One More For The Road

Bill Sniffin was doing great with his new RV but then he took it out in the snow...

One more for 11 24 23

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<title>One More For The Road: Friday, November 24, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Friday, November 24, 2023

 Bill Sniffin was doing great with his new RV but then he took it out in the snow...

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

CHEYENNE — The day after Gene Holthus’ home in Cheyenne’s Buffalo Ridge subdivision was gutted on July 16, 1979, he stood outside taking photos of the destruction. 

His three sons were busy trying to salvage anything they could from the house as Wyoming National Guard helicopters flew overhead to protect the neighborhood from looting.

Holthus told the Wyoming State Tribune that he was at work at the Wyoming Highway Department when he saw the huge twister rip past the Game and Fish Commission.

“I immediately called my wife, Alta, and told her to get in the basement,” Holthus said. “She didn’t know a thing about it.”

He said the next few minutes were terrifying as he waited for a chance to get home. Holthus learned that a gas main had broken in his basement.

“Somebody called the fire department and within about five minutes they came and dug my wife out of the basement,” he recalled. “Thank God she only had a few scratches.”

As Holthus continued talking to the reporter, one of his sons came running up and handed him an envelope he’d found several blocks away. It contained vivid color photographs of the family’s garden, which was now buried under rubble.

Holthus looked at every one of the photos. 

“I just can’t believe that something this small could remain intact while bigger things were totally destroyed,” he said. 

The reporter told him he was sorry about everything his family lost. Holthus turned around and pointed at the house.

“This can all be replaced,” he said. “We survived. And I’ll treasure these photos and all the memories.”

Holthus died in 2015, but he and his family had survived what 47 years later is still the most destructive tornado ever recorded in Wyoming. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"9-Mile Path Of Destruction"}]

The tornado that touched down was not only rare for the capital city, Cheyenne had never had one within city limits prior to July 16, 1979. 

The tornado was officially an F-3, using the EF scale that ranks tornados by damage intensity. But some scientists believe it was even more fierce, an F-4, based on the intensity of destruction it left behind.

The tornado first formed around 3:10 p.m. near the intersection of Vandehei Avenue and Valley View Road. Peak winds were estimated between 136-165 mph.

Its path through the city was 8.8 miles, which it traveled in about 30 minutes. 

The massive twister was 80 yards wide, or four-fifths as long as a football field.

It was the most destructive tornado in Wyoming’s history, and it caused one death: 14-month-old David McKinnon, who the Laramie County coroner at the time said died instantly from head injuries when his family’s trailer was ripped apart by the black funnel cloud.

Damaging about 400 homes, including 140 that were destroyed, the total property damage was estimated at $25 million, which is the equivalent to 

As people dug through the rubble, called insurance adjusters, and talked to friends and family about their ordeal, one thing about the natural disaster seemed universally described by survivors as miraculous. 

How could such an enormous tornado wreaking havoc for such a long time have not killed more people?

“This was my first major crisis,” Don Erickson, Cheyenne’s mayor from 1977-1989, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday as he recalled the challenges he faced when the tornado hit the northern part of the city. 

“We had to show the community a lot of confidence, that we were doing the best we can,” he said. "And we did. We had a great team.”

Erickson, 89, can vividly describe everything he saw happen the day the tornado hit.

“I was sitting in my office with my risk manager looking through this great big window,” he said. “I thought, ‘My God, it looked kind of weird out there.’ Big black clouds coming around, and I said, ‘Let’s go up on the roof and see what’s going on.’”

Within 10 seconds of arriving on the rooftop, Erickson said that, “There was a big blast north of City Hall. Later on, we found that a transformer over by the governor’s mansion had been struck by lightning.”

Dave Guille, the head of civil defense for the city, called to tell the mayor that a tornado had hit the north side of Cheyenne.

Erickson, who had just dealt with one shock, called Cheyenne Police Chief Byron Rookstool, and together they made a hurried trip to the scene.

“The rescue effort was underway, and the devastation was amazing,” Erickson said. “We were so lucky that people were working and the kids weren’t quite home yet.”

He flew in a National Guard helicopter to see the path of destruction. 

