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[{"type":"text","text":"Our type of birthday celebration..."}]

You still here 7 27 23

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Thursday, July 27, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Our type of birthday celebration...

You Still Here? Thursday, July 27, 2023

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, June 3rd.  I’m Mac Watson

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Police in Montrose, Colorado, say a Gillette resident bought a gun in Wyoming, drove hundreds of miles and started randomly shooting. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that police say they don’t know why 42-year-old Eduardo Garcia Barrera did it.

“Barrera, a part-time resident of Gillette, bought a gun at a local sporting goods store in Wyoming, and then he drove 11 hours to Montrose, Colorado, where he then unleashed a fury of bullets in downtown Colorado, in a busy commercial section, he did strike a 22-year-old pedestrian before he ultimately turned the gun on himself. The 22- year-old victim is in stable condition.”

Police say the incident unfolded over roughly 35 minutes Saturday morning as Barrera fired at moving vehicles and pedestrians as he entered the western Colorado city.

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A Bozeman woman is home following a 24-day hospital stay after her hand was ripped off in a terrifying horse accident at the Montana State University rodeo practice arena. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports the woman’s husband and MSU rodeo coach sent team members to find the detached hand.

“Presely Whitaker was training a horse in a small enclosure with a rope, and something happened to spook the horse or buck her off somehow. The horse drug her through the arena and she hit a fence and broke her jaw, and that's where she also lost her right hand. Presley was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City, where surgeons tried to reattach her hand. However, the damage was too extensive, and they were unable to do so. Casey Ray Sellers, the rodeo coach at Gillette College, told me that she's seen people lose fingers in rodeo accidents and horse accidents. She's seen a lot of wrecked legs, but she's never seen someone lose a hand.”

On May 4, Presley was pen roping a young horse — a horsemanship technique that teaches young horses how to handle cattle and grow accustomed to working with a rope — when the horse she was on threw her and took off.

Cheyenne attorney George Powers, who filed a complaint calling for a criminal investigation against Chuck Gray for releasing sensitive voter data to the federal government, asked the Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday to appoint a special prosecutor. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports Powers wants answers.

“Powers has said, 'Well, get a special prosecutor, you know, find a way to rope in a special prosecutor. And then Kautz, the Attorney General, said, 'You know, I'm handling this in accordance with the rules, not in the public arena, so that's what that's what Attorney General Kautz said to Powers on May 4th, and so then Powers pushed again May 20th, like I need to know something's going on, we're probably, we can file a writ of mandamus, making you do the thing, so that so he did end up filing that writ of mandamus. Which is a petition to a court to make an official do something that is clearly that official's duty.”

Powers also asked the high court to issue an order “commanding,” Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz and the AG’s office to recuse themselves from investigating whether Gray could have committed a crime. It’s unclear whether the AG’s office already has, or has not recused itself from the matter. 

Cheyenne planners are recommending denial of most of the provisions in a huge 3,200-acre Microsoft data center expansion. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that one resident said during a marathon five-hour hearing Monday that this would overtake the city.

“A fifth of Cheyenne’s size, this 3200 acres coming into the city. It's huge. It's just a huge track that really did kind of put some scale to it. So the person who brought that up was one of the commissioners, Megan Connor, and she just wanted to know, you know, how did the planning people come to determine it's beneficial to the city? It's kind of hard to imagine, and then because it's in the beginning stages, Microsoft really hasn't planned it out, or you know, there's no way to know how much water it will eventually use, or you know exactly how many data centers will go there.” 

Only one part of the plan — assigning agricultural zoning to the 3,050-acre Highlands area if it is annexed — will reach the June 8 City Council meeting with a recommendation to approve.

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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A young grizzly named Storm got too close to a sandhill crane’s nest in Yellowstone. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the crane was having none of it and drove the bear off. 

“She apparently got too close to a crane, a sand hill crane nest, and so you see this, the crane came out, you all stood up big and tall with its wings spread out, being all intimidating, and stood the grizzly bear down. I talked to some bird experts, bird biologists, and they said, ‘Yeah, you know, birds whether they're big birds like crane or even smaller birds, they will take off after something as big or even considerably larger than them if they think their nest is at stake.’”

Drawing itself up to its full height, the crane towered over Storm with its wings spread wide in a display of aggression during their close encounter on Saturday in Yellowstone National Park.

