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You Still Here? Friday, January 13, 2023

This guy is really horrible at his job...

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You Still Here? Thursday, January 12, 2023

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You Still Here? Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Should probably look for another line of work...

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You Still Here? Tuesday, January 10, 2023

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You Still Here? Monday, January 9, 2023

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You Still Here? Sunday, January 8, 2023

Actual footage of noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich flirting...

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You Still Here? Friday, January 6, 2023

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You Still Here? Thursday, January 5, 2023

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You Still Here? Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Everyone should start playing this game pronto...

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You Still Here: Monday, January 2, 2023

That's one way to get your Christmas decorations down...

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You Still Here? January 1, 2023

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You Still Here? Friday, December 30, 2022

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

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

When does a reckless act in Yellowstone National Park qualify as child endangerment? It’s a question many people are asking after recent events in the park.

A photo circulating on social media shows a man carrying a child off the boardwalk in one of Yellowstone’s thermal basins. The photographer, Babi Lama, said he witnessed the incident near Grand Prismatic Spring.

"Dude is HOLDING HIS CHILD while walking around the thermal pools at Grand Prismatic Spring," he wrote. "What the hell is wrong with people?"

Yellowstone visitors of all stripes are routinely cited for 

 If any of these incidents involve a child, can the perpetrator be charged with child endangerment?

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

Greg Jackson is a former deputy chief for the U.S. Park Service’s Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services in Washington, D.C. During his career, he was presented with several situations where a child endangerment charge was merited.

“I’ve done it before,” he said. “There are a lot of things that parents do that are placing children in danger but aren't necessarily obvious to them at the moment.”

After viewing the photo of the child-carrying man in Yellowstone, Jackson had several questions that would have factored into any citation.

“Generally, (Yellowstone) tries to prevent people from walking into hazardous areas,” he said. “I’m guessing there’s some system of warning people of the risk of that area that I can’t see in the photo.”

 posted throughout Yellowstone’s thermal areas. Boardwalks are the designated pathways to keep people safe.

Jackson also added that those same warnings are handed to every visitor, attached to the map they receive when entering the park.

“In a case like this, you’d attempt to document all the warnings that person had regarding the hazards, not just what may be apparent in the photo,” he said. “I’d want to know what signs were there. Is the area labeled as a geyser field or a thermal feature?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Child Endangerment?"}]

Wyoming Statutes Title 6. Crimes and Offenses 6-4-403 lays out the legal parameters and ramifications regarding the abandonment or endangerment of children. It specifies that no parent, guardian or custodian of a child shall “knowingly or with criminal negligence cause, permit or contribute to the endangering of the child's life or health by violating a duty of care, protection or support.”

That’s where citing a Yellowstone visitor for child endangerment can become tricky. In Jackson’s view, those charges usually come when there’s more overt malice rather than simple ignorance.

“It depends on how obvious the danger is,” he said. “If you're obviously exposing your kid to what most reasonable people would see as a reasonable danger, (child endangerment) would be on my list of reasonable actions.”

Jackson said the difficulty with child endangerment charges, in this context, would be “articulating the circumstances” to justify the citation. That case could be easier to do in Yellowstone, given the uniqueness of the environment, he said.

“Most people don’t walk around on boardwalks,” he said. “The fact that there are boardwalks and sulfur-smelling steam coming out of the ground indicates something unusual is going on in Yellowstone. That, to me, indicates there’s something worthy of caution.”

However, Yellowstone’s unique environment might make it more difficult to charge someone with child endangerment.

“If it's a person who has absolutely no clue that the ground around them is hazardous, then I don't think that charge would be reasonable,” he said. “I think most reasonable people would say there’s a reasonable danger, but someone could genuinely not perceive that danger.”

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

Jackson recalled issuing charges for child endangerment and disorderly conduct during his time at Lake Mead in the southwest U.S. There, issuing those citations and charges was more clean-cut.

“There were a lot of boating regulations that had to do with safety,” he said. “It's fun to ride on the bow of a boat, but when you fall off the bow, go under the boat and into the propeller, that stops being fun.”

