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

<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Monday, November 25, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Monday, November 25, 2024

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

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

The Cody Stampede Parade made a big impression from the start Friday with Miss Rodeo America, Olivia Favero of Taylor, Utah, riding “Clyde McBuffalo,” 

 from the Mortenson Ranch in New Mexico.

What better way than a buffalo to kick off a parade celebrating 250 years of America in Buffalo Bill’s town?

Clint Mortenson, Clyde’s owner, was happy with how well his bison did strolling down Sheridan Avenue with an experienced rider on his back.

[{"type":"text","text":"“He did good,” he said. “So did Miss Rodeo America.”"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big Names And Bands"}]

The Cody Stampede Parades, on July 3 and 4, attract some of Wyoming’s biggest names, bands and patriotic exuberance.

“Cody knows how to celebrate Independence Day,” said Mack Frost, a member of the Cody Stampede Parade Committee. “We wowed the hell out of the folks from Pasadena, California, who do the Rose Bowl parade. They couldn't believe that we were doing what we did.”

One sign of a parade’s prominence is its grand marshal. “The Duke” himself, John Wayne, was given the honor during America’s bicentennial celebration in 1976.

For the semiquincentennial, the Cody Stampede Parade Committee looked closer to home. Instead of one grand marshal, they had five.

A surprise last-minute addition to the grand marshal group was actor Dougie Hall. He’s had prominent roles in the series “Landman” and “1923," one of the many “Yellowstone” spinoffs and starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.

After the U.S. Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard, the last one remaining in the Marine Corps, and the Cody Stampede Rodeo’s Renegade Riders and rodeo clowns, the grand marshals appeared.

While Hall was on horseback, the others rode in a wagon built for the 1990 Wyoming Centennial Wagon Train.

“It made the 260-mile trip ending in Cody on July 4, 1990, and it's back in 2026,” Frost said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rifle And Royalty"}]

One of the most anticipated entries in the parade was 

Originally built for the 1976 bicentennial parade, it was removed from the roof on which it had perched for the last half-century, restored and returned for the nation’s semiquincentennial.

“We put it back to what it was in 1976, as best we could,” said Mike Darby, owner of the Irma Hotel and the giant Winchester. “We’re putting it right back where it was on July 5 and, hopefully, it’ll be there for the next 50 years.”

The giant Winchester was escorted down Sheridan Avenue by the Cody Gunslingers, who have been performing in front of the Irma’s porch for decades.

Since the Cody Stampede is the place to be for rodeo riders, a lot of royalty appeared in the parades. The “Miss Rodeos” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska were all there, along with the Rodeo Queens of Cody, Cowley, Sheridan, Meeteetse and Fremont County.

Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Kate Budge, was going to accompany Miss Rodeo America until Favero decided to lead the parade via celebrity bison.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Georges And Johns Than Bills"}]

For some, it’s an annual tradition to see how many Buffalo Bills appear in the Cody Stampede Parade. In 2026, the consummate showman was upstaged in his own town.

While Buffalo Bill was certainly present, he was outnumbered by multiple appearances of Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, and no less than six George Washingtons.

Abraham Lincoln appeared multiple times as well. He was even driving one of the two dozen vintage John Deere tractors, meticulously restored and making their memorably noisy appearance for another year.

Jim and Jess Brittain’s “Johnny Poppers” are always a crowd favorite. The lineup of tractors extended uninterrupted for three blocks.

No parade is complete without vintage vehicles, and the Cody Stampede Parade had more than a few.

The Big Hat Ranch has one of the 16 surviving 1925 White Model 15-45 passenger touring buses from the Yellowstone Transportation Company. It carried hundreds of tourists into Yellowstone from 1920 to 1925.

The biggest cheers were for the Team USA and Team Canada Can-Am All-Stars. The 6-Man football teams, with players from Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Texas and Nebraska, are competing in the 28th annual Can-Am Bowl in Meeteetse on July 4.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Glorious Returns"}]

There have been many hallmarks of the Cody Stampede Parade that have come and gone over the years. For the 2026 parade, many people were delighted to see some familiar sights.

Hope Sheets, “The Pink Lady,” had been a flamboyant fixture of Cody’s parade for 40 years until she passed away May 18, 2025, at age 88. Her poignant absence was felt by many in the 2025 parade.

