Daily Darwin

We don't know if this guy is a Darwin or if he's just having bad luck. But, then again, we really don't care....

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Thursday, February 15, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Thursday, February 15, 2024

 We don't know if this guy is a Darwin or if he's just having bad luck. But, then again, we really don't care....

Julie Mankin

Wyoming Life

Sports

Halle Crozier isn’t able to throw a saddle on her horse, or even climb on without help. She also doesn’t have the strength to ride faster than a lope.

But the cheers for her will be deafening from fans lining the fence at this coming week’s Wyoming High School State Finals Rodeo watching the sophomore compete.

They understand her performance is not about points or paychecks. Every run is a victory for a girl healing her own heart despite a decade of physical impairment.

Like most Wyoming kids raised with ranching or rodeo roots, Halle was on horseback as a toddler.

Even in preschool she had big dreams. She wanted to compete at the National Finals Rodeo and win gold buckles someday.

“I remember my first rodeo, and I was on top of the world in my own little head,” recalled Halle. “Eventually one day, it was all gone.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Vaccines Destroyed Her Body"}]

Vaccines required by a preschool when Crozier was 5 years old set off an adverse reaction that damaged her nerves.

That was in 2015, when her parents J.R. and Jonee (Phillips) Crozier, along with her older brother Heston, lived in Casper.

[{"type":"text","text":"Within a month, the little girl was no longer talking or eating."}]

“She was gray in color,” said Jonee. “She lost half her body weight and just basically stopped living.”

They immediately took her to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver, where doctors were stumped by her condition.

On the assumption Halle had a strange virus or bacterial infection, she was put on antibiotics. When that didn’t work, they tried stronger prescriptions.

She was ultimately on high-powered antibiotics for about six months with no improvement.

Within a few months, Halle was also experiencing muscle loss and weakness.

Next, the family tried a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, where they were told Halle had muscular dystrophy.

“I said, ‘muscular dystrophy progresses slowly; it doesn’t show up all at once!’” recalled Jonee. “It didn’t make sense.”

They went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where more doctors said she had muscular dystrophy and would likely end up in a wheelchair by the time she was 12.

“I just knew that wasn’t it,” said Jonee. “She didn’t check any particular box, so they’d push us out the door, not knowing how to help us.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Halle’s Choice"}]

By 2016, the Croziers were looking outside Western medicine for answers when a Utah newspaper published a story about a bedridden boy with similar symptoms who’d been able to go back to school after treatment by a wholistic doctor in Mexico.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Croziers booked a trip to Tijuana."}]

“Doctors there said the vaccines had damaged her nerve endings, which could no longer communicate with her muscles,” Jonee said. “And the antibiotics had totally wrecked her guts.”

They visited every six weeks, ultimately spending about two years detoxifying her little body.

Halle’s health improved tremendously, Jonee said. But nerve damage heals very, very slowly.

Traditional medical doctors had told the family it couldn’t be treated or healed.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I wasn’t going to settle for that,” said Jonee."}]

With detoxification, replenishment and a clean diet, Halle had improved enough by about age 8 that her ability to show emotion came back.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when the frustration hit, she said."}]

“It kind of felt like no way out,” Halle told Cowboy State Daily. “My family helped me a lot with that by giving me a choice — I could choose to not get better, or choose to be positive and work hard to get better.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘She Is Not A Victim’"}]

The family always retained hope. Jonee is convinced that healing is 90% mindset, believing it will happen.

“I told her teachers when she was young that she’s not a victim,” said Jonee. “I told them they could modify things to help her, but that she’s not ever a victim.”

When she began high school, with her slow movements and poor balance, Halle often tripped and fell in the hallways.

The highly intelligent teen is now homeschooled and taking college-credit classes as a sophomore.

She stayed on track academically despite trips far and wide to receive intravenous nutrient replenishment and myriad therapies, including brain stimulation and electronic muscle stimulation.

Over the years, Halle has also spent two months at a time annually in Denver for daily hyperbaric oxygen treatments.

And last year, they saw tremendous results from umbilical stem cell treatments.

