Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, October 22nd.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." – The Wyoming Capitol building was evacuated and locked down on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports what authorities found. “Authorities from Wyoming Highway Patrol told Cowboy State daily that they encountered what they suspected of being an IED or an improvised explosive device. Now, out of precaution, they evacuated the Capitol and they placed the surrounding Herschler buildings on a Shelter-In-Place warning. Now currently where I am, the front of the Capitol here is roped off, and it looks as though there are some crews examining the front steps of the cap.” In addition to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, agencies responding included the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, Laramie County Sheriff’s Office and a joint bomb squad operated by the LCSO and Cheyenne Police Department. The investigation is on-going. Read the full story HERE. – A hunter shot and killed a grizzly in self-defense in the Island Park, Idaho, area, south of Yellowstone National Park early Saturday. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports this isn’t an isolated incident. “This is the third year in a row that's happened in this area. The other now, this attack, you know, was Saturday, you know, middle of October. The other two in 2024 and in 2023 both times on September 1. Bears, same thing. Grizzly charged hunters and was shot and killed…I talked to a grizzly bear conflict specialist…she said…this sort of thing happens during hunting season.” The hunter was cleared of any wrongdoing by the agency. Wyoming Game and Fish tells Cowboy State Daily that hunters should always be “bear aware” when hunting.  Always carry and know how to deploy bear spray or have a firearm in case of an attack. Read the full story HERE. –  After the Weston County clerk failed to show for a Wyoming legislative committee’s subpoena, the panel chair on Tuesday said he would seek a court order compelling her to testify at a later meeting. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock did not appear for the Sept. 29 meeting — even though she was subpoenaed — of a legislative subcommittee tasked with investigating her office’s mishandling of two races in the 2024 general election. “So back in July, the management audit committee subpoenaed Becky had locked saying they wanted to hear testimony from her about the botched 2024 election in Weston County, and in September, for the subcommittee's actual meeting where she was supposed to show she didn't so she could potentially face criminal penalties. That's still pending. But then the management audit committee met again Tuesday, and they were like, Okay, so next step is, we're gonna call for a court order to compel her appearance.” If the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office prosecutes Hadlock and she’s convicted, she could face up to six months in jail and $100 in fines. Read the full story HERE. – A Cody man accused of stalking his ex-wife and hoarding homemade explosives has pleaded guilty to two federal firearm charges in a plea deal. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports Randall Bailey faces sentencing in January on weapons charges. “ In 2024 he violated a protective order, he went to his wife's vehicle and took some items out, and when the police searched his house, they recovered a cache of 30 weapons, two pipe bombs and some other items, like a silencer was on a handgun. So he was first charged locally with some charges, but then the Fed stepped in and charged him with a bunch of weapons violations, and last week…they had to call the bomb squad out to take the two pipe bombs away.” State charges are on hold as Bailey was indicted by a federal grand jury in July. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6, 2026, in Casper. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this – Over 800 full-time Wyoming National Guard employees are working for free under the federal government shutdown. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that they are entitled to back pay, but nobody knows when that will be. “The adjutant general testified on Monday like there's no end in sight. We don't know, and he also testified that this is in addition to other funding woes, such as the continuing resolution cut back on army funds, prompting a hiring freeze. And also, if the military budget bill passes in accordance with Trump's budget, they'll actually continue to see they'll be nine more positions short, in addition to the 66 there they've already frozen out.” Maj. Gen. Gregory Porter, Wyoming National Guard adjutant general told the legislative Transportation, Highways, and Military Affairs Committee during its meeting in Cheyenne,  that he had excepted all those employees from being furloughed, keeping them at work because all the duties they perform are deemed “essential.” Read the full story HERE. –  Rural Cheyenne residents say they’re fed up with drivers taking out their mailboxes. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that taking out a mailbox can have serious consequences for the drivers who leave the scene. “That's actually, that's on the books, is a crime…you're leaving the scene of an accident and you're leaving the homeowner with a problem because they're gonna have to replace their mailbox. Probably costs 100 bucks a pop. Residents tell Cowboy State Daily that it’s not just a prank, but people who aren’t navigating the stretch of road correctly in that area and slam into the boxes. In fact, one resident says even a mail truck has taken out her mailbox.  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, October 21th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." – The corner-crossing war is over. The ability to ladder-vault a corner of private property to access landlocked public lands is now the rule across the American West. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the decision came early on Monday morning from Washington DC. “At 7:30 our time, without a word, the US Supreme Court denied cert…to Fred Eshleman’s Iron Bar Holdings in the corner-crossing lawsuit, meaning the four hunters who crossed his property to access landlocked…public land, won basically. You cannot bar access to public land with your private land corner. Crossing is legal.” The win is bittersweet for the hunters’ attorney, Ryan Semerad of Casper-based firm Fuller and Semerad. He believes they would have prevailed in Washington, D.C., had the high court chosen to hear the case. Read the full story HERE. – A fuel-tax hike has been shot down in Wyoming, despite the fact that WYDOT is facing a 400-million-dollar-deficit.  Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports why, despite being in the negative, lawmakers didn’t pass the tax to fund the department of transportation. “This tax was intended to fill in some of that deficit. Now, lawmakers debated back and forth about the merits of this, whether or not it would be the right thing to do for the people of Wyoming, and many comparisons were drawn to Colorado, a place that has a very high tax rate for a lot of different things. And at the end of the day, lawmakers decided this is not something that's right for Wyoming, and they shot it down, which means that this bill is not going to move forward in the coming legislative session, and it is not going to be considered for something that is going to go into law.” The bill would have increased Wyoming’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel from 24 cents to 29 cents beginning in July 2026. Read the full story HERE. –  A Wyoming legislative committee meeting in Cheyenne has adopted a draft bill to let all state law enforcement officers ticket commercial truckers caught driving without being proficient in the English language. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports this bill mirrors a federal test that was resurrected by the Trump Administration. “Obama actually kind of castrated that rule and the Trump administration revived it in June…the basic parameters are the basic parameters set in federal rule that Wyoming seeks to match. Are you able to read the signs, respond to official inquiries, fill out your log books and converse with the general public. Those are the four parameters that the federal rule uses that the Wyoming bill seeks to incorporate.” The Transportation, Highways, and Military Affairs Committee voted 11 to 1 to sponsor the bill giving the legislation an edge going into the 2026 budget session, which opens February 9th.  Read the full story HERE. – As of October first, Wyoming started taxing electric vehicle drivers who plug into charging stations. But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that now a pro-EV group wants the new fee paused, saying it unfairly over-taxes EV drivers.  “When that fee was instituted, that was a way of making up for what EV drivers weren't paying at the pump because they're not pumping gasoline into their cars. And so along comes this other tax. And so they're saying, hey, look, we're getting double taxed…so EV advocates in Wyoming are asking for a pause. Hey, can we, can we just put a pause on this program and talk it out? We want to pay our fair share. But we don't think that that, that the current program is doing that.” WYDOT says it's enforcing an existing law after broader EV reforms failed.  Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this – A 10-thousand-dollar-reward is being offered after a shocking case of looting and vandalism was discovered at an archaeological dig site in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that details from authorities are scarce, but there’s a reason for that. “The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is reaching out to people trying to get information, but they're keeping the details at a lull because they don't want copycats or anyone being inspired to head out to the area. We know it's an archeological site around Dubois, and there are several archeological sites of great interest in that area, and they insinuated that there was some vandalism done, that there was permanent damage done, and that artifacts may have been stolen. So it's a pretty serious thing, and with a $10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction, you know that they're taking this seriously and they want results.” Bonnie Smith, president of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists, tells Cowboy State Daily that the laws about the protection of archaeological sites, and punishments for looting and vandalism, "don't have teeth." That reduces the perceived risk and punishment for people prosecuted for these crimes.  Read the full story HERE. –  You’ve probably heard that everything that happens in a Western, happened first in Wyoming. Well, a historian says she’s traced Wyatt Earp’s first gunfight to, you guessed it, right here in the Cowboy State. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean says a personal diary unlocked this mystery. “Wyatt Earp’s first gunfight has been traced to Oren, Wyoming. Up until now, it was thought that his first gunfight was in like Illinois. But no, he was 16 years old. He was a guard for a wagon train that was headed to San Bernardino, California during 1864. This is when the North Platte River raids were going on. Their wagon train was attacked by Indians, guns on both sides, bullets flying everywhere…This was uncovered by a historian with Wyoming ties. She doesn't live here, but her name's Janelle Maloney, and she is a descendant of wagon train families that came through here... She possesses the diary of Sarah Jane Russo…She kept a diary, so we have this extensive entries about her whole trip West, she's meeting Brigham Young, Wyatt Earp is her wagon guard. Maloney tells Cowboy State Daily that this confirmed history could reshape Earp's early legend and add a new chapter to Wyoming’s Wild West legacy. 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, October 20th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  A Naturalist has made an incredible discovery about birds in Yellowstone National Park.  Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Naturalist George Bumann and his wife cracked the code, learning the language that ravens use for everything from predator warnings, to where they can find something to eat. “When folks would pull into the parking lot there in Lamar Valley, they had a specific call that basically said, We're going to eat anything that falls out of your picnic basket. This is our territory…he figured out that if he heard a certain call, he knew that that Raven was telling other ravens in the world that a type of Eagle was flying their way…So the Ravens give away the Eagles…Fascinating insights into our relationship and how sound really governs activity out in the natural world, where a raven can call and not only alert other ravens, but alert all kinds of other species that an eagle's in the area.” Bumann says this type of “language” isn’t just confined to ravens, other animals communicate with calls and sounds as well. Read the full story HERE. – In her 2016 memoir “North of Crazy,” Neltje Doubleday Kings chronicles her decision to leave a life of privileged aristocracy for a more authentic life in Wyoming.  Cowboy State Daily’s Wendy Corr reports from the road that Neltje gifted her ranch on Lower Piney Creek near Banner, Wyoming, to the University of Wyoming and her legacy is benefiting many. “Now, students, professors, anybody with the association with University of Wyoming has this space to be creative. There's so many different creative opportunities that can be had there at the Nell cheese center. And that's why the collegiate chorale and the orchestra and the jazz band were able to go there in mid September and make this amazing, amazing performance, this beautiful tribute to music there are the great outdoors in the at the at the foot of the Big Horns.” Along the way, the publishing heiress recreated herself as a painter, rancher, businesswoman, and mother while creating a platform for other artists to find their voices.  Read the full story HERE. – A Powell photographer has gotten photos of a piebald cow elk in a herd southwest of Cody.  Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi tells that Michael Moore got the perfect shot of this rare condition. “Pie baldism is a result of a recessive gene that has to be in both parents in animals, and when both parents have that gene, and not every time they produce an offspring, but if they both have the recessive gene, their offspring will be off color, for lack of a better way to put it. In this case, elk usually have brown hair and skin, and there have been several elk spotted. They're elk. There are a lot of elk that have been spotted that are piebald, which means that they have blotches of white on their skin and in their hair. But in this case, the elk that was spotted along the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody was almost entirely white. So that's a really rare instance where both of the parents had this recessive gene that when they got together and produced an offspring, it produced this piebald elk, which is just Mitch mashed in color. It happens one in every 100,000 according to Colorado State Parks.” Moore captured this rare elk on the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody. You can see the picture and the full story at cowboy state daily dot com. Read the full story HERE. – How many times have we heard the story in Wyoming of a generational legacy property that’s on the auction block. Probably bought up by a billionaire from out of state.  Well, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this story is the exact opposite. “Kanye West had listed the Big Horn ranch as well as the Monster Ranch, which is still for sale, and a Wyoming family is buying it back. It's going back into the hands of the Flitner family…They are just basically putting back together their agricultural operation. Their beloved Baldridge cabin is now back that was historically the cow camp for 114 years for this family which homesteaded back in the early 1900s so it's all put back together again.  The controversial rapper purchased the nearly 7,000-acre ranch from Flitners in 2019, just a few months after he purchased the 39-hundred-acre Monster Lake Ranch. Read the full story HERE. –  I’ll be back with more news, right after this   The Sheridan Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that the remains of Kyle Ellis, then 29 when he was reported missing, have been positively identified.  Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Kyle had caught a ride from a resort in the Big Horn Mountains and was last spotted at a gas station in Greybull. “And that was the last time anybody had seen him. And his family was curious, because they knew people in Graybull, it's a small town. They thought somebody might have seen him, but nobody did. His remains were found about 60 miles away in rural Park County. And…it appears he was camping out and he succumbed to the elements. The temperature that night, or during the period when he left, was between zero and 20 degrees.” Kyle went missing in 2018 and the Sheriff’s office says no foul play is suspected.  Read the full story HERE. –  The Tom Miner Basin, on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, isn't just beautiful, it's also home to a concentrated grizzly bear community. So how does a successful beef ranch co-exist with one of the densest populations of grizzlies in the U.S? Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports it’s a balance. “The B Bar organic beef operation has had to find a way to work in harmony. And they basically have a live and let live. You know, make smart adjustments. Don't put cattle in places where, you know there's going to be immediate conflict, but conflict between conflict with predators is really down the list, according to the staffer I spoke with…It's an incredibly lush high basin, and so it stays green well into autumn, and it's just has a lot to eat for a foraging grizzly.” Every October, bear lovers flock to B Bar Ranch to catch a glimpse of the many grizzlies feasting on caraway root. Read the full story HERE. – Cheyenne resident Gilbert Lucas spent some time in prison for robbery.  But as Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports, prison didn’t define him, it changed his life for the better.  “Lucas was in prison for robbing a cash register at the place that he worked, and throughout that process of being incarcerated, he kind of learned to see the world in a different way and do what he called leading with love instead of with fear. Now, once he got out of prison. This led him into the hair industry,...Now Lucas went on to open his own barber shop here in Cheyenne, where he started cutting hair under a subscription model, which allowed him to free up some of his time throughout the day to spend on some other philanthropic activities and helping out with community charity and other efforts like that.” Lucas tells Cowboy State Daily that even though he’s become a nationally-recognized barber, and even having his name inscribed on statues in Cheyenne, prison taught him how to lead with love and look for the beauty in life.  Read the full story HERE. –  Each day in the month of October, Cowboy State Daily runs a ghost story. This time, Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy has three spooky tales that all have one thing in common…besides being scary! “We're looking at three different stories where trees were the center of the haunting and each one of violent murder happened beneath the trees, and the echo still remains. Our first story, it was all about the Coon dogs who were frightened of this tree and refused to hunt any longer. The hunters turned tail as well. The second story, we have an apple where the blood, they say, was from skin to core, mysteriously under the same tree where a peddler had been found with his throat gashed. And our third and final story, it is one that many are familiar with. Cattle Kate, she was hanged in a lumber pine, and this lumber pine, according to local author Sam Lightner, causes your technology to act up. It's eerie. It's strange. But these are all accounts that are recorded in our Wyoming newspapers. Lightner says he experienced technical difficulties with his drone and other mishaps that he could not explain. Attempting to film a documentary, he said it became quickly apparent that her ghost did not want that video created. 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, October 17th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  Authorities are saying they’re one step closer to identifying the human remains discovered Oct. 10 near a national park site in rural western Nebraska as those of missing Moorcroft man Chance Englebert. