You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Looks like something straight out of Looney Tunes...."}]

Bonus vid 1 8 29 24

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

<title>Bonus Vid 1: Thursday, August 29, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Looks like something straight out of Looney Tunes....

Bonus Vid 1: Thursday, August 29, 2024

 Looks like something straight out of Looney Tunes....

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

Clair McFarland

Politics

 to a DUI charge and was fined and sentenced to probation issued a public apology Friday. 

Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, was arrested Dec. 28 in Buffalo on suspicion of driving drunk from at least an interstate outlet intersection to the Miller's Travel Center gas station. 

More than seven months of a highly publicized, hotly contested case followed. He pleaded guilty Wednesday in Buffalo Circuit Court and was sentenced to pay a $500 fine and spend a year on unsupervised probation.

[{"type":"text","text":"If he fails probation, 88 days of jail time could follow."}]

“I would like everyone to know that I do owe you an apology for my offenses,” began Allemand in a public video posted Friday to Facebook. “I would like you to know also that throughout the duration of these proceedings and under the advisement of my legal representation, I was told to offer no apologies, that could affect the case that I was contesting.”

Allemand continued: “I do apologize for drinking while driving on a public road. I do acknowledge my actions could have been much worse, with much consequences.”

He said he’s never denied “that it was illegal and was honest up front.” 

Just after the legislative session ended in March, he said, he entered a counseling program without anyone ordering or pressuring him to do so. He completed that program and continues counseling, and hasn’t consumed alcohol since his arrest, said Allemand.

Allemand said he fought the charge because “I do not believe that the amount of beer consumed (had me) nearly as intoxicated as reported.”

Case prosecutor and Johnson County Deputy Attorney Josh Stensaas reported Allemand at a 0.24% blood-alcohol concentration. Allemand’s attorney, Mike Vang contested that finding during that case, and the BAC dispute wasn’t resolved by the time the case settled.

 “As the case developed, I felt I was not being given a fair opportunity to use the legal system to defend myself,” said Allemand. “There are many details that you weren’t all privileged to know and only chosen information was published by the media.”

Contacted by phone Friday, Allemand clarified to Cowboy State Daily that he was referencing details the media didn’t know. 

[{"type":"text","text":"These may surface later, he added. "}]

He declined to comment beyond that and beyond the statements in his apology video.

“I ultimately made the decision to plead guilty because I was wrong for drinking and driving,” he said in the video. “It also seemed to be a major consensus that I couldn’t ignore.”

He said he hopes his decision doesn’t impact others’ ability to exercise their rights under the system. He also said he’s served the  people with fidelity and will continue to do so.

Allemand faces a Republican opponent, Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, at the Aug. 18 primary election. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Grateful He Apologized"}]

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, had called for Allemand to apologize about one hour before Allemand’s apology video published.

“The silence is deafening from not only Rep. Allemand on his guilty plea but also from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus,” said Brown in a Friday Facebook post to his political page. “Accountability for his actions should be demanded by every single member of our body.”

Allemand is a member of the populist-leaning Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a controversial group of House Republicans that Brown often opposes.

Its proponents cast it as the true voice of Wyoming conservatives. Its foes accuse it of groupthink and sloppy legislating.

Brown told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday interview after Allemand’s apology that he’s “incredibly grateful that he did apologize.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That shows accountability, said Brown."}]

“I am a little disturbed that he still continues to push back against the judicial system, and it seems to be that is a growing concern from the Freedom Caucus in general; that they have little to no faith in the judicial system,” he said. “And it undermines our ability as a nation to believe in one of our three branches of government.”

The Freedom Caucus has not called outright for the election of judges. Its members have criticized multiple judicial rulings in recent months, including a Jan. 6 ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court, proclaiming abortion access a fundamental health care right throughout Wyoming.

Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Rachel Williams, R-Cody, who is also campaigning for secretary of state, did not immediately respond to a Friday text message request for a response to Brown’s statements.  

Brown said now that Allemand has taken accountability, he hopes people show him grace.

“Because none of us are infallible, and I believe we all deserve grace when we take accountability,” said Brown.

Brown had, in his Facebook post, referenced having been in the public eye, made mistakes, and taken accountability himself.

