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

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, October 26, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny in Wyoming on Friday. Chance for rain overnight in the north central and northeast. Highs from the low 70s to low 90s. Lows from the low 30s to low 50s.

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

Sunny today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 74 and wind from 11-16 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 41.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 35 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 76 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 34 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 74 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 37 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 65 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 33 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 84 and increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

:  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a chance of rain, a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 43 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly cloudy and windy overnight with a chance of rain, a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 39 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Breezy, rain likely overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 75 and rain overnight with a low near 42.

:  Sunny today with a high near 73 and rain near certain overnight with a low near 42.

Sunny today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with rain likely after midnight, a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

:  Sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a chance of rain after midnight, a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. tonight. Sunny, hot and breezy today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. tonight. Sunny today with a high near 82 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 82 and increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain after 5 a.m., a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 8 p.m. tonight. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

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<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, June 12, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, June 12, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional, and the counties shouldn’t let taxpayers have that exemption.

The State Equalization Board will refuse to certify this year’s property tax assessment figures if counties keep that cap on them, the report says.

The board’s two-person majority — Chair Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog — wrote in the Thursday report that the 4% increase cap for residential property taxes has arbitrary impacts across the state. 

It also disproportionately insulates high-end homes, and disfavors homeowners in more sluggish market areas, the report asserts.

But the report’s main point, and conclusion from the past two years’ tax data, is that the 4% cap violates the Wyoming Constitution’s call for equal and uniform property taxes within each class of property.

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

“We issued this report today that says if that cap doesn’t come off, Marty and I can’t vote to certify residential property taxes. Because they’re not uniform,” said Mockler. “It’ll be followed with an order ... (and) our goal is ultimately to remove the cap.”  

Mockler noted that the board isn’t targeting the other, narrower exemptions with this report — like the 25% property tax cut passed in 2025 or the long-term homeowner exemption.

More than half of the state’s residential property tax values fall under the 4% increase cap, the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"But We Don’t Get A Tax Free Year"}]

This kind of push from the state board is unprecedented, Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

But Wyomingites shouldn’t expect a tax-free year over the maneuver, she said.

“Everyone’s in agreement there will be residential property taxes for 2026,” she said. “This … is just a step in the process of getting different values the board feels is appropriate.”

The pending mandate leaves Wyoming counties somewhere between following the 4% cap requirement in state law and following another state law that tells assessors to obey the state board, she said.  

“You’re asking us to go against the law? Under the law we have to apply the 4% cap and you’re saying we can’t,” she reflected from the report.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s so bizarre it’s funny,” Huxtable added. "}]

She said she was digesting the report Thursday afternoon, and had just been to a phone meeting with the board officials, assessors, and county attorneys.

Two days earlier on Tuesday, Huxtable had just urged the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee to approach more changes to the state’s property tax law with caution, because assessors are always trying to keep up with the many changes lawmakers have brought in recent years.

Assessors are at the mercy of state law and are working hard to follow it, she’d said.  

Reflecting on the board’s Thursday report, Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily that assessors are now trying to gain clarification on what to do in the coming weeks.

“We’re on standby,” she said, adding that from her meeting with the board, her impression is, “They’d be tickled pink to go to court” on this issue.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz said Thursday that he doesn’t know of any litigation on this currently, “but if there is a challenge, we will support what the Legislature did.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has since become a state senator, was the sponsor on the main bill the board’s Thursday report derides as unconstitutional.

Crago did not return a Thursday afternoon voicemail request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Homes, Different Taxes"}]

The board’s report points to inconsistencies across the Wyoming property tax structure.

People who upgrade their homes by changing the footprint of those homes lose the cap exemption to a reset that year, while people who upgrade only the interior do not, says the report.

It says some homes have had their tax bills so thoroughly capped, they’re paying less than half of the state-mandated property tax rate.

“The caps, by design, generate highly disparate tax consequences for 

It accuses the law of discriminating arbitrarily between different homeowners across Wyoming.

