Cowboy State Daily Video News: Friday, February 21, 2025

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Friday, February 21st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Senior Olympics! Experience the excitement of the Winter Games, today and tomorrow in Pinedale, and support the SAFE Initiative. For event details and the full schedule, visit wyoming senior olympics dot com.

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A TikTok suitor from Wyoming has put in a $47.45 billion bid to not only keep the popular social media app in America, but bring it to the Cowboy State.

Casper native and Wyoming businessman Reid Rasner confirmed his bid to Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean, saying that his offer is about much more than making just another tech deal.

“He said he would do that because it's a job engine, that it would create 1000s of high paying jobs here in the cowboy state… He does have a lot of competition. You know, Shark tanks. Kevin O'Leary has a $20 billion bid in. Jimmy Donaldson… Mr. Beast has a bid in, I think he's now part of more of a consortium project Liberty founder Frank McCourt put in a bid… he doesn't feel like he has competition, that he's in a good negotiating position. He has engineers working on this around the clock so that he'll be able to cut China off and take over the algorithm the moment he is given ownership.”   

Rasner would not say whether his deal includes any potential U.S. government ownership, as President Donald Trump has suggested in public remarks.

Read the full story HERE.

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The Wyoming Senate was not impressed with what passed out of the House on Wednesday night for property tax relief.

After the House spent more than five hours debating 21 amendments before passing a huge 50% property tax bill Wednesday, the Senate took minutes Thursday to reject the changes to Senate File 69, which gives a 50% tax cut to home values up to $1 million for each of the next two years.

Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the sticking point was the roughly 50% backfill with $225 million for local governments and schools and special districts, which the House added to the bill.

“There was just a lot of confusion on the Senate floor Thursday about the changes that were made, and a lot of mis-statements and misinformation was being kind of thrown out… So it was kind of a messy scene, and they just decided that it'd be best to go to negotiations. Senate President Beau Biden and Senate vice president Tim Salazar…  both went into details about why they're philosophically opposed to backfills. Biteman basically says that they're not sustainable and they will really drain the state's savings accounts. And Salazar agreed, adding that he does not think it's a Republican value.”

The Senate voted 26-6 to send the bill to a Joint Conference Committee, where the two sides will try to hammer out the differences of the legislation to find a happy — or not-so-happy — compromise.

Read the full story HERE.

–The Wyoming Senate will debate a bill called the “What Is A Woman Act” after a vetting committee advanced it by a unanimous vote Thursday.

Also called House Bill 32, the bill proposes to link terms like “man,” “woman,” “boy” and “girl” across Wyoming law to a biological definition of male and female.

Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that for one witness who testified against the bill via a virtual link, the meeting was a chance to make a point about another semi-related bill.

“This took on the form of a protest against multiple transgender related bills now cycling through the Wyoming Legislature, right? So Britt Borrell… said, something like, Okay, thank you... Madam Chairman, which is what they call female committee chairs in the legislature… And Senator French, the chairman, stopped her right away, like, you can call me Mr. Chairman. And so then they have this back and forth about whether the government can compel you to use someone's preferred pronouns.”

Boril said that Senate File 77 prevents the government from compelling her to use anyone’s preferred pronoun. Though she’d only been testifying a few seconds, Senator Tim French informed Boril she was almost out of time.

Read the full story HERE.

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A bill to outlaw torturing predatory animals in Wyoming advanced on Thursday, but many criticized it for lacking a ban on running over wolves and coyotes with snowmobiles. 

Expressing the sentiments of numerous people who testified before the Senate Travel Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on Thursday, one Sublette County resident said House Bill 275 won’t be complete until it bans running animals over. That’s according to outdoors reporter Mark Heinz.

“They like the idea of the bill, but they're criticizing it as being lacking because it does not include any sort of language that would forbid running animals down with the snowmobile or some other vehicle that, if you if you recall, that's kind of what started this whole thing, is supposedly the entire thing in in Daniel with the wolf, started when the wolf was run over and injured with the snowmobile and then kept alive. So that still seems to be a sticking point. The committee did not add any amendments to that effect. So the bill, as it stands now, it would just penalize someone for deliberately prolonging an animal suffering.”

After a lengthy testimony period, the committee chairman noted that although House Bill 275 might not be perfect, it is a move in the right direction toward upholding Wyoming’s reputation.

Read the full story HERE.

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And now let’s take a look at today’s weather, with Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day.

