Same Guys Dancing

[{"type":"text","text":"Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit In The Sky"}]

Same guys 5 12 24

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

<title>Sunday Morning Dance Party: Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit In The Sky | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit In The Sky

Sunday Morning Dance Party: Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit In The Sky

Kerry Drake

Business & Tourism

Business

LARAMIE — The closure of any rural Wyoming hospital is “an economic earthquake” in a rural state that already has huge holes in its access to health care.

That’s the message Natrona Collective Health Trust (NCHT) CEO Beth Worthen had Friday during a statewide Healthcare Policy Summit at the Hilton Garden Inn.

If that’s true, Wyoming could have up to six tremors — three within the next two to three years — if hospitals now at risk of closure actually shut their doors.

“It doesn't just mean patients drive farther. It means the employer anchoring that town's economy disappears,” said Worthen. "The payroll that sustained the main street, the school funding, the housing market — gone.”

Worthen said she’s worried that the future of these institutions may be impacted by an initiative Wyoming voters will see on their ballots in November’s general election, when they will be asked to exempt 50% of a primary residence’s assessed value from property taxes.

Worthen noted that many of Wyoming’s rural hospitals and the 18 hospital districts statewide depend on local property tax revenue to operate.

They are already dealing with the loss of 25% of property tax revenue that the Legislature approved in 2025, she said.

"That (property tax) revenue is part of what keeps emergency departments open, labor and delivery wards staffed, and the lights on in communities where no private operator would stay,” said Worthen. 

NCHT, Wyoming’s largest private foundation, is not taking a position on the ballot initiative.

But Worthen said voters need to understand that a significant reduction in property tax revenues in a community where a hospital is already operating on thin margins “isn’t a separate question from rural hospital sustainability. It's the same question.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thin Margins"}]

To understand how thin hospital margins really are, Jeff Sollis, CEO of St. John’s Health in Jackson, shared how much his hospital receives in payments.

Sollis said 60% of the payer mix is from Medicare and 6% from Medicaid. A total of 29% is from health insurance payments, and 5% is self-paid by patients.

"We get paid around $90 million from Medicare and our costs are $120 million,” he said. “Medicaid reimburses us $2.8 million for $10 million of work. We lose about $43.7 million a year from providing services.”

Sollis said it’s only when private insurance pays that St. John’s is able to make up some of the difference, which annually leaves the hospital 5% in the hole.

“We have to figure out how we get to a 5% gain so we can reinvest in our people, our facilities, and technology,” he said. “So, it’s a very challenging set of circumstances.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Maternity Desert"}]

About 22% — more than one-fifth — of Wyoming is considered a “maternity desert” where communities don’t have birthing facilities or an obstetrical physician, the 

Since 2022, hospitals in Evanston, Rawlins, Kemmerer and Wheatland have closed their labor and delivery wards, Worthen said.

Wyoming now has 16 birthing hospitals across 97,000 square miles, she said, adding that hospitals find it exceptionally difficult to recruit and retain OB-GYNs.

Casper, a regional hub for health care services, had six OB-GYNs 18 months ago. Now there are two.

Marguerite Herman of Healthy Wyoming, which has long advocated for Medicaid expansion that the Legislature has repeatedly elected not to do, attended the summit and addressed the maternity desert issue.

“It’s one of those things where you have high fixed costs and low volume,” she said. “It’s just not going to pencil out for a hospital in Rawlins to have a full maternity ward.

“But at the same time, is this something that the state owes its residents, to not have to travel more than 100 miles to deliver a baby in the freezing winter?

Herman said the state may need to find supplemental money, whether it’s from the state or federal governments, to provide critical birthing centers in rural areas.

Worthen openly wonders if Wyoming officials have the political will to do that.

“Other states, like Alaska, are doing things better than we are, and they actually have more challenging geography than we have,” Worthen said. “We need the will to put the pieces together to keep our children here.”

Worthen, a sixth-generation Wyomingite, said her son Connor is a game warden in Saratoga, and his wife Kylie just graduated from the University Law School.

She said they want to have children, which fills Worthen “with a combination of joy and dread.”

