Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

The Roundup is a gathering of voices, opinions and perspectives from interesting people in the Cowboy State of Wyoming.

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 29, 2026 01/29/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 29, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, January 29th. I’m Mac Watson. – A Green River judge on Wednesday hinted he’ll send the animal cruelty case of Cody Roberts to a jury in two months. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Judge Richard Lavery stopped just short of denying Roberts’ argument for immunity, saying he’ll file a written order later. “Cody Roberts had argued by his attorney, Robert Piper, like we have all these carve outs to allow for the capture, hunting, killing, destruction of predators and some other wildlife in our state laws to where you can't be charged with felony animal cruelty if you're doing those things and you're doing it in a way that's not otherwise violating laws. So if you're following the trapping laws, you can't be charged with animal cruelty for trapping an animal, that kind of thing. And so that argument came before Judge Lavery Wednesday in it was actually in sublet County District Court, but Lavery was in Green River…His attorney, Robert Piper and the prosecutor of Sublette County, attorney Clayton Malinkovich also appeared by virtual link with Judge Larry in the Green River courthouse, which is his natural base. And they argued at length. They argued which witnesses are allowed, which what kind of evidence is allowed. But the biggest argument was when Cody Roberts Attorney Robert Piper said, ‘Look, if you let this case go forward, it's going to upend Wyoming hunting laws, because on a prosecutor's whim or the mob or social media or activist pressure, we could prosecute people for capturing animals in ways that we dislike.’ And Clayton Malinkovich, the prosecutor countered, saying, ‘No, because there's a state of mind attached to the definition of animal torture. It's willful or malicious. So if you are just out shooting an elk and you're not being willful and malicious about watching it suffer, then we're not going to prosecute you for animal cruelty.’” During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Judge Lavery said two consequential things. One, the judge said he felt the defense was treating the exception too broadly, and two, he proceeded to plan many of the technical aspects of the trial, including wanting a panel of 31 jurors. Read the full story – A Buffalo Circuit Court judge Wednesday found that continued random alcohol testing was appropriate for State Rep. Bill Allemand despite his request that it be suspended during the budget session. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Allemand's attorney argued that’s unconstitutional. “Representative Bill Allemand and his attorney were in Buffalo Circuit Court today via video, and they were there because they wanted to change the bond that Representative Allemand was given after he was arrested for drunk driving back in December, and as part of that, he has to do testing. But according to information in the court today, the testing is the least possible. So it's only like once a month. But what came out today was that his attorney, through written argument, and then in court today argued that it's unconstitutional to have him tested because he's still innocent until proven guilty, and that the fact that he has no criminal record also is a reason why he shouldn't be tested…The judge recommended either he could buy a breathalyzer, portable breathalyzer test, or he could go to a Laramie County place where he can do it around his legislative sessions and and accomplish it that way.” State Representative Allemand is fighting a driving while under the influence of alcohol charge in Johnson County. According to court affidavits, the charge against Allemand stems from a report from a fellow driver headed northbound on I-25 around noon on Dec. 28 who told authorities that Allemand’s blue Tacoma pickup “was all over the road hitting rumble strips, varying speeds.” Read the full story – A grizzly spotted out wandering in Yellowstone National Park on Monday might be up from hibernation. Cowboy State Daily’s Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports the bear is incredibly early or awake incredibly late. “Bear sightings are not completely unheard of this time of year, but they are extremely rare. And the interesting part here is that, of course, nobody can know for certain…is this bear still out, or did it just come out of the den and now it's going to stay out? Or did it just come out of the den for a short walk, about maybe grab a snack and go back into its den. Nobody's been able to determine that. But again, it's unusual, because a good general rule is the first bears, which are usually the great, big, gigantic, dominant males, don't start really popping out of the den and getting active until the first week of March or so. And we've got one, like an average size bear out running around in January.” Prominent bear expert Frank van Manen tells Cowboy State Daily that this could be one of the earliest bear sightings on record. Read the full story – In a widespread state-wide hoax, automated voicemails left at high schools around Wyoming threatened to detonate bombs and shoot up schools Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johson reports that authorities say that over a dozen schools in Wyoming got the same AI-generated threat. “They have things that they check on where they can tell where, where a call originates from. And in this case, it was outside the United States, and whoever left the message was either used, either it was a digital message, it was totally AI, using a robot voice, or it was something that disguised their voice to sound mechanical and basically the threat. It was a pretty serious threat, even though they knew very quickly that it wasn't a credible threat, but it was that there were bombs in the school, and it was the same threat sent to everybody.” Chance Walkama, chief deputy of operations for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office tells Cowboy State Daily that just because it’s a threat generated by artificial intelligence doesn’t mean they’re harmless or that they’re not taken seriously. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder announced Wednesday her office is launching an investigation into the special education program at Sweetwater County School District No. 1. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the investigation comes after multiple noncompliance complaints. “This investigation is special ed, and there are really strict parameters. You've got federal law, you've got all sorts of mandates. And so this is Degenfelder saying, ‘Hey, this is an area where I really want to step in and make sure they're doing it right’…She basically said, ‘I don't like interfering with local control.’ But the uproar. On this one, the complaints of non compliance are pushing me to take a deeper look.” The Wyoming Department of Education says it will start a “special monitoring process of special education practices and procedures” starting on February 23rd and will continue through the 27th. Read the full story – Popular with photographers and wildlife watchers because of his remarkable size, a bull elk named “Split 5” was legally killed by a hunter. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that fans are mourning the loss of the gigantic bull elk that was part of the Estes Park, Colorado, urban herd. “It's one of those celebrity animals that everybody knows, and now he's gone, and people are sad about it. And I talked to a gentleman from Wyoming who is an El Contra and a wildlife photographer, and he did go down there frequently, and he's got a lot of pictures and a lot of memories with the Split 5 bull. And he said, ‘Yeah. On one hand, it's sad. On the other hand, hey, if he was legally taken by a hunter, that’s great.’ And the bull was old anyway. The bull is probably about 13. You know, if they're lucky, they live to be about 15.” The bull was apparently shot during Colorado’s fall hunting season. After the news broke this week that Split 5 was gone, social media lit up with tributes to the legendary bull. Read the full story – A Carbon County, Utah, deputy is in trouble after being accused of playing cornhole naked from the waist down. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Carbon County, Wyoming, Sheriff Alex Bakken is making sure people know that’s a Utah deputy, not his. “A Carbon County Sheriff's deputy was spotted in their own driveway playing cornhole, what I dubbed ‘Commando Cornhole,’ because they were wearing nothing below the waist, no pants, no underwear, and they were cited with two misdemeanors, one of which was obstruction of justice for trying to submit a false video as evidence after the fact. The thing is, this was Carbon County, Utah, not Carbon County, Wyoming. So a lot of people in Carbon County Wyoming saw the headline and assumed it was one of their deputies. And Sheriff Alex Bakken went online to say, ‘Yes, this was a Carbon County Sheriff's deputy. No, it was not a Wyoming Carbon County Sheriff's deputy.’ Apparently, there are four carbon counties in the United States, and sometimes people get confused. And this was one of those headlines that just popped out when you saw it. So yes, there was a Carbon County Sheriff's deputy playing commando cornhole, but it was not a Wyoming Carbon County Sheriff's deputy playing Commando Cornhole. And Sheriff Bakken said he doesn't discourage any of his deputies from playing Commando Cornhole, so long as they aren't breaking Wyoming statutes while they do it.” Bakken said he got home and was settling in after a day on the job Tuesday when his phone started blowing up. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39919650

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 01/28/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, January 28th. I’m Mac Watson. – Mouse the horse had been missing since July 2025, only to be found alive by snowmobilers in the Wind River Mountains. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the rescue was an all-hands-on deck situation on Sunday to reach and rescue the horse. “The horse went missing during a back country packing trip in July 2025 so they knew that there was a horse missing in that area. And one of the people who found the horse actually recognized it, because he was on the packing trip, or the horse went missing, so he knew it was that missing horse. They contacted the owner, and then everyone suddenly got a fire under their butts…So they put together a plan that involved several snowmobilers, a snow cat and a river raft that was supplied so they could load the horse up and drag it across the snow as a one horse open sleigh, if you will. And a successful effort. Once everybody put their minds to it and found the best time they do it, they did it.” They say you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. In this scenario, Mouse was eager to be led anywhere that would get him to warmth and safety, but the horse was effectively trapped in the mountains. Read the full story . – The Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association on Monday voted to move its headquarters, Hall of Fame, and museum to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 2029. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that PRCA’s move from Colorado depends on one main thing. “It's contingent on funding to help with the move…I think the deal maker here is that it doesn't cost the PRCA anything to move. That's part of the deal. If that's not the case, then they're not going to move. I think the other thing is land that will be suitable and beneficial for what they envision there in Wyoming. And so they're in their press release, they kind of lay that out as somewhere close to the intersection of I 25 and I 80. That's the crossroads of America right there, two very highly traveled interstates…Wyoming has a very deep commitment to rodeo. It's kind of their unofficial professional sport.” Cheyenne Frontier Days chief Tom Hirsig said it's the rodeo equivalent of getting the NFL headquarters. Read the full story – Wyoming lawmakers reversed their denial of $58 million in federal Medicaid funds for tribal clinics after people protested. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Rep. John Bear called it an accounting issue, while Rep. Larsen said Bear was “covering (his) butt.” “Chairman John Bear and Representative Ken Pendergraft, very vocally, voted to block that funding, saying we can't allow this spending increase. We have to look out for the taxpayer. Fast forward, two weeks later, there's protest, there's backlash at the Tribal Relations Committee meeting in Riverton, and Bear says, ‘Hey, I want to explain the governor could still move this money through using his own processes’…I confronted Bear like, ‘Well, this doesn't match what you said when you voted to block this money.’ And he said, ‘Okay, but at least part of that was in the back of his mind’…it was representative Lloyd Larson who noted that if the tribal clinics don't get this money, they might cut services, which would send Medicaid covered tribal members to clinics off the reservation where the state actually pays half the bill instead of none of it.” This unfolded at Central Wyoming College in Riverton amid a protest, a legislative meeting of the Select Tribal Relations Committee and tense testimony in which one lawmaker accused another of being disingenuous. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Madeline Daly on Monday pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder for allegedly killing her 11-month-old son Basil in New Mexico following a custody dispute from Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that she remains held without bond amid potential federal charges. “Madeline Daley, the 35-year-old mom who is accused of murdering her own 11th month-old child, is currently being held in Grant County Detention Center in Silver City, New Mexico. On Monday, she went before the judge and pled not guilty to the charges of first degree murder. She's currently being held without bond pending her future court dates. She's also currently being investigated federally…Jake Stoner, the boy's father, finally has the boy's remains home with him in Kilgore Nebraska, and he's planning the boy's funeral for early February.” Daly faces murder charges after absconding with her child, Basil, from Wyoming, in defiance of court orders. The boy’s father, Jake Stoner of Kilgore, Nebraska, at which point Stoner was granted emergency custody and a federal warrant was issued for Daly’s arrest. Read the full story – According to a bill before the Wyoming Legislature, if a Wyomingite kills somebody, claims self-defense, is charged with murder, but is cleared, the county that charged them would be on the hook for all the defendant’s legal fees and other expenses. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that one Casper attorney says that could add up to roughly $1 million in some cases. “I talked to a gun rights activist that, again said, ‘Not really a problem in Wyoming, but in some other states this problem with prosecuting attorneys just going after anybody who brandishes a gun in self defense or uses a gun in self defense. So gun rights activists think it's a good deal. And this defense attorney said, ‘Yeah maybe not an earth-shaking game-changer, but you can definitely see how it puts things a little bit more in favor of the defendants in these cases…I'm sure when this bill comes before committee, there's going to be a lot of attorneys there that are going to want to testify on both sides.” From a gun rights and self-defense standpoint, the passage of would be a win, Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America, tells Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story – The Weston County clerk accused of skipping a legislative subpoena was scheduled to go to trial Thursday in Casper Circuit Court. But, Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that was until the judge ruled that her claims against the lawmakers who summoned her should be heard in a higher court first. “Ryan Semerad, the Western county clerk's attorney, is appealing to a higher court, and he asked the circuit court in the meantime, like, ‘Hey, can you pause this so we don't have to go to trial while the higher court is hearing our arguments?’ and the lower court agreed…when you have an appeal, it's really nice if whatever the lower court was going to do to you for losing the argument doesn't happen to you while you take the argument to a higher court.” Hadlock’s public saga is a long one, starting in November 2024, when faulty ballots circulated into the general election in Weston County and skewed the votes in two unopposed races. Read the full story – Only 0.1 inches of snow has fallen on Salt Lake City this winter. That’s the lowest snowfall on record, by a significant margin. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the average snowfall for this time of year is just over 28 inches. “Now that's not necessarily unheard of for this season. It's been a bad winter across the western states, but the previous record was still over two inches up to this point in the water year, which stretches from the beginning of October until the end of what we might consider beyond the winter season. So the question is, can even an exceptionally snowy February, March and April make up for that deficit? And the answer is probably not. Snow pack is really important because it retains water longer and lets it out more slowly. So having a healthy snow pack, that's why it's so important to all of those in the West. So Salt Lake City is going to get snow. It's just like Wyoming and Colorado and the rest of Utah. It's going to get snow between now and the end of winter, but it's probably too deep in a hole to climb out of in terms of building up the ideal snow pack.” The warmer side of these storms means Utah’s snowpack is in dire straits. The latest records show the statewide snowpack is currently at 59% of the median, close to a new historic low. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39906480

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 01/27/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 27, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, January 27th. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming head football coach Jay Sawvel said he voluntarily took a $125,000 pay cut and redirected the money to help fund player compensation. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports on the reasons the coach is setting this precedent. “When it comes to raising money to stay competitive in this, in this increasingly professionalized world of college sports, Wyoming is at a disadvantage. It's not in a major television market. It's a small state, relatively small school…He's decided that it's important enough for him to make a statement. Basically, put his money where his mouth is, and say, ‘Look, I am here to try and generate some momentum. I'm trying to generate some spirit of giving, probably among alumni and others that support cowboy football. And let's go. Let's get into this next season.’” Ryan Thorburn, communications director for the UW athletic department, tells Cowboy State Daily that coaches donating their own money to help fund player compensation remains uncommon in college football. Read the full story – An initial review of data from the Office of State Lands and Investments shows Wyoming might not have enough eligible public land to satisfy a controversial bill seeking to sell between 30,000 and 200,000 acres to families for $1 per acre. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the bill would have to have multiple requirements to succeed. “An initial review of data from the Office of shows that maybe less than 16,000 acres would be available, and that's because of the bill's many carve outs. There's things like, it can't be designated for a public use, it can't be recreation sites and a lot. And so Wyoming, last year, designated grazing and agriculture as a public use, as a governmental purpose. And so it becomes an argument. Then, like you guys just locked up all this public land under the governmental use Banner, and now this bill would exempt lands that are designated that way from sale.” The author of the bill, State Rep. Jacob Wasserburger from Cheyenne, tells Cowboy State Daily that he’s still optimistic the bill could work, and is gaining support from around the state. Read the full story – Blood-trailing dogs may track down black bears shot by hunters if a bill before the Wyoming Legislature passes. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this is already legal to use blood-tracking dogs to track big game animals that have been shot, such as elk and deer. “They've drafted a bill, Bill Landon out of Casper and some other legislators, at the behest of a bear hunter, have drafted a revision to the statute that would just add and black bear to the language of the statute so people can start using their tracking dogs on black bear again…Julie Macallister from Rock River, who's a hardcore, dedicated bear black bear hunter as well as a tracking dog trainer. It really wants to see this pass, because then she can go back to using her tracking dog to helping her find bears that she shoots.” is set to go before the 2026 Legislature and would clarify the matter of using tracking dogs, by adding three words, “or black bear” to the existing statute, so says bear hunter Julie McCallister. Read the full story . – State Treasurer Curt Meier and Sen. Brian Boner are working on a bill that would divert one-sixth of property taxes from wind, solar, and industrial projects into a fund for affected neighbors. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports on why the lawmakers say Wyoming needs to establish a compensatory mitigation fund. “So Senator Boner is still spitballing like, ‘I just want to know if county commissioners can do this, if they're willing to have these hearings and decide these mitigation payments.’ Treasurer Kurt Meyer, for months has been hearing members of the public complain about wind farms designated to go in near their properties and the views and the effects. And so even though he's voted for those, he has said in line with his constitutional duty to fund schools with land leases. He said, ‘I'm not blind, that there are impacts, so maybe we should glean a little bit of property taxes from those and set aside to see if some of these have $1 value on them, and we can pay those people back.’” Boner tells Cowboy State Daily that he is asking county commissioners whether vetting and answering neighbors’ claims for mitigation money is something they can do, and how they’d do it. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The tour schedule for the western leg of Big Boy's historic coast-to-coast tour has been announced. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the world's largest locomotive, which weighs more than one million pounds, will leave Cheyenne on March 29th with its own crew that will take care of its maintenance every night. “It's a very expensive thing, actually. They have to have crews of people that follow Big Boy around. And there are nightly mechanical tasks in keeping him operable, making sure everything's going right. It's not like the more modern diesel, where you can just fill the tank and check a few things and you're done. It's more like an all-night marathon to keep Big Boy on the rails throughout. The engineers that operate the loc omotive don't know all of these areas that they go through.” Union Pacific announced Monday that Big Boy will leave the Cheyenne steam shop on March 29 headed for California. Read the full story – Wyoming weather is always unpredictable and never boring. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that as the weekend’s subzero temps have left Wyoming, but are being replaced by seriously strong winds. “So there's the saying that nature abhors a vacuum, and that's kind of true. So when we get sub-zero arctic temperatures in Wyoming, as those move on, there's a vacancy, there's an open space, and that's generally filled with winds. The difference is, this was not a windstorm. What we saw on Monday were winds of up to 65 miles per hour in southeast Wyoming. That wasn't like the wind storms that we had back in December, where we had winds of 88 to 103 mile miles per hour. Plus. Chinook winds are the result of air moving up and over the mountains as it descends, it dries out, and then the valleys and canyons in Wyoming just funnel that air and make it super powerful. So what we were experiencing on Monday were chinook winds that were filling the vacancy left by the sub zero temperatures that we had over the weekend.” Meteorologist Don Day tells Cowboy State Daily that the outlook for the coming weeks is promising, with consistently colder days and a better chance of snow in the areas where it’s needed most. Read the full story – Cheyenne art dealer Harvey Deselms, the driving force behind the Capitol Avenue Bronze Project, commissioned bronze sculptures of his own dog, Dot, to immortalize her spunky spirit before she passes. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Deselms says bronzing a pet is a better alternative to taxidermy. “An art dealer in Cheyenne, Harvey Deselms is known for his bronzes. So as his dog,a Jack Russell Terrier, to be exact, is getting older, he decided he wants to preserve Dot, and that's her name. So he has had commissioned three bronzes to be made – life-size bronze is to be made of Dot. And when talking to the artist, who's doing it, she said, ‘Yeah, it's kind of like other pet owners have done that.’ She's done some for other pet owners as well. So apparently this is something that is available when people want to preserve their pets.” Raised on a ranch with working dogs, Deselms said he never had a dog as a pet before Dot. – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39892600

