It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, May 8th. I’m Mac Watson.
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The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is criticizing Sen. Tara Nethercott for calling for “lawfare” in a speech to attorneys. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Nethercott says she used the word not to disparage conservative policies, but “to defend the rule of law.”
“Lawfare’ is a charged word, and it conjures up working out some orchestrated litigation that's supposed to slow someone down or harm them. And so, she said that. She said, ‘We need lawyers to do lawfare to protect the rule of law.’ I'm paraphrasing, but when I listened to the full recording, they were talking about launching legal challenges. They weren't talking about shutting down conservative values. They were talking about what they considered to be unsavory campaigns and political tactics.”
Lawfare is a colloquial word that neither Black’s Law Dictionary nor Merriam-Webster define. The Cambridge Dictionary calls it “the use of legal action to cause problems for an opponent.”
Read the full story HERE.
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The two brothers attacked by a grizzly in Yellowstone on Tuesday are recovering after multiple surgeries at a hospital in Idaho. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a family member says they were both seriously injured, but “doing well and recovering from the horrific attack.”
“The family isn't releasing much information because they want the victims to recover peacefully and without interruption. But from what we were told by one member of the family, they're doing well considering the extent of the injuries they sustained the older brother. The older brother got the worst of it. He sustained serious injuries to his right arm and face and other parts of his body, and he managed to call 911, when the grizzly was done with him and moved on to his younger brother. The younger brother had a serious injury to his left hand and some swelling on his face from undisclosed injuries, but as of Thursday, both of them were able to stand.”
The aunt of the two brothers, ages 14 and 28, tells Cowboy State Daily that they’ve undergone multiple surgeries for extensive injuries inflicted by at least one grizzly on the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful.
Read the full story HERE.
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Tourism spending overall is up in Thermopolis, but short-term rental owners say the Star Plunge closure has gutted their bookings for a second summer. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a potential visitor says they know Starplunge is closed, so they’re just not going to Thermop.
“If you look at Airbnb stats for Thermopolis, that slice is down considerably during the summer months. So in July, it was down 15%, bookings were down. And then in August, they were down 20%. I talked with one of the Airbnb owners. He said he has visited with some of his regulars who haven't been showing up the last two years, and they told him, ‘Hey, you know, for us, the main attraction is the star plunge. If it's closed, we're not going to go.’”
Thermopolis Airbnb owner Dale Clark tells Cowboy State Daily that by May in years past, he would have had more than 1,300 views, but this year he’s only had 230, and very few of which have converted into bookings.
Read the full story HERE.
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Reid Rasner is attacking U.S. House opponent Chuck Gray in an ad that calls him “China Chuck” and features Chinese string music and a gong. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Gray says he’s proud to be the Wyoming secretary of state who “fought both China and North Korea.”
“What Gray has done is approach the legislature in kind of ‘untie my hands, please’ posture like, ‘Hey, we probably have Chinese bad actors registered in this state. Can you please give my office some more teeth?’ And then, of course, a couple years ago, he teamed up with the feds to dissolve some North Korean companies. He said that companies can be dissolved, but only under a narrow set of circumstances, a limited set of circumstances, and that he's been begging the legislature to do something about the issue that Reed Rasner now laments.”
Casper businessman Reid Rasner is one of 10 Republican candidates seeking the GOP nomination for the U.S. House in Wyoming’s Aug. 18 primary election. He’s attacked one of his nine opponents, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, repeatedly.
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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To nab trespassers hunting shed antlers on a ranch in Hot Springs County, Game and Fish put tracking devices in antlers and planted them around the ranch. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the first tracking device was picked up by a local 7-year-old boy, which got his father a ticket.
“There's a ranch in Hot Springs County that's been having chronic problems with people. They have it's intermixed between private and state property up there, and they've had chronic problems with people going up to shed hunt antlers and just being rude and trespassing all over their land to do this. I didn't realize the Game and Fish does this, but they do put tracking devices in certain antlers and plant them, kind of like a sting. They plant them on private property. People will come along, pick up the antlers, the Game and Fish can track it and say, ‘boom,’ you're nailed for trespassing while shed hunting.”
Miles Galovich, the dad who was cited, tells Cowboy State Daily that from his perspective, it was an innocent mistake. But he also has some questions about where the tracking devices were placed, making him wonder if “entrapment” was involved.
Read the full story HERE.
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A life-sized protest sheep in Jackson’s Town Square is a statement about “wool cruelty” in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that a lifelong sheep rancher says if it’s cruel to shear sheep, then “it’s cruel for us humans to get haircuts.”
“Wyoming is the top producer of wool in the country. That's why PETA is targeting Wyoming for this, this sheep statue. It's in the Jackson town square, which is a very public place that Amanda Brody, with PETA told me, is surrounded by shops that sell products that contain wool. So she said that, you know this area, this place is ideal for their message to be in a, you know, central location with a lot of shoppers who she hopes will be, more conscious about what they're buying after they see this statue.”
The traveling exhibit — created by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) — appeared Tuesday and will remain in the middle of Jackson through May 18.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Rawlins man living in a house full of knives with misogynistic messages scrawled on his front door told police that the woman who claims he assaulted her hit herself in the face. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the 46-year-old man will make his first court appearance Friday.
“On May 4, a woman flagged down a vehicle from the side of the road, claiming that she had been assaulted by her stepfather. When police arrived to Jeremiah Hall's residence, they found a red marker on the porch and a sign on the door that said, danger. Women, stay out. Kill her, beware, and other scribblings that law enforcement couldn't make out. Hall says they had an argument over dinner, and wouldn't let him eat in peace and he asked her to leave. And then Hall says that she began hitting herself until she started bleeding. She claims she went downstairs and when she came back upstairs, Hall assaulted her, and she claims that she believes she had a seizure, and when she came to Hall, was striking her in the face, the chest, the arms.”
Hall was arrested on Thursday and is being held in the Carbon County Detention Center on the 10 charges. If he is found guilty, he could get 44.5 years in prison.
Read the full story HERE.
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A bride who fell off a snowmobile during a wedding photography shoot near Smoot, Wyoming has made “America's Funniest Home Videos.” Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the clip, which shows the bride falling head over heels into the snow, was included in Episode 6 of the series' 36th season.
“It appears on America's Funniest Home Videos as part of their ‘Matrimonial Mayhem, Pranksters and Snow Snafus’ episode that aired November 2025 didn't qualify as one of the finalists for that episode, so they didn't get $20,000 for submitting it, but they got a free T shirt out of it and a lot of laughs. The whole thing was staged near Smoot. It was a snowmobile wedding shoot near Smoot in April 2025 so everyone went out there on their own snowmobiles. A couple was already married, but they were expert snowmobilers, and they agreed to get in their wedding attire again to go out there and do the shoot, just to give an interesting photo assemblage of having a wedding in the snow. And then they were riding around. They attempted to do a wheelie, and then the bride fell head over heels, off the snowmobile into the snow.”
Patricia Veronda Naumoff, a wedding planner and “adventure officiant” in Teton County, planned a snowmobile wedding shoot for a magazine in April 2025. Photographer Abbey Morales was enlisted for the photography.
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.
