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

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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You Still Here? Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman was one of 22 Republicans to vote against making daylight saving time permanent as the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act on Tuesday.

For Wyomingites tired of changing their clocks every spring and fall, the vote was a big step toward ending the twice-yearly ritual that has been a divisive issue in the Cowboy State and across the nation.

The 308-117 vote advances the act to the Senate, which if approved would make daylight saving time permanent.

Most Americans would stop changing their clocks twice a year and instead remain on daylight saving time year-round, although states could choose to observe permanent standard time instead.

Hageman told Cowboy State Daily in a statement that her vote was made with Wyoming in mind.

"The Sunshine Protection Act robs Wyoming farmers and ranchers of precious sunlight and ensures the first hours of a student's day is in darkness,” she said. "The government isn't funded, our elections aren't secure, and Wyoming's legacy industries need help. 

"I will not vote for a time-wasting bill that puts Wyoming in the dark."

If enacted, the legislation would mean later winter sunsets but also later winter sunrises, giving people more daylight in the evening while making mornings darker.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another Opportunity "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming has been preparing for this possibility for years."}]

In 2020, the Wyoming Legislature approved a trigger law authorizing the state to adopt permanent daylight saving time if Congress first changes federal law and neighboring Mountain Time states enact similar laws.

As a result, Tuesday's House vote alone would not change anything for Wyoming.

Even if the bill ultimately becomes law, Wyoming would continue changing its clocks until the conditions outlined in state law are met.

Former state Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, sponsored Wyoming's trigger law and spent years advocating for permanent daylight saving time.

When the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a similar version of the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022, Laursen

he hoped Americans had changed their clocks for the last time that November.

Instead, the proposal stalled in the House before reaching then-President Joe Biden.

[{"type":"text","text":"Now, four years later, Laursen believes Congress has another opportunity."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's fantastic news,\" he said Tuesday. \"I'm feeling hopeful.\""}]

Laursen said he hopes the Senate can "get something figured out" after unanimously approving a similar bill four years ago.

Asked what message he would send senators, Laursen said, "Let's do it," he said. "Trump wants it. I want it."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long-Running Debate"}]

Supporters of the legislation argue ending the twice-yearly clock changes would eliminate an unnecessary disruption while giving Americans more usable daylight after work and school.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky, said permanent daylight saving time would improve traffic safety, strengthen the economy and give people "more time to exercise outside, visit family, attend concerts and sporting events."

"It also means more sunlight at the end of the day so Americans can return safely from work and children can return safely from school," Guthrie said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not everyone agrees."}]

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports ending the twice-yearly clock changes but argues that Congress should instead adopt permanent standard time, saying it better aligns with the body's natural circadian rhythms and promotes healthier sleep.

If daylight saving time became permanent, Wyoming would experience later winter sunrises and later sunsets, leaving many children and commuters traveling before sunrise while extending daylight later into the evening.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Senate Faces Familiar Decision"}]

The legislation now heads to the Senate, which unanimously approved a similar version of the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022 before it stalled in the House.

[{"type":"text","text":"Its prospects this time are uncertain."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming's congressional delegation is split on the issue."}]

While Hageman voted against the House bill, Sen. Cynthia Lummis has 

backed making daylight saving time permanent, calling the twice-yearly clock changes "an unnecessary disruption" and saying advances in technology have made the original reasons for changing clocks obsolete.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sen. John Barrasso has taken a more cautious position."}]

Last spring he told Cowboy State Daily, "Every time we have to change the clocks, I hear about this issue at home in Wyoming. 

"While it would certainly be easier to not have to change our clocks, there are some real concerns with sending our kids to school in the dark. Congress must thoroughly debate all of the potential impacts before taking any action to change daylight saving time on the national level."

Asked Tuesday about the bill's chances in the Senate, Barrasso 

, "We'll see. You know, we had passed something like that once before, and then the House hit the snooze alarm on it, and we'll see what happens when it gets here."

Even if the Senate approves the bill and Trump signs it into law, Wyoming would not immediately stop changing its clocks. 

