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<title>One More For The Road: Sunday, October 13, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Sunday, October 13, 2024

 Moron protesters quickly find out blocking road was a bad idea.....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Media outlets gasped last week at the socialist movement’s success in the New York congressional 

That success headed west Tuesday, to Wyoming’s southern neighbor of Colorado.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. House Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday evening’s primary election.

Colorado Public Radio called the ouster “a stunning blow to the Democratic establishment in Denver and continuing a run of leftist victories in major cities.”

Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Dvemocrat, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised at the move by Denver voters, but he doubted the proximity of a House socialist – if Kiros wins the general election – will affect Wyoming much.

“We have our own issues, and we’re certainly more sensitive to certain issues than others,” Sullivan said. “And it doesn’t necessarily divide us or make us closer to anybody else.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Could Deepen 'Don't Colorado My Wyoming' Sentiment"}]

Liz Brimmer, longtime Wyoming politico, agreed in general, but said having a socialist congressional neighbor could galvanize Wyoming even harder into a tendency it already has: spurning anything that looks like Colorado governance.  

“I think Wyoming uniformly and strongly feels, you know, ‘Don’t Colorado my Wyoming',” Brimmer said. “And I think if anything, it deepens that sentiment.”

Brimmer said the ouster speaks of “these times, where there’s no doubt an anti-incumbent strain.” But no one will know all the reasons, nor should presume too much, until the voter data return, she said.

The Republicans saw the anti-incumbent strain surface differently, with newcomers ousting President Donald Trump’s foes in GOP primary elections.

State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is finishing off his final legislative term, voiced fascination with the election outcome.

Brown, a self-described political junkie, lives about 14 miles from the Colorado border.

He said the ouster shows Denver is increasingly dictating the rest of Colorado’s fate, and that the state is growing more polarized.

On the Republican gubernatorial primary side, The 

 a half-point lead for Victor Marx as of Wednesday.

“He’s just as crazy as a democratic socialist on the left,” said Brown.

As for DeGette’s defeat, it’s not as symptomatic as one would think, he added.

“She was running a ‘Hey, I’m the incumbent and I’ve been here 30 years’ (campaign),” he said.

That hurt her. As did a growing divide on the left over Israel’s approach to its many foes — and Congress’ funding of Israeli war and defense efforts, said Brown.

Israel was also a fulcrum in the May primary loss of libertarian-leaning incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. But the Republican voters took the inverse approach on that one, nominating the candidate who supports funding Israeli war efforts.

Jack Speight, the GOP strategist who helped Wyoming Gov. Stan Hathaway to victory in 1966, told Cowboy State Daily Kiros’ win is alarming.

Speight was a Democrat when he graduated from the University of Wyoming law school. But the allure of capitalism and the prevailing logic of his good friends pulled him to the Republican side, he said in another interview last month.

The socialist victories of 2026 are “sad for this country. It may well affect the results of this fall, and nationwide,” he said. He called it a shift of California transplants into the Rockies, and a symptom of a growing entitlement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Colorado isn’t the only Wyoming neighbor with socialist momentum."}]

Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, won his primary bid for Montana’s U.S. House District 1 on June 2.

Forstag may be less favored than Kiros going into the general election: No Democrat has won that Montana House district this century.

 a “test for left-leaning politicians” who have been arguing for a populist surge in the blue party.

Melat Kiros Getty 7 1 26

<title>Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fresh after socialist-backed candidates' success in New York's U.S. House primaries, Colorado Democrats nominated their own socialist House candidate Tuesday. Having a socialist neighbor could galvanize Wyoming's independence even more, one politico said. 

Win By Colorado Socialist Could Galvanize Wyoming Independence, Says Politico

It’s campaign flier season, which means 

 with messages about political candidates, which can range from 

The two biggest-spending out-of-state groups in the state’s 2024 primary election cycle  — Make Liberty Win and Americans For Prosperity — are at it again this year.

Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, 

 Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials.

Lander residents in late June received Make Liberty Win door hangers showing the town’s incumbent Republican legislators, Sen. Cale Case and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, dressed in sheep suits with little hooves raised.

