Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, February 27th.  I'm Mac Watson. – At the first CheckGate hearing in the Capitol on Thursday, the four members who received checks on the House floor said they never felt it was an act of bribery. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports Rebecca Bextel, who delivered the checks, said she just "wafted toward the House floor." "So there were four people who received checks on the floor, Bextel testified. Other testimonies confirmed, and the two people who are standing near Representative Knapp, when he got his check, two of those people were on the investigative panel, and that's Majority Floor Leader, Scott Heiner, and Representative Ruben Tarver. And Tarver addressed this saying, 'Yeah, I saw something get handed to him, but I had no idea what it was.' Nina Weber was also called to testify, and did and said that there was an arrangement for her to escort Bextel onto the floor. Since you need an escort if you're a guest. The women that were in that cluster, testified that they weren't involved in any sort of check passing scheme and Bextel herself said it was kind of spontaneous. The committee descended into a private, administrative segments. They said the next part of our work is administrative. So under the rules, it doesn't have to be public, and everyone was dismissed." There were no rules against giving campaign donations on the floor at the time, though the House, Senate, and governor have enacted rules banning the practice since this controversy, which Capitol regulars deemed "CheckGate", erupted.  Read the full story HERE. – The now-17-year-old who held 14-year-old Bobby Maher down while a friend stabbed him was sentenced Thursday to 30-75 years in prison. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Bobby Maher's father told Cowboy State Daily that justice has been served. "He was charged with conspiracy to commit second degree murder, and what came out in the police affidavit, and today, again in the sentencing hearing was that he was the one that grabbed the 14 year old at the mall in Casper and threw him down on the ground and held him down while his accomplice, Jarreth Plunkett stuck a knife into Bobby Maher two times. And in court today, he apologized to both the Mahar family and to the court." Emotions exploded Thursday into tears and a cry to allow a hug from the supporters of the 17-year-old after being sentenced for his role in the April 7, 2024, stabbing death of a 14-year-old at a local mall. Read the full story HERE. – Under a cloud of public questioning, Gillette Police Chief Chuck Deaton abruptly retired from the department on Thursday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Deaton said in a statement that it was time to move on. "I had left a message for the mayor. I called all the city council people, talked to the city administrator, and basically got the same, got the same response for the ones who got back to me or answered phones, and it was personnel matter. Two hours later, the announcement from the city comes out that he is, that he is retired. Apparently, there's a personnel matter involved that we don't know about." Cowboy State Daily reached out to city officials after being contacted by local residents inquiring about rumors regarding Deaton's status as chief. Read the full story HERE. – In speaking against an election audit reform bill Thursday, Sen. Tara Nethercott said the state's county clerks don't support the measure. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the senator also stated that lawmakers should stop "pandering" to fears manufactured by national rhetoric.  "Senator Tara Nethercott really came at this bill and called it out as basically inflammatory rhetoric. You know, in legislative form, that it was pandering to this phony concern about election fraud. It was onerous, and that it would open up the election process to perhaps an intimidating crowd that it had in hand. It had enhanced record keeping requirements that I think the opponents found were unnecessary, and down that bill went." The legislation ultimately failed 21-9. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A corner-crossing bill received pushback from both hunters and ranchers Thursday but the committee still forwarded it to the Senate. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that one hunter said, "let's just go out and corner-cross," then write a new bill to address any problems that come up.   "They tried to put it in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, which many people took to mean that, at least in a de facto sense, corner crossing was legal, so all this bill is attempting to do is clarify it, codify it in Wyoming statute, just to make it crystal clear, black and white…There were actually people from both sides that kind of had misgivings about it. And again, it wasn't that, oh, this idea just stinks. We don't want this. But it's not about the concept, it's about the details of how to apply the concept in real life." House Bill 19 aims to codify into Wyoming Statute what was essentially decided by a federal court decision, that corner crossing is legal. Corner crossing is stepping from one parcel of public land to another at a shared corner without touching the private land that also meets at that point.  Read the full story HERE. – A former U.S. Army Ranger on Thursday formally entered Wyoming's U.S. House race for the seat U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman is vacating to run for Senate. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that David Giralt says he will run a "grassroots and bootstraps" campaign. "He means by grassroots and bootstrap that he does not have a ton of money. He doesn't have the money like some of the other candidates have in this race, so he plans to go door-to-door, and he says that's the way he would do it anyway. So he's just going to put his next foot forward and keep marching." David Giralt of Casper, who among other roles has served as a policy advisor for U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, is a first-generation American who has enjoyed opportunities growing up in Casper that never would have been possible for his parents in their native lands. His father was born in Costa Rica and mother, in Cuba. Read the full story HERE. – A Kentucky mother is suing Bandit Industries, claiming a Bandit Intimidator woodchipper without key safety features caused her son's fatal 2024 workplace accident near Alpine, Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Brenda Crnkovich's complaint says her son "frantically" tried to stop the machine but couldn't. "She's gotten herself appointed wrongful death representative, and she's suing for negligence and product liability, which is saying you made a dangerous product and for wrongful death. So, the lawsuit complaint says that William's leg got caught in the machine, and its internal mechanisms with 4000 pounds of force pulled him in and he could not deactivate it."  Brenda Crnkovich filed her wrongful death suit in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming against Michigan-based Bandit Industries, Inc.  Her son William Crnkovich died June 18, 2024, at the age of 43. He was born in Montpelier, Idaho, graduated from Wyoming's Star Valley High School in 1998, and deployed in Iraq as part of his decade of service in the Army National Guard, according to his obituary.  Read the full story HERE. – Powell resident Allen Hatch was banned from McDonald's earlier this week for driving his draft horses and wagon through the drive-thru. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that although employees were excited to see them, the manager reportedly was not.  "The Powell manager brought up, I think, it's a fairly legitimate point, that if the horses left some horse apples in the drive through, they don't have anybody to clean that up. And that's fair. I would say that's beyond the purview of a typical McDonald's employee. But fortunately, the horses didn't leave any road apples, and they had a particularly eventful time going through the drive thru, and that was actually important training for them, because they're being slowly conditioned to life in Powell and moving along the streets." Hatch tells Cowboy State Daily that even though McDonalds "86'ed" him, he still got his order and went on his way. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 26th.  I'm Mac Watson. – Accused of torturing a wolf two years ago in a case that received global condemnation, Cody Roberts has agreed to plead guilty or no contest to one count of felony animal cruelty. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Roberts could still face prison time. "It's 18 months probation, strict requirements like no hunting, no fishing, no shed hunting, even so, like, you will not interact with the wild animals at all. And if he fails probation, then he could spend 18 months to two years in prison and pay another 4000 in fine. So he's supposed to pay 1000 and fines right out of the gate, and could pay another 4000 if he fails probation." The 44-year-old Roberts was indicted last August by a grand jury. Felony animal cruelty carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.  Read the full story HERE. – There's been hardly any winter in Wyoming so far this year, but highway fatalities are up nearly double compared to the last two years. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the Wyoming Highway Patrol says that speed, not weather, has the most impact on highway fatalities. "As a driver, the Highway Patrol explained, you can control how you drive in those conditions, and it's usually speed and driver inattentiveness is usually listed as suspected causes in most of these cases. They do see more and more evidence of people, you know, using devices and their smartphones and stuff while they're driving. Not only is it not a good idea, it's illegal." On Tuesday, a 19-year-old woman from Powell became the 20th person to die on Wyoming roads so far this year. That's well ahead of the 13 fatalities recorded by this time last year, so says the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill expanding homeschoolers' access to public school activities from grades 6-12 to all K-12 students. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the move mirrors "Tim Tebow Laws" in other states allowing equal participation for homeschooled athletes. "Senate Education Committee moved a bill, approved a bill, and moved it forward that would allow homeschool kids to have official access to all kinds of activities, K through 12. That was the main discussion this morning was, should it be sixth grade through 12th or K through 12? They landed on an amendment that made it K through 12 and so it's looking like this bill is probably going to pass, and Wyoming is going to have its own Tim Tebow law where home school kids can participate." The Senate Education Committee voted 4-0 to advance House Bill 23, which requires school districts to allow students not enrolled in a district to participate in cocurricular and extracurricular activities. Read the full story HERE. – A Laramie County rancher shot a roughly 2-year-old male wolf near Carpenter, Wyoming, where wolves are almost never seen. Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz reports that this may be the first recorded legal wolf killing in the county. "A rancher, it was a father and son. Ranchers were doing something they do anyway. They're out hunting coyotes on their land. And there happened to be a wolf in the area, and in that part of Wyoming that we're talking Laramie County, extreme, far eastern, southeastern part of Wyoming, you are completely within your legal rights to shoot a wolf on site. You don't need a license or anything like that. The unusual part is where it was. I mean, we mostly associate wolves with Northwestern Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park and kind of that area surrounding it." Royce Breeden tells Cowboy State Daily he shot the wolf about two-and-a-half miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado border. That means it's possible the wolf came from Colorado. However, most of the Colorado wolves have tracking collars. Breeden says the animal he shot didn't have one. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The U.S. lost 15,000 small farms in 2025 due to being sold or consolidated. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that although Wyoming has avoided major losses, Farm Bureau president Todd Fornstrom says, "When you get rid of so many small farms, you're taking rural people out of rural America." "Speaking with representatives from the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, they said that the closure and consolidation of small farms across the United States, it's a trend that's been ongoing for decades. Farms have a lot of costs and not a lot of profits. That's not happening as much in Wyoming. It's not that Wyoming's immune to these national trends. It's more that Wyoming's agricultural industry is dominated by livestock predominantly, and crops like wheat and other things that aren't as volatile." According to statistics compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, Texas lost the most, with 2,000 farms gone before the end of the year.  Read the full story HERE. – One year ago, Troy Lake was in federal prison for "deleting" emissions systems on ailing diesel engines. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that on Tuesday evening, Lake attended President Donald Trump's State of the Union address at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.  "Troy Lake, the diesel mechanic who spent seven months in federal prison at the age of 65 for deleting emission systems on ailing diesel engines, was Senator Cynthia Lummis special guest to the State of the Union. Now this is not too long after Trump pardoned him, even while Trump is scaling back some of these interpretations of federal law that led the Biden administration to prosecute delete mechanics criminally. When I interviewed Troy Lake a few hours before the State of the Union, he said he was mostly sad that he couldn't bring with him all the people who helped him get pardoned." Lake joined U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis at the State of the Union address. That's after Lummis championed his cause and Trump pardoned him Nov. 7.  Read the full story HERE. – A Buffalo man who walked into two local hardware stores with a length of galvanized steel pipe and asked if the stores sold "fuses" has been arrested on suspicion of making pipe bombs. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Tyler G. Roy told police he makes homemade "fireworks" and "smoke bombs." "When they searched his home, they did find a box under his bed that the police report says that they found. They found pipes, you know, cut in the length of what normally would be for a pipe bomb. They found, you know, the end caps. They found gunpowder. And even, kind of a diary, kind of a list of the steps he's taken in creating devices so far." If convicted, Roy could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for possessing an explosive, and up to a year behind bars and a fine of up to $750 for the reckless endangering charge. Read the full story HERE. – Hawaii native Debbie Pummel, a Casper resident for 33 years, won Wyoming's 2026 BigWYO tourism award. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports Pummel's was recognized for three decades of leadership in the state's hospitality industry and her dedication to mentoring future tourism professionals. "It's only given to people who have made outstanding contributions, a major impact for Wyoming's tourism and hospitality industry. Debbie Pummel has been here in Wyoming for more than 30 years now, and she's someone who's been working quietly, kind of behind the scenes. She has been a guiding force behind the state's pro Start Program, which, last night, handed out $2 million in scholarships to Wyoming students who are entering the hospitality industry." Pummel accepted the BigWYO award on Tuesday night during the Governor's Hospitality and Tourism Convention. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.    