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports Englebert’s family was able to identify several unnamed items found near the remains as belonging to him. “The Scotts Bluff county attorney's office put out a statement today saying that they can't positively identify that it is Chance Engelbert, however, there were items found near his body that the family have identified as his. The next step is…the remains will be sent to the Douglas County Coroner's Office in Omaha, and with the help of forensic scientists and forensic pathologists, they will then do the next steps in determining whether or not it is actually Chance Engelbert, and that will be done through DNA and dental records. And they'll also be determining the cause of death, whether or not it was accidental, or if there was foul play.  According to a release, the Douglas County Coroner’s Office in Omaha is assisting Gering Police in Nebraska with the forensic examination of the remains, including a forensic pathologist and scientists from the University of Nebraska. Read the full story HERE. – U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman on Wednesday announced she's urging the federal government to delist transgender treatments from Affordable Care Act coverage. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Representative Hageman joined 35 of her GOP colleagues in Congress in signing the letter that was sent to the head of the IRS.  “There they made some very strongly worded statements in their push to the Treasury Secretary, saying things like, we're seeing this rise in mental illness. There's been recent mass shootings by transgender people. Charlie Kirk's alleged killer was associated with a trans person, and so they were pointing to what they're calling a mental health crisis.” Sarah Burlingame, the leader of Wyoming’s top LGBTQ advocacy group, told Cowboy State Daily that the letter weaponizes mass shootings and Kirk’s killing for political ends, and thrusts divisive language onto Wyomingites as a whole. Read the full story HERE. – A recent ruling that says Wyoming’s Rocky Mountain Power customers owe the utility $23.5 million didn’t sit well with both the Wyoming Industrial Electric Consumers and the Wyoming Public Service Commission.  Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports both entities are appealing the ruling but there will be strict parameters. “​​It's just another chance for a bite at the apple to finally get these arguments unpacked and argued in court, but they're going to be restricted to only the arguments that were on the table at the time the case was decided. They're not going to be able to introduce any new evidence here. The court's going to look at it and decide whether there were any mistakes made on the part of the judge, or if, for some reason, new information, you know, does affect the case, the likely outcome there is a case goes back to the court for new consideration.” As far as the more than 23 million dollars owed to Rocky Mountain Power, no party will say how and when that amount would be paid to the utility. Read the full story HERE. – Green River leaders are “ecstatic” that the westbound interstate tunnel that was closed by a deadly 26-vehicle pileup in February is scheduled to reopen by late November. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the town is ready for the tunnel to re-open so the town can get their main street back. “For a few days after the devastating collision in the tunnel, Valentine's Day, they had traffic going through Green River while they set up the eastbound tunnel for two-way traffic. And that's tough on the town, and they're going to have that happen again for a week, probably in November, when the westbound tunnel reopens to westbound traffic, they're going to have Eastbound traffic going through the town while they pull that two way division out of the eastbound tunnel. But they're ready for it, and they're still, even though it's going to be rough for patch there, they're ecstatic to have their tunnels back. Three people died in the fiery Feb. 14 crash that prompted a $16 million rebuild. Read the full story HERE. –  I’ll be back with more news, right after this – A new home in Casper is ready for an iconic, 21-foot Tumble Inn Cowboy statue that stood for years in Powder River.  But Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports, the debut will be a bit delayed. “I talked to both the person that's doing the restoring of the neon lights and the man that's basically in charge of all the restoration, and they just said, Life has happened to them and they haven't been able to complete the project. But it looks like for sure, it will be done next year, and possibly by Memorial Day.” The one-of-a-kind neon statue will reside in downtown Casper outside the Yellowstone Garage and Bull Horn Brewery at the corner of West Yellowstone Highway and South Elm Street. Read the full story HERE. –  Orion Schlesinger pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to ambush and kill his video gaming friend Dakota Farley the night of Feb. 1-2 in Big Piney. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Schlessinger’s partner in the crime, Rowan Littauer, who's accused of firing the fatal shot with a bow, is still on track for trial. “When Ryan Schlesinger pleaded guilty in court, the prosecutor furnished, what they call the factual basis. It's kind of like a confession, but in this case, it was just a list of things that underpin the charges to which he pled, to which Schlesinger pled guilty, and among those was something new that wasn't in the evidentiary affidavit, he said that after the killing, Schlesinger and his co defendant, Rowan Littauer, were in a selfie that lit Our shot in which Schlesinger bore a toothy grin.” Court documents say that Schlesinger and Littauer walked more than a mile in the frigid night in February of this year to Farley’s Big Piney home — and that Littauer shot Farley twice with a compound bow and arrow, killing him. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon slammed federal energy permitting delays, which he calls “ridiculous” on Thursday at a Montana governors’ summit. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the conference was attended by many like-minded politicians who want to ramp up energy production sooner rather than later.   “Governor Gordon was on stage with Governor Gianforte from Montana, two other governors, and they all had some strong opinions about federal regulation, about federal regulation when it comes to developing energy resources in their states and territories. Governor Gordon was narrowing in on more coal and urging coal companies to bid more in these leases that are coming available.” Governor Gordon also said that it's time to innovate, not regulate, energy. Read the full story HERE. –  A PIT Maneuver is a word associated with law enforcement to stop a moving vehicle or end a chase. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports, the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office is using decommissioned vans to teach their deputies how to stop someone who is trying to elude the law.  “PIT is an acronym for a precision immobilization technique. It's also known as tactical vehicle intervention. The Carbon County Sheriff's Office just acquired a fleet of new police pursuit vehicles that are specially designed for this technique, so they're able to do pit maneuvers without damaging the vehicle, at least extensively damaging the vehicle that does the maneuver, and that's what's needed if you're going to pull this off.” Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken tells Cowboy State Daily that vehicle pursuits are “a reality” in Carbon County, with I-80 and Highways 130, 287, and 789 criss-crossing the county, perps are going to attempt to dodge law enforcement by putting the pedal to the metal. 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, October 16th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  The recent discovery of a human skull in a cave in Carbon County has reopened a mystery for a woman who wonders if the find could be linked to her aunt, who has been missing for 107 years. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports a family member contacted Cowboy State Daily and related her story. “So after that story published…we got an email from a woman who wondered if it might be her long lost aunt who disappeared or hasn't been seen since like 1918…she was a 16 year old girl, lived on a ranch near Gillette and eloped. Lied about her age to get married to, since she was 18, to get married to a guy who was a who was a sheep rancher, and they went to Utah and got married…allegedly, she decided she didn't want to be married, and she just either went somewhere else or came back. Sherri Boatman of Mills, also tells Cowboy State Daily that in her research she discovered that in the 1920 census, the former husband of her aunt listed himself as a widow. The Carbon County Coroner’s Office plans to consult with anthropological experts to find out more information. Read the full story HERE. – The case of a Uinta County man accused of using an artificial intelligence application to remake a photo of a teenage girl he knows into child pornography resurrects some lawmakers’ concerns about AI deception. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the issue isn’t so cut and dry. “So lot of moving pieces here, because in 2002 you had the US Supreme Court say, look, virtual child pornography is is protected under the First Amendment. And then you have the explosion of AI and deep fakes and really realistic. We're not talking about cartoons anymore, and we're sometimes talking about the faces of real people depicted in child pornography. Well, that's what's alleged to have happened in you in a county where you have a man who had a mostly benign photo of a teenage girl, and he is accused of using generative technology to turn it into child pornography. Now he's facing multiple felonies, but lawmakers in the meantime are like, you know, we've rejected efforts to legislate in this space in the past, maybe we should have a look at it again.” The case of Matthew John McDowell, who turns 47 this year, rose Tuesday to the felony-level Uinta County District Court. McDowell faces four counts of child pornography possession and each punishable by between seven and 12 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. Read the full story HERE. – A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office detective report exposes graphic details about the “abhorrent” conditions more 100 hoarded animals were kept in, according to court documents filed in Cheyenne Circuit Court.  Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports the animal’s owner, Michael Ohern, who is accused of hoarding over 100 animals kept them in deplorable conditions at his Cheyenne-area home.  “Officers were saying things such as, there were feces all over the house. There were dead animals littering the place. It was covered with mice and insects, and that when they went into this residence, they had to cover themselves in protective equipment, wearing body suits and respirators in order to keep themselves safe… there were 22 dead animals found on the property, one of which was an unknown animal that actually turned out to be the carcasses of four house cats that had fused together.” The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office recommended 22 counts of felony aggravated cruelty to animals against him for each of the 22 animals the agency said it found dead inside the house.  Ohern made a virtual appearance in Cheyenne Circuit Court on Wednesday, during which the judge set his bond at $100,000.  Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill Tuesday to end the prosecution of diesel “delete” mechanics, free them from prison, and delete all related penalties from their records.  Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Senator Lummis has already asked for a presidential pardon for Cheyenne Diesel "delete" mechanic Troy Lake.  “She wrote a letter to the president a few weeks ago saying, ‘This man has been rescuing vehicles that have to conquer the Wyoming winter, and he was sent to prison for several months.’ So she did that, and so now we're just, you know, I think she's waiting on word from the president, but then, in the meantime, she went ahead and raised the issue again with some legislation that dropped Tuesday that is ‘ambitious,’ as one delete lawyer put it. It would basically try to nullify whole portions of the Clean Air Act, free every delete mechanic from jail or prison and expunge their records, including civil cases. If her bill does become law, the “Diesel Truck Liberation Act” would signify a victory for diesel truck drivers and other diesel fleet holders — such as fire trucks, ambulances, and school buses — who have removed or tampered with the mandatory emissions systems on those vehicles. Read the full story HERE. –  I’ll be back with more news, right after this.   Gov. Mark Gordon has announced the Cowboy State Agricultural Initiative is appointing a 13-member working group "committed to preserving Wyoming's agricultural heritage for current and future generations." Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that sheep farming, in particular, could benefit from this initiative.  “It's a huge industry producing wool and lamb in Wyoming, and it's getting harder and harder to do that. I spoke to members of the working group that are part of that initiative, several of them have some connection to the sheep industry. And so through the sheep industry, we, you know, we really discussed all the different challenges out there, passing a ranch or farm on to the next generation can be difficult these days because margins are tight, and the next generation coming up might know how to run the baler and manage a line of fence and move some cows, but maybe they don't understand how To finance, how to ensure, how to really do the kind of the legalese and financial paperwork that is required to run an operation.” The group includes executive branch advisors, state legislators, a county commissioner, agricultural association representatives, University of Wyoming officials and business leaders. Read the full story HERE. – The fallout from Radiant Nuclear pullout from Wyoming to build in Tennessee continues.  But as Jackson Walker reports, Representative Bill Allemand says his fiery opposition to accepting nuclear waste storage in Wyoming has tarnished some political relationships.  “In September, State Representative Bill Alleman came in and testified at a meeting of the Bar Nunn town council, which is sort of out of character for state representatives to do in these situations, because these are local issues that aren't necessarily a part of their jurisdiction…Mayor Peter Boyer told me that this interaction rubbed him the wrong way, and that he's still pretty upset with allemand, even though the fate of the nuclear project has already been decided.” The Mayor of Bar Nunn tells Cowboy State Daily that he doesn’t want to work with Bill Allemand anymore, unless he absolutely has to. Read the full story HERE. –  Wyoming Outdoorsmen are warning about the dangers of hunting as the accidental shooting deaths of two Idaho hunters in the past week highlights the dangers of unsafe hunting. 21-year-old Kaylanee Orr, of Blackfoot, Idaho, died Friday from a gunshot wound to the chest while on a hunting trip in a remote area of Fremont County, Idaho. Then on Sunday morning, California resident Nathan Thomas Kaas, 48, died from blood loss after suffering a gunshot wound to the leg in rural Clark County, Idaho. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz, who is currently away from his laptop out hunting, says as some hunting areas across Wyoming become more crowded every season, the potential for accidental injuries or deaths from other hunters increases. Read the full story HERE. –  When the University of Wyoming football team takes the field Oct. 25 for the 117th Border War against Colorado State University, there’ll be a noticeable color contrast. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the usual color scheme of brown and gold will be replaced to reflect an important Wyoming industry. “So in the spirit of Wyoming's coal industry, the University of Wyoming Athletics Department partnered with the Wyoming mining association to design a to design a black and white uniform that's going to be debuted during the border war on October 25 and it's a pretty stark contrast from what most people expect to see the UW cowboys wearing, but it's to honor the coal miners and the families who have supported that industry, which has supported Wyoming basically since its inception. So it's going to be a pretty jarring contrast, but to quote Cowboy State Daily columnist Sally Ann Schumer, anything that helps us beat the sheep, is fine with UW.” The alternative uniform is part of a one-game-only partnership between the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Mining Association. And Go Pokes! 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, October 15th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." – When two Natrona County School District 1 trustees showed up for a Friday meeting over a controversy that's sprung up around new Turning Point USA chapters in the district, they were told to leave. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports Superintendent Angela Hensley made it clear that the school board members weren't welcome. “They had been invited by Kylie Walsh, who's been at the center of a controversy, and the leader of the Natrona County High School Turning Point USA America…they just wanted them to be witnesses and observers. When they got there, they told me that the superintendent directed them away from the meeting, said that they were not board trustees in that sense at that meeting, and basically asked them to leave.” The parents of Natrona County High School TPUSA student leader Kylie Wall invited the trustees to the meeting and told Cowboy State Daily they left feeling as if their concerns had not been resolved. The school district issued a “statement of clarity” about TPUSA chapters, stating that they wanted to "provide stakeholders with an understanding of processes while encouraging continued support.”  Read the full story HERE. –  Speaking of Natrona County high school, The Natrona County school district meeting room was packed on Monday night with many people having an opinion on the district’s controversy involving Turning Point USA Club America chapters. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that more than 20 people spoke and had three minutes to express their opinions. And opinions varied.  “One of the themes of the night was support for the high school principal, that he does a good job and that he didn't deserve criticism. Another theme of the night was that from some of the students…at least three of them were against the formation of a TP USA club. They used words like homophobic…And then there was members from the TP USA Wyoming, the president of the TP USA Wyoming University of Wyoming chapters came and spoke and just talked about the need for students to be able to dialogue on …hard subjects.” The district school board meeting concluded with the decision that the TP USA club can continue in Natrona County High School as long as it follows school policy. Read the full story HERE. – Lawmakers are starting to point fingers after Radiant Nuclear dumped Wyoming for Tennessee. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports some legislators say the state made a catastrophic mistake in not embracing the industry. “You have folks like Senator, yeah, folks like Senator Ed Cooper, who spent a lot of time getting to know this industry and promoting it and being very bullish about what it means for Wyoming's economy…Governor Gordon chimed in and really branded those that vocally opposed radiant as ‘Club No” that they were more interested in turning something away than developing something. And so, yeah, the feelings were raw and fresh.” Matt Wilson, a representative of Radiant Nuclear, appeared on Cowboy State Daily’s radio show and told host Jake Nichols, “Look, you can't have it both ways. You can't be pro-nuclear without being open to being a nuclear waste site to some degree.” Read the full story HERE. – On Monday, the Wyoming Joint Judiciary Committee advanced a bill seeking to criminalize "grooming," or pushing children toward sexual acts. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that as drafted, it would penalize grooming offenses with harsher penalties than statutory rape itself. “This bill has been lopsided, and it remains lopsided going into the 2026 session, where you, in some cases, can face life in prison for grooming a child, which is less than in many cases you can face for, well, I believe in all cases you can face for statutory rape of that same child…and some people acknowledge it, like Representative Ken Chestek was like, ‘Yeah, we got to fix that.’ He voted for it, along with everyone else. But it can still be amended during the session if it's introduced.” The 13 members of the legislative Joint Judiciary Committee who attended all voted in favor of sending the bill into the 2026 lawmaking session, which opens on February 9th. Read the full story HERE. –  I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –   We’re learning more about the Laramie County man accused of hoarding more than 100 animals. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that Michael Ohearn was investigated — but not convicted — for similar allegations dating back to 2022.  “O'Hearn had similar citations for similar issues stemming all the way back to 2022. Now, while a lot of these cases touched on similar issues of mistreatment of animals, most, if not all of these cases were actually dismissed by prosecutors.” The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office reports that they found over 100 animals alive and 22 dead at Ohearn’s residence.  Shelter staffers are still scrambling to feed, clean and care for the massive influx of rescued animals. Read the full story HERE. – A group of Wyoming ranchers is building a massive carbon storage project on their land. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the project aims to store carbon dioxide underground, creating new income and supporting the local economy. “Even though the Trump administration kind of hates carbon capture…it's a strong market, because it's useful for enhanced oil recovery…what they do is they take the carbon dioxide, they inject it into the well, and then it helps boost production at the end of the well's life, kind of extending that out in a very economic way…I think of it as like a garage where you would park your carbon dioxide right? It's a big garage, 102,000 acres worth of land here, with 20 ranchers banding together to create this project.” The process is called enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, and the technique of injecting carbon dioxide into wells that have the right chemistry can help squeeze more oil and gas out of them, boosting overall economic output.  Read the full story HERE. –  A Gillette woman remains on life support after being shot in the head last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that police are saying Javier Abeyta allegedly admitted to a witness that he shot Marissa Allen. “Gillette Police went to a home on O Henry Drive and responded to the residents. They opened up the garage, and then they found the victim…and shortly after that, a man… who's the alleged shooter…He dropped the handgun that he was carrying that he used as the murder weapon, allegedly, according to court documents.” Abeyta was arrested and has been charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault and battery. He remains in the Campbell County Detention Center.  Allen is currently in a Colorado hospital, reportedly brain dead. Read the full story HERE. –  The sister of a man who was killed after fatally shooting a Sheridan police officer last year has dropped her lawsuit against law enforcement. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Genevieve Lowery’s lawsuit was never about money, but about unearthing answers about her brother’s death. “That lawsuit complaint voiced all these concerns that she couldn't get documents, she couldn't get reports regarding what happened to her brother, what happened during that standoff…They had gotten the DCI report, and they were told that there wasn't body camera footage of the actual shooting in which her brother died, and so she basically said, like, this could happen to anyone, and I really wanted this documentation, and now that I've gotten it, I'm dropping my lawsuit.” Lowery went on to tell Cowboy State Daily that the information didn’t answer all of her questions. It also brought a tremendous amount of sadness. 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, October 14th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." – Radiant Nuclear announced Monday afternoon that it will build its first nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, abandoning plans for a controversial project near Bar Nunn, after months of heated debate over spent nuclear fuel storage. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the decision comes after Radiant repeatedly warned Wyoming officials that regulatory uncertainty could drive the company elsewhere.   “It's really shown a division between Republican legislators in Wyoming, Senator Ed Cooper was really… explicit about his criticisms toward the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, saying they're really going to have to answer…for erasing many years of economic development work. The Freedom Caucus responded and said, Hey, look, we're not against the industry. We're against waste.” Radiant says they will build their new factory on portions of the historic K-27 and K-29 Manhattan Project sites, with construction beginning in early 2026. Read the full story HERE. –  A Crook County man was shot in the neck while working cattle near Sundance. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Chase White was working on The Snooks Ranch, separating calves from their mothers alongside two other cowboys on the morning of October 4th, when he felt a sharp pain. “He felt something, and it made him faint, and he sat down, and then he passed out. And he called two other cowboys that were with him, and they called 911…it wasn't until the doctors, the personnel at the hospital in Sundance, did an x ray that they were like, ‘Have you ever been shot before?’because there was a bullet lodged in his chest. It had gone down through his neck, through both lungs, and came to rest near a rib.” Authorities have no idea where the bullet came from as the investigation continues. Chase was hospitalized for a full week in South Dakota and even though doctors won’t remove the bullet from his ribs, he’s expected to make a full recovery. Read the full story HERE. – The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on Monday announced it has arrested a man on claims he hoarded more than 100 animals kept in despicable conditions. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports all the animals have been taken to the Cheyenne Animal Shelter. “Now, over 102 animals entered the animal shelter last Friday from this scenario, and this is really stretching the workforce at the animal shelter thin. There are dogs, there's cats, there's birds, there's tortoises, there's bunnies, all kinds of exotic animals, even a goat…I spoke to one worker today who said that they were at the shelter past midnight on that Friday night when all of these animals arrived. So the shelter workers are putting in a lot of hard work trying to keep all these animals safe and happy and cared for.” Authorities say they executed a search warrant at a home in Laramie County and discovered over 100 animals being kept there, including 22 dead animals. The sheriff’s office is recommending multiple counts of felony aggravated cruelty to animals against Michael Ohern.  Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming’s data center boom has sparked optimism about bringing jobs and money to the state’s coffers, but there are concerns about rising power bills for customers. Over the weekend, former state senator Anthony Bouchard channeled a lot of those fears and frustrations in one long Facebook post that attracted hundreds of comments. But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports not everyone is worried. “A lot of these data centers are bringing their own power. They're going to build out natural gas, for example, for the Casper facility and Evanston too. I believe they're going to use a proportion that's natural gas, as well as some renewables that they're building themselves. So they're adding to the electrical generation capacity building that infrastructure themselves.” Wyoming’s growing sector of artificial intelligence and data centers have collectively announced 12.8 gigawatts worth of processing power so far. Read the full story HERE. –   Four moose have been struck and killed within the past couple of weeks in Grand Teton National Park, including a famous bull called Elk Antler. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports authorities say the rash of killings come down to one thing. “I talked to some tour guides and photographers, and they all said, you know, that the problem is basically the same, that people are just, you know, led footing it through the parks, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, driving way faster than they need to be…those are also vulnerable times for animals, like in the spring, a lot of times, they'll be migrating and crossing highways. And then in the fall, you have, you know, the mating seasons are on what they call the rut.” Grand Teton and Yellowstone continue to draw record crowds of visitors every year. There’s also been a trend toward more people showing up during the previously-quite “shoulder seasons,” in spring and fall. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  A human skull has been found in a cave by a rock hunter near Needles Peak in southern Carbon County. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports the find has touched off a mystery and a law enforcement investigation. “Deputies responded, and people from the coroner's office responded, and they confirmed it was, in fact, a skull, and according to the sheriff of Carbon County, it could be 50 years old or older based on just how, how it appeared…there's no word whether it's an actual missing person from carbon county or where it might be. And they're getting anthropologists to help the coroners to try to identify the skull, if they can.” The Carbon County Sheriff’s office reports that no other remains or items related to the skull were found in the cave or surrounding area.  Read the full story HERE. –  A Yellowstone outfitter and guide who loves exploring the most remote places in the national park says he’s grateful for his horses and mules. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports outfitter Kipp Saile says the animals aren’t just hardy companions, they gang up to chase away interloping grizzlies. “He had this video of some of his mules and horses chasing a grizzly bear away from camp. And he said, Yeah, his stock, they're acclimated enough to the back country that they'll do that generally, you know, is as long as the bears are off on the periphery of camp and they're not causing any trouble, they leave the bears alone. But this one just got too close, and so the horses and the mules ran it off. And he said it was a young bear, which makes sense. The younger, less experienced bears.” Saile tells Cowboy State Daily that he isn’t afraid of bears, as long as people are alert, respectful and follow basic, commonsense rules — such as keeping a clean camp — there’s little risk of trouble with grizzlies. 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, October 13th.  Bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center, I’m Mac Watson.  “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  Remains found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who mysteriously disappeared in July of 2019. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Englebert’s family and a private investigator have been working tirelessly to solve the disappearance. “The second he disappeared from Moorcroft, the family was extremely concerned, because, of course, he had been to a family vacation with his in-laws in Gering, Nebraska, and when he disappeared that night everybody, it threw everybody, including the family. Because this is not a guy who would disappear. This is not a guy who would walk away from his life willingly. He was a young dad, 25 at the time.” The remains were discovered in Scotts Bluff National Monument, about four miles from where Englebert was last seen on video surveillance walking alone in a neighboring town.  Read the full story HERE. –  100 years ago, the Midwest Oil and Refining company set up lights that would re-define when and how the nation’s high school athletes could play.   It was the first high school game in the nation to play at night under electric lights. This past Friday, under the lights, Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck was there to mark the 100 year anniversary and the football used at that game was brought out at halftime. “In Midwest on Friday night, they celebrated a century of Friday Night Light and actually the first game was played on a Thursday back in 1925 on November 19. But their schedule doesn't go to November 19th, so they celebrated 100 years this past Friday, and the team now plays a six-man game instead of 11.  The local Salt Creek Museum brought out the white football used in the 1925 Yellow Dogs game to allow the 2025 football team to take a team photo with the historic ball. Read the full story HERE. – A new, national report says that Americans are eating less sugar, thanks in part to weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Wyoming farmers are saying that’s not the real reason that prices in the sugar beet market have plunged 33% year-over-year. “Some countries subsidize sugar so much that it really kind of amounts to dumping the cost of their sugar is so far below the cost to produce, it's anti competitive. I'm told by the Wyoming sugar beet growers that…it got worse under Biden's administration. He evidently wasn't calculating something correctly about that, and so he let in too much of this ultra low cost sugar.” Wyoming Sugar Company CEO Mike Greear told Cowboy State Daily that there is also a trend toward higher protein items and so there is a decrease in the demand for sugar. Read the full story HERE. –   A Laramie man who has faced medical hardships since a bone cancer diagnosis in 2002 wasn’t about to let this year’s antelope season pass him by. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that even though Randy Svalina recently got a new prosthetic right leg, he wasn’t going to let that stop him from hunting. “In 2002 got diagnosed with really aggressive bone cancer. Barely survived, lost most of one of his legs, and for years and years, he went with an internal prosthetic. In other words, the internal part of his leg, they basically reposed, replaced the bone with titanium, but outwardly, it was just a leg. Well, they, a few years ago, started developing complications, nasty infections, and almost lost his life again, and they had to take his leg off about mid thigh. So now he has, like an actual external prosthetic.” Even though Randy is still getting used to the new prosthetic, he and his wife went hunting and they both harvested an antelope buck.  Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – When Hannah Kellerby was growing up in Cody, she never thought she’d realize her dream of being a film and television actor. Now with 72 film and screen credits to her name, Cowboy State Daily’s Wendy Corr reports that now Hannah Barefoot is realizing a new dream: producing a feature film that she wrote, in her own hometown. “She is on her way, but she wants to set it in Cody. It's going to have all of these Cody sets using Wyoming people. It's really the culmination of a dream that she's had since she was a small child, and she wants all of us in Wyoming to be a part of it and to be able to contribute as well.” “Wyoming Christmas Carol” is a story of a family fighting to hold on to their struggling Wyoming dude ranch, in the face of mounting pressure from the IRS.  Read the full story HERE. –  With about 15-thousand uranium waste sites in the west, a Wyoming tech startup aims to finally clean up cold war uranium's deadly legacy. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the Casper-based company DISA Technologies, could clean up these radioactive dumps. “The developers of this technology describe it as muddy tennis balls fired at each other. Then the particles the mud come come off the ball essentially. Well, instead of balls, what we're talking about is a slurry of mine waste left over from the Cold War uranium boom and rush to beat the Soviets with more atomic power…this company in Casper is saying, ‘Hey, we can take high pressure slurry water streams, fire that stuff at each other, and then it the radioactivity can separate out.’” Greyson Buckingham, DISA Technologies’ CEO, says his company's technology of high-pressure slurry ablation is a mechanical process — no chemicals are involved. Read the full story HERE. – Every day in the month of October, we tell ghost stories with a Wyoming twist.  This time, it was September 9, 1870, and Truman Everts had become separated from the rest of his party in a dense pine forest in the heart of Yellowstone. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy tells us the spooky story of how two ghastly, but argumentative visions stopped him from imminent death. “Everts is starving. He is alone in the wilderness for weeks at this point when he decides he is going to climb up Madison mountain. It was a foolhardy attempt that would have surely killed him, but what saved him is the appearance of these ghostly companions. One of them, he claims, was a deacon who, for all accounts, that was still alive back home.  This ghostly companion came to him and told him, you're a fool. That's the wrong thing to do, and you need to head back the route you came. They argued, but he listened to those ghosts, and that's what saved Everts in the middle of Yellowstone.” Besides the ghostly advice, Everts credits his two knives and opera glasses that he brought in keeping him alive. He figured out how to start a fire with the lenses of the opera glasses. Read the full story HERE. –  It might seem surprising to hear of a business that is going non-smoking in 2025, but Wyoming is one of only 12 states in the U.S. without a statewide smoking ban. So, the fact that Rocky Mountain Liquor and Lounge in Cody just went smoke-free is interesting because consumers led the charge here – not a state statute. “There are smoking bans in effect throughout Wyoming, but those are there are smoking bans in effect throughout Wyoming, but those are municipal bands and places within the city limits of…Laramie, Cheyenne, Rock Springs, to name a few…But otherwise…if there's a no smoking ban in a bar or restaurant or private business, that's at the prerogative of the owners, rather than any mandate that's saying that they don't allow smoking.”  The new owners of the bar said they went smoke-free to create a space that all of Cody can enjoy.  In the last 25 years or so, public opinion and preference have erred toward smoke-free environments ever since the dangers of second-hand smoke were better understood.  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, October 10th.  I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  In an interview with Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker, the Evanston, Wyoming, Mayor Kent Williams on Thursday confirmed that the city plans to discontinue the use of its gas chamber to euthanize animals. “Evanston, Wyoming was the only remaining city in the US to still use a gas chamber…the mayor actually told Cowboy State daily that they are going to disband the use of their chamber…This decision is a huge win for animal advocates who felt that the use of a gas chamber to euthanize animals was cruel and inhumane. Now, Chief of Police, Mike Vrainish told Cowboy State daily, however, he still feels that the gas chamber was a humane way to treat animals, especially given the alternative of a lethal injection.” The move by the city of Evanston comes after a unanimous Tuesday decision by the Green River City Council to ban the use of its chamber.  Read the full story HERE. –  The Outdoors Heritage Coalition, a Montana-based sportsmen’s group, and two legislators have filed a lawsuit against the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports some hunters and lawmakers are saying if Montana doesn’t loosen wolf hunting and trapping restrictions, the predators can’t be killed fast enough to put a significant dent in the state’s wolf population. “We reported previously that a lot of people bulked over their proposal to up the the kill quota for the hunting and trapping season this year in Montana, up to 500 they settled. They lowered a little bit to 452, but now there's kind of a counter suit, an actual lawsuit has come out to Montana legislate legislators and then a a Sportsman's Coalition group up there are suing the state, saying that the regulations are too restrictive, and they need to be able to kill more wolves faster in order to get the population knocked down. And Montana is sitting the best estimates right around, maybe just shy of 1100 wolves right now.” The lawsuit is the latest move in ongoing disputes over Montana’s wolf management policies.  Read the full story HERE. – A man accused of conspiring with his friend to kill a 23-year-old Big Piney man with a compound bow back in February agreed last week to plead guilty to a lesser charge than the one filed against him seven months earlier. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports this means the death penalty is off the table for the 19-year old defendant. “Prosecutor dropped his pursuit of the death penalty so he was facing life in prison, and rather than go to trial, he struck a plea agreement last week in which the prosecutor would drop that down to the second degree conspiracy, which is 20 to life, and the the prosecutor and the defense attorney would agree on a 54 to life recommendation.” Orion Schlesinger was charged in February with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty, and with felony theft, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Read the full story HERE. –   After a Natrona County High School senior said her First Amendment rights were potentially being infringed upon for trying to start a club affiliated with Turning Point USA, the state’s top education official backed her publicly on Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Megan Degenfelder, issued an official Wyoming Department of Education statement on the matter. “She told me today in an email, that she's confident that the local school board and school district leadership are going to handle this. So it remains to be seen how that's going to play out. But, you know, they both, Kylie Wall and the superintendent went to the school, so there's a personal connection there.” Superintendent Degenfelder also stated that administrators and teachers must foster environments that are safe for ideas and debate, not closed classrooms where only certain viewpoints are tolerated. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  So far, most of Wyoming’s data center announcements have revolved around Cheyenne.  But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports there’s plans for a new data center in the state announced by a familiar company. “This data center is headed for a completely different location. Casper has not gotten as much traction in the data center area. This will be the first major data center to be announced for Casper. This one in Casper, which is also a Prometheus Hyperscale project. So Evanston and Casper are both Prometheus hyper scale. This is the third project that Prometheus has announced.” The data center will start with a minimum $500 million investment for an initial 200 megawatts, but could scale up to 1.5 gigawatts in all, with up to 600 employees and overall economic impact of up to $3.1 billion, based on an economic impact study commissioned by Prometheus Hyperscale for a similar center it’s building in Evanston. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the state’s request to overrule a lower court and let a new school-choice scholarship program go into effect, at least while the case against it is ongoing. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the program, for now, is put on hold. “So this school choice scholarship program is paused during Wyoming Education Association's constitutionality challenge against it, and the Wyoming Supreme Court was asked. The state asked the higher court like, hey, undo this pause so these families can get access to these scholarships while this case is ongoing. And the High Court, with not really any explanation, which is common, they're fairly terse orders said, No, we're not going to undo the pause during the case, but the case is still ongoing and the constitutional questions remain.” Scheduled to have begun July 1, the act would have allocated up to $7,000 per year, per child to qualifying families on a first-come, first-served basis to spend on approved private school and homeschool programs via state-held scholarship accounts.  Read the full story HERE. –   A 60-year-old Casper man facing sentencing Thursday on child pornography and drug charges fired his attorney, then got him back, and learned that his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea would not be granted by the judge. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports defendant Mark Chanez gets to spend some more time free on his $75,000 bond after his re-appointed defense attorney told Natrona County District Judge Catherine Wilking that he was not prepared to represent his client at the sentencing hearing. “He filed a motion he was supposed to be sentenced, but he filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and he also tried to fire his attorney. His attorney had submitted a motion to withdraw his services for this individual, he's charged with six counts of child porn…he apparently wanted to extend his time he's on bond. He's on a $75,000 bond, so he appeared in court and challenged the representation of his attorney. He said that his attorney didn't consider that some Google Doc and some Spectrum connections show that somebody else put those child pornography photographs on and videos on his phone.” The judge said that Chanez’s attempt to withdraw his plea came late in court proceedings. Chanez on June 18 entered a plea deal with Nelson where he pleaded guilty through an Alford plea — which allows defendants to admit guilt to charges while maintaining they are innocent of the crimes — to six counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of a controlled substance. Read the full story HERE. –  Hunters who spend extended amounts of time in the woods often take their haircut business with them. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports some Wyoming barbers welcome the break, and then look forward to getting much furrier customers back at the close of hunting season. “A lot of barbers see a lull during hunting season when most of their male clients go away, seclude themselves in the wilderness and seek different kinds of animals. Now, when they return after this period of time, these men have gotten incredibly hairy… and they need haircuts to be presentable to their families. So barbers tell me that they often see a surge in business after this lull, and it's a great time to reconnect with these customers.”  One barber told Cowboy State Daily that at the end of the hunting season, he sees his clients return with full beards and long hair. These cuts are often “not as fun” due to the excessive hair growth.  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, October 9th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B forward slash story." –  The Green River City Council has voted unanimously to abolish the use of a gas chamber for animal euthanasia, leaving just one known town in the United States to continue using the controversial practice. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports the vote to use a different method of euthanasia was hailed by animal rights advocates. “Moving forward, the town is going to agree not to euthanize animals using the gas chamber and instead lean on more humane methods such as lethal injection. Advocates say, however, that sometimes these lethal injections are a little more hazardous for veterinary workers who have to have direct contact with an animal instead of being behind a barrier, such as in the situation of a gas chamber. I was also told that sometimes these gas chambers are easier on a worker's mental health because they don't have to be directly involved in the process.” The only other town in America still using a gas chamber to euthanize animals is Evanston, Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. –  In what started as an administrative rule discussion Wednesday in the State Building Commission, Secretary of State Chuck Gray reopened old criticisms against Gov. Mark Gordon.  Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the governor was ready to rebut some of Gray’s claims and State Treasurer Curt Meier announced that he’s sick of Gray interruptions. “This time, a couple novel things happened. The governor seemed like he was expecting to get grief over a past veto letter, and he whipped out a physical copy of the letter and said, Maybe you'd like to read this. So that tells us like he was expecting this exact critique..And that was when treasurer Kurt Meyer was like, the Secretary is always using these meetings to make political points and pontificate…They eventually did unanimously vote to advance a rule change.” The initial discussion was on a rule change requiring Wyoming agencies to “endeavor” to negotiate concealed-carry permissions with private landlords whose buildings they lease. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation is looking for a rare set of all-terrain vehicle tires matching a tread pattern left in a field, hoping it could help them solve a cold case of the murder of a Cheyenne mother more than 22 years ago. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke explains how these tires could help crack this case wide open. “They believe they're a certain brand that they've been looking for, but they haven't been able to find the brand because it's no longer manufactured. So they're just putting out a call out to people that they have one of these tires to provide it to them …So one thing that's good about this is a tire is so rare that when they when they get it and they're able to confirm it, they'll be able to narrow the list of possible vehicles down, because not many vehicles have this kind of tire. The badly beaten body of Shawny Lee Smith, who was 32 at the time, was discovered by a property owner on Feb. 8, 2003, in Weld County, Colorado, just a quarter mile from the Wyoming border. Read the full story HERE. –   Sometimes accidentally flipping a letter can stir up a whole lot of controversy. During the annual “Banned Books” week at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper someone taped a message in blood-red dripping letters on the library window that read: “Banned Books Lust Won’t Stay Buried." Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck looked into the meaning of the sentence and found it’s much ado about nothing.  “It turns out that the school district said that “J” was accidentally flipped, and it should have said, ban books just can't stay buried. And so there was a lot of social media response to that post about banned books and sexually explicit materials, that kind of thing. But even though when she learned it was corrected, the trustee said, You know what? She asked why the school is promoting Banned Books Week…there are books that the …school parents don't want the school district to buy because they don't want their tax money going to these explicit materials. Natrona County District spokeswoman Tanya Southerland says the intended and corrected message is “Banned Books Just Won’t Stay Buried.” Read the full story HERE. –  Former executive library director, Terri Lesley, sued Campbell County and a private family after she was ousted from her job. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Lesley claimed in her suit that certain commissioners and library board members violated federal employment discrimination laws, and retaliated against Lesley for her alliance with LGBTQ causes. “First, Leslie sued the local family, the Bennetts, and that case is still ongoing. And then, like year and a half later, she's suing Campbell County officials…And they didn't match perfectly, but they did have a law in common where Leslie invoked the KKK act, basically saying that she was being discriminated against for advocating for a protected class…so in the Bennett's case, the judge kind of introduced what we could call a modernized reading of that saying, Oh, this law protects LGBTQ advocates, and it was it for Wyoming federal court, very novel reading of this old, 100 plus year law.” Campbell County now has a month to get Lesley the seven-hundred-thousand dollars and the current and former county officials won’t admit any wrongdoing. Read the full story HERE. – What started as a treasure hunt for uranium in the Pine Ridge area of the Powder River Basin is now giving Wyoming a larger footprint in the nuclear industry. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison explains how Wyoming fits into Snow Lake Resources plans. “Even as you consolidate and really ramp up uranium production in Wyoming, there's still a long journey that uranium has to take in order to make it, in order to make it from the mine to the nuclear reactor. I spoke to someone from Snow Lake, and he described how, you know, it would bounce through a series of steps, going from Canada to New Mexico, being processed and then finally converted and created into fuel. Now it's possible that that uranium could come back to Wyoming and maybe go to a manufacturing facility in Gillette.” Snow Lake Resources, out of Canada, is a uranium exploration and development company that focuses on uranium mining and fuel development. Read the full story HERE. –    I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  Two Wyomingites who served in the military are reacting to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s address to an assembly of military leaders last week in Virginia where he spoke on the department’s goals amid what he called a growing “moment of urgency” for the United States. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that both former military members have strong opinions of Secretary Hegseth’s speech. “I spoke to Heath Harrower, who was a Green Beret, and I spoke to Gail Symons, who was in the Navy, and they both had really long service careers, and they both had a lot to say about Hegseth’s comments. Now, Symons, being one of the first female members of the Navy to serve on a ship, she said that she had to fight through a lot of hardship during her time in the military, and therefore really benefited from some of these inclusion programs. However, on the other side, Harrower said that he was directly responsible for overseeing dei during his time in the military, and said that while it was well intentioned, the idea didn't necessarily manifest in the way that military leaders expected.” Hegseth had traveled to Quantico, Virginia where he delivered remarks concerning the Department of Defense being made into a “woke department” by Washington D.C. political leaders. Read the full story HERE. – A digital revolution in deer hunting is sweeping Eastern states with hunters being given the option to report their kills, and even “tag” deer through smartphone apps.  Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that although many things are moving to digital, it’s not coming to Wyoming anytime soon. “Everything is going, to our phones, and back east, they're increasingly doing that with hunting. And so far as hunters can check their deer in. That's basically, that means, if they shoot a deer, they can, they can check it in with whatever their game and fish department is…some states, like New York State is they're taking that even a step further, to where you can actually tag your deer electronically…you don't even need to carry a paper hunting license anymore…So I did reach out to our Wyoming Game and Fish Department, asked them if you know if they're planning on doing this. And the answer is, don't hold your breath.” The digital expansion into the hunting world is just the latest area where everyday licensing requirements are moving to mobile and digital mediums including transit cards, airline ticketing, and even driver’s licenses in states such as Colorado. 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, October 8th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story." –  A Natrona County High School senior trying to launch a Turning Point USA Club America chapter believes her school principal may be infringing on her First Amendment rights and treating her club differently than others. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the 17-year old student, Kylie Wall, said she approached Natrona County High School Principal Aaron Wilson three weeks ago about starting a TPUSA Club America chapter at the school. “The president of that club says she's been being treated different by her principal than she's noticing the same club at Kelly Walsh High School, also in the district, has been treated. She's been told by the principal that she couldn't have a public meeting with Kelly Walsh group. We contacted the principal, and he said that he doesn't have any issues with the club, but we do know that there was a teacher who tore a poster off the wall after this student leader posted that about a meeting that was supposed to happen last night.” Wilson initially hesitated but did allow her to start a club that is associated with Turning Point USA. Read the full story HERE. – The family of the man who shot a Sheridan Police Department sergeant last year is suing law enforcement. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the family is saying that police should not have destroyed a home and fatally shot the man after the incident. “I did go ahead and also obtain the decision letter in which the County's top prosecutor declined to prosecute Officer Michael Chand, the one who shot Lowry. And I also talked to Shand, who said, you know, I had no other choice. He was he'd been shooting at cops from the home where he barricaded himself. He fled with an AR 15. He appeared to me to be smiling, and he was rushing through this tight knit neighborhood toward other law enforcement, other people.” The lawsuit accuses Chand, Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska, and other unknown “John Does” of wrongfully causing the Feb. 14, 2024, death of William Lowery, 46, who had shot Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee the day before. Read the full story HERE. –  When former Obama-appointed, U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, Kip Crofts, first read about a reinvigorated push for passage of a Wyoming bill that would require Congress to authorize the deployment of their National Guardsmen, one of his first reactions was disgust. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports that Crofts thinks the president should be able to deploy the Guard when needed. “He said, the legislature is fine to kind of, you know, duke it out over these constitutional issues, but given kind of the ineptitude of Congress, especially in recent years, he just feels that it's not the right position to kind of be pushing this agenda or kind of initiative.” Crofts went on to add that Congress already has put the federal government into a shutdown because of inaction and giving them the responsibility of deciding whether to deploy Wyoming’s National Guard is a poor decision. Read the full story HERE. –  Amid ongoing tensions over how and when to propose new local taxes in Jackson and Teton County, a deeper question over how to best market the area to the world was revealed during a joint meeting of elected officials on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison says residents aren’t quite sure what to do. “What really came out of that discussion were some pretty strong feelings around tourism and how to nurture it. Whether Jackson needs to continue to market itself to the world, should they focus all of the dollars gathered from tourist sales tax on services like buses and trails and other amenities that Jackson locals and tourists use?” The meeting adjourned without any vote or formal decision, but what emerged were signs of a community struggling and an ongoing dispute over whether Jackson still needs to promote itself as a destination. Read the full story HERE. –  Luka Rasmussen was playing video games with his friends, smoking marijuana, and messing around with a handgun back on February 12th. The gun went off, and now Luka stands charged with involuntary manslaughter. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports the 19-year old Rasmussen stood beside his attorney and pleaded guilty to the single charge.  “A 19 year old Casper man took a plea deal Tuesday in the Natrona County District Court. He is responsible for playing with a weapon last February with two other young men in a room. They were playing games. They all had handguns, and he was apparently playing with his weapon, and the weapon went off and killed his friend, and so he took a plea deal from the Natrona County district attorney.” Under terms of the plea deal Rasmussen’s guilty plea would be in exchange for a maximum 16-year sentence on the charge which carries the potential of 20 years in prison. Read the full story HERE.   I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  A new, one-point-two billion dollar, 184-thousand-square-foot data center broke ground in Cheyenne on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that  the company is being innovative about many things, but water use is a priority.  “The related digital and related companies broke ground today in Cheyenne on a 302 up to 302, megawatt data center. I thought, what was interesting about it is their emphasis on, hey, this isn't going to use any water. Clearly, data centers have heard they've gotten the memo. People are concerned about the water usage with these things. It has traditionally taken a lot of water to cool this equipment off with AI, it gets even hotter.” The facility is expected to generate around $250 million in tax revenue for Cheyenne and Wyoming during its first 15 years of operation, according to figures from Related.  Read the full story HERE. –  U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis on Tuesday expressed her optimism for President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan and recalled the horrors of the Hamas attack at a music festival in Israel two years ago to the day. Speaking with Cowboy State Daily reporter Sean Barry in her Capitol Hill office, the Wyoming Republican said Israel should not be faulted for its military response to the attack.  “I asked Senator Lummis whether she was optimistic President Donald Trump's plan will succeed. She first said, I am hopeful, but then quickly added that it is a cautious hope. She points out that many of the things in Trump's 20 point peace plan, these are things that Hamas has resisted up until now, so there's room to be skeptical. But Trump has multiple countries involved in these talks…but the senator telling me today here in an interview on Capitol Hill, that she is hopeful with that cautious hope.” Senator Lummis told Cowboy State Daily that she points the finger solely at Hamas for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, saying the group has sabotaged humanitarian aid efforts meant for innocent civilians. Read the full story HERE. – Supporters of wind and solar energy initiatives are split on whether the Trump administration’s cancellation of renewable energy projects in blue states last week will impact Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that, although the projects are terminated in other states, it could affect Wyoming. “I spoke to supporters of renewable energy initiatives, and they told me that they're a little bit concerned that some of these cuts could have an impact here in Wyoming, despite them not actually taking place within state boundaries. Now their argument hinges around the Western interconnection, which is a massive energy grid that connects all of the Western States together. That argument there is that Colorado and these other states that are impacted by the cuts are going to kind of drag Wyoming down.” The Trump administration last week terminated roughly $8 billion worth of renewable energy projects in blue states. Many of these cuts targeted western states like Colorado, California and Oregon which did not vote for Trump in 2024. Read the full interview 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, October 7th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story." – A shocking discovery out of the Capitol in Washington D.C. as nine Republicans in Congress were informed that they were being spied on by the FBI. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports from DC that the bombshell revelation was announced Monday afternoon by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, and the junior senator from Wyoming was one of the nine.  “Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming was in for a shock today, told by FBI personnel that her name was on a memo during the Biden era. FBI her name, along with those of eight other Republican lawmakers being spied on. She was one of nine federal lawmakers in all on this memo, all of them Republicans being spied on in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot probe known as Arctic frost that, of course, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith.” Senator Lummis was informed of the document by FBI personnel at a Monday meeting just ahead of Grassley’s release of the document, a spokesman for Lummis, told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview. Read the full interview HERE. –  A Cody man accused of killing a Cheyenne woman he’d been stalking in 2019 was sentenced Monday to a term of between 13 years, two months in prison – and 14-and-a-half years in prison. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports, Underwood wasn't being sentenced for murder.  “Wyoming has a law that you have to be well enough to be well enough to understand what's going in court participate in your defense, and he was not. And so they they basically let him go Park County was like, absolutely not. We've got some stuff we can charge him with here, and that was disposing of a dead body to conceal a felony, possessing a firearm despite a prior violent felony conviction, interfering with police and eluding. And so they charge him with all four of those, which was what they had. And then on Monday, Judge Bill Simpson did go ahead and give the max on every single one.” Underwood received credit for the three years and three months he has spent in jail awaiting sentencing. Read the full story HERE. –  President Donald Trump has focused efforts on sending the National Guard from numerous states, to control what he believes is unchecked crime in cities like Portland, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports  one of Wyoming’s two Democratic state senators said this shows why the Wyoming legislature should pass a bill aiming to protect the state’s autonomy regarding those troops. “It's just kind of a reminder that, there's been this law on the books, and it's important to note that there's a lot of Republicans that have signed on to this law in recent years. One of them is representative Daniel Singh but it's interesting him and some other legislatures have used kind of this argument that this bill should be on the books to prevent our national guard from being deployed in foreign wars, which is kind of a separate issue from what Senator Rothfuss had mentioned.” Specifically, the “Defend the Guard Act” has never passed the legislature but if it became law, the act still would let the governor consent to use the guard as defense support in “civil authority missions” in the U.S. and its territories.  Read the full story HERE. –  Neda Herman started hunting at 15 and has been on countless elk hunts in Colorado and Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports at age 83, she said this year’s opening day hunt was one of the best she’s ever had.  “She and her son Todd, went up opening day, October 1 in the big horns, and she had an elk down at first light, and they had it all packed up and packed out by noon. And I asked her, you know, are you going to go next year and she said, You know what? If I feel good, then as I do now, yeah, I'll probably go again next year.” Neda learned how to hunt from her father growing up in the Steamboat Springs area of Colorado. Read the full story HERE. –  There have been a few instances throughout Wyoming’s history of contention between state leaders and their local counterparts in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports leaders are saying they’re just doing their job.   “We've seen multiple hearings now where state representatives will come and testify on local issues and receive a lot of pushback from those involved…I spoke to local, county and state leaders to try to figure out what the solution is to this issue, and while nobody is exactly certain, we know that this is going to make for a very interesting coming state budget session.” Now local and county board members are growing exasperated with what they call “undue influence” from state lawmakers. But lawmakers countered, saying they're giving their constituents a stronger voice.  Read the full story HERE.   I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  A Casper woman and popular cashier at Walmart continues to recover from burns in a Denver Hospital following a house fire early Friday morning that claimed her family’s possessions and pets. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports Charity King, her husband and son were able to escape the fire with just the clothes on their backs. “From what the fire department reported on Facebook they got there and there was flames coming out of the door, but the family had been able to escape by that point, but not before. This Walmart cashier was burned, and apparently her husband was also burned and suffered some smoke inhalation, and their son was also in the house.” Charity told Cowboy State Daily her home is a total loss. Read the full story HERE. –  When the Beartooth Highway closed at noon Friday, there wasn’t a single snowflake on the pavement. But Monday afternoon, U.S. 212 was still closed as nearly 1 foot of fresh snow was being plowed off the road. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi says this snowstorm was a bit different. “Getting snow in the first week of October isn't unexpected, because it's just the seasonal change in progress. So we got about eight to 10 inches in most of the mountains. Some places recorded up to a foot of snow, not as much as the 16 inches they were calling for. The more telling thing is that some of that snow was able to penetrate into lower elevations. We had spots as low as 5000 feet, reporting snowflakes in the air and maybe even a small accumulation on the ground.”  The National Park Service announced that several corridors through Yellowstone National Park were closed for most of the weekend due to "hazardous weather and road conditions."  Read the full story HERE. – Carbon County Sheriff’s Office personnel have a “pretty good idea” who lit part of the state’s law book on fire and threw it from the window of a Cadillac SUV in front of the courthouse Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that if the person or persons wanted to send a message by burning certain pages, it was an odd selection. “It was actually title 20, title 41 which pertains to water, and they threw the burning pages out of a moving vehicle right in front of the courthouse, which also happens to be the sheriff's office headquarters. Whether it was a protest or not, that's a misdemeanor in Wyoming, punishable by up to six months in jail. And Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken, who's often outspoken, did a cheeky post about it, basically saying you can come and get your charred law books here.” The sheriff told Cowboy State Daily by phone that fortunately, it wasn’t windy in the morning, so the fire was easily put out. They are looking for a suspect. 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, October 6th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily news center… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story." – Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic in Gillette believes it can be the Mayo Clinic of the West. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean got an exclusive tour of the new facility  and reports what sets this clinic apart is its mission statement: it’s all about the patient. “It's a more personalized experience. They have different levels…There are lots of private procedures that insurance doesn't cover yet. They're quote, unquote experimental, but the studies have shown good results…like transcranial stimulation is an example that's shown great efficacy for depression and things like that…I don't think I've ever been to a medical clinic where there are so many conversation starters everywhere you look, it's almost like it's a museum plus a hospital.” A spokesperson for the clinic tells Cowboy State Daily that like most medical facilities, saving lives is the primary aim of the Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic. They just want to do it in a much bigger way than most medical centers in the country.  Read the full story HERE. –  Hudson, Wyoming native Mike Dabich, AKA “Moose” remembers fondly crashing the boards in the NBA with basketball legends like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Dabich credits growing up and playing with Native kids gave him the skills to make it to the NBA.  “He grows up playing on the Wind River Reservation…And you know, learning to pass, learning to do the weave that there are these, these skills by necessity, that when you had outdoor courts on the reservation, it was a disadvantage to dribble because you might hit a rock or a rut. And so there was a style of play that really valued thinking a few steps ahead and doing quick think passes. And I think he credited that with some of the skills he took into the pros.” Even though Dabich played in the NBA, traveling across the country and even played in Europe, he came back to his hometown of Hudson where he still lives today. Read the full story HERE. –  More than 4 tons' worth of giant pumpkins were weighed at the 2025 Wyoming State Championship Weigh-Off and Pumpkin Drop on Saturday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that tonnage was hoisted 200 feet into the air and dropped – exploding in spectacular fashion. “The thing they don't prepare you for, is the immense hollow boom when a 1700 pound pumpkin is dropped from any height, let alone 200 feet, which is what happened at the Wyoming way off and pumpkin drop in Worland. It was a big event. People from multiple states brought their pumpkins, watermelons, Morrows and zucchinis to get weighed…And then the coup de grace was when these massive pumpkins were weighed to lift it up in the air and dropped on a swimming pool, an outhouse, which was the crown jewel of the whole event.” The Wyoming state record for a pumpkin was set by Andy and Amy Corbin in 2023, with a 2 thousand, 62 pound gourd they grew in Cheyenne.  Read the full story HERE. –  Wyoming Attorney General James “Jim” Barrett carried a briefcase and overnight bag as he climbed into the state-owned Cessna 206 on Thursday, Dec. 4, 1969, at Cheyenne Regional Airport for what he thought was going to be a routine flight to Riverton. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the flight was anything but ordinary. “The pilot was looking out the window to the left, and he kept saying, you know, you okay. And then he actually grabbed him and looked at him, and saw that his face was all perspiration. Then his pilot starts, probably just dying, and his body is thrashing, and so now he's fighting off the pilot, and the plane dives down, over Rollins several times, misses a bread truck. Takes off an antenna above the courthouse…He landed in a three point landing in this field, not knowing anything about flying a plane, he landed the plane in three points… And then all of a sudden, the left wheel hit a rock, and it just flipped the whole plane over, and probably saved his life. And so he was hanging upside down. His head smashed against the cockpit. The dashboard broke his eye, bones all around his eye pushed his eye back in his socket,  Not only did Barret miraculously survive and recover, he went on to be appointed as a judge on the federal appeals court for 40 years. Read the full story HERE. I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  For those who have noticed Wyoming’s pronghorn — aka antelope — running wildly back and forth lately, they’re not doing it for exercise – it's part of their mating ritual. Cowboy State Daily’s Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz says that during the mating season bucks will gather up groups of does, or harems, and fiercely guard them. “If you ever watch it happen, it's not like how a sheep dog will round up sheep and keep him in one place. And it gets pretty intense, because, of course, other bucks come in and they want to get the does too. Sometimes the bucks will tangle with each other and fight, sometimes to the point of injuring each other.” Wyoming Game and Fish biologist and pronghorn aficionado Rich Guenzel tells Cowboy State Daily that, ultimately, the females are the ones who actually choose whom they mate with. Read the full story HERE. –  A Wyoming brother and sister are leading the charge for a new, “healthier” way of unplugging while staying connected with a new computer called the Daylight DC-1. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports Tristan Scott, who is marketing the new venture from a remote location in the Upper Green River drainage, and his sister Julia Scott, a second-grade teacher in Cody, have emerged as two of the primary messengers for a technology they believe could fundamentally change our relationship with screens. “According to their research…the display technology in most screens that we use beams light at us in a way that affects our nervous system…The Daylight computer tablet tries to get rid of all the bad stuff about computers and keep the good utility part of it.” The company got a huge boost when the device was praised by popular podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this year. Read the full story HERE. –  A botched election in Weston County last fall has renewed calls among some Wyomingites to ditch voting machines and count ballots by hand. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports that the faulty 2024 election in which House Speaker Chip Neiman received an erroneous slew of undervotes has now amplified this  discussion. “Some who support it say that the machines are not trustworthy, that they have the volunteers across the counties across the state to do the hand counting and who are willing to do this type of work. But those who are, you know, against hand counting, say, you know, hey, we're putting the cart before the horse. Maybe we should look at, you know, baby steps and whatnot, to make sure that, you know, we're not creating undue costs for counties, that we're not delaying results in elections.” In this upcoming legislative session, lawmakers are expected to introduce a number of bills concerning counting ballots, even though the legislator’s prime focus will be on the budget. Read the full story HERE. – Cowboy State Daily Meteorologist Don Day has been studying and forecasting Wyoming’s wild weather for decades. But for the next week, Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Day will be helping to keep hundreds of hot-air balloons safely soaring over Albuquerque, New Mexico.  “Hot air balloons are the most sensitive aircraft to weather, so if you're going to have one air balloon going up, you want to know what weather conditions you're going to be facing, let alone the over 600 balloons that go up during the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day is in that perfect zone where he is not only an experienced meteorologist who knows Western weather and knows what to look for. He's also an experienced balloon pilot who knows the dynamics of how balloons work in the atmosphere. So he is the ideal person.” Don Day will keep his eyes on the skies during the 2025 Balloon Fiesta, an annual event that attracts balloonists and enthusiasts from around the world.  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, October 3rd. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… “Brought to you by the Wyoming Business Council. Wyoming youth are our future, but they're leaving the state at ALMOST TWICE the national average. What would bring them back home? Share your bold ideas with the Wyoming Business Council at wbc dot P U B backslash story." – Two mountain bikers, who were deep into the backcountry of Idaho said they came upon a woman, who was alone, hungry, and said she had been looking to find her way out and back to safety for almost three days. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports, the woman is lucky to be alive. “What had happened is apparently, some point during her ordeal, she'd lost her shoes, so she'd wrapped her her like her sweatshirt and her shirt around her feet to protect her feet. And he said they spent the better part of a couple hours with her before, you know, they're able to make contact in a a search and rescue helicopter arrived. But, you know, they said they they question her, but they they weren't trying to be rude or really pry. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to really want to talk much about the word he said is, she seemed embarrassed about how she ended up at that situation. They gathered that she had been out there for she was nearing the end of her third day. She's already spent two days and two nights out there, and was coming to the end of the third day, which would have led into the third night. And the the gentleman described the conditions that week had been getting pretty darn cold at night, like down to the 20s, but getting up into the 60s, even 60s or even 70s during the days and then no precipitation. And that's probably what saved her, because I double checked that with the search and rescue guy here in Wyoming, and he said, yes, if people it's surprising how cold of temperatures people can survive if they're dry, if they're wet, that's a whole load ball game, because then the hyperthermia sets in, and that kills a lot of people in the back country. So probably what it boils. Down to is this woman's saving grace was the fact that she was able to stay dry the entire time.  One of the cyclists, Shelton Robinson of Pocatello, Idaho, said it was random luck that he and his companion happened to find Heather Wayment at about 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 18. Read the full story HERE. – The junior senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, has written a letter to President Donald Trump. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Senator Lummis is urging the president to pardon a Wyoming diesel “delete” mechanic who was just released from prison and living in Cheyenne.   “In the early 2000s 2010 era, those early emission systems are pretty clunky and could cause problems in your truck. And so guys were just like, well, I can make this run better. I can save your fleet. Let's delete them. And also, pretty soon after the EPA started pursuing criminal charges against guys that were doing that and the people that are embroiled in those cases, describe it as sort of like an unexpected thing, like, whoa. Why am I not just getting a stern letter or a seasoned desist or a civil penalty? Why am I now going to be a convicted felon? And so that was Troy Lake family man, 65 years old, 64 when convicted, is now a felon for doing these deletes. And Senator Lummis, in her letter, said this is unequal prosecution. This looks political.” Lake, was been released early from the Colorado-based federal prison that held him for seven months. He is now on home confinement with an ankle monitor. Read the full story HERE. –  The BLM announced its intent to amend the Rock Springs RMP and opening a 30-day comment period on Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that after years of being drafted, then declared finished, then put on hold, the Bureau of Land Management’s controversial plan for managing millions of acres in central Wyoming is again open for public comment. “It was seemingly settled last December, but then we had a change in presidential administrations, and things kind of changed. They decided they were going to put it on hold, and now the latest is they're going to go ahead and the BLM has put it up for revision in public comment, there was a 30-day comment period that began today. …What folks are saying is that this leans more toward what a lot of people in Wyoming have said they want all along, just more, I guess, less restrictive on things such as energy development or cattle grazing or motorized access. A lot of people for years have said that the BLMs for full preferred alternative was just too restrictive and wanted to create what was essentially wilderness areas across much of that 3.6 million acres that centered around the BLM office in Rock Springs. So it's just the next, the next step in a process that maybe, after all these years, could finally be starting to wind up. So we'll see.”  Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks tells Cowboy State Daily that there’s reason to hope it will get done right this time, and the matter will finally be settled. However, some environmental groups criticized the move to revise the plan yet again, saying it should remain as it is when the BLM finalized in December 2024. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming weather is never boring. Friday temperatures will be scorching, but then a shift starts on Saturday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports parts of Wyoming will see snow for the first time this season. “So the winter weather that's coming into Wyoming, it's going to mostly stay at the higher elevations. But whereas in September, we were talking about elevations above 9000 feet. Now we're talking about as low as 8000 and in some forecasts, even as low as 6000 feet, and that's rain transitioning the snow. Because the air is cold enough that snow can begin to form. The Beartooth highway is closing at noon today, in anticipation of the weekend weather that's coming. Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day has already called for a longer, colder, snowier winter that's going to start sooner, and there's still the indication that we're going to start dipping into more of that winter weather as we get further into October. They do anticipate reopening, but it's a sign that there is a big seasonal shift that's happening this weekend. So we're going to get close to or record breaking high temperatures for October 3, on Friday, and then as we get into Saturday and Sunday, we're going to see drops of between 20 to 35 degrees in just two days.” Laramie and Cheyenne could break their record highs for Friday with temperatures near or at 80, while Lusk is expecting to hit 83 . By Sunday, it could be 30 degrees cooler or more. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  The State Board of Land Commissioners approved two 50-year lease extensions for operating wind farms in Carbon County, but not before Secretary of State Chuck Gray and State Treasurer Curt Meier sparred over the merits of wind energy. Cowboy State Daily’s Steve Bohnel reports that each project had been operating under a 25-year lease before the board voted 3-2 Thursday to extend both of them. “One of the people that was opposed was Secretary of State Chuck Ray. He's been well known for opposing wind energy for a while now, he said that extending these leases and using these forms of energy is not a smart move for Wyoming in general. The State Treasurer Kurt Meyer, disagreed with him, saying that, you know, this source of energy is just one of many that Wyoming needs to do to remain competitive with China. He mentioned that China's built many wind farms this year, over one gigawatt alone this year, and he said that neglecting to extend these leases would be a mistake, but that didn't sway Mr. Gray, who continues to call this form of energy woke wind, something that President Donald Trump is a phrase that's used. He's used himself. I actually caught up with Governor Mark Gordon, who ended up being the tie breaking vote…Because he told me, even if they didn't decide to approve the lease extensions, the wind farms will still operate, they just wouldn't be on state land or under state control. And what that means, essentially, is that they wouldn't be able to gain revenue from those wind farms for education, something that he thinks is within the board of land commissioners’ responsibility as from a fiduciary standpoint.” Meier, Gov. Mark Gordon, and State Auditor Kristi Racines voted yes. Gray and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder were the dissenting votes. Read the full story HERE –   The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is announcing that next week over three and half thousand acres of federal coal reserves in the Powder River Basin across Campbell and Converse counties will be auctioned off. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that this the first major Wyoming coal lease sale in a decade. “The Bureau's expecting that there's going to be up to 365 million tons of coal available in that area that one lucky company is going to get the opportunity to claim…one local advocacy group told me, however, that they're concerned that this project is going to open up the area to a myriad of negative effects. These include pollution in the water, in the air, possibly harming the wildlife and, of course, presenting a major disruption to the people who live in the area. One coal expert, however, told me they feel that this issue is going to completely turn around the state of Wyoming's economy. It's going to completely improve a lot of different aspects of our energy economy and help us continue to stay competitive in a landscape that continues to demand more and more of our energy producers as we see cryptocurrency and AI rising in prominence.” The agency said it will accept no less than $100 per acre for the coal, but hopes to only approve “the highest cash

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, October 1st. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – Wyoming’s congressional delegation is blaming Senate Democrats for the federal government shutdown that took effect at midnight. Cowboy State Daily’s Sean Barry reports from DC that one Wyoming Senator had some harsh words for Democrats. “US Senator John Barrasso calling it idiocy on the part of the Democrats not cooperate with the Republicans…The Wyoming congressional delegation is essentially saying that the Democrats in the Senate, led by Chuck Schumer of New York, they're saying this is an act of retribution against the one Big Beautiful Bill act, because in the one Big Beautiful Bill act, where huge spending cuts were made, the Democrats had no voice. They were shut out of the process that was a strictly party line process in the Senate, whereas now with the shutdown, the Democrats had leverage. Republicans needed the Democrats vote to avoid a shutdown, and the Democrats said, we're not doing it.” Back in Wyoming, Governor Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray issued statements supporting the federal lawmakers.  Read the full story HERE. –  As Wyoming’s House Freedom Caucus continues to act as one of the most vocal proponents of property tax cuts on behalf of what it sees as a weary tax base, Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that one Sheridan County official said on Tuesday that relatively few people are using these programs. “On one side, we've got the House Freedom Caucus and people that are fighting to cut out waste, fraud and abuse from the government. But on the other side, we have these smaller local jurisdictions that are trying to hang on to their limited budgets as property tax revenue continues to decrease. Now today, I was looking for solutions, and I came across property tax relief services. These are actual services provided by county governments to provide relief to the people who need it the most that find that they're struggling with paying these taxes. Now what I found, however, is that not a lot of people are taking advantage of these programs, and that's because some of the way that they're structured requires interest payments to be made on these taxes that are deferred, and what I found is that that kind of represents a prohibitive cost to some people.” After rallying to pass a 25 percent cut earlier this year, the Freedom Caucus is now aiming for additional relief, as high as 50 percent. Read the full story HERE. –  Wyoming has again earned the dubious distinction from a safety watchdog group as the nation’s deadliest state for big rig crashes.  Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that Truck Safety Coalition is blaming extreme and unpredictable weather, including high winds, sudden snowstorms and low visibility, particularly along the Interstate 80 corridor, for the high propensity of the deadly crashes. “The Wyoming Trucking Association pointed out to me today, they think the study is flawed because it's based on per capita which Wyoming has the smallest population in the US and the most truck traffic, so you're going to have truck crashes, but there's other places that have far more of them than Wyoming. So they think, they think the results are somewhat skewed, but they do admit there is a problem…So you know, this organization uses Wyoming as like a benchmark, but the Trucking Association believes, you know, that's, that's, that's kind of flawed math.” The Truck Safety Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, released its annual list of the 12 worst states for truck fatalities Monday based on the most recent data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. With Wyoming sitting on top of the list, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma round out the top five. Read the full story HERE. –  Justin Lucht was working on the Moss Ranch near Lovell on Monday when he spotted one of the many bighorn sheep that frequent the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke with Lucht and found that the Bighorns may have one of the coolest sheep populations in the state because of a distinctive feature. “So big horn sheep tend to grow symmetrical horns, where the horns sprout out of their head and they curl inward around their eyes. But the thing that's interesting in levels that there have been several big horn sheep spotted that have asymmetrical horns. One grows faster than the other. So instead of having a nice, symmetrical, curved horn set around your head, framing your head, there's one that's a little bit shorter and smaller and less thick, and the other one is massive. And this has been seen in several big horn sheep in this particular population at the foot of the Big Horn mountains near Lovell…You don't see these kind of horns on typical Big Horn rams. They usually just curve and then they curve inward and around the eye area, and these Rams in the big horns, it's not all of them, but a select few have this weird mutation, genetic mutation, where one horn just grows faster and thicker than the other one.” Several rams harvested from this herd have the same unique look, rather than the more symmetrical appearance of the horns of most bighorn rams. Read the story HERE. – Gov. Mark Gordon acknowledged on Tuesday that Wyoming faces a complicated trade-off as the Trump administration moves to expand coal production. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports the governor explained the good and the bad for the state. “Coming off this meeting with Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, Governor Gordon, held a virtual press conference this morning. Members of the Wyoming media asked a lot of different interesting questions, and it was really all about what the Trump administration is doing to promote the coal industry, and Wyoming is greatly impacted by that. And so we've reported on this many times. We just yesterday, we had a story. There's been a huge infusion of enthusiasm and money, and Gordon said, look, but here's the facts, revenue is going to go down for states, and emissions are going to go up…However, what Gordon made the argument was, look, we were trying to hit a sweet spot here where, you know, we're not over taxing the coal industry. We're letting them catch up from the Biden years, where they really felt pinched. But at the same time, you know, we are capturing some revenue, and we hope that the volume will go up, that ultimately, you know, it will increase tax revenue for the state of Wyoming. At the same time, yes, we're going to be burning more coal, so more emissions into the atmosphere. However, new customers in Asia are really keen on using clean technologies, like the ones that are being developed here in Wyoming, to bring down emissions, even though you're burning more coal.” The governor also conceded budget challenges are looming for the 2026 Wyoming legislative session as federal royalty rates on coal drop from 12 point five percent to seven percent, an estimated annual hit to the state budget of $50 million dollars. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Five out of the six men involved in a supercar racing incident in Grand Teton National Park this summer were sentenced last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that while a YouTube star is still facing prosecution for federal misdemeanor charges, others involved in the high-speed incident have been sentenced.  “Edmond Berseghian, who is still being prosecuted, but the other five that were involved in the drag racing incident in Grand Teton National Park in late July, they were sentenced last week, and so four of them got probation, probation and were banned from the park for two years, and one of them was fined. And all of them… were fined. the fines from, like, what the 700 range to the $1,000 range. That's substantial for misdemeanors. Generally, they were already jailed briefly after the incident, and I don't, I don't see more jail time, so I mean, but two years probation and being banned from the park is also significant.” A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 28th.  Read the full story HERE. –  After a 10-hour search for what officials feared would be finding the body of a 37-year-old Casper man who reportedly fell into the North Platte River had a happier ending Tuesday when the man was found safe and unharmed. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the search for Dexter Fightingbear started at about 2 a.m. “There'd been a report that two brothers were down by the North Platte River. They had been drinking and smoking marijuana, and somehow they both got into the river, and one of the brothers got out, but the other one did not, and so he alerted authorities that his brother was missing, and there was a few hours search in the early morning hours for this man and this 37 year old, he was not found. They kind of suspended the search until what police said was later on in the morning, when the sun rose up. And we don't know a lot about…how what that search was, except that they had drones. Initially, I went to the scene at 11 o'clock, and I saw some Sheriff a sheriff deputy, and some search and rescue guys with a dog, but I did not see other police along the river at that point, but we know at noon that this gentleman was found.” When asked if there would be any charges filed, the spokesperson for Casper PD said further information would be coming out about the case soon.  Read the full story HERE. – An

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, September 30th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – The Department of the Interior announced Monday that it's opening more than 13 million acres of federal land for coal leases and investing $625 million dollars to modernize coal plants and jump-start U.S. mining. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports this is great news for the coal industry, and for Wyoming specifically. “The Trump administration, from day one, has been talking about coal and doing things to empower coal. The one big, beautiful Bill Act had, you know, things in it related to coal. I just think this is a continuation of the administration's efforts to boost coal…This is a concerted and coordinated effort across departments. Department of Interior is expanding the acres for coal leases. The EPA has announced that it's rolling back regulations that might hamper coal. You know, this money from the Department of Energy. So this is a concerted effort across departments working together to try and kick start the coal industry and keep it going. I think the other thing that's probably pretty significant in all of this, you know, artificial intelligence is going to need a lot of energy. People are basically looking for every molecule of energy that they can find from whatever energy source they can get it from.” Since the Cowboy State produces 40 percent of all the coal in the United States, Wyoming Energy Authority Director Rob Creager hosted several out-of-state legislators last week from states that accept Wyoming coal for tours of mines and power plants to see how Wyoming handles its coal industry. Read the story HERE. –  The county clerk accused of botching portions of the 2024 general election in northeast Wyoming and filing a false post-election audit did not show up Monday for a legislative subcommittee meeting for which she was subpoenaed. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Secretary of State Chuck Grey repeatedly stated this was more than just a simple error.  “It was a seven and a half hour meeting with no lunch break, and a lot happened. Secretary of State Chuck Gray talked at length about how the real issue, and his view, is that she filed a post election audit with his office that you know, he said is either fraudulent or she didn't do one at all, and and that was the real issue to him, is this system that's supposed to be a check on the veracity of the election results, and somehow she missed, ignored, lied about, or otherwise didn't catch 21 errors…Chuck Gray complained about Governor Mark Gordon, whose declination letter where he declined to pursue a removal of Office Action said that, you know that that declination letter did not cite the post election audit. And Chuck Gray was like, this is the issue. Why did the governor not cite it? And Governor Gordon, in response, His office said, Well, that's because the statute only allows us to act upon a locals concern. And Chuck gray is not a Weston county voter, so we had to confine our analysis to the locals filed complaint.” Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock could face up to $100 in fines and up to six months in jail for not complying with the subpoena, and if a prosecutor takes up a case against her for failing to appear for the subpoena. Read the story HERE. –  Dozens of outraged residents gathered at the Albany County courthouse on Monday to witness the arraignment of Stuart Schmidt, who is accused of ramming a wild horse with an ATV which lead to it being euthanized. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that even though this was an arraignment, many people came out to show their support for wild horses and other animals. “Now this was an arraignment hearing, which means there's not any arguments made. All this individual does is come before a judge and say whether they are guilty or not guilty. In this case, he pled not guilty. But regardless of this, even this 15 minute interaction with the judge, there was about 30 community members in attendance, and I spoke to some of the people there who were telling me that they showed up today to show support for animals. These are people that feel strongly that what Schmidt is accused of is a pretty terrible thing, running down an animal with an ATV. They said they don't want to see anything like this happen again. And a lot of the people there were calling for increased penalties…So cruelty to animals here in Wyoming, the maximum penalty that you can receive for that is two years in jail and about a $5,000 fine. But some of community members were calling for fines as high as 15, to $20,000 potentially five years in jail, a lot harsher of a sentence.” Schmidt is accused of charging at the wild horse with an ATV.. He is facing one count of felony cruelty to wildlife and is out of jail on an unsecured bond. Read the full story HERE. –  A ranch manager claims that a Gillette elk hunter who says he shot the bull of a lifetime on public land trespassed across roughly six miles of private land to get there. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Terrance J. Monger was cited by a Wyoming Game and Fish game warden for hunting, trapping, fishing or collecting antlers or horns on private land without permission. “A ranch manager in the same area reached out to us and said, Well, there's more to the story. We are alleging that he trespassed across our property and neighbors property to get there. It's, you know, we have these sections of public land in Wyoming that are what we call land locked. In other words, they are surrounded by private land, and the only way to get to them is through private land. And so that's what this ranch manager said, is that, yeah, these guys shot the bull on public land, but they had to cross our ranch and another ranch to get there so they trespass, and we did check in court records do show that a person with the same name on the same day was cited for trespassing while hunting, which is in hunting trespass is different than criminal trespass. Criminal trespass, a Sheriff's deputy has to investigate that a hunting trust pass a Game and Fish Game Warden can, can, can investigate that, and it's a little bit different charge. It carries a stiffer penalty. And the other thing you have to bear in mind is land for the hunting. Landowners are under no obligation to give any warnings or post their property, it is the hunter's responsibility, 100% all the time to know where they are.” The citation was issued for the alleged violation on Sept. 18 and was filed Monday in circuit court. Read the full story HERE. – A pilot was hurt Saturday when his aerobatic kit plane flipped after striking a dirt berm during an emergency landing in an alfalfa field northeast of the Torrington Municipal Airport shortly after takeoff. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that the single-engine plane was en route from an airshow in Spanish Fork, Utah, to its headquarters near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when the accident happened around 4 p.m. “They stopped at the touring airport to refuel. All four planes refueled. They took off. The lead plane, however, almost immediately after it took off, began descending, losing altitude, probably some kind of an engine problem. The pilot tried to make it back to the airport, but couldn't, ended up in an alfalfa field. Were turned over, and he was injured, had abrasions and cuts, but no broken bones, and he was taken to local Torrington Hospital, where he was later released. And the cause of the investigations that are is being looked at by the National Transportation Safety Board. The pilot, whose name has not been released, had taken off after refueling at Torrington Municipal Airport when his plane encountered a mechanical problem less than four minutes later.” The pilot, whose name has not been released, had taken off after refueling at the Torrington Municipal Airport. His plane encountered a mechanical problem less than four minutes later. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – State Rep. Bill Allemand of Casper, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that neither he nor his family own any land that has been leased to wind energy developers. Now Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that was a response to Bar Nunn Public Works Director Dustin Smart, who claimed Allemand is hypocritically leasing land to wind developers while at the same time showing staunch opposition to public subsidies for nuclear storage projects.  “Now, this is a huge accusation, because Bill Allemand is a very big opponent of nuclear energy developments, and this sort of argument kind of weakens his stance a bit. So I spoke to the representative today, and I asked him about these accusation which he flatly denied. He said that he does not own a single acre of land anywhere in the United States, and he said that his family doesn't own any land in the counties where these wind turbine developments were. He said that the argument that was made against him was using AI, and he argued that this person from bar none wasn't exactly backing up their sources with any evidence. So he feels strongly that that is not the case. And Cowboy State daily did do some digging today. We couldn't find any records directly associated with Bill Allen himself, although what we did find was a land trust that is owned by a cousin of Bill all men's father, which would make him a third cousin. So it's a very distant relationship, and they are not involved financially in any way.” Smart claimed via social medi

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, September 29th. I’m Mac Watson, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – Why would you pay about 2 mill for a used Gulfstream jet when you can possibly acquire a Fairchild C-119L Flying Boxcar military transport plane for $150? Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Big Horn County is selling the aircraft, mainly from the World War II and Cold War eras, after the Wyoming Supreme Court gave the go-ahead. “So none of these aircraft are air worthy. They date back to the World War Two, Cold War era, and a lot of them have been used for parts over the years to manage similar planes that are still in the air. Big Horn county managed to get several of them. They're 16 up for auction through a convoluted, convoluted legal thing, but basically, someone who owned the planes wasn't paying their rent, and they didn't pay their rent, so they seized the assets, and now they're auctioning them off. So the thing is, you can buy some of these planes. The starting bids for some of them are as low as $25 and up to upwards of $500 to catch is you can buy it for cheap, but you have to move it or disassemble it on your own.” If you, or someone you know who would be interested in bidding on these aviation treasures, look up the website Public Surplus. Read the story HERE. – When former Casper resident, Sgt. Thomas L. Cotner disappeared without a trace in the Pacific during World War II, his family was left with unanswered questions like: “What happened to the B-17 that Tom and his crew members were flying in after returning from a successful bombing mission. Now, Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that, eight decades later, a man named Justin Taylor has some answers for the Cotner family. “Pacific Wrecks is in a unique position, where it's out and about in the Pacific doing active research. And Justin Taylor was in another part of New Guinea when he heard about this discovery made by a logging crew that was building a road through a really remote and high elevation place in New Britain Island, New Guinea. And so he rushed to the scene. So that was really fortuitous that that he happened to be within reach and could get there within days. And then he's armed with all of these serial numbers for all the B seventeens that saw action in that part of the Pacific Theater. So he was the perfect guy, right place, right time, matched the wreckage, and then started doing these amazing deep dive research projects into each service member.” Sgt. Cotner was deployed to the Pacific and earned recognition for bravery in August of 1942. A month later, he and the other eight members of his B-17 Flying Fortress crew disappeared.  Read the story HERE. –  Wyoming’s executive branch has told the state’s highest court that if it doesn’t reverse a judge’s order expanding the legislature’s public school funding expectations to include a computer for every student and other provisions, it’ll amount to letting schools, not the legislature, determine school funding in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland says the Tuesday filing by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office in its appeal of the Wyoming Education Association’s school-funding lawsuit is the latest in this three-year saga. “It was way back like February that Judge Perlier said, Okay, you guys need to reassess how you fund education. Needs to be one computing device for each kid. Needs to be elementary school level counselors and fill in the school lunch gaps. And so that case is now on appeal in the Wyoming Supreme Court, with some kind of barbed back and forth between the public school advocates and the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, where Wyoming is saying things like, why do you guys claim to be doing a good job when you're renewing your accreditation, but you claim that you can't do a good job because of our funding when you're suing us.” WEA sued in 2022. A handful of school districts have joined the lawsuit. Read the full story HERE. – After a four-year quest, elk hunter Terrance Monger got what he considers the bull elk of a lifetime — a behemoth of an animal, shot on public land in Wyoming with a general season hunting tag. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports, the Gillette man says from the first moment he saw the bull in northeast Wyoming’s Hunt Area 129 four seasons ago, he was obsessed. “A bull in a 370 inch class is pretty darn big for Wyoming. the odds against this guy getting this thing in. The icing on the cake is that he chased the same bull for four years before he got it. Every time he went out, it just had a way of circling him or getting into the thick timber. Just evaded it for four years. And he finally, after four years of pursuing the elk, he got it this, this fall, this month in a kind of an early season rifle hunt there.” Monger tells Cowboy State Daily that it was pure tenacity and refusing to give up that helped him bag the animal.  Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – A man from Star Valley was hiking in the beautiful badlands near Kemmerer,  when he noticed a bone-white streak jutting out an embankment of brown earth. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that dinosaur bones have been found all over Wyoming, but this one is different. “The foot was found in southwest Wyoming, and it was found in an Eocene paleosol. Now, the Eocene is about 50 to 55 million years ago. It's right after the time the dinosaurs got wiped out by the asteroid. But this was not rock. It was a loose soil from that time, and the foot appears to have tumbled into it, because even though it looks like a fossil in situ, still in the rock where it was preserved, it's actually a modern foot, you can still see some of the connective tissue that tumbled into this loose soil that happens to be around 55 million years old. So it's interesting in circumstance, but not interesting in actuality, because it doesn't belong where it is”  Hiker James Sanderson sent an email to the Wyoming State Geological Survey telling them of his find. They responded by telling Sanderson that their specialist is waiting to connect with paleontologists from the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, who will be looking at it more closely in the field. Read the full story HERE. – Curt Gowdy State Park is a 35-mile trail system that attracts close to 600,000 visitors per year. And with most being from Colorado, Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Wyoming legislators want all users to help pay for the trails they're loving, but “greenies” would pay more. “Certain folks in Wyoming use the term “greenie” to identify Coloradans, and it's because of that iconic green and white license plate that shows the outline of the mountains. Well, you see a lot of those license plates in places like Curt Gowdy State Park, which is increasingly popular among mountain bikers…Well, now comes a proposal to charge a trail fee similar to what's charged to snowmobilers and ATV years to help pay their way and make sure that trails are maintained and that it that these places across Wyoming, including this new, amazing mountain bike trail up on to pass that recently was renovated, and sounds like a great downhill, seven full miles. If riders access through a state park, this law, which is just a proposed bill…might slap a $20 per car. If the proposed bill passes, monies collected would be used for signage, policing, and bathroom maintenance. Read the full story HERE.  – Mining has always been a dangerous occupation, especially coal mining. But back in the 1920’s Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that even though The Frontier mine blast became the second worst mining disaster in the state and the Sublet, Wyoming explosion the fifth, the number of fatalities could’ve been a lot worse in the 1924 accident. “What's interesting to me is that the men in the first explosion, you know, there was men that survived by just staying inside the mine. They had the thought to stay inside the mine and until the ventilation improved, so they blocked their air passages to not allow gas to get into where they were at, and so because of that, they spent hours in the mine, but they ended up surviving.” After the two tragedies, the State Coal Mine Inspectors of Wyoming report emphasized that no matches or smoking material were allowed in the mine because of coal dust and flammable gas.  Read the full story HERE. – And Robert Redford was an iconic actor who, like many people, fell in love with The West. But as Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports, Wyoming had a special allure for the Oscar-winning actor and director. “So what Robert Redford did is he immersed himself in the wild west. I think this set him apart from many of the actors of his day, and even today, he visited where the outlaws lived, slept, played. He was right there in the middle of it, and he experienced so many of the different things, from the cold of the night to sitting at the bar where the outlaws congregated…And so what Redford really valued about Wyoming was the outlaw West, and that's what he explored, and he did it in a very real and raw way.” Redford had spent time over the years immersing himself in his breakout roles of both Butch Cassidy and mountain man Jeremiah “Liver-Eating” Johnson. He passed away at 89 on September 16th. 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

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, September 26th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Obama- and Biden-era rules around a common abortion-inducing drug, after attorneys general of 22 states, including Wyoming, urged the nation’s top health officials to take a closer look at adverse events linked to the drug. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke with the Wyoming Attorney General and reports many petitions like these come across his desk, but this one caught his attention. “Attorney General Keith Kautz told me, look, when I get these, I look and see if this is even in Wyoming's interests and if there's merit to it. This study is from a partisan group, but it claims to have fairly reliable footing, sourcing claims across some 800,000 abortion cases. And what it says is that the adverse events that are associated with this drug are way higher than those listed on the label. Basically saying it's being passed off as less dangerous than it actually is.” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary responded to the Republican AGs’ July 31 letter with their own, which surfaced publicly this week. Read the story HERE. – A body believed to be that of a 58-year-old elite endurance athlete and Cheyenne resident, James “Dingo” Dominguez, was found Wednesday.  Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schewbke reports Dominguez appears to have drowned in July when a specialized rowboat he was in capsized during a major storm on Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. “He's an elite endurance athlete, a former Marine, member of the Navy, worked for Homeland Security, and so he's also part of an organization called or word bound, which is an organization dedicated to rowing 16,000 miles across three oceans for charity. It's organization in Cheyenne, which is, has a has, like, there's just like three of them. So it's just like a small, probably informal organization, but they plan to row 16,000 miles between, starting in November. They're going to go across portion of the Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico, and finish up in 2027.” His identical twin brother Jerry Dominguez told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the discovery ends a grueling two months for the family.  Read the story HERE. –  For more than a century, those in need of medical care in Sublette County were forced to drive more than 70 miles to get to a hospital. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker says that has changed now that Sublette County Health Hospital has opened its doors. “This is a huge impact on people that need regular visits to the doctor. I also spoke to the owner of a cancer awareness nonprofit who told me that this facility specifically is going to mean a lot of really great things for women in the area. They're going to be able to get mammograms, they're going to be able to get the preventative treatment that they need and hopefully prevent some pretty bad health effects down the line. It was the only county in Wyoming not to have a hospital.” Senator John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman joined Gov. Mark Gordon in Pinedale on Thursday to cut a ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of the hospital. Read the full story HERE. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced workers have detected bird flu in commercial turkey flocks in South Dakota in the past month, leading to the killing of more than 400,000 birds. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Protection Service’s website shows eight confirmed flocks of birds in South Dakota and one backyard flock affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza. “From the USDA perspective, yeah, this is a deal that could become a bigger deal. You know, 400,000 turkeys are a lot of turkeys. Here in Wyoming, we don't have any commercial poultry growers, but we do have backyard flocks. And so I talked to a couple of farmers, one in South Dakota on the Pine Pine Ridge Reservation, and another in eastern Wyoming, and both of them have turkeys that they just put out there in free range. The woman who owns the farm in Wyoming said that.” A total of almost 440,000 birds have been culled and other outbreaks during the past month have been detected in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Montana. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Laramie County Community College is considering a name change. But a name change would be costly, in the six figure range, but would better represent what the college offers, including various bachelor's degrees. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean says it would also clear up confusion, because the college isn’t in the town of Laramie, but in the Laramie County city of Cheyenne. “In looking at what contributes to a student from Colorado or Utah coming to Wyoming at L Triple C and what discourages them, that was one of the things they found, is that the name is confusing. The students don't realize that it's actually closer to their home than they think in Colorado, for example, and that's a factor in their decision. Why they might pick a college this is close to home. I can, you know, still maintain contact with my family while going to school. They also don't realize, because of the community in the name, they don't realize there are Bachelor of Science degrees, that there's a residence hall, that there's an orchestra, that there are all these things that are more regional college would offer.” School officials say the process will take about 18 months to decide on the new moniker. Read the full story HERE. – Albany County is seeking $175 thousand dollars from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security to create an anti-terrorism task force. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker spoke with Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans on Thursday, who says that the county is seeking special tactical response training, emergency communications equipment, armored personnel protection and other equipment.  “This is largely an initiative to get ahead of these threats, to be preventative, rather than reactionary. Now these funds are going to come from the federal level, and one county commissioner, Pete Gosar, told me that he's concerned that some of these major cuts to the federal budget could impact his ability to receive this grant. Nonetheless, they're still going to go ahead and try to get this terror Task Force off the ground, and hopefully big things are coming soon to Albany County.” County officials won’t give specifics on what potential threats there could be for Albany County. Read the full story HERE.  –  When hunters kill big game animals, there’s a lot left over once the meat has been taken: hide, bones, guts and such. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports, to combat careless and illegal carcass disposal, Wyoming Game and Fish have installed carcass dumpsters at several locations in the Sheridan/Buffalo area. “Game and Fish is concerned that it can, you know, accelerate the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, which is that condition that is 100% fatal and infected most deer and elk. So what game and fish has done is they increasingly start to put these carcass dumps dumpsters around so encouraging hunters, rather than just toss your carcass anywhere and everywhere, which is illegal, by the way, you're allowed to leave a carcass at a kill site, but you're not allowed to just take it and throw it hither and yon. You're obligated to take it to a landfill or something, and so game of fish is just trying to make that easier. You know, the old saying that the best way to get people to do something is to make it convenient for them. And so hunters have a place where they can go and dump their carcasses in these dumpsters that are far enough removed” Game and Fish says the response from hunters and citizens has been positive, with the most heavily used dumpsters averaging approximately 7 tons of carcasses during the hunting season. Read the full story HERE. – And Cowboy State Daily’s Mac Watson has our final story for today.   There’s a newly-discovered comet streaking across the night sky, and any Wyomingite with a good pair of binoculars can see it for the next month.  The “SWAN Comet,” as it has been nicknamed, was discovered by an amateur astronomer on Sept. 11. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi says this is an extraordinarily rare event. “This comet was found by an amateur astronomer, and then once they alerted other observatories, they checked out the same spot and they saw the same thing. So it's we don't know that much more about it at this point. But one of the things that is interesting is that this is the third time in human history, as far as we know, that we've detected a comet that is not from our solar system. It's from outside of our solar system, which is where most of our comets come from, which suggests that our solar system moved through an interstellar field of debris and pick some things up. So it's the third time in seven years that we found a comet that didn't originate from our neighborhood.” Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator at the University of Wyoming, encourages Wyomingites to find the SWAN Comet while it’s visible. It might be a while before there’s another comet we can see from Earth. Read the full story HERE. – And that’s today’s news! As this is my final newscast for Cowboy State Daily, I want to thank you, the audience, for continuing to tune in to our daily video news, supporting our mission to bring you the stories that matter to Wy

