You Still Here

You still here 3 9 23 scaled

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

<title>You Still Here? Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Is this parking spot available??

You Still Here? Thursday, March 9, 2023

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Agriculture

Wyoming ranchers must accept that electronic ear tags for cattle are here to stay, Wyoming Livestock Board Director Steve True told lawmakers Tuesday. 

A hoped-for executive order from President Donald Trump rescinding the electronic tag requirement “didn’t happen,” he said.

The requirement for certain cattle to have electronic tags before they cross state lines out of Wyoming is still in place, True told legislators in Casper. 

He spoke before the Legislature’s Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee. The committee took no action on the matter.

The electronic ID tag requirement for interstate cattle transport was finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Nov. 4, 2024, the day before Trump was elected to his second term.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Trump Rumor Squelched"}]

In recent years, there’s been pushback against the transition from metal ear tags for cattle to electronic ID tags, which can be instantly read with a scanner.

Some ranchers argue electronic tags are too expensive, at about $3 each. Metal ear tags cost 10 to 15 cents apiece.

Others worry data collected through the tags could lead to government intrusion.

There’s no indication the electronic ID tag (EID) rule will change, True said.

“I do want to nip one story in the bud that I’ve heard quite a bit, that President Trump was writing some executive orders that would repeal the EID rule,” he said. "Didn’t happen.

“So, you all can let that go, if you’re thinking that happened. Because it didn’t, and it’s probably not gonna, with the screwworm problem we’ve got going on.”

At least five cases of New World screwworm infections were confirmed earlier this year in domestic animals in Texas and New Mexico.

There are concern that infestations could spread to other states, including Wyoming.

And hunters worry that screwworm infestations could jump to deer and other wildlife.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rule Requirements"}]

Electronic ID tags are required for several classes of cattle before they can be transported out of Wyoming, True said.

Some of those include breeding cattle, sexually intact cattle 18 months or older, exhibition cattle and dairy cattle.

It’s hoped that electronic tags can streamline the detection, tracking and containment of livestock diseases, such as brucellosis.

A tag signifies, for instance, that an animal has been vaccinated against brucellosis.

Wyoming got clearance from the USDA to carve out an exception, allowing ranchers to use metal ear tags to certify vaccination for brucellosis.

Ranchers can use either new yellow ear tags or leftover orange vaccination certification tags, True said.

Yellow tags can be purchased from manufacturers. The orange tags should be available until supplies run out, as production ceased after Nov. 4, 2024, he said.

However, those metal tags are good only within Wyoming state lines. Electronic tags will still be mandatory for animals within the required categories that cross state lines, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Seems Unfair"}]

Marta Mossburg of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily she’s opposed to mandating electronic cattle tags.

She is a research fellow at the Mountain States Policy Center and in November 2024 published a guest column in Cowboy State Daily expressing her hope that then-President-elect Trump would scrap the electronic ID requirement.

Among other things, she expressed concern over government intrusion.

“With the heightened surveillance of tags will come the ability for the federal government to expand its reach into ranchers’ operations,” Mossburg wrote. "Knowing exactly how many cattle ranchers own means the ability to tax cows based on their greenhouse gas emissions, as has been enacted in Denmark, to start in 2030. It could also mean forced slaughter if, for example, the USDA decided that the number of head in a particular operation was adversely impacting federal lands or violating climate policy.” 

On Tuesday, she said electronic ear tags would be expensive and unnecessary for small ranches in Wyoming.

Larger ranches might find electronic tags more efficient than old-style metal tags, Mossburg said, but they should have the option of using them voluntarily, not through a government mandate,.

RFID tag 7 28 26

<title>No Trump Executive Order: Livestock Director Says Electronic Cattle Tags Here To Stay | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming Livestock Board Director Steve True told state lawmakers in Casper on Tuesday that electronic ear tags for cattle are here to stay. A hoped-for executive order from President Trump rescinding the electronic tag requirement didn’t happen, he said.

