Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Oh good, a brand new sport..."}]

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Oh good, a brand new sport...

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

 outside a Gillette bar, Matthew Lynch stood onstage at the American Legion with an electric guitar slung across his shoulder, living a dream he'd chased for most of his life.

Lynch, a 41-year-old carpenter, potter and musician, spent Independence Day doing what he loved most — playing rock and roll with friends before a hometown crowd.

By midnight, he was staring at what remained of his right hand, unable to hear, his vision awash in "red, purple and stars."

"I looked down on my hand, and it was just the most mangled, crazy-looking thing I've ever seen," Lynch told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. "I was instantly in shock." 

The explosion outside the Otherside Bar & Grill injured Lynch and four other people after what he described as an old firecracker he carried in his back pocket for years detonated instantly when he lit it rather than giving him time to throw it.

The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him.

Now recovering at home with both arms wrapped in bandages, Lynch said he keeps returning to two thoughts: the people he endangered and the life he's determined to rebuild.

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

After finishing the American Legion concert, Lynch said he spent the evening downtown with friends before hearing about a benefit concert at Otherside.

By the time he arrived, the music was over. People stood outside talking, catching up and deciding where the night would go next.

"I had found this old firecracker I had laying around for a few years and I had it in my back pocket," he said. "I thought, 'Well, I'm just gonna be a little adventurous here, light this off', and then it just blew up right in my face. The fuse was just instant." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The blast left him deafened, nearly blinded and in shock."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He remembers seeing nothing but flashes of color."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he looked down."}]

"I kept thinking this is never going to go away," he said. "I made a mistake I could never undo." 

His friend AJ immediately recognized how badly he was bleeding and shouted for a tourniquet.

Someone pulled off a belt and cinched it around Lynch's arm while they waited for first responders.

A woman Lynch had never met knelt beside him, gently held his face in her hands and kept him from looking at his injuries.

"She kept saying, 'You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. Just don't look at it,'" Lynch recalled. "'Just look in my eyes. Everything's gonna be OK'." 

He also praised the doctors, nurses and staff at Campbell County Memorial Hospital, saying they treated him "like family" before he was flown to Billings for emergency surgery. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Artist and Carpenter "}]

Before the explosion, Lynch spent his days building houses, creating pottery, painting and playing guitar.

[{"type":"text","text":"He's a carpenter following in his father's footsteps."}]

He's an artist whose work is featured in a monthlong exhibition at AVA Community Art Center in Gillette — a show he spent more than a year preparing.

Despite his injuries, Lynch plans to attend the opening reception for from 6-8 p.m. Thursday.

For four years, he also hosted an open jam session at Legends Lounge, welcoming musicians of every skill level to climb onstage and play.

"I've always believed in everybody's own success," he said. "Anybody can do anything." 

His mother, Patricia David, said those qualities have defined him since childhood.

"His name means ‘Gift of God', and it was the perfect name for him," she said. "He has been the brightest, most joyful child you could imagine ... always kind." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Shattered Bones "}]

"The first thing that hit me was I'm not going to be able to pick up my beautiful son and hold him for quite a while," Lynch said. "He's my whole world." 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came another realization."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He wouldn't be able to go fly fishing with his brothers."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the one that hurt most."}]

"My lifelong dream and mission my entire life has been to be a professional guitar player," he said. 

One of the final photographs taken before the explosion shows Lynch gripping the neck of his guitar as he performed at the American Legion that afternoon.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, most of his right hand is gone."}]

His left hand is held together with pins and hardware after surgeons repaired shattered bones.

Lynch's mother, a retired nurse, said the injuries are among the worst she has seen.

She said she was equally moved by the apology Lynch posted publicly after the accident.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Strong Support System "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Despite everything, Lynch refuses to believe his music is over."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He said doctors are optimistic that his left hand will recover."}]

"I'm going to get a bionic prosthetic, and I'm going to be playing guitar again someday," he said. "It's going to be awesome." 

