One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"How everyone parallel parked during Cheyenne Frontier Days..."}]

One more for 8 20 24

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

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 20, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

How everyone parallel parked during Cheyenne Frontier Days...

One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 20, 2024

 How everyone parallel parked during Cheyenne Frontier Days...

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

The copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary released this week shows the former White House COVID advisor fixating over the press, mentioning Wyoming's low vaccinations rates and praising former Rep. U.S. Liz Cheney for what Fauci called her courage in opposing the president. 

U.S. Sen Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, released the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s diary over the weekend in anticipation of a Wednesday hearing.

Fauci alternated fluidly between documenting death tolls and the “hot and heavy” coverage with which the press swarmed him. He documented his media features, interviews and appearances almost daily for months.

“The Fauci cult continues,” wrote Fauci in reference to August media reports.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming features in the diary twice."}]

An April 10, 2020, entry documents calls with governors seeking Fauci’s guidance and to air their concern about the devastating economic fallout: “17 million jobs lost within the past 4 weeks.”

Even the massive infusion of federal relief dollars couldn’t spare the states, and some red-state governors urged counsel on how to get their people back to work safely, the entry says.

“Call with Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming – same discussion,” wrote Fauci. “What advice and counsel of returning to normal.”

“All these Governors are calling me because of my credibility and reputation to run their plans by me and ask for my opinion and help … message back to (the task force and president,” the director added.

A July 4, 2021, entry says Wyoming and other states had COVID surges due to lower vaccination rates. 

Former U.S. House Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, appear multiple times in the diary.

Republicans and conservative news commentators started “blasting” Fauci for his shutdown policies on about May 13, 2020. So did Paul, in a May 12 Senate hearing.

[{"type":"text","text":"Julia Roberts mooned over Fauci that same week, the diary says."}]

“Dick Cheney called me to thank me for what I was doing and to say that he fully supported me,” wrote Fauci. “I acknowledged and thanked him and his daughter Liz for sticking up for me after the Senate Hearing yesterday.”

The former vice president was “muted in his criticism of Trump,” Fauci continued. “But he did agree that Trump was living in an alternative universe.”

Fauci wrote three days later that he told Vice President Mike Pence of how Cheney had called him into the White House 19 years prior to discuss the anthrax attacks.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Aug. 4, 2021, Dick Cheney called again, the diary says."}]

Cheney had had a heart transplant years prior and was on an immunosuppressive regimen, wrote Fauci.

“It is likely that his immune response two (sic) the vaccine is suboptimal.”

Cheney’s cardiologist recommended the former vice president call Fauci, the diary says.

“I made it very clear to Cheney that I strongly recommended he get the third boost of the mRNA since he is highly susceptible to getting infected if he comes into contact with an infected person,” Fauci wrote.

He added that they discussed “the courage of his daughter Liz Cheney and sticking up against the far right Republicans who want to whitewash the January 6th insurrection.”

Fauci voiced his appreciation “that she has been sticking up for me,” says the entry.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Wyoming's Pendley Remembers"}]

The diary also stunned a former Trump department head, who contrasted Fauci’s apparent fixation with media attention with the “traumatic” efforts others undertook to address COVID19.

William Perry Pendley, a Wyomingite who then led Trump’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management, criticized Fauci in a Monday post to X and a Tuesday interview with Cowboy State Daily.

“What struck me, and struck a lot of people on X, was just the contrast,” Pendley told Cowboy State Daily, “That while he’s getting over his celebrity status, hundreds of people at the Department of Interior are taking this very, very seriously, and regarding it as something from the White House saying this is a life-and-death matter. This is a national crisis.”

Pendley said with preparation, duration and follow-up directives, the meetings consumed two to three hours of each day. Interior leadership worried about the health of the roughly 70,000 employees under their umbrella, he said.

“While Fauci basked in the media's attention, I ran Trump's BLM & was on daily Zoom calls with Interior's number two official with scores of others,” wrote Pendley on X. “Untold hours by hundreds of employees were needed to prepare for & follow up on those needlessly traumatic meetings. Shame on him.”

Fauci’s diary also features his numerous concerns about deaths and sickness.

But first, Fauci opined in a Feb. 8, 2020, phone call that the virus was “acting like a bad influenza” and showed a case fatality rate of 0.2%-0.3%, his diary says.

The messaging was, “You’ve got to devote all your energy and skills to addressing this,” added Pendley in his interview.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Hot And Heavy’ Press"}]

Entanglements and preoccupations with “press” that permeate nearly every entry.