No Trump Executive Order: Livestock Director Says Electronic Cattle Tags Here To Stay

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

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

DOUGLAS — Saying through his court-appointed public defender that he’s afraid for his life if he shows his face, a Converse County man facing 72 felony child sex and pornography charges failed to show up for his plea hearing Tuesday afternoon.

By no-showing his arraignment in Converse County District Court, John Charles Smallbone also forfeits the $250,000 cash someone posted on his behalf to get out of jail June 24. 

“I waited a couple more minutes (to begin the hearing), and your client is not here,” Judge F. Scott Peasley said to Smallbone’s public defender, Denny Harts.

“He has expressed fear for his life,” Harts responded as about 25 people gathered in the second-floor courtroom at the Converse County Justice Center. 

“I reassured him he would be safe, but he is not here,” Harts added.

Peasley then issued a new warrant for Smallbone’s arrest for missing his hearing, while Converse County Deputy Attorney Nathan Shumway said he had just filed new charges on top of the 72 Smallbone already faces.

Those new charges weren’t yet in the court system immediately after the hearing, which from start to finish took about three minutes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"On The Run"}]

Already a wanted man, Smallbone should have already been in police custody and available for Tuesday’s arraignment, Shumway said.

The prosecutor referenced an incident in Colorado last week when a 

Fort Collins magistrate allowed Smallbone to walk out

 of the Larimer County Detention Center on his own recognizance instead of holding him on a fugitive warrant out of Wyoming.

“There were issues with executing our warrant in Colorado,” Shumway said, echoing the frustration Converse County Sheriff’s Office officials have expressed since Smallbone was released on Thursday.

Instead of having a man accused of committing dozens of illegal sex acts with kids in custody, “We’re out looking for him again,” Converse County Undersheriff Chris Walsh 

told Cowboy State Daily after Smallbone’s Colorado release.

 “And we’re going to find him again. The freedom clock on him is running out.”

Walsh said whatever snafu allowed a wanted man to be released didn’t happen on Converse County’s end of the transaction. He was just as surprised as everyone to learn Smallbone was released.

“We’d been working with investigators there in Larimer County; we provided them with all of our warrant information, all our affidavits,” Walsh told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

Add the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office in Colorado to the list of agencies unhappy with the magistrate’s decision.

“Mr. Smallbone was taken into custody on a valid and active warrant out of Wyoming, which included dozens of allegations of sexual crimes against children,” agency spokesperson Kylie Masserman said in a Monday email to Cowboy State Daily.

Masserman confirmed Walsh’s account that “all required information to set bond was provided to the court.”

She said her office also asked Magistrate Heather Siegel to also issue a $250,000 cash-only bond for Smallbone. 

That’s because the objective was “to keep him in custody until he could be transferred back to Wyoming to face his charges,” she said in the statement. “This request was consistent with what the Wyoming authorities requested and consistent with our practices on cases of this severity.”

Masserman said that instead, the personal recognizance bond was issued “contrary to our request.”

“The District Attorney’s Office strongly believes that this bond setting is dangerous and has put the communities in both Colorado and Wyoming at risk,” she said. “Giving a free pass to dangerous out-of-state offenders fleeing to Colorado sets a terrible precedent and risks further harm to the victims in the Wyoming case.’

When contacted by Cowboy State Daily on Friday to inquire about Smallbone’s bond, a staffer in Siegel’s office said the magistrate didn’t have that paperwork in front of her at the time of the hearing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ready For Anything"}]

Meanwhile, Converse County officials were ready and waiting in case Smallbone did show up for his Tuesday hearing, or for any trouble that might ensue because of the nature of the allegations against him.

Sheriff Clint Becker was leaning on a rail outside the justice center ahead of the scheduled hearing, flanked by five deputies. 

Three more deputies manned the security station just inside the front doors, and two Douglas cops were hanging out inside the courtroom.

While there were no emotional fireworks, Becker said he and his deputies were ready “just in case.”

It was the same inside the courtroom, which looked a bit like a shotgun wedding, with the 30 or so people watching from the gallery choosing to sit behind the prosecutor’s table.

Of the three people on the other side behind the public defender, two were reporters seated there for a better view of Smallbone in case he was in attendance.