Brown had given a favorable testimony in at the 2024 sentencing hearing of a former law enforcement officer who was convicted of sexual assault. He had described the former Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, Gabriel Testerman, as a good candidate for probation.

, and said he supports the judicial process and the outcome in this case.

The prosecutor in Testerman’s case, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe, had told the court at sentencing that, “There are two Gabe Testermans” – meaning one society at large and another of dark behaviors.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About Allemand’s Case"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Allemand spent about two days in jail after his Dec. 28 arrest."}]

Through his attorney, Allemand asserted that the arresting deputy, Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputy Caleb Campbell, didn’t have enough evidence of wrongdoing to make the initial stop.

Campbell contacted Allemand at the gas station parking lot, citing a claim that Allemand had made a stop at a stop sign, but then lurched forward improperly and almost hit another vehicle.

Allemand also contested Campbell’s decision to ask him incriminating questions while Campbell had him handcuffed – reportedly for officer safety reasons due to the sighting of Allemand’s gun – during the stop. 

Buffalo Circuit Court Magistrate Jeremy Kisling ruled that Campbell had enough evidence to make the stop, but should not have asked potentially incriminating questions during Allemand’s 12-minute confinement in handcuffs on scene. So the Johnson County Attorney’s Office couldn’t bring the 12 minutes of body camera video to the trial – which is now cancelled – as part of its main case.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office released the body camera video to the media, however, which Allemand’s attorney called inappropriate. That's another dispute left unsettled by the case's conclusion. 

Allemand apology 7 17 26

<title>Rep. Allemand Issues Public Apology For Drunk Driving | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Rep. Bill Allemand issued a public apology Friday for driving drunk last December. The state legislator pleaded guilty Wednesday to a DUI charge and was fined and sentenced to probation. “I do apologize for drinking while driving on a public road," he said.

Rep. Allemand Issues Public Apology For Drunk Driving

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A study of levels of the stress hormone cortisol in cattle exposed to wolves in California suggest that just having wolves around stresses the cows.

Ranchers in Wyoming and California told Cowboy State Daily that the study’s apparent findings don't reveal anything that they didn’t already know.

And, they said, it bolsters ranchers’ longstanding argument that the cost to them of having wolves around goes well beyond just the price of the cows the predators kill.

 found that cortisol levels in hair samples from cows indicate that cattle exposed to wolves experienced different levels of seasonal cortisol fluctuation, compared to those not exposed to wolves.  

“Our study provides the first evidence of disrupted cortisol regulation in beef cattle exposed to gray wolf presence, measured through hair cortisol analysis. Our preliminary findings reveal important research gaps for understanding predator reintroduction ecology,” according to the authors.

“These preliminary results point toward a potential physiological mechanism by which predator reintroduction may indirectly affect prey, with implications for understanding how recovering carnivores could influence prey physiology, animal welfare, and productivity,” the authors stated.

All that is a fancy way of saying that having wolves around can cause fear to ripple through a cattle herd, said Mitch Benson, who ranches near the Wind River Indian Reservation.

“I think it took somebody with credentials to draft a story,” for the matter to gain attention, said Benson, who has seen the study.

“We ranchers have known about this for years. Why do you think our great-great grandfathers eradicated them (wolves)?” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘In La-La Land’"}]

Ranchers in Sierra County, in northeast California, admonished state wildlife officials last spring that they were 

 by a wolf pack that had settled there and started attacking cattle.

Wolves had been gone from California for about a century when they started drifting in from Oregon on their own in 2011.

The state now has several established wolf packs. Another recent study, apart from the one done on cattle cortisol levels, suggests that California wolves have been feeding mostly on cattle.

Paul Roen is a county official and rancher in Sierra County.

During a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily on Thursday, he said that while the wolf pack was there, ranchers reported 160 attacks on cattle, 94 of which were confirmed to be wolf kills.

Unlike ranchers in Wyoming, California ranchers aren’t allowed to shoot wolves.

State wildlife agents last fall killed four of the eight wolves thought to be there.

“The killing of cattle stopped immediately. That night,” Roen said.

“Anybody who says that lethal removal (of wolves) is not part of the solution is in la-la land,” he said.

The surviving wolves fled when the four were killed. But at least one of them might have returned and started attacking cattle again, Roen added.

