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Hopefully it's not too late to add this competition to the next Winter Olympics....

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

<title>You Still Here? Sunday, January 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Sunday, January 21, 2024

 Hopefully it's not too late to add this competition to the next Winter Olympics....

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Law Enforcement

A group of Glenrock residents showed up at Monday’s Town Council meeting with questions about the four Flock cameras that have been operating around the community for roughly two years.

They wanted to know more about who authorized the license-plate-reading cameras, where they are located, why the town needed them and who controls the information they collect.

[{"type":"text","text":"They didn’t get many answers Monday."}]

Police Chief Colter Felton, who has overseen the cameras, was absent because of a family emergency, said Mayor Bruce Roumell. The Town Council told residents it would hold a work session on the issue within the next couple of weeks.

“All I want to see is transparency,” Glenrock resident Eric Farrington told Cowboy State Daily after the meeting.

Flock cameras use automated license-plate recognition technology to record passing vehicles and can provide law enforcement with information that can help identify vehicles involved in investigations.

The cameras have become a growing subject of debate in Glenrock, with residents raising questions on social media about the technology, its location and who has access to the data.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cameras’ Location Questioned"}]

According to public records, Felton obtained a permit from the Wyoming Department of Transportation to install the cameras on state highway rights-of-way near the edges of Glenrock.

 the department has cameras at every entrance to town.

The cameras were purchased and installed in 2024 after the police department included them in its budget and the council approved their purchase, installation and use, Roumell said in a phone interview with Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"There was little public controversy at the time, according to Felton."}]

“We put out information about it and talked about it in council meetings,” he said. “We really didn’t get a ton of, I guess, people showing up to talk about it, or with any sort of issue.”

Felton said the primary purpose of the cameras is public safety, including helping investigate crimes such as bank robberies and kidnappings.

Agencies seeking to place equipment on state highway rights-of-way must obtain permission from WYDOT.

Some residents have questioned whether Glenrock’s Flock cameras are actually inside town limits because of their placement along highways.

Roumell said Monday that annexations have expanded Glenrock’s boundaries over the years, meaning the cameras are technically within the town limits despite the perception they are outside town.

[{"type":"text","text":"That distinction has not settled the questions for residents."}]

Farrington said he attended Monday’s meeting hoping the council would address concerns about the cameras, but the council deferred to the police chief.

“All of a sudden there are some people that are upset about it,” Roumell said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Why Was It Necessary?’"}]

Farrington, who has lived in Glenrock for more than two decades, said he understands the argument that cameras can help law enforcement solve crimes.

But he questioned whether the technology is necessary in a small community with relatively little crime.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We’re used to policing ourselves,” Farrington said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"That led to a basic question for him:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“Why was it necessary to put them up?”"}]

Farrington said he is especially interested in understanding how the system works and what safeguards are in place for the information collected.

“I want transparency,” he said. “I want to have questions answered.”

He said residents deserve to understand how technology that can record their movements is being used by their local government.

“I want the council to be an open book to the community you serve, especially with the national attention on the Flock cameras now,” Farrington said.

Farrington said one of his concerns is that residents might not have realized the cameras were there when they were installed.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Again, nobody knew anything, why they were there,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Timely Privacy Debate"}]

The questions come as law enforcement’s use of technology to track people’s movements is receiving renewed national scrutiny.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s high-profile ruling on digital privacy sparked widespread legal debate over whether the constitutional logic used against mass cell-phone tracking could eventually apply to automated license plate readers like Flock.

Farrington said the national discussion about digital surveillance has made him more interested in understanding Glenrock’s own system.

He also draws a distinction between information people voluntarily put online and information collected by government-operated surveillance equipment.

An 85-year-old man approached Farrington after Monday’s meeting and questioned why Farrington was concerned about the cameras when people voluntarily share so much information on social media.

[{"type":"text","text":"Farrington said the difference is choice."}]

“I don’t have to post on Facebook,” he said. “The Flock cameras were not my choice.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Council To Hold Work Session"}]

The Flock cameras were not listed as an agenda item for Monday’s Town Council meeting, and no new or old business was listed.

[{"type":"text","text":"The meeting lasted less than 30 minutes."}]

The public-comment portion also experienced a technical problem: The microphone was not turned on, meaning comments could be heard by people in the room but were not audible to people participating online.

With Felton absent, the council did not attempt to resolve residents’ questions Monday.

No date for the work session has been publicly announced, though resident Alisha Hodge told Cowboy State Daily the group opposing the cameras has asked for another meeting to be scheduled before elections.

[{"type":"text","text":"“That remains to be seen,” she said."}]

According to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public interest law firm, an estimated 120,000 cameras along American roads log data into a nationwide, searchable database accumulating billions of records every month.

