Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Say what you will about Dog, but he's got a mean right hook..."}]

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

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, November 22, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Say what you will about Dog, but he's got a mean right hook...

Daily Smile: Wednesday, November 22, 2023

 Say what you will about Dog, but he's got a mean right hook...

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

A controversial flood mitigation effort that brought 150-200 goats to graze along Bitter Creek in Rock Springs is on hold, at least for now.

After spending about $200,000 over three grazing sessions since the spring of 2025, the Rock Springs City Council chose not to budget additional money for the project in the coming fiscal year, instead directing funding toward cemetery lighting.

"This will be the last we see goats, at least for the next fiscal year of operations," Councilman Dan Pedri told Cowboy State Daily.

The decision at least temporarily halts a program that has generated equal parts criticism and curiosity.

Some residents questioned whether taxpayers should spend tens of thousands of dollars to have goats eat weeds. Others regularly stopped to watch the herd quietly graze along Bitter Creek.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a little source of entertainment,\" Pedri said."}]

During the latest grazing session, which began April 1 and ended June 30, the goats removed roughly 35 tons of vegetation, according to mayor Max Mickelson.

“This does not meet the creeks are ‘fixed',” he said. “It means one more piece of the long-term flood mitigation work was completed.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Different Approach"}]

Rock Springs has struggled with periodic flooding for decades, Mickelson said, dating to alterations made to the creek channel by the former Union Pacific Coal Company.

"The goal was simple," Mickelson said of the Bitter Creek project. "Reduce noxious weeds, brush and fuel load along the creek corridors so water can flow more freely, fire risk is reduced, and our intermittent creek system is in better condition before the next major storm event.

"Our broader work is about protecting homes, businesses, infrastructure and development opportunities from recurring floodplain impacts."

The city brought in goats in the spring of 2025 on a trial basis, paying a Cheyenne operation $50,000. Mickelson said the goats “performed better than expected.”

Council member Randy Hanson had asked the council to look into goats, pointing to other Wyoming communities such as Cheyenne and Gillette that were using them successfully for targeted grazing.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We aren’t pioneers of this process by any means,” Pedri said."}]

Farson land and livestock owner Josh Skorcz caught wind of the project “through the Rock Springs grapevine” and pitched himself as a local solution to the flood-risk problem.

[{"type":"text","text":"Skorcz was the only person who bid."}]

“I provide a service,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I saw an opportunity where we could supply a service to a local entity that needed it.”

In the fall of 2025, the city paid $58,000 to Skorcz’s LS 5 Livestock for eight weeks.

Then, in April, the Rock Springs City Council voted 6-2 to use goats for a third year for $92,000 – a 59% cost increase.

The increase was largely due to more acreage and longer duration, Skorcz said.

"The city did not pay $34,000 more for the same amount of work," Mickelson said. "The scope, timing, staffing and logistical burden increased in relation to the scope of the project."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Goats?"}]

Skorcz said goats can reach steep, brush-choked areas where heavy equipment struggles to operate, reducing vegetation that can create debris dams during high-water events.

[{"type":"text","text":"The work, however, is labor intensive."}]

Under the city's contract, the herd had to be supervised around the clock. Workers also installed and repeatedly moved roughly 10,000 feet of portable electric fencing by hand.

"We're trying to see that incremental decrease over time of the amount of noxious weeds and thick vegetation," Skorcz said. "You're always going to have vegetation, but the type is what's important."

Mickelson said alternatives such as mechanical removal, herbicides, prescribed burning or major construction each come with significant limitations, permitting requirements or environmental restrictions.

Despite reaching stated goals, the project’s growing price tag remained a sticking point.

Pedri and Councilman Rick Milonas – a vocal critic of Mickelson and a contender for this year’s mayoral seat – voted against approving this year's $92,000 contract, saying many constituents questioned the expense.

"That's why I opted not to do it," Pedri said. "My vote was based on the constituents that reached out to me and my promise to be the voice of the majority."

The cumulative cost — roughly $200,000 over three projects — has also become an issue in the mayoral race.

Candidate Katherine Phelps has repeatedly criticized the program on social media. She did not respond to Cowboy State Daily's request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pedri said the debate ultimately came down to competing priorities."}]

Like many cities, Rock Springs faces a limited budget while weighing other costly needs, including long-term repairs to its civic center.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Could The Goats Return?"}]

Although the goats won't return next year, Mickelson said the city is awaiting a vegetation study from LS 5 Livestock evaluating the project's effectiveness.

