Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"The water hazard on #14 can really sneak up on you....."}]

Darwin 9 11 24

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, September 11, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The water hazard on #14 can really sneak up on you.....

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, September 11, 2024

 The water hazard on #14 can really sneak up on you.....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Business

Agriculture

There's a big bee emergency in Yellowstone National Park after a semi-truck carrying dozens of beehives crashed Tuesday.

Dalton Broadus of West Yellowstone, Montana, was driving north along U.S. Highway 191 around 9 a.m. Tuesday when he drove past the scene.

Damaged and destroyed beehives were scattered across a quarter-mile stretch of road. Bees were swarming his vehicle, several tow trucks and a Yellowstone ambulance were at the scene, and someone in a beekeeping suit was already assessing the area.

“It happened about an hour before I got there, I believe,” Broadus said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Hebgen Basin Fire/EMS, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Department of Agriculture responded to the scene.

James Peterson, dispatch manager for Eaton Road Solutions, told Cowboy State Daily his company received a call from the National Park Service to recover the flipped semi-truck. He wasn’t sure what caused the accident.

“We brought three recovery trucks and two traffic-control trucks from Idaho Falls,” he said. “It took us about three hours to get it back up.”

Peterson said Eaton’s crews were heading back to the scene Wednesday night to start recovering the damaged hives and, hopefully, the bees that had been residing inside.

“We’ve been working one-on-one with the company (that owns the hives), and they’re trying to save what they can,” he said.

The crews will require bee suits while on the scene. Fortunately, Eaton already had some at the ready.

“We haven’t dealt much with bees,” Peterson said. “This was our second bee call in 15 years, and we still have the beekeeping suits we got for the first call."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Catastrophe"}]

After viewing Broadus’s video, Cheyenne venture capitalist and beekeeper Michael Jordan said that, from what he could see, the incident was “a devastating loss” for all involved.

“From the way it looks. I’d think about 40 to 50 percent of what’s there is salvageable, maybe,” he said. “It’s a big dump across a long section, so I’d say they’ve got a three-day ordeal ahead of them.”

According to Jordan, an average honey box can hold between 75,000 and 125,000 bees. Each box costs around $500 and generates $2,000 in profit from honey production.

A semi-truck like the one that crashed can carry 250 to 500 honey boxes, and potentially double that if they’re trying to save space.

[{"type":"text","text":"“There could be up to 1,000 of those boxes in one load,” he said."}]

That’s easily millions of bees and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in Yellowstone.

Jordan has been involved in similar incidents. He helped coordinate a salvage effort after a beehive-carrying semi-truck was involved in an incident on I-80 near Arlington.

“The first four hours are critical,” he said. “The truck drivers, the insurance company, and the owners of the colonies have to work together and approve everything. Somebody on-site is going to be the manager, and they’ll figure out how to fix the problem, so there’s a lot of communication that needs to happen.”

In this incident, all parties will have to coordinate with the Park Service. They’ll need to have a lot of input, given the accident happened in Yellowstone, and fines could be assessed.

“When your boat sinks in Glendale Lake, they charge you for littering, not to mention salvage,” Jordan said. “It’s going to be a pretty big loss, and that’s just the property damage. The owners will need approval from the insurance companies, and then there’s whatever liability the trucking company will have with the NPS. If the mitigation takes too long, they could lose everything."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Recovery"}]

Jordan wasn’t sure how the NPS would manage a 500-hive bee recovery in Yellowstone.

In a high-traffic area, such as a highway through Yellowstone during the summer, the first step in a successful recovery might be to call the fire department, he said. That’s potentially the worst-case scenario for the bees and the beekeepers, but the quickest solution for the NPS.

“If the bees are deemed a hazard to traffic, the fire department might go ahead and foam the whole area,” Jordan said. “That kills everything in the area, but you can go in and clear everything out without having to close down the highway.”

As for the bees, Jordan said everyone involved in the salvage operation must make critical moves within 48 hours. That’s how long they have before the surviving bees move on.

“The queens are going to be looking for locations where they feel safe,” he said. “If you can’t get new hives set up in 48 hours, the queens will migrate and leave a pheromone trail that the bees accommodating her in that hive will follow.”

