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

<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, November 28, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, November 28, 2024

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Public Lands

President Donald Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts saying the move prioritizes much-deserved public access.

Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster, subjecting wildlife and non-motorized users to noise and destruction of habitat.

The Trump administration on Friday rescinded Executive Order (EO) 11644, issued in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, along with President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 EO 11989, which amended and strengthened Nixon’s order.

Throughout the ensuing decades, those orders shaped how federal land agencies managed the use of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and other motorsports vehicles.

The orders directed the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to designate where off-road vehicles could and could not be used.

The stated goals of the orders were to protect resources, mitigate user conflicts, and minimize environmental damage.

Trump’s move is good news for Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones.

An avid off-roader and snowmobiler, he’s been a vocal critic of the controversial BLM Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which he argues is too restrictive for motorized use.

"Certainly, I’m thrilled,” Jones told Cowboy State Daily. “I've always been a strong proponent for public access to public lands.

“There are a lot of areas in the national forest and in the mountains that should be open for access,” added Jones, who sits on the Wyoming State Trails Advisory Council.

Jones said he understands the misgivings of hikers, birdwatchers and others who seek isolation and silence on public lands.

As he sees it, the current restrictions push off-roaders into certain areas. That increases friction between motorsports enthusiasts and other public lands users, Jones said.

Lifting restrictions could disperse motorized users across the landscape and ease tensions, Jones said, adding that it could make it easier to maintain a balance between those user groups.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Terrible’ Idea"}]

Avid mountain biker, hiker and skier Amber Travsky of Laramie told Cowboy State Daily that lifting motorized restrictions is a “terrible” idea.

“There are roads and trails designated for ATVs, and I have no problem with that,” she said. “There is so much opportunity already for off-road vehicles, I don’t see why it needs to be everywhere."

Off-road vehicle use can have wide-reaching effects on other uses, Travsky said, because of noise and potential damage to the landscape, particularly fragile areas such as wetlands.

Travsky has long been an advocate for the non-motorized Medicine Bow Rail Trail in Albany County. She said she’s not sure how Trump’s rescinding of the previous executive orders will affect that trail.

However, there’s been “chronic” unauthorized motorized use of the rail trail for years, so she wonders if lifting restrictions will just make that worse.

She understands why motorized users are tempted to jump on the rail trail. A nearby route intended for motorized use is in horrible shape, she said.

“We’ve sat down with the off-road vehicle people and worked toward a solution,” she said, which could entail improving the ATV trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Low-Impact Dirt Bikes"}]

Jason Harris of Lyman has participated in long-distance dirt bike races and said he welcomes Trump’s decision.

“If it means that I can ride my dirt bikes in some new places, then I’m stumping for it,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

He’s also happy to see less federal control over public lands.

Harris said he’s seen vegetation “recover quickly” from dirt bike use because the motorcycles are lighter than other off-road vehicles, and cut only a single track.

As he sees it, more widespread use of dirt bikes and more freedom for riders won’t damage Wyoming’s prized landscapes.

“I’m an enthusiast for all motorsports, but my area of specialty is dirt bikes,” he said.

Relaxing motorized use restrictions could have unintended consequences for hunters, Sierra Club spokesman Nick Gevock of Butte, Montana, told Cowboy State Daily.  

“It’s going to dramatically push elk down onto private ranches where they cause fence and crop damage” while also reducing public hunting opportunities, said Gevock, the Sierra Club’s organizing strategist for Northern Rockies wildlands and wildlife.

“Large-scale use of ATVs on public lands” can also spread noxious weeds, push sediment into mountain springs and disturb delicate wildlife habitat, he said.

“This is indicative of the Trump administration’s attitude toward public lands,” Gevock said. “There was no reason to do this, other than to give a nod to the ATV crowd that we’re going to give you free rein over public lands.”

He also worries that it will lead to many more “user-created (motorized) trails” cropping up in isolated areas.

Public land should get the same level of respect that private land does, Gevock added.

“I’m a fair-chase elk hunter, and never once has a rancher who has granted access to public hunting said, ‘’Well you can go anywhere you want,’” he said.