California had a fund to compensate ranchers for cattle killed by wolves, but it was drained in “about 45 days,” he said.

And the compensation payments never took into account the full scope of losses to ranchers, Roen said.

That includes such things as cattle losing weight or having gestation and birthing problems with calves, he said.

“The direct losses (to wolf kills) are the most insignificant effects that can be felt by ranchers,” Roen said.

He said that the stress study “is verifying exactly what we’ve been saying” about the wider effects of wolves on cattle.

Roen added that “we are in the midst of another study,” this time in his county, that aims to tally the cumulative effects that the wolf pack had on cattle herds there.

Jim Magagna, a sheep rancher and executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association agreed that the California cow stress studies are confirming what ranchers already knew.

“Certainly, there has always been evidence that the presence of wolves affects weight gains and birth rates in livestock,” he said.

“I think the (cortisol) study is helpful, because it helps pinpoint a cause” for the effects that ranchers see, Magagna added.

Benson said that as he sees it, the return of predators is part of larger “rewilding” agenda, that aims to push ranchers off the land.

“You start taking a 35% loss because of stress from predators, and I don’t think there are many guys who can maintain the profitability of the herd,” he said.

And when ranchers fold, “who comes along and buys the land?” he added.

Mix Collage 17 Jul 2026 10 55 AM 8475

<title>Study Says Wolves Stress Cows Out; Ranchers Say, ‘We Told You So’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Ranchers in Wyoming said a new study that shows cattle get stressed out by wolves is something they've been saying all along. “We ranchers have known about this for years. Why do you think our great-great grandfathers eradicated them?" one rancher said.

Study Says Wolves Stress Cows Out; Ranchers Say, ‘We Told You So’

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when the RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing.

The frightening descent was captured on video (without audio) by Jeff Bernhard, who was traveling from Victor, Idaho, to Jackson when the motorhome suddenly came flying up behind his vehicle in the oncoming lane.

"My driver's exact words were, 'Oh, shit, here it goes again,'" Bernhard told Cowboy State Daily. "It was kind of surreal."

Watching through his phone, Bernhard feared he was witnessing another deadly crash.

"It was hard to film, honestly," he said. "I had an eerie feeling that I've had a few other times where it feels like someone's about to die. I'm just so grateful that's not how this turned out."

The video shows the motorhome racing downhill, passing slower traffic while the driver appears focused entirely on keeping the vehicle on the roadway.

[{"type":"text","text":"Remarkably, everyone walked away unharmed."}]

Bernhard said the motorhome continued through Wilson, crossed the bridge into Jackson and eventually pulled safely off the road. Later that day, he saw what appeared to be the same motorhome traveling south of Jackson.

"I was concerned after we left that maybe his brakes caught on fire or something," he said. "But that doesn't appear to be the case."

Cowboy State Daily has asked the Wyoming Highway Patrol whether troopers responded to the incident, whether the driver suffered a mechanical failure and whether the agency is investigating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still Fresh In Drivers' Minds"}]

Bernhard's reaction reflects what had happened on the same stretch of highway about a week earlier.

On July 7, a dump truck hauling asphalt descended Teton Pass after losing its brakes. 

 the truck crossed into oncoming traffic, struck five vehicles — including two pickup trucks, a motorcycle and a Subaru — before overturning.

The crash killed Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Idaho, and David Page, 57, of California. Four other people were injured.

Survivor Caleb Batista told Cowboy State Daily he 

 thrown off the mountainside after the truck hit his motorcycle.

Another witness, Dumitru Cebotari, described seeing smoke pouring from the truck while its engine screamed down the grade, realizing almost immediately the driver could not stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Bernhard, Wednesday's video looked frighteningly familiar."}]

"That was where his mind went — and mine too" he said, in reference to the earlier tragedy. 

[{"type":"text","text":"A Mountain That Demands Respect"}]

Drivers who regularly travel Teton Pass often describe it with two seemingly contradictory words: beautiful and intimidating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bernhard is one of them."}]

"It's a beautiful area," he said. "But driving and towing especially can be really consequential."

