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<title>Bonus Video: Thursday, February 20, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bonus Video: Thursday, February 20, 2025

 Mark Hamill’s pants fell down on live television…

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

Numerous Wyoming Republicans are propping their messaging this election season on trans sports bans. 

Which has prompted a debate about who gets credit for the Wyoming’s set of bans on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s school sports. 

The reflexive answer is the bills’ sponsor, Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston. But Schuler in her Tuesday phone interview chuckled at her fairness-in-sports-bills becoming high-profile campaign fodder for others, and said, “it takes a village.” 

Her first blanket trans sports ban failed the state House of Representatives in 2022. Her second ban, for grades 7-12, passed the Legislature with 79 Republican lawmakers in favor. 

[{"type":"text","text":"So did her third girls’ sports bill extending the ban to college. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What The Candidates, Or The PACs, Are Saying"}]

Secretary of State Chuck Gray has campaigned on sports fairness in at least one YouTube video in his bid for the GOP nomination to U.S. House. 

Also the Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, which backs Gray, dispatched a mailer this summer noting he co-sponsored one of the fairness bills. 

As of July 29, that PAC had raised nearly $1 million and was funded exclusively by Gray’s father, 

The mailer shows a heavyset, hairy male with an ample chest, wearing a crop top, grimacing down at a soccer ball while smaller females frown behind him. 

It also says Gray “made banning biological males from women’s college sports a top priority” and notes that Gray “blasted” politicians who didn’t sue over President Joe Biden’s trans-friendly reinterpretation of federal education laws. 

Wyoming sued over those rules in August 2024, three months after Gray lamented it hadn’t. 

A message from the campaign of Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, who is running for governor, says she championed Wyoming’s ban on transgender athletes from high school into college. It also notes she led Wyoming’s 2024 litigation against the Biden administration over its reinterpretation. 

And the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which comprises a controversial group of Republican state House legislators, wrote in a Facebook post this week: “We protected women’s sports from men.” 

In context, Gray did not mobilize Wyoming’s enacted trans-athlete bans directly because the successful versions passed once Gray was in the executive branch, overseeing elections and business filings.

[{"type":"text","text":"Degenfelder has not served in the Legislature."}]

 have vocally promoted protections for Wyoming’s female school athletes. 

The record reflects that Degenfelder helped to lead the state’s litigation against Biden; and her department offered suggestions to strengthen Wyoming’s first successful trans sports ban. She joined 

 to petition the Biden administration in 2023, and co-authored 

 on the topic with U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman last year. 

As for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, whether the bans could have passed without its involvement depends on whom you ask. 

Freedom Caucus legislators voted in favor of each proposed ban, each year. 

“I don’t think any one group was better at getting it through than all of us,” said Schuler of the Legislature. “I was the biggest cheerleader. But I don’t think any one caucus should pat themselves too much on the back … you have to have a coalition when you’re trying to get a bill passed.”

Schuler said she tries to stay out of division and speak to lawmakers across the political spectrum. 

“It’s interesting the other folks are taking a lot of credit for having helped,” said Schuler, with a laugh. “I’m happy if they think they’ve helped in some way shape or form. But it was the Legislature, obviously, that helped get the bill across the finish line.” 

Sen. Tara Nethercott in a Sunday Facebook post urged people, “Don’t fall for Cheap Shots. Wyoming’s female athletes have been protected for years.”

The post says that “many candidates, and their caucus, are claiming they fought to protect girls’ and women’s sports.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"It adds, “Credit belongs where it’s due.” "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Schuler’s 2022 Bill"}]

Schuler, who is not a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, brought her first trans-athlete ban attempt in 2022. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray was on his last year in the Legislature. He co-sponsored it. "}]

It proposed a blanket ban on “students of the male sex” from public-school-backed sports from primary school through higher education.

It cleared the Senate with Republican Sens. Nethercott, Cale Case, and Drew Perkins opposed, as well as the chamber’s two Democrats, Sens. Mike Gierau and Chris Rothfuss.

The House killed the bill in a 21-37 vote against resurrecting it from then-House Speaker Eric Barlow’s drawer.

Barlow, now a state senator, is one of Degenfelder’s campaign opponents in the race for governor. 

He noted in a Tuesday interview that when the resurrection vote for Schuler’s bill came on March 7, 2022, the Legislature was focused on passing a budget and finishing the required, once-in-a-decade process of re-drawing legislative district lines. 

