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Jake Nichols

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It's the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jake. Weekday mornings 6 - 10 a.m.

[{"type":"text","text":"Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!"}]

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

<title>Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake - Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Jake in the 307. Weekday mornings 6-10 a.m.

Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake - Wednesday, July 8, 2026

 It's the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jake. Weekday mornings 6 - 10 a.m. Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, July 8th.  I’m Mac Watson

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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A North Carolina man is still missing after jumping into the Snake River without a life jacket on Saturday.  Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that authorities have changed the mission from search and rescue to recovery.

“55- year-old Tory Rather of Charlotte, North Carolina, went missing near Alpine in Wyoming when he jumped into the Snake River on Saturday without a life jacket. Authorities say that he was swept up by the current, and they have been searching for days to try and recover his body. On Tuesday, Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson confirmed that this is now being looked at as a recovery and no longer a rescue. Johnson said, as time goes by, the likelihood of having a positive outcome goes down significantly. He is positive at this point. It is a recovery mission and not a rescue.”

Raether’s family sent Cowboy State Daily photos of the man and his wife taken just hours before the incident. Rafts, jet skis, a jet boat, drones, and search dogs have combed the Snake River below a popular cliff-jumping spot for days, all with one goal: bring Tory home.

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At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4th holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the owners say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough.

“This is going to come straight out of the company's pocket. They're estimating at least $12,000 in damages, and while they have insurance, their deductible is $1,000 and if their deductible is $1,000 and each portable toilet is treated as a separate incident. So, if they tried to file a claim to get the cost for the destroyed toilet, then they would get maybe $100- $150 each after their deductible. So, it's not even worth filing the claim. They don't know who did it. They have no way of identifying them, and there's not a viable path to collect on insurance.”

Co-owner Kris Vogele tells Cowboy State Daily that these aren’t the type of fireworks you can “buy at a fireworks stand in Montana. It had to have been a large explosive.” Vogele said he believes the fireworks came from Wyoming or the Crow Indian Reservation near Billings.

Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4th. But Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the Gillette carpenter isn't giving up on his electric-guitar dreams. 

“Matthew Raymond Lynch says the incident was horrifying. He said when he lit a firecracker that he'd been carrying in his back pocket for years, trying to be adventurous, it blew up almost instantly. He looked down and his hand was the craziest, most mangled thing he says he's ever seen. the damage was so extensive that his friend took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet to save Lynch from losing his life. Lynch is an artist, he's a musician, a potter, and a carpenter by trade. He says the road to recovery will be long, but he's already been talking to doctors and hopeful that he will be able to get a prosthetic, and vows that one day he'll be able to play guitar again.”

The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him.

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

The Green River City Council is considering finalizing a $112,000 grant it's been awarded to install license-plate readers in the city. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the mayor says the cameras could curb terrorism while former Libertarian lawmaker Marshall Burt says it's all “bullshit.”

“The police chief said, ‘Yeah, we're not looking to nitpick with these. We want to really amplify our response to things like missing and vulnerable persons cases or serious criminal flight cases.’ Marshall Burt, who is the first Libertarian ever that Wyoming ever sent to the legislature, said, ‘This is a slippery slope, because this grant is based on fighting terrorism, but these things can track people's movements and compile data on people's movements and patterns.’”

Green River applied last year for two Wyoming Office of Homeland Security grants and in January was awarded one for $111,956 to buy and install license plate readers for the police department, says the 

. Mayor Pete Rust tells Cowboy State Daily the police department spearheaded the grant application.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

A Casper man says he felt fortunate to rescue a baby pronghorn who got stuck in a cattle guard on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Dylan Heide says by posting the video, he hopes he can reduce the stigma around hunting and hunters. 

“It was a very young fawn, so he just gently lifted and twisted it out of the cattle grate and let it successfully reunited with what he assumed was a few does, and one of which was probably its mother. Dylan goes out a lot during the summer, scouting for pronghorn. He hopes to hunt in the fall, and he'd never seen one with its body stuck in a cattle grate before, but if this fawn was young, he estimated it was probably only a month old, if that, and it's just probably the first time I'd ever seen a cattle guard before.”

Heide shares his stories and perspectives on hunting and fishing in Wyoming on his 

 social media pages. He has a particular outlook on Wyomingites’ relationship with pronghorn and tells Cowboy State Daily, “The majority of us really care about wildlife.”

Allegedly outraged by a dirt bike zipping around his Albany County campsite, a man is accused of pulling two guns and brawling with three other campers over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that investigators say, at one point, Tyler James McGill “stepped back and racked the slide, and pointed.”

