You Still Here

It could be argued that the best time to bark is before the intruder has reached the front door....

You still here 7 19 24

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

<title>You Still Here? Friday, July 19, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Friday, July 19, 2024

 It could be argued that the best time to bark is before the intruder has reached the front door....

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

Clair McFarland

Politics

Government & Politics

U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray’s recent campaign poll contained subjective attacks, 

images of the poll questions provided to Cowboy State Daily, coupled with an interview,

 that Gray sent a poll by high-profile pollster Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, which worked with President Donald Trump’s campaigns.

The poll showed Gray leading at 21% support, with nine other candidates trailing at 14% and less. There also were 33% who registered as “strong undecided."

The poll also contained a push phase, where recipients received “information” about Gray and two of his opponents, Casper-businessman Reid Rasner and Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, according to a methodology breakdown included in the poll memo Gray sent Cowboy State Daily.

After the “information” dump, Gray’s percentage points doubled, while Rasner’s and Friess’s sunk.

The “information” comprised bizarre and subjective campaign attacks, a survey recipient told Cowboy State Daily soon after the 

Former state Rep. Ember Oakley, a Republican and former legislator who now lives in Kemmerer, was one of those who took the poll. She sent Cowboy State Daily screenshots she said she took while answering the May 13 survey.

[{"type":"text","text":"'His Family's Wealth'"}]

“Steve Friess is a Jackson Hole elitist who has never held a real job and has lived his entire life off his family’s wealth,” one screenshot says. “The same out-of-touch privilege that leaves him completely disconnected from the struggles of working families in Wyoming.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess told Cowboy State Daily prior that he’s worked in finance."}]

He has been active as a philanthropist, and helped form executive order drafts to offer to Trump upon the president’s first inauguration in 2017.

Friess and his wife also founded a Christian school, Jackson Hole Classical Academy, in 2014.

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley said she found the push poll’s information laughable."}]

“That was straight irony,” she said. “Chuck Gray, as far as I know, and I’ve asked, hasn’t had a career or a real, legitimate job before he got into Wyoming politics."

Gray, who is 36, told Cowboy State Daily prior that he worked in his father’s radio business. He has been in Wyoming politics since at least 2017, when he joined the Wyoming House of Representatives.

“His campaign money and everything, his finances, have been 

,” said Oakley. “To write that Friess is out of touch because he’s lived off his family’s wealth and hasn’t had a real job is, like, describing Chuck.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley then laughed. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess’s campaign manager declined to comment Monday."}]

The “information” the poll reportedly dispatched about Rasner contained more objective information, but at least one subjective theory and some loaded framing.

“Reid Rasner married his gay husband in New York, hyphenated his name like a Hollywood celebrity, then divorced him in Wyoming and hit him with a strict gag order — banning his ex-husband from using his name mentioning his job, or even referring to details of their marriage on podcasts or social media,” says one of the screenshots.

While many of those facts are correct, nothing in the court documents that underpin them accuses Rasner of behaving “like a Hollywood celebrity.”

Rasner had married a man in New York, New York in 2012, and the pair divorced in 2020, Wyoming court documents show.

 the pair not to make derogatory comments about one another. After the ex-husband took to his podcast and the Internet to talk about Rasner, the judge ordered the 

 man to show cause, then issued a stipulated order in 2022 containing numerous specific bans.

“Defendant shall never insinuate any facts about plaintiff that would negatively impact his type of employment as a financial planner” or say other, certain salacious things about him, the judge ordered.

Rasner’s campaign spokesman did not respond by publication to a text message request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Propaganda’"}]

Gray told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the “information” in the poll included “different points on our records.”

Later when confronted with the screenshots, Gray didn’t outright confirm the content, but he said that the initial ballot test — from which he scored 21% 

 from the 400-person hypothetical election the poll posits — was given “before any prompts.”

“The initial ballot test is the key,” he said. “This is the standard in all polling.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley called it propaganda.  "}]

“I think the technical term is called push polling,” she said. “It’s just done for propaganda and for campaign reasons.”

In the prompts, said Oakley, “they clearly were just writing things that were inflammatory.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Too Early Anyway"}]

Rob Wallace, a longtime Wyoming politico, cast skepticism on a poll conducted so early in the race even before the screenshots with the bizarre prompts surfaced.

Wallace served as assistant secretary to the U.S. Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration and years prior worked multiple political campaigns as an advisor for the late U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop. 

