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

<title>Daily Cartoon 1: Friday, July 17, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 1: Friday, July 17, 2026

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Business

A proposed horse betting and bar facility on the north side of Interstate 80 in Evanston has cleared a key hurdle after the city's Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for the project this week, but not without some vocal opposition from nearby residents.

They argue the development would bring casino-style gambling into the middle of a residential neighborhood. 

Supporters counter that the proposal meets all zoning requirements and would expand an established commercial corridor that has hosted off-track betting operations for decades.

The recommendation now moves to the Evanston City Council, which will decide whether to grant final approval.

If approved, Wyoming Downs LLC would build on undeveloped lots at 27 and 29 Allegiance Circle and 283 Wasatch Road, across the interstate from the existing Horse Palace Gateway near Exit 3.

The project has drawn sharp opposition from nearby residents, who argue the development would bring casino-style gambling into the middle of a residential neighborhood. Supporters counter that the proposal meets all zoning requirements and would expand an established commercial corridor that has hosted off-track betting operations for decades.

According to a staff report obtained by Cowboy State Daily, the project would be built in two phases inside a single commercial building totaling 52,938 square feet.

At full buildout, it would include 520 gaming seats, 68 bar seats and 49 lounge seats, for a capacity of 637. The proposed bar would seat 27 customers.

Developers estimate the business would employ about 25 people during the first phase and roughly 125 employees once construction is complete. Customer traffic is projected to average about 400 people per day, although that would fluctuate depending on the season and time of day.

The plans also include on-site parking and lighting. No perimeter fencing or screening is currently proposed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long Road To Approval"}]

Monday's vote represents the latest step in a process that began last year.

In November, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended changing the property's zoning designation from Industrial to Highway Business and amending the city's comprehensive plan to accommodate an off-track betting facility. 

The Evanston City Council later approved those changes, paving the way for Wyoming Downs to apply for a conditional-use permit.

Brooke Bulgrin of Inberg-Miller Engineers represented Wyoming Downs during Monday's hearing.

The meeting was not livestreamed, and Evanston Senior Planner DuWayne Johnson declined to discuss the public comments presented during the meeting.

Calls and emails seeking comment from Evanston Mayor Kent Williams were not returned before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Same Thing On The North Side'"}]

City Councilman Evan Perkes said the proposed business would largely mirror the existing Horse Palace Gateway across the freeway.

"It's going to be the same thing, on the north side of the freeway," Perkes told Cowboy State Daily.

He said Wyoming Downs hopes to attract visitors from Utah's Wasatch Front. Gambling is prohibited in the Beehive State.

"They're trying to appeal to the millions of people in Utah that can make the 70-mile drive and gamble," Perkes said.

Perkes noted that the property has remained vacant for years and said the proposal complies with the property's zoning.

"This meets all the zoning requirements," he said. "So, it's hard to turn something down when they meet all the requirements."

He added that if the project proceeds, the city and developer intend to orient lighting toward Interstate 80 rather than nearby homes.

Perkes also pointed to the success of Horse Palace Gateway, saying it has created jobs and remained busy since opening. The Horse Palace Gateway previously kept both its original, smaller betting facility and the its larger facility open simultaneously.

"The older one is a nice little, quaint little place for the locals," Perkes said. "They can go in there and sit at a machine and B.S. with their neighbors."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Nearby Residents Remain Opposed"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not everyone is convinced the project is a good idea."}]

Wendy Kelly, who lives near the proposed site, said neighbors remain concerned about increased traffic, noise and diesel exhaust from trucks that may idle in the parking lot.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Needless to say, we're not happy,\" Kelly said."}]

She also questioned whether Evanston needs another gambling facility so close to the existing Horse Palace Gateway.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We can't foresee that the town needs this,\" she said."}]

Kelly acknowledged she always expected the long-vacant property would eventually be developed.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"But another casino, opposite the other one?\" she said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Familiar Use"}]

City planners noted that off-track betting has operated near Exit 3 for decades.

According to the staff report, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit in 1989 allowing Ladbroke Racing Wyoming Inc. to offer simulcast wagering at what was then the Weston Super Budget Inn on Harrison Drive, now the High Country Inn.

Several other off-track betting permits have been approved in the commercial corridor since then.

The city's Engineering and Planning Department reported receiving no complaints regarding off-track betting uses within the Highway Business district.

The City Council will have the final say on whether Wyoming Downs receives permission to move forward with construction.

