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

<title>Daily Darwin: Monday, December 11, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Monday, December 11, 2023

 If anyone needs construction help over the holiday season, this guy is having a sale...

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

A federal agency has an agreement with Wyoming's two tribes to run license plate reader cameras on the reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. 

Cowboy State Daily has observed license plate reader cameras already installed on roadside posts at the north entrance to the reservation abutting Riverton, and the south entrance from the Lander side.

The license plate readers are put up by DEA (the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) through an agreement with the tribe, said U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman Joshua Barnett in a Thursday email. Barnett added that the BIA is "not part of that agreement." 

Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) Lt. Col. Karl Germain told lawmakers during a Tuesday committee meeting that the WHP was working with the BIA to put up the cameras. 

But Germain clarified in a Thursday phone call, saying he misspoke and was trying to highlight the cameras can be a good tool in crisis situations. 

"Highway Patrol doesn’t have any LPRs," said Germain. "We have no mechanism to purchase those or put them up." But the patrol's umbrella agency, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, manages the highway right-of-way and is responsible for authorizing camera installations, he said. 

The Select Committee on Tribal Relations, which is a state legislative panel,

discuss how state law interacts with the two tribal governments of Wyoming: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone

There, Germain said, “Those (cameras) are obviously helpful for a number of reasons, and you know I fully recognize some of the privacy concerns of with that."  For missing person cases or Amber alerts, those cameras “can be invaluable to help recover that person in a timely manner,” said German. “There aren’t a lot of cameras in Wyoming right now. If the reservation is able to put those up, it’s just another tool at the disposal of law enforcement.”

Committee Co-Chair Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, voiced concern, calling the cameras a facet of “big surveillance.”

“It’s a big step in our surveillance society,” said Case. “Not quite as far as England where they have facial recognition all the way through London but … it feels that way a little bit.”

 the controversy surrounding the cameras. 

License plate readers are cameras, generally facing roadways, that capture images of vehicles and license 

 and log dates and times for those images. The devices can also capture images of drivers and occupants of vehicles and passersby.

Case amplified his comments in a Thursday interview, saying the license plate readers, government-accessible DNA databases, facial recognition technology and other government surveillance measures now in play would have been "appalling" to the Founding Fathers. 

"All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," said Case, referring to George Orwell's dystopian novel about an authoritarian surveillance state. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This Drug Trafficking"}]

The cameras have been posted for "months" Wyoming Department of Transportation public relations specialist Cody Beers told Cowboy State Daily. 

An advocate of the license plate readers, Nicole Wagon touted them as useful and important during a Jan. 27 meeting of the Tribal Relations Committee. 

Wagon, who lost one daughter to murder and another to hypothermia amid suspicious circumstances, is an advocate for better safety measures for indigenous people.

“It’s a component to stop the violence. It’s a component to make it safe for all the community members,” said Wagon of the cameras, 

She said the Wind River Intertribal Council, which comprises executive-branch governments of both tribes, signed a resolution in 2024 to work with license plate reader efforts on the reservation.

Neither the Eastern Shoshone Business Council nor the Northern Arapaho Business Council responded to Cowboy State Daily’s 

requests for comment, however the ESBC’s spokeswoman requested more information on the topic, which 

Cowboy State Daily inquired of the BIA at that time, and the agency said on Feb. 3 that it “does not have license plate readers on the Wind River Indian Reservation” and to check with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

The agency’s spokesman Joshua Barnett said Thursday in a follow-up exchange that the DEA puts up the license plate readers “through an agreement with the tribe,” of which BIA is not a part.

While he did not confirm the cameras’ presence or use, DEA Public Affairs Officer Stephan Tubbs wrote in a Jan. 28 email that, “The key trafficking routes for the Mexican Cartels across our Rocky Mountain Field Division are the I-25, I-70, and I-80 corridors in Colorado and Wyoming.”

“These highways are arteries for the cartels to bring their poison — namely fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine — into and across our nation,” Tubbs said, adding that targeting cartel routes is “vital.”

“Any and all tools available need to be utilized to save American lives from the continuing deadly impact the cartels and their dangerous drugs inflict on our communities,” said Tubbs. He referred back to that statement when Cowboy State Daily sent a follow-up inquiry in May. 

The FBI, which also performs law enforcement functions and investigations on the reservation, declined in a Feb. 2 email from FBI public affairs officer Vikki Migoya to comment “about investigative techniques or law enforcement tools we might or might not use.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Criminals Or 'Complete Morons'"}]

Erick Blackburn, former chief of the Wind River’s BIA outpost, discussed the cameras on a public Facebook exchange last month.

 map showing two of the cameras stationed at the reservation’s Riverton entrance.

