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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, April 6, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Smile: Saturday, April 6, 2024

 Now let's all watch a totally not staged video of a puppy and a duckling going out for a walk....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

[{"type":"text","text":"In Wyoming elections, Trump giveth and Trump taketh away."}]

He’ll endorse some candidates on Election Day and others more than a year before they can even file to run. 

A three-time general-election favorite of the reddest state in the nation himself, Trump’s picks almost always win the state’s Republican primary elections.

The president has not endorsed anyone in Wyoming’s most bitter struggle for statewide office, the nine-candidate field of Republicans vying for U.S. House.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s unclear if he will. The election is Aug. 18."}]

One of the nine GOP candidates, conservative activist Steve Friess told Cowboy State Daily in a 

 that he’s heard he’s under consideration for an endorsement.

The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation by publication.  

Certified public accountant and political analyst Bill Cubin — son of former U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin — said in his own Friday interview that it wouldn’t surprise him if Friess has been getting “positive comments” from the Trump inner circle.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I’ll bet you privately, Chuck Gray is too,” added Cubin."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"‘"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Trump World'"}]

Secretary of State Gray, Friess, and seven other Republicans are running for the GOP nomination to the seat after U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman announced she’s leaving it to run for Senate.

The other candidates are: state Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, military veterans Kevin Christensen and David Giralt, former legislator Keith Goodenough, actor/singer Richard Dodson and Casper businessman Reid Rasner.

“It’ll be interesting to see what they do,” said Cubin of Trump’s top staffers, whom he calls “Trump world.”

“My personal opinion — if, you know, I’m connected to Trump world — my message to the president would be, there’s no reason to endorse anybody,” said Cubin. “Because whoever you get is going be your ally in the House.”

Wyoming hasn’t elected a Democrat to its lone U.S. House seat in 50 years.  

The first criterion in winning a Trump endorsement is past support for Trump, said Cubin.

[{"type":"text","text":"Plus, he said, the president likes to win."}]

“They’re going to pick someone that they think has a good chance of winning,” said Cubin. “Or they’ll pick an opponent of someone they hate.”

Projecting electoral victory also sends the message, “We run the Republican Party,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Election Day"}]

President Donald Trump endorsed Steve Friess’s late father, Foster Friess, for his gubernatorial run on primary election day in 2018.

The last-minute move wasn’t enough to get the Republican over the finish line, and he finished second place with about 26% of the vote after now-Gov. Mark Gordon, who won 33.4% and went on to win the general election.

Now-U.S. Rep. Hageman finished third in that race with about 21% of the vote, and three more Republicans trailed.

Trump later told the Daily Caller that he’d come to realize that by the time he endorsed Foster Friess, “almost 70% of the vote was already cast."

Foster Friess had shown a newsworthy support of Trump, opting to give the presidential hopeful financial backing in 2016 — a move 

 “a sign that more of the party’s moneyed elite are rallying behind Trump’s unconventional White House campaign.”

On the other end of the timing spectrum, Trump 

 for reelection 14 months before she could legally file to run again.

[{"type":"text","text":"And Lummis later chose not to run again."}]

Wyoming’s primary election, which tends to be more decisive than its general election, falls around the third week in August.

More timely were Trump’s past endorsements of U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (

), and state Senate candidate (now-U.S. Attorney for Wyoming) Darin Smith (

[{"type":"text","text":"The Switcharoo"}]

Trump endorsed Brian Schroeder in the 2022 race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, but Megan Degenfelder won.

It was the president’s second high-profile endorsee loss in a Wyoming race.

This cycle, Trump endorsed Degenfelder in her bid for governor on Jan. 9 — seven months before the election and three days before she publicly declared the run.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cubin noted that Hageman, a Trump ally, has also endorsed Degenfelder."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"That may be the right race for calling out preferences, said Cubin."}]

“Because there are only 50 governors in the country, you know,” he said.

Conversely, the House and Senate are more crowded arenas, with 437 representatives and 100 senators respectively.

Also in 2022, Trump endorsed Gray for secretary of state, and state Treasurer Curt Meier for reelection.