Evanston and Wyoming downs inset 8 5 26

<title>Evanston Locals ‘Not Happy’ With Horse-Betting Parlor In Residential Neighborhood | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A proposed horse betting and bar facility in a residential are of Evanston has cleared a key hurdle this week, but not without some vocal opposition from locals. "Needless to say, we're not happy," said one angry resident.

Evanston Locals ‘Not Happy’ With Horse-Betting Parlor In Residential Neighborhood

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

Clair McFarland

Energy

Wildlife

The Montana judge who threw out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases in June over sage-grouse habitat concerns has declined to let the Trump administration and the state take a newer environmental challenge to a Wyoming judge instead. 

In a case environmental groups filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management this year — again in Montana — the state of Wyoming asked U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris to dismiss the issues pertaining to the case or send them to a federal court in Wyoming. 

The Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society and the Defenders of Wildlife argue in their lawsuit against the BLM, which Wyoming has joined in opposition, that the BLM’s “permissive approach” to oil and gas development is out of step with sage-grouse environmental science. 

The BLM asked Morris in a hearing last month to send the whole case to Wyoming. The federal agency argued, in part, that the more southerly state’s federal courts are less congested, and the agency manages between two to three times more sage-grouse habitat in Wyoming than Montana. 

The Wyoming Attorney General’s office also argued that Montana wasn’t the proper venue for decisions pertaining to the Cowboy State’s oil and gas leasing. 

“The Court recognizes that Wyoming has a strong interest in having its localized controversies decided at home,” wrote Morris in a July 29 order. 

He acknowledged the state’s keen interest in the oil and gas economy, and its efforts to conserve sage-grouse.

[{"type":"text","text":"But that’s not enough to switch the case southward, Morris wrote. "}]

“Wyoming provides no authority, however, to support the contention that its interests in oil and gas extraction, or its concentrated efforts on sage-grouse management, should outweigh Plaintiffs’ choice of forum,” said Morris, referencing the environmental groups choosing to file the case in his court. 

Morris’ June 12 order in an environmental groups’ 2018 case had blocked the oil and gas leases, sold under the Trump administration, due to sage-grouse habitat concerns. 

 it would force the state to return $50 million in payments and imperil $180 million in future revenue for schools and other services. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This case is ongoing. "}]

Wyoming oil and gas drilling 2 1 24

<title>Judge Who Tossed Oil And Gas Leases Declines To Let New Case Move To Wyoming | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Montana U.S. District Court Judge who threw out 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases due to sage-grouse concerns has declined a request to send a newer case to Wyoming. "Wyoming provides no authority” for its argument, he wrote.

Judge Who Tossed Oil And Gas Leases Declines To Let New Case Move To Wyoming

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

A 34-year-old Upton man denies allegations he pulled a gun on a group of people at a Gillette hotel and threatened to “put a bullet in everybody’s head.”

That’s what Gillette Police Department investigators allege a reportedly intoxicated Dakota Adams did during a Saturday confrontation with his girlfriend while their children were present at the National 9 Inn on the east side of the city.

Police were contacted by a bystander at the hotel who reported Adams, who “appeared to be intoxicated and extremely aggravated” and arguing with a woman, while another man and her older children were behind her, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by GPD Officer Kimberly Hockman.

“Dakota had a revolver in his hand and threatened to ‘put a bullet in everybody’s head,’” the affidavit says.

The witness “explained it appeared to be a family dispute between Dakota and a female,” Hockman wrote, adding that Adams and the woman were in a five-year relationship, but that she wanted out.

In fact, she was at the hotel with another man, identified in the affidavit as her new boyfriend.

By the time police arrived at the National 9, Adams had “placed the revolver in his waistband and left the area in a gray Ford Edge with no rear plate … (and) with two children in the back seat,” the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What She Said"}]

Because Adams may have been armed and the children in the back of the car — which belonged to his father, and who was in the car with Adams — police were prepared to conduct a “high-risk stop,” Hockman wrote.

They wouldn’t need to, as Adams pulled into a gas station, where police caught up to him, according to the affidavit.

Hockman then arrived with the girlfriend, who “explained she had come to Gillette to cash her paycheck,” and that her “vehicle was parked outside of the National 9 because her new boyfriend resided there,” she wrote.

The woman had been getting repeated phone calls and text messages from Adams, then he spotted her car at the hotel, the affidavit says.