“Don’t let Rep. Lloyd Larsen and Sen. Cale Case in Sheep’s Clothing Fool You On Election Day August 18th!” says the door hanger.

The back of the flier says both voted against banning sexually explicit government funded events, “endangered children by voting against a ban on gender transition surgeries for minors” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda by voting against protecting women’s sports.”

Larsen and Case both said this is an inaccurate and clumsy account of their voting records.

 tracked down the “young man” handing out the door hangers to tell him so, the legislator told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“I kind of started driving around town and found the young man who was passing them out,” said Larsen. “He inquired if I was going to vote, and he commenced to tell me about the evils of me and Senator Case.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The man had “no idea who he was talking to,” said Larsen."}]

Larsen visited with the man, but soon held the flier up to his own face, and the young man said, “Oh. This is uncomfortable,” Larsen recalled.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘He’s Just Trying To Make A Living'"}]

In Larsen’s recollection, the young man had graduated from a Colorado university with a bio-engineering degree and hadn’t been able to find work. He was able to secure work passing out door hangers for Make Liberty Win.

“It was hard to get mad at him, you know?” said Larsen. “He’s just trying to make a living.”

But Larsen said the fliers are frustrating, because they distill a person’s voting record onto a few flashy, sometimes inaccurate talking points on a flier.

For example, in 2024 when Larsen voted against a ban on sex-change treatments for kids, he found it overbroad because it would have stripped medical professionals of their licenses even in more nuanced situations, he said.

Larsen said that under the bill, a medical professional who intervened to help a kid who’d had a sex-change surgery elsewhere, but needed help with surgery complications while passing through Wyoming, could lose his license.

Larsen had sponsored his own bill that same year to ban child sex-change surgeries. His bill didn’t call for specific penalties, but left enforcement to the discretion of the Wyoming Board of Medicine.

[{"type":"text","text":"Larsen’s bill did not pass, the other bill did."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Women’s Sports"}]

Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, sponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2022 to ban cross-sex participation in girls’ interscholastic sports.

Larsen and 36 other House members voted against resurrecting it from then-House Speaker Albert Sommers’ drawer, and it died.

That amounted to a time management concern for Larsen, he said, since it was a busy budget session.

Schuler brought her bill back in 2023 and it passed, with Larsen voting aye.

[{"type":"text","text":"Different Creature"}]

Case doesn’t fall into lockstep with Larsen and displays contrarian tendencies.

These break with and against the popular Republican movements. For example, in 2010 he was a rare opponent of a tax break for large data centers — putting him far ahead of the current anti-data-center hype within a wing of the Wyoming GOP

Case generally votes against involving government in social issues and abortion.

[{"type":"text","text":"He voted against Schuler’s sports bills in both 2022 and 2023."}]

“I just thought the Wyoming (High School) Activities Association was doing a good job, and we didn’t really need to interfere,” said Case in a Wednesday phone interview, referring to the administrative entity that handled cross-sex participation requests on a case-by-case basis prior to Schuler’s bill.

Gov. Mark Gordon announced in March 2023 that Wyoming had four transgender athletes in its public schools at that time.

“We’re always trying to be the god-on-high,” said Case of the state Legislature. “I sort of like to have local people figure that out.”

Case voted with two other Republican senators and two Democrats against child sex-change ban legislation of both 2023 and 2024. He didn’t get the chance to vote on Larsen’s sex-change bill since it didn’t’ clear introduction in the House.

Issues of sex and identity are incredibly nuanced, said Case, as are patient-doctor interactions.

As for the cartoonish fliers, Case said, “I think the whole thing will help us, not hurt us.”

He added with a laugh, “It’s a good likeness. I looked younger than Lloyd, though we’re the same age.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Spicy Times’"}]

Tyler Lindholm is a rancher, former state representative and now Wyoming director for Americans For Prosperity.

[{"type":"text","text":"He lives in Sundance."}]

Americans For Prosperity is ratcheting up its 2026 flier campaign in Wyoming by casting Sen. Ogden Driskill’s campaign opponent, House Speaker Chip Neiman, as anti-energy, which Neiman calls a mischaracterization of his record.  

