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Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 8, 2024

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Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, August 8, 2024


It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, August 8th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom – brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair! Beginning August 13th in Douglas, the Wyoming State Fair has something for everyone. For more info visit WY-STATE-FAIR dot com”

The Campbell County Sheriff says a Wright, Wyoming, man who shot at a deputy just as the deputy exited his car Sunday has been identified as 55-year-old Christopher Morales. 

Sheriff Scott Metheny told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that the deputy’s body cam video shows that, just as the car dings to indicate that the deputy has opened his car door, Morales fires a shotgun.

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“In that moment, the shotgun blast hits the windshield in front of the deputy, or very near to where the deputy was, and so we know that there had to be this split decision, duck back into the car, or rush out and take refuge behind it. Matheny said that the deputy followed his training in using the car as a shield. And then, of course, he yelled, ‘drop the gun,’ and he returned fire and he killed Morales on scene.”

Metheny told Cowboy State Daily he believed that divine intervention was at work, protecting the deputy.

Read the full story HERE.

Dede Anders knew she was too sick to ride 620 miles across Mongolia, then was abandoned halfway around the world Wednesday. The Powell woman was there to compete in the Mongol Derby, but race organizers left her in a hotel room without medical care. 

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Anders told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that she didn’t even get to start the race.

“She recognized she wasn’t well enough, and then all they did was they got a driver to take her back to Ulaanbaatar from the start, which was an eight hour car ride while she had a pretty intense gastrointestinal illness… She had to reserve her hotel herself through Expedia and find her own flight home. So to say she’s not a happy camper is a bit of an understatement.”  

Anders said the earliest she’ll be able to leave Mongolia is August 11th.

Read the full story HERE.

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Now that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for this November’s election, the midwestern politician’s energy policies are in the spotlight.

No surprise, Walz is a big proponent, just like Harris, in pushing for clean energy initiatives – which for Wyoming, means a sharp turn away from fossil fuels, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.

“I think the buzzword here is green grid. He’s big on that, going completely green on alternative forms of energy like wind and solar by 2040, which kind of aligns with the Biden administration. So it’s going to be more of that with Tim Walz.”

During his tenure as governor of Minnesota, Walz placed his state on track to transition to “clean” energy even faster than California, which for decades has been at the forefront of efforts to tackle climate change.

Read the full story HERE.

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Landon Brown’s Republican primary opponent has resurrected a 2022 CNN interview in which he praised Liz Cheney and called former president Donal Trump “unfit for office.” 

But in a Wednesday interview with Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland, Landon Brown called Exie Brown’s Facebook post “old news” and questioned whether it’s relevant in 2024. 

“He said, ‘Well, I still don’t like the almost cult-like following of Trump. I reserve the right to disagree with him,’ but he said that he’s noticed more humility in the former president since the July 13 assassination attempt against him… he said he agrees with many of Trump’s policies, but he wants to hold conservative ideals higher than he holds the man.”

Brown doesn’t back away from standing by Cheney in 2022, saying he believes she defended the U.S. Constitution while in office. He also pointed to her conservative congressional record.

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Read the full story HERE.

A historic Wyoming ranch that has been in the same family since 1895 has just landed on the market, and it’s a humdinger of a listing.

The Antlers Ranch near Meeteetse is listing for $85 million. That makes it the most expensive listing in Wyoming now and, for once, it’s not from Jackson Hole. The property ranges from river bottoms and valleys at the low point to timbered alpine peaks at the high point — and everything in between, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.

“There aren’t many opportunities to own something like this. This ranch controls more than 40,000 acres, including 16,532 deeded acres. It’s been in the same family since 1895 – that’s almost as long as Wyoming has been a state. The history of this ranch, it’s just the history of Wyoming itself.”

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Antlers Ranch is a working ranch with plenty of housing for both its next owners and its staff, as well as a variety of buildings associated with making this a turnkey ranching operation, if the next owners so choose.

Read the full story HERE.

Just when it seems Wyoming has hit its boiling point with 100-degree temperatures in some spots, a cold front from Canada will cool things off in a big way Thursday and Friday.