“She slowly gained back so much of what she lost,” said Jonee. “She had been like a little zombie.

“She didn’t communicate or eat. She’s 100% back in that regard. She’s much stronger than when she was 13. It’s amazing.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cowgirling Up"}]

While “any vaccine can cause side effects,” according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, serious injury is rare.

Still, an autoimmune response called Guillain-Barré syndrome has been reported post-vaccine whereby the immune system mistakenly attacks nerve fibers, causing muscle weakness that can lead to paralysis.

The Croziers, when asked about the safety of vaccinations, respond with a ranching analogy.

“Every spring, a rancher can vaccinate 1,000 calves, and may have one calf die and another get very sick and never recover,” said Jonee. “I think it’s the same with humans.”

Instead of wallowing in why it happened or what if it hadn’t, the family (which moved to Buffalo) decided to put their energy into getting Halle better.

And for Halle, throughout all the weekslong cross-country trips to doctors and time-consuming therapies, there were horses.

“She continued to ride,” said Jonee. “But after 10 minutes, she’d be too exhausted to stay in the saddle. That lasted about five years. She was just so weak.”

But now thanks to two “unicorn” horses that take great care of Halle, she competes at high school rodeos.

She enters barrel racing and pole bending on a small palomino mare named Sue, who once stood motionless while Halle dangled from the saddle by one spur until help arrived.

“I’ve hit the dirt a lot,” said Halle, who also heels on a 24-year-old horse named Dually. “But I never let myself quit doing it. I know my limits, so I’m not afraid. I know what I can and can’t do.”

Her mom, however, is very afraid, because the girl has no strength to save herself from a fall.

“My heart is in my throat every time she goes through the gate,” said Jonee. “I want her to slow down and she just goes faster.

[{"type":"text","text":"“But it’s her passion. It heals Halle every time she does it.”"}]

Despite limitations with lifting her arms and lingering balance and coordination problems, things are looking up for Halle.

[{"type":"text","text":"The 16-year-old got her driver’s license last year."}]

She feeds livestock in the winter as long as someone can help her get into the tractor.

And she hardly misses two feet in the branding pen. But rodeo is the light in her life.

“It’s been one of the few things I can do,” said Halle. "I might not be winning, but I can do it and I love it more than anything.

“The rodeos are a big part of my life. The rodeo kids are the best — they treat me so well and want me to do well just as much as I want to do well.”

Last fall, senior timed-event star Carter Hutchison of Rozet saw his heeler sidelined due to a thumb injury.

While Tate Leno healed up, Hutchison asked Halle to be his heeler. This is a boy who won nearly $10,000 team roping as an eighth-grader.

“I was just glad she wanted to rope with 

, honestly,” said Hutchison, on track to compete in four events at this year’s NHSFR and then attend University of Wyoming this fall. “She’s going through a lot, and it’s tough to be doing what she’s doing.

“She just loves it so much, and everyone sees that. They see how hard she works at it. I try to slow our steers down so she and Dually can get up there and get a good shot.”

When Leno healed up, it was time for Hutchison to switch back to his real partner.

But the board of more than a dozen WHSRA directors voted to change the rules and allow Hutchison to continue to enter with Halle, too.

“When the board called to tell us what they did, they told us that the impact Halle has at the rodeos is just too important,” said Jonee. “She has changed the whole energy of every rodeo. It’s incredible what it’s done to the culture.”

As much as rodeo inspires Halle to recover and live life on her terms, she inspires the rodeo community.

“People love to watch her, because they know it’s pure determination and grit for her to get through every run,” her mother added. “She’s not the fastest. Usually, she’s the slowest. But people love it.

[{"type":"text","text":"“She has no idea what she’s doing for those people.”"}]

Halle Crozier Halle and Sue 5 30 26

<title>How Rodeo Is Healing A Wyoming Teen After Vaccine Reaction Destroyed Her Body | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Halle Crozier of Buffalo is inspiring Wyoming’s high school rodeo community as she fights to recover from a vaccine reaction that destroyed her body. “I could choose to not get better, or choose to be positive and work hard to get better,” she said.