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The city of Rock Springs is catching backlash after declaring June “pride month.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one councilman says people are upset.

“Councilman, Rick Malonis, was talking about how, you know, he cast it as ironic. They took a photo of the Pride display, the flags, and everything under a banner that said ‘In God We Trust,’ and so Malonis derided the proclamation, but the other council members that I talked to on Tuesday said that the backlash is being overblown.”

Rock Springs has declared June “pride month” for years, but this year’s proclamation has generated a surge of backlash, as shown through 543 comments on the city's Facebook post and 43 shares as of Tuesday afternoon.

A Casper man who tried to burn down his ex-boyfriend’s house last summer — but made sure to save his own pet snake — was sentenced Monday to six to eight years in prison. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the ex says David Lee Wilkinson “destroyed everything in my life.” 

“Casper Mann, 31 years old, faced his last day in court, presumably when he was sentenced for setting fire to his ex-boyfriend's home last summer, and the ex-boyfriend did testify to say that you know his relationship with this guy was great and terrible at the same time, and that you know he felt like he took a bullet for others that might be in a future relationship with him. He said that alcohol fueled a lot of his problems, and he had trauma in his past. Meanwhile, the defendant just sat at the table and kind of just sat there and watched and listened, and then when it was his turn, he apologized for what he had done.”

Wilkinson entered a plea deal with the Natrona County District Attorney’s office on Feb. 19 where both a first-degree arson charge for the July 16 fire and a domestic battery charge for an Oct. 11 incident were admitted via an Alford plea. 

Wild turkeys recently attacked an elderly California woman, leaving her bruised and bloody. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Game and Fish says Casper's urban turkeys “have absolutely established a reputation for aggressive, bold, and disruptive behavior.”

“Gaming Fish told me that they do get - they haven't had like in bonafide turkey attacks yet, but they've had instances of turkeys, you know, trying to fight people's dogs, turkeys chasing people, trapping people in their cars, those sorts of things. And I talked to a resident who lives right next to the downtown area, and she says, I haven't really had a run-in with the turkeys yet, but I don't get really close to them either. Don't take for granted that turkeys can't be aggressive.”

83-year old Mary Jo Kelly, of Alameda, California described the turkey attack as terrifying. She suffered severe bruising and cuts to her right hand that required stitches at a local hospital.

And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 3 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, June 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wednesday's headlines include:
* Gillette Man Dies In Shooting Spree
* Woman Loses Hand In Rodeo Accident
* Attorney Asks For Special Prosecutor For Gray

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Wyoming Life

Sports

A Bozeman, Montana, woman has returned home following a 24-day hospital stay after her hand was ripped off in a terrifying horse accident at the Montana State University rodeo practice arena.

Presley Whitaker, wife of Montana State University Head Rodeo Coach Kyle Whitaker, arrived home from Salt Lake City via a private last Thursday, nearly a month after the May 4 accident.

She came home wearing a neck brace, having also suffered a broken jaw in the altercation, and her right arm tucked into a black sling, without her hand.  

“She’s still in a lot of pain,” Kyle Whitaker told Cowboy State Daily.

The reality of hard days ahead started sinking in for the mother of two when she arrived home and saw her saddles for the first time since the accident, Kyle said.

“She’s really frustrated,” he said, adding, “that’s part of the process.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Accident"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Presley was dragged behind with her right hand wrapped in the rope. "}]

She was thrown into a fence, which broke her jaw and severed her hand, Kyle said.

Kyle was moving some other horses out of the way of where his wife was working when he heard a commotion. 

He said he was a couple hundred yards away and didn’t see what happened, but his assistant coach, Savanna Bolich, saw the whole thing.

[{"type":"text","text":"She called out to Kyle and then called 911."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kyle ran to his wife."}]

“I was holding Presley and I really thought she was going to die,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Two members of the MSU rodeo team who were there searched for the missing hand and found it outside the arena.

“The boys, they had to go find her hand — it had gotten thrown out of the arena,” Whitaker said. “It’s big stuff for college kids.”

Presley was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and then flown by helicopter to Salt Lake City.

That was the only way she stood a chance of getting her hand reattached, Kyle recounted.

[{"type":"text","text":"However, the damage proved too severe for surgeons to reattach her hand."}]

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Dean Folkvord was getting on a plane to Italy when he heard about the accident.

