Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

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

  1. 12 HRS AGO

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, April 24, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, April 24th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Wyoming State GOP convention started its convention on Thursday in Douglas with preliminary meetings vetting the numerous bylaw changes.  Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that many county party leaders are urging the party to throw off state laws and assert its autonomy.  "The state party chair Brian Miller, opened the day with a big speech about how it is time for the party to assert its autonomy, its association of rights, and essentially throw off the state laws that govern it and restrict it. Scott Clem from Campbell County, kept saying, 'What are we doing? Are we trying to go to a caucus instead of a state run primary election? Are we prepared to pay for it if we're going to a caucus? What's the master plan here?' And Brian Miller came back up to the mic and said, 'Yeah, the master plan is to assert autonomy, and we are going to be filing a lawsuit to promote our rights in this vein.'" The full convention will have the chance to vote on the proposed changes Saturday.  Read the full story HERE. –– Wyoming state Rep. Karlee Provenza and a Montana legislator posted video of themselves corner-crossing at the Carbon County spot that started a yearslong legal war. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the lawmaker says she took the video to demonstrate the legality of corner-crossing in Wyoming. "This is a place where the four out of state hunters crossed in 2021 and they were first charged with criminal trespass, found not guilty of that. Then the landowners filed a civil suit against them, which went all the way to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, was ruled in the hunter's favor, and then they tried to kick it up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided not to hear it, and so a lot of people took that to mean, okay, it's just de facto. It is legal to corner cross in Wyoming. So Provenza and this representative from Montana, went there earlier, I think about a week ago, and they crossed the corner, and they took video of it, and said, you know that we are demonstrating that it's legal to cross corners. This is your public land." A federal court's decision ruled corner crossing technically legal in Wyoming last year, although the Legislature this year stopped short of codifying it into Wyoming statute. Read the full story HERE. – Working as a first responder in the nation's richest county illustrates a complex problem: How does a sheriff's deputy who earns a starting salary of $70,000 live in a town where the median home price is $3 million? Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that they don't. Only 2 of 30 live there. "That's really the problem that Sheriff Matt Carr brought up with the Teton county commissioners earlier this month. Sheriff Carr said that he's particularly concerned about this coming season, the wildfire season, this summer, and if there is, you know, an incident, or some sort of, you know, major danger, and they need more deputies to respond than what then who was on staff, How are they going to be able to do that when these deputies are commuting from so far away?" Sheriff's deputies are now allowed to take their vehicles home, even if they live in neighboring counties, so that if the need arises for them to respond to an emergency during otherwise off-duty time, they can respond directly. Read the full story HERE. – When a young student from a rural Nepali village with no running water finally found his way to America and Central Wyoming College in Riverton 30 years ago, it was a leap of faith. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Mohan Dangi was back Thursday to explore partnerships between Wyoming and Nepal. "So 30 years later, he's a very successful, world renowned expert in solid waste management, particularly for low income villages like the one he came from. Now, he wants to give back to Wyoming, this school that you know came and got it when he was lost and stranded and gave him a start in life. student exchanges, teacher exchanges for culture, but also long term kind of blending or strengthening each other's entrepreneurial ecosystem to kind of help their students. Who knew that the world comes to Riverton?" Dangi tells Cowboy State Daily he sees his effort to help start this partnership as giving back to a program that once gave him so much, when he was a young, 20-year-old seeing the world outside of Nepal for the very first time.  Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Grizzly 610, one of Grand Teton National Park's most famous bears, has yet to emerge this year. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that her fans say that probably means she has new cubs of the year. "The big male Grizzlies might start coming out in February, and then they just kind of start filtering out. And the last ones to show are the mamas with brand new cubs, and they don't come out until May. And it's not just Grizzly 610. The overarching story here is we could be seeing a lot of new cubs in Grand Teton this spring." Wyoming's grizzlies, along with black bears, usually start emerging from hibernation in late February or early March. Read the full story HERE. – High winds helped fan a fire that burned a Lander wood shop to the ground on Wednesday, also threatening nearby homes. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that for rural fire departments, responding when people you know are devastated makes firefighters take the job "very personally." "In Lander, this is their third structure that's burned down in the last month. And so I talked to them about what does it mean when you go to a scene and you probably know the people, or they're your neighbors. And they told me that, 'Yeah, we take this very personally.' Quote, personally is what the lander volunteer fire department chief told me, and the chief in Fremont told me that when they go there, his firefighters are not doing it for the money, because they're all volunteers. They're doing it because they want to help their neighbors and they want to keep their community safe." This is the sixth fire in the central Wyoming city so far this year, double what firefighters typically respond to in an entire year. Read the full story HERE. – A commercial truck driver was in court Thursday, charged with felony theft for allegedly taking a truck and trailer from his former employer. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Amninder Singh admitted to Wyoming troopers that he took the rig without permission, but said he was helping out a buddy. "He said he was trying to help out a friend by taking a load to Chicago. However, he was driving west on I 80, the exact opposite of going to Chicago. He stuck to this story that was he needed to print something out. And because the Flying J in Cheyenne didn't have a printer, he was driving all the way to Laramie to use the printer at the maverick station there. I called the Flying J, and the trucker is right. The Flying J does not have a printer that you can print out of. However, right across the road from the Flying J is the Loves truck stop. I called Loves, and they do have a printer the truckers can use. The guy took off with a truck and a trailer and didn't realize that the owner of the truck, a trucking company in California, they have GPS trackers on these things. The owner looked and knew exactly where he was. He called troopers and said, 'Hey, here he is. He's on I-80 going toward Laramie,' and that's exactly where they found him." Singh, born in 2002, faces a charge of felony theft for allegedly stealing the truck and trailer, together valued at about $80,000, from his former employer, a transport company in the Fresno, California, area, Read the full story HERE. – An early morning fireball ripped across the sky over southwest Wyoming Thursday. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the burning object briefly turned night into daylight and left residents scrambling to figure out what they saw.  "Early Thursday morning, several residents in southwest Wyoming and northeast Utah claimed that they saw a fireball light up the sky for about three seconds, and about 30 seconds later, they heard a boom. Meteorologist Jan Curtis in Cheyenne said that sightings like these are not uncommon. They happen at least a dozen times a month in areas like Wyoming, although they have been happening more frequently than usual lately, in Wyoming and around the globe." Reports of a delayed boom are consistent with larger meteors entering the atmosphere at high speed, where the sound can take several seconds to reach the ground after the flash is seen. Read the full story HERE.  – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    9 min

