Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 21, 2026

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, January 21st  I’m Mac Watson.

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Platte County commissioners unanimously approved new wind and solar energy regulations Tuesday afternoon they said protect private property rights for landowners and neighbors. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that it was a difficult decision for the commissioners.

“The commissioners really grappled with it. You could tell that it was a tough call, but they said, Look, we can't impose what one Commissioner described as a blunt instrument that would allow one landowner to control 1.5 miles around from their property line that that there was a lot of talk about how your property rights end, where my property rights start, and then the county commissioners are right there in the middle trying to sort it out. I think the big takeaway for a general Wyoming audience who's been following along these various county debates over wind is that this, this was a very different type of meeting than what we saw in Douglas earlier this month, when state land board commissioners were confronted by a very upset, but very well organized and very articulate public in Converse County.”

NextEra Energy, which is developing the Chugwater Energy Project in Platte County, came away pleased with the commission’s decisions Tuesday. 

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray is arguably the most vocal and high-profile opponent of wind-energy projects in the state, calling the industry “woke wind.” But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that he’s voted to approve wind leases at least three times since 2023.

“The Secretary, for several months, has been deriding wind projects, both specifically and generally as a concept, you know, bashing woke wind and doing social media posts and other statements, and going through the minutes of the the State Board of land commissioners, you can see that he voted to approve three wind projects. One of those was a lease renewal, and two were new applications, and they were smaller, less controversial projects that nevertheless contrast with his overall position of de writing wind I asked him about that contrast, and he pointed to his specific issues with the current the prong horn and side wandering projects that are being debated right now.”

The Secretary of State is also running for the lone Wyoming seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Read the full story HERE.

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Campbell County native Trey Wasserburger, a cofounder of a new rancher-owned packing plant in western Nebraska, is celebrating as the company's prime steaks hit Walmart shelves. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Wasserburger started the packing plant out of desperation.

“This was kind of a desperation thing in 2020. The pandemic hit was three years after Trey and his wife Dana, had bought a ranch in Nebraska. And so that forced them to kind of like, rethink, how could we get our beef in stores? And led to this kind of idea for Sustainable Beef, which is a rancher-owned facility. Eight ranchers are co owners or investors in the facility…They're working on scaling up the processing right now they process around 1300 head of cattle a day.”

Trey tells Cowboy State Daily that right now, they are in some Walmart stores, but Sustainable Meats will be in all Walmart stores “fairly soon.”

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Attorney General's office filed a petition Tuesday for a re-hearing, saying the state Supreme Court's ruling striking down two abortion bans betrayed legal precedent. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that it ignored the Constitution and changed its own rules, the filing claims.

“If you're going to file a petition for rehearing, you need to show the court that it was wrong, and that's what the attorney general's filing claims to do. It's saying, ‘Whoa. You changed the goalposts at the last minute. You ignored the text of the Constitution. You brought in this evidence rather than relying on more timeless truths, and we want a rehearing.’ And so if the court decides to hear it, then the pro choice side will get the chance to rebut that.There's no guarantee that the Wyoming Supreme Court will rehear it. It's up to the court.”

On Jan. 6, the Wyoming Supreme Court majority declared that women in Wyoming have a fundamental health care right to have an abortion — more fundamental than their right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

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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The fate of Wyoming Public Media hangs in the balance after the Joint Appropriations Committee last week voted to discontinue providing state funds to the entity. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the media group.

“The joint Appropriations Committee voted last week to pull public funding, state funding, from Wyoming public media. Wyoming public media says that is going to be a huge hit to their budget, and with the recent federal cuts that they've endured, they might need a miracle to keep going…Former Wyoming public radio news director Bob Beck said that there's still a lot of ball games left right. And what he means by that is nothing is set in stone. This is part of a draft budget that the appropriations committee will send to the entire Wyoming Legislature to vote on, and it still has to go through the budget vote in February and receive a signature by the governor, so a lot can happen between now and then.”

Wyoming Public Media is one of several entities on the chopping block as the Joint Appropriations Committee crafts its budget bill to present to state legislators next month. 

Read the full story HERE.

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A 30-year-old Casper man is recovering in a Denver hospital with second- and third-degree burns following an explosion Monday afternoon outside his home. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Norman Edward Cardinal III’s sister says he’s got a long recovery.

“A 30 year old Casper man is in a Denver hospital sent there by Air flight because there was an explosion at his home yesterday, about two o'clock. The fire department is telling me they don't know the source of the explosion, but his sister told me that he works for a company that services gas pumps, and she thinks she he was working on the job…So his sister told me there's going to be some definite recuperation needed. She set up a GoFundMe to help the family right now. She said he did have health insurance and the company is helping with hotel bills for the family while they're down in Denver.”

According to sister Sydney Cardinal, her brother was flown to the UCHealth Burn and Frostbite Center suffering from second- and third-degree burns on his hands and face.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Torrington man remains in critical condition in a Denver hospital Tuesday after a chase through two Nebraska counties ended with him being shot by pursuing law enforcement officers. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that details are slim but the man’s been identified as 42-year-old Victor Martinez.

“Just what they were stopping him for we don't know yet. The authorities there say they're still investigating, and because it's an officer involved shooting. They passed it over to the State Patrol there to handle that. So the state patrol was gathering up and so anticipate what? We'll find some. We'll find out some more information about that…it looks like it started in Scottsbluff County and it ended in Sioux County, which is just north of Scottsbluff County. They said the chase lasted about 20 minutes.”

Nebraska State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas tells Cowboy State Daily that Martinez was shot at least once Friday evening after leading multiple law enforcement agencies on a chase that began with an attempted traffic stop. 

 Read the full story HERE.

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A Wyoming bison rancher is concerned that a BLM Montana decision to pull grazing leases for bison could lead to reclassifying the large animals as wildlife. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this ruling could make raising bison illegal in Wyoming.

“What has happened is the BLM is saying you can't, because you were you're managing your bison herd there as wildlife. You can't graze them on federal grazing allotments there. Now American Prairie has, I think they told me around 600,000 acres there. The grazing allotments in question amount to about 63,000 acres. So maybe about 10% of the area they have for a herd of around 900 about 940 bison, you know, so she kind of have that, that immediate situation where, you know, they're trying to decide, should, should American prairie be allowed to keep running these bison on grazing allotments…But the the broader topic at hand is, if the BLM is saying these bison have to be classified as wildlife, does that mean all bison everywhere have to be classified as wildlife? Because there are several bison ranches in Wyoming where bison are raised essentially as livestock.”

Under the direction of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Bureau of Land Management is calling for bison to be removed from 7 grazing allotments, totaling roughly 63,000 acres in Phillips County, Montana, the Western Ag Network reported.

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.