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Nothing about a hot air balloon ride is logical....

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Here's your midwest summer starter pack....

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Now let's all enjoy Snoopy playing Woodstock in a game of tennis....

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Can an inside-the-park bunt home run be exciting? This one is.....

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Telling people a massive bolt that just came out of their seat moments before the roller coaster begins....

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There's tough and then there's "farmer tough...."

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Perverts facing justice, as narrated by MMA announcer Steve Inman.....

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Now, let's all enjoy Snoopy making dinner.....

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If this doesn't get you excited for the Olympics, nothing will....

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Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 9th.  I’m Mac Watson

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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Count Wyoming as one of the states that is now infected with a parasite that is causing long-lasting explosive diarrhea and other distressing symptoms. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore spoke to the state epidemiologist late Wednesday who gave her the news.

“The Wyoming Department of Health has confirmed three cases of the parasite that's giving people explosive diarrhea around the country.  It is called cyclosporiasis. According to Wyoming epidemiologist Matt Peterson, right now the investigation is ongoing, and they're not exactly sure what has caused it. Past outbreaks were linked to lettuce and other foods.”

Peterson tells Cowboy State Daily that two Wyoming patients likely contracted the parasite while traveling to countries where Cyclospora is endemic, The third patient, however, had no history of international travel. Health officials did not identify the locations of the affected individuals.

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The 2.7-gigawatt data center once called Project Jade 8 miles south of Cheyenne has been unmasked as a massive Google campus. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Google’s project, according to planning documents, will be a 716-acre campus in the Switchgrass Industrial Park.

“It's going to start at 2.7 gigawatts, but it can scale to 10 gigawatts. I was able to verify, I had suspected for a while that it was Google for a couple of different reasons, but I was able to finally verify that with some recent filings with Laramie County Planning and 

 has finally been revealed they are they are the entity behind this massive data center, which is Wyoming's largest and really one of the largest in the world, especially if they scale to 10 gigawatts.”

Google’s new facility likely isn’t the last large tech company to show up in Cheyenne. In addition to its 10 existing locations, Cheyenne has five more under construction and another nine in advanced stages of discussion, according to data from Cheyenne LEADS. 

A Jackson driver who watched Tuesday's deadly Teton Pass crash unfold says he nearly passed the dump truck moments before its brakes failed and crashed into six vehicles, killing two people. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the eyewitness said, the dump truck was “driving way too fast.”

“Jackson Airport taxi owner Dumitru Cebotari was just one vehicle behind the dump truck that caused a cataclysmic crash, resulting in two fatalities on Tuesday afternoon in the Teton Pass. He said several people started passing the dump truck, including a motorcyclist. Then, as they started going down the hill, the truck picked up speed, and he knew that something was wrong. As someone who's driven a truck before, he said that he instantly could tell that something was very wrong. He thought maybe the brakes had gone out. Later, the highway patrol was able to determine that that did in fact happen.”

Cowboy State Daily also spoke to the motorcyclist who survived being hit from behind by the out of control dump truck. Caleb Batista tells Cowboy State Daily that he's lucky to be alive, only suffering a dislocated shoulder, a fractured foot, and lacerations to his face. 

Several Northern Arapaho Tribe members are outraged at a Christian pastor who spoke against their religious customs and encouraged worship of Jesus instead. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that one Arapaho member told Cowboy State Daily that the church is “not welcome here anymore.”

“Sarah Lucas has been preaching on the Wind River Indian Reservation for about a decade, and at a recent service following the Sundance tribal ceremony, she said, but we know that Jesus is enough, it's not Jesus plus, it's Jesus everything. And controversy just exploded. Some tribal members are saying that she needs to leave the reservation.”

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone,” described Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas’ message as, “it feels like history repeating itself, with attempts to erase and discredit our traditional way of life.”

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

The Jane Doe found dead on Interstate 25 near Cheyenne in April has been identified as Brittany Smith, a Wyoming woman. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Smith was struck on the on-ramp from Missile Drive on April 20th.

“Brittany Smith, 37, she was identified today by the Wyoming Highway Patrol as the Jane Doe who was killed on April 20. She was a pedestrian on the on-ramp near Mild marker one off Interstate I-25 and she was hit by Ikea Sportage. From my understanding, at this point there are no charges pending.”

According to senior public relations specialist with the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Aaron Brown, Smith was struck by a northbound Kia Sportage on the on-ramp from Missile Drive on April 20th. Smith had been a pedestrian standing in the roadway.

A vocal crowd converged Tuesday on the Green River City Council meeting and opposed a $112,000 federal grant for the police department to install license plate reader cameras. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports the City Council and mayor ultimately voted 6-1 against finalizing the grant.

“We reported that the police department was pushing for a grant to install license plate readers, at least four of them, around the city, and then there was a city council meeting to finalize that. The people showed up, 10 of them spoke, all in opposition, and in the end, the mayor and council voted six to one not to finalize the grant. The police chief defended the cameras at the city council meeting, but he also voiced empathy for the people's passion and concern.”