Folkvord is president of the Chute Boss Club, an organization that supports MSU’s rodeo team by donating and raising money to cover travel, equipment and ways to enhance the college rodeo experience.

Right away, he reached out to members asking how the club could best support the Whitaker family.

The most immediate need: get Presley’s husband and mother to Salt Lake City as fast as possible.

“They were lining up planes and getting that all taken care of,” Kyle said.

Kyle was flown to Salt Lake City in a private plane owned by Brett Walker of Walker Excavation. Walker is a member of the Chute Boss Club.

“He grabbed Kyle and got him down there,” Folkvord told Cowboy State Daily.

The Chute Boss Club rounded up another private plane to pick up Presley’s mother in Minnesota.

“We grabbed her and got her to Salt Lake City,” Folkvord said. “It was a pretty spectacular situation to get them both there. Presley’s situation was unknown at the time.”

Kyle said the fast, respond-at-any-cost support from the Chute Boss Club was amazing.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It just shows how generous people are around here,” he said."}]

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When Kyle recounted the horrific event to Cowboy State Daily, he spoke as if his wife were performing a routine task.

“She was just working with a horse,” he said. “It was the first day she could get out in the arena and do some stuff.”

The accident happened the first day after the college rodeo season was over in the arena the MSU rodeo team uses to practice. 

The Whitakers live on site at the MSU rodeo practice arena, and Kyle said his wife rides out there almost every day.

“She was just wanting to pen rope on a young horse,” he said. “I just sorted off a couple (of horses) for her to (work with).”

[{"type":"text","text":"What caused the horse to spook and throw her off remains a mystery."}]

“Nobody really knows what happened,” Kyle said. “She just somehow got thrown off. The rope must have half-hitched around her arm. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

According to Kyle, Presley was using only a breakaway rope when the accident occurred. A breakaway rope is a type of lasso used primarily in women’s and youth rodeo events. The rope is tied to the saddle horn.

Presley grew up around horses in southwestern Minnesota. For years, she competed in rodeo events and even climbed atop a bull once at a high school rodeo.

Kyle stayed with his wife for the first week she was in the hospital while friends cared for their two young daughters back in Bozeman. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Presley underwent multiple surgeries on her right arm and her jaw."}]

In a May 25 Facebook post, Whitaker shared an update on Presley’s condition, writing, “I spent the afternoon with Presley yesterday and I’m so impressed with her attitude and determination. Guess I shouldn’t be too surprised from the girl who once rode a bull.”

May 4, the day of the accident, also happened to be the first day of finals week at MSU.

That meant Kyle didn’t get to see most of his 50-plus-member rodeo team before they took off for the summer.

Still, he said, he heard from almost all of them. They signed cards for his family

“That’s pretty neat,” he told Cowboy State Daily. "Everybody says it’s one big family at MSU, and that’s because it is.”

Casey Rae Sellers coaches the Gillette College Rodeo team and knows Kyle through coaching. They have some mutual friends.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The rodeo world is small,” Sellers said."}]

“I know that the Whitakers are great people,” she said. “They’re strong in their faith and strong as a family and if anybody can get through this it’s going to be them.”

Kyle is described as “one of professional rodeo's most decorated athletes with expertise in all event areas” on the Montana State University website.

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On May 28, Presley arrived home via another private plane owned by another local businessman and member of the Chute Boss Club.

The private flight home, courtesy of local businessman Mark Bretz of Bretz RV, cut down on travel time, Kyle said.

“I don’t think I ever even met that guy,” Kyle said. “He was just another guy who wanted to help. It’s amazing.”

Getting the pain under control is priority No. 1 for Presley as she adjusts to life back at home, Kyle said.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Seeing her saddles for the first time it really hit her,” he said."}]

Her teeth need a lot of work, but nothing can happen with that until her jaw is healed, he said.

The family is hopeful that her arm will eventually heal enough to be able to support a prosthetic right hand.

[{"type":"text","text":"Presley is right-handed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s going to be a long process,” Kyle said."}]

He admitted that life for Presley was easier in the hospital, surrounded by professional support.

“It’s a huge change for all of us,” he said. “But we’ll get by. It’s just going to take time.”

Meanwhile, the Chute Boss Club has raised more than $85,000 for the Whitaker family, with future fundraising events in the works.

