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CSD Staff

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Bonus Video 2: Saturday, January 31, 2026

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Bonus Video 1: Saturday, January 31, 2026

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Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, August 18th.  I’m Mac Watson.

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It's primary election day in Wyoming, with many races up for grabs. Cowboy State Daily's political reporter Claire McFarland breaks down our coverage and what you can expect.

“The primary election in Wyoming tends to be more decisive than the general election because it's such a deep red state. So a lot of these big struggles are between Republicans, and so today we can expect to see Freedom Caucus versus non-Freedom Caucus showdowns, struggles over the U.S. House, one U.S. Senate seat, the governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Treasurer. Cowboy State Daily is going to have live coverage, analysis, and up-to-date stories throughout the evening.”

Our live coverage of the primary starts at 7PM at Cowboy State Daily dot com.

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The New York Times featured the Wyoming Senate race between Chip Neiman and Ogden Driskill as an example of Wyoming's Republican Party divide. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that's accurate, but no one in that race thinks Neiman represents the “far right.”

“The New York Times story went over the Ogden Driscoll/Chip Neiman race, which was a showdown for Senate between an anti-Freedom Caucus figurehead and a Freedom Caucus figurehead. That's Chip Neiman. No one was really bent out of shape. It's just that Wyoming politics is incredibly nuanced, and anyone used to covering it from kind of a ‘Democrat versus Republican’ approach is going to miss it because the big power plays in Wyoming are all infighting in factions within the Republican Party.”

That race is anthemic of the divide between the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its intra-party foes, multiple news outlets and the NYT have agreed.  But it’s difficult to capture the nuance of it.

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The Virginia-based PAC Make Liberty Win, which favors the Freedom Caucus, spent nearly $550,000 on Wyoming's primary election and more than $60,000 attacking specific candidates. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the group’s director, Barrett Young says there’s a reason to go negative. 

“Make Liberty Win has consistently been a big spender in Wyoming's elections for the last two election cycles. Now, spending the neighborhood of 300,000 in 2024, and more than half a million this time around. And they'll go positive, but they'll also go negative, really negative. One flyer attacking former House Speaker Albert Summers showed a crying child and called him out for his nay vote on a bill that he said he had constitutional doubts about, rather than you know merit concerns. The director of Make Liberty Win, which backs Freedom Caucus aligned candidates, said that that groups will go negative because it works.”

Make Liberty Win is among Wyoming’s top-spending state-level PACS and traces all this year's contributions for Wyoming races to Virginia, 

Lindsay Woods of Jackson was poised to win the grueling 620-mile Mongol Derby but heatstroke and food poisoning left her unconscious in a river. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that even though this ends her bid on the remote Mongolian Steppe, Lindsay says she’s confident she could have won the race.

“She stayed with a Mongolian family and might have eaten something either that night or the day before that gave her food poisoning. She attempted to ride the next morning, but it was an extremely hot day, and the combination of food poisoning and the dehydration associated with that, and the heat led the heat stroke. She sat down in a stream to try to cool herself off, and after that point, she doesn't remember much, but she was found unconscious in that stream after activating her SOS signal. Lindsay absolutely wants to compete in the Mongol Derby again. It's a question of money and time because it's very expensive to enter and travel and everything. But in terms of what she did, her strategy was sound. She had a good feel for the horses, and she had a pretty good idea of how to win.”

Woods was one of 43 riders in the 2026 Mongol Derby. The Jackson horse trainer proved herself from the start, using her equestrian and strategic skills to become one of the frontrunners in 

the highly competitive, grueling endurance race

. She’s discouraged but tells Cowboy State Daily she’s holding her head high after her ordeal on the Mongolian Steppe.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

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Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

After a so-called "prankster" left a Cheyenne pizza joint stuck with 18 pizzas, the restaurant donated them to emergency room workers at the Cheyenne hospital. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Dave Agovic, owner of L'Osteria Mondello said, “Let's reward them.”