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, September 25th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – Gov. Mark Gordon on Wednesday said anticipated budget shortages precipitated by a 25% property tax cut are one of several critical issues county and local officials must confront during the coming budget session. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports the governor made the remarks while addressing the 2025 Wyoming Association of County Officers meeting in Rock Springs, a gathering of county officials from across the state. “I spoke to some commissioners who were saying that they're concerned this is going to begin impacting local services such as emergency ambulances, such as trash pickup, such as community events, and they were really worried that, without finding some other source of funding, that this was going to continue to impact them in a really serious way. I spoke to one commissioner from Hot Springs County, Tom Ryan, the chairman, who told me that he was concerned that all these cuts are going to make his county more dependent on state dollars, rather than these local dollars, which he argued is going to have a big effect down the line.” The governor acknowledged having flown into town through a thick fog that morning, which he likened to the coming budget concerns facing Wyoming’s elected officials. Read the full story HERE. – In 2021 when YouTube announced it was censoring anti-vaccine content, Scott Clem had a vague sense of a brewing conspiracy and that something wasn’t right. What the former Wyoming representative said on Facebook at the time, was that YouTube’s new policy was “the end of free speech.”   According to the information available at the time, he was wrong. But on Tuesday, Alphabet, the company overseeing YouTube and Google, took accountability for caving to government pressure. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to Clem about his hunch. “Back in 2021 Scott Clem, a former Wyoming State Representative, posted that YouTube's new covid and election censorship policies were the end of free speech and cowboy state daily, we were quick to correct him, like no private platforms can do what they want…I circled back to Scott Clem on Wednesday, like, okay, so you intuited that this was a free speech issue when we were around to critique you. What do you have to say today? And he said, Yeah, I kind of thought the government was behind it all along…   Clem told Cowboy State Daily, people should still be vigilant to defend freedom of speech no matter which party is in power. Read the full story HERE. – A nuclear fuel manufacturing company explained Wednesday why it required nondisclosure agreements with Gillette city officials before discussing a proposed facility that could bring more than 200 jobs to Campbell County. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the public is concerned about the secrecy surrounding the discussions between the company and the city. “So there's been a controversy in Gillette over whether or not the city and other officials were doing things behind closed doors that the public should know about when it comes to BW XT coming to Gillette. BW XT wants to clear the air around that they're having a public hearing on Tuesday next week, and they want to introduce themselves to the town and really explain their ambitions. They want to build tri so fuel and try so fuel could be the fuel of the future, if you really believe in small nuclear reactors and micro reactors and so the public, they have questions. Here's a chance for them to be answered and to learn more about what could be an opportunity to bring as many as as many as 200 high paying jobs to Gillette.” Joshua Parker, director of business development for BWXT Advanced Technologies, said the company needed confidentiality agreements to protect commercially sensitive information about the size and scope of its proposed TRISO fuel fabrication facility. –  Track inspectors are just one of the many cogs in the safety wheel that keeps railway cars moving across the tracks across Wyoming. But former legislator and retired railroad worker Stan Blake says continuing rail layoffs, coupled with more automation will mean more train accidents in Wyoming - like the one that resulted in a fiery explosion last week between Bosler and Rock River. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke with Blake, who said he’s concerned about automated systems. “The American Association of railroads says that these automatic track inspectors can do the job and do the job better than people, but a lot of the Union reps in the retired railroad worker I talked to Stan Blake said that's actually not the case. That there are defects that humans notice before they become defects these ATI miss these things until they become a problem where people can see them before, so that people eyeballs on the track are your ounce of prevention before you need 10 pounds of derailment cure, right? What Stan is seeing is more and more they're coming to replace what humans have done, and he doesn't think they're ready for prime time. He's not the only one.” The Association of American Railroads has asked to waive more than 80 railroad safety regulations, all at a time when the industry has dramatically reduced workforce levels by more than 30%. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. –  On Wednesday, Gov. Mark Gordon told Cowboy State Daily that he remains a proponent of wind energy developments in Wyoming but recognizes constituent concerns. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that the governor explained the issue is like walking a political tightrope as he and other government leaders try to balance the state’s energy needs with residents’desire to keep Wyoming the way it is.  “While the governor said that he's in favor of energy developments here in Wyoming, he recognizes pushback from locals on issues such as wind developments that can sometimes become an eyesore. Now, he said he's in favor of energy in the state, but specifically mentioned how minerals such as oil and gas are certainly more preferable, sometimes, in some of these cases, to wind. However, he argued that some of these local jurisdictions don't have many other ways to make money on their own, other than leasing some of their land to these wind developments.” The Trump administration has been a vocal opponent of wind turbines, while in Wyoming, a wind farm project voted down in Laramie County earlier this month continues to stir debate. Read the full story HERE.   Colorado’s ongoing wolf reintroduction program is facing new wrinkles, with lingering accusations that wolves from Oregon infected with a parasitic disease were released in the state.   However, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife claims that Hydatid disease was already present in Colorado.  “I saw the documents from a veterinary forensic veterinary lab in Kansas that tested some stool samples from some wolves that came from Oregon and were and were reintroduced into Colorado that they tested positive for Hydatid disease. And of course, this is, you know, the part of the protocol of the wolf reintroduction program is, when they bring these animals in, they're supposed to put them through a series of treatments and either treat them or vaccinate them for this whole array of disease, including high data disease, which is basically, it's like a tapeworm, parasitic disease. It's really nasty stuff. It can get into an animal system, you know, a canine, cattle, elk. It can even in rare cases, it can even infect humans.” Wolves brought in from Oregon, and later British Columbia, were treated for that and a number of other diseases before being released.   Read the full story HERE. – Jackson photographer Savannah Rose already has a portfolio filled with once-in-a-lifetime shots of Wyoming’s wildlife, but an image she captured this week has already drawn the admiration and envy of wildlife photographers worldwide.Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke with Rose about getting the perfect shot.  “Her goal was to find elk, and she found elk in Grand Teton. She saw this bull acting up. So she got herself in position, hoping to get the shot that she wanted. And as it happened, the elk rose to the crest of the hill where she wanted him to be. She threw herself on the ground to get the angle she wanted. She adjusted her camera settings very quickly, knowing she had seconds to get the shot. She aimed up, had the Grand Teton framed in his antlers perfectly, and got the shot while she was on the ground. And that's the dedication it takes if you want to be a top tier wildlife photographer.  While traversing Grand Teton National Park, Rose captured an incredible image of a “royal” bull elk, standing at the crest of a hill, with the Grand Teton in the background framed by its antlers.” Rose has worked as a professional wildlife photographer since moving to Jackson ten years ago. Read the full story HERE. –  And now, Cowboy State Daily’s Mac Watson brings us our last story for today. —   As fans of CJ Box’s intrepid mystery-solving game warden Joe Pickett count down the days until the release of his 26th Pickett adventure, the Wyoming author dropped a bombshell on Wednesday’s Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that two literary worlds will collide — Cassie Dewell and Pickett are going to cross paths. “It's like the Marvel Universe, his two big, popular series are g

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, September 24th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom… Brought to you by Wyoming Interventional and Vascular Associates. WIVA offers the best solution for treating tired, aching and swollen legs, at Wyoming's only IAC-accredited vein facility. With virtually no downtime and minimal risks, if you’re ready for relief, see what WIVA can do for you. Schedule a consultation at Casper Medical Imaging dot net, forward slash WIVA. – The mother of the Byron woman who fatally shot her four daughters and herself in February filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday in Wyoming’s federal court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Rhonda Coplen, mother of Tranyelle Harshman, filed a civil lawsuit against Cody-based Sage Psychiatry Services LLC, and against advanced practice registered nurse Krista Blough on claims that Blough sent Harshman home with ketamine. “Ketamine is a dissociative drug that it can carry risks of hallucinations and other issues, and the lawsuit alleges that the standard of care is to do this in a medically controlled environment, to take this drug and work through your issues while someone is supervising you or you're you're someplace safe. So but of course, Tranyelle Harshman reportedly was taking the drug at home and then shot her four daughters and herself. The toxicology report did find it in her system following her autopsy. So I mean, according to her mother's lawsuit, she believes that this was not the safe or best way to prescribe and to send her with it, and she believes that it's a cause of Daniel's death and the little girl's deaths.” Harshman, 32, shot her four young daughters, called 911, then turned the gun on herself February 10th in her home in Byron. Read the full story HERE. – Concerns about a cross-dressing custodian at Crest Hill Elementary School in Casper came to a head Monday during a meeting of the Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports there were calls for resignations, a state legislator was escorted from the microphone, and an apology was issued as well. “There was an apology by the board member, but the board chair also called out the state representative who initially spoke to the board…Two weeks ago, and that state rep said that the state rep did not reflect the situation correctly. The State Rep tried to correct that, and police showed up at the table where she sat trying to correct the board chair, and she was escorted away from the table.” Even after Vice Chair Dana Howie apologized and explained her social media post related to an elementary school parent’s concerns about the custodian, Board Chair Kevin Christopherson complained about internet and media misinformation and urged people to avoid them and get “recentered.” Natrona County Schools still contend the custodian isn’t breaking any laws. Read the full story HERE. – Yellowstone National Park is Wyoming’s top tourist destination, but it’s also a mostly pristine habitat for wild animals. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that means visitors will often see nature play out in all its glory and tragedy. Such was the case earlier this month, when several grizzlies battled each other over an elk carcass until one bear used its brute strength to drag it out of a mud hole in Yellowstone, in clear view of visitors.  “It's just one of those incidents that so awesomely reminds everybody that Yellowstone National Park, it's a tourist trap in its own way, but it's also a natural environment. It's where bad things happen for no real reason. In this case, an elk got stuck in a muddy pond, couldn't get itself out. It could have been there for days suffering and slow, agonizing death. The National Park Service made the decision to intervene by euthanizing the elk, and then a bunch of bears saw it as an opportunity, and they became a combative carcass for them, so they were fighting over that as they're trying to get nutrients for the winter.” The scene unfolded at a spot called “No Moose Pond,” in the eastern half of Yellowstone. Park rangers say that there’s no way to save an elk in that situation because it would be dangerous for the people and the animal. Read the full story HERE. – Now that the debate over whether to pass more stringent restrictions on noisy vehicles in Cheyenne is finished, the focus shifts to how to enforce the city’s controversial new ordinance. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackson Walker reports that residents aired their opinions before the Cheyenne City Council on the new ordinance which passed on Monday. How exactly can the police department enforce an excessive sound law? “The ordinance is intended to curb loud vehicles that tear through town at late hours of the night, such as crotch rockets or maybe very large trucks…presumably, police are going to be using some sort of technology to measure the decibels. Although this wasn't included in the ordinance, it will probably be left up to the Cheyenne Police Department, although there was some talk of sound equipped cameras that could come into use in the future.”  Residents argued the ordinance could drive away young residents and could negatively impact car and motorcycle enthusiasts who modify the sound of their engines. Read the full story HERE. – I’ll be back with more news, right after this. – Once the headquarters of the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company, the Triangle C Ranch near Dubois has been a dude ranch for the last 93 years.  The property, which is entirely within the Shoshone National Forest, is now on the market, listing for $4.95 million dollars. And Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own this slice of Wyoming history.  “This is just the latest in kind of a wave of legacy ranches that have come up for sale in Wyoming… There's the Wind River, the upper Wind River’s right out basically your back door. You can go fish for cutthroat trout, brown trout… It's been operated by a pretty famous horseman from Australia, Christopher Cox… and given it really a name for horseback riding. But it's not just suitable for horseback riding. It's really suitable as a base camp of adventure in the Dubois area.”  While there’s no deeded land in the offering, the property includes all the buildings and equipment, as well as the Forest Service leases, making it a turnkey dude ranch opportunity for the right buyer. Read the full story HERE. – Fans of one of Yellowstone National Park’s most popular wolves are mourning her death. The young female, 1479F, was reportedly shot legally by a hunter this month after straying out of the park and into Montana. But the incident has caused controversy. Cowboy State Daily’s Outdoors Reporter, Mark Heinz, says that there is a case to be made for both sides. “I think, a substantive argument to be made about questioning hunting wolves right on, you know, just past the park boundary, because, you know, these folks are saying these wolves are basic. They're so used to being around people and people not being a threat. How fair is that? But on the other side, there's also a good substantive argument that, you know, the state's management policies are the state management policies. You can't expect the state, the states, to adhere to federal policies. How was that fair?” Wolf 1479F was about 2 and a half years old and was reportedly killed by a hunter last week. Requests for confirmation and details of the wolf’s death from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and the National Park Service weren’t answered by publication time. Read the full story HERE. – During a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee last Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman discussed with FBI Director Kash Patel recent efforts to make reservations, such as the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, a priority in the federal fight on drugs and crime. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the FBI Director said drug cartels are dropping their products from the air onto tribal reservations across the nation, and it’s time for federal authorities to launch counter-drone operations. “Kash Patel testified before a House committee last week, and they mostly grilled him about the Epstein client list, but representative Harriet Hegeman asked him about law enforcement on tribal reservations. Wyoming, of course, has the Wind River a sizable tribal reservation that's had some reported drug trafficking…In a Judiciary Subcommittee, experts testified that cartels have 1000s of drones, and they'll attack their foes with them. I think the counter drone activity that Kash Patel is asking for funding and support for is going to be more like a detection, a disabling sort of airborne tech wars.” Hageman pointed to the recent marshaling of around 100 agents to the Wind River Indian Reservation under interim U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Darin Smith, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the seat. Read the full story HERE. – Two and a half weeks after the University of Wyoming’s marching band had its big moment at Empower Field at Mile High canceled by lightning, the Denver Broncos are extending a new invitation to the band’s seniors.  It won’t, however, involve performing. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that on Tuesday, the Broncos invited the seniors from the UW Western Thunder Marching Band to attend the Oct. 19 game against the New York Giants as their special guests. “It turned out the Broncos have all their half times booked already, as you would expect, many NFL teams too. So that was not a possibility… the Broncos sent the band director an email that said, you know, one, we are going to invite you back to perform next season. We just don't have any spots now. But then for the graduating seniors, they're not going to be able to do it… So what the Broncos did is they invited all the seniors in the band to the Giants game