, in response to numerous crashes back on the early 2000s. I mean, we didn't start to program that corridor to widen the road to four lanes to the border. The first project was between 2009, I think, to 2013 and improved about 10 miles of that road to four lanes. Then there was a delay. The department did go into pavement preservation mode due to challenges to our funding. We have, since gotten that route going again, there's a five mile section closest to Laramie being approved to five lanes. So there's a center, center turn lane there. That'll be done soon. And then two more segments will,

2:25:48we'll finalize that section and they are in our improvement program for the step state transportation improvement program and should be completed by 2031. Projects do take quite some time. Once we even decide to do them, it still takes six to seven years to develop them plan them. So we are making those improvements so wide in the road. And the errands point and yours, the geometry, the engineering of the road, the road itself, that's part of the equation for everybody to be safe, but drivers, they need to make safe choices, they need to be prepared very commonly. The number one correction of Wyoming is a single car roll over. And the best, best tools against that are for you to be buckled up and be attentive. Yeah, it is such a common scenario, especially in Wyoming and the West where you know, you can get a tool along at a pretty good speed. The roads are relatively clear and

2:26:49you know, your mind drifts or you may be tired. You may be legitimately being not off. And then you notice yourself in the shoulder, you run over those rumbling things on the side of the highway. And you, you, you, you know, I don't know. It's hard to, you know, someone can't be prepared for it, can't coach you through it. But that quick reaction, the overreaction often sends these top heavy SUVs rolling. Yeah, without question that first reaction to having drifted off the road is extremely important. And often goes wrong, really regardless of the vehicle. I can, I can all have it very quickly. And so, you know, one thing to keep in mind, I'm sorry, Aaron, go ahead, Decker. I'm having our roads. You can go off the road. I mean, don't encourage this. But, you know, going off the road into the borrowed ditch area, it's not, they're not as, you know, deeper as deep as they used to be. Some locations still have some challenges. There's no question. But

2:27:49keep in mind control and stopping are the main thing. So, yeah, making that quick maneuver back can be dangerous. Yes. And also the crowning of Wyoming highways in order to get moisture off the road that can also send you, you know, you are probably, if you weren't paying attention, your vehicle probably does want to drift towards the shoulder. Just make corrections decisive, but not, you know, knee jerk to it. Like everything. The same way you drive in snow and ice, your movements can't be drastic. They have to be slow. Yeah. Anyway, good advice when it's not happening, but when it's happening, I get it. The panic sets in. And it's one of those things where we see, you know, the advice we always give people, you know, number one, drive sober, number two, drive the speed limit, number three, drive alert, make sure you're rested. If you're going to make those corrections, those little corrections, you need to be paying attention. You can't be fallen asleep.

2:28:53Sorry, we're almost out of time. The causes of accidents as Aaron has pointed out often is I'm sure Doug McGee will tell you is preventable stuff that are things that are preventable well before you're everything start the car, man. Make sure your tires are good, your wipers work and plan the route plan what you're going to do plan what you would do if that road's closed, like beating no ahead of time, planning all the prep, all the stuff that doesn't involve driving. Yep, that's on you too, motorist drivers. You got to do the non-driving stuff too. Thanks, Aaron. Thanks, Doug. Hopefully, you know, we stay at number 95 and don't go more. It's been very dangerous here out there driving. Thanks guys. Have a safe weekend. Get where you're going safely. We'll do you. Thank you, Jake. You bet. Cowboy State Daily Show on a Friday coming up next hour. We're going to get with Amy Edmunds, Governor's office. Rod Miller is going to be here. That

2:29:56means it's officially the weekend in Jocelyn Russell. She's behind the bronze sculpture of Gris 399. That's all coming up next hour after news. Final hour on a final Friday show with a Cowboy State Daily show. Amy Edmunds joins us from the Governor's office, Governor Mark Gordon. Amy, you want to talk? Cole, what do you think? We always want to talk. Cool. Jake, good morning. Thanks for having me on. Good morning, you bet. Cole, you know what? A lot of good news stories lately in the news about Cole. Certainly this week, we talked with EPA Regional Administrator Cyrus Westerny. He's pretty pro on this EPA, this new repeal. I'm not sure the exact terminology, but you know, Biden era, Obama era, anti-cool. That stuff is getting stripped away now by President Trump took a while. He