Glenrock flock 8 11 26

<title>Glenrock Residents Want More Answers About Town’s Four 2-Year-Old Flock Cameras | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Glenrock residents are asking more questions about who authorized the town’s four Flock cameras, where exactly they’re located and how the information they collect is used. The cameras have been in place on the outskirts of town for roughly two years.

Glenrock Residents Want More Answers About Town’s Four 2-Year-Old Flock Cameras

Education

A parent in Sweetwater County School District No. 1 has asked for the Board of Trustees to remove chair Cole Wright from his position, claiming the board violated her rights to free speech by amending its public-comment policy last fall.

At the school board meeting in Rock Springs on Monday, Cherell O’Driscoll presented the board with a signed petition calling for Wright’s removal on grounds that he has violated the district’s ethics policy, committed open-meeting violations and behaved unprofessionally.

O’Driscoll’s primary concern is that according to the amended policy she can’t publicly criticize personnel but can publicly praise them.

She said she began circulating the petition in April and collected signatures by reaching out on social media and talking to people around town.

“Like my dad always told me, we have to stand up for what we believe in,” O'Driscoll said.

Wright was not at the board meeting in person but attended virtually because he was out of town for personal reasons, he told Cowboy State Daily.

"There is nothing I can provide at this time other than the board will respond to the petition pursuant to statute," he said.

Once that happens, Wright said, he'll be happy to share the board's decisions "so that you can appropriately tell the full story."

Calls and emails to Superintendent Joseph Libby seeking comment were not returned before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Background"}]

The school board implemented changes to its public comment policy at its August 2025 meeting.

While comments related to district operations, policy or programming are welcome, Wright said that “comments regarding employment or performance of individual staff members cannot be addressed publicly by the board due to privacy protections under the Wyoming Public Records Act and due process rights under the Wyoming Teacher Appointment Law.”

At that same board meeting, Wright reported that action regarding the superintendent’s contract had been taken in executive session two months earlier.

“I want to begin my message with transparency and accountability,” he said at the beginning of the August meeting. “At the June 9 board meeting, I stated I do not anticipate any action upon our return regarding the executive session. That statement turned out to be incorrect. When the board reconvened, we did take action. 

"All trustees present voted to extend Dr. Libby’s contract. I recognize the confusion this caused and I take full responsibility for that miscommunication.”

According to contract documents viewed by Cowboy State Daily, Libby was hired for the 2024-2025 school year with an approved annual salary of $178,000, for both the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.

An amendment to the contract, effective July 1, 2025, extended his employment contract through June 30, 2028 and raised Libby’s salary to $195,000, effective July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, with increases each year thereafter. 

According to the amended contract, he will be paid $205,000 for the 2027-2028 school year. 

The amendment further increased Libby's car allowance to $1,500 per month from $800, as laid out in the original contract – an increase of 87.5%.

O’Driscoll learned about the amended contract when she discovered a file marked “Confidential” that she said had been uploaded to the public Board Docs website by mistake.

The document, one page labeled “Executive Session Minutes,” is dated June 9, 2025, and references “Personnel discussion was held to discuss The Superintendent’s Contract.”

After the discovery, she reached out to the Goldwater Institute, a conservative public policy think tank and litigation organization that monitors free speech and public records issues nationwide.

The Goldwater Institute has also represented fellow Sweetwater County School District No. 1 parent Kari Cochran in lawsuits brought against her by two school district administrators. Cochran 

lost her 18-year-old son to suicide in 2023

 and has been trying to retrieve his records from the district since.

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

Five signatures are required to present a petition to a school board. O’Driscoll’s petition contained 105 signatures.

“We gave Wright the opportunity to change and he has not,” O’Driscoll told the board Monday. “I told Dr. Libby and Cole Wright in a meeting in May that if they were to keep coming and we were not going to be able to work together I was going to put my feet into the sand and come back and fight back. And here I am.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I may be as stubborn as a mule. But I am as patient as an ox.” "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She said she was nervous as she stood in front of the board Monday."}]

“It’s confrontation,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “To go face-to-face and call somebody out, it was very stressful.”

O’Driscoll emphasized she was asking for Wright to be removed from his position as chair and not completely removed from the board.

[{"type":"text","text":"“He is failing in the position he was elected to do,” she said"}]

Wright was not present at Monday’s meeting. Board member Danielle Schumacher, who led the meeting in Wright’s place, acknowledged receipt of the petition and said O’Driscoll would receive a response within 30 days.

[{"type":"text","text":"O’Driscoll said she was not surprised by that."}]

“I would love a response to be in writing,” she said. “It’s very difficult to get things in writing from them.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Legal Side"}]

Last week, The Goldwater Institute opined on its website that the Sweetwater County School District is misusing its recently revised public comment policy to “unconstitutionally silence critics.”