[{"type":"text","text":"His optimism has been strengthened by the people around him."}]

His twin brother immediately drove to Billings after hearing what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"His mother has helped care for him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Most of all, he credits Kathryn Schwartz, the mother of their son."}]

"I've got to spend so much time with the mother of my child," Lynch said. "We've just been reconnected, and that's awesome."

Before Lynch even returned home from the hospital, Schwartz had cleaned his house, prepared a place for him to recover and, he said, "hasn't left my side."

[{"type":"text","text":"Friends he hadn't spoken to in 20 years have reached out."}]

"I've probably had a dozen people I don't even know message me," Lynch said. "The outreach from this community has just been immense, and I am so grateful." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Focus On The Blessings'"}]

Lynch knows the months ahead will include surgeries, rehabilitation and learning to navigate life with a devastating disability.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also knows the outcome could have been much worse."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Shrapnel struck his face, neck and chest."}]

"It could have been so much worse," he said. "I still believe God's got a plan for all of us." 

He hopes others learn from what happened — how quickly one impulsive decision can change a life.

[{"type":"text","text":"But he also hopes they remember something else."}]

"Stay optimistic," Lynch said. "Life has a lot of suffering, but we've got to focus on the blessings and the goodness too and just be grateful that we're alive to even begin with."

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<title>After Blowing Off Most Of His Hand, Gillette Musician Vows He'll Play Guitar Again | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4. But the Gillette carpenter, potter and musician is counting his blessings and refusing to give up on his electric-guitar dreams. "It's going to be awesome," Lynch said.

After Blowing Off Most Of His Hand, Gillette Musician Vows He'll Play Guitar Again

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

Andrew Rossi

Crime & Courts

Urapeein Porta Pots in Billings, Montana, expects to lose a few toilets every Independence Day.

Over the last week, at least 13 of the small company’s portable toilets were destroyed.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Even by their standards, that’s a massacre."}]

“We typically lose four to five toilets every year during the Fourth of July due to fireworks,” co-owner Kris Vogele said. “Some years, we’ve lost eight or nine. There have been at least 13 this year, and that’s worse than normal.”

Vogele estimates that damages are well over $12,000 and could easily get higher. All those costs will come out of the company’s porta-pot profits.

“People don't think about who this impacts,” he said. “They want to blow up a toilet for the laughs, but it’s definitely hurting people, and it hurts our community.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Blowin’ Up Toilets"}]

Vogele started getting calls about destroyed toilets last week. They lost their first one on Wednesday.

“It mostly has happened in residential construction projects in northwest Billings,” he said. “Subdivisions where not a lot of people are living yet, but a lot of new homes are being built.”

Vogele’s phone was ringing off the hook Monday, as contractors returning to work after the holiday weekend reported unusable toilets and their contents scattered across their job sites.

The only explanation for the extent and nature of the damage is fireworks. Big fireworks.

After several years in the portable toilet business with his son, Connor, Vogele knows to anticipate some lost toilets during the week of Independence Day. It’s the only time of year it seems to happen.

“It's pretty much whenever anybody has access to fireworks,” he said. “We’ve lost a couple around New Year’s, and we might lose a few more this weekend. If people have fireworks they didn’t set off last weekend, they might blow up a toilet this weekend.”

Most of the destroyed toilets were blown apart, but some were melted by the intense heat of whatever was inside.

“They light a fountain off on the floor of the toilet, and that usually melts or burns most of it,” Vogele said. “We've had one toilet that actually burned all the way to the ground. When we showed up for it, it was just a block of plastic on the ground.”

At this point, there are no culprits because there were no security cameras catching the toilet destroyers in the act. Vogele will have to swallow those costs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Out-Of-State Ordnance?"}]

By this point, Vogele understands what kind of fireworks are needed to blow up a toilet. That’s why he believes they couldn’t have come from Billings or the surrounding area.

“These are not the type of fireworks you can buy at a fireworks stand in Montana,” he said. “If you saw one of our toilets that was really blown apart, it had to have been a large explosive.”