The pass carries thousands of commuters between Victor and Jackson, along with commercial trucks, RVs, motorcycles and tourists unfamiliar with steep mountain driving. Its long downhill grade and tight switchbacks leave little margin for mechanical problems.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bill Sniffin knows that firsthand."}]

A veteran motorhome owner with more than 50,000 miles behind the wheel of RVs and the author of numerous columns about driving them, Sniffin said he immediately recognized the danger when he watched Bernhard's video.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I've had that experience,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Even experienced drivers, he said, don't take Teton Pass lightly."}]

"I've gone down Teton Pass before, and it is scary to death," Sniffin said. "In my case, I'm driving a 32,000-pound rig and towing a car, and the traffic is terrible, and the hairpin turns. You're literally white-knuckle. Your life is passing before your eyes."

[{"type":"text","text":"When Brakes Aren't Enough"}]

Sniffin said many larger diesel motorhomes are equipped with what's known as a Jake brake — an engine braking system that slows heavy vehicles on long descents without relying heavily on conventional brakes.

Smaller motorhomes often don't have that equipment because of the added expense, forcing drivers to depend much more on their service brakes.

"I used to have a smaller rig that didn't have Jake brakes," Sniffin said. "It was terrifying because you could start smelling your brakes when you came down a pass. When that happened, you knew you were borderline. You had to stop and let them cool down, and if there was no place to stop, you were in trouble."

Sniffin emphasized he has no way of knowing what happened to the motorhome in Wednesday's video.

But he said long mountain descents have a way of exposing problems that may never reveal themselves on flatter highways.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's very lucky that there wasn't a horrible collision,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Another Reminder"}]

Whether the motorhome suffered brake failure or another mechanical problem remains unknown.

But for commuters who travel Teton Pass every day, Wednesday's close call served as another reminder of how quickly a routine drive can become an emergency.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It demands more respect than what most people give it,\" Bernhard said."}]

"You've got to think twice. Unfortunately, you've got to kind of know how scary it is. Otherwise, people just sort of hope for the best."

[{"type":"text","text":"On Teton Pass, that difference can come down to only a few seconds."}]

Teton pass video 7 17 26

<title>Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when an RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing. One motorist captured the video.

Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video

Government & Politics

Manufacturers of AI software that uses surveillance cameras to search for guns say it makes people safer, but some gun rights activists told Cowboy State Daily they think that’s a brazen violation of Second Amendment and privacy rights.

Companies such as Volt for years has provided gun-detection software to schools, which the company claims helps stop school shootings.  

The city of Hobbs, New Mexico, has outfitted about 70 video cameras with software from another company, ZeroEyes.

ZeroEyes claims that the software helps cameras quickly detect drawn firearms, which are then verified at company facilities by human observers, who can alert local authorities.

Gun-detecting AI software doesn’t require dedicated cameras, it can be applied to existing surveillance, traffic and web cameras.

Firearms enthusiast Nic George of Sheridan told Cowboy State Daily that he understands the good intentions behind the software, but the broader implications of what gun surveillance might lead to are troubling.  

“Right now, it might not be a problem. But what’s the next step?” he said.

As things stand, programs like ZeroEyes raise murky questions when it comes to gun rights, George said.

“There’s nothing against that in our Constitution, but there’s nothing for it,” he said.  

George added that he doesn’t think AI gun surveillance systems will show up in Wyoming anytime soon, because there would be harsh public backlash.

Christopher Stone, director of state and local affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA), said he doesn’t at all like the idea of AI snooping for guns.

He questions what might happen if a legal gun owner had to draw a gun in public for a legitimate purpose and got pegged by AI for “brandishing” a weapon.

A legal gun owner might draw a firearm in self-defense, and the sight of the gun could be enough to send an assailant running, Stone said.

But cameras might pick up only the person with the gun, he added.

“And now you have to prove your innocence?” he asked. "That, to us, is very scary and should cause alarm bells to go off.”

GOA National Director Mark Jones of Buffalo told Cowboy State Daily that as he sees it, AI gun surveillance violates the Second and Forth amendments (protection against unlawful searches and seizures).

“A very large percentage of Wyoming residents are carrying guns peacefully every day,” Jones said.

Devin Hughes, founder and president of the gun violence nonprofit GVPedia Inc., favors stricter gun laws, but said he doubts the effectiveness of AI gun monitoring.