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You can get Don’s full forecast on the Cowboy State Daily website.  I’ll be back in just 15 seconds with more news.

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A retired University of Wyoming professor called shooting prairie dogs “psychopathic behavior” during testimony before a legislative committee on Thursday — and one senator, who is also a rancher, pushed back. 

Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that the brief exchange between retired UW veterinary pathologist Donal O’Toole and Republican Senator Brian Boner of Douglas highlighted the divide between two schools of thought regarding land management.

“A retired UW professor that … described shooting prairie dogs at all under any circumstances as psychopathic behavior, you know, he can’t understand why that's become, as he called it… sort of … culturally embedded in Wyoming and other places. Of course… one of the legislators, Senator Brian Boner, who is a rancher, pushed back on that and said, you know, we're not doing this because we're crazy. We're doing this because we have to keep from tearing up the land and endangering livestock and things like that… and I don't appreciate the implication that a large number of people in Wyoming are a bunch of psychopaths.” 

If HB 211 becomes law, it would still be illegal to shoot from a roadway or shoot any animal that requires a license to hunt or is a protected species. The committee voted unanimously to forward the bill to the Senate floor. 

Read the full story HERE.

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A man who attacked and tried to kidnap a Riverton girl outside a movie theater in 2022 was sentenced Thursday to nearly four decades in prison. 

Terrence Jenkins’ attempt to kidnap teenager Cedar Smith was foiled when she wrestled out of her own clothes and ran as he tried to sexually assault her. Smith told Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that she was determined to not be another memorial on Facebook.

“Courtney Smith, her guardian, who said, we as a family, forgive him. And then little Cedar Smith, she's 18 now, but she was a sophomore during the attack, had just finished her sophomore year. She just said, Yeah, you know, she said something to the effect of, that she hopes he uses this opportunity to remember that he's supposed to be a protector. Because they're both, victim and defendant, are both Native American. And she said he needs to remember that he's supposed to be a protector, especially of women in our culture, and he needs to use this chance to be a decent person.”

Fremont County District Court Judge Jason Conder sentenced Jenkins to between 36 and 40 years in prison after a Thursday sentencing hearing for Jenkins’ attack on Smith — and his attack on another woman who was just visiting Riverton, whom Jenkins stabbed and robbed that same evening at a liquor store. 

Read the full story HERE.

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An 18-year-old charged in the fatal shooting of another teenager had a history of pointing his gun at people.

Luka Rasmussen of Casper was bound over to Natrona County District Court in the death of Riley Sears on February 12th. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that during the preliminary hearing, the Natrona County District Attorney introduced photos that show Rasmussen recklessly waving around a handgun in two separate instances prior to the shooting.

“Two days beforehand, there were photos on the phone of the young man, a 17 year old, who was a witness in the case… there was a photo on there of the defendant pointing a pistol at that individual… There was a previous photo of the defendant pointing a pistol at him from January. So … there appears to be a record of kind of negligent use of that firearm. And that was something that the prosecutor hammered home today.”

Rasmussen has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Read the full story HERE.

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Anyone who’s ever been to Yellowstone National Park in the winter understands the feeling - like you’ve got the whole park to yourself. No huge crowds, just you and the wildlife.

But that’s not really the case. There are live webcams always capturing the action in America’s first national park - and last week, some eagle-eyed webcam watchers caught some folks getting just a little too close to the wildlife. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that although no one got hurt, the danger still exists.

“People might make decisions thinking that they have to park all to themselves, but literally, the whole world is watching, and we've had several instances of people just disregarding their own safety by getting too close to bison. And just because most bison incidents happen during the summer, when there's more people, that doesn't mean that bison are any more or less pugnatius than they would be in summer and winter. So people are taking their safety into their own hands, and the world is literally watching when they do.”

Summer still makes up the bulk of Yellowstone’s visitation, but the park has been busier in winter due to snow coach and snowmobile tours between December and March. More people mean more potential for incidents, especially if visitors aren’t safe.

Read the full story HERE.

And that’s today’s news! For a deeper dive into the people and issues that affect Wyoming, check out The Roundup, conversations with the most interesting people in the Cowboy State. A new episode drops tomorrow, when I have a conversation with the former director of the Wyoming Tourism Commission, Gene Bryan. You can find the link on our website, on our YouTube channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, you'll find it in our FREE daily email newsletter!

Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.