Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, December 19, 2025

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, December 19th.  I’m Mac Watson.  

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Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday he's appealing a ruling that voided a wind lease on state lands. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that how language is interpreted in this case is one of the key components.

“He said it's it's a bigger issue about how we read language across Wyoming's, contracts, laws, rules, where, when you have this is the definition, including this, this and this Kautz said that that word ‘including’ should broaden the definition by lumping other things into it, whereas the the ruling out of Converse County District Court said including means it has to include that thing. And so Kautz said, ‘Honestly, the way we read language in Wyoming is at stake, and I have to appeal this.’”

Converse County District Court Judge Scott Peasley on Dec. 5 struck down the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners' approval of the lease. 

Read the full story HERE.

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The 144 mph wind gust on Mount Coffin in Lincoln County on Wednesday appears to be the strongest wind gust ever recorded in Wyoming. But Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports if there's a wind gust in the mountains and no one's there to feel it, does it really set a record for the strongest wind in Wyoming?

“Mount coffin probably just secured its spot as the windiest place in Wyoming because the 144 mile per hour wind gust was recorded by a sensor that was set along the mountain ridge that is Mount Coffin. But that's also where the previous record holder, as far as we know, was also set back in 2017 because the highest wind gusts ever recorded in Central and Western Wyoming was a gust of 165 miles per hour, also on Mount coffin. It's a little hard to say if that's the ultimate state record holder, because wind records aren't kept as meticulously as temperature records or anything like that. You've got different sensors made by different companies in different places that can skew and make it harder to verify the readings. But nobody's denying the veracity that there was a 144 mile per hour wind gust on Mount coffin on Wednesday.”

At 11,255 feet, Mount Coffin is the second-tallest peak in the Wyoming Range. It's also gained a reputation as notoriously windy, with gusts over 120 mph recorded there last winter. 

Read the full story HERE.

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For the second time in as many years, a bipartisan coalition introduced a bill in the U.S. House to ban using snowmobiles to run over wolves and other predators on federal lands. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports if the bill passes, it would only affect certain parts of Wyoming.

“If this bill gains traction and it makes it through Congress and it passes and President Trump signs it into law, it would apply to federal land. It would not affect the practice one way or the other, on state controlled land or private property would just be federal land. Of course, there's quite a bit of that in Wyoming. Most of the time when people are spending time outdoors here, they're on land that's controlled by the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service.”

The “Snowmobiles Aren’t Weapons Act” (SAW), introduced Thursday, was inspired by a February 2024 incident near Daniel, Wyoming. Local resident Cody Roberts allegedly ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, captured, and abused it before killing it behind the Green River Bar in Daniel.

Read the full story HERE.

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Families scrambled to evacuate themselves and their pets after 70 mph winds sparked a fire south of Cheyenne on Wednesday night threatening two subdivisions. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that many residents were caught off guard and unprepared.

“It's a couple of subdivisions worth of homes where people just had to suddenly flee. People forgot medications. They walked out the door without coats. They left their dog leashes behind. Most of the time they had their cell phones with them…but I think it had everybody thinking, you know, what do I need to do better next time? Because if this happens again, they now see you don't have any time to think about it. You don't have any time to prepare, you know, and get snacks and changes of clothing and medications and dog leashes and coats and all of those types of things, much less any precious photos, things you know that are irreplaceable and sentimental.”

Laramie County Fire District #1 Chief of Operations George Marcott tells  Cowboy State Daily that getting the fire under control took the 100 or so firefighters around 30-to-45 minutes. But it was another couple of hours of effort before the situation was safe enough for civilians to return to the area.

Read the full story HERE.

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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….

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President Donald Trump took steps on Thursday toward downgrading pot in its federal classification, saying more people should have access to medical marijuana. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the move could push Wyoming to do the same.

“Trump is saying, hey, let's move marijuana from one to three. That way we can research and potentially expand medical access to it. And what Wyoming has in our laws, we have a trigger that says, ‘Okay, if the Feds change their schedule, we gotta change our schedule, or our Attorney General has to give a reason why he won't and hold a hearing and then make his decision.’”

If Trump’s administration completes all the steps to move marijuana from “schedule I” where it’s now categorized to “schedule III,” it would start a 30-day clock for Wyoming to either do the same, or to give a reason why it won’t.

Read the full story HERE.

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New U.S. wildlife chief Brian Nesvik told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that it could take another two years to work through an analysis of the data on grizzlies and reach a final decision regarding delisting. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz spoke to Director Nesvik and reports that there’s more than just removing an animal off of the endangered species list.

“He said probably sometime within the next couple years or so, they're going to be able to go through their final analysis of all the science and data that's been collected and come to some sort of decision. He said that they seem to be kind of tracking towards delisting, but he said if and when that happens, it could take different forms, like there it might be such a thing that Grizzlies are delisted in some areas and not in others.”

Grizzlies once roamed across a vast swath of North America.

By the early 1970s, they’d been all but killed off in the Lower 48 and pushed back into a tiny patch of habitat, mostly in or near Yellowstone National Park.

They were placed under federal Endangered Species protection in 1975 and began to recover.

Read the full story HERE.

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A mold-infested Casper home with a failing foundation, once owned by a former councilman, is headed to auction with no inspections allowed. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the former owners of the home have taken to social media and are warning bidders it could be a financial and health disaster.

“The ex-owners, the people that left the house, they posted on social media warning people, ‘Do not bid for this house.’ This is a house from hell. That's what the post said. The whole concern is that somebody else is going to buy this house thinking they're getting a deal or a great fixer upper, and instead, they're going to lose their shirt like the former, like the couple who owned the house before them did.”

The house, which can be found on the Zillow website, appears to be listed under a real estate auction site, which states the starting bid is “coming soon.” 

Read the full story HERE.

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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.