Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"The only logical thing to do when your car is booted...."}]

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Thursday, March 21, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The only logical thing to do when your car is booted....

Daily Darwin: Thursday, March 21, 2024

 The only logical thing to do when your car is booted....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

The copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary released this week shows the former White House COVID advisor fixating over the press, mentioning Wyoming's low vaccinations rates and praising former Rep. U.S. Liz Cheney for what Fauci called her courage in opposing the president. 

U.S. Sen Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, released the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s diary over the weekend in anticipation of a Wednesday hearing.

Fauci alternated fluidly between documenting death tolls and the “hot and heavy” coverage with which the press swarmed him. He documented his media features, interviews and appearances almost daily for months.

“The Fauci cult continues,” wrote Fauci in reference to August media reports.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming features in the diary twice."}]

An April 10, 2020, entry documents calls with governors seeking Fauci’s guidance and to air their concern about the devastating economic fallout: “17 million jobs lost within the past 4 weeks.”

Even the massive infusion of federal relief dollars couldn’t spare the states, and some red-state governors urged counsel on how to get their people back to work safely, the entry says.

“Call with Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming – same discussion,” wrote Fauci. “What advice and counsel of returning to normal.”

“All these Governors are calling me because of my credibility and reputation to run their plans by me and ask for my opinion and help … message back to (the task force and president,” the director added.

A July 4, 2021, entry says Wyoming and other states had COVID surges due to lower vaccination rates. 

Former U.S. House Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, appear multiple times in the diary.

Republicans and conservative news commentators started “blasting” Fauci for his shutdown policies on about May 13, 2020. So did Paul, in a May 12 Senate hearing.

[{"type":"text","text":"Julia Roberts mooned over Fauci that same week, the diary says."}]

“Dick Cheney called me to thank me for what I was doing and to say that he fully supported me,” wrote Fauci. “I acknowledged and thanked him and his daughter Liz for sticking up for me after the Senate Hearing yesterday.”

The former vice president was “muted in his criticism of Trump,” Fauci continued. “But he did agree that Trump was living in an alternative universe.”

Fauci wrote three days later that he told Vice President Mike Pence of how Cheney had called him into the White House 19 years prior to discuss the anthrax attacks.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Aug. 4, 2021, Dick Cheney called again, the diary says."}]

Cheney had had a heart transplant years prior and was on an immunosuppressive regimen, wrote Fauci.

“It is likely that his immune response two (sic) the vaccine is suboptimal.”

Cheney’s cardiologist recommended the former vice president call Fauci, the diary says.

“I made it very clear to Cheney that I strongly recommended he get the third boost of the mRNA since he is highly susceptible to getting infected if he comes into contact with an infected person,” Fauci wrote.

He added that they discussed “the courage of his daughter Liz Cheney and sticking up against the far right Republicans who want to whitewash the January 6th insurrection.”

Fauci voiced his appreciation “that she has been sticking up for me,” says the entry.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Wyoming's Pendley Remembers"}]

The diary also stunned a former Trump department head, who contrasted Fauci’s apparent fixation with media attention with the “traumatic” efforts others undertook to address COVID19.

William Perry Pendley, a Wyomingite who then led Trump’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management, criticized Fauci in a Monday post to X and a Tuesday interview with Cowboy State Daily.

“What struck me, and struck a lot of people on X, was just the contrast,” Pendley told Cowboy State Daily, “That while he’s getting over his celebrity status, hundreds of people at the Department of Interior are taking this very, very seriously, and regarding it as something from the White House saying this is a life-and-death matter. This is a national crisis.”

Pendley said with preparation, duration and follow-up directives, the meetings consumed two to three hours of each day. Interior leadership worried about the health of the roughly 70,000 employees under their umbrella, he said.

“While Fauci basked in the media's attention, I ran Trump's BLM & was on daily Zoom calls with Interior's number two official with scores of others,” wrote Pendley on X. “Untold hours by hundreds of employees were needed to prepare for & follow up on those needlessly traumatic meetings. Shame on him.”

Fauci’s diary also features his numerous concerns about deaths and sickness.

