David Madison
David Madison is an award-winning journalist and documentary producer based in Bozeman, Montana. He’s also reported for Wyoming PBS. He studied journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has worked at news outlets throughout Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Montana.
Latest from David Madison
Along Montana-Canada Border, Tariffs Could Spike Prices For Beer, Fishing Lures
A lot of commerce flows across the 545 miles of border between Montana and Canada. With promised 25% tariffs going into effect Tuesday, locals expect prices for all kinds of things to spike, including beer and fishing lures.
David MadisonMarch 04, 2025
Bill Moving Through Montana Legislature Would Let Parents Sue Over Drag Shows
Wyoming lawmakers recently chose not to advance a bill outlawing the use of public money for drag shows. Across the border in Montana, a bill is moving through the Legislature that would let parents sue over "hypersexualized" shows.
David MadisonMarch 03, 2025
Country Music Stars Launching New Field & Stream Branded Hotel In Montana
Country music stars Eric Church and Morgan Wallen are building a Field & Stream-themed lodge in the middle of hotel boom in Bozeman, Montana. It promises guests a throwback summer camp experience filled with the magazine’s outdoors nostalgia.
David MadisonMarch 02, 2025
Montana, Wyoming Top List Of Fastest-Selling Real Estate Markets
A new real estate report shows Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska are the fastest-selling real estate markets in the nation. Inventory in Wyoming is very low -- ranging from 1.79% in Natrona County to 2.05% in Sweetwater County to 5.63% in Park County.
David MadisonMarch 02, 2025
New Study Adds Momentum To Return Of Passenger Rail To Wyoming, Montana
A January report from the Federal Railroad Administration recommends restoring Amtrak routes across the West, including through Cheyenne. It specifically recommended passenger train travel across southern Wyoming and a north-south route to Billings.
David MadisonMarch 01, 2025
Girl Scouts Push Back On Claim That Cookies Have Unsafe Levels Of Weed-Killer Chemical
Going up against Joe Rogan is no easy task, but that's what the Girl Scouts are doing after he discussed a study that called its cookies "toxic." The Girl Scouts of Wyoming and Montana told Cowboy State Daily the cookies are "very safe to eat."
David MadisonMarch 01, 2025
Montana Credit Union Worker Replaced $340,000 In Vault With Fake Money
When a credit union employee needed cash to feed his gambling habit, he bought fake cash from an online prop money company and swapped it with real bills in the vault. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to replacing $340,000 over seven months.
David MadisonFebruary 27, 2025
Montana Bill Would Charge Women With 'Abortion Trafficking' For Going Out Of State
A Montana bill would charge women with abortion trafficking for seeking abortions in other states. Opponents flooded a Wednesday hearing claiming overreach, supporters say it's needed to keep minors from being taken for secret abortions.
David MadisonFebruary 26, 2025
Legislature Making It Harder For Power Companies To Take Land For Power Lines
A bill landed on Gov. Mark Gordon's desk Tuesday that makes it harder for power companies to use eminent domain in Wyoming to take land to build power lines. Legislators say the goal is to protect property rights while preserving energy production.
David MadisonFebruary 25, 2025
Montana Man Gets 110 Years For Crashing Homemade Truck Bomb Into Neighbor’s House
A neighborhood feud turned into a scene from “Mad Max” when a Montana man transformed his truck into a firebomb on wheels and sent it crashing into a neighbor’s house. He was sentenced earlier this month to 110 years in prison for attempted murder.
David MadisonFebruary 25, 2025
‘Nuclear Verdicts’ Against Big Ski Resorts Could Price Mom-And-Pop Areas Out Of Business
A widow suing the world-famous Sun Valley Resort in Idaho over the death of her husband could end with a “nuclear verdict” that could spike insurance rates across the industry. That could price mom-and-pop areas like those in Wyoming out of business.
David MadisonFebruary 23, 2025
Strange On The Range: Wyoming Comic Artists Create Eclectic Compilation Of Wild & Weird
Strange on the Range is a new underground publication that features an eclectic mix of Wyoming comic artists. The hard-copy magazine is dedicated to the work of Wyoming comic illustrators.
David MadisonFebruary 23, 2025
Wyoming Only State Not Sending A Pinball Wizard To North American Championships
A budding pinball scene fizzled out a few years ago in Cheyenne, which means Wyoming will be the only state without someone competing at the North American Championships. But a Cinderella pinball wizard from Montana is going full-tilt to earn a title.
