Cowboy State Daily's The Roundup

Cowboy State Daily

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

  1. HACE 19 H

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, February 25, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 25th.  I'm Mac Watson. – A Thermopolis couple who rent a vacation home in Puerto Vallarta is doing fine after violence rocked the city after the killing of a cartel leader. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that Matthew and Lindy Be Hughes even helped college kids who were stranded.  "They ended up doing a really cool thing is, kind of through the social network there, they found out that somebody, a Canadian citizen, had what she initially thought were, were two, she said, two teenage daughters stuck in an Airbnb there that was nearby. So they risked it. They went ahead and kind of drove to that location with some food. She said, 'We just turned off the headlights and drove to get there, and they got there, and there weren't two college kids – there were seven, all holed up in this Airbnb with, like, almost no food.'"  Despite the violence, the couple says they have no plans to come back to Wyoming anytime soon. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House of Representatives on Monday handed the Senate a two-year budget draft totaling $9.96 billion, while the Senate sent the House a $10.13 billion draft budget of its own. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that even though that's a difference of $170 million, the governor remains upbeat.  "So, Governor Gordon had a roundtable style press conference on Tuesday with reporters.  He was actually cautiously optimistic. Because even though it was fraught and there were these bare-knuckle debates over the function of government and political philosophy, the House did come again within a narrow range of the Senate and the governor's draft budgets, each side adopted 37 amendments, the same exact amount, despite more than 200 being proposed on the House side. And so he was cautiously optimistic, saying, 'Yeah, it got wild and wooly, but we can see the light.'" Now the attention in the Capitol shifts to the two men tasked with appointing 10 negotiators to haggle over the differences: House Speaker Chip Neiman, of Hulett, and Senate President Bo Biteman, of Ranchester.  Read the full story HERE. – After a Senate bill to reform the Wyoming Business Council stalled on Tuesday, the agency continues to remain alive in both chambers. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports despite the bill's struggle, the business council itself remains alive in both chambers' draft budgets. "There's concern among some lawmakers that this is a venture capital firm that the state funds and then picks winners and losers out there in the Wyoming economy. And there was more debate on that today about the constitutionality of the Business Council itself. There was an amendment offered by Senator Steinmetz that actually got a lot of support. Her amendment failed by one vote, and it was an amendment to a bill Senate file 125, which is dead. but the debate over the Wyoming Business Council continues." On Feb. 9, only 10 senators voted to dismantle the Business Council outright, losing 21-10. Two weeks later on Tuesday morning, 15 senators voted for Steinmetz's amendment to Senate File 125 — falling just one vote short of passing. Read the full story HERE. – With less than a month left in the winter season, Wyoming is getting some much-needed snow in the mountains. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that meteorologists believe there are encouraging signs for continued snowfall.  "This has been an unorthodoxly warm, dry winter by all accounts, in Wyoming. But as Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day says repeatedly: December, January and February are the driest months of Wyoming's year, which means that March, April, May, and June are the wettest months of the year. That's when we get most of our precipitation, including snow. But there's no denying, even Don says that the next six to eight weeks are critical, because that's when Wyoming's supposed to get most of its moisture. You can recover from a bad December, January and February, and hopefully we will. You can't recover from a bad March, April, May and June." Many meteorologists across the western states will mark this winter season as one of "the worst" in recorded history. More snow has fallen in eastern cities like New York and Boston in a single week than Salt Lake City and Denver have gotten all season. 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 Fremont County man accused of helping ambush a man on the Wind River Reservation has been charged with first-degree murder and bound over for trial on Friday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that according to affidavits, DNA evidence puts Jose A. Gonzalez in the victim's truck. "They found DNA, his DNA, on the steering wheel of the guy's truck. He even told agents that he was riding in the truck with the guy. And then also, there are allegations that the victim was robbed. They found his pants with the pockets out-turned, and this guy's DNA was also found on the pants. That's some concrete evidence putting him in the guy's truck, whether he actually killed him or not. That's the $64,000 question." If convicted of first-degree murder, Gonzalez faces life in prison. Read the full story HERE. – Things got heated at the Cheyenne city council meeting Monday over whether the city would annex a popular farm business. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that when the owner didn't accept being called out of order, the mayor reprimanded him. "So the councilman brought up a question about leashed barn cats that the owners of white fresh farms had brought to the council. And David Kniseley, who's one of the owners, took issue with that, saying that this council member seems to be suggesting that their questions were ridiculous, and he did, Kniseley, demanded an apology from this council member. Mayor Patrick Collins, called this demand for an apology out of order and unreasonable, and asked Kniseley to be done. Kniseley said he will not accept being called out of order, and that's when Mayor Collins said, basically, 'I don't care. You don't have to accept it, but please sit down.'" The council ultimately voted to pass this ordinance on the second reading. They will take up a third reading in two weeks, on March 9. Read the full story HERE. – It's commonly argued that wolves are worth millions to the economies of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, because they're such tourist magnets. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Others, like outdoorsman Trinity Vandenacre, say wolves ultimately drain more from the states' economies than they bring in. "Wolf advocates will frequently cite that wolves bring in millions and millions of dollars through tourism. I talked to a guy. He's up in Montana. He kind of questions that. He says, do they really measure it against the loss they might cause, like the cattle industry or big game hunting, which is also in in, you know, not just in Montana, but Wyoming and Idaho, all the western states make a lot of money off of not only resident hunters, but people who will come from out of state and pay some pretty big bucks for elk hunting tax." Trinity tells Cowboy State Daily that the biggest hidden costs of wolves are the legal fees that states rack up, fighting lawsuits filed by animal welfare groups, and others wanting to maintain or expand Endangered Species Act protection for wolves and grizzly bears. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming's new tourism chief Dominic Bravo on Monday said the very idea that tourism is a "soft industry" doesn't work for him. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Bravo wants to innovate, not do the same old things to attract people to the Cowboy State. "One of the things he says you always fight with is it's a fight for relevancy. though we have technologies changing at light speed. It's the AI elephant in the room. People are using this to plan their vacations, to plan their road trip itineraries. So I think we're going to see him take some risks and do some things that maybe we haven't seen before." Bravo says he's acutely aware that the Wyoming Office of Tourism is already performing at gold medal standards, thanks to his predecessor, Diane Shober, whom he described as a "legacy director." 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.