  2. 1D AGO

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Thursday, April 23, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, April 23rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – Wyoming's notorious winds stole the show Wednesday in Kemmerer, as TerraPower opened its gates to the media for its nuclear plant's first day of construction. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that once built, the Natrium plant in Kemmerer will become the nation's first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant.  "This is a momentous occasion, I think for Wyoming, this will be the first commercial scale molten sodium cooled nuclear plant in America, at least, if not the world. I mean, there are some smaller plants elsewhere in the world. Terra Power is already working to commercialize this with Meta to potentially power some of its data centers, maybe even one in Cheyenne. Cheyenne is a quote, natural candidate, according to one of the company officials. So you know, just a very interesting and exciting day here in Kemmerer."  Wednesday marked the first day of construction for the nuclear part of the project, which company officials say will be one of the first of its kind in size and scale in both America and the world. –– A Natrona County judge Wednesday didn't rule on an effort to halt Wyoming's Heartbeat Abortion Ban. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that an opposition lawyer called it "unconstitutionally vague," while Attorney General Keith Kautz argued a heartbeat lets us "know there is a life to protect." "Judge Forgey took under advisement whether to block Wyoming's brand new, latest abortion ban. This one, the Human Heartbeat Act would ban abortion from the point a heartbeat could be heard. The pro choice plaintiffs call it vague, say it violates a woman's health care right, asked the judge to block it. They say that they're the plaintiffs of birthing-age woman, a couple, obese, an abortion clinic and a funding group will suffer harm if the law is not blocked. Whereas the state, the Attorney General said, 'No, this, the state has this compelling interest to defend unborn life, and this time, after nearly four years of litigation, now we're going to prove it.'" Judge Daniel Forgey told Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz representing the state and attorney Peter Modlin arguing for the plaintiffs that he appreciated the "quality" of the arguments. Read the full story HERE. – Bruno, one of Wyoming's most popular grizzlies, had his face ripped open last fall in what many bear observers believe was a fight with another male grizzly. Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz reports that after being captured and treated for his wounds, he showed up fully healed this spring. "So last year, Bruno, we don't know for sure what people think he probably got in a fight with another male bear had a big, old, gnarly, nasty gash down his face and was oozing, you know, all that good gooey stuff you get. You get in nature. But this year, he showed up looking pretty much like new ones, like, what the bear get plastic surgery? Well, it turns out what happens is the federal, uh, bear biology team, they were going to capture and color him anyway, and while they had him, you know, tranquilized, they went ahead and treated that wound." Wyoming and federal wildlife agents and scientists generally have a hands-off approach toward such things as wildlife injuries, preferring to let nature take its course. Read the full story HERE. – Some county Republican parties are asking the Wyoming Republican Party to consider loyalty tests for candidates and declare some state laws void. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the state GOP meets Thursday in Douglas, where it will review more than 100 proposed bylaw changes. "The county parties have, by their own votes and maneuvers, proposed all sorts of bylaws changes, and the most significant of those coming from Crook, Weston, Uinta. And Crook County is saying, 'Hey, we should be treated like a private group. We should have this first amendment right to determine our own membership and association and throw off the state laws that govern us.' And so those are pretty strong proposed changes. And then there was another change. There's more proposed changes, where they're asking the state party to develop loyalty, fidelity tests for political candidates who are seeking the party's endorsement or nomination." Many of those say that the state GOP has the autonomy rights of a private group, and doesn't have to follow state laws dictating its processes and membership. That's based on the assertion that, under the First Amendment associational right and prior court cases, the Wyoming Republican Party can function how it wishes. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A man charged with being impaired when he drove a train loaded with 16,000 tons of hazardous materials across eastern Wyoming is in a mental health facility. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports during the Wednesday hearing, the judge said he didn't want the case to fall through the cracks. "Mr. Richards appeared for what was scheduled to be an arraignment, which is a plea hearing where he was scheduled to plead guilty, not guilty, whatever, instead, it turned into more of a status hearing where he didn't actually enter a plea. Why that's important is because he appeared via video from a live-in mental health facility in his hometown in Nebraska. And the judge said, 'Hey, we didn't do a plea today.' These are misdemeanor charges, however, they involve quite a serious situation with a train carrying 1000s of tons of hazardous material. So the potential for danger there was pretty high. But the judge said, 'Hey, we're not gonna let this slip through the cracks.'" 47-year-old Kristopher Richards was driving the train from North Platte, Nebraska, to Cheyenne on March 20th and reportedly acted aggressively and dangerously for about eight hours, to the point that the conductor locked himself in a bathroom near the engine compartment and called to report Richards, according to court records. Read the full story HERE.  – A 19-year-old Casper man who allegedly held an 18-month-old child "like a shield" in an armed standoff over the weekend faces four misdemeanor charges for the incident. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Brayden Randolph appeared in court Monday and is now free on bond. "His court documents show that he's now charged with four misdemeanors and took an 18-month-old baby, stood at a door and challenged police and said, 'Come get me. You've got weapons. I've got weapons!' according to the affidavit. So four misdemeanors. He was in court for his initial appearance on Monday. He's out on $7,500 bond, cash or surety." Brayden Donald Randolph is charged with reckless endangerment, child endangerment, being a minor in possession of alcohol and interference with a peace officer. His next hearing has not yet been scheduled. Read the full story HERE. – The daughter of a Guernsey City councilwoman was kicked out of a council meeting Tuesday night after a resolution that would have banned residents from recording meetings died without a motion. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that before leaving, Melissa Howe, daughter of council member Penny Wells, had one final thing to say. "As she was being escorted out of the room, she said, 'Way to flip-flop, Joe.' Howe tells Cowboy State Daily that she was very angry as she was being escorted out of the room. A lot of her anger was directed toward Councilwoman Joe Michaels, who she says has flip-flopped or been kind of shifty in his opinion on how the public is able to record the public meetings, he has been against it, Howe told us. But later in an interview with Michaels this week, Michaels told Cowboy State Daily that he thought the resolution was unconstitutional, was borderline unconstitutional."  Mayor Ed Delgado tells Cowboy State Daily he was surprised that the resolution failed to get a motion or advance at Tuesday's council meeting. Read the full story HERE. – A man who cut his own throat at the Albertsons grocery store in Jackson Hole last month, causing police to evacuate the store, has been deported, ICE told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that 33-year-old Salvador Catarino-Jacinto had been deported at least two times before, the agency says. "Court documents say that meth was found in his blood when he was at the hospital, and so he was charged with drug use. ICE took him into custody eight days after that incident, and very promptly deported him. He had been, according to the agency, deported twice before, and that tends to speed things along. Often when someone has already been removed from the country, that order remains viable. That order for removal, and so you don't, you don't always have to restart the whole deportation process." The 33-year-old has previous convictions for illegal entry and illegal reentry, an agency spokesman told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday email. Read the full story HERE. –   And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    10 min