David MadisonFebruary 23, 2025
Environmentalists Known As “Tree-Hugging Hunters” Want More Yellowstone Bison Hunted
A group of environmentalists who describe themselves as “tree-huggers who hunt," are uniting around a message that might surprise some: They say it’s time to hunt and kill more bison outside Yellowstone National Park.
David MadisonFebruary 23, 2025
To Boost Bee Immune Systems, Researchers Strap In Honeybees For Live Test Flights
Viruses spread through honeybee hives like the flu virus in a crowded waiting room. Looking to boost bee immune systems, researchers are examining the impact of viruses on honeybee flight performance and testing supplements.
David MadisonFebruary 22, 2025
Jackson Hole Girls Basketball Snaps 79-Game Losing Streak With Last Second 3-Pointer
In a home game against Riverton, four seniors for Jackson Hole High School had never won a high school basketball game until a sophomore sharpshooter sunk a clutch 3-pointer Thursday. The 35-32 win snapped the Broncs’ 79-game losing streak.
David MadisonFebruary 22, 2025
House Committee Kills Bill To Store Radioactive Waste In Wyoming
A House committee rejected a proposal Wednesday to build small nuclear power plants. Assurances that the legislation would not bring radioactive “green slime” to Wyoming weren’t enough to convince committee members.
David MadisonFebruary 19, 2025
Wyoming And Montana Legislators Seek To Ban Lab-Grown Meat
Allusions to “Frankenstein” and “The Matrix” punctuate discussion of bills designed to protect “food traditions” and ban the sale of meat created in a laboratory. Wyoming and Montana are among states trying to ban it.
David MadisonFebruary 17, 2025
Cigar Bars Making A Comeback In A Post-Smoking World
Rocky Mountain states see stogie smoke rising around a growing trend of opening more cigar bars and protecting local cigar shops with tax breaks. Wyoming and Montana both are pushing forward to promote the industry.
David MadisonFebruary 16, 2025
Subzero Camping 101 Required For All At Small Wyoming College
The Wyoming backcountry offers a snowy campus for instructor-led expeditions into the Tetons at Wyoming Catholic College. Students are required to complete a course in subzero camping, and some even have fun.
David MadisonFebruary 15, 2025
In Montana, If You Kill Someone In A Duel, You Have To Provide For His Family
Montana legislators are taking aim at an antiquated law that says if you kill or maim someone in a duel, you have to then provide for his family. That it’s still on the books elicited laughter from the Legislature when the bill to repeal the law was introduced.
David MadisonFebruary 15, 2025
Montana Legislature Requires Public Bathroom Use Determined By Birth Sex
A law requiring bathroom use to correspond with a person’s sex organs at birth passed the Montana Legislature on Monday. Supporters say it will protect women and girls, while detractors worry it will only cause confusion.
David MadisonFebruary 13, 2025
Paranoid Montana Man Draws Prison Time For Pointing Laser At Aircraft
When a Kalispell, Montana, man became convinced he was being followed by low-flying aircraft, he laser-blasted a flight instructor. She used her plane to help police make an arrest, and now he’ll spend 2.5 years in prison.
David MadisonFebruary 11, 2025
It's Not Your Imagination: The Jerky Meat Industry Is Exploding
Riverton's Brian Tucker saw the writing on the wall in the booming jerky industry. His company, which focuses on the do-it-yourself jerky-makers, is one of the largest in the world. It's a $6 billion industry and could grow to $10 billion in the next 7 years.
David MadisonFebruary 09, 2025
Inside the Smoke Shack Underworld At A Ski Resort Near You
You won't find any smoke shacks listed on a trail map, but they're there. Across the Rocky Mountain West, fort building ingenuity lives on in the shadows of ski areas where friends gather to defog their goggles and fill makeshift structures with marijuana smoke.
David MadisonFebruary 08, 2025
Yellowstone to Yosemite with Kevin Costner” TV Show Premieres Saturday Featuring Wyoming Parks
A documentary series premiering on Fox Nation this Saturday explores connections between two of the first national parks, and it follows up Costner’s unscripted project “Yellowstone: One-Fifty.”