ATV medicine bow 7 17 23

<title>ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster | Cowboy State Daily</title>

President Trump’s lifting of restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts cheering a move they say prioritizes public access. Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster.

ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the self-defense argument of a Weston County man who shot and killed his neighbor, then told police the neighbor had charged toward him while driving a skid steer.

Paul Manders is serving a sentence of 16-20 years in the Wyoming Department of Corrections for manslaughter. He was sentenced Feb. 27, 2025.

But the spat between Manders and his neighbor, Vernon Clyde, had turned deadly nearly four years earlier in the summer of 2021.

The neighbors had an ongoing dispute over Clyde’s goats escaping onto Manders’ property, and Manders shot one of the goats, the Wyoming Supreme Court’s Wednesday opinion on the case says.

On July 27, 2021, Manders called 911 to report he’d killed Clyde, the document adds.

Manders told police Clyde “came at” him with a skid steer, which prompted the shooting.

Weston County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents converged on the scene and found Clyde dead in the skid steer — which they found about 20 feet east of Manders’ home.

Clyde had been using the skid steer to move rolls of fencing to fix the fence between their homes earlier that day, says the document.

Investigators found four rolls of wire fencing to the rear left of the skid steer.

Officers also learned, reportedly, that there was a dispute over ownership of the strip of land where the skid steer was during the shooting.

Clyde believed that to be a public alley or road running between their property. Manders believed it was part of his own property and Clyde wasn’t supposed to be there due to a no-trespass warning from the sheriff’s office, says the document.

[{"type":"text","text":"A debris pile of corrugated pipe and rubble sat on the strip of land."}]

Neighbors told investigators they saw the skid steer near the fence, then heard one gunshot, a pause, then three more gunshots, the document says.

Law enforcement noticed tracks in the dirt indicating the machine was going in reverse before it came to rest. The control stick had blood spatter on it, which indicated Clyde’s hand was not on the control stick when he was shot, says the opinion.

[{"type":"text","text":"Two of the shell casings sat farther away than the other two."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Police arrested Manders at the time on suspicion of second-degree murder."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Self-Defense Argument"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Manders asked for a John’s hearing."}]

That’s a chance for a defendant to show that he acted in self-defense, and for the state to try to overcome that with evidence that makes the opposite look more likely than not.

Manders showed, at first glance, that he acted in self-defense, arguing that his fear was reasonable because according to him, Clyde entered Manders’ driveway and drove the skid steer toward Manders.

But the case prosecutor overcame that showing of evidence with more evidence.

The prosecutor showed that there was no evidence Clyde was entering Manders’ home, so a castle doctrine provision letting people defend their homes wouldn’t help Manders. The state argued Manders’ use of deadly force wasn’t reasonable, either.

Weston County District Court Judge James Michael Causey held a three-day hearing.

The skid steer was turned on when police arrived, but the idle was turned all the way down and the parking brake was engaged, the state’s physical evidence expert noted in the hearing.

Some bullet casings sat on top of tracks in the dirt, indicating that the casings had been put there after the skid steer came to a stop, notes the opinion.

There was also a blood pool on the left tread of the skid steer indicating the blood landed there either during the shooting or directly afterward, “and the skid steer was not in motion when the blood was deposited,” says the high court’s opinion.

The Weston County Assessor’s Office map showed the “road” as a public access point which, whether correct or not, imbued Clyde with the belief that he had a right to be there, the document says.

The judge denied Manders’ request for the case to be dismissed early on self-defense grounds, and left the matter up to a jury.

But rather than go to trial, Manders settled with an Alford plea, which is a way of pleading guilty without admitting wrongdoing.

Manders reserved the right to appeal the judge’s finding on his self-defense argument, and he did.

The evidence doesn’t show that Clyde was unlawfully and forcefully entering Manders’ home, so the castle doctrine doesn’t rescue Manders’ self-defense claim, says the opinion. 

It notes that even if that strip of land was Manders’ driveway, the law doesn’t include someone’s driveway in that provision.

“We therefore decline Mr. Manders’s invitation to extend the statutory definitions of ‘home’ or ‘habitation’ to include driveways, yards, and other areas outside of a structure or occupied dwelling,” says the opinion.