    5 min

  2. HACE 1 DÍA

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, February 24, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 24rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – Wyoming troopers and their families say low pay, lost overtime, and short staffing are driving burnout and resignations. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the Wyoming Highway Patrol Association's first-ever social media blitz — run by a 25-year veteran who doesn't use Facebook — has gone viral. "There's one titled, 'Why I want my husband to quit the Highway Patrol,' because they've gotten down to the point where they can't pay overtime, and so patrolmen are called out in the middle of the night. They don't earn overtime, and so they are paid in Flex Time, which gives them more time off, which only aggravates the staffing shortages. And so there's a lot of issues facing the Highway Patrol."  Currently, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has experienced a 56% attrition rate among sworn officers over the past five years, with 178 troopers voluntarily resigning. Read the full story HERE. – The University of Wyoming on Monday said it disagrees with a House budget tweak that lawmakers framed as a negotiation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that UW is adamant: No cuts are appropriate, period. "On Saturday, what happened was the House said, 'Okay, we'll only cut you 20 million, but then there's another 20 million that we will also cut if you don't find $5 million in savings.' And there was all sorts of debate on the House floor, like this is the result of negotiations. 'We had a really good meeting. Haven't you heard of 'Art of the Deal?' The University came out loud and clear Monday and said, 'We are not okay with any cuts, including this one.' So what happens next is the Senate, which has funded the university fully proposed to fund the university fully, will enter negotiations with the house which has proposed the cut." The Wyoming legislative Joint Appropriations Committee's majority in January advanced a proposed $40 million cut, or about 10%, to the state's portion of UW's two-year operating budget.  Read the full story HERE. – Breaking up a fight between two women at a Laramie bar led police to discover the 2-year-old child of one had been left home alone for hours. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that court documents say police found the child in a dark, 90-degree room wearing a soiled diaper. "So, in the bar fight revealed a potentially much worse situation that could be going on. They go to the place, and what they found was pretty disturbing. A two year old in the home by itself, shut in a room, and it was like 90 degrees in the room, there's a space heater turned up the max in there, which could be potentially dangerous as a fire hazard. She was charged with child endangerment, and she also got two charges of interference with the police officer, one for not being cooperative at the bar and another, when they arrested her and took her to jail, she backhanded one of the deputies at intake, apparently pretty hard. And so that actually was a felony." According to court documents, 25-year-old Kayla Marie Clark is still in jail in Laramie County on an $80,000 bond. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House passed a bill Monday to kill Jackson and Teton County affordable housing policies. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports it's the bill pushed by conservative activist Rebecca Bextel, who's at the center of legislative probes for handing out checks on the House floor. "That is House Bill 141, and what it does is it curbs housing mitigation, affordable housing mitigation policies like those that are just everywhere in Jackson and Teton County, and it, you know, it's been controversial in the past because Rebecca back still championed it. And you know, was witness handing out checks on the House floor, which garnered concerns about optics. But on Monday, when they advanced the bill to the Senate side, the house didn't really discuss that at all, but really focused on the merits of the bill's economic policy and how this fits together in an ultra wealthy region. It pretty easily, it cleared the House, and then it now heads to the Senate for consideration." At the time there was no rule against handing out campaign donations in the Capitol. The House, Senate and governor have since adopted rules banning the practice. The House has since launched an internal investigation for possible bribery or misconduct. 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… – Sec. Chuck Gray told a Senate committee that a 15-month pursuit of a county clerk proved the system was broken. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Sen. Cale Case said the bill was feeding a political dispute between the state's top officials and called the animosity "very disappointing." "It was House Bill 86. It went down in committee today…It would grant the Secretary of State's office more authority in filing complaints and moving against clerks at the county level who do things like the Weston county clerk is accused of doing. Opponents of the bill said, 'Hey, we don't need to give the Secretary of State more control to meddle with a locally elected official.' And from the point of view of the chairman of the committee today, it was really more about animus and the political rivalry that has developed between Governor Gordon and Secretary Gray that thought that, look, current state law fixed the problem."  The bill ultimately failed by one vote 2-3. Read the full story HERE. – Born with cancer, toddler Dorothy Pontillo suffered months of pain before an MRI found a massive tumor. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that her parents' persistence to get answers helped Dorothy survive.  "One of the lessons that you learned walking away from this story is that even the Denver specialists need a little nudge. And this is what happened in the case of Dorothy. She was born with cancer, but no one knew what was going on until her mother kept asking questions and asking for answers. When they finally got the answer, the tumor itself had grown into a grapefruit size mass, and this mass was cancerous. Fortunately for Dorothy, surgery, chemo, it has taken out the cancer. She's cancer free and enjoying the life of a toddler." Dorothy took her first steps in the midst of chemotherapy just after she turned a year old. Her dad, Riley Pontillo, would get the little push walker from the hospital toy room and encourage her every day to walk.  Read the full story HERE. – Uinta County rancher Jack Sims says there are new signs of life in Evanston thanks to the horse racing industry. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Sims says "There's over 300 brood mares in the Wyoming breeding program around Evanston." "So these are high dollar horses that we're talking about here.This is growing in that community so much. This is going to continue to grow in Evanston that is having ripple effects in other areas. New restaurants are opening, the feed store that are all busier than usual. People who sell hay, they have more customers now. It's kind of injecting some new life in the agricultural sector there in Evanston Wyoming." Wyoming Horse Racing owner Eugene Joyce tells Cowboy State Daily that economic studies project that the horseracing industry could top over $300 million dollars for 2026. Read the full story HERE. – An Idaho man allegedly shot a deer on an elementary school lawn after dark, left for about two hours, and then came back and loaded the deer's carcass into his pickup. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports a wildlife officer described it as "a first for me." "They knew who the suspect was almost immediately, but it took a long time to put the case together. They actually had to do like the CSI DNA testing the guy ended up taking, going to a residence in Washington State and staying there and taking the carcass with him. So they went and they got DNA, blood samples of deer blood there in Washington State, gathered some at the scene where the deer had been killed to cross check the two and that's how they proved it was the same deer." Lars Nelson of Peck, Idaho, was sentenced on Feb. 18 on charges stemming from killing a white-tailed deer buck on the front lawn of the Orofino Elementary School in Orofino, a small town in northwest Idaho. According to Idaho Game and Fish, Nelson was sentenced to a $1,000 fine ($500 suspended). 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

