Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all watch a sloth in a plastic swimming pool..."}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Thursday, June 22, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Now let's all watch a sloth in a plastic swimming pool...

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 22, 2023

 Now let's all watch a sloth in a plastic swimming pool...

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional 

That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.

Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”

Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.

“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Could Deepen 'Don't Colorado My Wyoming' Sentiment"}]

Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.  

“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming',” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”

Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.

The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.

Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.

He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.

On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The 

 a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.

“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.

As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.

“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.

That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.

Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.

Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.

Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.

The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum."}]

Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.

Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.

 a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.

Melat Kiros Getty 7 1 26

<title>Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, one politico said. 

Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico

It’s campaign flier season, which means 

 with messages about political candidates, which can range from 

The two biggest-spending out-of-state groups in the state’s 2024 primary election cycle  — Make Liberty Win and Americans For Prosperity — are at it again this year.

Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, 

 Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials.

Lander residents in late June received Make Liberty Win door hangers showing the town’s incumbent Republican legislators, Sen. Cale Case and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, dressed in sheep suits with little hooves raised.

“Don’t let Rep. Lloyd Larsen and Sen. Cale Case in Sheep’s Clothing Fool You On Election Day August 18th!” says the door hanger.

The back of the flier says both voted against banning sexually explicit government funded events, “endangered children by voting against a ban on gender transition surgeries for minors” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda by voting against protecting women’s sports.”

Larsen and Case both said this is an inaccurate and clumsy account of their voting records.

 tracked down the “young man” handing out the door hangers to tell him so, the legislator told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“I kind of started driving around town and found the young man who was passing them out,” said Larsen. “He inquired if I was going to vote, and he commenced to tell me about the evils of me and Senator Case.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The man had “no idea who he was talking to,” said Larsen."}]

Larsen visited with the man, but soon held the flier up to his own face, and the young man said, “Oh. This is uncomfortable,” Larsen recalled.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘He’s Just Trying To Make A Living'"}]

In Larsen’s recollection, the young man had graduated from a Colorado university with a bio-engineering degree and hadn’t been able to find work. He was able to secure work passing out door hangers for Make Liberty Win.

“It was hard to get mad at him, you know?” said Larsen. “He’s just trying to make a living.”

But Larsen said the fliers are frustrating, because they distill a person’s voting record onto a few flashy, sometimes inaccurate talking points on a flier.

For example, in 2024 when Larsen voted against a ban on sex-change treatments for kids, he found it overbroad because it would have stripped medical professionals of their licenses even in more nuanced situations, he said.

Larsen said that under the bill, a medical professional who intervened to help a kid who’d had a sex-change surgery elsewhere, but needed help with surgery complications while passing through Wyoming, could lose his license.

Larsen had sponsored his own bill that same year to ban child sex-change surgeries. His bill didn’t call for specific penalties, but left enforcement to the discretion of the Wyoming Board of Medicine.

[{"type":"text","text":"Larsen’s bill did not pass, the other bill did."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Women’s Sports"}]

Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, sponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2022 to ban cross-sex participation in girls’ interscholastic sports.

Larsen and 36 other House members voted against resurrecting it from then-House Speaker Albert Sommers’ drawer, and it died.

That amounted to a time management concern for Larsen, he said, since it was a busy budget session.

Schuler brought her bill back in 2023 and it passed, with Larsen voting aye.

[{"type":"text","text":"Different Creature"}]

Case doesn’t fall into lockstep with Larsen and displays contrarian tendencies.

These break with and against the popular Republican movements. For example, in 2010 he was a rare opponent of a tax break for large data centers — putting him far ahead of the current anti-data-center hype within a wing of the Wyoming GOP

Case generally votes against involving government in social issues and abortion.

[{"type":"text","text":"He voted against Schuler’s sports bills in both 2022 and 2023."}]

“I just thought the Wyoming (High School) Activities Association was doing a good job, and we didn’t really need to interfere,” said Case in a Wednesday phone interview, referring to the administrative entity that handled cross-sex participation requests on a case-by-case basis prior to Schuler’s bill.

Gov. Mark Gordon announced in March 2023 that Wyoming had four transgender athletes in its public schools at that time.

“We’re always trying to be the god-on-high,” said Case of the state Legislature. “I sort of like to have local people figure that out.”