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 26, 2026 01/26/2026

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 26, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 26th. I’m Mac Watson. – A Rock Springs High School teacher accidentally projected a personal nude photo during a special ed class lesson, shocking some students and upsetting parents. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that parents are criticizing what they say was a delayed response by the school. “They understand mistakes happen. People have personal lives. They're just upset that it wasn't handled a little bit differently. And as for technology in the classroom, Wyoming does have a digital learning plan, but it does not state in this plan any specific mandate about the rules regarding the use of personal devices in the classroom. And some education advocates say we need to champion clear protocols for separating personal devices and content in the classroom. And Wyoming does not have a statewide policy on that yet, but it's something that people are now talking about.” The incident began as a discussion on what kids did for winter break. When it was the teacher’s turn to share, she connected her cellphone to a laptop projector and that’s when the nude image was displayed on the screen. Read the full story – The mother of a 22-year-old Cheyenne man who shot himself while handcuffed in the back of a police car is asking how that could happen. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Dani Hall has many unanswered questions. “When I interviewed Dani Hall, there was this combination of devastation and curiosity, and she was like, ‘How do they miss a handgun but find a pocket knife. How long were they away? How long before this happened? Did he say anything right before he did it?’ And so even though she was absolutely devastated, she was just teeming with questions about what happened…as part of my inquiry to Cheyenne Police Department, I asked if they were willing to confirm Dani Hall's account, and I also asked if anyone was on leave or in counseling in because of this situation, they declined to comment, in addition to their statement saying the investigation is ongoing.” 22-year-old Aiden Hall was being detained on suspicion of DUI when he allegedly shot himself in the back of a squad car. Read the full story – There's a dark underbelly in Yellowstone and two retired rangers are telling all. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Tara Ross and Nancy Martinz are telling stories like the one called the “Yellowstone River and the Hippie Cannibal" story about a social worker from Montana, who had the misfortune of picking up a couple hitchhikers high on LSD. “These stories never get out of the behind the scenes…For example, when two Rangers were responding to a bear mauling…they ran into a bison, and they thought they gave it a wide enough birth. So they're trying to circumvent this bison on the trail to get to a bear mauling. And the bison then sees them, takes run right toward them, is storming toward them, and one of the Rangers sprays it with bear spray, and it diverts within five to 10 feet of knocking them over and killing them…Sadly, they were too late. They would have been too late anyway, because they were responding to screens at that point, but that's just an example of what these rangers are dealing with.” Tara Ross and Nancy Martinz co-host the "Crime Off the Grid" podcast, which was started in 2023 when Ross retired. Read the full story – The giant flags over Camping World in Cheyenne are hand-made and cost $130,000 each. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the basketball court-sized flags are hand-crafted with a specific intention. “This was a decision made back in 2014 the first four flags were put out at four camping worlds across the country, Cheyenne was not one of them. Cheyennes didn't come until 2021 but they are just a support for veterans. Camping World is a huge supporter of veterans, and a lot of their customers are veterans…Every flag is handmade. Every flight costs $130,000. The general manager at the Cheyenne Camping World told me that one flag lasts up to about two months in good weather.” The massive flag at Cheyenne’s Camping World location on the north side of Interstate 80 is specifically engineered to withstand up to 100 mph winds. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – From Afghanistan to Africa to Wyoming, Kim Greene is a leading trainer of world-class protection dogs that she sells for $175,000 each. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Kim sells about 20 dogs a year and her security business made nearly $3 million in 2024. “It's inspiring to see this entrepreneur, Kim Green. She started just down the road from Jackson, on the highway there in an old Polaris dealership, and she's built up this reputation and a product. This incredible protection dog. It's a combination of three shepherds that can sell for as much as $175,000. Now, what do you get for that? Well, she says that in the time that she's been in business, there's really only been one documented incident where the dog had to use its biting talents. Only once during an attempted carjacking in Nairobi, Kenya is there this documented case of the dog actually biting. Mostly it's a preventative measure. People see that dog and probably know better than to attempt anything with the owner. They're also just amazing companion animals, according to Green and her clients.” Greene, founder of Svalinn, got her start in Kenya before moving operations to Teton County, Wyoming. She’s now based outside of Livingston, Montana. Read the full story – Cheyenne-based Big Boy 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, will make its first ever coast-to-coast tour this year to honor America's 250th birthday. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that according to Union Pacific officials the tour would be historic. “Big Boy was created in 1941, rolled off the line in 1941 at the plant in Schenectady, New York, and has never been back to the East Coast since he came to Wyoming. They stationed it at Green River, eventually went to a museum in California, then it was brought back to Cheyenne to restore. And it's toured all over the West, but it's never been back to the East Coast since it rolled off the line in 1941 so this would be a first for Big Boy to make this tour.” Officials from Union Pacific tell Cowboy State Daily that Big Boy’s tour has more details that need to be ironed out, but could begin near the end of March. Read the full story – A Cheyenne state legislator unveiled a bill Thursday that seeks to sell between 30,000 and 200,000 acres of non-trust state lands in 10-acre parcels to individual families — at $1 an acre. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that State Rep. Jacob Wasserburger says it will help ease Wyoming’s housing shortage. “It's the Wyoming Homestead Opportunity Program unveiled Thursday. What it wants to do is to sell off several 1000 acres of Wyoming State non trust lands at $1 an acre in clusters like these 3000 acre neighborhoods, and then each family or buyer gets like, a 10 acre lot, and it has a lot of stipulations. Like, you have to promise to live on the land within 20 years. You have to do this and this, and if not, your land reverts back to the state. The preamble to this bill says it's to solve our housing shortage. A public lands expert that I spoke with, David Wilms, said, ‘Yeah, but I'm not seeing any neighborhoods or clusters. Acreage is that big a state non-trust land near any of the areas where we have housing shortages.’” State parks, school parcels, historical sites, recreational grounds, landmarks, archaeological sites, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, school and institutional lands, and lands reserved for public use would not be eligible for sale under the act. Read the full story . – In 1891, a well-known Casper doctor and drunk was thrown in the local jail after a fight with another doctor. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the doctor then yelled that the jail was on fire, but nobody paid attention. “This happened in October 1891. They rushed to the jail. It's a blaze. They tried to, he tried to this neighbor, tried to break the lock, broke the lock, but he couldn't open the door. So then he goes to get the marshal. The Marshal gives him the key. Can't open the lock. They go to cut a hole in the side of the jail, and by the time they do that, they find that the doctor is just a pile of ashes, and they pull him out with a rake.” The hometown Natrona County Tribune on Oct. 14 got to the point: “Burned to Death, Dr. Joseph Benson Meets a Death of Agony.” That same story also reported that he was, "Nothing But A Charred Mass of Humanity." Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39874525

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 23, 2026 01/23/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 23, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, January 23rd. I’m Mac Watson. – Moments after reportedly shooting his estranged wife early Wednesday at their home near the Wyoming-Idaho border, 43-year-old Christopher Moon texted his mother-in-law. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the chilling text offered an explanation as to why he shot Cassandra Clinger. “So according to a screenshot I received, Christopher texted his mother-in-law, ‘Satan got a hold of me…I'm so sorry. I love her so much.’ The oldest daughter, Alexa Edwards, just said, ‘Yeah, we've seen red flags all along.’ And so the youngest daughter, Jessica, also said, ‘It was this cycle of honeymooning and huge explosions, and then more honeymooning and huge explosions, until Cassie finally, aged 23, got kind of the wherewithal to leave and file for divorce. And then this happened on a road near her mother's home. After Moon called authorities, telling them what he did, deputies quickly arrived to find Christopher’s vehicle and Cassandra’s vehicle, each parked on the side of the road. They spoke with Chrisopher briefly by phone, urging him to surrender peacefully. Moments later, law enforcement witnessed Moon shoot and kill himself. Read the full story – Jonah Energy’s vice president says a Tuesday ruling that blocks a 3,500-well expansion threatens the company’s future in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Jonah Energy’s Vice President says the federal ruling earlier this week that threw out approval for the future of the Jonah Field is damaging the future of oil and gas in Wyoming. “Jonah energy feels as though they were blindsided that they had been doing their best to comply and go above and beyond, even incentivizing employees to follow the Clean Air Act to the letter. But these two judges saw something in the case brought by the Wild Earth guardians, and they basically said, ‘It doesn't add up, you're not following the letter of the law when it comes to the Clean Air Act.’” The Interior Board of Land Appeals on Tuesday vacated the Bureau of Land Management's 2018 approval of the Normally Pressured Lance Project, which would have authorized up to 3,500 wells on 141,000 acres west and south of the existing Jonah Field. Read the full story – Meteorologists are warning that an incoming subzero cold snap comes with an increased risk of "exploding trees." Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that arborists say it's a real thing that sounds like a gunshot when trees pop. “What happens is, it's a combination of two things, the water and the sap in the tree can freeze and rapidly expand, or when it gets really cold, the outside of the tree shrinks before the inside of the tree shrinks faster than the outside of the tree. When these things happen, that creates a lot of energy, and when that energy is released, it can cause the tree to burst. The technical term is frost cracking, and that's just when impurities in the wood are cracked open…So there have been warnings about exploding trees everywhere from west of Ohio to Eastern Wyoming. So it's a very real possibility. Are trees going to explode into toothpicks? Not likely, but it's possible that a giant branch could snap and pop and explode and land on your house or vehicle.” Experts tell Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming’s unusually dry winter might have some benefit. Snow water equivalents across eastern Wyoming are still very low, between 6% and 70%, so the deciduous trees will have less water in them to explode. Read the full story – A board tasked with ensuring Wyoming’s property tax assessments are fair and lawful planned to challenge the state’s 4% growth cap on residential property taxes. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Gov. Mark Gordon put a halt to the lawsuit Thursday. “So the Board of Equalization was gearing up to challenge a property tax cap that keeps your property taxes from skyrocketing too quickly, saying, ‘Hey, if we cap this for people whose home values are rising and people whose home values are stagnating, aren't we doing unfair, not uniform assessment, as the Constitution mandates, and so they challenged it as violation of the state constitution, or they were gearing up to do so?’ But then on Thursday, Gordon, at the last minute, consulted with the Assessors Association, and they were like, ‘We don't like you're gonna whiplash us. We're gearing up for this.’” The legal complaint had sought to urge the Laramie County District Court to block the 4% growth cap as unconstitutional, or allegedly risk making the board members violate the oaths they took to defend the state Constitution. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Wyoming bill that would have required voter approval to impose stormwater fees died in committee Wednesday on a tie vote despite lawsuits over “tax-like” charges. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that the lawmakers debated tax-fee laws and flood risks, leaving infrastructure funding in limbo. “This is all happening in the context of a bill that was brought to the Select Water Committee, and even though the bill failed, what really came out of the discussion is just how big of a quagmire this issue is and how much is at stake with things like storm water drain infrastructure. And what people don't realize is you've got all kinds of infrastructural expenses related to managing rain and stormwater runoff, and so if you don't take care of that, you can be looking at pretty dramatic consequences…And in the midst of these lawsuits, the legislature is saying, let's get to the bottom of this and solve this, and let's not give cities the ability to charge these fees on entities like, in this case, the University of Wyoming, who is suing the city of Laramie because they say that the fee is not a fee, it's a tax. And it's an eternal debate.” The bill’s demise is a reprieve for municipal leaders, but it also leaves cities and other stakeholders in a state of limbo as pressure builds to address stormwater infrastructure. Read the full story – The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether a Rock Springs school district’s transgender “privacy” policy violates parents’ rights. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that a local couple says behind the policy, teachers called their daughter by a boy name without telling them. “So Sean and Ashley Willey, their counsel, Ernie Trakes, down in Denver, in the 10th Circuit appeals court, on Wednesday, he was like, this is, this is a sinister movement to not reveal the kids alternate identity to the parents, especially when the kid has health concerns. And the school district, meanwhile, was like, you know, you can, you can say that the parental right stops a school from overtly attacking your family, but it doesn't create a duty for you to inform the family of everything that's going on…and the 10th Circuit has taken it under advisement now. So what would happen is the 10th Circuit will either say, Oh no, we think the judge got it right to dismiss it, and then trick is, can drop it or appeal it, or the 10th Circuit will say, the judge got it wrong and bat it back down to the lower court for more litigation.” At stake is whether the higher court is going to reverse or uphold of Wyoming-based U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl, who dismissed the Willeys’ against the school district. Read the full story – Wyoming isn’t immune to a rat invasion like the infestation taking place in Boise that one exterminator called “a nuclear bomb of rats.” Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that spikes in rat populations can result from favorable conditions, such as mild winters, a Wyoming zoology professor said. “The two exterminators I talked to said, ‘We can't keep up with it, there's no way. It's gotten to the point where there's no way we're ever going to kill these rats off. The best we can do is kind of hold the line.’ And I also talked to a rodent expert, a zoologist at the University of Wyoming, and the big question is, ‘could it happen here?’ He said, ‘Absolutely!’ You know, if we get one of these invasive species of rats, like Norway rats or whatever, and they're able to hit that magic spot where they can start reproducing rapidly in a particular area, and they have a food source, it could happen here too.” John Koprowski, dean of the UW’s Haub School of Environment & Natural Resources tells Cowboy State Daily that “The fact that the non-native species have been successful for centuries here in the US because of their association with people tells us that they are likely to be disappearing anytime soon.” Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39847275

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 22, 2026 01/22/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 22, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, January 22nd. I’m Mac Watson. – The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced it's pausing criminal prosecutions of diesel "delete" procedures under the Clean Air Act. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the DOJ’s maneuver follows Trump’s Nov. 7 pardon of Wyoming diesel delete mechanic Troy Lake. “Trump's Department of Justice is halting its criminal prosecution of tampering with emissions devices under the Clean Air Act so that affects diesel mechanics across the country. You could still face civil penalties. What they're saying is, look, the Clean Air Act doesn't allow for criminal prosecutions in this area…CBS News reported that there are 20 ongoing investigations and multiple ongoing cases.” The DOJ “is exercising its enforcement discretion to no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices in motor vehicles,” so says a Wednesday post to social media platform X by the DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division. Read the full story – A two-judge panel ruled Tuesday that the BLM violated the Clean Air Act in approving a 3,500-well project. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that this affects Jonah Energy and could impact Wyoming’s bottom line. “For everyday Wyoming residents, this matters in that the Jonah Field has been a long revenue generator as far as taxes from generating a stream of revenue exporting natural gas, using natural gas to power utilities and all kinds of things. This was the next chapter in continuing what Jonah Field has meant to the economy, or at least the coffers of Wyoming State Government…What could this mean to the state's bottom line? It's that big a deal. We're talking about 3500 wells that are now in question. 140 something 1000 acres of development, really, Jonah kind of a standard bearer of natural gas development in the state.” Vice President of Jonah Energy, Paul Ulrich, tells Cowboy State Daily that “The impact to Wyoming is severe. Vacating this decision — and thus vacating our ability to develop a 3,500-well project that is the future of natural gas in Wyoming.” Read the full story – Two helicopters slammed into each other Monday while trying to land near Parkman in Sheridan County during a Wyoming Game and Fish operation to capture mule deer. “On Monday in Sheridan County, there was an incident where near a landing area or an assembly area, assembly area where they were doing a mule deer capture survey, these helicopters collided in the landing process. Luckily, from what I've been able to determine, nobody got hurt in a game and fish confirmed that there were no Game and Fish personnel directly involved with this.” According to the NTSB, a pair of Robinson R44 Raven II helicopters were both substantially damaged when they collided with each other on landing near Parkman, Wyoming. Read the full story – Park County School District 6 unanimously voted Tuesday to fire teacher and girls’ basketball coach Sam Buck after two Title IX probes found misconduct with students. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Buck denies the allegations and calls the process a flawed witch hunt. “High school basketball coach and special ed teacher Sam Buck was fired from the Park County School District 6 on Tuesday, following a school board meeting. The school board voted in a closed session to terminate Buck's position after alleged misconduct with students…Buck was accused of transporting female students alone in his personal vehicle. He also had students perform personal errands, and he reportedly sexually harassed the student by making inappropriate comments to her about her clothing and appearance and by touching her inappropriately. Buck tells Cowboy State Daily that he is going to fight the allegations and has denied any wrongdoing from the beginning. He added that he's going to pursue making sure that the truth is uncovered. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A more-than-four-hour standoff between a man and Cody PD ended Wednesday when the man surrendered peacefully. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the standoff included multiple law enforcement agencies. “A younger man who had an active warrant out of Thermopolis. He was approached by the Cody Police Department on Wednesday morning for that warrant, and he brandished a handgun, so immediately turned into an armed standoff…At one point he stepped out of his vehicle, law enforcement fired non lethal rounds. There were no live rounds fired during the four hour standoff, and it resolved itself when the suspect was coaxed out of his vehicle with his hands up…after four hours, this one resolved in the best way it possibly can. No one was injured, and the suspect was taken into custody.” Cowboy State Daily observed a number of armed officers with the Cody Police Department, the Park County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wyoming Highway Patrol responding to the scene at 2599 E Ave. Read the full story – Fremont County School District 1 board member Scott Jensen says he must resign because of a new policy barring special agents from elected roles. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Jensen, who is a federal police officer, spent six years on the board pushing parental rights and book challenges. “The FBI has had a policy for special agents against outside work, but you could get an exception, you could serve on certain non partisan boards, and so he did that for his six years, almost seven on the board, but the the policy changed, according to Jensen, the policy changed to preclude elected official service.” Jensen, who declined to identify the agency he works for by name, was appointed to the board in 2019, elected in 2020 and reelected in 2024. Read the full story – A 40-year-old Casper man on Wednesday admitted biting off the fingertip of a deputy as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that originally facing life in prison as a habitual offender, Andrew Beau Barret now could get up to 35 years in prison. “Instead of the life habitual offender charge, he reduced it to 50 years, between 10 and 50 years, and the district attorney said he was going to ask for 35 so that is what's on the table right now, the potential for 35 years in prison…The district attorney offered the deal, and then Barrett agreed to enter into the plea deal where he pleaded guilty, admitted to biting the deputy's finger off and admitting to have the having the meth inside of his apartment. In exchange for that, two other charges were dropped, interfering with a police officer and another possession of narcotics charge…He did enter into the plea deal today in Natrona County District Court. So the next thing will be he is sentenced, and that will be probably within the next couple months.” Barrett was initially facing four charges, including aggravated assault and battery as a habitual criminal with a potential life sentence; interference with a police officer; and two counts possession of a controlled substance for a third or subsequent offense. Read the full story – A single Bighorn ewe kept a dozen or more rams busy for hours, butting heads, and trying to mate with her. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that biologists say this is real insight into the mating rituals of Bighorn Sheep. “I talked to the lady, and she said, yeah, the ewe stayed energetic and perky and was fending him off the whole time…basically the reason it dragged on for so long is she was testing them…You know, if you want a chance to mate, you going to have to earn it, and of course, there was some head butting between the rams. So it was just this really cool, real-time glimpse into the world of the mating ritual of these rams.” The amorous Bighorns are part of a herd of about 100 animals that hang out near Corwin Springs, Montana, just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39821990

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 21, 2026 01/21/2026

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. – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 reported. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39808470

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 01/20/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, January 20th. I’m Mac Watson. – Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern's bid to create the largest rail merger in history was rejected last week by federal regulators. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the decision gives breathing room to competitors who warned the deal would raise costs for Wyoming coal producers. “I spoke to some sources about the Eastern link that there is a massive coal fired plant, the largest in North America, called Plant Scherer in Georgia, North of Macon, Georgia and BNSF takes coal out of the Powder River Basin from a few different mines, and gets it part of the way there. Then it links up with Norfolk Southern, and Norfolk Southern takes it the rest of the way because they've got that rail. Well, if a merger goes through between Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, then BNSF could get cut out of that deal. And according to BNSF is a critic of this proposed merger that would be less choices for Wyoming coal producers when it comes to shipping their coal out of state, and so that could drive up prices, because they become a captive customer.” On Thursday, the federal Surface Transportation Board delivered a unanimous decision that put the brakes on what appears to be the largest rail merger ever proposed. The federal agency rejected the merger application filed by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, finding it incomplete and ordering the railroads back to the drawing board. Read the full story – A Wyoming House Representative from Cheyenne unveiled a bill this month that, if it becomes law, would let people get their ivermectin without a prescription. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Legislature may hear the bill in three weeks. “Representative Gary Brown unveiled the bill this month, and he was like, other states are doing this…I did have one doctor who was just adamant, like, There's nothing good about this bill. There are side effects…And so on the other hand, I had a doctor who was like, ‘I'm not going to speak to the bill, but this drug has not been given a fair shake, like studies are suppressed on it for some reason, and people should answer for that.’” Used in some cases as a horse dewormer, ivermectin garnered controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic when President Joe Biden’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration discouraged its use with slogans like, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Serious y’all. Stop it.” Read the full story – Wind gusts of up to 87 mph swept across Wyoming on Friday, ripping the roof off a building at the Albany County Fairgrounds and a metal roof off another in Torrington. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that hurricane-force winds are nothing new to Wyoming, but these winds were unusual. “The winds that swept across Southeast Wyoming on Friday were up to 87 -miles-per hour in some places, and these came from the north northwest, so a lot of structures maybe aren't as designed to handle winds coming from that different direction, which is why you saw roofs flying off, trees topple over. It wasn't unorthodox in terms of the intensity of the wind. Wyoming sees hurricane force winds all the time. What was different about Friday's storm is that they were coming from a different direction, and that changes the dynamic of the wind storm itself.” The strongest gust recorded on Friday was 87 mph on Pilot Hill, east of Laramie. Gusts of up to 79 mph were recorded at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, and 69 mph wind gusts were recorded at Laramie Regional Airport. Read the full story . – A state legislative committee has denied $6.6 million Wyoming Public Television requested to fill a massive federal defunding effort. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the decision, which isn’t final, includes $3 million for operations and a $3.6 million grant the feds rescinded. “They still have so PBS still has its normal state money, like 3.5 million for every two years. They didn't gouge the normal state allocation to this program, to this outlet that's publicly funded, but they did say, No, we're not picking up the $3 million bill the Feds doesn't decline to pay. You guys, we're not picking up the $3.5 million grant that the feds pulled back after you had won. So basically, PBS was like the Feds left us holding the bag. Our request to you is tripled for these things that we need that we don't know how to pay for now. And the state of Wyoming said, No, if the feds are interested in paying for this stuff, then we're not going to do it.” Wyoming Public Television CEO Joanna Kail tells Cowboy State Daily that without the money, the outlet is facing cuts of staff, programming or both. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Another wolf from Yellowstone National Park's famous Junction Butte Pack killed in Montana is being investigated as a poaching. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that this incident once again raises questions over wolf hunting near the park. “But this flows into a larger issue. That this has been going on for a long time. Should these wolf hunts be allowed right outside of Yellowstone like literally this, you step outside the park boundary and the wolves are in a hunt area where they can legally be shot. And some people are saying, especially with the junction Butte pack, because they're so popular, they have people around them all the time. They just, they really don't have that fear of people.” Wolf advocates argue that the Junction Butte wolves are so acclimated to crowds, they don’t fear humans, making them easy targets when they venture outside the park. Read the full story – The Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic in Gillette is cutting 40 jobs. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the clinic also is dialing back on expenses as the family behind it says the project grew too fast. “The family is saying that they plan to continue, but they need to get their expenses in line with their revenues to make the project sustainable long term. And so they are cutting 40 positions this time…they're going to consolidate some of these things in with other departments, kind of restructuring. So that kind of, my impression is they intend for there to be continuity of care for people. You know, just because a particular practice is going away doesn't necessarily mean people won't be able to get care.” So far, Charles Hoskinson has put $250 million into the health center without taking government grants or loans. Read the full story – Images of elk and deer with freakishly huge antlers touted as a “new world record” frequently pop up on social media. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the highly respected Boone and Crockett Club says those are probably captive animals that can’t make the official record books. “The Boone and Crockett Club…They came out with a statement…just reminding people that animals that are raised or kept in captivity or fed supplements, things like that, do not count for the record books. It has to be a legitimately free range wild animal that is hunted fair Chase. You can't, you can't go into an elk ranch and shoot one, then an enclosure and try to enter that into our record books.” Mike Opitz, vice president of the B&C’s big game records committee, tells Cowboy State Daily that the press release wasn’t issued to address a specific surge in people trying to fudge the rules. Read the full story – Wyomingites could see the first colorful auroras of the year starting Monday night. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a massive surge of solar energy has reached Earth's atmosphere which could bring the beautiful displays. “A g4 severe geomagnetic storm wash was issued by the Space Weather Prediction Center on Sunday, after a massive coronal mass ejection was it's was detected coming off the surface of the sun and hurtling towards Earth, and it reached here in less than a day…according to the Space Weather Prediction Center, g4 geomagnetic storms are very rare, and the scale goes from g1 to g5 but we've had several of these over the last couple of years. The last g4 storm was in November of last year, and that was one of the best auroras that a lot of photographers I spoke to say they had ever seen in Wyoming.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued . For reference on how intense that is, the scale peaks at G5, which means this is a particularly powerful CME. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39794560