In 2026, Lisa Kealey honored her mother’s legacy by getting pretty in pink.

Dennis Haugen made his own mark as the stilt-walking “Long Tall Uncle Sam.” He started during the 1976 bicentennial and walked tall through Cody until he retired in 2016.

For the semiquincentennial, Haugen returned, stilts and all, to honor the nation’s 250th birthday. He stood even taller than before, riding rather than walking.

Nobody seemed more eager to be back in the Cody Stampede Parade than the Cody Volunteer Fire Department. Absent in protest in 2025, the entire fire engine fleet was the parade’s grand finale, with plenty of water for everyone.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another 250 Years"}]

One of the biggest additions to the 2026 Cody Stampede Parade was also one of the most subtle.

A livestreaming webcam was installed on the balcony of the Irma Hotel, overlooking the intersection of Sheridan Avenue and 12th Street, offering one of the best views in town as the parade rolled through.

That was a first for one of the biggest parades in Wyoming, and a step into the 21st Century in a town seeped in the history and mythology of the American West.

For Frost, Independence Day in Cody is too fun, popular and strategically placed to pass up.

“If you plan your vacation properly, you can have one heck of a good time in Cody and northwest Wyoming in general,” he said. “If you're in Cody, it's just a short hop up the highway to Yellowstone National Park. We're just a magnet for the tourists. It's a great way to spend the Fourth of July. There's no doubt about it.”

Cody Stampede Parade 5

<title>America At 250: Thousands Pack Downtown Cody For Stampede Parade | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thousands of people packed along the route of the Cody Stampede Parade on Friday to kick off America’s 250th birthday. There were six George Washingtons, five grand marshals and a restored 40-foot Winchester that made its parade debut 50 years ago.

America At 250: Thousands Pack Downtown Cody For Stampede Parade

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

A federal judge declined Thursday to make Wyoming and Nebraska irrigation districts open a competitive bid for the sake of a drilling company that missed out on the chance to bid a $100 million job on the Goshen County tunnel project.

But the judge also ruled that Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. 

, at this phase, in claiming that the Wyoming-based Goshen County Irrigation and Nebraska-based Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation Districts violated their states’ public-records laws by not giving information the company had requested.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lock In"}]

Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against both districts in May.

The lawsuit asked U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl, of Wyoming, to intervene in what Drill Tech called an unlawful bidding process that cut it out of the opportunity to win a job on the massive tunnel repair.

One of the two 119-year-old tunnels suffered a catastrophic failure in 2019. The other is reportedly in dire need of a rebuild.

The districts assigned Atkinson Construction LLC as construction manager at-risk (CMAR) over the project, which means Atkinson can oversee and work with subcontractors, court documents say.

Drill Tech alleged that for the $100 million drill project it had sought to perform, the irrigation districts should have held — and didn’t hold — a competitive bidding process. The districts gave the job instead to their CMAR, Atkinson, court documents say.

[{"type":"text","text":"In his Thursday order, Skavdahl countered. "}]

He said the laws of both Wyoming and Nebraska appear to support the CMAR’s authority to self-perform this kind of work. Drill Tech has not shown substantially that it has a right to enter a competitive bidding process for this project, he added.

Skavdahl wrote that requiring the districts to pause or backtrack their work and hold that bidding process could harm the agricultural community by stalling the long-awaited repairs even longer — and he declined to do that.

The public has an interest in government entities abiding by the open bidding process, wrote Skavdahl.

“On the other hand, the Irrigation Districts are right that ensuring irrigation water to the thousands of acres of farmland served by the tunnels is also in the public interest,” he added. “In light of Drill Tech’s failures (to show it deserves court intervention) as well as the serious risks to the farmers and public from another tunnel collapse following any delay in this construction project, the preliminary injunction requested by Drill Tech is more contrary to the public interest than in support of it.”

Drill Tech had waited several months to sue, though it had reportedly learned it had been cut out of the job last summer, Skavdahl noted.

He declined to let that delay kill the case altogether, but he factored the delay into his decision not to order the open bid.

The judge’s order doesn’t end the case. It just denies Drill Tech’s request to have Skavdahl intervene in this early phase.