Jackson regularly cited parents for letting underage children pilot or ride on certain spots of watercraft that were prohibited. However, the decision to cite someone for child endangerment was “a bit of a judgment” that erred toward humanity over legality.

“You tend to give parents the benefit of the doubt, somewhat,” he said. “From a human standpoint, you want to believe that nobody in their right mind would intentionally endanger their own child.”

Jackson couldn’t say whether the Yellowstone visitor in the photograph was intentionally endangering his child, but he doubted it.

“Sometimes, people will throw caution to the wind and cross a line for a once-in-a-lifetime experience or photo-op,” he said. “They become so enthusiastic with their exuberance of getting their children an up-close experience of a geyser that they don’t appreciate the danger. This incident looks fairly benign.”

The “worst thing” Jackson could imagine is a parent or guardian who recognizes and doesn’t care about the dangers to which they’re subjecting their children. While it’s not unheard of, he considered that scenario and mindset exceptional.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Clear And Present Danger"}]

Overall, Jackson could see a case for charging parents with child endangerment or negligence for their actions in Yellowstone, but understands why park rangers might forgo such a charge.

“A child endangerment charge is going to depend on what the law says,” he said. “If they’re placing the child in danger, you're going to have to articulate that there was some danger and the person being cited was responsible for placing the child in that situation.”

In this instance, Jackson didn’t have enough information to say whether a child endangerment charge would have been appropriate.

“Was there danger? Yes. Was it apparent to the adult? I'm not sure. They might have been completely oblivious to the danger in that particular spot,” he said.

Child endangerment might stick more easily when it comes to wildlife offenses. Jackson’s seen plenty of people approach wild animals for photo-ops or try to get them to take food out of their hands.

“I never cited anybody, but I warned people that animals with big pointy things growing out of the top of their heads can really hurt their kid,” he said. “If you’re exposing your kid to an obvious danger, and the threat can be easily perceived, then there’s definitely a case to be made.”

Grand Prismatic guy holding kid 6 30 26

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

<title>Man Caught Carrying Child On Dangerous Yellowstone Grand Prismatic Thermal Pools | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Yellowstone visitors near the popular Grand Prismatic Spring were outraged Sunday watching a man carry a child on dangerous thermals pools. "What the hell is wrong with people?” said a visitor who got a photo of the incident.

Man Caught Carrying Child On Dangerous Yellowstone Grand Prismatic Thermal Pools

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Gillette woman was screaming, clutching her leg and suffering seizure-like convulsions in the middle of a parking lot early Friday morning after police say her ex-boyfriend deliberately drove his pickup into her, ran over her knee and sped away.

By the time officers caught up with Kristopher Paxton a short time later, police say he insisted he hadn't hit her.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then detectives showed him surveillance video."}]

Paxton watched the video twice before admitting to investigators the collision "could have been a moment of black-out rage," according to an affidavit of probable caused filed in his case.

Later, when detectives asked why he accelerated toward the woman, he offered another explanation.

"I think it may have been just blind aggression," he told investigators, according to the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bar Fight"}]

The confrontation began hours earlier at Gillette's Fireside Bar, the affidavit says.

Police say Paxton and the victim had dated for about a year but were no longer together.

That night, another man drove the woman home from the bar after she asked for a ride, according to the affidavit. Not long after arriving at her apartment, she heard pounding on her doors and windows.

[{"type":"text","text":"The affidavit says Paxton had shown up demanding his belongings."}]

Witnesses told police the former couple shouted profanities at one another outside the apartment while the woman repeatedly told Paxton to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"At one point, investigators say, Paxton climbed back into his truck."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Standing in front of the vehicle, the woman refused to move."}]

According to the affidavit, she told police Paxton warned, "If you don't f***ing move, I'll run your ass over."

Witnesses say he first backed up, turned the wheels so the truck pointed directly toward her, then accelerated.

The pickup's front bumper struck the woman in the torso. She fell to the pavement, and the truck's front left tire rolled over her right knee before Paxton drove away, wrote investigators wrote.