“Cheyenne restaurant owner Dave Agavic says that he was already handling an order for 40 pizzas when another for 18 came in, so he quickly made the pizzas. And when the pies were ready, nobody showed up to pick them up. He called the number that had ordered them and quickly realized that it was a prank when the person said they never ordered those pizzas. Frustrated with more than $300 worth of hot food sitting on valuable counter space, he asked his staff what they should do with it, and the staff quickly came up with an answer. They decided that they should donate it to the local ER. Hospital staff happened to be hungry, and they were very grateful to receive the donation.”

In about 3 1/2 years running the restaurant, Agovic said something like this had happened only once.

Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman says California should be held accountable for the Colorado River crisis because instead of building water infrastructure it spent billions on “stupid things” like high-speed rail. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports in the meantime, Lake Powell has hit a record low.

“Hageman is a good one to talk to about this because before she was in Congress, she was actually a water and natural resources attorney. She's worked on cases having to do with the Colorado River Compact, and her point of view is say Arizona just goes ‘okay, the heck with it!’ We're going to start suing people for more water, she said. That would probably be because it's direct federal jurisdiction. It would probably have to go to the Supreme Court, and the argument that Arizona or California might bring to the table is that our municipal and/or industrial use of water is the best and highest use over irrigation in the upper basin states, and Hageman thinks if they tried to make that argument, that the counter argument that no irrigation is actually the best use would probably prevail in court.”

, Hageman said California, with a population of 40 million, still relies on water infrastructure dating to the 1960s, when about 16 million lived in the state.  

The 5,582-acre Steiner Ranch in northeast Wyoming, a premiere spot for hunting trophy bull elk and mule deer, has just been listed for sale at nearly $30 million. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that last year, Martha Stewart was at the ranch to study its farm-to-fork ecosystem.

“It was the gardening that they do that caught the attention of some of their guests and led to the Martha Stewart visit, the guy was like, "Oh, we got to get our CGO out here to see this. Our chief gardening officer. How often have you heard that kind of a title? And come to find out, the CGO is Martha Stewart. And so, you know the guy that owns the ranch. He was like, "Oh yeah, right. Martha Stewart's gonna come out here and visit the ranch. And 10 days later, Martha Stewart is on the ranch, you know, touring their agriculture operation, and his wife, who is an excellent chef, is cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Martha Stewart.”

Stewart later praised the operation on her official Instagram account, highlighting the “extreme” energy of the ranch’s owners, Rick Steiner and Deirdre Wildman.

A couple was videotaping the Needles Eye Tunnel in South Dakota’s Custer State Park on Friday when a motorhome tried to thread the narrow opening and became stuck. Cowboy State Andrew Rossi reports that one witness said, “I think he just thought he could get through.”

“If they didn't have an awning on the side of their motorhome, they might have done it. But as they got in, the awning started scraping against the tunnel. They made it about halfway before they realized they weren't threading that needle's eye, so they backed out and the awning popped out before falling off. So it's not the first time that's happened on the needle's highway and in those tunnels specifically, but there's a first time for everything too.”

Drivers pass through three tunnels on the Needles Highway. The Needles Eye is the tightest at 8 feet, 4 inches wide and 9 feet, 8 inches tall. Many people have attempted to get their RVs, motorhomes, and travel trailers through these tunnels, and many have failed.

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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 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 8 18 26

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

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, August 18, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* It's Election Day In Wyoming
* Cheyenne Pizza Disaster Has Happy Ending
* Wyo Rider In 620-Mile Mongol Derby Found Unconscious

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, August 18, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Republicans on both sides of the pro-and anti-Freedom Caucus divide voiced critiques Monday on a 

 that dissects one of the Cowboy State’s fiercest legislative races.

“In the shadow of Devils Tower,” begins the story, “an election-year fight has erupted between Wyoming’s right and its far right, with serious implications for the state’s political future.”