“When (the woman) came outside to roll up her windows, Dakota was in the passenger seat of (his father’s) vehicle watching her,” the document continues. “Dakota got out and started walking towards (her) and her two older children.”

Believing Adams was trying to get to the two older children to take them with him, the girlfriend told police that he “repeatedly said, ‘Get the f*** out of my way’ and tried pushing past (the woman),” according to the affidavit.

She said she told Adams to leave because of how he was behaving and she didn’t want him scaring their kids.

Adams eventually retreated back to his father’s car, then emerged with a gun.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not The First Time"}]

The woman told police that she heard his father say, “Cody, don’t,” and explained that they all sometimes would call Adams “Cody.”

That’s when she “looked back and saw Dakota pointing the gun directly at her,” the affidavit says. “Dakota said something to the effect of, ‘Why don’t I just cut everybody in this mother f***er down’ while waving the gun around.”

Adams allegedly backed off when he realized that others were watching the confrontation and that at least one bystander had called police.

The woman also said that Adams “was a chronic alcoholic and this was not the first time Dakota had become belligerent and aggressive towards her,” Hockman wrote, “even stating this was not the first time he threatened her with a gun.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What He Said"}]

For his part, Adams denies threatening anyone and initially claimed he didn’t pull a gun. He later admitted he did get a gun from the car and had it in his hand, but denied pointing it at anyone, the affidavit says.

“Dakota advised he was in town from Upton with his father and two children to do some grocery shopping and to run a few errands,” the affidavit says. “One of those errands was shopping at Gun Traders, where he stated he purchased a ‘defective’ Taurus handgun revolver.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He also said the gun wasn’t loaded."}]

Adams knew his girlfriend was at the hotel because she was having trouble cashing a check and was there.

The woman “came outside yelling at him, saying she wanted to end their relationship,” according to the affidavit. “While (she) was yelling at Dakota, she ‘nudged’ him away; however, Dakota never expressed that he felt threatened.”

The Upton man also told police that “he realized what he did was ‘dumb’ and put the gun back,” the affidavit continues.

The man who initially called 911 told police that Adams allegedly confronted him about calling police and that he “believed he may be shot by Dakota at this time,” Hockman wrote.

That’s when Adams then opened the cylinder on his revolver and said there were no bullets in it, got into his car and left the hotel.

Adams was arrested Saturday and had his first appearance in Campbell County Circuit Court on Monday.

A preliminary hearing to determine if there’s enough evidence to continue with a felony prosecution is set for Monday.

If convicted of aggravated assault, Adams could face a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

National 9 Inn Gillette 8 4 26

<title>Upton Man Denies Pulling Gun, Threating To ‘Put A Bullet In Everybody’s Head’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 34-year-old Upton man denies he pulled a gun on a group of people at a Gillette hotel Saturday and threatened to “put a bullet in everybody’s head.” Police say the threat was made during a confrontation with his girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

Upton Man Denies Pulling Gun, Threating To ‘Put A Bullet In Everybody’s Head’

Politics

Numerous Wyoming Republicans are propping their messaging this election season on trans sports bans. 

Which has prompted a debate about who gets credit for the Wyoming’s set of bans on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s school sports. 

The reflexive answer is the bills’ sponsor, Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston. But Schuler in her Tuesday phone interview chuckled at her fairness-in-sports-bills becoming high-profile campaign fodder for others, and said, “it takes a village.” 

Her first blanket trans sports ban failed the state House of Representatives in 2022. Her second ban, for grades 7-12, passed the Legislature with 79 Republican lawmakers in favor. 

[{"type":"text","text":"So did her third girls’ sports bill extending the ban to college. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What The Candidates, Or The PACs, Are Saying"}]

Secretary of State Chuck Gray has campaigned on sports fairness in at least one YouTube video in his bid for the GOP nomination to U.S. House. 

Also the Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, which backs Gray, dispatched a mailer this summer noting he co-sponsored one of the fairness bills. 

As of July 29, that PAC had raised nearly $1 million and was funded exclusively by Gray’s father, 

The mailer shows a heavyset, hairy male with an ample chest, wearing a crop top, grimacing down at a soccer ball while smaller females frown behind him. 

It also says Gray “made banning biological males from women’s college sports a top priority” and notes that Gray “blasted” politicians who didn’t sue over President Joe Biden’s trans-friendly reinterpretation of federal education laws. 

Wyoming sued over those rules in August 2024, three months after Gray lamented it hadn’t. 