How Rodeo Is Healing A Wyoming Teen After Vaccine Reaction Destroyed Her Body

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Less than a month after a man was apparently killed by a grizzly in Glacier National Park in Montana, there were reports of another possible bear attack on a hiker on Thursday.

A “surprise encounter involving a hiker and a bear occurred on the Grinnell Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park,” park spokeswoman Autumn Sifuentes stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

“National Park Service personnel and emergency services responded to the incident. The Grinnell Glacier Trail is temporarily closed and will reopen when deemed appropriate by park staff,” she added.

There was no further information available about the species or size of the bear, or whether the hiker suffered any injuries.

Hiker Devin Dufrene described encountering a distraught man who was screaming about a “bear attack” 

Although he and his sister attempted to get the man to calm down, “he continued running and screaming,” according to SFGate. “Knowing there was an attack up-trail and now a bear approaching from the opposite direction, we decided to ascend up the cliffside and wait for the bear to pass.”

A little later, Dufrene told SFGate that they saw park rangers going in the direction of the reported attack.

In early May, Glacier Park reported its first fatal bear attack since 1998.

Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33 was reported missing May 4. On May 6, his body was found in a densely wooded area roughly 50 feet from the trail he’d apparently been hiking on.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Busy Year Already"}]

May is usually the first month of widespread grizzly and black bear activity. This year, it’s been a busy month for bear attacks.

On May 4, two brothers were severely injured when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Also this month, a black bear hunter in Idaho shot and killed a grizzly when it charged him and his son. Wildlife agents deemed the shooting a legitimate case of self-defense.

And on Monday near Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, a man running on a forested trail was attacked and injured by a female black bear with two cubs, 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘The Men Mocked Me’"}]

Outdoor adventurer Michael Hodges was photographing grizzlies in the Glacier Park backcountry on the day that Pollio’s body was discovered about 15 miles away.

Later, he was on the same trail where Thursday’s alleged bear attack was reported.

“I was up on the trail the week of May 6 and saw many grizzlies,” he stated in a text message to Cowboy State Daily.

“I warned hikers from California and Texas at the trailhead that there was an unusual number of griz, and to be extra alert,” stated Hodges, a novelist and internet personality.

“The men mocked me, the women in the group listened,” he added.

Contrary to popular perceptions, grizzlies in Glacier Park aren’t meaner than those elsewhere, bear experts told Cowboy State Daily.

Rather, the area’s thick vegetation and rugged landscape increase the chances of hikers and bears surprising each other at close range.

“For the most part, if bears hear you, see you or smell you, they don’t want to have anything to do with you,” Canadian human-bear conflict prevention expert Kim Titchener said.

She’s hiked in Glacier Park and said she can attest to how conditions there can make it more difficult for bears to sense people approaching.

She added that the landscape around Squamish, where the runner was attacked by a black bear is similar.

“It’s got lots of thick vegetation,” said Titchener, the founder of the Bear Safety and More organization.

And people shouldn’t take for granted that black bears can also be dangerous if they’re surprised at close range, she added.

Retired ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes solo in grizzly country, agreed that hiking in Glacier Park demands extra alertness.

“Encounters can happen at just a few yards away” if hikers aren’t paying keen attention, Neal said.

“It’s a high-quality habitat for bears. It’s better habitat for bears than Yellowstone is” and tends to attract a younger crowd, he said.

“Those younger hikers go barreling up those trails without paying that much attention,” Neal said.

Big bear 5 29 26

<title>Glacier Park Reports Second Bear Attack Less Than A Month After Man Killed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Less than a month after a man was apparently killed by a grizzly in Glacier National Park, there were reports of another possible bear attack on a hiker on Thursday. It was a “surprise encounter involving a hiker and a bear,” said a park official.

Glacier Park Reports Second Bear Attack Less Than A Month After Man Killed

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Reid Rasner’s campaign for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat is not a satire or a parody, state politicos say.

But if it were, his campaign commercial performances would land an A-grade, a retired drama coach told Cowboy State Daily.