The state's trigger law requires not only congressional approval, but also neighboring Mountain Time states to adopt permanent daylight saving time before Wyoming could make the switch.

Cowboy State Daily reached out to Barrasso's office Tuesday for additional comment on the House-passed legislation but did not receive a response before publication.

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<title>House Passes Permanent Daylight Saving Time Bill, Hageman Votes Against | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The U.S. House passed a bill Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent, but Rep. Harriet Hageman was one of only 22 Republicans who voted against it, arguing it would put schoolchildren in the dark and take morning sunlight from farmers and ranchers.

House Passes Permanent Daylight Saving Time Bill, Hageman Votes Against

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

Clair McFarland

Putting an employee housing complex on top of a morgue makes sense because of how dire Teton County’s housing shortage is, some commissioners say.

The Teton County Commission voted last week to incorporate employee housing units into the build plan of the new coroner’s facility. That advances, but doesn’t finalize the move, Commissioner Luther Propst told Cowboy State Daily.

Coroner Brent Blue, who’s running against five other Democrats for the party’s nomination in three open Commission seats, spoke against the plan.

“I vehemently opposed it,” Blue said in a Tuesday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily. “Who wants to live in an apartment above a morgue in an industrial area? That’s just a pipe dream.”

Noting that the measure passed, Blue said the complex might work better as a bunkhouse or dorm for summertime or part-time workers who aren’t planning on settling above the morgue.   

The morgue maneuver reflects that “certainly housing is one of our critical problems for employees,” Blue said.

Chief Deputy Coroner Russell Nelson, who’s running to lead the office, was less subtle.

Blue sent Cowboy State Daily a letter that Nelson had sent the local newspaper after the vote in which Nelson referenced his past work for the Arizona State Museum’s Human Identification Laboratory. 

There, he said, he’d encountered undocumented migrants who’d died in the heat while trying to cross the Southern border, many amid a “brisk drug trade.”

“The bodies that came through our laboratory had been beaten with a variety of tools, shot, burned, dismembered or just left out on the desert floor,” wrote Nelson.

He said lab workers used an enzymatic detergent solution to loosen soft tissue for examining bone features, wrote Nelson.

“All this cooking — even under a fume hood — produced a significant aroma of decomposition in the surrounding areas,” the letter says. 

Nelson compared it to being “downwind of the carcass disposal pit at the Transfer Station.”

Nelson referenced “several” process-heavy cases, and “one rather high-profile, complete with paparazzi.”

Travel vlogger Gabby Petito was killed by her boyfriend in Teton County in the summer of 2021. 

Propst presented the motion at last week's commission meeting to include the housing  plans in the new morgue construction. The aye votes sounded, and no nay votes were audible on the 

Propst told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview Tuesday that the vote was unanimous. 

He also believes Blue softened to the idea of temporary rather than “executive” housing during that meeting.

Blue said that he conceded the temporary housing idea as a compromise “if (they’re) going to force the issue.”

Propst noted, as Deputy County Attorney Keith Gingery did during the meeting, that housing has occupied that neighborhood. Blue had protested, however, that it’s an industrial area.

Commission Vice-Chair Wes Gardner told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he voted for the addition. 

The county’s dire need, the thrift of building housing on an already-planned building, and the potential to mitigate some of the coroner’s concerns factored into his aye vote, he said.

The cost estimate for the potential two housing units is roughly $1 million of the approximately $ 5 million project, the 

Paying $1 million for two housing units is nearly unheard-of in Teton County, said Gardner.

Teton regularly ranks as the nation’s wealthiest county. Wealthy people drive up home values and with them, property taxes and other costs of living.

Many of the local workers commute from other towns, and workforce housing shortage problems have recurred for years. 

County and Jackson city governments have tried over the years to handle those pressures by subsidizing housing, charging mitigation fees of homebuilders, price-capping homes, among other strategies.

“I completely understand and appreciate where the coroner’s coming from,” said Gardner. “I wish I weren’t in a position where I feel the need to put housing on top of the morgue. Unfortunately, I am in that position.”

