Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily editor Justin George

Justin George

David Madison

Wildlife

During almost every human-bear encounter, the bear just wants to leave or, at worst, might attack because it’s startled, agitated or defending its cubs.

In the most terrifying and extremely rare cases, a bear sizes a person up as a possible meal.

California resident Ryan Lutes believes he had a predatory encounter with a female brown bear in Sitka, Alaska, during the first week of June.

He told Cowboy State Daily that he credits confidence and bold action for coming out of the encounter unscathed.

Lutes loves traveling to Alaska, as well as Wyoming, Montana, and other wild places, and has had plenty of bear encounters.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"But this one was different, he said."}]

The bear was alert, fixated on him, and approached boldly and quietly.

“At some point, her hair touched my arm. Then my adrenaline hit the roof, and I started screaming and going after her,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘The Perfect Storm Of A Few Things’"}]

It’s been a busy year for human-bear encounters. In May, two brothers were mauled by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park. And a man was killed in a grizzly attack in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

Attacks by grizzlies and black bears have also been reported in Colorado, Canada, and elsewhere. Most recently in Wyoming, a woman was hospitalized Monday after a 

 while hiking with her dogs near Teton Pass.

None of that means that bears are getting meaner, said wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson, who lives in Emigrant, Montana, and has had thousands of bear encounters.

“There’s a perfect storm of a few things. More people going into wild spaces. There are more bears in wild spaces. Wild spaces are shrinking, and everybody’s got a camera,” Anderson told Cowboy State Daily.

That ubiquitous presence of cell phones and social media means that people can document wildlife encounters and share them like never before, Anderson noted.

So, while there might be a genuine increase in the number of human-bear encounters, the new technology might give the impression the numbers have absolutely exploded, he said.

Anderson used his own social media platform to share video of the Lutes encounter and uses it as a tutorial of highly unusual and spooky bear behavior.

Lutes said he usually carries a firearm or bear spray in the wild. But on that day he had neither. He was just trying to burn off a little time before picking up a friend from work by hiking on some Sitka municipal trails that are essentially right in town.

Having no defense mechanism, and with the bear acting the way it was, Lutes “did the right thing,” Anderson said.

“He was standing his ground and being counter-aggressive,” Anderson said. “It’s super-intense. To have that kind of encounter without protection. That’s intense.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Focused, Determined, Deadly"}]

,” produced by the International Bear Association (IBA), is still regarded as one of the best bear safety tutorials.

A segment of the video covers signs of predatory behavior in bears.

A defensive bear will appear “agitated and stressed,” the film’s narrator states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Not so with a potentially predatory bear."}]

“With its head up and ears erect, its approach is confident and persistent,” the narrator says.

That’s the sort of behavior to watch for, regardless of species, according to the film.

The consensus among bear experts is that large, male black bears are the most likely to be predatory toward humans.

The film recommends acting aggressively toward a predatory bear to discourage it. 

And, if it comes down to it, fighting back.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘That Gives Me The Creeps’"}]

Anderson said the behavior of the female brown bear in Lutes’ video reflects what the IBA filmmakers were pointing out.

“That video, when I watched it, provoked some reactions in me because of the bear’s body language,” he said. “The body language is focused. In those circumstances, that bear has some choices to make.

“The bear’s body language suggests, ‘I want to get a closer look at this (human). Because this might be an opportunity. And that gives me the creeps.” 

Anderson said that among all the bear encounters he’s had only one that was possibly predatory, years ago in Yellowstone National Park.

An old, “emaciated” grizzly boldly approached Anderson and his cameraman, looking intensely focused.

That bear, well past its prime, was probably desperate for food, he said.  

Anderson said he charged at the bear, “roaring” and holding his backpack over his head, and the bear fled.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The incident shook him."}]

“I didn’t sleep for three nights after that,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘I Planted My Ass’"}]

Lutes said he encountered the bear near a raptor center along the trails.

He approached the center but discovered it was closed.

