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Michael P. Ramirez

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

<title>Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, April 3, 2024

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Gillette Fourth of July Parade participants not being allowed to hand out Bibles and copies of the U.S. Constitution has prompted a complaint to the Campbell County Commission. 

State House Appropriations Chairman John Bear, R-Gillette, asserts in 

 that community groups “were barred by Campbell County Parks & Recreation officials from handing out U.S. Constitutions and Bibles during the Independence Day 250 parade.”

Campbell County Parks officials say they were merely enforcing a rule against handing out paper products at the parade, adopted around 2021 to curb trash cleanup after the event.

Bear wrote in the same column that a few towns away, Lander’s local LGBT advocacy group handed out condoms to parade-goers and kids.

“Since when are free condoms protected by the Constitution while Bibles are not?” asked Bear in the column.

Organizers of the Lander parade’s Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) float adamantly deny handing out condoms.

Carol Smith in an open letter to Bear, which she sent to Cowboy State Daily, says she was on that float, and no one on it handed out condoms.

“We handed out candy to children and celebrated inclusion with the community, just as we have in previous years,” wrote Smith, who reiterated the point in a phone interview this week.

Sarah Reilley, who said she’s driven the float for three years but couldn’t attend the parade this year, told Cowboy State Daily she would never have handed out condoms.

“Absolutely not,” said Reilley in an interview. She wrote in a Facebook post last week that doing that would have been both expensive and “WILDLY inappropriate.”

"It's important for leaders in our state and elected representatives to do the work to fact-check for themselves, instead of taking fake images and spreading lies in order to create division," said Reilley. 

Bear told Cowboy State Daily that a “solid” witness had alerted him to the alleged Lander incident. The witness said no to being interviewed by Cowboy State Daily, said Bear.

According to Reilley and a screenshot she posted, the image Bear dispatched of two hands holding what appears to be a condom returned a Google Reverse Images result of a viral SnapChat screenshot.

Cowboy State Daily’s own Google Reverse Images search, days later, did not replicate that result. That could be because SnapChat doesn’t retain images, Reilley said.

The rest of the controversy is now a complaint that is pending before the Campbell County Commission.

[{"type":"text","text":"First, The Church"}]

Kurt Siebenaler applied for a permit to run a float on behalf of his church, Church at the Barn, in Campbell County’s Fourth of July parade, he told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

[{"type":"text","text":"It was a fun task before all the drama, he said."}]

“The theme was, our country was founded on Biblical principles,” he said. 

Congregants decked out the float with Bibles, a big USA sign and a liberty bell. They’d planned to hand out pocket versions of the U.S. Constitution and New Testament volumes, he added.

When Siebenaler applied to be in the parade, the application said fliers, stickers, paper products, brochures, paper handouts, and leaflets weren’t allowed in it, he recalled.

Siebenaler went to check with a Parks and Recreation staffer, Darla Cotton, and she said the volumes would not be allowed under that rule, he added.

“She said because if people don’t want them, they’re just going to throw them on the ground when they leave,” Siebenaler said. 

He countered that they weren’t going to hand them out to “a half dozen kids or whatever” but would be more targeted.

Cotton maintained her veto but said the churchgoers could sign up for a booth at the later hot dog feed at Bicentennial Park and hand out Bibles and Constitutions there, Siebenaler said, adding that the church approved that plan.

Cotton contacted Siebenaler ahead of the hot dog feed to say the department had run out of room for booths and needed to give political candidates priority to be fair across races, he recalled.

Siebenaler told the church, and “word got out to a couple (county) commissioners.”

Then Cotton reportedly told Siebenaler that if the church could find a political candidate willing to share a booth, it could hand out its volumes from there.

Ira Shober, a county commission candidate who attends the church, agreed to share, Siebenaler said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Monday Meeting"}]

Commission Chair Bob Jordan and Commissioner Jerry Means met with Campbell County Parks and Recreation Director Dwayne Dillinger, superintendent Adam Gibson, Bear, Republican state Rep. Abby Angelos, at least one attorney representing the county and other stakeholders to discuss the issues on the Monday before July 4.

