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The only time I've said, "I can do that," while watching the Olympics and was kind of correct....

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Monday, August 12, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Monday, August 12, 2024

 The only time I've said, "I can do that," while watching the Olympics and was kind of correct....

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland, raiding dumpsters and garbage cans.

She was finally treed in a resident’s backyard on Thursday afternoon, shot with tranquilizer darts and captured.

The bear was first spotted at the local golf course, Worland wildlife photographer James Yule told Cowboy State Daily.

He dubbed the bear, which weighed about 75 pounds, “Par 5.”

“She was out at the golf course for a day and then she decided, ‘To heck with this, I’m going into town to party,’” Yule said. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster."

At one point, Par 5 evaded capture by going way back into some Creekside weeds and “lying down in some cool swamp water,” Yule said.

Authorities tried hazing the bear out with noisy “whistler” charges fired from shotguns, but that didn’t work, he said.

Washakie County Sheriff’s Office deputies “were able to guide the bear into a tree in the Crimson/Cardinal area of Worland,” before it was tranquilized, according to the sheriff’s office.

After it was captured, Wyoming Game and Fish personnel took custody of the bear, the sheriff’s office stated.

Yule was on site when the bear was captured. He said he was told by Game and Fish agents that the bear will likely be released back into the wild, though it might have been previously captured in the Sheridan area.

"She might be given another chance because she’s a breeding-age female,” Yule said.

An inquiry sent to Game and Fish about the bear’s status on Friday wasn’t answered by publication time.

Bears getting too used to human-provided food sources, what wildlife agencies call “food conditioning,” is one reason why bears are sometimes captured and killed.

That was the case with another 3-year-old Wyoming black bear, which was killed by wildlife agents last month in Grand Teton National Park after it repeatedly obtained human food and started approaching people in the Jenny Lake area.

Yule said he hopes nobody hand-fed Par 5 during her adventure in Worland.

“Once somebody hand-feeds a bear, it will start walking right up to people expecting to get more food,” he said.

Worland resident Ron Goyn told Cowboy State Daily that he came home for lunch on Thursday and found the bear lurking in his backyard.

“My dog just blew up barking, viciously in the house, by my sliding glass door,” he said.

“I’m glad I had that door closed, because I glanced out there, and there was this black bear, just standing on my porch,” he said.

The bear started wandering about the yard, showing great interest in Goyn’s chicken coop.

“Apparently, she thought it was a cave,” and tried going inside, he said, adding that thankfully, his chickens were behind a fence and were unhurt.

The bear clambered over his fence and ended up in his neighbor’s yard, where it was treed by deputies, he said. 

He added that he called Yule to come over and take photos.

Yule said the police tried shooting the bear with a tranquilizer dart, which made it drowsy, but didn’t knock it out. Then Game and Fish agents arrived and darted it again, which did the trick.

“When the bear fell asleep, it got wedged in a fork in the branches,” Goyn said.

Yule said that a cherry-picker lift was brought in from a local business, and a Game and Fish biologist and sheriff’s deputy used it to reach the bear and heave it out of the tree.

Goyn said the drama with the bear in his and his neighbor’s yards lasted about three hours before Game and Fish finally hauled it away.

“It was kind of a strange deal for Worland,” he said.

There are occasionally black bears in the general area, but one coming into town is highly unusual.

"You hear about bears every once in a while along the Bighorn River,” he said. "There’s a lot of good natural resources for them along that river."

Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com

Worland bear Chris 2 7 3 26

<title>Black Bear Leads Authorities On Two-Day Dumpster-Raiding Chase Through Worland | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it ran in and around Worland. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster,” said one local who observed the bear.

Black Bear Leads Authorities On Two-Day Dumpster-Raiding Chase Through Worland

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily political columnist, Rod Miller.

Rod Miller

Opinion

CSD Columnists

When a New Hampshire federal district court recently ruled that the Trump Department of Justice had no legal right to confidential voter information from the state, it was the 11th time that the DOJ was shut down and told to keep their grubby paws off the states’ voter info. 

