One More For The Road

Who can blame Bill Sniffin for wanting to forget about cars for awhile and just enjoy the sanctity of fishing...

One more for 12 20 23

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

<title>One More For The Road: Wednesday, December 20, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Wednesday, December 20, 2023

 Who can blame Bill Sniffin for wanting to forget about cars for awhile and just enjoy the sanctity of fishing...

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Business & Tourism

Agriculture

A first-of-its-kind renewable natural gas facility under construction in central Nebraska will convert cattle manure into pipeline-quality fuel, creating a new revenue stream for one of the region's largest feedlots.

But industry leaders say Wyoming's cattle industry isn't structured in a way that would make a similar project practical anytime soon.

Neogenyx Fuels, a developer of advanced fuel solutions, began construction last month on an agricultural renewable natural gas facility at Adams Land & Cattle near Broken Bow, Nebraska.

The project will capture methane produced by decomposing livestock manure and convert it into renewable natural gas, or RNG, that can be injected directly into existing natural gas pipelines.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Not A Natural Fit"}]

While the concept may sound appealing in a state known for both cattle and energy production, Wyoming lacks one key ingredient: large concentrations of cattle in feedlots.

"We don't have anything of a volume that would lend itself to that type of facility," said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

Unlike Nebraska, where large commercial feedlots are common, most Wyoming cattle spend much of their lives on open ranges and ranches, making manure collection on the scale required for renewable natural gas production difficult. Wyoming’s handful of feedlots are much smaller.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, Magagna said he can see why feedlot operators would be interested."}]

"I think it has potential," he said. "It creates another revenue source."

That additional income could prove attractive as cattle prices remain near record levels while the nation's herd sits at historic lows.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Turning Manure Into Fuel"}]

According to Ameresco, the parent company of Neogenyx Fuels, the Nebraska facility will use anaerobic digestion technology to transform manure into renewable energy.

Eight large anaerobic digesters will break down manure in oxygen-free environments, producing biogas rich in methane. The gas will then be refined into pipeline-quality renewable natural gas and injected into the local distribution system.

The process also produces useful byproducts. Remaining solids can be converted into livestock bedding, and nutrient-rich materials can be used as agricultural fertilizer.

Traditional natural gas is extracted from underground rock formations through drilling. Renewable natural gas, by contrast, captures methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as manure naturally decomposes.

After impurities such as moisture and carbon dioxide are removed, the resulting gas can be used in many of the same ways as conventional natural gas, including as a transportation fuel.

Neogenyx Fuels CEO Michael Bakas said in a statement that the project represents an investment in rural America while creating jobs and expanding opportunities for agricultural producers.

"This project positions agriculture as a major domestic energy producer and export engine," Bakas said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Similar Projects Emerging Across The Region"}]

The Nebraska project reflects a growing interest in renewable natural gas production across livestock-producing states.

In neighboring South Dakota, a facility near Brookings has spent the past two years producing renewable natural gas from dairy manure and supplying energy customers through the natural gas system.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"By The Numbers"}]

While Wyoming might not be poised for its own cow-manure-to-gas boom, the Nebraska project demonstrates how agricultural operations are increasingly looking for ways to turn waste products into additional sources of revenue and energy.

According to estimates based on data from the University of Missouri and Blue Gas Express, it takes anywhere from 39 to 138 pounds of raw cow poop to produce 1 pound of liquid natural gas (LNG).

An average home consumes the energy equivalent of about 15 to 20 pounds of natural gas per day, which means that for the roughly 30,000 housing units in Cheyenne, that works out to about 450,000 to 600,000 pounds of gas daily.

Producing that much energy from cattle manure would require somewhere between 17.5 million and 82.8 million pounds of cow poop.

Put another way, powering Cheyenne for a single day would take enough manure to make even Wyoming's most seasoned rancher pause for a moment.

Which may be the strongest argument yet for why renewable natural gas projects tend to work best where cattle are concentrated by the tens of thousands rather than scattered across Wyoming's wide-open ranges.

Cows and Naughton power plant in Kemmerer Getty 6 15 26

<title>Nothing Goes To Waste: Nebraska Builds Plant To Turn Cow Manure Into Natural Gas | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A first-of-its-kind renewable natural gas facility under construction in central Nebraska will convert cattle manure into pipeline-quality natural gas from the poop produced by a huge feedlot. 