Tracking down and individually placing the queens in new or rebuilt honey boxes is the best strategy, assuming the surviving queens can be located. Otherwise, there might be a big bee population in northwest Yellowstone.

“If the queens are in Yellowstone, they’re going to migrate into Yellowstone’s forests,” he said. “You can prevent that if you find the queens and put them in individual hives, but you have 48 hours to do it.”

When Jordan helped salvage the scene near Arlington, they successfully recovered 70% of the bees that had been on the semi-truck. They accomplished this by quickly setting up new honey boxes in a safe spot near the scene.

“Bees are very communal,” he said. “They work on a swarm mentality, and they can migrate and integrate into a new colony pretty easily. Once the new housing is set up, they’ll typically migrate to those locations within 24 hours.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Busy As Bees"}]

Jordan imagines the companies that owned the damaged honey boxes are coordinating a large response and rushing new housing to the scene.

“I’d say salvaging those colonies and hives will be a three-day ordeal, working 18 hours a day,” he said. “It depends on who’s managing the cleanup. The owners will want to keep as much product as they can, and there are many factors that go into that.”

That already complicated and urgent effort will likely become even more complex, given that it all needs to happen within a national park. The NPS might implement its own strategy to ensure the safety of visitors, traffic and the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

, a Yellowstone spokesperson said there were no reported injuries.

"Although the highway remains open, expect delays and traffic control measures as cleanup and mitigation work continue at the site of the accident,” the statement reads.

Broadus had the same takeaway from the incident as he’s had for years driving that 55-mph section of road in Yellowstone's northwest corner: slow down.

“I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents like this,” he said. “I drive from West Yellowstone every day during the summer. People speed quite a bit and pass within tight margins of oncoming traffic. They need to slow down.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Any way you look at it, it’s not good."}]

“I feel bad for all the people involved,” Jordan said. “There could be two or three owners of those hives, and that’s a lot of money. That’s their livelihood. That’s at least one whole company that has to rebuild.”

Bees 6 18 26

<title>Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A semitruck carrying millions of honeybees flipped over on U.S. Highway 191 in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday. Cheyenne beekeeper Michael Jordan called the scene "a devastating loss" of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the owners of the bees.

Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

A sprawling, high-tech medical center that once envisioned itself as the "Mayo Clinic of the West" and promised to reshape rural health care in northeast Wyoming might yet be able to fulfill at least some of that vision.

The Hoskinson family is in talks to sell its Gillette clinic to a large hospital chain, according to a post the family made Wednesday on the Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic Facebook page.

The sale could happen quickly, with an eye on maintaining continuity of patient care. Hoskinson Health announced in May that it would 

, citing months of multi-million-dollar financial losses. 

A potential buyer now raises the possibility that some of the family’s vision — highly advanced specialty care in a small energy town — can be retained. 

“We want to share a very hopeful and exciting update with our amazing community,” the post read. “We are currently in advanced discussions with a large hospital chain about potentially taking over the clinic’s operations!”

An agreement has not yet been finalized, but negotiations are at the stage where final words are being put to paper, the post added. 

“Both sides are fully aligned, and the spirit of the terms makes sense for everyone involved,” the post continued. “We are working diligently to get this across the finish line, but we wanted to keep you in the loop.”

Continuity of patient care is a priority for the new health-care organization, Hoskinson said in its post. 

“They are fully aware of our timeline, and are already mobilizing a team to help ensure a smooth transition,” the post said. “They are eager to speak with all of our current providers and staff, to see who they can retain moving forward.”

If realized, Hoskinson Health said the family would step back from the medical business and lease the building to the new organization, which will take full responsibility for day-to-day operations as well as employment of staff.

“We are incredibly enthusiastic about this direction,” the post continued. “We truly believe this is the absolute best outcome for our patients, our dedicated employees, and the community. Most importantly, it ensures that you will continue to have a strong, alternative choice for your health care needs.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Community Reacts With Hope"}]

Within minutes, the post had dozens of comments, mostly applauding the news or praying the deal would go through. 

“The building sitting there and all the loss of staff made me sick to think about,” Kathy Davis posted. “Oh I hope this works out.”

Commenter Tonja Slater said she is relieved.

“Can’t wait for it to be finalized and no more worries on finding a new health provider ever!!” she wrote. “Excited to see what the future brings to our community and onto our personal lives, journey, and health care!!!”

