Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, June 26, 2026

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, July 8th. I'm Mac Watson This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas! Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism. – A North Carolina man is still missing after jumping into the Snake River without a life jacket on Saturday. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that authorities have changed the mission from search and rescue to recovery. "55- year-old Tory Rather of Charlotte, North Carolina, went missing near Alpine in Wyoming when he jumped into the Snake River on Saturday without a life jacket. Authorities say that he was swept up by the current, and they have been searching for days to try and recover his body. On Tuesday, Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson confirmed that this is now being looked at as a recovery and no longer a rescue. Johnson said, as time goes by, the likelihood of having a positive outcome goes down significantly. He is positive at this point. It is a recovery mission and not a rescue." Raether's family sent Cowboy State Daily photos of the man and his wife taken just hours before the incident. Rafts, jet skis, a jet boat, drones, and search dogs have combed the Snake River below a popular cliff-jumping spot for days, all with one goal: bring Tory home. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/search-for-north-carolina-man-who-disappeared-on-snake-river-now-a-recovery-mission/] – At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4th holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports the owners say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough. "This is going to come straight out of the company's pocket. They're estimating at least $12,000 in damages, and while they have insurance, their deductible is $1,000 and if their deductible is $1,000 and each portable toilet is treated as a separate incident. So, if they tried to file a claim to get the cost for the destroyed toilet, then they would get maybe $100- $150 each after their deductible. So, it's not even worth filing the claim. They don't know who did it. They have no way of identifying them, and there's not a viable path to collect on insurance." Co-owner Kris Vogele tells Cowboy State Daily that these aren't the type of fireworks you can "buy at a fireworks stand in Montana. It had to have been a large explosive." Vogele said he believes the fireworks came from Wyoming or the Crow Indian Reservation near Billings. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/vandals-blow-up-13-porta-potties-in-montana-company-blames-wyoming-fireworks/] – Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4th. But Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the Gillette carpenter isn't giving up on his electric-guitar dreams. "Matthew Raymond Lynch says the incident was horrifying. He said when he lit a firecracker that he'd been carrying in his back pocket for years, trying to be adventurous, it blew up almost instantly. He looked down and his hand was the craziest, most mangled thing he says he's ever seen. the damage was so extensive that his friend took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet to save Lynch from losing his life. Lynch is an artist, he's a musician, a potter, and a carpenter by trade. He says the road to recovery will be long, but he's already been talking to doctors and hopeful that he will be able to get a prosthetic, and vows that one day he'll be able to play guitar again." The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/after-blowing-off-most-of-his-hand-gillette-musician-vows-hell-play-guitar-again/] – The Green River City Council is considering finalizing a $112,000 grant it's been awarded to install license-plate readers in the city. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the mayor says the cameras could curb terrorism while former Libertarian lawmaker Marshall Burt says it's all "bullshit." "The police chief said, 'Yeah, we're not looking to nitpick with these. We want to really amplify our response to things like missing and vulnerable persons cases or serious criminal flight cases.' Marshall Burt, who is the first Libertarian ever that Wyoming ever sent to the legislature, said, 'This is a slippery slope, because this grant is based on fighting terrorism, but these things can track people's movements and compile data on people's movements and patterns.'" Green River applied last year for two Wyoming Office of Homeland Security grants and in January was awarded one for $111,956 to buy and install license plate readers for the police department, says the agenda item description [https://www.grwyo.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/11626?fileID=112791]. Mayor Pete Rust tells Cowboy State Daily the police department spearheaded the grant application. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/green-river-considers-accepting-grant-for-license-plate-readers-to-curb-terrorism/]. – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – A Casper man says he felt fortunate to rescue a baby pronghorn who got stuck in a cattle guard on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that Dylan Heide says by posting the video, he hopes he can reduce the stigma around hunting and hunters. "It was a very young fawn, so he just gently lifted and twisted it out of the cattle grate and let it successfully reunited with what he assumed was a few does, and one of which was probably its mother. Dylan goes out a lot during the summer, scouting for pronghorn. He hopes to hunt in the fall, and he'd never seen one with its body stuck in a cattle grate before, but if this fawn was young, he estimated it was probably only a month old, if that, and it's just probably the first time I'd ever seen a cattle guard before." Heide shares his stories and perspectives on hunting and fishing in Wyoming on his FishHuntWyo [https://www.facebook.com/fishhuntwyo] social media pages. He has a particular outlook on Wyomingites' relationship with pronghorn and tells Cowboy State Daily, "The majority of us really care about wildlife." Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/casper-realtor-rescues-pronghorn-fawn-flailing-in-cattle-guard-on-remote-road/] – Allegedly outraged by a dirt bike zipping around his Albany County campsite, a man is accused of pulling two guns and brawling with three other campers over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that investigators say, at one point, Tyler James McGill "stepped back and racked the slide, and pointed." "What it boils down to is somebody riding a motorbike past somebody else's campground got that guy mad, and so he went looking for him down this camp. There were three men in the camp, and all four of them brawled. This guy took all three of them on, and at times during the brawl, it kind of the affidavit reads kind of like a movie script. he gets a gun from the waistband of one of the one of the other campers he's fighting, pointed at him, the guy wrestles the gun away from him, so he goes back to his campsite and gets another gun, it's just kind of a wild, wild tale at this Albany County campground over the Fourth of July weekend." McGill, born in 1996, could get more than 15 years in prison if convicted of felony aggravated assault and battery and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/albany-county-camper-charged-with-pulling-2-guns-during-brawl-with-3-other-campers/] – A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Mead is defending the move, saying it was about solving health care policy problems. "Sam Mead has political credentials and is waging a really staunch Keep Public Land in Public Hands campaign, and this, you know, conservative super PAC found that in 2019 he had donated $27 to Bernie Sanders campaign. The election filings show that, and Meade told me that at the time he saw a lot of harm from Obamacare, the Obama insurance policies that Wyoming pushed back against hard at the time, and he said that he liked a lot of Sanders' ideas on health care, and decided to back that." The attack ad surfaced Monday via an X.com [http://x.com/] post by Club For Growth president David McIntosh. The group calls itself the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation and has endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/hageman-opponent-sam-mead-defends-27-donation-to-bernie-sanders/]. – Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities is not commenting further on the city's data center sewer contamination. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that residents still don't know where contaminated wastewater was taken, why the public wasn't notified for months, or what safeguards are now in place. "Residents in Cheyenne have a lot of questions still with the sewer reuse contamination that was announced last week by the Board of Public Utilities. Cowboy State Daily reached out to Mayor Patrick Collins and asked, should the public be worried about this being a public health crisis, and is there a chance that it could happen again. The mayor candidly told us that we should be worried, because there's always a chance that it can happen, and there's always something to worry about when you're dealing with, you know, public utilities and big corporations, that's juxtaposed to the Board of Public Utilities that told us they are not commenting any further on anything until they deliver this press conference in about a week." Last Thursday, the board announced that Goat Systems LLC, the corporate entity Meta uses during construction of its nearly 800,000-square-foot data center campus, was in "significant noncompliance" with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/07/cheyenne-board-of-public-utilities-stays-silent-on-data-center-sewer-contamination-2/] — 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 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/] - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZ6-7-Nv-0ycvqgTIttIFQ] channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, July 7, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, July 7th. I'm Mac Watson – A man blew the fingers off his hand and injured four other people outside a Gillette bar around midnight Saturday. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the man has made a public apology. "Just before midnight, Matthew Raymond Lynch headed outside to the Other Side Bar and Grill. He made it as far as the entrance, the outside part, when he decided to light a firecracker. Lynch said that when he tried to light the firework, it blew up immediately. He also said that he lost all of the fingers on his right hand. He said he had partial blindness and a loss of hearing. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital and then airlifted to Billings." The bar was hosting a Fourth of July fundraiser concert and the music ended, patrons were beginning to head home. That's when Lynch lit a firework which exploded outside the entrance, blowing all the fingers off his hand and injuring four other people. He apologized on social media. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/gillette-man-blows-fingers-off-hand-with-firework-outside-bar-fourth-others-hurt/] – After decades of chasing diversification, Wyoming is finally landing on data centers. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the boom is forcing the state to confront a familiar boom-and-bust tension. "Talking with Tyler Lindholm. He's a Crook County rancher, former state legislator, and he works for American Prosperity. And so he kind of sees both ends of the spectrum, right? He wants to see the opportunity come with data centers, but the questions about water and power use are absolutely fair. Talking with Senator Kail Case, he wonders 'Does this represent an overbuild?' Analysts are estimating upwards of 3000 facilities on top of an existing 4000 but those 3000 new facilities, they aren't anywhere near the size of the old ones. They are gargantuan, they are exponentially bigger, and so is it over building?" Now that data centers are finally racing toward the state's wide-open prairies and cheap power, the rush is forcing a choice. How much growth is Wyoming willing to accept, and at what cost to power bills, water supplies, and its wide-open spaces? Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/looming-data-center-boom-tests-wyomings-promise-not-to-piss-it-all-away/]. – Wyoming's most famous diesel "delete" mechanic Troy Lake, who was pardoned by Trump after a prison stint, advocated for the president to pardon at least six more. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports on Friday, Trump pardoned those six, plus three others. "What Troy Lake has done is actually looked for people that are like him, and he's building a coalition, the Diesel Freedom Coalition. The Diesel Freedom Coalition has been working on the science and the policy and the pardon lobby side, so they're pushing for pardons for people they feel are good candidates. They are also, Troy Lake especially, and his son TJ, you're trying to build the science to show better means of reducing emissions without putting people out of business and sending them into limp mode on the interstate, and they're also talking to lawmakers about those better ways forward." Besides pardon-related advocacy, Lake said his group is working to provide sound emissions evidence and mechanical strategies to policymakers, to persuade them to pivot toward emissions regulations that don't crush small-time trucking businesses and other fleets. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/wyoming-cities-get-unwanted-shows-when-fireworks-start-blazes-near-launch-sites/] – A Casper man accused of holding a toddler "like a shield" in front of him during an armed standoff said Monday he intends to change his plea. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that police say that Brayden Randolph "told officers he had a gun and officers had guns and challenged officers to get him." "The call to police said that there had been a gunshot fired, and after they got there, he appeared at a door at one point, had a toddler in his arm and a gun in his belt with his hand on the gun, challenging police to come get him, so that standoff ended with the child being rescued by police, and then breaking through a door, arresting him, and he since then has been out of court on $7,000 bond, was in court today at what's called a 'docket appearance' and his attorney said he's going to change his plea." Charges against Randolph include reckless endangerment, child endangerment, being a minor in possession of alcohol and interference with a peace officer. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/casper-man-accused-of-holding-toddler-like-a-shield-in-standoff-to-change-plea/] – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – After spending about $200,000 in goat grazing for flood mitigation since 2025, the town of Rock Springs is putting an end to it for now. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that one council member said residents say it's too expensive. "The goats provided an efficient way to mitigate this risk, so you're not having to bring in all this heavy equipment or have you know manpower down there in the really thick, thick vegetation, the goats just did it all. The problem, or the controversy with it, is that it came at what people thought was a pretty high price tag. So, it went from $50,000 the first go around, to $58K the second go around, to $92K the third go around." According to Mayor Max Mickelson, during the latest grazing session, which began April 1st and ended June 30th, the goats removed roughly 35 tons of vegetation. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/rock-springs-puts-brakes-on-controversial-goat-grazing-program-after-spending-200k/] – Conservationist Rich Guenzel understands why many people, including Wyoming Game and Fish, wrongly call one of the state's signature animals "antelope." But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that it bugs Guenzel so much, he's started a "pronghorn swear jar" and makes people pay $1. "It irritates him when they get their called antelope, because this is that same discussion as buffalo or bison, you know that sort of thing, moose or elk. Well, you know what is what the animal is actually called? Because just, as an aside, in Europe, some people call what we call moose, they call an elk. According to the research he's looked into, especially with the latest technology, genetic mapping, they've been able to determine that the nearest, the only very distant living relative of the pronghorn is, and a lot of people will be surprised by this, actually giraffes." Guenzel tells Cowboy State Daily that all the money he collects from his swear jar goes to pronghorn conservation groups. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/if-you-say-antelope-in-front-of-pronghorn-enthusiast-rich-guenzel-itll-cost-you/] – It's been fourteen months after a man was found shot in the head in an abandoned truck on the Wind River Indian Reservation. But, Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports prosecutors have no ongoing, public murder case in the December 2024 death of Riverton man Rex Lofts, even though Jose A. Gonzales was arrested. "Gonzales was charged in Fremont County on the state level in last October, and he is the only one that the prosecutor had jurisdiction over the other suspects, the way Fremont County Chief Deputy Attorney Tim Hancock put it to me. The Feds have jurisdiction over those other suspects. Well, this all is alleged to have happened in the same remote place on the reservation. So, what that says to me is okay, probably Gonzalez is not a tribal member, and the others are, because the feds take jurisdiction for tribal members implicated in crimes on the reservation, whereas your local elected prosecutor would handle crimes just involving non-tribal members." The 72-year-old Lofts died of what the autopsy report called a homicide with two gunshots in his head around Dec. 2, 2024. According to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, his body wasn't found until April 21, 2025 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/04/22/body-found-on-wind-river-reservation-may-be-missing-father-daughter-says/]. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/06/no-active-murder-charges-14-months-after-man-found-shot-dead-on-rez/] – Everyone has a dream. A Powell man has built a "Dumb And Dumber" Mutt Cutts van replica with his best friend. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that so far, the two haven't been able to recreate one of the more memorable scenes from the 1994 film starring Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey. "20-year-old Parker Williams wanted to make a YouTube video that would gain attention from his peers, and so he decided to draw inspiration from one of his favorite movies, Dumb and Dumber, and recreate the Mutt Cuts van. Williams, with the help of his friend Seth Siebert, found an old van and decided to fix it up. It took him about three or four days. A lot of people want to stop and take pictures with him. He said he has not been pulled over yet, but he is looking forward to that. One of the movie's most iconic scenes is when Lloyd and Harry are pulled over by a trooper who thinks that they're drinking alcohol, and Lloyd hands him a bottle of his own urine." Williams tells Cowboy State Daily that building the van was more complicated than he expected. He and his buddy spent hours wiring custom headlights and blinkers so it could legally travel Wyoming roads. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/celebrity-bison-bellies-up-to-the-bar-at-codys-irma-hotel-for-fourth-celebration/]. — 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 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/] - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZ6-7-Nv-0ycvqgTIttIFQ] channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Monday, July 6, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, July 6th. I'm Mac Watson – Instead of selling the century-old 140-acre Flat Creek Ranch for millions, a Jackson couple gave the property to its longtime managers. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports owners Joe Albright and Marcia Kunstel say they didn't want it to fall in the hands of someone "who would destroy the land, the wildlife or the buildings." "Ray Sharp told me that they are going to keep up with the infrastructure, and that there's always maintenance that needs to be done. This is 100-plus-year-old property, and keeping the cabins in good shape, while still having that sort of historic feel, is kind of a nonstop job. So that's really their focus now, and just continuing to offer bespoke experiences for their visitors, so whatever their visitors want to do when they come and visit, the owners will do their best to curate that experience for them." For Albright and Kunstel, both retired foreign correspondents, the decision was about conservation as much as succession. The couple spent 27 years restoring and preserving the ranch after buying it back from the Jackson Hole Land Trust in 1998. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/05/jackson-couple-gifts-historic-flat-creek-ranch-to-longtime-caretakers-to-save-it/] – Military tanks spent an hour crushing cars Friday as an enthusiastic crowd cheered to celebrate America's 250th at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that owner Dan Starks says, "What's more American than machine guns and tanks crushing cars?" "It's a huge museum, world-class museum, world's largest private collection of military vehicles in DuBois, of all places. And then, after lunch, right after lunch, when everybody's there at the canteen, anyway, they had some little lectures, told us some, you know, history stories and things like that too. I would say applause, people were applauding, so you know they're happily listening to these lectures after they've watched some tanks crush some cars. It was a great day." Starks didn't get any disagreement from the huge crowds turning out for the daylong event devoted to America. More than 500 people showed up in the first hour, which offered two chances to see the tanks in action. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/04/dubois-military-museum-celebrates-250th-by-crushing-cars-with-tanks/] – With no veterinary clinics or animal shelters, roaming dogs are a problem on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Cowboy State Daily's Kerry Drake reports that a Cheyenne clinic 300 miles away has rescued thousands of stray pets from the reservation since 2017. "The reservation had a huge problem with feral and prairie dogs, so she kind of switched the focus of the foundation, or the program that she runs, and just working, beginning with the reservation, she's kind of expanded to spay and neuter clinics. Basically, she has captured 3,000 dogs and cats from the reservation since 2017 largely through donations, it's all volunteer." JM Marschner, who opened the clinic in 2017, tells Cowboy State Daily she and her volunteers have worked with other rescue groups to find more than 3,000 dogs and cats on the reservation. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/05/three-legged-toa-epitomizes-rez-dog-resilience-and-appeal-of-adopting-them/] – The Haitian truck driver who killed one Rawlins EMT and severely injured another in a catastrophic I-80 crash more than three years ago is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to overturn his convictions. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the driver claims prosecutors never proved he was "reckless." "Savoie St. Jean's attorney contends that there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of aggravated homicide and aggravated assault and battery. The crash occurred on December 1 of 2022 when Saint Jean's semi truck slammed into an EMT and killed the driver on Interstate-80 near Green River. Last fall. He was sentenced to 12-to-14 years in prison. He's now asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to erase the convictions." For the Wyoming Supreme Court, the question is whether the evidence presented to jurors was legally sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Saint Jean acted recklessly. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/03/haitian-trucker-who-plowed-into-rawlins-emts-wants-his-conviction-overturned/]. – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – It's been 44 years since a young Casper woman was found dead in the North Platte River with a rock tied around her neck. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports the murder has never stopped haunting her older sister Rebecca. "She had been 20 years old, and she was found two to six days later dead in the North Platte River, with a rock tied around her neck, and she had been strangled. It has never been solved to date. In fact, there has been no news coverage of it since 1982 that I could find. So it was a case that got kind of lost in the decades, but not for law enforcement. Law enforcement and the investigators are taking it seriously. They said they really want somebody to come forward." Belynda May Grantham was a 20-year-old single mother when her partially clothed body was recovered from the bottom of the North Platte River outside of Glenrock, in August 1982. It would take nearly a month and a newspaper sketch before anyone could identify her. Her murder has never been solved. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/04/woman-seeking-justice-for-sister-whos-body-was-found-in-north-platte-in-1982/] – A Montana rancher who lives more than 100 miles from grizzly territory says a bear mauled her quarter horse. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that grizzlies aren't deliberately being reintroduced to prairie country. Instead, they're moving back into those areas on their own. "She surmises that it probably got attacked by a grizzly bear, and she says that because this is an area where they've been seeing an increasing amount of bears, and also to her knowledge, one of her, I think it's she said one of her neighbors spotted a bear crossing the road toward her ranch just a couple of days prior, so she went ahead and called out, she called out an inspector from the USDA Wildlife Services. He said, 'There's no bite up on the withers or right on the top of the back of the horse,' and typically when bears do attack a larger animal, they do try to get up on the back and bite it, and then the bear will use its just its weight and its, overwhelming strength to just pull the animal down that it's trying to kill for prey." Danny Kinka, senior wildlife restoration manager for American Prairie, tells Cowboy State Daily there are ways to balance ranchers' concerns with bear conservation. One effective way is to "put a human presence on the landscape." Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/04/montana-rancher-claims-grizzly-mauled-horse-wildlife-services-agent-isnt-so-sure/] – The Wyoming Board of Equalization was set for a July 6 hearing to fight against having to enforce a 4% cap on annual property tax increases, which it calls unconstitutional. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports the board has agreed to honor the cap during its lawsuit challenging it. "They were set for a July 6 hearing to determine whether the board would have to enforce that cap pretty much against its will and wishes throughout the lawsuit, and while that hearing was on track to unfold, and the judge on track to consider that argument. The board went ahead and agreed. Okay, we'll follow the law until there's a further order of this court, or until the case is over." Gov. Mark Gordon, through the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, filed a court challenge [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/16/gordon-sues-his-tax-board-to-stop-it-from-blocking-property-tax-cap/] June 16 in Laramie County District Court, urging the court to make the board follow the law and to declare the law constitutional. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/03/wyoming-board-of-equalization-agrees-to-honor-4-property-tax-cap-for-now/] – The only way to get to the rest of Wyoming (outside of riding a horse or hiking over the mountain) is a 20-mile drive through Idaho and over Teton Pass. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that residents of remote Alta, Wyoming, say they don't feel disconnected. "It's a farm country, they grow alfalfa and hay and things like that, there, but all kinds of other people live there. I talked to a man that works in Jackson, and so there's commuters for Jackson that actually drive from there into Jackson. It's about 40 miles to do that, or maybe a little more, but over the past in the winter, they told me that that gentleman told me that doing it in the wintertime now is not as bad as it used to be when he was a kid. It's got all the great beauty without all the people that are on the national park side of things, of the mountains, and they just say, hey, this is all we've ever known. But you get up in the morning, and there's the Grand Tetons." The 429-resident community sits in the Teton Valley along the road to Grand Targhee Resort ski area. There are no bumper-to-bumper traffic lines that back up as tourists vie for views of a bison in Grand Teton National Park or the mountain scenes around Jackson Hole. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/celebrity-bison-bellies-up-to-the-bar-at-codys-irma-hotel-for-fourth-celebration/]. — 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 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/] - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZ6-7-Nv-0ycvqgTIttIFQ] channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Friday, July 3, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 3rd. I'm Mac Watson – The City of Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspending taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a contractor for Meta contaminated the city's wastewater system. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that the process took months of cleanup. "The city announced on Thursday that it is suspending taking wastewater associated with data center systems after this bacterium was found back in February. Once the bacterium was found, the company, or the contractor, which is Goat Systems LLC, was effectively banned from using the city's sewage system. It took at least a week to 10 days for the state lab to determine what the actual bacterium was. It was something that the city of Cheyenne had never seen before, and there was speculation that it could be linked back to a data center, and that was confirmed with the announcement Thursday that it is connected to the Meta project called Project Cosmos." The announcement was made by the Board of Public Utilities on Thursday in conjunction with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial contamination. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/cheyenne-wont-take-data-center-wastewater-after-meta-company-contaminated-system/] – Recreationists celebrated Wednesday evening as the 18,800-acre Belvoir Ranch west of Cheyenne was opened to the public. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the new recreation area provides 13 miles of trails, giving hikers and cyclists a long-promised playground in the city's backyard. "This was the late Councilman Scott Roy Bulls Pet Project. Here, he was its champion for 20-plus years, the 23 years it took for this project to become a reality. He was always the one saying, "We have to open this to the public. It's an amazing recreational opportunity, you know, it belongs to the public. We have to open this to the public, and so, you know, after 23 years, finally it's come to fruition." The new trailhead and roughly 13 miles of singletrack and shared-use paths give hikers and cyclists a long-promised playground in the city's backyard, turning what was once mainly an insurance policy for future water and landfill needs into a full-fledged outdoor destination. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/after-more-than-20-years-cheyenne-opens-belvoir-ranch-to-the-public/] – The Wyoming Business Council's biggest critic in the Legislature, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, was mostly relieved at a Wednesday audit report showing the Wyoming Business Council isn't hiding any bank accounts. But Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports he says he still has questions. "That was scuttlebutt during the appropriations committees meeting, that lawmakers were wondering things like, do we even know what all the business council has going on, and so as part of the budget the business council was required to submit to a department of audit probe, and the department concluded, 'Yeah, there's not these outside accounts, pretty much everything's on the up and up, some negligible and documenting errors.'" Rep. Ken Pendergraft, from Sheridan, made headlines in 2025 when he announced a goal to eliminate the WBC. That's a government-funded entity that gives grants and loans to communities and businesses. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/wyoming-business-councils-toughest-critic-relieved-mostly-by-audit-report/] – Scattered human bones found in Wyoming's rugged Wind River Mountains nearly a year ago have been identified as a Scottish man. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that an investigator from Wyoming Game and Fish found the remains in a remote section of the Wind River Mountains near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station. "The remains of John Gillies were found near the Sweet Water Muddy Gap Station, and over the course of a 10 month investigation, detectives were able to piece together who he was based on those remains within a 20 mile radius. They were able to find about 85% of the skeleton and some personal belongings that then helped them link him to Gillies and his family in Scotland, and they were able to confirm on June 30 that he was in fact the person who had been found." Deputies found disarticulated skeletal remains, a tent, and personal belongings. Authorities have not announced the cause or manner of death. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/cheyenne-teen-accused-of-torching-rivals-truck-with-molotov-cocktail-after-breakup/]. – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – The Wyoming Board of Equalization is suing Gov. Mark Gordon back after he rejected its claims that the state's property tax caps are unconstitutional. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the board is asking Laramie County District Court Judge Nathaniel Hibben to declare that a state law capping residential property tax increases as unconstitutional, and to block its enforcement. "Governor Gordon had sued the Board of Equalization, trying to get the court to make it honor a 4% cap on property tax increases from year to year, and a judge last month said, 'Yeah, for now we're going to go ahead and make the board do that while we consider whether this law is constitutional.' The board fired back Monday with its own counter suit, urging the judge to declare the cap unconstitutional and to free the board from having to enforce it." This cap violates the Wyoming Constitution's requirement that property taxes be assessed at their full value and uniformly within property classes, the board alleges in its filing, through Davis and Cannon attorneys Amanda Esch and Cat Young. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/wyoming-board-of-equalization-asks-judge-to-end-property-tax-cap/] – Wyoming ranchers say a $99 million John Deere right-to-repair settlement doesn't go far enough. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports they'll get small payouts while John Deere keeps control over repair software and one rancher calls that an unfair settlement." "Farmers and ranchers are objecting to a $99 million settlement by John Deere in a right to repair lawsuit. farmers and ranchers say the settlement doesn't even come close to compensating them for losses they endured because of John Deere's proprietary software and diagnostic system. The window to formally object to the settlement opens July 14 and runs through September 14. During that time, any farmer or rancher who is part of this class action lawsuit can formally object to the settlement and seek fairer compensation. After September, then there will be a final hearing on the settlement in October in Rockville, Illinois." The class-action lawsuit claimed the tractor giant was monopolizing the repair market. Right-to-repair advocates say farmers should be able to fix tractors themselves or go to an independent repair shop. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/wyoming-ranchers-99m-john-deere-right-to-repair-settlement-doesnt-go-far-enough/] – An immigration advocacy firm is suing the Laramie County Sheriff's Office claiming the agency is withholding important evidence in a deportation case. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the Cheyenne Police Department confirmed Wednesday that the sheriff's office had issued an inaccurate report. "Kevin Lewis of Cheyenne is working for an immigration firm, and he alleges that the sheriff's office had a flawed report, had to reissue the report, and that the there were there was all sorts of back and forth about the body cam or the camera footage, the sheriff in turn told me on on Thursday, the deputy made some errors and we had him reissue the report, and there's also a specific set of lies, laws about how we can release camera footage." Colorado-based immigration firm Lichter and Associates, and its Cheyenne-based investigator Kevin Lewis, filed the lawsuit complaint Tuesday in the Laramie County District Court. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/lawsuit-accuses-laramie-county-sheriff-of-blocking-evidence-in-immigration-case/] – Clyde "The Buffalo" arrived in Cody for the Cody Stampede Rodeo and Parades, and his first stop Thursday was for a drink. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports the tame buffalo went into Buffalo Bill's Bar in the historic Irma Hotel. "He's been invited to lead off the Cody Stampede parades on July 3rd and 4th, and when he first got the Cody, his first stop was to the Buffalo Historic Buffalo Bill Irma Hotel, where he might be the first Buffalo ever invited inside and served inside. He's made a reputation for just being a very tame, affable bison, and he's going to be the biggest celebrity in town for Cody's Independence Day celebrations." Clyde's owner, Clint Mortenson, tells Cowboy State Daily, "He drinks what I drink. He likes bourbon and margaritas." No word on whether Clyde or his owner was carded by the servers. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/celebrity-bison-bellies-up-to-the-bar-at-codys-irma-hotel-for-fourth-celebration/]. — 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 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/] - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZ6-7-Nv-0ycvqgTIttIFQ] channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, July 2, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 2nd. I'm Mac Watson – The cause of last week's double fatal crash in remote Natrona County has been released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that the WHP says the tanker truck plowed into seven vehicles, killing two. "New details released by the Wyoming Highway Patrol on Wednesday morning show that a tanker truck driver failed to slow down or stop when traffic was queued in a construction zone on US Highway 26 This is about 45 miles northwest of Casper on Friday afternoon. The driver so far has not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says this is still a very active investigation." The crash happened at 1:50 p.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, with the WHP having identified driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the crash. As of Wednesday, no criminal charges had been announced. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/highway-patrol-tanker-truck-plowed-into-vehicles-in-last-weeks-double-fatal-crash/] – Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Wyoming cities and industries are worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir. "I did connect with a couple people from the municipalities of Cheyenne and Rock Springs, of course. Rock Springs is directly in the Colorado River drainage because of the Green River. Cheyenne is indirectly because of water rights trades. Some of the water that goes into Cheyenne is actually traded for water that comes off the Colorado River. And they both said, 'Yeah, I mean, this is not like an immediate emergency. Oh my god, we're going to run out of water this year,' but they are saying, 'Longer term, we've got to think of some better things, some better solutions, maybe some other sources we can go to for water, because this situation is getting dicey.'" Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks, who served on the Legislature's Select Water Committee says Wyoming may have to make some stark choices in the near future because "power generation is subservient" to irrigation water rights, he tells Cowboy State Daily. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/as-lake-powell-nears-dead-pool-wyoming-cities-and-industries-brace-for-impact/] – Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that one flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they "endangered children" and "exposed women to their radical transgender agenda." "Make Liberty Win is generally the flyer factory in Wyoming, that's an out-of-state PAC that spends a lot of money backing Freedom Caucus aligned candidates, they've started sending out flyers showing like Senator Kail Case and Representative Lloyd Larson in sheep's clothing, and you know, claiming that they had a radical trans agenda, and both Case and Larson said no, we had nuanced, careful close-up reasons for these votes that you can't, that they're not putting on a flyer, and then on the other side, Americans for Prosperity, which is a PAC that in Wyoming takes some pride in not resorting to cartoon tactics like that. They have gone out hard against House Speaker Chip Nyman because they've endorsed Senator Ogden Driscoll, and they have a bone to pick with some of Nyman's votes." Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, while Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/brace-yourselves-its-campaign-flier-season-in-wyoming/] – A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as the "Ultimate Civics Showdown" stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on national TV on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Miriam Washut says she had one week to prepare. "She is one of four sent to regionals in Dallas at the George Bush Library, and then is one of the top four that comes out of that, and then she goes to the Nationals in Washington, DC, where there were 20 kids she was competing against, and she came out on top with $150,000 scholarship, and got to go into the Oval Office and shake hands with President Trump. He presented her with a coin, and she said it was a great experience. She just said she never thought she'd be able to do something like that." Washut had to plow through more than 5,000 pages of books, foundational documents and biographies, as well as know the facts on 10 Revolutionary War battles. She then was tested at state and regional levels before the national finals competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/lander-homeschooler-wins-ultimate-civics-showdown-gets-handshake-from-trump/]. – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – After a rocky, two-year run for Gillette's Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic, Monument Health has struck a deal to keep the facility open. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the state-of-the-art facility will be plugged into the Mayo Clinic Care Network. "So Monument Health is going to be taking over the Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic, and it's kind of interesting because the Hoskinson family, when they built their clinic in Gillette, had promised they wanted this to be the Mayo Clinic of the West. Well, it's interesting to know that Monument Health is a member of the Mayo Clinic's network, and so, in a way, even though it's not the Hoskinson family that will be operating it anymore, they feel like they've fulfilled their promise." Monument Health, which operates five hospitals and more than 40 clinics and specialty centers in 14 communities across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming, has direct access to Mayo Clinic expertise and resources, a connection that has now been extended to Gillette. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/monument-health-takes-over-gillettes-hoskinson-clinic-which-was-losing-millions/] – Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, so says one politico. "Liz Brimmer, who's a longtime Wyoming politico, said, look, we already say don't Colorado my Wyoming, we're already pretty galvanized in like this independence that this will probably just harden that if anything, and it's it's just a different voice in the giant, the giant US House." Democratic socialist 29-year-old Melat Kiros, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening's primary election. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/now-colorado-dems-have-nominated-a-socialist/] – An 18-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of using a root beer bottle Molotov cocktail to firebomb the truck of another teen dating his ex-girlfriend. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that police say "he often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose." "Investigators say that the fire bomb, also known as a homemade Molotov cocktail, was made out of a Sprecher root beer bottle that was filled with a rag soaked in gasoline. During the investigation, detectives were able to find out that Seth Hayes had walked into a Menards earlier and bought a four pack of Spreckers root beer. They also learned that just hours before the arson occurred, he had posted Shabbosies, 'Let It Burn' onto his social media." Hayes is set for a Thursday preliminary hearing on a felony charge of third-degree arson. During his initial appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court late last week, a judge set his bond at $10,000 cash only. Read the full story HERE [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/cheyenne-teen-accused-of-torching-rivals-truck-with-molotov-cocktail-after-breakup/]. – A gun-friendly U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to overturn "assault weapon" bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area — and Wyoming gun dealers are all in favor. Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that dealers say that could make it easier to sell to customers in Colorado and other states. "They told me that, well, this would be good for us, insofar as we do get a lot of people coming from Colorado, which doesn't necessarily have a statewide ban, but does have some local bands as well as other states that might have statewide bans, we get customers coming to us. That's how Wyoming firearms dealers could benefit if the Supreme Court decides to do away with these bans on the national level, because it would open up a much wider market for them, and plus, you know, these guys just said on principle they just support the freedom for everybody." Colorado doesn't have a statewide assault-weapons ban, although there are some local bans, such as in Denver. There's a statewide prohibition on "high-capacity magazines" capable of carrying more than 15 rounds. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/01/wyoming-gun-dealers-eager-for-supreme-court-to-overturn-assault-weapons-bans/] — 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 [https://cowboystatedaily.com/] - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZ6-7-Nv-0ycvqgTIttIFQ] channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I'm Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.