, they’re license plate readers,” wrote Blackburn in a comment, 

referring to AI-powered license plate technology used by several Wyoming municipalities. 

“Law enforcement can search specific license plates for ATL — attempt to locate — for Amber alerts and vehicles reported to be trafficking narcotics,” Blackburn continued. "Everyone against them is criminal themselves or complete morons!!”

Blackburn said in another comment that was the BIA chief who “oversaw the project in an attempt to apprehend the narcotics coming into Fremont County and the reservation.”

He said both tribes are “heavy in favor” of the technology and “we had to have their full approval.”

“They were sick and tired of their people senselessly dying,” Blackburn added.

Blackburn, who later confirmed he’s now retired, said the cameras are working and fentanyl overdoses have declined.

 drug dealing POS, or snatching children and trying to drive away with them, you have nothing to worry about,” Blackburn wrote.

Blackburn did not immediately respond to a message request for further comment.

Barnett said Thursday that he was told a former BIA chief may have helped the tribe with the project, on the tribal side, but the project is still a DEA and tribal venture. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Obey The Constitution"}]

Robert Frommer, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice and one of the attorneys urging stronger Fourth Amendment protections in this area, told Cowboy State Daily he’s not in favor of eradicating the cameras.

But they should be subject to the same Fourth Amendment restraints as other law enforcement tools, he said in a Thursday phone interview.

The Fourth Amendment generally bars entry into a person’s home without a warrant, for example, but has exceptions for “exigent circumstances” 

 indications that someone is being harmed inside the home.

On hearing about the cameras stationed at the reservation’s entrances, Frommer said that’s a common method across the nation so that law enforcement can track who enters and leaves a given region. 

When he reviewed Cowboy State Daily’s photographs, he said they’re not Flock brand cameras, but some other brand.

“It’s hard to feel secure and to go about your daily life when you’re always knowing that the government is looking over your shoulder,” he said. “And that’s what these ALPRs (automatic license plate readers) allow. This, kind of, pervasive monitoring of individuals.”

 on this issue would require officers to get a warrant before accessing a person’s historical location information, unless an emergency makes getting a warrant impractical. 

It would restrict the data gatherers’ conveyance of people’s historical location information to third parties.

It would require that a record is created every time someone’s historical location information is accessed, and it would require training for officers accessing that historical information.

The proposed legislation would specify that authorities can’t use unlawfully obtained camera data to prosecute someone, but they also can face civil consequences for violating someone’s rights.

[{"type":"text","text":"The technology can be easy to abuse, said Frommer."}]

“Without any kind of warrant requirement or even internal procedures, it often means that the person deciding whether to search or not is just the bored officer in the patrol car,” said Frommer. “We’ve seen abuses where police have been stalking former romantic partners, wives, ex-boyfriends; other situations where it’s been used to keep tabs on people who are engaged in political activity.”

[{"type":"text","text":"This spreads to the immigration debate, he said."}]

Frommer and his co-counsel in an April 15 lawsuit complaint against the city of San Jose, California, wrote that that city’s massive AI-enhanced surveillance camera system has cameras near immigration lawyers’ offices and health care facilities.

As for the Wind River, Frommer said that, “I understand there might be drug problems in Wyoming and the reservation. There are drug problems all over the country.

“But you can’t let the worries of the day blind you to the long-term constitutional problems of what you’re doing.”

He added, “We want people to obey the law. And if we want people to obey the law then we have to, with just as much vigor, want our officers and government officials to obey the Constitution.”

License plate camera inset 6 18 26

<title>License Plate Cameras At Entrances To Wind River Reservation Spark Controversy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Drug Enforcement Administration has installed license plate cameras on or around the Wind River Reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. "All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," Sen. Cale Case said. "It’s a big step in our surveillance society.”

License Plate Cameras At Entrances To Wind River Reservation Spark Controversy

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

A Montana police officer spotted the giant banana rolling through Billings on Wednesday afternoon and did what countless law enforcement officers have done before him.

[{"type":"text","text":"He turned around and pulled it over."}]

For Steve Braithwaite, owner, builder and full-time driver of the 23-foot-long Big Banana Car, the stop was less of a surprise than a tradition.

"I would see a police car going the other way and get my documents ready," Braithwaite told Cowboy State Daily from Seattle on Thursday morning. "I knew they were going to loop around and pull me over." 

After 15 years, more than 250,000 miles and enough roadside conversations to fill a produce aisle, Braithwaite has learned that driving a giant banana attracts attention.

[{"type":"text","text":"Especially from cops."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They always find a reason to pull me over,\" Braithwaite said. "}]

in this case it was an issue with the license plate, but ultimately he was not given a ticket.  