Turning to the question of who the initial aggressor was, the court noted that multiple witnesses testified Clyde was in a good mood just minutes before the shooting. 

He’d spoken with multiple neighbors about helping him fix the fence that weekend, and people saw him transporting the fencing materials just before the shooting, the document says.

“Evidence shows it is more probable than not Mr. Clyde went to the disputed area with the intention of fixing the fence, not to threaten or attack Mr. Manders,” the court wrote, adding that “The undisputed evidence showed the skid steer moved into reverse until it came to a stop.”

The physical evidence “could” support finding that Manders was the initial aggressor, the opinion says.

There was a dispute in this case about whether Clyde threatened to “smash” Manders’ home when Clyde came out to confront him about allegedly trespassing.

Even if rough words were exchanged between the two before the shooting, verbal attacks don’t make someone the initial aggressor in an altercation, the high court wrote in its analysis.

A footnote in the opinion notes that the state’s experts opined it would have been extremely difficult for Manders to hear what Clyde was saying if the skid steer was running at full throttle and moving.

Even if the court were to assume Clyde was the initial aggressor, the opinion says, the state showed it’s more likely than not that Clyde was trying to withdraw from the altercation before he was shot.

Manders could have raised his self-defense claims at trial, had he gone to trial, the opinion concludes.

Weston County vote IMG 3158 10 22 24

<title>Goat Dispute Turned Deadly: Supreme Court Rejects Self Defense Argument Over Man Who Killed… | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two neighbors in Weston County had a longstanding dispute over goats. It escalated when one man shot and killed the other. The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the self-defense argument of the man who said the neighbor charged him on a skid steer.

Goat Dispute Turned Deadly: Supreme Court Rejects Self Defense Argument Over Man Who Killed Neighbor

Lubnau head 2

Tom Lubnau

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Election season is here, and the Freedom Caucus is touting its legislative achievements. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The list is thin. "}]

They won a lawsuit affirming that printing fabrications on campaign flyers was permissible political speech, passed a series of constitutionally suspect abortion bills, advanced redundant election-fraud measures addressing a problem that has never affected a Wyoming election outcome, and claimed credit for energy production levels driven by market forces, not legislation.

They also passed a significant property tax cut without backfilling the lost revenue — a decision that has squeezed local schools, hospitals, fire departments, and emergency services.

The school recalibration bill deserves special mention. It fundamentally restructured Wyoming's school finance formula — the framework that has governed education funding for two decades. School finances are impacted and student activities are going to have to be curtailed.

Backlash has been fierce enough that the Freedom Caucus has taken to the airwaves to defend it.

But the real story of this legislative session is not what passed. It is what failed — and what would have happened had the Freedom Caucus controlled the House, the Senate, and the Governor's office simultaneously.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Start with the University of Wyoming. "}]

The Freedom Caucus pushed a bill cutting roughly $40 million — about 11 percent — from UW's block grant, while exempting the Colleges of Education and Agriculture from the cuts. That would have fallen disproportionately on the science, business, and law schools. The University would have been gutted.

A separate bill would have stripped $6 million from UW athletics, setting the program back a generation. The instability caused by this cut would have impacted Wyoming athletics for a generation.

Then there was the misnamed "Second Amendment Protection Act." 

The bill imposed a $50,000 civil penalty on any Wyoming law enforcement agency that cooperated with federal authorities on firearms-related enforcement. 

The practical consequence: an officer assisting a federal agent who asks a suspect to put down a weapon could trigger the penalty if the suspect turned out not to be the intended target.

Every sheriff in the state opposed the bill. It passed both chambers anyway — and was vetoed by the Governor. Officers and departments who put their lives on the line daily were spared financial ruin for split-second judgment calls.

Three energy bills died in the Senate after passing the House: a moratorium on new solar and wind projects, repeal of the three-year tax exemption for wind energy production, and elimination of condemnation rights for electric generation collector systems.

Whether one supports or opposes renewable energy, legislation that arbitrarily picks winners and losers increases political risk and discourages investment in Wyoming across the board.