Green River Police Chief Shawn Sturlaugson had planned to install around four Motorola brand license-plate readers, largely at city entrances, to respond quickly to criminal getaway or vulnerable-person situations, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

Two experienced Wyoming outdoorswomen said a large black bear aggressively entered their camp in the Bighorns late Sunday and turned it into “total chaos.” Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that when they returned the next day after escaping to a cabin, their camp was completely torn apart.

“Finally, the one lady fired two shots at it. The second shot convinced it to leave, and so they went and hung out in their jeeps for a while, and kind of got themselves settled back down, and decided, okay, let's, let's just go. My family has a cabin, so let's go stay at the cabin. So they grabbed their sleeping bags, went to the cabin, came back the next day, and apparently the bear had come back and just completely destroyed the camp.”

In a statement emailed to Cowboy State Daily, Game and Fish confirmed that four traps were set in the area and Game and Fish agents who spoke to other campers in the area didn’t report any bear conflicts.  

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It was an alleged kick to the groin of a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper that could get a Laramie man up to 10 years in prison after running from the law in a pickup towing a camper. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the trooper says, the “intense pain was causing me to be nauseous.”

“The lottery patrol knows he's coming, they set up the stop sticks, flatten his tires, he's still driving around, drives into Curt Gowdy State Park, and then ditches the car, runs, and he was hiding into his vegetation at night in the park. They finally find the guy, and he didn't want to go. He fought him the entire way, and at one point, when he got the opportunity, according to the affidavit, kicked the trooper in the groin as hard as he could, and you know that act right there is a felony.”

47-year-old Nicholas J. Blocker is scheduled for a Friday appearance in Albany County Circuit Court to face at least three criminal charges and 12 other traffic citations related to the chase and arrest.

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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 7 9 26

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

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, July 9, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thursday's headlines include:
* Google Data Center Comes To Cheyenne
* Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Reaches Wyoming
* Teton Pass Eyewitness: Dump Truck Going “Way Too Fast"

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, July 9, 2026

Coy Knobel

 Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Thursday. Severe storms possible in the southeast. Mostly clear skies overnight. Highs from the upper 70s to low 90s. Lows from the mid 40s to low 60s.

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Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and gradually becoming clear overnight with a low near 58.

 Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 61.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 46.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 80 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 47.

 Sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

  Sunny today with a high near 81 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 48.

 Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

  Sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight a low near 45.

Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 62.

:  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 62.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 93 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 62.

  Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 63.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 56.

:  Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 56.

Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 82 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 56.

  Rain likely mainly after noon (some storms could be severe) today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

  Chance of rain (some storms could be severe), increasing clouds today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 53.

  Chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 88 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

  Rain likely after noon, becoming mostly cloudy today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 54.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 79 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

Daycap 7 9 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 9, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 9, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

A “Yellowstone” series TV actor posted a clip Tuesday of a Christian pastor preaching on the Wind River Indian Reservation and discouraging some of the Arapaho tribal religious ceremonies, saying “Jesus is everything...A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

, garnering 31,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon and provoking outrage, particularly around the reservation.

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," described Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas’ message as, “A pastor speaking at a church on the Rez in Wyoming condemning Sundance, one of our oldest and most sacred ceremonies.”

Wassana said, “it feels like history repeating itself, with attempts to erase and discredit our traditional way of life.”

He said everyone has the right to practice his or her own faith, “but claiming that one path is the only path while belittling and condemning ours is deeply disheartening.”

In the Northern Arapaho tribe, the flat pipe is associated with the Creator, and some sun dance rituals center on the pipe and treat it as a sacred object.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘We Know That Jesus Is Enough’"}]

The full sermon was unavailable at least as of Wednesday. The one-minute, 38-second clip depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony. 

Lucas’ church sits on private, not tribal, land within the reservation, on the east side near Riverton. Two tribes share that reservation: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed… This is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price… when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘This Is Religious Warfare’"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The backlash is immense."}]

Tribal members gathered Tuesday to protest in front of Riverton’s City Hall.

[{"type":"text","text":"Chris Friday, a protest leader, took to Facebook to call it a victory."}]

“SARAH LUAS (sic) openly spoke down on OUR sacred Grandpa pipe,” Friday wrote in a lengthy post featuring photographs from the protest. “She don’t know what we as Arapaho have been through, and still go through…. She should educate herself on tribal spirituality before talking on shit she doesn’t know. Because this is religious warfare.”

Friday said the protestors wanted an apology. He called Foundations for Nations leaders “not good people” and told Arapaho tribal members to boycott the church.

“Don’t go to their food bank. Don’t go to their events. Don’t let your children go,” he wrote. “We want them out of Arapaho land forever. They no longer are welcome here.”

Friday told Cowboy State Daily in a later interview that the "Grandpa pipe is our spiritual leader” and “our connection with the Creator.” 

Friday added, "They can leave, you know. They’re not welcome here anymore."

[{"type":"text","text":"Absolute Truth"}]

Desiree Henderson, a woman who described herself as a four-year member of the church’s ministry, posted a nearly 17-minute video in the church’s defense.

She said she’d never serve under a ministry that manipulates people or manipulates the gospel.