  3. 3D AGO

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, April 21, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, April 21st.  I'm Mac Watson. – Weeks after lawmakers tried to kill the agency, the Wyoming Business Council approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho Tribe to study the prospect of a "large" data center on the reservation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one tribal leader says "Hell no." "The Wyoming Business Council, which is fresh off of its own controversy from lawmakers nearly killing it this session, approved a $50,000 grant for the Northern Arapaho tribe to study potentially putting a data center on the reservation, and there's some outcry of this on social media, as well as a one of the people who's currently contesting whether he is a leader of the Eastern Shoshone tribe said absolutely not. Patrick Lawson, the director of Northern Arapaho tribal industries, said, 'We are hoping the study addresses all of these concerns, and we're also hoping for that economic development to this area.'" Proponents say the study is merely a preliminary step, gauged to estimate the reservation's capacity to hold a data center — one that would bring much-needed jobs to the area. Read the full story HERE. – An employee at the Rock Springs Flying J Travel Center truck stop in Rock Springs died Sunday morning after getting pinned between trucks while managing commercial traffic in the parking lot. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that veteran truck drivers say it's an accident that could have been prevented. "I spoke to two truckers who said that this was a preventable accident. They both have brought their rigs to the Flying J they have pulled into the parking lot, they have gone into the fuel station to get fuel, and they both told me that maneuvering in that parking lot is incredibly difficult because it is so crowded and there's so many parked cars. So they say this could have been avoidable if parking restrictions had been better enforced, and perhaps with more training, so that employees who work at truck stops should know the blind spots." RSPD spokesperson Elizabeth Coontz confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that the worker's family has been notified and the investigation is ongoing. Read the full story HERE. – Nobody was more surprised to see someone offering some "abandoned horses" Sunday on Casper Mountain than Morris Carter. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that's because the horses belong to him and they're not abandoned.  "Casper resident Morris Carter learned that his horses had wandered onto private property after a post on a popular Facebook group started to blow up. That post was made by another Casper mountain landowner named Mark Huseman, who labeled it 'Abandoned horses, free to a good home.' According to Morris Carter, he went and picked up his horses; he was unable to reach Mark Huesman. Huesman says that he was just trying to address a recurring issue that his comment was sarcastic, that he had no intention of giving away Carter's horses. Another property owner I spoke to says that he's been having problems with Morris Carter's horses for 30 years." Carter tells Cowboy State Daily that he leases pastures in the area and has maintained informal working relationships with surrounding landowners for years.  Read the full story HERE. – A Sweetwater County deputy shot an armed suspect during an incident at a Rock Springs apartment building early Monday morning. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the sheriff's office says the armed person had already sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound before officers arrived. "I talked to people who saw kind of the police scene and the chaos early in the morning, and there, there was a person a neighbor, got his truck hit. He's not sure if that has anything to do with the shooting. This press release from the Sheriff's Office says that the person who the deputy shot already had a self inflicted injury at the time. The statement says the person was taken to a hospital."  Deputies responded at about 4:10 a.m. to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Blvd in Rock Springs to help the Rock Springs Police Department with a reported disturbance involving an armed person, says the sheriff's office statement, dispatched about five hours later. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… –– Casper police Monday released dramatic bodycam video of the rescue of an 18-month-old child after an hours-long armed standoff Saturday. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports police say a man held a baby while gripping a handgun in his waistband and verbally challenged officers. "It was a four unit apartment complex where this occurred, and that then started a standoff, and according to police, he would show up at the door. He was armed. He had an AR style rifle, also a handgun, and that led to at least a three or four hour standoff with him before, and what we also understand is that he had an 18 month old child with him. There was negotiations that took place that went apparently nowhere, and then about, probably little after midnight, because his neighbor told me this was over about one o'clock that that police breached the door, rescued the child and arrested the individual, because both he and the child were asleep on the floor." The Casper Police Department says police found broken glass scattered about and drug paraphernalia in the apartment along with several weapons. Read the full story HERE. –  Yellowstone visitors had a front-row seat to the stark reality of the contest between predator and prey early Sunday. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that nine members of the Wapiti wolf pack went after a herd of bison in a very strategic way. "These two wolves, one on each side, kind of nipping at a bison at its side, in hindquarters. Some bison were wounded, including visibly, and then the wolves backed off at about 6pm but I talked to some biologists, and they said, 'Well, that doesn't necessarily mean the hunt is over.' What they'll do is they'll come in and they'll wound them. They'll either, you know, cause them to give them wounds that actively bleed or damage tendons, something like that, wait a couple days, back off and then come back. And that gives the more time for the animal to bleed out or for the tendons to stiffen up to where they can't use them properly. So the bison that survived the wolf attack might not survive in the long run. When they're attacking something that huge, instead of trying to kill it all at once, they'll nip at sort of the Death By 1,000 Cuts principle." April Holm and her husband, Patrick, frequently visit Yellowstone, getting material for their Holm On The Range wildlife photography and video business. She tells Cowboy State Daily that they were in their pickup right about sunrise on Sunday when they spotted bison, apparently running from wolves. Read the full story HERE. – A Wyoming college student and mother says a commercial truck driver's quick reaction saved her from a potentially fatal head-on crash on state Highway 210 on Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that Winnie Brockman says she thought she was going to die. "She was traveling to class at about 7:30am on Monday morning when she saw a car coming at her about a half a mile away. She predicts, and something in her head just said to pull to the right side of the road, so in a split second, she made a life saving decision. There was a semi truck in the opposite lane who also pulled off to the right. She said that a white SUV veered right between them, just barely missing her. Brockman said she's sharing her experience publicly to urge drivers to think twice before attempting to pass someone in a hurry. She asks people are you really going to risk putting someone's life in danger just to get where you're going a little bit faster?" Brockman tells Cowboy State Daily that her mother died in a head-on collision back in 2019. Read the full story HERE. – Fans lined up in a crazy-long line Saturday to buy bottles of Nate Romanowski Rye signed by Joe Pickett author C.J. Box. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports this year's rye continues a collaboration between Box and Pine Bluffs Distilling that started last year with Joe Pickett Bourbon. "CJ, and a group of about 10 people in all including CJ, will taste the barrels and rate them, and then, based on that rating, the winners go into the blend. Chad does the blending and makes it all taste right. The first time they did this for bourbon, Joe Pickett Bourbon, and they had four barrels. And like the part that they sold to the state, the 84 cases that they sold to the state, that sold out in 12 minutes flat. So this time, he made 10 barrels instead of just four." Romanowski Rye starts out as Pine Bluffs Distilling's standard rye recipe.  Although rye's not typically Box's favorite, this rye is an exception. Not least because Box was among the taste testers who chose the barrels in the blend. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    9 min