“The demarcation between taxpayers receiving a tax windfall, versus those who do not, serves no rational basis,” the document adds.

Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that she had voted for the 4% tax cap during the tax hikes of 2024. But she views the law as more of a short-term fix. 

"It was a tourniquet; it was a short-term fix," she said. "Butif you leave the tourniquet on, you damage the body." 

Storer's home region of Teton County accounts for huge property tax revenues in Wyoming. She has tried over the years to get lawmakers to stop applying property tax breaks to people's secondary homes. 

Of the $860.2 million in exemptions the 4% cap is expected to cause this year, Teton County accounts for $507.9 million, says a Department of Revenue memo Storer sent to Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Lawsuit That Wasn’t"}]

The board warned lawmakers before the 4% cap bill’s passage that board members believed it’s unconstitutional.

 “the die was cast,” says the report.

The board examined the residential assessment values and looked for inverted valuations, that is where higher-valued properties were assessed at lower taxable values than other, similarly situated properties.

The board during the 2025 tax calculation process had just two members, Mockler and Hardscog. They voted that year to certify the tax values, but said that those values were probably invalid. Still, they wanted to gather one more year of data to be sure, the report says.

They also planned to release a Nov. 13, 2025, order requiring assessors to stop giving the exemption.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office asked the board not to issue that order, the report says.

In November and early December, the governor’s office and Wyoming Attorney General’s Office met with Hardscog and Mockler to talk about filing an action asking a court to judge the issue.

The governor’s office and AG’s office agreed the state board should file that court action, the report says.

The litigation was slated to be filed Jan. 20. Gordon’s office asked for multiple delays, at first to communicate the lawsuit with legislative leaders. 

When Gordon’s office asked for another delay two days later, Hardscog and Mockler said they wouldn’t certify the property tax values after the June tax calculation process, “without a working resolution of their constitutional concerns,” says the report.

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<title>Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional and it will refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Canada’s favorite bear, a 700-pound behemoth called 

, has lived a storied life, brawling with other males and surviving getting hit by a train.

His latest stunt was ditching an electronic tracking collar that wildlife agents had just put on him, and nobody’s seen him for a while.

“In true Boss fashion, he somehow got that collar off,” Canadian wildlife photographer Jason Leo Bantle told Cowboy State Daily.

Bantle lives near Banff National Park in Alberta, which The Boss calls home.

He’s one of The Boss bear's biggest fans and has taken countless photographs of the huge bear, which is thought to be about 29 years old.

He hasn’t seen The Boss yet this spring/summer, but he’s not worried. Bantle figures that after ditching his tracking collar, The Boss wandered off to find a feast, or maybe some mates.

“He cruises up and down the valley, looking for girlfriends,” Bantle said.

The Boss is thought to have fathered half of the bears in Banff.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Off Within A Week"}]

The Boss was among three male grizzlies captured and outfitted with collars by wildlife agents on May 13, according to reports.

Within a week, The Boss had slipped out of or ripped off his collar, and his whereabouts remain a mystery.

The Boss has been collared before, but this time around, apparently, “he had enough of humans playing with him," Bantle said.

He added that the last time he saw and photographed The Boss was last fall, before Banff’s bears went into hibernation.

The bear’s fans think it’s hysterical that he ditched his collar, Bantle said.

“People are really laughing about it up here,” he said.

The Boss has earned a new nickname, “Houdini,” after the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini, Bantle said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What A Life"}]

The Boss is formally known to researchers as Grizzly 122. His chief rival in Banff is Grizzly 136, called Split Lip.

One side of Grizzly 136’s mouth is ripped into what looks like a permanent snarl, which earned him the name Split Lip. He suffered the wound in a fight with The Boss.

A rail line runs through Banff, and at least five grizzlies have been struck and killed by trains.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Not the Boss, though."}]

According to reports, The Boss is thought to have been struck by a train but escaped serious injury in the mid-2010s.