2:31:03promised it would happen. And now halfway through his second term, we're seeing it happen is good news for Wyoming. This is very good news for Wyoming, Jake. Yeah. We are excited about this, Governor's said, you know, this is a really important step. I'm happy to see those old Biden Obama things stripped away. And we're very proud of President Trump for doing that. And you know, what role, how important is that Governor's role now? I know Governor Gordon was in the old office. He visited Washington, D.C. He was in the ear of the president. I'm sure of saying things like Wyoming does base load power. Cole, better than anybody. Come on, let's get with this. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, Governor Gordon was one of only two governors invited to go to the old office when the president announced that $700 million package. And there's a reason for Wyoming. Obviously, is it number one largest coal producer in the country? President Trump knows that Governor Gordon is one of the most pro-co governors we've seen. And so in terms of

2:32:04coal and Wyoming, we're always here to ride for the brand and talk about how important coal is for our state and for our nation and for our partners over the overseas. What about efforts to get coal where people want it? We export our coal to some 26 other states. There's news today about a new deal now getting coal with Mexican rail lines getting it eventually to Taiwan. Governor Gordon has made trips to the Far East region where Japan many places want our coal. We just got to get it there. He has. He has. He's gone overseas. Talk to our allies over there as well. Governor Gordon is the only governor who went to Washington state to testify to try to get a coal port there. We're very excited about this test pilot case in Mexico. Obviously, your story covered it. We've seen coal from the powder river basin make its way all the way through the United States and over to a port on the coast of Mexico and out onto the sea. So we're that's this is all good news. Governor Gordon has been very clear and he has been fighting for getting the article off the

2:33:08West Coast. It's been a bit of a struggle as you know, Jake and you know, Governor Gordon went to Washington state, only Wyoming politician to testify hoping we could do it there couldn't get it done. But we're excited about this test trial. Yeah. And perhaps a West Coast port is still in the making. We're kind of optimistic about that. Now it hasn't always been so rosy for coal. Let's go back to when we had coal plants shutting down. We had some, you know, look at coal fire plants looking at shattering early was governor Gordon instrumental then. What was he doing then? Was he saying, okay, we see the writing on the wall. Coals over what what was the governor doing back in the day when coal was not so great? Yeah, I mean, here's his record. He's opposed early shattering of coal fire power plants. He's pushed to you know, get companies to look at ways in which they could not. I mean, obviously he's approved funds for the energy matching funds to you know, look at a possible new co-fired unit at the dry forks mine. He's had a consistent record of making sure that

2:34:13he's fighting for and pushing for keeping those plants open, getting new plans because I think what we all kind of agree upon Jake is that Wyoming needs to be burning and using our energy here in this state. And that's I think that's what's so exciting about what's happening in the state right now in terms of data centers and other things. We have a real opportunity to use our energy in this state. Yeah, we need electrons. We hear that every day. We need more electricity. Coal makes electricity used to you know, in 2008, there was like 94% of the state's electricity was done via coal. Now it's about half that. But coal could certainly provide the electricity needed today for residential and these data centers. It'd be great if we could do all this stuff in state and have new coal fire power plants come online. They're not lining up at the door to build in representative Scott Hiner suggests that maybe because a message from the governor's office

2:35:18saying the state wants to be carbon neutral, even carbon negative, is that a hindrance to coal fire power plants? Yeah, it isn't. I would love for Mr. Hiner to actually produce some real evidence. The governor's record is pretty clear. And when we talk about you know, when we cherry pick facts and unfortunately I think that's what's happening here is we've got someone who wants to cherry pick facts and say the governor said this one thing. Obviously, governor Gordon has been very consistent throughout his entire time in office and he's been a proud supporter of writing for the brand for coal. So no, the governor's office is not a hindrance in any way. As I said, we've approved funds, the governor has approved funds to get a new unit of dry forks. We'd love to see more electrons being burnt here in Wyoming for projects for our state. It's very clear. Yeah, Amy, while we have you, what's any other things the governor is working on, it's transition time. They'll be just a few more months before we turn the baton over to another governor. What would he like to

2:36:23finish up to accomplish? You know, he is going to, it is rather funny, Jake. You know, yes, we're headed toward the end of his term and he is as busy as ever. I'm sure he is. Yeah, he is traveling all over the state. He's excited about all of the different projects that are still, you know, he's still working on lots of good stuff. He was just in Saratoga yesterday, signing the executive order on sage grouse, so continuing to kind of codify that. Because this is something Wyoming does really well, Jake, is that we can balance, we can balance that conservation with our energy production. We've proven to the nation how important we that is and how important we are. So he was just there doing that. He'll be traveling more across the state. There's just a lot of exciting things. I would have thought that perhaps he would be slowing down a little bit. No, he is not. No, I'm sure there's an urgency to, you know, bring things across the finish line that are so close. Amy, I don't know. I don't want to rush the governor out the door.

