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[{"type":"text","text":"University of Arkansas student tries sledding out this past weekend....."}]

Today in sledding 1 26 26

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

<title>Today In Sledding: Monday, January 26, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

University of Arkansas student tries sledding out this past weekend.....

Today In Sledding: Monday, January 26, 2026

 University of Arkansas student tries sledding out this past weekend.....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

 has been identified as Terry Zaske, 48, of Rapid City, South Dakota.

Zaske was riding his motorcycle on U.S. Highway 14/16/20 on Wednesday when he was struck by a Ford pickup truck that swerved into his lane near Wapiti, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said.

Zaske died at the scene. Zaske's wife, Candis, was LifeFlighted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, where she is recovering from serious injuries.

Kaitlyn Zaske, Terry’s daughter, also from Rapid City, 

 to pay for her father's funeral and cover her stepmother's medical bills. She described her father as a jovial soul and a doting grandfather, taken from her family too soon.

“My dad was so many things to so many people,” she wrote. “He was a son, father, grandpa, brother, uncle, and friend. He was my dad and losing him so unexpectedly has left a hole in our family that words cannot describe.”

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

Zaske and three other motorcycles were traveling west on U.S. 14/16/20 toward Yellowstone National Park when the eastbound pickup truck drifted into the opposite lane. The truck struck two motorcycles directly, including Zaske’s, which caused the motorcycles behind them to crash as well.

A Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) vehicle, traveling behind the motorcycles, attempted to swerve to avoid the oncoming truck. The truck clipped the WYDOT vehicle’s tailgate and continued into a field before coming to a stop.

Ten people and six vehicles were involved in the incident. Five people were seriously injured.

“One person was taken by helicopter to Billings for medical treatment,” said Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesperson Aaron Brown. “Another was taken by ambulance to Cody before being flown to Billings as well. Two others were taken by ambulance to Cody with non-life-threatening injuries, where they were treated and released.”

The Highway Patrol said the driver of the Ford pickup was responsible for the accident. Driver inattention and driver fatigue/asleep were the contributing factors.  

As of Friday, it’s unknown whether any charges have been or will be filed against the pickup driver.

U.S. 14/16/20 was closed for 5 1/2 hours as first responders treated the victims and cleared the highway of debris.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Permanent Pain"}]

Candis Zaske is still receiving medical care in Billings. Kaitlyn said her stepmother has “a long road ahead” that will keep her from working.

Knowing the costs of her father's funeral and stepmother's medical bills will be immense, Kaitlyn is turning to friends, family, and other motorcyclists for support.

“While no amount of money can ever take away this pain, we are asking for help to ease some of the financial burden that has suddenly fallen on our family,” she wrote. “Nothing is expected, but everything is appreciated.”

As of Friday, the GoFundMe had reached more than $8,000 of its $14,000 goal.

Kaitlyn shared that she and her father were attempting to repair their relationship after years of conflict when he died. She “will forever wish we had more time.”

“We were just starting to find our way back to each other,” she wrote. “Regardless of everything, he was still my dad. He was still a grandpa, and he loved all of his kids and grandkids with everything he had.”

Kaitlyn will remember her father’s humor and how much he enjoyed doting on his grandchildren. The accident “unexpectedly changed (our family) forever.”

“He had a way of cracking a joke and making anyone laugh, but one of the things I will always remember most was how much he loved his grandchildren and how much he loved to spoil them,” she wrote. “Thank you to everyone who has reached out, prayed for us, shared their love, or offered support during this heartbreaking time. It means more to our family than you will ever know.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Zaske family could not be reached at the time of publication."}]

Mix Collage 14 Aug 2026 05 36 PM 4823

<title>South Dakota Grandfather Identified As Man Killed In Multi-Vehicle Wreck Near Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Terry Zaske, a grandfather from South Dakota, has been identified as the motorcyclist killed in a multi-vehicle wreck near Wapiti on Wednesday. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says the driver of a pickup truck caused the six-vehicle accident. 