Trump pointed favor toward Gray again in 2023, 

 that covered in part a Laramie attorney’s challenge against Gray’s office, against Trump’s eligibility to appear on the Wyoming ballot.

for the Senate president’s efforts in passing school-choice legislation.

No Wyomingite is referenced more on Trump’s TruthSocial page than former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, his sworn enemy.

The Republican delegate helped to investigate Trump as part of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s often called the J6 Committee."}]

Trump speculated in May 2022 about Cheney dropping out of the race rather than filing for reelection. He held a 

 in Casper that month to raise money for Hageman’s challenge against Cheney.  

” one month before her 2022 primary election.

 after Hageman beat Cheney overwhelmingly. He derided Cheney again on 

 calling her a “Warmonger of low intelligence.”

Trump endorse 7 31 26

<title>Will President Trump Endorse Anyone In The Wyoming GOP House Race? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

President Trump has not endorsed anyone in the nine-candidate Republican race for U.S. House and it’s unclear if he will. The president has a good batting average in Wyoming, but his endorsement hasn't meant a win every time.

Will President Trump Endorse Anyone In The Wyoming GOP House Race?

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Public Lands

Horse advocates are alleging that the Bureau of Land Management rushed rounded-up mustangs through holding corrals near Lander and sent them to dealers who subsequently sold them for slaughter.

Oregon-based Skydog Sanctuary has filed a complaint with the BLM. The group alleges the horses passed through the Lander Public Off-Range Pasture, also known as the Wind River Ranch, before they were sent to dealers in other states and sold for slaughter. 

The BLM confirmed it sends horses to the Wind River 

"We do have a contract with that sanctuary, which is authorized to offer horses for adoption and direct sale,” BLM spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman said in an email to Cowboy State Dai

Groups of horses, totaling 24 animals, arrived at the pasture in May and July. The Wind River Ranch is supposed to be a “long-term care” facility for mustangs rounded up off the range in Wyoming and other states, according to Skydog

But the horses were quickly sent to a dealer in Colorado, with no public notice of sale, Skydog claims.

“The horses whose sales were recorded were sold the same day as they arrived at Lander, indicating that the buyers were aware in advance that they were arriving,” according to Skydog.

Among those horses was at least one from Wyoming’s Salt Wells Creek herd, according to Skydog. That herd includes rare curly-haired mustangs.

“Nothing is as magnificent as the curlies that come out of Wyoming and the Salt Wells Creek herd,” Skydog founder Clare Staples told Cowboy State Daily.

She’s adopted several Wyoming mustangs, which live on her 9,000-acre horse and burro sanctuary near Bend, Oregon.

Staples said the latest complaint is the eighth Skydog and other wild-horse advocates have filed against the BLM recently.

However, the latest allegations stand out because of the status of the Wind River Ranch.

“This was unusual, because that’s supposed to be a semi-sanctuary facility,” she said. “Having the horses allegedly moved through so quickly and snatched up by one buyer really isn’t normal, like anything we’ve ever seen.” 

She also noted that some of the horses allegedly later sold for slaughter were young and healthy.

“Horses that absolutely could find some wonderful homes, but they’re not being offered a chance,” she said.

Wild-horse advocate Suzanne Roy told Cowboy State Daily the complaint claims the BLM broke its own rules by sending horses to a dealer known to sell horses for slaughter.

Advocates contend the BLM is not to knowingly send horses to slaughter or knowingly send or sell them to dealers who might do so, said Roy, founder of American Wild Horse Conservation based in Davis, California.

There are no longer any horse-slaughter plants in the United States, so horses are shipped to slaughterhouses in Mexico.

There is an overseas market for horse meat. Belgian chef Alfons Gulickx previously told Cowboy State Daily 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Continuous Check-Ins'"}]

Whiteman said the BLM prioritizes getting mustangs adopted

Adopted horses’ titles remain with the BLM for a year, during which time the agency conducts “continuous check-ins” to ensure the horses are well-cared for before the title is transferred to the new owner.

Even when horses can’t be adopted, the BLM looks out for their welfare, Whitman said. 