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January, 19, 2026 01/19/2026

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January, 19, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 19th. I’m Mac Watson. – As federal subsidies phase out for new wind energy projects, wind developers and opponents are regrouping. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that in Wyoming and Nebraska, residents against large-scale developments say the fight has just begun. “I spoke to national experts looking at the wind market, looking at this post subsidy world for wind and solar, where there's no longer going to be new federal subsidies for those two sectors of the of energy…The industry is moving into a new space. And so we got some analysis on what that means. Can they compete in the marketplace for different power? Those backing wind would say, ‘Yes, we can, because we can get new generations to market faster than other methods. That it takes maybe four years to build a natural gas plant, we can be up in one or two years generating electricity.’” After 33 years of federal tax support, this corner of the energy sector remains in transition, which U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright made clear in December when he told Cowboy State Daily, “We cleaned out a ton of subsidies, over a half a trillion of energy subsidies.” Read the full story – The 94-yard-long underground wine cellar at the Brush Creek Ranch in Carbon County has over 30,000 bottles of wine and is the 4th largest private collection in the U.S. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it has some of the rarest bottles of wine anywhere. “Bruce White started Brush Creek Ranch, and he started this wine cellar, and it is the fourth largest in the US. private collection is the seventh largest in the world. As far as private wine collections go, it's a 94 yard tunnel, 30,000 bottles of wine down there, selection of over 2000 so you know, just a lot of very interesting wines down there, old wines, rare wines, expensive. One of the bottles of wine is a $34,000 bottle of wine…It's like a Wizard of Oz experience…it's a magical experience. And I have to admit, when I went and did the wine cellar tour, it indeed, is a magical experience. I don't know any other way to describe it. Really, they have secret rooms down there. You push a panel to the right of the secret painting, and a door slides open, and inside is this glowing wall. Speak Easy, and each of these little windows has a different bottle of a different spirit in it that's luminous because the light in each locker.” Big wines are a feature of the collection, in part because they age so well. The late Bruce White’s collection includes many bottles in the 6- to 9-liter range. The largest bottle in the collection is an ultra-rare, 27-liter bottle of Jygantor 2016. Read the full story – State Rep. Daniel Singh left the Wyoming Freedom Caucus last month. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Singh says he wants to emphasize his independence, but still believes in the Freedom Caucus’ mission. “Daniel Singh has always been a little different from the Freedom Caucus majority, a little more libertarian leaning. And I asked him, ‘Why are you leaving?’ And he said, ‘Look, it's about emphasizing that I'm independent.’ He said that no one in the Freedom Caucus told him how to vote, that they're not as group think, as has been alleged in some news outlets, but that he wanted to reassure his constituents of his staunch independence…He does deviate from them once in a while, like when Freedom Caucus members voted to ban lab grown meat. Sing was a nay there. And so, yeah, there's, there's minor deviations but he said it's, it's really just about reasserting his independence.” The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is a lawmakers in the state House of Representatives. Its supporters cast it as the true voice of , while its detractors cast it as a source of Read the full story – A Casper father continues to grieve the death of a son he says would still be alive if only someone close to him had called 911. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that a legislator from Casper is introducing a bill that would make it a crime for bystanders to not call 911. “Steve Harshman is proposing to make bystanders criminally liable if they do not seek help for somebody in emergency situations, and that is something that could be a misdemeanor charge with penalties of up to $2,000.06 months in jail in some cases…Other states have done similar laws. So this is moving the Good Samaritan laws in a slightly different direction by trying to encourage people to be more proactive about getting help for people in these emergencies. In May of 2025, 27-year-old Casper resident Kohlman Claney died from a peculiar case of acidosis, a condition in which excess body acids result in cardiac or respiratory failure. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – “Bueno,” a Riverton-based search-and-rescue dog, is no ordinary K9. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that this incredible canine goes all over the country responding to disasters, but the dog needs a $25,000 surgery to save his life. “Brandy Eggeman said that her dog, Bueno, needs the surgery because there was some sort of bacterial infection going back maybe a year and a half, two years she thought she had it taken care of when she was living in Virginia. She moved to Wyoming, to her area about a year ago, and she said she started noticing this past Thanksgiving that it was coming back in her dog. And in December, she said it was like full bore. He could barely walk. So she took him to a vet in Montana, and he's telling her that she's going to need $25,000 for a surgery and for an MRI that's associated with that surgery. So what they plan to do is take out a disc and put in some metal in the dog's spinal column, and after that he should be, you know, back at full strength and able to do his job as a cadaver dog.” A friend in the search-and-rescue community suggested Eggeman launch a GoFundMe as a means to raise money, save him, and allow Bueno to work again. As of Sunday, Bueno’s is at 52% of its $9,000 goal. Read the full story – Wyoming gun advocates are applauding Thursday's U.S. Dept. of Justice opinion that says a 1927 law banning the practice of mailing handguns is unconstitutional. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that UW law professor George Moscary says hold off on taking that handgun down to the post office to mail. It’s complicated. “The Department of Justice, US Department of Justice, released an opinion that that law is unenforceable and it's unconstitutional. So what it might mean is that you might be able to mail a handgun through the US Postal Service like you'd mail any other package. Again, the person I talked to at UW is a legal expert. He said, “Just because the DOJ released this opinion and gave their opinion, don't run down to the post office with your Glock and mail it to your uncle just yet, because it’s a really complicated gray area of the law. There's a lot to work out.’ This process is just getting started, but it could have interesting implications.” Historical records indicate at the time, the law was deemed necessary because the current system of background checks for firearms purchases wasn’t in place, Moscary tells Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story – After UnitedHealth left Wyoming's ACA health insurance market, Torrington's Roger Huckfeldt tried to find a new provider for his 85-year-old mother. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that after weeks of robocalls, hangups, and 45 hours on hold, he's still waiting to get mom an insurance policy. “His United Health left Wyoming's Medicare Advantage plan. So what happens then is you get a letter that says you're eligible to switch carriers. You get, like, a one time exemption to do this thing well, so since they had bought a drug plan, he thought he would not be eligible to get any other plan. He's kind of roped into this one, right? So he's just doing his best to just get through this and get his mom signed up for insurance.” UnitedHealth is one of multiple carriers that amid rising health care costs, changes to federal policies, and the expiration of federal tax credits. Read the full story . – A 91-year-old Nebraska woman thought her rare 30-gallon old Red Wing crock might sell for $20 at a garage sale. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that instead, a local auctioneer spotted the treasure and sold it for her for $32,000. “The last person in the room to keep bidding stopped at 19,000 and this buyer who interrupted a pheasant hunt – he's an anonymous buyer, but we're told by our sources that he was in the middle of a pheasant hunt, bid this thing up to $32,000 and so you have to be a collector to understand the passion and love for Red Wing pottery…There's only maybe five of these left, according to the experts I spoke to. And that’s why this anonymous buyer was able to fork out $32,000.” The crock was shaped by clay pulled from the earth around Red Wing, Minnesota, and fired in a massive kiln sometime in the late 1800s. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39779760

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 16, 2026 01/16/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 16, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, January 16th. I’m Mac Watson. – The governor's policy director told members of the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday that their advancement of a proposal to kill the Wyoming Business Council was "crazy" and "nuts." Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports why he used those terms. “Randall Luthy started off talking about the respect he has for the legislature, but he said, ‘This is nuts. This is crazy.’ He is the governor's Policy Director, former Speaker of the State House. He was saying this is just a very big, rushed effort. And then another policy person from the governor's office said, ‘We want to work with you on improving this agency over the course of the next year. We want to not drop this on the people three weeks before a session at 4;30 on an afternoon…It was Sarah Duranzo that proposed the working group and the interim work and to that House Appropriations Chair, John Bear said, ‘I don't think this committee has any interest in delaying this a session. But if you did do such a working group, would you include taxpayers who have not benefit from this agency, who might be skeptics on it?’” The bill's next stop is the Wyoming Legislature, which convenes in a budget-planning session Feb. 9 and can modify, reject or pass the bill. If Gov. Mark Gordon, who has defended the agency, vetoes the bill seeking to kill it, the legislature would need a two-thirds majority to override his veto. Read the full story – Bodycam footage from nearly 5 years ago in Sheridan between 3 police officers and a disoriented man have created outrage on social media. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the video maker says the man suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgeries and was not treated properly by police. “On social media around Sheridan, a lot of folks were talking about this incident that occurred on a snowy night back in February of 2021 a man appeared to be intoxicated, but it turned out he had something far more serious going on. He had he was actually experiencing a stroke, according to reports that are now pulled together in this online viral video that purports to tell the story of a man appears in his 40s and is really disoriented, and quite frankly, he's treated really well by law enforcement…But critics accuse the Sheridan Police Department of not doing enough to protect this man's health.” Attempts to reach Davis and the video’s creator were unsuccessful. Read the full story – A massive Canadian cold front, bringing gusts up to 75 mph and single-digit wind chills, will clip eastern Wyoming on Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Black Hills Energy declared an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff Watch in some areas due to “high fire-risk conditions.” “Black Hills energy is taking this action as a precaution. When you have high winds, there's a chance the power lines can blow down, and with as dry as Eastern Wyoming is, there's a chance that there could be wildfires. The way this pattern is shaping up, it's looking like it's going to cover Eastern Wyoming on Friday. Western Wyoming will get some lower temperatures, but won't be affected otherwise, and then we're just going to continue in this holding pattern as we move through January.” Meteorologist Don Day tells Cowboy State Daily that the subsequent cold front will be like “another slap in the face of winter,” but the strong winds and cold temperatures won’t be carrying much, if any, snow. It’ll be all the fun of Wyoming’s winter winds without any of the much-needed moisture. Read the full story – A Cody man was sentenced to 4.25 years in prison on Wednesday for possessing 28 weapons, including pipe bombs and a machine gun, while he was under a protection order. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Ronald Bailey told the judge he is the victim. “A Cody man that was in federal district court US District Court here in Casper, seemed to try and convince the judge that he was a law abiding citizen…He had been told by a judge previously, when a protection order was issued against him that he could not possess weapons. And the judge told him that, you know, it seems that you love your guns more than you love the law…He was sentenced on two counts, two counts were dropped. So the two counts that he was sentenced on he got 51 months. He received 51 months each, and those are concurrent. So he's going to spend about four and a quarter years in a federal prison.” Randall Thomas Bailey appeared with his attorney in a striped prison suit and shackles before Judge Scott Skavdahl. In October 2025, he pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a firearm by a person subject to a court order and possession of an unregistered firearm. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – In what he called a win over China, Sen. Ogden Driskill advanced a proposed $16 million state-backed loan to bolster a rare earths processing plant. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one industry rep says, "This is truly Upton versus China — this is how Wyoming pushes back against China.” “Rare Element Resources is really chomping at the bit to get this money to finish making a more permanent processing plant there in northern Wyoming and their lobbyist, Jeff Doherty said, ‘This is truly up in Wyoming versus China. This is how we in Wyoming push back against China.’ This would give, if it's successful, it would give a base here in Wyoming for people to run rare earths through…China has its own facilities to process. And also these are for building tech components. And so there's a little bit of a tech race, little bit of a national security component, whereas Wyoming is having this session, these talks about, do we are direct ourselves in business? And the compromise they ultimately came to was, ‘Okay, we'll offer a loan to do what so that rare earths companies can apply for the loan rather than a grant.’” If the entire legislature approves release of the loan, Rare Element Resources, which is may have to compete against to win it. But Driskill said the money would help the company install its more permanent processing plant. Read the full story – A 19-year-old Casper man was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison on Thursday for the stabbing of a 17-year-old boy over a mutual love interest. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the victim’s mother said that her son will have the scars from the attack for the rest of his life and as the stabbing punctured both lungs and damaged his liver. “In court today, the district attorney presented three videos at the sentencing hearing, and they showed the perspective from the front porch. They had a video camera on the front porch, and so it showed the victim coming to the house. And then there was audio of the conversation that went on, lots of vulgarity. And then we see that the victim and defendant coming out onto the porch, wrestling one another, and they go down these steps, and during that time the victim was stabbed, but he altogether, he was stabbed five times…This was all over a girl, according to court remarks, and he was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison.” The mother of the victim, Ashleigh Humphrey, recounted how she was called at work and told to go to the hospital. There she found her son with injuries so bad it visibly affected those in the hospital. She added that her son had two chest tubes placed in his lungs. Read the full story – At a hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman told Fish & Wildlife Dir. Brian Nesvik that grizzlies need to be delisted because they are mauling too many hunters. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Nesvik agreed and said he believes the grizzly population has recovered. “Brian Nesvik, former Wyoming Game and Fish director, now US Fish and Wildlife director, Harriet Hagman, our Republican congresswoman. They were in a hearing in front of a subcommittee that Harriet Hageman chairs, and they kind of got onto the subject of delisting grizzly bears. They've both come out and said in the past they really wanted to happen. Nesvik didn't really change his tone from if, it happens, it's probably going to be a couple years. But Hagman kind of took it in the direction we're going to open up more land for hunting. We need to do something about these grizzly bears, because they keep mauling hunters.” Nesvik appeared before the subcommittee to speak about his goal over the next two years to open new hunting and fishing access on 16 federal wildlife refuges, in areas totaling roughly 87,000 acres. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39755425

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 15, 2026 01/15/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 15, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, January 15th. I’m Mac Watson. – A field officer for the federal Bureau of Land Management was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder,. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that 53-year-old Richard “Deak” Dollard allegedly choked a man to death in a Lander bar fight. “The affidavit says that there was tough talk and exchanges before this. And then the dad and son were getting in there and fighting. And then it describes Deak Dollard entering the fray and choking the guy, while another of the suspects pulled the man's hood so that his head was yanking back, and then he fell on the floor…Deke Dollard, who is accused of doing the choke out, the allegedly fatal choke out, is charged with second degree murder, which is a felony punishable by between 20 years in life in prison. But there's an alternate charge where, if it's more appropriate, the jury, if it goes to trial, could choose voluntary manslaughter, which is only punishable by up to 20 years in prison. And so then Justin and Jesse would attach, they are facing accessories before the fact charges. If manslaughter is more appropriate there, it's up to 20 for them.” Deak Dollard’s LinkedIn lists him as a U.S. Bureau of Land Management field staff law enforcement ranger from May 2016 to the present date. The BLM’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment. Read the full story – After arguing with a homeless man named Earl over a $30 debt at a long-term stay motel, a 69-year-old man reportedly told Earl to “die, bitch,” then shot him in the chest Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that a court affidavit available Wednesday says the encounter was caught on video. “They said the surveillance video showed him kind of standing over him for a bit, and then he went back into his room. And then he stayed there for another four hours, while about every cop in Cheyenne, it was, it was a huge scene. 34 cars were there, responding to the SWAT team with their big tank. They finally got it. They finally got him out.”...These guys knew each other. There's some, there's some discrepancy on the $30 whether he was paid back, or whether he was trying to pay him back at the time. But apparently there was, yeah, $30 and it led to the guy being shot, being shot.” According to Cheyenne PD, Harold Wayne Sarvis is facing an . Read the full story – Natrona County legislators gathered Wednesday to preview priorities ahead of next month's budget session. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that the discussion was hijacked by some stunned over Tuesday’s defunding of the Wyoming Business Council. “Every panelist weighed in on it. It was kind of like what turns out to be something of an ideological battle line taking shape around this microcosm of the Wyoming Business Council, and they're saying, what is the proper role of the state in the economy? And you had legislators like Representative Lee Campbell, who wants to see the Business Council stay around. She wants to see funding for a white for the University of Wyoming. And the big concern is the workforce. They say, if we don't have an educated workforce, we're not going to attract employers, and if we don't have a business council that's here to help employers, we're not going to attract the workforce.” The Joint Appropriations Committee voted onTuesday to the Wyoming Business Council, a publicly-funded agency designed to boost business through state-backed loans and grants. Read the full story – Parents in Sweetwater County School District No. 1 are blasting the board for high vacancies, ignored comments, a secret superintendent raise, and poor accountability. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that despite promises, leadership isn’t really offering any explanation amid ongoing turmoil. “Parents are frustrated that they're not getting answers from school leadership, from members of the school board, the school board is saying they're not not responding. They're just looking into the complaints and need time to be able to come up with responses and do proper investigations…One parent I spoke to said that she has brought up a complaint three times this semester to the school district about one issue and has still not received a response…Board Chairman Cole Wright responded to an email received by Cowboy State Daily. His response was, quote, ‘We will continue reviewing matters brought up during last night's board meeting and via cowboy states outreach, and we will respond when our review is complete.’” The Wyoming Department of Education acknowledged this week that it had received formal complaints about the Sweetwater school district. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The CEO of a tribal health clinic and a state lawmaker are voicing concerns over a legislative committee’s push to block $58 million in federal money. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the denial, which is not final, was part of a slew of proposed Wyoming Department of Health cuts. “The Appropriations Committee majority voted to block 58 million that was to go to tribal health clinics on the reservation. It was 100% federal funded. And I got to talking to Representative Lloyd Larson, was like, ‘If you block this Medicaid money from these tribal health clinics, what tribal members who qualify for Medicaid will do is they'll go get care in Thermopolis in Riverton, in Lander, and guess what? In those clinics, the state pays half of the Medicaid coverage, whereas in tribal clinics, they pay 0% of the Medicaid coverage. So what this is actually going to do is take a big fat gouge to the state's bottom line.’” As a former House Appropriations member, Rep. Larsen oversaw the Wyoming Department of Health’s budget for eight years. Read the full story – The former Campbell County High football coach fired in November for a profanity-laced outburst aimed at a player has been cleared by the state board that licenses teachers and coaches. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Orah Garst says he’s grateful and wants to coach again. “They dismissed the complaint. However, they did admonish him, saying, ‘You know this you need to address. And the coach really says that's fine. He said, ‘Yeah, there's no denying it. I did it.’ He yelled at the kid. Used profanities. He said, it's not in his nature to do that. He hadn't done that before, but, you know, it got recorded. There were complaints that led to him being fired, and he says he doesn't, although he thinks it was an overreaction, he doesn't contest it, because he says you've got to be responsible for your actions.” Garst said missing the final playoff games for the Camels this past season was difficult. After he was fired, the team advanced to the state championship, losing a close 17-10 game to the Sheridan Broncs. Read the full story – Yellowstone is considering three permanent routes to replace its flood-damaged North Entrance Road, with a hybrid “center alignment” emerging as the preferred option. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi explains why the $300 million project could take five-to-nine years to build. “So that the time of the construction timeline will depend on the solution chosen. It could go anywhere from five years to as long as nine years, because it's an ambitious project. You're talking about brand new infrastructure. Most of the plans require new road embankments, new bridges, wildlife, underpasses. They require so much and so much money and so much effort to do this, because it's not a long distance between Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardner Montana, but you're talking about a canyon. You're talking about river systems, rock slides, all these things need to be factored in. So everything's been designed. All they're doing now is getting public input on which design they'll go with which they have, one that they're heavily favoring, and once that design is selected, construction can begin as soon as 2027.” Yellowstone National Park Director Cam Sholly met with citizens to hear their ideas and encouraged comments and criticisms, saying the decisions made today will "extend beyond any of our lifetimes.” Read the full story – A photo capturing two coyotes in a standoff over a bison carcass in Yellowstone National Park depicts the canines with their backs arched, raised paws raised and baring their teeth so aggressively it might be easy to assume they were ready to rip each other apart. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that biologists say it’s all for show. “So one coyote was on the bison carcass, eating it. The other one came along and started doing this really weird arch back pose, and so the other one jumped off the carcass, and they kind of went back. To four, back and forth like that for a little bit. He said they did tough a little bit, but they didn't seriously fight. And then finally, went back to eating the one, backed off, and waited till the first one was done, and then went and took its turn. And then the other guy talked to the guy who's really an expert in coyotes, he did confirm that while coyotes will tussle, they will fight with each other. They don't get in those vicious blood letting rip each other apart fights that wolves do.” Robert Crabtree, the founder, chief scientist, and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, tells Cowboy State Daily that coyotes are a “highly evolved” and “complex species,” and many of their behaviors remain a mystery. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39738590