That report will help determine whether targeted grazing is included in future budgets after the 2027 fiscal year.

"We intend to make it an annual tool," Mickelson said, "based on council deciding to allocate funds for it."

[{"type":"text","text":"He acknowledged the program's cost can be difficult to justify."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Nobody likes spending $92,000,\" he said."}]

But he said he believes prevention is ultimately less expensive than recovering from flood damage.

"A community pays one way or another," Mickelson said. "We can pay in steady, boring maintenance before the storm, or we can pay in emergency response, damaged property and regret after it.

"I would much rather answer hard questions about prevention today than stand in front of flooded homes and explain why we didn't use a cost-effective tool we had available."

For now, the city will continue monitoring the Bitter Creek corridor. If conditions create an immediate flood or fire risk, Mickelson said, the council could consider a future budget amendment.

Hungry goats 1 7 6 26

<title>Rock Springs Ends Controversial Goat Grazing Program After Spending $200,000 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After spending about $200,000 in goat grazing for flood mitigation since 2025, the town of Rock Springs is putting an end to it for now. One council member said residents say it’s too expensive. "This will be the last we see goats,” he said.

Rock Springs Ends Controversial Goat Grazing Program After Spending $200,000

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

A Fourth of July fundraiser concert at a Gillette bar had ended, the music was over and patrons were beginning to head home when a firework exploded outside the entrance, blowing all the fingers off one man’s hand and injuring four other people.

"I tried to light a firework and throw it, it blew up instantly," Matthew Lynch said in a public apology he issued Monday about the mishap. "People got hurt and I feel like total shit for it.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I’m sorry for being wreckless (sic) and injuring anyone.\""}]

The explosion happened around midnight early Saturday outside the Otherside Bar & Grill, where a concert raising money for a reproductive health clinic had wrapped up about 30 minutes earlier.

"I almost bled out and got life flighted to Billings,” Lynch wrote in his apology posted to Facebook. "I'm gonna be fine. I'm back home. I'm positive and feel OK, other than immense pain."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bleeding Profusely"}]

Otherside Bar & Grill owner Chris Ingersoll described the scene to Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

"There was a gentleman with an arm injury bleeding profusely,” he said.

Ingersoll said someone — possibly one of his bartenders — applied a tourniquet before first responders arrived. 

Police officers were only about a block away and reached the scene within minutes to begin rendering aid, he said.

Ingersoll said he believes a man who had come over from another nearby bar ignited what appeared to be a large firecracker near the front entrance.

Surveillance cameras captured the incident, and the video has been turned over to investigators, he said.

Lynch also wrote that he lost all the fingers on his right hand, shattered the bones in his left hand, suffered burns, hearing damage and partial blindness.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigation Ongoing"}]

Gillette Police Department Interim Chief Brent Wasson said the incident remains under investigation and no tickets or arrests have been made.

He also pushed back on early reports that the firework had been "launched" from the man's hand.

"There were no launching of fireworks," Wasson told Cowboy State Daily, cautioning against relying on initial reports while investigators continue determining exactly what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"Whether alcohol played a role remains unknown, he said."}]

According to Wasson, the person who was handling the firework suffered the most serious injuries and was transported by ambulance to the emergency room at Campbell County Health.

Two additional people were taken by ambulance but declined treatment at the hospital, while two others refused transport at the scene.

Ingersoll said he believed the man who was holding the explosive was out of the hospital and back in Gillette, which Lynch confirmed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Messages left for Lynch weren’t returned by publication."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Explosion, Not Fire"}]

Campbell County Fire Department Battalion Chief Cam Siplon said firefighters were dispatched to the bar for a report of an explosion.

By the time crews arrived, the Gillette Police Department and EMS personnel were already treating patients, he said. Firefighters found no fire or smoke, only a crowd gathered in the parking lot.

Based on the severity of the injuries, Siplon said he would expect the firework was something larger than a typical firecracker, although he emphasized that was not an official determination.

He also could not confirm who applied the tourniquet because EMS had already begun treating the injured man when firefighters arrived.

Siplon urged people to leave fireworks to professionals, noting that serious injuries are more common than many people realize.

"Our best bet is that fireworks should be left to the professionals," he said. "They tend to be better anyway, and not as many people get hurt that way.”

Otherside bar and grill gillette 7 6 26

<title>Gillette Man Blows Fingers Off Hand With Firework Outside Bar, Four Others Hurt | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Gillette man blew the fingers off his hand and injured four other people outside a local bar around midnight Saturday. In a public apology, the man, who was life-flighted to Billings, said he tried to throw the firework "but it blew up instantly."