The gloriously named, "Fifth Amendment Protection Act" — the Checkgate bill — failed in the Senate after a supporter distributed checks on the House floor to legislators who subsequently voted for the measure. 

The House found no impropriety. The Senate disagreed, and the bill died there. Institutional integrity, at least in one chamber, held.

A bill restricting state investment in companies with DEI programs died after analysis showed it would cost Wyoming's portfolio hundreds of millions of dollars in foregone returns. Writing ideological checks with the state's investment account turned out to be a bad idea even by purely financial standards.

A charge to purge libraries of so-called pedophiles collapsed for the simple reason that no evidence existed of any pedophile employed in a Wyoming library. Expect the issue to reappear in campaign mailers regardless.

State employee cost of living increases would have never happened.  In the debate about the increases, Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie commented “I know this is a huge dollar amount, “But our greatest asset is our people — the people who come to work every single day so passionate about what they do.”

Freedom Caucus stalwart, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, countered, “I would say our greatest asset is the taxpayer.”

I guess we’ll see how that comment shakes out with the voters.

Finally, the budget. The Freedom Caucus could not pass a budget in its first session controlling the House. In its second, it spent forty hours debating amendments only to have its conference committee surrender the entire House position to the Senate in fifteen minutes.

The Senate's version prevailed. Had the Freedom Caucus controlled both chambers, Wyoming would currently be operating under a disastrous budget.

When you vote this fall, remember the full record. Some of the most consequential work done in Cheyenne this session was the legislation that never became law.

If the Freedom Caucus takes control of the House, Senate and Governor’s office this session, which is their stated goal, Wyoming will be a vastly different place that it is now.

Be cautious that your vote is not a vote to burn down the state.

Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com

<title>Tom Lubnau: Freedom Caucus, What Did Not Happen Matters, Too | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Tom Lubnau writes, "If the Freedom Caucus takes control of the House, Senate and governor’s office this session, which is their goal, Wyoming will be a vastly different place. Be cautious that your vote is not a vote to burn down the state."

Tom Lubnau: Freedom Caucus, What Did Not Happen Matters, Too

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now, let's all enjoy a hamster enjoying an omelette....."}]

Smile no play 6 4 26

<title>Daily Smile: Thursday, June 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Now, let's all enjoy a hamster enjoying an omelette.....

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 4, 2026

Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Never bring a guitar to a sheep fight…"}]

Darwin 6 4 26

<title>Daily Darwin: Thursday, June 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Never bring a guitar to a sheep fight…

Daily Darwin: Thursday, June 4, 2026

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Law Enforcement

For more than 30 years, the body of an unidentified woman discovered in the remote desert along Interstate 80 in rural Nevada has kept her secrets hidden.

The woman, known colloquially as “Shafter Jane Doe,” had been beaten and shot in the chest and back.

Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross with legs slightly parted.

Less than a week after her death on Nov. 16, 1993, a geologist who had pulled off at the remote Shafter exit off I-80 to stretch his legs discovered her body, according to news reports from the time.

Later investigation in 2010 revealed that the woman had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, which was determined through the isotope testing. 

For years, her donated headstone has read, “Who Am I?”

Now more than 32 years after the gruesome discovery, authorities finally have an answer.  

Her name is Marion Hertha Alexander, who was a German immigrant who moved to California with her family in 1972.

After a decades-long investigation, members of the Elko County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners told the Elko County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon that they identified her through the use of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy.

The decades-long investigation also revealed the woman was in Afton, Wyoming, for about seven months before she was murdered. 

Alexander left home around age 18, and her family told investigators that Alexander was a free spirit who liked to drift around.

Her family questioned where she had gone, but given her lifestyle, they did not report her missing to law enforcement.

Her living family members were notified of the identification in January of this year, Elko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Douglas Fisher stated, and continue to be in touch with law enforcement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Justice"}]

Her suspected murderer, however, will not see justice.

Authorities were closing in on Roger Lee Durkee of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was identified through semen found on a vaginal swab that yielded a full DNA profile, authorities said.