Case voted with two other Republican senators and two Democrats against child sex-change ban legislation of both 2023 and 2024. He didn’t get the chance to vote on Larsen’s sex-change bill since it didn’t’ clear introduction in the House.

Issues of sex and identity are incredibly nuanced, said Case, as are patient-doctor interactions.

As for the cartoonish fliers, Case said, “I think the whole thing will help us, not hurt us.”

He added with a laugh, “It’s a good likeness. I looked younger than Lloyd, though we’re the same age.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Spicy Times’"}]

Tyler Lindholm is a rancher, former state representative and now Wyoming director for Americans For Prosperity.

[{"type":"text","text":"He lives in Sundance."}]

Americans For Prosperity is ratcheting up its 2026 flier campaign in Wyoming by casting Sen. Ogden Driskill’s campaign opponent, House Speaker Chip Neiman, as anti-energy, which Neiman calls a mischaracterization of his record.  

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP backs Driskill."}]

 is also vastly different from Make Liberty Win, said Lindholm. He said the Wyoming AFP wouldn’t depict candidates in sheep’s clothing and doesn’t need to.

“No, no, no. We don’t even apply filters over folks’ faces or anything like that,” said Lindholm. “Their votes speak for themselves. We don’t need to dress them up as sheep.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He added: \"Spicy times.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP is an out-of-state group based in Virginia."}]

But Lindholm emphasized that it has a known presence in Wyoming, starting with him and extending to other full-time staffers.

Make Liberty Win did not respond by publication to an email request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘That Is All B.S.’"}]

While AFP has backed numerous non-Freedom Caucus candidates, it’s not exactly an anti-Freedom Caucus outfit. The group has supported the Freedom Caucus-aligned Rep. Daniel Singh, for example.

[{"type":"text","text":"But it’s an anti-Chip Neiman outfit."}]

Lindholm said people can expect more fliers deriding Neiman's voting record. 

The Neiman-versus-Driskill Senate race is an allegory of the larger struggle between Freedom Caucus and non-Freedom Caucus Republicans across numerous races heading into the Aug. 18 primary election.

AFP dispatched fliers in recent weeks saying Neiman, who is a Wyoming Freedom Caucus member, “Voted Against Wyoming Energy” and supported “legislation that would drive up energy costs,” bring “burdensome regulations that destroy energy jobs” and that he stood with “out of state interests over Wyoming families.”

Neiman has launched a series of Facebook videos to combat AFP’s statements.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I got my new mailer for Ogden,” said Neiman in a June 25 video post."}]

The bill referenced under the “would drive up energy costs” claim, House Bill 257 of 2023, was actually about giving private landowners influence over reclamation work done on their property, said Neiman.

[{"type":"text","text":"“So that was protecting a private property right,” he said."}]

The bill died for lack of a committee hearing. It would have required surface landowner approval before the state Department of Environmental Quality could approve a mine permit or reclamation plan revision.

The other bill AFP cited, House Joint Resolution 3 of this year’s session, would have barred the storage of any spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste in Wyoming, unless the people voted for that at the ballot box.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This is all B.S.,” said Neiman in the video."}]

He echoed that in his Wednesday phone interview. He also theorized that Lindholm is waging a vendetta since Neiman defeated Lindholm in the latter’s 2020 bid for reelection, and since Lindholm and Driskill have worked together on business projects.

Lindholm denied both charges. He and Driskill worked together to save a radio station during the COVID pandemic, but Lindholm hasn’t received a check from that organization, he said.

Another project on which the pair worked together, a pairing of blockchain tech and beef tracking, fizzled around five years ago, said Lindholm.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Anyone Who Supported It Was Wrong’"}]

Travis Deti, executive director  of the Wyoming Mining Association, said his group opposed both the bills AFP referenced and has endorsed Driskill.

He said House Bill 257 would have stalled mining projects for years, overlooked the split estate ownership giving the mining sector “seniority in situations like that,” where “permits get modified all the time.”

“That was a terrible bill. Anyone who supported it was wrong,” said Deti.

Regarding the nuclear waste bill, Deti said his group opposed that as well, and it would have shifted a local community’s decision about welcoming nuclear projects within it to the entire state.