But first, Fauci opined in a Feb. 8, 2020, phone call that the virus was “acting like a bad influenza” and showed a case fatality rate of 0.2%-0.3%, his diary says.

The messaging was, “You’ve got to devote all your energy and skills to addressing this,” added Pendley in his interview.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Hot And Heavy’ Press"}]

Entanglements and preoccupations with “press” that permeate nearly every entry.

“Press still hot and heavy about me,” says an April 7, 2020 entry. “Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.”

He documented the Fauci cartoons, Fauci underwear and other merchandise, news and book interviews, and the false claims and conspiracy theories about him that surfaced starting in 2020.

From about May through July 2020, Fauci documented numerous instances of complaining to White House personnel that he wasn’t placed in enough interviews, the diary shows.

Fauci also claimed embarrassment at receiving hugs and kisses from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and at President Donald Trump touting Fauci’s intelligence to First Lady Melania.

And he lamented where, according to him, the press got the story wrong in its fervor to pit him as a “foil” against Trump.

Mainstream media and columnists elevated Fauci for his calm demeanor and his willingness to contradict Trump starting in spring of 2020. Fauci had pushed for longer business and school closures, while Trump urged the director, who was part of the White House’s COVID19 task force, to find a way to reopen the nation by Easter.

“Continued crazy stuff: Petition to name me ‘Sexiest Man Alive,’” says an April 1, 2020 entry. “Videos (sic) games named after me; Fauci Bobblehead; dishes in redstaurants (sic) named after me, and on and on.”

In that same entry Fauci documented a “good conversation” with Bill Gates regarding the advanced development and scaleup of vaccines.

That later contrasted with what Fauci called White House response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx’s unfavorable view toward mRNA vaccines. Fauci cast her discomfort as a prejudice.

[{"type":"text","text":"Celebrities, Vaccines, And The Red States Reopening"}]

An April 29, 2020, entry details a Zoom call between Fauci and a “whole list of celebrities,” organized by Kim Kardashian.

That list featured Kate Hudson, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Chris Rock, Scooter Braun, Josh Gad, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Kendall Jenner, Ariana Grande, Paula Abdul, Demi Lovato, and Michael Jordan – to name a few.

Fauci noted the USA COVID case tally at 3 million that day and the death toll at 203,000.

Fauci urged repeatedly against letting the states “reopen” but when several did in mid-May, the virologist noted an interesting development.

“What is evolving is that states that are opening thus far are not seeing an increase in cases,” says a May 17, 2020, entry. “In fact, some are seeing decreases. We need another couple of weeks to se (sic) what is happening. Interesting that they might be paying attention more to mask use and social distancing as they open.”

But acute outbreaks still hit nursing homes, prisons, meatpacking plants and industries where workers lived in dormitory-like quarters, he wrote.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This is easily recognizable and quickly contained,” he wrote."}]

A June 25, 2020 entry says, “Contact tracing does not work.” He called contact tracing an abject failure.

He cast the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as incompetent – repeatedly across multiple entries.

He described an at-times affectionate, at-times icy relationship with Trump, almost always worsened by the press’s fervor in making Fauci a calm and well-informed anti-Trump figure.

A Feb. 12, 2020, entry has Fauci writing that World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

“depends greatly on China and often bows to them.”

Officials were at that time developing a WHO working group that lacked representation from China, Fauci wrote.

He detailed his friendship with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and helpful messaging by the latter’s news-commentator brother Chris Cuomo.

By March 29, the “CRAZY PRESS” wave had turned political, the diary says.

“The fringe far-right crazies are cooking conspiracy theories that I am a Hilary Clinton mole trying to destroy Trump,” says the entry. But at that time, “Trump continues to become more and more enamored of me.”

One media disaster culminated in Trump saying “his right wing base is causing a lot of trouble,” says an April 13, 2020, entry.

Regarding the vaccine development, a May 17, 2020, entry says “We are well into the process and I just do not want any person or organization or structure to get in my way.”

A June 15, 2020, entry questions why a Chinese study group had a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection as early as August 2019.

“Why would they be doing that last summer??? They could have been studying SARS, but they already had mouse models,” says the entry. “Possible they just wanted to use a better technique… OR they knew that SARS-CoV-2 already existed and the outbreak was already ongoing.”