Along with relaying his client’s fear for his life, public defender Harts also will have to continue representing Smallbone, at least for now.

While the Converse County Public Defender’s Office has filed a motion with Peasley to withdraw from the case, the judge said Tuesday he needs to talk to Smallbone in person before making a decision.

Smallbone was appointed a public defender to represent him when he was first charged with the 72 felony charges because he claimed he couldn’t afford an attorney on his own, according to the motion.

But after someone walked into the jail with a quarter of a million in cash to get him out of jail, he doesn’t qualify, the motion says.

“The defendant had the ability to post two hundred fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars cash in bond,” says the motion to reconsider the court appointment. “The defendant stated on his application for court-appointed counsel he had no ability to borrow money for his legal defense.”

Smallbone 7 28 26

<title>No-Show! Douglas Man Wanted On 72 Child Sex-Related Charges Doesn't Show Up To Court | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming man facing 72 felony child sex charges was a no-show for his plea hearing Tuesday in Douglas. John Smallbone was released on his own recognizance by a Colorado court last week. Law enforcement officials are angered that he was set free.

No-Show! Douglas Man Wanted On 72 Child Sex-Related Charges Doesn't Show Up To Court

Outdoors

Several side roads at a popular recreation area north of Evanston have been closed by state and federal officials after landowners complained about their land being “torn up” by unauthorized motorized use.

Some recreationists balked at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department posting "road closed" signs on several roads and two-tracks in the Woodruff Narrows/Bear River Divide area.

It includes a Game and Fish public access area.

However, agency personnel told Cowboy State Daily the roads in question cross private property, and landowners were fed up.

"The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," Bureau of Land Namangement Wyoming spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman told Cowboy State Daily.

The episode encapsulates the complexities of public recreation areas set on easements across private land.

The 16.3-acre Woodruff Narrows Public Access Area offers fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, boating, and wildlife viewing, according to Game and Fish. Just to the northeast is the roughly 12-acre Bear River PAA, which offers camping, fishing and hunting.

Game and Fish works with landowners to establish PAAs at similar places, such as walk-in hunting and angling areas and hunter management areas.

In exchange for public access, Game and Fish establishes and enforces conditions set by landowners, including dates of use, access points, limits on motorized travel, and the like.

Phil Pierson of Wichita, Kansas, stated in a social media post that Woodruff Narrows is one of his favorite places to visit. So, he was taken aback when he went there recently and discovered several roads he likes to use were posted as "closed" by Game and Fish.

He said that it wasn't right to be denied access to "public lands."

Pierson could not be reached for further comment.

Local outdoorsman Landon McGuire told Cowboy State Daily he hunts mule deer at Woodruff Narrows.

He added that the reservoir also draws anglers, who fish either from boats or along the shoreline.

He noted that the jurisdiction of the land can be confusing because it's in an area of "checkerboard" public and private land parcels, with square parcels of BLM and private land.

In much of the area, hunting is allowed only on foot, he said.

"Those (road closed) signs go up every fall" to remind hunters where they can and cannot drive, he said.

The "actual designated routes" for public travel are clearly marked on hunting GPS apps, such as onX, McGuire said.

He added that he understands why Game and Fish must regulate travel as part of its agreement with private landowners.

It's Game and Fish's duty to manage both the wildlife and human activity in the area, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Complex Management"}]

Landowners' rights and concerns must be respected in public access areas, Game and Fish spokeswoman Anne Hodnett stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

"The Bear River Divide is unique compared to most PAAs in our state due to its scale and complex, 'checkerboard' landownership pattern, which includes a mix of private, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and state lands," she said. "When private landowners opened access and enrolled their lands into our access program, they requested specific protections to prevent motorized damage and unauthorized access on their specific parts of their property." 

Game and Fish "worked directly with these landowners" to decide which roads to close to the public, Hodnett added.

She said protecting private property rights helps ensure that landowners continue to allow public access to the recreation area.

"Standard PAA regulations prohibit off-road travel and ATV/ORV use throughout the area to protect habitat and prevent property damage," Hodnett added.