Needing to answer nature’s call, he entered some thick cover at the end of an abandoned road.

“It looked like a good place to take a leak,” he said. “I was just finishing buckling my pants back up when I heard the unmistakable crunching of leaves that I knew could come only from the weight of a bear or human.” 

He said the bear almost immediately locked eyes with him.

“The second she made eye contact with me, I knew I had to plant my ass,” standing firm and not appearing weak, he said.

And he started taking video with his cell phone.

Lutes said he and the bear went through an intense back-and-forth for at least several minutes.

At one point the bear charged, and he dropped his phone. When he scared the bear back by shouting at it, he picked up his phone and started taking video again.

At another point, the bear “got down on her belly with her head away from me, like a dog,” and he thought he’d finally established dominance over it.

But then, “she popped back up like a jack-in-the-box," and the standoff began all over again.

Lutes said he was pumped full of adrenaline and not particularly proud of “some of the language I was using in those videos.”

Eventually, the bear “stuck its head in some brush” as if it had lost interest in him, and Lutes left quickly.

He said he learned later that the bear’s two juvenile cubs might have been shot while trying to kill goats with her, and so she might have been “angry” toward people.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Be Prepared, But Not Paranoid"}]

Anderson stressed that he wants people to be mindful in bear country, not irrationally terrified.

That means being prepared because “complacency is what gets you killed in the wild. Period,” he said.

For “a broad swath of the public” that might not be skilled with firearmskram he recommends bear spray, which he said he’s had to use on bears a few times.

And knowledge and a cool head should prevail, Anderson said.

“Time and time again, I see people getting themselves out of situations by using their brains,” he said.

As miniscule as the possibility of running into a predatory bear is, people should run through that scenario and how to handle it in their heads, Anderson said.

“You must at least have it on your mind. And you’d better have your game plan in place, because it’s life or death,” he said.

Mix Collage 14 Aug 2026 06 35 PM 1046

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

<title>When A Bear Wants To Eat You: Outdoorsman Has Terrifying Predatory Encounter | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Outdoorsman Ryan Lutes had a predatory encounter with a female brown bear earlier this summer. He told Cowboy State Daily that he credits confidence and bold action for coming out alive. "I knew I had to plant my ass, stand firm and not appear weak," he said.

When A Bear Wants To Eat You: Outdoorsman Has Terrifying Predatory Encounter

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

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

 has been identified as Terry Zaske, 48, of Rapid City, South Dakota.

Zaske was riding his motorcycle on U.S. Highway 14/16/20 on Wednesday when he was struck by a Ford pickup truck that swerved into his lane near Wapiti, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said.

Zaske died at the scene. Zaske's wife, Candis, was LifeFlighted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, where she is recovering from serious injuries.

Kaitlyn Zaske, Terry’s daughter, also from Rapid City, 

 to pay for her father's funeral and cover her stepmother's medical bills. She described her father as a jovial soul and a doting grandfather, taken from her family too soon.

“My dad was so many things to so many people,” she wrote. “He was a son, father, grandpa, brother, uncle, and friend. He was my dad and losing him so unexpectedly has left a hole in our family that words cannot describe.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Incident"}]

Zaske and three other motorcycles were traveling west on U.S. 14/16/20 toward Yellowstone National Park when the eastbound pickup truck drifted into the opposite lane. The truck struck two motorcycles directly, including Zaske’s, which caused the motorcycles behind them to crash as well.

A Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) vehicle, traveling behind the motorcycles, attempted to swerve to avoid the oncoming truck. The truck clipped the WYDOT vehicle’s tailgate and continued into a field before coming to a stop.

Ten people and six vehicles were involved in the incident. Five people were seriously injured.

“One person was taken by helicopter to Billings for medical treatment,” said Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesperson Aaron Brown. “Another was taken by ambulance to Cody before being flown to Billings as well. Two others were taken by ambulance to Cody with non-life-threatening injuries, where they were treated and released.”

