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
Fremont County Library Director Urged Against 'Ultra Conservative' Board Members
In an email chain between members of the Fremont County Library board, members discussed how to keep “ultra conservative activist people” off the board.
Clair McFarlandAugust 02, 2023
Wyoming Dept. Of Corrections Updates Policy On Transgender Inmates
To deal with transgender inmates in the Wyoming Department of Corrections system, policies on how to accommodate those inmates are being updated, including rules on determining “genital status.”
Clair McFarlandAugust 01, 2023
Church Elder Says He’s The Focus Of UW Discrimination, Not Transgender Sorority Member
A Laramie church elder who was banned from the University of Wyoming Student Union for a year for publicly calling out a transgender sorority member as "a male" says the school is discriminating against him for saying so.
Clair McFarlandJuly 31, 2023
Seven-Decade Prison Term Remains For Gillette Man Who Molested Sisters
The Wyoming Supreme Court on Monday upheld the 2022 conviction of John Byron Mills, 47, who sexually abused an underage girl and forcibly raped her older sister on separate occasions in Gillette.
Clair McFarlandJuly 31, 2023
Wrong-Way Driver Accused Of Killing Five Not Sane Enough For Trial, Court Finds
A Wyoming District Court judge says Arthur Nelson, 58, is not sane enough to face trial for driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 and causing a crash that killed five young Bible college visitors.
Clair McFarlandJuly 31, 2023
Laramie Man Could Get 20 Years For Deadly Cheyenne Library Drug Drop
Accused of selling the fentanyl that killed a 27-year-old Cheyenne man, Tristan Eickbush of Laramie faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Clair McFarlandJuly 31, 2023
Thermopolis Teachers Couldn't Find Housing, So Students Are Building It
It’s hard enough to recruit new teachers to rural Wyoming without having places for them to live. In Thermopolis, students are helping build housing for new teachers.
Clair McFarlandJuly 30, 2023
No New Trial For Man Who Shot A Mama Horse In The Gut
The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld the prison sentence of a Uinta County man convicted of aggravated animal cruelty for shooting another man’s horse in the gut. She died with two bullets lodged in her intestines.
Clair McFarlandJuly 29, 2023
Campbell County Library Board Ousts Director After Sex Books Controversy
The Campbell County Public Library Board fired its library director of 11 years in a 4-1 vote Friday, after she would not remove sexually graphic books in the library’s children’s and teen’s sections.
Clair McFarlandJuly 29, 2023
Riverton Locals Target City's Day Drinkers To Drop State's Highest Crime Rate
Tired of their city having Wyoming’s highest rate for violent crime, Riverton residents and business owners are working to help — and to confront — the vagrants who commit many offenses in town.
Clair McFarlandJuly 28, 2023
Hageman Says Gender-Affirming Treatments Are Sexual Lobotomies
At a congressional hearing on gender treatments on Thursday, Rep. Harriet Hageman said there are only two sexes and that “gender-affirming care is better described as sexual lobotomy.”
Clair McFarlandJuly 28, 2023
Ashanti Alert Dispatched For Riverton Man, 80, In Red Jeep
Update: Riverton Police reported that 80-year-old James Knudson, who left home early that morning in his red Jeep, has been found.
Clair McFarlandJuly 27, 2023
Jackson Man Pleads Guilty To Molesting 13-Year-Old, Filming Women On Toilet
German Guerra faces up to 48 years in prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl and filming women as they went to the bathroom at the Cowboy Bar in Jackson.
Clair McFarlandJuly 27, 2023
Clair McFarland: Ode To The Aquarium's Bouncer And His Secret Tail
Clair McFarland writes: Stingray Bouncer inhaled the threat of our approach. He cupped his face in one giant hand while squeezing his other hand between his forearm and bicep so he couldn’t accidentally rip anyone’s larynx out.
Clair McFarlandJuly 27, 2023
Freedom Caucus Wants Wyoming To Quit American Library Association; Governor Contemplating
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus on Wednesday called on the state library to cut ties with the American Library Association. The group's disdain for the organization stems in part from ALA’s endorsement of numerous sexually graphic books for kids
Clair McFarlandJuly 26, 2023
Lawsuit: UW Officials Say Church Elder Harassed Transgender Student
University of Wyoming officials are denying they violated the free-speech rights of a Laramie church elder who displayed a sign in the school’s student Union breezeway calling a transgender sorority member a male.
Clair McFarlandJuly 26, 2023
Teton County School District Settles Sexual Harassment Claims With Feds
The Department of Justice and Teton County School District have settled on a plan following a DOJ investigation into alleged sexual harassment in the district, likely stemming from a pair 2020 lawsuits filed by students.
Clair McFarlandJuly 26, 2023
Prosecutor Says More Child Porn Found On Wyo. National Guard Sergeant's Phone
A federal prosecutor says more child porn was found on the cellphone of Wyoming National Guard Sgt. First Class Daniel Gene Gumm, who already faces up to 40 years in prison on child-porn distribution and possession charges.
Clair McFarlandJuly 25, 2023
Still No Word On What Caused 21-Car Train Derailment
Union Pacific is tight-lipped this week about what caused a 21-car train derailment that happened near Lusk earlier this month, saying it’s still under investigation.
Clair McFarlandJuly 25, 2023
Judge Won’t Dismiss Wyoming Sheep Shearer’s Murder Case As Self Defense
A Lincoln County District Court Judge declined to dismiss the second-degree murder charge as self-defense for a Wyoming sheep shearer who stabbed her boyfriend to death.
Clair McFarlandJuly 25, 2023
Should Misgendering People Be A Crime? Millennials Say Yes
A Newsweek poll says more millennials think that misgendering transgender people should be a crime than don't, but a top Wyoming free-speech attorney says criminalizing speech would backfire.
Clair McFarlandJuly 24, 2023