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 25th.  I'm Mac Watson. – A Thermopolis couple who rent a vacation home in Puerto Vallarta is doing fine after violence rocked the city after the killing of a cartel leader. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that Matthew and Lindy Be Hughes even helped college kids who were stranded.  "They ended up doing a really cool thing is, kind of through the social network there, they found out that somebody, a Canadian citizen, had what she initially thought were, were two, she said, two teenage daughters stuck in an Airbnb there that was nearby. So they risked it. They went ahead and kind of drove to that location with some food. She said, 'We just turned off the headlights and drove to get there, and they got there, and there weren't two college kids – there were seven, all holed up in this Airbnb with, like, almost no food.'"  Despite the violence, the couple says they have no plans to come back to Wyoming anytime soon. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House of Representatives on Monday handed the Senate a two-year budget draft totaling $9.96 billion, while the Senate sent the House a $10.13 billion draft budget of its own. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that even though that's a difference of $170 million, the governor remains upbeat.  "So, Governor Gordon had a roundtable style press conference on Tuesday with reporters.  He was actually cautiously optimistic. Because even though it was fraught and there were these bare-knuckle debates over the function of government and political philosophy, the House did come again within a narrow range of the Senate and the governor's draft budgets, each side adopted 37 amendments, the same exact amount, despite more than 200 being proposed on the House side. And so he was cautiously optimistic, saying, 'Yeah, it got wild and wooly, but we can see the light.'" Now the attention in the Capitol shifts to the two men tasked with appointing 10 negotiators to haggle over the differences: House Speaker Chip Neiman, of Hulett, and Senate President Bo Biteman, of Ranchester.  Read the full story HERE. – After a Senate bill to reform the Wyoming Business Council stalled on Tuesday, the agency continues to remain alive in both chambers. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports despite the bill's struggle, the business council itself remains alive in both chambers' draft budgets. "There's concern among some lawmakers that this is a venture capital firm that the state funds and then picks winners and losers out there in the Wyoming economy. And there was more debate on that today about the constitutionality of the Business Council itself. There was an amendment offered by Senator Steinmetz that actually got a lot of support. Her amendment failed by one vote, and it was an amendment to a bill Senate file 125, which is dead. but the debate over the Wyoming Business Council continues." On Feb. 9, only 10 senators voted to dismantle the Business Council outright, losing 21-10. Two weeks later on Tuesday morning, 15 senators voted for Steinmetz's amendment to Senate File 125 — falling just one vote short of passing. Read the full story HERE. – With less than a month left in the winter season, Wyoming is getting some much-needed snow in the mountains. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists believe there are encouraging signs for continued snowfall.  "This has been an unorthodoxly warm, dry winter by all accounts, in Wyoming. But as Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day says repeatedly: December, January and February are the driest months of Wyoming's year, which means that March, April, May, and June are the wettest months of the year. That's when we get most of our precipitation, including snow. But there's no denying, even Don says that the next six to eight weeks are critical, because that's when Wyoming's supposed to get most of its moisture. You can recover from a bad December, January and February, and hopefully we will. You can't recover from a bad March, April, May and June." Many meteorologists across the western states will mark this winter season as one of "the worst" in recorded history. More snow has fallen in eastern cities like New York and Boston in a single week than Salt Lake City and Denver have gotten all season. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Fremont County man accused of helping ambush a man on the Wind River Reservation has been charged with first-degree murder and bound over for trial on Friday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that according to affidavits, DNA evidence puts Jose A. Gonzalez in the victim's truck. "They found DNA, his DNA, on the steering wheel of the guy's truck. He even told agents that he was riding in the truck with the guy. And then also, there are allegations that the victim was robbed. They found his pants with the pockets out-turned, and this guy's DNA was also found on the pants. That's some concrete evidence putting him in the guy's truck, whether he actually killed him or not. That's the $64,000 question." If convicted of first-degree murder, Gonzalez faces life in prison. Read the full story HERE. – Things got heated at the Cheyenne city council meeting Monday over whether the city would annex a popular farm business. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that when the owner didn't accept being called out of order, the mayor reprimanded him. "So the councilman brought up a question about leashed barn cats that the owners of white fresh farms had brought to the council. And David Kniseley, who's one of the owners, took issue with that, saying that this council member seems to be suggesting that their questions were ridiculous, and he did, Kniseley, demanded an apology from this council member. Mayor Patrick Collins, called this demand for an apology out of order and unreasonable, and asked Kniseley to be done. Kniseley said he will not accept being called out of order, and that's when Mayor Collins said, basically, 'I don't care. You don't have to accept it, but please sit down.'" The council ultimately voted to pass this ordinance on the second reading. They will take up a third reading in two weeks, on March 9. Read the full story HERE. – It's commonly argued that wolves are worth millions to the economies of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, because they're such tourist magnets. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Others, like outdoorsman Trinity Vandenacre, say wolves ultimately drain more from the states' economies than they bring in. "Wolf advocates will frequently cite that wolves bring in millions and millions of dollars through tourism. I talked to a guy. He's up in Montana. He kind of questions that. He says, do they really measure it against the loss they might cause, like the cattle industry or big game hunting, which is also in in, you know, not just in Montana, but Wyoming and Idaho, all the western states make a lot of money off of not only resident hunters, but people who will come from out of state and pay some pretty big bucks for elk hunting tax." Trinity tells Cowboy State Daily that the biggest hidden costs of wolves are the legal fees that states rack up, fighting lawsuits filed by animal welfare groups, and others wanting to maintain or expand Endangered Species Act protection for wolves and grizzly bears. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming's new tourism chief Dominic Bravo on Monday said the very idea that tourism is a "soft industry" doesn't work for him. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Bravo wants to innovate, not do the same old things to attract people to the Cowboy State. "One of the things he says you always fight with is it's a fight for relevancy. though we have technologies changing at light speed. It's the AI elephant in the room. People are using this to plan their vacations, to plan their road trip itineraries. So I think we're going to see him take some risks and do some things that maybe we haven't seen before." Bravo says he's acutely aware that the Wyoming Office of Tourism is already performing at gold medal standards, thanks to his predecessor, Diane Shober, whom he described as a "legacy director." Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 24rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – Wyoming troopers and their families say low pay, lost overtime, and short staffing are driving burnout and resignations. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the Wyoming Highway Patrol Association's first-ever social media blitz — run by a 25-year veteran who doesn't use Facebook — has gone viral. "There's one titled, 'Why I want my husband to quit the Highway Patrol,' because they've gotten down to the point where they can't pay overtime, and so patrolmen are called out in the middle of the night. They don't earn overtime, and so they are paid in Flex Time, which gives them more time off, which only aggravates the staffing shortages. And so there's a lot of issues facing the Highway Patrol."  Currently, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has experienced a 56% attrition rate among sworn officers over the past five years, with 178 troopers voluntarily resigning. Read the full story HERE. – The University of Wyoming on Monday said it disagrees with a House budget tweak that lawmakers framed as a negotiation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that UW is adamant: No cuts are appropriate, period. "On Saturday, what happened was the House said, 'Okay, we'll only cut you 20 million, but then there's another 20 million that we will also cut if you don't find $5 million in savings.' And there was all sorts of debate on the House floor, like this is the result of negotiations. 'We had a really good meeting. Haven't you heard of 'Art of the Deal?' The University came out loud and clear Monday and said, 'We are not okay with any cuts, including this one.' So what happens next is the Senate, which has funded the university fully proposed to fund the university fully, will enter negotiations with the house which has proposed the cut." The Wyoming legislative Joint Appropriations Committee's majority in January advanced a proposed $40 million cut, or about 10%, to the state's portion of UW's two-year operating budget.  Read the full story HERE. – Breaking up a fight between two women at a Laramie bar led police to discover the 2-year-old child of one had been left home alone for hours. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that court documents say police found the child in a dark, 90-degree room wearing a soiled diaper. "So, in the bar fight revealed a potentially much worse situation that could be going on. They go to the place, and what they found was pretty disturbing. A two year old in the home by itself, shut in a room, and it was like 90 degrees in the room, there's a space heater turned up the max in there, which could be potentially dangerous as a fire hazard. She was charged with child endangerment, and she also got two charges of interference with the police officer, one for not being cooperative at the bar and another, when they arrested her and took her to jail, she backhanded one of the deputies at intake, apparently pretty hard. And so that actually was a felony." According to court documents, 25-year-old Kayla Marie Clark is still in jail in Laramie County on an $80,000 bond. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House passed a bill Monday to kill Jackson and Teton County affordable housing policies. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports it's the bill pushed by conservative activist Rebecca Bextel, who's at the center of legislative probes for handing out checks on the House floor. "That is House Bill 141, and what it does is it curbs housing mitigation, affordable housing mitigation policies like those that are just everywhere in Jackson and Teton County, and it, you know, it's been controversial in the past because Rebecca back still championed it. And you know, was witness handing out checks on the House floor, which garnered concerns about optics. But on Monday, when they advanced the bill to the Senate side, the house didn't really discuss that at all, but really focused on the merits of the bill's economic policy and how this fits together in an ultra wealthy region. It pretty easily, it cleared the House, and then it now heads to the Senate for consideration." At the time there was no rule against handing out campaign donations in the Capitol. The House, Senate and governor have since adopted rules banning the practice. The House has since launched an internal investigation for possible bribery or misconduct. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Sec. Chuck Gray told a Senate committee that a 15-month pursuit of a county clerk proved the system was broken. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Sen. Cale Case said the bill was feeding a political dispute between the state's top officials and called the animosity "very disappointing." "It was House Bill 86. It went down in committee today…It would grant the Secretary of State's office more authority in filing complaints and moving against clerks at the county level who do things like the Weston county clerk is accused of doing. Opponents of the bill said, 'Hey, we don't need to give the Secretary of State more control to meddle with a locally elected official.' And from the point of view of the chairman of the committee today, it was really more about animus and the political rivalry that has developed between Governor Gordon and Secretary Gray that thought that, look, current state law fixed the problem."  The bill ultimately failed by one vote 2-3. Read the full story HERE. – Born with cancer, toddler Dorothy Pontillo suffered months of pain before an MRI found a massive tumor. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that her parents' persistence to get answers helped Dorothy survive.  "One of the lessons that you learned walking away from this story is that even the Denver specialists need a little nudge. And this is what happened in the case of Dorothy. She was born with cancer, but no one knew what was going on until her mother kept asking questions and asking for answers. When they finally got the answer, the tumor itself had grown into a grapefruit size mass, and this mass was cancerous. Fortunately for Dorothy, surgery, chemo, it has taken out the cancer. She's cancer free and enjoying the life of a toddler." Dorothy took her first steps in the midst of chemotherapy just after she turned a year old. Her dad, Riley Pontillo, would get the little push walker from the hospital toy room and encourage her every day to walk.  Read the full story HERE. – Uinta County rancher Jack Sims says there are new signs of life in Evanston thanks to the horse racing industry. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Sims says "There's over 300 brood mares in the Wyoming breeding program around Evanston." "So these are high dollar horses that we're talking about here.This is growing in that community so much. This is going to continue to grow in Evanston that is having ripple effects in other areas. New restaurants are opening, the feed store that are all busier than usual. People who sell hay, they have more customers now. It's kind of injecting some new life in the agricultural sector there in Evanston Wyoming." Wyoming Horse Racing owner Eugene Joyce tells Cowboy State Daily that economic studies project that the horseracing industry could top over $300 million dollars for 2026. Read the full story HERE. – An Idaho man allegedly shot a deer on an elementary school lawn after dark, left for about two hours, and then came back and loaded the deer's carcass into his pickup. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports a wildlife officer described it as "a first for me." "They knew who the suspect was almost immediately, but it took a long time to put the case together. They actually had to do like the CSI DNA testing the guy ended up taking, going to a residence in Washington State and staying there and taking the carcass with him. So they went and they got DNA, blood samples of deer blood there in Washington State, gathered some at the scene where the deer had been killed to cross check the two and that's how they proved it was the same deer." Lars Nelson of Peck, Idaho, was sentenced on Feb. 18 on charges stemming from killing a white-tailed deer buck on the front lawn of the Orofino Elementary School in Orofino, a small town in northwest Idaho. According to Idaho Game and Fish, Nelson was sentenced to a $1,000 fine ($500 suspended). Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 23rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – The 2026 Budget Session has been interesting, to say the least. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports on what has happened and what can be expected from lawmakers this week in Cheyenne. "We are coming up on Tuesday, crossover day, the day when bills that started in, let's say the House or the Senate should be crossing over. Should have crossed over into the other Chamber. For the other Chamber to that change, approve, reject them, and the budget negotiations are to start next week. Now recall last week the Senate decided we want the governor's recommendation for a starting point, so we're going to just wholesale revert back to the governor's recommendation and work our tweaks in from there. The House said, we do not want the governor's recommendation for the starting point. We want the much slimmer, much altered package out of the joint appropriations committee to be the starting point. And so all eyes are now on House Speaker Chip Neiman and Senate president Bo Biteman to see who they will appoint, what force of negotiator or ideologue, or statesman are they going to send into this fray to have so much power over Wyoming spending policy for the next two years." The 2026 Wyoming Budget Session is scheduled to wrap up and adjourn on Wednesday, March 11th. – Cloud 9 was Cheyenne's off-duty political clubhouse where former Gov. Ed Herschler, the only Wyoming governor to serve three terms, drank, smoked and mingled with everyone from hunters to Supreme Court justices. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that its boozy camaraderie and unbuttoned attitude evoke a looser golden age of Wyoming politics. "What politicians love the most about this place is it was the place where they didn't have to be politicians. They could undo their top buttons, they could be themselves, tell stories cut loose a little bit, and sometimes they cut a little bit too loose. And an infamous story is when Gov Ed had so much he passed out right on the table. Capitol Police had to come and escort him out." The Cloud 9 bar was in the old Cheyenne Regional airport, which was close to the capital. This bar was just perched right over the tarmac, known locally as the 'Jetsons Memorial Airport' because of its unique parabolic architecture.  Read the full story HERE. – As 41 states open their doors to NIL deals for high school athletes, Wyoming lawmakers backed by Sen. Gary Crum, a former UW lineman, are moving against it. But Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that money is already available for teen sports stars — right next door in Colorado. "Gary Crum, a former University of Wyoming football star. he doesn't want that in high school sports. There's one pointed question I put to Gary Crum, and I said, 'Well, it could this set up a situation where a star athlete living in Cheyenne or Laramie suddenly moves across the border to Colorado, because they're able to cash in,' and he basically said, 'so be it. You know that I'm not saying you can't go pro as a high schooler, I'm just saying Wyoming should protect its amateurism at the high school level.'" Senator Crum introduced Senate File 53, titled "Keeping Amateurism in High School Athletics." The bill would write amateurism requirements into state statute for any student competing in a sport or activity sanctioned by the WHSAA. Read the full story HERE. – Cowboy State Daily is the only news organization that continues to follow the D.B. Cooper case. In the fourth installment of our series, Jen Kocher reports that a parachute found on D.B. Cooper suspect Richard McCoy's family property was seized and tested by the FBI, then quietly returned in December, 2025, without explanation. Kocher says that closed lips from the FBI is fueling new theories about the notorious skyjacking 53 years ago. "The parachute was found by a pilot and YouTuber named Dan Greider, who has been investigating this case for more than 20 years. He found the parachute on the family property belonging to Richard McCoy's mother in Cove City, North Carolina. So the FBI analyzed it for two years, and they told Richard they did soil test, DNA, as well as sending it out to an expert. They sent the parachute back in December 2025 and they told Richard McCoy, his son, that they're not ruling it out and they're not ruling it in. They couldn't conclusively tie it to the case, but they weren't ruling it out." Cooper's actual identity was never discovered, but initial reporting dubbed him "D.B. Cooper," erroneously based on a suspect who was quickly cleared."  When Cowboy State Daily reached out and asked the FBI Seattle office for a comment, they referred to their 2016 statement, where they essentially closed the case pending any new evidence, adding they said they had nothing more to add.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Casper man traded his very successful tech career in Austin for a far different mission — helping women who were rescued from the sex trade in Uganda. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Lucas Rowley and his wife are teaching these women to be self-sufficient by tying high-end fishing flies and selling them in the United States. "They've taught these abuses, women that were sexually abused,given them jobs, taught them how to tie flies, and now, through a website, they're marketing them to America from Uganda. So they're making them in Uganda, and they're marketing them to the Rocky Mountain region in the States. The ministry is also working with these women, you know, to teach them how to tie flies, but also to have financial understanding and to be able to, you know, live their own lives and develop skills that will help them in the future."  Rowley tells Cowboy State Daily that he is trying to figure out ways to "empower the Ugandans" in things such as managing suppliers, doing customs paperwork, shipping, and the financial side of the operation, so they'll be able to be more self-sustaining. The flies are sold online at rescueriver.com. Read the full story HERE. – The same milk sold in both Wyoming and Montana are sometimes tagged with different "sell by" and "best buy" dates, with Wyoming's being a week longer. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the Wyoming Department of Agriculture says it's all about the bureaucracy of milk. "There are a lot of people who are saying that it was a protectionist move. It made it more difficult for other states to sell their milk. In Montana, because you had a you know, you gotta sell it within 12 Days of pasteurization. That's pretty difficult to do if you're not in Montana. The dairy industry says, you know, they want to make sure that when customers get their milk, it's the freshest tasting. It does ensure that you are getting a very fresh glass of milk with no chance of spoilage." Department of Agriculture spokesman Derek Grant tells Cowboy State Daily that Montana's law requires all Grade A pasteurized milk to be sold within 12 days of its pasteurization. Whereas, Wyoming uses the typical 14- to 21-day industry standard.  