  4. 4D AGO

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, April 20, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, April 20th.  I'm Mac Watson. – A high-risk special forces rescue of a U.S. fighter pilot in Iran was successful earlier this month.  Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the rescue mission echoed war games training held in Wyoming in 2023, when the military turned a remote, windswept stretch of highway near Rawlins into a simulated rescue of a downed pilot. "The concept in Wyoming was to take over a strip of highway and use that to land and see if that could, if that was workable, and that they actually did, it was kind of a stair step they did. They did that first, and then they came back to Wyoming and they did more stuff. You know, can we fuel up these planes? How much stuff can we do without an actual air base? And so we kind of got an inside glimpse into how the military prepares for some of these out of the box types of things." The exact operational details of the Iran mission remain classified, and Air Force spokesmen were careful not to comment beyond prepared statements when Cowboy State Daily called to ask about the training exercise. Read the full story HERE. – The Cheyenne attorney asking authorities to prosecute Chuck Gray for handing over voter information to the feds now says Gray lost attorney-client privacy by texting a news outlet. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Gray calls the new allegation "more lunacy ... from a radical leftwing attorney." "The attorney George Powers, who has done public transparency projects like this before, he says, 'Yeah, you texted a news outlet that the Ag approved the release of unredacted voter rolls to the feds, allegedly in violation of state law,' whereas Secretary Gray says, 'No, this is just a cooked up scheme. This is Leftist Lawfare.' What Powers filed Monday is kind of like a police report, except in this case, the AG is the investigator. It's kind of like when you go to your local police station and you say, 'Hey, I want to fill out a report something has happened.' So he filed the supplement on Friday, because he got another batch of evidence, a public record, a text between Gray and a news outlet that he said, made his case stronger." Powers, who in 2024 won a pro-transparency case against the Wyoming Department of Education, has voiced doubt over the extent and content of Gray's legal consultation, and has asserted that Gray has relied on it enough to waive attorney-client privilege. Read the full story HERE. – In their first interview Thursday since returning from a trip around the moon, the Artemis II astronauts credited their training at Wyoming-based NOLS for helping prepare for their mission. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the National Outdoor Leadership School was singled out by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman last Thursday during the crew's first group interview after returning to Earth from it's 10-day mission to the moon and back.  "NOLS leadership coach Rich Rochelle, said that this program is really about leadership and teamwork. They put these astronauts into expeditions where they are tested. They put them in stressful, isolating experiences meant to teach them to lean on each other and be better teammates and leaders.  Upon returning back to Earth, astronaut Reid Wiseman said that NOLS allowed him to see that integrity isn't a one or a zero, you either have it or you don't. NOLS instructors say that over 90% of current astronauts have taken at least one NOLS course in the program." Since 1999, NASA has worked with a variety of organizations and contracted NOLS for more than 45 wilderness expeditions designed to help astronauts prepare for the realities of long-duration spaceflight. Read the full story HERE. –  In 1958, the Wyoming Governor's Mansion in Cheyenne hosted an underground fight club. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that the club's promoter was also a frequent contender. "So Paul Hickey, as an eight year old, is very inspired by the Friday night fights the Gillette Cavalcade fights. They watch him every weekend, and he gets the idea we could do something like this. We've got this great space to work with in our new mansion in the basement, and they set up this makeshift ring. It was invite-only. It was very secretive, and he was a promoter as well as a contender. He's eight years old at the time, and he's one of the younger, lighter people in the bunch, and he gets his butt kicked a handful of times. But his mother got word she didn't like it, and she said, Okay, that is enough. We are not having fights in the basement of our home, and they brought the ring down. That was the end of that." Hickey is one of the few remaining former tenants of the Historic Governor's Mansion at 300 E. 21st St., a Colonial Revival-style home made of molded brick, three story sandstone columns, and barrel windows that reflect the city's early architectural ambitions. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – This spring kicks off a race to build housing before a TerraPower nuclear power plant construction boom to keep as many of its long-term workers in Kemmerer as possible. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that's key to capturing the growth potential for the small Wyoming town. "Where that actual population is going to land. How big the population is matters because economics, you know, the more people you have, the more you can support the growth that needs to happen, the extra sewer and water services, you know, all of that you have more people putting into that pot, so it's less expensive overall for everyone, right?  These population figures really do matter to the future of Kimmerer, and how much of that population are they going to capture? Well, it's going to depend on how much housing do you have? Where can you put these people? Kemmerer needs a lot more people." The nuclear plant will be one of the nation's first advanced reactors and, at peak, TerraPower expects to bring as many as 1,600 workers to the site at once to build it.  Read the full story HERE. – Dustin White, a guide for the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in Casper, was named the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide of the Year. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the award is regarded in the industry as recognition of the best guide in the fly-fishing world. He said making people happy through his job is better than any award. "That might not sound like a big deal to an outsider, to a lay person, but basically, this is essentially the premier Fly Fishing Association has named this guy as the best fly fishing guide in the world. So out of all the fly fishing guides in the world, this guy was picked to be the best. So that's a pretty huge deal. But I kind of asked him, why he got into this, why he's been in it, why he wants to stay in it. And he really said, it's the people. He said that the fishing is cool, but it's more about being out there with the people and making sure that they have the best day of their lives while they're out there." Orvis is a global organization, and fly-fishing is popular around the world. So, it essentially means that White has been named the world's best fly-fishing guide, Ugly Bug Fly Shop owner Blake Jackson told Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story HERE. –– Two Lander teen girls vanishing on Homecoming night in 1968 touched off a massive and desperate search. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that the discovery of their bodies four months later shook the city, as did the shocking trial of another teen convicted of their murders. "There were stories about, you know, him talking about a perfect crime. That's what the senior class president told me. Apparently he just had some kind of thoughts about doing a crime. And there was testimony in the trial that was in old newspapers that that there was a girl that said that she was picked up by him and another guy taken to about the same spot, and apparently he tried to assault her, and they were able to escape that, but she overheard him talking about assaulting her and then throwing him in a ditch. So exactly the same thing that happened to the two girls." 17-year-old Craig Sims Sims was a high school athlete and son of a prominent businessman in town. According to later court records and news accounts, he took the girls for a ride in his car, stabbed them to death, and dumped their bodies in ditches north of the city. Sims died in Salt Lake City in his forties under mysterious circumstances. Read the full story HERE. – A yellow boat dumped in the middle of the desert north of Rock Springs has one person scratching their head as to why. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that they could've taken it to the landfill and dumped it for free. "The facts of the matter are that if you were to take a boat and dump it in that particular spot, it would have required a lot of effort. You would have had to have loaded that boat onto a trailer, secured it, taken it on the road, taking it out to that spot, then figured out how to get it off the trailer and down into the ravine, where eventually the Wyoming waste systems team went to collect it. If they went through all that effort to do that, they could have just as easily and free of charge, taken it to the local landfill in Rock Springs and gotten it disposed of that way." Michelle Foote, the waste site manager for the company's Rock Springs office, tells Cowboy State Daily that some of her employees spotted the abandoned boat while exploring the area on side-by-sides.  Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube c