South Dakota Grandfather Identified As Man Killed In Multi-Vehicle Wreck Near Yellowstone

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Political action committees (PACs) attacking Republican candidates in Wyoming’s primary election are twisting some facts and misrepresenting others.

And they’re spending hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to do it.

The half-million-dollar Wyoming Way Action PAC has been attacking Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a U.S. House candidate, for his record on the State Loan and Investment Board, alleging that fields of wind turbines are “taking over Wyoming because of Chuck Gray" - which is an exaggeration. 

The $1 million Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, funded exclusively Gray’s father, Jan Charles Gray, as of July 29, has been attacking Gray’s opponent Steve Friess by casting him as having a “never Trump” agenda. 

That claim falls out of the bigger context of the Friess family’s long alignment with the president.  

That PAC also asserted Friess was born, married, and raised his family in Connecticut, which Friess says is altogether false.

And the $1.4 million Wyoming’s Turn PAC produced a falsehood against Sen. Eric Barlow this week by asserting he sponsored a gas tax hike in 2020, when in fact he voted against the bill it references.

[{"type":"text","text":"First, Chuck Gray"}]

The claim that Gray is making wind farms take over Wyoming is an exaggeration.

As secretary of state, Gray voted in favor of leasing state lands for at least three wind-farm projects. Those three measure 640, 2,400 and 3,079 acres.

But amid a broader campaign against what Gray called “woke wind,” he later opposed around 37,128 acres of wind farms slated for state lands. Those pertained to two far more controversial wind leases, one of which has landed Wyoming in court.  

Wyoming measures about 62.34 million acres, and about 2.4 million of that is state land.

“Its (sic) just more dishonesty from the Jackson Friess group,” wrote Gray in a Friday text message.

“I was the only member on the State Board of Land Commissioners who voted against and stopped the woke wind leases in Converse and Niobrara Counties,” said Gray. “The first time Governor Gordon threatened to fight me in January was because of my work to stop the woke wind lease.” 

. In the seconds before the confrontation, however, Gray was speaking dourly of Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, who’s also a former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice.

Just before Gordon asked Gray to step outside, the governor  warned him against casting “aspersions” against Kautz.

Gray has weathered attack ads from another opponent, Reid Rasner, who says Gray has registered Chinese-owned companies. The secretary pointed to 

, when he stripped North Korean businesses of their licenses.

“I've spent a much larger percentage of my life than Friess in Wyoming,” said Gray. 

He said his parents divorced and he was under a custody arrangement he couldn’t control as a boy, and split time between Wyoming and California.

“For Friess to attack that, when he spent none of his youth living here, is hypocritical and dishonest,” said Gray.

The PAC attacking Gray’s California roots is funded in part by Friess’s mother, Lynn, though not registered to Friess.

[{"type":"text","text":"Next, Steve Friess"}]

The ad against Friess asserts he “stiffed” President Donald Trump “while bankrolling never Trumpers like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney.”

Friess gave money to Cheney in 2013 during her U.S. Senate run, but not when she became a “never Trumper” starting in about 2021, Federal Election Commission filings show.

His donations to Cheney happened “before she went insane,” said Friess in a Friday phone interview.

Friess gave money to Romney during the latter’s presidential run in 2012 – another campaign that pre-dated the pro- and anti-Trump Republican divide.

The Friess family donated to now-Rep. Harriet Hageman in 2021, fueling her successful 2022 U.S. House run against Cheney.

As for Trump’s most recent election, “I might have forgotten to write a personal check, but we hosted a fundraiser that raised $6 million,” said Friess. “So I think I’m OK there.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The False Claim"}]

Wyoming’s Turn PAC launched a mailer this week accusing Barlow, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, of sponsoring legislation to hike gas and diesel taxes. It footnotes the 2020 House Bill 63.

The Revenue Committee sponsored House Bill 63, and Barlow was not then a member of it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow voted against the bill, and it died on introduction."}]

The flier also indicates that Barlow opposed rolling back the gas tax hike in 2013. 