Read the full story HERE. – It took over a year for celebrated Wyoming bronze artist Chris Navarro to create the 15-foot sculpture of Steamboat located on the University of Wyoming campus. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that Narvarro says the iconic statue is more than just a symbol of UW. It's a symbol of Wyoming. "You really have to admire the artistry that went into this particular statue, because steamboat has existed as a silhouette…But it's only existed as a silhouette in two dimensions for so long, Chris Navarro had to take that silhouette and embody it in a larger than life, 3-D bronze sculpture as a it's a permanent placement of Steamboat where it's most iconic and where it's most appreciated. But to think that now that this silhouette that everybody recognized has been actualized in three dimensions in a spot where it can be most appreciated." "A Deep Seat and a Long Rein" is a 15-and-a-half-foot-tall monument that stands in the new roundabout at Ivinson Avenue and 15th Street on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.  Read the full story HERE. – Rick Edney is training mules to pull several wagons to recreate the freight train that hauled goods into Thermopolis in the late 1800s. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that Rick says it's time consuming but is exciting to reenact the feats of Henry "16-Mule Team" Johnson for 'Trailblazer Days.' "So this reenactment is to recreate 16-Mule Johnson. Henry Johnson was an immigrant who had 16 mules that he attached to his wagon train and would bring it through Thermopolis. The story goes that he wanted to be able to turn those 16 mules around easily, and so he talked to the store owner and town founder, Martin McGrath, who agreed that the streets needed to be wide enough to accommodate those 16 mules." To keep his team in order, Edney will use an old-fashioned jerk line and has been spending the last few months retraining his mules for this feat. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, February 20th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Wyoming House had a raw exchange Wednesday night about the check-passing controversy that's advanced into a criminal bribery investigation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports one lawmaker admits he's received a check and didn't think it was wrong. "House Speaker Chip Neiman, who had just a revelation and told kind of the whole story. Wednesday night, she walked into his office where he was with his wife, according to his telling, handed him a check they had discussed way back in January, that was made out to his campaign account. He handed it off to his wife, said, 'Put that in the campaign account,' and went right on with his business. He said he regretted that it had turned into a big controversy." The House voted 37-21 in requiring the committee to continue its investigation as Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak will concurrently hold his criminal investigation. Read the full story HERE. – Two people are dead and more than 20 people were injured after a 34-vehicle incident in the westbound lane of I-80 near Evanston on Wednesday afternoon. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports the westbound lane was finally opened late Thursday morning as wreckers were busily clearing vehicles from the highway. "Every wrecker in Evanston and several from Lyman were summoned to the scene so they could clear the road, and it took over 16 hours to get the westbound lanes of I-80 open again…Highway Patrol still investigating the contributing factors to these incidents…They said that bad weather conditions were probably a part of it, and a big part of it. There were white out conditions and slick roads. But they also didn't rule out that excessive speeds may have played a role." Wyoming Highway Patrol says that the pileup occurred around 3:07 p.m. on Wednesday. In all, 22 commercial semi-trucks and 12 passenger vehicles were involved in the crash. Read the full story HERE. – Sen. John Kolb, the loudest voice on gambling in the legislature this session, is pushing four different bills to tighten up regulations on the industry. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Kolb says "Gaming within the state of Wyoming has exploded into a multibillion-dollar business."  "He's working on a number of bills, including a couple that were discussed today on the Senate floor. One talked about the placement of gaming machines…another bill looks at really refining the language around what is and is not a legal poker game. It's illegal. It would be illegal under this new legislation for there to be an organized game where you buy in and the house takes a cut that is just illegal. But the way the law is currently written, it's not easy to prosecute, according to Kolb and so they're trying to tighten that language to make it so you really have to be among friends." Under current law, professional operators exploit a loophole allowing games among acquaintances. Bars take a cut of the pot, players pay buy-ins, and when authorities investigate, everyone claims to be pals. Read the full story HERE. – Two years after a wolf was run over with a snowmobile in Sublette County sparked worldwide outrage, animal welfare advocates are still trying to get the practice banned in Wyoming. But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that there are long odds getting that done in this year's budget session. "I talked to Representative Mike Schmid from LaBarge, who, last year, during the last session, tried to introduce a bill that was unsuccessful to get the practice of whacking ban. He said, 'I did think about floating a bill this session. It didn't really work out, so we're kind of giving up on that for now,' but it looks like everybody's looking forward are kind of laying the groundwork for what will probably end up being a big push in the 2027 legislature." Kim Bean, the founder and president of Wolf and Wildlife Advocates, told Cowboy State Daily that chances of getting a whacking ban bill passed during this year's budget session are slim. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The Sublette County attorney prosecuting Cody Roberts for cruelty for allegedly torturing a wolf says chasing it down and taping its mouth are all part of the crime. But Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the filing gives insight into who may testify against Roberts. "What was interesting in the filing is that it does lay out a little bit more about what some of the testimony may be. He says there may be testimony of someone who, Roberts allegedly told about running down the wolf and how he chased the wolf and brought it back to his house on his snowmobile. And then other testimony about the examination of the deceased wolf. And it's coming in less than three weeks until his trial is set to start, scheduled for March 9." Clayton Melinkovich, who is prosecuting the case, says in his response that the whole act of capturing, tormenting and killing the wolf are part of a single act of abusing the animal. Read the full story HERE. – Senate President Bo Biteman's bill to channel severance tax revenues into a Trump administration-backed "Energy Dominance Fund" passed the chamber 31-0 Thursday. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports the bill has also gotten support from the Trump administration. "It was singled out by the White House in Washington, DC and the Energy Dominance Council there with a letter of support. So Biteman was happy to distribute a copy of this letter from the White House, basically saying, 'Go get them! We support this energy dominance legislation at the state level, it really ties in with what we're trying to accomplish with the Trump administration's energy policy.'" The roughly $105 million in severance tax revenues would be used for projects tied to coal, natural gas, uranium, enhanced oil recovery, pipeline infrastructure, rare earth and critical mineral processing, and baseload energy development.  Read the full story HERE. – A Big Piney man was sentenced Thursday to between 75 years and life in prison for the bow-and-arrow killing of a 23-year-old autistic man. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that 20-year-old Rowan Littauer was ordered to pay over 4 grand in restitution to the victim's family. "He said that he has an impossible debt that he'll spend the rest of his life striving to pay. The judge noted that both him and the victim had develop developmental diagnoses, this longing for friends, this struggle to connect with friends, according to Littauer, he didn't actually know his victim. He thought he was defending his accomplice, Orion Schlesinger, who had had a slight a conflict with Dakota Farley." The Thursday sentencing of Rowan Littauer brings finality to a pair of cases that started when Littauer texted a female last year, telling her he'd killed somebody over the weekend of Feb. 1, 2025. Read the full story HERE. – A driver who comes across a "rolling closure" might see nothing but clear skies and dry conditions and ask "why is the road closed?" Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that WYDOT says it's to keep towns from being overwhelmed.  "They'll extend the closure outwards so that they can take the pressure off those communities and spread more of those people out. So it's different from a full closure, and for Wyomingites, it's very different, because you can actually get a permit to travel through roads that are under a rolling closure if you have a valid Wyoming driver's license and address…WYDOT would prefer if Wyomingites didn't add to the burden of communities that are already getting an influx of people from out of state who can't travel." According to WYDOT, a rolling closure starts after an incident, usually a traffic accident or hazardous weather. It starts in the communities on either side of the hazardous area and can be extended further based on the severity of the situation. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 19th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Carbon County GOP is calling for resignations of four state reps for their silence on the ongoing "CheckGate" scandal. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the party says they knew defamation claims aimed at Rep. Mike Yin for making the check-passing public were wrong, but didn't speak up. "When you belong to and represent a major political party, sometimes you're beholden to accountability maneuvers by those parties and the Carbon County Republican Party met Tuesday night and advanced two resolutions for consideration by the state party that call for resignation of at least four state representatives that are reportedly involved in the Check Gate controversy. And so it's basically saying, 'We believe these four representatives at least knew that there had been checks handed out on the House floor, and yet, when Representative Mike Yin, the minority floor leader, was talking about this and warning everyone about this last Wednesday, another Representative accused him of defamation. And these four who reportedly knew that he was telling the truth did nothing to stand up for him." The first resolution calls for the resignation of Republican Reps. Joe Webb (Lyman), Marlene Brady (Green River), and Darin McCann (Rock Springs). That's according to a copy of the resolution obtained by Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers heard emotional testimony from teachers, miners and students on Tuesday urging them to protect public lands from federal selloffs. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the Senate panel unanimously advanced the resolution titled: "Keeping public lands protected and decisions local." "It's basically a declaration that Wyomingites support public land…what this resolution seeks to do is say, 'We're different – that Wyoming doesn't want to sell its public land.' We heard testimony from high school students, from teachers, from Game and Fish, from all sorts of public lands supporters and professionals who work in that space all saying that, 'Look, we want to have a local voice in in how public lands are managed, but we do, and we but we do not want them sold.'" SJR 9 was introduced by Sen. Eric Barlow, of Gillette, with 38 co-sponsors — a bipartisan coalition that includes a total of 17 senators and 22 representatives. Read the full story HERE. – Winter weather created nasty driving conditions that contributed to a pair of multi-vehicle crashes Wednesday that closed a 21-mile stretch of westbound I-80 between Evanston and Kemmerer. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that one motorist caught in the middle of the pileup says visibility was down to zero. "The Wyoming Highway Patrol is still investigating the contributing factors into the incidents that happened on Tuesday, let alone the one that was happening on Wednesday afternoon and evening that involved multiple vehicles in both the westbound and eastbound lanes of I 80, but they are going to chalk up a lot of this to icy conditions, winter weather hazards and possibly wind gusts as well. Those are all factors that might have contributed, but we won't know for sure, but based on the images, it looks pretty likely that people were driving in white-out conditions. Roads were slick, and these incidents happened. We don't know if there are any injuries or fatalities involved in Wednesday evening's incident, but we do know there were three injuries from Tuesday's incident that closed a portion of i 80 near Arlington, and those were all minor." Bridger Valley resident Amber Gossard tells Cowboy State Daily she was heading west when she got stuck between two separate pileups, describing the crash ahead of her as "six or seven semis in a pile."  Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House on Wednesday voted to keep a proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Senate did the opposite - setting the two chambers up for a clash in a compromise committee later this month. "The House of Representatives on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, they deliberated until like 1 or 2 AM, right? And that's because they have so many amendments to the budget because they rejected an 80-piece mass amendment on Tuesday, but one of the things they debated Wednesday morning was whether they're going to reverse the proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Ultimately, the House rejected that call to reverse the cuts, keeping them in place, whereas the Senate did vote one day prior to reverse the cut. So when these two budget drafts line up, they're not going to match which then punch that decision to a 10 member compromise committee. They call 'conference committee' that could meet as early as next week." The Wyoming House of Representatives by a 26-34 vote Wednesday rejected an effort to reverse its budget-planners' proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Two men have been charged in connection with an illegal wolf killing near Cody. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that even though the wolf was killed in a wolf-hunting zone, authorities allege it was shot without a license and out of season. "The problem is, it took place in June. So two problems with that: Number 1, the season didn't even start until September. Number 2, the person who the game warden says killed the wolf did not have a license, so you're hunting out of season without a license. So it's kind of a double whammy, and then another person that was with him allegedly is being charged as an accessory to that crime or that violation that supposedly took place. I did talk to probably one of the top wolf biologists in the country, who said that, 'Yeah, there's a reason why we don't have wolf hunting, or generally don't have legal wolf killing there in June because it can be highly disrupted to pack structure at that time. You've got growing pups that are voraciously hungry, and they really rely on adult wolves to bring them back solid food, because they're weaned off their mother's milk at that point, but they still completely rely on the adults to go out, get them solid food and bring it back to the den. So if you start killing adult wolves in June, you put the pups back at the den at risk of starvation.'" Charges were filed Friday in Park County Circuit Court in Cody against Noah Mick of Cody and Carbondale, Colorado, and Cole A. Mick of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The wolf was allegedly killed by Noah Mick on June 1, 2025, months before wolf season opened, according to citations issued by Wyoming Game and Fish. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming has surpassed Delaware as the top state for business incorporations per capita, and with that has come more LLC fraud. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that could crack down on using the state's business-friendly LLC laws to scam people. "In Wyoming, it's fairly easy to assign a registered agent, and for no one to be able to figure out who's really running this company. And a lot of times they're just registered in Wyoming, but they're doing business in another state. Well, along comes this piece of legislation today, Senate file 82 and it's pointing out a problem with this. What happens is that you have fraudsters who create a Registered Agent. They literally point to a name in the phone book and turn some unsuspecting Wyoming resident into the face and name and address of a registered company. So instead of paying a legitimate Registered Agent, they basically assign this without the will of this private citizen. So this bill aspires to provide a little bit more transparency into the business registering process, which brings in millions of dollars in registration fees for Wyoming. " The bill passed 23-8 and now heads to the Wyoming House, but its passage exposed a divide in the Senate over whether the state's wildly successful business incorporation industry has become a magnet for fraud. Read the full story HERE. – A pair of brothers from Ecuador will spend more than two years in prison for hauling nearly 75 pounds of illegal drugs across Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the U.S. Attorney's Office announced they were also wanted by ICE. "These guys cut a deal, and it's a pretty, pretty good deal, because you know that each of them got sentenced to 27 months in prison and then probation. But the probation might not matter, because as soon as they get out, they're being deported, according to the judge's order. And it could have been, had they gone to trial and been convicted, they could have gotten up to 10 years. But in any case, if you're in the country illegally, or if there is some other underlying circumstance and you're not a naturalized citizen, they will deport you after you're done serving your sentence." The U.S. District Court for Wyoming sentenced 23-year-old Edgar Narvaez Vega to 27 months in a federal prison instead of the maximum 10-year sentence he could've received if convicted at trial of possession with intent to distribute meth, fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. Edgar's brother, 22-year old Pedro Narvaez Vega, 22, got the same deal according to federal court records. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming hasn't yet been linked to a cattle fraud case that's hit 14 other states. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports Agridime, out of Texas, is accused of offering a deal that Sublette County rancher and former Green River Valley Cattlemen's Association President Mike Vickrey said sounded too good to be true. "A company called Agridime is in the middle of a $220 million cattle fraud case that spans 14 states. Five individuals connected to this company, which is based out of Te

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 18th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The chair of the Wyoming legislative committee investigating the check-passing controversy told his colleagues Tuesday the committee wants to pause its work. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that's because the local sheriff's office has undertaken its own investigation. "One day after the house investigative committee into chat gave us form on Saturday, the sheriff was like, now I'm investigating this in case there's criminal something that's criminally actionable, criminally chargeable, and whenever a law enforcement agency opens an investigation, kind of the public's probe into whatever that thing is, freezes. You don't get public records access. You don't get to have these controversies out in public. The Agency keeps the investigation pretty tight until a prosecutor decides to do something with it, or decides why she's not going to do something with it…It's a pause. Because once you have a live criminal investigation, all of a sudden, boom, you've got like, Fifth Amendment concerns and due process concerns. So what Representative Washut, who has the experience in this area, is saying is we don't want to violate someone's rights that they're supposed to retain during a criminal investigation." This investigation is in response to Rebecca Bextel, the state committee woman for the Teton County GOP who was also registered to attend the legislative session as "media," handed out checks Feb. 9 after adjournment, on the state House of Representatives floor. Read the full story HERE. – Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday banned campaign contributions on state property. So did the Senate, in areas it controls, in response to the "CheckGate" controversy. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor is taking action after an incident that happened last week. "The Capitol has spaces used by the three different branches of government, right? There's a Supreme Court chamber even that the justices use from the judicial branch, there's a governor's chamber and other executive branch offices, and there's an entire second and third floor wing each for the Senate and the State House of Representatives. So if the governor's going to say, "Oh, you can't do campaign contributions in the Capitol,' he narrowed that to the part that belongs to the Executive Branch, but the Senate passed a similar rule also Tuesday, saying, 'We're not doing this. We're not doing this in places that the Senate controls.' The House as of Tuesday, had not passed a rule, but it has been dealing with this controversy in other ways." Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday signed an executive order banning the solicitation, delivery, or acceptance of campaign contributions on property where state business is conducted – including the areas of the state Capitol managed by the executive branch. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Senate voted Tuesday to restore the governor's $11 billion budget, but the House voted against it. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that things got heated when Rep. Mike Yin said budget-planners were stabbing agencies they disliked.  "Representative Yin actually got out the knife hands and was gesturing during this conversation, basically saying 'We're stabbing certain agencies. We're gouging things in broad strokes' and Representative Tony Locke, and ultimately this house speaker Chip Neiman were like, 'Whoa, this conversation has gotten really charged. Let's just focus on the substance of the budget'…The intervention during the nice hands unfolded because some people were expressing displeasure with the Joint Appropriations Committee, with the budget planners who did this, this draft, and the conversation kept revolving back to, can we trust the Budget Committee? Are they listening? Are they being transparent? And when you're having a debate on the floor, you're supposed to focus on the merits of the debate, not in the intentions of the Bringers. And so I think that by the time we got to the knife hands gestures. Everyone was like, 'Yeah, this has gotten too charged.'" After a few lawmakers expressed themselves, House Speaker Chip Neiman had the last word, saying "Ain't nobody stabbing nobody." Read the full story HERE. – Meteorologists aren't seeing a trend just yet, but they do see this week of winter weather as a promising sign. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that at this point, we'll take any amount of snow. "This winter season has been dominated by high pressure ridges that have set up elsewhere, and that's siphoned off the winter weather. We are supposed to be getting off to the east coast, where they've had record breaking lows and record breaking amounts of snowfall. That's changing now as we get into the latter half of February. It started Tuesday with the high winds and snow squalls, and then Wednesday and Thursday, we're looking at widespread snow across the entirety of the state, around two to five inches, which isn't much, and it's not going to make up for what we've missed out on. But as many meteorologists said to me, beggars can't be choosers. You take what you can get, and the prognosis is positive that going forward into March, we're going to see more of these precipitation events, and even if there are high pressure ridges blocking that weather, they're going to be strong enough to push through and get us some much needed moisture." Wyoming will be blustery, snowy, and cold this week. In short, it's everything we've missed for most of the winter season, up to this point. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Landowners won't be able to claim all the tags in certain big game hunting areas under a bill a legislative committee forwarded to the Wyoming Senate floor on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that it's a matter of percentages.  "Because of different circumstances, there's been instances in which all the tags have gone to landowners. In other words, hunters didn't even get a chance to put in for the tag drawing. And so to rectify that, there's a bill that says, 'Okay, well, let's place a cap on the number of landowner tags, it can be allowed in any particular hunt area, the percentage seems to be what everybody likes.' The idea it's the percentage. It kind of seems to be up for debate. Some people are saying, okay, cap it at 20. Landowners. Get a shot at 20% of the tags. The rest go to the public. Well, no, let's do 40. And then it was also suggested today that, hey, let's do it on a case by case basis. If this year in this area, it makes sense to give half or only 5% or whatever, let's do it that way." There have been rare instances of every hunting tag in a limited-quota area going to landowners, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce told the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Senate is advancing a first-of-its-kind resolution asking Congress to let the state run the federal mineral leasing program within its borders. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that even supporters acknowledge it's a heavy lift. "Right now oil and gas producers, miners, they go through the BLM. If they want to do extraction on public federal lands. Wyoming would like to change that. They would like to say, 'Hey, this is our state. We know best, and we would like to control the leasing of minerals, and we'd like to make more money off of those minerals as a state of Wyoming'…these are resolutions so they don't carry the weight or strength of law. They're essentially a strong suggestion to the US Congress that this is what we'd like to see happen.  Now lots of Western states have probably daydreamed about running their own mineral leasing programs. Wyoming is taking an official step." The Petroleum Association of Wyoming supports the resolution, comparing it to regulatory authority the state already exercises. Read the full story HERE. – Unlike the winter of 2022-2023, when mule deer were starving and dying by the thousands in Wyoming, this year the herd is looking quite healthy. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that avid hunter and deer conservationist Zachary Key of La Barge says the deer are fat and they look awesome, but there's a catch. "This can be one of the toughest times for animals, except they're dealing with a lot of snow and a lot of cold this time of year. It's been long enough that they burnt through a lot of their fat reserves, and so they're really trying to get to that final stretch without starving or freezing to death. Right now, the animals are fat and happy, but the double edged sword is, if we don't get some significant moisture in March and April, what can happen is they won't get what they call green up, that that thick green spring grass won't come up, and that has a really heavy protein content. And so especially for animals that are pregnant, like pregnant elk, deer or antelope, if they don't have that rich protein, rich green grass at the end of spring, in the beginning of beginning of summer, and they're dropping their calves or their fawns, then it will affect their lactation." During the terrible winter of 2022-2023, deer were starving and dying by the thousands, while this winter they're downright chunky. Read the full story HERE. – Rocky, a Labrador-boxer mix, escaped his harness during a walk near the mountain town of Montezuma, Colorado, on Dec. 28. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that he was rescued last week, having survived alone for 43 days in subzero nights and wolf territory.  "Rocky was moving with his owner from New Jersey to California. They stopped off at Montezuma for a skiing trip. Rocky was left in the hands of a pet handler, he got spooked by something, wriggled out of his harness and ran off into the woods, and a

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 17th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The state Senate advanced a bill Monday that would rescue the Wyoming Business Council by rebuilding the controversial agency. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports it also would freeze its work while lawmakers and others reevaluate the council. "So there's three bills. Two of them are twins, right? One the twins are kind of a soft freeze. One of those is still moving on the House side. One of those is paused on the Senate side. But what the Senate minerals committee advanced Monday was the hard freeze. Stop everything for a year like no new projects, no expansions, while we evaluate you and see what the heck what you're all about, right? And Senator Chris Rothfuss gutted half the bill in an amendment that the Senate gets to vote on, but he gutted half the bill saying we don't need to describe this big task force, we the minerals committee can just do this ourselves and appoint a subcommittee if we see fit, but he did keep the year long pause." Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell voiced optimism Monday, telling the Senate Minerals Committee that he's excited about the intention, the effort, and the interest into diving deep into what the Business Council does. Read the full story HERE. – Former Wyoming lawmakers say someone distributing checks on the House floor was "brazen," "shocking," and "unprecedented." Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that one former lawmaker says when it comes to ethics violations, he doesn't recall anything of this magnitude. "I spoke with Representative, former representative, Ron Micheli, Uinta County Republican, served for 16 years in the legislature, and that was both in the House and the Senate. And when I asked him, Have you ever seen any kind of ethics scandal like this before? And his response was instant. He said, I have never, in all of my time, seen or even heard of something of this magnitude. He said it was unprecedented, and he made some interesting points, because one of the reps who accepted a check on the floor said, 'Well, look, the optics are bad, but it stops at optics.' And Ron Micheli said, 'Look, optics are everything. Sometimes the perception of impropriety is just as bad or worse as actual impropriety, and the damage it does to the institution is hard to understate.' He also made the point responding to Bextel's comments that these were legitimate campaign contributions. And he asked himself, 'Well, I think that is begging some questions.' And he said, 'I think it's actually dodging the point to call them campaign contributions, because none of these members are candidates at the moment, they have not filed for office because that time comes in May. And so he asked, if these are not candidates, then what is the money for?'"  Rebecca Bextel has said publicly that she was distributing lawful campaign checks on behalf of a Teton County donor, and that she did so in person because she knew she'd be in Cheyenne. Read the full story HERE. – Speaking of Rebecca Bextel, the Teton County Republican Party is condemning her handing out checks on the House floor. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Wyoming Republican Party distanced itself too, saying she was not representing the party. "Kat Ruckert, Chair of the Teton County Republican Party, was like, "We joined the Senate in condemning this act, but let's not conflate the issues either.' She was saying, still important to defend private property, which was the function of the contested bill, but she emphasized that the party had no knowledge of this plan, and that Bextel still acted alone, and the state Republican Party, also said, yes, she was not doing this for us. The reason that matters is because these major political parties in Wyoming are barred from spending money on candidates until after the primary election. That's because the primary election is a hot mess of all Republicans going to contest against one another, and the party doesn't get to back its favorite until the people actually have their Republican nominee." The state GOP chair one day later emphasized that Bextel was not on the House floor on behalf of the state party and that matters because Wyoming law bars major political parties from giving financial support to candidates before a primary election. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced on Monday that the state is petitioning a federal legislative panel to reverse its decision to kill the $17.85 billion, 3,500-well Jonah Field expansion. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the governor says the ruling "is a direct assault on Wyoming's economy." "It's anticipated to be a nearly $18 billion dollar revenue project. It's going to mean a couple of billion and severance taxes for the state, another 600 million for schools, 900 jobs. It's a huge, huge project that has been in the works. It took eight and a half years to get approved. It finally was approved eight years ago, 2018… almost eight years ago, it was approved, and now this panel says, 'Nope, you can't do it.' It's halted. And what the governor says is, 'Look, it's really overreach'…On Friday, there was some movement from us, Department of the Interior, Doug Burgum, the head of the interior, who said, Hey, we're going to look at this. So that legislative panel was under his agency, though, so there might be something that he could do to reverse this as well." Jonah Energy's Vice President, Paul Ulrich, tells Cowboy State Daily that the NPL project is its future in Wyoming and the state's interest in getting it moving again is encouraging.   Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – About midmorning on Sunday, as the temperature crept above freezing, the ice sheet on Boysen Reservoir started making sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that scientists say the otherworldly noises come from ice cracking under warming temperatures. "Sound experts say, basically, if ice cracks on the reservoir somewhere, and you're far enough away, the high frequency sounds produced by that crack will eventually outpace the low frequency sounds. By the time it gets to your location, the sound wave spectrum is split, and so it sounds really weird. ice will crack, and then the sound spectrum will separate over distance. And if you're far enough away, it's going to sound really weird, because the full spectrum of sound is arriving all at once." Famed Wyoming photographer Dave Bell told Cowboy State Daily that "Water is a superconductor of sound.  As the ice cracks or shifts, either freezing or thawing, it makes sounds from those events.  It's the ice doing its thing." Read the full story HERE. – U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis told the Wyoming Senate on Monday that Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange that moved its global headquarters to Cheyenne last year, will sponsor Trump $1,000 Accounts for every child born in Wyoming in 2026. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Lummis described the Trump Account sponsorship as Kraken rewarding Wyoming for its leadership in making the state a good place to set up a digital asset business. "They love the regulatory and legal environment in Wyoming and leaders like Lummis, who has really gone out of her way to facilitate businesses like Kraken and she was pretty explicit. She said as a thank you to Wyoming that Kraken has pledged $1,000 per kid born in 2026 so attention, pregnant parents out there, if you have a child due in Wyoming in 2026 you could benefit from this $1,000 donation into what is called a Trump account, and that is a savings mechanism that the President has promoted, an investment mechanism the President has promoted. He characterizes it as buying into the American dream and investing in our kids." Kraken is a nearly $3 billion cryptocurrency exchange and was Wyoming's first Special Purpose Depository Institution. A key milestone, Lummis said, was Kraken gaining access to a master account with the Federal Reserve. Read the full story HERE. – The future of Wyoming's NCAR's supercomputer is uncertain after the National Science Foundation announced plans to shift operations to a third party. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports this leaves state and university leaders seeking to preserve its local role. "The Trump administration had said that they were going to unravel NCAR, basically do away with it, because it's a source of climate alarmism, and they don't want to deal with that anymore. What I was able to determine is there are discussions ongoing about the fate of the building. The mayor of Cheyenne, Patrick Collins, told me he's aware of these discussions going on. Basically they are trying to, you know, keep that center open, keep it here." Among its many accomplishments, NCAR was instrumental in solving unexplained weather events that caused multiple airplane crashes in the 1980s. It also modeled wildfire-generated weather to help determine the safest locations for firefighters.  Read the full story HERE. – First responders saved a young driver after he hit a cow on a dark Sheridan county road Friday night. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that emergency personnel are crediting an app, which sent an emergency alert to the driver's parents and first responders. "That was the Life360 app, which apparently is used by a lot of families. It's an app that families can subscribe to that provides location tracking and emergency alerts in the event that somebody's injured in a car accident, and that's what happened in this case, the notification that first responders got didn't come from the traditional 911 call. It was an emergency notification sent from the app to another phone in an area where service is kind of hit and miss. It's a great layer of protection in t

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 16th.  I'm Mac Watson. – Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak tells Cowboy State Daily that his agency is investigating last week's incident in which a Teton County GOP leader handed checks to lawmakers on the state House floor after adjournment. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the sheriff's investigation is different from the House's decision to launch their own examination. "There's an important distinction here, because when the House on Thursday was talking about launching its own internal investigation for possible legislative misconduct, bribery, that was an administrative, non-criminal act, and that that seven person committee is going to be convening sometime during the session, and it'll have four days to just put something together and send it on to the House. But when they were debating forming that panel, it was Representative Chris Knapp who said, 'Maybe this is something that we should forward to a criminal agency, that we should ask the AG about." And even though the House didn't take him up on that, that is more the nature of what Sheriff Kozak is doing, is looking for criminal probable cause, or as he put it, 'to clear the names of the innocent wherever the investigation leads.'" The controversy erupted on Wednesday when Rep. Mike Yin of Jackson urged his colleagues not to vote for introduction of a bill Rebecca Bextel championed that seeks to curb affordable housing mitigation policies like those prevalent in Teton County and its seat of Jackson. Read the full story HERE. – Speaking of the legislature, lawmakers get back to work and start the second week of the Budget Session. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that this week, it's all about amendments and funding. "So what we can expect are amendments on the budget starting next week. And now they're going to roll up their sleeves, and they're going to maybe have a tug of war with the joint appropriations committee and some of the changes it made, and then hopefully each chamber gets a budget that is satisfied with before both chambers try to reconcile the budget with one another. The other big thing that's going on is they're trying to recalibrate education, which means they're trying to do a full scale reassessment on what we pay for education." Even though a court order for education recalibration is on pause right now, the Senate is taking it up by introducing a recalibration bill unanimously. – For decades, the Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne wasn't just a hotel; it was the most powerful spot in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that nearly every legislator stayed there and that's where deals were finalized.  "What made it special was the people in the management and the way that they went out of their way to really cultivate a culture there…in hindsight, pretty fascinating to consider that you had virtually an entire legislature all bunking at the same place during the session…and there would be receptions, seven nights a week, dinner parties. People were having conversations at the bar late in the night, and it was kind of like the way they described it. It was always about law making. You were always working on fixing some problem with some bill, but the atmosphere was so much more congenial and personable at the Hitching Post than it was up at the Capitol, and so they were able to move things just in an entirely different way." It was not just local politicians who stayed at "The Hitch." Spiro Agnew, the U.S. vice president to Richard Nixon, stayed at the historic inn. A fire brought the historic inn down in 2010. Read the full story HERE. – Work is quickly progressing just outside Kemmerer at TerraPower's first-of-its-kind nuclear power project. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the 167-foot-tall facility will stress-test massive Natrium reactor components. "It's really just a giant mechanic shop. And what they're going to do is they're going to test these because this is the first one ever, right? And this will be the only test and fill facility that they do.They're going to bring these gigantic pieces of the Natrium reactor in. They're going to test them. This will be the place that they test these in the sodium, molten sodium environment to figure out if everything works the way they think it will work…the scale of it is just amazing. 167 feet, and some of the equipment that's going to be coming in is too large. It's physically too large to bring by rail. They're right there by the railroad. They could build a rail spur, but it's too large to transport that way until that will not be the way the equipment is being brought to the natrium site. It will be oversized loads going down I-80." Backed by billionaire Bill Gates, the novel 345-megawatt nuclear power plant being built near Kemmerer will be much smaller and much cheaper than the hulking reactors of old.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Just one search and rescue mission last year took nearly 1,800 manpower hours and 220 flights. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that with nearly 9 million visitors coming to Wyoming, the cost of helping stranded people is breaking the bank. "Search and rescue teams are funded through the county and they're run by the county sheriff offices. The bulk of that money comes from the county commissioners who allot them money for infrastructure in basically equipment. However, the problem is this money is woefully inadequate based on the types of rescues they're now having to conduct. For example, Grant Gardner, who disappeared while hiking Cloud Peak Mountain last year, and unfortunately, was found deceased. But the cost for his search, because everything is volunteer, and they were able to get so many volunteers, was about $65,000. However, if they didn't have those volunteers, if they didn't have all those people who donated, that rescue might have been $1.7 million." To help fund Search and Rescue teams, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is now selling a specialty Search and Rescue license plate. The initial cost is $180 with $150 going to the state-wide fund with a $50 annual renewal fee. Read the full story HERE. – Many Wyoming ranchers stick to the traditional way of doing things when feeding livestock in the winter, including working a team of workhorses and a sleigh loaded with hay. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that one rancher says with horses, he doesn't have to worry about the engine not starting. "Modern day ranching doesn't necessarily mean modern day technology. A lot of Wyoming ranchers still use an old fashioned method of horse drawn slay to deliver feed to their livestock. So the rancher will hook up a team of horses and go out into the field, use a pitchfork, or sometimes their bare hands, and just toss the hay or whatever the feed is out to their livestock, and we're talking about cattle, sheep in some cases. so some of these high rural places in Wyoming can get 65 inches of snow or more a year, and these work horses can power through that snow easily. So you already have the work horses. Why go out and pay $50,000 for a high tech tractor that could do the same thing." Feeding with a horse team has some drawbacks. For one thing, it's a slow process. One rancher tells Cowboy State Daily that a typical feeding cycle might take three to four hours with a horse team.  Read the full story HERE. – Back in the early 1900s, when Wyoming men outnumbered women 10-1, they formed matrimonial clubs to bring out mail-order brides from back East. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that historians say many fourth- and fifth-generation Wyoming families may trace their roots to these "imported wives." "So they're called mail order brides, because that's pretty much how the whole thing was facilitated. Was ads through the mail, but it's not the modern connotation of mail order brides. This was just basically, it was like modern day dating acts, apps and personal ads, except it was through newspapers back in the late 1800s and early 1900s…I spoke to Robyn Cutter the Park County archives, and she said there's not a lot of first hand documentation of these arrangements, because it's kind of an awkward thing to bring up in hindsight. But based on what she's seen from the correspondences that she's been able to read, the women were looking for a sense of adventure. They talk about being unhappy back on the East Coast, they had restrictive family lives, and they found a sense of freedom in coming out to the West, and if a strong, young, handsome cowboy came with it, that was all the better." Park County Archives director, Robyn Cutter tells Cowboy State Daily that she found evidence of matrimonial clubs functioning, in some capacity, as late as the 1960s. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, February 13th.  I'm Mac Watson. – All 59 Wyoming representatives who were on the House floor on Thursday afternoon voted to convene a special committee to investigate the checks given to lawmakers on the House floor on Monday.  Cowboy State daily's Clair McFarland reports that the committee will investigate if it was an act of bribery or legislative misconduct. "So, a few of us saw Rebecca Bextel on the House floor Monday, but Representative Karlee Provenza that had the close advantage and took photographs of Bextel handing checks to House members. Now this erupted Wednesday, when Representative Mike Yin was like, 'Do not vote yes on a bill that Bextel has championed after accepting checks from her on the House floor.' And he said, 'We don't want to, it's a bad optics. We don't want the image of bribery.' And that exploded again Thursday, when Representative Karlee Provenza, who originally shot the photographs of this incident, brought a provision to convene a seven-representative investigative panel to determine whether this was bribery and misconduct. And there was extensive debate, like three hours of debates, attempts to amend discussions, people, origin, other people, not to be biased. At the end, all 59 members who were on the House floor available to vote at that time voted in favor of convening this committee…The House Speaker is now tasked with forming the committee, and he promised to form a fair committee, and he urged everyone to give it Grace during this very rushed, very frantic budget session." Rebecca Bextel is not a state legislator or a registered lobbyist. She is a political activist, and after starting her outlet the Open Range Record, she was registered to attend this year's session as a member of the media.  Read the full story HERE. – Senate Pres. Bo Biteman told colleagues on Thursday that Wyoming needs to stop waiting and start leading as demand for electricity is expected to spike. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Biteman spelled out a vision that would put Wyoming in front of Trump's push for American energy supremacy. "There's a trio of bills now working their way through the Wyoming Legislature, and one of them kind of defines what they're all about. It's about energy dominance. So one bill that was voted into introduction on Thursday directs the Wyoming Energy Authority to study the transmission opportunities. What is the best way for Wyoming to approach the energy market? Senate President Bo Biteman stood on the floor today and told his fellow senators that he wants Wyoming to be the tip of the spear, meaning that as the Trump administration urges the entire country to create more energy as fast as possible, Biteman envisions Wyoming leading the pack." Introducing Senate File 123, the Wyoming Energy Dominance Fund, Biteman spelled out a vision for the state to position itself at the front of the Trump administration's push for American energy supremacy — backed by roughly $105 million in redirected severance tax revenues. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming officials are universally cheering the Trump administration's Thursday repeal of an Obama-era rule that was the linchpin for EPA climate regulations. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that environmental groups say the move ignores science and invites legal challenges. "What they say is that it was a giant overreach on government's part to then just be able to use this rule to say it affects the Clean Air Act. Everybody I talked to within Wyoming said that this is way past due. Now there are detractors. Environmental groups say that they're going to keep fighting it. I think they were just ready to sue whatever this came down. So that's going to face lawsuits." By eliminating the rule, President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin say they are doing away with "the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history," according to an EPA statement announcing the move. Read the full story HERE. – A Wyoming House committee advanced a bill Thursday that would provide funding for a study on how data centers, carbon capture, or other large-scale industrial projects might sap or impact the state's water supply. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that this is just the beginning. "It would be a half million to investigate the things that take water out of our water cycle, that SAP William and water data centers were implicated in that bill. And one of the you know, an environmental group that actually said, We don't want you to pass this bill right now. Said that's because it wasn't big enough, it didn't give enough money, it didn't have enough scope of investigation. And they want to go bigger." Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, said data centers pose a consequential problem in Wyoming.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A parent of a kindergartner is angry after a teacher at Sage Elementary School in Rock Springs read a book about non-binary gender ideology to her son's class. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that the principal said the teacher stopped reading the book when she realized what it was about. "The parents say the book was read in its entirety…They want the school to teach kindergartners how to read and not push an agenda. Now the school will say, 'we're not trying to push an agenda.' The parents want to know, how did the book get in this kindergarten classroom in the first place? The principal said that it was part of a book box that arrived at the school from Scholastic as a sort of promotional, kind of like a sample package, and they were not immediately aware that this particular book was a part of that box." "My Shadow is Purple," is a rhyming picture book by Scott Stuart about a child whose "shadow" is neither the traditional boy color of blue nor pink, but purple, representing a mix of both but also something new. Read the full story HERE. – In an effort to fix Wyoming's physician shortage, a bill to create a new pathway for foreign-trained doctors has advanced in the House. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Rep. Jacob Wasserburger said Wyoming is headed for a health care crisis. "Wyoming is projected to lose around 335 physicians by 2030 which is just around the corner. And currently 18 of Wyoming's 23 counties have a health professional shortage, and so this is lawmakers working with medical administrators and professionals around the state trying to get ahead of the problem. What it does is it creates a regulatory framework, a management of foreign trained doctors, where they come in and they are essentially preceptored by existing physicians in the state. So it's trying to cut through, you know, some of it's trying to establish a path. It's trying to establish a regulatory path for foreign trained doctors to come to Wyoming, to work under the supervision of an existing physician here, and then ultimately end up with a Wyoming medical license." The bill passed its introduction vote 60-0, with two members excused, and was assigned to the House Labor Committee. No members spoke in opposition. Read the full story HERE. – The two men killed Sunday when their semitrailer exploded on impact with another semi on I-80 near Green River were identified Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that a father-son driving duo was from Citrus Heights, California.  "Sad follow up to the fatal truck explosion that happened Sunday near Green River on I-80. Basically got confirmation on who was in the truck. And it was a father-son driving duo out of California. The son was driving at the time the truck veered over through an extra lane and hit this other truck that was illegally parked on the side of the highway, and as in a movie, their truck exploded on impact. Their family put out a post on a GoFundMe, nobody could see it coming…Now the other truck was parked illegally. You're only supposed to be able to park on the highway if you have an emergency, and apparently the other driver did not have an emergency. He has been summoned into court. He's supposed to be in court next month, so whether there's any other charges added to it right now. All he's been cited for is illegal parking. "  According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, 36-year-old Aleksey Fedun was driving their Volvo semitrailer along with his father, 76-year-old Volodymr Fedun, before 5:30AM Sunday when the truck drifted from the far left lane, through the right lane and collided with the parked semi.  Read the full story HERE. – Cheyenne LEADS CEO Betsey Hale says she has a solution for the Hynds Building, which has been empty for 40+ years, and the burnt-out area next to it known as "The Hole." Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Hale says she has the funding to turn the area into 69 units of workforce housing. "People have, you know, said, why don't you just tear it down and start over, if it's so hard to renovate, but it's also expensive to knock a building like that down. You can't just, you know, it's steel, it's concrete. It's going to cost a lot to knock it down. You couldn't renovate it. Changing that has involved, you know, kind of layering a whole bunch of different things together, different financial packages, plus a pledge from Cheyenne, leads to put in a million dollars to this project. There's a $6 million grant from the WCDA that's the Wyoming Community Development Authority. These are going to be the houses that are going in here. Are going to be income restricted. It's not section eight housing. It's a different federal program, but they will be income restricted to 30 to 60% of the median, average, median incomes." Carved out by a fire that destroyed Mary's Bake Shoppe in 2004, the gaping Hynds Hole, as it's often called, has become a symbolic void right in the middle of Cheyenne's

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 12th.  I'm Mac Watson. – Rep. Mike Yin claimed on Wednesday that Teton County GOP leader Rebecca Bextel distributed checks on the floor of the state legislature. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Yin's accusation prompted outrage and a formal protest.  "Representative Mike Yin was saying, 'Hey, I don't want to make any accusations specifically, but a person from Teton County that is championing bills was distributing checks on a legislative chamber floor during this session, and we should not vote on bills that she supports because of the implications'…Representative John Bear challenged him on a point of order. And then later, House Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams filed – she made an official complaint against him that went into the record. Bextel texted me, 'I haven't written any campaign checks this year.' I asked if she had distributed any checks at all or anything else, and what those things were, she said, 'None of your business.' However, she's taken to Facebook to say that she was distributing checks, but then there was nothing illegal about it." Bextel didn't respond to a later inquiry about whether she requested Bear or the House to run House Bill 141.  Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday to allow hand-counted recounts. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that this is despite county clerks warning it wouldn't work under tight deadlines.  "This legislative session, there have been a lot of election reform bills. Some have been voted down. Some have advanced, like a bill today that would spell out a requirement for hand counting ballots in certain situations when a recount is desired. The Secretary of State Chuck Gray argued that right now, or all a recount does is it reruns the ballots through the machine, and he's not satisfied by that stand. And the bill that he's backing would say, 'No, county clerks, you've got to hand count these.' Well, the county clerks are saying, 'Hold on a second. This is going to take a lot of time.' The clerks are okay with doing that. They just want a realistic structure to the mandate that would come down. They want to be able to execute whatever is required by law. And according to them, this House Bill sets them up for failure." Secretary of State Chuck Gray told the committee he was in complete support of the bill, calling it "probably one of the most vetted election bills in this session." Read the full story HERE. – A lawyer for Cody Roberts wants to bar testimony about him allegedly running a wolf down with a snowmobile or taping its mouth shut. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that attorney Robert Piper wrote that these were "prior acts" in his motion filed Monday in Sublette County District Court. "His defense lawyer made another motion this week, this time to exclude testimony that relates to him running down the wolf with a snowmobile or taking his mouth shut. He claims those are prior acts compared to what the prosecution is going after him for, and therefore should not be they should not hear testimony about that. It's kind of an interesting motion, because those alleged details pretty much launched his case to international status as far as people noticing and being, you know, following his prosecution…His trial is still scheduled to start March 9, so it's less than a month away. So it will be interesting to see what the response to this latest motion is from the prosecutors." After reportedly running down the wolf with a snowmobile, a practice called wolf-whacking, Roberts was initially cited by Wyoming wildlife officials for possessing a wild animal.  Read the full story HERE. – The Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association's proposed new 35-acre location in Cheyenne was revealed during a legislative reception on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that PRCA CEO Tom Glause spoke publicly for the first time about his vision for the PRCA in Wyoming. "Glause was there and actually came to the podium and talked about that he sees this as integral to the PRCA vision. He's really excited about moving to Cheyenne. He also talked about his time in Wyoming, and I guess I didn't realize just how extensive it was. I knew that he had been here for some time and had been like the insurance commissioner, but he moved to Wyoming as soon as he graduated from high school, and he got a college scholarship to go to Casper College and rodeo. And then he transferred to the University of Wyoming…So this guy really has spent a lot of time in Wyoming, and knows Wyoming very well. He knows rodeo very well."  The site is just north of the Horse Palace Swan Ranch and just south of the Little America Hotel and Resort. The PRCA's 35-acre section is one of 13 lots shown in the overall development, suggesting an overall vision that is larger than just creating a new campus for the PRCA headquarters and its associated Hall of Fame and Museum.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – When Elon Musk called out Wyoming lawmakers on social media for voting against an anti-child-grooming bill this week, he may not have known the penalties of House Bill 9 were harsher than a sentence for second degree murder. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the bill is being amended. "One of the people who voted against introducing the bill, Representative Landon Brown, was like, 'Hey, it's nothing against this concept.' It's got some really gray areas, some sloppy writing about where the age limitations are, and it's got these weird penalties that take judicial discretion away from judges by setting super steep minimums, like we saw with one of the provisions had a 25 year minimum, whereas Wyoming second degree murder charge has a 20 year minimum." Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl, testifying on behalf of the Wyoming County and Prosecuting Attorneys Association, tells Cowboy State Daily that the bill would plug a gap in the law.  Read the full story HERE. – An Evanston man was charged with a felony on Tuesday, accused of driving his truck into a woman trying to save a parking space at a Costco in Salt Lake City. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports the man claims she fell after he revved his engine, but witnesses and video say he accelerated into the woman. "He's accused of basically running down a woman who was standing in an empty space in a Costco parking lot in Salt Lake City. She was saving the space. You know, people do that. He wanted the space and started pulling in. She blocked him and said, 'No, you can't park here.' And according to the arrest affidavit in his case file, he then accelerated, hit her.  She was thrown back and her head hit another car. He claims that he never accelerated into her. His story was that she put her hands on his hood and that when he revved his engine, she fell backward. However, surveillance video from the Costco store, another witness, two other witnesses actually, also corroborated the first story about him." 67-year-old Frank Mysliwiec of Evanston was charged with the third-degree felony in the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City on Tuesday, more than a month after the Jan. 4 incident at the Costco store. The victim did survive the assault but no word on the extent of her injuries. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill to let voters recall mayors and other local officials as there is no mechanism in place now. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that supporters cite accountability, while critics worry about politicized recalls. "In Wyoming, there is currently not a mechanism for an official recall of a city council person, town council person, or mayor. The legislature worked on a draft of a bill that advanced, and it provides that mechanism. So they're working out the details. It had strong support, and I guess it's good news for communities out in Wyoming, where there's been a history of frustration, and now there could be some relief." The bill would require petitions signed by registered voters and a general statement of grounds for removal. Read the full story HERE. – Jaelin Kauf of Alta, Wyoming, earned her second career Olympic silver in moguls on Wednesday as she and teammate Liz Lemley made history. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports the two Olympians are the first U.S. 1-2 finish in women's freestyle skiing at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games. "Jaelin Kauf is from Alta, Wyoming and her teammate, Lemley is from Vail, Colorado. What's remarkable about their wins on Wednesday is that they each got a gold and a silver. So Kauf got the silver and Lindley got the gold. And that is the first time in Olympic history that a US team has snagged both gold and silver in the women's moguls…Jaelin Kauf is the daughter of Scott Kauf and Patty Sherman Kauf, and both of her parents are professional mogul champions from the 1980s and 1990s." Kauf has been called the fastest woman on the moguls circuit. She clocked the fastest time in Wednesday's women's moguls competition at 24.88 seconds during one of her runs. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 11th.  I'm Mac Watson. – At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Mark Gordon said it was refreshing to see so many bills die. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor says he sees that as a sign that lawmakers are respecting their higher priority of passing a two-year state budget. "It's a budget session. It's 20 days you're drinking from a fire hose. The chief function of it is to pass a two year budget. It's a really rigorous task in normal times, but we also saw drastic changes from the Joint Appropriations Committee in January – complicating this task even further, right? And so, lots and lots of committee bills, even which normally have a little bit more deference, died. They didn't clear introduction this week, even so far, on day two, and the governor said, hey, that's kind of refreshing. Honestly, I'm thrilled that the legislature is focusing on the budget, because that's what we're supposed to do during even numbered years." Gordon delivered these remarks during a round-table style press conference he hosted with reporters in the state Capitol Tuesday. The Wyoming Constitution outlines a 20-day legislative budget session for even-numbered years, and a 40-day general session for odd-numbered years.  Read the full story HERE. – A Torrington woman is accused of providing a young child to a now-convicted child sex predator for the promise of $5,000. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Angela Montoya denies the charges, saying the alleged acts were simply the predator's fantasies. "This woman is accused of basically allowing a young child, three-to-four years old, in her care, to be used by a pedophile guy who is now a convicted, former boyfriend of hers.  The court documents are very vague about that, just saying that she had custody of the child. So we don't know what this woman's actual relationship with the child is. At some points she adamantly denies giving him access to a child and in other parts she admits it… says that she felt very helpless and afraid of the guy. They mentioned that he had offered $5,000 to her at one point, there's nothing in there as to whether any money actually was exchanged. Her arrest comes after the October 2025 conviction of her boyfriend, 69-year-old Alvin Lee Syrovatka, for sexual exploitation of children and sexual abuse of a minor, according to a redacted affidavit of probable cause filed in Montoya's case. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming cattle ranchers say they're concerned over President Trump's executive order allowing 80,000 more metric tons of beef trimmings from Argentina to be sold in the United States. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that ranchers say it won't lower grocery store prices and risks introducing diseases. "We import really cheap beef, they're called beef trimmings, from other countries, so that we have a leaner product to mix in with the fattier meat that we produce. We have to do that in order to get the right consistency… Argentina has some of the cheapest beef in the world...But the other concerning aspect of Argentina's production is they're not as strict on the health protocols as our producers would like. They sometimes forget to report that they've had instances of diseases like Hoof-and-Mouth disease so you risk introducing that in to the American herd by importing this kind of product from Argentina without concurrently requiring more inspections and better, and that they do a better job of reporting it when it happens." Last week, President Trump signed the "Ensuring Affordable Beef For the American Consumer" executive order. Trump said that this will make ground beef more affordable for Americans. Read the full story HERE. – Three Wyoming Supreme Court justices grilled the Wyoming Education Association on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports this was after the advocacy group called Wyoming's school-choice scholarship program unconstitutional and harmful.  "It was supposed to go into effect last July, but a Cheyenne-based judge went ahead and paused that, saying, 'Whoa, I have constitutional doubts about this. We're going to block this while there's a legal challenge ongoing against it,' and the state and intervening families that really like this program challenge that judge's decision to the High Court, to the Wyoming Supreme Court. So oral argument on whether that is to stay blocked unfolded Tuesday in the historic Supreme Court chamber. So right there in the Capitol while this law making was going on, and you never get a decision on oral argument day, but you always try your best to feel the temperature of the room, the nature of the questions the justices asked. And Chief Justice Lynn Boomgaarden was a live wire just lobbing questions. So was Justice Carrie gray. They were just lobbing questions at the education advocates like, 'Are you guys sure that this is unconstitutional? Because here are some sincere questions we have about that argument.'" The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act is a $30 million school choice program that a Cheyenne-based judge blocked from going into effect last summer.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A proposed constitutional amendment requiring public vote on nuclear waste storage decisions in Wyoming failed on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Rep. Bill Allemand, of Midwest, made an impassioned pitch Tuesday for House Joint Resolution 3. "He was pushing pushing this notion that anytime a company wants to bring nuclear waste to Wyoming, that it should be put to a popular vote. And I think that's popular, perhaps among his constituents, but it does create a real headache for any company who wants to expand Wyoming's nuclear industry, and so Representative Lloyd Larsen spoke out against it and said we need to be doing more to nurture our nascent nuclear industry and not throw up this roadblock." Ultimately, the resolution failed 32-30, short of the two-thirds majority required for introduction during the current budget session.   Read the full story HERE. – A bill that would have allowed the sale of landowner hunting tags was soundly rejected for introduction to the Wyoming Senate. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that hunters hailed it as a victory while Sen. Tim French vowed to bring it back. "Now, the bill got shut down hard. It didn't even make it through introduction. I think the vote was 6 for and 29 against. I mean, it just got solidly put down on introduction to the descendant floor, and those who oppose the bill, who were apparently successfully argued their case is that it basically amounts to putting wildlife up for sale, which is just that. That really goes against what they call the North American model of wildlife conservation. It's like the wildlife is a public trust. It belongs to all the people.…I talked to him, and he said, 'Well, yeah, this is a defeat, but this isn't the end. We'll probably keep bringing back the attempts to allow landowners to do this.'" Proponents of landowner tag sales argued that the revenue could provide just compensation for farmers and ranchers who provide habitat and forage for game herds. And supporters say that landowner tag sales are allowed in other states. Read the full story HERE. – Sleeping Giant Ski Area outside of Cody has a buyer but they aren't interested in re-opening it as a ski resort. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Dallas-based HMH Capital plans to reopen the resort as a summer recreational park in 2027.  "The visitation numbers are just not there. We don't have enough tourists in the winter, there are too many other good options for skiing…But we have fantastic, outstanding numbers for a summer attraction. You have 4 million families going to Yellowstone every year, and one of the common questions that they'll ask is, what else is there to do besides Yellowstone? They're evidently having a meeting Wednesday to talk about some of their ideas with the public. So there'll be more information after that." Sleeping Giant Ski Area near Cody, Wyoming, has been closed the past three winters and was listed for sale in 2024. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis was one of the members of Congress who got a look at the unredacted Epstein files on Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Sen. Lummis says she now understands what the big deal is and it was worth investigating. "Of our delegation in Wyoming, Lummis is the only one who so far has gone to see some of those. And a reporter caught her coming out and got a statement from her, and she said, basically, 'Yeah, I see why this is a big deal.' She mentions that after seeing some of these things, that people are right to go after the people involved reached out to the rest of the delegation and [Rep.] Hageman says that it's the right thing to do to put these out, to be transparent about it. And she wants to hear from people who are in those files to explain themselves, and mentioned, specifically, the Clintons, that she is looking forward to seeing that. And then Senator Barrasso was very blunt too. He said, 'You know what? I don't need to see the unredacted files. The redacted ones I've seen are enough to make me know that he's a 'disgusting monster.'" A spokesman for Lummis says even though the junior Senator from Wyoming hasn't been vocal about the Epstein files, it doesn't mean she hasn't been paying attention. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 10th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The 68th Wyoming Legislature Budget Session opened on Monday at the Capitol in Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports from the Capitol that the session started with Gov. Mark Gordon urged legislators to restore key portions of his November budget recommendation. "Most of what he discussed, alongside touting Wyoming, its values, its industries, was asking lawmakers to reinstate his budget request, and that's because the joint appropriations committee got first slash at his draft budget and cut and denied various things from it, including a proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus in response, said Governor Gordon needs to chill with the spending and then the State of the Judiciary, Chief Justice Lynn Boomgaarden of the Wyoming Supreme Court delivered her speech on allowing the Wyoming judiciary to be a co equal and independent branch of government. She referenced the unavoidable that a January 6 opinion by the High Court casting abortion as a fundamental right and upholding it, striking down two laws that would have restricted it. She recognized that this is causing lawmakers to consider how the courts are structured, how judges and justices are chosen, and she urged them not to quote 'politicize' the courts. The Wyoming Senate held a series of introductory votes in which they decided which bills were even worth their consideration, and one of the bills that they decided in a 21-10 vote was not worth their consideration would have purged the Wyoming Business Council from Wyoming's law books altogether. However, even though the Business Council CEO Josh Dorell was pleased and called it 'a decisive win.' He said, 'Look out, because there is still a budget amendment that would defund the council.' Now it stands to reason that the Senate could change that budget amendment. Today's vote indicates they might, but it is viable at this juncture." The legislative Joint Appropriations Committee proposed multiple cuts and denials to Gordon's recommendations, in its second-draft version of the budget. Now the Wyoming Legislature will grapple with the third and later drafts until it sends a budget to the governor's desk around the first week of March.  Read the full story HERE. – The Freedom Caucus of the Wyoming House of Representatives spelled out its priorities for the 2026 session of the Wyoming Legislature Monday, immediately after Gov. Mark Gordon delivered his State of the State address. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that their press conference outside of the state capitol, was pointed and direct.  "When the governor referred to the Freedom Caucus as club 'No.' Now they took offense to that and put their own spin on that phrase a couple of times, and really said, we're about 'yes.' We're about 'yes' to our agenda, which has heavy emphasis on protecting unborn children and banning abortion, which has a lot of emphasis on getting smut out of libraries, and they took issue with the University of Wyoming as well. They also talked a lot about election reform, pen and paper ballots…also today, a big priority for the Freedom Caucus was to get a slate of election reform bills introduced to the house for consideration. They needed a two thirds majority to be introduced. They didn't get that coalition of Republicans and Democrats spoke out and voted down many of these measures.' Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, from Cody, opened the press conference saying that "The Freedom Caucus exists for the people of Wyoming. We are doing the work of the people." Read the full story HERE. – Two people are dead after their semitrailer exploded when it hit another semi that was parked illegally on the side of Interstate 80 near Green River on Sunday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that authorities say the crash and explosion looked like a movie scene. "It exploded on contact, and the two people who were in that second semi trailer were killed. I talked to the the incident commander, with the Green River fire department who said that, 'Yeah, it was a pretty bad one, and very unusual in the fact that it did there was an actual explosion there, and they came and there, it was already fully engulfed when they got there, and so their main focus was just getting getting water on it, keeping it, you know, getting it knocked down, and keeping it contained to just the crash area and not have it start a wildfire, getting into the grass and everything." Authorities have not released the names of the deceased since the investigation is still ongoing. Read the full story HERE. – Meteorologists are monitoring an incoming winter weather system that they say will provide western Wyoming's snowpacks with high-quality snow. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists are saying this storm could provide the best and heaviest snow of the season. "It's not that this incoming system is necessarily different from anything we've had this winter. The fact that's different is that we no longer have a high pressure ridge settled over the Rocky Mountains that's funneling that winter weather away. So the moisture and the cold air that's descending from the Pacific Northwest and the Arctic Circle is going to reach Wyoming, and there's nothing stopping it from reaching Wyoming. So it's not going to be immediate. We're looking at maybe some rain, snow flurries in the lower elevations, while the mountains get most of this initial wave of winter weather. But as Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day put it, this week's weather is a 'sacrificial lamb' that's going to make the incoming winter weather systems more impactful as we go into the latter half of February and into March, and we're talking about high quality snow, wet, heavy, high water content, that's exactly what you want, building up the snow pack." The incoming winter weather has already affected Wyoming. The Chief Joseph Highway and Granite, Teton and Togwotee Passes were covered with a fresh covering of wet, heavy snow on Monday morning. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Park County man who claims to be the "business partner" of a 90-year-old Cody woman with a failing memory is accused of stealing more than $100,000. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Joseph Newton is accused of stealing from her over at least a three-year span. "Looking at the court documents that they've had kind of a trouble really adding it up, because apparently he's some, he was some kind of business partner with her and what they believe is he used that position to get money, and the money was allegedly to pay for bail for himself and for other people. Some of it was like $50,000 for construction on a property." 60-year old, Joseph "Joey" E. Newton has been charged with three counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult for allegedly convincing the elderly woman to write him dozens of checks for large sums of money, including money for bail and attorney's fees, according to Park County Court documents. Read the full story HERE. – Although it's been balmy in Wyoming, the arctic blast that hit Texas and northern Mexico is slowing the spread of the New World screwworm. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that while that's good news, it doesn't mean the strict monitoring will let up anytime soon along the U.S.-Mexico border. "The New World screw worm is a devastating fly. It actually burrows into the open wound of an animal and then gets into it goes around and around like a cork screw. That's how it gets its name.the screw worm lays its eggs in open wounds, and so then the further that it burrows into that wound, the bigger it makes the wound. And it can actually be life threatening to cattle." The screwworm is being closely monitored because officials say one case has been reported in a cow less than 70 miles from the border. Read the full story HERE. – The horror-comedy movie "Sharktana" begins filming at the Lost Horse Lodge in Montana on Monday. The movie is about warm temperatures melting ice that held sharks frozen in a remote cave. Cowboy State Daily's Anna-Louise Jackson reports one shark has already gotten loose and gone on a feeding frenzy. "The director's from Hamilton, which is south of Missoula in Montana. He is known for horror movies. He's made several independent films. He usually writes his own movies, but he was passed the script from a first time screenwriter, a guy who worked at a local ski area in Montana, and that guy had this idea of sharks in the snow, and so they teamed up. They brought in another guy who's a producer, and so the three of them worked on the script, and now they'll be making this movie, first time for this director, doing someone else's script, first time for this screenwriter, getting his script to see the light of day. And it's all happening in Montana. So, a very local independent film." Since this is a smaller film, there's no word on what streaming platform will carry "Sharktana" when it comes out. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 9th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The 2026 Wyoming Legislative session begins on Monday morning at 10am. Gov. Mark Gordon will deliver a State of the State address followed by a State of the Judiciary from Wyoming's Supreme Court Chief Justice. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland will anchor our coverage and tells us what to expect from the Budget Session. "It's a budget session, so the top objective is supposed to be creating a two year budget for the state of Wyoming. And that's been a little flashier, a little more controversial than in some budget cycles past, because we're talking at this juncture about possibly a $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming, significant changes to the Wyoming Department of Health, both increases and denials and beyond the budget. They're talking about defunding and dismantling the Wyoming Business Council, which is an agency geared toward government backed economic development, a controversial agency right now. They're also talking about advancing an amendment into the Constitution. It would have to also pass the ballot box in November that would allow the legislature to restrict or ban abortion, some other big topics, you know, ongoing voter integrity, the energy industry, kind of the same recurring stuff we've seen in recent years, and also possible further changes to our property tax structure. Four of the biggest players are House Speaker Chip Neiman and Senate President Bo Biteman. They have a gate keeping function, and then also, since it's a budget session, a couple of big players are the chairman of the two appropriations committees, House and Senate, and that's Representative John Bear and Senator Tim Salazar." Cowboy State Daily will stream the State of the State at 10am on our homepage at cowboy state daily dot com. – Salt Lake City investigators have discovered fresh evidence in the disappearance of former Jackson resident, Anne Elyse Elliott, who was 31-years old when she vanished more than six years ago. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that the news of this first big break has brought hope to her younger sister Emily Nardacci, of Pinedale. "The new break in the case is there were no spottings of Anne since she left that detention center on January 4, so that was the last time she was spotted. However, police now have confirmed sightings of her in the North Temple area they are in. They have confirmed sightings of her the same day she was released from the detention center, and they are now eagerly looking for people who may have seen her that day who can fill in the blanks…the Salt Lake City Police Department is actively working this case, and they ask for anyone with information, no matter how small it seems to contact their department. " It was originally reported to family that Elliott had been contacted by police in April of that year, but the Salt Lake City Police Department has since clarified that sighting never happened.  Read the full story HERE. – Kate Anderson didn't start out to heal hopeless racehorses on her ranch outside of Chugwater. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that now she rehabs million-dollar Thoroughbreds once thought beyond saving. "The first thing she does when she gets these horses that need help is she turns them loose and lets them go find the terrain that suits their feet the best. They start running around and moving and eating native grasses and something about all of that helps heal a lot of these horses. Her work is also attracted the attention of researchers. This guy who's a hoof expert from the University of Michigan, she's working with him to kind of study what's happening out there. Why is this working? What is it about this? How can we adapt some of this into the race horsing industry to, you know, help these horses have better outcomes before they get there?" There's been a consistent belief in the racehorse industry that Thoroughbreds just have genetically deficient feet. They're like hothouse beauties that must be coddled to the end of their days. But from what Anderson has seen at her ranch, this turns out to be something of a myth.  Read the full story HERE. – Investigators found special‑education violations tied to student privacy and parental rights at Sweetwater County School District No. 1. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that now a Rock Springs mother is calling for the censure of the school board chair — months after he publicly censured her husband. "It is a particularly heightened dynamic, because it was this same family who was censured by the school board just months earlier, Rachel Seppie, husband, Cole Seppie, was a board trustee, and while he was a trustee, he was censured for behaviors that he was investigated for, and it just gets dicier from there, because he has filed a counter-complaint of retaliation, arguing that the investigation of him was based on ulterior motives related to, among other things, complaints that his wife had made against the district pertaining to what is now come full circle in this investigation… I asked the superintendent, 'Do you intend to apologize or make any censure?' And the superintendent responded, 'Well, this matter isn't over, because we are asking for them to reconsider the decision, and we disagree with the characterization of Rachel Seppi for the underlying reason for this censure.'" In January, the WDE issued a decision in a special‑education complaint that found SCSD out of compliance with federal rules governing student confidentiality and parents' participation rights. That decision has triggered a corrective action plan requiring mandatory training to be monitored by the state. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Former NBA player, "Moose" Dabich of Hudson, was fishing without a license back in 1972 and didn't want to get in trouble. But two boys spotted what they thought was Bigfoot and ran off to tell authorities. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that Dabich says he blames an old coat. "So the coat that he was wearing wasn't even meant to be worn. Moose Dabich had a coat that he kept in his car, so in case he had an accident, he could put it on the ground and get under his truck and take care of it. Well, it was cold. It was the only coat he had, and he described it as very ugly, and it was polyester, furry looking yellow coat. So these two boys were convinced that they had seen Bigfoot. They ran into Lander. The word started spreading. The news editor heard their story and believed it. And he happened to be kind of an artist, so he sketched out what he believed the boys had seen, and it made the front page news." Dabich tells Cowboy State Daily that he can understand how the two boys mistook him for Bigfoot in the ugly coat since he is 7-feet tall.  Read the full story HERE. – Hell's Half Acre, an otherworldly alien landscape in a remote section of central Wyoming, is reopening in May. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that access to that area has been restricted since 2005. "They've built an observation deck out there. They don't have to cut the fence anymore to get a good view and get a good picture, get a good selfie. They can there's picnic tables there where they can have a nice little roadside lunch. If they want, a little roadside picnic. If they want. There's going to be some interpretive signs there that talk about the history of the place, not just the starship Trooper movie, though, this place has a history that's stranger than fiction in some ways. At one time, there were wild camels running around down there, prehistoric creatures, you know, that are no longer, that are all extinct today." Once upon a time, Hell's Half Acre brought millions to the community in tourism money. With the popularity of film trails, it's thought it could once again drive some tourism revenue in the Natrona County area, and the site is being added to various apps that help road trippers find film locations.  Read the full story HERE. – Until about March, folks might see blindfolded bighorn sheep or deer flying around, slung in harnesses under helicopters. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the animals are playing a critical part for scientists. "If you see an animal, a big horn, cheaper mule deer, blindfolded and slung underneath a helicopter flying around, don't freak out. Nobody's kidnapping him. It's not some kind of secret spy mission…This is the time of year when they like to capture animals, you know, take blood samples, tissue samples, you know, test body fat content, that sort of thing, to kind of get a snapshot of herd health…So don't freak out. It's business as usual this time of year." Game and Fish Cody Region Wildlife Biologist Tony Mong tells Cowboy State Daily that December through March is the best time to capture and study animals because in the summer months they're in more rugged terrain and raising their offspring. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming's turn to play the "Survivor 50 Challenge," which means people in every state are given clues to find a hidden "immunity idol." Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that clues for Wyoming were released over the weekend. "So, the clues provided are near a town named for David Edward. You can always ski on it when it's cold. It may be winter, but the springs stay hot. At 189 don't take the opportunity for granted. That doesn't leave much ambiguity in terms of where the immunity idol has been hidden for Wyoming's survivor 50 challenge, it's granite hot springs because it's off Wyoming and highway 189 and it's south of Jackson, which was named for David Edward Jackson." Whoever finds an immunity idol in the mountains south of Jackson, they'll get to share a unique moment in the popular reality show's history. The Survivor 50 Challenge is a celebration of "Survivor