Road closed 4 7 28 26

<title>State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After angry landowners near a recreation area north of Evanston complained of their property being "torn up," state officials closed the roads. "The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," BLM spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman said.

State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up'

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Coal

For more than three decades, Jim Allington's workday began long before sunrise.

Most mornings, he pulled out of his driveway in Douglas around 3 a.m. for the 73-mile drive to Peabody Energy's North Antelope Rochelle Mine, where 16-hour shifts in upper management were routine.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I never missed a day,\" Allington said. \"Never been late.\""}]

By the time he retired a little more than a year ago, the long commute had taken its toll. During his final year on the job, he struck two elk while driving to work. Between the exhausting schedule and the mounting risks of the highway, he knew it was time.

He also believed he was leaving with one of the retirement benefits the company had promised: a Retiree Medical Allowance worth roughly $260,000 that could help pay health insurance premiums and medical expenses throughout retirement.

[{"type":"text","text":"But about two weeks ago, a letter arrived in the mail."}]

Peabody Energy notified retirees it will terminate the program at the end of 2026, ending a benefit many former employees say they relied on when planning retirement.

By the end of the year, Allington estimates he will have used about $20,000 of the $260,000 he said he was promised.

“Where did my other $240,000 go?” he posted on social media.

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

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why the RMA is Going Away"}]

Peabody Energy said in an emailed statement to Cowboy State Daily that it decided to discontinue the program because it "is not aligned with market-competitive practices."

"Peabody is providing advance notice to allow those affected time to plan and prepare, and we remain committed to supporting employees in their retirement planning," the company said.

The statement did not address Cowboy State Daily’s question about how many employees the decision will affect.

This isn’t the first time Peabody Energy has slashed benefits for its retirees.

In 2020, the company cut health benefits and terminated life insurance for retirees older than 65 as part of a cost-cutting strategy. Retirees younger than 65 could maintain their coverage.

[{"type":"text","text":"The move would help Peabody save about $175 million."}]

The company had declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016. While it pulled out of bankruptcy quickly, it was potentially headed toward a second bankruptcy in 2020, the company said at the time.

That’s when Gillette retirees Gloria and Rick Buell, who spent a combined 30 years working for Peabody Energy at several Wyoming coal mines, received their own letter in the mail, informing them their health benefits would be terminated at the end of the year.

Gloria Buell told Cowboy State Daily she and her husband did pretty well for the first six to nine months of retirement.

[{"type":"text","text":"“When we retired in 2017, we were promised this money,” she said."}]

She recalled a big 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.”

Retirees could select their own health insurance companies. They were responsible for paying their premiums every month, but Peabody was dependable at reimbursing them, Gloria said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Buells fell into a predictable cycle."}]

“Every month when I would do my bills, I would pay our insurance and would send the receipt off to Peabody,” Gloria said. “They would cut me a check. It worked really well.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But the cycle didn’t last."}]

The Buells learned in 2020 the program was being discontinued for retirees over 65.

“All of a sudden we get a letter and it’s going away,” Gloria recalled. “And they did it so weird. They took it away from the seniors — the people who needed it most — and gave it to younger people. We were like, what the hell?”

Since then, the couple has paid for their own supplemental insurance and prescription drugs — expenses they weren’t counting on.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Fight"}]

Neither the Buells nor Allington have pushed back on the company for what they see as broken promises.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s all legal,” Allington said. “It in the fine print.”"}]

A clause in the RMA’s wording allows the company to legally cancel the program.

In Vincennes, Indiana, retired Peabody Energy workers protested after receiving letters like Allington’s.

Both Allington and Gloria Buell said they once considered Peabody one of the best companies in the coal industry.

They remember working long hours, building lifelong friendships and believing the company would keep the promises it made when employees retired.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, they say, that trust has largely disappeared."}]

“The integrity of the company has gone to hell,” Allington said. “They don’t care about their employees like they used to. They keep taking and taking and taking. They promise you stuff. It all sounds good, and then they take it away.”

Gloria said, “It doesn’t ever surprise me what the coal mines do. It’s whatever saves them the most money.”