“Press still hot and heavy about me,” says an April 7, 2020 entry. “Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.”

He documented the Fauci cartoons, Fauci underwear and other merchandise, news and book interviews, and the false claims and conspiracy theories about him that surfaced starting in 2020.

From about May through July 2020, Fauci documented numerous instances of complaining to White House personnel that he wasn’t placed in enough interviews, the diary shows.

Fauci also claimed embarrassment at receiving hugs and kisses from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and at President Donald Trump touting Fauci’s intelligence to First Lady Melania.

And he lamented where, according to him, the press got the story wrong in its fervor to pit him as a “foil” against Trump.

Mainstream media and columnists elevated Fauci for his calm demeanor and his willingness to contradict Trump starting in spring of 2020. Fauci had pushed for longer business and school closures, while Trump urged the director, who was part of the White House’s COVID19 task force, to find a way to reopen the nation by Easter.

“Continued crazy stuff: Petition to name me ‘Sexiest Man Alive,’” says an April 1, 2020 entry. “Videos (sic) games named after me; Fauci Bobblehead; dishes in redstaurants (sic) named after me, and on and on.”

In that same entry Fauci documented a “good conversation” with Bill Gates regarding the advanced development and scaleup of vaccines.

That later contrasted with what Fauci called White House response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx’s unfavorable view toward mRNA vaccines. Fauci cast her discomfort as a prejudice.

[{"type":"text","text":"Celebrities, Vaccines, And The Red States Reopening"}]

An April 29, 2020, entry details a Zoom call between Fauci and a “whole list of celebrities,” organized by Kim Kardashian.

That list featured Kate Hudson, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Chris Rock, Scooter Braun, Josh Gad, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Kendall Jenner, Ariana Grande, Paula Abdul, Demi Lovato, and Michael Jordan – to name a few.

Fauci noted the USA COVID case tally at 3 million that day and the death toll at 203,000.

Fauci urged repeatedly against letting the states “reopen” but when several did in mid-May, the virologist noted an interesting development.

“What is evolving is that states that are opening thus far are not seeing an increase in cases,” says a May 17, 2020, entry. “In fact, some are seeing decreases. We need another couple of weeks to se (sic) what is happening. Interesting that they might be paying attention more to mask use and social distancing as they open.”

But acute outbreaks still hit nursing homes, prisons, meatpacking plants and industries where workers lived in dormitory-like quarters, he wrote.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This is easily recognizable and quickly contained,” he wrote."}]

A June 25, 2020 entry says, “Contact tracing does not work.” He called contact tracing an abject failure.

He cast the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as incompetent – repeatedly across multiple entries.

He described an at-times affectionate, at-times icy relationship with Trump, almost always worsened by the press’s fervor in making Fauci a calm and well-informed anti-Trump figure.

A Feb. 12, 2020, entry has Fauci writing that World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

“depends greatly on China and often bows to them.”

Officials were at that time developing a WHO working group that lacked representation from China, Fauci wrote.

He detailed his friendship with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and helpful messaging by the latter’s news-commentator brother Chris Cuomo.

By March 29, the “CRAZY PRESS” wave had turned political, the diary says.

“The fringe far-right crazies are cooking conspiracy theories that I am a Hilary Clinton mole trying to destroy Trump,” says the entry. But at that time, “Trump continues to become more and more enamored of me.”

One media disaster culminated in Trump saying “his right wing base is causing a lot of trouble,” says an April 13, 2020, entry.

Regarding the vaccine development, a May 17, 2020, entry says “We are well into the process and I just do not want any person or organization or structure to get in my way.”

A June 15, 2020, entry questions why a Chinese study group had a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection as early as August 2019.

“Why would they be doing that last summer??? They could have been studying SARS, but they already had mouse models,” says the entry. “Possible they just wanted to use a better technique… OR they knew that SARS-CoV-2 already existed and the outbreak was already ongoing.”

Regarding the dramatic press saga of Fauci vs. Trump, the entry says, “Most people (sic) expressing outrage that the trump administration woud (sic) be so bumbling and incompetent to try to discredit the most credible scientist in the world.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Rand Paul’s Focus"}]

In a “Tony’s Diary” cover page set in pink cursive font – like a teen girl’s diary – along with other mocking insignia, Paul detailed places where Fauci’s diary contradicts his public messaging.

When other professionals swapped theories about the virus’ origins in January 2020, Paul noted from the diary, the doctors had a sincere debate about whether the virus had natural or lab-leak origins.