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, February 6th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The State Land Board on Thursday voted 3-2 to begin a legal process that could cancel two controversial state wind leases in Converse and Niobrara counties. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Secretary Chuck Gray, Superintendent Megan Degenfelder, and Auditor Kristi Racines all voted in favor while Gov. Gordon and Treasurer Meier voted against. "In the Constitution, there's language suggesting that for state trust lands, you gotta promote projects that are going to help fund the Wyoming school system. And so they often talk about their fiduciary duty, that's their duty, to make these lands profitable to support our schools. And so that was the reasoning last April, when they voted in favor of these projects. But as the months dragged on and wind became just this flash point controversy. A couple of them, auditor Kristi Racines and Superintendent of Public instruction, Megan Degenfelder, were like, 'Yeah, this is clearly more important to people than was apparent earlier on, and we're gonna go ahead and reflect that.'"  The reversal follows 10 months of controversy and passionate public debate over the two projects, which are slated to cover several thousand acres of state and other lands. Read the full story HERE. – WY Fresh Farm has been in the same location for 20 years, with a farmstead added about four years ago. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that now the couple faces a forced annexation by the city of Cheyenne that they say threatens their business. "This farm is among some of the last properties that the city is planning to annex. The couple just have a lot of questions about what that will mean for their operation. The devil's always in the details, right? They're, quote, 'grandfathered in', but if they're the wrong zoning, if for one year, they have a disaster and they can't do their chickens, well, then it's not a continuing use anymore. This farm is among some of the last properties that the city is planning to annex. The couple just have a lot of questions about what that will mean for their operation." Co-owner Tommie Kniseley told Cowboy State Daily she started asking questions in 2022, when she inadvertently learned their farm might be in the pathway of the city's annexation plans. They were attending a city council meeting on an unrelated matter, when she happened to see the city's plans for their farm's future hanging on a wall. Read the full story HERE. – The Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted to shield two more institutions from its proposed $40 million budget cut to the University of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one of those institutions shares a financial backer with the campaign arm of the Freedom Caucus. "The majority of the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted to shield the high bay Research Center and the WORTH Institute, a tourism school, under the University of Wyoming from a proposed $40 million cut to the university. So if you say that these two schools, these two centers, can't suffer from the cut, then the other schools under the university will get cut deeper, right, because they have to sustain the whole 40 million but where it it got interesting was the $5 million backer of the WORTH Institute, one of the centers that they want to rescue is also, in recent months, a top contributor to the Wy Freedom Pack, which is the campaign arm of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, at least two of whose members voted Thursday for the shield. The WORTH Institute and the campaign arm of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — some members of which voted to protect the institute — share a financial backer. Read the full story HERE. – A makeshift crack-cooking station on a baby changing table at a gas station has prompted a warning from the Teton County, Idaho, Sheriff's Office. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that even a Cheyenne gas station worker said that he wouldn't change a baby on one of those. "It doesn't seem like people should need to be told this. But apparently people are not using the baby changing stations in public restrooms for changing babies only in Teton County, Idaho.  I talked to a truck stop. I talked to a convenience store, and especially the community store, they had some horror stories. They say that it's almost impossible to keep them clean. Even though they go in twice an hour, every 30 minutes to clean those things, they still have people who do really disturbing things in those bathrooms, and they find drug paraphernalia there." The plea by the Teton County, Idaho's Sheriff's Office was accompanied by a photo of the baby changing table laid out with baking soda, a syringe, a lighter, tin foil packets, and a carrying case that held the paraphernalia. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – State Sen. Ed Cooper is retracting a statement he made last week, accusing the national Freedom Caucus network of hinging campaign donations to its local members on their voting records. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the state senator says that he cannot substantiate the claim. "The original quote was that the state Freedom Caucus network was infusing money toward candidates based on how they voted. And he didn't go so far as to say, you know, that's outright incorrect, but he did say he could not substantiate it, and so it was incorrect to say it. I talked to Andy Roth, president of the National Network, who said that the original statement was false, and then it was either a liar or a rumor. Cooper told me is that he had a source, but that he wanted to own the statement, since he's the person who said it publicly, and not reveal his source, and that still he could not substantiate the claim." Though he believes he spoke "incorrectly" because he wasn't able to verify the information, Cooper did not go so far as to call the claim incorrect. Read the full story HERE. – Two Wyoming ranchers say diversification of their land is key to their survival and that property owners should have the freedom to decide what to do with their land. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that the ranchers say that includes allowing wind farms and other energy development. "In a letter to the editor to Cowboy State daily, Rob Hendry and Scott Sims say that the guarantee a land owner can develop their property as they see fit has always mattered, and that private property rights are not an abstract political talking point in Wyoming. These two ranchers are saying that Wyoming's energy industries are vital. We have to protect them, and we have to support them, and the decision to support energy development through leasing of private property should be the sole decision of the private property owner." In an editorial letter shared with Cowboy State Daily, Rob Hendry and Scott Sims say a landowner's right to develop their property as they see fit has always mattered. Private property rights, they argue, are not an abstract political talking point in Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. – A misstep left a wildlife photographer with a broken leg in a remote area of Yellowstone National Park. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that Marcela Herdova made it back to her car, but it wasn't easy. "On Sunday, she was on a quote, unquote, routine hike to get a better angle on some wolves that they were watching in about a mile and a half in from the parking lot where she and one other person had started, and she just stepped in a snow covered hole and ended up breaking her leg. And okay, so that, in and of itself, isn't that big a deal, but there wasn't any soul service where they were. And so what ended up happening is the other person she was with went and retrieved a branch, and they kind of made a makeshift crutch out of it, and she said it took over three hours to get back to the parking lot. Finally, some other people came up after him, and she said she got carried out the last half mile." Cade Cole, a backcountry adventurer, tells Cowboy State Daily that Marcela's story is a "spooky" example of how quickly things can go wrong in the wild.  Read the full story HERE. – The world-famous Grizzly 399 and her four cubs will be honored with a bronze sculpture at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that the piece will be dedicated on Sept. 9, 2026. "So Jocelyn Russell has sculpted everything from a herd of life size elephants to larger than life animals for a variety of different institutions. And she was approached by the Grizzly 399 Legacy of Love Project to make a larger than life sculpture of Grizzly 399, and the quads, which are the four cubs that she emerged with in May 2020. The sculpture is well underway. Russell told me that it's been sent to the foundry, where it's being basically carved out of foam at the scale that it's going to be based on the 18-inch clay maquette that she's been tinkering with for the last year. That'll be cast in bronze, and then ultimately shipped from Washington State to Jackson for the dedication at the National Museum of wildlife art." Grizzly 399 was a world-famous grizzly bear from Grand Teton National Park whose calm roadside presence captivated thousands of tourists annually before she was struck by a car and killed in 2024. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 5th.  I'm Mac Watson. – Wyoming Senate President Bo Biteman tells Cowboy State Daily he is considering a run for Wyoming's U.S. House. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Biteman has formed an exploratory committee to look into a campaign.  "So the senate president of Wyoming, Senate President Bo Biteman, is looking seriously at a U.S. House run. If he does run that would pit him against Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Casper businessman Reid Reisner, former public instruction superintendent Jillian Balow, so it would become a four way race for that Republican nomination, Biteman actually dropped that 'seriously looking' tagline during a broader interview."  Two of Wyoming's three seats in Congress face a shakeup this year, as incumbent U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis announced in December that she's not running for reelection to the upper chamber. Read the full story HERE. – And speaking of Wyoming politics, Tom Kelly, a freshman lawmaker from Sheridan who is also a college professor, announced Wednesday he is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Kelly arrived in Wyoming in 2019. "Tom Kelly's a longtime educator. He worked in public school. He's been a college professor. He's been in university administration. And so he ran for this seat in a couple different ways back in 2022. He made the Republican nomination when Jillian Balow left early, and then Governor Gordon did not appoint him, choosing Brian Schroeder instead. And so Tom Kelly actually ran that year for the Republican nomination, withdrawing early as it was shaped into a two-way race between Schroeder and Degenfelder. And so he told me on Wednesday, like, 'Yeah, I just want to continue some of Degenfelder's work. I want to favor school choice, but stay within the confines of the Constitution.'" Rep. Kelly, who has a master's degree in education and a PhD in political science, is a college professor and administrator who chairs the American Military University's department of political science, public administration and public policy. Read the full story HERE. – The newly unveiled USDA portal that tracks foreign-owned ag land in the U.S. has been hailed by GOP lawmakers and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins as a good step in the right direction. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that real estate agents, however, don't seem as concerned with the issue. "A new USDA online portal for reporting foreign owned agricultural land is sparking some debate in Wyoming between politicians and real estate brokers and land experts and landowners, the politicians are saying, you know, no matter how much foreign land is owned in Wyoming, even if it's a small little bit, we should be concerned, and we should know who owns it and why. Real estate agents say they very rarely deal with foreign entities trying to buy land. The USDA has been collecting information regarding foreign ownership of agricultural lands since the late 1970s but this online portal is relatively new." The online portal, launched by the USDA in January, is meant to streamline reporting of transactions involving U.S. agricultural land by foreign entities and represents a broader trend of increased federal scrutiny of foreign investment in U.S. agricultural and forest lands.  Read the full story HERE. – BioLife Plasma Services abruptly closed two of its three Wyoming locations on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that clients, who said they depend on the money from selling plasma, say the no-notice move is a gut-punch to their budgets. "Nobody knows why they shut down. They say to optimize their operations. Apparently, that's what they say every time they shut something down. Because I look to see what other, what other bio life places have been closed recently, within the past year, and other other outlets reporting on their local bio life outlets being shut down abruptly. The thing that is a little different about this is this is a place where people were kind of strapped for cash, people who kind of use this as a supplemental income, not for huge amounts of money, but for enough to tie them up." Casper resident, Andy Tholl, tells Cowboy State Daily that selling plasma is a simple medical procedure that fills an important gap in his monthly budget.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Wyoming will gain over 70 minutes of daylight in February as "solar spring" begins, which will make days longer and warmer. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists say that can lead to massive amounts of wet, heavy snow like the kind that paralyzed Cheyenne five years ago. "The big question is, when we've already had such a subpar winter in terms of snowfall and temperatures, will this gradual and unavoidable increase in temperature and daylight decrease the chances we have of getting significant snowfall, and that's kind of a mixed bag, we haven't had access to a lot of good weather systems this winter. And if that continues, it's kind of a lost cause, but the benefit is that as there's more sunlight, the air gets warmer. And if you get a system that's a mix of cold, Arctic air and moist Pacific Air, it'll be warmer when it reaches Wyoming, so you'll get a lot of wet, heavy snow, and that's the best kind of snow, because it sinks into the ground faster and doesn't evaporate as much." Solar spring officially stretches from Feb. 5 to May 5 every year. The Northern Hemisphere has been steadily gaining daylight since Dec. 21, the winter solstice, but this three-month period is when the gains become much more noticeable, especially in the evening. Read the full story HERE. – A state judge's mixed decision on Monday will allow redevelopment to continue at Hot Springs State Park and also lets the Star Plunge lawsuit proceed. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports the judge's decision leaves the popular swim park in limbo. "Even though star plunge doesn't own any of the rest of the park or have any contractual interest in the rest of the park, a star plunge had argued that it could be harmed if work proceeded in the rest of the park and change the character of the park. But those are speculative harms, and typically in legal cases, speculation about potential harm doesn't fly. They don't trigger injunctions. The harms have to be real and imminent. In this case, the judge agreed with the state on that point. However, it did not agree with the state that there's no case here. It's just saying, yes, there's enough of a claim here for this case to proceed. And no, it can't just be tossed. And no, we can't just lift the injunction." The ruling also means Star Plunge will remain closed until the court case is finally resolved. Star Plunge's owner, Roland Luehne, tells Cowboy State Daily that this translates to tens of millions of dollars lost from Thermopolis and the surrounding communities. Read the full story HERE. – An Arizona man settled what was originally a $25M defamation suit vs. the Jackson Hole News & Guide over the paper claiming he'd abused his son. Clair McFarland reports that the paper published an apology. "Mecartney's attorney said that they brought the case to clear Mecartney's name. Jackson Hole News and Guide, meanwhile, posted a public apology, saying this story should not have been published. He waged a $25 million lawsuit, initially claiming that Jackson Hole news and guide had called him an abuser, contrary to other evidence, and without seeking comment from him." Aviation consultant, David Mecartney, alleged defamation over a story that didn't give his name but referenced him as an "abuser" of his son.  He sued the Jackson Hole News & Guide in federal court on Dec. 3rd. Read the full story HERE. – Groundhogs don't have to be just ceremonial animals that allegedly predict when spring arrives. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz spoke to a chef and he says they can be good eating too.  "He's cooked just about everything under the sun. He says he hasn't cooked a groundhog yet, but if he were to do that, he would recommend smoking it with a pork rub. He says smoking is any kind of wild game, anything that might likely be tough. He recommends smoking it. Take your time. Smoke it slowly…My dad and I cooked one over a campfire, which is kind of sort of like smoking it. And I'm not joking, it kind of to me, it tasted like chicken, maybe, maybe a bit more gamey." Ric Schuyler, owner of the renowned Pokey's BBQ in Gillette, who has cooked all manner of critters, says low and slow in a wood-fired smoker is the best way to go.  Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 4th.  I'm Mac Watson. – A request to dismiss an animal cruelty charge against accused wolf torturer Cody Roberts was denied on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Sweetwater County judge in the case confirmed he won't dismiss the case early. "So, in Wyoming criminal cases, you have a chance to say, 'Hey, Judge, there's a purely legal issue where this law does not work for this case. Or, you know, there's legal exceptions that bar this case. It's not a question of facts, like, Did I do it? Did I not?' But it's a question of law and the mechanical function of it. So that's what Roberts was asserting. Like, this law does not work because I fall into these exceptions for hunting, trapping, capture, killing, destruction of wildlife. The prosecutor is saying, 'You tormented this wolf after you captured it and before you killed it, allegedly.' Judge Richard Lavery of the Sweetwater County Court, who's filling in for the Sublette county judge, said he basically agrees with the prosecutor, like, 'No this in the in between acts that are exempted under our felony torture statute.'" Roberts trial is set for March 9th.Cody He is charged with felony animal cruelty, following claims he captured a wolf, took it injured into a bar in Daniel, Wyoming, taunted it, then later shot it.  Read the full story HERE. – Some Wyoming Freedom Caucus legislators are questioning using $15 million in state lodging tax money to lure the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association from Colorado to Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that some legislators are saying that Wyoming shouldn't be giving handouts to businesses that want to come here.  "One of the comments was also made on a Facebook post by one of the representatives. But you know that doesn't necessarily mean everyone in the Freedom Caucus is against this. I did speak with Representative Bear about his position on this. He said he's not ready to outline a clear position, yet he moved it forward in the Joint Appropriations Committee. He voted for it, but he has questions about it, and he is looking into the finances of the PRCA. The Freedom Caucus' mission to cut the budget as they put it, they feel this is fiscally responsible. They don't want to spend any money, and so, this kind of goes against the platform that they are promoting." The $15 million from Wyoming to help the PRCA move here from Colorado would be taken from lodging tax revenues, which are levied on hotel rooms and are earmarked for tourism development. Read the full story HERE. – Delisting grizzlies could be imminent, hunting advocates say, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers regulations for bear hunting. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that they say pushing the deadline for the agency's decision on bears to December could be a step toward delisting. "The US Fish and Wildlife Service was given until January 31st, which was a few days ago, to come up with a decision to either revise or remove its current grizzly bear policy listing them as a threatened species in the lower 48. And they let that deadline pass, asked for and successfully got an extension to December 8th, which is, that's almost a year. And one person I reached out to was Congresswoman Hageman, who has long been pushing for basically to get this out of the realm of the realm of the courts and the agencies and just take it to Congress and just have Congress delist the bears and be done with it. And she says she's continuing to push for that." A federal district court judge granted the agency's request for an extension to Dec. 16th, but that doesn't mean FWS will wait that long to render a decision; Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence attorney for WildEarth Guardians says the decision could come anytime before the December deadline. Read the full story HERE. – Gov. Gordon said that as the University of Wyoming faces a proposed $40 million cut, it should "listen to the people of Wyoming." Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor also fielded questions about dismantling the Wyoming Business Council during a Tuesday forum in Lander. "The one guy who brought the tension was saying he finds the Wyoming Business Council dubious. Wants more transparency there, and Gordon said, 'We tend to work really hard on transparency. Could always do better.' He also said that the legislature, rather than destroying the Wyoming Business Council, should try to reform it." Back in November, Governor Gordon proposed an $11.13 billion two-year statewide budget, which would include state money and federal pass-through dollars.The legislative Joint Appropriations Committee last month denied several of the governor's recommendations in an early draft version of the budget bill.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A 62-year-old Evanston man faces felony charges after posting a video online threatening to shoot and kill his neighbors over a property dispute. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Robert W. Vawdrey, wearing a cowboy hat, leans into the camera and threatens to shoot a neighbor in the head. "The Uinta County Sheriff's Office was notified about this video by the FBI, apparently, according to the affidavit. And so they went out to the house and phoned this guy, and he and he came out and they arrested him. But what we know is that there's been an ongoing property dispute, and he talks about it in his video where apparently the neighbors are claiming some of his property property line, and he's saying that they got an attorney and that they're trying to take his property. And so there's, apparently, according to the court record, some other court cases involved with this property dispute." Vawdrey had his initial appearance in court on Tuesday and faces two counts of intimidating a witness, both felonies, and two counts of violation of a stalking order of protection.  Read the full story HERE. – A BLM law enforcement officer and two members of his family pleaded "not guilty" to murder and manslaughter charges Tuesday in a shared arraignment hearing in Fremont County District Court. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the judge has set a tentative trial date. "The judge said a very tentative trial date of May 4. But it's sounding like these defense attorneys are going to ask for more firm trial settings, individual trials, and really get kind of each their own week, rather than you know this, we're all waiting our turn on this same tentative schedule. Day two of the attorneys at least, were like, 'Let's make sure each guy gets his own week here.' What happens when you have a stacked trial date is there's like eight defendants, nine to ten potentially, who are all waiting their turn to go to trial. And if one of them gets a plea agreement, then the next guy is up, and then if that guy settles, the next guy is up. And so it's very tentative shuffling." BLM officer Richard "Deak" Dollard, Jesse Dollard and Justin Dollard are accused of killing a man in a Lander bar brawl last month. About 20 people attended the hearing, not including attorneys, court security, and press.  Read the full story HERE. – The body of a Cody man was found and recovered Tuesday in Beck Lake.  Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that the 50-year-old Cody man had been missing for more than a week. "David Kelsey was discovered this morning in Beck Lake, which is about two miles from his house outside of Cody. It's believed he left on Friday, January 23 in the evening or early morning, Saturday on foot. How he got there is not known, nor how he died is also not known. The police are not releasing any details, other than to say that it is under investigation. Authorities say there's no indication of foul play." It's believed that Kelsey left his home on Central Avenue in Cody on foot at some point late Friday evening Jan. 23, or early Saturday morning as temperatures plunged below zero.   Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming drivers gawked at a snowmobile strapped to a broken-down Nissan Altima on Highway 26 near Casper over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that one passing motorist posted on social media, calling the jerry-rigged setup "about as backwoods redneck as you can get." "I couldn't find anything to say whether or not it was illegal to transport a snowmobile on the top of a Nissan Ultima, so long as it's safely secured. But  it didn't seem to work out for this particular person from what we're able to put together. It seems like the Nissan broke down somewhere between Casper and Shoshone, which is where many people saw and photographed it, because it's not the sort of thing you see every day, and then the next day, someone else happened to see the same scene, except the Nissan was strapped to a trailer being pulled by a truck, and the snowmobile been tossed into the bed of said truck. Now presumably that was a phone-a-friend situation." The biggest shock to everyone on social media was the Natrona County license plate. People couldn't believe this situation wasn't a tourist. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 3rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – Although robots aren't ready to fix roads now and cut down on the $400 million to $600 million shortfall Wyoming faces in the next two years, they could help in the future. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean spoke to experts who say robotic road repair is on the horizon and could save big money in the long run, but not in the next few years. "The construction guy I talked to said, probably 10 to 15 different machines at half a million dollars. That's a lot of chump change, right there. Hard to see how that would be less expensive, as AI claimed, if each of these units cost that much money, and then, how long do the units last? How often do you need to repair or replace them? So the other one I talked to was a robot expert. She's done a lot of work in autonomous robots, including road repair, and her take on this was a little subtly different. She also doesn't think it's too likely by 2030." Some officials have said the shortfall was caused by a combination of factors, ranging from rising material costs to stagnant revenue, given that the last fuel tax increase was in 2013. Read the full story HERE. – Data collected across Wyoming shows temperatures between 2 and 13 degrees warmer than average in December and January. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that these temps have the making of the warmest start to winter ever. "The data released by the National Weather Service shows that temperatures between December 1 and January 31 were anywhere from two to 13 degrees above average across most of Wyoming, which makes it the warmest winter for a majority of the state. So what does that mean going forward? Well, we have about a third of the winter season left. There are signs that there's a shift on the horizon by long range weather models, but those are the same long range weather models that didn't anticipate that we'd have so many high pressure blocks, one after the other so it's not that Wyoming didn't get the winter that was anticipated. The winter that we were supposed to get is happening. It's just happening in the eastern United States." Lander Lil and Punxsutawney Phil both saw their shadows this Groundhog Day. Meteorologically, that means nothing, but meteorologist Don Day is forecasting colder weather on the way for Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. – 34-year-old Jose Benito Ocon is facing federal first-degree murder charges for shooting a man in the head in a moving car on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports "The affidavit and the eyewitness accounts describe 2 women, 2 men in this car, and there's meth and there's alcohol and there's marijuana use that evening, and Ocon is said to confront his girlfriend who's driving with the words, 'Do you love me?' And then another witness, well, the same witness, describes the victim says, 'Bro, she said she loves you,' and that is allegedly when Ocon shot the victim, who then slumped onto him in the backseat… If convicted, Ocon faces mandatory life in prison." Ocon's girlfriend was able to confiscate the gun after he shot the passenger. Read the full story HERE. – Known for her charity work and devotion to Wyoming's Curt Gowdy State Park, Jerre Gowdy, the wife of the late Hall of Fame sportscaster, died last week at age 101. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that she leaves a legacy of kindness and philanthropy.  "I met Jer, it was 2023. She was 99 years old. She traveled to Wyoming to unveil Little House on the park . So Jer all her philanthropy, lots of medical institutions and lots of different arts and culture, but she always had time to come back to Wyoming, even when she was 99 years old, to do things at Curt Gowdy State Park like open this little house on the park for all the children in Wyoming." Born Geraldine Ophelia Dawkins, Gowdy died on Jan. 27th, surrounded by her family at her home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. She was 101. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak is calling out a social media post and photos incorrectly tagged "terrorism in action" by his department's immigration task force. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the sheriff says the photos were of a stolen car recovery and had nothing to do with ICE. "Kozak said, Look, no, that's not what that's not what was happening. They found a stolen car. The deputies worked overnight to find this lady's car. They found the car, and what they were doing was processing the car at the location where they found it, and that was it had nothing to do, nothing to do with ice. Now, usually law enforcement doesn't respond to social media posts and things like that…but in this case, because of the emotion, over immigration and ICE that's going on nationwide right now, Kozak felt it was best to address it." One current deputy and retired police officer tells Cowboy State Daily that it's dangerous for law enforcement officers to have this animosity against them and it could lead to some confrontations because of online misinformation. Read the full story HERE. – People with firearms suppressors or silencers no longer have to pay a $200 federal tax. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that gun sellers are saying that could be the tipping point that makes the devices the next big thing for hunters. "People have long said that suppressors, they're not a bad guy thing. They help people protect their ears, they reduce the recoil of a rifle for a kid out learning to hunt those sorts of things, and so that those shouldn't be those shouldn't be prohibited under this NFA. Well, they got a bit of a compromise under the one Big, Beautiful Bill. They're all the red tape, and the waiting period and special background check still applies, but it eliminated that 200 there was also a $200 tax stamp you had to get to get one. So that's no longer. The tax went all the way down to zero." Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America, tells Cowboy State Daily that the red tape and waiting period associated with buying suppressors under the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) still apply. Read the full story HERE. – A Utah man driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 died over the weekend after colliding head-on with a semitrailer near Evanston. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that witnesses say a pickup was driving eastbound in the westbound lane.  "There was someone driving eastbound on the westbound lanes of I 80 on Saturday morning, and then a pickup truck. And that pickup truck collided head on with a semi truck. The driver of the pickup truck died at the scene, and the driver of the semi truck was treated for injuries and release beyond that… The video was taken into the aftermath of the accident. It shows the force that went into it, and it's a really tragic thing. The SEP the semi truck, careened off of the road onto the shoulder and collided with a fence, nearly going into a residential compound on that side of the highway, and the pickup truck was beyond total it looked like the wheels were severed at the axle, and it was scrunched like an accordion. So clearly, a lot of force going into this." The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirmed Monday that 40-year old Duane Derrick of Logan, Utah, was driving a Chevy pickup the wrong way on the interstate at about 2 p.m. Saturday. Read the full story HERE. – Bison, elk and other animals die in droves in Yellowstone National Park's remote "animal boneyard." Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the secluded spot is also a dangerous place for animals already weak from the winter. "It kills a lot of animals, elk, and bison and animals like that, it's kind of ironic, because what will happen is you'll get these animals that are so run down after getting through the winter on slim pickings that this, where this bone yard is, is where the grass starts to green. You start getting that lush, thick spring grass. It's one of the first places to get it. So they'll flood in there, and they'll start gorging themselves on that green grass. But sometimes, if they're in such a weakened state, their systems might not be able to handle that. And if an animal isn't doing well already, that'll push them over the edge and they'll die." Only a few know how to get to this elusive boneyard.  Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson tells Cowboy State Daily that he wouldn't get any more specific about the location than saying it's in Yellowstone's "northern range." Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.  

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 2nd.  I'm Mac Watson. – Jake Stoner is planning a funeral for his 11-month-old son on his ranch after the boy was allegedly murdered by his mother two days before Christmas. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that Stoner is also asking Wyoming legislators to loosen strict Amber Alert criteria for faster child rescues. "Jake Stoner's attorney Christopher King started a GoFundMe to help Jake Stoner raise money for these efforts to change the Amber Alert guidelines. And Brayden Harvey, who is a member of the Hot Springs Republican Party, saw that fundraiser, and he was very touched by Jake's story, so he put forth a resolution called the Basil Stoner Resolution to reconsider the threshold for what's required for law enforcement to actually issue an Amber Alert. And it was passed on January 29th by the Hot Springs Republican Party. And since then, he has sent that resolution to other Republican parties throughout the state, as well as the governor, law enforcement, and other entities." Stoner's 11-month-old son, Basil, was allegedly killed by his mother, Madeline Daly, two days before Christmas in New Mexico. Read the full story HERE. – When Goshen County rancher Gary Hubert first saw the condition of 14 starving horses, he went to the sheriff. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Hubert then supplied 25 1,2000-pound bales of hay himself before others stepped up.  "An 83-year-old rancher in Goshen County just drove by the pasture where these horses were being kept, and just saw the condition of them. And so he just saw one particular horse that was in really bad condition, and so he went to the sheriff, was told that they couldn't do anything, that's what he told me. And then he said he just started providing feed for these horses, he took hay down there, and that started this whole ball rolling for all those bales of hay, out of his own pocket, he supplied the food to bring these 14 horses back…He told me that he contacted the owner's family in South Dakota, and had a conversation with them, and had a conversation with the owner of the property, and understood that the owner was not showing up at the property for a long time, and so he just stepped in to try and do what he could to save these horses." Nathan Wallman, the owner of the 14 horses, is headed to trial in March on separate animal abuse charges involving 17 other horses that he kept at a rented Torrington location. Read the full story HERE. – The town of Wamsutter may be the future of energy with a pilot hydrogen production facility. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that this potential energy is where oil and gas waste streams could be transformed into hydrogen fuel. "Produced water comes up with the oil and gas around Wamsutter, and it's a place where they're thinking of applying this technology, and they believe they can take that, that produced water, that has some kinds of that has hydrocarbons in it, and pull hydrogen off of that, and then perhaps hook it into a pipeline system that takes it to the Pacific Northwest, where it is a desired fuel. It could fuel cars. It could fuel your gas stove. Anyway, it's interesting to see this pilot program. They're still looking for funding. The research scientist I spoke to is really excited about it. It's a way of creating a new kind of fuel, and more importantly, for Wyoming, creating a value added export off of waste from an oil and gas field." Since 2022, Gov. Mark Gordon, Williams Companies, and UW's School of Energy Resources have been developing technology that could transform Wamsutter — a small town in Sweetwater County — into a major player in the emerging market for hydrogen fuel. Read the full story HERE. – A Sweetwater County judge sentenced a Haitian trucker Friday to 12-14 years in prison for plowing into an ambulance, killing one EMT, and injuring another. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the deceased EMT's grandfather said he forgave the trucker during the sentencing.  "Saviol Saint Jean has an otherwise really productive history and hard working character, but he did get into a collision three years ago that killed one EMT and severely injured another. And so it's on this backdrop of this reckless moment in his life versus his otherwise inoffensive history that Judge Lavery sentenced him to 12 to 14. That's 12 to 14 on aggravated vehicular homicide, and then nine to 10 on aggravated assault, but those are simultaneous, so it ends up being a total of 12 to 14. And the grandfather, Kirk Clark, the grandfather of the deceased EMT, said, 'I have to forgive him, because I can't hold on to that much anger and bitterness.'" During sentencing, Saint Jean said he's been incarcerated so long that he actually has a daughter that he has not met. And when Judge Lavery handed down his sentence, Saint Jean said, "Your honor" and then trailed off.  The hearing concluded soon after.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – People living in Douglas and Glenrock are reporting that their Amazon packages are going missing. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that packages often land in Gillette, where they are then listed as "undeliverable." "The one gal I talked to said she had ordered, you know, like 10, had 10 different orders, and maybe she received one or two in a crumpled condition, but received nonetheless. She's ordering things like diapers. I mean, you know, in these rural areas, it can be hard to get certain things at cost effective rates, and so it becomes cheaper for them and a little more convenient for them to just order it through Amazon, rather than drive all the way to Casper to get something that's going to be really expensive at a local store. And so, you know, it's become kind of a lifeline for rural areas to make these orders. I think a lot of us are doing this now. You get a subscription. Amazon delivers it." Amazon officials told Cowboy State Daily they are investigating the situation and encouraged customers to call customer service if they are experiencing these difficulties, to better highlight that it's a trend occurring. Read the full story HERE. – Teton County outfitter Jake Hutton feels like he's been "backstabbed" because he can't continue his grazing lease on the Kelly Parcel. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that the superintendent of Grand Teton National Park says Hutton knew all along his operation was destined to sunset. "Hutton says we had always anticipated renewing this lease in perpetuity, and the park officials had told us during the initial meetings, we don't want to see you go out of business. That was what he told me. Now I spoke with Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Grand Teton National Park, and he paints a very different picture. He said, 'Sure, we thanked him for speaking out. We all wanted to preserve this land, but we never indicated that we wanted to see commercial activities like his continuing perpetuity on the Kelly Parcel.' So there's a very different depiction about how the superintendent and Jake Hutton explain the relationship going into it, and what it boils down to now as Jake Hutton is still fighting to stay relevant on the property, is that he is arguing that the park is violated the National Historic Preservation Act, particularly something known as Section 106 which requires a deliberative process for all kinds of stakeholders, for decisions that affect historic uses, which he makes the claim that his outfit and company should fall under."  Hutton was a de-facto mascot in the fight over the 640-acre Kelly Parcel, then called the "crown jewel of state lands," which was the last major state school‑trust inholding within Grand Teton National Park's boundaries. Read the full story HERE. – Touren Pope is a curious 11-year-old boy who was rockhounding in the Greater Green River Basin when he found a remarkable foot-long fossil. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that the young man discovered the fossil on BLM-managed land in the Rock Springs Field Office area. "Touren was poking around southwest Wyoming when he saw a two-inch by two-inch bit of shiny brown, and that was an indication of a fossil. And it definitely stood out amongst the bluish gray beds of the Bridger Formation, which is roughly 48-million-years old. So J.P. Cavigelli, with the Tate Museum in Casper. He went out there and his team recovered it. It's a foot long. It's a 48-million-year-old soft shell turtle, give or take, a few million years. And it's not that they're necessarily uncommon in that particular formation, but this one was exceptionally well preserved, and they got the whole of the shell. So it's not it's or at least half of the whole of the shell. So it's remarkably intact and remarkably well preserved. And because it was found on Bureau of Land Management lands in southwest Wyoming, it is going to be available to the public in perpetuity." Touren got the opportunity to work alongside collection specialists to collect the fossil, which was taken to the Tate Geological Museum in Casper.  Read the full story HERE. – 13-year-old Cannon Reimann of South Dakota, shattered the National Western Junior Livestock Show record, selling her steer Boots for $320,000. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that through a lot of hard work, she beat her brother's 2024 record.  "She learned from her family how to show cattle, because her whole family is into it, including her mom and her brother, her father, unfortunately died in a plane crash when she was just two, back in 2014. She beat her brother's record. She beat her brother's 2025 record. His record was a $210,000 steer. Her steer went for $320,000 for the 2026 auction. That was the highest prize at the National Western Junior livestock auction." Cannon tells Cowboy State Daily that