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP backs Driskill."}]

 is also vastly different from Make Liberty Win, said Lindholm. He said the Wyoming AFP wouldn’t depict candidates in sheep’s clothing and doesn’t need to.

“No, no, no. We don’t even apply filters over folks’ faces or anything like that,” said Lindholm. “Their votes speak for themselves. We don’t need to dress them up as sheep.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He added: \"Spicy times.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP is an out-of-state group based in Virginia."}]

But Lindholm emphasized that it has a known presence in Wyoming, starting with him and extending to other full-time staffers.

Make Liberty Win did not respond by publication to an email request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘That Is All B.S.’"}]

While AFP has backed numerous non-Freedom Caucus candidates, it’s not exactly an anti-Freedom Caucus outfit. The group has supported the Freedom Caucus-aligned Rep. Daniel Singh, for example.

[{"type":"text","text":"But it’s an anti-Chip Neiman outfit."}]

Lindholm said people can expect more fliers deriding Neiman's voting record. 

The Neiman-versus-Driskill Senate race is an allegory of the larger struggle between Freedom Caucus and non-Freedom Caucus Republicans across numerous races heading into the Aug. 18 primary election.

AFP dispatched fliers in recent weeks saying Neiman, who is a Wyoming Freedom Caucus member, “Voted Against Wyoming Energy” and supported “legislation that would drive up energy costs,” bring “burdensome regulations that destroy energy jobs” and that he stood with “out of state interests over Wyoming families.”

Neiman has launched a series of Facebook videos to combat AFP’s statements.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I got my new mailer for Ogden,” said Neiman in a June 25 video post."}]

The bill referenced under the “would drive up energy costs” claim, House Bill 257 of 2023, was actually about giving private landowners influence over reclamation work done on their property, said Neiman.

[{"type":"text","text":"“So that was protecting a private property right,” he said."}]

The bill died for lack of a committee hearing. It would have required surface landowner approval before the state Department of Environmental Quality could approve a mine permit or reclamation plan revision.

The other bill AFP cited, House Joint Resolution 3 of this year’s session, would have barred the storage of any spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste in Wyoming, unless the people voted for that at the ballot box.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This is all B.S.,” said Neiman in the video."}]

He echoed that in his Wednesday phone interview. He also theorized that Lindholm is waging a vendetta since Neiman defeated Lindholm in the latter’s 2020 bid for reelection, and since Lindholm and Driskill have worked together on business projects.

Lindholm denied both charges. He and Driskill worked together to save a radio station during the COVID pandemic, but Lindholm hasn’t received a check from that organization, he said.

Another project on which the pair worked together, a pairing of blockchain tech and beef tracking, fizzled around five years ago, said Lindholm.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Anyone Who Supported It Was Wrong’"}]

Travis Deti, executive director  of the Wyoming Mining Association, said his group opposed both the bills AFP referenced and has endorsed Driskill.

He said House Bill 257 would have stalled mining projects for years, overlooked the split estate ownership giving the mining sector “seniority in situations like that,” where “permits get modified all the time.”

“That was a terrible bill. Anyone who supported it was wrong,” said Deti.

Regarding the nuclear waste bill, Deti said his group opposed that as well, and it would have shifted a local community’s decision about welcoming nuclear projects within it to the entire state.

[{"type":"text","text":"And This Is Rippling"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Neiman fired shots at Driskill.  "}]

For example, Neiman emphasized in a video that left-leaning group Better Wyoming has “come out and endorsed Ogden.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“That ought to tell you something,” said Neiman."}]

But Driskill had launched the first barbs of this campaign, deriding Neiman and the Freedom Caucus in his 

Driskill said that Neiman has vowed to run a clean campaign, but that Neiman’s videos pose direct attacks over fliers and endorsements Driskill says he didn’t coordinate at all.

“If this is what he calls clean, I’d like to know what dirty is,” said Driskill.

As for AFP’s work and Better Wyoming’s endorsement, “The truth is, candidates have no control whatsoever on who endorses them, who helps them and who doesn’t,” he added.