“Before most Americans knew there was an origins debate, the government’s top infectious disease official was already confronting the lab scenario,” wrote Paul.

[{"type":"text","text":"Paul has long said the virus originated in a lab leak."}]

Fauci dismissed that theory publicly in 2020 in 2021 with the claim his critics “are really criticizing science because I represent science.” The lab leak theory has since garnered credibility.

“The fact that the lab in question had received a 2014 grant (through an intermediary) from NIAID for ‘gain of function’ research may help explain Fauci’s reluctance to come clean about the need to investigate,” opined the editors of The Free Press in a 

Fauci cheney 7 28 26

<title>Dr. Anthony Fauci's Diary Covers Wyoming’s Low Vax Rates, Liz Cheney’s ‘Courage’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In the more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary released over the weekend, he mentioned Wyoming’s low COVID vaccination rates, his admiration of Liz Cheney and his conversations with Dick Cheney. He appeared fixated on the "hot and heavy" press.

Dr. Anthony Fauci's Diary Covers Wyoming’s Low Vax Rates, Liz Cheney’s ‘Courage’

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Energy

Two significant workforce housing projects are likely to take shape in neighboring southwest Wyoming counties, but despite their proximity the developments are moving on separate tracks to serve two entirely different energy projects.

In Kemmerer, city leaders on Monday cleared another hurdle that could allow a temporary workforce housing hub for workers constructing TerraPower's advanced nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, about 120 miles to the southwest, Uinta County officials are considering a proposal for a much larger workforce camp to serve construction of a planned hyperscale data center near Evanston.

While both projects have drawn attention because of their size and potential economic impacts, Kemmerer Mayor Robert Bowen said the timing is largely coincidental.

"The whole point of a workforce hub is to keep people who work on the project close to the project," Bowen told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kemmerer Clears Zoning Hurdle"}]

The Kemmerer City Council on Monday approved the third and final reading of a zoning change for approximately 60 acres of private land known as the Fox King property, changing its designation from heavy industrial to light industrial.

The zoning change makes the property eligible to be considered as one possible location for temporary housing tied to TerraPower's Natrium reactor project.

Bowen said the property is included in a request for proposals being evaluated by Bechtel, the Virginia-based engineering and construction company considering a temporary workforce hub for the TerraPower project.

Bechtel will ultimately decide whether to move forward with the Fox King property or another proposed site, Bowen said.

"The city has no influence, no say," he said. "All of it is in their (Bechtel's) court."

If selected, the 60-acre site would help house up to 1,600 workers expected to descend on Kemmerer during the peak years of construction on the first commercial Natrium nuclear reactor in the United States.

The city of about 2,400 people is bracing for explosive growth with the first-of-its-kind sodium-cooled nuclear power plant under construction, 

Cowboy State Daily has previously reported

The property also offers an alternative to an undeveloped city-owned piece of land between the justice center and the Antelope Ridge subdivision. Residents of the subdivision have pushed back at recent city council meetings about a man camp on land adjacent to their neighborhood.

Multiple companies have been eyeing properties to house workers when the plant comes online around 2030.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bechtel did not return Cowboy State Daily's messages before publication."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Uinta County Proposal Advances"}]

At nearly the same time, officials in neighboring Uinta County took a significant step toward approving a workforce housing hub for a different project.

Last week, the Uinta County Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit allowing Target Hospitality to move forward with plans for a temporary workforce housing community on county-owned land east of Evanston, adjacent to Bear River State Park.

The proposal now heads to the Uinta County Commission for final consideration.

If approved, the camp would house as many as 3,400 workers during construction of a nearby hyperscale data center. Under the permit, the housing complex could remain in place for up to five years during the project's primary construction phase.

Target Hospitality CEO Troy Schrenk has said the approximately 150-acre site was selected because of its access to Interstate 80 and its location about eight miles from the construction site.

The company estimates construction of the workforce housing hub would take about one year, with completion targeted for October 2027 if approvals continue on schedule.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Projects, Similar Challenges"}]

Although both proposals involve temporary housing for large construction workforces, they reflect a broader challenge facing Wyoming communities as billion-dollar industrial projects move forward in rural areas with limited housing inventories.

Purpose-built workforce housing can reduce pressure on local rental markets, hotels and other housing while keeping workers close to job sites. At the same time, such projects often generate debate over traffic, infrastructure demands, public safety and the eventual removal of the temporary facilities once construction winds down.

[{"type":"text","text":"For now, both southwest Wyoming projects remain works in progress."}]

Kemmerer's zoning action simply keeps one potential housing site in contention as Bechtel evaluates proposals, Bowen said. Meanwhile Uinta County's proposal still requires approval from county commissioners before construction can begin.