According to Parker Jackson, an attorney at the institute, Sweetwater County No. 1’s Board of Trustees amended its public comment policy to prohibit any written or in-person comments that negatively address individual employee performance or employment. But comments praising individual employee performance are welcome.

He used O’Driscoll’s experience as an example, saying she was cut off by Wright and her written comments were redacted when she attempted to publicly criticize the district’s assistant superintendent in April.

“However, she was allowed to make written and in-person comments praising other school employees,” Jackson said.

This, Jackson argues, is viewpoint discrimination that violated the First Amendment.

He elaborated in an email to Cowboy State Daily: “Under the First Amendment, government officials cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination. That means that when public comment is taken on agendized matters in a public meeting, the board cannot pick and choose which opinions to hear.”

Jackson further said the school board is in violation of the Wyoming Public Records Act. When the institute requested copies of O’Driscoll’s unredacted written public comments, the district refused, claiming the comments were confidential personnel files.

“The district’s interpretation of ‘personnel files’ is so broad that it could encompass any record the district has that names or criticizes an employee or that the district chooses to place in a personnel file,” Jackson said via email.

The Goldwater Institute sent two letters to the school district asking them to reverse course. The institute has not received a response to either letter, Jackson said.

According to Jackson, the district faces possible litigation if it does not fix the alleged violations.

That could mean lawsuits in state or federal court – or both – based on violations of the First Amendment and state law.

Sweetwater cole wright 8 11 26

<title>Sweetwater Schools Parent Demands Board Chair Removal Over Free Speech Policy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At the school board meeting in Rock Springs on Monday night , a parent presented the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees with a petition calling for Cole Wright's removal as board chair. The petition was signed by 105 people.

Sweetwater Schools Parent Demands Board Chair Removal Over Free Speech Policy

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Around Wyoming

The Weiser Knoll wildfire southeast of Lander, sparked by an overheated trailer wheel bearing Sunday afternoon, exploded to roughly 13,350 acres by midday Tuesday and was 0% contained. 

The fire, the largest of the summer so far in Wyoming, prompted an evacuation order for residents in the Twin Creek Drainage area, east of Wyoming Highway 28.

Area rancher Rhett Abernathy told Cowboy State Daily that by about noon Tuesday he and others hoped the worst was over, as winds calmed and “slurry bombers” continued to drop water and fire retardant on the blaze.

Sunday night was awful, he said, as the fire was driven by strong winds.

“That first night, the wind picked up and the fire started running down the ridges. Everybody was just waiting for their places to go up,” Abernathy said.

According to state and federal fire agency reports, the fire was sparked at about 2:15 p.m. Sunday on Highway 28 about 13 miles southeast of Lander.

The overheated bearing caused three initial fires to spring up alongside the road at a spot known as Johnnie Lee’s Corner, according to reports. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Five-Foot Flames’"}]

Lander resident Michelle Motherway told Cowboy State Daily  she was camping with family Sunday and drove back into town after the fire started. 

“There were five-foot flames right on the side of the highway,” she said. 

The smoke in town wasn’t terrible Tuesday, but late Sunda, it was miserable, Motherway said. 

“Two nights ago, it was really reminiscent of the (1988) Yellowstone fires, where you could see that the moon was orange and the sky was orange. It was just eerie,” she said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rangeland Scorched"}]

Abernathy said that during its initial stages, the fire tore through ranchland on the Abernathy Ranches and Bureau of Land Management allotments leased by the ranch. 

It was touch-and-go for a while, he said, as they scrambled to move cattle out of the flames’ path. 

Luckily, Abernathy said, nobody was hurt and no cattle were killed. 

“We had a couple of old log cabins and old barns burn, but they were of no function,” he said. 

However, a significant amount of rangeland was rendered useless for grazing, he said.

“It will be the year after next before we can graze any of it again,” Abernathy said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Feeding the Firefighters"}]

Motherway owns Mr. D’s Food Center in Lander, which has been helping to feed firefighters. 

“When the fire broke out on Sunday, I got hold of the fire incident command, and we arranged to get food for them,” she said. “We fed 65 people Sunday evening.” 

But as local Wyoming State Forestry and BLM crews were called in, the number of firefighters needed three meals a day delivered to them ballooned.

“We’re feeding 200 people breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” she said. 

With only three full-time staff at the store, meeting demand requires “an army of volunteers,” Motherway added. 

Codi Jorgensen, a local teacher, volunteered to help prepare firefighters’ meals, along with her 11-year-old daughter. 

“We were there (at the store) for four or five hours, putting meals together,” Jorgensen said. 

Motherway stepping up to help is “just Michelle being Michelle,” Jorgensen said. So, she and her daughter were happy to pitch in.

She added that while the smoke hasn’t been so horrible in town, the fire still has an ominous presence.