[{"type":"text","text":"A witness immediately called 911."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Video"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"When officers arrived, they found the woman on the ground screaming."}]

"My leg, my right leg," she cried repeatedly, according to the affidavit.

Police wrote that she writhed in pain, sobbed uncontrollably and began displaying seizure-like convulsions before she was transported by ambulance to a hospital.

Investigators later obtained surveillance footage from a nearby apartment.

[{"type":"text","text":"The affidavit says the video captured nearly the entire confrontation."}]

It shows Paxton arriving at the complex, arguing outside, reversing his truck, accelerating into the woman, knocking her to the ground, reversing again and driving away.

Deputies located Paxton and his blue 2007 GMC Sierra a short time later. Officers noted the smell of alcohol on him, along with bloodshot, watery eyes.

He admitted drinking fewer than two alcoholic beverages that evening and agreed to perform standardized field-sobriety tests. Police wrote they did not develop probable cause to arrest him for driving under the influence.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Admissions"}]

During questioning, detectives asked Paxton whether he had hit the woman with his truck.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Not to the best of my knowledge,\" he replied."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"After investigators pressed him again, Paxton changed his answer."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I'm not saying I didn't,\" he told them."}]

Detectives then played approximately 39 seconds of surveillance video twice.

Even after watching the footage, police say Paxton claimed he had no memory of the collision.

Based on witness interviews, surveillance footage and the victim's injuries, investigators concluded Paxton intentionally used his pickup as a deadly weapon.

He was arrested without incident and booked into the Campbell County Detention Center.

Paxton is charged with aggravated assault and battery, and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury. If convicted of the felony aggravated assault charge, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","text":"A judge set his bond at $100,000 cash or surety."}]

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<title>Gillette Man Blames 'Black-Out Rage' After Running Over Ex-Girlfriend With Truck | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Police say a Gillette man first denied hitting his ex-girlfriend with his pickup, running over her and speeding away. After detectives showed him surveillance video, police say he told them it "could have been a moment of black-out rage."

Gillette Man Blames 'Black-Out Rage' After Running Over Ex-Girlfriend With Truck

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 30th.  I’m Mac Watson

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"–"}]

Winter is back in Wyoming as a late June snowstorm closed the Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone's Dunraven Pass. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that at 9,400 feet, the Top of the World store recorded three inches of snow. 

“Several inches of snow was reported on the Bear Tooth Highway and in the interior of Yellowstone National Park. It's a significant amount of snowfall, but that's not unusual, especially at high elevations, people forget how high Yellowstone is, let alone the Bear Tooth Pass, which is getting close to 11,000 feet up there. So, when you get a cold front moving in with moisture that manifests as snow, and you're hard pressed to pick any month of the year where there isn't at least a possibility of snow in Yellowstone and on the Bear Tooth Highway.”

Lance VandenBoogart with the National Weather Service office in Riverton said that’s not unusual for northwest Wyoming or Yellowstone, even in the last days of June.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"– "}]

A 75-year-old Goshen County man told investigators he shot a pair of Rottweilers and dumped them in the North Platte River because he feared for his livestock. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that a neighbor told authorities why they disposed of the dogs in the river.

“The guy claims that they were threatening his livestock, they're threatening his neighbor's livestock, and he said that he shot one of the dogs, and then another dog, he said, came after him, so he shot it as well. However, the officer in charge of the investigation wrote his affidavit saying that the facts don't really support that, and what was interesting is that there was an accomplice who told police that they put the dogs in the river because they were quote ‘too lazy’ to bury them.”

David Cronk made his first court appearance Friday on two charges each of felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor unlawful disposal of a dead animal so as to pollute.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

An older Colorado couple have been identified as the two people killed in a Friday multi-vehicle crash west of Casper. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that a Jackson woman who was among those who stopped to help the couple and others hurt in the crash, telling Cowboy State Daily, “We made sure she wasn't alone.”