Gardner said that on the one hand, he’s faced with an “awkward” living situation and the potential for people to feel uncomfortable. 

“On the other hand, I’m looking at the stark reality facing Teton County and our housing shortage,” he said.

The plan is for the employees to pay a low rent to stay in county housing, he said. 

Gardner said the county government is short by fewer than a dozen employees right now — which is “pretty good” for it. But it has around 26 employee units and nearly 340 employees, he said.

Commission Chair Mark Newcomb told the board last Tuesday that “we also thought” that adding the homes to the new morgue could make the project eligible for a special purpose excise tax, which is slated in part for employee housing.

“(That) might give a little boost to helping with the whole project cost,” said Newcomb in the meeting, adding that he recognized the coroner’s concern.

Propst said he agrees with Blue about making it temporary housing. He called the plot “not where someone might want to live for their career,” but a “great opportunity to provide housing.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Newcomb did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication."}]

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<title>Teton County Is So Desperate For Housing It Wants To Build It On A Morgue | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Some county commissioners say putting an employee housing complex on top of a morgue makes sense due to the housing shortage but the coroner's office is strongly against it. They say the smell is like being “downwind of the carcass disposal pit."

Teton County Is So Desperate For Housing It Wants To Build It On A Morgue

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Hunting

An outbreak of canine distemper and other setbacks has left northwest Wyoming’s wolf population at a 20-year low, so the quota for the upcoming wolf hunting seasons is less than half of last year’s.

As of Jan. 1, there were 132 wolves in the wolf management area in northwest Wyoming, state Game and Fish Department biologist Ken Mills told the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, during the commission’s meeting Tuesday in Sheridan.

The Game and Fish Department’s objective is for 160 wolves in that area, said Mills, a large carnivore biologist and wolf management specialist.

The department recommended setting the wolf mortality quota for the 2026 hunting season at 20, less than half of the 2025 44-wolf quota.

The mortality quota designates the number of wolves that can die, by any cause, before the hunt is shut down. 

If the mortality quota is met before the end date of the hunting season in that area, the hunting season is still shut down, regardless of how many hunters are left holding unfilled tags.

Hunters killed 31 wolves in 2025, falling short of the 44-wolf quota, Mills said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What About 1090F?"}]

Fans of Yellowstone National Park’s famous Wolf 1090F said her pack is denning in one of the hunt areas.

Some asked the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to carve out an exception to the proposed 2026 season regulations and suspend hunting in that area.

The commission voted unanimously to accept the wolf hunting seasons as proposed by the Game and Fish Department. Those include a quota of four wolves total in Hunt Areas 1 and 2 (Clarks Fork, North Fork).

Wolf 1090’s pack, the Mollie’s pack, is now denning on the Shoshone National Forest in Hunt Area 1.

The wolf hunt season there is set to run from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31.

In January, Wolf 1090F reached the age of 11 years, 9 months, making her the 

At that time, she surpassed the age of the legendary 907F, who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day in 2024 a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack.

Just prior to the commission voting on the wolf seasons, Lisa Robertson of Wyoming Untrapped and Marke Cooke of Wolves of the Rockies called in to the meeting via Zoom to object.

Given the decline in the wolf population, Wyoming Untrapped and other wolf advocates would like to see wolf hunting suspended for two years, Robertson said.

Or, at least hunting should be suspended this year in Hunt Area 1 to protect Wolf 1090F and the rest of the Mollie’s pack, she said.

That would preserve an “internationally-recognized and highly-studied wolf pack,” she said.

Cooke also emphasized that the Mollie’s pack is prized by wolf researchers.

“Once they are gone, decades of irreplaceable knowledge are gone with them,” he told the commission.

Sparing the Mollie’s pack from being hunted could also bolster Wyoming’s image, Cooke said, adding that, "Wyoming is getting pretty beat up lately on some wildlife issues."

There have recently been high-profile cases of alleged wildlife abuse in Wyoming. 

Those include Daniel resident Cody Roberts capturing, tormenting and killing a wolf in February 2024. Also, a Unita County rancher allegedly videotaping two others 

Commissioner John Masterson noted that the Mollie’s pack is popular and frequently watched and photographed.