“People are resilient,” Folkvord said. “They want to be involved and they want to help other people. In this kind of situation, it’s step up with your checkbook — and they did.”

Sellers told Cowboy State Daily she had never heard of a hand being severed in a horse and roping accident, but she’s heard about plenty of fingers getting ripped off.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I’ve seen some wrecked legs,” she added."}]

“I think it just gives you perspective on how fast how this stuff can happen,” Sellers said. "We make a million runs a year. It’s bound to happen at some point.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We work with animals. Accidents happen fast.”"}]

A day after the accident, Kyle shared on social media a photo of he and his wife before the accident. 

In the photo, she is wearing a sparkling blue floor-length dress. He is dressed in jeans, a dark suit jacket, a white tie, and a cowboy hat.

"Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement," he wrote. "It’s going to be a tough road but with all of you in our corner I know we can adjust and still have a good life."

Presley Whitaker Recovering in Salt Lake City hospital

<title>Montana Woman Loses Hand In Rodeo Accident: 'I Thought She Was Going To Die' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Bozeman woman is home following a 24-day hospital stay after her hand was ripped off in a terrifying horse accident at the Montana State University rodeo practice arena. “The boys, they had to go find her hand,” said her husband and MSU rodeo coach.

Montana Woman Loses Hand In Rodeo Accident: 'I Thought She Was Going To Die'

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A young grizzly called Storm wasn’t prepared for an aggressive sandhill crane when she got too close to the crane’s nesting site.

Storm made a couple of pensive moves toward the crane, but the gangly bird was having none of it. Eventually, the baffled grizzly had enough and scrambled away.

Wildlife watcher and photographer Linda Ghent captured video of an encounter that typically would end very badly for the crane.

“What cracked me up was the crane’s little hop at the end. That little victory dance,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Upcoming Famous Grizzly"}]

Storm belongs to a famous Yellowstone grizzly lineage. She’s the daughter of Snow, one of the park’s most visible bears.

And Snow in turn is the daughter of Raspberry, likely Yellowstone’s most famous grizzly.

 for about a year and is feared by many of her fans to have died.

At age 2 last year, Storm split from Snow, who is now 3 and newly out on her own.

Ghent said that the bear’s youth and inexperience probably played in the crane’s favor during the encounter.

Ghent said she spotted Storm coming down off a slope on Saturday and settled in from a safe distance for what she assumed was going to be a typical grizzly-watching session.

However, the bear apparently got just too close for comfort to the crane’s nesting site, and the bird was all business as it came at Storm.

“They did their little ‘Sugarplum Fairy’ dance," Ghent said, referencing the familiar passage from Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic “The Nutcracker Suite.”

Ghent added that she didn’t see any crane hatchlings, which are called colts.

They’re so named because they have the ability to stand up and run almost immediately after hatching.

Some bird experts told Cowboy State Daily that they weren’t particularly surprised that a sandhill crane stood up to a grizzly.

Nesting cranes are nothing to trifle with, said Chris Helzer, the director of science and stewardship for The Nature Conservancy of Nebraska.

“Based on size, it looks like this was a fairly young bear (in the video), but sandhill cranes are well known for being strong and courageous defenders of their nests against predators of many sizes,” he said.

“The wing spreading and aggressiveness seems in line with other footage I’ve seen,” he added.

While they’ll fiercely defend their nests, cranes and other birds aren’t suicidal about it, Helzer said.

“There are plenty of other birds who show similar fearlessness against predators — small songbirds that mob crows or hawks, for example,” he said. "The size disparity in those cases is much bigger than the crane/bear example.

“The instinct to protect their progeny is strong, though they’ll rarely die in the defense of the nest. If they can’t drive the threat off, they’ll usually abandon the nest and try again,” Helzer added.

Courtney Rudd, a migratory bird and wetland biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said large birds like cranes are nothing to trifle with.

“The video is exactly how I would expect a sandhill crane to react to a threat at the nest,” she said. "Cranes and trumpeter swans are especially invested in their clutches/broods, and I'd put my money on the crane."

Birdwatcher and crane aficionado Gayle Irwin of Casper said she’s seen cranes stand up to animals many times their size.

“I watched a pair of sandhill cranes attempt to scare off a cow moose outside of West Yellowstone back in the early 1990s,” she said. “It was quite a spectacular thing to see.”