Vogele said he believes the fireworks came from Wyoming or the Crow 

 year-round, whereas Montana only allows for sales between June 24 and July 5.

If Montanans want bigger fireworks, they’ll find them at the year-round places. For Vogele, it’s the only way to explain the extent of the destruction.

"I know a lot of people go to Wyoming to buy bigger fireworks than we can get here," he said.

There are many ways to blow up a portable toilet. 

 the cocktail of chemicals and human waste in the tank won’t be enough to stop an explosion.

“They're either putting it in the tank and blowing a big hole in the tank, or setting it on the floor,” Vogele said. “If the porta potty has been used, it's not all liquid in the tank. It might land on toilet paper floating right at the top and blow up.”

Either way, the aftermath isn’t pleasant. It’s another problem Vogele must deal with.

“If the explosive goes in the tank, whatever’s inside it goes everywhere,” he said. “It’s quite the cleanup.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Assurance From Insurance"}]

A single portable toilet costs around $900, plus an additional $250 for shipping. 

Yes, but with the way the company’s insurance works, Vogele said it’s not worth the effort or payout.

“Our insurance company sees each exploded toilet as an individual occurrence, so each one has its own deductible,” he said. “Our deductible for equipment is $1,000, so the most we could get is $100 to $150.”

If Vogele filed a claim for each destroyed toilet, each would be treated each as a loss. That would drive up Urapeein’s annual rates when the company renews each year.

That’s why Vogele said “it’s not worth reporting” any of the exploded toilets.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don’t need my insurance to go up that much,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Don’t Be Crappy"}]

The costs for repairing or replacing $12,000 of destroyed property, so far, will be covered by Urapeein. For Vogele, that’s adding insult to injury.

“We donate a lot to the community and sponsor a lot of events and organizations,” he said. “At the end of the day, that's $12,000 we won’t have to give to our community.”

More than 400 Urapeein toilets are placed throughout southern Montana, Vogele said, so the 13 blown-up toilets don’t represent a huge loss of inventory. Still, he can’t help but empathize with his son, who started the business.

“He started with 40 toilets in 2018,” he said. “If this had happened back then, it would have been a really big hardship for us. It would have been a killer for him.”

People have recommended that Urapeein purchase and place trail cams around his toilets to catch people in the act, hopefully leading to identification and restitution.

While he appreciates the thought, Vogele knows that’s an expensive solution for a once-a-year problem.

“Putting a $150 trail cam at 400 toilets is a $60,000 expense for one weekend,” he said. “It’s not something we’re going to do.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The moral of this story, for Vogele, is don’t be a crappy person."}]

Blowing up a portable toilet could be fun, even hilarious. Anyone who is determined should acquire their own, rather than add an unnecessary financial burden to a small family-owned company.

“This is a big expense for us,” Vogele said. “It hurts us, and it hurts our community, because it limits what we can give to the community. We have less to give if we have to keep replacing blown-up toilets.”

Porta Potties exploded 7 7 26

<title>Vandals Blow Up 13 Porta Potties In Montana, Company Blames Wyoming Fireworks | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4 holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. They say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough.

Vandals Blow Up 13 Porta Potties In Montana, Company Blames Wyoming Fireworks

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

The Green River City Council is considering whether to approve a nearly $112,000 grant it’s been awarded to install license-plate readers around the city.

Green River applied last year for two Wyoming Office of Homeland Security grants and in January was awarded one for $111,956 to buy and install license plate readers for the police department, says the 

As of this writing, the Green River City Council was set to consider approving the grant at its regular 

Mayor Pete Rust told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday the police department spearheaded the grant application.

The grant consists of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the description says. Its goal is to enhance “the ability of governments and nonprofits to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks.”

Green River Police Chief Shawn Sturlaugson told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview that the license-plate readers could curb terrorism. He said he anticipates that their commoner use, however, will be expanding law enforcement’s ability to find vehicles implicated in criminal getaway situations or missing-or-vulnerable person cases.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They’re another tool for us,” Sturlaugson said."}]

Currently, officers are far less likely to find a vehicle flagged in the National Criminal Information Center unless they know about it, are looking for it specifically, and happen to cross paths with it, added the chief.