Dillinger and Angelos are both Republicans running against each other for a Gillette-based seat in the state Senate.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bear is running again for his seat in the House."}]

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

In Bear’s telling, Dillinger wasn’t aware of the dustup, “but he defended it when the time came.”

“I keep telling him if you have a conflict, you can’t err on the side of trampling people’s inalienable constitutional rights,” Bear told Cowboy State Daily.

Dillinger was reticent in his interviews with Cowboy State Daily, saying he had to be careful not to campaign in a story told from his professional post because of the Hatch Act.

That federal law bars people working for agencies that receive federal money from using their positions to campaign.

He said the parade rules on which Cotton relied were implemented long before he became the director.

Bear said that county personnel said Gillette city officials didn’t want the trash, but that a later call to the city debunked that.

Cotton sent Cowboy State Daily the PDF copies of the rules for each year from 2021-2026. Those show the ban on “flyers, stickers and other types of materials” starting in 2021, with the warning that “they end up everywhere as trash rather than in the hands of the parade attendee.”

“They’re the same (rules) for everybody,” said Cotton in a Thursday interview. “We’re not restricting what they can say; just how they deliver it because of the trash issue.”

[{"type":"text","text":"In 2024, that rule expanded to all paper products."}]

Cotton said Parks and Recreation staffers have had recurring conversations with city officials about the trash problem, and main discussion driving that rule happened in 2021.

And in 2021 the streets division contact was a different person, she said. “Back then it was different people (voicing these concerns) than are there now,” said Cotton.

[{"type":"text","text":"The City Council Candidate"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Ben Decker is a Gillette City Council candidate.  "}]

Cotton is managing campaigns for two other candidates, Heidi Gross and Eric Scott. She said she’s received permission since these are nonpartisan campaigns and she works for the county, not the city.

She said she’s helped with social media work for legislative campaigns, but doesn’t manage any legislative campaign.

Decker in his own interview referenced a 

Vomhof defied the Parks and Recreation director that year and ran a float highly critical of the city’s then-mayor, whom 

 over the sudden resignation of now-mayor, then councilman Shay Lundvall.

[{"type":"text","text":"That was before Dillinger ran the Parks and Recreation department."}]

Vomhof said in a Thursday interview that both the Parks and Recreation director of the time and county commissioners tried to shut him down.

But he ran the float — which showed a jail cell and signs reading “fire the mayor” — after what he described as a conversation in which the police chief noted that running a parade float without a permit isn’t an arrestable offense.  

Decker told Cowboy State Daily that the war between some residents and “tyrannical” officials started with Vomhoff’s protest float and continues today.

Decker asserted that Cotton, who is his second cousin, has tightened the rules each year based on whatever he did the prior year.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cotton denied that assertion, pointing to the largely stagnant rules."}]

Decker said an early version of the hot dog feed rules required candidates to stay at their tables and prohibited them from handing out fliers and Bibles. 

The rules were later changed so that booth holders could hand out paper products and no longer had to stay at their booths, he said.

The rules were acceptable but their earlier, tougher version “created a chilling effect” on attendees, who “self-censored,” said Decker.

Decker ignored the rules altogether by leaving the designated area for political candidates and handing out fliers to people standing in line at the hot dog feed, he said.

Decker said the flier contained the political group Coal Country Conservatives’ list of preferred candidates for various offices. That flier included an endorsement of Bear and Angelos.

In Decker’s telling, Dillinger called the cops on him for campaigning outside the designated area. Decker calls the move unconstitutional. His complaint to the commission asserts a First Amendment rights violation. 

[{"type":"text","text":"In Dillinger’s telling, he did not call the cops on Decker."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"So The Cops Weigh In"}]

Gillette Police Department Deputy Chief Brent Wasson clarified in a Thursday interview.

Dillinger didn’t call the police department. He contacted an officer directly.

“I’m assuming he had seen (the officer) working the parade and … spoke with him about the concern at the park,” said Wasson.

Gillette officers patrolled the parade on bicycles then ride over to the park.

[{"type":"text","text":"All this happened just after midday July 4, the deputy chief said."}]

The encounter was brief. Officers told Decker they didn’t want to interfere with his campaigning, though he was outside the designated area. 