That bill would have died by deadline anyway because the chamber requires a committee vetting, plus one of three House readings per day. And the shortened session was almost over, he added.

The bill “largely mirrored Idaho’s law,” wrote Nethercott in a Sunday Facebook post. And Idaho’s law was immediately challenged and spent four years “tied up in litigation” before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in June, she noted. 

House Appropriations Chair John Bear, who led the Freedom Caucus at that time, voiced a different take on that vote in a Tuesday text message.

“The small number of conservatives in the early WYFC forced a vote to bring it out of (Barlow’s) drawer, which failed,” wrote Bear. “It wasn’t until the WYFC grew its ranks in the 2022 election cycle that we protected women’s sports, and the (bill that succeeded) didn’t protect ALL sports.” 

“It’s clear that these protections never would’ve happened if it weren’t for the WYFC forcing votes and accountability.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then Came 2023"}]

In the 2023 general session Schuler brought a narrower bill banning trans sports participation from grades 7-12, with a safety net provision to help the state resolve trans sports cases fairly if a court blocked the ban. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow voted in favor of that bill. So did Nethercott. "}]

“I believe that men should not be participating in women’s or girls sports, period,” said Barlow on Tuesday. 

Nethercott’s Facebook post says the bill was “crafted to better withstand constitutional scrutiny, and put protections for Wyoming’s girls into effect years before the Idaho litigation was finally resolved.” 

Gray’s now-House opponent Senate President Bo Biteman co-sponsored that bill. Yet, Biteman has not campaigned extensively, if at all, on this issue. 

Biteman did not immediately return a Tuesday voicemail request for comment. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The bill became law. "}]

“I thought about (adding) the collegiate section then,” said Schuler. But she decided to test the waters with the high school ban, she added. 

One more budget session, 2024, passed without changes to Wyoming’s trans sports law. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Volleyballer"}]

That autumn, the University of Wyoming’s women’s volleyball team started boycotting games with San Jose State University – after news broke that one of SJSU’s top players was transgender. 

Some UW volleyball women are still in litigation over what they’ve called a breach of federal education law. 

Schuler decided to broach the college sports topic again in the 2025 lawmaking session. So did another non-Freedom Caucus lawmaker, Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland.

“Hers was a little different than mine but not drastically,” Schuler recalled in a nod to Lawley.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lawley’s bill didn’t pass. Schuler’s did. "}]

Wyoming now bans trans participation in girls and women’s public school sports from grades seven through college. 

Gray in a Tuesday text message said he has a track record of protecting girls and women’s sports, and led the motion to foist the 2022 bill from Barlow’s drawer. 

Gray blamed its late-session failure on “insiders and the Left” and said, “Only after we continued the pressure to advance this common sense measure in 2022 and 2023 did it ever happen.”

“We must protect girls and women’s sports,” said Gray, adding that he would “continue working to protect girls and women’s sports as a member of Congress.” 

Wendy chuck 8 4 26

<title>It Seems Like Everyone Is Running On Wendy Schuler’s Trans Sports Ban | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Numerous Wyoming Republicans are claiming some degree of credit for a trans sports ban championed by Sen. Wendy Schuler.  Schuler says she's happy if they think they helped but it was the Legislature that got the bill "across the finish line.”

It Seems Like Everyone Is Running On Wendy Schuler’s Trans Sports Ban

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Gillette man who reportedly grew angry when his girlfriend wouldn’t “submit” to him is accused of raising a knife to her and threatening to “kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.”

Eduard Florea was bound over to Campbell County District Court on Monday on a felony charge of aggravated assault, which could land him up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

He allegedly grew angrier and angrier with his girlfriend as they argued Saturday when he repeatedly demanded she “submit” to him and she refused, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Gillette Police Officer Ethan Hayes.

Florea went to his girlfriend’s apartment that morning but became agitated when she asked him for money to help pay rent for the place she and their shared daughter live in, the affidavit says.

The girlfriend “stated during this argument, Eduard repeatedly told her she needed to ‘submit’ to him if he was going to continue helping her financially,” Hayes wrote. “When (the woman) did not agree to submit, Eduard grew increasingly angry.”

At one point, she left the house and returned about an hour later, but the argument continued. Then he left for another hour to go to a local store, but that also didn’t defuse the situation.