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January, 14, 2026 01/14/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January, 14, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, January 14th. I’m Mac Watson. – Nine of Wyoming’s top legislators advanced a bid Tuesday to defund and dismantle the Wyoming Business Council. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that opponents call the move short-sighted while supporters say it stops government from unfairly competing with private businesses. “Last summer, Representative Ken Pendergraft told us that he wanted to get rid of the agency, and then over the intervening months, Representative Tom Kelly from Sheridan said the same…And then this all kind of erupted with the super-conservative-led Joint Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee is the most powerful in the legislature, and they advance this maneuver to just gut it and shut it down, but they still have to get that past the 93 person legislature next month if they want it to last.” If the state Legislature approves the action the Joint Appropriations Committee advanced Tuesday on a 9-3 vote, it would slash the Wyoming Business Council’s two-year budget from about $94.2 million to $2 million — just enough to close the agency. Read the full story – The 2026 legislative season is ramping up, and Utah lawmakers are fully embracing the nuclear industry while Wyoming legislators appear to be avoiding the subject. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that State Sen. Ed Cooper of Ten Sleep, drafted a bill titled “Advanced nuclear reactor manufacturers-fuel storage,” but he has no plans to introduce the legislation during the upcoming budget session. “He thinks that the Freedom Caucus is going to oppose it and is worried that, yeah, he wouldn't get the support. And there's a lot of other stuff to do during the short budget session. So I compared what's happening in Wyoming with what's happening in Utah, which is a little bit more open for business when it comes to the nuclear industry...there's a couple bills that would really facilitate further investment in the nuclear industry and further empower the state of Utah to perhaps perform some of some of the regulatory duties now done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” The upcoming Utah legislative session begins Jan. 20, with multiple efforts focused on nuclear energy and waste management that could position the state as a western hub for nuclear fuel processing. Read the full story – Republican Jillian Balow is running for the state's lone U.S. House Seat. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that before going to Virginia to be the top educator, she was the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Wyoming. “The thing about Jillian Balow is she was the superintendent of public instruction when it was a very hot seat to be in. She weathered Covid in that office. She was the person in conjunction with Governor Mark Gordon, who said, ‘We're shutting down the schools around March 14, 2020,’ and she did reopen the schools fairly quickly, especially compared to other states. Which is one reason that officials commonly attribute Wyoming performing well on national tests in the years that followed.” This pits Balow against Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Casper businessman Reid Rasner, both MAGA-style candidates, for the lone seat in the House of Representatives. Read the full story – A 40-year-old Russian national plunged off a bridge after his snowmobile collided with a guardrail. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that luckily, a team of emergency responders on the Scenic Beartooth Highway near the Wyoming - Montana border was able to rescue the man. “A 40-year-old-Russian national on a snowmobile hit a guard rail on a bridge and plunged 15 feet into a creek bottom. Someone in his party went to go get help and rode to a warming hut about half a mile away, happened to find a bunch of search and rescue team members in there on their lunch break from an avalanche training, safety training…one of the search and rescue members is a trained doctor, and he is the one who rendered care…the Russian national was airlifted to St Vincent's Trauma Center in Billings, and he is expected to survive.” Cody Country Snowmobile Association Director Bert Miller tells Cowboy State Daily that the party, which he said he believed included three snowmobilers, was playing in a meadow when the 40-year-old male rode up on the highway bridge. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The Joint Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to reduce the governor’s recommended state budget for the University of Wyoming by nearly $61 million. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports one lawmaker calls it “spiteful and vindictive.” “Senator Ogden Driscoll, a Republican on the Appropriations Committee, who the part, the spiteful and vindictive part, was especially about the match funds, 12 point 5 million the governor recommended the state give UW to attract other match style fundraising efforts, and that was after the $40 million proposed cut to the block-style grants. Senator Driscoll was like, ‘So you cut the Block Grant and then you take away their lever for fundraising.’ ‘That's spiteful and vindictive,’ is what he said. Whereas on the other side, UW has been at odds with the Legislature for years now, it's no secret there's occasional culture clashes.” If both chambers of the state Legislature agree with the maneuver, that denial of funds would include a $40 million cut to the school’s state-funded block grant, the denial of $6 million UW requested to deal with spiking athletics costs in the wake of the (NIL) legal shakeup – and the state-level defunding of Wyoming Public Media. Read the full story – The Cheyenne City Council on Monday sat through hours of residents blasting them over administrative warrants to inspect homes and businesses. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that citizens are calling it “textbook overreach.” “A lot of people spoke out about this proposed ordinance. Every single one of them spoke out against the ordinance. They say it's government overreach. Some say it's unconstitutional. Others say it's allowed, but you know, it's still not in the spirit of what people in Wyoming are about, and basically extending, giving, extending the ability to get warrants to go into people's homes, for their businesses. People are just against it. They just say, you know, people are already in our lives, too much…the vote on Monday was six to three in favor of it, so three, three council members voted against it, and some of the six who voted for it voted for it on the caveat that it gets changed. It's been made more specific that they address some of people's concerns when they bring it back, so there's no guarantee that it would pass on the third reading if they don't address some of what people were upset about.” The council voted 6-3 to approve the ordinance’s second reading. The council got an earful for about two hours from locals against the warrants, saying they’re unconstitutional, unwelcome and, in a stand-your-ground state like Wyoming, downright dangerous. Read the full story – The big blue water slide at Hellie’s Tepee Pools in Hot Springs State Park has been dismantled and given away after 34 years of summer fun. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a new water feature is on hold while the future of Thermopolis' hot spring facilities is tied up in court. “Hellie’s Tepee Pools tore down their multi-story Big Blue slide recently, and the pieces were distributed throughout the community, everything from new dog houses to ways of keeping rain off the ground. What had been at T the slide had been at heli's TVs for 30 years, but it was at least 50 years old…I was told that there will be a new water feature there. What's and when that's up to what and when. Nobody knows exactly. Though, nobody has answers for those right now, but the manager at heli's tepees wanted people to know this is a sign that there's a bright future ahead for the pool. The slide coming down is not a sign that the quality is sliding downhill.” William Moriarty, the manager of Hellie’s Tepee, said the slide coming down isn't a sign that the pool is going downhill. It’s a necessary step toward a better visitor experience that will be replaced with something better in the not-too-distant future. Read the full story – Canada geese sometimes hog elevated nesting platforms from ospreys in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports the ospreys don’t fight to take back their nest, they move on to try to build nests on powerline poles instead with deadly consequences. “So I ran it past, you know, some of the bird experts. and they said, ‘No, that does actually happen.’ Canada geese, if they have the opportunity, they will nest up in old eagle's nest in trees, or they'll nest on cliff faces in other up high places. Some Canada geese nest on the ground, or in old wheelbarrows. Others with more of a taste for heights will build nests on outcroppings along cliff faces and hatch their young, called goslings, up there…what will sometimes happen is the geese will either be here already. They stay the entire winter, or they'll come in before the Osprey and they'll take over these platforms and build their nests there before the Osprey have a time to get back from Mexico or wherever they've been. And subsequently, the Osprey will go, ‘Well, heck, that one's occupied. So they'll go over and they'll start building nests elsewhere.’ Oftentimes that elsewhere happens to be on power line poles, which can lead to Osprey being electrocuted and or causing power outages.” Some Canada geese nest on the ground, or in old wheelbarrows. Others with more of a taste for heights will build nests on outcroppings along cliff faces and hatch their young, called goslings, up there. – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39725115

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 13, 2026 01/13/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 13, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, January 13th. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder on Monday announced she is running for governor. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Degenfelder had been "strongly considering" the move and had received an endorsement from President Trump urging her to run last week. “We have three years of political leadership by Degenfelder in this state, where she's led our public education system. And during that time, she has backed school choice, she has voted in favor of wind leasing, stating that that's a free market approach by Wyoming. She really ran in part on a campaign of blocking sexually explicit books in school libraries, or helping schools deal with that on their own, which she did end up doing. She did end up issuing guidance to school districts so that they could deal with that issue.” The Republican incumbent Gov. Mark Gordon is at the end of his two-term limit this year. The state has court history indicating he could get the limit overturned, but not without a legal challenge. Gordon has not announced his political intentions for the 2026 election. Read the full story – Wyoming’s senior U.S. Senator announced Monday morning that he’s endorsing U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman to serve alongside him in the upper chamber. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Senator Barrasso said Hageman “is going to be terrific in the U.S. Senate,” but why such an early endorsement? “I asked him. I was like, this is early. We've not had on the state side – we've not had the legislative session yet. She doesn't really have an opponent yet. No one else has declared. Why are you so early? I asked him that point blank, and he said, Look, I want to get her out there as a front runner to get this race in the bag, so I can focus on trickier cases and hold the Republican majority in the Senate.” Sen. John Barrasso’s current counterpart in the upper chamber of Congress is Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who announced Dec. 19 that she’s not seeking to run for a second six-year term this year. Hageman, Wyoming’s lone delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, announced four days later that she will run to fill Lummis’ seat. Read the full story – A snowmobiler in the Wyoming backcountry southeast of Afton died Sunday after he and another rider triggered an avalanche that buried him about 2 feet below the surface and under his snowmobile. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that despite having an airbag on his snowmobile, Nicholas Bringquist of Springville, Utah was still trapped beneath the avalanche. “The air bag is not attached to the snowmobile. It's a piece of equipment that a rider carries, especially when in the back country. When it deploys, it is supposed to keep the rider above the surface to ride out the avalanche to keep them from getting buried. But in this case, it did not work that way…the snowmobiler was trapped under about two feet of snow underneath, and was underneath his snowmobile. So it's his, it's the snow, then his snowmobile, then he and his partner pulled him out and attempted to perform. Did perform CPR, but it was again, unsuccessful.” Frank Carus, director of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, tells Cowboy State Daily that the two snowmobilers were on a steep, ungroomed slope when the avalanche was triggered at about 8,800 feet of elevation and extremely avalanche-prone. Read the full story – The Wyoming legislative committee crafting a preliminary state budget voted Monday to deny the governor’s $111.8 million recommendation to give state employees raises. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the debate is not over. “What the judiciary committee is doing this week is the markup. So the budget, the budget is like a train that people are putting stuff on and taking stuff off of as it winds toward the station and the first iteration of that train is the governor's version of it, the governor's recommendation. And so he sent that into the legislative committee joint appropriations, which on Monday was like, we don't want this $111.8 million for raises for all state employees across the enterprise. We're going to pull that out. They later did go in and put in 5 million for some state troopers and road maintenance people, including snow plow drivers. But the train’s next stop is the state legislature.” Rep. Trey Sherwood of Laramie says wages have not kept pace with inflation, pointing to economic data that the state’s total wage growth in the past decade was 27.6% compared to the private sector’s 37.2%. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The Trump administration’s EPA has finalized its rejection of closing a coal-fired power plant in Colorado, drawing sharp criticism from environmental and health groups. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the decision extends the life of a plant that burns Wyoming coal. “Administrator Cyrus Western, who's a former Sheridan legislator. He runs the office for the EPA out of Denver, looks over about eight states, I think. And he says this is just another way that the Trump administration is trying to end the war on coal, that he says it's a false choice that we've been presented that you can have public health or you can have electricity generated by coal. That's a very controversial position to take in Colorado…Administrator Western, says he's carrying out the mandate he's received from the Trump administration and clashing with Colorado officials over that.” At the heart of the decision is the Ray D. Nixon Power Plant, which serves Colorado Springs and has burned Wyoming Powder River Basin coal since 2003. Read the full story – The woman accused of absconding with her son from Wyoming, then killing the 11-month-old when authorities caught up with her, wants out of jail. But Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that 35-year-old Madeline Daly will remain locked up as she faces a first-degree murder charge. “It was a custody hearing today, Monday afternoon in Grant County to determine whether she would remain incarcerated leading up to her criminal proceedings, which are still in process. And the judge said, Absolutely not. We are keeping you in jail. And her attorney was inaudible, unfortunately, on the meeting, so it was unclear what he was saying, what argument he was making, but the DA countered by saying, these charges are egregious, and he fears for both her own safety as well as the safety of the stoners, because she allegedly took the boy's life to keep the him from visiting Jake Stoner, the biological father and his family. That was her justification in taking his life. She told the detectives after her arrest, according to court documents.” Daly allegedly shot and killed her son back in December rather than ceding custody to the biological father in compliance with a court order when she was confronted by New Mexico authorities in an RV park. Read the full story – A young black bear has caused a stir in the Jackson area, spotted still awake and running around in January. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that a local wildlife tour guide says it’s not unheard of, but the unseasonably warm weather may have confused the bear about when bedtime is. “It's more like a juvenile, sub-adult black bear, who was seen kind of running around the Jackson area recently, like as recently as last week. I talked to a local, a guy who's a wilderness guide and a photographer there, and he got some good pictures of this bear on Christmas Eve. And we've had a couple articles already about how the warm weather is affecting things, and it might be keeping some bears out longer than usual. And he said because this bear, it's not a cub, but it's not, it's more like just left home age, and so since it probably just separated from its mother, and it's this weird, warm year, he said that might play in, that might factor in to why this particular bear is not running around so late.” Soulliere told Cowboy State Daily that black bears and grizzlies typically separate from their mothers at around 2-to-3-years old. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39710985

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 12, 2026 01/12/2026

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 12, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, January 12th. I’m Mac Watson. – Utahns who are banned from buying alcohol due to “extreme” DUIs won’t find sympathetic liquor dealers in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one dealer in Evanston says “If Utah says you can’t buy alcohol because you’re too bad of a drunk driver, then we’re not going to sell to you either.” “Utah has the strictest drunk driving laws in the nation. Anyway, their legal threshold is point oh 5% or just about everybody else's point oh eight and this new law that went into effect January that says that if you're convicted of what's considered an Extreme DUI, you can't buy alcohol in Utah, and they put it on your driver's license or your official ID, it's in red bar right over your head that says no alcohol sale…So, basically, what it got me to wondering is if, as as they're handing out these extreme DUIs to people in Utah, they can't buy alcohol, there are we going to see something like we see with Colorado coming up to Cheyenne to get fireworks. It's very illegal in Colorado, so they come up to Cheyenne, just over the border, and buy their fireworks.” Now liquor store and bar owners in Evanston who spoke to Cowboy State Daily said there’s no obligation to follow Utah’s laws, but the extra alcohol sales aren’t worth having it weigh on their consciences. Read the full story – Sublette County ranch hand Rachel Misiewicz was heartbroken when a Texas tourist ran over a working border collie during a cattle drive last fall. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that Rachel is pushing for a law that would mandate drivers slow to 25 mph near livestock drives. “On this tragic day last fall, a 11-month Border Collie cur cattle dog named Flo ran across the highway to get some cows and push them back to the herd so they can stay on the shoulder. Well, a couple from Texas allegedly was driving in a Ford Bronco going too fast. My sources say the woman was in the passenger seat, videoing it, and a man was driving, and they hit poor flow. Both the front tire and the back flow died pretty much immediately…Law enforcement showed up, but the driver was not cited.” The petition, , calls for legislation that would require motorists to slow to 25 mph when encountering cattle, horses, riders, or active livestock drives on public roadways and would establish a $3,000 fine for failure to comply.  Read the full story – Right before Christmas, Navy veteran Al Ellis donated his 207-acre llama ranch in Sublette County as a sanctuary for veterans and first responders. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Ellis wanted to do this for the people who deserve it. “Al Ellis donated his 207-acre llama farm to the Boulder Crest Foundation because the Boulder Crest Foundation serves veterans and first responders. They provide training and programs for veterans and first responders who have been through trauma. And Mr. Ellis said he has a high regard for those people and wants to basically give them a gift to just be as generous as he possibly can, because they deserve it…When his wife died in August, he decided he wanted to donate his land, his property, including his beautiful, two story log home, he looked he did some research for organizations, foundations, nonprofits, that would accept the land as a donation…So he ended up connecting with boulder crest through one of their program graduates, and that ended up being a really good match.” Besides being a decorated Navy veteran, Ellis was also a former commercial abalone diver who built a successful pack llama business in Western Wyoming. Read the full story – If she does decide to run for governor of Wyoming, Megan Degenfelder has President Donald Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the president is emphatically encouraging the Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction in a post to Truth Social. “In Wyoming, the past three presidential elections, Trump has won nearly, or roughly 70% of the vote. It's an energy state he's big on that. It's socially conservative. He's been pretty big on that, and so yeah, for the foreseeable future, a Trump endorsement in Wyoming is still a huge deal. And I intercepted Dagenfelder. She was headed out of a school she'd been to a little school ceremony in Cheyenne at ARP Elementary, and I intercepted her on the phone. When I posed the question, ‘Did you know Trump was going to do this?’ She said,’ I was just leaving the elementary school, and it caught me by surprise.’” Degenfelder hasn’t committed to run for governor, but has said she’s “strongly considering” it. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – An anti-rodeo law that would all but ban the sport in New York City represents a trend Wyoming rodeo defenders hate to see and they hope will not spread. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that rodeo advocates say even though New York is 2,000 miles away, the misinformation threatens cowboy culture. “New York has a long history with rodeo. People may not realize that, but Madison Square Garden was actually way back in its history. Part of its origin story was professional bull riding, and they host the PBR there every year to sold-out shows. So, actually, rodeos are not a small thing in New York. But I think the thing is, is there are lots of animal rights groups out there who have been after rodeo for a long time, and so this is not the first time, nor probably will be the last, that a state has entertained some type of rule like this that's really aimed at just getting rid of rodeo.” The proposed law, which landed on the New York City Council's New Year’s Eve agenda, would ban all calf roping, flank straps, and electric prods at rodeos. Read the full story – At the age of 11 years, 9 months, Wolf 1090F has earned the title of the oldest living wolf in Yellowstone. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz says that is a remarkable achievement considering the average lifespan of a wild wolf is 5 or 6 years of age. “I talked to a couple biologists and that's a remarkable age. And one of them I talked to said, ‘You get out for some reason, there's a lot of wolves fight with each other a lot in Yellowstone.’ That's what affects the average lifespan. There's so much fighting and killing of wolves between wolves, it drives down the overall age, or drives up the mortality rate, drives down the average age of death.’ You get in places like Canada, where there isn't so much of that going on wolves can. It's not unusual to find wolves out there that are 12 years old or older. She surpassed the age of the , who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day 2024, a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack. Read the full story – The first thing visitors see when they enter the newly opened Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi are four massive long-necked dinosaurs. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that three of these one-of-a-kind giants, and several other fossils in the world-class museum, are from the Cowboy State. “When museums want to make a big impression, they go with dinosaurs. And when they want dinosaurs, they more often than not come to Wyoming, because Wyoming has not only a lot of dinosaurs, but some of the biggest name dinosaurs. So when the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi wanted to make a big impression with five long neck dinosaurs in their lobby. At least three of them came from a sauropod quarry near Hewlett, and we're talking about animals that are over 90 feet long, over 30 feet tall. The smallest of them is over 60 feet long. Of the three that are in there that are confirmed to be from Wyoming, and I have strong suspicions that the two other sauropods in that lobby, along with dozens of other specimens in that museum, came from Wyoming. They came with a wish list of what they wanted to make the biggest impression and make a world class natural history museum, and that meant Wyoming dinosaurs, as it often does.” The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, opened to much fanfare in November. The largest natural history museum in the Middle East was designed to be one of the world's premier institutions of its kind. Read the full story – Laramie WWII veteran Bob Willis earned a Purple Heart after being blown off a tank in the Battle of the Bulge. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the veteran, who also protected Holocaust survivors, celebrated his 101st birthday on Saturday and says one thing saved his life in battle. “Bob Willis was a longtime dentist in Laramie, and he was a World War Two veteran, and he says, ‘I'm not a hero, I'm just a survivor.’ But his story belies that he was among the soldiers that were a first on the front when the Battle of the Bulge broke out when the Germans staged a counter offensive in late 1944 early 1945 he spent weeks fighting that he climbed up on a tank. His Captain gave him the order to climb up on a tank. He gets up on the tank to tell the tank to shoot at the farmhouse, and then that tank takes fire from a German tank. The shell explodes below him, blows him up in the air, and shrapnel hits him as he's coming down. He understands that he's hit, but he also notices that his Book of Mormon that he had in his pocket, it went through that Book of Mormon. And so, he believes that the Book of Mormon stopped that shell fragment from coming and going inside his body and likely causing an infection.” As one of the few remaining World War II vets from the “Greatest Generation” in Wyoming, he looks back over the past century with the war years still vivid in his mind. “I’m just a survivor, I’m no kind of hero.” Willis tells Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39693240