    10 min

  5. APR 17

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Friday, April

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, April 17th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The body of Cody resident Shawn Ezekiel Hughes, who had been missing since Easter, was found on Thursday afternoon in a parked car at Yellowstone Regional Airport. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that his sister says the family is in shock. "Sean Hughes was found at the Yellowstone Regional Airport. Now this is where he was also last seen on Easter, and it's thought now that he actually did not duck off surveillance footage as they thought, and headed out of the parking lot, but instead got into an unlocked vehicle. So he's found, actually in a vehicle, on the parking lot. Police had earlier searched the parking lot, going up and down the rows, looking into vehicles, but did not see him at the time. At present, his cause of death is still under investigation, with an autopsy scheduled for Friday. However, there is no suggestion of foul play or self harm. His family in Charlotte, North Carolina, are just absolutely devastated by this news." The 36-year-old was last spotted on video surveillance at the airport on April 5th. Read the full story HERE. – Casper state Rep. Steve Harshman, the longest-serving Wyoming House member, is running for state superintendent of public instruction. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the lifelong teacher and coach says the bottom line is he loves Wyoming schools and spent his entire career in education. "Big change for Steve Harshman coming up on 24 years in the Wyoming House of Representatives. So he is running for superintendent of public instruction, the top public education official in Wyoming, and also a key figure on the fate of state lands and loans and other things like that. And this is a big move for him, because it means he can't run for house after nearly 24 years, he's either done or interrupted in that tenure one way or another, whether he wins or loses, he's also going up against his fellow representative, Tom Kelly, a pretty staunch conservative, and Chad Auer who was a policy advisor to Governor Mark Gordon before hitting the road to campaign." The 62-year-old Harshman was born in Wyoming, raised in the small Natrona County town of Midwest, and has taught and coached for decades in the state's public schools.  Read the full story HERE. – Speaking of politics, former House Speaker Albert Sommers is running to win back his Sublette County House District 20 seat. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Sommers says the Legislature needs "less political theater and theatrics." "He rose to the top post you can attain in the House House Speaker in 2023- 2024. Tradition holds now, it's not perfect. Not everyone does this, but tradition holds that you seek Senator higher office after that, and he did. He ran for his Senate seat and lost to Laura Pearson, a newbie, and so now, after the two year hiatus, he's running again for his old house seat against perennial candidate Bill Winnie, who is also a fixture as a person testifying at legislative hearings." The former House Speaker from Pinedale, made the announcement on Thursday, hours after the seat's incumbent Rep. Mike Schmid, of LeBarge, announced he won't run this year. Read the full story HERE. –  In other political news, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced he will not seek a third term in office. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Wyoming law limits the governor to two terms, but Wyoming Supreme Court precedent suggests that law could be overturned easily. "Some people were like, well, can't he not run for a third term anyway. Well, the truth is that even though he's capped at two terms, Wyoming Supreme Court case law holds precedent that would make it very easy for a governor with a simple petition to become eligible for a third term, he's not going to do that.  In a statement, Governor Gordon added that he wants to focus on building a strong future for Wyoming, including supporting core industries, growing the state's economy, strengthening local communities and families, and safeguarding vital natural resources. Read the full story HERE. – A suspicious package left near Gate 1 at F.E. Warren Air Force Base on Thursday prompted an evacuation of nearby homes and the Wyoming State Capitol. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that one man who had left his house, couldn't return for hours because of police presence. "There were emergency vehicles all over the place, lights, people just kind of hanging around to see what's going on. And I noticed a guy just kind of standing on the corner. He was wearing his shorts. He was wearing a sweatshirt and sneakers. He's one of the people who were evacuated from the area. The only problem is he didn't know at the time he was being evacuated. He went out for his morning walk, walked down the street, walked around the park, and when he came back, everything was there. It was blocked off. They wouldn't let him back to his house. He waited for several hours, but he took it in stride." By around 11:30AM, the evacuation alert had been canceled, but Gate 1 at F.E. Warren remains closed "until further notice while investigations are completed," according to a Laramie County statement. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Wheatland woman accused of trying to hire a friend to kill her husband — out of fear he would take their three children — pleaded not guilty Thursday in district court. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that authorities say Molly Hamby asked a friend to make her husband "disappear." "28-year-old Molly Hamby is facing life in prison. She was formally charged on Thursday with solicitation to commit murder in the first degree and solicitation of forgery. She pled not guilty by reason of mental illness. Hamby's public defender asked that the judge lower bond from $50,000 to $5,000 cash. The judge rejected that proposal. Bond is still set at $50,000 cash only. Her next appearance will be in 180 days for a trial." Hamby is charged with two felonies: solicitation of first-degree murder, punishable by up to life in prison, and solicitation to commit forgery, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Read the full story HERE – Residents in tiny Emblem, Wyoming, are alarmed and looking for answers after two dogs were shot in two days in drive-by incidents this past week. Cowboy State Daily Andrew Rossi reports that the owner of a pit bull that took a shotgun blast to the face says, "He's lucky to have a thick skull." "Emblem's a safe place. Everybody knows everybody, so they're not thinking that it's somebody within their community that did this, which leads them to believe that it was a possible drive-by shooting of these dogs. Her dogs were on her property when the incident happened. They like to run to the entrance just to see who's coming by, but they say where they are. They're not aggressive, and as far as she knows, somebody just shot them, shot her dog in the 10-minute window between when she last saw the dog and when her husband found the dog with a head covered in blood and a bullet hole between his eyes." Tessa Walbert and her family have been living in Emblem for 18 months without any issues with their neighbors, dog-related or otherwise. That's why she believes whoever shot these dogs doesn't live in Emblem. Read the full story HERE. ––    Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    10 min