[{"type":"text","text":"And This Is Rippling"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Neiman fired shots at Driskill.  "}]

For example, Neiman emphasized in a video that left-leaning group Better Wyoming has “come out and endorsed Ogden.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“That ought to tell you something,” said Neiman."}]

But Driskill had launched the first barbs of this campaign, deriding Neiman and the Freedom Caucus in his 

Driskill said that Neiman has vowed to run a clean campaign, but that Neiman’s videos pose direct attacks over fliers and endorsements Driskill says he didn’t coordinate at all.

“If this is what he calls clean, I’d like to know what dirty is,” said Driskill.

As for AFP’s work and Better Wyoming’s endorsement, “The truth is, candidates have no control whatsoever on who endorses them, who helps them and who doesn’t,” he added.

Neiman countered, asking in his own interview if Driskill is going to reject Better Wyoming’s endorsement.

“He just needs a hug,” said Neiman with a laugh. “That’s all it is.”

Mailers and capitol 7 1 26

<title>Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It’s campaign flier season, which means Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. One flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they “endangered children” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda."

Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as an “Impossible Civics Test” won the nation’s Presidential 1776 Award, collected a $150,000 scholarship, and then stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office where he gave her a challenge coin.

“I just thought it was really amazing to get to meet the president in the Oval Office, because it’s something that I never thought that I would be able to do,” Miriam Washut told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. “It’s just a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”

To get there, Washut had to plow through more than 5,000 pages of books, foundational documents and biographies, as well as know the facts on 10 Revolutionary War battles. She then was tested at state and regional levels before the national finals competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The finals competition was broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, but was taped a couple of weeks ago when 20 students gathered for the competition in the nation’s capital.

Washut is the daughter of Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut and his wife, Erin. She said it was her dad who first saw on the competition announcement on social media, but she initially had only one week to prepare before testing for the state competition.

“I took the test the last day you could take it,” she said. “And then I had a month before regionals, so there was a little bit more time to get ready for that.”

Kyle Washut said his daughter has always been interested in history, and she was actually working as an intern during part of her study time this spring in the Wyoming Legislature where her grandfather, Art Washut, serves as a state representative for House District 36 in Casper.

The competition involved more than 8,000 students nationwide, and students took three 30-minute exams with a short break to qualify for the regionals. 

Miriam Washut said the exam questions became more difficult as she progressed through the “Impossible Civics Test.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Oval Office Handshake"}]

While in the Oval Office with the president during the short time they had with him, Trump asked her and the other students about their plans for the future, shook their hands, and then they posed for photos with him and Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Miriam said. 

She enjoyed seeing a copy of the Declaration of Independence there as part of the event.

It also was not lost on her that she had traveled from Lander, Wyoming, to the seat of the nation’s executive power and government.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Yeah, it was really cool,” she said."}]

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Wyoming State Superintendent of Education Megan Degenfelder were among those congratulating Washut on her accomplishment Wednesday.

“She competed against students from all 50 states and came out on top. Wyoming is proud,” Hageman wrote in a statement.

Degenfelder praised the 17-year-old’s dedication to “understanding the nation’s foundational values.”

“In Wyoming, our students grow up with a love for America and civics education,” Degenfelder said. “Congratulations, Miriam.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Regionals In Dallas"}]

She was one of the top four Wyoming participants sent to a regional competition at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. 

There, competitors had two rounds of questions on anything regarding the documents that made up the competition’s “library.”

Among the documents were the “Funeral Oration of Pericles Book II,” “Polybius, The Histories,” the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, James Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” biographies on Washington, Crispus Attucks, Benedict Arnold, and much more.

She was among the top four who advanced from Dallas to the nationals at the Kennedy Center. 

While 20 students were part of the finals competition, those competitors were whittled to eight when it was shown on CBS.

Miriam said questions in the finals involved topics such as the Alien and Seditions Acts, and buzz rounds on the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War battles and the Constitution.

One of the questions she tackled involved “why taxation without representation is the end of liberty,” she said.

The high school senior said she really enjoys history more than civics, but appreciates civics “when you get to put it in perspective.”

As a homeschooler, she has been reading a lot of American history and took an online class on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Kyle Washut said his daughter has become a fellow at The Heritage Academy, which offers online students an understanding of the nation’s founding ideals.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pottery And Drama"}]

Additionally, Miriam has enjoyed taking pottery and woodworking classes at Lander’s high school and was involved in a play on C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book “The Horse and His Boy” while preparing for the regional competition.