  3. HACE 2 DÍAS

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, February 23, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 23rd.  I'm Mac Watson. – The 2026 Budget Session has been interesting, to say the least. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports on what has happened and what can be expected from lawmakers this week in Cheyenne. "We are coming up on Tuesday, crossover day, the day when bills that started in, let's say the House or the Senate should be crossing over. Should have crossed over into the other Chamber. For the other Chamber to that change, approve, reject them, and the budget negotiations are to start next week. Now recall last week the Senate decided we want the governor's recommendation for a starting point, so we're going to just wholesale revert back to the governor's recommendation and work our tweaks in from there. The House said, we do not want the governor's recommendation for the starting point. We want the much slimmer, much altered package out of the joint appropriations committee to be the starting point. And so all eyes are now on House Speaker Chip Neiman and Senate president Bo Biteman to see who they will appoint, what force of negotiator or ideologue, or statesman are they going to send into this fray to have so much power over Wyoming spending policy for the next two years." The 2026 Wyoming Budget Session is scheduled to wrap up and adjourn on Wednesday, March 11th. – Cloud 9 was Cheyenne's off-duty political clubhouse where former Gov. Ed Herschler, the only Wyoming governor to serve three terms, drank, smoked and mingled with everyone from hunters to Supreme Court justices. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that its boozy camaraderie and unbuttoned attitude evoke a looser golden age of Wyoming politics. "What politicians love the most about this place is it was the place where they didn't have to be politicians. They could undo their top buttons, they could be themselves, tell stories cut loose a little bit, and sometimes they cut a little bit too loose. And an infamous story is when Gov Ed had so much he passed out right on the table. Capitol Police had to come and escort him out." The Cloud 9 bar was in the old Cheyenne Regional airport, which was close to the capital. This bar was just perched right over the tarmac, known locally as the 'Jetsons Memorial Airport' because of its unique parabolic architecture.  Read the full story HERE. – As 41 states open their doors to NIL deals for high school athletes, Wyoming lawmakers backed by Sen. Gary Crum, a former UW lineman, are moving against it. But Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that money is already available for teen sports stars — right next door in Colorado. "Gary Crum, a former University of Wyoming football star. he doesn't want that in high school sports. There's one pointed question I put to Gary Crum, and I said, 'Well, it could this set up a situation where a star athlete living in Cheyenne or Laramie suddenly moves across the border to Colorado, because they're able to cash in,' and he basically said, 'so be it. You know that I'm not saying you can't go pro as a high schooler, I'm just saying Wyoming should protect its amateurism at the high school level.'" Senator Crum introduced Senate File 53, titled "Keeping Amateurism in High School Athletics." The bill would write amateurism requirements into state statute for any student competing in a sport or activity sanctioned by the WHSAA. Read the full story HERE. – Cowboy State Daily is the only news organization that continues to follow the D.B. Cooper case. In the fourth installment of our series, Jen Kocher reports that a parachute found on D.B. Cooper suspect Richard McCoy's family property was seized and tested by the FBI, then quietly returned in December, 2025, without explanation. Kocher says that closed lips from the FBI is fueling new theories about the notorious skyjacking 53 years ago. "The parachute was found by a pilot and YouTuber named Dan Greider, who has been investigating this case for more than 20 years. He found the parachute on the family property belonging to Richard McCoy's mother in Cove City, North Carolina. So the FBI analyzed it for two years, and they told Richard they did soil test, DNA, as well as sending it out to an expert. They sent the parachute back in December 2025 and they told Richard McCoy, his son, that they're not ruling it out and they're not ruling it in. They couldn't conclusively tie it to the case, but they weren't ruling it out." Cooper's actual identity was never discovered, but initial reporting dubbed him "D.B. Cooper," erroneously based on a suspect who was quickly cleared."  When Cowboy State Daily reached out and asked the FBI Seattle office for a comment, they referred to their 2016 statement, where they essentially closed the case pending any new evidence, adding they said they had nothing more to add.  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 Casper man traded his very successful tech career in Austin for a far different mission — helping women who were rescued from the sex trade in Uganda. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Lucas Rowley and his wife are teaching these women to be self-sufficient by tying high-end fishing flies and selling them in the United States. "They've taught these abuses, women that were sexually abused,given them jobs, taught them how to tie flies, and now, through a website, they're marketing them to America from Uganda. So they're making them in Uganda, and they're marketing them to the Rocky Mountain region in the States. The ministry is also working with these women, you know, to teach them how to tie flies, but also to have financial understanding and to be able to, you know, live their own lives and develop skills that will help them in the future."  Rowley tells Cowboy State Daily that he is trying to figure out ways to "empower the Ugandans" in things such as managing suppliers, doing customs paperwork, shipping, and the financial side of the operation, so they'll be able to be more self-sustaining. The flies are sold online at rescueriver.com. Read the full story HERE. – The same milk sold in both Wyoming and Montana are sometimes tagged with different "sell by" and "best buy" dates, with Wyoming's being a week longer. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the Wyoming Department of Agriculture says it's all about the bureaucracy of milk. "There are a lot of people who are saying that it was a protectionist move. It made it more difficult for other states to sell their milk. In Montana, because you had a you know, you gotta sell it within 12 Days of pasteurization. That's pretty difficult to do if you're not in Montana. The dairy industry says, you know, they want to make sure that when customers get their milk, it's the freshest tasting. It does ensure that you are getting a very fresh glass of milk with no chance of spoilage." Department of Agriculture spokesman Derek Grant tells Cowboy State Daily that Montana's law requires all Grade A pasteurized milk to be sold within 12 days of its pasteurization. Whereas, Wyoming uses the typical 14- to 21-day industry standard.  Read the full story HERE. – It took over a year for celebrated Wyoming bronze artist Chris Navarro to create the 15-foot sculpture of Steamboat located on the University of Wyoming campus. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that Narvarro says the iconic statue is more than just a symbol of UW. It's a symbol of Wyoming. "You really have to admire the artistry that went into this particular statue, because steamboat has existed as a silhouette…But it's only existed as a silhouette in two dimensions for so long, Chris Navarro had to take that silhouette and embody it in a larger than life, 3-D bronze sculpture as a it's a permanent placement of Steamboat where it's most iconic and where it's most appreciated. But to think that now that this silhouette that everybody recognized has been actualized in three dimensions in a spot where it can be most appreciated." "A Deep Seat and a Long Rein" is a 15-and-a-half-foot-tall monument that stands in the new roundabout at Ivinson Avenue and 15th Street on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.  Read the full story HERE. – Rick Edney is training mules to pull several wagons to recreate the freight train that hauled goods into Thermopolis in the late 1800s. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that Rick says it's time consuming but is exciting to reenact the feats of Henry "16-Mule Team" Johnson for 'Trailblazer Days.' "So this reenactment is to recreate 16-Mule Johnson. Henry Johnson was an immigrant who had 16 mules that he attached to his wagon train and would bring it through Thermopolis. The story goes that he wanted to be able to turn those 16 mules around easily, and so he talked to the store owner and town founder, Martin McGrath, who agreed that the streets needed to be wide enough to accommodate those 16 mules." To keep his team in order, Edney will use an old-fashioned jerk line and has been spending the last few months retraining his mules for this feat. 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.

