Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, December 26, 2025

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, December 26th.  I’m Mac Watson. 

 

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A month-long search for a missing 11-month-old Ten Sleep boy ended in tragedy Tuesday in New Mexico. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that authorities say the baby’s non-custodial mother, who had disappeared with the child, shot and killed him as authorities attempted to negotiate a handoff.

“Madeline Daley, the mother of Basil, absconded with him following a court hearing where the father was given temporary custody. She had been on the run for five weeks, and a tipster actually located her in Silver City, New Mexico and alerted authorities. As authorities closed in on her, they were negotiating, and during the course of the negotiations, Madeline shot and killed the 11-month old.”

According to the Grant County Sheriff, the 35-year-old Daly, is being held at the Grant County Detention Center in Silver City, New Mexico, on a charge of first-degree murder.

Read the full story HERE.

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Unseasonably warm weather has kept some of Wyoming’s grizzlies out late. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that normally, bears are hibernating this time of year, but always be bear-aware.

“I did talk to some people that, yeah, we're still seeing a few bears out. There's tracks around. It's mostly the kind of bears that would be out at odd times anyway. In other words, mostly juvenile males and then big, large mature males. And it's important to bear in mind, and we've written about this before at Cowboy State Daily, that it's perfectly feasible for bears to come out at any time. And again, it's usually those big males. They might get a little bit restless in the winter, and they don't tend not to stay out for very long, but they will sometimes venture out in the middle of the winter just to go, maybe check things out, grab a snack or whatever, then go back to bed.”

Spring-like temperatures have kept some grizzlies out roaming well past their usual hibernation time, even if most bears have gone to bed after gorging themselves.

Read the full story HERE.

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An investment broker identifying himself as Jeff Brown, who claims he is the founder and CEO of New York-based Brownstone Research, is flooding Facebook with ads insinuating that Big Tech is coming to Kemmerer and that the small Wyoming town is ground zero for minting the nation’s next millionaires. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a Wyoming finance watchdog says don’t bet on it.

“He's standing in front of TerraPower’s plant, and sort of, he never says Terra Power in the whole presentation, but he's standing in front of Terra powers plan, and he's kind of suggesting that there's some way to get in on the ground floor of terror power. Well, TerraPower is not a publicly traded company. It is a privately held company, and all of the investment to date has been really large investors, people who can drop $650 million in one sitting, for example, those kinds of private investments are typically not open to general everyday investors like you and me. You got to be somebody who can write a check for $650 million. There just is no way right now to invest in TerraPower.”

Brad Enzi, a longtime energy industry watcher in Wyoming, tells Cowboy State Daily his advice on any pitches of this type is to be very cautious.

Read the full story HERE.

 

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When Rep. Harriet Hageman declared her run Tuesday for U.S. Senate, it revived her critics' concerns over federal public land holdings. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Hageman grappled with the theme for months this year, saying her foes have distorted and oversimplified the issue.

“It's hard to find a chink in a Republican powerhouses armor in a super majority Republican state, but Democrats and other people who aren't Democrats, but are public lands advocates have have pointed to hagerman's. You know, some sometimes controversial maneuvers on public lands. She did not vote on the lead proposal that had the entire ,well, most of the West up in arms this spring and summer…people were upset, but she didn't grapple with that in that hard she voted in favor of an amendment geared towards some public lands transfers in Nevada and Utah. She did defend, not really defend, Lee's proposal, but she did call the opposition to it overblown. She was like, ‘You guys are throwing around these maps that don't reflect the amendment.’” 

Hageman, a Republican, is now in her second term as Wyoming’s lone delegate to the U.S. House. A Senate win would give Hageman about 4.4 times the influence she has now, and a steadier term of six years rather than two.  

Read the full story HERE.

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Revamping federal lease sales, policy changes and legislation is positioning geothermal as America's next energy boom. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Wyoming is on the edge of a massive push for Western geothermal energy as oil and gas expertise could transfer to the industry. 

“What we saw last week was a big surge in legislation coming out of the US Congress saying, let's tap into this resource…somehow this has become a bipartisan issue, that this is one of the things on that very short list of things that that Democrats and Republicans agree on. So we have legislation sponsored and supported by both Democrats and Republicans coming out of the committee that Harriet Hageman sits on, the energy and minerals committee, and of the natural resource subcommittee of the Natural Resource Committee in the US Congress.”

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a legislative hearing last week on nine geothermal bills aimed at streamlining permitting and accelerating lease sales on federal lands.

Read the full story HERE.

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What makes a great mall santa? Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag found a one in Casper who shares the secret: it’s the beard.

“He developed a technique to get one of the best Santa beards you've ever seen, and the way you cheat. He achieves this is he shuts himself into the hotel bathroom, he turns the shower on and the sink on the hottest setting, and he lets it run until he can't see himself in the mirror, at which point he says, Okay, it's sufficiently steamy in here, and the beard has got to get steamy, that's the key. And once it's a certain amount of steamed up, he has a delicate wanding technique that he uses with the hairspray to give it a hold that has a little bit of give. And man, when this thing's done, it looks good. It is your classic Santa Claus oblong. The kids can grab it, tug it, feel it, and it still keeps its shape.”

67-year-old Matthew Allwine is a former Marine, long-haul trucker and decided to play St. Nick after being recruited in Missouri to play the jolly, old elf.

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.