“We can see it from our back deck at my house. You can see the flames,” Jorgensen said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Lookie-Loos’"}]

Motherway said there have been some “lookie-loos” showing up to try to get a look at the fire, which can impede firefighters and cause safety problems. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The BLM concurred. "}]

“Twin Creek Rd. is closed to the public and only open to area landowners. Highways WY 28 and US 287 remain open, but please remain alert and yield to fire traffic and crews working in the area. For public and firefighter safety, the public is asked to remain out of and away from the fire perimeter,” the agency stated in a fire update Tuesday afternoon. “Red Flag conditions, characterized by strong gusty winds, low relative humidity, and elevated temperatures, contributed to heightened fire activity yesterday (Monday).” 

On Tuesday, ground crews were “constructing direct containment lines," as aircraft continued to drop water and fire retardant. 

“Coordination continues with local power companies to restore power to the area,” the BLM reported.

Fire smoke 8 11 26

<title>Fire Near Lander Grows To 13,350 Acres And 0% Contained, Prompts Evacuations | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Weiser Knoll fire near Lander, started by an overheated wheel bearing on Highway 28 on Sunday, exploded to Wyoming's largest at 13,350 acres and was 0% contained Tuesday. “Everybody was waiting for their places to go up,” a local rancher said.

Fire Near Lander Grows To 13,350 Acres And 0% Contained, Prompts Evacuations

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A young man with brown hair, brown eyes and a reddish mustache was found floating in the Greybull River west of Basin in the summer of 1973.

More than 50 years later, investigators still don't know his name — or 

His body was buried under the name John Doe in the Basin Cemetery.

Now the Big Horn County Coroner's Office has reopened the case. The 

 office isn’t saying why the case is being reopened now.

According to a study released by the National Institute of Justice, 

 a cold case include: Advancements in forensic technology, new leads through fresh case and evidence review, increased public support and interest, and improvements in information management

“This death was certainly suspicious in nature and possibly could be a homicide,” the coroner’s office announced in a public appeal. “Our goal is to identify the decedent and bring justice in his case if it is needed.”

The challenge is that much of the original investigation appears to have vanished.

The coroner’s office said there is “little documented information to go on” and that no law enforcement report from the original investigation could be located.

[{"type":"text","text":"Only a coroner’s verdict has been discovered."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A Body In The River"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What investigators do know begins July 10, 1973."}]

Someone reported seeing a body floating in the Greybull River about 50 feet north of the highway bridge west of Basin.

Coroner’s officials and sheriff’s deputies responded and recovered a young man believed to have been between 18 and 26 years old.

He stood about 5 feet, 6 inches. His weight was estimated at between 150 and 160 pounds.

The young man apparently had been in the water for several days and nights.

He was wearing blue-and-white striped cutoff pants and possibly a polo shirt.

[{"type":"text","text":"No wallet, identification or vehicle was found. "}]

There were, however, several items on the riverbank that might be able to help investigators figure out who he was or where he had come from. 

[{"type":"text","text":"17 Cigarettes "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Among them was a distinctive 14-karat gold ring."}]

The ring features the head of a bird, a diamond and the initials “MK.”

Investigators also documented two leather moccasins with rubber soles, a pair of prescription Ray-Ban sunglasses and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

[{"type":"text","text":"Seventeen cigarettes remained."}]

The coroner’s office has released photographs of the items in hopes someone might recognize them.

The ring in particular has attracted attention from people following the case online.

A Jen Frederick suggested it might have been custom-made and asked whether a maker's mark could lead investigators to the jeweler who sold it — and potentially old purchase records.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Unfortunately no stamps,” the coroner’s office responded."}]

A larger unanswered question: whether all of the belongings on the riverbank actually belonged to the dead man.

[{"type":"text","text":"The surviving information does not establish that."}]

A citizen reported seeing several young men swimming in the same area several days before the body was discovered.

Whether investigators ever identified those swimmers, interviewed them or determined whether John Doe was among them is unclear.

The original law enforcement report that might answer those questions has not been located.

That missing paper trail leaves investigators trying to reconstruct events that happened more than five decades ago.

[{"type":"text","text":"And the river itself provides one surviving record of that week."}]

The U.S. Geological Survey operated a stream gauge on the Greybull River at essentially the same location where the body was reported.

describe the Greybull River near Basin gauge as being at the upstream side of the highway bridge, exactly 8 miles west of Basin. The gauge operated from 1930 until it was discontinued in September 1973.

[{"type":"text","text":"That means measurements survive from the summer John Doe was found."}]

The Big Horn County Coroner's Office is reopening the cold case of a man found floating in the Greybull River near Basin in 1973. Investigators still don't know his name or how he died, but have released photos of what are thought to be his belongings.

You Still Here? Sunday, January 21, 2024

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