    11 min

  4. HACE 5 DÍAS

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, February 20, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, February 20th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Wyoming House had a raw exchange Wednesday night about the check-passing controversy that's advanced into a criminal bribery investigation. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports one lawmaker admits he's received a check and didn't think it was wrong. "House Speaker Chip Neiman, who had just a revelation and told kind of the whole story. Wednesday night, she walked into his office where he was with his wife, according to his telling, handed him a check they had discussed way back in January, that was made out to his campaign account. He handed it off to his wife, said, 'Put that in the campaign account,' and went right on with his business. He said he regretted that it had turned into a big controversy." The House voted 37-21 in requiring the committee to continue its investigation as Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak will concurrently hold his criminal investigation. Read the full story HERE. – Two people are dead and more than 20 people were injured after a 34-vehicle incident in the westbound lane of I-80 near Evanston on Wednesday afternoon. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports the westbound lane was finally opened late Thursday morning as wreckers were busily clearing vehicles from the highway. "Every wrecker in Evanston and several from Lyman were summoned to the scene so they could clear the road, and it took over 16 hours to get the westbound lanes of I-80 open again…Highway Patrol still investigating the contributing factors to these incidents…They said that bad weather conditions were probably a part of it, and a big part of it. There were white out conditions and slick roads. But they also didn't rule out that excessive speeds may have played a role." Wyoming Highway Patrol says that the pileup occurred around 3:07 p.m. on Wednesday. In all, 22 commercial semi-trucks and 12 passenger vehicles were involved in the crash. Read the full story HERE. – Sen. John Kolb, the loudest voice on gambling in the legislature this session, is pushing four different bills to tighten up regulations on the industry. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Kolb says "Gaming within the state of Wyoming has exploded into a multibillion-dollar business."  "He's working on a number of bills, including a couple that were discussed today on the Senate floor. One talked about the placement of gaming machines…another bill looks at really refining the language around what is and is not a legal poker game. It's illegal. It would be illegal under this new legislation for there to be an organized game where you buy in and the house takes a cut that is just illegal. But the way the law is currently written, it's not easy to prosecute, according to Kolb and so they're trying to tighten that language to make it so you really have to be among friends." Under current law, professional operators exploit a loophole allowing games among acquaintances. Bars take a cut of the pot, players pay buy-ins, and when authorities investigate, everyone claims to be pals. Read the full story HERE. – Two years after a wolf was run over with a snowmobile in Sublette County sparked worldwide outrage, animal welfare advocates are still trying to get the practice banned in Wyoming. But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that there are long odds getting that done in this year's budget session. "I talked to Representative Mike Schmid from LaBarge, who, last year, during the last session, tried to introduce a bill that was unsuccessful to get the practice of whacking ban. He said, 'I did think about floating a bill this session. It didn't really work out, so we're kind of giving up on that for now,' but it looks like everybody's looking forward are kind of laying the groundwork for what will probably end up being a big push in the 2027 legislature." Kim Bean, the founder and president of Wolf and Wildlife Advocates, told Cowboy State Daily that chances of getting a whacking ban bill passed during this year's budget session are slim. 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… – The Sublette County attorney prosecuting Cody Roberts for cruelty for allegedly torturing a wolf says chasing it down and taping its mouth are all part of the crime. But Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the filing gives insight into who may testify against Roberts. "What was interesting in the filing is that it does lay out a little bit more about what some of the testimony may be. He says there may be testimony of someone who, Roberts allegedly told about running down the wolf and how he chased the wolf and brought it back to his house on his snowmobile. And then other testimony about the examination of the deceased wolf. And it's coming in less than three weeks until his trial is set to start, scheduled for March 9." Clayton Melinkovich, who is prosecuting the case, says in his response that the whole act of capturing, tormenting and killing the wolf are part of a single act of abusing the animal. Read the full story HERE. – Senate President Bo Biteman's bill to channel severance tax revenues into a Trump administration-backed "Energy Dominance Fund" passed the chamber 31-0 Thursday. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports the bill has also gotten support from the Trump administration. "It was singled out by the White House in Washington, DC and the Energy Dominance Council there with a letter of support. So Biteman was happy to distribute a copy of this letter from the White House, basically saying, 'Go get them! We support this energy dominance legislation at the state level, it really ties in with what we're trying to accomplish with the Trump administration's energy policy.'" The roughly $105 million in severance tax revenues would be used for projects tied to coal, natural gas, uranium, enhanced oil recovery, pipeline infrastructure, rare earth and critical mineral processing, and baseload energy development.  Read the full story HERE. – A Big Piney man was sentenced Thursday to between 75 years and life in prison for the bow-and-arrow killing of a 23-year-old autistic man. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that 20-year-old Rowan Littauer was ordered to pay over 4 grand in restitution to the victim's family. "He said that he has an impossible debt that he'll spend the rest of his life striving to pay. The judge noted that both him and the victim had develop developmental diagnoses, this longing for friends, this struggle to connect with friends, according to Littauer, he didn't actually know his victim. He thought he was defending his accomplice, Orion Schlesinger, who had had a slight a conflict with Dakota Farley." The Thursday sentencing of Rowan Littauer brings finality to a pair of cases that started when Littauer texted a female last year, telling her he'd killed somebody over the weekend of Feb. 1, 2025. Read the full story HERE. – A driver who comes across a "rolling closure" might see nothing but clear skies and dry conditions and ask "why is the road closed?" Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that WYDOT says it's to keep towns from being overwhelmed.  "They'll extend the closure outwards so that they can take the pressure off those communities and spread more of those people out. So it's different from a full closure, and for Wyomingites, it's very different, because you can actually get a permit to travel through roads that are under a rolling closure if you have a valid Wyoming driver's license and address…WYDOT would prefer if Wyomingites didn't add to the burden of communities that are already getting an influx of people from out of state who can't travel." According to WYDOT, a rolling closure starts after an incident, usually a traffic accident or hazardous weather. It starts in the communities on either side of the hazardous area and can be extended further based on the severity of the situation. 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