Skavdahl gave his early conjectures that Drill Tech isn’t likely to win on the bidding question, only for the purposes of declining to compel the districts to change course immediately.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Might Win That One"}]

Drill Tech had also accused both irrigation districts of violating their states’ open meeting laws and assigning the job in secret.

[{"type":"text","text":"Skavdahl said the company looks unlikely to win that challenge as well."}]

But, the judge wrote, Drill tech appears likely to win two of its claims: that the Wyoming irrigation district and the Nebraska one both violated their states’ public-records laws by not giving Drill Tech information it had requested.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Background"}]

The complaint says the two districts contracted Atkinson to be the construction manager at risk and provide oversight for the Fort Laramie Canal Tunnel 1 and 2 rehabilitation project.

That project is expected to benefit more than 100,000 acres of farmland across eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska.

 that the U.S. Department of Interior has chosen to use $100 million of its $889 million One Big Beautiful Bill appropriation on the tunnel project.

The tunnel collapsed July 17, 2019, cutting off irrigation water to the region and flooding fields. The infrastructure was more than a century old.

Temporary repairs restored most of the system’s capacity in time for the 2021 season, but it still needs long-term solutions. Repairs to Tunnel 2 also are in the works so that it doesn’t suffer the same catastrophic failure.

During the bidding process, Drill Tech’s complaint alleges, the two irrigation districts confirmed Atkinson would have to comply with Wyoming and Nebraska laws, and that it may be able to self-perform the construction work in the project, but would competitively bid that work.

But 18 months after Atkinson became the project manager, the districts “fundamentally changed the (manager’s) agreement to allow Atkinson to self-perform all the construction work for the Project under the guise of a contract amendment,” the complaint alleges.

This transformed the contract into a standard prime contract for the massive project “with no competition for the construction work,” says Drill Tech’s complaint. 

The project manager no longer had to open competition to the public bidding process, it adds.

Drill Tech Drilling and other interested parties were cut out of the process, the complaint says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Asking For Documents"}]

Drill Tech didn’t ask to become the project manager because it wanted to work on the tunnel rehabilitation work packages instead, the complaint says, adding that Drill Tech has experience with the method that project requires.

On July 25, 2025, Drill Tech sent a letter to the two districts, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and one of the project designers, HDR Inc., to raise concerns that Atkinson was no longer required to bid projects competitively and in public.

Drill Tech noted in that letter that it had been monitoring the project for two years, waiting for the bid advertisement.

Nearly a month later, the Goshen County Irrigation District’s attorney acknowledged the district had received the letter and thanked Drill Tech for its “continued interest in the Project,” court documents say.

That December, Drill Tech submitted public-records requests to both districts under the public-records laws of each state, the complaint says, asking for all post-award modifications and amendments regarding the project manager’s agreement, and for a copy of the procurement plan.

The Nebraska-based district never responded to that request, the complaint says. The Wyoming-based district reportedly responded two months later, Feb. 10, 2026.

Goshen District’s public records yield was “heavily redacted,” says Drill Tech’s complaint. The district claimed those redactions were justified as trade secrets, privileged information, confidential commercial, financial, geographical or geophysical data.

The complaint disputes that. It shows a side-by-side comparison of the same page of the scope of the project manager’s services.

The page that was publicly released in the request for proposal, and the page Drill Tech received in its public records request, are vastly different, with the latter about 75% or more redacted.

“Reactions such as these were pervasive” throughout the agreement, the complaint says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Transparency"}]

Copies of the changes to that agreement also had “pervasive redactions,” it adds.

Still, says the document, Drill Tech learned that the agreement was amended before Drill Tech’s July 25, 2025, letter requesting information about whether public bids were still required.

The complaint says the district knew the agreement had already been changed to edge out competitive bidding, but didn’t tell Drill Tech that when the company asked.

The complaint also says the district didn’t provide notice of an important public meeting.

By Feb. 20, 2025, the Goshen district board voiced concerns about HDR’s original maximum price estimate of $87 million swelling to more than $120 million, the complaint relates from the meeting minutes.

HDR proposed a confidential guaranteed maximum price proposal and non-disclosure agreements so there would be “no worry about (Atkinson) getting underbid,” the document alleges.

There was, the complaint says, no documented vote for Atkinson to self-perform the task they were discussing without publicly bidding the work packages, but the district did vote to approve changing the design plan.