[{"type":"text","text":"A grandson of the Buells works for Peabody now."}]

Gloria said she hasn’t talked to him much about the retirement outlook at the company because retirement is not on his mind.

“He don’t think about retirement,” she said. “He’s too young.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Company Earnings"}]

Peabody Energy will announce its second-quarter earnings results with management in a conference call Wednesday. Its quarter one report fell short of investors’ expectations, with a net loss of $32.4 million for common stockholders.

Sales grew nearly 4% year over year, but costs outpaced that sales growth, according to the financial analysis platform Chartmill.

Antelope Rochelle Mine, about 65 miles south of Gillette, employs about 1,125 people, according to the Peabody Energy website. The mine produced 65 million tons of coal in 2025.

Peabody energy jim allington

<title>Retired Peabody Energy Employees Feel Betrayed By Cancellation Of Medical Benefits | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Retired Wyoming employees of Peabody Energy say they feel betrayed by its decision to end a medical retirement benefits program. "I never missed a day," said Douglas' Jim Allington. The company says the program no longer fits "market competitive practices."

Retired Peabody Energy Employees Feel Betrayed By Cancellation Of Medical Benefits

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

In the early 2000s, Zariah Whiteplume recalls how she would have to go to the "water hole" on the Navajo Reservation just so her family could wash dishes and have water to drink.

“I remember visiting my great-grandmother in New Mexico and we barely had any electricity,” Whiteplume said. “We had no running water, and it's so crazy that we used to go in an outhouse, and haul water.”

Whiteplume, 22, has known poverty all her life in two places: The Navajo and Wind River reservations. The experiences have led her on a quest to make life better for both her tribes, the Northern Arapaho and Diné (Navajo).

“I know there's still so many tribal members who live like that out on the reservation,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I feel like I came a long way but when you're young you don't really realize that you are poor. It’s just the way it is.”

Whiteplume wanted to change that, so she began 

lectrical engineering degree with a focus on renewable energy. 

Members of her Diné family attended United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, and persuaded her to visit. 

discovered her love for math was a strong asse

as recruited to the engineering program. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This past spring, she graduated with her pre-engineering degree."}]

“It's a very demanding degree, but I'm also proud to say that I'm one of a few of the young women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math),” Whiteplume said. “United Tribes brought me opportunities I thought I would never have.”

Thanks to her Diné connections, Whiteplume was able to intern at the Los Alamos Nationa

o summers. This year, she transferred to the Sandia National Laboratori

“I want to come back to my community and engage with the youth,” she said. “We need to introduce more of our kids at earlier ages to the sciences but also incorporate our cultural ways.”

Whiteplume said she hopes to build a bridge between h

This process is called Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, and can be used to ensure proposed renewable energy fits community priorities, respects culturally significant places, and meets local needs rather than imposing outside solutions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sharing Her Culture"}]

As she pursues her education and dreams of a future sharing her passion of math and science to children on the reservations, Whiteplume is also staying in touch with her cultural identity through hoop dancing.

She has performed before various audiences, including

“The elementary kids from around the Bismarck school districts get most excited whenever I come out,” Whiteplume said. “That means a lot to me.”

Whiteplume was 8 when she first began learning to hoop dance with Jasmine Bell and her team of young girls on the Wind River Reservation. Over the years, she has had numerous mentors. In middle school, her teacher was Ann Abeyta in Fort Washakie. 

“Hoop dancing is a healing dance and people enjoy watching because of how skilled you have to be to do the dance,” Whiteplume said. “When I dance, I pick up the hoops with my feet and I don't ever bend down to pick up the hoops off the ground.”

Whiteplume said what makes the dance so special is telling her own story. Each year, she adds a hoop; she 

Zariah Whiteplume grew up without running water or much electricity on the Wind River and Navajo reservations. This summer, she was hoop dancing and modeling in Tokyo. “I want to come back to my community and engage with the youth,” she said.

You Still Here? Thursday, March 9, 2023

More in You Still Here

Today In Adapting: Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Today In Food: Wednesday, July 29, 2026

You Still Here? Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Bonus Video 1: Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Most read