He had another close call with a train in 2024.

The collar-ditching incident has only added to the legendary status of The Boss, Bantle said.

“There’s nothing that this guy doesn’t do, he really has a unique life,” he said.  

“If only we could actually sit down with this grandfather (bear) and hear his stories,” Bantle added.

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

Bantle figures that The Boss is off somewhere, making the most of being off pesky biologists’ radar.

“We have an incredible dandelion crop right now. I think he just found a field of those, far away from humans, and he’s just feasting on dandelions,” he said.

It’s certainly not unheard of for grizzlies to lose their tracking collars, Canadian bear safety expert Kim Titchener told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“It’s totally possible,” she said."}]

“Big males have an incredible amount of fat on their necks in the spring, and you have to be careful not to fit the collars too tightly,” Titchener said.

Although it must be frustrating for biologists to lose track of The Boss, Titchener said she can’t really blame him for getting rid of the tracking device.

“It makes sense. Who would want to walk around with a collar on their neck?” she said.

Boss Bear 6 11 26

<title>Canada’s Favorite 700-Pound Grizzly ‘The Boss’ Rips Off Tracking Collar | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Canada’s favorite grizzly, a 700-pound monster called The Boss, has lived a storied life, brawling with other males and surviving getting hit by a train. His latest stunt was removing an electronic tracking collar that wildlife agents had just put on him.

Canada’s Favorite 700-Pound Grizzly ‘The Boss’ Rips Off Tracking Collar

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

The bull bison that attacked and killed a 70-year-old woman in Custer State Park last month will not be euthanized.

Instead, he will live out the rest of his life in the care of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish and Parks. The relocation will allow the bison to continue in his natural life in a secure environment away from the public.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe agency announced the decision Wednesday, which effectively lifts a death sentence for the bison. 

The announcement followed fierce public debate over whether the bull should be put to death after it 

attacked and killed a 70-year-old Canadian tourist

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Public Weighs In"}]

Dave Scragg, a photographer who lives in Custer and frequently is in the area getting images of local wildlife, told Cowboy State Daily he’s heard rumors the bison was targeted to be put down.

[{"type":"text","text":"He’s glad that won’t happen. "}]

The South Dakota Governor’s Office did not confirm whether a kill order had been placed on the bison, nor did the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department.

When asked if he could confirm whether a kill order had been put in place, Nick Harrington, communications manager for the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department, said in a one-sentence email that “all options were being considered and evaluated.”

Scragg, believing along with many others that the bison was facing death, encouraged his followers on social media to plead with the South Dakota Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks and Custer State Park to not euthanize the bison.

“Our main goal was to save the animal,” he said, adding that people responded by calling officials with the state of South Dakota, Custer State Park and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

Scragg said he doesn’t know how many people made calls, but he believes the public input made the difference and saved the bison’s life.

“When this all started, the word from the top was that putting this animal down was the plan,” he said in a statement. "We didn’t accept that, and we made sure our voices were loud enough to reach the people who could actually make a change.” 

Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, And Parks Takes Over

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, and Parks department extended its condolences to the family of the deceased woman. 

It also acknowledged that bison are wild animals, and that the one who attacked her was “acting in accordance with its wild nature."

“We will honor both our cultural obligation to protect our relative and the need of keeping the public safe,” the tribe's statement reads.

Cowboy State Daily reached out to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, and Parks for comment but had not heard back by publication.

Chad Kremer, the bison herd manager for Custer State Park, thanked the tribe for providing a safe home for the bison, sharing on social media that he has been the “steward and caretaker for this bull’s journey of life thus far.”

“As a prey animal, unfortunately, pressure was placed on him that caused him to REACT, not attack, but he didn’t deserve to be destroyed,” he said.

Kremer declined to comment further to Cowboy State Daily pending approval of Custer State Park officials for him to speak to the press. Phone calls to Custer State Park were not returned prior to publication.