  6. APR 16

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, April 16, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, April 16th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Wyoming Army National Guard says someone is targeting military aircraft with lasers at its Camp Guernsey training center. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that not only is it dangerous for pilots, it can get whoever's doing it prison time. "The Guard training facility out of camp Guernsey is reporting that someone, or someones, they don't know yet, has been targeting their military aircraft with lasers. The military says it can actually, you know, it can blind pilots. It can really be dangerous for people flying and while it might seem fun to, you know, just stand on the ground and point lasers it's a serious thing. It's a federal charge. What these lasers do is they can temporarily blind or they can disorient pilots." According to the Guard, two incidents have been reported in the Camp Guernsey area since January, and three since March 2025. Read the full story HERE. –  A Bar Nunn woman and longtime employee of Special Olympics Wyoming was arrested on suspicion of embezzling more than $200,000 from the organization. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that Casper police say it took months to unravel a scheme that involved "sophisticated methods." "57-year-old Christine Rodriguez is facing felony theft and forgery charges after investigators caught her stealing up to $206,000 this was a months' long investigation, according to allegations, she's been misallocating funds for several years. Investigators say that she used her role of handling financial records and donations to deposit unauthorized checks, forged approvals and withdrawals estimated around $206,000. Casper police say they are working with the IRS and that Special Olympics Wyoming is fully cooperating. Rodriguez has her initial appearance on Thursday at the Townsend Justice Center in Casper." Investigators say the case began in June 2025 after Special Olympics Wyoming reported financial irregularities following an internal review conducted after Rodriguez's employment ended earlier that year.  Read the full story HERE. – A Wyoming reporter was in a Wheatland courtroom again Wednesday to face 10 felony forgery charges. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that's on top of 10 other felonies she's been charged with for allegedly submitting forged documents and lying under oath while opposing a wind farm. "April Marie Morganroth, also known as Marie Hamilton, was in court for a very short time today in Wheatland circuit court, and that was to hear to face initial charges, 10 felonies, five of them forge recharges, five of them possession of forged documents, charges, and that's all related to an attempt, according to court documents, that she and her husband made, to acquire a property, a home, and property that using documents that did not come from the alleged agencies, she said they came from. Three documents were from the USDA, and two documents were from supposed contractors who had performed work on the house they were trying to buy." Judge Jacqueline Brown didn't schedule a preliminary hearing on the charges against Morganroth, but did say she would be back in court within 20 days. Read the full story HERE – An Oregon man accused of violating Yellowstone National Park's fishing restrictions and a road closure is challenging the park's rules as unconstitutional overreach. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that if Tate Pulliam wins, it could upend the park's ability to enforce many of its rules. "Tate Pulliam is arguing through his council, Pacific Legal Foundation, these rules aren't properly tethered. The Constitution says here's a specific way that you're going to appoint officers that have authority, and it says lawmaking power is vested in Congress. And now there's been a body of case law since then, basically saying agencies can, under certain circumstances, make rules to carry out the laws that Congress has made. So here we are seeing it again in the case of a man accused of fishing and driving improperly in Yellowstone National Park in December." Tate Pulliam filed a motion to dismiss his citations on Monday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming, asking the park's Magistrate Judge Stephanie Hambrick to dismiss three citations he faces as government overreach. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Yellowstone wolf showed its more playful side Monday, somehow removing and carrying off a sign put up warning tourists about hungry grizzly bears. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that the researcher who captured video of the wolf says clearly the pup had better things to do with it. "Taylor Rabe, who's a biologist who's been studying wolves in yellow a biologist who's been studying wolves in Yellowstone for 13 winters, saw a young Wolf with the Junction Butte pack run across the road with a large stick in its mouth, and that stick turned out to be a sign warning people, warning tortoise to avoid this particular area because there were Grizzlies feeding on carcasses there. So this wolf stole a sign that was intended to protect people from Grizzlies, and it seemed just to treat it like a big stick like any dog would see a stick that size and get super excited about it."  Ultimately, the wolf dropped his toy and wandered off with the rest of the pack. Read the full story HERE. – First-generation Ford Broncos are all the rage with collectors, easily fetching $50,000 or more. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that a 1971 Ford Bronco Sport sold at a Nebraska auction Tuesday for $56,000, which a Wyoming vintage Bronco fanatic says was a bargain. "I also talked to Aaron Turpin, who's an automotive writer, and he says it's just, right now it's us, as in Gen Xers. He said those are the types of vehicles that Gen X is going for. We Gen Xers are going for these old Ford Broncos, or the old Chevy Blazers, the old square body pickup from the 60s and 70s. Because that's what, you know, we got attached to as kids."  Bronco fanatic Ed Schreiner of Torrington tells Cowboy State Daily that prices for vintage Broncos have gotten "softer" over the past few years, but they're still highly sought-after.  Read the full story HERE. –– A Gillette woman charged with plotting to have her husband kill her brother is back in jail in Washington state after an off-duty police officer saw her drinking at a Gillette bar. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that her husband got 39 years in prison last month for stabbing the other man. "65-year-old Phyllis Krogman was at a horse palace in Gillette, when an off duty officer spotted her drinking in the back of a casino. Krogman was violating terms of her probation. She was not supposed to be drinking after being charged last summer with conspiracy to commit attempted murder in the first degree. Now, this is connected to a stabbing that happened in July of 2025 in Washington, when her husband stabbed her brother in the head multiple times. Krogman now faces up to life in prison. She's expected to make an appearance next week in a Washington courtroom for a pre trial." 65-year-old Phyllis Krogman is charged with conspiracy to commit attempted first-degree murder in connection with the July 2025 stabbing of her brother — by her husband — in Washington state. The charge carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison. Her husband, Thomas Krogman, was sentenced March 16 to 39 years in prison for attempting to kill his brother-in-law. Read the full story HERE. – A Cheyenne-area man says he's "not messing around anymore," declaring war on the raccoons that keep killing his chickens. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that Kevin Gunter says spent $1,300 building an impenetrable "chicken fortress" to protect his flock. "He built what he called a chicken fortress, or he actually calls it the henitentiary. It's like a fortress for chickens. He even went so far as to around the perimeters, about a foot deep. He buried really heavy duty, like wire cloth. He said, think of something like you put on your screen door, but like, way, way heavier duty. So he's got that all the way down, you know, 12 inches down and about a foot out. So even if they try to dig, they can't get to it. So he's hoping this will keep the chicken fortress, or the henitentiary will keep his chickens alive." Gunter, a Navy veteran, moved to Cheyenne about a decade ago. He started raising backyard chickens when he still lived in the city limits. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    9 min