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 9, 2026 01/09/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 9, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, January 9th. I’m Mac Watson. – The feud between Gov. Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray boiled over Thursday when Gordon asked Gray, “Do you want to step outside” near the end of a marathon Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners meeting in Douglas. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports friction between these two politicians isn’t new. “Governor Gordon, I think, expressed his displeasure with Secretary Gray by asking him if he'd like to step outside. Now he said it with a very measured tone. Later, his spokesperson said he literally meant, do you want to step outside and discuss this further? Because I'm not understanding you, Governor Gordon, didn't seem to lose his temper. He just said it very bluntly, would you like to step outside? Secretary Gray, in a follow up statement to Cowboy State daily, he, you know, he accused the governor of intimidation. It certainly wasn't the vibe of most of the meeting, but it ended with that terse exchange. I think the big takeaway here is that it appears that Secretary Gray has succeeded in dragging the rest of the land board commissioners over to his side on this issue. Now that still remains to be seen how they vote down the road.” The tense exchange capped an otherwise pleasant meeting that drew dozens of opponents to the Douglas Library, where residents delivered pointed testimony against the proposed wind project on both private and state trust lands in the shadow of the northern Laramie Range. Read the full story – Cheyenne has approved Project Jade, a Tallgrass–Crusoe AI data center using up to 2.7 GW of mostly self-generated power, nearly triple the entire state’s power demand. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that’s a lot more than the 1.8 GW the companies announced in August. “So the cap was always 10 gigawatts, but the initial announcement was 1.8 gigawatts at the city camps, or the Laramie County Commission meeting, they were talking about a 2.7 gigawatt facility. So, you know, I think that is an indication of demand in the marketplace. They were able to go out and find customers for that extra gigawatt of power…this is like roughly three times what the state itself uses as a whole for everyone in the entire state. This is going to be a massive, massive data center here in Cheyenne.” At the time, that was the largest data center yet to announce plans for Wyoming. It received a lot of attention statewide because the facility would use almost twice as much power as the entire state. Read the full story – A state representative from Casper wants to keep people from being charged with drunk driving if they're drunk while riding a horse, mule or donkey. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the bill made one defense attorney laugh and left prosecutors wondering if a specific case inspired it. “It's a very Wyoming bill. It would specify that you can't be charged with DUI for drunkenly riding your horse. Now, I talked with Mike Vang of Laramie. He's a defense attorney who specializes in DUIs. He said, ‘Yeah, this is really interesting, and it may skirt some portions of you know, like DUI, implied consent for testing.’ But don't ride your horse to and from the bar, because you still may face other charges, like if, if there's a public intoxication ordinance in place, or you may face the state charge of reckless endangering.” Johnson County’s top prosecutor said he was curious to know what prompted the legislation, since neither he nor the two deputy attorneys then standing in his office — with nearly 50 years’ experience between them — had never charged anyone for drunkenly riding a horse. Read the full story – A proposed ordinance expanding administrative warrants to access people’s property has upset some Cheyenne residents who say it crosses the line into government overreach. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that fire and building officials say they need them to do post-fire safety inspections. “Firefighters, when they go on to a property, they fight a fire and they extinguish it, and they leave. Sometimes they have to come back, and according to fire officials, you know, they're required by the Constitution to get some kind of a warrant or get permission to come back on and sometimes buildings are abandoned, and they don't know who the property owners belong to, so they're they say they're trying to just do everything by the law. Some residents consider it overreach, because, for one thing, they don't want people forcing them to, you know, give permission to come on their property.” On Monday, there will be a final reading of the bill during the city council meeting. But there is a large contingent of people on social media who say the bill is overreaching and they will show up and protest. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The proposed 2-gigawatt Seminoe Generating Station near Rawlins would pair natural gas and wind power to boost Wyoming’s energy supply. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports the project aims to cut water use by up to 95% and reduce emissions while creating hundreds of jobs. “Water usage in the West is a critical issue because everyone needs it, and there's not enough. So we have on one side, we have the power company of Wyoming saying we're bringing in this project that's going to create all these jobs, and we still need water for this project, although we're going to be reducing, you know, the water usage by over 90% which sounds good, And that was enticing to the carbon county commissioners. However, one of the commissioners, who's also a rancher, did express concern over the 320 acre feet of annual consumption that this project will entail....On the jobs front with this project, the company's Vice President of Government and Public Relations said that the project will result in an anticipated peak of 350 construction jobs along with 30 operations jobs.” Touted as one of the most widely used and reliable forms of large-scale renewable energy storage, pumped hydro relies on gravity and water rather than chemicals. Read the full story – The teen who did not pull the trigger of the compound bow that killed his autistic friend last February, but who conspired to that end and watched the killing, was sentenced Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Orion Schlesinger was sentenced to between 54 years and life in prison. “For second degree murder, you can get 20 to life. The prosecutor and the defense attorney came to this agreement. After months of defense and mental illness, plea and evaluations, they ultimately came to decide, okay. 54 is the bottom number, life is the top number. He's eligible for parole.” 19-year old Schlesinger was also ordered to pay $4,431.50 in restitution – one half of the funeral costs for his victim Dakota Farley, 23, and of the wages Dakota Farley’s father Ray lost by attending court proceedings. Read the full story – Wyoming cattle ranchers are applauding the new federal dietary guidelines that prioritize protein like red meat and real foods over processed options. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that ranchers are applauding the newly-released guidelines. “Wyoming ranchers are excited about the new dietary guidelines that were announced this week. The Department of Agriculture and the Health and Human Services aim to bring back to the American diet, protein, fruits and vegetables and also deter Americans from highly processed foods…one rancher I talked to said we already raise a wholesome, non processed product.” On Wednesday, the federal government released new national dietary guidelines that tilted more heavily toward eating more protein, "marking the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in decades,” federal officials said in a statement. Read the full story – Some people are livid over the inclusion of President Donald Trump’s picture on the 2026 “America The Beautiful” national park annual pass. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that they’ve put stickers over the president’s image, which invalidates the passes. “I talked to a Democratic Wyomingite, and I talked to a Republican Wyomingite, and the Democrat basically said, ‘Yeah, this is just Trump being Trump, being a huge egomaniac. He wants his picture and his name everywhere.’And then the Republicans said, ‘No, this is cool. It's appropriate. You have the nation's first president. You have the nation's current president, 250 years of America’ So, depending on how you want to look at it, there nationwide, there's been some people that are so upset about it, they started putting stickers over Trump's face. But the government, the Department of Interior, said, ‘No, if you do that, you basically rendered the pass void.’” Some Trump detractors have turned to making plastic covers for the roughly credit-card-sized passes, which hide Trump’s face without altering the passes themselves. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39670010

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 8, 2026 01/08/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 8, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, January 8th. I’m Mac Watson. – A cut fiber cable caused issues with 911 service from Monday night through Wednesday in Park County. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Park County 911 Manager says they’re working with old technology. “A lot of the old phone networks still exist and are part of the system, particularly when it comes to 911, it has been trying to update that for a long time, but they've been having trouble getting the funding…if you wanted to report an emergency in Park County, you had to somehow know to go to their Facebook page and find a cell phone number in their posts. That was the number for about three hours to call an emergency in because the office phones were even down, so they couldn't reroute anything. The 911, being on an old analog system, can't really be rerouted, but they can reroute the calls, phone calls, but everybody was down, and so for three hours. That's how you had to report an emergency.” Park County Communications Supervisor and 911 Manager Monte McClain was told in a voice mail message from service provider Lumen Technologies that the cable was cut in Casper. Read the full story – Authorities say human remains found Monday on the grounds of the Sheridan County Airport are likely a Sheridan man missing for nearly nine months. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that a DNA test is pending, but items found nearby, including a wallet, ID the body as James “Bo” Galloway. “I interviewed Bo's ex wife and best friend, Jamie Banks this morning, and they believe it is him. It's where he was expected to be. They always thought he was somewhere on this expansive property he was renting along the little Goose Creek, and the Sheridan County Sheriff's Office had reported sightings of somebody who looked like Bo on the premises trespassing in early June.” At this time, authorities do not suspect foul play in the death, and they tell Cowboy State Daily that it’s still an active investigation. Read the full story – Gov. Mark Gordon on Wednesday recommended Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock be removed from office. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the governor’s announcement follows two different batches of complaints accusing Hadlock of misconduct after inaccuracies surfaced in two races in Weston County. “The governor's investigation is pretty step-by -step in state law, so electors of that county or county commissioners have to be the ones to file the complaint against their local official, and they did that twice. The first time the governor said it wasn't enough, the second time he said, Yes, it is enough to show misconduct or malfeasance. And so he announced Wednesday, he's recommending the situation to the Attorney General, Keith Kautz is referring it to Keith Kautz to prosecute for removal.” The announcement follows two different batches of complaints accusing Hadlock of misconduct after inaccuracies were found in two unopposed races in the November 2024 general election in Weston County. Read the full story – Mother Nature hasn’t been very cooperative this winter as the ice-fishing season in Fremont County has been a disaster so far. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Boysen Reservoir is nearly ice-free, and some recent days there have felt practically like summer. “There are some derbies that have already been canceled, and it's looking like the one that they're skittish about, the one in Boysen. And we're supposed to start to get some colder weather. But whether it stays cold enough long enough to really freeze that entire reservoir up solid to where it's safe to go out there and ice fish that, that's, that's an open question. But, but, yeah, it's just, it's been a really weird winter so far, and people are still fishing, but ice fishing, at least in this part of the world, has just been non-existent. And it's usually going, it's usually going full bore this time of year, but not this year.” Usually by Christmas, there’s enough ice to venture out on parts of Boysen, as well as other popular waters in Fremont County. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A second Republican candidate has declared his run for Wyoming’s congressional seat. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Reid Rasner made his announcement on Wednesday saying he’s running for Congress “to help President Trump Make America Great Again.” “It's a trend. I think I wasn't able to get him on the phone when he declared, just as I wasn't able to get Chuck Gray on the phone. And in fact, there are a lot of similarities in the two campaign announcements. They're both touting this Magna push. They're both talking about being super pro Trump and, you know, attacking the radical left. And they, they both were very outspoken on Facebook, and then they're both vying for that Republican primary nomination in 2026 for Wyoming's only House seat.” Nine days before Rasner’s announcement, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray delivered a similar announcement, touting himself as a Trump-style and “America first” candidate. Read the full story – A Natrona County District Court judge on Tuesday reversed the Wyoming State Board of Land Commissioners’ denial of leases for a controversial gravel mining operation at the base of Casper Mountain. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the order sends the leases back to the board for review. “The Natrona County judge ruled that the state land board acted incorrectly by not following state law in denying the renewal of leases, six leases on state lands at the base of the mountain so he can try and mine gravel from those parcels…This means that the gravel mine operator has hope. He is hoping that he's going to go back to the state land board and they're going to have to approve his six leases. And then he told me that when that happens, he thinks he can get approval from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality quickly.” Opponents of the project like Secretary of State Chuck Gray say they will keep fighting the proposed gravel mining operation. Read the full story – The U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.7 billion in contracts this week to strengthen domestic uranium enrichment. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that includes over $28 million to continue developing next-generation laser enrichment technology that could be used on Wyoming uranium. “There has been since the beginning of the Trump Administration 2.0 a really big push to increase capacity around nuclear power. And so what that means is, you've got to build a fuel cycle from the ground to the reactor. And Wyoming's got the ground. Wyoming is among the top uranium producing states…The frequency of the laser, can tell the difference between the microscopic isotopes of uranium and separate one from the other, and so it does that more efficiently than other technology, according to those promoting it.” According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, traditional uranium enrichment works by spinning uranium gas at extremely high speeds in centrifuges, using centrifugal force to separate atoms. Laser enrichment takes a fundamentally different approach and has more advantages compared to conventional spinning at high speeds. Read the full story – Broncos playoff tickets hit more than $17,000 on StubHub for a potential AFC Championship. Cowboy State Daily’s Justin George reports that long-suffering season ticket holders face a dilemma: Given the opportunity to buy tickets at face value, they now can resell them for double, triple, or quadruple what they paid for them. “The Broncos have the longest running home sell out streak, and it goes back, I think, to the 60s or 70s by far. So this is not a fan base that just gives up their tickets to another team. Most of the people that you're going to find out when you get to mile high are going to be Bronco fans…That doesn't happen in Denver. It doesn't. You're never going to see a takeover of the stadium. That just doesn't happen in Denver.” As of Wednesday night, the lowest-priced ticket was listed at more than $1,000 — and that’s for a nosebleed seat in Section 530 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39656465

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 01/07/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, January 7th. I’m Mac Watson. – On Tuesday, the Wyoming Supreme Court announced their much-anticipated decision on abortion rights for the state. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland walks through the controversial court ruling. “Tuesday about 9am the Wyoming Supreme Court issued its long-awaited ruling in the three-and-a-half year legal battle of abortion in Wyoming. What the High Court decided is abortion is health care. It is a fundamental right. It falls under a rigorous standard of court review that's difficult for the state to defend, and the state did, in fact, fail to defend it…the newest justice, Bridget Hill was the attorney general when this case was originally waged, and so, she could not serve in the final decisions due to that conflict, because this is an attorney general case. And so the former Chief Justice Kate Fox was recalled out of her mandatory retirement to help finish the case.” The ruling concludes four years of legal challenges that have fraught Wyoming since its 2022 abortion ban “triggered” into place with the overturn of the federal abortion right under Roe vs. Wade. Read the full story – Our coverage of Tuesday’s Wyoming Supreme Court ruling continues…After the controversial abortion ruling was announced on Tuesday, Wyoming leaders vowed to work to advance a pro-life constitutional amendment in the upcoming legislative session. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that ultimately, the voters may decide. “The Wyoming Legislature plans to try to get that measure through the legislature, if it's well written enough, we could expect Governor Gordon to sign it. If it's not well written or violates the principle he holds. We may not but he is pro life, he says, and he does want to see this issue go before the people, and then if it survives those steps, a two thirds majority in each chamber, the governor's desk, then it would go before the Wyoming voters at the ballot in November of this year.” During the interview, Clair McFarland reports that Chip Nieman became emotional and told Cowboy State Daily that he and other lawmakers are galvanized on this issue to find options to change the Constitution, or ask the people to do so. Read the full story – Cowboy State Daily’s coverage of Tuesday’s announcement of the Wyoming Supreme Court declaring the abortion ban as unconstitutional continues with The Wyoming AG is filing a petition for a Supreme Court rehearing on Tuesday’s abortion ruling upholding it as fundamental right. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Governor Gordon requested the filing. “Later in the afternoon, Governor Gordon announced that he had asked his Attorney General, Keith Kautz, to file a petition for a rehearing. Now this is a measure that Wyoming appeals processes allow, where, if one of the parties in the appeal says, ‘Whoa, you missed these sources and these arguments and all of this stuff that goes completely against your ruling, I want you to reconsider.’ Then he has to file that petition within 15 days of the ruling that he disputes, and then it's up to the High Court whether to hear that petition, and then they would give the other party a chance to respond as well.” A statement from the office said the petition will be filed within the 15-day deadline. Read the full story – Construction crews are assembling a field demonstration plant that will process up to 10 tons of coal per day into materials for roads, buildings, and nuclear fuel. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the project is a critical step from research to commercial viability. “Wyoming is known for its research into energy development, the School of Energy Resources, is a real leader, especially when it comes to coal research. Well, now some of that research is jumping out of the lab into a more commercial space at the Wyoming Innovation Center near Gillette. They've taken essentially laboratory experiments, research into different uses for coal, and now we're officially ramping up into a demonstration project, basically real production of new products. Building materials from coal, asphalt binder from coal, graphite from coal, that could be used to create nuclear fuels if BWXT really sets up shop in Gillette.” The facility will be capable of processing eight to 10 tons of coal per day, producing intermediate materials that can be manufactured into asphalt products, building materials, agricultural soil amendments and nuclear-grade graphite. Read the full story – The 42nd annual Saratoga Lake Ice Fishing Derby, planned for Jan. 17-18, had to be cancelled due to what organizers say are very poor ice conditions. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the chamber of commerce is saying there’s too much and not enough ice. “They've had the event in the past when they've had open water, they just put boats out there, and they've even had events when there's open water and a layer of ice that's thick enough for ice fishing, but this year, the ice there's too much ice to put boats out on the water, or like there is too much ice to put boats out on the water, and there's too little ice for anyone to safely walk on it. So they couldn't find a compromise for the event.” Stacy Crimmins, the interim executive director of the Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce, said after consulting with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and other agencies, they decided it wasn’t safe for the event, and no compromise could be found. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Wyoming’s Dec. 30 oil and gas lease sale got bids on just two parcels out of 34 available from out-of-state firms. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the fate of this land is up in the air. “It used to be, prior to the Biden Administration, that oil and gas companies could go in and put non competitive bids on land, and that was a way to make the land more attractive, because you're not having to put down a minimum, a minimum bid. You just say you'll take it for for this amount, and now under the inflation Reduction Act, that is no longer the case…But what it all boils down to is that the state BLM office and the gas and oil companies are waiting for guidance from the federal level, from the Department of Interior, as to how they are going to interpret the Big, Beautiful Bill Act this particular section that talks about the rules around the oil and gas lease sales.” The two companies who bid on Wyoming land on Dec. 30 are listed in BLM documents as Petro LLC, out of Denver, and R&R Royalty LTD, of Corpus Christi, Texas. Each bid on 80 acres. Read the full story – A 46-year-old Casper man entered into a plea deal Tuesday in Natrona County District Court for setting a rash of fires. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Dallas Smith could serve up to 12 years in prison for setting a series of fires at a motel, a vacant restaurant, and three other locations in Casper last summer. “He pleaded guilty to five charges, two of those were felonies, three of those were misdemeanors, and he faces up to 12 years in prison through the plea deal, the prosecuting attorney is going to drop eight charges, and those are all related to fires that he started throughout Casper this past summer, from May through early September…he told investigators that he really got upset when he had to go to pay rent at at a place in Casper. And so he said, to work with his anger and his frustrations. He just went and started fires. He got so mad he saw red, and he went and started fires.” In court documents, Smith says he would like some counseling to help him with his anger issues. Read the full story – Former Sheridan football star Dane Steel's leaping touchdown was the highlight of the night in Montana State University winning its first national title in 41 years Monday night. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the spectacular play earned the No. 1 spot on SportsCenter's Top 10. “Dane Steele, pride of Sheridan, catches a pass right near the right sideline. He shakes off one tackler, and then another dB comes at him, and he full on, hurdles this guy, and the defender knocks him a little bit off balance, and Dane somehow plants his hand on the ground, stays up, makes it to just before the goal line, and then, as he's diving into the into the end zone, a teammate helps him, you know, finish the finish the score. It was an incredible play – momentum swing in the game, which turned out to be an all time classic that came down to the last play. It's just great to see a kid from Wyoming pull off such an athletic move on such a big stage, nationally televised.” Steel's athletic ability shouldn't come as a surprise. At Sheridan High School, he was a two-time Class 4A state wrestling champion and the 2023 Wyoming Gatorade Football Player of the Year who helped lead the Broncs to three consecutive state championships. Read the full story – More than 10 inches of snow and wind chills in the 20s were recorded at the summits of the Big Island in Hawaii on Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that most of Wyoming, by contrast, has remained brown and dry, but changes are on the way. “Wyoming's been unseasonably warm and dry, with one of the warmest Decembers on record for a lot of communities. But there is a change the jet stream log jam that's been blocking that winter weather that's finally broken, and we're going to see this Reaper. We're going to see changes in Wyoming's weather. As soon as this week, we're going to see snow in eastern Wyoming, which hasn't received much of any snow so far this season, on Thursday and Friday. And as we get further into January and then throughout the rest of the winter season, there's going to be a marked change in temperature and precipitation, and we're finally going to get the Wyoming winter that everyone's been waiting for.” Cowboy State Daily Meteorologist Don Day says the transition will take some time, but signs point to a steady move toward colder, snowier conditions. By mid-January, the winter we’ve been waiting for could finally arrive. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39638955

