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Many Washington State Locals Not Thrilled With Grizzly Reintroduction

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Many Washington State Locals Not Thrilled With Grizzly Reintroduction


If Wyoming grizzlies are selected to repopulate Washington State’s remote North Cascades region, they might not receive a warm welcome from locals.

“They are a major, major apex predator, they are at the top of the food chain,” Omak, Washington, resident Chance Cornell told Cowboy State Daily on Friday during a brief break from his job at a local hotel and casino.

He and his wife are avid hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, but Cornell said he’s not sure how he feels about possibly running into grizzlies in the backcountry.

“Now you’re talking about a grizzly bear. I think it’s going to come with some challenges. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t know,” he said.

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Northeast Oregon resident Bud Ludwigson told Cowboy State Daily that Washington’s North Cascades region has long been one of his favorite hiking and backpacking destinations.

But with grizzlies moving in, he’s not sure if he’ll keep going back.

“I guess as a hiker, a backpacker and somebody who ventures into the mountains, (the presence of grizzlies) is something that scares me when I’m in Yellowstone country, Montana or Canada,” he said. “When I’m here in Oregon or in Washington, all I’ve had to worry about are black bears. But grizzlies are on a whole other level.”

Bears Will Be Flown In

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies recently green-lighted plans to reintroduce grizzlies to the North Cascades. Wyoming was named as a possible source for bears to transplant. But there’s been no final word yet on where the first batch of reintroduced grizzlies will come from.

When the reintroductions begin, possibly as soon as this summer, bears will be trucked into staging areas. The sedated grizzlies will then be placed in nets or on platforms slung under helicopters and flown to release sites in the backcountry.

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Typical Concerns

Wyoming resident Rob Wallace is former U.S. assistant secretary of the Interior. He recently told Cowboy State Daily that in 2019, he went to Omak to represent the Interior Department during local public hearings regarding the grizzly reintroductions.

At the time, local resistance to the idea was strong, he said. Locals cited many of the same concerns that folks in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Colorado have about large predators such as grizzlies and wolves.

They expressed worry over grizzlies attacking cattle and possibly disrupting other existing land uses, Wallace said.

Will It Affect Tourism?

Cornell said the effects on tourism are also a concern.

“We do rely on tourism as part of the economy. There isn’t a whole lot of industry here,” he said.

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“There’s hiking trails, there’s biking trails,” and people also enjoy boating and fishing, he said.

With that many people out and about, the presence of grizzlies could put a new twist on things, Cornell said.

“They’re saying, ‘Oh, this is going to work.’ But what happens when it doesn’t work?” he said.

As to whether the reintroduction of grizzly bears could hurt local tourism, “I think it might,” Cornell said. “I think it might slow down. Or, maybe I’m 100% wrong and maybe we won’t see any change in tourism at all.”

Ludwigson said he’s also worried about what could happen when grizzlies return to an area where, unlike Wyoming, people aren’t used to them.

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“There are just a lot of unprepared people in those mountains,” he said.

Mixed Feelings

Cornell said he and his wife like getting outside as much as they can and hunt mule deer, whitetail deer, turkey and waterfowl.

“We are generally armed when we go to the outdoors,” he said.

However, the area where the bears will be introduced is “a national park,” where firearms aren’t allowed, he added.

“I don’t think (the grizzly reintroductions) will deter anything I’m doing. I’ve never seen a grizzly in real life out in the wild. We’ve seen some black bears. There’s something way different between a black bear and a grizzly,” Cornell said. “But where they’re going to be putting them, heck, maybe we’ll never see them.”

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Ludwigson said he’s tried to consider both sides of the debate over grizzly reintroduction, but ultimately leans against the idea.

“Just as a recreationalist, I don’t support it, and I don’t want to go up there and deal with that additional threat of a much larger mammal,” he said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.



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Wyoming

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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Read More Girls Basketball News from WyoPreps

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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)

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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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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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