“What it boils down to is somebody riding a motorbike past somebody else's campground got that guy mad, and so he went looking for him down this camp. There were three men in the camp, and all four of them brawled. This guy took all three of them on, and at times during the brawl, it kind of the affidavit reads kind of like a movie script. he gets a gun from the waistband of one of the one of the other campers he's fighting, pointed at him, the guy wrestles the gun away from him, so he goes back to his campsite and gets another gun, it's just kind of a wild, wild tale at this Albany County campground over the Fourth of July weekend.”

McGill, born in 1996, could get more than 15 years in prison if convicted of felony aggravated assault and battery and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent.

A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Mead is defending the move, saying it was about solving health care policy problems.

“Sam Mead has political credentials and is waging a really staunch Keep Public Land in Public Hands campaign, and this, you know, conservative super PAC found that in 2019 he had donated $27 to Bernie Sanders campaign. The election filings show that, and Meade told me that at the time he saw a lot of harm from Obamacare, the Obama insurance policies that Wyoming pushed back against hard at the time, and he said that he liked a lot of Sanders' ideas on health care, and decided to back that.”

 post by Club For Growth president David McIntosh. The group calls itself the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation and has endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman.

Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities is not commenting further on the city’s data center sewer contamination. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that residents still don't know where contaminated wastewater was taken, why the public wasn't notified for months, or what safeguards are now in place.

“Residents in Cheyenne have a lot of questions still with the sewer reuse contamination that was announced last week by the Board of Public Utilities. Cowboy State Daily reached out to Mayor Patrick Collins and asked, should the public be worried about this being a public health crisis, and is there a chance that it could happen again. The mayor candidly told us that we should be worried, because there's always a chance that it can happen, and there's always something to worry about when you're dealing with, you know, public utilities and big corporations, that's juxtaposed to the Board of Public Utilities that told us they are not commenting any further on anything until they deliver this press conference in about a week.”

Last Thursday, the board announced that Goat Systems LLC, the corporate entity Meta uses during construction of its nearly 800,000-square-foot data center campus, was in “significant noncompliance” with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations. 

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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 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 2 7 7 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wednesday's headlines include:
* Vandals Explode 13 Portable Toilets
* Man Presumed Drowned In Snake River
* Guitarist Vows To Play Again After Losing Hand

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Wednesday, otherwise mostly sunny. Some severe storms possible. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain in some areas. Highs mainly in the 80s. Lows from the mid 40s to low 60s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Slight chance of rain, otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 7 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 48.

  Chance of rain mainly before 4 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Slight chance of rain, increasing clouds today with a high near 82 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 45.

Sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 48.

 Increasing clouds today with a high near 86 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 46.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 77 and mostly cloudy overnight a low near 43.

Chance of rain mainly after 2 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 89 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 11 p.m. and a low near 59.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 59.

  Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Chance of rain (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 11 p.m. (some storms could be severe) and a low near 60.

  Chance of rain mainly after 2 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 56.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 4 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 89 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 59.

Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Cloudy then becoming partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 60 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 61.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m. (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 90 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain (some storms could be severe) and a low near 60.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Chance of rain mainly after noon (some storms could be severe), otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 10 p.m. (some storms could be severe) and a low near 55.

  Chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 9 p.m. and a low near 55.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 51.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 50.

  Chance of rain, increasing clouds today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Daycap no play 7 8 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Wednesday, otherwise mostly sunny. Some severe storms possible. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain in some areas. Highs mainly in the 80s. Lows from the mid 40s to the low 60s.

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

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

Andrew Rossi

Wildlife

Casper Realtor and sportsman Dylan Heide got some good karma by saving a baby pronghorn stuck in a cattle guard near Casper on Tuesday morning.

Heide was driving along an unpaved county road "in the middle of nowhere" scouting for pronghorn when he noticed something strange sticking out of a cattle guard he was approaching.

“I noticed something right before I drove over it,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I thought it looked like an antelope butt, but it was too late for me to mentally recognize what the heck it was. I went over it, stopped, rolled my window down, looked back, and could just see it.”

The weird bump was a pronghorn fawn. Its head and legs were stuck between the grate, and it was desperately kicking and flailing to escape.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was probably no more than a month old,” Heide said."}]

Heide gingerly grabbed the fawn by the torso and gently lifted and twisted it out of the cattle guard. He set it down on the dirt road, and it bolted.

“She obviously didn't want to have anything to do with me, so I tried to be as calm and careful as I could,” he said. “I put her down. It screamed and ran away.”

Heide stayed long enough to watch the rescued fawn join a nearby group of pronghorn. He’s fairly confident his mother was among them.

“I heard a doe chirping as soon as I parked,” he said. “There were three does staying a little close to the cattle guard. She ran right to them, and they took off.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Unguarded"}]

Heide regularly scouts pronghorn during the summer, so he’s seen and heard plenty of stories about awkward encounters. This one stands out.