  5. HACE 6 DÍAS

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, February 19, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, February 19th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The Carbon County GOP is calling for resignations of four state reps for their silence on the ongoing "CheckGate" scandal. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the party says they knew defamation claims aimed at Rep. Mike Yin for making the check-passing public were wrong, but didn't speak up. "When you belong to and represent a major political party, sometimes you're beholden to accountability maneuvers by those parties and the Carbon County Republican Party met Tuesday night and advanced two resolutions for consideration by the state party that call for resignation of at least four state representatives that are reportedly involved in the Check Gate controversy. And so it's basically saying, 'We believe these four representatives at least knew that there had been checks handed out on the House floor, and yet, when Representative Mike Yin, the minority floor leader, was talking about this and warning everyone about this last Wednesday, another Representative accused him of defamation. And these four who reportedly knew that he was telling the truth did nothing to stand up for him." The first resolution calls for the resignation of Republican Reps. Joe Webb (Lyman), Marlene Brady (Green River), and Darin McCann (Rock Springs). That's according to a copy of the resolution obtained by Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming lawmakers heard emotional testimony from teachers, miners and students on Tuesday urging them to protect public lands from federal selloffs. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the Senate panel unanimously advanced the resolution titled: "Keeping public lands protected and decisions local." "It's basically a declaration that Wyomingites support public land…what this resolution seeks to do is say, 'We're different – that Wyoming doesn't want to sell its public land.' We heard testimony from high school students, from teachers, from Game and Fish, from all sorts of public lands supporters and professionals who work in that space all saying that, 'Look, we want to have a local voice in in how public lands are managed, but we do, and we but we do not want them sold.'" SJR 9 was introduced by Sen. Eric Barlow, of Gillette, with 38 co-sponsors — a bipartisan coalition that includes a total of 17 senators and 22 representatives. Read the full story HERE. – Winter weather created nasty driving conditions that contributed to a pair of multi-vehicle crashes Wednesday that closed a 21-mile stretch of westbound I-80 between Evanston and Kemmerer. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that one motorist caught in the middle of the pileup says visibility was down to zero. "The Wyoming Highway Patrol is still investigating the contributing factors into the incidents that happened on Tuesday, let alone the one that was happening on Wednesday afternoon and evening that involved multiple vehicles in both the westbound and eastbound lanes of I 80, but they are going to chalk up a lot of this to icy conditions, winter weather hazards and possibly wind gusts as well. Those are all factors that might have contributed, but we won't know for sure, but based on the images, it looks pretty likely that people were driving in white-out conditions. Roads were slick, and these incidents happened. We don't know if there are any injuries or fatalities involved in Wednesday evening's incident, but we do know there were three injuries from Tuesday's incident that closed a portion of i 80 near Arlington, and those were all minor." Bridger Valley resident Amber Gossard tells Cowboy State Daily she was heading west when she got stuck between two separate pileups, describing the crash ahead of her as "six or seven semis in a pile."  Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming House on Wednesday voted to keep a proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Senate did the opposite - setting the two chambers up for a clash in a compromise committee later this month. "The House of Representatives on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, they deliberated until like 1 or 2 AM, right? And that's because they have so many amendments to the budget because they rejected an 80-piece mass amendment on Tuesday, but one of the things they debated Wednesday morning was whether they're going to reverse the proposed $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming. Ultimately, the House rejected that call to reverse the cuts, keeping them in place, whereas the Senate did vote one day prior to reverse the cut. So when these two budget drafts line up, they're not going to match which then punch that decision to a 10 member compromise committee. They call 'conference committee' that could meet as early as next week." The Wyoming House of Representatives by a 26-34 vote Wednesday rejected an effort to reverse its budget-planners' proposed $40 million cut to the University of 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… – Two men have been charged in connection with an illegal wolf killing near Cody. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that even though the wolf was killed in a wolf-hunting zone, authorities allege it was shot without a license and out of season. "The problem is, it took place in June. So two problems with that: Number 1, the season didn't even start until September. Number 2, the person who the game warden says killed the wolf did not have a license, so you're hunting out of season without a license. So it's kind of a double whammy, and then another person that was with him allegedly is being charged as an accessory to that crime or that violation that supposedly took place. I did talk to probably one of the top wolf biologists in the country, who said that, 'Yeah, there's a reason why we don't have wolf hunting, or generally don't have legal wolf killing there in June because it can be highly disrupted to pack structure at that time. You've got growing pups that are voraciously hungry, and they really rely on adult wolves to bring them back solid food, because they're weaned off their mother's milk at that point, but they still completely rely on the adults to go out, get them solid food and bring it back to the den. So if you start killing adult wolves in June, you put the pups back at the den at risk of starvation.'" Charges were filed Friday in Park County Circuit Court in Cody against Noah Mick of Cody and Carbondale, Colorado, and Cole A. Mick of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The wolf was allegedly killed by Noah Mick on June 1, 2025, months before wolf season opened, according to citations issued by Wyoming Game and Fish. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming has surpassed Delaware as the top state for business incorporations per capita, and with that has come more LLC fraud. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that the state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that could crack down on using the state's business-friendly LLC laws to scam people. "In Wyoming, it's fairly easy to assign a registered agent, and for no one to be able to figure out who's really running this company. And a lot of times they're just registered in Wyoming, but they're doing business in another state. Well, along comes this piece of legislation today, Senate file 82 and it's pointing out a problem with this. What happens is that you have fraudsters who create a Registered Agent. They literally point to a name in the phone book and turn some unsuspecting Wyoming resident into the face and name and address of a registered company. So instead of paying a legitimate Registered Agent, they basically assign this without the will of this private citizen. So this bill aspires to provide a little bit more transparency into the business registering process, which brings in millions of dollars in registration fees for Wyoming. " The bill passed 23-8 and now heads to the Wyoming House, but its passage exposed a divide in the Senate over whether the state's wildly successful business incorporation industry has become a magnet for fraud. Read the full story HERE. – A pair of brothers from Ecuador will spend more than two years in prison for hauling nearly 75 pounds of illegal drugs across Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the U.S. Attorney's Office announced they were also wanted by ICE. "These guys cut a deal, and it's a pretty, pretty good deal, because you know that each of them got sentenced to 27 months in prison and then probation. But the probation might not matter, because as soon as they get out, they're being deported, according to the judge's order. And it could have been, had they gone to trial and been convicted, they could have gotten up to 10 years. But in any case, if you're in the country illegally, or if there is some other underlying circumstance and you're not a naturalized citizen, they will deport you after you're done serving your sentence." The U.S. District Court for Wyoming sentenced 23-year-old Edgar Narvaez Vega to 27 months in a federal prison instead of the maximum 10-year sentence he could've received if convicted at trial of possession with intent to distribute meth, fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. Edgar's brother, 22-year old Pedro Narvaez Vega, 22, got the same deal according to federal court records. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming hasn't yet been linked to a cattle fraud case that's hit 14 other states. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports Agridime, out of Texas, is accused of offering a deal that Sublette County rancher and former Green River Valley Cattlemen's Association President Mike Vickrey said sounded too good to be true. "A company called Agridime is in the middle of a $220 million cattle fraud case that spans 14 st