Neiman countered, asking in his own interview if Driskill is going to reject Better Wyoming’s endorsement.

“He just needs a hug,” said Neiman with a laugh. “That’s all it is.”

Mailers and capitol 7 1 26

<title>Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It’s campaign flier season, which means Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. One flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they “endangered children” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda."

Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates

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

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

CHEYENNE — A former fifth-grade teacher who had faced nearly 30 charges relating to sexual abuse of children was sentenced Wednesday to 27-30 years in prison.

The sentencing comes after he pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one of third-degree sex abuse of a child in an agreement with prosecutors.

Brian Wrhel, 56, was given three 9-to-10-year sentences to be served consecutively, the Cheyenne Police Department reports.

He was first arrested July 28, 2025, about a week after the Laramie County District Attorney’s Office charged him with 16 felony sex crimes.

While out on bond facing those charges, Wrhel was hit with another 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after a search of his cellphone uncovered more than 4,000 images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to court documents.

His April plea bargain voided a pair of trials that had been set for the former teacher.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What The Girls Said"}]

Wrhel first came onto the radar of the Cheyenne Police Department when someone at a Laramie County School District No. 1 elementary school called the CPD to report sexual abuse of a minor, according to an evidentiary affidavit written by Detective Damon Hall.

The principal told the responding officer that school staff became aware the week prior that a fifth-grade teacher had been allegedly touching students inappropriately in class.

“An internal investigation was conducted prior to law enforcement notification,” wrote Hall, and Wrhel was placed on leave May 16, 2025.

Investigators identified multiple potential victims, all girls, and arranged for them to be interviewed forensically at Safe Harbor.

Some girls in their forensic interviews described their teacher touching their bottoms, breasts, genitalia, torsos, thighs and backs during class, wrote Hall.

Repeatedly, the girls who allegedly suffered this touching also noticed when Wrhel did it to others, the document alleges.

The teacher’s inappropriate touching happened at his desk, which sat in the back of the class, especially when a girl would go to him for help with schoolwork, Hall related from those interviews.

One girl, whom the others identified as most frequently victimized, said her teacher would touch her “private part” under her pants, and it felt “uncomfortable and weird.”

She said the teacher unclipped another girl’s bra, according to the document.

“Small things,” or more minor, inappropriate touching, started around October 2024, but the touching progressed to where the teacher was touching the girl inappropriately every day, two or three times a day, wrote Hall.

Another girl claimed the teacher put his hand up her shirt “three times each week” and down her pants “four times in one week,” wrote Hall.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thousands Of Images"}]

Wrhel was out on bond when he was re-arrested following a search of his cellphone, home computer, and other electronic devices that uncovered thousands of CSAM, according to another affidavit filed in his case.

A forensic download of one of his cellphones “recovered approximately 2,102 images of CSAM, eight CSAM video clips, and 5,372 internet searches from (a pornographic website),” the affidavit says. 

A little less than two weeks later, a search warrant executed at Wrhel’s home — specifically his electronic devices — found 1,196 child sex images on another cellphone and another 1,974 web searches from the same pornographic website, according to the affidavit.

“Many of the images were from picture packages viewed or obtained from the website and were individually titled or labeled with a specific theme name from the website,” the affidavit says.

Examples of the titles include: “Nudist Summer Forest Hike with Youngers;” “Nude Pageant Video;” “Family Shower;” “Naked Camping Bubble Fun;” and “Twister Family Game Night.”

“The CSAM images were of children ranging from approximately 4 to 16 years of age and appeared to originate from Russia and the Czech Republic,” says the affidavit. “The images showed the children, both male and female, completely nude and exhibited the genitals and pubic areas of the children in a lascivious manner.”

Had he been convicted on all 27 of the previous charges, Wrhel faced potential for a prison sentence of up to 395 years.