For those of you keeping track, it’s 11-0 on the scoreboard, and the states are pitching a no-hitter.

That begs the question, why did the Wyoming Secretary of State roll over and so readily provide that information to the feds based on a simple request, and not a formal subpoena? 

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray could have told the feds to shove their request where the sun don’t shine and, based upon those 11 aforementioned judicial decisions, he would have been on firm legal ground with the folks in black robes.

So, cynical minds might conclude that Gray had a political reason, rather than a legal reason, for sucking up to Trump’s DOJ. 

A conspiracy theorist might deduce that Gray offered our confidential voter information to the feds, because he wanted to curry favor with Trump and hoped for an endorsement for Gray’s congressional campaign.

And anyone who has heard Gray thump his shoe on the table, and sermonize about the dangers of federal overreach has to be scratching their head.

An email from Gray to the Washington Post adds credence to that conjecture, and supports those who think that he was tickled pink to make Wyoming the first state to kow-tow to the feds. 

In response to an inquiry from a reporter, Gray on January 28, 2026, said, “I am proud to have led other states in the nation in working with the DOJ…” and “Wyoming was the first state...to defend election integrity.”

Inquiring minds want to know why he sided with the feds over Wyoming, but Gray ain’t talking. Repeated requests under the Wyoming Public Records Act for Gray to reveal the reasoning behind his actions have been met with the same response. Gray says he was acting in close consultation with Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, and any advice he received is protected by attorney/client privilege.

If Wyoming’s attorney general gave legal advice to the Secretary of State that hasn’t held up in 11 other states (and counting), then Wyoming citizens should have questions about that, too. 

Wyoming Senator Cale Case asked Secretary Gray to explain himself in a Feb. 3, 2026 email. Gray shared that he had met with Kautz, gone over the DOJ request, and decided how Wyoming would knuckle under.  

But, today when we ask Gray why he ran up the white flag, he just clams up.  

Kind of leaves you wondering whether Chuck and his brain trust ever considered any of the reasons that have led 11 courts to say the DOJ never had the right to ask for ask any state for their confidential voter information.  

The veil of secrecy between Wyoming government and it’s citizens is being ferociously defended at the expense of government transparency.

Wyoming’s Supreme Court was even given an opportunity to pierce that veil in favor of the citizenry, but squirmed their way off the horns of that dilemma on a legal technicality. So, nobody but Gray and Kautz know the legal justification for Gray’s release of the personal information of Wyoming voters to the DOJ, in clear violation of state law.

But, there’s an element of humor in this whole fiasco. The voter rolls that Gray sent to DOJ in August of last year, were obsolete as soon as they were sent. 

Information on Wyoming voters is a moving target, and constantly in flux. State agencies and county clerks are constantly updating voter rolls – removing people who have died or who have moved away, adding new residents and newly registered voters. The Secretary of State doesn’t have that info until those agencies send it to him, and what he sent to the feds is currently incomplete and out-of-date.

Once DOJ realizes that, they’ll likely send Gray another polite request for our updated confidential personal information. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

Or, in their zeal for “election integrity”, the DOJ might merely suggest to Gray, in another friendly letter, that perhaps the federal government should take over the responsibility of conducting elections in Wyoming, since all the Wyoming Secretary of State can produce is out-dated information. 

[{"type":"text","text":"That would really put Li’l Chucky in a pickle and test his loyalties!"}]

Author's note: "Pickle" is a baseball term denoting a player caught in a rundown on the base paths, and tagged out because he didn't stay on base.

Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com

Rod miller headshot scaled

<title>Rod Miller: Chuck Gray’s Pickle Over Wyoming Voter Info | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Why did Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray roll over and so readily provide that information to the feds based on a simple request, and not a formal subpoena?"

Rod Miller: Chuck Gray’s Pickle Over Wyoming Voter Info

You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"What's the most isolated major city in the world?"}]

Geography no play 7 3 26

<title>Today In Geography: Friday, July 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

What's the most isolated major city in the world?

