Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, June 12th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. "5 to thrive" is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.

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Yellowstone National Park has long been considered a bucket list destination for many international visitors, particularly Chinese, European and Canadian tourists.

They might soon be paying more to visit the park. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is proposing an additional surcharge for foreign visitors to the nation's parks.

"I think part of it Wendy is just the idea that we Americans, we pay taxes to support these national parks. Foreign visitors, you know, they're impacting the resource, but they're really not paying a, quote, 'fair share.' They're not paying taxes toward it, and they're paying the same entry fee that Americans pay… I think also it's way to raise additional money to support the parks. There's, I don't know how many billion in deferred maintenance… that the parks have needed, and there have been various efforts to try and get that taken care of… So you know this, this proposal to charge foreign visitors more is actually part of a much broader budget proposal."

The exact amount of the foreign visitor fee isn't stated in Burgum's plan, though it estimates the fee would generate around $90 million.

Read the full story HERE.

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In what could foreshadow fireworks during the Wyoming Legislature's 2026 session, tempers flared Wednesday during a debate in a legislative committee over whether ranchers and farmers should be able to sell their landowner hunting tags.

On one side of the debate are those who say that letting agricultural landowners put their hunting tags up for sale could provide much-needed income. However, Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz reports that hunting advocate groups seem dead-set against allowing tag sales, claiming it would amount to monetizing Wyoming's wildlife.

"There were some terse exchanges… between legislators on the committee, and also between them and some of the people who came to testify… the sportsmen are kind of looking at this as… it would violate the North American model of game management to put wildlife up for sale… the other side of the perspective or argument is that landowners really deserve compensation for providing all the habitat and forage that they do for these animals, as well as the damage that they can cause. You know, elk tearing up fences or tearing up irrigation pipe, things like that."

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department's landowner hunting tag program began in 1949. The program is intended to reward landowners for providing forage, water and habitat for wildlife.

Read the full story HERE.

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A Gillette 18-year-old has learned that even joking about bombing the Pentagon on social media is a bad idea.

He got a visit from the Campbell County Sheriff's Office