2:37:24Yeah, we still got a ways to go before a new one is in place, but that transition period. How does that, you know, have you seen that? Have you been in the governor's office with a change of guard, so to speak? How does that work? To make sure it's done smoothly so that most of us in Wyoming don't even notice like we, we just keep running. I have not, Jake, but I will tell you that this governor's committed to a really strong and smooth transition. Obviously right now, one of the things he's working on is that supplemental budget, so which was something he'll pass off to the legislature and then they'll work on in January when they come into their, their general session. So I have not personally experienced a transition, but I know that they're working hard to make sure that it goes smoothly. You know, that's the right thing to do for the people of this state. They deserve to have whoever they choose in November to be their next governor. They have a right to know that when we help them, they come in and they can smoothly head into that office and continue to do the work of the people of the state of Wyoming. Well, since at least 2008, Cole has been on the decline. Most of that will influence by Washington, DC, but reasonably,

2:38:30Cole is far from dead. 2025 looked better. And this year, man, we're seeing news headlines every week. That's a positive thing about Cole. And Wyoming does. Cole, Amy, thank you. You got thanks, Jake. Cowboy State Daily show on a finally Friday, Amy Evans stopping in from the governor's office. He's busier. Never Rod Miller will be here in a moment. And Jocelyn Russell, the sculptorist, if that's something the artist who did the Grizzly 399 sculpture, you can see now in Jackson at the National Historic National Historic Art. How could I get that wrong there all the time? Jackson Hall Historical Society. No, that's not it, either. Dang it. I'll tell you where you can see it. I will geomep it for you when we come back at Quick Break on the Cowboy State Daily show before we get to Lightning Rod. Are you ready to

2:39:36put your skills to work? Wyoming Sugar Company is hiring for campaign season from mechanics and welders to general laborers, lab crew, and more. There's a place for you on the Wyoming sugar team. Competitive wages started $17.69 an hour for laborers. Be part of a great team. A great facility and a season of opportunity. Apply today at Wyoming sugar dot com slash careers. That's Wyoming sugar dot com slash careers. Wyoming Sugar Company put your skills to work. Ready? Set? Make a difference. Seroptimus of Cody invites you to their 18th annual 5K 10K chip-time walk run Saturday, October 3rd at the Cody Recreation Center. Run or walk to support the Laney Cole Memorial Women's Cancer Fund, providing vital assistance to park County Women battling cancer. Registration starts at 8.30 a.m. with the kids race at 9.00 and the 5.00 and 10.00 K at 9.30. Register at runsignup.com or sunlight sports in downtown Cody. Seroptimus of Cody, making a difference once step at a time. This is the Cowboy State Daily Radio Network.

2:40:48All right, we're back in studio. Let's see what Rod Miller is up to. Lightning Rod Miller up. He's busy. Busy or nigh am I I mean can't even keep up with this guy. He's got a brand new column out. I haven't even read yet. You what? I get it was like posted three hours ago, Rod. That's when I I have not had a chance the great GOP schism of 2026. Hmm. What is this about the party implosion? Well, I don't know if it's an implosion. It's more of an explosion. Yeah. The point of the column is with with Rebecca Bexdale running on the Constitution parties, the candidate for

2:41:51governor. All sorts of the Republican zealots in the party, including county leadership are jumping on her bandwagon and supporting her. So, uh, he's the same people that if someone had done that a year ago, they'd be vilified as brino, some traders. But here is Rebecca Bexdale leaving the Republican party to run for governor on the Constitution party ticket and the leadership of the woman, GOP just bending over backwards to help her. It's crazy. Yeah. I don't know. In the column, I tried to make the point that, wow, you know, if the hair on fire folks in a Republican party want to, you know, go join the Constitution party, more power to that will improve the Republican

2:42:52party. I and there is still maybe confusion in the Sheridan County, GOP as to what party, what ticket, Rebecca Bexdale was running on because apparently according to a short lived post on Facebook, they were all four Rebecca Bexdale, which again at last look is not running as a Republican. Sheridan County, GOP shot itself from the foot says Tom Lump, now, Gail Simmons, they've lost the moral high ground. Rod Miller didn't care for it either. What Sheridan County Republican party, I mean, they need to be at least in control of their own social media posts. Well, I think they are. They're according to Tom's or to the the art club, right there, three people in the Sheridan County, GOP who could have put up that post, including the chairman Harry Pollock and David Iverson, the three that had access to the Facebook account.