Braithwaite figures he may have spent the better part of a decade as one of the most frequently pulled-over drivers in America.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not for speeding, but simply because he was driving a giant banana."}]

"For the first eight or nine years I was the most pulled-over man in America," he said. "It was constant."

[{"type":"text","text":"Often officers simply wanted photographs."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia."}]

A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.

[{"type":"text","text":"A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news."}]

"'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"

[{"type":"text","text":"For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not."}]

"He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"

[{"type":"text","text":"The banana jokes, he said, are \"never-ending.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Fortunately, so are the laughs."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"How It All Started"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The whole thing began in a gas station in 2008."}]

Braithwaite, a lifelong hot-rod enthusiast, had become bored attending car shows.

Then he watched an episode of the British television show "Top Gear" featuring bizarre custom-built vehicles, including a street-legal garden shed and a drivable couch.

[{"type":"text","text":"For the next month, his brain worked overtime."}]

"Everything I looked at, I thought, 'can I turn that into a car?'" he said. "My drill, my neighbor's lawn mower, everything."

Then one day he found himself standing beside a bowl of fruit in a gas station. 

[{"type":"text","text":"On top sat a banana."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not the curved cartoon banana he'd always pictured, but a straighter one."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Suddenly, he could see it."}]

"The windshield would go there. The wheels would go there."

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the moment that changed everything."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I pictured it driving down the road and died laughing,\" he said."}]

The image captivated him so completely that the checkout line moved without him noticing.

"The lady directly behind me had to tap me on the shoulder," he said. "They must have been thinking, 'Oh my God, is that the first banana he's ever seen?'"

[{"type":"text","text":"His rule was simple."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"If it makes me laugh now, I'm going to do it.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It still made him laugh."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"So he built it."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What he expected to be a parade novelty became his daily driver."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The truck beneath the banana has now traveled more than 250,000 miles."}]

"I didn't think I'd be driving it anywhere near as much as I am," he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roaming In Wyoming"}]

Braithwaite didn't stop in Wyoming on this trip. He was headed west toward Washington.

[{"type":"text","text":"But Wyoming still occupies an important place in banana history."}]

Several years ago, while crossing the state, the Big Banana Car suddenly died alongside a lonely stretch of highway.

"I hadn't realized the distances between towns," he said. "I was in the middle of nowhere."

Parked beside the highway, luggage scattered around him. He "managed to get it running again."

By then he was running out of time to get to Los Angeles for a TV appearance, so he left in a hurry. 

[{"type":"text","text":"But he says there's a chance he might come back."}]

Braithwaite wants to race the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and why not in the Rockies?

He has already challenged it, but he says he thinks Kraft won't go for it. 

Sooner or later, he figures, some reporter would ask a dangerous question.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Instead of which is the quicker vehicle, which is the healthier food?\""}]

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

[{"type":"text","text":"\"And they're going to lose that.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"World Needs More Whimsy"}]

Casper car enthusiast Tom Morton says he is curious about the drag race with Oscar Mayer's wiener. 

"What's next?" Morton asks, "Asparagus street rods?" Overall, he says "I like it." 

[{"type":"text","text":"What began as a joke has evolved into something larger."}]

Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.

[{"type":"text","text":"Every encounter was friendly, he says. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Now he's thinking much bigger."}]

His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I just want to keep going,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He's calling the adventure \"The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan."}]

"The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference. 

Banana montana highway patrol 6 18 26

<title>Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For 15 years, Steve Braithwaite has driven a 23-foot banana across the country and, on Wednesday, just like hundreds of times before, he was pulled over by law enforcement. "They always find a reason to pull me over," Braithwaite said.

Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times

Crime & Courts

Two people died Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart, drawing passersby from both sides of the city’s busiest road, North Federal Boulevard.

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash was reported around 8:15 p.m."}]

A white Dodge pickup with a crunched hood sat on its side in the middle of the road, while the mangled remains of what witnesses said had been a black Jeep sat upright nearly a half-block south of the pickup, on the northbound lane of the road.

Police, emergency medical personnel and the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department converged. People on the scene pulled one man out of the pickup. The man was bleeding.

“I asked him what the year was,” said Trent Hallada, who was walking in the area and felt debris, “possibly” hit his eye when the crash happened. “He couldn’t even say the date and year.”

Two more eyewitnesses, who both declined to be identified by name, said the driver of the pickup sat on the ground while personnel responded, but when the response calmed slightly, he tried to run.

Law enforcement officers tackled him and took him into custody, the two witnesses said.

The Fremont County Coroner’s office also responded with a transport truck. One person, who lay in the middle of the road under a tarp and closer to the black vehicle, was placed into the transport truck. Firefighters held red tarps around the person to shield public view.