The Highway Patrol said the driver of the Ford pickup was responsible for the accident. Driver inattention and driver fatigue/asleep were the contributing factors.  

As of Friday, it’s unknown whether any charges have been or will be filed against the pickup driver.

U.S. 14/16/20 was closed for 5 1/2 hours as first responders treated the victims and cleared the highway of debris.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Permanent Pain"}]

Candis Zaske is still receiving medical care in Billings. Kaitlyn said her stepmother has “a long road ahead” that will keep her from working.

Knowing the costs of her father's funeral and stepmother's medical bills will be immense, Kaitlyn is turning to friends, family, and other motorcyclists for support.

“While no amount of money can ever take away this pain, we are asking for help to ease some of the financial burden that has suddenly fallen on our family,” she wrote. “Nothing is expected, but everything is appreciated.”

As of Friday, the GoFundMe had reached more than $8,000 of its $14,000 goal.

Kaitlyn shared that she and her father were attempting to repair their relationship after years of conflict when he died. She “will forever wish we had more time.”

“We were just starting to find our way back to each other,” she wrote. “Regardless of everything, he was still my dad. He was still a grandpa, and he loved all of his kids and grandkids with everything he had.”

Kaitlyn will remember her father’s humor and how much he enjoyed doting on his grandchildren. The accident “unexpectedly changed (our family) forever.”

“He had a way of cracking a joke and making anyone laugh, but one of the things I will always remember most was how much he loved his grandchildren and how much he loved to spoil them,” she wrote. “Thank you to everyone who has reached out, prayed for us, shared their love, or offered support during this heartbreaking time. It means more to our family than you will ever know.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Zaske family could not be reached at the time of publication."}]

Mix Collage 14 Aug 2026 05 36 PM 4823

<title>South Dakota Grandfather Identified As Man Killed In Multi-Vehicle Wreck Near Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Terry Zaske, a grandfather from South Dakota, has been identified as the motorcyclist killed in a multi-vehicle wreck near Wapiti on Wednesday. The Wyoming Highway Patrol says the driver of a pickup truck caused the six-vehicle accident. 

South Dakota Grandfather Identified As Man Killed In Multi-Vehicle Wreck Near Yellowstone

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Political action committees (PACs) attacking Republican candidates in Wyoming’s primary election are twisting some facts and misrepresenting others.

And they’re spending hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to do it.

The half-million-dollar Wyoming Way Action PAC has been attacking Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a U.S. House candidate, for his record on the State Loan and Investment Board, alleging that fields of wind turbines are “taking over Wyoming because of Chuck Gray" - which is an exaggeration. 

The $1 million Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, funded exclusively Gray’s father, Jan Charles Gray, as of July 29, has been attacking Gray’s opponent Steve Friess by casting him as having a “never Trump” agenda. 

That claim falls out of the bigger context of the Friess family’s long alignment with the president.  

That PAC also asserted Friess was born, married, and raised his family in Connecticut, which Friess says is altogether false.

And the $1.4 million Wyoming’s Turn PAC produced a falsehood against Sen. Eric Barlow this week by asserting he sponsored a gas tax hike in 2020, when in fact he voted against the bill it references.

[{"type":"text","text":"First, Chuck Gray"}]

The claim that Gray is making wind farms take over Wyoming is an exaggeration.

As secretary of state, Gray voted in favor of leasing state lands for at least three wind-farm projects. Those three measure 640, 2,400 and 3,079 acres.

But amid a broader campaign against what Gray called “woke wind,” he later opposed around 37,128 acres of wind farms slated for state lands. Those pertained to two far more controversial wind leases, one of which has landed Wyoming in court.  

Wyoming measures about 62.34 million acres, and about 2.4 million of that is state land.

“Its (sic) just more dishonesty from the Jackson Friess group,” wrote Gray in a Friday text message.

“I was the only member on the State Board of Land Commissioners who voted against and stopped the woke wind leases in Converse and Niobrara Counties,” said Gray. “The first time Governor Gordon threatened to fight me in January was because of my work to stop the woke wind lease.” 