"A horse may only be offered for direct sale after it has been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times. With a direct sale comes an agreement where the buyer agrees they intend to keep the horse humanely, then a transfer of title,” she wrote. "BLM ensures all adopted and sold wild horses have met these conditions, and we investigate any complaints that come to us. After a horse's transfer of title, it is no longer under our jurisdiction. However, we do look into complaints regarding buyers or adopters potentially breaching the terms of their contract.” 

Those who have concerns about the fate of mustangs should contact the BLM directly, Whiteman said. 

"Our law enforcement and wild horse and burro specialist staff investigate these complaints thoroughly and seriously,” she wrote. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Tip Of The Iceberg’"}]

As a method of population control, the BLM frequently rounds up mustangs in Wyoming and other states.

The agency’s mission should be to adopt those horses out to people who will give them good homes, Roy said.

However, she said she thinks the agency is moving away from that and toward funneling horses to slaughter dealers.

“They don’t call them ‘adoption events’ anymore. They call them ‘placement events,’” she said.

“We’ve tracked large groups of horses going straight from events to ‘kill pens,’ where they’re sold for slaughter,” she said.

Advocates claim about 320 horses have been sent to kill pens across the country, Roy said.

“That’s probably just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

According to Skydog, Wyoming mustangs that have allegedly gone to kill pens include:

• A 7-year-old gelding from the White Mountain herd, sold at a kill pen in Oklahoma on June 22.

• A 5-year-old mare from the Steward Creek herd, sold May 30 in Colorado.

• A 4-year-old gelding from the Salt Wells Creek herd, sold May 8 in Texas.

• An 8-year-old mare from the Divide Basin herd, sold in Oklahoma on March 25.

Wild horses 7 31 26

<title>Mustang Advocates Claim BLM Funneled Wyoming Wild Horses To Dealer For Slaughter | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Mustang advocates are alleging that horses were funneled from a Bureau of Land Management holding facility near Lander to dealers in other states, who subsequently sold them for slaughter. A BLM spokesperson says the agency prioritizes adoption.

Mustang Advocates Claim BLM Funneled Wyoming Wild Horses To Dealer For Slaughter

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Colorado man wanted on 78 felony child exploitation charges was arrested Tuesday while working at a Saratoga sawmill, where authorities say he had been living and working for about five weeks before investigators tracked him to Carbon County.

Joshua Frasier, born in 1982, was taken into custody without incident after Saratoga Police Chief John Moore received a call from a Montrose County, Colorado, investigator around 12:30 p.m.

The investigator told Moore authorities received information that Frasier was working at Saratoga Forest Management, a sawmill on the south side of town.

Moore confirmed the felony warrant, obtained Frasier's driver's license photograph and asked a Carbon County Sheriff's Office deputy to assist with the arrest.

About 50 minutes later, the officers arrived at the mill and arrested Frasier while he was on the job.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He was cooperative through the arrest,\" Moore told Cowboy State Daily."}]

Frasier was transported to the Carbon County Detention Center, where he was booked on the Colorado warrant.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Living At Campground"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A warrant for Frasier's arrest was issued July 10 in Montrose County."}]

During the arrest, Frasier told officers he had been in the Saratoga area for about five weeks and had been staying at the Saratoga Lake Campground, Moore said.

Frasier also told officers they had previously gone to his parents' home in Montrose looking for him. According to Moore, Frasier said he believed that visit was related to a family-services matter and did not appear to know a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

According to court records, Frasier is charged with 50 counts of procurement of a child for sexual exploitation and 28 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

Colorado law defines procurement of a child for sexual exploitation as "causing, inducing, enticing or permitting a child to engage in sexually exploitative conduct for the production of sexually exploitative material."

The charging documents filed in Wyoming do not describe the allegations supporting the case.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Waived Extradition"}]

Frasier appeared Wednesday in Carbon County Circuit Court, where he waived his extradition hearing.

By waiving extradition, Frasier agreed to return to Colorado without contesting the transfer in Wyoming court.

Colorado authorities now have 10 days to take custody of him and transport him back to Montrose County to face the charges.

Cowboy State Daily sought the arrest affidavit and other investigative records to learn more about the allegations in the Colorado case.

The Montrose County courthouse said the affidavit could only be obtained in person.