“I hear about them getting stuck in fences, and I’ve seen them stuck in a fence before, but they normally get themselves out pretty quick,” he said. “I've never seen one stuck in a cattle guard.”

The probable sequence of events, according to Heide, is that the adult pronghorns went under barbed-wire fence on either side of the cattle guard. The fawn, not knowing any better, took what looked like the path of least resistance.

“It probably didn't even know what a cattle guard really was,” he said. “It was probably taking the easy path, walking down the road until it tried to cross it and accidentally fell in.”

The fawn wasn’t injured. Heide hopes this was a lesson well-learned for the youngster.

“As long as it doesn't go back and find the same cattle guard, we're probably all right,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Never Too Early Or Too Far"}]

 social media pages. He has a particular outlook on Wyomingites’ relationship with pronghorn.

“I have issues with how many residents take antelope hunting for granted,” he said. “They shoot the first antelope they see, call it a hunt, and then complain that it's too easy. I think if they took it more seriously, they could learn to enjoy it.”

By scouting pronghorn in the summer, Heide can observe the animals he hopes to take when Wyoming’s season opens later in the year. He’s already got a list of several individuals he’s been observing in the same area for years.

Heide also believes Wyomingites don’t see the bounty before them. Pronghorn are plentiful in the Cowboy State, but rarer elsewhere.

“Wyoming is really unique in that aspect,” he said. “We have so many antelope here. Colorado, Montana and Idaho, especially, have very, very, very few antelope, so they're very hard to come by. We take them for granted in Wyoming.

Heide feels the satisfaction of a successful pronghorn hunt comes from spending time with the target. By choosing a particular individual and observing its movements and habits over time, a successful harvest is much more rewarding.

“Every animal is a little different,” he said. “The more you're out there, learning the terrain and scoping out the animals running around, the more success you're going to have in the fall.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"All Creatures Great And Small"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Heide said he felt fortunate he was able to save the fawn."}]

“We're here to take care of God's animals,” he said. “I think God put me there for a reason, in that situation, to help that baby antelope.”

He also hopes that, by posting the video, he can help reduce the stigma around hunting and hunters. It’s something he’s seen more after 

 in Daniel and other high-profile incidents of “hunters” showing poor judgment.

“Hunters get a bad rap for wanting to be cruel,” he said. “I think the majority of us really care about wildlife, conservation and putting forth the effort. We want to make sure our wildlife is taken care of for future generations.”

Pronghorn in cattle guard 1 7 7 26

<title>Hooray! Casper Man Rescues Baby Pronghorn Stuck In Remote Cattle Guard | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper man says he felt fortunate to rescue a baby pronghorn who got stuck in a cattle guard on Tuesday. He said by posting the video, he hopes he can reduce the stigma around hunting and hunters. "The majority of us really care about wildlife," he said.

Hooray! Casper Man Rescues Baby Pronghorn Stuck In Remote Cattle Guard

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

 post by Club For Growth president David McIntosh. The group calls itself the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation and has endorsed U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who’s running in a five-way race for the Republican nomination against Mead, Jimmy Skovgard, Jill Edwards and John Holtz.

Mead’s political credentials stand out in that field: he served as mayor of Kirby, is the nephew of former Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, and is great-grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Cliff Hansen.

Hageman’s credentials also stand out: she’s the U.S. House incumbent and daughter of the late, longtime Republican state Rep. James Hageman.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is Aug. 18."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Did Donate $27"}]

Club For Growth’s political arm, Club For Growth Action, is “responsible for the content of” the attack ad. It calls Mead “not the sharpest tool in the shed” and notes Mead gave money to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who identifies as a Democratic Socialist.  

 that in 2019 Mead gave Democratic-leaning fundraising platform ActBlue $27, earmarked for “Bernie 2020.”

Mead told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday interview that the donation pertained to Sanders’ unique ideas about health-care reform, which deviated from the “Obamacare” system Mead says has hurt Wyoming.

“I just have always been really concerned about problem-solving, and tactical solutions to things,” said Mead. “At the time, Bernie was the only one talking about health care and providing solutions that, in my mind, made some sense.”

Mead said that the attack on him by an out-of-state group for not walking “the party line” is just “more of the same” and detracts from the issues.

“We need to have the latitude to problem-solve. And I don’t think we can do that if someone’s just a partisan hack,” he said.

Seven years later, Mead said, his concerns are that the insurance pool is too small to build a competitive market, and that “bare minimum, we need to increase the insured pool and allow insurers to operate across state lines.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Pushing Medicare For All"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He said Hageman hasn’t introduced health-care solutions for Wyoming."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“People are feeling the pain of that every day,” he said."}]

Hageman’s spokesman did not immediately respond Tuesday to a late-day text message and voicemail request for comment.

