Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 5, 2026

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 5th.  I’m Mac Watson.

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Justin Bradshaw was headed to work on Dec. 16 in Lyman when he got the last call he’d ever take from his 20-year-old daughter, Macey. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that dad was there in four minutes, but it still wasn’t soon enough.

“It's suspected that he broke into her home and he held her at gunpoint, and it was right at that moment that her father showed up and the gun shots rang off. So you just kind of have to picture what that's like. You're the father, and your 20 year old daughter calls you, and she says, I need you to come and scare my ex boyfriend away because he's on my porch and I'm scared. And you immediately go to the scene, and it's not even four minutes later that you are there, and yet the gunshots go off, and you still are just kind of in this desperate, helpless place.”

The family has established a nonprofit organization called A New Dawn, which is fundraising and organizing mental health resources for young women and others. Macey Dawn Bradshaw’s celebration of life ceremony was Saturday in Lyman. 

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming issued a new pro-rodeo license plate Friday in response to PETA asking for a plate without the iconic bucking bronco claiming that rodeo is cruel. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one state legislator said PETA’s request made him want to celebrate rodeo “even more prominently.”

“So PETA, in the summer 2024 wanted to confront a Wyoming law that says that the bucking horse and rider needs to be on all of our license plates. And they were like, ‘Let's change this law so that people have options that don't include what they called cruelty to animals.’ And in response, Senator Brian Boner and some others actually went the other direction and created a specialty plate with a more vivid image of the iconic Steamboat saddle bronc being ridden and a portion of the proceeds from those plates are to go to support rodeo programs and colleges throughout the state.”

WYDOT unveiled the plate last Wednesday, alongside another specialty plate to promote search and rescue programs. 

Read the full story HERE.

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The University of Idaho’s drop from the top tier of Division I college football could serve as a warning to the University of Wyoming about the challenges small markets have in the era of NIL and revenue sharing. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that insiders urge realism as financial gaps widen.

“There are still probably a majority of University of Wyoming fans who don't want anything to change, they they believe that the example set by Indiana this year, a the doormat of the Big 10, now contending for national championship, that Wyoming might one day rise from, kind of the middlings of upper tier college football and really contend for a championship and be a top flight program. ...one of the sources I spoke to really said it best. He said, ‘You know, I could argue both sides of this issue. I'm a die hard Pokes fan, but I can see it both ways.’ And he didn't really know where he came down. He just wanted something fun and productive and winning on the football field.”

Today, Idaho operates without an established revenue sharing fund to pay players.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson left stop-motion cameras in two grizzly dens north of Yellowstone in 2015 and forgot about them. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that last summer, Anderson went back to the caves and, to his amazement, recovered the cameras and more than a decade of footage.

“In 2015 he set up two of these. He found a couple caves where Grizzlies had been dinning hibernating for the winter, way up high in the mountains north of Yellowstone there. These two caves are in relatively close proximity to each other. And so he put cameras in each of these caves and got busy doing other things. So he's a busy guy. And this summer, he was like, ‘Wow, maybe I should go check on those cameras after 10 years.’ The SD cards on both of them were intact, and they, I think between them, they had, like, something like 300 clips.”

Anderson tells Cowboy State Daily that despite popular images of “bear caves,” grizzlies rarely den up for the winter in caves. Instead, they usually dig their own dens into the sides of steep alpine slopes, “going down, and then turning back up” to create a cozy pocket to retain heat over the winter.

Read the full story HERE.

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

 

Cowboy State Daily news continues now…

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Billionaire Joe Ricketts’ herd of 17 white bison thrive at Jackson Fork Ranch in Wyoming’s Upper Hoback Valley. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that to Ricketts’ the white bison represent a piece of American West history, a spiritual connection to the land, and a feature he's proud to share with guests.

“It started with four White Bison, and his ranch manager is very careful to keep the herd genetically clean. That's how he puts it. So he's always, he's looking at the pregnant females. And they will more than likely sell the bulls, because there's only one bull, which the manager calls the dad of them all. So they only have one bull, who’s kind of fathering these babies, and when the herd gets too big, then the manager will sell them off, so that the herd stays relatively small and genetically clean.”

Ricketts founded TD Ameritrade and his family co-owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Read the full story HERE.

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When a police officer ran into some playground equipment while trying to catch a suspected impaired driver in a Riverton foot chase on New Year’s Eve, a local man sprang into action. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the man retrieved his rope and lassoed the suspect himself.

“The roper was kind of watching a different operation where his grandmother was being picked up by an ambulance at that time, when the suspected drunk driver tore into the neighborhood and officer, Casey Tadewald of Lander PD, got out of his car when the chase proceeded on foot, when the driver fled on foot, and Tadewald gets taken out by a swing set. And so the roper that the guy that's watching his grandma, is like, ‘Oh, that is too bad that happened to this officer! I'm gonna get my rope!’ and he does, and then he lassos the suspect for the police.”

The roper, whose identity Cowboy State Daily ascertained from social media exchanges, did not respond by publication time to a message request for comment, but law enforcement did thank him on scene for his quick reaction and roping skills.

Read the full story HERE.

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When Leonard Nimoy flew to Yellowstone in August 1978 to shoot a scene for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture, " Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel worker Eric Ostensen got the job of being Mr. Spock's chauffeur. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Ostensen recalls it being a surreal experience.

“Eric was working behind the desk of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, just a fresh out of college kid. Nothing better to do. And then he saw a reservation for Paramount Pictures for 10 cabins. And nobody knew that that was coming, or had any idea what it was. But then, when he drove up to pick up the Paramount crew in a rental car, and then Mr. Spock in full Mr. Spock get-up, jumped into the back of his car…Eric likes to say that he got to take Mr. Spock to work one day. And I think that's something that a lot of Trekkies would kill to be able to say that they did. They shuttled Mr. Spock to the surface of his home planet so he could consult with the Vulcan elders.”

When the “Star Trek” television series got the green light for a full-length motion picture, creator Gene Roddenberry and the production team wanted to make a big impression with an on-location shoot and they quickly realized that no place on Earth seems like it should be on another planet more than Yellowstone National Park.

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.