“I think I just had time to read everything through once and take some notes because there was so much material and I was also really busy with softball and the play,” she said. “I gave it as much time as I had.”

Current plans call for her to finish her senior year and then attend Wyoming Catholic College. Beyond that, there are no certain career goals, yet, she said.

While in Washington as part of the competition, she and her family were able to tour the war memorials, U.S. Capitol and visit the National Archives.

“They took us there as part of the national competition, which was neat to see the documents that we’ve been reading for months,” she said. “I was able to get a Library of Congress card which was something I kind of wanted to do.” 

Kyle Washut said the family also took time to swing through Philadelphia on the way home and visit Constitutional Hall and other sites there. 

As someone in higher education, he views the competition and the students who competed as “basically doing a graduate course in American civics.”

He said he’s obviously proud of his daughter’s accomplishment and that she among the students whose “lights” are shining as they embraced their national roots.

“Miriam revealed herself to be in the top high school students in the country with her grasp of America civics,” he said. “The hours of study and thousands of pages that she read, and her deep love for the country and knowledge of what it means to be an American should give us great hope for the future.”

Miriam Washut 736621873 27230431639918737 4588156401187251718 n 7 1 26

<title>Lander Homeschooler Wins ‘Ultimate Civics Showdown,’ $150,000 Scholarship | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as the “Ultimate Civics Showdown” stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on national TV on Tuesday. Miriam Washut won a $150,000 scholarship in the effort.

Lander Homeschooler Wins ‘Ultimate Civics Showdown,’ $150,000 Scholarship

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A rancher near Choteau, Montana, caught video of six grizzlies strolling across his calving lot behind his barn late Monday, and said there were as many as seven bears on his property that night.

The next morning, rancher Neal Collins said agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed as many as 10 grizzlies out of patches of brush across the road from his place.

Collins said no people or livestock were attacked by the bears on his place, and FWP used non-lethal “cracker” shotgun shells to scare off the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A ‘Herd’ Of Grizzlies"}]

Sparky Wallace, a friend of Collins who also lives near Choteau, somewhat humorously described the group of grizzlies as a “herd.”

A group of bears is actually called a "sleuth." Or sometimes, an older term, a “sloth” is used to describe a gathering of bears. 

He told Cowboy State Daily he and some of his neighbors have had encounters with multiple bears, as the number of grizzlies out on the prairie has steadily increased.  

Chad White, a bear management specialist with Montana FWP, said the bears on Collins’ property were probably a “couple of family groups that have been hanging out in the area.”

Meaning, they were likely two related adult females such as “a mother and daughter” and their cubs, White said.

The Choteau area has been busy with bear activity this spring and summer. The bears wander from the Rocky Mountain Front onto the prairie along the Teton River, which flows past Choteau. 

The bears might be feeding on green vegetation and other natural food sources, then taking shelter in brush patches.

“It may be that he (Collins) has the natural shelter for day bedding and they were traveling around the area,” White said. 

White said the FWP bear manager responding to Collins’ call told him as many as 10 grizzlies fled once the hazing stared.

FWP personnel fired cracker shells into the brush where the bears were holed up. Cracker shells fire a small explosive charge with a delayed fuse, designed to explode in the air and ward off predators such as bears and wolves.

“The six or seven bears in the family groups ran off in one direction, and two or three more ran off in another direction,” he said.

It’s not known where the other two or three bears might have come from, White added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alarm Barks"}]

Collins said he was first alerted to the bears’ presence Monday when one of his dogs started frantically barking at about 9:30 p.m.

“We’ve got this one dog that’s supposed to be a cow dog, but she’s really not,” he said. “She was just barking, barking, barking. She barks on occasion, but not like that.” 

He said he stepped outside to investigate and saw a “flash of a bear.”

So, he immediately went back into his house, shooing the dog inside with him.

A camera he has mounted on the backside of his barn caught video and photos of the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘You Get Immune To It’"}]

Montana rancher Neal Collins said a camera on his barn captured a "herd" of seven grizzlies on his property Monday night. The next morning, agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed 10 grizzlies out of brush across the road from his place.

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 22, 2023

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