2:43:58But no one's claiming ownership of that. And they took it down because I think, I think they kind of heard when they shot themselves in the foot. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say who, chair, share and make right said I have no idea who took it down. I don't even know why it was up. I'm not sure who did that. Yeah, right. Yeah, that doesn't make my heart rest any easier claiming that I don't know. Not my monkeys, not my circus. That's not a good excuse. But hearing in the message in the post, we saw an allusion to the liberal legacy media. That sounds like somebody I know, but it doesn't matter who. It's just weird that party leadership would deny one of their own party in Eric Barlow and encourage people to root for a constitutional

2:45:05party. Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, it's weird, but in my column, I said it's a good thing. You know, give those, give those the freedom caucus guys and all the the right wing zealots and Republican party right now, give them like a like a sanctuary city in the Constitution Party where they can go and they can be free of the moderating ideology of like Cliff Hanson and Stan Hathaway and the Republican party's past as basically a moderate institution. They don't like that. So they should go over to Constitution Party. Now, I also said in the column that it's quite likely that Beckstein running as a Constitution Party candidate will get 10% of the vote.

2:46:07That's qualifying the Constitution Party as a major party in Wyoming. I could be an outcome. Well, I think it is. I think I think I think she'll get 10% of the vote. But I still think that if you, you know, Barlow is running against Beckstell and Ken Casner, the Democrat. And I think Barlow is going to hang a 70 burger on those people. Maybe, maybe an 80 burger. Yeah. The Constitution Party is probably going to get major party status because of Beckstell's involvement. Yeah. I feel you handy cap and races. You've got the history there. So I'm not going to mess with that. I'm. Well, and I said in the column, nobody among Beckstell supporters is willing to bet me money that she will win. They're all just running their mouth.

2:47:09And they, I hear a lot of folks like to point to the fact that Eric Barlow was not a slam dunk in the primary. Well, I think it was a significant percentage win given that he was up against some very good candidates in his own party. Yeah. I think he won was 45% of the vote in a three-way race. So he beat the other two candidates by 20%. And he beat, he beat Diggand Felder who had Trump's endorsement. And he beat Brett Bing who had the Wombon Republican Party endorsement. So yeah, there's. There is there is strength, real numerical and political strength in that wing of the Republican Party that the Freedom Caucus likes to call right now. And in some handycapping next month's race for governor, like the point to just the straight math saying Eric Barlow had less

2:48:14than half the vote. So therefore, he's very beatable in November. But I don't know if you can do political math that way. No, no. And if that is your political math. And if you believe that, put your money, what your mouth is, and let bet on the outcome of that race. All right. Let's go to another Rod Miller piece. Rod, I still, you explained it now twice. Two reasons why if I am opposed to property tax reduction, property tax, half property tax going away, prop one, we're talking about. If I am for that, I might just be naive and simple, but I am still for that. Explain again, your the history of real estate and property ownership and explain again, you know, if we, if we take away property tax, property taxes, we take away

2:49:21revenue. And you got search and rescue suddenly out there trying to. First of all, people, people who who they're breaking out in in a glee over the prospect of prop one, because it's going to limit state government. Property taxes don't go to state government. They go to counties, cities, towns, local districts. So you're not doing the thing toward the growth of of Wyoming state government or its budget. If you cut property taxes in half, you're hurting the localities. And I would, I would, yeah, are there are there problems with property tax? Sure. Inflation is driving your property tax bill. So there are problems with the property with the property tax structure in Wyoming. And I'll put it in medical terms for you, Jake, because I am not only your

2:50:23lawyer, but I am your family doctor. Yeah. Suppose I diagnosed you with a tumor in, you know, shoulder, leg, wherever. Do you take care of that tumor by cutting off half of the body that's in it? And if so, which half left half, right half, top half, bottom half, cutting property taxes by half through prop one equates to cutting off half the body because there's a tumor in one part of it. I think it's, I think it's, don't, I really do. When the alternatives out there, would be for the legislature to realize finally, okay, we got to do something about property taxes and go in and modify our statutes to deal with like, uh, valuations on the ground. Do

2:51:25are, do our property valuations? Do we base those on inflation or on market value or sales value of the property? And, and then just go into it and real deal with that problem in a logical and same manner instead of just saying we're going to cut half of it off. That is, that makes sense. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, it's doing surgery fixed with a chain saw and not a scalpel. I get it. Um, and, and what we've done so far to address property tax problems, uh, is, is, is just bandaid. Um, we haven't really addressed some of the underlying issues. Uh, I'm not saying I'm for half property tax reduction. I'm for 100% property tax rate. Any tax you can make go away. I'm all for. I don't think it's a problem. I wrote about it, Jay. Can I explain this to you? I know. One more time.