He also ran for Congress in 1994 and finished second in a crowded primary to Rep. Barbara Cubin.

“Polling this early in the campaign is like endorsements,” he said. “It’s good to have favorable information, but the real part of the race isn’t going to get going until probably after the Fourth of July.”

The filing period for candidates ended Friday, and the primary election is Aug. 18.

Wallace also hesitated to attach significance to the poll since the “information" the Fabrizio team gave voters was unknown.

“Without really understanding all the pieces of the poll, it’s hard to give a complete assessment of what it means,” he said.

Now that the filing period has ended, the other nine candidates in the Republican U.S. House primary race are going to burst into public view as much as they can, Wallace said.

Between the poll and the filing deadline, two more candidates registered: Keith Goodenough and Richard Dodson.

[{"type":"text","text":"That puts the primary race at 10 contenders."}]

Whoever wins that race will have to face the Democratic candidate, plus the Libertarian nominee Shawn Johnson, who 

“There are a couple reasons for putting a favorable poll out” at this phase, said Wallace. One reason could be to dissuade others from running; and another could be to reassure one’s base and supporters.

“It’s like a good-news story for the people you want to attract,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"The big unknown, said Wallace, is what Trump will do."}]

The president has endorsed Megan Degenfelder for governor over her GOP opponents.

[{"type":"text","text":"He has not endorsed anyone in the crowded U.S. House primary race."}]

Friess, Rasner, Gray, Balow, and Biteman all have dispatched messaging indicating alignment with Trump.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner and Gray tout themselves as MAGA-style candidates."}]

Biteman has for years had a collaborative relationship with the president, he’s told Cowboy State Daily prior.

Christensen is a strong outlier there: he condemned the president’s April social media post of an AI-generated image depicting Trump as a Jesus-like figure, healing an ailing man while others circle him in gestures of prayer.

A Trump endorsement, said Wallace, “could be a game-changer if he decides to do it. And maybe he won’t — maybe he won’t endorse anybody.”

Chuck gray 6 1 26

<title>Chuck Gray’s U.S. House Poll Leveled Disparaging Remarks Against Rasner, Friess | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The poll U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray touted Monday leveled disparaging claims about opponents Reid Rasner and Steve Friess. It claimed Friess "never had a real job" and Rasner acted like a "Hollywood celebrity" during a marriage to "his gay husband."
 

Chuck Gray’s U.S. House Poll Leveled Disparaging Remarks Against Rasner, Friess

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Cheyenne’s Public Service Committee has advanced a measure that could put two multimillion-dollar Derby Club locations out of compliance with city rules. 

Two committee members, meanwhile, signaled unease with the idea and said they want to revisit the matter latter.

At issue is a proposed regulation that would prohibit gaming centers like historic horse racing from locating within a 500-foot radius of schools, churches, parks, and licensed child care centers. 

The measure follows in the wake of legislation approved earlier this year that gave cities and towns more authority over where historic horse racing terminals are located. 

Senate File 45 gave cities and towns local authority to deny simulcasting permits. 

Prior to that, municipalities had little say over where facilities could be as their locations were permitted through the relevant county commission. 

Cheyenne has 10 historic horse racing facilities that have been permitted under that old procedure. Two of those 10 are located within 500 feet of a licensed child care facility.

Drawing A New Map For Historic Horse Racing

Planning staff had originally crafted the 500-foot buffer to apply only to standalone child care centers operating in their own buildings. 

That provision was broadened during a May 18 Planning Commission meeting to include any licensed child care center, even if tucked inside a larger, multi-tenant commercial building.

Cheyenne Planning and Development Director Charles Bloom told the Public Service Committee on Monday afternoon that the change, if allowed to stand, would have a dramatic impact for two Derby Club facilities, making them ineligible to come back for reapprovals under a new special-use process. 

One is the flagship Derby Club on Pershing Boulevard, which is within 500 feet of a child care facility located in Gold’s Gym. 

The other is the Derby Club at Ridge Road and Pershing, where there’s a child care center in a storefront near the Albertsons shopping center.

Under the city’s proposed ordinance, existing facilities that don’t meet the city’s new standards must come back to the city for special use approval by Dec. 31, 2027. 

The intent of that is to “mirror” sunset provisions in the state statute for existing county-approved licenses for historic horse racing facilities, Bloom said, and “require all of those uses essentially to come back to the city for approval this time in front of the governing body instead of the Board of Adjustment.” 