In that year, rather, Barlow had tried to weaken a proposed fuel tax hike, House Bill 69, by cutting its proposed tax increases in half. The House rejected Barlow's amendment, and in the end he voted against the bill. It passed despite his nay. 

Barlow's spokeswoman Rebekah Fitzgerald said he's "constantly trying to be thoughtful in the way that he brings legislation. But ultimately when it came down to it, he voted no on raising taxes."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"So the disingenuousness of the claims continues,\" she added. "}]

One of his three Republican opponents, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, 

 that had cherry-picked her former lobbying work and juxtaposed it with her employer's bankruptcy leaving Campbell County in the lurch for taxes. 

Now Gray appears to be attacking another of his opponents, Kevin Christensen, directly.

Citizens for Chuck Gray, which is a candidate committee directly linked to Gray, ran an attack ad accusing Christensen of being “too liberal for Wyoming,” according to a video of the ad Christensen sent Friday to Cowboy State Daily.

“Christensen trashed President Trump, and Christensen stands against conservatives, siding with RINOs like Liz Cheney, trying to squash Trump’s agenda,” says the ad.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ad plays Trump’s voice saying “Chuck Gray. Great job, Chuck.”"}]

Christensen, a U.S. Army veteran of Casper, said this is the first attack ad against him of which he’s aware.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I feel that Mr. Gray is nervous,” said Christensen."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He also said he’s never donated to, spent time with, or known Cheney."}]

Christensen did criticize the president in April after Trump posted an AI-generated image 

 with light streaming from both hands and other religious imagery surrounding him.

“I felt that as a person of faith, I couldn’t stand by and not provide comment on that,” said Christensen. “I felt that was inappropriate and wrong, and I stand by having made that post.”

He said he supports Trump and believes Americans should not want to see their president fail or wish him ill. But he also said no president is above critique.

Gray has been asserting for days that polling shows him in first place and Christensen in second. He announced it on the debate stage at a Wyoming Public Television Debate last week in Sheridan, and has posted at least two selfie-style videos to social media, repeating the claim.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray has not published the complete poll."}]

Christensen said he’s been gaining support, and his word-of-mouth endorsements statewide have been exponential.

Friess, meanwhile, has launched an advertising campaign asserting that the “two-man race” is between himself and Gray.

[{"type":"text","text":"Just Who’s In This Thing?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming political strategist Bill Cubin weighed in Friday."}]

When Gray first claimed Christensen was in second place, “That didn’t’ make sense to me,” said Cubin.

“I think Chuck might have said that to kind of throw people off the scent of Steve Friess,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"But the recent attack ad lends the claim more credence, Cubin added"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“If they’re putting money behind it, it’s a real thing,” he said."}]

As for a two-man race, Cubin said it’s not that simple. Wyoming Republicans tend to galvanize into three groups, not two.

Those are the never-Trumpers, the semi-critical Trump supporters, and the people who “would walk on cut glass” to support the president, said Cubin.

If the attack ad against Christensen launched this week, however, “it feels really late in the game to be able to sink an ad like that,” he added.

Gray texted, “It's important for the truth to be told.  While the media has been repeating the lies of Jackson elitist Friess and his PACs funded by his billionaire friends, Kevin Christensen has actually been in second place in multiple polls.”

More than 21% of Gray’s donations came from Jackson residents as of July 29, FEC filings show.

Gray said he’d be happy to debate Christensen anytime, as long as Cowboy State Daily is not moderating.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About The PAC"}]

The Wyoming Way Action PAC, which attacks Gray, had raised $596,613 as of July 29 and spent $345,016.

Its sole contributor as of July 29 was the Outrider PAC, a $1.14 million outfit that runs on money from numerous donors including:

The Outrider PAC isn’t only helping Friess. It’s contributed to South Carolina congressional candidate Mark Smith, South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Dusty Johnson, and other Republicans.