The nearest obstetrician to Saratoga is in Laramie.

Worthen said that in the summer, it’s a lovely 45-minute drive over the Snowy Range, but in winter the trip must be made on Interstate 80, and the drive time at least doubles.

“A woman in her ninth month is not calculating that drive in ideal conditions,” Worthen said. “Two of my three children have left Wyoming for opportunities they couldn’t find here. I want to see my grandchildren born here."

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<title>Six Wyoming Hospitals Are At Risk Of Closure, Wyoming Health Official Warns | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At a healthcare summit in Laramie on Friday, one health official said six Wyoming hospitals are at risk of closure. Natrona Collective Health Trust CEO Beth Worthen said closing rural Wyoming hospitals would be “an economic earthquake."

Six Wyoming Hospitals Are At Risk Of Closure, Wyoming Health Official Warns

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

An Albany County couple who lost most of their possessions in a fire that left their house unlivable say their insurance company’s mishandling of the situation has left them essentially homeless for nearly 18 months.  

At about 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, 2025, Sandy Crawford was relaxing and watching television in one of the rooms of the spacious home she and her husband Jack own in a rural neighborhood near Laramie, when Jack entered the room frantically.

“He came running in and said, ‘The house is filling up with smoke, call 911,'” Sandy told Cowboy State Daily.

Apparently, a fire had started somewhere in the massive stone chimney in their home’s living room.

Firefighters arrived quickly and battled the blaze for hours. 

At about 2:30 a.m. on Feb 28, a huge stone chimney chase in the living room collapsed, 

crushing Laramie firefighter Dylan Schilt

, who was left temporarily paralyzed. One of his colleagues also suffered a knee injury.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Living In A Hotel"}]

The Crawfords made it out unharmed, but say they haven’t been back home since. 

As they see it, the Laramie Fire Department and other agencies that responded could have had the fire out much sooner, with far less damage to their home.

A request for comment from the Laramie Fire Department wasn’t answered by publication time.

The Crawfords say they lived in a fifth-wheel camper trailer for a time.

Then Jack had to get double hip replacement surgery and was unable to climb the stairs to get into the camper. So, they started living in a hotel room in Laramie, dependent upon a living expenses payout from their State Farm Insurance.

The couple claims that State Farm has dragged its feet and made an offer that doesn’t nearly match the value of the damage to their home and lost possessions.

Meanwhile, their living expense account is running dry and Jack said a contractor recently told him that “the house is at least four to five months away from being livable again.”

State Farm responded to a request for comment with an email to Cowboy State Daily from the company’s corporate communications office.

“To respect our customer’s privacy, we can’t discuss specific claim details,” the company statement says. "Every claim is reviewed with care, based on the facts of the loss and the coverage in the policy. 

"We’re continuing to work with our customer and their representative to pay all benefits available under the policy. Customers with questions, concerns, or additional information are always encouraged to reach out."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Let Burn’ Order"}]

The Crawfords said that on the night of the fire, they were convinced that the blaze was inside the chimney, but firefighters took hoses into the house and sprayed water in several interior rooms, causing wall and floor damage.

After the chimney chase collapsed and Schilt was injured, firefighters cleared the house.

Sandy said several firefighters gathered on the back porch and when she approached to ask whether they could spray water down the chimney, one of the firefighters yelled that “we’re going to let your house burn.”

A sheriff’s deputy at the scene ordered them to leave, she and Jack both said.

Apparently, because of difficulties fighting the blaze and the injury suffered by a firefighter, a “let burn” order had been issued and the deputies were ordered to clear out non-essential personnel, in case the entire structure became engulfed, Jack said.

However, a ladder truck arrived about an hour later, he added.

“Luckily, the ladder truck poured enough water on the roof (that) the house didn’t become fully engulfed” and the fire was finally put out, Jack said.

The Crawfords claim they also had trouble with ServiceMaster restoration company after the fire.

They say they admonished the Cheyenne ServiceMaster franchise owner and his employees to let them monitor what was being taken out of the house. 

The also wanted to help assess what could or could not be salvaged because of smoke and water damage.