“We’re fortunate that the Frontier Mall wasn’t built yet on Dell Range. It would have had a tremendous amount of damage,” he said.

Erickson said Gov. Ed Herschler immediately declared Cheyenne a disaster area.

Erickson said the entire city rallied to help take care of anyone impacted by the disaster. Scores of people opened up their homes to those who had lost theirs. 

Esther Howard formed the Interfaith Task Force, which brought local organizations together to coordinate how they could help anyone who needed it.

Erickson resurrected the group when had his next big crisis, which also involved disastrous weather that Cheyenne had never seen before: the Aug. 1, 1985, flood, which killed a dozen people and caused more than $51 million in damage. 

He said he took what he learned from the tornado tragedy, and that it helped prepare him for the even bigger disaster.

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Tom Reed was a high school junior spending the summer of 1979 working for a construction company that was putting the finishing touches on a new house in his Buffalo Ridge neighborhood. 

On the afternoon of July 16, he was the last person at the site, cleaning it up so the house would be ready for the family that would move in soon.

He went across town to do the same thing at a house on the south side. That’s when he looked north and spotted the tornado.

“We were up pretty high so we could see it across town,” Reed said. “At first I thought it was a fire, but then I saw it move and realized what it was.”

He made another stop at the construction company, where someone told him that a twister had been heading right through his neighborhood. He raced home, but had to walk part of the way because of all the debris covering Roundtop Drive.

He said he spotted his mother, Becky Reed, outside their now heavily damaged ranch-style home doing what everyone else in the neighborhood was doing: trying to assess the damage and figure out what in the world to do next. 

Some people were looking for their pets, but his family dog was inside, unharmed.

Reed said that unlike some of their neighbors whose two-story and multi-level homes were severely damaged, with roofs blown completely off, the Reeds’ single-level house was still standing.

“The roof was kind of peeled back from where it met the west wall,” he said. “If you looked up in the family room you could look straight up to the sky.”

Reed said a lot of windows were broken, and the strong winds blew open the refrigerator door and the contents were tossed all over the house. The hallway walls were covered with ketchup and mustard.

But unlike about 1,000 other Cheyenne residents, the Reeds weren’t homeless that night. 

In fact, they never left. He said he and his father, Tom Reed Sr., who also worked for the same construction company, fixed everything themselves over time.

Reed, who has spent the last 30 years working for ESPN and living in Connecticut, talked to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday from Dallas, where he’s on vacation. He’s headed to Cheyenne for Frontier Days.

Once he found that his mother was shaken but not hurt, Reed walked to the construction site he had left only an hour before. 

“The house was just gone,” he said. “There was nothing left but the foundation, and the furnace and a few other mechanicals in the basement. Not a stick of the house was left.”

Reed said it took him a while to process the scene. Talking about it 47 years later leaves him amazed and grateful that he got out of the area in time. 

“If I’d stayed a little longer, I would have been hiding in that basement,” he said.

Reed’s mother had been home alone working on her sewing machine when she heard the wind and realized some of the windows were open. When she looked out, she was staring at the tornado headed straight for her.

Becky Reed and the dog made it to the basement, where they went to her son’s room and pulled the mattress over them. She heard the sounds of destruction all around her as the twister plowed into homes.

“When she thought it was over, she went upstairs and out to the porch, only to see  the tornado roaring past her,” Reed said. “She told us later she thought, ‘I might have jumped the gun a little bit.’”

Reed said he’s still bewildered by what transpired that day, seeing some houses look untouched while their next-door neighbors’ homes were reduced to piles of rubble. 

Then he remembered something he said he hadn’t thought about for a long time.

“We had a coffee maker on the kitchen counter, with a pitcher and a panhandle with a metal ring around it,” Reed said. “The coffee maker was gone, but we found the handle out in the front yard. Sitting right next to it was a little dish that had $50 under it. That was just bizarre.”

Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com

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<title>Most Destructive Tornado In Wyoming’s History Leveled Cheyenne 47 Years Ago | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was 47 years ago on July 16, 1979, when a massive tornado ripped through Cheyenne, leveling hundreds of homes and killing a 14-month old. Decades later, it’s still the most destructive tornado in Wyoming history.