“When Eduard returned from Walmart, the argument again ensued,” the affidavit says. “This time, Eduard grew increasingly angry, and (the woman) stated she did not want to have Eduard share the apartment with her any longer and he needed to go back to his apartment.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another Level"}]

That’s when the confrontation took on another level, the affidavit says.

Florea repeatedly called his girlfriend “every dirty name in the book,” then retrieved a knife with a blade about 6 inches long, Hayes wrote.

He then allegedly threatened to kill the woman while their teen daughter was behind her.

“After grabbing the knife, Eduard got to within 3 feet of (the woman), while their 13-year-old daughter was directly behind (her mother) crying,” the affidavit says.

“Eduard raised the knife over his head, with the blade pointing toward (his girlfriend),” Hayes continues. “Eduard stated, ‘I will kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.”

Those threats continued for about six minutes until the daughter was able to get the knife from him and hide it, the affidavit says.

The woman told investigators that she remained calm during the altercation because she has had practice trying to weather Florea’s temper.

“When she replies in an aggressive manner, she gets hit, slapped, or choked,” Hays wrote in the affidavit. The woman “told me she was tired of getting treated this way.”

Florea eventually calmed down, gathered his belongings and left.

For his part, Florea denies the allegation he made threats while brandishing a knife, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"At least to a point."}]

When asked directly if he threatened the woman and their daughter in the manner they described, Hayes reports Florea’s answer was carefully constructed.

“Eduard was asked a very direct question if he threatened (the woman) and the kids. Eduard replied, ‘I would never threaten my kids,’” the affidavit says.

He admitted calling his girlfriend “every dirty name in the book” and yelling at her. He also said he told her to “submit” about “100 times,” Hayes wrote.

Pressed again about threatening with the knife, Florea gave the same guarded answer.

“Eduard denied ever raising it above his head and multiple times told officers, ‘I would never threaten to kill my kids,’” the affidavit says. “Eduard never said that he would never threaten to kill (the woman), just that he would never threaten to kill his own children.”

The man also said that his threats were actually explanations of things he wasn’t going to do to his girlfriend, the affidavit says.

“Eduard also stated, ‘I told her if I was some crazy Islamist, I would probably smash her and cut her up from the disrespect she gives me,’” Hayes wrote. He “admitted making threatening statements; however, stated he said it in a way of, ‘If I were any other guy’ this is what I would do to you.”

Florea was arrested Sunday and had his first appearance in Campbell County Circuit Court on Monday.

A preliminary hearing to determine if there’s enough evidence to continue with a felony prosecution is set for Monday.

Gillette police 5 31 23

<title>Gillette Man Accused Of Threatening To Kill Woman When She Wouldn’t ‘Submit’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Gillette man who reportedly grew angry over the weekend when his girlfriend wouldn’t “submit” to him is accused of raising a knife to her and threatening to “kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.” He could get up to 10 years in prison.

Gillette Man Accused Of Threatening To Kill Woman When She Wouldn’t ‘Submit’

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Public Safety

When Teton Backcountry Alliance Chair Gary Kofinas said goodbye to his friend David Page in Wilson on July 7, he had no reason to think it would be the last time they would see each other.

The two had planned to attend a meeting in Driggs, Idaho, about a proposal to expand Grand Targhee Ski Resort. But when it appeared attendance would be light, Kofinas decided at the last minute to stay home while Page continued over Teton Pass.

About 20 minutes later, Page's Subaru was one of 

multiple vehicles struck by an out-of-control dump truck

 on the east side of the pass. Page, of Mammoth Lakes, California, and Nicholas Besobrasow of Tetonia, Idaho, were killed.

For Kofinas, the tragedy underscored what many residents on both sides of the pass have known for years.

“What’s happening on Teton Pass is a pattern of repeated accidents and it needs significant attention,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

That conviction brought nearly 200 people to the Old Wilson Schoolhouse on Monday for a community meeting focused on one question: How can Teton Pass be made safer?

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Long-Standing Problem"}]

The meeting was organized by Kofinas and six other residents — Ryan Freeman, Randy Roberts, Corey Milligan, Nate Carey, Ellen Fales and Jared Smith.

"Seven of us got together and said, 'Hey, let's make this happen,'" Kofinas said.