“74-year-old James Cox and 69-year-old Susan Cox were coming from Golden, Colorado, on their way to their house in Ennis, Montana, when they got into a crash about 45 miles northwest of Casper on Friday afternoon.  The Natrona County Coroner, James Whipps, confirmed that they were dead on Monday afternoon. Krista Nethercott from Jackson is a funeral director and a mortician. She arrived at the crash site just moments after the collision happened. She said that James Cox was behind the wheel. He was dead immediately. Susan Cox was still alive, and Nether Cot said all she could do was offer some comfort, and made sure she was not alone for her final moments.” 

By the time emergency crews reached U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58 Friday afternoon, two people were dead, seven others had been injured, and strangers were comforting survivors, checking on children, searching for fire extinguishers and handing out bottled water.

A new political group called the 'Common Sense Republicans' have erected six billboards urging voters to “STOP The Freedom Caucus Agenda.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Rep. John Bear, a well-known member of the Freedom Caucus, says he “loves” the billboards.

“The Freedom Caucus fired back with them being against a lot of the popular things, you know, like protecting women's sports and an election integrity and keeping illegal aliens out of the country, and the pack came back and said no, we're focused on really local stuff like funding EMS. one of the members of the PAC said that, you know, indicated that the Freedom Caucus doesn't like the billboards, and Bear came back and said, 'No, we love this, we love talking about our agenda, and so you've got this, it's a very direct political battle.”

Casper-based attorneys Emily Madden and Scott Ortiz co-founded the Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming political action committee (PAC) in March. The PAC has raised six billboards across larger Wyoming towns urging people to “STOP The Freedom Caucus Agenda” and vote in the Aug. 18 primary election.

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

Abe Yoder moved his Amish family from Wyoming to Iowa after he says Crook County officials threatened him with stiff fines and removing his children over outhouse permits. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that county officials deny those claims and say they only sought wastewater compliance.

“Abe Yoder is really at the center of this. There was one other family who left, and they went to Wisconsin. The rest of the community, the people whose outhouses were found to be not in compliance, did end up complying and following regulations, doing what the county asked them to do.  Yoder told Cowboy State Daily that he's more disappointed in the community itself not taking a stand and not fighting back than he is in the county being persistent with its regulations.”

Yoder recently moved to Iowa, selling off much of his Hulett-area estate and taking his wife and nine of his 11 children with him.

It has already been a busy year for human-bear conflicts in Wyoming, Montana, and across the West. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that bear observers say it could get worse thanks to drought and other factors.

“One of the people I spoke with was our friend Ken Fisher up in Alberta, she's a human bear conflict specialist, and in monitors things not only in Canada, but you know, kind of all through bear territory, even down here in the lower 48 and she said, ‘Yeah, it could be, you know, that because of dry conditions and more people going out, just there's more potential for conflict, we could be seeing a little bit more.’”

Large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson tells Cowboy State Daily, that from

the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s perspective, it’s essentially been a normal year.

Sweetwater County School District No. 1 apologized Saturday for what it called the error of a staff member.  Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the staffer released a campaign message for gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow through the ParentSquare messaging app. 

“It was addressed to a group of students that are involved in studying public services, and so the my understanding is that they, that it was presented, or it was understood as a volunteer public civic engagement opportunity, and then when it hit, there was this reflection, like, oh, maybe that was political, since it singled out one candidate.”

Former state House Speaker and now-Sen. Eric Barlow is running for the Republican primary nomination for governor against Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, and Curt Blake of Centennial. 

Greta, a German shepherd with a platform of “more belly rubs for all,” is getting huge support in Park County since a “Vote For Greta” sign went up in Cody. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that one voter says, “She certainly can’t be worse than, like, half the people running.”

“I did talk to the Park County clerk, who said that, despite being a dog, and Greta actually is deceased now, he missed the deadline to register as a candidate doesn't say what office she's running from, but it doesn't matter to some, some of the people I talked to, they said it doesn't matter what office I'll vote for her, because she's better.”