The story covers the state Senate race between two Republicans: Wyoming Freedom Caucus (WFC) member and House Speaker Chip Neiman, and the upper chamber’s incumbent, Sen. Ogden Driskill.

That race is anthemic of the divide between the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its intra-party foes, multiple news outlets and the NYT have agreed.  

[{"type":"text","text":"But it’s difficult to capture the nuance of it."}]

The story casts non-Freedom Caucus lawmakers as institutionalists, caucus members as insurgents. It touches on the caucus-led passage of a 25% residential property tax cut, and it airs both ideals of caucus leaders and grievances of their critics.

The caucus’ priorities, WFC chair Rep. Rachel Williams told the outlet, include shrinking government, tightening voting rules, and curtailing “activist” judges.

The NYT covered Neiman’s long battle for pro-life legislation and Driskill’s efforts this year to shield the University of Wyoming from a $40 million cut and the Wyoming Business Council from complete repeal.

[{"type":"text","text":"But Who Owns The Right?"}]

Former state Rep. Ember Oakley, who’s a career prosecutor and a detractor of the caucus, said the story repeats a fallacy that the Freedom Caucus is more conservative than its Republican foes.

Neiman had the inverse critique, saying though the story labels him as “far-right” he’s the normal right, and Driskill is, he asserted, a “Democrat.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley responded to that barb hours before Neiman said it."}]

“This race actually does exemplify the division sowed by the Freedom Caucus, because classifying Ogden Driskill as anything but a solid conservative is ridiculous,” she said. “You can find this out by the policies he supports, his voting in the Senate, or any time you speak with the man.”

Driskill also bristled at being called a Democrat. He called it an instance of juvenile and disheartening name-calling, and described himself as a Reagan Republican.

He noted that he’s fought against both fuel and cigarette taxes throughout his 16-year legislative career.

Wyoming has produced no universal agreement about what it means to embody the political “right.”  

“I take umbrage with the continued classification (of) the Freedom Caucus being more conservative than the traditional, long-term Republican Wyomingites,” said Oakley.

[{"type":"text","text":"She gave an example."}]

While the Freedom Caucus passed the 25% property tax cut, its ally, gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, led the effort to put another 50% residential property tax cut on the ballot this November.

Oakley stressed that because property taxes fund local governments – such as ambulance, firefighting, law enforcement, and schools – the locals of each county are funding their own services through them.

Offloading the tax burden onto another revenue structure, like the energy industry or sales taxes, shifts each local services bill from the people who are receiving the services, Oakley noted. She added that it would also shift communities’ autonomy to the bigger state government.

“Local control, instead of the bigger government – yes, even state – has always been a central tenet to Republicanism,” she said.

She called the WFC’s battle cry against “activist judges” a red herring, and said “Republicans in this state have traditionally had a respect for the rule of law and the Constitution that mandates separation of powers.”

WFC state director Jessie Rubino did not respond by publication to a Sunday text message and Monday voicemail request for comment on the NYT story.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Ol Kitty Dog’"}]

Neiman was pleased to find his dog named for the Gunsmoke character Miss Kitty Russell in the NYT’s profile photograph of him.

[{"type":"text","text":"“That is a cool picture of me with Ol’ Kitty Dog,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His delight ended there."}]

Neiman disagreed with the outlet calling him far-right. He said he follows the Wyoming Republican Party platform, and doesn’t believe the state party’s current candidate vetting process calling for 80% or higher agreement is a tall ask.

“Then he calls Ogden a ‘merely conservative.’ I don’t even know what that is,” said Neiman.

Of being called an “insurgent,” Neiman said with a laugh, “Jeez-oh-Pete … Sounds like we’re creating an insurrection.”

Neiman said Freedom Caucus members are “just taxpayers wanting to be involved in the conversation.”

Driskill had called the Wyoming GOP’s new platform-based vetting rule a “purity test.”

 to broad strokes and inconsistencies in the platform.

For example, it says people have a right to life from conception to natural death – wording that could alienate Republicans who support the death penalty.