Nothing Goes To Waste: Nebraska Builds Plant To Turn Cow Manure Into Natural Gas

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A pair of young Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep rams that wandered into Cheyenne were killed by game wardens out of concern that they could catch pneumonia from domestic livestock and transmit it back into wild sheep herds.

The rams, thought to be between 1 and 2 years old, were killed last week, Game and Fish spokeswoman Amanda Fry stated in a Monday email to Cowboy State Daily.

Meat from the rams was donated to Wyoming first lady Jennie Gordon’s Food from the Field program through the Wyoming Hunger Initiative.

Bighorn sheep can pick up diseases from domestic stock and spread them back into their herds with devastating effects, according to Game and Fish.

Pneumonia is the disease of greatest concern, Fry said.

“We do not know which area/herd these two came from,” she said. "The closest two wild sheep herds to Cheyenne are west of Scottsbluff, Neb., and in the Iron Mountain area (in southeast Wyoming)."

Biologist and wildlife researcher Jack States lives near a bighorn sheep herd in Sinks Canyon in the Lander area.

He told Cowboy State Daily that he doesn’t agree with the Game and Fish policy of killing bighorns that might have come into contact with domestic sheep or other livestock.

“My opinions are contrary to the current management policy,” he said, although he’s willing to consider whether or not long-term data reveals “that management policy actually works.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Spotted The Day Before"}]

Cheyenne resident Valarie Grace told Cowboy State Daily that she spotted the rams late on June 7 in the yard of her parents’ house on the outskirts of Cheyenne.

“We have no idea where they came from. They took off after we spotted them and they were still going when we last saw them,” she said.

She said that at the time, she was worried that the rams might run out onto Pershing Boulevard and get struck by vehicles.

States said that young bighorn rams can have a propensity to wander, usually because they’re seeking to stake out new territory.

It’s unlikely that the rams were planning to stay in Cheyenne, Fry added.

“Suitable habitat for bighorn sheep tends to be steep, open, higher elevation, rocky slopes,” she said. "While there have been occurrences in the past of young sheep showing up in lower elevation municipalities in southeast Wyoming over the last couple of decades, it is not common.

“These sheep were likely traveling on a stream corridor seeking out suitable habitat and reached Cheyenne city limits."

While bighorn sheep are hardy enough to survive Wyoming’s worst weather in its roughest terrain, they are highly susceptible to disease.

Pneumonia outbreaks, sometimes transmitted from domestic sheep, can be bighorn conservationists’ worst nightmare. In some cases, entire herds are nearly wiped out.

The legendary Ramland Whiskey Mountain bighorn herd near Dubois is a fraction of what it once was, having 

 with pneumonia infections that just won’t go away.

Game and Fish and others have concluded that letting potentially infected wandering bighorns return to the wild isn’t worth the risk, Fry stated.

“If suspected commingling has occurred, Game and Fish will euthanize the wandering bighorn sheep to protect the rest of the wild herd from disease, as is outlined in the statewide Bighorn Sheep/Domestic Sheep Working Group Plan,” she stated.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Is There Another Way?"}]

States admires the Sinks Canyon bighorn herd and was a huge fan of 

, who gained a legendary reputation for his love of people, peanut butter and ramming visitors’ vehicles.

States recalled an instance of bighorns from the Sinks Canyon herd being euthanized after suspected exposure to domestic sheep.

"I did complain about that, because their (Game and Fish’s) policy was to euthanize first and test later,” States said. “I really wanted them to test first and then euthanize, if those diseases were present in those wild sheep."  

In some instances, wandering bighorns could be quarantined, States said.

He thinks that “capturing them until agents could determine their origin and health status” might be better than killing bighorns.

Katie Cheesbrough, executive director of the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily that the policy of euthanizing sheep that might have had close contact with livestock was “based on the best available science” when it was implemented.

Newer technology, such as GPS wildlife tracking collars, might not make that necessary in every instance, she said.  

However, Game and Fish made the right call with the Cheyenne rams, Cheesbrough said.

“Game and Fish can’t know the travel path they took along the way and they can’t know where they were headed,” she said.

So, euthanizing the rams “was the prudent thing to do,” she added.

Bighorns sheep 2 6 15 26

<title>Wyoming Game And Fish Kills Bighorns That Wandered Into Cheyenne | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A pair of young bighorn sheep rams that wandered into Cheyenne were killed by Wyoming wildlife officials. However, one biologist and wildlife researcher says it's not necessary. He said they should be quarantined instead.