Today In Geography: Friday, July 3, 2026

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

Executive

Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities isn’t accepting industrial wastewater associated with data center systems until further notice after a contractor for Meta Platforms contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup.

The announcement was made by the Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) on Thursday in conjunction with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial contamination.

It also comes more than four months after the Meta company — which is building a huge $800 million data center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed wastewater system with a rare bacterial contaminant.

Goat Systems LLC was in “significant noncompliance" with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations after discharging wastewater contaminated with Cupriavidus gilardii, a bacterium that interfered with operations at the city's water reclamation facilities and contaminated the municipal reuse water system, according to the BOPU’s Thursday statement.

Goat Systems LLC is the corporate entity Meta uses for construction of its sprawling nearly 800,000-square-foot Cheyenne data center campus known during development as 

Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn said learning that the contamination originated from Meta's data center was unwelcome news.

"It's a very, very unpleasant surprise," Laybourn told Cowboy State Daily. "I have a lot yet to learn. It definitely complicates matters."

Laybourn said he has already expressed concerns about some of the arrangements the city has made with data center operators, adding that he expects the disclosure will prompt additional discussion.

"It's about the last thing we need right now," he said. "But it's a reality we're going to have to work through.”

Mayor Patrick Collins likewise expressed disappointment in Thursday's announcement.

"I think it's a disappointment to everyone involved," he told Cowboy State Daily.

Collins also praised the BOPU for catching the contamination and getting the city's sewage reuse system cleaned up. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Final Resolution'"}]

Thursday’s announcement marks the first time city officials have publicly identified the company behind the contamination, which was first discovered in February and prompted months of investigation and public speculation.

According to the statement, Goat Systems immediately stopped discharging wastewater from fill-and-flush operations at Meta's Cheyenne Data Center CHY 1-2 after being notified of the contamination.

BOPU also revoked the company's industrial discharge privileges for those operations effective March 24.

[{"type":"text","text":"The incident has led to broader changes beyond Meta's project."}]

BOPU also is suspending acceptance of industrial wastewater from data center fill-and-flush and closed-loop system operations until further notice while officials evaluate how to prevent future incidents.

The city said the action is intended to protect the integrity of Cheyenne's wastewater treatment system.

Calls to Cheyenne’s Public Utilities Office were not immediately returned Thursday.

"The BOPU appreciates the public's patience throughout this process," the agency said in the statement. "By conducting a thorough and diligent review, we have been able to reach a final resolution while ensuring continued protection and integrity of our wastewater treatment system."

A spokesman for Meta told Cowboy State Daily in an email statement that the company is working with its general contractor to "resolve this issue."

"Meta is supporting the efforts of our general contractor, Fortis, to resolve this issue with the city of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities," the statement says. "When the board shared that it found a substance in the city's wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite.

"Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist which has found no trace of the substance," the statement adds. "Meta is committed to being a good neighbor in Cheyenne, including through the protection of local water resources, and will continue encouraging collaboration between Fortis and the board until this situation is resolved.”

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

The disclosure comes after months of questions surrounding the source of the contamination.

BOPU previously confirmed the bacterium had entered the city's wastewater treatment process through an industrial user but declined to identify the company while the investigation remained underway.

The contaminant was traced to wastewater generated during data center fill-and-flush operations, a process used to clean and test cooling systems before a facility begins operation.

Meta's Cheyenne campus, one of the largest private construction projects in the city's history, spans hundreds of acres in the High Plains Business Park and is expected to encompass roughly 800,000 square feet when completed.

 that Meta was the company behind the previously unnamed Project Cosmo development.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Questions Remain"}]

Thursday’s announcement answers one of the biggest questions surrounding the incident but leaves others unresolved.

Among them are how the BOPU intends to regulate future data center wastewater, how the suspension of accepting industrial discharges associated with data centers affects other facilities under construction in Cheyenne and whether any long-term environmental or public health impacts are expected.