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  6. 18 FEB

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, February 18, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 18th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The chair of the Wyoming legislative committee investigating the check-passing controversy told his colleagues Tuesday the committee wants to pause its work. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that's because the local sheriff's office has undertaken its own investigation. "One day after the house investigative committee into chat gave us form on Saturday, the sheriff was like, now I'm investigating this in case there's criminal something that's criminally actionable, criminally chargeable, and whenever a law enforcement agency opens an investigation, kind of the public's probe into whatever that thing is, freezes. You don't get public records access. You don't get to have these controversies out in public. The Agency keeps the investigation pretty tight until a prosecutor decides to do something with it, or decides why she's not going to do something with it…It's a pause. Because once you have a live criminal investigation, all of a sudden, boom, you've got like, Fifth Amendment concerns and due process concerns. So what Representative Washut, who has the experience in this area, is saying is we don't want to violate someone's rights that they're supposed to retain during a criminal investigation." This investigation is in response to Rebecca Bextel, the state committee woman for the Teton County GOP who was also registered to attend the legislative session as "media," handed out checks Feb. 9 after adjournment, on the state House of Representatives floor. Read the full story HERE. – Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday banned campaign contributions on state property. So did the Senate, in areas it controls, in response to the "CheckGate" controversy. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the governor is taking action after an incident that happened last week. "The Capitol has spaces used by the three different branches of government, right? There's a Supreme Court chamber even that the justices use from the judicial branch, there's a governor's chamber and other executive branch offices, and there's an entire second and third floor wing each for the Senate and the State House of Representatives. So if the governor's going to say, "Oh, you can't do campaign contributions in the Capitol,' he narrowed that to the part that belongs to the Executive Branch, but the Senate passed a similar rule also Tuesday, saying, 'We're not doing this. We're not doing this in places that the Senate controls.' The House as of Tuesday, had not passed a rule, but it has been dealing with this controversy in other ways." Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday signed an executive order banning the solicitation, delivery, or acceptance of campaign contributions on property where state business is conducted – including the areas of the state Capitol managed by the executive branch. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Senate voted Tuesday to restore the governor's $11 billion budget, but the House voted against it. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that things got heated when Rep. Mike Yin said budget-planners were stabbing agencies they disliked.  "Representative Yin actually got out the knife hands and was gesturing during this conversation, basically saying 'We're stabbing certain agencies. We're gouging things in broad strokes' and Representative Tony Locke, and ultimately this house speaker Chip Neiman were like, 'Whoa, this conversation has gotten really charged. Let's just focus on the substance of the budget'…The intervention during the nice hands unfolded because some people were expressing displeasure with the Joint Appropriations Committee, with the budget planners who did this, this draft, and the conversation kept revolving back to, can we trust the Budget Committee? Are they listening? Are they being transparent? And when you're having a debate on the floor, you're supposed to focus on the merits of the debate, not in the intentions of the Bringers. And so I think that by the time we got to the knife hands gestures. Everyone was like, 'Yeah, this has gotten too charged.'" After a few lawmakers expressed themselves, House Speaker Chip Neiman had the last word, saying "Ain't nobody stabbing nobody." Read the full story HERE. – Meteorologists aren't seeing a trend just yet, but they do see this week of winter weather as a promising sign. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that at this point, we'll take any amount of snow. "This winter season has been dominated by high pressure ridges that have set up elsewhere, and that's siphoned off the winter weather. We are supposed to be getting off to the east coast, where they've had record breaking lows and record breaking amounts of snowfall. That's changing now as we get into the latter half of February. It started Tuesday with the high winds and snow squalls, and then Wednesday and Thursday, we're looking at widespread snow across the entirety of the state, around two to five inches, which isn't much, and it's not going to make up for what we've missed out on. But as many meteorologists said to me, beggars can't be choosers. You take what you can get, and the prognosis is positive that going forward into March, we're going to see more of these precipitation events, and even if there are high pressure ridges blocking that weather, they're going to be strong enough to push through and get us some much needed moisture." Wyoming will be blustery, snowy, and cold this week. In short, it's everything we've missed for most of the winter season, up to this point. 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… – Landowners won't be able to claim all the tags in certain big game hunting areas under a bill a legislative committee forwarded to the Wyoming Senate floor on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that it's a matter of percentages.  "Because of different circumstances, there's been instances in which all the tags have gone to landowners. In other words, hunters didn't even get a chance to put in for the tag drawing. And so to rectify that, there's a bill that says, 'Okay, well, let's place a cap on the number of landowner tags, it can be allowed in any particular hunt area, the percentage seems to be what everybody likes.' The idea it's the percentage. It kind of seems to be up for debate. Some people are saying, okay, cap it at 20. Landowners. Get a shot at 20% of the tags. The rest go to the public. Well, no, let's do 40. And then it was also suggested today that, hey, let's do it on a case by case basis. If this year in this area, it makes sense to give half or only 5% or whatever, let's do it that way." There have been rare instances of every hunting tag in a limited-quota area going to landowners, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce told the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee. Read the full story HERE. – The Wyoming Senate is advancing a first-of-its-kind resolution asking Congress to let the state run the federal mineral leasing program within its borders. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that even supporters acknowledge it's a heavy lift. "Right now oil and gas producers, miners, they go through the BLM. If they want to do extraction on public federal lands. Wyoming would like to change that. They would like to say, 'Hey, this is our state. We know best, and we would like to control the leasing of minerals, and we'd like to make more money off of those minerals as a state of Wyoming'…these are resolutions so they don't carry the weight or strength of law. They're essentially a strong suggestion to the US Congress that this is what we'd like to see happen.  Now lots of Western states have probably daydreamed about running their own mineral leasing programs. Wyoming is taking an official step." The Petroleum Association of Wyoming supports the resolution, comparing it to regulatory authority the state already exercises. Read the full story HERE. – Unlike the winter of 2022-2023, when mule deer were starving and dying by the thousands in Wyoming, this year the herd is looking quite healthy. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that avid hunter and deer conservationist Zachary Key of La Barge says the deer are fat and they look awesome, but there's a catch. "This can be one of the toughest times for animals, except they're dealing with a lot of snow and a lot of cold this time of year. It's been long enough that they burnt through a lot of their fat reserves, and so they're really trying to get to that final stretch without starving or freezing to death. Right now, the animals are fat and happy, but the double edged sword is, if we don't get some significant moisture in March and April, what can happen is they won't get what they call green up, that that thick green spring grass won't come up, and that has a really heavy protein content. And so especially for animals that are pregnant, like pregnant elk, deer or antelope, if they don't have that rich protein, rich green grass at the end of spring, in the beginning of beginning of summer, and they're dropping their calves or their fawns, then it will affect their lactation." During the terrible winter of 2022-2023, deer were starving and dying by the thousands, while this winter they're downright chunky. Read the full story HERE. – Rocky, a Labrador-boxer mix, escaped his harness during a walk near the mountain town of Montezuma, Colorado, on Dec. 28. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that he was rescued last week, having survived alone for 43 days in subzero nights and wolf territory.  "Rocky was moving with his owner from New Jersey to California. They stopped off at Montezuma for a skiing trip. Rocky was left in the hands of a pet handler, he got spoo