The only exceptions to that would be those who are in an overlay district that the city is also creating. 

Called a regional entertainment overlay district, these would include the 15th Street Railcar Experience between Capitol and Reed avenues, as well as the West Lincoln Corridor, the Hitching Post area on the south side of Lincolnway, and areas out west toward Little America and the High Plains Road Interchange.

Every existing facility could reapply for their permits, Bloom said, except those falling within the 500-feet buffer.

“The way this is set up is it requires any use that would not be allowed to reapply,” Bloom said. “Then we would have to review them, subject to the development standards, including that buffer. That would not give two of the facilities … the ability to reapply.”

Traci Lacock, general counsel for Wyoming Downs and 307 Horse Racing, told the Public Service Committee that her clients support the zoning overhaul, but asked the committee to consider reverting back to how the ordinance was presented prior to the May 18 Planning Commission changes, which make two Derby Club locations non-compliant.

“Both our facilities went through the conditional use process that’s currently in place, and was approved,” she said. “The city has already considered the location of these existing businesses and approved them to operate.”

The investment in the two facilities has not been insignificant, she added.

“Pershing facility, we invested about $20 million to make that facility what it is,” she said. “It’s pretty impressive. And the Ridge Road location, we just spent a little over $4 million to date.”

The Pershing facility renovated the old Montgomery Ward facility, which was empty, adding to it a bowling alley, an arcade, a children’s play area, laser tag, and escape rooms. 

The activities are meant for all ages, Lacock added, but without the off-track betting (OTB) facility, those amenities would not be possible. 

“Our OTB in our simulcasting facility is completely separated, and only 21 and older is allowed in that,” she said. “And we do monitor it very closely. We’ve had no issues with that.”

Lacock said the facility has worked hard to maintain a good working relationship with the Cheyenne Police Department and said that, so far, any issues at either facility have been “fairly insignificant.”

“I think it’s important to note the Ridge location operated as a bar for many, many years, and then we took it over,” she said. “And the Office Bar and Grill, which has a smoking and cigar lounge in the back, operates even closer to that child care center that’s at issue in Gold’s Gym.”

Wyoming Downs and 307 Horse Racing President Kyle Ridgeway told Cowboy State Daily that the company was required by the city to put more than $2 million into parking, landscaping, and access improvements to obtain its conditional use permits with the city. 

Blocking the businesses from renewing their approvals under the city’s new framework would raise questions about grandfathering, he suggested, even as he reaffirmed the company’s overall support for Cheyenne’s efforts to clarify where historic horse racing facilities can operate.

Sponsor Would Prefer To Lose Broader Language

Councilman Mark Moody, who sponsored the measure imposing a 500-foot buffer between gaming parlors and schools or day cares, also spoke during the hearing, telling the Public Service Committee he would prefer it reverted to its original form. 

Councilman Larry Wolfe suggested that the measure might best be tackled in a work session.

“Just sitting here listening to this — and I’m not a sponsor of this — I haven’t heard really anything about this,” he said. “It strikes me that this is a very important and complicated issue. 

"You’re going to have to educate some other people on the council about it, me included.”

A work session would offer both councilmen and the public to have a chance to provide their input into “these really significant decisions,” he added.

“I guess my point is, we’re going to need to hear a lot about this,” he said. “These designations of these restricted areas alone have obvious consequences for these companies, and maybe other companies. We’ve heard no discussion about that at all.”

Public Service Committee members signaled that they do see problems with the buffer as it stands in the ordinance, saying it's still a work in progress.

Councilman Mark Rinnie talked about the rationale for the buffer zone before it was put to a vote. 

“At the time, there were seven historic horse racing venues in Cheyenne, nine in the county, and of those seven only six were zoned properly,” he said. “The other six had gone through our processes and received a conditional use permit from the Board of Adjustments, which is an appointed board. They’re not elected like we are.”

Rinnie said he and other council members received a significant number of emails asking why Cheyenne was allowing “all these” gaming facilities.

“At the time, state statute did not give us control over where these went,” he said. “Senate File 45, which was approved during the budget session, does allow municipalities to have some input into the decision.”

The other problem with how it was done in the past, Rinnie added, is that the matter never came before the City Council at all. 

