Daily Darwin

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Darwin 12 20 22

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Unlikely to have a good ending...

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, July 30th.  I’m Mac Watson.

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner's attorney filed a police report Wednesday on a Chuck Gray supporter and former sheriff's deputy for allegedly threatening Rasner. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the former deputy denies making a threat. 

“Reid Rasner's attorney filed a report initially with the sheriff, and then it was bumped to the PD, accusing a former deputy of threatening Rasner, saying he needs to watch his back. And I called the former deputy, and he adamantly denies it. He said, ‘No, I never made that call. I have made negative comments to Raisner on socials, but I never made that call.’ The former deputy sent me what appears to be a screenshot of his wireless carrier's call log for him. Team Raisner sent a screenshot that appears to be his call log that shows the call as being received Sunday morning, at this point, we can't confirm if the call was made. We have dueling screenshots from both men.” 

A person who makes a false report to law enforcement can be charged with false reporting, and a person who lies to law enforcement in an investigation can be charged with interference, both misdemeanors punishable by jail time. But, Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson emphasized in a Wednesday interview, people shouldn’t be charged with either of those crimes unless they “knowingly” provided a false report or lied about evidence.

Four hours after no-showing in court on 72 child sex and pornography charges in a Wyoming court on Tuesday, John C. Smallbone was nabbed in San Francisco. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports Sheriff Clint Becker says, “We didn’t want a person with those types of charges to be out and about.”

“He forfeited the $250,000 cash that someone posted for him for bond. However, only four hours after that hearing ended, he was arrested in San Francisco on a new warrant that the judge had just issued for him. Doing the math, that cost him about $62,500 per hour of extra freedom there.  The Converse County Sheriff, when I talked to him, he really credited his investigators for doing that. I asked the sheriff how they knew to alert the San Francisco police to go get him to look for him, and he said you really can't really can't say they really can't divulge how they knew that he was going there.”

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office confirms through its online inmate roster that Smallbone remains in custody there, being held on the Wyoming fugitive felony warrant.

Teton County Search and Rescue recovered the body of an unidentified Australian man in the Teton Range on Wednesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the man, who was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, is believed to have died from a fall off a ridgeline.

“He had reached Old Faithful in Yellowstone by July 19th, and the last update his family got via satellite device was on July 23, but it didn't include a message or any coordinates. The Teton County Search and Rescue was able to get coordinates from that message. They got a short-haul helicopter on Wednesday morning to head out to that area, and unfortunately, the man was found deceased at the bottom of a ridge line. It's believed he died from the fall.”

According to Teton County Search and Rescue, the 28-year-old Australian man was hiking the full Continental Divide Trail, a 3,028-mile route that stretches across the Rockies from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexico. The body was recovered and transported to the Teton County Coroner’s Office. 

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A Utah man who died after collapsing inside a Lincoln County jail following his arrest at southwest Wyoming's Oyster Ridge Music Festival. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that 38-year-old Tyson Alvarez is being remembered by friends as someone whose struggles with addiction never eclipsed the generosity that defined him.

“Lifelong friend Stacy Izzat says that she knew him all her life. Growing up, he was a great guy. He would give anybody the shirt off his back. She did acknowledge that he struggled with addiction for his whole life. He was in and out of treatment, and it was something that he fought like hell to beat. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigations is continuing to investigate this in custody death. Sheriff Shane Johnson said that there was no use of force involved.”

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says EMTs cleared Alvares for booking. He arrived at the detention center at about 9:30 p.m. and collapsed in a holding cell around 10:20 p.m. while being booked. Detention officers began lifesaving efforts after noticing he was no longer breathing, but he could not be revived, according to the sheriff’s office.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A social media influencer and others are offering a $10,000 bounty for the identities of hunters who shoot members of Yellowstone National Park's famed Mollie’s wolf pack this fall. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce calls the bounty “outrageous.”

“They put up a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identity of any hunters who, if anybody ends up shooting one of the Molly's pack wolves during the upcoming hunting season, they've offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to the public publicly identifying that person. So basically, it's trying to dox wolf hunters. This gets complicated because all three states-Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho have statutes written into law that the the identities of wolf hunters must remain confidential because they don't want people anti-hunters doxing these guys.” 

Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, tells Cowboy State Daily that posting the reward is necessary to protect the pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F. Black adds that the wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt. 

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Republican U.S. House candidate Steve Friess told Riverton's political old guard Wednesday he wants to turn the EPA into an advisory board for state environmental agencies. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Sierra Club of Wyoming called that idea “ridiculous and harmful.”

“Friess was going along business as usual, talking about being pro-life, pro-gun, pro-energy. And he goes, "Hey, can this be off the record? And I was like, "I guess you can have one. And he says that he wants to turn the EPA, which is a federal agency with some prosecutorial investigative teeth, into an advisory board to where it it gives advice to state agencies, but it's no longer this big federal thing with with teeth to start you know criminal cases, and I said, "Why would that be off the record? And he goes, ‘Take it.’ The Sierra Club of Wyoming called it ridiculous and harmful to hardworking Wyoming communities, and pointed to the environmental concerns surrounding data centers.”

Freiss tells Cowboy State Daily that he agrees “entirely” with the Sierra Club’s point that Wyoming is in charge and should exercise leadership regarding data centers. He said state leaders “should negotiate fiercely to ensure that electricity rates should not go up.”

Park County commissioners say geography and other factors mean data centers aren't imminent, but they want to have regulations in place if or when the industry does arrive. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Park County residents are telling them they are "100% no" on data centers.

“Park County commissioners and planning and zoning officials have been going back and forth for months, working on a draft plan to rework the zoning for the county because it hasn't been touched in 10 years. A whole zoning plan. A big part of this is whether the county could absorb a data center where you know residents are completely against. The Park County officials are not completely against data centers, but said, ‘we need more education around them, and it's just such a quickly evolving technology.’ County Commerce County Commission Chairman Scott Stewart said that residents are 100% no on data centers.”

The county has spent months reorganizing its zoning classifications, updating industrial districts and revising land-use regulations. The process has included numerous public meetings.

Time for Good News, Bad News. The good news is no one vandalized the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs. The bad news is that it crumbled anyway. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the mayor says, “It should never have been allowed to reach a point where it is that vulnerable.”

“Apparently a small child had been looking at the monument, and that's when that's when it all came crashing down, and that nobody was hurt with that. One of the remarkable things that people are really taking notice here is the only reason that they know it wasn't vandalism is because the mother of the the child came forward and said, ‘Yeah, now that I see this, I realize this is why my child was all covered with dust because it collapsed while my child was looking at it.’ I talked to one Rock Springs man who who's already stepped up and said, ‘Hey, look, I'll do whatever I can to to to donate my time to make this right.’”

After the Parks and Recreation Department announced the crumbling fixture, a flood of people reached out to the city asking how they could help to fix the monument. Mayor Max Mickelson says, “The silver lining in this is it brings out so much good in our community,” 

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 7 30 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, July 30, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thursday's headlines include:
* Rasner Files Police Report On Gray Supporter
* Australian Man Falls To His Death In Grand Teton
* Douglas Man Who Skipped Court Captured In San Fran

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Thursday, July 30, 2026

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Energy

Coal

As Peabody Energy has again slashed the health benefits for retired Wyoming coal mine workers, the state’s congressional delegation has so far been silent.

Multiple requests Wednesday for reaction from the offices of U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis to Peabody’s decision to terminate its Retiree Medical Allowance program weren’t answered by publication.

 that cutting the program has left them, in some cases, without hundreds of thousands of dollars they had counted on.

In the meantime, Peabody reported Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings fell short of expectations while projecting stronger cash generation later this year.

For retirees who say Wyoming’s largest coal-mining company broke promises of lifetime medical benefits, the report only deepened their questions about why it can afford to pay its CEO more than $9 million a year but not the benefits they spent decades earning.

Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said things like the retirement benefits “are company decisions” that fall “outside of my wheelhouse” to comment on.

He also said Peabody’s production was a little lower than the mining association had hoped for in the second quarter, but that Mother Nature was largely to blame for that.