The story references the Common Sense Republicans, a new PAC that warns of caucus-led deep cuts to services and education.

Neiman countered this, noting that the Freedom Caucus joined nearly the entire Legislature in passing a new school-funding bill that increased K-12 spending and teacher pay.

When the Legislature passed the 25% property tax cut, he noted, property taxes had just soared.

Neiman said Wyoming would have clearer ideas about politics if it had a strong Democratic Party.

“We fight inside the Republican Party because the Democratic Party has moved into the Republican Party,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Is A Democrat?"}]

Driskill countered, “I wish (Neiman) understood what a Democrat is, because he obviously does not.”

“I was going to Republican state conventions when he was in diapers,” added Driskill.

Driskill said he has encountered people on the campaign trail who’ve been told that he’s a leftist, and he’s spent time going over his record with people to undo what he calls trickery from his foes.

Driskill noted that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its members often tout as victories bills that passed with broader support by 

While the NYT story didn’t capture “the whole drift of what we’re like in northeast Wyoming,” said Driskill, the authors tried to be fair and did a reasonable job.

Oakley lodged a technical note: the story calls Neiman’s decision to leave the House and run for Senate an “unusual gamble.”

Actually, it’s tradition in Wyoming for the Speaker to serve just one term in that role, Oakley observed.

The chamber elects a House speaker every two years. Its two most recent speakers before Neiman, Albert Sommers and Eric Barlow, both ran for Senate after their terms.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nah, Says Lindholm"}]

Tyler Lindholm, Wyoming-based director of Americans For Prosperity and a side character in the NYT story, didn’t have any real gripes about it Monday.

“I don’t really think it said much at all,” said Lindholm. “For once I wasn’t very exciting, I guess.”

Neiman Driskill and Capitol 8 17 26

<title>Wyoming Politics: What The New York Times Got Right, And Wrong | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The New York Times featured the Wyoming Senate race between Chip Neiman and Ogden Driskill as an example of Wyoming's Republican Party divide. That's accurate, but no one in that race thinks Neiman represents the "far right."

Wyoming Politics: What The New York Times Got Right, And Wrong

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

Andrew Rossi

Tourism

[{"type":"text","text":"Some places just aren't a good fit for RVs and motorhomes. "}]

The Needles Highway in South Dakota’s Custer State Park, near Mount Rushmore, is one of them.

Denise Yelton and Todd Beaver discovered that during an excursion in Custer recently when a motorhome intended to thread the Needles Eye Tunnel found itself fraying halfway through.

Yelton and Beaver, who have been “full-time RVers” since April, decided to take an early-morning drive on the Needles Highway on Friday. They departed in their Jeep Gladiator, leaving their 38-foot Holiday Rambler Nautica parked at the campground.

“We left early because we knew the highway would get really crowded with Sturgis,” Yelton told Cowboy State Daily. “When we got to the tunnel, we pulled over because I wanted to record a video of my husband coming through the tunnel.”

When they pulled off the road, the Freedom Elite motorhome behind them kept going. That’s when disaster struck.

“I was sitting there waiting to see if he was going to make it through, and he got stuck,” Denise said. “I recorded it, obviously.”

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

Drivers pass through three tunnels on the Needles Highway. The Needles Eye is the tightest at 8 feet, 4 inches wide and 9 feet, 8 inches tall.

Many people have attempted to get their RVs, motorhomes, and travel trailers through these tunnels, and many have failed. 

Yelton had seen videos of similar incidents and wasn’t keen to emulate them.

Yelton thought the Freedom Elite might have had a chance. Unfortunately for the couple pulling it, they were over-accessorized.

“The awning started scraping against the side of the tunnel,” she said. “When he realized that he wasn't going to make it, he started backing up, and that's when it was making all the noise.”

When the RV backed up far enough, the awning arm fully extended until it fell off. The driver backed out of the tunnel and parked in the pull-off to assess the damage with his wife.