[{"type":"text","text":"“And that’s pretty much it,” said Wasson."}]

“That’s what we do when we have big events. We make sure there’s security. We bring in different security people for fireworks, and that’s what we do,” said Dillinger. “I was just doing my job. … It was a simple call: ‘Are you guys heading out to the park after you get done at the parade on your bikes?’ That’s all there was to it.”

He theorized the original fallout over the Bibles involves political fervor. "Now that I'm a candidate, it's an issue." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Bible Ladies Venture Out Too"}]

Siebenaler wasn’t paying close attention to all that, but recalled that women from his church booth were emboldened by Decker’s move. They also verged toward the hot dog line, he said.

“They were just outside the fence and holding up Constitutions and Bibles, and asking politely, or just showing people, ‘Would you like to have one?’” Siebenaler said.

The rules seemed practical at first, Siebenaler said. But looking back on it, he’s not as sure.

“That would be in their mind or heart to what their motive was,” said Siebenaler of the involved county officials.

Campbell County Commissioner Scott Clem wasn’t involved in this situation, but knows about Decker’s complaint now pending at the county’s human resources department level, he said in a Thursday interview.

That complaint will likely be handled in executive session since it involves personnel, he noted. That’s a provision of state law.

“Something will come out of this so that we avoid problems like this in the future, and we’ll try as much as we can to correct things now,” said Clem.

Jordan, who chairs the commission, told Cowboy State Daily he's shaking his head at how the saga unfolded. 

"It’s not good optics to have yourself and your employee making it hard on somebody else," said Jordan of Parks and Recreation management. "I personally wouldn't ban Bibles and Constitutions." 

Gillette Fourth of July parade 7 23

<title>Unpacking The Campbell County Parade Fallout Over Bibles But Not Condoms | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When a state lawmaker asked why Campbell County parade floats couldn't hand out Bibles but a Lander float could hand out condoms, the Lander float organizers said they did no such thing. Campbell County's Bible saga is much more complicated.

Unpacking The Campbell County Parade Fallout Over Bibles But Not Condoms

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Hunting

Yellowstone National Park's famed oldest wolf pack, the Mollie

s, was just following its stomachs when it left the safety of the park's boundaries recently and denned on the Shoshone National Forest, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist says.

"They're looking for food," Ken Mills told Cowboy State Daily during an online interview Thursday.

The Mollie's have made brief forays out of the park previously. But this year, they made an unprecedented move, said Mills, a large carnivore biologist and wolf management specialist, and in doing so have created a tempest of controversy.

The Mollie's settled down east of Yellowstone — and within the boundaries of Game and Fish's Wolf Hunt Area 1.

That's prompted an outcry from conservation groups and wolf advocates, who want wolf hunting shut down there, at least for this year, to spare the Mollie's.

. She's a member of the pack and, at age 12, is thought to be Yellowstone's oldest wolf. The average life expectancy of a Yellowstone wolf is about 4 years and the oldest known animal was Wolf 478F of the Cougar Creek Pack, which lived to be 12 1/2.

Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce and Game and Fish Commission member Bill Mai told Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming wolf management should be based on science, not "emotion" over one wolf or one pack.

Bruce and Mai said they and other officials have been flooded with emails calling for hunting to be suspended in the Mollie's denning area.

Among the groups opposing hunting the Mollie's is the Western Watersheds Project.

Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist and the group's executive director, said wolf hunting isn't based on sound science but rather amounts to needless "trophy hunting."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Moving East"}]

At its meeting July 14 in Sheridan, the Game and Fish Commission voted unanimously to accept the department's recommendations for the 2026 wolf hunting seasons.

That includes a total wolf mortality quota of 20, less than half the 44-wolf quota in 2025.

An outbreak of canine distemper among wolves in northwest Wyoming was cited as a primary reason for the reduction.

The mortality quota designates the number of wolves that can die before the hunt is shut down, regardless of how many hunters are left holding unfilled wolf tags.

The quota for hunt areas 1 and 2 was set at four.

That means a total of four wolves can be taken in either of those hunt areas, or both hunt areas combined, Mills said.

