Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, May 21, 2026

Cowboy State Daily Radio News: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 2nd, I'm Mac Watson – A Torrington family is in shock after finding their mutilated dogs partially submerged in the North Platte River. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that Angelica Garcia said two people made the grisly discovery of her dogs in the river. "The Garcia family says that they let their dogs out Friday morning, and they escaped, which was a common occurrence. They were known to get loose and wander about town. Angelica Garcia says that most of the time people would just bring the dogs back, and it kind of became a running joke in the community. The dogs went missing in the afternoon, and were discovered in the early evening by a woman walking with her young son. She found the dogs half submerged in the North Platte River. There were two Rottweilers, and it looked like they'd been blasted by a shotgun, one was missing its head, the other was missing its neck and its chest." Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor confirmed Monday that his office has an open investigation into the incident, but declined to comment on whether investigators have determined a cause of death or whether any suspects or persons of interest have been identified. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/01/torrington-family-says-rottweilers-were-mutilated-and-dumped-in-the-river/] – The poll U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray touted Monday leveled disparaging claims about opponents Reid Rasner and Steve Friess. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that the poll, conducted by Fabrizio, Lee, and Associates, claims Friess "never had a real job" and Rasner acted like a "Hollywood celebrity" during a marriage to "his gay husband." "They concluded that Gray was leading with 21% of the vote if the election were held mid May, but there was also a push poll phase, and I received screenshots shortly after reporting the favorable poll with very charged, very loaded attacks on Reid Rasner and Steve Freese. The commentary about Rasner was dredging up things from his 2020 to 2022 divorce proceedings, including a subjective comment saying he had hyphenated his name like a celebrity. The prompts about Steve Friess were calling him an elitist and calling him out of touch with Wyomingites." The survey was a poll of 400 Wyoming Republican voters from May 13-16th and reveals Secretary of State Chuck Gray leads a crowded GOP U.S. House race with 21% support. Casper businessman Reid Rasner is second at 14%, and Teton County's Steve Friess is third at 10%. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/01/chuck-grays-u-s-house-poll-leveled-disparaging-remarks-against-rasner-friess/] – The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by the 60-day sentence he got Friday. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that the woman's daughter says the sentence brings "deeper grief," not closure. "Kate Gladden, her daughter does not feel like justice was served, and they were quite disappointed because they had been hoping that the judge might take into consideration their victim statements and charge him with the full penalty under the law, which would be up to a year and $2,000 fine, but that did not happen. She stuck with the plea agreement for 60 days." 65-year-old Julie Fitzsimmons was visiting her daughter Kate Gladden and her husband Nate, in Sheridan. Julie died of blunt force trauma to the head after being struck and thrown more than 7 feet by the vehicle. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/31/evanston-has-spent-decades-and-28m-restoring-its-historic-railroad-roundhouse/] – A 27-year-old man accused of shooting another man and leaving him bleeding in a Cheyenne street after a blowup over a former girlfriend pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted second-degree murder. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that Adrian Maggos allegedly asked police how "the guy I shot" was doing. "He sat quietly along with 11 other inmates from the jail, they all were wearing the bright orange jumpsuits, the orange proxy, he had his legs were shackled together, and when it was his turn, he got up and didn't say much to the judge, just answered his questions, 'yes sir,' 'no sir,' and when he, when the judge asked him for how he pleaded to the charge of attempted secondary murder, he said, 'not guilty.'" The judge then set an Oct. 6 trial date for Maggos, while his attorney informed Judge Hibben that a motion to reduce his $250,000 cash-only bond would be filed in writing. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/01/cheyenne-man-accused-in-shooting-over-ex-pleads-not-guilty-to-attempted-murder/] – I'll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the teen girl accused of stabbing three horses in Las Vegas over the weekend tried to borrow one of her horses last month. Cowboy State Daily's Julie Mankin reports that Laura Nichols says "It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too." "She said we need to back up about a month ago at a big show in Utah. After that show, I got a message from a random girl out of the blue that wanted to know if I'd let her run one of my horses, and I wanted to help. I didn't really have one, and she just kept asking about these specific horses of mine, and, and so this weekend I looked to see if that was the same person, and it was the accused from Las Vegas, so it's just chilling." Nichols, who has earned more than $400,000 competing on the half-brother of one of the stabbed horses, said she's especially horrified by the attack. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/01/wyoming-barrel-racer-says-she-was-targeted-by-alleged-horse-stabber/] – A Cody-based search and rescue team helped coordinate the search for the body of "Alaskan Bush People" star Matt Brown. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that Brown's body was found Sunday after he went missing four days earlier after allegedly shooting himself along a Washington state river. "Bill Dohse, who founded Find 911 and OSAR, which is a national search and rescue group with many different partners from around the country. And so what Dohse did in this particular instance was work with his partner agencies to deploy assets to the scene in Washington, which was extremely remote and near the Canadian border, and the sheriff's department and family were very grateful to have those assets on the ground. Dosey was able to work from his incident command center on the side of the road because he was en route to Washington to get there when Brown was found." Dohse, a former Fremont County Deputy Sheriff and Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, founded the Cody-based search and rescue group founded in 2015 that specializes in finding missing people and pets. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/01/cody-based-search-and-rescue-team-helps-find-body-of-alaskan-bush-people-star/] –- This year's election climate could make the perfect storm for Libertarian Shawn Johnson to win Wyoming's U.S. House seat, politicos say. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that experts say if Johnson can court conservatives, and the winner of the GOP primary is hugely unpopular, he could have a shot. "Sean Johnson gave a speech at his Sunday nomination at the Libertarian Party convention, that was, I mean, it was visibly electrifying to the attendees, and I got to thinking about it later. It very much resembled the Declaration of Independence, where there was this list of grievances, grievance after grievance of tyrannies that the people have endured, and it ended with this, this call for revival, and this pledge of one's own honor to the cause. And I asked him Monday, did you mean to structure that like the Declaration of Independence? He's like, no, he was just speaking from the heart." Johnson will face the lone survivor of a hotly contested 10-person GOP primary contest, and the winner of a two-way Democratic primary election. Both major party primary elections are set for Aug. 18. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/freedom-caucus-member-scott-smith-challenging-curt-meier-for-wyoming-treasurer/] – Fifty years ago, the cameras rolled on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at Devils Tower after a handshake between a then-unknown Steven Spielberg and rancher Jesse Thomas Driskill. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that a high school student named Ogden Driskell (who would later grow up to be a current state senator) remembers Spielberg was adamant about not telling anyone about the movie before it debuted. "It was a funny story that Ogden told Spielberg swore them to secrecy about the movie because he didn't want the public to see that tower before the movie came out. He was just sure, you know, that nationwide people had not seen, did not know about this tower, and he knew the kind of impression it was going to make. His dad's the one who made the deal with Steven Spielberg, and Spielberg's like, 'I don't want anybody to know about that tower. Nobody knows about that tower. You have to keep it secret. Don't let anybody know what's going on.' But you know, so August, like, well, they thought he was kind of crazy." Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a blockbuster science fiction movie that was released in 1977. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg, it would go on to completely reshape tourism in northeast Wyoming. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/30/25-000-from-1933-kidnapping-ransom-could-still-be-buried-somewhere-in-cheyenne/] — 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: Monday, June 1, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Monday, June 1st, I'm Mac Watson – In a setback to the Wyoming Republican Party's long mission to gain independence from state law, a Uinta County judge Friday upheld multiple Wyoming election laws, dismissing the state Party's claims that its rights trump them. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Uinta County District Court Judge James Kaste's Friday ruling gives a concrete, but appealable, answer. "What we had was a hot springs county Republican party spat that exploded into a much bigger debate about whether the Wyoming Republican Party and its counterparts are private groups that have associational rights that trump the restrictions that state law places on them, and at least for this struggle, which pertains to some county membership and voting criteria, and the involvement of this basically the state party's arbitration committee, the judge said, 'No, the party's associational rights aren't that burden. The state does have a legitimate electoral public interest in keeping these processes orderly, and the laws are constitutional.'" If it so chooses, the party can appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court challenging the judge's decision. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/30/wyoming-gop-loses-autonomy-case-state-law-found-constitutional/] – Trucker Riaz Ahmad Noori is now facing homicide charges, accused of triggering a 26-vehicle crash in the Green River Tunnel in 2025 that killed three people. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that an affidavit says "human error was the primary factor contributing to these crashes." "Investigators say that Noori was going over the speed limit when he ran into the back of a pickup, setting off a multi-vehicle collision and pile up. He was going about 10 miles per hour over the illuminated posted speed limit. Despite snowy conditions, there was also ice on the road. So he's also facing litigation from a lawsuit that was filed in September, saying that he was driving recklessly and caused the fatal crash." The Feb. 14, 2025, initial crash ballooned into a 26-vehicle catastrophe that filled the westbound Interstate 80 tunnel near Green River with fire, explosions, and thick, black smoke. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/29/trucker-faces-homicide-charges-for-2025-green-river-tunnel-inferno-that-killed-3/] – Living homeless in a Las Vegas wash, hooked on meth, and surviving by the reflexes of his past gang life, Rusty Rawson turned to his adolescent son for guidance. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that the answer brought them back to Casper and a path toward recovery. "So they've been back in Casper 18 months, and they're going through the rescue missions discipleship program, and that has been a big change for Rusty specifically. But just having a bed to sleep in, a place to get a hot meal, and a community has provided the stability that they need to start thinking about the future again. And for Sterling, who is now 14-years old, the improvements are just monumental. I mean, here's a kid who didn't finish sixth grade, didn't attend a single day in seventh grade, and then he comes back, jumps into the end of eighth grade, and here he is graduating his freshman year from Kelly Walsh High School this week with a 3.8 GPA, and that's just because he has the support of this community." For the last 18 months, Rusty and Sterling have been staying in beds at the Mission, where Rusty has joined its Discipleship Program, and getting back to being a truck driver. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/31/how-a-casper-father-and-son-saved-each-other-from-lives-of-gangs-and-drugs/] – Halle Crozier of Buffalo is inspiring Wyoming's high school rodeo community as she fights to recover from a vaccine reaction that destroyed her body. Cowboy State Daily's Julie Mankin reports that Halle says she could've chosen to not get better, or choose to be positive and work hard to get better. "Rodeo is something that has allowed Halle to heal, and it makes her feel alive, and honestly, she has the heart of a cowgirl, it's been in her blood her entire life. Halley's grit and determination is so inspiring, and fans have gone so nuts to watch her, that the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association changed their rules after decades to allow this timed event star to partner with her as his second partner. It's usually only one partner, but they love Hallie and what she's done for the culture of rodeo." Despite limitations with lifting her arms and lingering balance and coordination problems, things are looking up for Halle. The 16-year-old got her driver's license last year. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/30/how-rodeo-is-healing-a-wyoming-teen-after-vaccine-reaction-destroyed-her-body/] – I'll have more news from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – Despite a series of bizarre, controversial, and sometimes outrageous campaign videos, Wyoming politicos say Reid Rasner's campaign for U.S. House is not a parody. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that state Rep. John Bear says, "Why would somebody spend this much money on a joke?" "You find commenters piling up in an ever-increasing mountain, asking, is this a parody? Is this satire? Because some of the videos are zany. I talked to people from both ends of the political spectrum in Wyoming, serving in offices or that have run statewide campaigns, and they said no. No one's going to spend $1.3 million ish, on a joke, and so, which is, you know, as of April 1, that's about the size of the Raisner campaign. His spokesman said that they reach people through social media, but they do also take hard policy stances and forward-thinking positions. I also spoke to one drama coach, Michael Stadile, out of Casper. He coached drama for 45 years. He said, 'If this is satire, this man gets an A.'" Rasner was among the earliest to declare for what's now a 10-person GOP primary contest for the House seat, which incumbent Rep. Harriet Hageman is vacating to run for U.S. Senate. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/democrats-now-have-parties-in-all-23-wyoming-counties-for-the-first-time-in-modern-memory/] – A century after Union Pacific stopped using it, decades of work has saved and restored Evanston's historic Roundhouse and Railyards. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that $28 million has been spent so far but it's one of the rare roundhouses in the U.S. that's still completely operational. "It's all part of the vision of a guy named Jim Davis. He was hired as the urban renewal manager, worked for the city for many, many years. His charge was to revital. He happened to meet and befriend an architect along the way, and that guy knew how to do historic preservation, and so you know by teaming up with people in the community they were able to forge a path forward to save the depot. That became a springboard for the larger project, the Round House; he built a core of people who could see the value in saving these old buildings, which there aren't many of them left in the country." The Roundhouse [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/08/26/ghosts-of-wyomings-railroad-heyday-haunt-evanstons-historic-roundhouse/] is a 63,000-square-foot, 96-foot-deep curved brick-and-mortar behemoth built around a post-and-beam interior. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/31/evanston-has-spent-decades-and-28m-restoring-its-historic-railroad-roundhouse/] – FBI files from 1933 reveal that $90,000 in ransom loot from a Machine Gun Kelly kidnapping scheme ended up buried somewhere around Cheyenne. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports about $25,000 is still unaccounted for. "According to FBI documents I found in a newspaper article at the time, the money supposedly they turned out the money to the FBI, but there's only of their take, there was $75,000 apparently in that suitcase, and the FBI accounted for like 38,000, but so there's like $25,000 that has never been recovered, whether that's remained in Cheyenne, was it taken to the West Coast. We don't know for sure." FBI documents from the time are not clear about whether all of that money was removed or recovered; however, the ground somewhere around the Wyoming Capitol in those months played a part in one of that decade's notorious gangster sagas. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/30/25-000-from-1933-kidnapping-ransom-could-still-be-buried-somewhere-in-cheyenne/] –- New research published by the Geological Society of America has revealed that Devils Tower is actually constantly moving. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that an international team of geologists determined that it's perpetually and ever-so-slightly swaying, twisting, and turning in the wind. "Now, the thing is, you'd never know that, because the amount of movement is less than a micro meter, that's 1,000,000th of a meter, so it's not happening on a scale that humans can see. They put two sensors at the base of the tower and one sensor at the top of the tower, and then they had the climb up, put the sensor up, then climb up the next day to collect it and analyze that data, and what they found were the signatures of vibrations that have a definite movement to them." Devils Tower is a giant, eroded plug of volcanic rock. It was an intrusive body of magma that cooled under the surface and was gradually exposed by millions of years of erosion. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/freedom-caucus-member-scott-smith-challenging-curt-meier-for-wyoming-treasurer/] — 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, May 29, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Friday, May 29th. I'm Mac Watson – Just weeks after unveiling a 3,200-acre data center expansion around Cheyenne, Microsoft is adding two more parcels totaling 420 acres. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the move comes amid a deepening debate over data centers, growth, and water. "They're going to add 420 acres to the overall 3,200 acre footprint that they announced in April, so that announcement in April tripled their footprint in Cheyenne. So it's adding on to what was already a pretty massive expansion as far as their data center footprint goes, and so you know, I don't know exactly what they plan to do on those parcels, they were very close-mouthed about that, they wouldn't answer any further questions." The two areas are on opposite sides of Cheyenne, but one of them, a 385-acre parcel, is near the 3,200-acre site, which is not far from Laramie County Community College. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/weeks-after-unveiling-3-200-acre-data-center-expansion-microsoft-adds-another-420/] – A 25-person team from the ATF is in Cheyenne to investigate the huge fire that burned a four-story apartment building under construction in minutes Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that the fire chief says it was "just a matchbox with open lumber, ready to go up at any time." "The fire chief said it's not a secret why it burned so fast, and it was so hot. It was under construction, so a lot of the finishes hadn't been put on, which a lot of those have fire retardants. What's interesting, that this giant, four-story apartment building, they were just at the phase of construction that you said, where they were going to be putting in, you know, the internal fire suppression system. Obviously, that's not happening now, but they said a lot of things went right for this fire to go as fast and as hot as it went." Cheyenne Fire Rescue Chief Andrew Dykshorn told Cowboy State Daily that ATF investigators have been at the scene since Wednesday and "bring the federal assets" to handle a major event like the fire at the Ridge View Apartments and Townhomes in north Cheyenne. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/a-matchbox-25-man-atf-team-investigating-huge-cheyenne-apartment-fire/] – Nearly two years after the decomposing body of a Cody man was found in a house after a drug bender with a female friend, the woman turned herself in to authorities this week. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that Brook Messick says she wants to take accountability for her actions. "Brooke Messick remembers a night of drugs and partying during the weekend, right before August 14 in 2024. She was leaving the house when she decided to go back in and check on a friend who was snoring loudly. She tried to wake her friend up; he would not wake up, and she decided to leave without calling the police or saying anything to anyone. Investigators say that loud snoring after you've been using hard drugs like methamphetamine is a telltale sign of a potential overdose.Toxicology reports later revealed that the victim died as a result of bad drugs. The fentanyl and the methamphetamine had methadone in it, and then later they were able to find on the suspect's phone, Google searches, looking up how to inject methadone." Messick is being held in the Park County Detention Center on involuntary manslaughter and drug possession charges on a $50,000 cash-only bond. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/cody-woman-turns-self-in-nearly-2-years-after-decomposing-man-found-in-bed/] – Yellowstone visitors were furious after seeing an illegal drone harassing a grizzly bear and her two cubs. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that the man who shot video of the incident says, "Everybody was madder than hell." "Someone was flying a drone near a mother bear and her cubs in mid-May. We don't know who it was, because the pilot was behind a hill at the time, but we do have the drone on video, and whoever was flying it was getting really close to those bears. The response to that video was pretty universal. Everyone was outraged, because it is illegal to fly drones in Yellowstone, and you certainly don't want to disturb the animals." If convicted of flying a drone in a national park, the person or persons would be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to six months in jail and $5,000 in fines. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/madder-than-hell-famous-mother-grizzly-harassed-by-illegal-drone-in-yellowstone/] – I'll have more news from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom right after this. Cowboy State Daily News continues now…. – Democrats now have parties in all 23 Wyoming counties with Niobrara and Lincoln counties finally reviving theirs. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Niobrara County is one of the reddest counties in the nation, but as of May 1st, it contains 35 registered Democrats, out of 1,233 registered voters. The Wyoming Democratic Party announced it now has county iterations in all 23 Wyoming counties. For the first time in the current leadership's memory, they couldn't even remember a time when they had 23 county parties, and they just secured that this month. And interestingly, there's a few interesting parts of this, is that some prominent Republicans have been calling for more Democratic presence, saying we're weaker when we're a one-party state. Also the Lincoln County Democratic Party Chair, Donald Shelton, was saying, 'I really want to galvanize workers and the working class and hear their concerns and get some momentum behind that.'" Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, in a Facebook post earlier this month, "All of us are better off with a functioning opposition party." Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/democrats-now-have-parties-in-all-23-wyoming-counties-for-the-first-time-in-modern-memory/] – Uinta County planners voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend permit approvals for a huge 1.25-gigawatt data center. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that one person who attended the standing-room-only meeting said, "Officials need to do their research on data centers." "In Evanston, the gal I talked to after the meeting, you know, she said she really hasn't made up her mind yet. She just has a lot of questions, you just want to understand things a little bit better. She wants to make sure the benefit is really worth any of the risks involved, and some of her questions I felt really were more about AI in general, and how it's being used in society." After weeks of questions and skepticism at public forums and on social media, most of the standing-room-only crowd listened quietly as commissioners voted unanimously to recommend zoning and conditional use permit approvals to Uinta County commissioners for the proposed 1.25 gigawatt, 500-acre, off-grid campus. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/uinta-county-planners-give-unanimous-ok-to-1-25-gigawatt-prometheus-data-center/] – Dashcam video released Thursday shows the wild end to a 120 mph chase on the I-80 where a woman was struck by her own moving car as she bailed out and ran on foot. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that according to officials, even with two flat tires, she was still driving more than 100 mph. "When deputies with the Albany County Sheriff's Office tried to pull over 45 year old Sarah Grayson, because she was wanted in connection to a vehicle theft. She took off going 120 miles per hour on I 80. Sheriff's deputies deployed stop sticks. The car, even with two pop tires, continued rolling at 100 miles per hour as it slowed. Grayson hopped out of the car, which is how she accidentally ran over herself. Law enforcement did take her to the hospital. She sustained minor injuries. She is wanted on felony warrants out of Sublet County, as well as the recent charges connected to a vehicle burglary and larceny." The Albany County Sheriff's Office reports the chase began around 6:25 p.m. on Saturday after a sheriff's sergeant spotted a stolen vehicle traveling eastbound near mile marker 323 on Interstate 80 in Albany County. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/wyoming-woman-flees-police-at-120-mph-gets-hit-by-her-own-car/] – Lingle-based state Rep. Scott Smith, a member of the Freedom Caucus, is challenging Wyoming Treasurer Curt Meier for his seat. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Smith says he wants to increase Wyoming's wealth, while Meier says, "He says he's going to do the same thing I am." "Treasurer Kurt Meyer has a challenger, and that's Representative Scott Smith of Lingle, who's a two-term representative, served on the appropriations committee this year. Myers, he's a two-term incumbent himself, and he made headlines starting in October for having record high investment earnings for the state of Wyoming, generally surpassing minerals. I know there were some caveats to that, but it was the first time the analysts had seen it, had seen him pass those mineral pools that they were referencing." Three weeks earlier, Virginia-based group Make Liberty Win publicly endorsed Smith for the seat, though he hadn't declared an interest in it at that time. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/28/freedom-caucus-member-scott-smith-challenging-curt-meier-for-wyoming-treasurer/] — 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: Wednesday, May 27, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, May 27th. I'm Mac Watson. – Fifth-generation Wyoming rancher Trenton Thornock pitched a huge 1.2 gigawatt data center on family land to a skeptical Evanston crowd on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that the project is facing a rising tide of opposition against data centers locally and across Wyoming. "Prometheus Hyper Scale, unlike a lot of the other data centers, you know, they have made that public commitment to community engagement, and so what this meeting was all about was answering the public's questions here in Evanston, it was at times an emotional meeting, a little unruly at times. There were some people in the audience, who just yelled out questions whenever, who would challenge answers and basically say 'You're lying!' There was one person who accused Trenton Fornock of being a sellout because he lives in Texas right now. For the most part, though, it was a pretty civil meeting." Thornock says he started his company in 2020 with the idea of first innovating water cooling systems and doing things in a more sustainable way and second impr oving the economy of his home state. Wyoming has struggled with outmigration of its youth, losing most of them by age 30 to other states. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/prometheus-faces-skeptical-crowd-in-evanston-over-huge-1-2gw-data-center/] – A fire tore through an under-construction apartment building in north Cheyenne on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that one witness says the burning was so intense, the building was "a total loss" in minutes. "He said within 10, 15 to 20 minutes it went from just seeing some flames to pretty much being a total loss, and it had been collapsing on itself. While it was burning, they could hear explosions coming from inside the building. Being under construction, there's all kinds of tanks and things with whether you're welding or paint or anything like that. So, whatever they had in there, he said they could hear it popping off." The under construction building is in the Ridgeview Apartments located at 2025 E. Carlson St. just off Converse Avenue between Sam's Club to the south and Storey Boulevard to the north. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/fire-tears-through-cheyenne-apartment-building-in-minutes/] – State Rep. Mike Yin argued against a proposal by Chuck Gray to ban political party changes after Jan. 1st in election years. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports Yin wants to know why Gray is making it harder for people. Gray says it's an election integrity issue. "So, what the committee majority, not Mike Yin and not a few others, decided was they're going to ask staff to draft a bill that is going to ban party changes for like three quarters, nearly three quarters of an election year, and so they did that. So now staff is going to build that draft, and then at a later meeting of the committee, probably September, people can come and comment, and they'll decide at that point or later whether they want to adopt the bill, which would give it an edge going into the 2027 lawmaking session, if they do." The Legislature in 2023 passed a bill banning voters from switching parties between about mid-May and the primary election in mid-August of each election year. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/mike-yin-bristles-at-chuck-gray-proposal-to-ban-political-party-changes-after-jan-1/] – Two hikers on a multi-day excursion were helicoptered to safety by Teton County Search and Rescue after becoming ill on Monday. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that one rescuer says, "It sounded like they weren't prepared to hit as much snow as they did in the high country. "In this case, it wasn't a lack of experience or preparedness. The group knew that they were going to be encountering snow in high elevation on the Teton Crest Trail, and planned to be there for several days, but there was more snow than they anticipated, and they didn't find water to replenish their stores, because getting water off of smelting snow pack is not a bad way to work around carrying water on a trail like that, but in this case, there was a lot of snow, and not a lot of readily available water. At one point, the hikers even tried to boil snow to get water, but the National Weather Service says that one inch of liquid water is equivalent to 12 inches of snow, and even though they tried, they just didn't have enough to hydrate all four of them. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/hikers-rescued-from-death-canyon-shelf-in-in-grand-teton-national-park/] – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – After losing both of her siblings to a male grizzly's attack last spring and then splitting from her mother at an unusually tender age, the young grizzly named Miracle hadn't been seen this spring. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that all changed when the bear showed up at Colter Bay on Sunday. "That's almost the exact same spot she was seen almost in exactly a year earlier, and I talked to a bear biologist up in British Columbia, who, who said, yeah, that tracks, because, especially with female bears, they'll establish a range and they'll establish routes to get around, and the person who took the video said it really seemed like she was, she was coming from from one wooded area, trying to get to another wooded area, in other words, she wasn't interested in hanging out in Colter Bay. She was just making that her route through, and the biologist said, 'Yeah, that makes sense.'" Wildlife photographer Marcela Herdova tells Cowboy State Daily that the 2.5-year-old Miracle appears to be in good health. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/hooray-miracle-the-young-grizzly-survives-winter-shows-up-at-colter-bay/] – A Casper man who admitted being a serial arsonist and starting numerous fires got 6-12 years in prison Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Dale Killingbeck reports that Dallas Smith sought probation instead of prison time, but the judge wasn't having it. "He apologized for his actions, said that he knew that he caused some people some financial pain, and he had said in an affidavit that he had started the fires to get rid of the pain. So he asked the judge, and his defense attorney asked the judge if he could get probation and serve time at a place in Sheridan, and the judge was not going to go along with that. She said, "First degree arson, we're not going to do any probation with that." Natrona County District Court Judge Kerri Johnson sentenced Smith to the six to 12 years, and he was sentenced to time served 270 days for three other counts of arson that were part of the plea deal. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/casper-serial-arsonist-who-says-he-tries-to-burn-the-pain-gets-6-12-years/] – Wyoming biologists say a wolverine that had a rare close-range encounter with a hiker in the Wind River Range mountains is the same animal they've been tracking for more than a year. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the animal has a huge range, being tracked over 200 square miles. "That's typical for wolverine range, 200 or even more. They are wide-ranging animals. The running joke, or the way I put it is, even a lot of wolverines isn't a lot of wolverines, because they are very typical, very typically solitary animals that have gigantic ranges and just don't have much to do with each other, so they're, they're not, it's not like elk, they're very widely dispersed animals, so it makes sense." The wolverine that Zachary Shifrel photographed from about 20 yards away [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/16/wildlife-watcher-has-incredibly-rare-wolverine-encounter-in-wind-river-mountains/] is a mature, 28-pound male, who was collared back in 2025, so say biologists Dean Clause and Rusty Kaiser. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/26/wandering-wolverine-wyoming-hiker-saw-was-tracked-over-200-square-miles/] – Wyoming meteorologist Don Day is skeptical about a popular weather forecasting website's prediction of a wetter-than-normal summer. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports that Day says Wyoming is a huge state for this kind of forecast. "The website Open Snow published their summer 2026 forecast in terms of temperature and rainfall, and they have above average or above normal rainfall for the entirety of Wyoming and portions of 12 other states. So I spoke with Cowboy State meteorologist Don Day about that. First off, he was skeptical because it's open snow. He said that they can be very ambitious with long-range weather modeling." Day tells Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming isn't a one size fits all state, so even if some places do see above normal precipitation for summer, that doesn't mean it's a blanket statement that's going to cover every spot in the Cowboy State. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/22/bison-attacks-and-kills-hiker-on-trail-custer-state-park/] 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, May 26, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, May 26th. I'm Mac Watson. – On Memorial Day, Bill Parr remembers the men he served with during a 22-year career in the Navy who never came home, but he won't talk about them. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that he spoke with Parr at the Cheyenne National Cemetery. "Parr told me basically what veterans usually tell me, that it's a day for remembering those who died, those who paid that ultimate sacrifice for America's freedom, and that he doesn't want to talk about himself. And when I asked him if there's anyone in particular that he was at the National Cemetery to remember, he just kind of got quiet and tears kind of came to his eyes and he just said yeah but I'm not going to talk about them and so that's a pretty common pretty common response." Parr tells Cowboy State Daily he enlisted in 1969 at age 18 and was quickly sent to Vietnam. He served two tours on river boats providing supply interdiction coming down the Mekong River. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/25/wyoming-veterans-remember-the-true-military-heroes-who-never-came-back/] – It's grizzly mating season in Yellowstone, and a pair of popular bears were too caught up in courtship to notice gawking crowds. But Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that the sweet scene isn't common behavior for bears. "People got a lot of really adorable pictures of them cuddling together, and I did talk to a wildlife biologist, who said don't mistake any of this for like human concepts of romance. Grizzlies don't fall in love, they don't pair bond over any great length of time. In fact, it's not unusual for female grizzly to mate with multiple males over the course of a mating season, because their eggs don't start to gestate right away, they have delayed, usually the gestation doesn't start until they actually go into their hibernation den to time it, so the babies are born around January." The amorous grizzly scene near Yellowstone Lake caused a bear jam for at least a quarter mile in each direction this past week. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/24/caught-up-in-their-courtship-mating-grizzlies-ignore-crowd-gawking-at-them/] – Meteorologist Don Day says reports of a Super El Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean are ludicrous. Cowboy State Daily's Andrew Rossi reports an El Niño is coming and will likely be beneficial for Wyoming. "Why Cowboys State Daily meteorologist Don Dey is skeptical, because a lot of people are trying to anticipate what the impacts of this El Nino will be six months from now, and that's based on long-range weather modeling and we have seven months now of examples of how bad long range weather modeling can be when it comes to predicting these trends. El Nino historically has meant wetter weather for Wyoming in the late fall, going into winter, and then the next spring, and if there's a super El Nino, there's reason to believe that there would be more of that, just more precipitation." A Super El Niño [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/03/24/although-good-for-wyoming-predictions-of-a-super-el-nino-greeted-by-skepticism/] is a stronger-than-normal El Niño, meaning the surface waters of the Pacific are warming along the equator. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/25/meteorologist-don-day-says-dont-lose-your-mind-over-possible-super-el-nino/] – Kelley Marshall was on track for a violent death when eagle-eyed cops recognized she was being trafficked. Cowboy State Daily's Jen Kocher reports that one trafficking expert says that "People think it doesn't happen in rural states like Wyoming, but it does." "Kelly Marshall wants people to understand that for sex buyers, that transaction that they think is an equal financial transaction, and most cases probably isn't, probably that person is being trafficked, and secondly, she really wants under people to understand how they can help, and that's the whole point of Truckers Against Trafficking, who she works for. They want to mobilize people on the front lines to help not only recognize it but report it." Marshall has channeled her own experience into educating others as a training specialist and survivor leader for Truckers Against Trafficking [https://tatnonprofit.org/tat-app/], a national nonprofit that prepares truckers, law enforcement, truck stop employees, port workers, and other individuals and groups to identify and report human trafficking. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/24/i-was-dead-how-eagle-eyed-cops-saved-woman-and-toddler-from-a-human-trafficker/] – I'll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this. Cowboy State Daily news continues now… – Judge Andre Rudolph grew up in Cheyenne, played running back for UW and once ran down a defendant to earn the nickname "Batman." Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that before the judge's sudden death last week at the age of 59, he also changed the lives of lawbreakers willing to take his help and accountability. "Judge Rudolph had a very human touch in the courtroom. He had a philosophy of justice that was more about life direction than punishment. He wanted people to be the best version of themselves, and he wanted them to see that they were not defined by their worst mistakes. As a result, his courtroom, according to his clerks and according to other witnesses, could feel a lot more like a mentorship conversation than a legal proceeding, and he had an outsized personality – just very gregarious, agreeable, sociable, but firm and intelligent." Raised by his grandmother and without the support of his biological parents in a Cheyenne home of meager means, he nonetheless thrived as a star athlete, honor-roll law student, and then became among the youngest judges appointed in Colorado. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/24/judge-andre-rudolph-grew-up-in-cheyenne-to-become-a-superhero-from-the-bench/] – Wyoming's Catholic Carmelite mountain monks are using computers, heavy machinery, and robots to build a massive Gothic monastery in the mountains of the Bighorn Basin. Cowboy State Daily's Jackie Dorothy reports that it's a stark contrast to the simple lives these men of faith live making coffee and raising cattle. "The reason the monks are building their monastery in the rural mountains, far from civilization, is because they're seeking a life of prayer and solitude, but they also want to build something beautiful for God, and the way they're doing it is building the monastery in the old Gothic medieval style, and they're doing it themselves. The quote they had gotten before was for 20 million to 100 million, and they've done it for a fraction of the cost using modern technology. Another thing that comes up is why use modern technology. You're medieval monks, but that is what monks do. They seek modern technology, so that they can spend more time in prayer." Wyoming's Carmelite monastery began in 2007 with $400 and a dream to build a Gothic-style monastery in the mountains of the Bighorn Basin. Today, it is estimated that the monastery's church, located along Meeteetse Creek, will be finished in another six years. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/23/wyomings-mountain-monks-simple-men-of-faith-go-high-tech-to-build-a-gothic-monastery/] – A 70-year-old tourist was killed after being thrown six feet in the air by a bull bison on a popular hiking route in Custer State Park. Cowboy State Daily's Kate Meadows reports that the sheriff says this is the first fatal attack by a bison in the park in over 20 years. "They were ahead of them about 1,500 feet, according to a law enforcement report. One of the bulls turned around and charged the woman. The husband called 911 from behind the tree, and help did arrive fairly quickly. However, by the time they arrived, the husband was performing CPR, according to reports, and the woman had already stopped breathing, so there was nothing that rescuers could do to save her. Michelle McElroy tells Cowboy State Daily that she took video on the same trail of two bull bison and turned around. She adds that if her family had known someone died on that same trail just a day before, "I wouldn't have taken my 5 kids on it had I known." Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/22/bison-attacks-and-kills-hiker-on-trail-custer-state-park/] – Wyoming's looser liquor laws — and higher elevations — make for memorable nights and steady business in Evanston on the state line with Utah. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that some call it Utah's "Sin City," where people go for booze, to place bets, and buy fireworks. "I was told by three different ones that they, they generally can spot the Utahns because they're the ones that are kind of looking over their shoulder as they're ordering a beer and a shot, feeling like they're doing something wrong that they're going to get in trouble for. Utah had for a long time 3.2% beer, and in 2019 they finally got rid of that requirement that beer had to be under that amount, and they actually had the Clydesdales came and did a funeral procession for 3.2% beer." A new Utah law that went into effect Jan. 1st that bans people [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/01/11/evanston-to-utahs-extreme-drunk-drivers-dont-try-to-buy-your-booze-here/] convicted of DUIs with a blood alcohol content of 0.160% or greater from buying booze. That makes Evanston's bars and liquor stores enticing for those who can't buy alcohol close to home. Read the full story HERE. [https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/24/evanston-is-utahs-sin-city-where-they-can-get-booze-bet-and-buy-fireworks/] 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.