Heidi Jacobson noted the health-care provider is “very well known in the Dakotas” and said she hopes the deal “goes thru.” Tiffany Pickett Emery said it’s “Amazing news!! Continuing to remain hopeful.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Bold Experiment"}]

Gillette’s Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic was bankrolled by cryptocurrency tycoon Charles Hoskinson and run by his family members, including William, Mark and Patty Hoskinson. 

It began as a bold experiment to reimagine rural health care starting in northeast Wyoming. The family told Cowboy State Daily in previous interviews the goal was to create the 

The family filled the 73,500-square-foot facility with cutting-edge medical technology such as the Vectra, a revolutionary, 3D whole-body imaging system used in dermatology and plastic surgery. At the time the Hoskinsons purchased the Vectra, there were just two in the country — the first at the Mayo Clinic, the second in Gillette. 

It was one of dozens of examples where the family brought cutting-edge medicine to a town of about 33,500 people. There was a dual-energy CT scanner for gout, a high-definition nuclear imaging scanner, advanced cardiac and breast MRI scans, hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and more.

The clinic also included specialties rarely found in standard community medical practices, ranging from DNA sequencing and pharmacogenomics to advanced regenerative medicine, biologics infusion, and a dedicated longevity and lifestyle center.

While the clinic stopped building at 73,500 square feet, there were plans at one time to expand to 100,000. That would have included a surgery center.

But the economics, from the start, were brutal, as Charles Hoskinson detailed in a post-mortem video he released not long after the clinic announced its closure.

In the video, Charles said the clinic had been losing millions of dollars every month, even after aggressive attempts to optimize operations. 

Primary care, he argued, is fundamentally under-reimbursed, forcing providers to see 24 to 28 patients per day just to break even — a volume that was incompatible with the slower, more thorough care model he wanted the clinic to provide.

“The Hoskinsons have been in medicine for over 70 years since the 1950s,” Charles said in the video. “And they’ve watched the entire health-care industry transform and change from mostly rural and mostly solo practitioners, or small groups — excluding cities — working basically with a direct relationship with the patient, direct financial relationship with the patient, to a system that’s become kind of a bureaucratic hellscape.”

The Gillette clinic was all about changing that, Hoskinson said. 

Even though the clinic attracted more than 20,000 patients, it wasn’t close to breaking even. It could never sustain all its state-of-the-art technology, much less the above-market wages it was paying to attract specialists to a remote corner of Wyoming. 

“I had aspirations to do something in regenerative medicine,” Charles said. “I’m a big believer in network medicine. I believe the interactome and the electrome are going to be revolutionary for human health, and with AI enhancements and personalization, they’re really going to change things so we can cure stuff.”

Interactome is the entire set of molecular interactions inside a living cell, including a complete map of interactions between proteins and DNA. Electrome refers to the complex cascade of electrical networks and signals that pass between cells and tissues.

What Hoskinson learned from starting a clinic in Gillette was disquieting, he said. 

“The reality is clinics don’t make money,” he said. “Cancer and surgery are the only two areas that really make any money, outside of the pharmaceutical side. And if you’re in primary care, the vast majority of people who are in primary care will tell you it’s a losing proposition. If you look at the economics of primary care — so internal medicine, family practice — these things on average have to see 24 to 28 patients per day to be able to break even with the infrastructure.”

That’s a patient every 15 minutes, plus a lot of paperwork on the other side, just to break even. That doesn’t include making any profit.

The situation is further complicated, Charles said, by insurance.

“When you’re doing an insurance model, you typically only collect less than half of what you bill,” he said. “It’s the only business I’ve ever been in where you have no price negotiation. It’s mandated to you what you’re roughly paid.”

Clinics, meanwhile, are not allowed to bill as much as hospitals, which means the field is anything but level.

“When you bill it, even though you’ve done the work, it’s not clear you’re actually going to get paid for it, unless you get pre-approvals,” Charles said. “And even so, there’s been cases where doctors, while operating on people, literally while in the OR, the insurance company changed their mind and said don’t want a pre-approval.”

After optimizations, Charles said the clinic cut its monthly losses from about $4 million to $1.7 million but still couldn’t get close to break-even.