. In the seconds before the confrontation, however, Gray was speaking dourly of Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, who’s also a former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice.

Just before Gordon asked Gray to step outside, the governor  warned him against casting “aspersions” against Kautz.

Gray has weathered attack ads from another opponent, Reid Rasner, who says Gray has registered Chinese-owned companies. The secretary pointed to 

, when he stripped North Korean businesses of their licenses.

“I've spent a much larger percentage of my life than Friess in Wyoming,” said Gray. 

He said his parents divorced and he was under a custody arrangement he couldn’t control as a boy, and split time between Wyoming and California.

“For Friess to attack that, when he spent none of his youth living here, is hypocritical and dishonest,” said Gray.

The PAC attacking Gray’s California roots is funded in part by Friess’s mother, Lynn, though not registered to Friess.

[{"type":"text","text":"Next, Steve Friess"}]

The ad against Friess asserts he “stiffed” President Donald Trump “while bankrolling never Trumpers like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney.”

Friess gave money to Cheney in 2013 during her U.S. Senate run, but not when she became a “never Trumper” starting in about 2021, Federal Election Commission filings show.

His donations to Cheney happened “before she went insane,” said Friess in a Friday phone interview.

Friess gave money to Romney during the latter’s presidential run in 2012 – another campaign that pre-dated the pro- and anti-Trump Republican divide.

The Friess family donated to now-Rep. Harriet Hageman in 2021, fueling her successful 2022 U.S. House run against Cheney.

As for Trump’s most recent election, “I might have forgotten to write a personal check, but we hosted a fundraiser that raised $6 million,” said Friess. “So I think I’m OK there.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The False Claim"}]

Wyoming’s Turn PAC launched a mailer this week accusing Barlow, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, of sponsoring legislation to hike gas and diesel taxes. It footnotes the 2020 House Bill 63.

The Revenue Committee sponsored House Bill 63, and Barlow was not then a member of it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow voted against the bill, and it died on introduction."}]

The flier also indicates that Barlow opposed rolling back the gas tax hike in 2013. 

In that year, rather, Barlow had tried to weaken a proposed fuel tax hike, House Bill 69, by cutting its proposed tax increases in half. The House rejected Barlow's amendment, and in the end he voted against the bill. It passed despite his nay. 

Barlow's spokeswoman Rebekah Fitzgerald said he's "constantly trying to be thoughtful in the way that he brings legislation. But ultimately when it came down to it, he voted no on raising taxes."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"So the disingenuousness of the claims continues,\" she added. "}]

One of his three Republican opponents, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, 

 that had cherry-picked her former lobbying work and juxtaposed it with her employer's bankruptcy leaving Campbell County in the lurch for taxes. 

Now Gray appears to be attacking another of his opponents, Kevin Christensen, directly.

Citizens for Chuck Gray, which is a candidate committee directly linked to Gray, ran an attack ad accusing Christensen of being “too liberal for Wyoming,” according to a video of the ad Christensen sent Friday to Cowboy State Daily.

“Christensen trashed President Trump, and Christensen stands against conservatives, siding with RINOs like Liz Cheney, trying to squash Trump’s agenda,” says the ad.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ad plays Trump’s voice saying “Chuck Gray. Great job, Chuck.”"}]

Christensen, a U.S. Army veteran of Casper, said this is the first attack ad against him of which he’s aware.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I feel that Mr. Gray is nervous,” said Christensen."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He also said he’s never donated to, spent time with, or known Cheney."}]

Christensen did criticize the president in April after Trump posted an AI-generated image 

 with light streaming from both hands and other religious imagery surrounding him.

“I felt that as a person of faith, I couldn’t stand by and not provide comment on that,” said Christensen. “I felt that was inappropriate and wrong, and I stand by having made that post.”

He said he supports Trump and believes Americans should not want to see their president fail or wish him ill. But he also said no president is above critique.