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 01/06/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, January 6th. I’m Mac Watson. – After Gov. Mark Gordon recommended funding WYDOT’s $282.8 million budget pitch; Cowboy State Daily’s Claor McFarland reports that lawmakers met on Monday in Cheyenne and asked questions amid budget shortfalls. “They're anticipating somewhere between 400 to 600 thousand dollar shortfalls, in coming budgets. And they're asking for like 282 million for the upcoming biennium, which is about a $30 million increase from their most recent biennial budget. And Governor Gordon backs it. He supports this request. The Wyoming Legislative Joint Appropriations Committee, which is the tip of the spear in crafting the budget, didn't subject WYDOT to some of the just gouging questions that certain other agencies endured, but they asked a few things like, ‘Does it really cost this much to outfit troopers with tasers? How are you doing hiring snow plow drivers? What would our turnover look like if we didn't give people raises?’” The meeting of the state Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee at the state Capitol in Cheyenne marks the start of week three, in the committee’s four-week budget-planning marathon. The full Legislature will also help craft the state’s budget at the start of the Feb. 9 session. Read the full story – Trump's move to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry after Nicolas Maduro's capture could put downward pressure on prices, squeezing Wyoming oil producers already operating on thin margins. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison spoke to industry leaders and they are saying many questions remain unanswered. “Given Trump's recent statements about upping oil production out of Venezuela, we asked the question, ‘Is Venezuelan oil the new Argentinian beef?’ in that here you have a president promoting a product from another country that could, that could conceivably compete with oil drilled right here in Wyoming. The answer is not quite as clear cut as it was with beef. The oil markets are more complicated. It's a different kind of crude oil coming out of Venezuela, but in talking to experts, a couple things came to light. One, is Venezuela's oil going to hit the market probably at some point, but it could take years, maybe 10 years, and maybe 100 billion in investment to get them up and running again at full capacity.” In October, Wyoming ranchers joined a national outcry when President Trump proposed importing more beef from Argentina to lower grocery store prices. Now three months later, Wyoming's oil industry wonders if it’s facing a similar threat. Read the full story – A 75-year-old man died Sunday when his Chevy Cruze plunged off Wyoming Route 310 into Wheatland Reservoir No. 1 after going airborne for 90 feet. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that divers recovered the victim after two hours. “According to the Highway Patrol, a 75-year-old-driver who's driving a Chevy Cruze at a high rate of speed, for some reason, went off the highway. His car went airborne for about 90 feet. It struck the shore that it went into the water reservoir, one and a fisherman who happened to be nearby heard it, and guess walked over and saw the car slipping under the water, and the Sheriff's Department responded. They got divers on the scene, and you know, it wasn't visible at first, where the car was, but they used a kind of sonar tracking, which, you know, you use for fish and large objects in the water. They were able to locate it. It took about a couple hours, and they're able to hoist it up and inside they found the victim.” The Wyoming Highway Patrol tells Cowboy State Daily that the man was the only occupant in the vehicle and the cause of the crash is still under investigation. Read the full story – Espi’s Restaurant in Cheyenne is famous for its green chili, breakfast burritos, and irreverent roadside messages. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that on Monday, people were stopping to take photos of its latest: “I am so broke, moving to Minn. and opening a daycare.” “It's a family joint Mom and Pop. They don't take things too seriously. You said, You know what? In Wyoming, people take things with a grain of salt. They don't. They don't fly off the handle at every single thing. They don't. They're fine if something's a little bit politically incorrect, and it's okay to he says, you know, it's okay to poke fun at stuff…but it does sometimes bring people in, he says, people who have said that they they stop out of curiosity to find out what's behind the comment on the sign.” Espi’s owner Todd Espinoza said his humorous take on the scandal isn’t a political statement and so far, he’s hasn’t gotten any complaints about poking a little fun at another state’s problem. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – United Airlines dropped Gillette’s flight guarantee, proving Wyoming’s subsidy program works as airports mature toward self-sufficiency. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that other communities like Cheyenne seek more state money amid rising costs and legislative hurdles. “United is flying there on their own dime…it's a great success story for the whole program. I think the next one probably in line to achieve that is probably Cheyenne. Their flights are pretty full. They're about 80% full most of the time. Maybe they need a few more people buying premium seats. That really helps, if people want to know how they can help their community airport get better. That's one of the ways is not to go for the cheap seats.” It’s not just tourism, though, that benefits. It’s also local businesses, quality of life and health care access, too. Read the full story – Wyoming has had 97 snowplows hit by vehicles over the past five winters, including 15 last winter. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming Department of Transportation officials said Monday that being a plow driver can be dangerous, but higher pay can help keep those jobs filled. “I talked to Jordan Young, the Public Information Person at WYDOT like, ‘Is there another factor besides just how bad the winter is that you've identified?’ And she's like, ‘No, we didn't pin down other factors.’ So far, the correlation we're seeing is, the worse the winter, the more this, the more strikes there are. ...So the big change, the big experiment right now, is they're keeping the amber lights, but they're switching out the blue lights with green. They think that it permeates the mist and snow better.” Like last month, last year’s winter brought mild weather in Wyoming, but not mild enough to reduce vehicle-versus-snowplow crashes back to the single-digits like they were before 2019. Read the full story – In 2025, hunters fought public-land access challenges in the courts and even by helicopter. While some legal issues about “corner-crossing” are settled, Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the tension over hunters accessing public lands remains into 2026. “We had the Supreme Court essentially settling the whole years long corner crossing debate by basically refusing to hear it. In other words, you know, whenever a case comes before the Supreme Court, they have to decide whether they're even going to hear it, and they decided, ‘No, we're not going to hear it all. The lower courts had decided in favor of the hunters and against the landowner.’ So that essentially settles it, that settles the matter that corner crossing is legal in Wyoming now, a lot of the what people call land-locked public land, which is land that's behind or adjacent to or surrounded by private land. A lot of that can't be accessed by corner crossing because of the manner in which it's surrounded.” While corner-crossing seemed settled, many hunters noted that there are still millions of acres of “landlocked” public ground in Wyoming in the West. Meaning, isolated sections of public land completely surrounded by private property, making them inaccessible, even by hopping corners. Read the full story – A bronze sculpture of "Lazy Days," of a rabbit in downtown Cheyenne became the latest to be hit and damaged during a Sunday multi-car crash. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that this is the third time a driver has taken out one of Cheyenne’s 100 bronze sculptures. “Two vehicles collided into each other, and one careened and hit this one with enough force to knock over the stone pedestal and batter the bronze bunny that was lying on top of it. So there no one who's involved is deterred by this, by these accidents, as Harvey disomes put it, until they installed bronzes in Cheyenne. Nobody was hitting bronzes in Cheyenne. So it's just, it's an accident. Accidents happen…The bronze sculptures have been unscathed or just very minorly damaged. So if you drive your vehicle into a bronze sculpture on a stone pedestal that is not a fight you are going to win.” Cheyenne art dealer Harvey Deselms tells Cowboy State Daily that he had to send an awkward text to Mayor Patrick Collins on Sunday. He says he “I told him we’re going to need the city to come rescue a bunny.” Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39623870

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, January 5, 2026 01/05/2026

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. – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – 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 – 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 – 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 – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39610060

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 2, 2026 01/02/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, January 2, 2026 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, January 2nd. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming lawmakers and an industry watchdog are saying that America’s arms race over artificial intelligence with China is about more than technology and gaining economic advantage. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that this technological race is about which nation's values will guide the rest of the world. “The new cold war that's going on only this time it's America and China, kind of in a race for you know, who's going to develop first these AI platforms…it has a lot of military applications that are already in place. But the real race, here it is, and it is an arms race from, from what everybody is saying is to who develops these, these platforms that basically the rest of the world is going to use. Because, you know, we do something, the rest of the world adopts it. China does something, rest of the world adopts it. And the main question comes down to what, what? Which country's values do you want guiding the rest of the world from what the expert I talked to says.” American Edge Project CEO Doug Kelly tells Cowboy State Daily that when people ask should people be afraid of AI and its potential to take over our daily lives, or embrace it as the next technological evolution that can be as transformative to society? The answer is yes. Read the full story – Sublette County’s top prosecutor argued in a Tuesday court filing that Wyoming’s law allowing people to “capture” wolves doesn’t excuse Cody Roberts. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that attorney Robert Piper is urging District Court Judge Richard Lavery to dismiss the felony animal cruelty charge Roberts is facing. “You have the prosecutor saying, this conduct slips between the words in the exemption, it's apart from the things we're allowed to do with wild animals, and you have the defense attorney saying, No, this exemption is broad. It covers this conduct. And so what the prosecutor did Tuesday was he went ahead and filed his counter argument, pushing back on the defense attorney who had asked the judge to dismiss the case.” Roberts is accused of running over a gray wolf with a snowmobile and taping the injured animal’s mouth shut with tape, then taking it into a bar before shooting it in late February 2024. Read the full story – The Carbon County sheriff announced Wednesday that human remains have been discovered near a well site. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports just who those remains are hasn’t been determined, “The remains were found on December 19, near a well site on BLM land. So it's a BLM investigation. The Carbon County Sheriff's Office is deferring to them. The thing that's interesting though, about Wyoming is that because we're such a sparse population, people remember these missing persons cases, there's a lot of anticipation about the identity of these remains, who did they belong to, and what was the cause of their death, because that could explain one of the multiple missing person cases in Carbon County.” An investigation is underway after remains were discovered near an oil and gas well site in an undisclosed area of Carbon County, Sheriff Alex Bakken announced Wednesday. A leading missing persons advocate wonders if it may be David Williams, who disappeared 45 years ago. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Sublette County opened its first hospital in September and has been “burning” through cash ever since. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that hospital officials are hoping to get some of the $205 million in federal health care money Wyoming was given this week. “Because Sublette County Hospital is not considered a critical access hospital, yet it still has to go through a lot of permissions and inspections and applications. They're having to burn through cash because they're having to operate more as a general hospital, which means that their staffing is higher than it needs to be. So they're hoping to get a piece of this 205 million to help with their costs of keeping rural healthcare sustainable while they continue to work to get this critical access status.” The community celebrated in September when the almost $74 million dollar complex opened in Pinedale nearly 100 years after the idea of building a medical facility was first broached. Read the full story – It’s estimated 25% to 35% of Wyoming’s forests are now dominated by “ghost forests” — standing dead timber from beetle epidemics and disease. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that researchers say it's time to start paying attention to limber pine before it follows the whitebark into crisis. “Some of the samples were taken from trees in Wyoming. And basically, they found that some limber pine have a genetic resistance. They have a gene that repels this rust fungus, this fungus that causes this, this rust condition, and but they've also found that there's some strains of this fungus that can overcome this genetic defense. And so it's just, it's a tough time to be a Limber pine…There's a couple of famous Limber pines, actually, in Wyoming. There was one near Grand Teton National Park that was iconic. And then there's one on the highway between Laramie and Cheyenne that is growing out of a rock there.” Limber pines can live 2,000 years or longer and survive where almost nothing else will, clinging to windswept ridges and rocky outcrops. Read the full story – People who shoot prairie dogs in Colorado should have to pick up the lead-riddled carcasses, says a group calling for more regulation of hunting the rodents. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the group, Grasslands Colorado, is saying that hunting also leads to other wildlife getting lead poisoning, it says. “As they see it, people are coming on there. It's public land, but people are coming on there and just just mowing the prairie dogs down. They think it's actually gotten to the point where it threatens the prairie dog population, number one and number two, they're worried about, you know, lead like, if, if bullets fragment inside prairie dogs and then a hawk or a coyote or whatever badger comes along and eats the carcass afterward, that animal's going to get get, you know, a secondary case of lead poisoning. So there's concern about that. What this group is calling for, is saying, if people are going to shoot prairie dogs, they should at least be obligated to go collect the carcasses afterwards. And that would be unprecedented, because the long standing tradition is you shoot prairie dogs, you just leave them out there.” The group claims that recreational shooters kill so many prairie dogs on the Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado, they’re pushing the animals’ colonies to the verge of collapse. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39587015

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 1, 2026 01/01/2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, January 1, 2026 Happy New Year! I’m Mac Watson. 2025 was an amazing year for Cowboy State Daily. Not only did we increase our audience by more than 24% jumping from 50 million page views to 62 million page views but subscribers to our newsletter exploded by 33% -- from 79,000 to 105,000. Today, we’ll talk to our reporters about the most-read stories on Cowboy State Daily…. – Dale Veseth runs cattle on the same Montana ranch his father did and his grandfather before him. He’s now donated the 38,000-acre, $21 million ranch to the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reported the reason why the couple donated their ranch was to ensure that it stays a working cattle operation rather than being sold off or converted to other uses. “The story about that place really struck a nerve with readers, I think, because it really highlighted the need to take drastic action to keep working ranches going. And in a world where real estate or hunting properties, you know, the ranchers are lured away from that, keeping the ranch alive by selling out to to some kind of real estate venture or resort venture…What's also happening is that the conservation group American prairie reserve is buying up ranches and creating a really impressive bison range, but that's really controversial in that part of Montana and and so the Veseths found a different route…they created this, their own foundation to preserve a way of life and to preserve a special place.” As ranch communities in Wyoming know well, it’s harder than ever for younger generations of ranch families — and anyone else interested in running sheep and cattle — to break into the business. Read the full story – Twelve hours after his wife shot her four children and herself, Cliff Harshman sat in a hospital waiting room. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland interviewed Cliff who said that he lost his best friend, kids, everything. “I had reported that this mother was involved in this tragic murder suicide incident. I had reported that the girls had died, that one was hospitalized, and so I was on top of the hard news, part of it, but then I called Cliff Harshman, the dad, the husband, and he was devastated. He was very raw with me. He said that his wife had essentially been through hell, mental health wise, and he wanted to let people know what had happened.” A coworker organized a account to help Cliff deal with funeral and other expenses, and allowed him to focus on grieving. Read the full story – A recent dust-up in the U.S. Senate over Australian tariffs opens a discussion about unfair trade practices. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reported that Sen. John Barrasso says that while $29 billion of Australian beef has been sold in the U.S., “not one hamburger” from America is allowed there. “Why can't we sell Wyoming beef in Australia? We have some of the best beef in the world. And I think the thing is like for this commodity, what we do is we import a lot of our ground chuck comes from foreign countries so we can get that affordable hamburger on the dinner plate. Our beef that we raise here is really high quality. It's not ground chuck, it's the premium steaks, and that's really what we're trying to get in Australia. But Senator Barrasso’s frustrated they won't even buy a hamburger from us. Did kind of make the point that we've been trying to get in that market for a long time, and we just can't seem to make any headway.” Australia only accepts U.S. beef if it can be proven that the beef was sourced from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. That’s an issue because many exporters also source beef born in Canada and Mexico for their operations. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more of the most read stories of 2025, right after this. The most read stories from Cowboy State Daily contnues now... – After years of questions and wondering what happened, DNA confirmed the remains found in a rural area near Gering, Nebraska, in October were Chance Englebert. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher spoke with the mother of the Moorcroft man missing for more than six years who had a hard time believing his death was accidental. “His family has no problem believing that he did fall, as investigators say, between 130 and 290 feet from the top of Scott's bluff monument. However, the bone of contention is how he got onto the top of that monument. It was quite out of the way for him to get up there. It was a steep climb. It was roughly between, depending on where he accessed it between two and five miles. So that's, that's the question, how on earth did he get up there? His family does not believe he got up there on his own…the Gary Police Department and the other law enforcement entities involved in the case have ruled it accidental. However, his family questions it, and there's a huge public outcry on the internet.” The 25-year-old Englebert disappeared on a visit from Wyoming to Gering, Nebraska, to visit the family of his wife, Baylee, and their infant son. Read the full story – President Donald Trump pardoned Troy Lake back in November. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reported that the 65-year-old Wyoming diesel mechanic spent seven months in federal prison for tweaking and removing emissions systems on ailing engines. When he got the news, he wept. “This one was edgy, because if it's not your newspaper, it's always a little bit dodgy to be out there featuring convicted felons. And so it was with a lot of deliberation and talking to my dad about the whole situation with diesel deletes, and contemplating and hearing Troy Lake stories, sifting through court documents, interviewing truckers. And I ultimately decided, ‘Yeah, we're gonna feature a convicted felon and write about his bid for a pardon.’ I was the first reporter to do so, and it generated such a firestorm of coverage nationally that ultimately he was pardoned.” The Wyoming diesel mechanic spent for tweaking and removing emissions systems on ailing engines. He was originally sentenced to one year and one day in prison, but was released early to home confinement with an ankle monitor in September. Read the full story – A tourist in Grand Teton National Park found himself between a grizzly and its mate earlier this month, so he took the only escape available — he dove headfirst through the open window of his car. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reported that a tour guide got a photo of the man’s moment of escape. “I reached out to the photographer who captured that moment, and she told me that the guy was actually caught completely unaware and wasn't really doing anything wrong. There was a male grizzly that was booking it through the area, and just had me crossing the road. People alerted this guy…The grizzly approached him, and then he did the most sensible thing possible, looked for the nearest safe spot where he could be safe, and that was inside a vehicle. But the only way to get inside that vehicle was through the open window. So that's what he did. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and made for one heck of a funny photo.” If you’re going to visit Grand Teton or Yellowstone National Park in 2026, the National Park Service asks visitors to keep at least 100 yards between themselves and the bears. Read the full story – And that’s just some of the most-read stories of 2025 from Cowboy State Daily. Remember, you can get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Have a happy and healthy New Year. I’m Mac Watson for Cowboy State Daily! /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39581820

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, December 31, 2025 12/31/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, December 31, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, December 31th. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming state Rep. Bill Allemand was arrested Sunday afternoon on suspicion of drunk driving. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the lawmaker is saying he will fight the charge. “State Representative Bill Allemand told me in a Tuesday interview that he believes he should not have been arrested, and in fact, would not have been arrested had it not been for his insistence upon his rights. He said that he essentially upset the deputy by insisting upon his rights, and that he intends to fight this charge.” Rep. Allemand tells Cowboy State Daily that the DUI is a “false charge" and he was stopped “by a deputy who did not like me knowing my rights.” Read the full story – Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem made a pit stop in the Bighorn Basin overnight Sunday. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that her Coast Guard jet landed in Worland and Noem spent the night at a ranch near Ten Sleep. “What we know is that Kristi Noem arrived in Worland to go to a ranch outside of Ten Sleep, Wyoming for some much needed rest and relaxation. The reason she chose the Big Horns is not just for the beauty that it offers or the activities, but for the solitude…Eyewitnesses say she came with her security detail, but that was it, and she left the next day.” Secretary Noem’s jet landed at the Worland Municipal Airport at 1:30 p.m. Sunday from her home state of South Dakota. She and her Secret Service detail left Monday night at 6:30 p.m. Read the full story – The federal government announced Monday it’s approved $205 million for the first year of Wyoming’s rural health program. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one Wyoming lawmaker is skeptical of the program. “Even though the Fed signed off on money for this package that also includes the Bear Care, the catastrophic insurance program that would start with public seed money. It’s my understanding that the legislature still would need to issue spending authorization to the Department of Health for that. And, yeah, the way the Department of Health put it is, it would be stand-alone option to buy catastrophic care insurance, to introduce another product into the marketplace. So Representative John Bear, who also chairs the House Appropriations Committee, he said he's still not sure if the name bear care is meant as a jab at him in some way, but he said, ‘Have you ever seen the government run a business efficiently?’” Part of the plan has been dubbed “Bear Care” because it would cover catastrophic events like being attacked by a bear. Read the full story – The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center has logged reports of 32 avalanches in the Tetons since Dec. 19. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that two skiers have survived being caught, including one Sunday in No Name Bowl who avoided getting buried by wearing an airbag pack. “The photo that was shown of the recovery showed that the skier was wearing basically an air bag on his person, and that's one of the many survival tools that outdoor enthusiasts, or outdoor recreation enthusiasts, are encouraged to keep on their person when they're out and about. The bare minimum is a shovel and a beacon that actually signals people where you are in the event you get caught in an avalanche. But this suit – it uses just the principles of physics to help people rise above, at least in theory, the debris and the snow in an avalanche, so it makes it that much easier for them to recover.” Of the 32 avalanches reported to the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, 20 were natural or triggered by explosives. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – The judge overseeing a small claims dispute has dismissed the case in which the ex-boyfriend of state Rep. Nina Webber. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the judge dismissed the case with prejudice. “The judge dismissed with prejudice, meaning all together, the claim by Representative Nina Webber's ex boyfriend that she owed him $6,000 for an African safari hunting ticket, and the ex-boyfriend, Scott Weber, the last names are spelled differently, but he told me that he's going to appeal. So on the one hand, you have the ex-boyfriend like she concocted this story. We're going to appeal this. And the judge, meanwhile, said no, Representative Weber's story is believable, that she did not intend to go on this trip or have this ticket bought in her name because she was scared of Zimbabwe after the last hippo hunt.” The crux of the case was whether Nina Webber and Scott Weber had a verbal or other contract, in which he was to buy her more-than $6,000 plane ticket to a Zimbabwe hunting safari, and she was to reimburse him later. Read the full story – Patricia Wyer, founder of Broken Bandit Wildlife Center outside of Cheyenne, has seen many animals come and go at her wildlife rescue center Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports her most heartwarming tale of 2025 is that of a momma raccoon who lost her babies, trashed a pickup in her angst, but then got a second chance. “Someone in Cheyenne found four raccoon babies in their boat, and so they called a Critter Catcher. That's a person that specializes in capturing small wildlife for people. He came and got the four babies and took them out to Broken Bandit. And they just assumed, well, the mom must have taken off, or be dead or something. Well, it turns out the mom was still alive, was hanging around the property, and she freaked out and ended up tearing the guy's pickup truck pretty badly, I guess, like his windshield wipers and the rubber lining on his windshield. So Critter Catcher came back out again and captured mama and got reunited with her babies. And I guess they spent some time on a broken bandit till the babies got big enough, and then they sent him back loose in the wild.” Wyer tells Cowboy State Daily she’s had all kinds of critters brought to her facility, including skunks, draft horses, foxes, and a zebra. Read the full story – Jackson Hole buyers often have to choose between grand valley views or seclusion. But Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that there’s a home on Trader Road that is a rare exception, being secluded with views. “This is just the coolest home in Jackson Hole, another really cool home just listed for sale at 2540 trader road. You're only going to need 15.9 million for this one…What makes this home a little different from others? There's the buyer who wants to be up on top of the hill, looking down on the world, looking down on creation, kind of thing. And then the other kind of buyers, a little more practical, wants to be in the valley, wants to be able to use their land…but this 2540 trader road is that rare place that kind of gives you the best of both worlds. And that's because it is up on an elevation. So there are places where you can see down look, you know, the big landscape, the Big Valley View from your Windows, but it also is nestled into a little Aspen forest.” The 7,800-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bath home was among a wave of homes that were built starting in the late 1990s and was extensively remodeled in 2020. Read the full story – Dick Nelson was 12 when he came to Wyoming Territory in 1887 and spent 45 years watching shootouts as a railroad man. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports Nelson also earned a reputation early as having ice in his veins, not even flinching when Texas cowhands shot at him. “Dick Nelson is a colorful character who kind of flew under the radar. He didn't make the newspapers. He wasn't famous, but he saw everything happening in Wyoming as it became a territory into a state...Nelson grew up in an age when the railroad towns were rough and wild. He witnessed everything from shootings to hangings, and he survived it to be able to share those stories when he was in his 80s and his 90’s.” Dick Nelson’s great-great-grandson, Drew Hester, is keeping the family legacy alive working on the family’s generational ranch in Wyoming. Read the full story . And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39573010