Regarding the dramatic press saga of Fauci vs. Trump, the entry says, “Most people (sic) expressing outrage that the trump administration woud (sic) be so bumbling and incompetent to try to discredit the most credible scientist in the world.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Rand Paul’s Focus"}]

In a “Tony’s Diary” cover page set in pink cursive font – like a teen girl’s diary – along with other mocking insignia, Paul detailed places where Fauci’s diary contradicts his public messaging.

When other professionals swapped theories about the virus’ origins in January 2020, Paul noted from the diary, the doctors had a sincere debate about whether the virus had natural or lab-leak origins.

“Before most Americans knew there was an origins debate, the government’s top infectious disease official was already confronting the lab scenario,” wrote Paul.

[{"type":"text","text":"Paul has long said the virus originated in a lab leak."}]

Fauci dismissed that theory publicly in 2020 in 2021 with the claim his critics “are really criticizing science because I represent science.” The lab leak theory has since garnered credibility.

“The fact that the lab in question had received a 2014 grant (through an intermediary) from NIAID for ‘gain of function’ research may help explain Fauci’s reluctance to come clean about the need to investigate,” opined the editors of The Free Press in a 

Fauci cheney 7 28 26

<title>Dr. Anthony Fauci's Diary Covers Wyoming’s Low Vax Rates, Liz Cheney’s ‘Courage’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In the more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary released over the weekend, he mentioned Wyoming’s low COVID vaccination rates, his admiration of Liz Cheney and his conversations with Dick Cheney. He appeared fixated on the "hot and heavy" press.

Dr. Anthony Fauci's Diary Covers Wyoming’s Low Vax Rates, Liz Cheney’s ‘Courage’

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Prosecutors say a man repeatedly shot two of his roommates with BB guns, beat one with a wooden walking cane, and even coerced a child into participating in one of the assaults before continuing the attack himself.

The criminal case against Pancho Villa Flores, born in 1971, is now moving forward with an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 5. 

He faces one felony count of aggravated assault and battery, one felony count of child abuse and two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment. 

The allegations, detailed in affidavits filed by the Cheyenne Police Department, describe two  victims who investigators say were assaulted days apart.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Multiple BB Wounds"}]

Police first became involved after officers responded to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center to speak with a man who arrived by ambulance.

Investigators documented puncture wounds across his back, buttocks, knees and right calf. Both knees were red and swollen, and hospital staff told police several BBs remained embedded in his body.

The man told officers Flores shot him repeatedly over several days using BB rifles.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It hurt like a sonofabitch,\" he told investigators."}]

He said the shots to his knees were the worst and left him unable to walk for a time.

The man also told police he was afraid to report the shootings because he feared Flores would "beat him up or kill him in retaliation."

The affidavit says the man had been living with Flores for about seven months. He told investigators Flores held power of attorney over him, received his Social Security benefits and deducted rent and other expenses before giving him what remained.

He said he was "lucky" if Flores gave him between $50 and $100 each month from those benefits and complained he had received only $20 that month.

When officers later went to Flores' residence, they reported seeing two rifles that appeared to be BB guns through the open front door. Police photographed the weapons from outside the home, then returned to the hospital, where the man identified them as the guns Flores used.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Blow A Cap In His Ass' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"According to court documents, Flores denied shooting anyone."}]

Instead, he told investigators a juvenile identified only as L.R. had shot both him and his roommate.

But the child's account was dramatically different. L.R. told investigators Flores had bought him fishing and camping gear and recently took him camping.

After returning home June 21, the child said he was lying in the front yard when Flores came outside and claimed the man had failed to complete chores.

Flores then told the child he needed to "blow a cap in his ass," shows the affidavit. 

L.R. told police he refused, but said Flores responded by threatening to shoot him instead. 

The child told investigators Flores then fired the air rifle into his back, striking him just left of his spine and above his left buttock.

Afraid of being shot again, L.R. said he took the rifle and went into the basement, where Flores again instructed him to shoot the man.

[{"type":"text","text":"The child told investigators he was crying as Flores laughed."}]

Not wanting to seriously injure the man, the child said he intentionally shot him in the buttocks and calf.