Rasner was among the earliest to declare for what’s now a 10-person GOP primary contest for the House seat, which incumbent Rep. Harriet Hageman is vacating to run for U.S. Senate.

That follows an unsuccessful 2024 bid to unseat longtime U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, and a 2025 publicity splash in which he voiced an effort to buy the social media app TikTok.

Rasner’s campaign videos range from policy discussions, to outright comedic and dramatic acting. His social media presence and output quantity are unrivaled in this race.

 with “No more fat kids!” then urged the nation to revive the presidential fitness test.

 him shouting, “I just watched a man walk into the women’s restroom, come on let’s get him out of here!” before kicking open stall doors in the bathroom, and pulling open the final door to reveal a male holding a sign deriding Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is one of Rasner’s nine opponents.

[{"type":"text","text":"The male screams, and Rasner barks, “Get the hell outta here!”"}]

 the same vocal inflections as President Donald Trump while voicing outrage at a porta-potty with both male and female restroom insignia on it.

“I can’t believe it, why can’t we just have normal potties?” he asks. “Why do we need a tranny-pottie?

[{"type":"text","text":"Parody, Satire Or Serious?"}]

An ever-growing mountain of commenters asks whether Rasner’s campaign is a parody, or if his videos are satire.

They are not, multiple Wyoming politicos told Cowboy State Daily this week.

“Why would somebody spend this much money on a joke?” said Wyoming state House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette. “It’s a real campaign. I don’t believe in his mind it’s a parody.”

Rasner as of April 1 had lent himself about $1.2 million for his federal campaign, and had received another $54,865 in other contributions, Federal Election Commission 

Bear is also the former chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a group of conservative and controversial state House Republicans.

He said he believes Rasner’s outlandish approach impacts the candidate negatively.

“It’s kind of silly, so I get why people would think it’s a parody,” Bear added.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner’s campaign also insists that his campaign is legitimate."}]

Rodger McDaniel, a former legislator who ran a 1982 Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Sen. Malcolm Wallop and participated in multiple other statewide campaigns, said he was tempted to think of the campaign as a parody while watching some of Rasner’s videos.

But Rasner is suing five people for defamation, in four separate, ongoing civil cases.

“Does he really exist?” asked McDaniel. “I guess he must, he sues people that say bad things about him. He must be able to get into a courthouse.”

The campaign is also real, said McDaniel, adding that it’s probably outlandish because of how crowded the GOP field is in this race.

Rasner’s videos show him in a MAGA hat. He speaks and gestures like Trump. His commentary veers hard right on social issues.

“The problem for a Republican in that race is separating yourself from that crowd, and I think that’s how he’s chosen to do it: just to be as outrageous as possible,” McDaniel said. “It’s not enough to say, you know, ‘I’ll support President Trump.’”

Nearly all of Wyoming’s Republican U.S. House candidates who have campaigned publicly have voiced alignment with Trump. One strong outlier is Kevin Christensen, who outright opposed the president’s

McDaniel doesn’t have a background as a theater critic, but Rasner’s performances are “funny,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s Saturday Night Live quality.”  "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"State Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, cast doubt on the parody idea."}]

Like Bear, Yin was reflecting on how much money Rasner has poured into his campaign.

“I think it’s really hard to take him seriously,” said Yin. “But I think the only one that can tell you whether it’s parody or not is him.”

[{"type":"text","text":"So We Asked Him"}]

Rasner’s campaign spokesman Michael Blevins emphasized that Rasner has given concrete policy positions.

, urged a national ban on abortion, a mass deportation policy, a ban on Sharia law, and opposition to wind farms, to name a few.

“The stuff he talks about on social media are things occurring all over the United States (and are) real issues,” said Blevins.

The issues could expand into Wyoming, and “it’s important that we address them before they do, and prevent them,” he said, adding that some of the issues are already here, “and we’ve seen what they’ve done.”

Cowboy State Daily asked why Rasner posted a video of himself kicking in bathroom doors while hunting a man in the women’s bathroom.

“I think everybody will derive their own intent,” said Blevins, reiterating that Rasner is serious in purpose about the issues in his videos.