“From a pure management, scientific standpoint, is there anything substantially unique about that pack?” he asked the commission.

Mills responded that from the department’s perspective, “a breeding pair is a breeding pair, a pack is a pack” in terms of monitoring and managing wolves.

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

Wolves in Wyoming fall under three classifications, depending upon where they are in the state.

Inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, they remain protected and may not be hunted.

In areas immediately adjacent to the park — in the Game and Fish wolf management zone — they may be shot by licensed hunters only during set seasons and within mortality quota limits.

Outside of the management zone, which is about 85% of Wyoming, wolves are classified as a predatory animal and may be killed at any time, with no limits or hunting tag required.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming is “committed” to maintain a population of 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs, inside the management zone, Mills said.

A breeding pair is male and female wolf that successfully raise at least two pups through the end of December.

Game and Fish wolf objectives include a “buffer” above the federal commitment, Mills said.

The department’s objective is for 160 wolves and 13 or 14 breeding pairs inside the wolf management zone, he said.

At the beginning of the year, there were 132 wolves in 22 packs, including 10 breeding pairs, Mills said.

The decline in wolf numbers might be largely due to an outbreak of canine distemper, which started in the fall of 2025 and has been especially hard on wolf pups, Mills said.

Wolf populations tend to recover quickly, he added.

For the wolf population stabilize at 160 by the end of 2026, as many as 63 could die of all causes, he said.

Of those, 35 could be “human-caused” wolf deaths by year’s end, Mills said.

Allowing for 15 wolves to be killed for such things as attacking livestock, that leaves a hunters’ quota of 20 across the entire wolf management zone, he said.

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<title>Wyoming Game And Fish Commission Cuts Wolf Hunt Quotas By More Than Half | Cowboy State Daily</title>

With northwest Wyoming’s wolf population at a 20-year low, the state Game and Fish Commission on Tuesday cut the wolf hunt limits by more than half. Some advocates said that’s not enough, arguing to suspend hunting wolves altogether.

Wyoming Game And Fish Commission Cuts Wolf Hunt Quotas By More Than Half

Crime & Courts

Courts

A summer camp drive through Cody took a disturbing turn when, investigators say, a group of children allegedly found themselves looking out the windows of their van at a man driving alongside them without pants and pleasuring himself while making eye contact with those in the van.

Court records show that rather than let him disappear into traffic, two camp counselors followed the vehicle through Cody, photographed its license plate and called law enforcement.

Cody police officers say they quickly realized the registered owner was someone they already knew.

Andrew Crawford, a Cody resident born in 1988 and a registered sex offender, has been charged with felony indecent liberties with a minor and several public indecency misdemeanors spanning multiple years. 

who was convicted of public indecency in April 2023 after he repeatedly exposed himself to female baristas at Cody coffee kiosks during the fall of 2022.

Those incidents continued for weeks before one barista responded by dumping scalding 170-degree water into Crawford's lap after he exposed himself. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"6 Juveniles "}]

Park County dispatch got the report about Crawford's more recent allegations at about 4:34 p.m. on Friday, court records show.

One of the camp counselors told investigators that he and another counselor were traveling through Cody with six juveniles when a blue Chevrolet Impala pulled alongside their van.

The counselor reported that the driver had removed his pants and was masturbating while looking through the van's windows. He told deputies all six campers and both counselors witnessed the alleged conduct.

Dispatch identified the vehicle as being registered to Crawford, whom the investigating officer wrote he recognized from prior law enforcement contacts involving similar allegations.

Court records show he was accused of exposing himself to two girls and their mother in a Cody Walmart parking lot in 2011 — this while under investigation for allegedly possessing child pornography while serving in the U.S. Air Force in 2009. 

He was sentenced in 2012 to 72 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Witnesses Identified Crawford"}]

Investigators presented the counselors with a six-photo lineup, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.

Before the officer had finished explaining the identification process, a counselor said he already knew who the suspect was and immediately identified Crawford's photograph. 