Flores then took back  the rifle and allegedly continued shooting the man in the knees and back. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Second Roommate Hospitalized"}]

Less than a week later, detectives contacted another roommate at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

He told investigators Flores assaulted him several days earlier after accusing him of stealing whiskey.

Flores allegedly forced his way into the second roommate's bedroom and struck him on the head with a wooden walking cane.

[{"type":"text","text":"The man said his head \"bled a lot,\" but he did not lose consciousness."}]

The next day, he told investigators Flores returned, entered his bedroom without saying anything and shot him in the lower back with a BB rifle while he was in bed.

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, the man did not seek treatment."}]

Over the next several days, the wound allegedly became red, swollen and increasingly painful.

He eventually went to the hospital June 25, where he was admitted for treatment of the infection. He remained hospitalized when detectives interviewed him June 29.

Investigators observed a healing cut on the man's head they said was consistent with his account of being struck by the cane.

They also documented a circular wound on his right flank where he told police doctors removed a BB.

He told them another BB remained lodged in his muscle and would require surgery to remove.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Case Moves Forward"}]

After the July 17 preliminary hearing, a judge found sufficient evidence to bind Flores' case over to district court.

He is charged with aggravated assault and battery, child abuse and two counts of reckless endangerment.

The two felony charges each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison under Wyoming law. The reckless endangerment charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail.

Flores is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, Aug. 5 in Laramie County District Court.

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<title>Police: Cheyenne Man Shot Child With BB Rifle After Forcing Him To Shoot Roommate | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Police say a Cheyenne man forced a child to shoot his roommate, telling him to "blow a cap in his ass," before threatening and then turning a BB rifle on the boy. Pancho Villa Flores is now facing felony counts of assault and battery and child abuse.

Police: Cheyenne Man Shot Child With BB Rifle After Forcing Him To Shoot Roommate

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Several side roads at a popular recreation area north of Evanston have been closed by state and federal officials after landowners complained about their land being “torn up” by unauthorized motorized use.

Some recreationists balked at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department posting "road closed" signs on several roads and two-tracks in the Woodruff Narrows/Bear River Divide area.

It includes a Game and Fish public access area.

However, agency personnel told Cowboy State Daily the roads in question cross private property, and landowners were fed up.

"The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," Bureau of Land Namangement Wyoming spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman told Cowboy State Daily.

The episode encapsulates the complexities of public recreation areas set on easements across private land.

The 16.3-acre Woodruff Narrows Public Access Area offers fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, boating, and wildlife viewing, according to Game and Fish. Just to the northeast is the roughly 12-acre Bear River PAA, which offers camping, fishing and hunting.

Game and Fish works with landowners to establish PAAs at similar places, such as walk-in hunting and angling areas and hunter management areas.

In exchange for public access, Game and Fish establishes and enforces conditions set by landowners, including dates of use, access points, limits on motorized travel, and the like.

Phil Pierson of Wichita, Kansas, stated in a social media post that Woodruff Narrows is one of his favorite places to visit. So, he was taken aback when he went there recently and discovered several roads he likes to use were posted as "closed" by Game and Fish.

He said that it wasn't right to be denied access to "public lands."

Pierson could not be reached for further comment.

Local outdoorsman Landon McGuire told Cowboy State Daily he hunts mule deer at Woodruff Narrows.

He added that the reservoir also draws anglers, who fish either from boats or along the shoreline.

He noted that the jurisdiction of the land can be confusing because it's in an area of "checkerboard" public and private land parcels, with square parcels of BLM and private land.

In much of the area, hunting is allowed only on foot, he said.

"Those (road closed) signs go up every fall" to remind hunters where they can and cannot drive, he said.

The "actual designated routes" for public travel are clearly marked on hunting GPS apps, such as onX, McGuire said.

He added that he understands why Game and Fish must regulate travel as part of its agreement with private landowners.