“We came out of a really mild winter,” he said, which means less power used to heat homes. “We certainly expect with a nice, hot summer that those numbers will pick up in the third and fourth quarters.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Second Quarter Earnings Report"}]

Peabody Chief Executive Officer Jim Grech said in a statement that the second-quarter report “reflected temporarily lower volumes and higher costs.”

Grech added he expects results to improve in the second half of the year, spurred by performance at the company’s flagship Centurion Mine in Australia.

"We're targeting strong cash generation for the second half of 2026, fueled by our seaborne metallurgical and thermal segments," Grech said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those segments are in Australia."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Retirees Scrambling"}]

Keith Schaeffer, formerly of Casper and Douglas, spent 17 years working for Peabody Energy’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Campbell County. 

When he retired from the company in 2016, he said he had $190,000 to use for medical expenses under the RMA program.

In 2020, Peabody announced it was it was discontinuing the program for retirees older than  65. 

That meant that Schaeffer would no longer have access to money he said he was promised. His wife, Lisa, still qualified because she was younger than 65.

Now, Schaeffer said he is preparing to look for new health insurance for his wife next year once the RMA is completely terminated.

As an employee, Schaeffer said he remembers his medical expenses being 100% covered by the company.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They treated us well. They cared about us,” he said."}]

Schaeffer said he was aware of the fine print, in which the company reserved the right to take the RMA away at any time.

“They had to keep up with times,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I guess it’s like any other big corporate business nowadays. Everybody’s a number.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Jim Allington of Douglas and Gloria Buell of Gillette, who also worked at the North Antelope Rochelle Mine.

Allington, who put in more than 30 years with Peabody and worked many 16-hour days, recently learned that the $260,000 he was promised for medical expenses will disappear at the end of the year.

“They took away my benefits that they promised,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Buell recalled a meeting for employees where Peabody representatives talked about a big pot of money meant to cover health costs for company retirees.

“It would last you the rest of your life,” Gloria said she remembers hearing. “It was promised as part of your retirement.”

“They promised us everything,” Shafer said. “They took it away.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"RMA Support Group"}]

In Indiana, Peabody Energy retiree Don Wright last week launched the "Peabody Retirees RMA support group" on Facebook, hoping to publicize the RMA cuts and encourage Peabody retirees to share their experiences.

Wright worked at five mines in Indiana over his 25-year career with Peabody Energy.

Wright also launched a letter-writing campaign, urging lawmakers to get involved in Peabody Energy’s decision to cut retiree medical benefits.

In the letter, addressed to President Donald Trump, Wright wrote, “The reason you have a well lit up White House is directly related to our work. The reason the reflecting pool and the Washington monument are so visible at night is the coal that we have carved out of the earth.”

Wright said he hopes the letter will motivate elected officials to pressure Peabody to reverse course on its decision to terminate the RMA.

“You see at the same time that Peabody is cutting our benefits they are receiving vast sums of public money,” Wright said in an email to Cowboy State Daily. “We would like to have some answers.

“It seems to me that Peabody has a problem with keeping their word. If so, do they deserve any of this public money?”

[{"type":"text","text":"Wright said he has not received a response to his letter."}]

Peabody coal haul truck Peabody Energy Public Domain 7 29 26

<title>Wyoming Congressional Delegation Silent On Peabody's Move To Cut Retirement Benefit | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As Peabody Energy has slashed the health benefits for retired Wyoming coal mine workers, the state’s congressional delegation has so far been silent. Retirees wonder why it can afford to pay its CEO $9 million last year but not their promised benefits.

Wyoming Congressional Delegation Silent On Peabody's Move To Cut Retirement Benefit

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A 28-year-old Australian man has been found dead near Grand Teton National Park.

Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) recovered the body of the unidentified man  Wednesday morning. He was found in an area known as The Wigwams on the west slope of the Tetons.

According to TCSAR, the man is believed to have died from a fall from “a steep, high-altitude ridgeline” that separates Grand Teton National Park and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness.

“TCSAR sends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and wishes to express its gratitude to the partnering federal agencies who assisted in the investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

Cowboy State Daily could not reach TCSAR or Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr by the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Difficult Search"}]

According to the information released by TCSAR, the Australian man was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,028-mile route that stretches across the Rockies from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexico.