If the city mounts license-plate readers, “As soon as that vehicle rolls into town, my officers will immediately get an alert, start looking for it and hopefully find the vehicle.”

Sturlaugson said runaway Amber and Ashanti alerts and missing or vulnerable persons cases are just as vital a use as responding to criminal incidents.

He said he’s been surprised that, after the City Council agenda went public, people have been voicing criticism of the plan. He said the grant award, in January, was public information.

“We haven’t kept it a secret, I can tell you that,” Sturlaugson said. He said the readers will be Motorola brand, not Flock. He expects the grant to fund the installation and other costs for about four readers, to be placed generally at town entrances. 

Sturlaugson said he heard complaints Tuesday morning “that we’ll use this as some type of proactive, crime-stopping tool,” but that’s not the department’s intention. Nor does the department plan to use the system to stop people for expired registration “or anything like that,” the chief added.

“It’s strictly to identify vehicles or people that are already of some concern, in some way, for law enforcement,” Sturlaugson said.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘It’s Some Bull –“"}]

Marshall Burt, the former lawmaker whom Green River elected in 2020 as the state’s first Libertarian legislator, bristled in a Tuesday interview with Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s some bullshit,” Burt said. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He cast the agreement’s stated goal of curbing terrorism as dubious."}]

“I mean, if we have that big a case of terrorism in Green River, I imagine we would have heard about it by now,” he said.

 and was deployed to the Anbar Province during the Iraq War, said the grant’s terrorism-related mission poses a false dichotomy.

“This is the argument you’re going to hear: you’re either for the cameras to be against terrorism or you’re against the cameras and you want to promote terrorism,” he said. “Because that’s how stupid politics arguments go all the time.”

Burt said the argument, rather, is about the slippery slope toward pervasive government tracking he says the cameras exacerbate.

“I don’t have an expectation for privacy on a public road. I don’t. My license plate is out there for anybody and everybody to see. I don’t care about that, I understand that when I drive,” he said.

But the growth of data centers, the increased capacity for data storage and transfer, coupled with the camera systems’ own abilities to compile and aggregate data over time, lend concerns about tracking, profiling and behavioral patterning, he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"Burt is not alone in that fear."}]

A number of lawsuits have surfaced nationally, including an April 15 filing in which the Institute for Justice derided the surveillance system in San Jose, California.

“Unlike a police officer posted at an intersection, the cameras see and remember everything,” says the complaint. “Day or night, they photograph every passing car and use AI to analyze the images … Officers can run searches based on a hunch, idle curiosity, or even personal animus.”

Sturlaugson told Cowboy State Daily he’s inclined toward crafting a policy, conversely, that deletes the data after 30 days. He said the policy is in progress.

The Institute for Justice offers draft legislation that would cement Fourth Amendment constraints into laws specifically pertaining to the cameras.

[{"type":"text","text":"Burt said that’s not enough."}]

“It’s a straight no,” he said of welcoming the cameras, with guardrails or without. “The problem with putting in guardrails like everybody talks about is, nothing ever becomes permanent. The next City Council or whoever decides (can) change policy.”

Burt said good intentions rarely hold the line. He referenced the post-9/11 Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law he called “the most abused surveillance system ever put in place against the American people.”

[{"type":"text","text":"A Little Surprised"}]

Rust told Cowboy State Daily he was surprised at the pushback ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

“We’re very proud of the fact that we’re one of the safest cities in the nation,” he said. "Surveillance is a tool the police department uses. This is just another tool.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"He said he doesn’t know of any terrorism concerns in Green River."}]

But on the other hand, the city falls along an interstate, a railroad, and a river. One of the main regional power plants sits in the area.

“We’re in a strategic location because of all those things. So who knows?” Rust said. “Cameras are something that exist all over the place. Everywhere. It’s to help people observe things that could be a concern, so they can have information to take care of it, if it is – keep the community safe.”