The cold front started moving across northwest Wyoming on Wednesday and will shock people’s summertime systems with daytime high temperatures plunging anywhere from 10-30 degrees, depending on where you are, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.

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“We’re seeing close to a 30 degree difference between Wednesday in Cheyenne and Thursday in Cheyenne, the high is going to be 58 on Thursday. But the thing of it is, these kinds of cold fronts can bring seasonal change, but it’s still, too far in the summer for that to happen. So once we get into Monday, we’re going to get back into the 80s and the 90s that we’ve been experiencing.” 

The cold front from Canada won’t last long, and the summer heat will return by next week.  

Read the full story HERE.

Questions about the integrity of Wyoming’s voting machines grew a little more pointed this week after observers say a Monday test of Laramie County equipment was suspect.

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Laramie County Republican Party Chairman Taft Love on Tuesday filed an official complaint with the Laramie County District Attorney targeting Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee about the voting machine test she performed Monday. Love and others believe the test produced untrustworthy results, according to politics reporter Leo Wolfson.

“The ballots are supposed to be tested with different amounts of votes for each candidate. Well, that was not done in Laramie County. Most of the candidates had the same exact amount of votes. They performed two tests. And there were some other issues that happened, as well as like such as the ballots becoming crumpled and not really appearing to be read the correct way.” 

State law requires that all election tests be performed at least two weeks prior to an election, a deadline that came Tuesday.

Read the full story HERE.

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Even while auto manufacturers are pumping the brakes on investing in the future of electric vehicles, as car buyers think twice on making expensive purchases and recharging them, signs of a slowdown in Wyoming aren’t necessarily materializing.

Energy reporter Pat Maio says EV registrations are up in Wyoming, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is getting ready to see who can build out an infrastructure of charging stations along the Cowboy State’s interstates, and one major auto dealership in Cheyenne is seeing an uptick in sales.

“I spoke to Daryl Turrell, who owns the Chevrolet and Honda dealerships here in Cheyenne, and he says… there’s a lot of people coming up from Colorado to buy EVs, and what they’re getting are the big the new Silverado truck that just rolled off. Plus, he says there seems to be high demand for Chevy Bolt, another electric car.”  

Some analysts think it may be a while before EV acceptance in the region is ever embraced, though it is taking baby steps.

Read the full story HERE.

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Jackson’s Dierdre Griffith was the first Wyoming woman to win the Mongol Derby, splitting the victory with fellow rider and friend Willemien Jooste in July 2022. She knows what an arduous, strategic and life-changing experience it is to follow Genghis Khan’s horse messenger route through inner Mongolia.

Griffith told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi that the ride was stressful, adventurous and lots of fun.

2:22 7/31 “Her story was incredible. She did it with a South African writer who became a lifelong friend. And it’s not that she raised over $100,000 for charity in the process. It’s the fact that she used that money to … set up a postpartum depression program at St. John’s Health in Jackson … because the thing that fueled her into the race in the first place was she had just had her second child, and she struggled with postpartum depression both times.”

Griffith’s victory in 2022 was the first time in the history of the race – not only that two people from the same nation, but two people from the same state – won back to back victories. Wyoming riders won in 2019 and in 2022, with a two-year gap because of the COVID pandemic. 

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Read the full story HERE.



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Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat

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Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat


CASPER, Wyo. — David Giralt, a Casper-raised military veteran and conservative Republican, has announced his candidacy for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The congressional seat is being vacated by Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who launched a campaign in December for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis. […]



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Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

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Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate


It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.

WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026

Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.

CLASS 4A

Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)

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CLASS 3A

Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)

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CLASS 4A

Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)

Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic

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Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.

Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)

Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)

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Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)

Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)

Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)

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WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 1 Scores 2025-26

 

CLASS 4A

Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)

Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)

CLASS 3A

#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

Submit a Score to WyoPreps

CLASS 3A

Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)

Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)

Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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Submit a Score to WyoPreps

 

Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026

4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne

Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com





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Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

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Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers


Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.

The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.

“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”

Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”

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Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”

Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.

Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.

Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.

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“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”

The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.

Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.

Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.

Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.

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“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.

Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”

Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.

For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.

Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.

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In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.

“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”

But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.

“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.

While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.

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“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”

As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.

“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”



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