The Crawfords claim those requests were ignored, and ServiceMaster crews packed and removed things without their supervision or approval.

“I lost control of my house and all my possessions,” Jack said.

When a delivery of clothing was returned to their home, it included the wrong clothing, Sandy said.

“There was clothing for minors, kids’ clothes and what looked like go-go girl clothes,” she said. “I’m not a minor, I don’t have kids and I’m not a go-go dancer."

The couple claims that other items, including firearms, have gone missing and can’t seem to be located.

“A lot of stuff was broken or missing. They threw away things that they weren’t authorized to,” Sandy said.

The ServiceMaster franchise owner told Cowboy State Daily that he couldn’t comment because of possible litigation over the matter.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lowballed Paintings"}]

Jack said initial insurance payout estimates included roughly $800,000 for damage to the house, $500,000 for their possessions, plus roughly $200,000 in temporary housing expenses.

He said State Farm paid roughly $500,000 for the house, which still needs at least an additional $100,000 in repairs.

He added that the couple has received about $200,000 for possessions and roughly half of the initially agreed-upon living expenses.

Jack also is pushing back on the value of three 5-by-8-foot original oil paintings by famed artists Ralph Oberg and Taylor Blaylock.

The paintings came from the Riverbend mansion in Saratoga, and a professional art appraiser placed their value at about $233,000 each, Jack said.

State Farm has tried to place their value at about 10% of that, he added.

“State Farm has those appraisals (on the paintings), and they don’t want to pay on them. They’ve had those appraisals since Christmas,” Jack said.

Tyler Spalding is a desk public adjuster for the Panama City Beach, Florida-based Noble Public Adjusting Group.

The company specializes in advocacy for people with allegedly mishandled insurance claims, Spalding told Cowboy State Daily.

"We’re basically their voice when they have none,” he said.

Spalding recently reached out to alert Cowboy State Daily about the Crawfords’ situation.

Insurance companies and vendors sometimes try to take advantage of elderly people, such as the Crawfords, he said.

“It’s a cash grab for these vendors. They go out and charge a lot of money to the insurance companies,” Spalding said.

He said he’s had numerous elderly clients who have been underpaid by insurance companies, as he thinks the Crawfords have been.

“Essentially, they’re not wanting to properly pay them for what their loss is worth,” Spalding said. “They’ve paid some, but it isn’t enough for the clients to be brought back to pre-loss conditions. It’s the same story across the country.

“This guy (Jack Crawford) is upset. He feels that the whole thing was handled wrong from start to finish,” Spalding added. “I want people to be aware of this, because I’m so sick of this going on."

Crawfords inset 6 12 26

<title>Couple Says Insurance Company’s Mishandling Of Fire Claim Has Made Them Homeless | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An Albany County couple who lost most of their possessions in a fire that left their house unlivable say that their insurance company’s mishandling of the situation has left them essentially homeless for nearly a year and a half.  

Couple Says Insurance Company’s Mishandling Of Fire Claim Has Made Them Homeless

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 felony charges in Wyoming after state investigators uncovered what they describe as a trail of forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Court records show Scott Keith Pryor, owner of The Good Car Dealer in Salt Lake City, has been charged with 15 counts of falsification, alteration, forgery or counterfeiting of vehicle title documents.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A Laramie County judge found probable cause June 4 to support an arrest warrant, and as of Friday afternoon, the warrant hand’t been served on Pryor.

The investigation centers on 15 hail-damaged Wyoming vehicles, but Wyoming Department of Transportation investigator Shane Fox wrote in an affidavit that Pryor bought 292 vehicles worth nearly $2 million through Copart auctions during the previous 12 months.

At the center of the case is an investigation by Fox, a senior investigator with WYDOT's Compliance and Investigation Section.

Fox wrote that the case began after employees in the Laramie County Clerk's Office noticed more than a dozen duplicate title applications they described as "very odd" and suspicious.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hailstorm Cars And Missing Titles"}]

The vehicles all trace back to a massive August 2025 Cheyenne hailstorm that caused widespread damage. 