David MadisonFebruary 07, 2025
Montana GOP Pushes To Display Ten Commandments At Public Schools
Debate is heating up in the Montana Legislature over a bill that would require putting the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state. Republicans are pushing the bill, while Native Americans want to include the “Indian Ten Commandments.”
David MadisonFebruary 03, 2025
Sagebrush Murder Mystery Reveals Two Potential Killers Of Range Plant
In Montana’s Centennial Valley, a sagebrush die-off triggered an investigation into what was killing this anchor species of the open range. The killers turned out to be insects native to the sagebrush seas of the West.
David MadisonFebruary 02, 2025
Montana Drug Trafficker Who Wouldn’t Flip Accused Of Bear Spraying Girlfriend
When a drug smuggler busted in Butte, Montana, wouldn’t flip and become an informant, he went on the run. Then a domestic violence call revealed the true scope of his crime spree, including bear-spraying a girlfriend.
David MadisonJanuary 31, 2025
Wyoming Trainer Helps With Rescue Of 86 Neglected Morgan Horses In Montana
When a Montana horse breeder allegedly stopped caring for his herd of Morgans, a pair of ranch hands alerted authorities. A Wyoming trainer has been part of the rescue effort to save 86 neglected Morgans.
David MadisonJanuary 30, 2025
Senate Easily Passes Resolution For Wyoming To Be Part Of A Convention Of States
The state Senate easily passed a resolution Tuesday 22-7 for Wyoming to become part of a growing convention of states movement under the Constitution. In the meantime, a committee killed a bill that would have called for congressional term limits.
David MadisonJanuary 29, 2025
Arrival Of 2 New Businesses Means There’s More Than A Bar In Tiny Pony, Montana
The remote former mining town of Pony, Montana, went bust more than 100 years ago. But the recent arrival of two new businesses downtown, this picturesque outpost at the foot of the Tobacco Root Mountains is experiencing a new kind of boom.
David MadisonJanuary 25, 2025
Drinking Wyoming: The Kitsch, One-Time-Trendy Aprés Ski Cocktails Time Forgot
The 50s, 60s, and 70s were the highpoint of the Après Ski scene -- the post-slope, happy-hour tradition of sipping adult beverages and tasting fondue, preferably while wearing a turtleneck. Here’s a sampling of three classic cocktails, one from each decade of après ski’s golden era.
David MadisonJanuary 25, 2025
Montana Pastor Used His “Karate Lessons” To Sexually Assault At Least One Child
A small-town Montana church pastor was convicted last week of sexually assaulting a child and has been accused of another. He used the self-defense “karate lessons” he taught to get close enough to abuse his victims, court documents say.
David MadisonJanuary 23, 2025
Wyoming Filmmakers Join Campaign To Increase Montana Production Tax Incentives
After failing to convince Wyoming lawmakers to enact tax incentives for filmmakers, two brothers from Sheridan are taking their plans to build a production studio to Montana.
David MadisonJanuary 22, 2025
Montana Bill Would End Online Certificates For Emotional Support Animals Sight Unseen
A Montana state senator says it’s too easy to log online, pay a fee and get a certificate to have an emotional support animal. He says that’s unfair to landlords who are forced to accept these animals, whether or not they really serve a medical purpose.
David MadisonJanuary 21, 2025
Growing Pains In Big Sky, Montana’s Exclusive Playground For The Rich And Famous
Big Sky is Montana’s exclusive playground for the rich and famous. It’s also one of the fastest-growing areas in the region, bringing on growing pains that includes lack of access to a hospital landowners pay taxes for.
David MadisonJanuary 19, 2025
Montana State Rodeo Team Invited To Be In Trump’s Inaugural Parade
A contingent from the Montana State University rodeo team will be part of the Inaugural Parade for President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Monday. They wrangled six local horses and a wagon for the event. UPDATE: After this story was posted, it was announced that because of a forecast for extreme weather and cold for Monday, the inaugural plans in Washington, D.C., have been moved inside. The school issued a statement thanking the organizers for the invitation.
David MadisonJanuary 18, 2025
Rock Climbers Want Legislature To Make It Easier For Landowners To Allow Access
Rock climbers are urging the Legislature to make it easier for landowners to allow access to some of Wyoming’s best climbing areas. A bill would specifically say landowners who allows rock climbers onto their property won’t be liable if they’re hurt.
David MadisonJanuary 17, 2025