Wyoming Game And Fish Kills Bighorns That Wandered Into Cheyenne

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

After the state of Wyoming and a group of young men suing the Wyoming Boys' School sifted through several hours of testimony, video, and evidence, it now falls to a federal court judge to decide whether school staffers violated multiple boys’ rights.

They’re accused of restraining, confining, and using force on them — or if the staffers’ actions are protected by qualified immunity and other safeguards in the law.

 Blaise Chivers-King, Charles “Rees” Karn, and Dylan Tolar 

sued the Wyoming Department of Family Services

, the Wyoming Boys’ School in Worland, and 10 former and current employees in 2024.

The school is a facility to which courts send boys judged delinquent in Wyoming. 

The plaintiffs, all boys who had been committed to the school in 2018 and afterward, alleged that school staffers confined, beat, humiliated and abused them. More plaintiffs joined the case later that year: Haiden Willis, Koby Cranford, and a minor identified by the initials “DH.”

In the months that followed, parties on both sides of the case sifted through several hours of depositions and other evidence.

After that, the boys decided against continuing to sue two of the staffers: Margaret Dahlke and Clark Les Urbin.

U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl dismissed Dahlke and Urbin from the case on April 8 of this year, at the plaintiffs’ request.

Karn is serving a life sentence in the Wyoming Department of Corrections for 

[{"type":"text","text":"End This, State Says"}]

The government agencies and boys’ school staffers argued in a May 14 brief that Skavdahl should judge the case early in their favor.

The brief largely blames the boys’ behavior for the aggressive interactions between boys and staffers, and for the time some of the boys spent in restraint chairs, solitary confinement, or other disciplinary statuses.

It invokes qualified immunity, which is a legal principle shielding government officials who act reasonably and in good faith from being sued. 

The brief also says two of the defendants, Karn and DH, didn’t do enough to plead their grievances with school authorities before resorting to civil litigation, and that that nullifies their claims.

D.H. has failed to show he suffered physical injury, and the boys haven’t proved they suffered excessive force, deliberate indifference to their medical needs, undue punishment or discrimination based on certain disabilities, the state’s brief alleges.

The former inmates fired back in their own filing Friday, urging the judge to send the case to trial rather than judge it early in favor of the state and staffers.

Their response filing leads with an allegation that school security guard Thad Shaffer said, “The best part of the chair is watching the kids cry and scream like a f***ing child … that’s what makes it worth it.” 

The exhibit from which this quote reportedly stems is not yet open to public viewing, the case file says.

However, the Friday filing includes a photo that claims to show one of the plaintiffs lashed to a chair with a mask over his head and a caption that says he would be placed in the restraint chair “for up to 8 hours a day."

The boys’ counter-argument casts doubt on the records the boys’ school is using to make its case.

“The (staffers’) logbooks had large gaps in documentation, inaccurate entries, uncertain authorship, and no verification mechanism,” the filing says. “For example, the Dorm 3 detention logbook has no entries between Apr. 7, 2024, and May 9, 2024, despite DH being in solitary confinement during that time.”

Karn and DH did fulfill the grievance requirements, as their parents submitted complaints on their behalf, the filing argues. Also, the school didn’t provide the boys methods to file grievances once they were no loner housed there, says the document.

The boys’ filing calls the state’s claims for qualified immunity inadequate. It says, “Defendants’ legal analysis on these four claims consists entirely of 

[{"type":"text","text":"All These Differences"}]

The state’s brief in favor of early judgment and the boys’ counter-brief tell different stories.

[{"type":"text","text":"Karn was placed at WBS in 2018. "}]

He was placed on detention status numerous times, including for throwing personal items, breaking glasses, disclosing thoughts of hurting others, the state’s brief says.

He was detained for seven days in December 2018 after assaulting a student with a shower head. Court documents dispute whether staffer John Schwalbe shoved Karn’s face into broken glass at that time.

Schwalbe testified that he did not; while the boys’ argument says Schwalbe did restrain Karn on broken glass, and that Schwalbe said, “if you’re going to break shit, then this is pretty much what you’re going to get.”

Karn was restrained numerous times for hitting things in his room, harming himself, hurting others, being disruptive and damaging property, says the state’s brief.