“To give you a comparable, the hospital that’s in the same market, Campbell County Health, they lose more than $10 million a year, and this is after receiving a $20 million-a-year government subsidy,” Charles said, adding that he went to decision makers in the jurisdiction as well as other health-care providers to ask if any subsidies were available, but was told no.

“The American health-care system is broken,” Charles said. “We knew that going into Gillette, so we wanted to build a center of excellence and build a really cool clinic, and build it in a beautiful way for the people there in Gillette.”

For Gillette patients like Shawna Leigh Langdon, who had built life-saving care around the clinic, the negotiations stakes are high. 

Langdon, in previous interviews with Cowboy State Daily, said she relied on the clinic for weekly injections, diagnostics and specialist follow-ups for an aggressive case of rheumatoid arthritis.

Before that, she had to rely on a clinic in South Dakota — a drive so long that at times she had to cancel appointments because her body was physically unable to make the trip.

If the clinic disappeared without a comparable replacement, she feared she would be forced back into a patchwork of delayed MRIs and rescheduled surgeries that had defined her care.

Sarah Pierce, meanwhile, told Cowboy State Daily she had to travel even farther for her daughter’s specialty care — to Philadelphia. While the Hoskinson Clinic did not eliminate those trips, it reduced them — and gave the family peace of mind by having a knowledgeable provider in town.

“I don’t have any insight into the inner workings of Hoskinsons, or why they’re doing things,” she said. “But it’s definitely a disappointment, for I know myself and other people who have kids that have needs outside of the general scope of what can normally be done in a rural area. It was nice to have a provider who kind of knew more about what she has. There was some comfort in that.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hopes For The Future"}]

Those kinds of experiences form the backdrop for the Hoskinson family’s negotiations with the unidentified hospital chain. It’s a high-stakes attempt to keep the facility from going dark by handing the reins to a larger system with more infrastructure and deeper pockets.

If the sale is realized along the lines described in Hoskinson Health’s Facebook post, Gillette could retain something exceedingly rare in rural America — a large, highly equipped medical facility with the potential for unusual specialty care and research programs, as well as room to grow.

For patients like Langdon and Pierce, everything depends on which services survive and still grow. Still, the prospect of a sale is real hope in a place where, not long ago, the road between them and critical care was hundreds of miles longer. 

Hoskinson clinic and Charles Hoskinson 6 17 26

<title>Gillette's Hoskinson Clinic, Set To Close Next Month, Says It May Have Buyer | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hoskinson Health & Wellness in Gillette, which envisioned itself as the "Mayo Clinic of the West" before announcing last month it would close, may have a buyer. The Hoskinson family announced Wednesday it's in talks to sell to a large hospital chain.

Gillette's Hoskinson Clinic, Set To Close Next Month, Says It May Have Buyer

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Energy

CASPER — Add some Natrona County residents to those in the state concerned about data centers and man camps in their neighborhoods raising the temperature, sucking up groundwater, affecting property values and changing their rural way of life.

Natrona County Commissioners on Tuesday heard from a handful of residents who live on the western border of the county east of Casper. 

They thanked the commissioners for not acting to bypass the state’s industrial siting board process and opt for a planned unit development (PUD) process for the Prometheus Hyperscale project’s plans in the county.

Prometheus Hyperscale last fall announced a project for western Converse County that Natrona County Development Director Sabrina Kemper reiterated Tuesday will stretch across the border.

Kemper said she last met with Prometheus officials earlier this spring. She said the company was interested in whether the county would turn to a PUD to create an industrial park for the parts of the project in Natrona County.

“Since we have zoning in Natrona County, we are able to create an industrial park for purposes such as a data center,” she said. “The power plant and man camp (are) proposed to potentially come to Natrona County.”

Commissioners showed little interest in using a county zoning tool to site the project.

Commissioner Peter Nicolaysen, who said his ranch is across from the proposed Converse County site, asked Kemper if she had an update on the project.

County Attorney Ashley Smith said she had spoken with the company’s attorney in the past week, but the discussion had just centered on whether the county would use a PUD for its portion of the project.

Commissioner Casey Coates said he has little interest in an industrial park for the project.

“I really like the industrial siting process,” he said. “I don’t think our county has the ability to scrutinize them to the level that projects such as data centers require, so for me personally, I don’t think we go down that road.”