  7. APR 15

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, April 15, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, April 15th.  I'm Mac Watson. –  A developer is asking Laramie County to build an 800-unit man camp to house up to 5,600 construction workers to build data centers. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that neighbors say they don't want the crime that comes with it, while the county says the workers are coming regardless. "This is a huge project. I spoke to the county planning director. He said, 'Look, it's better to have them on site where they're not having this big commute, putting 1000s of cars on our streets and stressing our local rental market. He used the example of, 'Hey, I'm looking after the guy who's working at the checkout aisle at Safeway in South Cheyenne. What's going to happen to his rent when these six figure specialists, construction guys who are pipe fitters and electricians and others who are making a really good wage, what happens when they flood into the local rental market? What does that do to our everyday wage earner.'" Justin Arnold, director of Laramie County Planning and Development, tells Cowboy State Daily that the camp is a response to several approved mega projects now converging on Cheyenne, including Meta, the proposed Project Jade data center and Cowboy Solar. Read the full story HERE. – Five candidates to Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat are condemning President Donald Trump's decision to post online a Jesus-like image of himself in Roman-style robes and other religious imagery. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one lawmaker says there's no debate about the image. "This brought outrage from some on the Christian right, including Kevin Christensen, one of the 10 Republican candidates for Wyoming's US House seat, he came out bold Monday night like, This is blasphemy. What's wrong is wrong. What's right is right. Two more Republican candidates, John Romero- Martinez and Matt McGinnis both said that they agreed that the image was inappropriate." Trump's post came after he clashed publicly with Pope Leo XIV over the war in Iran.  Read the full story HERE. – Microsoft is announcing that it will buy 3,200 more acres in Cheyenne to build data centers, tripling its footprint in Wyoming's capital city while promising to limit impacts on power rates, water and housing. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the Tuesday announcement comes amid vocal debates about data center impacts to energy costs and water usage for the Cowboy State. "There are, there's a contingent of Wyomingites who are very opposed to this. I talked with Senator Cale Case and he's wondering, are we being too easy on these data centers? They're getting pushed out of other places. Maybe we want to tamp that down a little until we get this figured out, because there are some big things to figure out. The thing is, you're using a resource. The more of that resource that gets used, the higher the price goes. If all of these data centers come in, bring their own power, great, but they're going to be using up a resource. That resource is going to get more expensive." The Microsoft land purchase involves two pieces of land, one 200-acre parcel located in Bison Business Park on Wapiti Trail east of South Greeley Highway, and an adjacent 3,000-acre parcel accessible from Wapiti Trail.   Read the full story HERE. –– Wyoming American Legion Baseball started its 2026 season by combining the Double A and Single A levels together. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that some former coaches don't like the move saying it stacks the deck for bigger towns. "A lot of former baseball coaches see it as a bad thing for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that they feel that the smaller communities just can't compete on the same level anymore, both literally and figuratively, because when they've got a small community, it can be hard to put together a solid baseball team when you're competing against communities that are much larger, where they might have a much large, larger roster." When the 2026 American Legion Baseball season started earlier this month, the Double A and Single A levels were combined into a single Senior Legion level, which means all 23 teams will compete in two conferences, regardless of the size and skill of their teams. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A mild winter has produced a bumper crop of Wyoming turkeys, and the territorial rituals have already started. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that seasoned turkey hunters are saying this will lead to a huge season. "I talked to a couple guys, one guy who's here in Wyoming, and one guy who's good buddies with him from Montana that frequently comes down to Wyoming and hunts. We've had this weird, wacky weather, essentially, no winter. Basically, they said it's, all it's really done is, is kicked, put the turkeys into their mating behavior a little bit early, about a month early, the season opens on the 20th but they see the turkeys already. They said that probably shouldn't affect the hunting. The hunting should still be okay, and because of the mild winter, we'll probably have a bumper crop of young turkeys."  Wyoming has both spring and fall turkey hunting seasons. The spring season opens April 20. Read the full story HERE. – The $140.9 billion Sentinel missile program is racing to catch up after cost overruns triggered a Congressional review and delays. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that officials say the stakes are high for national defense, and Wyoming and F.E. Warren Air Force Base sit at the heart of the push. "This is the largest public works project since the highway system was built, $140.9 billion replacement of the Minutemen three missile system that is part of our nuclear deterrent approach. America wants to replace those because while we were flirting with the idea of, you know, reducing nuclear arms, the rest of the world didn't play along with that. China added technology and capability to its missiles. Russia did the same thing. And so, you know, we're realizing that we've got to modernize our missiles. Wyoming, again, is right in the middle of it. We are ground zero for this upgrade." Northrop Grumman's Sentinel spokesperson Matt Dillow tells Cowboy State Daily that the acceleration push is coming from the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command. Dillow added that both entities are saying they need the operational capability of Sentinel as soon as they can possibly get it. Read the full story HERE – At least three rematches in the Wyoming House of Representatives have surfaced so far this campaign season, and one more looks likely. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that they all feature Republicans facing other Republicans and challengers aren't particularly complimentary of their foes. "We'll have some of these kind of close races where that either that some of them were ousted House members, some of them are just, just fell short of becoming House members, and they're saying, Yeah, I'm doing it again. Like Exie Brown lost to Landon Brown by 17 votes, and he's been churning in that community since then. So he's decided, 'Yeah, let's give it another go.' Same thing with Edith Allen lost to now representative Kevin Christensen by like six votes in the primary election. And so you got these kinds of tantalizing losses that are rehashing themselves as rematches in the primary right now." Unlike other states, In deep-red Wyoming, the notable rematches feature Republicans and other Republicans. Read the full story HERE. – After a Laramie man totaled his car colliding with a moose in the dark early morning hours Monday, he and his fiancée hoped that they could at least claim the meat. But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that then somebody else came along and stole their roadkill. "By the time they got back up there, somebody else had already messed with the moose carcass. Apparently, he said they looked like they put a winch cable around a snake and winched it like down a Forest Service road and ruined a bunch of meat by dragging along its side, took about a quarter of the meat that was still good, and then just left." Tim Wyland tells Cowboy State Daily that he woke his fiance, Lindsey Williams at 6AM to tell her that they lost their car, and then they lost the moose. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