“It’s critical to be able to get the message across,” said Blevins. “And I think Reid is the only candidate we’ve seen in this case who’s been forward-thinking about policy.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But He Would Have Gotten An ‘A’"}]

Michael Stedillie, a Natrona County resident and now-retired drama teacher of 45 years, graded Rasner’s performance on Thursday.

Rasner gets an A for acting and production, but only if these videos are satire, said Stedillie.

Stedillie laughed out loud while reviewing a slate of six Rasner videos, which included the three mentioned prior in this story, plus:

 zooms gradually on Rasner while he criticizes Gray in a Trump-like vocal cadence and tone;

 there are a “lot of fat comments out there” but that Trump’s doctors told him he’s in “tip-top shape” and he’ll run up a set of stairs to prove it. An obvious body double scales the stairs while Rocky theme music plays. The double high-fives Rasner at the top of the stairs;

, using his signature Trump vocal growl, leans over a garbage can just outside Gray’s office window, and accuses Gray of giving Wyoming land use to “Communist China.”

 to lease state lands for wind farms, but the companies requesting those leases are headquartered in America.

Rasner’s visual shot alignment of the garbage can with Gray’s window is clever; his Trump growl could be subconsciously impactful, and his whole Trump impression is almost always spot-on, Stedillie told Cowboy State Daily.

“If his purpose is to make people think that Donald Trump doesn’t like Chuck Gray, he’s playing the part well,” the drama coach said.

[{"type":"text","text":"But it’s a tightrope, he added."}]

“If a Trump supporter thinks that Reid is trying to lampoon the president’s physical presentation, then they might get upset about it,” Stedillie said. “The other possibility is, (they’ll say) ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool, I like the way he does that.’”

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner’s energy level is “top notch,” Stedillie added."}]

But, he said the video in which Rasner kicks open bathroom doors is jarring.

Stedillie said performers should coalesce empathy for the hero before depicting him in an act of violence, and that’s not doable in a 15-second video.

“The transgender porta potty was just downright entertaining. It’s going to make people laugh,” said Stedillie. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Ever The Target"}]

Gray is the most frequent target of Rasner’s recent videos. Rasner has repeatedly referenced Gray’s aye-votes for wind leases on state lands, as well as the Wyoming-registered companies that bear names that appear Chinese.  

Gray took Cowboy State Daily’s Friday interview request as a chance to call Rasner a “liberal.”

Rasner had voiced approval toward grants for and fewer restrictions on rooftop solar panel installations when he ran for Las Vegas City Council a decade ago. He’s also voiced 

 centers – a fraught topic in some conservative circles.

Rasner’s performative campaign approach is a distraction “from the truth,” Gray asserted.

“I think he’s just trying to bluff his way into running for the at-large (seat),” Gray began in a phone interview. “The truth is that he’s a very liberal individual. He’s a complete liberal.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray claimed Rasner has called for defunding police in the past."}]

Blevins said Gray is "lying" and pointed to a Ballotpedia account of Rasner's Las Vegas City Council run showing Rasner as a staunch supporter of police. 

, Rasner said, rather, he wanted to form alliances with police and the community, and clean up the streets, go after drug dealers rather than users, and curb sex trafficking.

He said at that time that he wanted to ensure the police force has enough staff and equipment to keep the community safe.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Whole Field Out There"}]

Rasner and Gray rise to public attention frequently for their fiery clashes.

[{"type":"text","text":"But they’re not the only candidates in this race."}]

The other eight registered Republican candidates are Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, Wyoming Senate President Bo Biteman, military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, Teton County Rancher Frank Chapman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, former state legislator Keith Goodenough, and Sundance man Richard Dodson.

[{"type":"text","text":"One Democrat, Lisa Kinney, is running for her party’s nomination."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is Aug. 18."}]

Despite a series of bizarre, controversial and sometimes outrageous campaign videos, Wyoming politicos say Reid Rasner’s campaign for U.S. House is not a parody. “Why would somebody spend this much money on a joke?” said state Rep. John Bear.

Daily Darwin: Thursday, February 15, 2024

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