Process Still Gives “Seat At The Table”

Nicolaysen said with the state process the county could still have “a seat at the table” in the requirements and decisions made regarding data centers on its lands.

Commissioner Dave North said he could see a benefit either way, but the county did not have enough information about the Prometheus project.

“We need more definitive information as far as what they want to put in Natrona County, where they want to put them and what the controls are going to be,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the same boat that Cheyenne is where they are making these big blanket areas.”

Prometheus founder and CEO Trenton Thornock told 

 that the data center will start with a minimum $500 million investment for an initial 200 megawatts, but could scale up to 1.5 gigawatts in all, with up to 600 employees and an overall economic impact of up to $3.1 billion, based on an economic impact study commissioned by Prometheus Hyperscale for a similar center it’s building in Evanston.

Thornock said the project will actually straddle Natrona and Converse counties, giving both an economic boost. The project has been promoted by the company as one that will boast its own power system using natural gas and also having a closed-loop cooling system designed by the company.

Some residents at Tuesday’s meeting voiced skepticism about the project and believe it will change their way of life.

Kris Hool told the commissioners the company is trying to move too fast and he appreciated their decision not to create a PUD. He said many people would be affected by the project.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ranch Worries"}]

Resident Sarah Collins told the commission she is a fourth-generation rancher and has an Evansville address, but her septic and well are in Converse County. She said the proposed area for the center is not in the middle of nowhere and that the area has been designated a subdivision.

She worries about the change to an industrial-type area and the environmental impacts.

“It’s not a couple of residences, it’s kids living out there,” Collins said. “We’re talking about traffic on the Glenrock highway. We’re talking about wells and the actual water aquifers. That’s obviously going to affect our aquifers for our livestock business.”

Brad Isner characterized the project as a “travesty” that would cause his property value to plummet and put him “underwater.” He also projected that the structure would raise the temperature in the area by 18 degrees due to “the heat this thing is going to produce.”

He raised questions about the closed-loop cooling system, the sewer system for the proposed man camp, and the “continuous hum” he believes the data center will create.

“They’re going to build a power plant that is twice the size of the one we have but that is five years out,” Isner said. “In the meantime, they are going to have portable generators running enough power to power this structure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Sketchy' Information"}]

Isner compared the size of the data center to “five Walmarts” and noted that should its cooling system fail or other environmental issues arise they could impact Big Muddy Creek.

“They’re going to spend $20 to $30 million and we still don’t have a plan yet,” he said. “We don’t know where it's going to be … everything they told us has been sketchy.”

Betty Mosley told the board she has been riding horses on Lone Star Ranch property with permission for years. She said area residents moved there for the wildlife and views and now the area will be transformed by the proposed data center.

“How can you be so pompous as to think you’re going to improve upon what God has given us?” Mosley asked. “It would just be a sin. And what’s happening to our beautiful state? I don’t understand what we are doing.”

Resident John Oakley told commissioners too many unanswered questions about the data center remain.

“I just hope that you guys and us can get to the bottom of this before any decisions are made,” he said. “There is just too much at stake.”

Prometheus Hyperscale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Man Camp Prometheus Talking To Board 1 6 17 26

<title>Natrona County Opponents To Data Center Man Camp Call It A 'Travesty' And 'Sin' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fearful residents from east Natrona County voiced their opposition Tuesday to a proposed man camp for a Prometheus Hyperscale data center in Converse and Natrona counties. One called the proposal a “travesty” and another described it as "a sin."

Natrona County Opponents To Data Center Man Camp Call It A 'Travesty' And 'Sin'

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

 multiple times last week in the tiny southern Wyoming town of Baggs had a stockpile of semiautomatic weapon ammunition and was likely planning a "large-scale act," the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office reports.

 took bullets to the neck, arm and hip when he confronted the suspect outside his apartment near the southern edge of Baggs at about noon on June 8.

Responding to a report of an active shooter in the area, Burns located the suspect driving in town and conducted a traffic stop at his apartment, the CCSO has reported.

That led to Burns being shot, while the suspect retreated into his apartment, tried to start his apartment complex on fire with numerous propane takes inside, then sped away in his car again, according to the CCSO. He was eventually killed in a shootout with law enforcement after crashing his car north of town off state Highway 789.