Scragg called the decision not to euthanize the animal a “total win for the community and a win for our wildlife.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"South Dakota Game, Fish, And Parks Respond"}]

“Herd management decisions are made with public safety at the forefront, and we will continue to take necessary action to protect human life,” Harrington said in his statement.

The best management decision was to remove the bison from the park to ensure public safety, he said.

“We are grateful for Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s willingness to work with us to relocate the buffalo to a location that is suitable for the animal and away from interaction with the general public,” Harrington added.

Custer State Park Phil Gould via Alamy 6 1 26

<title>Bison Escapes Death Sentence After Killing Woman In Custer State Park | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Public backlash against a reported kill order saved a bison that killed a woman in Custer State Park last month. Advocates for the bison say he was acting within his wild nature on his home turf when he killed the 70-year-old Canadian tourist.

Bison Escapes Death Sentence After Killing Woman In Custer State Park

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Crime & Courts

Courts

CASPER — A 19-year-old Casper man faces felonycharges for allegedly firing into a car that was trying to take his girlfriend out of what she characterized as a “bad situation.”

Camden Martinez faces a preliminary hearing on three counts of aggravated assault and battery and one count of theft. He appeared in Casper Circuit Court for his initial appearance on Tuesday.

Court records show that Casper police officers were called to an area in the Paradise Valley subdivision just after midnight on Monday for a report of shots fired. 

At the scene they found two women and a man with a Volkswagen Jetta. 

One of the women was identified as Martinez’s girlfriend, the other was her friend who drove to the location with the male.

A police affidavit states that Martinez’s girlfriend declined to speak with officers but her friend identified as “KS” said that she had been contacted by Martinez’s girlfriend on social media with a message that she “was in a bad situation” and wanted to be picked up.

At Martinez’s home, the girlfriend came out of the door, got into the back seat behind her, and she started to pull away, KS told police. As she began driving she told officers that she heard shots fired.

“KS quickly drove away and pulled over a short time later and observed her vehicle had been shot in the rear bumper and rear window area,” the affidavit states. 

She told officers she did not have any weapons in her car, and Officers searched the vehicle and found no weapons.

The male in the car with KS told police he was in the front passenger seat and saw Martinez stand shirtless in the doorway of his home as his girlfriend approached the Jetta. 

Martinez yelled something at her, and the girlfriend told them to take off without shutting the car door, he said.

The male told police he heard three shots and the rear window of the car was shot.

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

Police found two “bullet defects” in the back of the Jetta, one to the rear window and one to the bumper. A bullet fragment was also recovered from the car, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that officers contacted Martinez and he had a “moderate odor” of alcohol and when asked where the firearm was, he replied that “it wasn’t my gun.”

Officers recovered three 10 mm shell casings: one outside the front door of his residence, one in the grass, and one in the street in front of the residence. 

Martinez also said that he was shot at by someone in the vehicle, the affidavit states.

A search warrant obtained for Martinez’s home resulted in officers recovering a black Glock 20 10mm in the propane tank area of a grill in the back yard of the residence. 

It had two rounds in the magazine, the affidavit states. They also recovered a Glock 19 from a gun safe in Martinez’s bedroom. The gun was determined to be stolen from South Dakota.

Martinez’s mother told police that he and his girlfriend had an argument in his bedroom and that when his girlfriend left his room with her backpack, Martinez followed with his hand in his pocket, “giving her the feeling that something was wrong,” the affidavit states.

“(The mother) reported then seeing Martinez standing in the middle of the street, draw a handgun, then fire three rounds in the same direction of travel for the vehicle that (his girlfriend) had left in,” the affidavit states.

The mother told police she did not know that Martinez had the Glock 20 and that he had placed the gun on the grill to “hide it because he had shot it.”

A 19-year-old Casper man faces four felony charges and the potential for 40 years in prison after firing three times at a vehicle that was taking his girlfriend away from his home. She was trying to get out of a “bad situation."

You Still Here? Wednesday, October 26, 2022

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