2:52:27Yes. The government has a distinct role in your property ownership. The dean to your house is, is recorded in the county assessor's office. Uh, that's a government document and, and the, the title to your property is, is, is controlled by the government. They protect it. They secure that, uh, God given right in America to own property. Uh, it says these, these, these rights are endowed by our creator, but in order to secure them, governments are for government secures. You're right to property. No one can take that deed away from you because it's in the hands of the government. If someone sues you that, that deed is, is your protection in a government court of law, uh, government through, um, uh, law enforcement through police and through fire departments,

2:53:32secure and protect your property. Now, you want to do away with the funding source for that? What's your alternative? That's a, that I would assume can be, that's a basic function of government to make sure my deed is sitting in a file cabinet somewhere and if somebody challenges that send over a guy with a gun to solve the issue, those are basic government things. I would have think my government can do that basic. Uh, I don't need my, those functions, those functions of government are paid for through property taxes. Yeah. So these people that say, well, once I own my home free and clear, I don't need to pay rent to the government. Horsepocky, if you don't want your deed secure, if you don't want law enforcement securing your property, what's your alternative? Okay. There has to be property tax. What about this? I don't hear this proposed enough. I'm,

2:54:37instead of just chopping off half the tax, um, let's, why can't we freeze it at what you purchased your home at? If you're a property owner, whatever you bought that home at, there's your property tax math. That's it. Then then, yeah, yeah, I got no problem with that. All right. And then if the home shelf is, and it sells for a higher price, we risk establishes the new assess value. Right. Yeah. Rather than unrealize gains where you're sitting at a house for, you know, 30 years and, and your subject to whatever COVID is doing, whatever the real estate market is doing, that's not fair. That's not money in your pocket. Yeah. We reset on a house sale, but the property that you bought it, I mean, that, that would help. But nobody's talking about that. That's using a scalpel in order to change. Okay. And that's how it should be done. Yeah. You explain going back to, you know, Spain and the Middle Ages, why we need to pay government

2:55:43to make sure we have property. I get that argument. You also explain, you know, some revenue things. Poor big horn county search and rescue had to go hat and hand. They had to go join some lotto. They had to join a contest just to fund what they do in big horn. That's stuff that could should be funded by your property tax donation. Correct. And that occurred because of like a year ago, two years ago, the legislature did cut property taxes legislative way by 25%. And that resulted in big horn county search and rescue. Their budget declining by more than 50%. So they had to enter a contest to get a truck and some operating cash. Yeah. And that's an example of one size doesn't fit all with property tax. As you point out, this is not money to shy in. This is not state money. Some counties, some communities are affected tremendously by even 25%

2:56:47property tax reduction. Other counties can, you know, get by. It's not fair across the board. But our one and constitution requires that taxation be applied equally. So there's that little wrinkle to get around too. Well, I'm fixing a right to check to the Johnson County clerk from my property tax. And I wish I didn't have to. But okay. I'm halfway there. What else has happened around in your world? Um, you know, things are pretty exciting in the Miller household. I've been put it off for quite a while. But I think today is actually the day I'm going to clean up Good Dog Henry's water dish. It needs it. Oh, and I believe I have the initiative worked up to do that. Do you know where I am? The water is so hard, so chemically, if I don't do something,

2:57:49it takes like one month for it to develop this like mineral crust. In Jackson? Yeah, I'm in the whole back. So it's a little different than Jackson. The whole back's got a lot of, we got some benzene. We got some good old mineral, like heavy mineral. It's hard water. Well, that's probably shouldn't be drinking. I don't drink water. Oh, wow. Unless it's like, you know, filtered through a distillation process or a brewery or something. See, that's smart. You're going to outlive us all, man. Yeah. Yeah. And the old saw, I don't drink water because fish populated it. Yeah. My eight, my recommended eight glasses a day are going to kill me. Meanwhile, look at you. Urban. I hear you. Well, that's healthy living cleaning out the dog bowl today. Yes. What are you going to do? I got a wedding. As soon as this is over, I got to get out to a DJ

2:58:51a wedding. All right. Okay. And another one tomorrow. Oh, man. Good. Good. That's good. Yeah. It's easy work. It's not like working. Well, I think I told you I have officiated it six weddings. Did they all stick? Did you go back? Yeah. And they're all still together. I think there may be like five kids that come out of those unions. And they're all still together. So, uh, yeah, if any of your listeners want to get married, I can almost offer a money back guarantee that they'll stay married. If you and if you're intent is to stay married, yeah, this guy's on a hot street keys. He's a six and no or whatever it is. Yeah. Thanks, Rod. All right. Jake, all in a pleasure. Thanks, buddy. Have a great weekend. Yep. You too. We'll get with Jocelyn Russell. She did the bronze of Gris 399. We'll chat with this artist.