Fox wrote that Pryor bought 15 Wyoming vehicles through Copart auctions in Colorado after insurance companies took possession of them following hail-damage claims.

Many of the vehicles were sold as "parts only," meaning they came with bills of sale rather than traditional titles.

Vehicles sold as parts-only units typically bring far less money than vehicles carrying clear titles. A clean title can dramatically increase a vehicle's resale value, the affidavit says.

Fox wrote that Pryor later submitted duplicate title applications through Laramie County in an attempt to obtain Wyoming titles for the vehicles.

[{"type":"text","text":"The applications all claimed the original titles had been lost."}]

Cheyenne auto dealer Dallas Tyrrell said dealers across southeast Wyoming are still dealing with the aftermath of the historic hailstorm.

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

One of Pryor's applications involved a Wyoming woman who died July 12, 2025, nearly three weeks before the Aug. 1 storm.

"It would have been impossible for (the woman) to sign the duplicate title application," Fox wrote.

The duplicate title application bearing her signature was dated March 5, 2026.

The investigator tracked down notaries and vehicle owners, the affidavit says. Several notaries allegedly told investigators the stamps were not theirs, the signatures were not theirs and they had never signed the documents in question.

Several vehicle owners also told investigators they never signed duplicate title applications.

In one case, Fox wrote that he met personally with a U.S. Air Force member stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

The service member reviewed the paperwork and said he had never signed the application. The same pattern appears again and again, documented throughout an 11-page criminal affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Facebook Connection"}]

As investigators dug deeper, the trail led to a company called Tennessee Titles, the affidavit says.

Pryor allegedly told investigators he found the company through Facebook and paid about $150 per title application, Fox wrote.

The people he dealt with were identified only as "Rashard" and "Miss Catherine," and primarily communicated through Facebook Messenger.

When Fox asked to see proof, Pryor reportedly said the computer used for those messages had been replaced, and the records were no longer accessible.

Pryor could not provide documentation establishing the legitimacy of the company or proof of payment.

He did acknowledge obtaining lien releases from financial institutions and completing money orders that were mailed to the Laramie County Clerk's Office along with the duplicate title applications, the affidavit says.

By then, investigators had begun contacting vehicle owners scattered across multiple states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Forged Names, Forged Stamps"}]

Fox wrote that one Colorado notary employed by Copart reviewed paperwork bearing her name and told investigators neither the stamp nor signature were hers. A Utah notary allegedly said the same thing.

Another notary denied notarizing multiple applications tied to the investigation, Fox wrote in the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Several vehicle owners denied authorizing the documents."}]

One business executive told investigators a person listed on a title application had no affiliation with the company and no authority to sign documents on its behalf.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fox wrote that he became convinced numerous signatures had been forged."}]

The affidavit details vehicle after vehicle, owner after owner and notary after notary, each producing similar results, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Titles Matter"}]

The allegations may sound like little more than paperwork fraud, but Tyrrell said vehicle titles can dramatically affect a vehicle's value and whether buyers can insure, finance or legally operate it.

A clean title is every bit as important as what's under the hood, he confirmed. 

Tyrrell said reputable dealers carefully examine a vehicle's title history before offering it for sale.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We see victims to scams like this all the time,\" he said."}]

Tyrrell said consumers should work with licensed, reputable dealers and pay close attention to a vehicle's title history before making a purchase.

"It's so important to use somebody that has a license and is reputable," he said, adding that often these scamsters don't get prosecuted at all because the schemes are comlex. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long Road Ahead"}]

Fox believes the duplicate title applications allowed vehicles that had moved through the insurance and salvage system to re-enter the marketplace with Wyoming titles.

He wrote that some of the vehicles had previously been sold through Copart as salvage or parts-only units.

The affidavit alleges Pryor later sold the vehicles to buyers in Utah with unbranded titles, and at a "nice profit." 

Fox declined to answer questions about the case and did not respond to additional requests for comment.

Good car dealer 6 12 26

<title>Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 Wyoming felony charges for the alleged attempted illegal resale of nearly $2 million worth of hail-damaged vehicles. Investigators describe a trail of alleged forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars

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

Clair McFarland

A retired Wyoming judge on Friday struck down three state-level abortion restrictions.