“But what most people don’t get to see when they’re not part of the inner workings of a ministry is the unbelievable sacrifices that are made. The unbelievable generosity and giving of their own time and resources that people give,” said Henderson. 

She said she knows the character of Sarah Lucas and her husband Jason, “and their heart to give” as well as the criticism and gossip they endure.

Henderson said she understands “the upset” and would align with it if she “didn’t know the Lord.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“But I do know the Lord,” said Henderson."}]

She described a dichotomy between the philosophy “of the world,” that truth is relative, and the belief that absolute truth exists.

“In the natural world, gravity is an absolute truth,” she said. “And if you defy gravity, you’re going to experience the consequences of it.”

Henderson said there are absolute, spiritual truths that exist “whether you believe it or not,” and that the Bible is the metric for finding that truth. She also encouraged people to question and study the Christian faith rather than adopt it blindly.

Numerous Facebook users posted negative comments 

[{"type":"text","text":"Didn’t Hide The Ball"}]

Foundations for Nations was overt about its beliefs and goals before the Sundance message went viral.

 a multi-cultural, multi-generational church seeking for people to “have a relationship with God, be ignited to reach people with the good news about Jesus, and work together to impact communities.”

Its statement of belief says that Jesus is “the only way to heaven and the only name that can be called upon to gain eternal life.”

The church incorporated in Wyoming and settled on the reservation in 2017.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas declined to comment Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily."}]

In a 2018 interview for a news feature, Lucas told local news outlet The Ranger that she and her family were building a massive play and recreation in the area of Arapahoe (town, not tribe). She said they would gear their ministry toward children who were having hardships at home.

“We inspire hope and change; we tell them their worth and their value” and teach them Biblical principles along the way, said Lucas at the time.

That summer the Lucases and visiting volunteers hosted a six-week summer program to offer kids what Lucas described as both fun and guidance.

Before launching the church, the Lucases planned it for six years. She said the goal was to help “families that are so broken that they don’t have any hope,” and to “share Jesus with them.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Figured It Would Blow Up"}]

Wassana told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that he figured his post would blow up. He said he’s part Arapaho and though he descends from the southern, rather than the northern band based in Wyoming, he has family members in the north and considers the bands “one tribe.”

Wassana referenced tribal members’ darker history with past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

He said Lucas’ message equated to a tribal member walking into a Christian church and maligning the cross.

Lucas had, however, preached her message in a private Christian church, on private land. People attend the church voluntarily. 

Wassana acknowledged the distinction, but said the affront stems from the church opening its doors to children, in particular.

“Whenever you have somebody who’s a trusted adult, religious leader in the community saying these things, going against our ceremonies, saying they’re wrong, it can create a lot of confusion fear and shame for our children,” said Wassana. “We don’t want our young people growing up feeling like they have to choose between being accepted or embracing who they are because a leader they see is teaching those kinds of things.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Boarding Schools"}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

Henderson countered claims and fears of modern-day assimilation in her video. She spoke with admiration of an East Indian (not American Indian) convert named Sundar Singh, who embraced the culture, clothing, and customs of India while preaching about Jesus, even dressing as a Hindu spiritual leader. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian and Arapaho faith traditions differ from one another."}]

John G. Carter, researcher for the Smithsonian Institution, penned a Nov. 23, 1936, letter to M.W. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, describing “the first eye witness description of the Flat Pipe by a white man, and the first eye witness account of a ceremony held in honor of this Pipe.”

In the Arapaho creation story, wrote Carter in the treatise that followed, a global flood covered the earth, and a man walked on the water clutching a pipe. He fasted and wept. He sent animals into the water to bring land from the sea bottom to make the earth, and the turtle succeeded in that task, the account says.

“And with this the man, or the grandfather makes the land” and eventually the Arapaho people, wrote Carter.

“The myth implies that either the world was made at the Flat Pipe’s request, or because of the Flat Pipe, and in order to provide a place on which the Flat Pipe could rest,” Carter added. He said the Arapaho view the flat pipe as an “exceedingly holy object” held in the highest possible veneration and respect.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian tradition also involves a global flood. "}]

But first, Genesis tells that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth – and ultimately a man and a woman.

The man and woman sinned by disobeying God, but God promised to send a savior. Thousands of years later, the savior came as Jesus, who is God incarnate and who, as the son counterpart to God the Father, was also involved in creation, according to the biblical book of John.

And Jesus allowed the bloodthirsty and jealous authority figures of his day to torture him to death. He then rose from the dead, redeeming those who believe in him with his own sacrifice, and he urged his followers to tell others about him, the New Testament says. 

Preacher and reservation 2 7 8 26

<title>Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Several Northern Arapaho Tribe members are outraged at a Christian pastor who spoke against their religious customs and encouraged worship of Jesus instead. One Arapaho member told Cowboy State Daily that the church is "not welcome here anymore."

Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals

Jen Kocher - Headshot CSD

Jen Kocher

The Jane Doe found dead on Interstate 25 near Cheyenne in April has been identified as Brittany Smith, a 37-year-old Wyoming woman. Smith was struck by a northbound Kia Sportage on the on-ramp from Missile Drive on April 20.