2:59:54Next. Ready, set, make a difference. Seroptimus of Cody invites you to their 18th annual 5K 10K chiptime walk run Saturday, October 3rd at the Cody Recreation Center. Run or walk to support the Laney Cole Memorial Women's Cancer Fund, providing vital assistance to park County Women battling cancer. Registration starts at 8.30 AM with the kids race at nine and the five and 10K at 9.30. Register at run signup.com or sunlight sports in downtown Cody. Seroptimus of Cody, making a difference once step at a time. You're listening to the Cowboy State Daily Radio Network. And our final guest of the morning final guest of the week, we say the best for last. It's artist Jocelyn Russell. And I have seen this now up close and personal. Wow. I'm blown away. Gris 399. This is the artist who has done the work behind it, the bronze. Also,

3:00:58now I, you know, I'm checking you out on the interwebs and secretariat. Holy cow, you are talented. Thanks for being here. I love my life. I do. So we're going to talk about why this piece is particularly unique. I think we know why here in the Jackson Hole area, why in Wyoming. Gris 399 is something special. But in the art industry world of doing things, it's also unique in that it's non commissioned. You know, this is real grassroots. I love the way you put it, Jocelyn. This is fantastic. This is more than a sculpture. It's a statement of love, legacy and the bond between people and the wild. Exactly. I mean, that's perfect. You should have been a writer. Never mind this art stuff. I had a lot of help. Let me tell you, there were six women on the team and we were all working on

3:02:02it together. And yeah, it definitely was a labor of love. We've donated our time and our energy into the project. And she was an amazing bear. And I couldn't have done it without the team. And I couldn't have done it without the donor. So I mean, it was fully donor funded. There was no corporations that came on board. Yeah. And we're not done funding yet. We'll tell you how you can still get on board and get this across the finish line. Jocelyn, how did this come to you? You know, I mean, if the notion that we got to remember Gris 399 and 99 in some way, in the weeks a month after her death, I heard all kinds of things, like ways we could remember the bear, what we could do. And I love the way it came out that there's going to be a bronze. And that bronze is going to be available for everybody free. Charge. Just go to the National Museum a wildlife art. And you can see it right outdoors on the path. How did it get to you?

3:03:07Well, in 2020, I was in the park and I got to see 399 and her quads. It was in September. So the quads were pretty big at the time. When she passed, a good friend of mine that I had met on the Secretaryate Tour in 2023 had messaged me and she said, Jocelyn, you have to do a monument of 399. And I said, Angie, you spearhead it and I'll be your sculptor. And I said, she goes, what a spearhead means. I said, you got to get some people together. We need a 501 C3. We need a place to put her. We need a fundraiser because she admitted she was not a fundraiser. And we did bring a fundraiser on board, but she got busy with other things. And so we just sort of took over. And my friend Robin Hutton that commissioned me to sculpt Sergeant reckless had a 501 C3, angels without wings. And her board agreed that Chrissy 399 was truly an angel without wings. So we got them involved. And then I've got two sculptors that work with me here on San Juan Island. We're in Friday Harbor.

3:04:09And Kristen Douglas-Sites and Colleen Moore both agreed to do the Cubs because I wanted to do 399. I just wanted to do Mama Bear. And so it was a collaborative effort. It was really a kind of a unique project. There's three signatures on the monument, including some initials of people that helped us along the way. I was, that was my next question is the inclusion of the Cubs, of the quads. Now you had seen 399 in the wild with the quads. So I'm thinking, okay, that's probably why you included them. But also, I mean, she was such a, a, a matriarch. What will you remember Gris 399? At least in her later years was her pumping out Cubs, holy cow. And what a mom she was, heard them, the mother nature of her. So of course, there's got to be Cubs involved, Jocelyn. Yeah. And for everybody, it just felt that that was her iconic year. Yeah. And having seen them in person, we photographed them several different places in the park. And it was just, it was

3:05:13truly a turning point for me to be that close to her. And when the project came on board, that was just, but we decided to go Cubs around June or July size rather than September because they were just pretty bulky by then. They were all fluffed up and butter balls. And so we went with a little younger age. And yeah, she was a terrific mother. There's just no question about it. And she kept those Cubs safe to raise those four until she released them. It's just truly amazing at age 24 when she had them. Yeah. I mean, bears don't even like have Cubs of her age and to have triple its quadruple. It's like, she just astounded us every year. She came out of hibernation as crazy. Yeah. The Cubs at that age are small enough. And they're also so dependent on mom. And I'm sure you must have studied many photos to get the details right here. And in the way this came

3:06:17out, the bronze jocelyn, this is a photograph I swear I've seen a million times where you got one cup. She's like, almost hugging mom. The other one standing up on like, I know I've seen this. This is how I picture 399 in her cups. Yeah. Well, our dear friend, Sonya Reed is a fantastic wildlife photographer and artist. And she lives right there in Jackson. And bless her heart. She has housed us for each of our trips there so we could keep our expenses down. Sony is the one that is in the park. And she knows where all the animal cars she knew where 399 was. And she had thousands of photographs ever through the years. And so she sent me her entire folder on 399. And I started through and I got about 30 that I really loved. I wanted to do her down on all fours but with elevated in the shoulder slightly on a hill to give her more presence. And I did want to do a big and the museum allowed us to go life in three quarters. So she is actually 99 inches tall.