One would have required abortion clinics to be licensed as surgical centers and that abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 10 miles of the clinic. Another would have required women 

 an ultrasound 48 hours before taking abortion drugs.

The third law took on the abortion issue from a backward angle: it was a response to the COVID-19 era, when at least one Wyoming doctor reportedly suffered professional consequences for prescribing off-label drugs to treat

The Legislature in 2025 gave protections to doctors prescribing drugs off-label, but carved out abortion drugs so that medical professionals prescribing off-label abortion drugs wouldn’t enjoy those protections.

None of these laws survive the Wyoming Constitution’s call for health care autonomy, ruled District Court Judge Thomas Campbell, who was called to return to the bench in 2025 and oversee this case in place of any regularly-seated Natrona County District Court Judge.

The difference between retired judges recalled to service and seated district court judges in Wyoming is that seated judges face retention elections every six years.

Campbell’s Friday order gave summary judgment — which is a pre-trial win — to the pro-choice coalition suing the state.

The judge said the pro-choice group provided evidence “that abortion is inherently safe.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Johnson’ Ruling"}]

Campbell’s order relies on the Jan. 6 ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court, called the “Johnson” ruling. 

That ruling struck down two laws that together banned nearly all abortions, but had exemptions for medical emergencies, rape, and incest. 

The Johnson case, a landmark ruling in Wyoming, declares that abortion access is a fundamental health care right under the Constitution’s health care clause. 

To overcome that right, the state would have to survive the most rigorous standard in constitutional law and show it has a compelling interest to restrict the right, and that its restrictions are both capable of achieving that interest and narrowly tailored to do so.

According to Campbell, Wyoming didn’t bring adequate evidence to show it needs these abortion restrictions. The judge blocked all three laws, permanently, from being enforced.

“In these instances, the Court agrees with the (pro

choice group) Plaintiffs’ characterization that these laws ‘are solutions in need of a problem,’” wrote Campbell in the order.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office had argued that the ultrasound requirement would help protect women who don’t know they have ectopic pregnancies and take abortion drugs, risking ruptures and other serious conditions.

Campbell said the study the state brought as evidence was inadequate 

 there were anachronisms in the evidence.

As for the 48-hour waiting period, wrote Campbell, “the State cites 

 empirical evidence regarding the propriety of a waiting period.”

The AG’s office had argued, conversely, that the waiting period would help a woman consider the accuracy of her ultrasound and whether she wants a second opinion on it.

The state had defended the law requiring clinics to meet surgical center requirements by noting that it would tether abortion clinics to cleanliness standards in the associated Wyoming Department of Health rules.

But the state failed to show that the abortion clinic isn’t already meeting cleanliness standards, Campbell parried.

“Thus, the Court cannot conclude this concern is justified,” wrote Campbell. “Instead, the harm remains speculative.”

Regarding the law’s requirement for admitting privileges, the state had argued that abortionists should be linked with a nearby hospital because otherwise, they could simply send harmed women to an emergency room and dodge accountability for botched surgeries.

Campbell called that allegation conclusory, and said the state offered no evidence “regarding the prevalence of such an event.”

Campbell also maintained that the carveout under Wyoming’s off-label protection law acted like a harm to those prescribing chemical abortions.

“As the Plaintiffs aptly note, mifepristone and misoprostol are the most common medications prescribed for a chemical abortion,” Campbell wrote, “the combination of which is considered an ‘off-label indication’ for the drugs.”

By excluding them from protections, the carveout would have greenlit consequences for chemical abortion providers, Campbell concluded.

[{"type":"text","text":"And The Next Rodeo"}]

Wyoming has been defending its many abortion bans and restrictions from roughly the same pro-choice coalition since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and made the issue a state-level policy decision in 2022. 

A retired Wyoming judge on Friday struck down three state-level abortion laws, including one requiring abortion clinics be licensed as surgical centers. He said the pro-choice group challenging the laws provided evidence “that abortion is inherently safe.”

Sunday Morning Dance Party: Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit In The Sky

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