Most Destructive Tornado In Wyoming’s History Leveled Cheyenne 47 Years Ago

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

A blown tire on a commercial truck appears to be what triggered a crash Wednesday that shut down U.S. Highway 20/26 outside Shoshoni for nearly four hours, leaving motorists stranded in sweltering near 100-degree temperatures while emergency crews cleared the road.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Aaron Brown said an eastbound semitruck east of Shoshoni traveling toward Casper suffered a tire failure at about 10:30 a.m., causing it to drift into the westbound lane and sideswipe a GMC Yukon. 

Brown said there were no fatalities, though the extent of any injuries was not immediately available because troopers were still working at the scene. 

The highway was closed for nearly four hours as temperatures — expected to hit the high-90s and get near 100 Wednesday — rose while people were stuck behind the crash.

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Scott Spiess of Lander told Cowboy State Daily he became stuck in the backup around 10 a.m. and remained there for hours.

"It says it's 94 where I'm sitting right now, so it's probably closer to about 98 on the highway," Spiess said while waiting for the road to reopen. "People hauling horses, I would be concerned about their animals."

Spiess said he never saw the collision itself but watched as a large emergency response unfold.

"I do know that they brought in three flatbed wreckers and two semi wreckers, and at one point in time, they had two helicopters and several fire department and police department vehicles on scene,” he said.

Photos shared with Cowboy State Daily show emergency vehicles, a helicopter and heavy-duty wreckers gathered along the highway as traffic stretched into the distance.

Another image shows one of the commercial trucks involved with extensive front-end damage and its engine compartment exposed.

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

Brown said the Wyoming Highway Patrol expects to temporarily close the highway again Thursday so investigators can reconstruct the crash and determine exactly what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"A timeline for that closure has not yet been announced. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash remains under investigation."}]

Highway 2026 crash Unknown 51 7 15 269

<title>Crash Shuts Down Highway 20/26 Near Shoshoni For Hours In Near 100-Degree Heat | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A blown tire on a semitrailer sent it into the opposite lane, sideswiping a GMC Yukon and closing U.S. 20/26 near Shoshoni for more than four hours Wednesday, stranding motorists in near 100-degree heat. 

Crash Shuts Down Highway 20/26 Near Shoshoni For Hours In Near 100-Degree Heat

Courts

Nearly three weeks after a commercial tanker 

in a construction zone west of Casper, killing two people and injuring eight others, no criminal charges have been filed as a Wyoming Highway Patrol investigation continues.

That isn't stopping a Casper attorney from pursuing the first civil lawsuit stemming from the deadly crash on behalf of a family hurt in the pileup.

The negligence lawsuit, filed Friday in Natrona County District Court, names Ryan Brothers Trucking Inc. and a John Doe defendant, identified as the tanker driver whose identity was not yet known to the plaintiffs when the complaint was filed.

The identity of the truck driver hasn’t been publicly released as the investigation is active, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has said.

Contacted by Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, WHP spokesman Aaron Brown said the investigation has so far taken weeks because of the sheer amount of evidence investigators must review.

Unlike a typical fatal crash, this one involved a commercial tanker truck and seven other vehicles, which requires investigators to analyze electronic data from the truck and any available from all the civilian vehicles.

“It’s the scale. There’s a ton of data to be coming out of this thing,” Brown said. “We have a ton of data to sift through to try and get this thing done."

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Makensi Van Patten and Chantry Van Patten, individually and as parents and guardians of their two minor children.

A Wyoming Highway Patrol crash summary reports that the driver of a westbound Western Star tanker truck failed to stop for traffic queued to enter a one-lane construction zone on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, striking seven stopped vehicles.

The crash killed James Faris Cox, 74, and Susan Horn Cox, 69, of Golden, Colorado, and injured eight others. The Highway Patrol listed driver inattention as a possible contributing factor.

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The lawsuit alleges the tanker driver negligently failed to stop for traffic backed up at the construction zone, triggering the eight-vehicle chain-reaction crash.