During a second stay at the facility Karn was placed on detention for misbehaviors including acts of violence, pretending to shoot people, damaging property, trying to run away, threatening staff and making terroristic bomb threats on Facebook, says the document.

He was restrained during the second stay, allegedly after punching a staffer, trying to flip or throw a desk, “spinning around to face staff when they entered to clean the detention room camera,” damaging cameras, smearing feces on the detention room, and other misbehaviors.

[{"type":"text","text":"The plaintiffs deny many of these characterizations."}]

The brief points to staffers’ deposition testimonies, in saying that the facility didn’t have safeguards in place to ensure the accuracy of incident reports.

The boys’ brief admits that Karn was placed in solitary confinement after making threats on Facebook, but adds, “(We) Deny that 13 days in solitary confinement for alleged threats was appropriate or that he received meaningful social stimuli, exercise, or education.”

In response to the boys’ school claim that Rees was restrained for trying to harm himself with a sock, the boys’ counter-argument says, “The video shows Rees playing with a sock, not tying it around his  neck or refusing staff instructions. Indeed, one sock appears on his foot the entire time.”

To another claim that  Karn was moved to a vacant dorm after threatening to assault staff and hitting a camera, the response parries that, “The video does not show Rees hitting the camera or threatening to assault staff.”

While the state alleges Karn was restrained in April 2021 after tearing a pillow apart and trying to hit staffers who entered to retrieve the pieces, the boys’ argument counters that a staffer initiated force “without provocation because Rees withheld a piece of pillow stuffing.”

Where the state asserts that Chivers-King was placed on detention status in May of 2020 for threatening and cursing at staff, throwing a chair, kicking his door and punching his window and lights — the boys’ response says Chivers-King toppled, rather than threw a chair. 

The boys’ response denies that Chivers-King continued to escalate, and says there was no reason for a staffer to use force on him, “as the video depicts Blaise (Chivers-King) standing with arms crossed when WBS staff forced him to the ground.”

Where the state asserts that DH continuously refused to follow instructions or engage in programming, the boys’ response says, “The behaviors for which DH was punished were obvious symptoms of his disabilities.”

When DH was in solitary confinement, says the boys’ brief, it was “lonely, depressing, and I had a few bugs for company.”

The state had asserted, conversely, that staffers gave DH “highly individualized attention” during that time to get him on track with the programming.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Clash Continues"}]

Disagreements between what prompted restraints and other punishments pervade the state’s argument and the boys’ counterargument.

In the segment pertaining to how staffers treated DH, the boys’ argument relates from another staffer’s deposition that Coronado called DH a “retard” nearly every day.

The boys’ argument contends that they had known disabilities and staffers didn’t accommodate them, while the state’s argument says of the boys, they “did not request any accommodations for any mental health diagnoses or physical conditions, nor was it obvious (they) needed any.”

Here the state’s argument says, There’s no “evidence plaintiffs were discriminated against ‘by reason of’ their disabilities; rather, the record shows WBS staff’s actions were based on Plaintiffs’ conduct.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Plaintiffs are asking the court to send these claims to trial:"}]

• Excessive force claims that staffers used excessive force by confining Karn and Willis in a restraint chair “for long stretches” when not necessary for people’s safety.

• Excessive force claims that staffers unnecessarily tackled, shoved, slammed and attacked boys who were not resisting, who were already subdued, or whose conduct didn’t merit such force.

• A deliberate indifference claim, asserting staffers were deliberately indifferent to some boys’ risks and serious medical needs.

• A claim that two staffers deprived the boys of due process, by denying them meaningful and periodic reviews of their solitary confinement, and meaningful notice of what they could do to earn release.

• A claim that staffers discriminated against and failed to accommodate the boys due to their various disabilities.

Wyoming Boys School lawsuit 6 15 26

<title>Court Filings Say Wyoming Boys' School Staffers Restrained, Attacked Boys | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A group of young men suing the Wyoming Boys’ School claim they were attacked, confined in a chair and made to wear a mask. “The best part of the chair is watching the kids cry and scream,” a security guard is alleged to have said.

Court Filings Say Wyoming Boys' School Staffers Restrained, Attacked Boys

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

A Minnesota man says he was stunned to learn a stranger spent years building a life in Wyoming allegedly using his name — earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, fathering a child and leaving him to sort out the financial fallout with the IRS and owing child support.

Now, a Gillette welding worker is facing four felony identity theft charges after investigators say he used another man's name and Social Security number to obtain employment and official documents.