Brain Wrhel and Laramie County School District 1 administration Unknown 1 9 17 25

<title>27-30 Years In Prison For Former Cheyenne Teacher On Child Sex Abuse Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A former Cheyenne fifth-grade teacher who had faced 27 charges relating to sexual abuse of children was sentenced Wednesday to 27-30 years in prison. Without his plea agreement, Brian Wrhel, 56, could have faced 395 years.

27-30 Years In Prison For Former Cheyenne Teacher On Child Sex Abuse Charges

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

A Cheyenne teen accused of firebombing the pickup of a rival for his ex-girlfriend with a Molotov cocktail built from a root beer bottle could get some serious prison time if convicted.

Court documents made publicly available Wednesday afternoon detail investigators' allegations that Seth S. Hayes, 18, threw the firebomb into another teenager's pickup after he began dating Hayes' former girlfriend.

Hayes is set for a Thursday preliminary hearing on a felony charge of third-degree arson. During his initial appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court late last week, a judge set his bond at $10,000 cash only.

An affidavit of probable cause filed in the case details how detectives spent weeks piecing together witness statements, surveillance video, social media activity and physical evidence before arresting Hayes nearly a month after the May 21 incendiary incident.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Black Rose "}]

Cheyenne Police Department investigators say the conflict that built up to the firebombing began months before the truck was set on fire.

According to the affidavit, Hayes and his girlfriend ended their relationship in January.

Police wrote that Hayes repeatedly contacted his ex-girlfriend after the breakup, leaving voicemails asking her to reconcile or insulting her when she refused.

"Seth often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose," the affidavit states.

Police also allege Hayes posted a video on social media showing himself and a friend burning one of her sweatshirts.

After she began dating another teenager, investigators say Hayes' attention shifted to him.

One of Hayes' coworkers told investigators Hayes had talked about wanting to "blow (his) truck up" several days before the fire.

According to the affidavit, the victim later told investigators he had heard Hayes make the same threat before his truck was destroyed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let It Burn' "}]

The teenager told investigators he woke around 2:30 a.m. May 21 to find his pickup engulfed in flames outside his Cheyenne home.

After speaking with officers, he said he drove past Hayes' residence "to see if his car was there."

When he arrived, he told investigators he saw a gas mask sitting on the hood of Hayes' vehicle, according to the affidavit.

Firefighters determined the blaze had been intentionally set and recovered what investigators believe was a Molotov cocktail made from a Sprecher's root beer bottle stuffed with a gasoline-soaked cloth.

Detectives traced the bottle to a Menards store, where investigators say surveillance video shows Hayes buying a four-pack of Sprecher root beer just days before the fire.

[{"type":"text","text":"Police also examined Hayes' social media activity."}]

About 25 minutes before the first 911 call reporting the blaze, investigators say Hayes posted Shaboozey's song "Let It Burn" on social media.

The affidavit states detectives combined surveillance video, witness statements, social media activity and physical evidence before concluding they had probable cause to arrest Hayes.

[{"type":"text","text":"Investigators estimated the pickup truck's value at about $10,000."}]

Hayes remains charged with third-degree arson. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, when prosecutors must present enough evidence to show there is probable cause for the case to proceed to district court.

If convicted, he could get up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

Cheyenne police 5 30 22

<title>Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Firebombing Truck With Molotov Cocktail After Breakup | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An 18-year-old Cheyenne man is accused of using a root beer bottle Molotov cocktail to firebomb the truck of another teen dating his ex-girlfriend. He also "often left things on (her) vehicle, including a pile of ashes and a black rose," police say.

Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Firebombing Truck With Molotov Cocktail After Breakup

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Around Wyoming

Lake Powell, a key reservoir on the Colorado River, is shrinking toward "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore — and that could in turn pinch Wyoming’s municipal and industrial water supplies with more demand from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line, is in dire condition, 

By next spring, it’s expected to fall into “minimum power pool,” meaning having barely just enough water to generate hydroelectric power at Glen Canyon Dam.

If it falls even farther, that could put the reservoir at “dead pool,” or unable to generate hydroelectric power, according to reports.

That's despite roughly 1 million acre-feet expected to be 

Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore. That has Wyoming cities and industries worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

One More For The Road: Sunday, October 13, 2024

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