A message from the campaign of Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, who is running for governor, says she championed Wyoming’s ban on transgender athletes from high school into college. It also notes she led Wyoming’s 2024 litigation against the Biden administration over its reinterpretation. 

And the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which comprises a controversial group of Republican state House legislators, wrote in a Facebook post this week: “We protected women’s sports from men.” 

In context, Gray did not mobilize Wyoming’s enacted trans-athlete bans directly because the successful versions passed once Gray was in the executive branch, overseeing elections and business filings.

[{"type":"text","text":"Degenfelder has not served in the Legislature."}]

 have vocally promoted protections for Wyoming’s female school athletes. 

The record reflects that Degenfelder helped to lead the state’s litigation against Biden; and her department offered suggestions to strengthen Wyoming’s first successful trans sports ban. She joined 

 to petition the Biden administration in 2023, and co-authored 

 on the topic with U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman last year. 

As for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, whether the bans could have passed without its involvement depends on whom you ask. 

Freedom Caucus legislators voted in favor of each proposed ban, each year. 

“I don’t think any one group was better at getting it through than all of us,” said Schuler of the Legislature. “I was the biggest cheerleader. But I don’t think any one caucus should pat themselves too much on the back … you have to have a coalition when you’re trying to get a bill passed.”

Schuler said she tries to stay out of division and speak to lawmakers across the political spectrum. 

“It’s interesting the other folks are taking a lot of credit for having helped,” said Schuler, with a laugh. “I’m happy if they think they’ve helped in some way shape or form. But it was the Legislature, obviously, that helped get the bill across the finish line.” 

Sen. Tara Nethercott in a Sunday Facebook post urged people, “Don’t fall for Cheap Shots. Wyoming’s female athletes have been protected for years.”

The post says that “many candidates, and their caucus, are claiming they fought to protect girls’ and women’s sports.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"It adds, “Credit belongs where it’s due.” "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Schuler’s 2022 Bill"}]

Schuler, who is not a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, brought her first trans-athlete ban attempt in 2022. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray was on his last year in the Legislature. He co-sponsored it. "}]

It proposed a blanket ban on “students of the male sex” from public-school-backed sports from primary school through higher education.

It cleared the Senate with Republican Sens. Nethercott, Cale Case, and Drew Perkins opposed, as well as the chamber’s two Democrats, Sens. Mike Gierau and Chris Rothfuss.

The House killed the bill in a 21-37 vote against resurrecting it from then-House Speaker Eric Barlow’s drawer.

Barlow, now a state senator, is one of Degenfelder’s campaign opponents in the race for governor. 

He noted in a Tuesday interview that when the resurrection vote for Schuler’s bill came on March 7, 2022, the Legislature was focused on passing a budget and finishing the required, once-in-a-decade process of re-drawing legislative district lines. 

That bill would have died by deadline anyway because the chamber requires a committee vetting, plus one of three House readings per day. And the shortened session was almost over, he added.

The bill “largely mirrored Idaho’s law,” wrote Nethercott in a Sunday Facebook post. And Idaho’s law was immediately challenged and spent four years “tied up in litigation” before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in June, she noted. 

House Appropriations Chair John Bear, who led the Freedom Caucus at that time, voiced a different take on that vote in a Tuesday text message.

“The small number of conservatives in the early WYFC forced a vote to bring it out of (Barlow’s) drawer, which failed,” wrote Bear. “It wasn’t until the WYFC grew its ranks in the 2022 election cycle that we protected women’s sports, and the (bill that succeeded) didn’t protect ALL sports.” 

“It’s clear that these protections never would’ve happened if it weren’t for the WYFC forcing votes and accountability.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then Came 2023"}]

In the 2023 general session Schuler brought a narrower bill banning trans sports participation from grades 7-12, with a safety net provision to help the state resolve trans sports cases fairly if a court blocked the ban. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow voted in favor of that bill. So did Nethercott. "}]

“I believe that men should not be participating in women’s or girls sports, period,” said Barlow on Tuesday. 

Nethercott’s Facebook post says the bill was “crafted to better withstand constitutional scrutiny, and put protections for Wyoming’s girls into effect years before the Idaho litigation was finally resolved.” 

Gray’s now-House opponent Senate President Bo Biteman co-sponsored that bill. Yet, Biteman has not campaigned extensively, if at all, on this issue. 

Biteman did not immediately return a Tuesday voicemail request for comment. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The bill became law. "}]

“I thought about (adding) the collegiate section then,” said Schuler. But she decided to test the waters with the high school ban, she added. 

