It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 4th. I’m Mac Watson.
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Gambling sites PolyMarket And Kalshi both favor Steve Friess to win the Republican nomination for U.S. House and Eric Barlow to win the GOP nomination for governor. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that bettors, so far, have wagered $131,000 on these two Wyoming races.
“So these markets, according to pollster Dustin Olson, are not really a crystal ball. They're more a reflection of headlines and chatter, and sometimes publicly released polls, and sometimes internal polls that people know about. So on the one hand, it's kind of a composite of chatter and publicly released polls and headlines. On the other hand, people are at least confident enough that they're willing to put money forward.”
Dustin Olson, owner of American Pulse Research and Polling, tells Cowboy State Daily that political wagering is, “one of the more fascinating things to happen in politics in the last decade.” But it carries risks of fixed races, dishonest polls, and even inside political maneuvering.
Read the full story HERE.
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Worland athlete Roman Parra died Sunday, eight days after being ejected from his vehicle in Colorado. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that his mother says her son’s purpose in life was to spread kindness.”
“A 20-year-old Worland man died eight days after a crash in Weld County, Colorado, that claimed the lives of three others on impact. Roman Parra was traveling in the car with four others when the vehicle got into a rollover collision. All five occupants were thrown from the vehicle, according to the Colorado State Police. Investigators are examining whether alcohol played a role in the crash, as there were opened and unopened alcoholic beverages inside the vehicle.”
The Parra family has established a GoFundMe to help cover Roman's medical and funeral expenses.
Read the full story HERE.
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For most of Wyoming, July was the hottest month in recorded history. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Worland's scorching 110 degrees on July 12th was the hottest, while many towns saw as many 100-degree days in one month as they usually see in several years.
“The numbers are in – July 2026 was not only the hottest month of the year; it was the hottest month on record for many Wyoming communities, and some of those records go back as far as 1891. In the case of Lander, several communities had many days where there were 100 degree plus temperatures, for example, in Riverton, I think they had at least five, 100 degree plus days. That's as many as they might have in several years.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Straub in Riverton, tells Cowboy State Daily that seven communities either set records or tied for the hottest July on record.
Read the full story HERE.
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Sen. Eric Barlow says attack ads accusing him of voting to allow sex changes and voting to send money to illegal immigrants are not true. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Barlow says the bills he voted against were poorly written or rushed and are being twisted against him.
“These attack ads in some of them will they'll attack Eric Barlow, Senator Barlow, for these attack ads will go after Senator Barlow for voting against a child sex change ban in 2023 when he actually voted for a different child sex change ban that same year, same thing with immigration – they'll go after him for voting against a sanctuary, an anti-sanctuary cities bill in 2025 when he voted for what he thought was a more careful version of it that same year.”
The new attack ads say Barlow voted to send money to illegal immigrants. He denies making such a gesture, saying his nay votes on two immigration bills were due to the short, rushed nature of the budget-planning sessions that fall on even-numbered years.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily News continues now….
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A Rawlins churchgoer says her "heart was just so broken" after worshippers stepped outside of Sunday service to find remnants of a bicycle crash that killed an 8-year-old boy. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that worshipper Michelle Greer says, “I work at the school, and I knew it was one of our kids.”
“An eight-year-old Rawlins boy was struck and killed on Sunday in Rawlins at a busy intersection on East State Street and Jefferson Avenue. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says the boy was heading north and possibly went through a stop sign when he was struck. A witness named Michelle Greer says she was in church when she heard the sirens. Everyone in the church went outside, and there they saw the mangled bicycle. There was a black tarp covering a body, and she believes the man was brought to the hospital for what she is calling a nervous breakdown.”
Investigators reported the roads were dry, the weather was clear, and the pickup driver was not injured. The crash remains under investigation and authorities have not released additional details.
Read the full story HERE.
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Big Horn County Search & Rescue is second only to Teton County in calls due to booming tourism and uniquely rugged and remote terrain leading to the high-risk missions. But Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that as demand for rescues have quadrupled, the agency's budget has been cut in half.
“Property tax legislation has caused Bighorn County Search and Rescue to see huge cuts in their budget for operating. They went from 106,000 a few years ago down to 50,000 in 2025. Meanwhile, their calls for help have quadrupled as more and more people travel through Bighorn County on their way to Yellowstone or sometimes to The Bighorn Mountains. When the Wyoming legislature voted to cut property taxes, that scrapped a lot of funding for these rural search and rescue operations. Bighorn County receives the second most volume of calls for their search and rescue behind Teton County search and rescue.”
The challenge facing Big Horn County is unique. Although only about 12,000 people live in the county – which ranks among Wyoming's lowest for median family income – nearly 1 million visitors travel to or through it each year.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Thermopolis woman accused of neglecting an 87-pound elderly man who’s mostly deaf and blind, and wears diapers that allegedly hadn’t been changed in 10-14 days has reached a plea agreement. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the deal calls for no jail time and a year of probation.
“Part of the agreement is that she would still be part of the abuse registry. If you're convicted of certain abuse crimes, you have to register and be on some registry. Now this is a plea agreement. It doesn't mean that the judge has to accept it or not. That that we don't know. The court file didn't say whether the judge has actually accepted this plea agreement or not, and then sentencing won't happen for at least 60 days, so we don't know exactly what sentence she’ll get.”
A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt, but acknowledges there’s enough evidence to secure a conviction. If 67-year-old Colleen Blakesley had been convicted of a felony, she would’ve faced up to 10 years in prison.
Read the full story HERE.
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For years, a huge male grizzly called Bruno was one of the brawniest bears in Grand Teton National Park. But Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Bruno is past his prime and those who routinely watch him are saying he's gotten thinner and “is on the downhill side.”
“He's somewhere around the age of 22, which, according to what a bear biologist told me, is roughly about 10 years past a bear's you know the peak of their prime, so he is showing his age a little bit. Some people say he maybe looked a little thin right about now, but they haven't really gotten, you know, that they do that pig out right before they go into hibernation. They haven't really had that yet, so he might still put on some weight. But he is getting old. He's past his prime.”
Bear biologist Cecily Costello tells Cowboy State Daily that dominant, male grizzlies hit their peak sometime in their early to mid-teens. She also added that Grizzlies rarely live past 30 in the wild.
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.