In the meantime, a pair of nearby Baggs residents 

, likely saving his life, CCSO Sheriff Alex Bakken has previously reported.

Now it’s been revealed that Burns may have stopped something worse that authorities believe had been the suspect’s plan, Bakken says in an update on the investigation put out late Wednesday.

“Thanks to his bravery, (Burns) saved the lives of countless first responders and community members,” Bakken says in the report. “The gunman had stockpiled hundreds of AR-15 magazines in his apartment and, by all appearances, had been prepared to initiate a large-scale act of violence.”

The identity of the suspect isn’t being released pending the completion of an investigation by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, Bakken told Cowboy State Daily in a text message.

As of late last week, Burns remained in critical but stable condition in a Colorado hospital.

Further updates of his condition “will be released at the discretion of the family, a condition which we should all be respectful of,” Bakken says in his Wednesday update.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Careful Who You Call A ‘Victim’"}]

Along with more information about the suspect and what was found in his apartment, Bakken also confirmed that a Carbon County deputy was involved in shooting the gunman after his final chase with law enforcement.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol also reported last week that a trooper involved in that final confrontation was fired at and his patrol vehicle was hit. The trooper wasn’t hurt.

Bakken also called out the massive response from other law enforcement agencies to assist with the active shooter situation that day.

“Numerous agencies from northwest Colorado responded to assist due to their proximity to the incident and the fact that rural law enforcement in Western states is remote, difficult and dangerous,” he said.

“I am incredibly proud of and grateful to all the partner agencies that responded during our time of need,” the sheriff added.

Bakken also bristles at the reporting of an unnamed Colorado news outlet that referred to the suspect as a “victim.”

“The victim in this incident is Sergeant Zachary Burns, a man we are proud to call a member of our team who has served our local community with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office since 2015,” the sheriff said.

Bakken also again called out the “residents of Baggs who rushed out to render aid to Sergeant Burns (and) all of the community members who have come out in droves to support us.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It all means far more than you will ever know.”"}]

Baggs Burns and apartment 6 17 26

<title>Sheriff Says Baggs Suspect Who Shot Deputy Likely Was Planning 'Large-Scale Act' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The man who shot a deputy in Baggs last week was likely planning something, said the Carbon County Sheriff. “The gunman had stockpiled hundreds of AR-15 magazines ... and had been prepared to initiate a large-scale act of violence," he said.

Sheriff Says Baggs Suspect Who Shot Deputy Likely Was Planning 'Large-Scale Act'

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

Clair McFarland

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a former Casper police officer’s argument that a judge wrongly disregarded his plea agreement when sentencing him to a prison sentence five times longer than the one for which he’d bargained.

This sends a message to all defense attorneys to lock down their clients’ plea agreements in writing, the defendant’s appeal attorney Ryan Semerad told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“Going forward as a defense attorney, you should make it crystal clear, on the record, that when my client is entering a guilty plea to a charge pursuant to a plea agreement, we’re offering that guilty plea directly in exchange for the state’s promises about the outcome of this case,” said Semerad. “That we’re not offering our plea agreements into the air – for nothing.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gritty Incident First"}]

Michael Scott Hughes, now 32, was still a Casper Police department officer on Aug. 22, 2024, when he grew frantic and suicidal inside his home at the Quail Run apartments complex, court documents say.

So Natrona County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene. Hughes’ girlfriend was in the apartment and was reluctant to leave Hughes, who was reportedly making suicidal gestures with guns and making suicidal statements.

Hughes told his girlfriend to leave and when she didn’t, he fired a pistol round into the ceiling of the apartment – so the girlfriend left, telling deputies Hughes was now alone in the apartment, and had been drinking.

Deputies evacuated the other apartments and told Hughes' upstairs neighbor to shelter inside her bathtub before evacuating her and two other people – including her teenage son – from the apartment about two hours later.

The neighbor “stepped on something hard in her living room” on her way out, and later found it was a bullet, shot through the concrete and lodged in the carpet.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the 21-to-26-year prison term for a former Casper police officer who shot at other officers during a standoff. He argued a judge wrongly disregarded his plea deal to sentence him to a term five times longer.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, September 11, 2024

In case you missed it

More in Daily Darwin

Daily Darwin: Thursday, June 18, 2026

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Daily Darwin: Monday, June 15, 2026

Most read