It further claims the Van Patten family's Toyota Highlander was struck after the commercial truck plowed into the line of stopped vehicles.

Makensi and Chantry Van Patten, along with their two children, suffered physical injuries in the collision, according to the complaint. 

It also claims the parents and one of the children witnessed another family member suffer serious bodily injury, causing emotional trauma in addition to physical injuries.

The family is seeking compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, permanent injuries, loss of enjoyment of life, lost earning capacity and other damages to be determined at trial.

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Attorney Dallas Laird, who represents the family along with James Fitzgerald, said the lawsuit was filed to protect his clients' legal rights.

"The lawsuit was filed to get this case going and to preserve my client's rights," Laird told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

Laird said it is too early to determine the full extent of the family's damages.

"We don't know at this point because they're still in treatment, and these are kind of long-term injuries," he said.

Asked what the family hopes to accomplish through the litigation, Laird answered simply: "A settlement of the case."

He added that the complaint could change as additional evidence becomes available.

"Our theory is, at this point, we may have to amend the complaint once we get the Highway Patrol report," Laird said.

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Among the lawsuit's allegations is that the tanker driver invoked the Fifth Amendment right with law enforcement and declined to answer questions following the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"That was told to me by the Highway Patrol,\" Laird said. "}]

Since the crash, Cowboy State Daily has repeatedly asked about the investigation and the potential for criminal charges to be filed. 

Among the unanswered questions are whether the tanker driver has been cited, arrested or could face criminal charges; whether investigators can confirm the lawsuit's allegation that the driver invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; whether the case has been referred to prosecutors for criminal review; and when investigators expect to conclude the investigation.

The Highway Patrol did not respond except to say the investigation remains active and that it’s complicated and involved nature takes time to complete. 

Cowboy State Daily also reached out to Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen to ask whether the case has been submitted for criminal review or whether any charges are anticipated. He also did not respond before publication.

As of Wednesday afternoon, no criminal charges had been announced in connection with the crash.

Ryan Brothers Trucking said that it has "no comment on ongoing litigation at this time."

Double Fatal Crash Go Fund Me 7 15

<title>Family Hurt In Semi Crash That Killed 2 West Of Casper Sues Trucker, Company | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A family hurt in a crash west of Casper that killed two people when a semitruck plowed into a construction zone is suing the trucking company and the as-yet unidentified truck driver. No criminal charges have yet been filed as an investigation continues.

Family Hurt In Semi Crash That Killed 2 West Of Casper Sues Trucker, Company

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, July 15th.  I’m Mac Watson

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

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

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Some Teton County county commissioners say putting an employee housing complex on top of a morgue makes sense due to the housing shortage. But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the coroner's office is strongly against it. 

“So the coroner Brent Blue of Teton County is saying this. ‘Who would want to live above a morgue in an industrial area?’ Maybe consider temporary housing if you're going to push the issue. County commissioners, conversely, are saying, ‘To get two, maybe more housing units for a million bucks by stacking it on the morgue plans that are already underway – that's amazing for Teton County, which is riddled with dire housing shortages for workforce, including county employees. Why would we not?’”

Chief Deputy Coroner Russell Nelson, who’s running to lead the office, was less subtle, comparing it to being “downwind of the carcass disposal pit at the Transfer Station.”

The U.S. House passed a bill Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent. But Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Rep. Harriet Hageman was one of only 22 Republicans who voted against it, arguing it would put schoolchildren in the dark.

“Wyoming's Representative Harriet Hageman voted against the measure, saying it would rob farmers and ranchers of precious sunlight. HR 139 would make daylight savings permanent if it is passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump. The Senate has not yet scheduled to vote on the Sunshine Act. We reached out to Senator Barrasso. He told reporters, we'll see when it gets here.”

The 308-117 vote advances the act to the Senate, which if approved would make daylight saving time permanent. Most Americans would stop changing their clocks twice a year and instead remain on daylight saving time year-round.

The photographer who shot video of the Yellowstone bison attacking the 65-year-old grandpa ran after the animal when he saw it standing over the man. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi spoke with professional photographer Mike MacLeod who says, "I just started running at the bison, yelling, jumping in the air, trying to be intimidating.”