The victim started from Canada and headed south, keeping his family informed of his progress via a Garmin satellite device.

By July 19, he reached Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and sent a message with his intended route through the Tetons and into the Wind River Basin. 

The last communication the family received was a check-in from his device without coordinates or a message. Along with a video he sent via Facebook, his family placed him somewhere in Grand Teton National Park.

After four days without any updates, the victim’s family contacted Grand Teton officials July 27.

Using the Garmin device, it was determined that the July 23 check-in had been sent near The Wigwams in Teton County, near but outside the western boundary of then park.

At this point, TCSAR took over the search and rescue operation. A short-haul team was assembled to reach The Wigwams via helicopter Wednesday morning.

The victim’s body was found below a ridge south of North Wigwam Peak. He was located from the air because of his bright orange backpack.

The body was recovered and transported to the Teton County Coroner’s Office.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Tough Trail"}]

Hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail can take between two and seven months.

Thru-hikers attempt to do it continuously, from start to end, in one attempt. They only stop to sleep or resupply in communities along the route.

Marty Lee of Socorro, New Mexico, was hiking the Wyoming section of the Continental Divide Trail when he was 69 years old. 

 how thru-hikers regularly powered past him.

“Out in the Great Divide Basin, I was making 22-23 miles a day, but thru-hikers were blowing by me," he said in July 2023.

Lee was section hiking, taking multiple years to complete the Continental Divide Trail. By July 23, he’d finished the stretches in New Mexico and Colorado, and was hoping to finish the Wyoming and Idaho sections that summer.

 of the Appalachian Trail in 2024. He was averaging 18 to 22 miles every day, and it was an ordeal.

“In the first four months I wasn't sick, I didn't twist my ankle and had no major injuries, but I ended up pushing myself to the finish,” he said. “It was like running a marathon, and on your very last corner, you crash into the drinks table, and you end up having to crawl across the finish line.”

He reached the end of the trail, Mount Katahdin in Maine, on Oct. 6, 2024. It had taken him five months to get there.

“When I made my way up to Katahdin and saw the sign, it was kind of strange,” he said. “It was a total non-event. It was like, ‘There's the sign, let's go get my pictures and get off the mountain.’ I think I was just so ready to be done.”

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

, only 1 in 4 people who attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail actually finish it. No similar statistics exist for the Continental Divide Trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More, More, More"}]

TCSAR has been busy in 2026. Its volunteers respond to every call, but at the cost of significant impacts on personnel and resources.

Of the 4,990 search and rescue missions in Wyoming between 2009 and 2026, 1,205 were

. Lincoln County was a distant second with 583 missions during the same period.

TCSAR can recover some of its costs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which allows it to obtain grants and donations. Other funds are available, but they’re distributed to SAR teams throughout the state via the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.

TCSAR’s call numbers jumped in 2021 and have stayed relatively high since. The 64 calls between Dec.1, 2024, and May 31, 2025, used to be as many as the agency got in an entire year.

That correlates with the steady growth of the outdoor recreation industry, which s

. That likely means more calls, more expenses, and more asked of volunteers going forward.

TCSAR hasn’t released the name of the Australian man who died in the Tetons, but statistics say that 72% of their calls are for males.

Demographically, 16- to 30-year-olds accounted for 33% of the rescues, followed by 31-to 45-year-olds, with 29%.

Nevertheless, TCSAR’s all-volunteer force will always mobilize as quickly as they can. No matter where or what, the job gets done.

“Rescues come in all shapes and sizes,” TCSAR Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart told Cowboy State Daily in July 2025. “We’re there to give you a hand without judgment.”

Teton County Search and Rescue

<title>Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Teton County Search and Rescue recovered the body of an unidentified Australian man in the Teton Range on Wednesday. The man, who was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, is believed to have died from a fall off a ridgeline.

Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Mostly sunny in Wyoming on Thursday with a chance of rain, smoky in some areas. Partly cloudy overnight, chance of rain. Highs in the 80s and low 90s. Lows from the low 40s to low 60s.