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  7. 17 FEB

    Cowboy State Daily Video News: Tuesday, February 17, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, February 17th.  I'm Mac Watson. – The state Senate advanced a bill Monday that would rescue the Wyoming Business Council by rebuilding the controversial agency. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports it also would freeze its work while lawmakers and others reevaluate the council. "So there's three bills. Two of them are twins, right? One the twins are kind of a soft freeze. One of those is still moving on the House side. One of those is paused on the Senate side. But what the Senate minerals committee advanced Monday was the hard freeze. Stop everything for a year like no new projects, no expansions, while we evaluate you and see what the heck what you're all about, right? And Senator Chris Rothfuss gutted half the bill in an amendment that the Senate gets to vote on, but he gutted half the bill saying we don't need to describe this big task force, we the minerals committee can just do this ourselves and appoint a subcommittee if we see fit, but he did keep the year long pause." Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell voiced optimism Monday, telling the Senate Minerals Committee that he's excited about the intention, the effort, and the interest into diving deep into what the Business Council does. Read the full story HERE. – Former Wyoming lawmakers say someone distributing checks on the House floor was "brazen," "shocking," and "unprecedented." Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that one former lawmaker says when it comes to ethics violations, he doesn't recall anything of this magnitude. "I spoke with Representative, former representative, Ron Micheli, Uinta County Republican, served for 16 years in the legislature, and that was both in the House and the Senate. And when I asked him, Have you ever seen any kind of ethics scandal like this before? And his response was instant. He said, I have never, in all of my time, seen or even heard of something of this magnitude. He said it was unprecedented, and he made some interesting points, because one of the reps who accepted a check on the floor said, 'Well, look, the optics are bad, but it stops at optics.' And Ron Micheli said, 'Look, optics are everything. Sometimes the perception of impropriety is just as bad or worse as actual impropriety, and the damage it does to the institution is hard to understate.' He also made the point responding to Bextel's comments that these were legitimate campaign contributions. And he asked himself, 'Well, I think that is begging some questions.' And he said, 'I think it's actually dodging the point to call them campaign contributions, because none of these members are candidates at the moment, they have not filed for office because that time comes in May. And so he asked, if these are not candidates, then what is the money for?'"  Rebecca Bextel has said publicly that she was distributing lawful campaign checks on behalf of a Teton County donor, and that she did so in person because she knew she'd be in Cheyenne. Read the full story HERE. – Speaking of Rebecca Bextel, the Teton County Republican Party is condemning her handing out checks on the House floor. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Wyoming Republican Party distanced itself too, saying she was not representing the party. "Kat Ruckert, Chair of the Teton County Republican Party, was like, "We joined the Senate in condemning this act, but let's not conflate the issues either.' She was saying, still important to defend private property, which was the function of the contested bill, but she emphasized that the party had no knowledge of this plan, and that Bextel still acted alone, and the state Republican Party, also said, yes, she was not doing this for us. The reason that matters is because these major political parties in Wyoming are barred from spending money on candidates until after the primary election. That's because the primary election is a hot mess of all Republicans going to contest against one another, and the party doesn't get to back its favorite until the people actually have their Republican nominee." The state GOP chair one day later emphasized that Bextel was not on the House floor on behalf of the state party and that matters because Wyoming law bars major political parties from giving financial support to candidates before a primary election. Read the full story HERE. – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced on Monday that the state is petitioning a federal legislative panel to reverse its decision to kill the $17.85 billion, 3,500-well Jonah Field expansion. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the governor says the ruling "is a direct assault on Wyoming's economy." "It's anticipated to be a nearly $18 billion dollar revenue project. It's going to mean a couple of billion and severance taxes for the state, another 600 million for schools, 900 jobs. It's a huge, huge project that has been in the works. It took eight and a half years to get approved. It finally was approved eight years ago, 2018… almost eight years ago, it was approved, and now this panel says, 'Nope, you can't do it.' It's halted. And what the governor says is, 'Look, it's really overreach'…On Friday, there was some movement from us, Department of the Interior, Doug Burgum, the head of the interior, who said, Hey, we're going to look at this. So that legislative panel was under his agency, though, so there might be something that he could do to reverse this as well." Jonah Energy's Vice President, Paul Ulrich, tells Cowboy State Daily that the NPL project is its future in Wyoming and the state's interest in getting it moving again is encouraging.   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… – About midmorning on Sunday, as the temperature crept above freezing, the ice sheet on Boysen Reservoir started making sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that scientists say the otherworldly noises come from ice cracking under warming temperatures. "Sound experts say, basically, if ice cracks on the reservoir somewhere, and you're far enough away, the high frequency sounds produced by that crack will eventually outpace the low frequency sounds. By the time it gets to your location, the sound wave spectrum is split, and so it sounds really weird. ice will crack, and then the sound spectrum will separate over distance. And if you're far enough away, it's going to sound really weird, because the full spectrum of sound is arriving all at once." Famed Wyoming photographer Dave Bell told Cowboy State Daily that "Water is a superconductor of sound.  As the ice cracks or shifts, either freezing or thawing, it makes sounds from those events.  It's the ice doing its thing." Read the full story HERE. – U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis told the Wyoming Senate on Monday that Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange that moved its global headquarters to Cheyenne last year, will sponsor Trump $1,000 Accounts for every child born in Wyoming in 2026. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Lummis described the Trump Account sponsorship as Kraken rewarding Wyoming for its leadership in making the state a good place to set up a digital asset business. "They love the regulatory and legal environment in Wyoming and leaders like Lummis, who has really gone out of her way to facilitate businesses like Kraken and she was pretty explicit. She said as a thank you to Wyoming that Kraken has pledged $1,000 per kid born in 2026 so attention, pregnant parents out there, if you have a child due in Wyoming in 2026 you could benefit from this $1,000 donation into what is called a Trump account, and that is a savings mechanism that the President has promoted, an investment mechanism the President has promoted. He characterizes it as buying into the American dream and investing in our kids." Kraken is a nearly $3 billion cryptocurrency exchange and was Wyoming's first Special Purpose Depository Institution. A key milestone, Lummis said, was Kraken gaining access to a master account with the Federal Reserve. Read the full story HERE. – The future of Wyoming's NCAR's supercomputer is uncertain after the National Science Foundation announced plans to shift operations to a third party. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports this leaves state and university leaders seeking to preserve its local role. "The Trump administration had said that they were going to unravel NCAR, basically do away with it, because it's a source of climate alarmism, and they don't want to deal with that anymore. What I was able to determine is there are discussions ongoing about the fate of the building. The mayor of Cheyenne, Patrick Collins, told me he's aware of these discussions going on. Basically they are trying to, you know, keep that center open, keep it here." Among its many accomplishments, NCAR was instrumental in solving unexplained weather events that caused multiple airplane crashes in the 1980s. It also modeled wildfire-generated weather to help determine the safest locations for firefighters.  Read the full story HERE. – First responders saved a young driver after he hit a cow on a dark Sheridan county road Friday night. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that emergency personnel are crediting an app, which sent an emergency alert to the driver's parents and first responders. "That was the Life360 app, which apparently is used by a lot of families. It's an app that families can subscribe to that provides location tracking and emergency alerts in the event that somebody's injured in a car accident, and that's what happened in this case, the notification that first responders got didn't come from the traditional 911 call. It was an emergency notification sent from the app to another phone in an area