“He rushed at the bison, trying to make himself as large and loud and intimidating as possible. But he didn't really frame that as heroic or brave. He said that was just what needed to be done, and he acted kind of instinctually. And when McCloud was with McDaniel waiting for Yellowstone EMS to arrive, he gave him a 9.5 out of 10 in terms of the landing after being tossed in the air, and McDaniel said, "Well, if you'd caught me a couple years sooner, I would have stuck it.”

Thankfully, other observers followed MacLeod’s lead, yelling and running toward the bison which was enough to send it running.

Despite promising a press conference this week to address the Meta data center contamination of Cheyenne’s wastewater system, the Board of Public Utilities now says it won’t. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the company is opting instead to release a statement addressing questions.

“I did talk to City Councilman Pete Laybourne, who expressed disappointment in the decision and said, you know, it's not really fair to lead people on thinking there's going to be this, and then to about face and say no, we're gonna we're gonna do something different. So city council, you know, Pete Laybourne is frustrated. Exie Brown, who's running for a house seat, also expressed disappointment and said, you know, it it sounds like the city is or the board of public utilities is just trying to be careful with their answers and don't necessarily want to be you know blindsided by follow up questions.”

The public outrage over the contamination has built for weeks after the BOPU made the contamination public months after it happened.

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

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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Why can a project as massive as Microsoft’s planned 3,500-acre expansion avoid Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council while wind farms and other major industrial facilities usually cannot? Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that it’s not a loophole or a data-center-specific workaround. It's state law.

“Some of the folks were clearly under the impression that this is a requirement, and that data centers are somehow illegally skipping that. But it's not the case. It's not illegal. and it's not a loophole, quote unquote. The state law created a carve out for projects that are meeting a certain set of standards by being in a certain zoning. And so if the city creates that zone, then data centers can locate there. They are still subject to the same requirements that they would have been subject to, but they don't have to do an additional step.”

The biggest piece in the package was a 3,500-acre annexation called the Highlands, the largest annexation in Cheyenne history. 

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The judge in state Rep. Bill Allemand's ongoing DUI case may hit his defense attorney with a contempt charge for missing a hearing. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the attorney says he “did not intentionally fail to appear” and calls the no-show a scheduling mishap.

“The magistrate Jeremy Kisling is saying to Alaman's attorney Mike Vang, "Hey, you missed a hearing. Get in here and show why I should not hold you in contempt for doing that. Vang said that it was an inadvertent scheduling glitch. The hearing didn't make it on his calendar. He didn't see it at the bottom of the order. In the meantime, Vang and the state's prosecutor Josh Stentis are having kind of a smackdown in the court filings, where Vang is saying that Stensis has deprived him of important evidence, and Stensis has said no. Here's my emails to your secretary.”

Allemand, a Republican from Midwest, Wyoming, was 

 with a DUI, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines. He’s set for trial Sept. 16th.

With northwest Wyoming’s wolf population at a 20-year low, the state Game and Fish Commission on Tuesday cut the wolf hunt limits by more than half. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that some advocates said that’s not enough, arguing to suspend hunting wolves altogether.

“There's a wolf 1050F. That's a pretty famous wolf, the oldest known living wolf in Yellowstone. That pack has denned outside the park on the Shoshone National Forest in an area that falls within one of these wolf hunt areas. They expressed their concerns with Game and Fish that if the hunting seasons were designated as proposed, those wolves could potentially be hunted.”

An outbreak of canine distemper and other setbacks has left northwest Wyoming’s wolf population at a 20-year low, so the quota for the upcoming wolf hunting season is less than half of last year’s.

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Despite a Wheatland police officer running out of gas during a chase of up to 112 mph through two towns Sunday, the driver of a white BMW failed to elude law enforcement. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that the driver, 27-year-old Taron Hunziker-Ford, at one point looked at pursuing officers and shrugged.