Katie Roascio, the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security's public information officer, said in a Tuesday email that the Green River Police Department was the only Wyoming agency that applied for the grants made available last year for license-plate readers.

That was part of a larger, 167-grant application pool from the 2025 grant window, she said.

Other Wyoming towns and communities have license-plate readers. Those are the cities of Jackson and Cheyenne, the entrances to the town of Glenrock, and the entrances to the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The reservation cameras came about through an agreement between the 12-person Wind River Intertribal Council and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

It remains unclear whether any public meetings were held on the reservation cameras prior to their installation. The tribal governments of Wyoming don't fall under the state's public meeting or public record laws. 

Green river license plate reader 7 7 26

<title>Town Of Green River Considers Installing License Plate Readers To Curb 'Terrorism' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Green River City Council is considering finalizing a $112,000 grant it's been awarded to install license-plate readers in the city. The mayor said the cameras could curb terrorism while former Libertarian lawmaker Marshall Burt says it's all "bullshit."

Town Of Green River Considers Installing License Plate Readers To Curb 'Terrorism'

After Wyoming’s most famous diesel delete mechanic Troy Lake 

 Nov. 7 from President Donald Trump, he started advocating for other mechanics who, like him, were hit with prison time, fines or both for tampering with diesel emissions systems.

[{"type":"text","text":"Trump pardoned nine more diesel delete mechanics Friday."}]

 before he was pardoned, had advocated for six of those:

Ryan and Wade LaLone, Tim Clancy, Matt Geouge, Mac Spurlock, and Joshua Davis.

Wyoming-based lobbyist Jeff Daugherty and Colorado-based attorney Stewart Cables, who work with Lake and his fledgling group Diesel Freedom Coalition, had represented five of those six (not Davis).

Besides pardon-related advocacy, Lake said his group is working to provide sound emissions evidence and mechanical strategies to policymakers, to persuade them to pivot toward emissions regulations that don’t crush small-time trucking businesses and other fleets.

“Sometimes it makes you think, are we really making any traction? Are we really going anywhere? Because government moves at a snail pace,” Lake reflected in his Monday interview.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came Friday, and the news of pardons. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“And all of a sudden, it’s there,” the Cheyenne man said.  "}]

Lake said U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is another key advocate. Sullivan had taken up Spurlock’s case and written a March 12 letter to the president urging a pardon.

The other three delete mechanics pardoned Friday were: Jonathan Achtemeyer, Aaron Rudolf, and Barry Pierce.

“It’s a small community,” said Daugherty of the diesel mechanic world. “A lot of these folks know each other.”

Daugherty and Cables, who work together, both told Cowboy State Daily they search specifically for small-business techs with non-notable or zero criminal history who have been convicted of Clean Air Act violations under an interpretation that they call invalid.

The Biden administration invoked a statute long used to prosecute people for tampering with big stationary emissions monitoring systems – such as on a chemical plant – to charge people who’d tweaked or reprogrammed trucks’ computers instead.

The Trump administration withdrew from that interpretation earlier this year, and told the U.S. Department of Justice to stop charging delete mechanics criminally. Civil penalties may still apply.

[{"type":"text","text":"Geouge always loved diesel pickup trucks."}]

He told Cowboy State Daily he started tinkering with diesel engines because his first vehicle was a Ford with a six-liter Power Stroke engine. He learned to tune it at age 17, which would have been in about 2004.

[{"type":"text","text":"He was hooked."}]

In June 2007, at age 20, he started his own repair business, Spartan Diesel Technologies, in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

One year later, manufacturers started adding diesel particulate filters to the stock engines.  

Expensive, recurring repair jobs limped into Geouge’s business, he recalled.

Wyoming's most famous diesel “delete" mechanic Troy Lake, who was pardoned by Trump after a prison stint, advocated for the president to pardon at least six more. On Friday, Trump pardoned those six, plus three others.

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, April 11, 2023

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