Yelton and Beaver hopped in their Jeep and continued onward. Yelton assumed they conceded they couldn’t thread the Needles Eye and went back the way they came.

“I think he just thought he could get through, and maybe if it wasn't for the awnings, he possibly could have,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Don’t Be This Guy'"}]

Before Yelton posted the video of the RV incident on her 

, it had 347 followers. Three days later, it has more than 9,000 followers.

“It has blown my mind,” she said. “I’m not out there trying to get followers and stuff, but it's really blown my mind.”

When Beaver retired from the Charlotte Fire Department last year, the couple left Gastonia, North Carolina, in April and haven’t stopped since.

“We’re sharing our adventures and life on the road, one mile at a time,” Yelton said.

Yelton noticed that the Freedom Elite that attempted to scrape through the tunnel also had a North Carolina license plate. However, she figured that wasn’t a good time to chitchat.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I didn’t speak to them at all,” she said. “We just went on.”"}]

She did point out the numerous signs along the road warning drivers of the width and height of the upcoming tunnel. It seems the driver either underestimated the Freedom Elite’s width or overestimated his ability to get through the tunnel.

“He had to make it through the previous tunnel to get where he was, and that one was wider,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"There’s An App For That"}]

How can RV and motorhome drivers avoid these incidents? There’s an app for that.

As she was researching full-time RV life, Yelton learned the secret to safe travels is the RV Life app.

“We put our destination in the app, and it’ll tell us what we want to avoid,” she said. “That’s what you have to do as an RVer, and we knew that because we follow a lot of them.”

That’s why their 38-foot Holiday Rambler Nautica RV stayed where it was. That’s for living and traveling the open road, not exploring routes like the Needles Highway.

“We never would have intentions of taking our camper on a mountain road,” she said. “We've researched enough about the areas that we're headed to so we know what to do when we get there.”

Yelton and Beaver have been savoring South Dakota for several days. The next leg of their trip will take them on Interstate 90 to Buffalo, then over the Bighorns to Cody on their way to Yellowstone National Park.

Thanks to RV Life, they know where they can and can’t go with their RV, lest they end up facing scrutiny on social media.

“We’ve seen a lot of videos, so we knew our RV would never make it through those tunnels,” Yelton said. “That was my first time seeing something like that.”

RV stuck 8 17 26

<title>RV Driver Tries To Scrape Through South Dakota Needles Eye Tunnel, Gets Stuck | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A couple was videotaping the Needles Eye Tunnel in South Dakota’s Custer State Park on Friday when a motorhome tried to thread the narrow opening and became stuck. "I think he just thought he could get through," they said.

RV Driver Tries To Scrape Through South Dakota Needles Eye Tunnel, Gets Stuck

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

California isn’t doing its part to avert the Colorado River crisis by upgrading its aging water infrastructure and is instead spending billions on pet projects, Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman said Monday.

“It’s because they do stupid things like spending money on high-speed rail and don’t meet the basic needs of their citizens,” Hageman told Cowboy State Daily.

She added that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of the “top five worst governors in the United States.”

“How many billions have been wasted on healthcare for illegal aliens (in California)?” she asked.

, Hageman said California, with a population of 40 million, still relies on water infrastructure dating to the 1960s, when about 16 million lived in the state.  

That could saddle Wyoming and other Colorado River basin states with meeting an increasing demand for water against a dwindling supply, she said.

If the issue  escalates into a legal battle, probably before the U.S. Supreme Court, California and other downstream states might try going after Wyoming’s irrigation water, Hageman added.

Hageman was previously a water and natural resources attorney. She worked on cases related to the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the North Platte Decree limiting Colorado

’s use of the river’s water, and other interstate water agreements.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Red Lights Flashing"}]

Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman says California should be accountable for the Colorado River crisis because instead of building water infrastructure it spent billions on "stupid things" like high-speed rail. In the meantime, Lake Powell has hit a record low.