The profile was run through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but did not result in a match, so the Elko County Sheriff’s Office contracted a private group to perform forensic genetic genealogy analysis in February 2022 that led to Durkee as a potential suspect.

Further investigation indicated that Durkee was likely the murderer, but as detectives began planning their trip to Wisconsin to make an arrest, they learned that Durkee had died on Nov. 13, 2025.

He died within 14 days of detectives learning Alexander’s identity.

Now, however, Alexander will be properly laid to rest.

The Elko Sheriff’s Office asked the commission — and were granted — money to buy a proper headstone to finally put her to rest.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

Authorities worked for decades to identify Alexander through the use of several forensic tools.

Initially when she was discovered, Alexander’s face was beaten beyond recognition, so the FBI created a computer-generated image of her likeness to help local authorities attempt to identify her, according to a 1993 article by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Along with her image, authorities had little else to go on.

They were able to extract a partial print from her right thumb, which did not find a match in any federal databases.

The only other identifying characteristics were what appeared to be a burn scar or birth mark on her right calf, pink fingernails that looked to be professionally done and a tooth that had undergone a partial root canal, according to the same article.

A portion of her skull was sent to the Minnesota State Crime Lab, according to reporting from the Casper-Star Tribune, where her DNA was extracted and run through databases with no match.

They turned to the media and a national crime show, but no viable leads to her identity were forthcoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Human Time Capsule"}]

A big break came nearly two decades later with the advancement of using stable isotopes that tracked Alexander to Afton, Wyoming.

This discovery came in 2010 when scientists at Utah State University were able to determine she had spent the past seven months in Afton by analyzing isotopes in her hair that traced her to the area.

Though not new science, this application of stable isotope analysis has transformed how law enforcement solves cold cases, said Christy Mancuso, an assistant research professor at the University of New Mexico and sales representative for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Mancuso knows the science well."}]

She got her doctorate degree in biology from the University of Utah and was affiliated with the stable isotope lab, where her thesis advisor, Jim Ehleringer, started the now-shuttered IsoForensics lab.

She wasn’t familiar with Alexander’s case, but said that stable isotope analysis is an excellent tool for helping to identify remains.

Essentially, humans are like time capsules of chemical information that are stored within one’s bones, teeth and hair, Mancuso said, which helps trace that person to a generalized location.

Humans living in these various regions incorporate the stable isotope signal from their drinking water and food that correlate to particular regions.

When forensic scientists analyze human remains, they examine the various stable isotopes — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen — that act as chemical signatures reflecting what a person consumed and where they lived during their lifetime, both recent and past.

Every geographical location has a unique chemical composition evident in its local water and food sources, soil composition and climate, Mancuso explained.

Researchers can then track these predictable geographical patterns using isotope maps called “isoscapes” to identify likely regions where that person lived or traveled.

Hair in particular, which was used to trace Alexander to the Afton area, serves as an excellent linear time recorder of isotope information because it grows at a predictable rate of about one centimeter per month and provides a chronological record in its keratin protein structure, Mancuso said.

In this case, isotopes in Alexander’s hair matched those in drinking water that suggested she’d lived in the that particular area of Wyoming for the past seven months.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Great Basin Murders"}]

Alexander is thought to be one of about nine victims killed between 1983 and 1997 across four states in the Great Basin geographical area that includes Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho, and dumped along interstates in the remote arid watershed.

Many had been sexually abused or assaulted and either strangled, shot or stabbed.

Some were posed like Alexander, including another Jane Doe found in rural Elko County in July 1972 who also had been shot twice with her body posed to resemble a cross.

Initially, it was thought that one serial killer might be responsible for all the deaths, but it was quickly determined that most the murders were committed by different people.

The first victim was thought to be 23-year-old Janelle Johnson, who was hitchhiking from Denver to Riverton in February 1983 and was last seen at a truck stop in Sinclair, Wyoming.

The aspiring model was found less than a month later in a shallow grave near Shoshoni, Wyoming, according to the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children.

 in March 1988, was also among the young women killed.

More than 32 years after her body was found along I-80, the woman known as “Shafter Jane Doe” has been identified, officials announced Thursday. Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross.

Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, November 28, 2024

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