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Patchy smoke, sunny and breezy today with a high near 92 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Widespread smoke mainly after 2 p.m., slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 93 and mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., areas of smoke and a low near 57.

  Widespread smoke mainly after 2 p.m., slight chance of rain after 5 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 60 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 85 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 48.

  Patchy smoke after 11 a.m., slight chance of rain after 4 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke after 8 p.m. and a low near 54.

Patchy smoke before 2 p.m., slight chance of rain after 1 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 49.

 Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., increasing clouds and breezy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 47.

 Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke after 7 p.m. and a low near 49.

  Patchy smoke, chance of rain after 2 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and mostly clear and breezy overnight with patchy smoke after 10 p.m., a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

 Widespread smoke, slight chance of rain after 4 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Areas of smoke, slight chance of rain after 4 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 48.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Areas of smoke, sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with widespread smoke mainly after 4 a.m. and a low near 44.

Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 4 p.m., increasing clouds and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with areas of smoke, a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:  Patchy smoke, chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with areas of smoke and a low near 61.

  Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 92 and mostly clear overnight with areas of smoke and a low near 62.

   Chance of rain after 10 a.m., patchy smoke, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 60.

  Slight chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 93 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 56.

:   Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 90 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 58.

Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

   Chance of rain mainly after noon, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

:  Chance of rain mainly after noon, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

  Sunny and hot today with a high near 92 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 61.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Patchy smoke, slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny and breezy today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke, a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

   Chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 59.

  Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight a low near 56.

  Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 55.

  Sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke before 11 p.m. and a low near 57.

   Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 85 and mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 56.

   Patchy smoke, sunny today with a high near 83 and mostly clear overnight with patchy smoke and a low near 56.

Daycap small 7 30 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 30, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 30, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming-based U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner says a former sheriff’s deputy threatened him. The former deputy denies it adamantly.

They both provided screenshots potentially supporting their claims. The Torrington Police Department says it's investigating.

Rasner dispatched a statement and later conducted a phone interview Wednesday, alleging that 

former Goshen County sheriff’s deputy Aaron Mose – who parted ways with the department in 2024 – called him at 8:21 a.m. Sunday.

The statement Rasner’s attorney Bill Fix reportedly sent to law enforcement Wednesday morning alleges that Mose said, “Listen, we ran your ass outta Goshen County last week, and if you ever come back through here again, you better watch your back.”

Mose in a Wednesday phone interview adamantly denied making any such statement. He sent Cowboy State Daily what appears to be a screenshot of his phone carrier’s call log, showing no calls made between 10:35 p.m. Saturday and 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

Rasner’s team sent its own screenshot of what appears to be his phone’s call log, with unrelated phone calls blurred, showing an incoming call from Mose’s number at 8:21 a.m. on an unspecified day.

Cowboy State Daily ran both images through a free AI content detector, isgen.ai.

The site registered Mose’s screenshot as 100% human content. It registered the call log shot from Rasner’s team as 89% human and “likely original” – a score that could be less than perfect due to the privacy blurs on the other phone numbers.

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakes might be high."}]

A person who makes a false report to law enforcement can be charged with false reporting, and a person who lies to law enforcement in an investigation can be charged with interference, both misdemeanors punishable by jail time.

But, Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson emphasized in a Wednesday interview, people shouldn’t be charged with either of those crimes unless they “knowingly” provided a false report or lied about evidence.

“There’s a fair number of boxes that would need to be checked for those things to move forward,” said Johnson. “It’s a mistake to automatically assume that because something turns out to later be inaccurate, a person will be charged. There’s an intent element.”

Another curveball is the rise of phone “spoofing,” in which bad actors hijack others’ numbers to masquerade as them. The scam is so prevalent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has established a 

[{"type":"text","text":"“From a technology standpoint that is possible,” said Johnson."}]

He declined to give insight into the investigation, which he said is in its early stages.

U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner's attorney filed a police report Wednesday on a Chuck Gray supporter and former sheriff's deputy for allegedly threatening Rasner. The former deputy denies making a threat. Torrington police are investigating.

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, December 20, 2022

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