It's Game and Fish's duty to manage both the wildlife and human activity in the area, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Complex Management"}]

Landowners' rights and concerns must be respected in public access areas, Game and Fish spokeswoman Anne Hodnett stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

"The Bear River Divide is unique compared to most PAAs in our state due to its scale and complex, 'checkerboard' landownership pattern, which includes a mix of private, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and state lands," she said. "When private landowners opened access and enrolled their lands into our access program, they requested specific protections to prevent motorized damage and unauthorized access on their specific parts of their property." 

Game and Fish "worked directly with these landowners" to decide which roads to close to the public, Hodnett added.

She said protecting private property rights helps ensure that landowners continue to allow public access to the recreation area.

"Standard PAA regulations prohibit off-road travel and ATV/ORV use throughout the area to protect habitat and prevent property damage," Hodnett added.

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<title>State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After angry landowners near a recreation area north of Evanston complained of their property being "torn up," state officials closed the roads. "The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," BLM spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman said.

State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up'

An Afton attorney who previously served as a Lincoln County deputy prosecutor and was recently a finalist for a Wyoming judgeship is facing a misdemeanor solicitation charge in neighboring Idaho after investigators allege he offered to pay for a sexual encounter through an anonymous dating app.

John Bowers, 66, was charged July 22 in Bear Lake County with one misdemeanor count of solicitation for commercial sexual activity.

A probable cause affidavit says the investigation began June 24 after a private citizen contacted the Montpelier Police Department about messages exchanged with Bowers on Sniffies, a location-based social networking app. 

The reporting party, who described himself in the affidavit as someone who reports suspected criminal activity to law enforcement, told police Bowers offered $300 to "party" and said he would bring "party supplies." Investigators interpreted the messages as an offer to pay for a sexual encounter.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowers has pleaded not guilty."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'This Charge is Frivolous' "}]

Bowers' attorney, Richard Blok of Pocatello, declined to comment to Cowboy State Daily, saying the Rules of Professional Conduct limited what he could say.

However, he said a statement he previously provided to an Idaho news outlet remains accurate.

"Mr. Bowers is innocent of the charge,” Blok said in the statement. "This charge is frivolous and should never have been brought."

[{"type":"text","text":"A pretrial conference is scheduled for Sept. 9 in Bear Lake County."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Search Leads To Wyoming Office"}]

On May 21, investigators with the Montpelier Police Department, assisted by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, contacted Bowers outside his Afton law office while executing a search warrant for his electronic devices. After returning to the office, Bowers agreed to speak with investigators and surrendered his cellphone.

The affidavit notes investigators later recovered digital evidence they believe linked Bowers to the account used in the conversations, including a Gmail account allegedly created the same day under the name "Jack Black" that received a Sniffies activation email.

During the interview, Bowers acknowledged using the app and exchanging messages but denied intending to solicit prostitution.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I truly didn't think I was soliciting,\" Bowers told investigators."}]

Bowers also described his conduct as "morally wrong and inappropriate" while maintaining he never intended to arrange a commercial sexual encounter.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Well-Known Wyoming Attorney"}]

Bowers has practiced law in western Wyoming for decades and previously served as a deputy prosecutor in the Lincoln County Attorney's Office.

Last November, he was one of three finalists selected by the Wyoming Judicial Nominating Commission for a Lincoln County Circuit Court judgeship. Gov. Mark Gordon ultimately appointed Judge Thomas Deering to the bench.

Cowboy State Daily also contacted the Wyoming State Bar seeking information about Bowers' status as a licensed attorney and whether the bar had taken any action in response to the Idaho criminal charge.

Deputy Bar Counsel Brandon Booth declined to answer questions about Bowers specifically.

Asked generally about the bar's policy when a licensed attorney is charged with a misdemeanor, Booth said attorneys have reporting obligations "depending on the result of the allegations."

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<title>Afton Attorney, Former Deputy Prosecutor, Charged With Solicitation In Idaho | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Afton attorney John Bowers, once a Lincoln County deputy prosecutor, is facing a solicitation charge in Idaho after investigators say he offered to pay for a sexual encounter through an app. He says his conduct was "morally wrong" but denies solicitation.

Afton Attorney, Former Deputy Prosecutor, Charged With Solicitation In Idaho

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"If there were ever a time to bet the mortgage on a dog, this is it....."}]

Daily Darwin: Thursday, March 21, 2024

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