Freeman and his wife, Salene, were sideswiped by a runaway box truck on the pass in 2025. The accident totaled their vehicle and damaged three others. Roberts watched in 2024 as a runaway RV coming down the pass crashed into the Exxon station in downtown Wilson, narrowly missing the gas pumps.

The gathering gave commuters, residents, public officials and crash survivors an opportunity to share their experiences and begin discussing possible solutions.

[{"type":"text","text":"The concerns and experiences are backed by decades of statistics."}]

Reaching up to 10%, Teton Pass, which carries traffic between Jackson and eastern Idaho, is one of the steepest highway grades in the continental United States, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Traffic reaches roughly 10,000 vehicles per day in winter and about 15,000 daily during the summer tourism season.

According to the Wyoming Department of Transportation, crashes on Teton Pass have increased about 20% over the past five years.

Kofinas estimates that since the highway opened in 1969, roughly 34 people have lost their lives on the pass.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Wake-Up Calls"}]

Eight days after the July 7 fatal crash, an 

RV that also appeared to suffer brake failure

 barreled down Teton Pass, weaving through traffic before reaching the bottom without crashing.

"That drove it home," Kofinas said. "People were already awake. It woke everyone up even more."

Among those attending Monday's meeting were two survivors of the July 7 crash, both of Wilson. Mike Fischer suffered 11 broken bones, and Belinda Gunn sustained six broken bones, according to Kofinas.

"There was good representation, good discussion," Kofinas said. "People spoke from the heart."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Searching For Solutions"}]

During the meeting, some questioned whether heavy commercial trucks should continue using the pass. Others pointed to inexperienced drivers, particularly tourists steering rented recreational vehicles over the steep grade without understanding the risks.

Kofinas said many visitors arrive unfamiliar with mountain driving or proper brake use.

A few commercial truck drivers who attended the meeting, however, said they routinely cross the pass safely by using appropriate techniques and argued that properly trained drivers can navigate the highway without incident.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's not a simple solution,\" Kofinas said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The debate isn't new."}]

Kofinas said he recently read a 1978 newspaper editorial warning that Teton Pass had not been designed for heavy vehicles.

"It could have been written yesterday," he said. "The road was intended for cars. And here we are."

Ideas raised during the meeting included asking the Wyoming Department of Transportation to establish a broader task force that would include state agencies, local governments and community members to evaluate potential improvements and identify the most effective long-term solutions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Building Momentum"}]

Representatives from WYDOT, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, county commissioners and county staff attended the meeting, along with residents on both sides of Teton Pass – Wyoming and Idaho.

Teton Pass is not technically within the county commissioners’  jurisdiction because it is a state highway governed by WYDOT.

Organizers ordered 40 pizzas for attendees, and after the meeting many lingered outside, continuing conversations about what comes next.

Kofinas said WYDOT representatives indicated the agency is paying attention to the community's concerns.

Cowboy State Daily reached out to WYDOT regional engineer Bob Hammond for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

While no specific action was taken at Monday’s meeting, attendees agree on one thing:

"The status quo is not acceptable," Kofinas said. "We just need to think positive, be forward-thinking."

Teton crash 7 8 26

<title>After Fatal Dump Truck Wreck & Out-Of-Control RV, Residents Demand Safer Teton Pass | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Nearly 200 people showed up Monday to discuss the safety of Teton Pass following a dump truck crash last month that killed two people and an out-of-control RV that barreled down the pass a week later. Crashes have increased by 20% on the roadway in five years.

After Fatal Dump Truck Wreck & Out-Of-Control RV, Residents Demand Safer Teton Pass

Seven months after allegedly kidnapping her 11-month-old son, fleeing the state, then 

 during a brief standoff with law enforcement, a trial has been set for Madeline Daly.

It will be another six months before a Grant County, New Mexico, jury trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 11, 2027, which was set during a July 21 pretrial hearing.

While the wheels of justice take time, there’s no amount of time that can make Jake Stoner feel much better since the death of his son, reportedly at the hands of his mother.

“There’s a special kind of evil at work here,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday as Daly, 35, sits in a southwest New Mexico jail cell facing charges of 

 and intentional abuse of a child resulting in death.

[{"type":"text","text":"Stoner said he’s still “pretty much” shellshocked."}]

He declined to discuss the legal and court process much ahead of the trial, but Stoner did say he would have preferred if she were facing a federal prosecution instead of state.