When the department set the recommended quota the Mollie's hadn't denned there yet, he noted.

At that time, there were 20 wolves in seven packs in Wolf Hunt Areas 1 and 2, he said.

Had the Mollie's been there, the quota might have been set higher, Mills said.

On Jan. 1, the Mollie's included seven adult wolves, he said.

One of the adults has since died, and another has returned to Yellowstone, where it might have found a mate, Mills said.

The pack is now thought to include five adults and five pups, he said.

The Mollie's in recent years had specialized in hunting bison. But that requires a large pack — and deep winter snow, which leaves bison more vulnerable.

The pack has shrunk because of poor "pup recruitment" in recent years, he said. And the mild 2025-26 winter, with light snow, made bison hunting difficult.

Previously, the Mollie's had taken hunting forays north of Yellowstone into Montana, Mills said. But rival packs there have grown too large for the Mollie's to risk it.

Wolf packs are highly territorial and will fight, sometimes to the death, over territory and prey.

So this year, the Mollie's followed elk east out of the park and onto the Shoshone National Forest, Mills said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Governor Must Sign Off"}]

Bruce said even if the Game and Fish Department wanted to alter the 2026 wolf hunting seasons the matter is out of its hands.

With the commission's vote of approval, the hunting season plan headed to Gov. Mark Gordon's desk for his signature and final approval, she said.

Gordon hadn't signed the proposal as of Thursday, Amy Edmonds, spokeswoman for his office, told Cowboy State Daily.

"The governor considers multiple factors when reviewing all rules, including public input, state and agency authority, and wildlife management objectives," she said in a text message.

Mai said he expected pushback on the 2026 wolf hunting season proposals, but not from the direction it came.

"I thought we would get a lot of negative public input. But I didn't think it would be in this regard. I thought it would be from some of those western Wyoming residents whose elk herds have been so affected by wolves because of the reduction in (wolf) quotas," he said.

Instead, the commission and department have been "flooded with emails" calling for the Mollie's to be spared, he said.

"The majority of those emails are from folks who aren't from Wyoming," and many came from other countries, Mai said.

Bruce said she thinks many of the emails were essentially form letters sent by groups opposing the hunts.

Mai said the commission understands the concerns of people who value wolves for wildlife watching and as a tourist attraction.

However, it came down to trusting the expertise of Game and Fish personnel, he said.

"Wyoming has an incredible department, with the top large carnivore biologists in the nation, for both bears and wolves," he said.

Bruce said the attention drawn by the Mollie's possibly reflects changing attitudes toward wildlife.

"We see that trend growing across the nation, very much personalizing, individualizing and almost humanizing wildlife," she said.

Molvar said science actually favors wolves not being hunted.

Wolves are a self-regulating species, he said. As the wolf population grows, so does the tension between packs competing for territory and prey.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"They kill each other,\" Molvar said."}]

The Mollie's have tremendous scientific value because they were one of the first Yellowstone packs to specialize in hunting bison, he said.

"If those packs are continually decimated as they wander outside the park and they dissolve, they will never get back to the pack sizes needed to hunt bison," he said.

Moreover, wolves have significant economic value because they're one of the top draws for tourists, Molvar said.

Wolves hunted and shot outside the park might become skittish, thereby ruining wolf-viewing opportunities within Yellowstone, he said.

State authorities essentially ignored a 2019 proposal, led by Indigenous groups, to establish a 31-mile no-wolf-hunting buffer zone around Yellowstone's boundaries, he said.

"It would just be good stewardship and sound scientific management to put Yellowstone wolves off-limits for hunting," Molvar said.

Bruce and Molvar did agree that the location of the Mollie's den shouldn't be revealed.

The supposed location has been circulating on social media, Bruce said, adding that revealing such information is strictly against Game and Fish policy.

Ironically, that information is seemingly coming from parties claiming to oppose the Mollie's being hunted, she said.

Game and Fish doesn't publicly release information on pack locations to protect the wolves while they're denning with pups and to uphold the principle of fair-chase hunting once the season starts, she said.

Molvar said he, too, wants the pack's location to remain secret.