Ed Thompson, records supervisor for the Montrose County Sheriff's Office, declined to release investigative records, telling Cowboy State Daily the agency does not release documents that "may hinder a case getting prosecuted."

As a result, the allegations underlying the 78 felony charges were not immediately available Friday.

A comment from the Montrose County District Attorney's Office was not returned. 

Saratoga town sign 2 6 29 23

<title>Colorado Man Wanted On 78 Child Exploitation Charges Arrested At Saratoga Sawmill | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Colorado Man Wanted On 78 Child Exploitation Charges Arrested At Saratoga Sawmill

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Courts

A Green River man who manipulated four underage children into performing sex acts on each other claims he didn’t entice the kids into “explicit sexual conduct” and that the 21-30 years he got in prison is cruel and unusual punishment.

The Wyoming Supreme Court disagrees in a Thursday ruling denying William J. Duncan’s appeal.

The justices didn’t buy Duncan’s legal arguments that even though he enticed the children to digitally penetrate and use sex toys on each other, that didn’t meet the legal standard for “explicit sexual conduct,” according to the ruling.

They also said, given that Duncan, 51, could have drawn a prison sentence of between 30 and 72 years, the 21-30 he got isn’t “cruel.”

“We therefore do not need to consider whether Mr. Duncan’s sentence shocks the moral sense of the people, and we decline his invitation to compare his sentence to those in other criminal cases,” the Thursday decision says.

A third prong of Duncan’s appeal also was denied by the high court — that the jury may not have been unanimous on some of his charges.

Duncan was convicted in July 2025 by a Sweetwater County jury of six counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two of endangering children, and one count of unlawful contact without bodily injury.

Because there were four child victims in the case, the county District Court judge imposed four sentences, to run consecutively. That includes three 7-to-10-year sentences and five years of supervised probation after prison.

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

The convictions stem from events that unfolded in about 2021 and 2022, when Duncan encouraged a pre-teen child into multiple sexual acts, some with an older teen and some with two other preteens, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Duncan furnished sex toys and alcohol to at least one child as well, according to an evidentiary affidavit Sweetwater County Criminal Chief Deputy Attorney Micaela Lira compiled from the notes of Green River Police Department Detective Martha Holzgrafe and Sgt. Lars Nandrup.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Duncan did not testify at his trial."}]

The jury deliberated four hours after the trial ended, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe 

he charging mechanism in Duncan’s case was unique, Erramouspe added.

“We charged him the statute that’s usually applied to child pornography (cases),” he said, referring to child sexual exploitation. “But the facts of the case fit it.”

Wyoming doesn't have a "grooming" statute, though the Legislature discussed passing one earlier in 2025. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Yes,  That Was ‘Explicit’"}]

The investigation started in January 2025, when a counselor alerted Green River Police Department investigators to potential criminal activity.

The victim spoke to police and gave a forensic interview that implicated Duncan in sexual enticement and grooming, and physical violence, the affidavit says.

Police also reviewed text messages between Duncan and the victim in which Duncan demanded the victim delete their communications.

Other text messages show the pair discussing alcohol and the child talking about being drunk; and others show Duncan discussing with the child the “practicing” of sexual acts, the document says.

The Wyoming Supreme Court justices also point out some of the specifics behind Duncan’s convictions, including how he groomed the child and tried to hide the behavior from other adults.

That’s included in what the court cites in dismissing Duncan’s argument that the acts the children performed on themselves weren’t “explicit” conduct, according to Wyoming law.

“Mr. Duncan’s conduct of encouraging the Minor Child to digitally penetrate and use sexual devices on (another minor child) constitutes ‘explicit sexual conduct,’ and the convictions … are supported by sufficient evidence,” Thursday’s opinion says.

Duncan also unsuccessfully argued in his appeal that there wasn’t enough evidence to support that he “enticed” minor children into sex acts, according to the opinion.

William Duncan and Green River 7 31 26

<title>Supreme Court Says 30 Years Green River Man Got For Exploiting Kids Isn't Cruel | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Green River man who manipulated four underage children into performing sex acts on each other claims that the 21-30 years he got in prison is cruel and unusual punishment. The Wyoming Supreme Court disagrees in a Thursday denial of his appeal.