“He had apparently had already eluded state state police in Colorado and was driving up by 25, made it all the way to Wheatland. But what's interesting is at one point, while they were in Wheatland, the original officer who was closest to him was the one following this guy. Yeah, he ran out of gas, and he details in there that he ran out of gas the police chief came and picked him up in his car because he was in the pursuit too, and they continued the pursuit. he is only charged in Wyoming with two misdemeanors, one for eluding police and one for reckless driving. However, it seems that he has much bigger troubles in Colorado because the Wheeler Police report that they have warrants for him on multiple felonies out of that state, so we'll see how fast he gets back to Colorado.” 

Hunziker-Ford was arraigned Monday and remains in the Platte County jail on a $3,000 cash bond, according to court records.

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

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

News image 7 15 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 15, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wednesday's headlines include:
* Hageman Votes Against Daylight Saving Time
* Jackson Could Put Housing Complex On Morgue
* Microsoft Can Skip State Review For Data Center Land

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Ken Buck

Opinion

CSD Columnists

New York City has put out a welcome mat for illegal immigrants, practically inviting them to join in Mayor Zohran Mamdani's "collective warmth" of socialism. There's just one problem: The city needs your tax dollars to pay for it.

Last week, Mamdani reiterated his commitment to obstructing federal immigration enforcement officers. "Abolish ICE," he wrote on social media. New York City "will continue to stand" beside "any immigrant family."

It's hardly the first time Mamdani has snubbed his nose at federal immigration enforcement authorities.

In February, the mayor signed an executive order to reinforce New York's sanctuary city laws -- just one week after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced legislation to bar police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. 

In May, the mayor went further, directing city agencies to impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations -- including requiring local police to be dispatched to locations where immigration agents are reported to ensure illegals' "rights" are not impinged upon, and relaxing child services protections to prevent illegal aliens from entering the criminal justice system.

Think about that. New York leaders would sooner turn a blind eye to children in an abusive home than comply with federal immigration law. That's the kind of negligence that not only erodes an economy and fosters a welfare state but produces the lasting violence and moral decay that tear apart communities.

Yet somehow federal law enforcement officers are the ones "terrorizing" the city, at least according to Mamdani. What's more, his office continues to reject federal immigration law, enforcing instead local sanctuary laws while readily accepting federal funds to keep the city out of bankruptcy.

New York City receives about $7.4 billion annually from the federal government -- money it needs to keep its socialist agenda afloat. Federal subsidies account for more than 40% of the New York City Housing Authority's general fund revenue and virtually all its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.

And that's to say nothing of federal health care funding. New York City takes more than $30 billion annually in Medicaid funding alone. The state's emergency Medicaid program, which provides coverage for illegal immigrants, grew by 1,200% between 2014 and 2024. 

The Big Apple wants to have its cake and eat it too. But it can't take federal money while shrugging off our country's rule of law -- or, at least, it shouldn't be able to.

Last year, the Trump administration sued New York City, then governed by former Mayor Eric Adams, for its sanctuary city laws that impeded federal immigration enforcement. "If New York's leaders won't step up to protect their citizens, we will," said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump threatened to halt federal funding for sanctuary cities like New York City that defy immigration laws -- which, as the president rightly noted, "do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens." 

Sadly, decrying immigration law and stoking hatred against those who enforce it seems to have become a litmus test for dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. This isn't the party of former Presidents Barack Obama, who ordered more than 3 million ICE deportations, or Bill Clinton, who cautioned that illegal immigration is "wrong and ultimately self-defeating." 

No, this is this party of Mamdani and his contemporaries, who are intent on pushing their radical agenda on honest Americans and convincing the public that anyone who dares to disagree is "inhumane." It's part of the socialist spin machine: The lawbreakers, it says, are the victims, and those who would uphold the law are the bad guys.

Unchecked, this creep of socialism won't stop. It won't be abated by passivism. Congress and the Trump administration should hold these liberal enclaves to account with the power of the purse. Because cities and states that won't enforce our country's immigration laws shouldn't be rewarded with taxpayers' hard-earned money.

Columnist Ken Buck writes, "New York City has put out a welcome mat for illegal immigrants, practically inviting them to join in Mayor Zohran Mamdani's "collective warmth" of socialism. There's just one problem: The city needs your tax dollars to pay for it."

One More For The Road: Friday, November 24, 2023

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