Crane faces down bear 6 2 26

<title>Sandhill Crane Gets Aggressive To Scare Young Yellowstone Grizzly Away From Nest | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A young grizzly called Storm got too close to a sandhill crane’s nest in Yellowstone, but the crane was having none of that and drove Storm off. "I'd put my money on the crane,” said a bird biologist about how protective sandhill cranes can be.

Sandhill Crane Gets Aggressive To Scare Young Yellowstone Grizzly Away From Nest

Julie Mankin

Crime & Courts

A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the 17-year-old girl accused of stabbing three horses during a major rodeo event in Las Vegas over the weekend was the same rider who tried to borrow one of her horses.

“About a month ago, I got a message from a girl asking if I had a horse she could run,” said Lora Nichols of Pavillion. “I said no, and she kept asking about each of my specific horses. 

“This weekend I looked to see if it was the same girl they arrested. It was! It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too. It could have been me just as easily.”

Nichols, who has earned more than $400,000 competing on the half-brother brother of one of the stabbed horses, said she’s especially horrified by the attack.

Along with Nichols, Wyoming’s rodeo community is shocked and appalled by the Tonya Harding-like violent rampage that left the three barrel racing horses stabbed multiple times.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened"}]

Las Vegas police report that the 17-year-old barrel racer was arrested in connection the attack on the horses of competitors.

The girl is accused of stabbing each of the horses multiple times inside their stalls during 

the NBHA Professional’s Choice Vegas Super Show at the South Point Equestrian Center.

The attack came just hours after one of the horses — a 6-year-old gelding named Saaul Good — had carried 20-year-old Hailey Krahenbuhl to a first-place paycheck of $1,805. 

The horse, which Krahenbuhl calls “Sully,” has shattered arena records this season and racked up $238,388 in earnings in less than four years competing. 

“Sully was stabbed multiple times last night,” Krahenbuhl posted to her Facebook page on Saturday. “I have no words. He is stitched up and in recovery.” 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reports that officers received a report at around 2:07 a.m. Saturday that a horse had been injured inside a South Point barn. 

When officers arrived, they learned three horses had been “intentionally injured with a sharp object” believed to be a knife, police say.

Veterinarians reportedly cleaned and sutured deep blade lacerations to Sully’s flank and shoulder. 

Another competitor named Keira Weisbart confirmed on social media that her horse, Rocket, was stabbed three times and had other “stab attempts around his body.” 

That horse was reportedly treated and released at the scene.

A third stabbed horse, however, underwent emergency surgery to repair muscle tissue damage. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Detail’s Ordeal"}]

Southern California barrel racer Arielle Phillips owns that third horse, a mare she calls Detail was stabbed multiple times.

, Phillips described the arrested teen as “a crazy obsessed stalker who has been following me on social media for a long time, obsessing over Detail, obsessing over meeting me.”

Phillips said she’d arrived back at the South Point barn to find the suspect hosing off Detail’s wounds.

“Cameras verified her entering our stalls,” wrote Phillips. “I can’t even put into words the pain I feel for my mare and for Hailey’s Sully.”

She said the attack has also affected her horse.

“Detail is traumatized,” Phillips wrote. “Every time she runs away from the approach of my hand, I burst into tears. This is my best friend. An innocent sweet horse was brutally tortured for no reason.”

While all three horses are expected to recover, they are sidelined for the near future and aren’t able to compete.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Champion Lineage"}]

Krahenbuhl, the daughter of a Las Vegas landscaper who grew up about 15 minutes from The Strip, had plans to hit the rodeo road with Sully — whose sire Winner’s Version has produced earners of more than $7 million — and make an NFR run in 2027. 

“We were a match from the beginning and my dreams became reality, all thanks to him,” she wrote prior to the attack from Globe Life Field during the $3 million American Rodeo. 

 to help with at veterinary for all three of the horses.

Nichols said she knows those other girls and is heartbroken for them and their horses.

“I’ve competed alongside Hailey a lot, and she’s an amazing human being,” said Nichols. “I think of the raw emotion and just the blood, sweat and tears she’s put in ­— you know, how hard she’s worked to get there. 

“When I heard it was her horse, I was just sick to my stomach.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, detectives located the suspect at a nearby hotel and took her into custody.

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. “It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too,” she said.

You Still Here? Thursday, July 27, 2023

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