Sanders in 2019 was pushing Medicare for all and, at the time, “that made some sense,” said Mead, adding that he was also a Republican then and has been a lifelong Republican.

, he said, adding that he and his wife had both had medical bills that would have bankrupted them if not for their “good health care.”

Mead continued: “I don’t think anyone thinks our current health-care system is fiscally efficient … We spend twice as much as other developed nations do on health care.”

The preventive care component of Sanders’ Medicare-for-all idea might have prevented later, more drastic costs, he added.

Mead said he wasn’t surprised by the ad because campaigns can get fierce.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s just more out-of-state money going toward Harriet,” he said."}]

Ultimately Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination, then won the presidency in 2020 over then-President Donald Trump.

[{"type":"text","text":"What About Trump?"}]

Mead has campaigned on keeping public lands public, and has 

 for backing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to add trillions to the national deficit.

“I’m disappointed she didn’t stand up for fiscal conservatism,” he said.

The attack ad calls this language into question, with the narrator saying, “But socialist Bernie did?”

[{"type":"text","text":"The ad presents Mead’s comment as an attack on Trump."}]

Club For Growth Action attacked Trump in 2016, however, with an ad calling Trump’s record “very liberal” and saying “he’s really just playing us.”

The group's communications director Will Mitola sent an email statement in response to Cowboy State Daily's request for comment, which touted Hageman and didn't expound on the Trump video. 

 “Harriet Hageman is a proven conservative champion who has delivered for Wyoming in Congress and stood with President Trump to prevent the largest tax increase in history,” said Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh in the statement. “Meanwhile, Sam Mead donated to Bernie Sanders’ campaign and opposed policies that saved money for voters in the Cowboy State. That Harriott (sic) Hageman is the right choice for Senate couldn’t be more clear.” 

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sam mead and bernie 07 Jul 2026 04 18 PM 5112

<title>Hageman Opponent Sam Mead Defends $27 Donation To Bernie Sanders | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Mead defended the move Tuesday, saying it was about solving health care policy problems.

Hageman Opponent Sam Mead Defends $27 Donation To Bernie Sanders

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

 outside a Gillette bar, Matthew Lynch stood onstage at the American Legion with an electric guitar slung across his shoulder, living a dream he'd chased for most of his life.

Lynch, a 41-year-old carpenter, potter and musician, spent Independence Day doing what he loved most — playing rock and roll with friends before a hometown crowd.

By midnight, he was staring at what remained of his right hand, unable to hear, his vision awash in "red, purple and stars."

"I looked down on my hand, and it was just the most mangled, crazy-looking thing I've ever seen," Lynch told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. "I was instantly in shock." 

The explosion outside the Otherside Bar & Grill injured Lynch and four other people after what he described as an old firecracker he carried in his back pocket for years detonated instantly when he lit it rather than giving him time to throw it.

The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him.

Now recovering at home with both arms wrapped in bandages, Lynch said he keeps returning to two thoughts: the people he endangered and the life he's determined to rebuild.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tourniquet "}]

After finishing the American Legion concert, Lynch said he spent the evening downtown with friends before hearing about a benefit concert at Otherside.

By the time he arrived, the music was over. People stood outside talking, catching up and deciding where the night would go next.

"I had found this old firecracker I had laying around for a few years and I had it in my back pocket," he said. "I thought, 'Well, I'm just gonna be a little adventurous here, light this off', and then it just blew up right in my face. The fuse was just instant." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The blast left him deafened, nearly blinded and in shock."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He remembers seeing nothing but flashes of color."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he looked down."}]

"I kept thinking this is never going to go away," he said. "I made a mistake I could never undo." 

His friend AJ immediately recognized how badly he was bleeding and shouted for a tourniquet.

Someone pulled off a belt and cinched it around Lynch's arm while they waited for first responders.

A woman Lynch had never met knelt beside him, gently held his face in her hands and kept him from looking at his injuries.

"She kept saying, 'You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. Just don't look at it,'" Lynch recalled. "'Just look in my eyes. Everything's gonna be OK'." 

He also praised the doctors, nurses and staff at Campbell County Memorial Hospital, saying they treated him "like family" before he was flown to Billings for emergency surgery. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Artist and Carpenter "}]

Before the explosion, Lynch spent his days building houses, creating pottery, painting and playing guitar.

[{"type":"text","text":"He's a carpenter following in his father's footsteps."}]

He's an artist whose work is featured in a monthlong exhibition at AVA Community Art Center in Gillette — a show he spent more than a year preparing.

Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4. But the Gillette carpenter, potter and musician is counting his blessings and refusing to give up on his electric-guitar dreams. "It's going to be awesome," Lynch said.

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