Meta IMG 7791 7 2 26

<title>Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspended taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a Meta contractor contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup. "It's a very, very unpleasant surprise,” said a city councilman.

Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

For nearly a year, the man known only by his scattered bones on a remote Wyoming mountainside remained a mystery.

Investigators found pieces of his skeleton spread across rugged country near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station, along with a tent and personal belongings. 

An identification card hinted at who he might be, but proving it would require an investigation stretching from Sublette County to Scotland, involving Interpol, foreign police agencies and DNA collected half a world away.

On Thursday, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office announced the mystery has finally been solved.

The remains belong to John Gillies, a Scottish man who would have been 69 years old this year.

"This case is a testament to the dedication of everyone involved and the strength of partnerships that extend well beyond our county and even our nation's borders," Sheriff K.C. Lehr said in a statement.

"What began as the discovery of unidentified remains in a remote area of Wyoming ultimately brought together local, state, federal and international partners with one shared goal — to give a family answers,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Very Remote'"}]

The investigation began Sept. 6, 2025, when Wyoming Game and Fish personnel 

discovered scattered human skeletal remains

 in a remote section of the Wind River Mountains near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station.

Authorities later described the location as "very remote," in an area that sees little traffic outside of occasional search-and-rescue missions.

Deputies found disarticulated skeletal remains, a tent, and personal belongings. At the time, authorities said foul play did not appear to be a factor.

Four days later, a 14-member search team made up of deputies, detectives, Sublette County Search and Rescue volunteers and U.S. Forest Service personnel combed roughly 20 miles of rugged terrain, recovering additional skeletal remains.

By late December, a forensic anthropologist estimated investigators had recovered about 85% of the skeleton and concluded the remains had likely been in the wilderness for about six years.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'More Than Bones'"}]

Among the items recovered at the scene were personal effects that eventually led investigators to believe the man could be Gillies.

With no immediate next of kin in the United States, detectives contacted Gillies' ex-wife on Sept. 16, 2025.

Although she had not yet received confirmation that the remains belonged to her former husband, she provided photographs, medical history and details about his life.

[{"type":"text","text":"One message stayed with investigators throughout the case."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I wanted you to know he was more than bones\" she had said. "}]

The sheriff's office called her compassion and willingness to help "a powerful reminder that every unidentified person is someone's loved one."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigation Crosses An Ocean"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation soon expanded across the Atlantic."}]

Detectives contacted Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, which helped locate Gillies' surviving relatives and assisted with an international death notification.

Through Interpol, Police Scotland and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, investigators obtained DNA reference samples from Gillies’ family, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office reports.

Those samples arrived in Wyoming on Feb. 10. The following day, investigators personally transported the family DNA and the recovered skeletal remains to the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory in Cheyenne for comparison.

On Tuesday, the lab confirmed the remains were biologically related to Gillies' surviving family members, bringing the nearly yearlong investigation to a close, along with six years of limbo overall for the family.

[{"type":"text","text":"Investigators immediately notified his family in Scotland."}]

At their request, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office and the Sublette County Coroner's Office are now working with Interpol to return Gillies' remains home for burial.

The sheriff's office did not say how Gillies came to be in the isolated Wyoming wilderness or whether he had been reported missing before his remains were discovered.

[{"type":"text","text":"Authorities also did not announce a cause or manner of death."}]

Instead, investigators focused Wednesday on the collaboration that ultimately restored a name to a man who had spent years missing and unidentified.

"We are grateful to everyone who played a role in helping bring John home," Lehr said.

The sheriff's office specifically thanked the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Sublette County Search and Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service, the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory, Interpol, Police Scotland, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch and, most importantly, Gillies' family "for their patience, trust and assistance throughout this investigation.”

Missing man found inset

<title>Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Scattered human bones found in Wyoming's rugged Wind River Mountains nearly a year ago have been identified as a Scottish man. "I wanted you to know he was more than bones,” his ex-wife said when contacted by investigators.

Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man

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

Clair McFarland

Politics

In the arena of political criticism, a new political action group has declared war on the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

Casper-based attorneys Emily Madden and Scott Ortiz co-founded the Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming political action committee (PAC) in March. The PAC has raised eight billboards across larger Wyoming towns urging people to “STOP The Freedom Caucus Agenda” and vote in the Aug. 18 primary election.

 against popular conservative ideals like lower taxes, voter ID, protections for female athletes and school choice.

“They never define the ‘agenda’ they oppose because it’s popular,” says a June 4 post by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

Former Caucus chair and current member Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, posted 

 Friday saying "(I'm) out here in front of this billboard because the people who put it up seem to

. We love it. It's got our name all over it, and we like talking about our agenda." Bear also listed popular conservative ideals and claimed, "I guess these folks are against all that." 

But the Common Sense Republicans for Wyoming PAC countered, saying the billboards actually criticize more local, more harmful policies - not the national hot-button topics the Freedom Caucus has emphasized for years. 

“They have great national talking points, which is why they were so popular in the first place, but you can't make American First if you leave Wyoming behind,” said Madden in a Monday email. “Gutting funding for schools, police, fire, EMS, hospitals, UW, and the Business Council, that's just saying you don't believe Wyoming's best days are ahead.”

The Wyoming Business Council is a state agency that gives grants and loans to businesses and communities. Its supporters call its work important economic development, and its detractors call it an overgrowth of government. 

“We welcome people to take a look at the website and the videos. We are pro-Wyoming; we believe our best days are still to come,” said Madden.  

[{"type":"text","text":"The Battle Raging On Facebook"}]

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is a controversial and populist-leaning group of state House Republicans. It contains 

, but its position often prevails in the 62-member House of Representatives.

Common Sense Republicans’ billboards highlight the divide between the WFC’s more populist faction and other Republicans. That divide has wracked multiple primary election cycles now, as the GOP primary election in August is generally more decisive in deep-red Wyoming, than the general election held in November.

The caucus’ member Rep. Paul Hoeft, R-Powell 

 June 23 to counter the PAC and tout caucus’ members’ support of residential property tax cuts, election security measures, “immigration accountability,” protection of women and girls’ public spaces, and what Hoeft called legislation in defense of the family and the Second Amendment.

“Don’t let the folks that are working in the shadows, chippin’ away at the things that matters to you most,” said Hoeft in his video. 

The PAC fired back in its own series of Facebook videos 

Madden rebutted the suggestion that she and Ortiz are in the “shadows,” and pointed to 

, which identifies Ortiz and Madden, shows a photo of them and shares a mission statement.  

Hoeft had called Freedom Caucus members the elected “grass roots” helping their constituents.

Madden countered, noting that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus receives staffing and help from its national umbrella network, the State Freedom Caucus Network.

[{"type":"text","text":"But First, Who Are These People?"}]

Madden told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview that she was born and raised in Torrington, Wyoming; graduated from the University of Wyoming law school and cherishes the state deeply.

Both Madden and Ortiz have been registered Republicans since at least 2012 when the Natrona County Clerk’s Office adopted its newest registration system, Clerk Tracy Good confirmed Friday.

“Scott and I got involved because during the 2026 budget session we saw a lot of policies, of the Freedom Caucus, that were detrimental to the Wyoming that we know and love,” said Madden. “For Scott it really hit home with him, with the local services impacted by the property tax cuts.”

The Freedom Caucus, and other Republicans, backed multiple residential property tax cuts and relief laws passed over the past three years. Property taxes fund local communities and public schools.

The cuts have impacted different communities differently. The Carbon County Library System said it took a 53% 

A new political group called the 'Common Sense Republicans' have erected six billboards urging voters to “STOP The Freedom Caucus Agenda." Rep. John Bear, a well-known member of the Freedom Caucus, says he "loves" the billboards.

Daily Darwin: Monday, August 12, 2024

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