He told investigators he recognized him by his bald head, facial hair and face shape, saying the only difference was that the driver had been wearing glasses.

The other counselor also identified Crawford as the man he said he made eye contact with during the incident, says the affidavit.

The following morning, investigators reviewed the counselors' written statements. 

"Both witness statements corroborate the emotional distress and shock of the juvenile campers after they all witnessed the same exposed genitalia and masturbating motions with his hand on his penis," says the affidavit. 

Investigators also confirmed with camp's operations director that the van's windows were not tinted and that passengers inside were clearly visible from outside.

Because Crawford has prior military and Wyoming convictions involving public indecency and sex offender registration violations, the investigating officer asked prosecutors to expedite an arrest warrant, he wrote. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Deputies arrested Crawford later that afternoon without incident."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Court Proceedings"}]

Crawford made his initial appearance in Park County Circuit Court on Monday, where a judge set his bond at $100,000 cash only.

[{"type":"text","text":"If released, Crawford must remain in Park County as a condition of bond."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 22 in Cody."}]

Andrew Crawford Cody sign 7 14 26

<title>Repeat Cody Sex Offender Accused Of Pleasuring Himself Next To Van Of Camp Kids | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A registered Cody sex offender is accused of exposing and masturbating alongside a van of camp kids while making direct eye contact with those in the van. He’s the same man convicted in 2023 for repeatedly exposing himself to female coffee baristas.

Repeat Cody Sex Offender Accused Of Pleasuring Himself Next To Van Of Camp Kids

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Despite a Wheatland police officer running out of gas during a harrowing chase of up to 112 mph through two towns, the driver of a white BMW failed his second attempt to elude law enforcement.

Taron Hunziker-Ford, 27, had already eluded Colorado State Troopers prior to driving north on Interstate 25 to Wheatland on Sunday, Wheatland Police Department Officer Jesse Walton says in an affidavit filed Monday in Platte County Circuit Court.

Walton wrote that Wyoming officials had been alerted to watch out for Hunziker-Ford, who was wanted on “multiple felony warrants out of Colorado.”

When he saw the white BMW with no back bumper and a temporary Colorado registration tag driving north on I-25 at about 7:09 p.m. Sunday “traveling at excessive rates of speed,” Walton says in his affidavit the pursuit was on.

At one point, Hunziker-Ford attempted to get off the interstate at exit 87, “but the exit is too sharp and his speeds were too fast,” the affidavit says. “He pulled out of the turn and continued northbound.”

By that time, Walton wrote that he was driving more than 100 mph and having trouble keeping up with the BMW.

When Hunziker-Ford got to highway 26, he took it east toward Guernsey, and Walton followed, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","text":"From there, the BMW led police on a dangerous 26-mile ride to Guernsey."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ran Out Of Gas"}]

“I could see the vehicle still ahead of me and what appeared to be passing other vehicles on the right shoulder — and my speed was at 111 mph shortly there (when) the BMW turned southbound on Highway 320 and continued back south toward Wheatland,” Walton wrote.

While topping 112 mph, the officer reports that he was having a hard time trying to catch this vehicle.

In the meantime, the BMW also failed to stop for other law enforcement in pursuit and set up in its path, the affidavit says.

When Hunziker-Ford got back into Wheatland, Walton hit another obstacle in the chase.

“At about this time I reached Oak Street and my vehicle ran out of fuel and I lost site (sic) of the vehicle,” he wrote.

Walton was not out of the chase for long, as Wheatland Police Chief Bradley Otte picked him up and they continued after the BMW, as was a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper and Guernsey police.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Gave Us A Shoulder Shrug’"}]

With the BMW ahead of Walton and the police chief, and other officers in front of the fleeing vehicle, “we tried to attempt to make a stop on him,” the affidavit says.

Despite a Wheatland police officer running out of gas during a chase of up to 112 mph through two towns Sunday, the driver of a white BMW failed to elude law enforcement. The driver also at one point looked at pursuing officers and shrugged.

You Still Here? Wednesday, November 9, 2022

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