One more budget session, 2024, passed without changes to Wyoming’s trans sports law. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Volleyballer"}]

That autumn, the University of Wyoming’s women’s volleyball team started boycotting games with San Jose State University – after news broke that one of SJSU’s top players was transgender. 

Some UW volleyball women are still in litigation over what they’ve called a breach of federal education law. 

Schuler decided to broach the college sports topic again in the 2025 lawmaking session. So did another non-Freedom Caucus lawmaker, Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland.

“Hers was a little different than mine but not drastically,” Schuler recalled in a nod to Lawley.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lawley’s bill didn’t pass. Schuler’s did. "}]

Wyoming now bans trans participation in girls and women’s public school sports from grades seven through college. 

Gray in a Tuesday text message said he has a track record of protecting girls and women’s sports, and led the motion to foist the 2022 bill from Barlow’s drawer. 

Gray blamed its late-session failure on “insiders and the Left” and said, “Only after we continued the pressure to advance this common sense measure in 2022 and 2023 did it ever happen.”

“We must protect girls and women’s sports,” said Gray, adding that he would “continue working to protect girls and women’s sports as a member of Congress.” 

Wendy chuck 8 4 26

<title>It Seems Like Everyone Is Running On Wendy Schuler’s Trans Sports Ban | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Numerous Wyoming Republicans are claiming some degree of credit for a trans sports ban championed by Sen. Wendy Schuler.  Schuler says she's happy if they think they helped but it was the Legislature that got the bill "across the finish line.”

It Seems Like Everyone Is Running On Wendy Schuler’s Trans Sports Ban

A Gillette man who reportedly grew angry when his girlfriend wouldn’t “submit” to him is accused of raising a knife to her and threatening to “kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.”

Eduard Florea was bound over to Campbell County District Court on Monday on a felony charge of aggravated assault, which could land him up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

He allegedly grew angrier and angrier with his girlfriend as they argued Saturday when he repeatedly demanded she “submit” to him and she refused, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Gillette Police Officer Ethan Hayes.

Florea went to his girlfriend’s apartment that morning but became agitated when she asked him for money to help pay rent for the place she and their shared daughter live in, the affidavit says.

The girlfriend “stated during this argument, Eduard repeatedly told her she needed to ‘submit’ to him if he was going to continue helping her financially,” Hayes wrote. “When (the woman) did not agree to submit, Eduard grew increasingly angry.”

At one point, she left the house and returned about an hour later, but the argument continued. Then he left for another hour to go to a local store, but that also didn’t defuse the situation.

“When Eduard returned from Walmart, the argument again ensued,” the affidavit says. “This time, Eduard grew increasingly angry, and (the woman) stated she did not want to have Eduard share the apartment with her any longer and he needed to go back to his apartment.”

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

That’s when the confrontation took on another level, the affidavit says.

Florea repeatedly called his girlfriend “every dirty name in the book,” then retrieved a knife with a blade about 6 inches long, Hayes wrote.

He then allegedly threatened to kill the woman while their teen daughter was behind her.

“After grabbing the knife, Eduard got to within 3 feet of (the woman), while their 13-year-old daughter was directly behind (her mother) crying,” the affidavit says.

“Eduard raised the knife over his head, with the blade pointing toward (his girlfriend),” Hayes continues. “Eduard stated, ‘I will kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.”

Those threats continued for about six minutes until the daughter was able to get the knife from him and hide it, the affidavit says.

The woman told investigators that she remained calm during the altercation because she has had practice trying to weather Florea’s temper.

“When she replies in an aggressive manner, she gets hit, slapped, or choked,” Hays wrote in the affidavit. The woman “told me she was tired of getting treated this way.”

Florea eventually calmed down, gathered his belongings and left.

For his part, Florea denies the allegation he made threats while brandishing a knife, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"At least to a point."}]

When asked directly if he threatened the woman and their daughter in the manner they described, Hayes reports Florea’s answer was carefully constructed.

“Eduard was asked a very direct question if he threatened (the woman) and the kids. Eduard replied, ‘I would never threaten my kids,’” the affidavit says.

A Gillette man who reportedly grew angry over the weekend when his girlfriend wouldn’t “submit” to him is accused of raising a knife to her and threatening to “kill you and the kids, and all of your extended family.” He could get up to 10 years in prison.

Daily Cartoon 1: Friday, July 17, 2026

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