“A couple other parts to this is that these are going to be handled just like liquor permits,” Rinnie said. “They will be reviewed periodically. That review is based on the state Gaming Commission, which allows their approvals to last up to three years. 

"So our ordinance kind of mirrors that as well. So that’s the rationale behind the ordinance. It does bring the control a little more to the city.”

With the overlay area for selected entertainment districts, it’s also encouraging the development to locate in particular areas where the facilities are more encouraged than in others. 

Rinnie said he supports reverting back to the original form of the measure and not incorporating the Planning Commission’s May 18 recommendations, but called for voting on the measure, so that it continues to move ahead in a timely fashion. 

Councilwoman Kathy Emmons, meanwhile, pressed Bloom on whether the ordinance would grandfather existing businesses and also asked for a rationale as to why licensed child care centers should have special separation from gaming centers but not bars or liquor stores. 

Bloom said applying the same buffer to bars or liquor stores might be a logical extension, but that fell outside the scope of what his office had been asked to do.

Emmons, like Rinnie, said she would vote for the measure but said she wants to revisit the child care issue.

“I’m not prepared to do that today, but I do want to bring that back,” she said. “At least give it some more attention, and make sure that either we are giving them 500 feet or we’re figuring out what to do about those people who are already in play.”

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

The committee unanimously approved a motion recommending the measure to the Cheyenne City Council. 

From there, the measure heads to the June 8 City Council meeting for a second reading, after which it returns to the Public Service Committee on June 15 for detailed review and potential amendments.

After that, it will return for a projected third and final reading on June 22.

Amendments to the measure can be introduced at any of those stages.

For now, the two Derby Clubs remain in compliance. 

But under the ordinance as written, both would be barred from renewing their permits once state sunset deadlines hit — despite millions of dollars already invested.

Derby Club IMG 6426 6 1 26

<title>Proposed Rules Could Block Two Cheyenne Gaming Locations From Renewing Permits | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne City Council committee on Monday advanced a measure that could put two multimillion-dollar gaming establishments out of compliance with city rules. It would prohibit gaming centers from being within 500 feet of day care centers and schools.

Proposed Rules Could Block Two Cheyenne Gaming Locations From Renewing Permits

Julie Mankin

Crime & Courts

A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the 17-year-old girl accused of stabbing three horses during a major rodeo event in Las Vegas over the weekend was the same rider who tried to borrow one of her horses.

“About a month ago, I got a message from a girl asking if I had a horse she could run,” said Lora Nichols of Pavillion. “I said no, and she kept asking about each of my specific horses. 

“This weekend I looked to see if it was the same girl they arrested. It was! It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too. It could have been me just as easily.”

Nichols, who has earned more than $400,000 competing on the half-brother brother of one of the stabbed horses, said she’s especially horrified by the attack.

Along with Nichols, Wyoming’s rodeo community is shocked and appalled by the Tonya Harding-like violent rampage that left the three barrel racing horses stabbed multiple times.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened"}]

Las Vegas police report that the 17-year-old barrel racer was arrested in connection the attack on the horses of competitors.

The girl is accused of stabbing each of the horses multiple times inside their stalls during 

the NBHA Professional’s Choice Vegas Super Show at the South Point Equestrian Center.

The attack came just hours after one of the horses — a 6-year-old gelding named Saaul Good — had carried 20-year-old Hailey Krahenbuhl to a first-place paycheck of $1,805. 

The horse, which Krahenbuhl calls “Sully,” has shattered arena records this season and racked up $238,388 in earnings in less than four years competing. 

“Sully was stabbed multiple times last night,” Krahenbuhl posted to her Facebook page on Saturday. “I have no words. He is stitched up and in recovery.” 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reports that officers received a report at around 2:07 a.m. Saturday that a horse had been injured inside a South Point barn. 

When officers arrived, they learned three horses had been “intentionally injured with a sharp object” believed to be a knife, police say.

Veterinarians reportedly cleaned and sutured deep blade lacerations to Sully’s flank and shoulder. 

Another competitor named Keira Weisbart confirmed on social media that her horse, Rocket, was stabbed three times and had other “stab attempts around his body.” 

That horse was reportedly treated and released at the scene.

A third stabbed horse, however, underwent emergency surgery to repair muscle tissue damage. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Detail’s Ordeal"}]

Southern California barrel racer Arielle Phillips owns that third horse, a mare she calls Detail was stabbed multiple times.