3:07:18And that 399 number keeps resonating with this. We had her dedicated on September 9th, which was also a 999 number. And we're doing some smaller versions over that we're doing an addition of 99 on each of the smaller ones. So we're keeping that in our hearts. That's so cool. Tell us a little bit about the process about I see on Facebook, we can follow along how when you got the clay model, the clay mine, then you shove it into you all trailer. And then how do you, Brian? Like how do you work? Take us through this studio and what it looks like to work on something like this. So the founders in Utah and they mill all the foam. They scan our smaller pieces and then they mill to the size that we want. And we had to go pick up the foam. So yeah, we made a trip, Colleen Drove a thousand miles just to bring her to our shop in San Juan Island. And we set her up in here and we've got a his and her side. My husband says she's so big. He got to use my

3:08:21side of the shop. So I spilled over into his side. And we just started the sculpting process. We were probably about three or four months on the clay. And then once we got the clay completed and detailed, we loaded her back up in a U-Haul and took her all the way back to the Foundry. So on our website, which is still active, I believe it's on the dedication page, Zee Carpenter did a live stream for us. And on that same page is the PowerPoint that shows all the steps that people want to go to 399 monument. It shows the making of the monument from the concept of the small eight inch clay all the way up to monument size. And then we had to slam those dedication pictures in at the last minute because things were happening so fast that last week. We got her out of the Foundry, delivered to Jackson, installed and dedicated in about five days. Wow. Yeah, when you when did you first begin work like this didn't come about to what April may that you started working on it?

3:09:24Well, Angie contacted me November 1st. So it was just a week or so after 399 had died. And so we started the concept back then. I think we made our first trip to the museum and yeah, I think it was April. There was snow with our eight inch model just to do a pitch to see if they'd be interested in her. And once they gave us the green light, then we went up to the next size. And at this point, we still were not really we hadn't garnered very many funds yet. So it's kind of scary to start a project because once you start with the Foundry, you're committed. You know, I mean, it's $30,000 just for the scan and the foam. And another 30,000 for the mold. And suddenly, we were in a little bit of a panic mode. The museum gave us the green light. Yeah, we won her and let's set our date as September 9th, 2026. So we had a deadline. But for the love of God, the people just came on board. Yeah. And you know, I would have taken out a loan on her. I would have to to complete her. The decision to make, you know, Grizzly Bears are big. If you ever encountered one,

3:10:31that's the first thing you would notice the teeth, the claws, they're big. But the decision to do it bigger than it would appear. You, I think you did the same with Secretary. You made Ron Turkot, who's a small jockey. Look as big as he's ever looked. I love that. I love it being bigger than life because I mean, 399 was bigger than life. Yeah. Yeah. That's considered heroic size. And anytime you want to really express that type of honor for something this big, it's traditional to go bigger. If I were to have done her at life size, she would have actually probably looked small people. Yeah. But I'm telling you, people still this thing is eight and a half feet tall and they'll look at and go, are they really that big? I'm like, absolutely not. I'd never go in the woods if they were. It is an amazing piece of work. Oh, and by the way, Sergeant reckless also. That is so

3:11:34cool. The Korean War horse that has some Mongol blood in it. You might have been in danger of being tight cast horse only bronzes or sculpture is, but now you've branched out into bears. You got 399 perfect. And she was quite a subject. She really was. She was really fun to work on. And I've actually always done wildlife art painted sculptures in 1992, my first sculpture. And we've got about probably 65 places. Well, 66 now, maybe. Placed publicly. But yeah, it was a branch off to do the horses. I've always loved horses, but I think it was 2011 when I met Robyn Hutton. And she wrote the book on Sergeant reckless and commissioned me to do the monument. And that just opened a floodgate for other race horses and other horse subjects. So, but I still, my website

3:12:36is wildlife bronzes.com. And I am wildlife artist. So the horses have been fun. Jocelyn, I always ask artists how it is to work on something to scale something big. Now, you first you do the smaller model and you got something that you can, you know, work with on a table. But when you're doing something big, Secretary it or Sergeant reckless or Gris 399, I'm going to imagine you're up on a ladder doing detail work. And then you got to step away a lot and see where are we going now? Like, how do you do the perspective? How do you get in there close? And then come back the way people are going to eventually see it back here 10 feet away. Well, essentially the smaller sculpture is my blueprint. So once I have the small one refined to, I mean, they're so accurate in their scanning and they're scaling up that I totally trust the