“Most shootings are not preplanned affairs,” he said. “It’s often arguments that escalate. An argument escalating, guns being drawn, shot fired — that’s a matter of 5 to 10 seconds."

That’s not enough time for the AI detecting guns on camera to make any difference, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Constitutional Parameters"}]

The technology has potential to do good, but only within narrow parameters that protect gun owners’ rights, said George Mocsary, University of Wyoming law professor and co-founder of the UW Firearms Research Center.

“From a Second Amendment perspective, the important distinction is between detecting a firearm and regulating or responding to the person carrying it,” he said in a text message to Cowboy State Daily. 

"ZeroEyes may provide valuable early warning when someone displays a gun as part of an attack, but a camera and an algorithm can't establish that carrying the gun is unlawful,” he added.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that citizens have the right to carry firearms for self-defense, he noted.

“Several federal appellate decisions have held that, where public carry is lawful, possession of a firearm alone does not automatically justify detaining and disarming the carrier,” he stated.

Programs like ZeroEyes should be deployed only with caveats regarding such things as open-carry regulations, private property owners’ rules regarding firearms and whether a firearm is properly holstered, or drawn and being pointed in a threatening manner, Mocsary stated.

“Properly used, the technology can help respond to real attacks while respecting the rights of lawful gun owners,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘False Positives’"}]

Stone said he worries that monitoring software could be used to call the cops on law-abiding gun owners not doing anything wrong.

“What if you are legally carrying a concealed firearm, and you bend over to put groceries in your car, and one of these AI systems detects that you have a firearm in your waistband? Is that going to flag you for ‘brandishing?’” he said.

Hughes said surveillance software also raises a potential for “false positives.”

What if AI detects what it thinks is a gun, but then, “that’s actually a kid’s cellphone that he’s holding in a weird position,” he said.

Likewise for such things as squirt guns, Hughes said, adding that he can see the system leading to “racial profiling.”

AI surveillance systems are also expensive, Hughes said.

As he sees it, schools and municipalities could better spend the money on preventative measures, such as training educators and others to detect “red flags” that somebody might be planning a shooting.

Spending money on AI software for a camera network is “just a tax that lax gun laws put on the rest of society,” he said.

Mark jones camera 7 16 26

<title>Wyoming Gun Activists Increasingly Alarmed Over AI Cameras Searching For Guns | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Although manufacturers of AI software that uses surveillance cameras to search for guns say it makes people safer, gun rights activists are alarmed. Buffalo's Mark Jones, of Gun Owners of America, says it violates the Second and Fourth Amendments.

Wyoming Gun Activists Increasingly Alarmed Over AI Cameras Searching For Guns

Crime & Courts

Courts

Federal authorities say illegal Glock "switches" have become one of the fastest-growing firearm threats in America, with recoveries of the tiny machine gun conversion devices soaring 784% nationwide in the last four years.

That national trend came into sharp focus not far beyond Wyoming’s eastern border this week when a monthslong western Nebraska investigation ended with seven arrests.

Investigators allegedly found Instagram photos and videos showing young men posing with — and in one case firing — Glock-style pistols equipped with the illegal devices, which modify semiautomatic handguns into fully automatic machine guns. 

The investigation culminated Wednesday morning when SWAT teams and dozens of officers served search and arrest warrants across Scottsbluff, Gering and Bayard, Nebraska. By the end of the operation, seven people — two adults and five juveniles — were in custody.

Authorities report that the Western Nebraska Intelligence & Narcotics Group (WING) began investigating after receiving information that adults and juveniles were allegedly involved in drug trafficking while possessing the modified fully automatic firearms.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Instagram Trail"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Court records show law enforcement soon turned to social media."}]

Investigators secured a warrant for an Instagram account they believed belonged to Preston Torres, who is one of the adults arrested Wednesday. 

When Meta returned the account records, deputies say they found multiple photos and videos allegedly showing Torres holding and firing a Glock-style handgun equipped with an illegal switch. 

Seven teens were arrested Wednesday in a sweeping western Nebraska raid over illegal machine guns and drugs. Investigators say they found Instagram posts of the teens posing with and firing Glock-style guns equipped with illegal switches.

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