Christensen called for all candidates to focus on the issues rather than attacking other candidates.

Gray has been asserting for days that polling shows him in first place and Christensen in second. He announced it on the debate stage at a Wyoming Public Television Debate last week in Sheridan, and has posted at least two selfie-style videos to social media, repeating the claim.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray has not published the complete poll."}]

Christensen said he’s been gaining support, and his word-of-mouth endorsements statewide have been exponential.

Friess, meanwhile, has launched an advertising campaign asserting that the “two-man race” is between himself and Gray.

[{"type":"text","text":"Just Who’s In This Thing?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming political strategist Bill Cubin weighed in Friday."}]

When Gray first claimed Christensen was in second place, “That didn’t’ make sense to me,” said Cubin.

“I think Chuck might have said that to kind of throw people off the scent of Steve Friess,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"But the recent attack ad lends the claim more credence, Cubin added"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“If they’re putting money behind it, it’s a real thing,” he said."}]

As for a two-man race, Cubin said it’s not that simple. Wyoming Republicans tend to galvanize into three groups, not two.

Those are the never-Trumpers, the semi-critical Trump supporters, and the people who “would walk on cut glass” to support the president, said Cubin.

If the attack ad against Christensen launched this week, however, “it feels really late in the game to be able to sink an ad like that,” he added.

Gray texted, “It's important for the truth to be told.  While the media has been repeating the lies of Jackson elitist Friess and his PACs funded by his billionaire friends, Kevin Christensen has actually been in second place in multiple polls.”

More than 21% of Gray’s donations came from Jackson residents as of July 29, FEC filings show.

Gray said he’d be happy to debate Christensen anytime, as long as Cowboy State Daily is not moderating.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About The PAC"}]

The Wyoming Way Action PAC, which attacks Gray, had raised $596,613 as of July 29 and spent $345,016.

Its sole contributor as of July 29 was the Outrider PAC, a $1.14 million outfit that runs on money from numerous donors including:

The Outrider PAC isn’t only helping Friess. It’s contributed to South Carolina congressional candidate Mark Smith, South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Dusty Johnson, and other Republicans.

Conservatives for American Excellence has been attacking Gray by pointing to his California roots. That’s a bigger PAC with a receipts tally this election season of $11.4 million. Not all of its spending goes toward Wyoming’s U.S. House race.

It has spent $7.4 million since January 2025. And as of June 30, all of that had gone toward races in other states.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Gray-Backing PAC"}]

The Hometown Freedom Action Network PAC that has been attacking Friess has been around since at least 2012 – long before this race took shape.

It’s raised $211,340 this election cycle. Its funding and spending are an estuary of out-of-state PACs, people and entities.

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess’s spokesman Tim Edson was much blunter than Friess."}]

He said Friess has run a positive campaign around an optimistic vision for Wyoming and is therefore “poised to beat Chuck Gray.”

“Chuck is losing, so he's lashing out with blatantly dishonest negative ads in a desperate effort to make Steve Friess as despised by the people of Wyoming as he is,” said Edson.

Though at least one of the PACs supporting Gray is backed with Gray’s father’s money, the PAC is not registered to Gray.

“It won't work because voters recognize that Chuck Gray is a self-promoting career politician and phony conservative who would backstab President Trump if he got to Congress,” said Edson.

Friess Christensen Gray 8 14 26

<title>False, Exaggerated, And Cherry-Picked Attack Ads Fly In Wyoming        | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Political groups spending millions of dollars on Wyoming's primary election are attacking U.S. House and gubernatorial candidates with fliers and commercials. Some of their claims are exaggerated; some are downright false.

False, Exaggerated, And Cherry-Picked Attack Ads Fly In Wyoming          

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A woman accused of driving during a Lander burglary spree that ended with a Loaf N’ Jug clerk getting stabbed three times pleaded guilty to a felony. She faces up to 10 years, while the man accused of the stabbing is headed to trial for attempted murder.

Renée Jean

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