The Riverton Police Department announced in a Thursday statement that “both occupants of one of the vehicles had serious injuries;” one was pronounced dead one the scene, and the second was taken to SageWest Health Care, “where they succumbed to their injuries.”

The RPD statement doesn’t describe the two different vehicles, calling them “one of the vehicles” and “the other vehicle.” But the statement, coupled with witness interviews, indicates that two people were in the black vehicle, and have both now died.

And the driver of the pickup was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide, plus other related offenses, the statement indicates when coupled with witness interviews.

RPD concluded its statement with a request for anyone with information on the wreck to call 307-856-4891.

Riverton crash 6 18 26

<title>Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two people died Wednesday evening after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart. Law enforcement officers tackled a suspect who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.

Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Energy

CASPER — Add some Natrona County residents to those in the state concerned about data centers and man camps in their neighborhoods raising the temperature, sucking up groundwater, affecting property values and changing their rural way of life.

Natrona County Commissioners on Tuesday heard from a handful of residents who live on the western border of the county east of Casper. 

They thanked the commissioners for not acting to bypass the state’s industrial siting board process and opt for a planned unit development (PUD) process for the Prometheus Hyperscale project’s plans in the county.

Prometheus Hyperscale last fall announced a project for western Converse County that Natrona County Development Director Sabrina Kemper reiterated Tuesday will stretch across the border.

Kemper said she last met with Prometheus officials earlier this spring. She said the company was interested in whether the county would turn to a PUD to create an industrial park for the parts of the project in Natrona County.

“Since we have zoning in Natrona County, we are able to create an industrial park for purposes such as a data center,” she said. “The power plant and man camp (are) proposed to potentially come to Natrona County.”

Commissioners showed little interest in using a county zoning tool to site the project.

Commissioner Peter Nicolaysen, who said his ranch is across from the proposed Converse County site, asked Kemper if she had an update on the project.

County Attorney Ashley Smith said she had spoken with the company’s attorney in the past week, but the discussion had just centered on whether the county would use a PUD for its portion of the project.

Commissioner Casey Coates said he has little interest in an industrial park for the project.

“I really like the industrial siting process,” he said. “I don’t think our county has the ability to scrutinize them to the level that projects such as data centers require, so for me personally, I don’t think we go down that road.”

Process Still Gives “Seat At The Table”

Nicolaysen said with the state process the county could still have “a seat at the table” in the requirements and decisions made regarding data centers on its lands.

Commissioner Dave North said he could see a benefit either way, but the county did not have enough information about the Prometheus project.

“We need more definitive information as far as what they want to put in Natrona County, where they want to put them and what the controls are going to be,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the same boat that Cheyenne is where they are making these big blanket areas.”

Prometheus founder and CEO Trenton Thornock told 

 that the data center will start with a minimum $500 million investment for an initial 200 megawatts, but could scale up to 1.5 gigawatts in all, with up to 600 employees and an overall economic impact of up to $3.1 billion, based on an economic impact study commissioned by Prometheus Hyperscale for a similar center it’s building in Evanston.

Thornock said the project will actually straddle Natrona and Converse counties, giving both an economic boost. The project has been promoted by the company as one that will boast its own power system using natural gas and also having a closed-loop cooling system designed by the company.

Some residents at Tuesday’s meeting voiced skepticism about the project and believe it will change their way of life.

Kris Hool told the commissioners the company is trying to move too fast and he appreciated their decision not to create a PUD. He said many people would be affected by the project.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ranch Worries"}]

Resident Sarah Collins told the commission she is a fourth-generation rancher and has an Evansville address, but her septic and well are in Converse County. She said the proposed area for the center is not in the middle of nowhere and that the area has been designated a subdivision.

She worries about the change to an industrial-type area and the environmental impacts.

“It’s not a couple of residences, it’s kids living out there,” Collins said. “We’re talking about traffic on the Glenrock highway. We’re talking about wells and the actual water aquifers. That’s obviously going to affect our aquifers for our livestock business.”

Brad Isner characterized the project as a “travesty” that would cause his property value to plummet and put him “underwater.” He also projected that the structure would raise the temperature in the area by 18 degrees due to “the heat this thing is going to produce.”

He raised questions about the closed-loop cooling system, the sewer system for the proposed man camp, and the “continuous hum” he believes the data center will create.

Fearful residents from east Natrona County voiced their opposition Tuesday to a proposed man camp for a Prometheus Hyperscale data center in Converse and Natrona counties. One called the proposal a “travesty” and another described it as "a sin."

Daily Darwin: Monday, December 11, 2023

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