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, December 30, 2025 12/30/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, December 30, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, December 30th. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray announced Monday that he’s running for the state’s lone U.S. House seat. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports what Gray would do for Wyoming if elected to Congress. “A lot of pointing to his backing of election reform, a lot of pointing to his alignment with Trump. There's, you know, references to Bannon crossover voting after a certain point…he said that Wyoming needs someone who's going to advance Trump's agenda, and he pointed to his long standing emphasis on election reform in Wyoming.” The Republican incumbent, told Cowboy State Daily last week that she’s running for the soon-to-be vacated seat of . Read the full story – December was dominated by record-highs, but Yellowstone's Old Faithful plunged to -27 Sunday, the coldest spot in the Lower 48. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that those temps won’t last, however, with the weather expected to rebound. “As we get into the final days of December, we're looking at more of the same. It is going to get unseasonably warm again, but not up into the 60s, more into the high 40s, lower 50s, which is still warm for this time of year, unseasonably warm, but not as high as we were experiencing over the Christmas holiday. When will that change? It's hard to say the pattern that's been blocking winter weather from reaching Wyoming is breaking up…And talking to Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don day, he said that December 2010 was very analogous to December 2025 and what happened in 2011 after that warm December, there was a transition in January where things got cooler, and then winter hit us hard, going into February and March.” Forecasters tell Cowboy State Daily this is destined to be in Wyoming’s history as multiple high temperature records were broken across Wyoming just days before. Read the full story – The Industrial Siting Division said Monday during a hearing on the Chugwater wind and solar project that a critic filed fraudulent documents to contest it. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the critic, a news editor in southeast Wyoming, says it's the agency that violated the law. “A wind critic in southeast Wyoming filed three fraudulent documents with it that when it was trying to confirm the authenticity of these documents, their two purported authors said, No, we didn't. We didn't make these…The person who filed, who offered those documents to the division is Marie Hamilton. She's a resident of southeast Wyoming, also the editor of a news publication in that corner of the state. And when I interviewed her, she was like, you know, they had information about my son in them, and it was wrong of the division to discuss them in public like they did today during this controversy.” The by NextEra Energy Resources is a 300-megawatt wind energy, 150 megawatt solar and 150 megawatt battery storage system (BESS) facility slated for a Platte County parcel east of Chugwater and Interstate 25. Read the full story – Governor Gordon announced on Monday that years of sexual and physical abuse of multiple adopted children in Casper should be enough for a federal agency to rescind a Wyoming couple’s National Adoption Excellence Award. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Sharon Kassel wrote the Governor to intercede and petition the Administration for Children and Families to pull back the 2013 award given to Steven and Kristen Marler. “This woman who was familiar with this case. Her niece was one of the main investigators on it. So she was very aware of it. She grew up in Casper, lives out of state now, but she she, she has huge ties to the state, and she just couldn't let it go…She couldn't get it out of her head that this guy who was convicted of these crimes is still on this list as being like one of the best foster parents in the nation, that it just was counterintuitive to that, that she just thought it was wrong. And so she thought, ‘How can we get that done? How can we get that taken off?’ So she wrote a letter to Governor Gordon.” Steven Marler was sentenced in August to for sexually and physically abusing two adopted daughters, as well as physical abuse of four other children in the couple’s care. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – With prices for silver hitting record highs as the year closes out, some in Wyoming are selling their silver. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that silver’s value is more than just making coins. “For the last five years now, demand for silver has been greater than supply, so we've got a shortage going on. China just announced that they're going to put export restrictions on silver. Silver is needed for a lot of things. Industry uses it for a lot of things…one of the things they do with silver now, is they make these RFID chips that are replacing barcodes. Barcodes were great for tracking inventory, tracking prices in a computer system, but an RFID can do that, and it can be your theft prevention.” As of Monday morning, silver hit an all-time high of $82.67 a troy ounce in early morning trading, triple what the precious metal was worth a year ago. Read the full story – The Wyoming Department of Transportation is updating its Statewide Rail Plan. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the agency is considering the potential for a return of passenger rail. “The younger generations don't have the patience for the stop-and-go traffic, and they're really calling for more rail service. And so that's an increasing constituency, the new generation of professionals commuting up and down the Rocky Mountain Front in Colorado, which kind of extends into Cheyenne. Folks commute out of Cheyenne down to Colorado. So maybe one day they'll be, instead of getting in their car…they'll be able to go to a passenger pickup spot.” WYDOT has launched an online public meeting for the plan update, open for feedback through Jan. 31, 2026, at WY State Wide Rail Plan dot com. Read the full story – A former inmate at Wyoming’s boot camp for youthful offenders is suing the state Department of Corrections and agency officials. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that Logan Gosselin is claiming excessive exercise forced on inmates caused him to suffer permanent organ damage. “He arrived sometime after October 2023, and underwent an initial intake process. And the problem was that, according to the lawsuit, he was screened by two peer inmates, not by medical staff…They put him in a serious exercise regimen that lasted like three hours. He collapsed four times on that first on that first exercise, and then after that, I mean, hours later, he was made to do another three hours. And this continued on, and he was complaining of blood in his urine, and he couldn't walk. He had muscle problems, yet they continued to push him, and eventually they did a urinalysis and found out that his kidneys and liver were failing, so he had to go to ICU at the medical center in Casper, and had to go under dialysis for 20 days.” In the recent lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, the 23-year-old Gosselin of Colorado is accusing Wyoming Department of Corrections Director Daniel Shannon, former Wyoming State Penitentiary Warden Neicole Molden, and several prison employees and medical professionals of negligence and violating constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Read the full story – The Dry Gulchers gang ran their own agenda around Sheridan in the 1960s, robbing banks, hanging outlaws and harassing tourists. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that these local businessmen were part of a posse that staged fake Wild West adventures for tourists. “The Dry Gulchers got their start in Sheridan because of the Silver Jubilee, they were celebrating the 75th anniversary of this great city, and they were just a bunch of businessmen that got together and said, ‘How can we celebrate in style?’ And so they brought the Wild West back and this eventually led to them kidnapping tourists, having shootouts in the middle of the street, jailing local businessmen, their competitors, and all sorts of shenanigans that would go on for years during the 1960s.” Former Dry Gulcher, Mike Kuzara tells Cowboy State Daily that people were encouraged to go by and heckle whoever was in jail. Then their friends would have to bail them out, and that bail money went to the Sheridan Chamber of Commerce. Read the full story . And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39563090

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, December 29, 2025 12/29/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, December 29, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, December 29th. I’m Mac Watson. – A woman who fled Wyoming with her baby boy more than a month ago told authorities she “wasn’t fast enough” to kill herself before officers got to her in an RV park in New Mexico. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that according to affidavits, Madeline Daly made it clear to authorities she was never going to give her baby back. “She basically said that she felt she was saving the boy from her, from his father. She made some unsubstantiated allegations that he was abusive, and that no matter what, she wasn't going to allow him because they had a kind of a strained relationship with custody, where he lived in Nebraska and she was living in an RV park in 10 sleep. She mentioned that she was not going to allow the baby to go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month for visits. And when they asked her what she was running from, she responded, ‘Judges orders.’” Daly’s first-degree murder charge is a capital offense and has been turned over to the local office of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico. She remains in the Grant County Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree murder and abandonment of a child resulting in death. She’s being held without bond. Read the full story – Montana and Montana State, two universities that compete in a tier below Wyoming, each spend $2.2 million on Name, Image, and Likeness, while Wyoming spends $1.4 million. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that one UW booster says that’s embarrassing because schools that don’t have a lot of money are still outspending the university.” “What would it mean to drop down from big-time Division I college sports into something more affordable, essentially. And there's some really strong feelings around that, so strong that one of my sources, who lives in Laramie, raised a bunch of questions, made the argument that should Wyoming really should drop out of Division I and do what schools like St Francis and Pennsylvania did, where they went from Division I to Division III.” Other sources tell Cowboy State Daily that as it gets closer to the legislative session in February, football and basketball are going to be in the mix of conversations about the state helping the university come up with millions of dollars to keep Wyoming Cowboys football on the Division I level. Read the full story – Celia Easton of Thermopolis said being attacked by a grizzly last October while she was elk hunting alone in the Beartooth Mountains has left her absolutely shaken. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that there is a certain mindset that is needed when hunters go out. “I talked to three people who have tons of experience hunting in grizzly country, and they said, ‘You have to have an edge. You can't go in there whistling sunshine or thinking everything's hunky-dory.’ that I guess the best way to put it, a healthy fear is good. It's nothing to be paranoid about it, nothing to freak out about. One guy I talked to is a guy I've interviewed before who was actually involved in a bear attack couple years back, had to shoot a bear to death with this pistol to save him and his dad from getting mauled…An edge of respectful fear is a good thing, but there's no sense in letting your fear, you know, of the blood thirsty Grizzlies are coming to get me, that's not going to do you any good, you know, just prepare yourself.” Celia tells Cowboy State Daily that she had a long career in law enforcement and was able to handle most of the bad things she went through in the line of duty. But being attacked by a grizzly has left her with post-traumatic stress disorder. Read the full story – Pear and cherry trees in Utah are covered with blossoms while lilacs in Colorado are blooming like it's spring in late December. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that arborists are concerned that the warm, dry days are tricking trees and stressing them out. “This is a typical survival strategy for fruiting trees. When they're thrown off by warm temperatures, their instinct is to survive and salvage what they can. So not only will they start blooming, you might notice the tops of these trees starting to die off as the trees shrink themselves in size, so there's less of themselves to maintain. Horticulturists aren't necessarily alarmed by this. This is a typical sort of response. It's a sign of how warm it's been. So it's not that they aren't completely without concern, but they're not worried about these trees dying off or anything like that. They're just confused, as many of us have been, by the temperatures we've experienced in December.” In the meantime, many places around Wyoming saw their , breaking 150-year-old records. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news returns now… – Casper resident William McMillan turned 103 on Dec. 19th. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that McMillan is one of America’s few remaining living World War II veterans who also served in the Korean War and held a top-secret assignment with the Atomic Energy Commission. “He was a gunner's mate in the Navy, and apparently he had a job where he accompanied these top secret, probably nuclear shipments across the country, whether it was in a railroad car or on a truck. And so he would be accompanying it with other guys with Thompson sub machine guns and other heavy weapons in case anybody tried to steal the uranium or whatever the nuclear material was.” Bill tells Cowboy State Daily that he doesn’t have the secret to living longer, but he does say he’s eaten the same thing for breakfast for many years: scrambled eggs, sausage, and one banana. Read the full story – Researchers, many of whom are Trump supporters, say the president is getting bad advice about defunding Wyoming's NCAR supercomputer. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that they say NCAR is responsible for breakthroughs that have made many things safer. “In 1985 they had this problem with planes just mysteriously crashing, and they didn't know why they were crashing. Nobody could figure it out…With the super computer, they were able to model the situation and figure out that it was caused by a down draft situation in certain types of weather scenarios…Wildfires. They make their own weather. And so with NCAR, they're able to model a wildfires weather pattern and figure out where would be the safest place for firefighters to stage so that the wildfire doesn't end up overtaking them…NCAR has been used to improve the modeling so that we know where the hurricane is going, we can tell people to get out of the way a little bit sooner, and that's thanks to the modeling thatNCAR has done.” The National Center for Atmospheric Research or NCAR was created in the 1960s as a national resource for atmospheric and Earth system research. Read the full story – Back in the 1930s, an ill-advised plan was hatched to keep a living penguin at the Little America hotel in southwest Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the Emperor penguin started its journey from Antarctica alive but died during transport. “Little America was named after a base camp from one of the Antarctic expeditions of the early 1900s and so the decision was made to honor that name, to pluck an Emperor penguin, possibly two, off of the ice sheets of Antarctica, ship it to Boston and then ship it to Wyoming. So it could be an ambassador, an Antarctic ambassador, at this random hotel that sprung up in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. They had a little idea of what they were doing then, and it's hard enough to keep penguins, let alone Emperor penguins, in captivity now. So the Emperor penguin didn't stand a chance. It died in transit. They stuffed it in Boston, and that's how it ended up at Little America, where it remains to this day.” S.M. Covey, the founder of Little America, felt he could relate to the brutally harsh conditions at the South Pole after enduring the fury of Wyoming's winters. Covey made Antarctica central to the branding of Little America, Wyoming when he opened the first themed hotel in 1934. Read the full story – French researchers have published a study claiming teddy bears are "too cute" and give children the wrong view of nature, especially wild animals. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that bear experts say that if people act like idiots around grizzlies, it's not because they had teddy bears growing up. “I talked to some bear experts, and they said that seems like a bridge too far. They said, ‘Yes, if a kid's only exposure is to stuff like that, plus just not very good parenting.’ They might grow up with a weird, weird view of bears or whatever. But generally speaking, when we see adults behaving stupidly around bears and Yellowstone, it wasn't because he had teddy bears when they were a kid. It's because they just weren't taught right as they were growing up.” The French research paper, entitled “Too Cute to be Wild: What Teddy Bears Reveal About Our Disconnection From Nature,” was recently published in the journal Read the full story . And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39550650

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, December 26, 2025 12/26/2025

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. – 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 – 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 – 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 . – 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 – 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 – 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 – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39535270

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, December 25, 2025 12/25/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, December 25, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, December 25th. I’m Mac Watson. Merry Christmas! For today’s newscast, news slows down this time of year so we've asked our reporters to identify their most meaningful, important, interesting, or favorite story of the year for today's newsletter. – We start with the tragic story of a mom in Byron who shot and killed her 4 daughters before taking her own life in their snow-clad home. Crimes and Courts Reporter Clair McFarland spoke to people in Byron about the tragedy, but she’ll never forget the interview with the husband, Cliff Harshman, who agreed to meet and tell his story in a coffee shop in Powell. “Often when you're doing an interview, you're just trying to ask the right questions, and you're angling and you're fishing, and sometimes it's confrontational, sometimes a person's accusing someone else of something, and then you have to go confront that person, and there's just a lot of ping pong and a lot of hardball and reporting, but surprisingly well, it's shocking at first that cliff Harshman agreed to have coffee with me, and then he agreed to have an interview. And it was unlike any interview I've ever done in my entire life. We sat down beforehand and discussed, like, why are we doing this? Why are you doing this? And he just said that, the truth is what matters at this point, and I want someone to have it.” Clair says that Cliff voiced a grim resolve to tell her the truth so that at the least, the gawking public would have the most accurate account of the already-exposed tragedy. Read the full story – Investigative reporter Jen Kocher introduced us to a Thermopolis native who went from flying planes to smuggling drugs for the infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Jen says she still talks to Richard Pitt. “He actually, apart from surviving run ins with other drug smugglers and drug lords, he also survived years in a Mexican prison where he was tortured and he has since become it's one of those unexpected friendships that make this job amazing, with all the people you meet and all the random connections you form.” Jen says that the Wyoming native is now retired after serving his prison sentences both in Mexico and in the United States, and is now writing books and living in Denver, Colorado. Read the full story – Sometimes a reporter will become part of the story. Reporter Zak Sonntag wrote about a homeless couple in Casper who were living in an abandoned sedan. Zak tried to help the couple and things turned. “This was a man named Malachi Springer and his partner, Kayla Riley, who were together, also expecting a child…And it was a really humbling experience to see this, and we developed a natural rapport. But what happened was that after I published the story, instantly after it published the story, the police came to their car and they said, You guys can't be here. You're on private property, and it's time for you to go. And it was directly because that I had brought attention to them, that I kind of exposed, okay, this is where you're living, and I put a target on them, and they lost that resource, and so they had to relocate to a freeway bridge on the opposite side of side of town.” Zak says he ultimately lost touch with the couple but often thinks, “did I make their lives harder by writing that story?” Read the full story . – Everyone deserves a second chance. Business and tourism reporter Renee Jean wrote the story about how Pete Bass got his second chance in prison. “This guy has just lived a life that kind of felt like a movie to me, listening to him tell about it. You know, he ran away to Hollywood when he was a kid, almost got raped, ran back home, you know, he ended up in prison because of drug addiction, and ultimately, he's seen that as like a second chance. He's not bitter about that at all. He's he's glad because it, it, you know, turned his life around, and he was finally able to shake that addiction and and you know now he his whole coffee shop thing is every coffee cup comes with a story. He's all about second chances for other people.” Pete owns and runs a coffee shop called, aptly, For Pete’s Sake in Evanston. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more stories that were meaningful, important, interesting, or a favorite of our reporters in 2025 from Cowboy State Daily, after this…. – Stories of overcoming adversity are always inspirational. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz introduced us to Randy Svalina of Laramie who was out hunting just days after having a leg amputated. “I've always liked doing stories about scrappy people that overcome things, you know, regardless of, you know, of what the beat I was working at the time, or what the type of story was. And this happened to be an outdoors in a hunting story, because Randy's a very, you know, avid outdoorsman Hunter…he did have to have one of his legs amputated, just below the knee, you know, to kind of, kind of mitigate things. And then, and then, so he went from that, and then got a prosthetic. And not long after God is prosthetic, he went out hunting. And when he was still trying to get you, trying to get used, to figure out, he said, basically, I had to learn how to walk all over again, you know, because I live my whole life with two legs, and I just got one, plus a prosthetic.” Randy is currently working with his doctor on a prototype prosthetic leg that he can use to walk around and use as a rifle rest when he’s out hunting. Read the full story – When someone’s legacy is forgotten, it’s called a “second death.” Writer Jackie Dorothy says her favorite story of 2025 was of a French metal detectorist who had found an old American dog tag and enlisted a Casper author to help return the military ID to the family. “It just takes everything about history that I love. You have a mystery, you have people who are searching for the answers, and then you have a treasure reunited with the family. But the best part is, is that someone that was essentially dead to the family that they didn't even know existed suddenly comes alive to them, this great grandfather, this grandfather who is fighting in World War One because of this recovered dog tag that was returned to the family, they suddenly know who he is, and they know part of his story that had been forgotten for at least one generation, if not two. And that is essentially what history is all about.” Jackie says eventually the metal detectorist went on to recover seven other dog tags which they were able to reunite with their families. Most of these particular soldiers had survived the war and gone on to have families. But some of these descendants didn’t realize they had a great-grandfather fighting for the United States in France. Read the full story – What happens to a small town when the biggest employer suddenly announces it’s shutting down? Managing editor Greg Johnson wrote about the town of Lexington, Nebraska, which was reeling from the news of the abrupt shutdown of the Tyson Processing plant which employed about a third of the town. Greg compares this to when mines were abruptly shut down in Gillette in 2019. “What I found there was a lot of similarities between what's happening in Lexington now to what happened in Gillette six years ago, in 2019 when Black Jewel just up and closed the Eagle Butte and Bel Air mines. And although, in Tyson's case, Tyson Foods that's closing up its plant in Lexington, that they made their announcement without any warning, but there they gave 60 days. They say, we're closing in 60 days. The black jewels case it was, they shut down mid shift. They're like, okay, get off your machines and go home. Hundreds of workers out…there's the same kind of look behind the eyes of the people walking around, ‘What am I going to do now?’ type of look, ‘It's Christmas time. What's happening?’” Less than a week before Thanksgiving, Tyson Foods showed up and informed the 3,200 workers there that as of Jan. 20th, they were closing the huge beef processing plant. Read the full story – Back when there was no speed limit in Montana, highways there were known as the “Montanabahn.” Features reporter David Madison wrote about a stubborn cattle hustler from Wyoming named Rudy “Butch” Stanko, whose lead foot and hard head inadvertently brought the no-speed limit era to an end in Montana. “He was like Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit out running the law enforcement in Montana, back when Montana had no speed limit, and these two things collided on a lonely highway there in central Montana, where you had this rebel Rudy Butch, you know, flooring it, going 121 miles per hour, confident. Because in addition to all the other things he did, he also was a stock car racer. And for him, he was like, I have this I have the talent to maintain this speed safely. And that was the law in Montana, prudent and safe. There was no exact number, so he gets hit with 121 mile per hour ticket like he always did. He fought it all the way through the courts. His son said he was arrested 250 times because he found enjoyment in it.” Some of those who knew Butch in Montana remember getting passed by Butch in his purple Camaro or his turquoise Lincoln. They remember seeing him fight a 121-mph speeding violation all the way to the Montana Supreme Court. Read the full story – And that’s a look back at some of the stories that were the most meaningful, important, interesting, or favorites of 2025. And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, Merry Christmas from Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39532530