With a federal court, “she would face the death penalty,” Stoner said.

In New Mexico, there is no death penalty and life in prison also can mean a convicted felon could be up for parole after 30 years.

If convicted, Daly could face 30 years to life for first-degree murder and life for intentional abuse, according to New Mexico statutes.

“This is the most God-awful thing I’ve ever experienced,” Stoner said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘She Would Do It Again’"}]

Already wanted on a Wyoming warrant for kidnapping her infant son Basil, Daly was located near Silver City, New Mexico, just before Christmas last year.

As Grant County Sheriff’s Office deputies moved in around an RV she was staying at, Daly, who lived at an RV park in Ten Sleep before leaving the state, realized they were closing in on her, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in her case.

She allegedly shot her son, then tried to turn the gun on herself, but by then officers were able to subdue her, according to the affidavit written by Detective Lt. Jason Jordan.

She also reportedly told investigators afterward that she didn’t know why she shot and killed the boy, but that in her mind, she couldn’t let Stoner or his family have him.

“Even if the rest of life is worthless, she would do it again just so to make sure that the (family) didn’t touch him,” the affidavit says.

Daly told investigators that after officers stormed into the RV when she shot the boy, she “wasn’t fast enough killing herself after is all she can say about that,” the affidavit says.

Daly was wanted on a warrant out of Washakie County, Wyoming, after the boy’s father reported the infant missing Nov. 19.

Stoner, from Kilgore, Nebraska, shared custody of the boy with Daly and said she resisted him visiting their son. He last saw Basil on Sept. 28.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lands In New Mexico"}]

Daly had disappeared until she applied for a job near Silver City, New Mexico, the affidavit says.

The Wyoming warrant for her arrest popped up during a background check, the affidavit says.

For her part, Daly told agents after her arrest that she was keeping Basil “safe,” and that she knew she was breaking the law, but felt it was worth it for the sake of her child.

She said that’s why she ran into a nearby RV with Basil when she realized the law was closing in on her, the affidavit says.

She also made unsubstantiated claims that Basil “would have been in danger and molested if she would have stepped out of that trailer” and that his father “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”

When questioned about why she kidnapped her own son, Daly replied that “she was not going to allow her (then) 8-month-old baby go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month,” the affidavit says.

Daly said she wound up in New Mexico because she had worked in that area 10 years ago. She began working for some people there who “ended up ratting her out because they knew she was running from something,” Jordan wrote.

Daly apparently had been trying to blend into an unincorporated area near Silver City, Jordan writes in his affidavit.

She was living in a rented bunkhouse, and an officer who had a contact living near the bunkhouse was alerted and began “keeping an eye out for her return home,” Jordan wrote.

Coincidentally, another deputy saw Daly and her son earlier that day at a local restaurant, but at the time didn’t know she was wanted by the law.

“Madeline was last seen this morning by Cpl. Deputy (William) Mize at the Three Questions Café in Mimbres, but he was not aware of the kidnapping at the time,” the affidavit says.

The document goes on to recount that the deputy observed that “she was a bit evasive as she sat down with her son to have breakfast this morning.”

After getting the call from Washakie County, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office developed a plan to retrieve Basil, the affidavit says.

That included sending out five deputies to the bunkhouse. They had been tipped off that Daly had returned there.

“On arrival, Cpl. Deputy Mize saw a female subject running with a small child towards a motorized RV,” the affidavit says. “When deputies arrive to the motorized RV, they were confronted by a female subject later identified as (the owner of the RV).”

Daly later told investigators why she ran with Basil into the RV.

“I saw the sheriffs and I knew my time was up,” she said, according to the affidavit.

“When asked what went through her mind when she saw law enforcement walking up, she replied, ‘Jake can’t get Basil,’” the affidavit said.

Daly reportedly told investigators she assumed they had a felony warrant for kidnapping because she didn’t follow a judge’s custody order.

“So she said, ‘F*** it, it’s worth a shot,’” the affidavit says, adding that she considered her actions “worth it” if it meant keeping Basil away from his father and his family.

Seven months after allegedly kidnapping her 11-month-old son, fleeing the state, then killing the infant during a standoff with law enforcement, a trial has been set for Madeline Daly. “There’s a special kind of evil at work here,” said the baby’s father.

Bonus Video: Thursday, February 20, 2025

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