"It's smart for everybody, I think, to not advertise the location of this pack," Molvar said. "There are plenty of poachers out there who like bragging about their willingness to 'shoot, shovel and shut up' when it comes to wolves.”

The Mollie’s are named for the late Mollie H. Beattie, who was head of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1995 when wolves were restored to Yellowstone and central Idaho. She died of brain cancer a year later.

Wolf 1090 F 7 23 26

<title>Mollie's Wolf Pack Was Just 'Looking For Food' When It Left Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The famed Mollie’s Pack was just “looking for food” when it left Yellowstone to den on the Shoshone National Forest, a biologist says. But in doing so, the wolves kicked off a tempest of controversy over whether they should be hunted.

Mollie's Wolf Pack Was Just 'Looking For Food' When It Left Yellowstone

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Law Enforcement

Federal and state investigators spent more than seven months building a drug trafficking case against a Jackson man before launching coordinated predawn raids across southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho that uncovered methamphetamine, cocaine, cash and two AR-15 rifles, newly filed court documents reveal.

The investigation culminated shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, when agents executed simultaneous search warrants at homes in Etna, Jackson and Victor, Idaho, arresting 42-year-old Julio Jaimes Angeles.

At first authorities released few details about the operation, saying only that "large amounts" of methamphetamine and cocaine had been seized.

[{"type":"text","text":"A probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday paints a much fuller picture."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Months Of Investigation"}]

The affidavit shows DEA Task Force Officer Jeffery Allison opened a narcotics investigation into Angeles in December after investigators suspected he was selling methamphetamine and cocaine throughout southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho.

Working with a confidential informant and an undercover officer, investigators completed three controlled drug purchases from Angeles between January and April.

Those purchases totaled roughly 84 grams of methamphetamine and 90 grams of cocaine, the affidavit states.

When an undercover officer later tried to arrange another methamphetamine purchase in May, investigators say Angeles referred the buyer to another person in Victor, where about 56 grams of methamphetamine were purchased.

Meanwhile, investigators obtained court approval to install a GPS tracking device on Angeles' pickup truck.

From January through July, agents monitored the truck's movements and learned Angeles regularly visited a second home he owned at 445 Pinto Lane in Etna, often for brief visits inconsistent with someone living there full-time.

Investigators also conducted surveillance and trash pulls at the property.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Simultaneous Raids"}]

On Tuesday, officers executed search warrants at the Etna home, Angeles' primary residence in Jackson, and a third residence in Victor.

The affidavit says investigators found 40 grams of cocaine, 30 grams of methamphetamine, two AR-15 rifles and about $58,000 in cash at the Jackson residence.

After the arrest, investigators say Angeles admitted selling methamphetamine and cocaine and directed officers to additional narcotics stored at the Etna property.

There, officers recovered 54.1 grams of cocaine and 141.1 grams of methamphetamine.

Investigators say the drugs were hidden inside a garage closet connected to an entertainment room furnished with a pool table, foosball table, couch and television.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Children Visiting "}]

During the Etna search, officers encountered four adults and two children, ages 6 and 9, inside the home.

The children's father told investigators they were visiting from Pennsylvania for a birthday party and had spent the previous night at the house after Angeles offered them a place to stay.

The father reportedly told investigators he was unaware drugs were inside the home.

The affidavit says investigators believe Angeles knowingly allowed the children to remain inside a residence containing methamphetamine, forming the basis for a child endangerment charge.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Charges Filed"}]

Angeles made his initial appearance at a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning in Lincoln County Circuit Court, where Judge Thomas O. Deering advised him of the charges and set his bond at $250,000 cash only. 

He is charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance — one involving methamphetamine and the other cocaine — as well as felony possession of both drugs and one count of child endangerment.

Julio James Angeles 7 23 26

<title>Multi-State Drug Raid Shows Kids Slept in Home With Hidden Meth, Cocaine | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A monthslong investigation ended with coordinated raids in southwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho, where investigators found meth, cocaine and two AR-15s. They also allege children ages 6 and 9 stayed overnight in an Etna home where drugs were hidden.

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Michael P. Ramirez

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Michael P. Ramirez

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