Gillette Man Blows Fingers Off Hand With Firework Outside Bar, Four Others Hurt

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

Clair McFarland

Courts

Fourteen months after a man was found in an abandoned red truck in a remote region of the Wind River Indian Reservation with two gunshots in his head, prosecutors have no ongoing, public murder cases in the December 2024 death of Riverton man Rex Lofts.

Lofts, 72, died of what the autopsy report called a homicide with two gunshots in his head around Dec. 2, 2024, but his body 

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent Kingston Cole’s investigation affidavit

Cole, DCI Team Leader Brady Patrick, and others investigated the case. The result was a 12-page affidavit by Cole, which Fremont County Chief Deputy Attorney Tim Hancock filed alongside a felony murder charge in Riverton Circuit Court on Oct. 24, 2025 – against Fort Washakie man Jose Gonzalez.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gonzalez wasn’t the only person implicated."}]

Cole’s affidavit, drawing from confidential informant and identified source interviews, alleges that Gonzalez, Luke Evan Engavo Sr. and his son Luke Evan Engavo Jr., Skeeter Engavo, Zackary Witt, and Fabian Tarness were all present and involved when Lofts was shot.

Gonzalez, whose DNA was reportedly found on Lofts’ truck steering wheel and on the dead man’s out-turned pockets, was the only one formally charged – at least as far as the public case file shows – in this case. He was charged with felony murder on that basis: a charge theorizing that he was committing the felony of aggravated burglary, and Lofts died in the process.

[{"type":"text","text":"Hancock dropped that case early last month."}]

“The fact that we have some co-defendants over which we do not have jurisdiction and only one over which we had jurisdiction creates a lot of complications in prosecution,” said Hancock.

[{"type":"text","text":"He declined to go into detail on the jurisdictional challenges."}]

But the way felony-level prosecution on the Wind River Indian Reservation works in general, the federal government through its Wyoming-based U.S. Attorney’s Office would prosecute defendants who are tribal members. And 

Fremont County Attorney’s office would prosecute non-tribal members implicated in crimes on the reservation.

Past court filings for each man list them all as “American Indian,” but call Gonzalez “white.”

As of Monday, Wyoming’s federal court file showed no current charges for any of the suspects.

“The feds are the only ones that have jurisdiction over (Gonzalez’s) codefendants,” said Hancock. “It’s just – it’s a prime example of where jurisdiction gets difficult.”

Hancock added, “They have a different way of doing their prosecutions than we do.”

Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt, who shared the phone interview with Hancock on Monday, said the federal U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wyoming “has always been a system where their discretion often outweighs the public’s expectation.”

Wyatt was appointed by the Fremont County Commission when his predecessor left mid-term, but normally the Fremont County Attorney is elected – whereas the top federal prosecutor of each region is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

DCI had compiled a case and presented it to the Fremont County Attorney’s Office.

The federal U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say whether DCI did the same for it.

“As you know, I can speak in general terms that cases are brought to us by a variety of law enforcement agencies - federal, tribal, state, and local - for possible prosecutorial consideration following their investigation into a suspected violation of federal law,” said the federal office’s spokeswoman Lori Hogan in a Monday email exchange in which Cowboy State Daily also included U.S. Attorney Darin Smith.

“We consider each case based on the evidence and what can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” wrote Hogan. “However, we cannot comment on the existence or lack thereof of any potential investigation or case that is not part of the public court record.”

DCI commander Ryan Cox said he was out sick, and that DCI Director Ronnie Jones, whom Cowboy State Daily also emailed, was out as well.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cox deferred comment to the U.S. Attorney’s Office."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding The Truck"}]

Lofts was found dead in the back seat of his red 1998 GMC pickup in a remote area on the Wind River Indian Reservation on April 21, 

– more than four months after his phone reportedly shut off. That was also more than four months after his family wanted to register him as a missing person, and more than three months after authorities agreed to list him as a missing person Jan. 12, 2025, the affidavit says.

The autopsy indicated he was shot twice with what Cole believed was a 

 projectile, and his cause of death was listed as a homicide.

Investigators started visiting with confidential informants that, Cole attested in the affidavit, he’s found to be reliable.

One informant told FBI Special Agent Luke Williamson that Luke Evan Engavo Jr, whom the affidavit calls “E Engavo,” had said Lofts beat up his girlfriend sometime in November 2024.