3:13:36process. And I do work on a ladder some like on this big line, I'm getting ready to work on in Utah again. I leave in about 10 days. He's nine foot tall and his head comes off and I can set the head on a table and work on a at four level. But the only thing I can't do is work underneath something because I have vertigo. And if I, if I turn my head and twist to work underneath something, it'll kick me into some spins. So I have to be careful when I'm combining that with ladder work. Also, the naming of a piece, you know, paintings, uh, uh, uh, sculptures, whatever, against all odds, where did this name come from? Who is in on the naming? I think Angie maybe came up with that early on. It's kind of interesting because I started doing some title searches and I put it out the Facebook followers. But I put, I throw words together

3:14:38and, and then I start combining them and against all odds came up again and I put it out to our six woman team and Angie said, I think I had that in my earlier notes and I said, well, then there it is. So it just seemed like she was, she defied the odds having so many babies and her last baby spirit at age 27. That was remarkable as well. And we all hope that spirit still survived. She was such a good mother that she probably would have instilled enough instincts in that little cub to, to dinner up for the winter and make it. Um, we're all very hopeful. But it just seemed like she, she did defy the odds on so many occasions and, and being by the road for 28 years and, and not being hit, uh, was a feat in itself. And I know she was in town. She was in people's backyards. Um, you know, she could have been poached. Uh, so many things could have happened to her and she

3:15:39went on to raise a great set of babies for the, the, the national park. So we're, we're, we are just grateful to be part of the project and be able to bring her to the world in bronze forever. And at the front entrance of the museum, what, what an honor that was as well. I know. And that's my final question. The, the, the final resting place of the work, you know, an artist that could be a painting and that painting could go on tour. It could be on loan to different museums. In the case of, uh, sculptures, these bronze is very often, I mean, where you plop them is where they stay. And this is a great plough. I'll be happy with where gris 399, where this piece is that this museum's fantastic overlooking the elk refuge. It's a great place to be for as long as this is going to last. How long do bronze is last like hundreds of hundreds of years, right? Oh, hundreds of years. Yeah, hundreds of years. I mean, if she's taken care of and they have a

3:16:43lifetime maintenance fund on her. So yeah, we had a donor that, that, uh, agreed to pay for that. So she'll, she'll be cared for. She'll be waxed and cleaned, um, either annually, maybe some of my annually. Um, but she'll, she'll, she should be there for hundreds of years for people to bring their children and, um, be part of that experience that we wanted to share with the world. And I'm really, uh, I was really pleased with the location. And yes, she's 1500 pounds with her two independent cubs. Uh, she's not going anywhere. Yeah, yeah. Um, great place to see if you're in Jackson, go, uh, check out the museum. It is fantastic. Jocelyn, great work. Glad you did that. Um, we're gonna, we'll still take money if you want to donate to the cause to the effort. Do you know who spearheading that? Is that the museum itself or where can we make a last minute donation? So our website is 399 monument.com. And there is donation buttons all over on that. And at this

3:17:49point, we're just finishing up some, some of the detail work like the plaza, we were responsible for paying for the plaza, um, the, you know, pouring of the pad and that sort of thing. So, uh, we're still, we're still fundraising for some of that. And, you know, we would take some money for, some of our travel expenses too, because most of us were out the money for that. But, uh, again, it was a labor of love. She's installed. Um, we're going to be selling some my cats. And we have five in the addition. So we're going to be able to sell more monuments. Um, hopefully we'll maybe get a zoo or, uh, an organization that wants to have 399 on their property. Well, this fame bear, if you didn't get a chance to see Gris 399 in real life, and there's like the not many of us who didn't get a chance. Cowlays, millions have probably seen this bear. You, you'll get another, here's your chance now at the museum won't cost you a dime. She's outside on that great walk. Jocelyn Russell, the artist that did the work in brisley 399, she did the hard work, but you did

3:18:56the great, where is fantastic work? Thank you, Jocelyn. You have a great weekend. Yeah, thanks so much. Of course, Cowboy, uh, Cowboy, thank you. Thanks so much. Cowboy, stay daily show here on a Friday that will wrap us up. Don't forget Jeff tomorrow. He's got the Saturday show. Let's become really, Bobby. He's doing great numbers on Saturday morning show. Cowboy, stay daily show with Jeff tomorrow. I'll see you Monday. Y'all have a great weekend. Good morning. This is the Cowboy, stay daily morning show with Jake. The new way Wyoming wakes up.