Greta was the beloved pet of Elizabeth Jenkins’ parents, who said she made up the campaign sign as a joke. She put it out near the Cody Post Office along Stampede Avenue in Cody late last week with a host of other signs from political candidates. Then she posted a photo of the sign to a local Facebook page.

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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 6 30 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 30, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* Winter Ain’t Done In Yellowstone 
* Witnesses Crushed By Horrific Crash
* Bear-Human Conflicts Continue To Increase

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 30, 2026

What first appeared to be an ordinary construction delay on a lonely stretch of highway west of Casper quickly turned into one of the 

 many of those involved had ever witnessed.

On Monday, the Natrona County Coroner's Office identified the two people killed as James Faris Cox, 74, and Susan Horn Cox, 69, of Golden, Colorado.

"That was my aunt and uncle killed in the wreck Friday," their nephew Lee Wolfe told Cowboy State Daily. "They were on the way to their house in Ennis, MT. They lived in Golden, CO."

[{"type":"text","text":"He said the couple was traveling alone."}]

"It was just my aunt and uncle in their truck, no survivors," he said. "My two cousins and their families were heading up there at a different time thankfully."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Semi, Multiple Vehicles Involved"}]

The Wyoming Highway Patrol said the crash involved multiple vehicles, including a semi-truck.

"Two confirmed fatalities. Seven injured. Seventeen people involved, two flown by helicopter, the others were taken to Wyoming Medical Center by ambulance," Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesman Aaron Brown said. "This is still an active investigation." 

As of Monday afternoon, investigators had not released a preliminary cause of the crash, and no criminal charges had been filed.

The Natrona County Coroner's Office said it is investigating the fatalities along with the Wyoming Highway Patrol and Natrona County Sheriff's Office.

[{"type":"text","text":"Krista Nethercott of Jackson never saw the crash itself."}]

She had been traveling toward Casper with a neighbor after taking her son to enroll in college when traffic suddenly came to a stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, she assumed the delay was caused by nearby road construction."}]

"There were these pylons on the right-hand side that kind of tell you there's construction," she said. "But there wasn't anything alerting you to slow down. There wasn't a flagger."

After waiting several minutes, she said she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She stepped out of her vehicle and walked toward the front of the traffic backup.

"That's when I could see there were cars on both sides of the road," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my goodness.'"

Nethercott said she immediately ran toward the wreckage to make sure someone had called 911 and to offer whatever help she could.

She said she told him, "I'm a funeral director. I'll help you. I'm not scared to see death." 

Working with another bystander, she checked on the occupants of one of the most severely damaged vehicles — the Coxes' pickup.

"The gentleman was immediately deceased," she said. "The lady probably lived a couple minutes."

[{"type":"text","text":"She said both appeared to have been wearing seat belts."}]

The truck was crushed so badly, she said, that she believed rescuers ultimately would need the jaws of life to remove the couple.

"If the woman had lived longer, I don't think this gentleman and I could have ever taken her out of the vehicle," she said. "That's how crushed it was."

Despite witnessing the aftermath firsthand, Nethercott said she has no idea what caused the collision.

"I don't know if the semi-trailer didn't slow down and ran into people, or if somebody was trying to pass too many vehicles. I couldn't ascertain that at all. It was just mass metal and cars," she said. 

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

The crash occurred about 45 miles northwest of Casper, and Nethercott estimated it was roughly 30 minutes before ambulances and fire crews reached the scene.

"It seemed like it was a long time to see paramedics," she said. "But considering you're out in the middle of nowhere, I don't think they could have gotten there any quicker."

Long before emergency vehicles arrived, however, strangers had already organized themselves.

Nethercott estimated around 10 people got out of their vehicles and immediately began helping.

One man walked the line of stopped traffic asking whether anyone had a fire extinguisher. Another, who identified himself as working at a pediatric clinic, examined a young child who remained safely strapped into a five-point car seat while the boy's injured father tried to comfort him.

An older Colorado couple have been identified as the two people killed in a Friday multi-vehicle crash west of Casper. "We made sure she wasn't alone,” said a Jackson woman who was among those who stopped to help the couple and others hurt in the crash.