Terra Power construction 1 5 29 26 1

<title>Man Camps Moving Forward As Uinta And Lincoln Counties Build, Build, Build | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Potential man camps in neighboring Uinta and Lincoln counties are moving forward. Kemmerer cleared zoning for a workforce housing site for a nuclear power plant, while Uinta County is a step closer to a 3,400-bed camp for a hyperscale data center.

Man Camps Moving Forward As Uinta And Lincoln Counties Build, Build, Build

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Several side roads at a popular recreation area north of Evanston have been closed by state and federal officials after landowners complained about their land being “torn up” by unauthorized motorized use.

Some recreationists balked at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department posting "road closed" signs on several roads and two-tracks in the Woodruff Narrows/Bear River Divide area.

It includes a Game and Fish public access area.

However, agency personnel told Cowboy State Daily the roads in question cross private property, and landowners were fed up.

"The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," Bureau of Land Namangement Wyoming spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman told Cowboy State Daily.

The episode encapsulates the complexities of public recreation areas set on easements across private land.

The 16.3-acre Woodruff Narrows Public Access Area offers fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, boating, and wildlife viewing, according to Game and Fish. Just to the northeast is the roughly 12-acre Bear River PAA, which offers camping, fishing and hunting.

Game and Fish works with landowners to establish PAAs at similar places, such as walk-in hunting and angling areas and hunter management areas.

In exchange for public access, Game and Fish establishes and enforces conditions set by landowners, including dates of use, access points, limits on motorized travel, and the like.

Phil Pierson of Wichita, Kansas, stated in a social media post that Woodruff Narrows is one of his favorite places to visit. So, he was taken aback when he went there recently and discovered several roads he likes to use were posted as "closed" by Game and Fish.

He said that it wasn't right to be denied access to "public lands."

Pierson could not be reached for further comment.

Local outdoorsman Landon McGuire told Cowboy State Daily he hunts mule deer at Woodruff Narrows.

He added that the reservoir also draws anglers, who fish either from boats or along the shoreline.

He noted that the jurisdiction of the land can be confusing because it's in an area of "checkerboard" public and private land parcels, with square parcels of BLM and private land.

In much of the area, hunting is allowed only on foot, he said.

"Those (road closed) signs go up every fall" to remind hunters where they can and cannot drive, he said.

The "actual designated routes" for public travel are clearly marked on hunting GPS apps, such as onX, McGuire said.

He added that he understands why Game and Fish must regulate travel as part of its agreement with private landowners.

It's Game and Fish's duty to manage both the wildlife and human activity in the area, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Complex Management"}]

Landowners' rights and concerns must be respected in public access areas, Game and Fish spokeswoman Anne Hodnett stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

"The Bear River Divide is unique compared to most PAAs in our state due to its scale and complex, 'checkerboard' landownership pattern, which includes a mix of private, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and state lands," she said. "When private landowners opened access and enrolled their lands into our access program, they requested specific protections to prevent motorized damage and unauthorized access on their specific parts of their property." 

Game and Fish "worked directly with these landowners" to decide which roads to close to the public, Hodnett added.

She said protecting private property rights helps ensure that landowners continue to allow public access to the recreation area.

"Standard PAA regulations prohibit off-road travel and ATV/ORV use throughout the area to protect habitat and prevent property damage," Hodnett added.

Road closed 4 7 28 26

<title>State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After angry landowners near a recreation area north of Evanston complained of their property being "torn up," state officials closed the roads. "The landowners are sick of having their land torn up," BLM spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman said.

State Closes Popular Evanston Recreation Roads After Private Lands 'Torn Up'

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

An Afton attorney who previously served as a Lincoln County deputy prosecutor and was recently a finalist for a Wyoming judgeship is facing a misdemeanor solicitation charge in neighboring Idaho after investigators allege he offered to pay for a sexual encounter through an anonymous dating app.

John Bowers, 66, was charged July 22 in Bear Lake County with one misdemeanor count of solicitation for commercial sexual activity.

A probable cause affidavit says the investigation began June 24 after a private citizen contacted the Montpelier Police Department about messages exchanged with Bowers on Sniffies, a location-based social networking app. 

The reporting party, who described himself in the affidavit as someone who reports suspected criminal activity to law enforcement, told police Bowers offered $300 to "party" and said he would bring "party supplies." Investigators interpreted the messages as an offer to pay for a sexual encounter.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowers has pleaded not guilty."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'This Charge is Frivolous' "}]

Bowers' attorney, Richard Blok of Pocatello, declined to comment to Cowboy State Daily, saying the Rules of Professional Conduct limited what he could say.