Jose Alfredo Guevara-Reyes, 45, made his initial appearance in Campbell County Circuit Court last week after being charged with four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.

According to court documents, the case began June 8 when Gillette police received a handwritten letter from Martin Almendarez of Minneapolis saying that someone working in Gillette had been using his identity.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Child Support Surprise"}]

For Almendarez, the first signs of trouble didn't come from Wyoming law enforcement.

"I learned that the man who stole my identity had fathered a child," Almendarez said. 

Because the worker allegedly used Almendarez's Social Security number, the child's mother initially believed Almendarez was the father, he said.

The situation escalated when the state of Wyoming notified him that he was on the hook to financially support the child.

"I got a letter from the state of Wyoming saying that they were going to garnish my wages,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Almendarez said even his employer questioned his identity as records tied to the alleged fraud surfaced. The Minnesota man said the ordeal was especially unsettling because he had never met the defendant.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I don't even know him nor have I ever been to Wyoming,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Welding Shop Discovery"}]

An affidavit filed in the case by Gillette Police Detective Brendan Trujillo says investigators contacted MC Welding Services after receiving Almendarez's complaint.

The company provided employment paperwork associated with the worker, including a W-4 tax form, an I-9 employment eligibility form, a Social Security card and a Texas driver's license bearing Almendarez's name, the affidavit says.

Police determined the Texas driver's license number actually belonged to another person in Texas, according to the affidavit.

Investigators then visited MC Welding and spoke with the employee using the documents.

The man then identified himself with a New Mexico driver's license as Jose Alfredo Guevara-Reyes of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Reyes admitted to obtaining documents from a person in Texas for employment purposes but declined to identify the person.

The detective told Reyes the person who supplied the documents had essentially "set you up for failure,” the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"$500,000 Question"}]

Court records estimate Reyes worked at the welding company for more than four years, and a company employee told investigators that Reyes typically worked three 12-hour shifts each week and earned roughly $30 per hour.

The affidavit says he earned well above the felony threshold while allegedly using Almendarez's identity.

Almendarez believes the damage done to him may extend far beyond employment records.

According to IRS records he reviewed, he said more than $500,000 in earnings had been reported under his name.

"I heard he bought cars and put them under his name, a business in fabrication and other things like credit cards," Almendarez said.

The alleged victim also said he even worries someone might have obtained a life insurance policy using his identity.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Truthfully, it scared me to think it has gone on this long,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Relief Call"}]

After years of trying to untangle the situation from hundreds of miles away, Almendarez decided to write directly to authorities in Gillette.

[{"type":"text","text":"The response came quickly."}]

"A week later they called me saying he was in jail, and I felt so relieved," he said.

Even with the arrest, Almendarez said he believes he still has a long road ahead clearing his name with government agencies and financial institutions.

[{"type":"text","text":"For now, though, he says he finally feels like someone is listening."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I pray this turns out for the best,\" he said."}]

Reyes is being held at the Campbell County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash-only bond. 

He is expected to next appear in circuit court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday at 11:30 p.m.

Gillette police 5 31 23

<title>Gillette Welder Accused Of Stealing Identity, Leaving Man Owing Child Support | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Minnesota man says a stranger spent years building a life in Wyoming using his identity — earning more than $500,000, fathering a child and leaving the man owing child support. "I don't even know him nor have I ever been to Wyoming,” the man said.

Gillette Welder Accused Of Stealing Identity, Leaving Man Owing Child Support

Hunting

A Wyoming man is apologizing for tossing, kicking and stabbing a coyote in a controversial video that went viral last week.

Aron Snyder posted a video statement on social media over the weekend in which he says the coyote video was taken in Texas in 2019 or 2020.

He said that he finished off the wounded coyote with a knife because he didn’t have a firearm with him at the time. He also admits that the video is "a very bad optic."

Snyder also confirmed that because of the video, his employment has been terminated, and that he accepts that decision.

 to Cowboy State Daily last week, saying that Snyder is from Riverton. The video and accompanying information were also sent to wildlife agencies and animal welfare groups in Wyoming and several other states.

A Wyoming man named Aron Snyder confirms he’s the person seen tossing, kicking and stabbing a coyote in a video. The video is “a very bad optic,” he says while apologizing in a weekend social media post.

One More For The Road: Wednesday, December 20, 2023

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