, Phillips described the arrested teen as “a crazy obsessed stalker who has been following me on social media for a long time, obsessing over Detail, obsessing over meeting me.”

Phillips said she’d arrived back at the South Point barn to find the suspect hosing off Detail’s wounds.

“Cameras verified her entering our stalls,” wrote Phillips. “I can’t even put into words the pain I feel for my mare and for Hailey’s Sully.”

She said the attack has also affected her horse.

“Detail is traumatized,” Phillips wrote. “Every time she runs away from the approach of my hand, I burst into tears. This is my best friend. An innocent sweet horse was brutally tortured for no reason.”

While all three horses are expected to recover, they are sidelined for the near future and aren’t able to compete.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Champion Lineage"}]

Krahenbuhl, the daughter of a Las Vegas landscaper who grew up about 15 minutes from The Strip, had plans to hit the rodeo road with Sully — whose sire Winner’s Version has produced earners of more than $7 million — and make an NFR run in 2027. 

“We were a match from the beginning and my dreams became reality, all thanks to him,” she wrote prior to the attack from Globe Life Field during the $3 million American Rodeo. 

 to help with at veterinary for all three of the horses.

Nichols said she knows those other girls and is heartbroken for them and their horses.

“I’ve competed alongside Hailey a lot, and she’s an amazing human being,” said Nichols. “I think of the raw emotion and just the blood, sweat and tears she’s put in ­— you know, how hard she’s worked to get there. 

“When I heard it was her horse, I was just sick to my stomach.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, detectives located the suspect at a nearby hotel and took her into custody.

“She was transported to Clark County Juvenile Hall, where she was booked on 12 counts of willful or malicious killing, maiming or torturing of an animal and three counts of felony malicious destruction of private property over $5,000,” investigators told KTLA 5 Morning News.

Because of her age, official law enforcement sources have not identified the suspected publicly.

Veteran barrel racers have over the years heard rare rumors of winning horses being poisoned, but a brazen rash of stabbings is a first. 

Nichols said the incident makes her think of a made-for-TV movie in which the stalker ends up booked for murder. 

She’s also grateful the suspect wasn’t targeting the girls themselves.

“I just think we’re sheltered from that so much in our world,” added barrel racer and Gillette College rodeo coach racer Casey Rae Sellers. “The youth in our industry are pretty dang good kids. This is so out-of-character for the Western industry.”

Ariella Phillips and Detail Mix Collage 01 Jun 2026 12 11 PM 2427 6 1 26

<title>Wyoming Barrel Racer Says She Was Approached By Alleged Horse-Stabber | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the teen girl accused of stabbing three horses in Las Vegas over the weekend tried to borrow one of her horses last month. “It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too,” she said.

Wyoming Barrel Racer Says She Was Approached By Alleged Horse-Stabber

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Courts

The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by what they call a lenient sentence handed down to the driver.

David Vincent Johnson, 34, was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of supervised probation and fines in Sheridan County Circuit Court on Friday after a nearly four-hour sentencing hearing.

The sentencing happened a year and a day after Johnson 

, who had been legally crossing in the crosswalk when Johnson hit her with his pickup.

Fitzsimmons had been visiting her daughter Kate Gladdin and husband Nate, from Australia, when she was struck.

She died of blunt force trauma to her head after being thrown more than 7 feet by the vehicle.

Johnson, who was not impaired at the time of the accident, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, which is punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both.

In Wyoming, vehicular manslaughter can be either a misdemeanor or felony, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

To be considered a felony, the driver has to be driving recklessly or be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"High Bar"}]

Since Johnson was sober, as Gladdin explained in an earlier interview, meeting the standard of “reckless” is a high bar.

Johnson’s sentence was in accordance with the plea deal he agreed to, as did Gladdin and her father, Vince, to avoid the pain of a trial and to protect her mother’s dignity, Gladdin said.

However, Gladdin said she hoped that Sheridan County Circuit Court Judge Sheryl Bunting would have punished Johnson to the full extent of the law, as is her discretion given his past criminal history related to his driving.

At the time of the accident, Johnson was on probation for domestic battery and evading police in 2024, according to court records.

The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by the 60-day sentence he got Friday. It brings “deeper grief,” not closure, said the woman’s daughter.

You Still Here? Friday, July 19, 2024

In case you missed it

More in You Still Here

Bonus Video 2: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Today In Ice Cream: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Today In Barbecue: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Today In Law Enforcement: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Most read