It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, June 11th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. “5 to thrive” is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.
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Some Wyoming public school districts are moving toward restricting homeschool families’ access to pre-high-school level sports and activities, just as two new laws empowering the homeschool movement are taking effect.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to a few public school superintendents, who theorize their peers are digging in their heels against the homeschool empowerment laws so they don’t have to participate in their own “demise.”
“I started writing this because the Freedom Caucus was like, you don't need to let the school know anymore if you're homeschooling… But as I dug into this issue, I realized that there's some schools that are now restricting some homeschool students’ access to school sports and activities… as you see this push to use public funds… for private school use, for homeschool use, you're also seeing some of the public schools like, whoa, wait a minute. Maybe we won't have such an open door policy offering some of our activities to homeschool students where we can help it, because these programs are chipping away at our foundation.”
Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that she will propose a law change in the coming weeks to prevent the districts from limiting homeschoolers’ access to middle school and junior high-level activities.
Read the full story HERE.
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A New Jersey man was gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday, making him the second person to be gored this year.
Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the incident occurred at approximately 9:45 a.m. in the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful, the busiest area in Yellowstone.
“A 30 year old man from Randolph New Jersey was in a crowd that was getting too close to a bison, and the bison turned in charge and gored the man. He escaped with minor injuries, and he was very lucky to do so… the thing is, bison goring is breaking news, but it's also the same old story. The National Park Service is consistent. Stay 25 yards away from all big animals, including bison, when you're in the park, but it also states that it's your responsibility to maintain that distance… and it seems that a lot of people are perfectly happy to disregard.”
This is the second bison goring in Yellowstone in 2025. The first incident occurred on Sunday, May 4, when a Florida man got too close to a bison at Lake Village. That man was also treated for minor injuries. Two bison gorings were reported in 2024 and one in 2023.
Read the full story HERE.
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The town of Evansville was jolted Monday after a man chalked swastikas on the walkways of town hall and leveled aggressive accusations against city leaders in protest to Pride flags displayed on city property.
Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag reports that after drawing the swastikas, Evansville resident Jeremy Brown marched into a public hearing and unleashed a vehement polemic against city leadership.
“The pride flags were put up by the mayor, Mayor Candice Machado, of her own accord, and it seemed like it caught some people off guard, because it was a very, very strong reaction. This person expressed a lot of animosity toward the idea of the pride flags… Jeremy Brown threatened the city that if they did not take down their pride flags, he has ordered swastika flags, and he is threatening to install them on city property beside the pride flags. So as to what happens if it escalates to that point, the city wouldn't comment, and we'll just have to wait and see if that's indeed what happens.”
Evansville Police Chief Mike Thompson told Cowboy State Daily the town has never had to address an issue like this before, but the department is on alert and on guard for escalation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Those disappointed in a plan to manage 3.6 million acres of federal public land spread across Southwest Wyoming, feel a reversal of fortune rising with recent efforts to steer the document back in the direction of more drilling.
Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that critics of the BLM’s plan point to a University of Wyoming study that shows the RMP could cost the state up to $245 million in lost revenue over four years, with oil and gas production taking a major hit that could ripple through local tax coffers.
“Clearly, the financial hit is something that critics of the original RMP are bringing up. Now, what they'll run into is a lot of opposition from the conservation community, who sees a lot of wild resources out there that they would like to see not develop for energy… what we have now is really a momentum shift, a policy shift coming from the Trump administration for all of these RMPs across the whole state… and supporters of an amended RMP really feeling good about what's next.”
The UW analysis found that various restriction scenarios in the controversial federal land plan could lead to revenue losses ranging from $40.8 million to $245 million through 2028.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back in just 15 seconds with more news.
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A motorcycle slamming into a concrete wall is the latest incident at a parking garage in downtown Cheyenne known for chaos.
Brian Snyder, who owns Bohemian Metals directly across from the garage and lives in an upstairs apartment above his store, says the hot-rodding generally starts every day after 5 p.m. at the Jack C. Spiker Parking Structure downtown on 17th Street.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the mayor, police chief, county sheriff and city council members all say they’re aware of the issues, and are trying to fix them.
“They're looking for an outlet to blow off a little steam. It's more frequent on Fridays and Saturday nights than other week nights, but it's mostly an evening time sort of problem… And what happened Friday is one of these individuals… evidently, piece of equipment failed, his clutch failed, or something like that. And so he he rammed into a concrete wall full speed… Imagine if somebody had been walking across there, you know, they would have been hit. Maybe this would have been a story about two injuries instead of just one… The city says they're they're ramping up enforcement.”
According to the Cheyenne Police Department, the rider involved in the accident was transported by ambulance to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries and ticketed for careless driving, riding without a motorcycle endorsement, and failure to provide proof of insurance.
Read the full story HERE.
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A year after a significant portion of Wyoming Highway 22 collapsed down the side of the mountain at Teton Pass, traffic will drive on a newly reinforced road over the “Big Fill Slide” as early as the end of this month.
The loss of Teton Pass devastated local commuters and communities when the road slid down the side of the mountain just over a year ago. But in what’s been called a “textbook response” to the catastrophic failure, the Wyoming Department of Transportation will open the new Teton Pass before the end of June, and Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the entire project is scheduled to be completed in July.
“A little over a year ago, there was no construction project planned for Teton pass. Then this catastrophic failure happened, and within a year, not only do we have a solution to Teton pass, and let's remind ourselves that the detour was ready for traffic in three weeks, but this is the now, at the end of July, we'll have the 70 year solution ready to go. So they've put a lot of time and effort into not only rebuilding the mountain, but ensuring that this will be the permanent solution.”
Drivers won’t see the extent of the $40 million project, which included new steel supports drilled into the mountain’s bedrock and a ziggurat-like structure of “reinforced fill” to provide additional stability.
Read the full story HERE.
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When a Bureau of Land Management rule under the Biden administration rolled out to shut down coal leasing in the Powder River Basin by 2041, Wyoming and Montana sued to reverse the attempt.
But now, with the BLM under direction of the Trump administration halting that to increase coal production in the Powder River Basin, tribes and environmental groups want to join the fight against the Wyoming and Montana lawsuit. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the groups successfully sued BLM twice before over inadequate environmental reviews.
“The tribes and these environmental groups are saying, Hey, we just went through this huge legal fight to put the RMP in the Powder River Basin, to put the policy there on track with our values, that it's time to move away from coal. It's time to move beyond coal. And that's not a message you hear in a lot of corners, in certain parts of Wyoming, but it is a national message, and it's one that conservation groups like the Sierra Club have really taken up… the Trump administration isn't interested in propping up an old policy from the Biden administration.”
The Powder River Basin accounts for 85% of all federal coal produced in the United States and more than 43% of all coal produced nationally.
Read the full story HERE.
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Life isn’t easy for coyotes in Yellowstone National Park. One coyote that tried to snatch a fawn from a herd of pronghorn in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley early Friday ended up running for its life with a band of irate does on its tail for more than 30 minutes.
The chase was captured on video by a wildlife observer, who shared a clip of the most intense part of the chase with outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.
“She said the entirety of the incident went on for more than a half hour. And she said even after the coyote hid down by a riverbank, the does were still walking around looking for me, eventually did get away, apparently none the worse for the wear, but just kind of highlights how dangerous it is for them… actually with wild canines, that's probably one of the more common causes of injury and death, is getting kicked or stomped or otherwise hammered by the very animals that they're hunting.”
The woman who captured the video said watching the pursuit unfold gave her a new appreciation for the tenacity of pronghorn, as well as the risks that coyotes take just trying to get meals for themselves or their own young.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