    9 min

  8. APR 14

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, April 14, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, April 14th.  I'm Mac Watson. – A Cheyenne-based attorney is asking Wyoming authorities to investigate Secretary of State Chuck Gray for alleged election-related crimes. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that George Powers says Gray violated state election law by giving sensitive voter data to the U.S. Department of Justice. "George Powers is a Cheyenne-based attorney who in 2024 won a transparency action. He had earlier sued the administration of Superintendent Public Instruction, Brian Schroeder, saying that the Department of Education had public records breaches, and he won that action in 2024 so now what he's doing is he's filed an official complaint with the Attorney General's Office, saying, 'Please find a way to get a special prosecutor in here, because according to powers, there's proof of election law violations.'" In a statement sent to Cowboy State Daily, Secretary Gray asserted that, "The radical Left and the media will stop at nothing to undermine our work to ensure election integrity and security, and this is nothing more than Trump Derangement Syndrome, clothed in an attempt to use lawfare and the leftwing media to attack my actions on election integrity."  Read the full story HERE. – A Cheyenne 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head after she called him derogatory names, pleaded not guilty Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the judge also denied an attempt to slash his bond from $500,000 to $50,000. "The teen, Havoc Leone, was in court on Monday for his arraignment in District Court, which is basically a plea hearing. He did answer the judge in a clear voice when the judge asked him if he understood what he was pleading to, and understood the charges against him. He said yes. And asked if he wanted to plead not guilty. He said yes, and then she asked him, he needed to say the words, and he said not guilty. So then the judge also set a jury trial for August." Leone was led into the courtroom by a pair of Laramie County Sheriff's Office deputies wearing the tan jumpsuit of a juvenile offender. Leone's Monday arraignment was quick, happening in front of a handful of spectators in Courtroom A on the third floor of the Laramie County Governmental Complex. Read the full story HERE. – Families and entrepreneurs in Wyoming are fighting back against high grocery store prices by starting discount stores and co-ops. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Down Home Discount in Powell and Cody, tries to sell goods at 20% below Walmart & 50% below when possible. "He kind of figured out this business model, because one he himself needed to save money on groceries if he was going to give up his lucrative plumbing position, he needed a better option. He buys these things in huge pallets at a discount because they're close to those used by dates, and then he repackages them for sale at his discount grocery." In 2022, Wyoming Economics Analysis Division principal economist Amy Bittner told Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming food prices had jumped more than 15% year-over-year for the second quarter's cost-of-living index.  That was, at the time, the highest inflation rate in almost 40 years. Read the full story HERE –– The skull of a baby dinosaur found near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, is only the second of its kind ever found. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that the tiny fossil has been unveiled in a Swiss museum with its growing collection of Wyoming dinosaur discoveries. "It belongs to a juvenile Camarasaurus. It's the most common of the big, long neck dinosaurs that lived during the Late Jurassic period, and it's only the second of its kind ever found. Finding anything from a young animal, let alone an articulated skull, where all the bones, or most of them, are connected as they would have been while the animal was alive. That's a pretty big deal." Camarasaurus is one of the most common dinosaurs in the Morrison Formation, known from thousands of partial fossils and several nearly complete skeletons.  Many of the best Camarasaurus specimens ever found were excavated in Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.   Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – A Teton County commissioner is concerned water from the Upper Hoback River Basin could be a potential target for diversion to make up for a severe Colorado River shortfall. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the commission also approved a letter Monday asking the feds for more clear rules. "In a side conversation around this letter, Commissioner Probst said, 'We also should be worried about the chance of Hoback river water being diverted to the Green River.' And that was the most provocative thing that came up during the discussion, this idea that the Colorado River Basin is in such bad shape that we need to actually divert water from one watershed, the Hoback into another, the Green. So I went and looked back at some old research and found that there had been this 1971 analysis that showed that, yeah, you could probably do this."  In a November 1971 report, the Wyoming State Engineer's Office laid out five potential reservoir and pumping scenarios for moving Snake River water into the Green River Basin. Teton County Commissioner Luther Propst linked any future Hoback-to-Green response to a Flaming Gorge Reservoir drawdown he said is coming this summer, when roughly a third of Flaming Gorge could be drained to shore up dangerously low water levels at Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona line. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers plan to reevaluate whether the Wyoming Business Council has a future, study the effect of artificial intelligence on education, and the prospect of taxing wind energy facilities. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that this is a list of interim topics released by the Wyoming Legislature on Friday. "After the big lawmaking session, they pass all these laws, they take a little breather, and then the committee chairs usually bring what they want to study for the next several months to the Management Council, which is the top ranking lawmakers, and together, they finalize this agenda. And so even though it's not set in stone like these are the laws we're going to pass next year. This gives a framework for what they want to study, who they want to hear from, maybe even dictates a little where they hold their meetings." The legislative interim comprises the months between winter lawmaking sessions, and is reserved for research, listening to stakeholders and holding public meetings. Read the full story HERE. – Cheyenne lost its unofficial art ambassador Friday with the death of Dot, a 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that owner Harvey Deselms said she was a "big source of comfort for a lot of people." "It's tough when you lose a pet that's been with you for 16 years. Was part of the Cheyenne art scene. For many years, people would come and give french fries to dot, you know, on their lunch breaks because they had a few left over. So it wasn't like that was just a particular pet. It was a lot of people's pet in in Cheyenne and had her own little following in the community." Deselms said that while growing up on a ranch, his family had a lot of working dogs that lived outside. But Dot was his first inside dog, and the first he ever bought.  Read the full story HERE. – A Wyoming motorcyclist is lucky he had an iPhone with emergency satellite service to text his wife for help after pinning himself under his own bike Sunday in rugged Lincoln County backcountry. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Feedore reports that it's an area where cellphone service can be spotty. "A 60 year old Evanston man found himself in a real jam when Sunday afternoon, his bike flipped onto his leg. He was pinned, and he couldn't get the bike up off of him. Luckily, he was able to get an Emergency SOS message out to his wife so that she could get a hold of some local authorities, several agencies actually responded, and it was the Kemmer search and rescue that was able to get to him first." Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Cory Stoof tells Cowboy State Daily that the unidentified man wasn't severely injured after being pinned under his motorcycle. Just some bumps and bruises.  Read the full story HERE. –  And finally, on this day back in 1912, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck tells us about the two people on board who were headed to Wyoming and not only survived, one made it to Casper. "One of them was an investor in a western exploration company, and his name was Hugh Waldner. He was 45, he was a former stock broker, and he was coming to Casper to check on his investments. And there was another man from Finland. His name was Johan Julian Sunman, 45 also, and he was headed to Cheyenne to visit a friend. He ended up getting on deck late because he was a third class passenger, and somehow there was a boat there, and there were no more women to get in the boat. And so as it was being lowered, and people said, 'Just jump!' And so he dived head first into the boat where there was another, some other crew members from the Titanic were in there. So he survived, and Waldner actually got in a boat too, one of the last boats, they told him to jump. He jumped into a boat, a guy grabbed him and hauled him in." When the passenger liner Carpathia arrived hours later and rescued Titanic survivors, Sundman recalled his boat was the third one rescued. Woolner, once in New York, was asked to testify before the U.S. Senate committee investigating the disaster. Read the full story HERE. – And that's today's news. Get yo

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

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