E Engavo came to give the girlfriend – who was bleeding and bruised – a ride to a reservation parcel cluster that law enforcement and locals known as “The Farm,” says the document.  

One confidential informant described Lofts arriving days later in his red GMC truck at The Farm with Skeeter Engavo in the passenger seat. Skeeter exited the truck and walked downhill, where he met with Zackary Witt, E Engavo and Fabian Tarness, the source account says.

[{"type":"text","text":"Skeeter wanted to “scare” Lofts, the source reportedly said."}]

Witt, E Engavo, Tarness and Skeeter Engavo confronted Lofts after that, says the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lofts was still in the driver’s seat of his red pickup."}]

E Engavo opened the driver’s side door and stood between the door and Lofts. Tarness stood behind E Engavo and Skeeter stood behind those two men, the document says.

Lofts pulled what one confidential informant called a “bird gun,” or a low-caliber gun.

Witt drew a gun and emptied the magazine in Lofts’ direction, the affidavit relates from the source interview. Tarness, Skeeter and E Engavo were also downrange when Witt opened fire, the document alleges.

The informant reportedly described Skeeter running for the river, then Witt, Tarness and E Engavo moving Lofts, “who had been shot down while in the front driver’s seat,” to a different location in the truck.

The men took about $90, some jewelry, the bird gun and about three grams of meth from Lofts, the informant reportedly said.

Tarness got into the driver’s seat, while Witt and Engavo got into Witt’s vehicle

The affidavit says Witt and Engavo followed Tarness across the river to the location where Lofts and his red truck were found nearly five months later.

Luke Engavo Sr. was also involved in this scene, according to the account of Lofts’ girlfriend, as rendered in the affidavit. But the elder Engavo reportedly told her that Jose Gonzalez and Skeeter Engavo are the ones that “caused this shit, you know.”

The elder Engavo reportedly said it’s odd that Jose and Skeeter convinced Lofts “into coming up to the house when they knew (E Engavo) was going to beat his ass.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"DNA Swabs"}]

Investigators took DNA swabs from the scene where they found Lofts, and from suspects, says the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"During the DNA investigation Patrick reportedly interviewed Gonzalez."}]

Gonzalez said he’d been in the passenger seat of Lofts’ truck when Lofts arrived at The Farm looking for his girlfriend, the affidavit says.

“I don’t know if Rex was able to pull his gun or not, uh, I know he had one,” Gonzalez reportedly told Patrick. “But all of a sudden the shooting just started and I … rolled out of the truck.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gonzalez said the elder Engavo blocked him and Lofts into the property."}]

The other men “come flying in and they all jumped out of the vehicles,” Gonzalez said, according to the affidavit. Then Witt “pulled out his gun and tapped it on the window, and then fired a shot to the ground and uhm, and then (Lofts) had his gun down besides him. So I don’t know who shot first or if (Lofts) even got a shot or what.”

Gonzalez said the elder Engavo was there along with E Engavo, Skeeter Engavo, Tarness and Witt, reportedly.

In a separate interview between Patrick and E Engavo, Patrick asked if the men wanted to rob Lofts.

[{"type":"text","text":"No, came E Engavo’s answer, allegedly. They had wanted to scare him.  "}]

“Why’d you wanna scare him?” asked Patrick. “Or why did, why did everybody wanna scare him?”

E Engavo answered, “because he kept putting his hand on my auntie,” the affidavit says. The affidavit had identified E Engavo as Lofts’ girlfriend’s nephew.

Jose A Gonzalez 7 6 26

<title>No Charges From Feds 14 Months After Man Found Dead On Rez | Cowboy State Daily</title>

No Charges From Feds 14 Months After Man Found Dead On Rez

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

Andrew Rossi

Cody resident and photographer Laura Redmond had her camera ready for the 2026 Cody Fireworks show. It didn’t disappoint.

A fast-spreading fire that burned throughout the fireworks show proved just as entertaining.

“I was near “The Scout” statue behind the Buffalo Bill Center of the West,” Redmond said. “As soon as the fireworks started, tiny spots immediately started, then more started, and they all merged together.”

The fire sparked by the first fireworks grew throughout the show. By the end, the rockets’ red glare was replaced by an eerie orange glow on the overhanging clouds of smoke.

Redmond and other locals weren’t concerned. International visitors who came to see the fireworks were deeply concerned, she said.