Conservatives for American Excellence has been attacking Gray by pointing to his California roots. That’s a bigger PAC with a receipts tally this election season of $11.4 million. Not all of its spending goes toward Wyoming’s U.S. House race.

It has spent $7.4 million since January 2025. And as of June 30, all of that had gone toward races in other states.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Gray-Backing PAC"}]

The Hometown Freedom Action Network PAC that has been attacking Friess has been around since at least 2012 – long before this race took shape.

It’s raised $211,340 this election cycle. Its funding and spending are an estuary of out-of-state PACs, people and entities.

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess’s spokesman Tim Edson was much blunter than Friess."}]

He said Friess has run a positive campaign around an optimistic vision for Wyoming and is therefore “poised to beat Chuck Gray.”

“Chuck is losing, so he's lashing out with blatantly dishonest negative ads in a desperate effort to make Steve Friess as despised by the people of Wyoming as he is,” said Edson.

Though at least one of the PACs supporting Gray is backed with Gray’s father’s money, the PAC is not registered to Gray.

“It won't work because voters recognize that Chuck Gray is a self-promoting career politician and phony conservative who would backstab President Trump if he got to Congress,” said Edson.

Friess Christensen Gray 8 14 26

<title>False, Exaggerated, And Cherry-Picked Attack Ads Fly In Wyoming        | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Political groups spending millions of dollars on Wyoming's primary election are attacking U.S. House and gubernatorial candidates with fliers and commercials. Some of their claims are exaggerated; some are downright false.

False, Exaggerated, And Cherry-Picked Attack Ads Fly In Wyoming          

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Business & Tourism

Business

Sam Husted and Sam Rollins have spent five years working together at the Buffalo Chip during the Sturgis Rally, where they are known simply as "The Sams."

[{"type":"text","text":"They come from Wyoming for 14 days and work the entire 10 days."}]

The night YUNGBLUD played the Buffalo Chip, the line in front of them seemed like it would never end.

Drinks flew across the bar as quickly as Husted and Rollins could make them, and after a few days they were out of body glitter.

Beneath the Engine Bar, bikers gathered under an enormous canopy while motorcycles rumbled in and out, making it difficult to hear.

[{"type":"text","text":"For the Sams, all that noise meant business."}]

On a good night, Husted said, the goal was to walk away with $1,500 or more.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's exhausting, but so much fun,\" Husted said."}]

They bought a camper, friends came along and the two-week money-making marathon doubled as a strange sort of working vacation.

For the Sams, that's part of what makes the arrangement work. They can make in a night what might otherwise take days or weeks, then step outside into one of the biggest parties in the world.

"It's a good time. It goes by quickly," Rollins said. "And then you have a lot of money to show for it."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Money Grows Everywhere"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For most of the year, Sturgis is impossibly wholesome. Charming, even."}]

The little South Dakota town is tucked against the Black Hills, where old houses sit behind tidy yards and white picket fences, hollyhocks grow along the sidewalks and church steeples poke above old trees.

[{"type":"text","text":"In the dead of winter, it's a quiet place."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then August comes."}]

Trucks and trailers begin appearing in driveways. Hand-painted parking signs sprout in front yards. Tents and temporary bars go up. Main Street disappears beneath motorcycles parked wheel to wheel, and the low rumble of engines becomes the background noise of daily life.

[{"type":"text","text":"While the bikers come to play, an army goes to work."}]

For 10 days, bartenders like Husted and Rollins sling drinks until their arms ache. Hotel owners turn rooms as fast as people can leave them. Shuttle drivers prowl the darkness looking for fares.

[{"type":"text","text":"August in Sturgis is harvest season."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"And there is money growing everywhere."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Make Hay"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Sheraz Shah couldn't have picked a wilder week to become an innkeeper."}]

On Aug. 3, with the rally already in full swing, he officially took over the Sturgis Lodge and Suites.

[{"type":"text","text":"Almost immediately, he discovered he had a problem."}]

The motel appeared to be booked, but many of the reservations left behind by the previous management weren't valid, Shah said. Some lacked working phone numbers or credit cards, leaving rooms that had effectively been held for months without paying customers attached to them.