It’s “entirely” unclear what role the Nebraska-based district played here because it didn’t respond to Drill Tech’s public records requests, the complaint alleges.

The document says that on July 8, 2025, the Goshen district and Atkinson signed an amendment to change the agreement, so that the latter was no longer required to advertise bids or publicly open them.

In the July 17, 2025, meeting minutes, “Atkinson was already apparently working with a vendor for the digger shield, but there was no indication that Atkinson has publicly bid or competitively awarded the subcontract for the digger shield.”

Irrigation Tunnel Gary Stone Nebraska Extension 5 4 26

<title>Judge Says $100M Goshen Tunnel Project Won’t Stop For Company That Couldn't Bid | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A federal judge declined Thursday to pause the $100 million Goshen Tunnel project for a company that missed out on a chance to bid on the work. He also ruled the company has a valid case against two irrigation districts in charge of the tunnel.

Judge Says $100M Goshen Tunnel Project Won’t Stop For Company That Couldn't Bid

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Florida woman who owned a behavioral health clinic in Cheyenne has been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 to Wyoming Medicaid for bilking the federal agency with fraudulent claims.

Federal prosecutors say her daughter helped carry out the scheme by assisting with billing and falsifying service documentation while working for the clinic.

Tera Marie Campbell, 47, of Maitland, Florida, owned The Olive Branch LLC, a behavioral health clinic that provided autism services in Cheyenne and Minot, North Dakota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said Thursday in a statement announcing the women’s sentences for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell used the business to submit fraudulent Medicaid claims over several years, including claims for services provided by employees who lacked required certifications, claims that were upcoded to higher-paying services and bills for appointments that never occurred, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said some of those claims were submitted for dates when the clinic was closed and even while Campbell was out of the country on vacation.

Campbell's daughter, Tayler Ann Krauss, 27, of McDavid, Florida, worked as the clinic's medical biller between December 2020 and October 2022. She was instrumental in providing service documentation used to support fraudulent claims.

The investigation concluded the clinic relied extensively on untrained employees, falsified certification and supervision records, and knowingly billed Wyoming Medicaid for services that did not meet Medicaid requirements, according to prosecutors.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Joint Investigation"}]

The case was investigated by the Wyoming Attorney General's Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

U.S. Attorney Darin Smith said in a statement that Medicaid fraud "steals taxpayer dollars from programs that millions of Americans depend on and undermines care for vulnerable patients.

"I am committed to holding accountable those who exploit these programs for personal gain."

Smith said his office will continue working with federal and state partners to investigate and prosecute health care fraud, saying the effort is aimed at protecting public resources and preserving confidence in the healthcare system.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz added in the statement that the prosecution and conviction of Campbell and Krauss demonstrates the value of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies and praised the work of his office's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Smith nor Kautz responded to Cowboy State Daily's request for an interview beyond the prepared statements released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sentence Handed Down"}]

U.S. District Judge Kelly H. Rankin sentenced Krauss on Monday and Campbell on Tuesday in federal court in Cheyenne.

Campbell and Krauss were indicted May 21, 2025, and both pleaded guilty April 9 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Krauss was sentenced to two years of home confinement.

The judge ordered the women to jointly pay $735,717.63 in restitution to Wyoming Medicaid. Campbell was also ordered to repay $135,890.91 to the military's Tricare health care program.

The court ruled Krauss is jointly responsible for up to $71,509.44 of that amount.

Campbell was separately sentenced in January in a related North Dakota Medicaid fraud case.

In that case, she received a three-year suspended sentence, three years of supervised release and was ordered to repay an additional $225,000 to North Dakota's Medicaid program.

Federal courthouse cheyenne 9 28 23

<title>Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Florida woman who ran a Cheyenne behavioral health clinic, and her daughter, have been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 they stole from Wyoming Medicaid. They funneled fraudulent claims through the clinic for years, say federal prosecutors.

Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Executive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meta IMG 7791 7 2 26

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

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

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

One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Our son may have early onset road rage....\""}]

One more for 7 1 26

<title>One More For The Road: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

"Our son may have early onset road rage...."

One More For The Road: Wednesday, July 1, 2026

You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"All you need is a fake arm and the fun can begin....."}]

Daily Cartoon 2: Monday, November 25, 2024

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