Clair McFarland
Clair McFarland is a general assignment reporter for Cowboy State Daily and is based in Riverton, Wyoming. She specializes in crime and court reporting and social issues coverage. Clair also writes a twice-monthly column on motherhood and country living.
Previously, Clair wrote for The Ranger, the Lander Journal and the Wind River News. She is an award-winning journalist, columnist and poet, who joined Cowboy State Daily on Valentine's Day, 2022.
Latest from Clair McFarland
House Considers ‘Big Three’ Drug Bill That Would Allow Homicide Charge For Dealers In Overdose Deaths
The Wyoming House of Representatives is considering a bill imposing a homicide charge on drug dealers whose customers die of fentanyl, heroin or methamphetamine overdose.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 24, 2023
Bill Banning Transgender Students From Girls School Sports Clears Committee
After more than two hours of debate and a few tears shed, the House Education Committee has advanced a bill banning biological males from competing in girls' school sports in Wyoming.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 24, 2023
Sommers Explains Why He Won’t Allow Transgender Education Bill To Be Debated On Floor
The speaker of the House says he has stifled a few bills for very specific reasons. That includes Senate File 117 which would prohibit public schools from teaching young children about gender identity or sexual orientation.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 23, 2023
Wyoming Abortion Bills Survive Legislative Committees – With Major Changes
The House Revenue Committee altered and advanced Senate File 109, which would ban chemical abortions if it becomes law. And the Senate Ag Committee added rape and incest exemptions into House Bill 152.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 23, 2023
Ban On Wyoming Transgender Treatments For Kids Voted Down; Chance For Resurrection Exists
A Wyoming state House committee voted to kill the much-debated Chloes Law on Wednesday, which would have banned transgender-related treatments for minors, but the House may still have an opportunity to hear it before the legislative session ends.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 23, 2023
House Speaker Continues To Stall Bill Banning Gender, Sexual Orientation Teaching For Grades K-3
House Speaker Albert Sommers has sat on a bill for 25 days that would bar public school teachers in Wyoming from teaching gender identity and sexual orientation to children. An attempt to maneuver around the speaker failed by a vote of 34-27 on Wednesday.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 22, 2023
Wyoming Dairy Farmers Close To Being Allowed Third-Party Milk Sales, But Can They Cut The Cheese?
The latest edition of Wyoming's Food Freedom Act allowing dairy farmers to sell products through a middleman sailed through both legislative chambers and barring a governor's veto, will soon be law, though an amendment making sure people can cut the cheese at farmers markets failed.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 22, 2023
Fireworks In The Capitol: Hutchings Blasts House Revenue Committee For Changing Bill
Sen. Lynn Hutchings said she was ashamed to be a legislator Tuesday after some of her House colleagues overhauled one of her bills. Committee Chair Rep. Steve Harshman called it a "cheap shot."
Clair McFarlandFebruary 22, 2023
Tribal Hunting Bill Killed Despite Push From Governor Gordon
The Wyoming Senate on Tuesday voted down a bill that would have given Gov. Mark Gordon the ability to make agreements with tribes specifying special, off-reservation hunting rights some tribal members have through their federal treaties.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 21, 2023
C.J. Box Slams Politically Correct Rewrites of Classic Children’s Books As ‘Vandalism’
Wyoming best-selling author C.J. Box on Tuesday condemned the rewriting of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and other children's books because they had terms like "fat" and "crazy" which, a "sensitivity coalition" said, could hurt someone's feelings. Box called it vandalism.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 21, 2023
Sad-Faced Giant Dog Rescued From Cheyenne Hoarder Finds Fresh Start In California
After escaping an animal hoarder with 60 other dogs and dozens of birds in Cheyenne last year, the sad-faced dog Kobe has finally found a forever home.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 20, 2023
Wyoming Native True-Crime Author Ron Franscell Releases First Fiction In 20 Years
Wyoming native author and former newspaperman Ron Franscell always wanted to be a novelist, but his persistent success writing true crime kept him from writing his own imagination for 20 years.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 20, 2023
Wyoming Prisons Says It Did Not Fire Black Female Warden Because Of Race, Sex
The Wyoming Department of Corrections said the firing of its first Black female warden wasn't an act of discrimination. They said Ruby Ziegler was "terminated for legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons."
Clair McFarlandFebruary 20, 2023
Sweeping Abortion Ban Stalled For Eight Days, Senate President Cites Constitutional Concerns
Wyoming Senate President Ogden Driskill told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that he has constitutional concerns about the Life Is A Human Right Act and isn't certain whether to advance the bill to the Senate for a vote.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 17, 2023
Wyoming Senate Sides With Governor Over Tribe, Advances Tribal Hunt Bill
Though members of multiple tribes oppose it, the state Senate on Thursday advanced a bill giving Gov. Mark Gordon authority to establish hunting agreements with tribes whose treaties contain special hunting rights.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 17, 2023
Lawmakers Argue Over Committee Assignment For Child Sex Change Bill
Some Wyoming lawmakers Thursday challenged state House leadership over which committee should hear Chloe's Law, which would prevent doctors from performing or prescribing transgender-related treatments for kids.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 17, 2023
Cheyenne Man Admits He Recorded Coworker In Bathroom
After 23-year-old Hunter Rezac reportedly turned himself in to Cheyenne police for recording a female coworker's visit to the bathroom, the Larame County District Attorney's Office charged him with voyeurism, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison if convicted.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 16, 2023
Wyoming Lawmakers Spar Over Child Marriage, Scolded By Senate President
The Wyoming Senate on Thursday resoundingly passed a bill banning marriages for children 15 and younger after an argument about whether the bill's sponsor would be willing to change it to allow anyone younger than 18 to marry with permission of both a judge and a parent.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 16, 2023
Lawmakers Advance Law To Keep Indian Children Out Of Non-Native Foster Homes
The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a bill continuing a hotly disputed federal law designed to keep Indian children out of non-native foster and guardian homes, whether the children live on Indian reservations or not.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 15, 2023
Bill Allowing Wyoming Dairy Farmers To Sell Milk At Stores Passes Committee
While some dairy farmers in Wyoming are running a black market selling milk through third parties, a bill that would make those sales legal has cleared a state House committee.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 15, 2023
Lawmakers Reject Legislation That Would Outlaw School Spankings In Wyoming
The Wyoming House of Representatives has rejected a bill that would have removed legal protections for school staffers who spank kids, saying the bill is vague in defining what constitutes corporal punishment.
Clair McFarlandFebruary 15, 2023