“We all assured them that it happens every year,” Redmond said. “Everybody settled down and watched the firemen do their work. Some people were there watching the firefighters longer for that than they were for watching the fireworks.”

The entire fire was extinguished that night by the Cody Volunteer Fire Department. 

[{"type":"text","text":"There was only one downside for Redmond."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“The flames blew out all my photos,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"American As Apple Pie"}]

Cody wasn’t the only Wyoming community to set itself on fire with fireworks.

Thermopolis’ show also started a small blaze near the fireworks launch site on top of T-Hill, visible to everyone watching the show in the town and parks below.

The Thermopolis Volunteer Fire Department assured residents they had the situation under control after "a fire started by some of the best fireworks (they'd) ever seen." Cowboy State Daily was unable to reach the department for comment by the time of publication. 

Thermopolis Fire Chief Dale Andreen said that it’s “pretty common to get a fire from fireworks. That’s a big reason fireworks are banned everywhere and are outlawed the rest of the year, too.”

He said the fire that started near the town’s launch site Friday wasn’t much at all.

“Just a small patch, just six or eight juniper trees and some sagebrush,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “Wouldn’t have been about a 10th of an acre, I would say."

Thermopolis resident Debra Davenport was watching the fireworks show from her driveway. She was getting ready to call it a night when the grand finale sparked the fire around 11 p.m.

“They set off a really big sequence that set off the fire right below where they were launched,” Davenport said. “I know they had a lot more fireworks than they usually do.”

Davenport said the fireworks were more widespread across the top of T-Hill, clearly for a larger-than-average show to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was a lot more than normal,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Banned Or Burned"}]

Douglas, Gillette, Riverton and other communities took proactive measures to prevent fireworks fires. They banned private fireworks and/or canceled their annual shows due to excessively dry landscapes and extreme fire danger.

Meanwhile, small fires were spotted throughout Wyoming leading up to Independence Day and were still burning when the fireworks started.

A section of Pine Bluffs was set on fire before any fireworks started. Meanwhile, a grassfire quickly engulfed a hillside behind the Studio City Mesa movie theater in Casper, threatening several homes.

“Quite frankly, I was surprised there weren't more bans over this holiday weekend,” Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said. “For as dry as it’s been since last fall, there was a very high chance that any fireworks were going to set something off.”

However, Day is never surprised to hear about fireworks fires around Independence Day. By this point in the summer, it’s usually dry enough for a small thing to spark a potential inferno.

“Fireworks burn so hot that there's always that concern,” he said. “The last time I wasn’t concerned about the fire risk was in 2023. I know it seems like that never happened, but that was one of the wettest years on record.”

Redmond was expecting some flames from Cody’s fireworks. The Cody Volunteer Fire Department expected the same.

“It happens almost every year,” she said. “I feel like the Cody Fire Department is one of the best out there. They had spotters on both sides of the Shoshone River and plenty of personnel in place to make sure everyone stayed safe. They know what they're doing, and they were very prepared for it.”

Davenport, however, had a different view of the spectacle and the fireworks fire in Thermopolis.

“Everyone was concerned about starting a fire before the show, and after so many people in Colorado and Utah have lost everything because of fires, I felt sad and a little disrespectful.”

More than 55 fireworks shows in Colorado were canceled due to fire danger. Utah governor Spencer Cox issued an executive order temporarily banning fireworks statewide in late June, calling it “a matter of life and death.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Worse Before It Gets Better"}]

Now that bombs aren’t bursting in air, one might think the worst fire danger of the season has come and gone. They’d be wrong.

Day and other meteorologists are monitoring “an interesting paradox” that could make July a dynamic month across the western U.S.

“We're going to have really big heat waves, especially in the eastern and northeastern parts of the state, starting this weekend,” Day said. “We're going to be seeing triple digits in the Bighorn Basin, northeastern plains, and out near the Nebraska border.”

It might seem counterintuitive to think triple-digit temperatures could bring a windfall of rain to Wyoming and many other western states. That’s what seems poised to happen, at least potentially, in the latter half of July, Day said.

“This is the paradox,” he said. “The heat wave that's going to develop may ultimately be the kicker, the thing that tips the scale to finally get some subtropical moisture back into the western United States.”

At least two Wyoming cities got bonus shows for July 4 when fireworks started wildfires near launch sites. In both Cody and Thermopolis fires began during the shows but citizens weren't concerned. "It happens every year," Cody resident Laura Redmond said.

Daily Smile: Wednesday, November 22, 2023

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