Supreme Court Says 30 Years Green River Man Got For Exploiting Kids Isn't Cruel

A Texas truck driver accused of going on an angry rampage near Greybull, cussing out a coworker, then trying to run down three men while giving them the finger out the window of his semitrailer, could face up to 30 years in prison.

William Eric Vauter, 58, remains in the Big Horn County Detention Center after being bound over to district court Wednesday to face three felony charges of aggravated assault and battery, according to court records.

Vauter, who is from Houston, Texas, had been in a crash on County Road 26 outside Greybull, Wyoming, two days before and was visibly angry and hostile to a coworker and tow truck driver who had responded to retrieve his damaged semi, reports Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nathan Kreider in an affidavit of probable cause to support the charges.

He repeatedly cursed at the other men — and Kreider, who had responded to the scene to provide traffic control — and was belligerent after he nearly ran down the three other men in a semi doing at least 60 mph while barreling through the accident recovery scene, Kreider says in his affidavit.

“I observed a semi, white in color, travelling southbound from the bentonite plant towards our recovery scene at a high rate of speed,” the deputy wrote. “I started waving down the truck to slow down through the recovery area.”

Kreider also set the scene, explaining the tow truck had its flashing lights on, cones were out in the road to section off the area of the recovery, along with his emergency vehicle with lights flashing. Also, Kreider was in the road attempting to direct traffic.

“I was in the middle of the southbound lane in clear view of the driver, waving my arms above my head to get his attention,” Kreider wrote. “The semi did not reduce speed and continued towards the scene at a high rate of speed.”

The deputy says he yelled at the other two men to get out of the way, as they also were in the path of the semi.

“I attempted again to slow the semi down, and he did not comply,” the affidavit continues. “By that time, the semi was well within our recovery scene. It appeared that the driver had complete disregard for the safety of myself and the recovery crew.”

That’s when Kreider noticed something else that indicated the driver allegedly deliberately tried to hit them.

“I quickly looked at the driver and observed his left hand out the driver’s window giving the recovery workers the middle finger,” he wrote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cussing And Middle Fingers"}]

The table was set for the apparent road rage tantrum two days prior on July 20, when Vauter was driving another semitrailer on County Road 26 and was involved in a crash, disabling his truck.

On July 22, a man from a tow recovery service and a coworker of Vauter's from his trucking company, Marquardt Skyway Transportation, were working to remove the damaged truck, Kreider wrote in his affidavit.

The coworker had hauled another truck with him for Vauter to drive back to South Dakota after the crashed semi was secured.

While the coworker and tow driver worked, Vauter was angry with his coworker for reasons not described in the affidavit.

The coworker told the deputy that Vauter “was cussing him out off and on while they were working on the semi,” the affidavit says. “(He) stated that Vauter was in the spare semi that he had hauled to the scene for Vauter to drive back to South Dakota.”

A little later, Kreider wrote that he “observed (the coworker) go to the white semi and tell Vauter he could hook up to a flatbed trailer. Vauter exited his truck and immediately started screaming, ‘f*** you, f*** you’ and giving (the coworker) the middle finger on both hands.”

Vauter did hook the flatbed trailer to the white semi he was driving that day, and he left the scene going northbound toward the nearby bentonite plant, the affidavit says.

For the next 20 minutes, the other men worked to get the crashed truck secured.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Mad"}]

Then all heck broke loose as a white semi came racing back toward them from the same direction Vauter had left, the affidavit says.

As the other two men dove to avoid being hit by the semi driven by Vauter, Kreider reports that it came within a foot of making him a hood ornament.

After twice trying to stop the semi, “I then attempted to get out of the way to the west side of the roadway as the semi sped through the scene at an estimated speed of 60 mph or higher,” he wrote. “The semi came within approximately 1 foot of hitting me.

“As the semi passed me, I was close enough to feel the heat coming off the semi and a wall of displaced air sucking me towards the passing semi.”

A Texas truck driver is accused of going on an angry rampage near Greybull and trying to run down three men. That includes a Big Horn County deputy, who “observed his left hand out the driver’s window giving the middle finger” as he nearly hit them.

Daily Smile: Saturday, April 6, 2024

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