With one of the most lucrative weeks of the year already bearing down on him, Shah began canceling questionable reservations, dropping prices and trying to fill rooms.

The reservation mess left the new owner in an unusual position during a week when rooms around Sturgis can be hard to come by: He suddenly had vacancies to fill.

[{"type":"text","text":"So he got to work."}]

Shah was putting in days that started around 5 or 6 in the morning and stretched as late as 1 a.m., answering phones, fixing keys, checking in guests and trying to survive.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"God is helping me different ways,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"One thing Shah wasn't having trouble with was the bikers."}]

Movies tend to portray them as gangsters and troublemakers, he said, but the people actually sleeping in his rooms had been "very nice, very polite, very beautiful people."

[{"type":"text","text":"He said he hadn't had a bad interaction with a single guest."}]

For Shah, the madness is welcome because the economics of running a hotel in the Black Hills are brutally seasonal.

[{"type":"text","text":"Winter is \"almost dead.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We completely rely on summertime business to survive.\""}]

Despite the scramble behind the scenes, the rooms are clean, the pool is inviting and hot breakfast in the mornings comes with good, strong coffee.

[{"type":"text","text":"In Sturgis, you make hay while the Harleys roar."}]

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

[{"type":"text","text":"Nearby, another little economy unfolds."}]

Women in bikinis polish motorcycles for tips while their customers lounge beneath the shade, watching chrome become even shinier.

Some of the women say they spend much of the summer following the motorcycle circuit from rally to rally.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sturgis is only one stop."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"There is Daytona. Laconia. Four Corners. The Ozarks."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Where the motorcycles go, the workers follow."}]

There is an entire wandering economy chasing the bikes: bartenders, vendors, gate workers, security crews and more.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sturgis is its Super Bowl."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Viking Shuttle"}]

Sometime around midnight, Baron von Strauss is doing some of his best business.

 and describes himself as the son of a Norwegian soybean farmer from North Dakota.

He has lived in South Dakota for about 10 years, drawn by the beauty, the freedom and family scattered throughout the Dakotas.

About four years ago, his best friend, a former mayor of Sturgis, needed help driving dignitaries around during the rally. Strauss agreed and began handing his phone number out to passengers.

[{"type":"text","text":"They gave the number to other people, who gave it to more people."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"My phone started ringing,\" Strauss said, \"and it never stopped.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, he calls the business \"a cash cow all year long.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"During the rally, however, the real money starts moving after dark."}]

Strauss stays busy during the day, but his most lucrative hours run from about 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., when concerts let out, bars are roaring and thousands of people who have spent the night drinking and partying suddenly need someone else to get them where they're going.

He sees Sturgis changing, too. The old bikers are aging out, he said, while younger generations are beginning to take their place. He believes the rally could grow substantially in the coming years, and he points to his own business as evidence: Every year he drives the rally, Viking Shuttle grows.

[{"type":"text","text":"More bikers mean more fares."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"And more money."}]

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

[{"type":"text","text":"Eventually, the rally leaves."}]

The concerts stop, bartenders pack up and the women polishing motorcycles move on. Temporary campgrounds empty, vendors disappear and the procession of motorcycles begins to thin until the constant roar that has hung over Sturgis for weeks fades away.

The Sams head home to Wyoming. Sheraz Shah is left with a motel to carry through the slow season.

[{"type":"text","text":"Strauss gets his town back."}]

For a couple of weeks afterward, he said, Sturgis itself seems to be recovering.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're a little hungover,\" he said. "}]

This is the fifth year Sam Husted and Sam Rollins have gone to Sturgis to work at The Buffalo Chip. The Casper bartenders are known as 'The Sams' and they can make $1,500 per night. August is harvest season. And money is growing everywhere.

Today In Sledding: Monday, January 26, 2026

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CSD Staff

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Today In Sledding: Monday, January 26, 2026

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Authors

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