However, he said a statement he previously provided to an Idaho news outlet remains accurate.

"Mr. Bowers is innocent of the charge,” Blok said in the statement. "This charge is frivolous and should never have been brought."

[{"type":"text","text":"A pretrial conference is scheduled for Sept. 9 in Bear Lake County."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Search Leads To Wyoming Office"}]

On May 21, investigators with the Montpelier Police Department, assisted by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, contacted Bowers outside his Afton law office while executing a search warrant for his electronic devices. After returning to the office, Bowers agreed to speak with investigators and surrendered his cellphone.

The affidavit notes investigators later recovered digital evidence they believe linked Bowers to the account used in the conversations, including a Gmail account allegedly created the same day under the name "Jack Black" that received a Sniffies activation email.

During the interview, Bowers acknowledged using the app and exchanging messages but denied intending to solicit prostitution.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I truly didn't think I was soliciting,\" Bowers told investigators."}]

Bowers also described his conduct as "morally wrong and inappropriate" while maintaining he never intended to arrange a commercial sexual encounter.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Well-Known Wyoming Attorney"}]

Bowers has practiced law in western Wyoming for decades and previously served as a deputy prosecutor in the Lincoln County Attorney's Office.

Last November, he was one of three finalists selected by the Wyoming Judicial Nominating Commission for a Lincoln County Circuit Court judgeship. Gov. Mark Gordon ultimately appointed Judge Thomas Deering to the bench.

Cowboy State Daily also contacted the Wyoming State Bar seeking information about Bowers' status as a licensed attorney and whether the bar had taken any action in response to the Idaho criminal charge.

Deputy Bar Counsel Brandon Booth declined to answer questions about Bowers specifically.

Asked generally about the bar's policy when a licensed attorney is charged with a misdemeanor, Booth said attorneys have reporting obligations "depending on the result of the allegations."

Afton bowers 7 28 26

<title>Afton Attorney, Former Deputy Prosecutor, Charged With Solicitation In Idaho | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Afton attorney John Bowers, once a Lincoln County deputy prosecutor, is facing a solicitation charge in Idaho after investigators say he offered to pay for a sexual encounter through an app. He says his conduct was "morally wrong" but denies solicitation.

Afton Attorney, Former Deputy Prosecutor, Charged With Solicitation In Idaho

In the roughly three hours after news broke Monday that a Uinta County brand inspector 

to helping people torture a moose, the brand inspector was fired, a public official says.

Also, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon condemned the act by Justin Martin, who pleaded guilty June 17 to one count of accessory before the act to felony animal cruelty.

Martin has not been sentenced and he reserves the right to appeal how law enforcement pulled evidence from his phone. Court documents say Martin was featured in a cellphone video encouraging Kylan Platt, as the latter aggressively spurred a female moose in ill health at a Uinta County ranch.

“This is absolutely irresponsible behavior unbefitting a brand inspector,” said Gordon in a Monday afternoon statement to Cowboy State Daily. “I hold brand inspectors to a very high standard. Mr. Martin is no longer an employee of the state of Wyoming.”

Wyoming Livestock Board Director Steve True had confirmed to Cowboy State Daily at about 1:44 p.m. Monday that Martin remained a brand inspector.

Gordon’s statement that he is no longer employed by the state came at about 4:05 p.m.

Pressed for more particulars on who terminated Martin and when, Gordon’s spokeswoman Amy Edmonds referred Cowboy State Daily back to True.

[{"type":"text","text":"True said that he terminated Martin within that more-than-two-hour span."}]

“In that meantime, I have terminated him,” True said, adding that it was his own decision, and that Gordon did not influence that decision.

[{"type":"text","text":"“(It was) my determination,” said True."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"True declined to elaborate further on the personnel matter."}]

Cowboy State Daily reached out to Martin for comment via his attorney Joe Hampton, and will update this story should he comment on the termination.

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

The case began after Wyoming Game and Fish Department investigators seized Martin's cellphone during an unrelated investigation in 2022. While searching, investigators discovered videos and screenshots that ultimately launched the moose abuse case. 

Just hours after news broke Monday that a Uinta County brand inspector had pleaded guilty to helping torture a moose, the state livestock director fired him. “This is absolutely irresponsible behavior unbefitting a brand inspector,” Gov. Gordon said.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 20, 2024

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