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  8. 16 FEB

    Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Monday, February 16, 2026

    It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 16th.  I'm Mac Watson. – Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak tells Cowboy State Daily that his agency is investigating last week's incident in which a Teton County GOP leader handed checks to lawmakers on the state House floor after adjournment. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the sheriff's investigation is different from the House's decision to launch their own examination. "There's an important distinction here, because when the House on Thursday was talking about launching its own internal investigation for possible legislative misconduct, bribery, that was an administrative, non-criminal act, and that that seven person committee is going to be convening sometime during the session, and it'll have four days to just put something together and send it on to the House. But when they were debating forming that panel, it was Representative Chris Knapp who said, 'Maybe this is something that we should forward to a criminal agency, that we should ask the AG about." And even though the House didn't take him up on that, that is more the nature of what Sheriff Kozak is doing, is looking for criminal probable cause, or as he put it, 'to clear the names of the innocent wherever the investigation leads.'" The controversy erupted on Wednesday when Rep. Mike Yin of Jackson urged his colleagues not to vote for introduction of a bill Rebecca Bextel championed that seeks to curb affordable housing mitigation policies like those prevalent in Teton County and its seat of Jackson. Read the full story HERE. – Speaking of the legislature, lawmakers get back to work and start the second week of the Budget Session. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that this week, it's all about amendments and funding. "So what we can expect are amendments on the budget starting next week. And now they're going to roll up their sleeves, and they're going to maybe have a tug of war with the joint appropriations committee and some of the changes it made, and then hopefully each chamber gets a budget that is satisfied with before both chambers try to reconcile the budget with one another. The other big thing that's going on is they're trying to recalibrate education, which means they're trying to do a full scale reassessment on what we pay for education." Even though a court order for education recalibration is on pause right now, the Senate is taking it up by introducing a recalibration bill unanimously. – For decades, the Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne wasn't just a hotel; it was the most powerful spot in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that nearly every legislator stayed there and that's where deals were finalized.  "What made it special was the people in the management and the way that they went out of their way to really cultivate a culture there…in hindsight, pretty fascinating to consider that you had virtually an entire legislature all bunking at the same place during the session…and there would be receptions, seven nights a week, dinner parties. People were having conversations at the bar late in the night, and it was kind of like the way they described it. It was always about law making. You were always working on fixing some problem with some bill, but the atmosphere was so much more congenial and personable at the Hitching Post than it was up at the Capitol, and so they were able to move things just in an entirely different way." It was not just local politicians who stayed at "The Hitch." Spiro Agnew, the U.S. vice president to Richard Nixon, stayed at the historic inn. A fire brought the historic inn down in 2010. Read the full story HERE. – Work is quickly progressing just outside Kemmerer at TerraPower's first-of-its-kind nuclear power project. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the 167-foot-tall facility will stress-test massive Natrium reactor components. "It's really just a giant mechanic shop. And what they're going to do is they're going to test these because this is the first one ever, right? And this will be the only test and fill facility that they do.They're going to bring these gigantic pieces of the Natrium reactor in. They're going to test them. This will be the place that they test these in the sodium, molten sodium environment to figure out if everything works the way they think it will work…the scale of it is just amazing. 167 feet, and some of the equipment that's going to be coming in is too large. It's physically too large to bring by rail. They're right there by the railroad. They could build a rail spur, but it's too large to transport that way until that will not be the way the equipment is being brought to the natrium site. It will be oversized loads going down I-80." Backed by billionaire Bill Gates, the novel 345-megawatt nuclear power plant being built near Kemmerer will be much smaller and much cheaper than the hulking reactors of old.  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… – Just one search and rescue mission last year took nearly 1,800 manpower hours and 220 flights. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that with nearly 9 million visitors coming to Wyoming, the cost of helping stranded people is breaking the bank. "Search and rescue teams are funded through the county and they're run by the county sheriff offices. The bulk of that money comes from the county commissioners who allot them money for infrastructure in basically equipment. However, the problem is this money is woefully inadequate based on the types of rescues they're now having to conduct. For example, Grant Gardner, who disappeared while hiking Cloud Peak Mountain last year, and unfortunately, was found deceased. But the cost for his search, because everything is volunteer, and they were able to get so many volunteers, was about $65,000. However, if they didn't have those volunteers, if they didn't have all those people who donated, that rescue might have been $1.7 million." To help fund Search and Rescue teams, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is now selling a specialty Search and Rescue license plate. The initial cost is $180 with $150 going to the state-wide fund with a $50 annual renewal fee. Read the full story HERE. – Many Wyoming ranchers stick to the traditional way of doing things when feeding livestock in the winter, including working a team of workhorses and a sleigh loaded with hay. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that one rancher says with horses, he doesn't have to worry about the engine not starting. "Modern day ranching doesn't necessarily mean modern day technology. A lot of Wyoming ranchers still use an old fashioned method of horse drawn slay to deliver feed to their livestock. So the rancher will hook up a team of horses and go out into the field, use a pitchfork, or sometimes their bare hands, and just toss the hay or whatever the feed is out to their livestock, and we're talking about cattle, sheep in some cases. so some of these high rural places in Wyoming can get 65 inches of snow or more a year, and these work horses can power through that snow easily. So you already have the work horses. Why go out and pay $50,000 for a high tech tractor that could do the same thing." Feeding with a horse team has some drawbacks. For one thing, it's a slow process. One rancher tells Cowboy State Daily that a typical feeding cycle might take three to four hours with a horse team.  Read the full story HERE. – Back in the early 1900s, when Wyoming men outnumbered women 10-1, they formed matrimonial clubs to bring out mail-order brides from back East. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that historians say many fourth- and fifth-generation Wyoming families may trace their roots to these "imported wives." "So they're called mail order brides, because that's pretty much how the whole thing was facilitated. Was ads through the mail, but it's not the modern connotation of mail order brides. This was just basically, it was like modern day dating acts, apps and personal ads, except it was through newspapers back in the late 1800s and early 1900s…I spoke to Robyn Cutter the Park County archives, and she said there's not a lot of first hand documentation of these arrangements, because it's kind of an awkward thing to bring up in hindsight. But based on what she's seen from the correspondences that she's been able to read, the women were looking for a sense of adventure. They talk about being unhappy back on the East Coast, they had restrictive family lives, and they found a sense of freedom in coming out to the West, and if a strong, young, handsome cowboy came with it, that was all the better." Park County Archives director, Robyn Cutter tells Cowboy State Daily that she found evidence of matrimonial clubs functioning, in some capacity, as late as the 1960s. 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.

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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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