It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Monday, February 23rd. I’m Mac Watson.
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The 2026 Budget Session has been interesting, to say the least. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports on what has happened and what can be expected from lawmakers this week in Cheyenne.
“We are coming up on Tuesday, crossover day, the day when bills that started in, let's say the House or the Senate should be crossing over. Should have crossed over into the other Chamber. For the other Chamber to that change, approve, reject them, and the budget negotiations are to start next week. Now recall last week the Senate decided we want the governor's recommendation for a starting point, so we're going to just wholesale revert back to the governor's recommendation and work our tweaks in from there. The House said, we do not want the governor's recommendation for the starting point. We want the much slimmer, much altered package out of the joint appropriations committee to be the starting point. And so all eyes are now on House Speaker Chip Neiman and Senate president Bo Biteman to see who they will appoint, what force of negotiator or ideologue, or statesman are they going to send into this fray to have so much power over Wyoming spending policy for the next two years.”
The 2026 Wyoming Budget Session is scheduled to wrap up and adjourn on Wednesday, March 11th.
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Cloud 9 was Cheyenne’s off-duty political clubhouse where former Gov. Ed Herschler, the only Wyoming governor to serve three terms, drank, smoked and mingled with everyone from hunters to Supreme Court justices. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that its boozy camaraderie and unbuttoned attitude evoke a looser golden age of Wyoming politics.
“What politicians love the most about this place is it was the place where they didn't have to be politicians. They could undo their top buttons, they could be themselves, tell stories cut loose a little bit, and sometimes they cut a little bit too loose. And an infamous story is when Gov Ed had so much he passed out right on the table. Capitol Police had to come and escort him out.”
The Cloud 9 bar was in the old Cheyenne Regional airport, which was close to the capital. This bar was just perched right over the tarmac, known locally as the ‘Jetsons Memorial Airport’ because of its unique parabolic architecture.
Read the full story HERE.
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As 41 states open their doors to NIL deals for high school athletes, Wyoming lawmakers backed by Sen. Gary Crum, a former UW lineman, are moving against it. But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that money is already available for teen sports stars — right next door in Colorado.
“Gary Crum, a former University of Wyoming football star. he doesn't want that in high school sports. There's one pointed question I put to Gary Crum, and I said, ‘Well, it could this set up a situation where a star athlete living in Cheyenne or Laramie suddenly moves across the border to Colorado, because they're able to cash in,’ and he basically said, ‘so be it. You know that I'm not saying you can't go pro as a high schooler, I'm just saying Wyoming should protect its amateurism at the high school level.’”
Senator Crum introduced Senate File 53, titled “Keeping Amateurism in High School Athletics.” The bill would write amateurism requirements into state statute for any student competing in a sport or activity sanctioned by the WHSAA.
Read the full story HERE.
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Cowboy State Daily is the only news organization that continues to follow the D.B. Cooper case. In the fourth installment of our series, Jen Kocher reports that a parachute found on D.B. Cooper suspect Richard McCoy’s family property was seized and tested by the FBI, then quietly returned in December, 2025, without explanation. Kocher says that closed lips from the FBI is fueling new theories about the notorious skyjacking 53 years ago.
“The parachute was found by a pilot and YouTuber named Dan Greider, who has been investigating this case for more than 20 years. He found the parachute on the family property belonging to Richard McCoy's mother in Cove City, North Carolina. So the FBI analyzed it for two years, and they told Richard they did soil test, DNA, as well as sending it out to an expert. They sent the parachute back in December 2025 and they told Richard McCoy, his son, that they're not ruling it out and they're not ruling it in. They couldn't conclusively tie it to the case, but they weren't ruling it out.”
Cooper’s actual identity was never discovered, but initial reporting dubbed him “D.B. Cooper,” erroneously based on a suspect who was quickly cleared.”
When Cowboy State Daily reached out and asked the FBI Seattle office for a comment, they referred to their 2016 statement, where they essentially closed the case pending any new evidence, adding they said they had nothing more to add.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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A Casper man traded his very successful tech career in Austin for a far different mission — helping women who were rescued from the sex trade in Uganda. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Lucas Rowley and his wife are teaching these women to be self-sufficient by tying high-end fishing flies and selling them in the United States.
“They've taught these abuses, women that were sexually abused,given them jobs, taught them how to tie flies, and now, through a website, they're marketing them to America from Uganda. So they're making them in Uganda, and they're marketing them to the Rocky Mountain region in the States. The ministry is also working with these women, you know, to teach them how to tie flies, but also to have financial understanding and to be able to, you know, live their own lives and develop skills that will help them in the future.”
Rowley tells Cowboy State Daily that he is trying to figure out ways to “empower the Ugandans” in things such as managing suppliers, doing customs paperwork, shipping, and the financial side of the operation, so they’ll be able to be more self-sustaining. The flies are sold online at rescueriver.com.
Read the full story HERE.
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The same milk sold in both Wyoming and Montana are sometimes tagged with different “sell by” and “best buy” dates, with Wyoming’s being a week longer. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the Wyoming Department of Agriculture says it’s all about the bureaucracy of milk.
“There are a lot of people who are saying that it was a protectionist move. It made it more difficult for other states to sell their milk. In Montana, because you had a you know, you gotta sell it within 12 Days of pasteurization. That's pretty difficult to do if you're not in Montana. The dairy industry says, you know, they want to make sure that when customers get their milk, it's the freshest tasting. It does ensure that you are getting a very fresh glass of milk with no chance of spoilage.”
Department of Agriculture spokesman Derek Grant tells Cowboy State Daily that Montana’s law requires all Grade A pasteurized milk to be sold within 12 days of its pasteurization. Whereas, Wyoming uses the typical 14- to 21-day industry standard.
Read the full story HERE.
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It took over a year for celebrated Wyoming bronze artist Chris Navarro to create the 15-foot sculpture of Steamboat located on the University of Wyoming campus. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Narvarro says the iconic statue is more than just a symbol of UW. It’s a symbol of Wyoming.
“You really have to admire the artistry that went into this particular statue, because steamboat has existed as a silhouette…But it's only existed as a silhouette in two dimensions for so long, Chris Navarro had to take that silhouette and embody it in a larger than life, 3-D bronze sculpture as a it's a permanent placement of Steamboat where it's most iconic and where it's most appreciated. But to think that now that this silhouette that everybody recognized has been actualized in three dimensions in a spot where it can be most appreciated.”
“A Deep Seat and a Long Rein” is a 15-and-a-half-foot-tall monument that stands in the new roundabout at Ivinson Avenue and 15th Street on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.
Read the full story HERE.
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Rick Edney is training mules to pull several wagons to recreate the freight train that hauled goods into Thermopolis in the late 1800s. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that Rick says it's time consuming but is exciting to reenact the feats of Henry "16-Mule Team" Johnson for ‘Trailblazer Days.’
“So this reenactment is to recreate 16-Mule Johnson. Henry Johnson was an immigrant who had 16 mules that he attached to his wagon train and would bring it through Thermopolis. The story goes that he wanted to be able to turn those 16 mules around easily, and so he talked to the store owner and town founder, Martin McGrath, who agreed that the streets needed to be wide enough to accommodate those 16 mules.”
To keep his team in order, Edney will use an old-fashioned jerk line and has been spending the last few months retraining his mules for this feat.
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 watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
