Wyoming
“It Was Hell,” Wyoming Couple Says About Pre-Dawn Raid By ATF Agents
Randy Kane was sound asleep in the wee hours Nov. 23, 2023, when, without warning, absolute chaos broke loose.
“All of the sudden there were lots of lights going on outside, pounding on the door and people screaming at us to come out,” Kane told Cowboy State Daily.
‘I Got The Full-Blown Mob Squad’
A team of federal agents, armed and in full gear, showed up at the door of the home he shares with Noreen Scroggins in Big Horn, a small community in Sheridan County, he said.
The agents were there to serve a search warrant for Kane’s house, pickup and person. The warrant was based upon accusations that, as a convicted felon, he was in illegal possession of numerous firearms.
Kane and Scroggins said they were baffled because, as they understood it, Kane’s firearms rights had been restored by the state of Wyoming.
And he had a certificate from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office to prove it.
But the time for those arguments would come later, Kane said. In the moment, he felt he had no choice but to comply.
“I got the full-blown mob squad. I think if I had resisted, they would have shot me,” he said.
“I had so many red dots on me, I felt like I was a porcupine,” Kane added, in reference to laser sights on the agents’ firearms.
Scroggins said she was also terrified.
“It was hell,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
“There were all these ATF agents with guns and body armor and drones,” she said. “They had already pulled Randy out of the house.”
They both ended up in handcuffs, spending much of that cold morning sitting in agents’ vehicles.
Kane said he was forcibly pulled from the house, wearing only undershorts and a T-shirt.
Scroggins was also unprepared to be outside in the cold.
“I just had my nightshirt on,” she said.
She added that when she hesitated to go outside, an agent threatened to come drag her out of the house.
Confusion Between State, Federal Laws
The raid might have resulted from a gap between Wyoming statutes and federal laws regarding restoring the rights of non-violent felony offenders.
A Wyoming statute restoring gun rights to nonviolent felons who had served their terms went into effect in 2023.
However, it remained uncertain whether that applied to people with felony convictions in federal courts.
That’s because the federal government still regards it as illegal for felons, even nonviolent ones, to possess firearms.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on Feb. 14, 2024, issued a statement warning that the Wyoming rights restoration statute doesn’t cover federal convictions.
“The (state) certificate purports to restore an individual’s firearm rights, which were lost because of a federal court conviction,” the agency’s alert said. “ATF is in the process of notifying those affected individuals, by letter, that the Restoration of Rights certificate issued by the State of Wyoming DOES NOT restore their rights to possess firearms and/or ammunition under federal law.”
Bill Aims To Fix The Problem
Mark Jones of Buffalo, the national director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), has long been critical of that gap between state and federal laws.
Last year, he warned legislators of what he considered to be a flaw in the Wyoming statutes.
Testifying before a legislative committee during the 2024 session, he used the story of what happened to Kane and Scroggins as an example of the peril the flawed statue could bring to Wyomingites.
He didn’t reveal the couple’s names at that time.
A bill expected to be introduced during the current legislative session could fix the problem, Jones said.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he plans to introduce a bill to “clarify” the status of the restoration of gun rights for nonviolent felons.
He added that the bill had not yet been formally introduced or assigned a number.
Jones said that GOA attorneys had “helped craft that legislation.”
Part of the bill’s intent is to prevent what happened to Kane and Scroggins from happening to anybody else, he said.
Governor’s Certificate
Kane, 63, is a Sheridan County native and said his family has lived there for generations.
He said he was convicted of a nonviolent felony drug offense in federal court more than 20 years ago.
He chalked it up to poor decisions at the time, and said he served about 2 ½ years in a South Dakota prison as a result.
“What I did was wrong, and I did whatever I had to do to pay the consequences,” he said.
He came home with new resolve to get his life back on track and said he’s worked hard and kept out of trouble ever since.
He loved serving with the Big Horn Volunteer Fire Department, though he recently retired from the department.
Kane also loves to hunt. And he was set to inherit a collection of firearms from his grandfather and father.
When he was convicted, his mother put those guns in safe storage, Kane said.
He said that when he found out about the Wyoming statute allowing the restoration of rights, he applied for it. He was approved and issued a certificate from the governor’s office.
Scroggins, 73, has no criminal record, and had some firearms of her own in the house.
She and Kane both said they were under the impression that although Kane might not be able to buy any new firearms for himself, he was legally clear to possess them.
Delighted at the news, Kane said he retrieved his family heirloom gun collection from storage and was soon out hunting again.
“Everything was fine, life was good again,” he said.
‘What Bombs? What Grenades?’
Scroggins had only just returned home from visiting family in another state when the raid occurred.
As the morning unfolded, she said she was utterly confused about what was going on, and why.
At one point, an agent asked her whether there were bombs and grenades on the property, she said.
“I said, ‘What bombs? What grenades? What are you talking about?’”
Kane said he was asked the same question and was likewise confused by it.
“I had guns that came from my grandad to my dad, to me. A lot of them had sentimental value. I didn’t have any bazookas, or bombs and grenades. They were just regular shotguns, hunting rifles and .22s,” he said.
They both said that they told agents about Kane’s certificate showing his restoration of rights, which was in the kitchen, but got no response.

Gun Safe Ripped Open
Scroggins said most of her guns were in one safe, while Kane’s collection was in another gun safe that she had bought for him.
Opening the safe containing Kane’s guns was “tricky,” she said.
Agents took him into the basement, where that gun safe was, and told him to open it – but he was struggling to do so, she said.
Scroggins said that when she offered to help open Kane’s gun safe, she was ignored.
A crew from the fire department – firefighters that Kane served with – was called in and used the “jaws of life” to rip the gun safe open, Kane said.
The jaws of life are a power tool used to rip apart mangled cars, to remove vehicle crash victims.
Kane said he felt terrible to see his fellow firefighters ordered to do that.
“They are a great bunch of people. I can’t believe they were put in that position,” he said.
The Guns Are Still Gone
The agents cleared the scene at about noon. The left the house in disarray. And besides ruining the safe, they broke several items during their search, Scroggins said.
Kane said the ATF seized 38 of his firearms, along with a few of Scroggins’ guns.
Kane said he was never arrested or served with any charges. His lawyer recently told him that he’s out of any legal peril.
The couple said that they still haven’t gotten any of their seized guns back.
ATF Denver Field Division spokeswoman Crystal McCoy told Cowboy State Daily in an email message that she isn’t “familiar with this case.”
She said she would look into it, although it might take some time.
Kane said they’ve tried to get back to a normal life, but the raid left them with lingering confusion and fear.
He said he still has trouble sleeping sometimes.
“It’s overwhelming, just being in my shoes and trying to tell the story,” he said.
One bright spot is having Jones and his gun rights advocacy group to back them up.
“He (Jones) has been great. I’m glad that I got lined up with him,” Kane said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Casper veteran David Giralt joins race for Wyoming U.S. House seat
Wyoming
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)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)
Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic
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)
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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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)
#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)
Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
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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Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
Wyoming
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.”
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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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