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, December 24, 2025 12/24/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, December 24, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, December 24th. I’m Mac Watson. – U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman on Tuesday announced her intention to run for the U.S. Senate. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Rep. Hageman says her choice to run for one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats sprang from calculations about doing the most good for Wyoming. “The scuttle butt surrounding her office from late January till now, was she viable for governor. We saw a poll to that end. We've heard speculation from that end. And so a lot of people were watching to see if she would do that, if she would take on the at home trail boss seat. And so it actually surprised a lot of people Tuesday morning when she was like, ‘I'm running for the Senate.’ But when I asked her about it, she said, ‘Look, a lot of the bad that's plagued Wyoming over the last couple decades has come out of Washington, DC. So if I want to curb that bad, I gotta stay in Washington, DC.’” In her media release, Hageman pointed to her two terms in the House, her service on the House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees, her prior career as an attorney and her experience with the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and putting Wyoming first. Read the full story – Sticking with politics as we enter 2026 and the mid-term elections, Wyoming education chief Megan Degenfelder on Tuesday said she is “strongly considering” a run for governor while other political figures are thinking about higher office too. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that while Degenfelder hasn’t committed, there are candidates who are campaigning to be the next governor of Wyoming. “It could be a toe-in-the-water to see what kind of backing, what kind of support, what kind of constituent feedback you can get with a maneuver like that. But you know, often when we say someone says that it ends with a run of some kind. Senator Eric Barlow, who's also the former House Speaker, declared earlier this year and has been consistently campaigning and has raised a half million dollars. And then Brent Bien who's beloved in multiple corners of the state. Reid Raisner had set up a governor's finance account for that office, but has not declared a run for that office. And at this juncture, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who's political in a lot of his public messaging, remains a mystery as to just which office he's seeking.” With five statewide elected seats up for election in 2026, as well as two Congressional seats with both incumbents departing, Wyoming is in for a shakeup this coming election season. Read the full story – Two Cheyenne teens facing attempted first-degree murder charges in a failed plot discussed their plans in a profanity-laced audio recording, police say. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports that according to court documents, one suspect is recorded saying, “Imma kill him.” “Apparently, three people in a Subaru went to this house and two teens, two are 16-and-17-year olds. One was an 18-year old, which he's being charged as an adult. Anyway, the youngest of the suspects got out of the car, and one of them had, like a I'm not sure they had, they had some ar 47 type rifles, and I'm not sure if that's what they used to what they used to shoot, but one of them shot into a Kia that was parked. Shot that a couple times, and then they, they took off, and they returned a while later, and then they, they, two of them stormed the house, got inside the house, firstly around the back, and they went into the front. They got in. They were looking for this one person. We're not sure who that is, but apparently that person wasn't there, and they were pushed outside of the house by someone else, and they left.” The two teens haven’t been identified because they are juveniles, but a third suspect who isn’t heard in the recording is 18-year-old Michael DeHerrera of Cheyenne. DeHerrea, who is suspected of driving the other two — ages 16 and 17 — to a home where they believed the victim was, has been charged with the lesser crime of possession of a weapon with the intent to commit a felony. Read the full story . – Wyoming oil and gas operators are cheering a Bureau of Land Management announcement to delay a Biden-era 1,400% hike on bonding costs. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the huge increase threatens to shutter small oil and gas producers across the state. “When an oil and gas producer goes out and drills a well on public land, they've got to put up a bond that basically protects the public from getting stuck with some cleanup bill down the road. There's been, long been a back and forth about how much that bond should be. Under the Biden administration, they really drastically increased it, and from their point of view, the increase was necessary because there were these big cleanup bills for abandoned or orphaned oil production. The Trump administration came in and really listened to the oil and gas producers, who said, ‘Look, this is just overly burdensome. It's going to harm small operators in states like Wyoming. Can you roll this back for us?’ And the way that the Petroleum Association of Wyoming put it was, it was like Christmas came early when the news came down that these overly burdensome, from their point of view, bonding requirements were drastically lowered.” The Direct Final Rule delays enforcement of Biden-era regulations that would have while the Trump administration works toward permanent solutions. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this…. – Cheyenne’s Historic 1892 Pumphouse is getting a reprieve from the wrecking ball. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the Cheyenne City Council is replacing a resolution that set a deadline for its demolition with one that calls for restoring it to use again. “At that time, baths were not common. Water that flowed into your house was a new idea. And so, you know, for Cheyenne, this little upstart town in the west on the frontier to have a pump house that would deliver water into your home. That was truly magic, and it's part of why Cheyenne earned that nickname Magic City of the Plains, because they were doing things in Cheyenne that were practically unheard of in the west at the time, and the pump house was all part of that magic.” Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins tells Cowboy State Daily that the pumphouse has the same architecture components as the Capitol and the historic train depot. Read the full story – Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park has been active since its massive hydrothermal explosion in July 2024. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the pool recently and unpredictably erupted twice in two days. “This most recent stretch, it erupted on December 18, and it erupted on December 20, and based on the readings, those were both of a similar size. So we're talking about water and mud being shot 30 to 40 feet up into the air. It's not like Old Faithful, where you can get a regular pattern of eruptions. They don't know exactly what's going on at Black Diamond pool. Now, that's not unheard of for a Yellowstone thermal feature, they're always changing. The bigger question is ‘What that'll mean to the National Park Service?’ because Biscuit Basin, where the pool is located, has been closed since the hydrothermal explosion in July 2024 and until they feel safe and confident that Black Diamond pool is doing something they can anticipate, they're probably not even going to think about reopening biscuit base to visitors.” Since Black Diamond Pool blew itself apart in July 2024, there have been 14 documented eruptions. The time between those eruptions has varied from more than 46 days to less than two days. Read the full story – It was Christmas Eve in 1888 when a father and his two young sons brought gifts to their neighbors — an infamous group of nefarious characters out in Salt Creek Canyon in the Wyoming Territory. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that the family were almost shot before making friends with the notorious bunch. “It was the Buck Hanby gang who had fled as murderers from Kansas. Now, the local people had described them in the newspaper as long-haired, wild-and wooly-looking individuals dressed up in Calvary soldiers outfits. And into this dugout walked a father and his two sons with one purpose, to wish these men, these Desperados, a very merry Christmas…They were greeted not with open arms, but by the barrel of a gun, until it was realized that they truly were there just to say Merry Christmas…and at the very end, they walked to their horses and gave them a gift of donuts and cookies from Ma back at home.” The gang had built a half-dugout, 16-by-20-feet wide, on their homestead on the east side of Salt Creek Canyon and south of Red Butte, near what is now Newcastle, Wyoming. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39526090

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, December 23, 2025 12/23/2025

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, December 23, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, December 23rd. I’m Mac Watson. – Teton Pass was closed all day Monday as the Wyoming Department of Transportation did a controlled avalanche. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports how a controlled avalanche works and how much snow came down the mountain. “WYDOT made the decision to close Teton pass at 3am Monday and do a controlled avalanche, which meant a detonation using devices that use propane and oxygen rather than explosives, at 3:45am and that sent a wall of snow onto the pavement. We're talking at least 30 feet high and between 200 and 500 feet long. And when it's wet and heavy like that, they can't use the traditional snow blowers that they use to clear the highways. They had to call in dozers and loaders to get up there and move all of it.” The mountainside had been scraped down to bare soil, leaving a massive amount of snow on the highway. Read the full story – A Utah company is leading a charge to take and store radioactive waste from Canada. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that opponents say that nuclear waste could be coming through Wyoming. “Recently, this federal agency called the Northwest compact, which was mandated by Congress to regulate waste issues, has given the initial okay for waste coming from Ontario to be stored outside of Salt Lake City in Utah…I spoke to watchdogs who really monitor this stuff closely. And yeah, they raise concerns that they call it low level waste, but given the federal regulations around low level waste, that that could mean plutonium, plutonium in small amounts, but still plutonium coming through Wyoming, perhaps on the way to Utah, so it really an example of how two different states right next to each other.” According to a coalition of environmental groups raising concerns, this is the first time in U.S. history that foreign nuclear power waste will be permanently disposed of on American soil. Read the full story – After strong winds blew more than 100 stacked freight cars off the BNSF Railway tracks near Cheyenne on Friday, crews mobilized to clean it up. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that within 18 hours, the tracks were clear again. “When you talk to train people, they’ll say the top priority with any derailment cleanup is to get the tracks open so freight can start moving again. So in this case, clearing everything off the site wasn't necessarily the priority. The priority was to get everything safely away from the rails so other trains could move through, and there are professional companies that specialize in cleaning up after derailment. So presumably, the BNSF Railway brought one of these companies in. They got to the scene as fast as they could, and then they worked over Friday night to get the scene as clear as they could so freight could resume moving again. It was a massive undertaking.” Dozens of intermodal freight cars each carrying two stacked shipping containers had been derailed, but the rails weren’t the cause as gusts as strong as 75 mph were recorded between Laramie and Cheyenne on Friday. Read the full story – A 31-year-old Casper man accused of trying to burn down his ex-boyfriend’s house and causing $200,000 worth of damage pleaded not guilty Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that 35-year-old David Wilkinson didn’t spend much time in court at his appearance. “It was kind of a short appearance. Wilkinson just pleaded. The judge asked him, ‘How are you gonna plead? Are you gonna plead not guilty?’ And he just said, ‘Correct.’ And so that was about it. He is still in jail on $30,000 bond.” The night of the house fire, Wilkinson escaped with his pet snake, then gave investigators conflicting stories about what happened. He is facing a variety of charges, including one count of first-degree arson, one count of third-degree arson, and two counts of domestic assault. Read the full story . – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this…. – Glenrock, the town attorney, and mayor asked a Virginia federal judge Friday to dismiss them from a $350 million lawsuit over claims they helped steal banking trade secrets. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that they’ve called the lawsuit an attempt to "bully a small Wyoming town into submission.” “You've got all sorts of things going on here. Banks suing each other, and the town of Glen Rock and its leaders caught in the crosshairs in a way. So Eastern Point is suing Flat Irons Bank saying Flat Irons, you guys stole our platform. You stole our property, our intellectual property, and then Flat Iron sued back like ‘No, you guys are bullying and being anti competitive and trying to intimidate our clients with these claims.’ And then you have Eastern Point saying, ‘Hey, town of Glen Rock and your attorney, and your mayor, you're helping the intellectual property theft by using this platform and spreading it.’ And so the town of Glen Rock, its mayor, its attorney, they fired back Friday like they basically are saying Eastern Points claims against us are logically feeble. They didn't follow Wyoming's laws, or show that they followed Wyoming's laws, for when you want to sue the government.” The lawsuit stems from a private investigation that examined the activities of Colorado-based Flatirons Bank. Both banks are involved in establishing accounts that distribute payments from lawsuit settlements, known as Qualified Settlement Funds or QSF. Read the full story – Snowmobile tours into Old Faithful were canceled for lack of snow, but Cooke City got slammed — and half the town lost power on Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that townspeople helped tourists in amazing ways. “So right at that special time when you come back from snowmobiling in the back country all day and you're ready for a Bud Light and some prime rib Well, the power's out. And so everybody kind of congregated in the Exxon, which had a generator running. And right around dinner time they're thinking about, can I get by on a bag of pretzels and this six pack of beer? And you know, the guy behind the counter at the Exxon was offering to heat up pizzas for people. And then along comes Mike Little John. He is a problem solver. He is a Mr. Fix it all around cook city. And he was trying to help everybody that night, as I was walking out of the Exxon, he called me over and said, Hey, my old lady is cooking some food. You got to come by and so I did and dropped in.” Yellowstone's official winter season began Dec. 15, when most park roads close to automobiles and open to commercially guided snowmobiles and snowcoaches. But this year, the National Park Service warned that "the accumulation of snowfall on roads varies across the park," and the type of transportation available would depend on conditions. Read the full story . – A judge has ruled that though a 77-year-old Wamsutter trucker won an appeal in the Wyoming Supreme Court, the state can keep $54,000 it found in his car. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Ronald Mikulin claims it’s his life savings, but the state showed it was drug money. “The catch is that the standard of proof isn't as hard in the civil case, so rather than like the beyond a reasonable doubt standard that the state would have pursued if it wanted to convict him of being a drug dealer, for example, that softened in the civil case to clear and convincing evidence standard. And even though the judge actually went too soft on the state the first time around, the judge just weighed the evidence again this second time around after the Wyoming Supreme Court appeal, and said, ‘Yeah, even with the clear and convincing, still looks like drug money, so the state can take this money.’” Mikulin was sentenced to 20 days in jail plus a year of probation and ordered to pay a $250 fine and other court costs and fees. Read the full story – Like many 11-year-olds, Wyatt loves cars, especially tricked-out classic rides that are blinged-out to the max. But Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that as a cancer patient in hospice care, he can’t get out to the car shows that he loves. So, the show came to him. “People from Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Denver and all over the place show up. And they end up having 60 to 70 vehicles of classic cars, trucks, motorcycles, all kinds of cars that they brought to the Laramie hospice and put on a show and a parade for this young man Sunday.” Jimmy Mora, a member of the Rollerz Only Car Club and owner of a 1936 Plymouth P2 Deluxe Coupe, helped organize the private parade for Wyatt. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39513765

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, December 22, 2025 12/22/2025

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, December 22, 2025 It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, December 22nd. I’m Mac Watson. – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has received five clusters of complaints asking him to oust county officials from their offices. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that three former Wyoming governors say that number is unprecedented. “Governor Sullivan, Governor Gehringer, and Governor Fruedenthal, and they were all like, we don't remember anything like this happening to us. And you would feasibly remember, because the governor himself has asked to do an investigation. It's his task…So it's just this thing now where Governor Gordon's had five, one of them, he did say, rose to the level of malfeasance, and the other one, he said, ‘No, it's kind of sloppy.’ And now he's got three that are churning right now that he's doing investigations on him considering.” There are still 3 actions on the Governor’s desk that are still pending, including: • A complaint to remove two of the three Hot Springs County commissioners; • A refreshed complaint against Weston county clerk Becky Hadlock that now includes claims she filed a false post-election audit; • And a complaint to remove the entire, three-man Platte County Commission. Read the full story . – About 3,200 of Lexington, Nebraska’s 11,000 residents work at a huge Tyson Foods beef processing plant — for another month. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the plant’s sudden shut down impacts the whole town, including healthcare. “The hospital CEO wrote this huge scathing letter to Tyson's board about how it’s impacting not just the plant, but the whole town, trickling down healthcare…Healthcare is with so many fewer patients, all of these people at once, losing their company healthcare. What's the follow up going to be if a lot of these families have to move to find new jobs, there's not going to be nearly as much need for this rural health care, which is real, struggling to hang on anyway.” For 35 years, the beef plant has been by far the largest employer and economic driver of Lexington. Read the full story – The new reality facing the University of Wyoming is to maintain its major Division I athletic programs, it needs to generate revenue that is paid to players. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that UW will have to build up a war chest to keep up with rival schools like CSU and BYU in this brave new world of collegiate athletics. “We're all accepting this harsh reality that we're going to lose pure amateur college athletics, and there's going to be an entry fee. What is it for Wyoming? It could be at least 2 million bucks. And you know, how are we going to generate that? Well, it's doing a better job getting sponsorships, getting fans and businesses that know that their customers are fans, to get behind it with their marketing budgets. Wyoming's at a disadvantage because of the size of the population the ad budgets are in Wyoming compared to Colorado.” Alex Jewell, UW’s assistant athletic director for development, tells Cowboy State Daily that “rising costs have affected everyone because scholarships cost more than they did 20 years ago. So the goal, Jewell adds, isn’t just recruiting, it’s retention. Read the full story – A new helium plant in Sublette County will boost Wyoming’s share of global helium output to about 30%. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the new plant will generate nearly $2 billion in taxes and royalties. “It'll be about 10% of the world's helium supply. That's a lot for a single plant. The nearby Exxon Mobil owns a plant called, I think it's Shoots Creek, and that's about 20% of the world's helium supply. So that's 30 of those two plants together in Wyoming. Russia is the biggest global player in helium. It supplies about 40% of the world's helium supply. So that would almost put us on par with the largest global helium player in the world. Russia's still a little bit bigger, but so yes, that is quite a bit. And helium is a critical mineral for a lot of technology, technological devices, advanced technology.” Blue Spruce co-founder, Andrew Moses, tells Cowboy State Daily that construction of the new facility will take three construction seasons and the reason for that is to minimize the impact to wildlife during the critical Nov. 15th - April 30th window. Read the full story – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this…. – U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis on Friday announced she is not running for a second term. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that according to the junior senator from Wyoming, Lummis says she just doesn’t have a second term in her. “In Congress, we see a lot of constant debate and arguing and sometimes name calling and just information flowing constantly. And her statement said, ‘I just don't have six years left in me.’ So we went ahead and talked to a prominent politico, Liz Brimmer, who said that seat is Harriet Hageman’s, if she wants it. Hageman’s in the two year term cycle of the US House if she wants to run for the six year more solid, more steady term of US Senate. The conjecture is that she could probably swing that. She's had overwhelming victories recently in her house elections.” Senator Lummis is the first woman elected to the Senate from Wyoming. Read the full story – After a month of above-average temperatures, below-average precipitation and intense windstorms, the same weather patterns that prevented snow from reaching Wyoming will continue through Christmas. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports forecasters are saying expect a brown Christmas. “We still have that high pressure ridge in the Bering Strait that's blocking winter weather and sending it elsewhere. So if you're looking at the East Coast and wondering why they're getting slammed with snow and sub zero temperatures, that's Wyoming's winter. It's just being shifted eastward, and that high riser, that high ridge, that high pressure ridge, doesn't show any signs of breaking before Christmas. So what that means is temperatures are still going to be above average. The chances of moisture are very low. There's a chance that there might be some snow in Western Wyoming, and the mountains are still getting some snow throughout all of this. If you're dreaming of a white Christmas this year, keep dreaming.” Meteorologist Don Day tells Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming isn’t really known for having a white Christmas. In fact, according to Day, Wyoming is more likely to have snow on Halloween than Christmas day. Read the full story . – At 12, Haylee Cole’s father murdered her mother and tried to blame Haylee for the crime. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports the Lander woman has turned her family tragedy into help for others. “She shares her own story, both as you know, what happened to her, what happened to her mother, and she sees herself as her mother's voice. And she made that conscious decision early on, she knew she couldn't bring her mother back, but she could speak for her mother and other domestic violence victims. So she made that conscious decision, and still does today and still goes on and does these presentations, both for high schoolers and for groups out across the country.” Brad Reay was convicted of killing his wife, Tamara, and is serving life in prison with no possibility of parole. Read the full story – A cow moose nicknamed "Big Betty" has been calmly wandering around Evanston, delighting residents and avoiding trouble. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that wildlife officials say even though Big Betty is unusually peaceful, they’re still warning people to keep their distance. “Apparently, big Betty, she got really popular on social media. And the one person I talked to said Big Betty was very well behaved. Didn't cause any trouble. I did talk to Game and Fish, and they said, ‘Yeah, they got some calls about her, nothing that sounded too grave or disturbing, so they kind of let her do her thing.’ She's apparently wandered out of town, at least for now. She's back in the countryside, but you know, she might show up again. You never know.” Wyoming Game and Fish Green River regional wildlife supervisor James Hobbs tells Cowboy State Daily that it’s not unheard of for moose to venture into town from time to time and the Bear River corridor near Evanston, as well as the nearby Bear River State Park, are good moose habitat. Read the full story – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39491615

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, December 19, 2025 12/19/2025

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. – 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 – 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, recorded there last winter. Read the full story – 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 – 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 – I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this…. – 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 . – 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 – 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 – And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily. /episode/index/show/42686d37-fd39-4b73-b2c1-a54a67fbf65d/id/39465415

Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

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